Overview:

This Rakdos Chainer, Nightmare Adept deck leverages aggressive reanimation and graveyard recursion to fuel a mix of aristocrat drain effects, explosive mana loops, and value-driven creature recursion. Chainer acts as the linchpin, enabling repeatable reanimation from the graveyard while granting haste to key threats. The deck's primary win conditions revolve around Gray Merchant of Asphodel loops, Exsanguinate, and Blood Artist-style drain effects, supported by infinite mana/sacrifice combos using Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + drain outlets. Secondary strategies include toolbox reanimation via Buried Alive/Unmarked Grave and midrange value from cards like Pitiless Plunderer and Black Market Connections.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Setup (Turns 1-3):
   • Deploy mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet) or discard outlets (Vile Entomber, Perpetual Timepiece).
   • Use Buried Alive/Unmarked Grave to stock graveyard with key creatures (Gray Merchant, Massacre Girl, Gravecrawler).
   • Cast Chainer early to enable haste and reanimation.

2. Midgame (Turns 4-6):

   • Reanimate Gray Merchant repeatedly using Chainer’s ability or Reanimate/Unearth.
   • Generate Treasure tokens via Pitiless Plunderer or Warren Soultrader to fuel Exsanguinate.
   • Assemble Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + Blood Artist for infinite drain.

3. Win Conditions:

   • Drain: Loop Gray Merchant with recursion tools or drain via Exquisite Blood/Enduring Tenacity.
   • Combo: Infinite death triggers with Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar + any blood artist effect.
   • Overwhelm: Recur high-impact creatures like Massacre Girl or Twilight Prophet with haste.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with Chainer + 3 lands or early discard/ramp (e.g., Sol Ring, Vile Entomber).
• Prioritize Buried Alive, Unmarked Grave, or Diabolic Tutor to set up graveyard.
• Avoid hands lacking graveyard setup or Chainer enablers.

Key Tips:

• Use Perpetual Timepiece to protect key graveyard pieces from exile.
• Wishclaw Talisman can fetch combo pieces but time it to avoid giving opponents answers.
• Phyrexian Altar enables both mana generation and death triggers – prioritize protecting it.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Graveyard hate (Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void) completely shuts down the deck’s engine.
• Commander reliance: Losing Chainer repeatedly cripples recursion speed and haste enablers.

Moderate

• Artifact removal disrupts Phyrexian Altar/Wishclaw Talisman, key to combo lines.
• Life gain prevention nullifies Exsanguinate/Gray Merchant wins.

Minor

• Limited stack interaction outside Rakdos Charm and Untimely Malfunction.
• Vulnerable to fast aggro before establishing board control.

Most Important Cards:

• Chainer, Nightmare Adept (Engine: recursion + haste enabler)
• Phyrexian Altar (Infinite mana/combo piece)
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel (Primary drain wincon)
• Buried Alive (Graveyard setup)
• Exsanguinate (Game-ending lifedrain)
• Gravecrawler (Combo piece with Altar)
• Pitiless Plunderer (Trester generation + death synergy)
• Blood Artist (Drain engine)
• Reanimate (Critical recursion)
• Diabolic Tutor (Consistency for key pieces)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 6/10

• Can threaten wins via Gray Merchant loops or Gravecrawler combos by T6-7, but setup requires multiple pieces.

Resilience: 5/10

• Recursion provides recovery, but heavy reliance on graveyard and Chainer makes it vulnerable to targeted hate.

Consistency: 7/10

• Strong tutor suite (Diabolic Tutor, Buried Alive, Wishclaw Talisman) ensures access to key pieces.

Interaction: 4/10

• Limited removal (Go for the Throat, Toxic Deluge) and no counterspells; relies on reactive plays.

Rating Justification:

This deck has optimized casual power with focused combos and tutors but lacks the speed/protection of cEDH. Its T6-7 win potential and vulnerability to common hate place it between Focused and Optimized tiers.

Power level: 5.5 - 6.0