Rankle, Master of Pranks

📖 How to build Rankle, Master of Pranks

Rankle is a four-mana Faerie Rogue with flying and haste, so it can attack the turn it arrives. Each time it deals combat damage to a player, you choose any number of modes: each player discards a card, each player loses 1 life and draws a card, or each player sacrifices a creature of their choice. The game plan is to get evasive pressure early and use the chosen modes to turn each hit into a board or card advantage swing.

Build around ways to cast Rankle quickly and keep it connecting. Dark Ritual and Demonic Tutor help get it onto the battlefield fast, while Vampiric Tutor and Black Market Connections add card selection. Reanimate and Victimize can return it from the graveyard after it dies. Removal such as Feed the Swarm, Deadly Rollick, and Deadly Dispute can clear blockers or help set up the sacrifice mode, Phyrexian Arena and Blood Artist add value as the game goes on, and Toxic Deluge can serve as a sweeper to clear the way for attacks.

Watch out for the symmetrical modes, because they hit you just as hard as your opponents. Discarding, life loss, and sacrifices all affect you equally, so choose modes based on your hand, life total, and board. Rankle relies entirely on combat damage, so any flying blocker or removal spell that stops it from connecting shuts down its triggers. Its haste is only useful when attacking is safe, and a deck that runs low on creatures or life can struggle with the drawbacks of its modes.

Deck guide written with AI assistance based on the card's rules text.