Volrath, Optimized Form (Optimized 50$ EDH)

Commander / EDH* Budget BUG (Sultai) Counters Voltron

simplebricks

Creature (33)

• 1x Altered Ego
• 1x Cephalid Constable
• 1x Cold-Eyed Selkie
• 1x Dimir Doppelganger
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Dreamstealer
• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Fertilid
• 1x Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons
• 1x Heroes' Bane
• 1x Incubation Druid
• 1x Isareth the Awakener
• 1x Loyal Guardian
• 1x Merfolk Skydiver
• 1x Mist-Syndicate Naga
• 1x Nacatl War-Pride
• 1x Needle Specter
• 1x Obsessive Skinner
• 1x Predator Ooze
• 1x Ravenous Slime
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Soul Diviner
• 1x Spawnwrithe
• 1x Strangleroot Geist
• 1x Tetzimoc, Primal Death
• 1x Vigean Graftmage
• 1x Viridian Corrupter
• 1x Vizier of Many Faces
• 1x Wickerbough Elder
• 1x Witchstalker
• 1x Young Wolf

Land (35)

• 1x Blighted Woodland
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Emergence Zone
• 9x Forest
• 1x Golgari Rot Farm
• 8x Island
• 1x Llanowar Reborn
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Simic Growth Chamber
• 8x Swamp

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Beacon of Unrest
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Neoform
• 1x Quasiduplicate
• 1x Rampant Growth
• 1x Repudiate / Replicate
• 1x Road of Return

Artifact (7)

• 1x Contagion Clasp
• 1x Magnetic Web
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Simic Signet
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Resilience
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Commander (1)

Instant (11)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Blossoming Defense
• 1x Deathsprout
• 1x Golgari Charm
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Negate
• 1x Polymorphist's Jest
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Reality Shift
• 1x Shared Summons
• 1x Stubborn Denial

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Evolutionary Escalation
• 1x Grim Feast
• 1x New Horizons
• 1x Quest for Ancient Secrets
• 1x Retreat to Kazandu

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Maybeboard

Creature (20)

• 1x Cosi's Trickster
• 1x Cultivator of Blades
• 1x Dimir Infiltrator
• 1x Elusive Krasis
• 1x Evil Twin
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Isareth the Awakener
• 1x Kefnet the Mindful
• 1x Merfolk Skydiver
• 1x Mold Adder
• 1x Obsessive Skinner
• 1x Phylactery Lich
• 1x Predator Ooze
• 1x Puppeteer Clique
• 1x Ranging Raptors
• 1x Renata, Called to the Hunt
• 1x Rendclaw Trow
• 1x Strangleroot Geist
• 1x Vizier of Many Faces
• 1x Young Wolf

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Evolutionary Escalation
• 1x Feast on the Fallen
• 1x New Horizons
• 1x Quest for Ancient Secrets
• 1x Retreat to Kazandu

Instant (1)

• 1x Reins of Power

Artifact (1)

• 1x Magnetic Web

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Narset, Parter of Veils

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In his stronghold he was scheeming. The minions have gathered many an interesting specimen. He enjoyed torturing them and branding them. Once they were branded he enjoyed treating them as models that could be improved upon. Evolution had created such interesting designs but they lacked ambition, they were not perfect. Volrath found he could shift his own flesh and become improved versions of them and conquer the world. Once modeled after the specimens in the stronghold it could ventrure out and experiment on new flesh. It could now show the world how evolution lacked ambition and what perfection was meant to look like.

In this optimized deck we have useful flesh for Volrath to shape into and ways of branding (counters) the flesh. The gameplan is to play a controlling game and set up for alpha-strikes/combo-kills with Volrath.

Primer:

Ramp out and play volrath only when it can be protected or when killing it would still net you an advantage.

Use your control pieces to police the table and appear less threatening than you are. Then, in a flurry of activations use the ability to create copies of the transformed Volrath to your advantage. Volrath can play the slow game by copying an evasive creature and transforming into something that will benefit from it's size when connecting. Turnig itself into Heroes' Bane and growing is dumb fun but we can do better.

Use Mist-Syndicate Naga, Spawnwrithe and Nacatl War-Pride to make more copies of the 7/5 shapeshifting menace. Clone non-legendary Volrath alter egos and use some of them for big mana with the likes of Marwin or remove some +1 counters on them to fetch lands when in Fertilid shape.

You can even go for an infinite mana combo with Vigean Grafter and Incubation Druid. Infect is here both as a wincon and to put more -1 counters on things.

Overall card choices were made to make the deck competitive on a tight budget. With the release of Ikoria there is a nonzero chance that new counter heavy cards will make their waay into the list.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 0 Rares 34 - 0 Uncommons 15 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.86
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Dreamstealer 4/4 B, Manifest 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 G, Snake 1/1 G w/ Deathtouch, Vizier of Many Faces 0/0 W