Magic: The Gathering – The 10 Best Cards For A Raphael, Fiendish Savior Commander Deck

In a fun retroactive twist, Magic: The Gathering’s Commander Legends: Battle for Baldur’s Gate set ended up featuring many characters who would go on to become household names following their appearances in the 2023 mega-hit Baldur’s Gate 3. Raphael, the deal-making Devil with charisma and cunning in equal measure, is one such character.

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Fans who longed to add this smooth customer to their party need wait no more: his Magic incarnation lets him not only join your Commander deck, but lead it too. You will need 99 other cards, though, and black and red have a lot of good options to choose from. If you’re feeling the decision paralysis creep in, consider these ten beauties a starting point.

Raphael, Fiendish Savior

The Lord Of All Wicked Things

Before we recommend any cards, let’s have a quick recap of Raphael himself. For five mana, Raphael gives you a 4/4 flying body and two powerful abilities. One buffs all of your other Demons, Devils, Imps, and Tieflings by +1/+1 and grants them lifelink, while the other summons a 1/1 Devil token each end step if a creature entered your graveyard that turn.

These abilities synergise well with each other, but the trick to maximizing Raphael’s power is to lean into them elsewhere in your deck too. Putting Demon and Devil creatures in your deck is one way to do this, and another is to lean into sacrifice synergies, both to summon Devils and make use of the Devils you summon.

10 Zurzoth, Chaos Rider

Embrace The Chaos

As one of the very best sources of Devil tokens in the Commander format, Zurzoth is a natural fit in a Devil-loving Raphael deck. His ability all but guarantees you a Devil a turn for each opponent you have, all of which get Raphael’s buff and dish out ping damage when they die.

In addition, the random discard clause on his symmetrical Looting ability can really screw with certain decks, specifically Combo lists with little access to graveyard recursion. He helps Raphael do what he wants and looks great doing it: Zurzoth is an A+ pick for the deck.

9 Krav, The Unredeemed

No Partner? No Problem

Although half his text is completely irrelevant, since you can’t include his usual partner Regna in a Raphael list for color reasons, Krav is so synergistic with the deck that he’s worth including anyway. He provides two things that every Raphael deck wants: a sacrifice outlet, and a Demon that can scale to an unreasonable size.

Repeatable, instant-speed sacrifice outlets like this let you trigger Raphael every turn, and in Krav’s case they draw you cards and gain you life too. As if that wasn’t enough, Krav also gets bigger each time you use his ability, letting him make the most of the lifelink from Raphael.

8 Kardur, Doomscourge

Fuel For The Fires Of War

Raphael decks can quickly develop a wide-reaching board presence, on account of his ability and the deck’s tendency towards token generators, and Kardur can turn that presence into potentially devastating life swings with his passive ability. When you combine his life drain and the ping damage from the Devils themselves, all those ones start to add up to trouble for your opponents.

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And that’s not even factoring in his enters-the-battlefield trigger, which essentially goads every opposing creature in play, creating political chaos and the potential for more life drain triggers as well. Legendary creature names in Magic are often hyperbolic, but ‘Doomscourge’ feels about right for this one.

7 Burn Down The House

A Truly Devilish Decision

Burn Down the House provides two essential tools in one five-mana package: a board wipe, and a Devil token generator. In a format like Commander, where enemy boards can swell with tokens in the (sometimes literal) Blink of an eye, having a way to wipe the slate clean is invaluable.

And if you aren’t under too much pressure, you can use it proactively instead, as a solid source of extra Devil tokens. With Raphael in play, you’re getting three 2/2s with lifelink and haste for five mana here, which makes this mode a truly respectable alternative, rather than the consolation prize it is in most builds.

6 Dictate Of Erebos

You’re As Cold As Ice, Willing To Sacrifice

In a deck with a creature turnover rate as high as this one, any effects that let you take advantage of their deaths are worth their weight in gold. Dictate of Erebos is one of the best there is, turning every single one of your 1/1 Devils into a potential Edict effect for the whole table.

While it is one more mana than Grave Pact, an identical effect, Dictate of Erebos has flash, which means you can use it to catch Voltron opponents off-guard and deal with their huge threat while they’re tapped out and swinging. If you can resolve this with Raphael out, your opponents’ boards will soon be barren, lifeless wastelands.

5 Rakdos, The Showstopper

Are You Not Entertained?!

Rakdos’ Ravnica Allegiance incarnation is an excellent support card for Demons, Devils, and Imps: three creature types that Raphael works with as well. Essentially, he acts as a pseudo-board wipe for all creatures that don’t belong to one of those types, giving each a 50% chance of survival as his monstrous wheel of fortune spins around.

If you’re building your Raphael deck right, Rakdos will never hit your own creatures, and he’ll be able to swing as a 7/7 with flying, trample, and lifelink to boot. The tempo swing created by clearing out roughly 50% of the enemy board and deploying a huge threat is enough to lock down many a Commander game.

4 Zariel, Archduke Of Avernus

A Control Deck’s Arch-Nemesis

If there was ever a planeswalker that embodied the Aggro archetype, it would probably be Zariel here. Her plus one ability is an Anthem effect that grants haste: perfect for sending any fresh Devil tokens in for a quick life swing. Her zero ability also creates Devils, identical to Raphael’s and ready to synergize with the rest of your strategy at a moment’s notice.

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Her ultimate looks flashy, but it only lets you attack with one creature in the second combat phase, so it’s likely underwhelming in a deck that revolves mostly around tiny tokens. Unless you have a big threat on board, stick to alternating the first two abilities to keep your opponents on their toes.

3 Impact Tremors

Give Your Devils Their Own Superhero Landings

In a deck that spits out tokens at a rate like this one, Impact Tremors is a viable alternate win condition for just two mana. Each time a creature enters with this handy enchantment out, all of your opponents take one damage. It doesn’t sound like much, but oh boy does it add up over time.

The fact that Tremors is an enchantment makes it especially resilient, and preferable to similar creature-based options like Witty Roastmaster for that reason. Of course, when you have a list of 99 cards to work with instead of just 10, you should include both for redundancy reasons.

2 Ojer Axonil, Deepest Might//Temple Of Power

Turn Those Pings Into Real Pain

In addition to being Kindred decks for Demons, Devils, Imps, and Tieflings, and, essentially, Rakdos (red/black) Aristocrats decks, Raphael Commander decks are also capable of inflicting constant ping damage on your foes. Every Devil token packs a one-damage sting in its forked tail, which pairs particularly well with Ixalans’ mono-red God, Ojer Axonil.

When those Devil tokens are pinging for four instead of one, your opponents will need to find an answer real fast. And even if they do, if it doesn’t exile, Ojer Axonil can easily flip back over from his land side in a deck as aggressive as this one.

1 Great Unclean One

A Plague On Your Opponents’ Houses

A mighty Demon from the world of Warhammer 40K, Great Unclean One is also a token generator extraordinaire that works wonders in a Raphael deck. Every turn he blasts your enemies for two damage, then summons you a 1/3 Demon for each opponent in a worse spot life-wise than you.

In an aggressive deck like this, it’s likely that you’ll get a token per opponent per turn in most cases, which will then give you more attackers to ensure the same happens the next turn. And with Raphael in play, those tokens will be 2/4s with lifelink, capable of holding the ground and rushing down your opponents alike.

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