Rafiq of the Many is one of the few generals in EDH scene that can have an aggressive deck built around him. Most other generals tend to sit back and tutor for win conditions and lock the board (Zur, Daggsson, Braids.), go off in some fashionable fashion (Azami, Niv.) or simply sit there and make your life a living hell. (Erayo, Teferi.) One of the few other generals that actually plans on attacking is Vendilion Clique, and that guy plans on attacking 7 times. In row. Alone.
RafiQ on the other hand drops on board on turn 3-4, turns one of your already existing creatures bigger and sends it to the dome. Then he swings to the dome himself a turn afterwards, and it doesn't take him but three turns of hammertime to reduce your opponent to a mess on the floor. Tell me, what other 4-cmc creature has effectively 8 power while attacking and no significant drawback?
Now we have cleared up that RafiQ is awesome. Wears sunglasses at night-awesome. Batman-awesome. (Infact, he's batman in disguise, don't tell anyone.) But what makes him tick? What you want to surround him with. What if, by some devious plan from your opponents, he disappears in a puff of smoke never to be found, and you need to win without him? We'll find out after the break.
=== Break === "Whenever I hit you, you're screwed"-effects
Yeah, these things make RafiQ tick, or more precisely RafiQ makes them tick. If you have a creature that does something significant whenever it deals damage to opponent, it surely would like a doublestrike to go with it, wouldn't it? I thought so. The problem is that there are a lot of creatures like these, and we can't use them all. Here's a narrowed-down list of playable ones:
and out of these, Avenging Druid is a bit risky, Spawnwrithe isn't very good in this specific deck and Mistblade Shinobi doesn't seem too good here, either. There are numerous more expensive choices, but those will be detailed later on.
"When I hit you, you're dead."-effects
It is only a bit overexaggerated. Phanton Nishoba swinging for 16 damage is not a joke, and can very easily finish the game in almost one attack. More often than not, after all, you've dealt some damage with your other creatures before your finishers hit. The problem is, of course, that there are even more finishers than there were cheap beaters with cool effects when they hit the opponent. And we won't include more than 5 finishers, and probably not even that. Below is a list of some good/popular choices.
I think I want to include Kodama, both -derms, Jenara and Battlegracer. These creatures either give us a good tempo bonus, a huge body lategame or something that is hard for our opponents to deal with - Shroud. They aren't overexpensive, either. The problem with Akroma, Archangel and Swallower is that they just cost far too much mana. We want the game to be over before anyone has that much mana. I'll also include Chameleon Colossus, just because I want to see it with 12 mana + RafiQ, even if it is suboptimal. 40 damage would be a sight to behold.
"I Do something handy"-creatures
Yeah, everyone knows that doing something handy is good, right? Getting rid of opposing permanents, drawing cards, screwing up opponent's tempo, that kind of thing. We are in a good colour combination for these effects, and a few more bodies shouldn't hurt our deck's plan, so we are going to include a bunch of these. Read the spoiler below.
And I'm going to include all of them. I know there are other options, but these are what I prefer to use, and ones that have served me rather well.
"So, that's all creatures, isn't it?" You might ask. Well, yes it is. "There's a lot of them, isn't there?" Well, yes there is. RafiQ is RafiQ of the Many, remember. Not RafiQ of the few, or RafiQ of almost-none-at-all. But surely some supplemental sorcery should be beneficial fo Rafiq as well. And yes, so it is. You'll find out after yet another break what would be the best picks.
== Break == Countermagic
You heard it correctly. We are playing blue, we want to run countermagic. There is no reason not run it, after all. And it does have a lot of synergy with RafiQ: First of all it gives us tempo, and tempo is what this deck is all about. A force of will targeting their Damnation often reads: "You win the game.". Opponents only have so many answers that stop the beatdown, and if you get rid of them they need to waste a lot of time to find another answer, and time is exactly what they do not have an abundance of. The spoiler below has the best choices.
And that should be enough. They are all either really cheap or really versatile, of course. Cheap means we can keep on dropping threats while we cast them, and versatile means that they deal with just about anything we need them to deal with. Simple.
Tempo, or "I just won."
Tempo, as I already stated, is horribly important for this deck. There are a lot of cards that give us a crapton of tempo, and we want to include them. In the spoiler below there is a list of some of the best of the best.
And I see no reason not to include all of them. They are all rather good on their own, and even better when I already have a presence on board. (Which should be often.)
Now, we've dealt with creatures and supplemental sorceries, what is left to go? Well, enchantments and toys artifacts, of course! Find out more after the break!
== Break == Equipment:
Any self-respecting warrior wants a weapon to swing with, and lucky for us, there are a lot of good choices available. We are running out of space, though, so we can't run very many of these. Even more of a reason to make sure that the ones are of the best quality, though!
Okay, sure. Only three of them are weapons, but I am fairly sure that RafiQ can kill someone with a cloak if he wants to, and no superman leaves his home without a cloak, mask, and fancy boots, so it's all fine. It'd damn better be.
Acceleration:
You want to cast your spells early, don't you? Well, I thought so. Therefore we need some artifact mana to help ourselves with it.
Yeah. Only four, the rest of them are quite expensive, and we don't have much reason to accel into something expensive in here, so we just run the cheapest ones.
Enchantments?:
RafiQ + Enchantments aren't that awesome together. Most enchantments have global effects that affect just about everything, but RafiQ wants to affect just one guy at a time, but make that effect big. There are some enchantments worth running, though. See the spoiler.
Yeah, two. Rancor returns back and back and back, and finest hour can just suddenly win the game. Pretty awesome, both of them. We don't want to run more auras in fear of card disadvantage, though.
Of course, the most important piece of any deck isn't there yet, and we don't have too many slots left. 38 to be precise. That's 38 lands for us right there.
== Break == Utility:
Allright, every EDH deck wants some utility lands in it. Something to help you work, while still providing mana. Rafiq is no exception.
You might notice that all our utility lands are either threats on their own, nullify our opponents' tempo or protect our creatures. Good job if you did. If you didn't, I told it to you right here. We don't run more of these because our general costs 3 different colours of mana and we want to cast him as early as possible, so we need a lot of multicolour lands. These will take out most of our manabase.
So, I suppose you all want to see how this looks when put together, don't you? Well, I'd like to say that you'd see after the break, but our advertising space doesn't sell as well as it should, so we'll have no break this time.
