Pointed Discussion

I don't really understand why they put cards like this in the decks.. They could've reprinted something that actually deserved it.

AWESOME CARD YOUR TRIPIN DoucheBag

They were probably trying to find (relatively) decent-costed creatures of the types Kaalia looks for, in case you can't attack with her to get them out right away--in this case, not very picky about colors. In any case, the "drawback" also lets you reuse the EtB effects (i.e. Duergar Hedge-Mage, Bladewing the Risen, Malfegor). Admittedly, just three isn't THAT much for the Oni to work with, but at least it's a start.

You know why this belongs in an tuned Kaalia deck? Rakdos the Defiler!!! Just like morphing Ebonblade Reaper, throwing Rakdos into play with Kaalia after attack are declared avoid the attack trigger for you, saving your permanents from Rakdos's ire and still massacring your opponent's stuff. Oni of the Wild Places allows you to reset this effect every turn, and continue thrashing people turn after turn. Anyway, that's just my two bits.

Use it to abuse EtB effects, and get yourself a hasty 6/5.
A good card, unlike a certain 2367 would have you think.

For 6 that's just meh. You don't want to wait for your shenanigans until turn seven.
This would have been really nice as a one-drop like its blue cycle counterpart Trusted Advisor.
Cards like Flamekin Harbinger or Stingscourger would have been fun with this.

He's got value in a general deckbuilding sense - though I agree with mode that turn 7 is a bit late for those sorts of things - but he's got to be built around, and the preconstructed deck that he came in didn't really do it. Three creatures (four if you count alucard's nifty little interaction, I guess) out of 100 doesn't really let him do anything but frustrate you.

So what I'm hearing is, Rakdos and Malfegor make this guy pretty good.

Rakdos and Malfegor are pretty good on their own without support. I like cards that support each other, but I don't like cards that REQUIRE support in order to be playable. As much as I like the art, and this being the only mono-Red playable Demon in Magic, and he's a spirit, so he's got a LOT of Flavor points going for him but... he's still probably not good enough to make the cut in my deck.

New to Commander, still experimenting, don't judge.

For some reason, the 100-card deck size is proving very problematic for me. With such a large cardpool, I can't decide, and kind of want to play a 125-card deck, or something. Idea: 15 is 25% of 60, right? From now on, I will play Commander with a 25-card sideboard. My logic is infallible.

I think they wanted to put this guy in with Animar, Soul of Elements, but felt like it'd be too insane. With Scuttlemutt and the other ETB creatures, as well as Animar's and Riku of Two Reflections's abilities, it works out rather nicely in that deck.

Thunder Dragon's best friend.