Last updated on September 25, 2023

Prosper, Tome-Bound - Illustration by Yongjae Choi

Prosper, Tome-Bound | Illustration by Yongjae Choi

I’ve been a Rakdos () player for more than 10 years now. The first deck I ever built myself was a Rakdos Cult deck during the original Return to Ravnica set. I love the way the archetype plays, not to mention the aesthetics and fun characters related to it.

That very love for Rakdos didn’t translate well when I started playing Commander about six years ago. The commanders that I found for the colors usually weren’t all that much fun, very tribal (I’m sorry goblins), or just plain bad compared to other colors. It took some time until it got truly solved with cards like Anje Falkenrath.

On the other hand, one of my all-time favorite Dungeons & Dragons class is warlock. Extremely fun concept, very malleable depending on what you want to play, and they’re certifiably the edgiest class on the game. So when I look at Prosper, Tome-Bound, what I see is a perfectly functional commander in my favorite color combination, with my favorite D&D class attached to it, and mechanics that actually feel very in-line with warlocks.

One of the things I have to give huge kudos to Wizards for is that the Planar Portal precon is absolutely incredible straight out of the box. It’s very powerful if you play it right and it brings some incredibly unique support for Prosper, Tome-Bound’s strategy.

I don’t personally like competitive EDH so I can’t say for certain if the Prosper-led deck I’ve got for you today could compete against the higher-end competitive decks. What I can say is that I’ve played this deck (with some slight changes due to personal preference) and it’s an absolute blast. It’s powerful and it feels chaotic and fresh every time you play it.

With all that said, let’s just get right into it!

The Decklist

Fevered Suspicion - Illustration by Rudy Siswanto

Fevered Suspicion | Illustration by Rudy Siswanto

Since Magic is a game that needs to be pretty clear with its wording and the areas where cards go, “exile” is the go-to place for cards that aren’t in the regular areas (graveyard, battlefield, hand, library). That means that any spell with weird, alternate ways to cast it, like adventures, foretell, cards stolen with your creatures or spells, etc., all go to exile.

So the two interconnected strategies of the deck are simple: exile as many spells as you can so you can play them, and have as many ways to create or take advantage of tokens as you possibly can.

The Commander

Prosper, Tome-Bound

The most important thing about Prosper, Tome-Bound is that it’s an engine. Its two abilities make it a pretty powerful card on its own as part of the 99 in any other deck. Impulse draw for free at the end of your turn, you get to play that card on your next turn, and if you do you get free mana. It really is a beast of a card. But it’s also incredibly easy to build around.

Exile Everything

This is the main body of the deck. Most of the cards in this list have a way to play cards from exile, whether it be themselves, other cards you own, or your opponents. These cards include:

That’s 32 cards that let you play cards from exile in one way or another. These are the main engine of your deck, and a lot of them also play other roles in the deck like removal, board wipes, or game-turning spells.

Treasure Generators and Payoffs

The other big thing for this deck is Treasure. I’d dare say that this list will be a bit obsolete by the time New Capenna comes out considering the huge amount of support Treasure tokens are getting with this new set.

In any case, this part of the deck cares about creating Treasure tokens, making them even more useful than they already are, or rewarding you for sacrificing them.

Now obviously a lot of these cards don’t work exclusively with tokens. Mayhem Devil will do its thing as long as you’re sacrificing anything. The same goes for Bolas's Citadel.

Some of the most important cards here are Disciple of the Vault, Marionette Master, and Reckless Fireweaver. These don’t win with one grandiose shot but rather through death by a thousand cuts. Play a ton of spells from exile, create a ton of Treasure to damage your opponents, then sacrifice those Treasures to deal more damage and cast more spells and so on and so forth.

In short, these make your Treasures more useful than just one-time mana generators. Not like that’s bad, anyway.

Game-Enders

This is a very chaos-adjacent deck. It’s not a full-on chaos deck that makes everything go wild, but it’s not one of those decks that work like snipers, taking out opponents in very calculated and sure-fire ways. This is a bit more wild. It wouldn’t be Rakdos if it wasn’t.

The only relatively safe combo here is having 25 Treasures (which is easier than it seems) and Magda, Brazen Outlaw in play and then cheating Hellkite Tyrant into play right before your turn.

Fevered Suspicion

A well-played and lucky Fevered Suspicion can be pretty close to a game-ender, but it almost exclusively depends on stealing the right cards at the right time.

Board Wipes

Blasphemous Act

Blasphemous Act is a must-have for any Commander deck that plays red, so I’m not gonna talk about it much more than that.