1. Get drunk.
2. Write card explanations on each card.
3. Get drunk.
4. Add more finishing touches, like pretty colours.
5. Get drunk.
6. Write a section detailing cards that I couldn't fit in.
7. Get drunk.
Finishing Notes:
Yes, this thing is going to be a primer, but it is not one yet. I will not request it getting stickied yet, and don't you dare to do it either. (Also, DC should unsticky all primers and just make one thread that links to all of them, or else our whole page 1 is stickied soon.)
I didn't include some cards that are quite good, most notably Might of Oaks (1-shot with RafiQ) simply because I had no space. I will have a section detailing these later on.
The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
Desert Twister seems remarkably overcosted, you're playing Foil with only 6 Islands, Plow Under and Riptide Pilferer seem like a duel-only cards. Were you gearing this for 1v1, Multi, or either? I'd think thethreesignets should find a spot as well (especially with so many land wipes).
Catastrophe seems like a perfect replacement for Desert Twister. It fits the Armageddon theme and it doubles as a sweeper when needed. Pact of Negation, Voidslime, or even Hinder would be good in the Foil spot (and possibly the Disrupting Shoal spot; I've not used it so it may be fine, but it seems awkward). The deck as seems primed to play Reveillark and Mirror Entity (Saffi Eriksdotter, and Venser, Shaper Savant or Acidic Slime make the unbound combo, and it just incidentally gets back almost everything else in the deck). I'd add Silvos, Rogue Elemental to the list of possible beatsticks, but he does (more or less) cost 3GGGG and that is a little steep. I'd add Rootwater Thief to the list of creatures that get cool with double strike.
I had an interesting discussion recently about Rafiq and how all Rafiq decks were the same yadda yadda. I decided to have a quick look at what you have that I also have in my current version.
Just a little though provoker. More comment at the end.
So I ended up with only a 3rd of what you're running and cut swathes through the "Screwer"-creatures section. therestless pointed out the Reveillark combo, of which you have almost everything except the Reveillark (Body Double & Karmic Guide being the others). Is there a reason why you're choosing not to run this? Even if you eschew the "I combo & win!" applications, the card advantage and utility of each of the parts is excellent.
I noticed that you have no graveyard hate which I couldn't get away with in my metagame, maybe you could in yours. This pretty much requires me to run a Trinket Mage/Tolaria West and an associated tutor package.
Speaking of tutor packages, how to you fix your land, your creatures in hand, your enchantments and artifacts? It seems you have no card draw outside of the draw step & combat phase and while one of your plans is getting a Rafiq & playing Armageddon, what do you do when your opponent gets there first?
Another plague in my meta is people stealing my stuff. That's annoying and has forced me to run a couple of sac outlets on top of the Mirror Entity. Do you not meet have similiar decks? Stealing stuff is common enough.
From playing the deck again and again, I know there's a lot of different ways to get there and I'm not knocking yours as a valid build, I'm just very interested in how consistantly you can get into the game and get back into the game should someone wipe the board.
I'd think thethreesignets should find a spot as well (especially with so many land wipes).
Many? 2? Also, I don't need them. If I have a threat on table pre-sweep I am, most of the time, going to win anyway. Artifact mana is only good with sweepers if it turns into an attrition battle afterwards.
Pact of Negation, Voidslime, or even Hinder would be good in the Foil spot (and possibly the Disrupting Shoal spot; I've not used it so it may be fine, but it seems awkward).
A bit awkward maybe, but free counters I can drop turns 1-4 are very important, as they stop a lot of more degenerate decks from winning.
I would hardly ever use my cards to find out the combo, however. It is way more efficient to find something to bash face with, and I don't have many tutors to begin with.
I'd add Silvos, Rogue Elemental to the list of possible beatsticks, but he does (more or less) cost 3GGGG and that is a little steep. I'd add Rootwater Thief to the list of creatures that get cool with double strike.
Silvos is cool, but hard to resolve and is still quite easy to kill: He dies to just about any sweeper, a lot of single-target removal spells, etc. He's only really good if your opponent needs to deal with it through combat, and if my opponent needs to deal with this deck through combat, they are already screwed.
Rootwater thief's problem is that I just don't want to tap out on my turn to thin their threats from their deck. If I pay 4 on my turn, I want an immediate impact on board rather than reducing their potential turn 22 draw.
_/ _/ _/ _/ _/
@Zigamagic: A lot of differences might be because your deck seems to be geared towards multiplayer, whereas mine is geared towards singleplayer. Having a backup combo in singleplayer isn't that good, as your opponent *Will* finish you off even if you aren't much of a threat anymore.
Graveyard hate is also of less importance for this deck in 1n1. This deck is well capable of racing just about most reanimator decks in the format, unless they have a god-draw, and in EDH the one with god-draw wins 90% of the time anyway.
In the same vein, I do not need that many tutors/card advantage outlets. RafiQ alone on board is a serious threat in 1n1, unlike in multiplayer where you still need something to defend yourself from other players, and probably some lategame drops to deal with other players. In 1n1, hitting opponent for a good chunk of their life total is almost as good as drawing a few cards, as that player is now on a clock and cannot really use their card drawing capabilities until they stabilize the board, and you can easily save some cards until after that incident. I know that the deck starts having troubles after the second sweeper. Then again, your opponent needs to find those quite fast, as he really is on a clock.
Stealing stuff is as much a problem as it always is, but at least I have some enchantment/artifact removal that solves the worst offenders in there, such as Treachery and Vedalken Shackles. Most of the other cards, such as Blatant Thievery are really slow and by the time my opponent could cast one of those, he could probably win the game already anyway. Of course, them stealing almost anything but Rafiq is not much of a problem, as the thing stolen will most probably act only as a speedbump. RafiQ with Greaves or Cloak is unstealable, so.. While those cards are problematic, they are not dangerous enough for me to build specifically for them.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
My suggestions were definitely made with multiplayer in mind (though I'd still play Voidslime over Foil, that certainly makes Disrupting Shoal a lot better). Even if you eschew Mirror Entity, Reveillark is just too solid in your deck to pass up (can return 19 of your 27 creatures, including the Incarnations that you wouldn't want to return anyway). On the graveyard hate front, I'd still fit in Stonecloaker. The Rescue option means he's never dead, and he's certainly a good trick with Mystic Snake, Eternal Witness, et al.
