I love the infect subtheme. I've got no suggestion to give but +1 from me!

Contagion Engine and Contagion Clasp are excellent -1/-1 counter cards especially if you can have them reenter the battlefield.

Enral thanks :)

Wolfeydog oo that is interesting, I hadn’t considered adding them because I don’t really want to proliferate on this deck, but since they add counters on entry I’ll reconsider. Especially Engine.

Wow, this deck looks quite fun

Really fun build, and deliciously quirky!

A few serious card suggestions:

• Blowfly Infestation

• Corrupted Resolve

• Cruel Sadist

• Rishkar, Peema Renegade

• Crumbling Ashes

• Deepglow Skate

• Grim Affliction

And a few fun card suggestions:

• Bloodthirsty Ogre

• Deadly Designs

• Diseased Vermin

• Ertai's Meddling

• Helix Pinnacle

• Legacy's Allure

• Musician

Also, I think it would be fun to use lands with depletion counters like Hickory Woodlot, or storage counter artifacts like Blue Mana Battery.

Cheers!

Wow thanks for all the suggestions.

• Blowfly Infestation I considered, however I’m not trying to kill creatures in this deck, I am very familiar with it as I run it in my Happatra deck.

• Corrupted Resolve I like it, I’ll consider, however which counterspell would you cut to add in?

• Cruel Sadist just puts counters on itself, and I want to put them on other things.

• Rishkar, Peema Renegade I had in originally but instead added in cryptolith rite, it’s harder to remove and let’s me use all creature not just ones with counters on.

• Crumbling Ashes is another tricky one, ideally I don’t want to kill the creatures I’m putting counters on, because I want to copy them with Volrath. Also, it is not a may trigger so I would have to kill something, and if it was only my creatures with a counter on I’m blowing up my own stuff.

• Deepglow Skate once again, don’t need lots of counters on creatures, just one.

• Grim Affliction I did consider but again, proliferate isn’t necessary in the build and I can put a counter on something for cheaper.

The cards in the fun suggestions I also looked at, but I just want to play around with putting counters on other creatures. That being said, I had not seen Musician that is bloody brilliant and is going straight in the list!!

Well, two good suggestions out of 14 isn't too awful I guess, lol.

I've always thought that Mental Misstep would be much better if it countered a spell with CMC 1 or less, but it doesn't. It's a card that you want to have in your opening hand, which you have ever so slightly higher than a 7% chance of happening. That's the one I'd pull for Corrupted Resolve.

Haha, I really do appreciate the suggestions. It’s just that I have so many deck that work around counters that I run most of them already and I didn’t just want the same build, if that makes sense?

I’ve swapped mental misstep out for corrupted resolve :)

Oh, what about Serra's Liturgy?

That’s interesting, I’ll maybe board it for now. Thanks!

I’ve updated the list,

Added in

• Xathrid Gorgon

• Musician

• Cold-Eyed Selkie

• Venarian Gold

And I want to add in the others in the maybe board but I’m not sure what for.

Depending on how easy it is to get +1/+1 counters on things, you might want to consider Etched Oracle, at worst it's a 5 mana Harmonize on a 4/4 body but if you're able to stack counters it can draw a lot of cards

Cauldron of Souls is must-have protection in any deck that runs a lot of creatures imo, and it has the possibility of putting a counter on every creature on the battlefield in response to a boardwipe.

Also, Serra's Liturgy doesn't fit with the deck's color identity. Rip.

Oh yeah, of course it doesn’t it’s white, brain fart.

I was thinking about Caldron of souls, or Mikaeus, the Unhallowed for undying.

Etched oracle is interesting too, I do think this deck could do with a bit of card draw. Which is why I added in Cold-Eyed Selkie so that if I can copy it volrath I’ll draw 7 on damage.

Copy Vector Asp or Pestilent Souleater with Volrath, activate them, then hold priority and turn Volrath into something else.

Bam. Anything has infect.

Ooo yeah that is pretty interesting, it is pretty easy t make him an unblockable infecter anyway.

I’m going to have a look at including the new counters from Ikoria and will do a big update to it soon. But hexproof, flying, menace and trample counters sound very interesting.

Oi! Over here!

Volrath has been molding flesh to optimize its form. You appear to have an inferior copy of the allmighty shapeshifter.

Here you can find some inspiration: Volrath, Optimized Form (Optimized EDH) Mostly the fact that when Volrath copies something it has that creature's name. You can get many copies of creatures with volrath's ability. Especially johnny is getting Nacatl War-Pride to attack and with the trigger on the stack change it's form to something else such as a Spawnwrithe.

simplebricks - I’m not quite sure what you’re saying? Are you saying that this deck is inferior to yours and then posting your deck on this thread?

I was just commenting in line with the Volrath persona I had going on in my deck and posting my deck for ideas. I had seen you aren't going for the "good" counters (+1 and -1) so I wrote especially what things I found work very well with volrath (namely having multiple copies of it) as suggestions. I like the whole going for weird counters theme but I think your deck could still use things like spawnwrithe and nacatl to give your deck a bit more closing power. From looking at the list it seems like you will be trying to do cute things and will be ran over by faster decks.

I think if you stick to a less competitive theme you need to play more ramp and control pieces (targeted removal and boardwipes) to allow you to play the fun cards you want to play. Not everything in your deck can be things like Musician or you will be hobbled by trying to keep up with upkeep costs and overcosted understatted creatures that require tapping. You will be overrun by Hydras, Dragons, Goblins... I already assumed you are playing in a powered down meta but I still think in your current deck you need a bit more oomph to make sure your theme of obscure counters is able to win.

Fair enough, I’d be a bit more straight forwards in future, saying something is “inferior” then posting your deck comes across a bit dickish. Especially as the reading written word can be much harder to pick up tone and humour than hearing spoken.

I think that’s all good feedback, as stated in the description this deck is in early stages, and is far from finished. I will be trying to make it more political than just our right aim to win. I’d like it to cause situations that make people laugh or shock people and just make the game for fun. So I’m that sense a lot of counters will be put on opponents creatures and not mine, whilst I am running infect for an alt win con if the opportunity presents itself

I have a few decks I take down to my LGS that I play when I want to win, this is meant to be more fun and cutesy, but you are right I do need to tone down the different counter types. At the moment I am considering all of them and deciding which I think would work best.

I think the cards suggested are interesting and I’ll add them to the maybe board.

Other weird counters:

-Temporal Distortion

-Traveling Plague

-Takklemaggot

Never thought to use Chevill, Bane of Monsters. I might need to give that a shot in my own Volrath deck. I'm going to give the new Cazur, Ruthless Stalker and Ukkima, Stalking Shadow partners a shot from the new Commander deck.

For some truly wacky counters, check out the 4-card chimera cycle from Visions: Brass-Talon Chimera, Iron-Heart Chimera, Lead-Belly Chimera, and Tin-Wing Chimera. +2/+2 counters, and probably one of the oldest, if not the oldest, set of cards that permanently grant keyword abilities to other creatures.

Thanks :) I do love whacky counters, I did consider these originally, but my issue was the fact they only put them on other chimeras. So if then have to somehow move them onto another creature so it’s going to take 2 actions to get it where I want. If that makes sense?

Fair point. I use them by putting the Volrath -1/-1 counter on them, copying them with Volrath, then sacking them to give Volrath the counter. I totally understand why you would choose not to use them, but I have a special love for the chimera cycle. They were the original reason I decided to build a Volrath deck.

Now watch your playgroup run Thief of Blood just to mess with you