With Magic: The Gathering's release of Streets Of New Capenna, the dreaded Ob Nixilis, The Adversary has arrived. Many players fear that this single planeswalker will be so powerful, it will warp the entire Standard format around it. They have good reason to fear to, as the exact same scenario happened fairly recently with the release of Oko, Thief of Crowns in Throne of Eldraine. Oko would go on to be banned in not just Standard, but every other format besides Vintage and Commander.

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Whether Ob Nixilis is similarly powerful remains to be seen (fingers crossed he's not), but the fact that everyone's talking about it lends credence to the strength of this card. Consequently, it's prudent to take a look at the most powerful sacrifice effects in Rakdos colors so that we can get a better idea of what kind of support this new adversary has. After all, he does generate a devil token that lends itself perfectly to sacrifice strategies, and Rakdos (black/red) has long been known for its sacrifice themed playstyle.

10 Immersturm Predator

immersturm predator

This black and red dragon has been as good as forgotten in the recent Standard meta but just because he's down doesn't mean he's out. As those who played Standard during the time of Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger can attest, Immersturm Predator is no joke.

Even with a small number of tokens available, Immersturm Predator is nearly impossible to remove. There's also the fact that this card neatly dodges Vanishing Verse which is some of the only meta removal that should be able to take care of it. Add evasion in the form of flying to this predator's indestructability and you've got an on curve clock that comes down right after resolving Ob Nixilis. All that being said, this is certainly a prospected card that may or may not ultimately make the cut.

9 Village Rites

village rites

Village Rites is yet another card that seems to have been banished to the shadow realm. While this is an amazing draw spell, the fact is Deadly Dispute is simply better in the meta thanks to the existence of Experimental Synthesizer as well as abundant treasure tokens.

Even so, there's still a chance that Village Rites takes a spot back on top, but it's a slim one at best.

8 Eaten Alive

eaten alive

Here's an off-meta, efficient answer to Immersturm Predator at common surprisingly enough. Depending on how relevant exiling turns out to be, Eaten Alive could see some decent play.

At the moment, removal spells like Infernal Grasp seem to be doing the job just fine though. There aren't any cards that scream graveyard synergy floating around either, so this common may just end up relegated to the sideboard at best.

7 Invoke Despair

A screenshot of the Invoke Despair card.

Speaking of sideboard cards, Invoke Despair is an amazing option for any deck playing a lot of black. Sacrifice removal effects tend to be the perfect answer against control or midrange decks playing few creatures, and Invoke Despair tacks on even more value by netting you cards and dealing damage through life loss.

Not to mention, this is one of few cards ever printed that can simultaneously deal with the board and a planeswalker in play, and that's without even bringing up the enchantment bonus points.

6 Oni-Cult Anvil

Oni-Cult Anvil

At the moment, one of the biggest questions for Rakdos players seems to be whether Oni-Cult Anvil is worth playing or not. The card is incredibly good at grinding down opponents over many turns while also sustaining your life total, but some decks just provide too much pressure for this strategy to be viable.

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Furthermore, running the anvil usually means you've also got to run the entire anvil package which takes up a large amount of your deck slots. This makes it harder for your deck to pivot into sideboard strategies against opponents. The jury is still out on whether Rakdos is better with or without this intriguing sacrifice effect, but our money's on it fading away.

5 Fatal Grudge

Magic: The Gathering - Streets of New Capenna Fatal Grudge Sorcery

While sacrifice removal can be incredibly effective, there are a lot of cases where it comes in subpar. Fatal Grudge will most often result in one such case, but this sorcery's ability to snag other permanent types is worth a mention.

Of course, this requires you have a permanent of the same type to sacrifice yourself, but that's not a huge cost looking at the prevalence of cards like Fable of the Mirror-Breaker, Experimental Synthesizer, and treasure token generators. By the way, this is a removal spell that cantrips (draws a card) which is fairly rare.

4 Riveteers Charm

New Jund charm from MTG Streets of New Capenna

Here's yet another new sacrifice removal spell, but access to this charm requires a splash into Jund (red/black/green) colors. Thanks to the release of the new tricolor lands, that's no big cost. It's notable that this charm gets around sacrifice removals biggest weakness by forcing the opponent to sacrifice whichever of their cards has the highest CMC (converted mana cost).

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While it was already mentioned that graveyard hate isn't looking too necessary in this format, it's nice to be able to include it in the mainboard for free. Lastly, Riveteers Charm can function as a draw three in a pinch, which really makes this sacrifice effect go the extra mile.

3 Bloodtithe Harvester

Bloodtithe Harvester

Bloodtithe Harvester has already seen play in Rakdos decks, so there's no question it will continue to be included.

Doubling as both a threat and a removal spell, this vampire is about as good as two drops get. The one cost of playing harvester is that you need to include other blood token generators in your deck to feel its full effect, but there's no shortage of those going around.

2 Voltage Surge

Voltage Surge

Looking at the creature selection across Standard, almost every playable card has a maximum toughness of four. It's for this reason that Voltage Surge is so ridiculously good at the low low cost of a single red mana.

There are so many artifact token generating cards in Rakdos at the moment that the secondary cost of sacrificing an artifact might as well be free. Lastly, this card also deals with planeswalkers extremely efficiently. In summary, what's not to like?

1 Deadly Dispute

Deadly Dispute

Like we said, the secondary cost of sacrificing artifacts is as good as free in Rakdos at the moment which is what makes Deadly Dispute a better card than Village Rites. This card is also a self-fulfilling prophecy, seeing as it leaves behind yet another artifact token in its wake.

Additionally, the treasure token can be used to ramp out big threats a turn earlier than should have been possible which can quickly turn unsuspecting opponents into victory tallies on your match history. Of course, seeing as you're in Rakdos during this meta, that's a fairly typical result.

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