My suggestions were definitely made with multiplayer in mind (though I'd still play Voidslime over Foil, that certainly makes Disrupting Shoal a lot better).
I think if I were to cut Foil, I would much rather fit in something cheaper than Voidslime. Stifle, maybe? Stifling a fetchland or Extraplanar Lens is no joke, and it can stop quite a bit of the combos played in EDH, too. (And transmute.)
Even if you eschew Mirror Entity, Reveillark is just too solid in your deck to pass up (can return 19 of your 27 creatures, including the Incarnations that you wouldn't want to return anyway). On the graveyard hate front, I'd still fit in Stonecloaker. The Rescue option means he's never dead, and he's certainly a good trick with Mystic Snake, Eternal Witness, et al.
Reveillark is probably worth a spot, but I'm not sold on Stonecloaker. While the rescue-option is nice, it forces me to leave mana open, rather than keep my tempo up. It might ultimately hurt me.
The question is: What to cut for 'lark? The decklist is already rather thigh and I would really prefer to not increase the curve any higher.
@Narglfrob: The key words there are "Against the right deck.". Against wrong deck it's a dead card. In 1n1, there is necessarily no artifacts/enchantments on board, and I therefore prefer that my enchantment/artifact removal cards are more versatile than Return to Dust.
Oblivion Ring is what I originally considered, but in the end I opted for Desert Twister due to it's ability to get rid of lands, and the fact that O-ring is awful if your opponent can remove it your EoT and surprise you with the creature. Even worse than that if the creature in question had EtB-effect. Faith's Fetters seems like the best option to Desert Twister, although there are things it doesn't stop, like Humility and Smokestack.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
Two suggestions: hinder seems like it would be a decent counterspell to use for the deck. If they're able to keep casting their general, they'll be able to keep blocking, slowing you. Hindering the general removes a recurring blocker.
centaur rootcaster was a land searching effect I saw in a friend's rafiq EDH deck, and it actually worked really well, so you could possibly list him in the utility section.
Is Return to Dust really ever a dead card? What competitive deck does not run artifact mana ramp? Roffelos is the only deck that comes to mind, and in that matchup RtD still answers all of Rofl's infinte mana engines (Staff of Domination et. al.) as well as some of its most powerfull engine cards (Mana ReflectionRecycle etc. IMO its power ranges from overcosted spot removal to complete blow-out game winner.
Compared to Desert Twister which is only ever overcosted spot removal. In fact Desert Twister is almost always a tempo loss from you, since 90% of the time whatever you are removing will cost less than twister. In a tempo deck like this one, playing a card that gives you a tempo loss like this one seems like a bad play.
Oblivion Ring may be answerable yes, but in exchange for its fragility you are getting A) flexibility seen nowhere else for three mana outside of vindicate and B) and almost gaurenteed temp gain for you. Even if they answer it, thats time and resources they had to spend not answering Rafiq.
Faith's Fetters is another good card, Prison term is also good becuase in addition to answering Zur, Arcum, Azami it also answers Rofl which Fetters doenst.
I don't see very much consistency in this list. It's focus appears to be split, and I doubt it could prevail over any deck that was more dedicated to a specific strategy.
The tempo cards are great, but the density of them isn't enough to reliably out tempo an opponent, and I highly doubt that you'll be able to do anything about a dedicated tempo deck 1 on 1. Drawing a single tempo spell will hardly be the end of any opponent. By tempo decks, I mean ones that are most likely g/u based and starts mana denial from the get go.
The list also looks to be bad against strategies of attrition. When your opponent's strategy is to wear down your resources by using card advantage through recursion, there simply isn't enough overcome the disadvantage. Many decks are built to be fine trading 1 for 1 since they can simply reuse the cards later.
I don't like a few of the beaters that you've chosen. I'm especially not fond of Jenara, Asura of War. She's too vulnerable to justify having to spend so much mana to pump. Battlegrace Angel is similarly vulnerable, though having exalted allows her to pseudo-haste I suppose. Still, I think an actual creature that's slightly bigger is better. Having only 4 toughness puts her just below the spot where a lot of removal can't efficiently kill her. I think the other creatures are okay, since they're much harder to remove, although the fact that they don't have evasion is annoying,
Also, I look at the manabase and want to cry at the low number of basics. This could just be a meta thing, but I face lots and lots of non basic hate. This deck looks like it'll just roll over and die if anyone ever drops a Blood Moon or Back to Basics.
This certainly isn't a bad list. I just think it needs more tuning and focus.
I have to disagree, Battlegrace Angel fits very well as a must answer for Rafiq decks. With it's exalted bonus and lifelink for the attacker. With Rafiq out this creature is kinda silly. While I know that lifegain isn't the end all, it does add a nice buffer. It's also a nice cheap replacement for those that can't drop 40-50 for a BSA.
Thanks for the clarification Amadi. Are you able to change the Thread title to "[Primer] RafiQ-bob 1v1" so it's clear from the title that this is a 1v1 primer?
I agree with the fact that you are missing the signets. Along with other early acceleration.
Where are Birds or Noble Hierarch?
With any of those, you are not only fixing mana, but accelerating into Rafiq turn 3.
I definitely think that you are running too many "be cute when I hit you" cards, such as Ninja, which, realistically, is coming down when you should be playing Rafiq anyway. IMO, the only cards that are really sick when hitting with exalted and double strike are Cold-Eye Selkie, Vedalken Heretic, Augury Adept, Ohran Viper, Cephalid Constable, and Trygon Predator. Let's see... card draw, card draw, card draw, card draw and.... removal! All for the low price of 3 mana, easy to follow up with Rafiq. Even better on T2 with Hierarch and BoP, and Rafiq T3.
Speaking of T3 Rafiq, the best possible follow-up to that is Might of Oaks, because 'hey, I can take one hit'. Then it's gg, lawl, next game?
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I agree with latro. For 1-on-1, you should look at Might of Oaks as an I WIN combo with your general. I'd even run Mystical Tutor to get it (and many other things). Enlightened Tutor and some other good tutors probably needs to be here too. I'm fond of Survival of the Fittest getting Genesis/Witness quite handily, and then some Exalted dudes.
Utopia Sprawl also accelerates on t1, and is a bit more resilient than the dudes.