Volcanic Torrent

What could be a way more fun card to play here is Volcanic Torrent. It isn’t all that great at first glance. Dealing two damage to each creature and planeswalker for five mana isn’t perfect, but keep in mind this deck aims to cast a ton of spells per turn, some of them even for free, and that can make this card way more powerful than it may seem at first.

The Mana Base

I play my Prosper deck with relatively few lands thanks to the huge amount of Treasure tokens you get to put into play. Keep in mind that playing lands from exile will still give you a Treasure if you have Prosper on the battlefield, so having a few more lands in the deck can actually be really helpful.

I like to play Bojuka Bog because I know a ton of players who play graveyard-centric decks. You can always replace it with something more interesting like Reliquary Tower.

I know a lot of players like to cut Zhalfirin Void from this deck, but I think having a scry land or two in a deck that exiles cards from the top of your own library really good. Which also justifies the addition of Temple of Malice.

When it comes to mana rocks most of them are the usual, like Sol Ring, Fellwar Stone, and Arcane Signet.

Liquimetal Torque MH2

Liquimetal Torque made its way into the deck thanks to all the cards that care about artifacts both on your own side and your opponents’. Might as well turn one of your opponents’ creatures into an artifact and net yourself an extra Treasure if you’re gonna play Dockside Extortionist. It can also be very useful to you can deal with a problem creature when playing Vandalblast.

Inspiring Statuary

Inspiring Statuary isn’t technically a rock but it’ll help turn all your tokens into reusable sources of colorless mana for your spells, which is always helpful.

The Strategy

Marionette Master - Illustration by James Ryman

Marionette Master | Illustration by James Ryman

I think I’ve made it pretty clear at this point that the strategy is to keep Prosper, Tome-Bound in play as much as you can and exile anything and everything you can get your hands on, then play those cards from exile. This’ll give you tons of Treasure, and from there you can rinse and repeat.

I’ll admit that I missed Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves in this list, which are extremely important to keep your commander alive.

But you’ll still have tons of ways to play even if Prosper, Tome-Bound isn’t in play. All your impulse draw can keep you a step ahead in the match and you still have a ton of ways to create and use Treasure tokens.

Combos and Interactions

I believe I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a huge fan of combos and combo decks. I like fun interactions between cards, which this deck has a ton of, but not combos. I’m sure you can use the cards in the deck to build a nice combo, but I didn’t delve into that space.

Rule 0 Violations Checks

It’s worth noting that Hellkite Tyrant could count as a Rule 0 violation. I don’t personally consider it to be that, but some players might not like that you can cheat it into play with Magda, Brazen Outlaw and instantly win so be sure to check beforehand.

Budget Options

The only card I’d cut for budget reasons is Dockside Extortionist. Whatever you choose to replace it with should be focused on Treasures. Something like Revel in Riches can net you a quick win and it’s still a decent Treasure generator.

Next in line would be Goldspan Dragon, but the truth is that there’s nothing that can properly fill its spot. You can replace it with something along the lines of Skullport Merchant which can still allow you to take advantage of your Treasures but in a different way.

Most of the other cards are within the $10 range which I consider reasonable.

Other Builds

I don’t think Prosper, Tome-Bound can be taken in a lot of different directions. Its two abilities are very specific and work perfectly together. You can obviously change the cards that I included in my decklist and could arguably take the deck in a more Treasure-centric path.

What I do recommend, if you actually got the precon, is taking cards like Disrupt Decorum and Shiny Impetus for a Karazikar, the Eye Tyrant goad deck.

Commanding Conclusion

Inspiring Statuary - Illustration by Kirsten Zirngibl

Inspiring Statuary | Illustration by Kirsten Zirngibl

As you may have noticed from this list, a lot of the cards in this deck are actually from the Planar Portal precon. And my honest recommendation is that you start by getting that. It’s an incredible out-of-the-box deck with tons of incredible support for its commander.

Prosper, Tome-Bound is one of my favorite commanders so far. It’s super interesting, it has  mechanically solid abilities, and it’s just a pleasure to play with all around.

But enough about me. What do you think? Do you like Prosper as a commander? Have you found ways to build it without focusing too much on exiling or Treasures? Let me know in the comments below or find us over on the Draftsim Twitter.

That’s all from me for now. Have a good one, and I’ll see you next time!

Note: this post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to make a purchase, you’ll help Draftsim continue to provide awesome free articles and apps.

Follow Draftsim for awesome articles and set updates:

Add Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *