Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor

Legendary Creature — Human Knight

Whenever Varchild deals combat damage to a player, that player creates that many 1/1 red Survivor Creature Tokens

Survivors your opponent control can't block, and they can't attack you or a PW you control

When Varchild Leaves the battlefield, gain control of all Survivors.

Tokens

• Survivor 1/1 R

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (51)

Unlife on Archetype Name and Card Recommendations

6 months ago

I'm planning on possibly rebuilding my Saskia the Unyielding deck (again) and I've been considering a few ideas, one of which being cards that I give to opponents, but that can't attack me. I was wondering if there was a term for these sorts of cards, and if anyone had any recommendations for cards that could fit into the deck. I want to see how many there are before adding goad effects. The deck is {B}{G}{R}{W}, and so far I've found:

Xantcha, Sleeper Agent, Sleeper Agent, Alexios, Deimos of Kosmos, Rite of the Raging Storm, and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor

Thanks in advance

Foxigami on Spiteful Avatar

9 months ago

wow these are awesome suggestions!

first. i totally misread Spiteful Banditry, thought it could make a treasure token for each token killed. BirdieGirlie while some of the suggestions for cards are not modern legal (Grismold, the Dreadsower, Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, and Sylvan Offering); thank you for the suggestions! legendofa your deck looks very fun, gave me some fun ideas as well as got me into a rabbit hole of finding even more cards to consider.

first the land base was copied from another deck that is another variation of this idea. I already have some ideas on how to change it.

i would have to agree that we have too many pieces doing the same thing. while it does help with make the deck more consistent with damaging the opponents for having creatures, this deck needs more token generation. i am leaning at Slaughter Specialist and Tribute to Horobi  ^Flip. Slaughter Specialist in this deck can be a wincon on its own with how much mass creature removal this deck has; Tribute to Horobi  ^Flip for generating tokens and the flipside is also neat if the opponent still has the rat tokens.

i think removal wise, i would be keen on removing one of the creatures as Blood Artist is can be a wincon on its own with the mass creature removal we have. Suture Priest is also way too good to not include as mentioned before, so i think removing Blood Seeker is the call, though there is a world were you could keep it. that world is if we want to cut out out white from this deck and add Slaughter Specialist and Cavern of Souls for the vampire tribal action. something i will have to consider.

Mercy Killing looks soo good on paper, but in practice it is a dead card against non-creature decks. it could work if we consider Hunted Horror, but it is a sideboard piece for sure though.

Hunted Troll is very fun, but also very slow. but the regeneration ability does give it potential. probably replace 2 copies of Avatar of Might with it.

Hunted Phantasm is too good for this deck to be considered for removal. the amount of damage it could dish when we have our game plan online is a wincon on its own and its stats and unblockable ability can close out games too. however it will depend on what color direction i go with this deck. more about that later on.

i would agree that ramp and card draw is very important and this deck needs some. Sylvan Scrying would be such a great card in this deck. it being able to find Forbidden Orchard is too valuable as well as fixing mana problems.

now there is one thing i have found that no one suggested, that would be The Phasing of Zhalfir. at first this card seems to be a slow token generator as it is a saga, however the read ahead ability gives makes it even better. we can board wipe and generate tons of tokens on both sides of the field for 4 mana. the possibilities are very high for this card: first if we have a lot of tokens on the board with Blood Artist out, that will be a lot of damage and life gained. second if we have Trespasser's Curse out, that is even more damage. finally you have the option to phase out an important piece that would be wiped by this card at the cost of tempo. good for if the opponent has a big creature to answer Avatar of Might or if you need to protect something at sorcery speed. def going to replace Spiteful Banditry with it. another

now for color directions this deck can go. boy there is a lot. first lets talk about the colors we cant remove. black should never be removed, too many synergy pieces are in black. green also is paramount with Avatar of Might, Sylvan Scrying, and Golgari Charm. every other color could be removed in favor of making this deck 3 or 4 colors. if we include white, we would be considering Suture Priest, Ghostly Prison, Authority of the Consuls, and Parting Gust. this makes the deck more controlling. adding blue gives us Hunted Phantasm, Swan Song, Strix Serenade, The Phasing of Zhalfir, and Into the Flood Maw. adding red gives us Spiteful Banditry (even if it isnt good), Rakdos Charm and Sazacap's Brew. we have a lot of flexibility to even splash colors. overall we have some pretty good options. i apreciate all the help so far and cant wait to see how this deck will end up looking like!

legendofa on Spiteful Avatar

9 months ago

Swan Song and Strix Serenade are solid sideboard options, or main board if you know your local meta well. Tribute to Horobi  ^Flip can pull out a couple more tokens.

