[Khalim Open #4 - First Place ] 2D Rakoans + Lineup

Since Rakoan Illusionist now requires 2 deserts to play I added Soul Drains and Spirit Theft for more board control, aswell as additional deckweight. They synergize well with all the other small instances of damage from your swarm. Starting both sides is best against any midrange or tempo deck. Against slower decks like Carassius or Combo you want to push up one side and play midrange. Champion is best for early aggression.

The mulligan heavily depends on the matchup. In general Shield Mates, Recruiter and Reveller are solid collectors for the early game. If you can afford to slow play, you can keep Ulani in your starting hand.

Lineup & deck scores:
3-1 Rakoans
3-0 https://www.faeria.com/the-hub/deck/4615-no-dlc-blue-jump
3-1 https://www.faeria.com/the-hub/deck/4884-seifer-open-4-first-place-red-angry-lineup
2-0 https://www.faeria.com/the-hub/deck/4960-seasonal-cup-aurora-2020-yellow-monstrosity

A recording of my matches can be found here:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1158948466

The full cast of the finals + Moon's commentary:
https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1158947343?t=03h05m42s


Edit: 23.02.2026

It was actually Moonfassa himself who made the change to swap out Soul Drains for Destructive Volley as additional tech for the flyers matchup. I played around with this version a bit more and found Volley to be a straight improvement in almost every matchup except for most decks Red and Green, which is fine since they aren't always favourable to begin with and Soul Drain wouldn't significantly improve that. The reason why Volley is better over Drain in the other matchups is simply due to how it enables a smother curve, landcount wise. Being forced into two deserts early meant you were often forgoing some of your Rakoan plays or delaying your development by a significant margin. So even without getting the full 5 damage, Volley shines in these scenarios where a neutral 2 damage removal, despite being priced one Faeria higher allows for much more flexible land deployment and let's you fight for board earlier. It's the same reasoning behind why pricey cards like Crystal Spice work so well: The usual Rakoan plays are so efficient with their Faeria cost that paying one Faeria extra for flexibility is often worthwhile, especially since you can combo it a turn earlier with cards like Cannoneer, which now has an increased pool of targets like Shield Mates (turn 3) or Rakoan Recruiter (turn 4).