Rafiq of the Many - A Knight's Tale
Updated 7/14/10
New cards for this version in bold

General (the Knight himself)
Rafiq of the Many

Knight's Arms
Rancor
Eel Umbra
Lightning Greaves
Shield of the Oversoul
Snake Umbra
Steel of the Godhead
Armadillo Cloak
Bear Umbra
Elspeth, Knight Errant
Mammoth Umbra
Shield of the Righteous
Drake Umbra
Finest Hour
Sword of Fire and Ice
Sword of Light and Shadow
Behemoth Sledge
Loxodon Warhammer
Sword of Vengeance
Eldrazi Conscription

Prison-y Stuff
Dueling Grounds
Ghostly Prison
Propaganda
Collective Restraint
Glare of Subdual
Leyline of Sanctity
Opposition
Silent Arbiter
Stoic Angel
Seedborn Muse
Empyrial Archangel

Drawing / Tutoring
Enlightened Tutor
Argothian Enchantress
Sterling Grove
Wall of Omens
Enchantress's Presence
Mesa Enchantress
Rhystic Study
Verduran Enchantress
Academy Rector
Sovereigns of Lost Alara
Wargate

GY Stuff
Genesis
Eternal Witness
Stonecloaker

Acceleration
Birds of Paradise
Noble Hierarch
Sol Ring
Bloom Tender
Overgrown Battlement
Sakura-Tribe Elder
Vine Trellis
Fertile Ground

Board Control
Path to Exile
Swords to Plowshares
Qasali Pridemage
Seal of Cleansing
Seal of Primordium
Aura Shards
Bant Charm
Oblivion Ring
Faith's Fetters


Land
Adakar Wastes
Azorius Chancery
Breeding Pool
Brushland
Celestial Colonnade
Flagstones of Trokair
Flooded Grove
Flooded Strand
Forest
Glacial Fortress
Hallowed Fountain
Horizon Canopy
Island
Krosan Verge
Misty Rainforest
Mystic Gate
Plains
Reflecting Pool
Savannah
Seaside Citadel
Selesnya Sanctuary
Serra's Sanctum
Simic Growth Chamber
Stirring Wildwood
Strip Mine
Sunpetal Grove
Temple Garden
Tropical Island
Tundra
Windswept Heath
Wooded Bastion
Yavimaya Coast

7/14/10: New and improved, completely focused on killing people with Rafiq!

Important notes: My playgroup has added errata to the EDH rules preventing a general from being tucked (you always have the option to put it in the command zone) and removed general damage.

The thing I always liked about this deck was suiting up Rafiq and beating for silly amounts of damage, especially if Lifelink was involved. I've been trying to figure out what deck I should make more enchantment heavy because I really wanted to put an enchantress package in something, and Rafiq won because of all the totem armor auras being in the right colors.

Comments and critique are welcome!

**Note that everything posted before 7/14 is referring to a much different version of the deck, and as such might be irrelevant to the current version**

* I would definitly consider adding Vigor inthere. It makes your critters considerably harder to kill, makes a softlock together with Empyrial Archangel and gives you another way to boost Rafiq's power with +1/+1 counters. My Rafiq build runs this lock together with Hurricane/Squall Line. Considering the +1/+1 token & aura subthemes the Simic guildmage has its uses, especially when you can redirect the tokens to Rafiq.
* Getting Serra's Sanctum and/or Tolarian Academy should also get you quite a boost in the mana department, looking at your enchantment/artifact ratios.
* Alara reborn has Behemoth Sledge and Shield of the Righteous, which both suit Rafiq perfectly.
* Kaldra 3 pieces set: I removed this from my Sharuum deck, but thinking of adding this to Rafiq. All the granted abilities are relevant for Rafiq, but the indestructable from the shield and the +5/+5 from the sword are probably the most juicy ones. Beware of your metagame though: a lot of people here run RFG removal (like Return to Dust) which seriously hurts chances to complete the set on the board. YMMV for starters, and second: having the option of making the Kaldra token is just a backup plan anyway, we prefer phatter dudes to swing with.

I was wondering how this deck is working for you artos. I really like the idea of the opposition deck. It seems really nice. Are you still playing with it?

Bushi Tenderfoot FTW! Favorite one drop in my Rafiq deck.

It's similar, but I've removed a bunch of the Prison elements and made it into a bit more of a "good stuff" GWU deck. The Glare and Opposition are still in there.

I'll post an updated list and write up at lunch time, it's going to take a while to explain how the first couple games with it went.

How in god's name do you get that to trigger?

Exalted triggers?