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Two suggestions: hinder seems like it would be a decent counterspell to use for the deck. If they're able to keep casting their general, they'll be able to keep blocking, slowing you. Hindering the general removes a recurring blocker.
Only a few decks use their general as a recurring blocker, and even then they need more and more mana to drop it.
centaur rootcaster was a land searching effect I saw in a friend's rafiq EDH deck, and it actually worked really well, so you could possibly list him in the utility section.
Most my spells cap at what mana cost? 5? Rootcaster will, at best, accelerate me by one mana and after that is simply deck thinning. It is also at 4-cc spot, which competes with RafiQ.
Anyways, I believe that O-ring is one of the few real candidates for Twister, because it can deal with some of the worst problems around: Smokestack, Rofl-los, even early Grim Monolith. I know that if I exchange twister to it, I will miss the ability to blow up lands, however.
@Windfall & Latro: 99% of situations no deck can answer a god-draw from a stax-deck. That's exactly the reason why stax is a good archetype in vintage - It stops storm combo and still has a fair chance of winning against anything else, through drawing the right cards fast. The same is true in EDH - Mishra's Workshop + Trinishphere round 1 and 99% decks might as well call it a game, and those who wouldn't are the ones that run Workshop of their own and pray they'd draw it fast enough.
I can add 20 signets and 90 BoP's all I want, but I still won't be able to consistently beat their god draws, and while doing this I hurt my matchup against Attrition-based decks even more, as I am effectively running less and less action cards and reducing my consistency in lategame for a potential of a better god-draw. Even with 3 signets and BoP/Hierarch (Latter of which I already have.) my chances of getting turn 3 RafiQ are really low. Building up potential but losing inevitability is a bad choice in a deck like this.
Look at it this way. Legacy goblins vs Legacy Storm. Storm has 80% chance of going off turn 1 against anything without forces. Goblins goldfish on turn 4 on average. Goblins has practically no chance of winning storm. Does this make goblins a bad deck? No, goblins still has a good game against most of the other decks because it can consistantly put up a large threat on turn 4, even through a force or two.
EDH is very much like this, except with more random variables to each equation, where probabilities tend closer to 50% from wherever they would be in another format. 80% win chance in a certain matchup becomes 70%, 30% win chance 35%, etc.
If I build for the certain matchup of stax/denial deck, which is storm combo for me, I reduce my chances of victory in each other matchup where having a certain amount of consistency is more important than having a potentially a turn faster clock. Adding signets/accel in place of threats is like adding 4x Simian Spirit Guide to goblins. It just isn't a good idea.
What would be awesome would be something that would either act as a threat of it's own, I.E: Lackey or something that would practically double my mana, I.E: Vial. The problem is that even if there was/is one card like that, I will never be able to consistently rely on it for acceleration, as I run 99 cards, and it's one of them. Goblins run 60 and vials make 4 of them. Their acceleration is consistent, and this is what makes it good. Not the fact that it could just blow on your face.
Playing aggro isn't about god draws. Combo and lockdown is.
To further dilute the point of lacking focus, I should also state that this is exactly the "fault" midrange decks were criticized for long in standard. They are neither control nor aggro, but somehow they seem to be the deck that is currently replacing just about all other archetypes. Did you know that GP flash wasn't won by the fastest potential combo, but the deck that had the best secondary game plan? Dividing your focus works, putting all your eggs in one basket doesn't. Eggbaskets are prone to breaking.
@Urdjur: I thought about steel/shield, but most probably nope, not worth it. Recursion options? 1x Genesisand 1x 'Lark? 1x Witness too, but that is hardly an engine.
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and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
1. Temporal Spring replaces Desert Twister. It still deals with Kor Haven and Maze of Ith, and is a bit cheaper. Should be effective early on to negate tempo as well.
2. Treachery replaces Ninja of the Deep Hours. There are almost no situations in which I want to ninjutsu the ninja in, and it's just not good enough by itself. Worse than Thieving Magpie, actually. Treachery is card AND tempo advantage, and one of the better blue cards in general, and I wasn't running it.
3. Pact of Negation replaces Soltari Visionary. Oh how I wish that guy killed artifacts, too. Too bad he doesn't.
4. Aura Shards replaces Treva's Charm. Charm never did anything good - Most often I was the attacker and the draw/discard is just plain bad. Shards does removing enchantments better and gives me a lot better game vs Azami/Arcum/Sharuum.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
A card to consider, maybe instead of Aura Shards or in addition to it:
Aura of Silence, you sacrifice the card advantage of Aura Shards for the reliability and tempo advantage of Silence. You do run alot of support creatures tho, so YMMV.
Or run both. But I digress: I quite enjoy Brave the Elements, Cho-Manno's Blessing, and Vines of the Vastwood in protecting Rafiq. The first two let him evade blockers, and the last is versatile as both removal-counter and pump for a surprise win (or combat trick). Blessing is an aura, yes, but if you play it in response to removal, it has paid for itself. Also, protection from a color is very strong in EDH; personally, I use Pentarch Ward as well, but that's just me.
Also: I've tried and quite enjoyed Bind. It's a cantrip Stifle in green. Nobody sees it coming. Sleep has won me a lot of games, too - in Rafiq, a turn or two of attacking wins you the game. It's like a one-sided Wrath.
Great guide. Keep up the good work.
PS: My issue with Vedalken Heretic and some of the other "hit you get a bonus" cards is that most of the time I'd rather be swinging with Rafiq. Some of them are justified - turn-3 Cephalid Constable followed by Rafiq is usually game - but some of those slots are probably better off spent protecting Rafiq. You might try Dauntless Escort.
As a connoisseur of fun, interesting matches, I still to this day have not been able to craft that "perfect deck"; the deck that I can play and have fun over time, doesn't get boring, but simultaneously is fun to play against. I honestly don't think it exists. It's like a unicorn. A ninja unicorn.
Riptide Pilferer has definitely earned his spot, casting him early often ends up with a good bit of card advantage and decent disruption, or at least eats a removal spell that would've been used on RafiQ.
Looter il-Kor might not be "bomby", but it fixes my cards early on and is practically unblockable, which has been useful quite a few times. I could probably replace it with something, but that something would need to fix my mana, and/or fix my draws. Bloom Tender is something I've considered.
