Varolz, the Scar-Striped

Legendary Creature — Troll Warrior

Each creature card in your graveyard has scavenge. The scavenge cost is equal to its mana cost. (Exile a creature card from your graveyard and pay its mana cost: Put a number of +1/+1 counters equal to that card's power on target creature. Scavenge only as a sorcery.)

Sacrifice another creature: Regenerate Varolz, the Scar-Striped.

Combos

• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Varolz, the Scar-Striped

Legality

Format	Legality
1v1 Commander	Legal
Archenemy	Legal
Arena	Legal
Block Constructed	Legal
Canadian Highlander	Legal
Casual	Legal
Commander / EDH	Legal
Commander: Rule 0	Legal
Custom	Legal
Duel Commander	Legal
Freeform	Legal
Gladiator	Legal
Highlander	Legal
Historic	Legal
Historic Brawl	Legal
Legacy	Legal
Leviathan	Legal
Limited	Legal
Modern	Legal
Modern Beyond Horizons	Legal
Oathbreaker	Legal
Pioneer	Legal
Planar Constructed	Legal
Planechase	Legal
Quest Magic	Legal
Tiny Leaders	Legal
Vanguard	Legal
Vintage	Legal

Discussion (50)

TheVectornaut on King of the Skull Servants

2 weeks ago

As a fellow enjoyer of Grass Looking Greener (mostly Lightsworn but also some Zombie/Vampires, PK+Paleos, and Skull Servants), I do think the idea is interesting. You're always going to be in a bit of a battle between thematic consistency and power level. For instance, a grave-counting creature like Wight of Precinct Six or Nighthowler would fit the idea of King growing with more guys in the yard, but they would also be disappointingly weak right now since you don't have a lot of mass self-mill at the moment (Stitcher's Supplier and Overlord of the Balemurk are the first things that comes to my mind). On the subject of getting what you want in the GY, it probably is best to have a few more ways of getting specific targets buried at least. With Entomb off the table in modern, I could see Unmarked Grave being the best cheap option instead of or in addition to Buried Alive. This only negatively affects Maha who I already think is worse than reanimator staples like Archon of Cruelty or Sire Of Insanity. Fewer legendaries also makes Persist a great choice. There's also Lively Dirge if you want to stick to the low mana value plan and can afford to pay more mana. Finally, I'm partial to Burning-Rune Demon as a way to extend into more reanimations while being a reasonable threat in its own right. I think it would be cool to run more skeletons for the theme too, although most aren't that helpful. Cards like Reassembling Skeleton or Persistent Specimen could be sac fodder to a Victimize or Hell's Caretaker. Another one that I know can be good in black reanimator is Emperor of Bones, although he has some unfortunate anti-synergy with other cards in the deck like Twilight Diviner. Death Baron is always an option if you find the Corpses of the Lost backup plan doesn't have enough oomph.

Some final notes: It may be more consistent to focus on just the Xu-Ifit negated reanimations. That would involve going up to 4 Death's Shadow and adding in some similar options like Moonshadow or Yargle and Multani. The EDHRec page for Varolz, the Scar-Striped could be a place to start. That all said, having the more powerful effects of non-negated creatures may still be worth the inconsistency of the two plans not always meshing whan you need them to. You do want to have the best options available in either case though. My first cut suggestions would be Gloom Sower, Avatar of Woe, Inkwell Leviathan, and lastly Maha, Its Feathers Night. Finally, I second cutting some lands and would suggest Bitter Triumph as a replacement for Cast Down that comes with a Cabal Therapy option built-in.

Taiyouai on Is Decend 4/8 active while …

2 years ago

I have a Varolz, the Scar-Striped deck, and I just pulled Akawalli, the Seething Tower. I want to know if while Akawalli is in the graveyard (and my graveyard meets the requirements of 4/8 permanents in it) does he get the bonuses so I can scavenge him for (assuming I have 4/8 other permanents in graveyard) 5/7 +1/+1 counters instead of just 3 counters?

thesilentpyro on Casual CoCo Food Aggro/Combo

2 years ago

Also don't need to swap both Trail of Crumbs and Dispute for CoCo. Even without adding more creatures, math says 26 gives an 83% chance of hitting two, which is pretty dang good. Dropping either reduces the number of possible things to do on T2 (if we don't T1 Goose, at least), but that's not a huge deal. Trail is nice to be able to get the non-creatures I like so I'd want to keep it around, but it's hard for me to cut Dispute either since the treasure would help cast Company (and it itself can draw into Company where Trail can't).

