Unstable was undeniably a cool set. Released in 2017, back when we still had silver border, it promised a fun and engaging experience around comical, dystopian, steampunk Bablovia. Among the five allied-colored factions, the League of Dastardly Doom was the Rakdos combination, centered around a cadre of larger-than-life Super Villains : Baron Von Count and his ominous Clock of Doom, Mary O’Kill and her swarm of Killbots, The Big Idea and their overgrown brainz, and finally, Grusilda, who I realize is basically a twist on another Magic character, the Stitcher himself, Geralf from Innistrad.
Unstable was one of the best draft experiences I’ve had in my Magic career – not that it’s a particularly intensive one, but I’ve been playing on and off since around the 4th Ed, The Fallen Empires and Ice Age era. To me, it rang more me like a « Future Sight 2 » than a third Un-set. The games were fast-paced, complex, challenging, and ultimately, extremely funny due to the non-serious source material.
Interestingly, one month before Unstable, Wizards of the Coast had released another set, Iconic Masters, who ended up much less successful, in part due to a poor naming choice. What the players expected were « iconic cards from Magic’s past ». But, as regular readers of Mark Rosewater’s blog know, what WotC calls « Iconic » are the five races of mythical creatures that embody each color’s philosophy : Angels, Sphinxes, Demons, Dragons, and Hydra – in WUBRG order. With the players’ expectations misdirected by the choice of words, the reception of the set was… lukewarm at best.
Anyway, I did crack open a couple a few packs of Iconic Masters myself, and ended up with a sizable pile of « draft chaff Dragons » in Rakdos colors that I probably wouldn’t ever put to use anywhere else. Notably, [[Bladewing the Risen]]. With both Grusilda and Bladewing, we seemed to have a Rakdos Reanimation theme emerging from the ashes of these two sets.
So I hastily cobbled together Grusilda, some dragons, ETB / dies triggers creatures, discard and sacrifice outlets, and called it a day.
The League of Dastardly Doom had a new cast of undead, Frankenstein-y Dragons willing to help, and they were not to be messed with. Was it powerful ? Oh no. Was it even legal ? No, not with Grusilda being an Un-card. But was it fun ? Oh, trust me, it was.
End note : the deck later got turned into proper Bladewing out of legality concerns, but it didn’t feel as fun and was eventually – and ironically – scrapped for parts.
No decklist to share, as the deck was mostly a thought experiment more than anything else.
The Scroll Rack - an EDH roster blog 