Hello everyone!

Part of the new website rebranding is branching out to include not just tech content, but also my other nerdy hobbies. One of those is Magic:The Gathering, and to kick that off we have one of my jankiest, most meticulously crafted decks; Rankdos Mishra Anvil.

This is a janky budget modern deck that incorporates a Mishra meld into an Rakdos Sacrifice shell. We don’t play competitive modern, but like the modern cardpool. It’s meant to be fun to play, have some cool combos, and flip the Mishra. It even has a reanimator sub-theme to add resilience and longevity to the deck so we can grind.

We don’t really do the whole ‘best 2 of 3 with sideboard’ game, so no sideboard although one can be created for your meta. Replacing a few of the cards with Kharn for the Kharn sideboard isn’t a bad idea.

Deck Breakdown

The Core

Mishra, Claimed by Gix
The main namesake card. Part of why I built this deck is to meld Mishra. I don’t much care for the Jund vehicles list, and a phyrexian tribal deck is not my cup of tea either. This card in this shell works really well when attacking with the board created with Anvil. The statline allows it to trade with opponents, and Vat can bring it back if it gets removed. I previously ran a version of this deck that didn’t go as wide, and it is much better with more small creatures.

The melded Mishra is a scary thing… until you realize it doesn’t have any protection. Regardless, if you flip and stick a Mishra, there is a good chance you will win the game. Every ability here is great at best, and syneristic at worst. It does pretty much everything you want to do in Red and Black colours. Even the worst ability, creating Powerstone tokens, is good here since it’s creating more sac fodder to keep the sac loops going. Use the -1/-1 + Menace/Trample for pushing some wide attacks through, the burn and destroy target for some extra removal, and the discard really neuters your opponent if they only have a few left in hand.

Phyrexian Dragon Engine
Part 2 of the meld package. This card gets a lot of flack for being pointless and not all that usefull, but I think its best home is in this Anvil reanimator deck. Can sac it for the value/synergy, gets reanimated by Vat, and the wheel effect activates under both of those conditions. It’s a good card to throw at your opponents face when you don’t have the meld package ready to go. Only a 2-of since it doesn’t do too much on its own.

Sacrifice Engine

Oni-cult Anvil
The other namesake card. Is a 1 card replacement for the CatOven combo, at the cost of being less versatile. Anvil demands an artifact focused deck in order to function correctly. Will gradually drain opponents while bolstering the board, and can enable some downright disgusting combos.

Cat Oven combo
We do use the CatOven combo here. Nobody needs to be convinced of it’s usefulness, but just as a recap:

There are no timing restrictions on sacrificing / reanimating the Cat.
The loop has 2 sacrifice triggers, which can cause some of our sac synergy pieces to proc twice each.
It is resistant to removal. Not every deck can deal with artifacts, and the Cat itself is hard to permanently deal with. Even with targeted exile, it can be evasive due to instant speed sacrifice effects.

Synergy Pieces

Marionette Apprentice
A new card from MH3 that synergizes stupid well with our sac plan. Marionette Apprentice’s value is in creating an artifact token that can works with the sac strat, and the the passive drain that occurs through normal gameplay. Namely, this card can drain opponents surprisingly quickly when combined with Anvil or Mayhem Devil.

Mayhem Devil
The big bad boi is back, and has a role in this deck. When we can chain multiple sac actions in a turn, this guy cranks out damage like nobodies business. More often than not, you’ll be wanting to burn your opponent, but sometimes the extra 1 or 2 points of damage can be enough to take down a larger target post-combat phase too.

Vat of Rebirth
Main card for the reanimator theme. Synergizes well with the sacrificing plan the deck does. Not a broken card, but this deck makes it very easy to hit the 4 counters needed to bring something back. Reanimator card that helps the other creatures have staying power and makes them durable to removal. Being able to trade with opponents and get your resources back consistently can out grind your opponents.

Phyrexian Fleshgorger
A bit of a pet card, but also fits well with the deck. Can be cast for 3cmc, sac, then reanimated with Vat. A big dumb beatstick that gains you health and burns the opponent when targetted. Too good not to have here when going down the aggressive route.

Sword of the Meek
Toolbox 1-of artifact. Combos well with Anvil, but REALLY well when you have multiple Anvil’s out on the field. The first token gets created and brings the sword back to the battlefield, sac the sword while the other token creation from Anvil 2 is on the stack, then the sword comes back again when Anvil 2’s token hits the table. Can be chained like this more if you have more Anvil’s on the field. Combine this with a Mayhem Devil or Marionette Apprentice and you’ll melt faces.

Utility Land

Mirrex
Useful in the early game when needing specific colours of mana, while in the late game can be used to create artifact tokens (for decently cheap too) that fit with the sac strategy. I haven’t won a game with poison yet, but in theory that could also happen. Value here is generating that token when the gas runs out and you need some more in a pinch.

The Mycosynth Gardens
Getting it in the opening hand usually isn’t ideal, but the ability to copy the other artifacts (including creatures) gives too much value. Main target for this is Anvil, but the situational utility comes in clutch

Removal

Bone Shards
1cmc removal that supports both sac and reanimation strats. Sac a creature or artifact, or discard a another card to reanimate. 1cmc makes it easy to get a 7/5 Fleshgorger on the field on turn 4 in a deck that doesn’t ramp. Not running any other removal since we have incidental burn with Mayhem Devil, and our aggression in draining opponent means we don’t always have to take something out

Aside from Bone Shards, Mayhem Devil can be utilized for more creature removal, but this deck can ping opponents down fairly quickly, and more varied removal is not ideal if it means slowing us down.

Wrapup

So there you have it! Rakdos Mishra Anvil; the extra janky not-that-great-but-is-fun-AF deck I created. Try it out, and see if you can improve it! Some other ways you could take this deck would be more of a toolbox with Goblin Engineer in tandem with cards like Urabrask’s Forge, and Ensnaring Bridge. Or could double down into more sac synergy and crank out a high-CMC jank card in Marionette Master. There are tons of possibilities!