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sultai beats - cards to reanimate/copy to

Commander / EDH* BUG (Sultai) Dredge Lands Primer Reanimator Stompy Value Engine

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Commander: foil Volrath, the Shapestealer

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A lot of the following primer is legacy, and you'll notice the deck has changed a lot since writing this! Feel free to ask me questions in the comments or send me a message!

This deck is a solid 8, I own it in paper as well.

a.k.a. big booty bogles a.k.a. good-stuff tribal a.k.a. i'm not saying he's a shapestealer but he does change shape with startling efficiency a.k.a. i'd like to mulligan a.k.a. bastard deck for bastard men a.k.a. gee whiz your mom let's you have TWO avacyn's a.k.a. millennial housing crisis a.k.a. swing for 38 a.k.a. sultai beats - cards to shapeshift/jund to.

"Sultai Beats - Cards to Shapeshift/Jund To" is a Sultai Midrange deck. The "Jund" name focuses on 2-for-1 trading your opponent and having a diverse toolbox. The "midrange" name means that in slower games you dictate the pace of the match, and in faster games, you can choose to slow things down.

This deck is designed with Commander gameplay in mind! My goal was to make a playable combat-matters EDH deck with little to no funny business. There is no Infect, no doofy Voltron; it's power-matters baby! You'll see recurring themes of Unblockable, Trample, Flying, and Attack triggers. Most creatures--most cards in the deck do double duty.

There are only 29 lands in this version of the deck. When drawing an opening hand it's important to have 2 lands, one of which is a green source, and one mana ramping spell.

A lot. Okay but in the game?

We want to start putting the pressure on early, and we want to minimize the amount of "dead draws" in the late game. The marker of a good amount of Land to Ramp is usually 7 mana by turn 5 after only one mulligan. Being able to mulligan is one of the most skill-testing aspects of the game, so don't expect to get it right every time. This deck will pass the test! Don't take my word for it, take it into the Playtest and try it out.

We review how you want to mulligan in another section. The basics are that you want at least 2 lands and one ramp source with one early play, or 3 lands and one ramp source with the plan to bring Volrath out early. Your median case will do this for you. Don't forget to get creative with your mana dorks and copy effects!

I've experimented with running more lands that offer other effects, such as Littjara Mirrorlake and Lonely Sandbar, but entering the battlefield tapped is a really big downside.

I've modified the CMC of certain cards to reflect when in the game you would want to play them. Here are a list and my reasonings for each.

Brazen Borrower: Brazen Borrower is a removal spell first, and a creature second in this deck. Play this as a 2 CMC removal against high-value targets early to disrupt your opponents, then cast it from exile when you have a value engine on the board.

Fallen Shinobi: There will always be an opportunity to attack a player in commander with something unblockable, or something they'd rather not block, or some variation of the both. Wait for the right opportunity and cast this for its Ninjutsu every time.

Grief: In EDH, hand attack works to disrupt our opponents late in the game as we are about to execute a combo or swing in for lethal. Make sure to always check for traps! This is listed as 0 CMC because we will almost always cast this for it's evoke cost.

Hydroid Krasis: This is a great card to put a threat on the field and draw some cards. Wait until a turn when you aren't doing anything else and cast this for X = 4 or higher, you won't regret making a 4/4 flying trample and drawing 2 cards.

Misdirection: You are going to cast this for its alternate cost nearly every time. If you have this card in hand, it's worth holding onto some of those less impactful blue spells to throw away to this effect.

Once Upon a Time: If this is in your opening hand it is FREE! At other points in the game, this is a medium draw spell at best, so you'll be valuing other options over this.

Phyrexian Metamorph: This card's mana cost should read and as an additional cost pay 2 life. Life is a resource friends.

