There are 129 Commander-legal Legendary Creatures in the Rakdos () color pairing, from Legends' Rohgahh of Kher Keep to Marvel's Super Heroes' The Ruinous Wrecking Crew.

Rakdos is aligned with an impulsive and self-sacrificing philosophy, and its primary strategies tend to be massive Creatures, persistent damage, and board control.

If you're playing Red-Black, you tend to have access to the best removal, the best burn, and a slate of card advantage spells.

Rakdos also has its weaknesses, including an inability to deal with Enchantments, something that has been a part of the Red-Black identity since before the color combination had a name.

Even if you're not locked out by Enchantments, it's easy to get gassed with a poorly built Rakdos deck, but if you enjoy chaos and carnage, then Red-Black is the color pair for you.

The Top Rakdos Commanders

Of the 129 potential candidates, these are best Red-Black Commanders:

1. Valki, God of Lies
2. Shadow the Hedgehog
3. Ozai, the Phoenix King
4. Xantcha, Sleeper Agent
5. Kuja, Genome Sorcerer
6. Prosper, Tome-Bound
7. Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

7. Valki, God of Lies

When first printed in 2021's Kaldheim and before the rules on double-faced cards were clarified, Valki, God of Lies had a powerful but fragile interaction with Tibalt's Trickery.

You used to be able to counter your spell and cast the Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter side off his own Trickery as early as turn two.

This unintended interaction was banned from competitive play before the rules were later patched to counteract it, but Valki is still worth a second look as a "fair" Commander.

You'll often see Valki at the head of a generic theft deck that runs Insurrection effects and chaotic cards like Cunning Rhetoric, Etali, Primal Storm, and Chaos Warp.

Since Tibalt, Cosmic Imposter lets you cast cards from exile, he often will function as a pseudo-Prosper deck, so any Prosper hits like Nalfeshnee and Wild-Magic Sorcerer also go well with Valki.

is a pretty big ask, especially if you hope to cast Tibalt multiple times from the Command Zone, but having the fallback state of a two-mana Commander is a bonus, particularly one that will occasionally snipe a powerful Creature from an opponent.

6. Shadow the Hedgehog

Just by reading the card, you can predict how best to build a deck around Shadow the Hedgehog: throw approximately 60 Creatures with Flash and/or Haste and approximately 40 Lands into a deck box, and you're good to go.

That's a superficial read, though, as the actual cards you can exploit with the edgy Hedgehog Mercenary add nuance to the deck.

Shadow plays well with Ball Lightning effects like Blistering Firecat, Lightning Skelemental, Urabrask's Forge, and Lagomos, Hand of Hatred, and can also run Treasure strategies to amass riches with Xorn, Goldspan Dragon, and Mahadi, Emporium Master.

An under-regarded pick here is Lobelia Sackville-Baggins, who Flashes in to plunder the dead.

The more exciting picks for your Flash squad include Bitterbloom Bearer, Crackling Spellslinger, Dualcaster Mage, and Mysterious Stranger.

Especially interesting is Garna, the Bloodflame, who grants Haste to all your Creatures. Additionally, Opposition Agent, while a Game Changer and a loathed card, is perfect for a Shadow deck.

The Split Second aspect of Shadow rarely comes up, but it's more than just trinket text. When Split Second matters when you're trying to prevent a counterspell or ensure that your removal spell doesn't fizzle.

5. Ozai, the Phoenix King

Ozai, the Phoenix King is extremely aggressive for his cost, coming down at six mana and immediately swinging for seven damage while granting you .

He was designed as the centerpiece of a Firebending deck, but he can do so much more outside of combat.

Black was once the temporary mana acceleration color, with classics like Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual, before Red supplanted it with Pyretic Ritual, Seething Song, and Rite of Flame.

Ozai lets you run every one of these cards, along with the extra combat step cards like Reckless Assault and Karlach, Fury of Avernus.

Ozai is very well supported by Ashling, Flame Dancer, Electro, and Neheb, the Eternal.

4. Xantcha, Sleeper Agent

First printed in Commander 2018, Xantcha is one of Rakdos's most intriguing Commanders, creating a minigame while in play and still embodying the chaos and cruelty of the color pair.

As a 5/5 that must attack each turn, Xantcha, Sleeper Agent sets a clock for the table and can start doing so as early as turn four.