Augury Adept and Vedalken Heretic often either eat removal early on or swing for a few more cards, and an early one followed by turn 4 RafiQ means a lot of cards through doublestrike. I need that card advantage in here, and I also want to keep my creature count somewhat high to avoid folding to MBC. There are no better alternatives.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
I really have to disagree with the "Spawnwrithe isn't very good." If you can manage him down turn 2 followed by Rafiq turn 3 it's likely scoopsville. Although you aren't utilizing the doublestrike from there on out the tokens just get out of hand so fast.
Not really. The tokens don't get the exalted or doublestrike bonus, so you get at best 2 2/2s. Also, if you're attacking with Spawnrithes, you don't get to attack with Rafiq. I'd rather have mana accel or a counterspell or piece of equipment.
As a connoisseur of fun, interesting matches, I still to this day have not been able to craft that "perfect deck"; the deck that I can play and have fun over time, doesn't get boring, but simultaneously is fun to play against. I honestly don't think it exists. It's like a unicorn. A ninja unicorn.
Not really. The tokens don't get the exalted or doublestrike bonus, so you get at best 2 2/2s. Also, if you're attacking with Spawnrithes, you don't get to attack with Rafiq. I'd rather have mana accel or a counterspell or piece of equipment.
In a 1v1 strategy Spawnwrithe is good even if you're not using Rafiq's ability more than once.
Your ideal is hitting with a Rafiq-boosted Spawnwrithe and getting damage through at least once. This gives you at least one blocker other than Rafiq and the opportunity to attack with at least 2 non-Rafiq guys then next turn.
Should your opponent not have a blocker, you hold one back and hit for 6 and 2 new tokens allowing you to hit with everyone the following turn. If your opponent has spot removal for either Rafiq or the attacking Spawnwrithe, you still have a Spawnwrithe in reserve to go again and again.
It forces a single opponent (because this is a 1v1 deck) to have multiple answers or a sweeper. It may not be the #1 card for Rafiq but it does ask questions and can finish the game very quickly.
I'm not understanding where you are going with this deck. Rafiq is a very aggressive general and pending on you dropping a T1 Mana creature (Llanowar, BoP, Hierarch, etc) for a Turn 2 Beat (Viper, Troll, Predator, etc), Turn 3 Rafiq. You have creatures in your deck you need to hold mana back for (Mystic Snake, Plaxmanta, Venser, etc). Dump the cuteness and go effective beaters. If this is 1v1 based, no reason not to run the best creatures in the colors. Goyf, War Monk, Exalted Angel, etc. You should also be running Survival of the Fittest as it gives you options in the late game. If you like the cuteness that is all the CitP ability critters, you should consider running Crystal Shard. This card could make your opponent pay for over extending, and also use it as an Engine. You have to run Reviellark, even if you don't run the rest of the critters for the combo. His ability to bring back the nasties is too good not to play.
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Rafiq of the Many is one of the few generals in EDH scene that can have an aggressive deck built around him. Most other generals tend to sit back and tutor for win conditions and lock the board (Zur, Daggsson, Braids.), go off in some fashionable fashion (Azami, Niv.) or simply sit there and make your life a living hell. (Erayo, Teferi.) One of the few other generals that actually plans on attacking is Vendilion Clique, and that guy plans on attacking 7 times. In row. Alone.
RafiQ on the other hand drops on board on turn 3-4, turns one of your already existing creatures bigger and sends it to the dome. Then he swings to the dome himself a turn afterwards, and it doesn't take him but three turns of hammertime to reduce your opponent to a mess on the floor. Tell me, what other 4-cmc creature has effectively 8 power while attacking and no significant drawback?
Now we have cleared up that RafiQ is awesome. Wears sunglasses at night-awesome. Batman-awesome. (Infact, he's batman in disguise, don't tell anyone.) But what makes him tick? What you want to surround him with. What if, by some devious plan from your opponents, he disappears in a puff of smoke never to be found, and you need to win without him? We'll find out after the break.
"Whenever I hit you, you're screwed"-effects
"So, that's all creatures, isn't it?" You might ask. Well, yes it is. "There's a lot of them, isn't there?" Well, yes there is. RafiQ is RafiQ of the Many, remember. Not RafiQ of the few, or RafiQ of almost-none-at-all. But surely some supplemental sorcery should be beneficial fo Rafiq as well. And yes, so it is. You'll find out after yet another break what would be the best picks.
Countermagic
Now, we've dealt with creatures and supplemental sorceries, what is left to go? Well, enchantments and
toysartifacts, of course! Find out more after the break!Equipment:
Of course, the most important piece of any deck isn't there yet, and we don't have too many slots left. 38 to be precise. That's 38 lands for us right there.
Utility:
So, I suppose you all want to see how this looks when put together, don't you? Well, I'd like to say that you'd see after the break, but our advertising space doesn't sell as well as it should, so we'll have no break this time.
Just joking.
Final Draft:
General (1):
1x RafiQ of the Many
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Kodama of the North Tree
1x Blastoderm
1x Battlegrace Angel
1x Calciderm
1x Jenara, Asura of War
1x Plaxmanta
1x Mystic Snake
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Mother of Runes
1x Genesis
1x Glory
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Acidic Slime
1x Eternal Witness
1x Saffi Eriksdotter
1x Looter il-Kor
1x Riptide Pilferer
1x Vedalken Heretic
1x Augury Adept
1x Cephalid Constable
1x Cold-Eyed Selkie
1x Ohran Viper
1x Soltari Visionary
1x Trygon Predator
1x Ninja of the Deep Hours
== Instants & Sorceries [22] ==
Countermagic (8):
1x Force of Will
1x Misdirection
1x Commandeer
1x Foil
1x Mana Drain
1x Counterspell
1x Disrupting Shoal
1x Cryptic Command
1x Into the Roil
1x Primal Command
1x Plow Under
1x Remand
1x Armageddon
1x Ravages of War
1x Temporal Manipulation
1x Capture of Jingzhou
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Bant Charm
1x Treva's Charm
1x Desert Twister
== Artifacts & Enchantments ==
Equipment (6):
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mask of Memory
1x Whispersilk Cloak
1x Chrome Mox
1x Mox Diamond
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1x Rancor
1x Finest Hour
== Lands [38] ==
Utility (9):
1x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Nantuko Monastery
1x Treetop Village
1x Yavimaya Hollow
1x Dust Bowl
1x Rishadan Port
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Tropical Island
1x Flooded Strand
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Tundra
1x Savannah
1x Windswept Heath
1x Temple Garden
1x Wooded Bastion
1x Mystic Gate
1x Flooded Grove
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Nimbus Maze
1x Sunpetal Grove
1x Reflecting Pool
1x City of Brass
1x Tendo Ice Bridge
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Brushland
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Island
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Snow-covered Island
1x Snow-covered Forest
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Horizon Canopy
Get drunk.2. Write card explanations on each card.