The Great Henge: The Great Henge is a value engine all in itself. Let's look at it: make some mana, make creatures bigger, and whenever a creature enters the battlefield DRAW A CARD. Woah. One of the strongest cards in the deck, you'll want to resolve The Great Henge when you have a creature in hand to start your engine and a creature on the field to reduce the cost. Volrath, the Shapestealer is a convenient cost reduction, as he reduces the cost to just ! Having this card in hand should signal to you to play Volrath from the command zone early! Be wary, this fire burns bright but not for long. Get the value from this card before it gets destroyed. Last thing to note is that this pairs really well with some of the 1 toughness combat creatures like Invisible Stalker or True-Name Nemesis.

Torment of Hailfire: This will help grease the wheels of your war machine if there is a board stall late in the game. Remember, the name of the game is disruption, and you are okay with opponents taking damage instead of losing creatures. X = 6 is a sweet spot in most games, where you will remove a few key cards in hand and have your opponents taking some reasonable damage. This gets really spicy with cards like Tamiyo, Collector of Tales and Den Protector. Most players can survive one Torment of Hailfire X = 6, but all decks fold to the second Torment of Hailfire.

These cards make combat stronger in your favor.
Volrath, the Shapestealer + Selvala, Heart of the Wilds + Torment of Hailfire

This combo isn't usually enough to kill someone outright, but it will leave most players at low life totals with little to no resources in hand or on the field allowing you to clean up on your next turn.

Copying is extremely strong! All it takes is one high-value target on your board or an opponent's board. Copying is a confusing interaction, look at the bar "Copying and Other Rules Interactions" for more information.
The name of the game is disruption! Disruption is often aggressively costed in comparison with similar removal. Use disruption to cheat combat, or remove incidental threats, or weaken an opponent's board state or strategy.
Draw early and often! Prioritize drawing cards early and keep your options open. This deck excels in its toolbox capabilities, so have patience.
There is a small graveyard sub-theme. When naming cards with Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, name Kodama's Reach or Cultivate early, and name one of the cards listed under Late later in the game.
The hidden information is one of the aspects of the game that makes it fun! These cards could be anything, even a good card!
These pieces are strong and require protection. Wielded correctly, these will end the game!
You are the aggressor so protection is vital. Read the pace of the game to know when it is important to keep these in hand or to use them to close out the game.
Use your ramp early and often! Your goal is to hit 7 mana by turn 5. After you have 7 mana, prioritize ramp less, but don't feel too bad about using your last 3 mana on a turn casting a Kodama's Reach.
You are light on removal. Not only is there a fair bit of draw effects in the deck letting you find key pieces when you need it, but you are the beatdown! The reason you don't need board wipes is that you are as scary as your opponents' scariest creatures! Use your shapeshift and copy effects to great advantage to make your opponents' combos your own.
These are high-value shapeshift targets for Volrath, the Shapestealer. Remember that Volrath will always be a 7/5 and that he can copy at instant speed! Removal targetted at Volrath, instant speed shapeshift into Sylvan Caryatid. The reason some cards are in this category and some others are not is due to toughness. Birds of Paradise does give Volrath flying in combat, but giving it a counter can be tricky. As a Volrath player, keep in mind that you want to be vigilant of other creatures controlled by your opponents, these are shapeshift targets as well!
These are high-value targets for combat abilities, protection, copy effects, and shapeshifting. Unblockable is no joke! A note: Hexdrinker cannot be copied without making the copy level 0.
Only one copy of a given legendary card may be in control by the same player at the same time. If multiple copies of a legend are under control by the same player, the player chooses one of them, and all of the rest is put into the graveyard. This action occurs when State-Based Actions are checked.

So what does this mean for us? This means that if you control Volrath, the Shapestealer and another legendary creature with a counter on your side of the board, let's say Questing Beast, you wouldn't be able to Volrath to swap into Questing Beast without removing the original Questing Beast or Volrath (as a copy of Questing Beast) as a state-based action. No funny business. No swapping into Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, then holding priority and tapping, and then swapping into something else to get a cheeky 7 mana. As soon as your swap resolves the very next thing that happens is that one of the two creatures is removed as a state-based action.

SPARK DOUBLE

One of the shapeshifters in this deck, Spark Double, gets around this rule, let's look at this.

