"Sire of Insanity EDH:Sanitizing your mind"

"Insane in the membrane...insane in the brain..."

"Sire of Insanity EDH:Sanitizing your mind"

by:

Virgilio F. De leon Jr.

The Rakdos Hellbent Mechanic relies heavily on the condition that you have an empty hand. Now this would scare a lot of Magic players especially those who favor to control their opponents. With an empty hand there is no room to scheme or to bluff,all that is left is the inevitable truth that all you could work with is the things that you have on the battlefield.

Rakdos players actually embrace this freedom from thought. One thing that they share with the Gruul is their ability to just easily attack and not think of anything else. This was the reason why discard outlets like Kamigawa's One with Nothing or Oblivion Crown was very popular during the original Ravnica block. 

"Pain suits me...I think..."

Cards like Demonfire that had hellbent became really strong.This card for instance became uncounterable and the damage it caused cannot be prevented making it a Super Version of Fireball.

"I am Orco...hear me roar!!!"

Sire of Insanity harkens back to the day of Rakdos Hellbent ways. I especially like it since it affects a lot players who want to control pace and tempo and offer a lot of No answer to cool cards that might kill them.  

Sire of Insanity is a 6/4 Demon that costs 4 generic mana , 1 black and red mana. It demands players to give up all their hands at the end of every end step which means 2 things. 1st is that opposing players would not be able to cast spells during your turn because they have nothing left to cast and 2nd it also means that if you have anything in your hand you want to make sure that you have used it or cast it before the end of your turn.

This messes up a lot of tempo and disrupts a lot of long range plans.It now becames a game of the Now. A game that most Rakdos Cultists know. Its time for Bloodshed and its going to be mostly your opponents. The Unleash Mechanic makes sure that there are constant threats directly from your hand.Playing with Rakdos,Lord of Riots makes casting creatures like Sire of Insanity, Exava and Master of Cruelties much faster as well.

"Yup...I'm on your side...the fun dark side..."

There are good times to be had in all the formats but this shines way brighter in the EDH setting where a Rakdos set up of Unleash and Hellbent creatures could really push an opponents life from 40 to Zero in a matter of turns. Rakdos Cultists are having a party welcoming the new pieces into the mix. Everyone is invited to the bloodbath.