3.
Get drunk.4. Add more finishing touches, like pretty colours.
5.
Get drunk.6. Write a section detailing cards that I couldn't fit in.
7.
Get drunk.I didn't include some cards that are quite good, most notably Might of Oaks (1-shot with RafiQ) simply because I had no space. I will have a section detailing these later on.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
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Clan RepresentativeCatastrophe seems like a perfect replacement for Desert Twister. It fits the Armageddon theme and it doubles as a sweeper when needed. Pact of Negation, Voidslime, or even Hinder would be good in the Foil spot (and possibly the Disrupting Shoal spot; I've not used it so it may be fine, but it seems awkward). The deck as seems primed to play Reveillark and Mirror Entity (Saffi Eriksdotter, and Venser, Shaper Savant or Acidic Slime make the unbound combo, and it just incidentally gets back almost everything else in the deck). I'd add Silvos, Rogue Elemental to the list of possible beatsticks, but he does (more or less) cost 3GGGG and that is a little steep. I'd add Rootwater Thief to the list of creatures that get cool with double strike.
General (1):
1x RafiQ of the Many
Beaters (6):
1x Chameleon Colossus
1x Kodama of the North Tree
1x Blastoderm
1x Battlegrace Angel
1x Calciderm
1x Jenara, Asura of War
Utility (14):
1x Plaxmanta
1x Mystic Snake
1x Venser, Shaper Savant
1x Qasali Pridemage
1x Mother of Runes
1x Genesis
1x Glory
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Acidic Slime
1x Eternal Witness
1x Saffi Eriksdotter
1 Reveillark
1 Mirror Entity
1 Stonecloaker
Screwers (7):
1x Looter il-Kor
1x Augury Adept
1x Cephalid Constable
1x Cold-Eyed Selkie
1x Ohran Viper
1x Soltari Visionary
1x Trygon Predator
== Instants & Sorceries [22] ==
Countermagic (7):
1x Force of Will
1x Misdirection
1x Commandeer
1x Mana Drain
1x Counterspell
1x Cryptic Command
1 Voidslime
1x Time Warp
1x Primal Command
1x Remand
1x Armageddon
1x Ravages of War
1 Catastrophe
1x Temporal Manipulation
1x Capture of Jingzhou
Removal (5):
1x Path to Exile
1x Swords to Plowshares
1x Bant Charm
1x Treva's Charm
1 Faith's Fetters
== Artifacts & Enchantments ==
Equipment (6):
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Sword of Light and Shadow
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Mask of Memory
1x Whispersilk Cloak
Acceleration (7):
1x Chrome Mox
1x Mox Diamond
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Crypt
1 Selesnya Signet
1 Azorius Signet
1 Simic Signet
Enchantments (2):
1x Rancor
1x Finest Hour
== Lands [37] ==
Utility (9):
1x Wasteland
1x Strip Mine
1x Nantuko Monastery
1x Treetop Village
1x Yavimaya Hollow
1x Dust Bowl
1x Rishadan Port
1x Eiganjo Castle
1x Hall of the Bandit Lord
1x Breeding Pool
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Tropical Island
1x Flooded Strand
1x Hallowed Fountain
1x Tundra
1x Savannah
1x Windswept Heath
1x Temple Garden
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Scalding Tarn
1x Flooded Grove
1x Glacial Fortress
1x Nimbus Maze
1x Reflecting Pool
1x City of Brass
1x Adarkar Wastes
1x Brushland
1x Yavimaya Coast
1x Flagstones of Trokair
1x Island
1x Forest
1x Plains
1x Snow-covered Island
1x Snow-covered Forest
1x Snow-Covered Plains
1x Horizon Canopy
Just a little though provoker. More comment at the end.
I noticed that you have no graveyard hate which I couldn't get away with in my metagame, maybe you could in yours. This pretty much requires me to run a Trinket Mage/Tolaria West and an associated tutor package.
Speaking of tutor packages, how to you fix your land, your creatures in hand, your enchantments and artifacts? It seems you have no card draw outside of the draw step & combat phase and while one of your plans is getting a Rafiq & playing Armageddon, what do you do when your opponent gets there first?
Another plague in my meta is people stealing my stuff. That's annoying and has forced me to run a couple of sac outlets on top of the Mirror Entity. Do you not meet have similiar decks? Stealing stuff is common enough.
From playing the deck again and again, I know there's a lot of different ways to get there and I'm not knocking yours as a valid build, I'm just very interested in how consistantly you can get into the game and get back into the game should someone wipe the board.
Commander BLOG: The Crazy 99
Gonti ; Sissay
It's quite often been worth it's cost, however.
I can still hardcast it, can't I? I have hardasted FoW, too.
1v1, although it's not that bad in multiplayer.
Many? 2? Also, I don't need them. If I have a threat on table pre-sweep I am, most of the time, going to win anyway. Artifact mana is only good with sweepers if it turns into an attrition battle afterwards.
It's an option worth considering, although I can count the times I would've rather had a wrath than Twister on one finger.
A bit awkward maybe, but free counters I can drop turns 1-4 are very important, as they stop a lot of more degenerate decks from winning.
I would hardly ever use my cards to find out the combo, however. It is way more efficient to find something to bash face with, and I don't have many tutors to begin with.
Silvos is cool, but hard to resolve and is still quite easy to kill: He dies to just about any sweeper, a lot of single-target removal spells, etc. He's only really good if your opponent needs to deal with it through combat, and if my opponent needs to deal with this deck through combat, they are already screwed.
Rootwater thief's problem is that I just don't want to tap out on my turn to thin their threats from their deck. If I pay 4 on my turn, I want an immediate impact on board rather than reducing their potential turn 22 draw.
Graveyard hate is also of less importance for this deck in 1n1. This deck is well capable of racing just about most reanimator decks in the format, unless they have a god-draw, and in EDH the one with god-draw wins 90% of the time anyway.