I agree with BirdieGirlie that Spiteful Banditry isn't right here. The "one or more" and "once per turn" clauses make it more of a slow drain than a big rip of damage. But, for BirdieGirlie, Grismold, the Dreadsower and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor aren't Modern-legal.

I have a deck that runs on the same idea in {W}{U}{B}. Infestation of Goblins and Rats The Avatar of Might approach looks fun, but it feels like you have too many other creatures that you want to have out, so it's going to come out pretty slowly.

BirdieGirlie on Spiteful Avatar

9 months ago

This is such an interesting deck omfg I love it!!!! I have many thoughts!!!

First of all, you need more lands. You need colored mana, you shouldn't be running Field of Ruin. And, Cavern of Souls is so so powerful, but what creature type are you naming? The only type you have more than one of is Vampire, and that's not the type you really want to be defending with the uncounterable ability. So do you play the land and name, like, Avatar or Spirit, the two cards you really want to defend when they come in, even if you don't have one in hand, telegraphing to your opponent what you want to do? It's not worth it. I would take all those out and replace them with dual Islands and Plains. Or Islands and Swamps, since you have disproportionate amounts of black. I think you should add in more white, as you will see.

Three creatures all do the same things and in this case I think that's detrimental to the deck. I think Suture Priest is the best of the bunch and we can work on replacing the other two. Some options: Hunted Troll, Grismold, the Dreadsower, Slaughter Specialist, and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor. They all give you more tokens. Speaking of which, a fourth Hunted Phantasm will probably also help you a lot. I'd also reduce your number of Avatar of Might by one or two, I think. It's a wincon, but doesn't give you tokens.

I also think you might want to find a place for Authority of the Consuls. Maybe instead of two Amulet of Safekeeping? Idk. A card more like Ghostly Prison forces the opponent to pay a steeper price. And it's an enchantment, I feel like enchantment removal is much more rare than artifact.

Mercy Killing and Sylvan Offering both get you more tokens without being a creature. To me Spiteful Banditry feels really bad in this deck. You have so many things that rely on having all of those tokens on your opponent's field, and you wipe them all out for...a single Treasure token? Feels bad, man. The Meathook Massacre is a wincon, and Golgari Charm can be your token removal and it's cheaper. If I had all three of those cards in hand, I would never choose Banditry. Rakdos Charm is also a wincon imo so maybe add more of those.

Finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't suggest you add some ramp and card draw. Sylvan Scrying, Opt, something similar. There are many.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Optimization. If you really want to optimize colors and stuff, it would be possible to take out blue altogether. Hunted Phantasm is an amazing card, but Hunted Troll is almost as good, and your mana situation will be a lot less complicated. You can switch that one island to something else. Take out Banditry and you have only a little bit of red left in the deck, so you can really focus on black, white, and green. But that's not as fun! Just figured I'd mention it.

...I've been having so much fun writing all this out and I just looked at your format again and I'd totally forgotten it! I think most of these cards should be ok for Modern! This deck concept is just so much fun I think I went a little overboard here. Sorry!

legendofa on

2 years ago

On to Grixis! I was about to suggest Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, but that's Commander only.

Swan Song is another token maker worth at least a sideboard slot.

SufferFromEDHD on Pramikon, The Wall of Stall

2 years ago

Varchild's War-Riders and Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor not walls but they are efficient token generators for your opponents that can't attack you.

Hunted Phantasm not a wall but built like one. Low mana cost and creates the most tokens out of the cycle. Unblockable is the cherry on top.

carpecanum on Gendarmes

2 years ago

Bladehold War-Whip, Drach'Nyen, maybe Demonspine Whip for your first strike/ double strike guys.

Maybe you don't like Changelings? Lots of good ones but especially Mirror Entity could buff your knights, most of whom are pretty small.

Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor has a neat ability and is a legendary for your cards that only work with legendary.

Maybe Prototype Portal or possibly Mirrorworks

PinnedPhoenix on If Zurgo Wasn't Boring - Kelsien EDH

2 years ago

smack80 - I love Varchild, Betrayer of Kjeldor, and I wish I could run her. but she's a little swingy and aggressive for a deck whose playstyle depends on careful politics. really wish I could include her, but I just don't think she's a perfect fit