Decklist updated. I don't have card for card changes because I basically ripped out the prison stuff and replaced it with reanimation. See first post for more info.

I really like Brawn, Glory and Wonder in the deck, I might try that out.

I am not sure about Reya. Having her in play is obviously awesome but isn't it hard to actually get her into play? Or is she a body double target?

Garruck I am also not sure about since you usually don't want to alphastrike so I'm not sure if he brings much. The mana untapping is nice but is that enough to warrant to play him?

Reveillark brings back 2 power creatures. You have a nice supplement. The way I have my deck set up at the moment, I think I can't play reveillark. I don't have enough 2 power creatures or less. But the idea is very appealing.

You are not playing cold-eyed silkie anymore. Can you elaborate? I liked that creature in your previous list a lot. Also it gives some fodder to the masticores. Speaking of which, do you really need both. I would only play the original masticore since it gives you the ability to ping creatures. The card discard is tough I think.

I also see that you are not playing any aura package except rancor and pattern of rebirth. I was thinking of steel of godhead, shield of oversoul, armadillo cloak and fool's demise. That brings me to play sovereigns of alara. Maybe I'll cut my package entirely for some other creature. I've got to think some more about it.

I like you putting in the shapeshifter brine elemental lock. The problem is that you really need shapeshifter for the unmorph. 7 is just a heck load of mana. AND everybody is going to come after you. I am waiting for your playtests about this

I don't like rhox war monk too much. ok he is 3/4 with lifelink, but you are already playing loxodon hierrach, sledge and warhammer. DO you really need him?

you are not playing any seepers. Is opposition/glare enough to keep creatures in check?

If you are on the receiving end of a sweeper, what is the contingency plan when you don't have twilight shepard handy? Or are you just not overextending from the beginning?

I tried hunting grounds but I cut it since I don't have that many creatures in my hand. Of course the survival of the fittest hunting grounds combo is nice, but kind of clunky. creaturewise I am playing teferi. Smuggling in a creature EOT is nice. I also left tradewind rider because of the interaction with liege and muse. I packed some other exalted creatures in there like hierarch and giltspire avenger as well as sovereigns of alara. I might use those slots for brine elemental shapeshifter...and cut the enchantments altogether to play the reveillark package.

That's about it for now. I need to check some more through my cards and make decisions about some cards, and think some more. Your deck gives very good insight for the rafiq build imo. thx for sharing

You need to force blocking as well though, otherwise they just take the hit. As much as I have a soft spot for Tenderfoot, he's a little too hard to make work.

@mesti: you could always equip him so that your opponent HAS to block him. SoFI specifically comes to my mind here. But yes I agree, a bushi attacking with rafiq in play only deals 4....

I've been a huge fan of Brawn, Glory, and Wonder. They're all great bonuses to give Rafiq.

Reya is one of those must answer cards if you get her into play. I'm trying her out right now. I haven't drawn her yet, but the potential for shenanigans seems awesome.

Garruk is in there because +3/+3 and Trample on Rafiq is actually +6/+6, and is enough to make a two hit kill on a player, along with the elephant cannon and land untapping modes being useful as well.

I specifically redesigned the deck to abuse Reveillark. A lot of the random effects that you want to include (artifact/enchantment removal, targeted countermagic, etc) I just put onto bodies and played those instead of the normal spells.

Cold-Eyed Selkie will probably find its way back in, but normally what I find myself doing with this deck is swinging with Rafiq and nothing else. The Selkie's an awesome source of card advantage, but I haven't found it particularly necessary.

I really like the Masticores because it's reusable creature removal on top of being a discard outlet. They're pretty efficient creatures on top of that. If I didn't need discard outlets so much then I'd be much more inclined to drop them.

I've actually been considering an aura package with Sovereigns. It does work well with my "take eleventy billion general damage" plan, and Sovereigns is a great creature for my strategy in general, so I'll likely end up doing it. The thing I don't like about the enchantments (the Shadowmoor ones anyway) is I don't have a way to recur them. Fool's Demise seems awesome in my build though...

Shapeshifter's a great creature on his own, and it can be Larked back. The Brine Elemental's just an added way to keep people locked down so I can one-shot someone who's trying to race with me. It's another late game "oh wow, guess I win" card, like Reya.

Rhox is another way to gain life with an efficient beater, and well, I have a foil.

Teferi and Tradewind Rider could probably both go in here if I could find slots. Honestly, the hardest part about building this sucker was making cuts and additions. I only got Twilight Shepherd in here and I definitely wanted to get all the persisters in for the colors. I need to run another land or two as well but I just couldn't bring myself to cut more cards.

On sweepers - I've definitely thought about playing them myself. I personally don't normally play more than a creature or two at a time, and considering the amount of general recursion I have, I'm a lot less concerned about it than most decks would be. I should probably have Wrath, Austere Command, and a few other utility ones in here. Thinking about it, that isn't a half bad idea. I'll have to think about it a bit more.

Just a few quick thoughts. I am looking at my build at the moment and I'm trying to find a balance between what I have and what you have since there are lots of cards I haven't considered playing (like lark and brine elemental).

A few follow up questions/observations:

Now that you pointed it out, I get why you need 2 masticores. It helps you get brawn, glory and wonder (and genesis) into the yard besides survival of the fittest.

For Reya I guess Ican try and squeeze her in, but that means to get rid of the enchantment package.

Garruck seems a nice addition if you put it that way. I guess it does kind of what elspeth does in that regard.

I totally agree on the abuse of lark. I haven't considered it before, but now that you point it out it makes a lot of sense.

For the enchantments, it is always the 2 for 1 problem when you are playing enchantments on a creature. However you not only have the genesis/witness package, you also now have the reveillark/witness package. Seems like a good way for recursion

I guess I'm gonna let you play your foil rhox then

I really like teferi and rider, I had an G/U opposition deck back in the days and I fell in love with that crad. That is also why I took a closer look at your list.

as sweepers I am playing at the moment austere command, because you can always choose what hurts you least. I am playing an O-stone as well though, just because it is the only sweeper that takes care of multiple planeswalkers. I'll let you think about it some more and I can't wait to hear your conlcusions.

One final thought. You are saying you are only playing one or 2 creatures at a time. Doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose of playing opposition and glare in the first place? I could see to start playing deranged druid with reveillark or rider to get some more opposition fodder into play that you kind of can throw away to sweepers. It is unfortunate that dauntless escort is 3/3 would have been a nice addition for the revillark package

edit: I forgot, you really should play high market and miren as a sac outlet. It really helps for the genesis package. Also playing spike feeder might be a better choice than loxodon hierarch since it is fetchable with reveillark. You might also consider playing duplicant instead of sower. Even though it give you a creature, duplicant is a more permanent solution AND you can target pro U creatures. ok it costs 2 more, but it takes care of darksteel colossus permanently.

sorry for the double post but I wanted to share my list and ask for some help.

Rafiq

Creatures(33)
Archon of Justice
Azorius Guildmage
Battlegrace Angel
Blinding Angel
Body Double
Brawn
Brine Elemental
Cold-Eyed Silkie
Empyrial Archangel
Eternal Witness
Genesis
Glory
Harmonic Sliver
Loaming Shaman
Mistmeadow Witch
Mulldrifter
Mystic Snake
Qasali Pridemage
Reveillark
Sakura Tribe Elder
Spike Feeder
Spike Weaver
Stoic Angel
Teferi
Tradewind Rider
Twilight Shepard
Venser
Vesuvan Shapeshifter
Vigor
Wonder
Woodfall Primus
Yavimaya Elder
Yosei

as you can see I used some of your creatures.

equipment (5)
Behemoth sledge
Jitte
Loxodon Warhammer
Sword of Light and Shadow
Sword of Fire and Ice

removal(6)
Bant Charm
Path to Exile
Swords to plowshares
Treva's Charm
Austere Command
Oblivion Stone

enchantments (2)
Finest Hour
Survival of the fittest

Tutor (6)
Chord of Calling
Eladamri's Call
Enlightened Tutor
Intuition
Wargate
Worldly Tutor

I would have played gifts ungiven as well


Land Accel ( 8 )
Explosive vegetation
Farseek
Far Wanderings
Harrow
Kodama's Reach
Rampant Growth
Search for Tomorrow
Sylvan Library

Misc (2)
Primal command
Voidslime

37 lands, 2 of which are high market and miren that help with the genesis package.

Now my problem is the following: I would like to add elspeth, masticore, Reya, Seedborn Muse and Stonehewer Giant. Now I can not add Stonehewer Giant because I am only playing 5 equipments. It is still nice to be able to pull those out. At the moment I am looking at
-brawn
-wonder
-glory
-sakura tribe elder
and not replacing stonehewer giant. I don't know. What would be nice is adding one more "exiling" spell (crib swap). I just don't know what to cut...

I personally like Ohran Viper and Bazaar of Baghdad in my build. The latter is pricey, but is an amazing discard outlet. Not to mention I run Life From the Loam to combo with it.

I feel Dueling Grounds and Silent Arbiter are "gee, duh" cards for a Rafiq deck.