And I'll Form the Head! / Budget Vadrok Voltron

Commander / EDH Aura Hexproof Budget Enchantment RUW (Jeskai, America) Voltron

sparkblazewarriors

Enchantment (26)

• 1x Aether Tunnel
• 1x All That Glitters
• 1x Aqueous Form
• 1x Auramancer's Guise
• 1x Banishing Light
• 1x Battle Mastery
• 1x Blessing of the Nephilim
• 1x Clout of the Dominus
• 1x Crab Umbra
• 1x Curator's Ward
• 1x Eel Umbra
• 1x Eland Umbra
• 1x Ethereal Armor
• 1x Face of Divinity
• 1x Felidar Umbra
• 1x Hyena Umbra
• 1x Madcap Skills
• 1x Oblivion Ring
• 1x Ordeal of Thassa
• 1x Sage's Reverie
• 1x Scourge of the Nobilis
• 1x Shielded by Faith
• 1x Squee's Embrace
• 1x Staggering Insight
• 1x Starlit Mantle
• 1x Whirlwind of Thought

Artifact (4)

• 1x Fireshrieker
• 1x Helm of the Gods
• 1x Inquisitor's Flail
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots

Creature (17)

• 1x Blessed Spirits
• 1x Eidolon of Countless Battles
• 1x Flaring Flame-Kin
• 1x Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1x Kor Spiritdancer
• 1x Lagonna-Band Trailblazer
• 1x Merfolk Looter
• 1x Mesa Enchantress
• 1x Pouncing Shoreshark
• 1x Satyr Hoplite
• 1x Sea-Dasher Octopus
• 1x Shambling Suit
• 1x Spellgorger Weird
• 1x Sprite Dragon
• 1x Triton Fortune Hunter
• 1x Umbra Mystic
• 1x War-Wing Siren

Instant (10)

• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Dive Down
• 1x Fact or Fiction
• 1x Izzet Charm
• 1x Karametra's Blessing
• 1x Negate
• 1x Stubborn Denial
• 1x Temur Battle Rage
• 1x Thirst for Meaning
• 1x Thrill of Possibility

Commander (1)

Land (34)

• 1x Azorius Guildgate
• 1x Boros Guildgate
• 1x Highland Lake
• 8x Island
• 1x Izzet Guildgate
• 1x Meandering River
• 6x Mountain
• 1x Mystic Monastery
• 10x Plains
• 1x Stone Quarry
• 1x Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1x Tranquil Cove
• 1x Wind-Scarred Crag

Sorcery (8)

• 1x Cathartic Reunion
• 1x Chart a Course
• 1x Divine Reckoning
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Single Combat
• 1x Tormenting Voice
• 1x Winds of Rath
• 1x Winged Words

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Maybeboard

Creature (11)

• 1x Bruna, Light of Alabaster
• 1x Gold Myr
• 1x Hero of the Pride
• 1x Iron Myr
• 1x Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin
• 1x Looter il-Kor
• 1x Silver Myr
• 1x Sky Theater Strix
• 1x Stromkirk Noble
• 1x Thought Courier
• 1x Wake Thrasher

Instant (5)

• 1x Bolt Bend
• 1x Frantic Search
• 1x Lat-Nam's Legacy
• 1x Radical Idea
• 1x Words of Wisdom

Artifact (3)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Boros Signet
• 1x Izzet Signet

Sorcery (5)

• 1x Careful Study
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Preordain
• 1x See Beyond
• 1x Strategic Planning

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Cartouche of Knowledge

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Goal:

So Vadrok is weird and doesn't really point you in any one direction, really. Out of all the apex mutate generals, to me he seemed like the one that few would likely play. He seems to be a spellslinger general, using his mutate ability to accrue value by casting spells from the graveyard. However, there's not a lot of mutate cards in his color identity that make it worth going too all in on as it doesn't really lead to a win condition on its own. The important part of Vadrok is his ability to play any noncreature card, which can allow us to play auras, and occasionally equipment, from the graveyard upon playing him, not just instants and sorceries. The cool thing with mutate though is if Vadrok mutates onto a creature that pile is now our commander. So, if we play a cheap "host" creature beforehand we can be playing our auras before we play Vadrok. This pushes us towards a unique and flexible Voltron style, using the value of playing a free aura on casting and by being able to play his host beforehand so we can be buffing it early.

When looking for potential hosts, I thought of Theros's heroic cards that often gained +1/+1 counters when they get targeted, seems pretty perfect for Vadrok as our mutate triggers heroic. However, most of the heroic cards out there are humans. We do have some heroic creatures though; Satyr Hoplite, Lagonna-Band Trailblazer, and War-Wing Siren all get bigger when we cast our auras or a couple of our instants. To broaden out our suite of hosts, I looked to creatures that could still grow despite not having heroic. Sprite Dragon, Blessed Spirits, and Flamegorger Weird are normally cards I'd shy away from in edh but here they are efficient bodies that grow over the game as we continue to suit up.

Seeing as we want to pile up our pile with auras, let's talk about our suite of auras. I opted for a fairly defensive suite as our host creature should handle a good amount of the power needed but none of our creatures really have innate protection. Stuff like Crab Umbra and Curator's Ward protect Vadrok while we also have some really efficient auras like All That Glitters to pile on the damage. Also, as a side note when talking about buffs our only other mutate creature is Sea-Dasher Octopus. The octopus can potentially recur a spell at instant speed when put it on our Vadrok pile, and potentially trigger heroic, for a pretty cheap cost. It's a pretty versatile card in the deck.

As for spells, it's fairly standard stuff. However, I do want to explain why we run a bit more looting cards than you might think we need, especially considering we have blue. Since Vadrok recurs stuff from the grave an early Faithless Looting or Thirst for Meaning can really set us up for that value later on when Vadrok comes out. The card digging from these looting effects is also pretty solid at helping us churn through the deck and assure we hit land drops or avoid flooding.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	1 - 0 Mythic Rares 11 - 0 Rares 30 - 0 Uncommons 31 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.42