Spark Double says that when it becomes a copy of a creature, Spark Double will not be legendary if that creature is. Cool! Two Volrath's or Oko's or whatever the case may be. Neat but not groundbreaking, but wait! Let's look at this deeper because for us this opens up a huge loophole. Your Spark Double copy of Selvala, Heart of the Wilds now ISN'T legendary. Now if you wanted to be cheeky and copy Spark Double as Selvala with your Volrath, neither creature will be removed as a result of state-based actions. What this means is that if you copy a copy of Spark Double, with Volrath or Phyrexian Metamorph that new copy isn't legendary either! So yeah, go wild with 4 copies of Questing Beast, or your opponent's commander, or whatever!

To summarize, legendary creatures can't normally be copied efficiently. Spark Double gets around this and creates a loophole for future use.

Let's talk about hexproof and shroud as it applies to copying.

Hexproof states that this permanent can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponent controls. Cool. Powerful protection ability, they might have this on their commander as a result of Lightning Greaves to protect it from removal. But we want to copy this creature! Maybe it's a Zur the Enchanter or some value engine like Chulane, Teller of Tales...regardless.

Let's read some cards for a second. Phyrexian Metamorph Phantasmal Image You'll notice these cards say enter the battlefield as a copy of any creature on the battlefield and you'll notice what the cards don't say! Most copy effects DON'T target! This is a convenient loophole that we want to utilize. This means that your Phyrexian Metamorph can enter the battlefield as a copy of that Hexproof Zur or Chulane or whatever cool card your opponent wanted to protect.

To summarize, when a creature enters the battlefield as a copy of any creature, this is known as a choose effect. Choose effects don't specifically target, getting around Hexproof and Shroud.

The centerpiece for our deck is Volrath, the Shapestealer. Let's take a second and read his effect...becomes a copy...until your next turn... Alright. Volrath becomes a copy of anything with a counter temporarily. Your opponent has an Avacyn, Angel of Hope and we've already put a -1/-1 counter on it. On our turn, or in response to some removal, we have Volrath become a copy of Avacyn. Cool, everyone is blown out by our genius and onboard tricks.

We have a problem, we want Volrath, the Shapestealer to be a copy of Avacyn, Angel of Hope permanently, so how do we do this?

You and your genius have an idea. We make Volrath a copy of Avacyn and then cast Spark Double, targetting our Volrath-Avacyn, so what happens? As it turns out with most copy rules, this one works in our favor.

When Spark Double is cast, it doesn't know anything about the board, all it knows is that when it enters it will be a copy of a chosen creature. Cool, so the spell resolves and we choose Volrath-Avacyn.

Spark Double now will enter the battlefield as, wait for it, a: 7/5 nonlegendary Avacyn, Angel of Hope with an additional +1/+1 counter with the additional permanent ability that states:

: Until your next turn, this card becomes a copy of target creature with a counter on it, except that it's a 7/5 and it has this ability.

This copy will permanently stay this way, and will have the ability to become other creatures for a turn, and will revert back to whatever you copied originally, which is in this case is Avacyn!

TL;DR READ THIS SECTION AND THEN READ IT AGAIN because you didn't get it the first time if you aren't typing in the comments how cool this interaction is.

Let's take a trip to Magical Christmas Land. It's nice there this time of year.

You have infinite mana and any and all creatures you want on the battlefield, all with +1/+1 counters. You've got a Volrath, the Shapestealer and a desperate need to feel LIKE A GENIUS. Let's do this.

We have 3 opponents, all with sad looks on their faces. Let's start in Main Phase 1.

  • Cast Volrath, the Shapestealer from your Command Zone
  • to have Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of your opponent's Glorybringer. Cool, let's enter combat.
  • You have Haste from Glorybringer-Volrath, and now we are in the Declare Attackers step. Let's go for maximum value.
  • to have Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of your opponent's Broodbirth Viper and declare Broodbirth Viper-Volrath as an attacker. This puts a Myriad trigger on the stack, and we are going to hold priority and respond to our own trigger.
  • We respond to our own trigger, to have Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of our opponent's Dockside Extortionist. Now when Myriad resolves as the next trigger on the stack, we have 3 enter the battlefield triggers for Dockside Extortionist, creating let's say 5 treasures each, let's say 15 treasures total. We respond to our own Dockside Extortionist trigger on the stack.
  • We respond to our own trigger, to have each of our now 4 Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of our opponent's Sliter Blade. Our collective Volrath, the Shapestealer are all now unblockable. We now let our triggers resolve, and it is now each opponent's turn to declare blockers. Sliter-Blade Volrath can't be blocked unfortunately :\
  • We would like to respond to our opponent's passing priority on their Declare Blockers step. to have each of our now 4 Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of our opponent's Angel of Destiny. Because Angel of Destiny has Double Strike, there is now a First Strike Damage step and Combat Damage step. Let's move to the First Strike Damage step.
  • Each of our Angel of Destiny-Volrath's deals 7 commander damage to each of our 3 opponents. We move to our Combat Damage step.
  • to have our original Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of our opponent's Port Razer and Ninjutsu in Fallen Shinobi letting us cast 2 cards for free from one opponent's library, Mist-Syndicate Naga to make an additional creature, and Sakashima's Student to copy our Port Razer-Volrath, each replacing one of the 3 Volrath, the Shapestealer that will be exiled at the end of combat from Myriad. Now as Port Razer-Volrath deals damage to our opponent, there is an additional Combat after this Combat.
  • We can do this "once per turn" effect from Port Razer infinitely as a result of one of the loopholes in the rules. Every time we to have Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of Port Razer (or any other creature) the game views this as the first time the creature has existed, letting us loop this combo infinitely.

This will obviously happen every game, and now that you are an expert on holding priority, you'll find these combos in every board state. Recently I've copied my opponent's Sphinx of the Second Sun at the end of my combat to get another Untap step. Instant speed interaction and knowing when you have priority is key to mastering this interaction!

Copying will never copy counters. Copying a Hexdrinker with 8 Level Up counters will make the new copy a Hexdrinker with 0 Level Up counters.
The characteristics added by mutate values change the copiable values of the card. Have fun with your Nighthawk Scavenger Gemrazer bastardization. Then copy it with Volrath, the Shapestealer to get a 7/5 Flying, Reach, Trample, Lifelink, Deathtouch creature.

Notably, in this interaction, if your above-mutated creature is blocked by more than one creature, you can choose to deal only 1 damage to each creature, killing it, as a result of the combination of Deathtouch and Trample, then deal the rest of the damage to the player or planeswalker.

Old-Growth Troll is a cute card. A beefy trampler that returns from the graveyard as a replacement effect, we love it! How does this work with our deck?

Volrath, the Shapestealer is a copy of Old-Growth Troll and our opponent casts Damnation. Volrath should go to the graveyard(or Command Zone), but as a result he goes back onto the battlefield as: a 7/5 Aura-Enchantment with the abilities enchant Forest you control and "Enchanted Forest has ': Gain ' and , Sacrifice this land: Create a tapped 4/4 green Troll Warrior creature token with trample.'" and the ability "Until your next turn, Volrath, the Shapestealer becomes a copy of target creature with a counter on it, except its base power and toughness is 7/5 and it has this ability."

What this means is that you can pay to make Volrath a copy of a creature and put him into combat, this will make it so that he is no longer an aura and he will pop off of whatever forest he was enchanting. When he is done being a creature he will return to being an unattached aura and die. This is especially good for sneaking in damage, or sacrificing to Greater Good.

Being able to mulligan properly is one of the most skill-testing aspects of the game. I'm going to teach you what I can but chances are that you'll need to figure this out for yourself.

https://www.mtgnexus.com/tools/drawodds/

Try using this to look at the chances of having any amount of cards in your opening hand.

I'll use this space to address any cards that appear in the recommendations for this list.
Infect is a keyword mechanic that says:

Damage dealt to a player by a source with infect doesn’t cause that player to lose life. Rather, it causes that source’s controller to give the player that many poison counters.

