Retro meets Modern EDH! Rafiq of the Many EDH/Commander Deck Tech 2023! 

Rather than go into some of the precon decks for Commander Masters, which are still too expensive to be a justified purchase, I'll be spending the next few weeks looking at some of the reprints of the main set. We'll be looking at some classic Commander options who got reprinted here. Who would you like to see next?

Very cool video! I'm always looking, but it's hard to find Rafiq stuff on RU-vid now. He was my first commander and still my main deck. Like you, it had to undergo many changes from edh's infancy to today based on how the game evolved. It went from battle cruiser fatties, to exalted voltron, to pillow fort, to blink value, to bant good stuff, to equipment/aura, to infect and what not. It's now settled in back to voltron, but built extremely low to the ground with tons of mana dorks/fast mana rocks with the typical core equipments/pump/support. It's got a high floor, but low ceiling due to having to race other decks. Not optimal, but I still have fun. Keep up the great videos!

Rafiq is also my baby deck. I have an Infect Rafiq deck that mostly uses combat tricks and creature protection.

May I suggest Access Tunnel? Because Exalted isn't a static buff but a trigger on attack its restriction is seldom relevant. Selfless Samurai also looks good since Rafiq doesn't really care who is swinging (which is why he's still relevant in 2023) and it can protect him. He's expensive (in Mana, quite the opposite in money), but Grunn the Lonely King could be horrifyingly powerful here. Stacking his own trigger under your Exalted triggers means that with say two exalted triggers means without kicker he swings as a 14/14 Double Strike, or 24/24 Double Strike with kicker.

i have a Rafiq Infect deck for like 8 years and i still play him now even at cedh tables

I feel like this has to be said but Medomai the ageless is another fastastic synergy peice. Its a 4/4 flier that says when it deals combat damage you take an extra turn, but it cannot attack during extra turns. A lot of the edh community frowns on extra turns cards but personally I feel like a voltron deck which is relying on killing 1 player at a time, medomai is a somewhat tame option that also has a unique synergy in giving it double strike. I dont run it in my playgroup as my rafiq deck aims to make rafiq SUPER sticky, but in lower power decks its similar to the finest hour synergy.

It's my fav deck of all time, only foiled out and tricked out with best cards EDH deck. It's still be able to hold it's own against most commanders but some just purely outclass it still unfortunately. The deck i'll never break apart :)

Yeah... I have a really aggressive and fun Rafiq deck that has early game potential of winning. Should check out my deck list sometime. It fits in some of the strategies you talk about, just is close to CEDH level but more tame.

I had Rafik back in 2013 ish too. I ran auras instead.

Rafiq was also my first EDH deck! Funny enough I used to run a lot of the same cards. One of my favorite cards was sovereigns of lost alara as it could cheat in eldrazi conscription 😂 I still have the deck on my tappedout page😅

Its kaan stuh bl

I'm happy to disagree with you on Voltron being not very relevant. Plenty of aura commanders (like Bruna, Light Paws and Sythis) and equipment commanders (like Bruenor, Balan and Nahiri Forged in Fury) are definitely relevant and powerful and demand to be noticed.