Yargle: A real man's Voltron

Commander / EDH* Mono-Black Theme/Gimmick Voltron

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Artifact (31)

• 1x Blackblade Reforged
• 1x Caged Sun
• 1x Chariot of Victory
• 1x Cranial Plating
• 1x Crawlspace
• 1x Darksteel Plate
• 1x Expedition Map
• 1x Extraplanar Lens
• 1x Fleetfeather Sandals
• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Haunted Cloak
• 1x Helm of the Host
• 1x Jet Medallion
• 1x Key to the City
• 1x Lashwrithe
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Loxodon Warhammer
• 1x Mask of Avacyn
• 1x Nightmare Lash
• 1x Prowler's Helm
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Strata Scythe
• 1x Surestrike Trident
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Sword of Body and Mind
• 1x Sword of Vengeance
• 1x Sword of War and Peace
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots
• 1x Umezawa's Jitte
• 1x Whispersilk Cloak

Creature (12)

• 1x Bloodgift Demon
• 1x Crypt Ghast
• 1x Disciple of Bolas
• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Nirkana Revenant
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Tutor
• 1x Exsanguinate
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Sign in Blood
• 1x Torment of Hailfire

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Fallen Ideal
• 1x Fear
• 1x Gruesome Deformity
• 1x Molting Snakeskin
• 1x Phyresis
• 1x Phyrexian Arena

Commander (1)

Land (38)

• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 31x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Instant (3)

• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Tainted Strike
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Liliana of the Dark Realms
• 1x Ob Nixilis Reignited

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Erebos, God of the Dead
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Silent Arbiter
• 1x Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon

Land (1)

• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse

Artifact (4)

• 1x Gauntlet of Power
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Nightmare Lash
• 1x Surestrike Trident

Instant (1)

• 1x Tainted Strike

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Army of the Damned

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Phyresis

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Want to play Voltron but got bored of the usual choices like Rafiq or Siguarda? Ever wondered if Mono-Black voltron could work? Well, I have the answer for you, and it's name is YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG.

But why YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG?

Why not? Just look at those amazing stats! With a whopping 9 attack, it's almost laughably easy to kill the opponent with commander damage. Just +2 attack will have him killing someone in just two hits! Give him first strike and he'll be able to win almost any fight! Give him Lifelink and you'll never worry about your HP again! Give him vigilance and watch your opponents woe as they try to get past his mighty bulwark! They'll never laugh at YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG again!

How do we make sure YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG hits the opponent?

I'm glad you asked! Ideally, your opponents will be quaking in terror at your mighty frog spirit and concede out of fear. However, if that doesn't work, the deck includes multiple ways to help make YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG as sneaky and evasive as possible:

For temporary effects, Key to the City lets you make YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG unblockable until end of turn, and additionally gives you a chance to cycle through your deck by paying 2 mana when it untaps. For a slightly higher cost, Rogue's Passage also makes him unblockable. Shizo, Death's Storehouse will allow YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG channel the raw primal fear your opponents feel, making him unblockable except by artifact or black creatures.

For equipment, Whispersilk Cloak and Prowler's Helm both provide unblockability, and Trailblazer's Boots will almost guarantee he'll hit. Failing one of these, Fleetfeather Sandals lets YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG take to the skies with mighty frog leaps, and Chariot of Victory, Haunted Cloak, Loxodon Warhammer, and Sword of Vengeance all grant trample to let him push damage past blockers. Swords such as Sword of War and Peace and Sword of Body and Mind grant him protection from colors, making him harder to block or target!

Okay, he's hitting. How do we make sure YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG kills?

Excellent question, hypothetical reader! You have two strategies to take in this deck: Commander damage, or infect damage. Remember that +2 is the magic number that turns YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG into a two-hit commander damage kill, but it's also enough to give the opponent lethal poison counters. Lots of your equipment comes with some amount of power gain, as well as some of the mana ramp such as Caged Sun and Gauntlet of Power. Your biggest hitters though are going to be Blackblade Reforged, Nightmare Lash, Lashwrithe, and Strata Scythe, which all do some variant of getting bigger the more lands you have. Late game, it's conceivable to have enough lands out to one-shot someone with these equipped.

On the Infect side, your main goal will be Grafted Exoskeleton, which by itself puts YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG into one-shot range. Tainted Strike is your backup. Surestrike Trident is normally just to let YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG safely punch, but when he has infect, he can one-shot players without ever even moving to the combat phase.

What do I do if YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG fails me?

He won't. Believe in YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG. Believe in him, like he believes in you. But if the unthinkable happens and you can't secure a kill with YARGLE, GLUTTON OF URBORG, the deck has several backup plans:

Your primary backup is Skithiryx, the Blight Dragon. With built-in haste and infect, it is viable to get poison counter kills by using him as a secondary Voltron choice.

If that fails, you can use Ghoulcaller Gisa and one of your giant buffed creatures to repeatedly flood the board with zombies. With your ramp, it should also be easy to afford the costs of Army of the Damned and Josu Vess, Lich Knight to create an unstoppable zombie hoard. Braiiinss!

Your final fallback is to use the tons of mana you'll be generating to cast an enormous Torment of Hailfire or Exsanguinate to drain your opponents to dust.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	5 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 27 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.13
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Liliana of the Dark Realms, Emblem Ob Nixilis Reignited, Phyrexian Germ 0/0 B, Wolf 2/2 G, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Knight 2/2 B