cheat out big guy by Wesy

Format: Commander

Commander: The Infamous Cruelclaw

Bracket: 2

DeckCheck Threat Index: 31

Deck overview

This deck is a high-impact Rakdos cheat and reanimator strategy piloted by The Infamous Cruelclaw. The central game plan focuses on casting the commander on Turn 2 or 3, attacking on Turn 4, and utilizing menace to connect in combat. Upon dealing combat damage, Cruelclaw exiles through the library into a nonland spell and casts it for the simple cost of discarding a card. The list is packed with massive top-end payoffs, including game-warping Eldrazi like Void Winnower and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, catastrophic artifacts like Portal to Phyrexia, and mass reanimation spells. When Cruelclaw faces heavy removal, the deck transitions smoothly into a traditional graveyard reanimation strategy using Buried Alive, Animate Dead, and Victimize. While vulnerable to cheap spot removal and graveyard hate, the deck delivers crushing mid-game pressure once its colossal threats hit the table.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Abrade
  • 1 Access Tunnel
  • 1 Anger
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Archfiend of Depravity
  • 1 Artisan of Kozilek
  • 1 Ash Barrens
  • 1 Balefire Dragon
  • 1 Bane of Bala Ged
  • 1 Big Game Hunter
  • 1 Big Score
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Blood Mist
  • 1 Bloodfell Caves
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Buried Alive
  • 1 Butcher of Malakir
  • 1 Canyon Slough
  • 1 Cathartic Reunion
  • 1 Combustible Gearhulk
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Cursed Mirror
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Dark Withering
  • 1 Desolation Twin
  • 1 Dread Return
  • 1 Elder Brain
  • 1 Eldrazi Conscription
  • 1 Etali, Primal Storm
  • 1 Evolving Wilds
  • 1 Exotic Orchard
  • 1 Faithless Looting
  • 1 Feed the Swarm
  • 1 Fevered Suspicion
  • 1 Foreboding Ruins
  • 1 Hit the Mother Lode
  • 1 Improvisation Capstone
  • 1 In Garruk's Wake
  • 1 Kaervek the Merciless
  • 1 Keeper of Secrets
  • 1 Kefka, Dancing Mad
  • 1 Lightning Greaves
  • 1 Living Death
  • 1 Lizard Blades
  • 1 Magmatic Force
  • 1 Mind Stone
  • 1 Mortuary Mire
  • 11 Mountain
  • 1 Myriad Landscape
  • 1 Night's Whisper
  • 1 Passionate Archaeologist
  • 1 Path of Ancestry
  • 1 Pathrazer of Ulamog
  • 1 Portal to Phyrexia
  • 1 Rakdos Carnarium
  • 1 Rakdos Charm
  • 1 Rakdos Signet
  • 1 Rakdos, Patron of Chaos
  • 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Scourge of the Throne
  • 1 Sensei's Divining Top
  • 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Squee, Goblin Nabob
  • 1 Sulfurous Springs
  • 7 Swamp
  • 1 Swiftfoot Boots
  • 1 Tainted Peak
  • 1 Talisman of Indulgence
  • 1 Temple of Malice
  • 1 Terminate
  • 1 Terramorphic Expanse
  • 1 The Infamous Cruelclaw
  • 1 Thrill of Possibility
  • 1 Trailblazer's Boots
  • 1 Ulamog's Crusher
  • 1 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
  • 1 Unexpected Windfall
  • 1 Victimize
  • 1 Void Winnower
  • 1 Whispersilk Cloak
  • 1 Wild-Magic Sorcerer