Varolz Hulk
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 130 | 120 COMMENTS | 54747 VIEWS | IN 65 FOLDERS
Fairly Large Update —May 31, 2018
New combo line now subbed in, so we are finally saying goodbye to Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Walking Ballista, although they served us well. They've been replaced by Wingrattle Scarecrow, Melira, Sylvok Outcast, and Disciple of the Vault, which comprise our new hulk package. This win requires one more card, but it is well worth the new resistance to Null Rod, as we no longer have to activate Walking Ballista to win the game.
Minor change: Bojuka Bog subbed out for Phyrexian Tower, having a sac outlet out of Crop Rotation has opened up more lines than I realized after testing, and has been working well for me.
Sinister Concoction has been dropped to make the available slot needed for the new hulk package.
admack4242 says... #2
Hey, I love the deck and have been trying out a more budget friendly version with my local playgroup. I regularly face a stax (Tana and Tymna player) and sometimes a dedicated counter spell deck (Ertai). I was thinking about adding phyrexian dreadnought and death's shadow as a way to pressure these players when im locked out of my combo. What do you think?
February 25, 2018 12:43 p.m.
admack4242, generally, if you're locked out of the combo, it's going to be through grave hate anyway, which turns off both of those options, and even if they aren't turned off, you're still using slots that could be used to just play answers to whatever is locking you out of comboing.
February 27, 2018 3:50 p.m.
Nantuko Tracer as budget alternative for Golgari Thug? For Mikaeus / Ballista stuck on hand scenario.
March 28, 2018 1:42 p.m.
Unfortunately, Tracer needs to target as its trigger goes on the stack, so you have to target a card before you even get to discard for Body Snatcher, so it doesn't let you put the Mikaeus/Ballista back into the library.
March 28, 2018 10:22 p.m.
I see. time to find a Golgari Thug then. thanks for responding.
March 29, 2018 3:52 a.m.
How do we deal with Cursed Totem? I had a game once I was able to cabal therapy sacrifice hulk I won because I had Nature's claim in hand. I'm wondering if we have a way to deal with cursed totem via hulk line.
April 8, 2018 12:12 p.m.
Unforunately, there's no way to deal with cursed totem outside of finding a nature's claim or Abrupt Decay, it's just a card, like Rest in Peace, that is gonna be very hard to deal with.
April 10, 2018 12:51 p.m.
what card to add instead of grim tutor? cruel tutor? or is it to slow
April 15, 2018 7:09 a.m.
Hey masond_d, thanks for taking an interest in the list
Exhume has been excluded from the deck because it's one of the worst reanimates because it can give other people access to their reanimation targets. We also have enough reanimates already, as our bottleneck is the number of ways to get protean hulk into the graveyard, so another reanimate effect wouldn't be beneficial
Crop rotation can get Bojuka Bog, Dryad Arbor, and Ancient Tomb as well, as well as Phyrexian Tower if you're running it, it offers a lot of utility and the ability to act as a ritual when needed.
Grim Tutor is a hard card to replace, but you can try Jarad's Orders which is a bit clunkier but serves about the same role.
sickrobot says... #1
Phyrexian_plague_rider459, due to recent changes to the philosophy of the deck, in an effort to solve long-standing problems, pact has been readded due to the increased number of live discard effects to use it well
November 28, 2017 7:19 p.m.