In the same vein, I do not need that many tutors/card advantage outlets. RafiQ alone on board is a serious threat in 1n1, unlike in multiplayer where you still need something to defend yourself from other players, and probably some lategame drops to deal with other players. In 1n1, hitting opponent for a good chunk of their life total is almost as good as drawing a few cards, as that player is now on a clock and cannot really use their card drawing capabilities until they stabilize the board, and you can easily save some cards until after that incident. I know that the deck starts having troubles after the second sweeper. Then again, your opponent needs to find those quite fast, as he really is on a clock.
Stealing stuff is as much a problem as it always is, but at least I have some enchantment/artifact removal that solves the worst offenders in there, such as Treachery and Vedalken Shackles. Most of the other cards, such as Blatant Thievery are really slow and by the time my opponent could cast one of those, he could probably win the game already anyway. Of course, them stealing almost anything but Rafiq is not much of a problem, as the thing stolen will most probably act only as a speedbump. RafiQ with Greaves or Cloak is unstealable, so.. While those cards are problematic, they are not dangerous enough for me to build specifically for them.
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Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
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Clan RepresentativeI have it run against me in an Uril deck built on similar principals.
Why not run Oblivion Ring over Desert Twister?
I think if I were to cut Foil, I would much rather fit in something cheaper than Voidslime. Stifle, maybe? Stifling a fetchland or Extraplanar Lens is no joke, and it can stop quite a bit of the combos played in EDH, too. (And transmute.)
Reveillark is probably worth a spot, but I'm not sold on Stonecloaker. While the rescue-option is nice, it forces me to leave mana open, rather than keep my tempo up. It might ultimately hurt me.
The question is: What to cut for 'lark? The decklist is already rather thigh and I would really prefer to not increase the curve any higher.
@Narglfrob: The key words there are "Against the right deck.". Against wrong deck it's a dead card. In 1n1, there is necessarily no artifacts/enchantments on board, and I therefore prefer that my enchantment/artifact removal cards are more versatile than Return to Dust.
Oblivion Ring is what I originally considered, but in the end I opted for Desert Twister due to it's ability to get rid of lands, and the fact that O-ring is awful if your opponent can remove it your EoT and surprise you with the creature. Even worse than that if the creature in question had EtB-effect. Faith's Fetters seems like the best option to Desert Twister, although there are things it doesn't stop, like Humility and Smokestack.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
hinder seems like it would be a decent counterspell to use for the deck. If they're able to keep casting their general, they'll be able to keep blocking, slowing you. Hindering the general removes a recurring blocker.
centaur rootcaster was a land searching effect I saw in a friend's rafiq EDH deck, and it actually worked really well, so you could possibly list him in the utility section.
Compared to Desert Twister which is only ever overcosted spot removal. In fact Desert Twister is almost always a tempo loss from you, since 90% of the time whatever you are removing will cost less than twister. In a tempo deck like this one, playing a card that gives you a tempo loss like this one seems like a bad play.
Oblivion Ring may be answerable yes, but in exchange for its fragility you are getting A) flexibility seen nowhere else for three mana outside of vindicate and B) and almost gaurenteed temp gain for you. Even if they answer it, thats time and resources they had to spend not answering Rafiq.
Faith's Fetters is another good card, Prison term is also good becuase in addition to answering Zur, Arcum, Azami it also answers Rofl which Fetters doenst.
The tempo cards are great, but the density of them isn't enough to reliably out tempo an opponent, and I highly doubt that you'll be able to do anything about a dedicated tempo deck 1 on 1. Drawing a single tempo spell will hardly be the end of any opponent. By tempo decks, I mean ones that are most likely g/u based and starts mana denial from the get go.
The list also looks to be bad against strategies of attrition. When your opponent's strategy is to wear down your resources by using card advantage through recursion, there simply isn't enough overcome the disadvantage. Many decks are built to be fine trading 1 for 1 since they can simply reuse the cards later.
I don't like a few of the beaters that you've chosen. I'm especially not fond of Jenara, Asura of War. She's too vulnerable to justify having to spend so much mana to pump. Battlegrace Angel is similarly vulnerable, though having exalted allows her to pseudo-haste I suppose. Still, I think an actual creature that's slightly bigger is better. Having only 4 toughness puts her just below the spot where a lot of removal can't efficiently kill her. I think the other creatures are okay, since they're much harder to remove, although the fact that they don't have evasion is annoying,
Also, I look at the manabase and want to cry at the low number of basics. This could just be a meta thing, but I face lots and lots of non basic hate. This deck looks like it'll just roll over and die if anyone ever drops a Blood Moon or Back to Basics.
This certainly isn't a bad list. I just think it needs more tuning and focus.
That would be cool.
Commander BLOG: The Crazy 99
Gonti ; Sissay
Where are Birds or Noble Hierarch?
With any of those, you are not only fixing mana, but accelerating into Rafiq turn 3.
I definitely think that you are running too many "be cute when I hit you" cards, such as Ninja, which, realistically, is coming down when you should be playing Rafiq anyway. IMO, the only cards that are really sick when hitting with exalted and double strike are Cold-Eye Selkie, Vedalken Heretic, Augury Adept, Ohran Viper, Cephalid Constable, and Trygon Predator. Let's see... card draw, card draw, card draw, card draw and.... removal! All for the low price of 3 mana, easy to follow up with Rafiq. Even better on T2 with Hierarch and BoP, and Rafiq T3.
Speaking of T3 Rafiq, the best possible follow-up to that is Might of Oaks, because 'hey, I can take one hit'. Then it's gg, lawl, next game?
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Utopia Sprawl also accelerates on t1, and is a bit more resilient than the dudes.
Isn't stuff like Steel of the Godhead and Shield of the Oversoul good in Rafiq, despite the risk of a 2-for-1? You have pretty strong recursion options after all.
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Only a few decks use their general as a recurring blocker, and even then they need more and more mana to drop it.
Most my spells cap at what mana cost? 5? Rootcaster will, at best, accelerate me by one mana and after that is simply deck thinning. It is also at 4-cc spot, which competes with RafiQ.
Maelstrom Pulse and Vindicate, that is.
Anyways, I believe that O-ring is one of the few real candidates for Twister, because it can deal with some of the worst problems around: Smokestack, Rofl-los, even early Grim Monolith. I know that if I exchange twister to it, I will miss the ability to blow up lands, however.