For more information look at 120.3

Cool, so it looks good right! Commander is a format where each player is given 40 life, and the winning conditions are for you to have won the game or for your opponents to have all lost the game. Infect takes that 40 life for each player and makes it a simple 10. To compare numbers we have 120 total life to chew through in a 4 player game, and now with infect we only have 30!

The problem is that in a 40 health format, players don't expect to suddenly die from full health, which Infect facilitates. Cards like Tainted Strike and Triumph of the Hordes turns a normal combat encounter into an instant game loss. For most players that leaves a sour taste in their mouth.

So what's wrong with Infect? People hate playing against it! Don't alienate your friend group by playing Infect.

Notably, this deck is missing board wipes! I'm sure if you've seen anything online that teaches you to build an EDH deck, they have some basic knowledge about how to win. You'll want 10 pieces of single target removal, 3 board wipes, 15 pieces of ramp, 37 lands, etc...The list goes on.

So why no board wipes? Why not run a Cyclonic Rift at least? I think this is partly because Cyclonic Rift leaves the same taste in most players' mouths as Infect, and partly because we really don't want to destroy our board! Our goal is to build our board and protect our board against removal. Remember that because of our centerpiece Volrath, the Shapestealer and other copy effects like Phantasmal Image, our opponent's best creatures and strategies are our own!

One example that happened in a game I played with friends:

Esix, Fractal Bloom and Master Biomancer with a +1/+1 counter on the field, casting Hornet Queen on the stack. Esix, Fractal Bloom makes it so that Hornet Queen enters the battlefield, and the trigger to replace 4 tokens is replaced with a trigger to create 4 copies of Hornet Queen and 16 Insect tokens, all with 3 +1/+1! He ends his turn with 5 Hornet Queens and 16 Insect Tokens, big smile on his face, feeling like a genius. Cool, we board wipe, right?

My turn, we have Volrath, the Shapestealer on the field and Mystic Reflection has been Foretold since the last turn. I'm facing down a lot of power and toughness here, and unless I do something I'm done for sure. Cool, I have a Phyrexian Metamorph in my hand and a song in my heart, so here's what I do.

  • to have Volrath, the Shapestealer become a copy of my opponent's Hornet Queen. It resolves.
  • Cast Phyrexian Metamorph from my hand choosing my own Hornet Queen-Volrath, and it resolves. Trigger on the stack for Hornet Queen-Volrath-Metamorph entering the battlefield, we hold priority.
  • We cast our Mystic Reflection, targetting our Hornet Queen-Volrath- Metamorph, now as the Hornet Queen ability resolves we will have each token enter as a 7/5 Hornet Queen with the extra ability to shapeshift. We aren't done yet, we respond to our own trigger.
  • to have our original Hornet Queen-Volrath become a copy of our opponent's Master Biomancer.

It all resolves and what do we have?

Which would you rather do, this or a Damnation?

BANNED CARDS

Commander is a strong format, and here are how some of these cards have affected other formats.

Brainstorm: Banned in Historic, Restricted in Vintage

Demonic Tutor: Banned in Historic, Banned in Legacy, Banned in Vintage

Mana Crypt: Banned in Legacy, Restricted in Vintage, 4 Points in Canadian Highlander

Oko, Thief of Crowns: Banned in Standard, Banned in Brawl, Banned in Pioneer, Banned in Historic, Banned in Modern, Banned in Legacy Once Upon a Time: Banned in Standard, Banned in Pioneer, Banned in Historic, Banned in Modern

Ponder: Banned in Modern, Restricted in Vintage

Sol Ring: Banned in Legacy, Restricted in Vintage, 4 Points in Canadian Highlander

True-Name Nemesis: 1 Point in Canadian Highlander

Umezawa's Jitte: Banned in Modern, 2 Points in Canadian Highlander

Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath: Banned in Standard, Banned in Pioneer, Banned in Historic, Banned in Modern

Veil of Summer: Banned in Pioneer, Banned in Historic

Windfall: Banned in Legacy, Restricted in Vintage

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