Probably drop the Witch's Ovens for a creature-based outlet. Seer is the best one, but I like Varolz, the Scar-Striped because I have nostalgia for it and it supports the aggro side-plan plus leans into the same self-mill support Sam wants, but the creatures in the deck are all small when they're not on the field so it's not going to get big payoffs and is mostly just a mana sink. Yahenni, Undying Partisan is another option along the same lines, doesn't feed aggro as well but has haste and indestructible is slightly better than regeneration, and is a little easier to cast. Both are mainly in consideration because being legendary means Sam can get them back from the grave. Woe Strider is also a consideration as it comes with a chump blocker that also triggers Pippin, Chatterfang, and Rosie, and can revive itself repeatedly if you're not having a great game and need help stemming the bleeding until you can rebound.

So if I want to do the CoCo route, drop the Trails and Witch's Ovens, add CoCo and a creature-based sac outlet, and find room for some number of Sarinth Steelseeker and another Grist? Could trim a copy of Altar and Deadly Dispute. Having Cat without Oven makes me sad, but Oven is pretty lackluster, it only really does things with Cat and since the deck has a better plan than durdling with Oven now it should probably go away altogether.

I do need to make sure to keep enough food-makers in the deck. Oven is a cheap food engine that had some synergy even if its over power is low, so dropping it (and the Trails to a lesser extent) reduces that consistency. OTOH, Company is pretty good at finding the better food-makers (namely Sam and Pippin) anyways. A single copy of each of Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard would be fun and help a bit with that, plus they synergize with the other side-plans of the deck. Rapacious Guest is good for this too. Tough Cookie might be the one that gets the slot, though. It's starting to get potentially crowded on 3-drops, and you can do worse on turn two than make two food, one of which is also a bear.

I could play Urza's Saga, keep a single Oven in, add copies of the on-color artifact lands (maaaybe the ETB-tapped indestructible dual ones?), a Springleaf Drum (fetching artifact lands doesn't take an extra card slot, but drawing Drum helps accelerate if you're also already making land drops), maybe a Pithing Needle/Executioner's Capsule/Portable Hole, Nihil Spellbomb, or Skrelv, Defector Mite. Gingerbrute to stay on-theme, be able to get a food instantly if you're really hurting and Oven won't do, and as just a great Rosie target (and it also keeps your creature density for Company up). Blade of the Bloodchief is a cute win-more way to support the aggro plan that is funny with Viscera Seer or Yahenni as the sac outlet of choice. I told myself I wouldn't play stupidly broken things in my casual 60-card decks, so Skullclamp should probably stay out. Sam being able to get back Saga seems good, and the Karnstruct will be a scary size. Colorless mana hurts in a three-color deck that plays so many colored one-drops though, especially since I'd probably want three copies. Monetarily it's even more expensive than Invasion, which is worth considering too. It does play into a lot of things the deck wants to do between the construct, fetching silver bullets, and being re-usable with Sam if we somehow get into the long game. Maybe just whatever copies (if any) I have that aren't currently in commander decks.

There's also the The Underworld Cookbook + Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar build which I feel like I should mention even if nobody else ever reads this, but that's a different deck and getting too close to Modern territory (even if it's not a great deck there, it does exist). I like my hobbits better.

wallisface on Self Mill Madness

2 years ago

jdogz32 Whenever i’ve seen Varolz, the Scar-Striped used its usually to get some kind of insane power swing from Death's Shadow. I personally think a deck not dedicated around Varolz usually shouldn’t include it, because its often a massive investment for a “meh” return (in your case you have to spend a total of 5 mana, 3 on Varolz, and 2 on the scavenge, to maybe add 5ish counters onto a creature… that feels like a bad return on investment).

Saying all that, if the card works for you, go with it. I’m just very sceptical of its speed and usefulness.

A bigger problem might be your creature count for CoCo. Most CoCo decks need 27 creatures at a minimum to reliably get 2 hits when casting it. With only 23 creatures you’re going to only hit 1-or-less creatures 25% of the time (if you were running 27 creatures you’d only miss 2-creatures 15% of the time).

jdogz32 on Self Mill Madness

2 years ago

wallisface the first time I posted this deck a user whom I cannot remember the name suggested Varolz, the Scar-Striped as a way to utilize my weaker creatures and make them powerhouses by removing a Tarmogoyf from my discard. On another note my land count does seem a little low but it's been working find as of lately because of Satyr Wayfinder and Witherbloom Command

wallisface on Self Mill Madness

2 years ago

Very interesting brew! My only thoughts are that the land count feels really low for a CoCo deck, and that Varolz, the Scar-Striped feels more cute-than-helpful.

legendofa on

2 years ago

I'm curious what a less-developed bot would come up with, or if you asked another bot for advice on this deck. There are some cards here I don't quite understand. Death's Shadow is out of place (not even a Varolz, the Scar-Striped line), Dead Weight is underwhelming, there's not enough ramp or counters other than -1/-1, and there are some bits and pieces that never quite come together into a unified whole (Yawgmoth, Thran Physician + Woodfall Primus is so close to being awesome).

RaycerH4 on card:Varolz, the Scar-Striped’s Scavenge ability

3 years ago

How does Varolz, the Scar-Striped‘s ability work with things like Splinterfright?