@Windfall & Latro: 99% of situations no deck can answer a god-draw from a stax-deck. That's exactly the reason why stax is a good archetype in vintage - It stops storm combo and still has a fair chance of winning against anything else, through drawing the right cards fast. The same is true in EDH - Mishra's Workshop + Trinishphere round 1 and 99% decks might as well call it a game, and those who wouldn't are the ones that run Workshop of their own and pray they'd draw it fast enough.
I can add 20 signets and 90 BoP's all I want, but I still won't be able to consistently beat their god draws, and while doing this I hurt my matchup against Attrition-based decks even more, as I am effectively running less and less action cards and reducing my consistency in lategame for a potential of a better god-draw. Even with 3 signets and BoP/Hierarch (Latter of which I already have.) my chances of getting turn 3 RafiQ are really low. Building up potential but losing inevitability is a bad choice in a deck like this.
Look at it this way. Legacy goblins vs Legacy Storm. Storm has 80% chance of going off turn 1 against anything without forces. Goblins goldfish on turn 4 on average. Goblins has practically no chance of winning storm. Does this make goblins a bad deck? No, goblins still has a good game against most of the other decks because it can consistantly put up a large threat on turn 4, even through a force or two.
EDH is very much like this, except with more random variables to each equation, where probabilities tend closer to 50% from wherever they would be in another format. 80% win chance in a certain matchup becomes 70%, 30% win chance 35%, etc.
If I build for the certain matchup of stax/denial deck, which is storm combo for me, I reduce my chances of victory in each other matchup where having a certain amount of consistency is more important than having a potentially a turn faster clock. Adding signets/accel in place of threats is like adding 4x Simian Spirit Guide to goblins. It just isn't a good idea.
What would be awesome would be something that would either act as a threat of it's own, I.E: Lackey or something that would practically double my mana, I.E: Vial. The problem is that even if there was/is one card like that, I will never be able to consistently rely on it for acceleration, as I run 99 cards, and it's one of them. Goblins run 60 and vials make 4 of them. Their acceleration is consistent, and this is what makes it good. Not the fact that it could just blow on your face.
Playing aggro isn't about god draws. Combo and lockdown is.
To further dilute the point of lacking focus, I should also state that this is exactly the "fault" midrange decks were criticized for long in standard. They are neither control nor aggro, but somehow they seem to be the deck that is currently replacing just about all other archetypes. Did you know that GP flash wasn't won by the fastest potential combo, but the deck that had the best secondary game plan? Dividing your focus works, putting all your eggs in one basket doesn't. Eggbaskets are prone to breaking.
@Urdjur: I thought about steel/shield, but most probably nope, not worth it. Recursion options? 1x Genesis and 1x 'Lark? 1x Witness too, but that is hardly an engine.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
1. Temporal Spring replaces Desert Twister. It still deals with Kor Haven and Maze of Ith, and is a bit cheaper. Should be effective early on to negate tempo as well.
2. Treachery replaces Ninja of the Deep Hours. There are almost no situations in which I want to ninjutsu the ninja in, and it's just not good enough by itself. Worse than Thieving Magpie, actually. Treachery is card AND tempo advantage, and one of the better blue cards in general, and I wasn't running it.
3. Pact of Negation replaces Soltari Visionary. Oh how I wish that guy killed artifacts, too. Too bad he doesn't.
4. Aura Shards replaces Treva's Charm. Charm never did anything good - Most often I was the attacker and the draw/discard is just plain bad. Shards does removing enchantments better and gives me a lot better game vs Azami/Arcum/Sharuum.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
Aura of Silence, you sacrifice the card advantage of Aura Shards for the reliability and tempo advantage of Silence. You do run alot of support creatures tho, so YMMV.
Also: I've tried and quite enjoyed Bind. It's a cantrip Stifle in green. Nobody sees it coming. Sleep has won me a lot of games, too - in Rafiq, a turn or two of attacking wins you the game. It's like a one-sided Wrath.
Great guide. Keep up the good work.
PS: My issue with Vedalken Heretic and some of the other "hit you get a bonus" cards is that most of the time I'd rather be swinging with Rafiq. Some of them are justified - turn-3 Cephalid Constable followed by Rafiq is usually game - but some of those slots are probably better off spent protecting Rafiq. You might try Dauntless Escort.
Brave + Blessing just seem like conditional counterspells tho, better to just run the real thing? evasion is nice.
Nice find on bind, forgot about that card.
Sleep seems like it would be relevant vs Rofl, arcum, zur, azami.... nice find.
I agree with you on the creature issue. IMO the ones that have to stay are:
Cephalid Constable
Cold-Eyed Selkie
Ohran Viper
Trygon Predator
The rest should probably have a hard look.
1x Riptide Pilferer
1x Vedalken Heretic
1x Augury Adept
Riptide Pilferer has definitely earned his spot, casting him early often ends up with a good bit of card advantage and decent disruption, or at least eats a removal spell that would've been used on RafiQ.
Looter il-Kor might not be "bomby", but it fixes my cards early on and is practically unblockable, which has been useful quite a few times. I could probably replace it with something, but that something would need to fix my mana, and/or fix my draws. Bloom Tender is something I've considered.
Augury Adept and Vedalken Heretic often either eat removal early on or swing for a few more cards, and an early one followed by turn 4 RafiQ means a lot of cards through doublestrike. I need that card advantage in here, and I also want to keep my creature count somewhat high to avoid folding to MBC. There are no better alternatives.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
In a 1v1 strategy Spawnwrithe is good even if you're not using Rafiq's ability more than once.
Your ideal is hitting with a Rafiq-boosted Spawnwrithe and getting damage through at least once. This gives you at least one blocker other than Rafiq and the opportunity to attack with at least 2 non-Rafiq guys then next turn.
Should your opponent not have a blocker, you hold one back and hit for 6 and 2 new tokens allowing you to hit with everyone the following turn. If your opponent has spot removal for either Rafiq or the attacking Spawnwrithe, you still have a Spawnwrithe in reserve to go again and again.
It forces a single opponent (because this is a 1v1 deck) to have multiple answers or a sweeper. It may not be the #1 card for Rafiq but it does ask questions and can finish the game very quickly.
Commander BLOG: The Crazy 99
Gonti ; Sissay
http://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=519290