For , she can also punish the table's most dangerous player, letting the rest of the players gang up to drain their life and reward themselves with a card in doing so.

The underplayed (albeit mana intensive) Captive Audience is a great pick for a Xantcha deck, while controller-swapping cards like Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos, and Sleeper Agent will have you sliding card across the table with a sinister smile.

Blim, Comedic Genius is another possible back-up for Xantcha who truly plays into the malicious generosity that Rakdos is so good at.

If you go in this direction, you may want to lean into the Harmless Offering side of things and hand out Demonic Pact, Greed's Gambit, and Demonic Lore as gifts to your opponents.

3. Kuja, Genome Sorcerer

The level one goal of Kuja, Genome Sorcerer is to play him after amassing a couple of Wizards and then immediately flip him to power up the damage-dealing potential of your sinister scholars.

You can also use him as a source of sacrificial tokens, like a slower but less self-destructive Endrek Sahr, Master Breeder.

Either way, you're going to want Black Waltz No. 3 as a lieutenant and a series of ways to increase the damage you're pumping out, like Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might or Harmonic Prodigy.

Transpose is mandatory in a Kuja deck, as is Circle of Power, which lives up to its name.

Kuja is a powerful Commander, but one whose deck is adaptable to lower brackets, from a Bracket 1 Wizard typal to a Bracket 3 spellslinger model.

2. Prosper, Tome-Bound

For , Prosper, Tome-Bound is a pain-free Phyrexian Arena that spits out Lotus Petals.

True, the cards you exile are only temporarily accessible, but the snowballing advantage offered by the Tiefling makes it easy to cast them when you exile something useful.

At this point, there is a whole roster of cards that benefit from or enable casting spells from exile, from Nico Minoru, Runaway to Party Thrasher.

The new hotness from Marvel, Hex Magic, is exceptional -- and exceptionally flavorful -- in Prosper, and Smaug the Magnificent has a place in most Prosper builds.

Heroes for Hire is absurd in Prosper, as is Treasure staple Academy Manufactor. Ancient Copper Dragon helps you build up your Treasure count, while Alchemist's Talent is a great payoff for all those coins.

Additionally, Coin of Mastery deserves a slot in the deck as a way to create Treasure tokens, and the spare counters are always appreciated.

Prosper is one of the most powerful and popular Commanders available to Rakdos, but he does lose a couple of style points for being predictable.

That said, a well-built Prosper deck is a ton of fun to pilot as you amass Treasures and plan your future turns during your opponents' turns, plus it's quite easy to build one without relying on infinite combos or Game Changers.

1. Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls

A recent option from the Duskmourn preconstructed decks, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls has rapidly climbed the ranks of top Rakdos Commanders.

A cheap, Flying body with a punitive Ward ability, Valgavoth comes with a built-in strategy: hurt your opponents on their turns.

With Marvel's Super Heroes' The Frightful Four, he'll trigger off any noncreature spell cast by an opponent and he's also extremely potent with Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin.

Ob Nixilis is himself a superb Rakdos general, and many of the same cards that trigger him, like Pestilence and All Will Be One, are excellent with Valgavoth.

You can build a pseudo-Nekusar deck with Kederekt Parasite, Fate Unraveler, and Razorkin Needlehead.

Or you can build a high-impact group slug deck with The Lord of Pain, Kaervek the Merciless, and Vial Smasher the Fierce (notably, all were included in the preconstructed deck that first gave us Valgavoth).

However you build Valgavoth, you will often be the table's target, but that's what happens when you team up with demons and build around the best Rakdos Commander.

Conclusion

The overlap between Black and Red lies in sadism, which means that Rakdos Commanders tend to be cruel and dedicated towards punishing each opponent simultaneously, which is often referred to as a group slug strategy.

Commanders like The Lord of Pain, Valgavoth, Harrower of Souls, and Vial Smasher the Fierce all deal damage directly to your opponents when common game actions are taken, while classic Rakdos Commanders like Prosper, Tome-Bound and Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin skim cards off your deck to cast, increasing your options.

If you're looking for Universes Beyond fun, both Deadpool, Trading Card and Shadow the Hedgehog are excellent build-arounds that each smuggle a ton of power under an amusing facade.

Whoever you build and however you build them, you can be sure that you'll be paying life to draw cards, slinging direct damage, and attacking with horrific Creatures.