Invasion Contagion Mutation - Volrath Body Horror theme

Segrus · Post by **Segrus** » 4 years ago

Invasion Contagion Mutation - Volrath, the Shapestealer

Introduction - What is Body Horror?

Wiki Explanation

Body horror or biological horror is a subgenre of horror that intentionally showcases graphic or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body. These violations may manifest through aberrant sex, mutations, mutilation, zombification, gratuitous violence, disease, or unnatural movements of the body. Body horror was a description originally applied to an emerging subgenre of North American horror films, but has roots in early Gothic literature and has expanded to include other media.

In addition to common tropes used within the broader horror genre, some tropes specific to the body horror subgenre may include invasion, contagion, mutation, transformation, disease, mutilation, or other unnatural or violent distortions of the human body.

Wikipedia article

It might be cleaner to list what doesn't fall under body horror, considering how expansive that explanation is. Elements of body horror exist in a vast array of different horror movies. Which is why outlining a decklist for this commander under this theme is so difficult--how do you limit what does and does not count?

Here's some of the things I wanted to limit in my build of this deck:

Zombies - I already have two different zombie decks; (mono Black) Gisa and (Esper) Zur. While it wouldn't take much to make a Sultai zombie deck and zombification is part of body horror, I want to keep zombie cards to a minimum if possible. There are still some inclusions in this deck.
Eldrazi - The Thing is a wonderful horror film and I love it. I'm sometimes reminded of it while perusing Eldrazi creatures, and many Eldrazi do have humanoid characteristics. Some of the artwork even shows people turning into Eldrazi. I'm not in disagreement about the connection to body horror. At the same time, I don't want this deck to turn into an Eldrazi deck when there's already so much else to offer.
Phyrexian/Volrath theme - I'm including this here to indicate I'm not looking at making this deck a retelling of Volrath's story or a showcase of Phyrexian art/history. I feel this may narrow card selection too much.

I believe there are a lot of ways to build this deck. In the process of building this deck, I pulled out nearly 1000 cards I could see finding a place. I'm convinced you could choose any single aspect of body horror and build a deck around it. In my case, I had two goals:

Deck Goals

Goal 1: showcase a variety of body horror--invasion, contagion, mutation--primarily through the artwork of the cards.
Goal 2: make the deck playable for casual level competitiveness. Generally speaking, using Volrath as a Voltron commander and giving him access to a variety of combat appropriate abilities.
Goal 3: disgust, or otherwise gross out other players; e.g. "Ick" or "Ew" or "WTF is wrong with you?"

Deck By Card Type

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Decklist

Approximate Total Cost:

Deck By Function

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Decklist

Commander

1 Volrath, the Shapestealer

Ramp

1 Basal Thrull|FEM

1 Cultivate

1 Deathcap Cultivator

1 Harrow

Card Draw

1 Foresee

1 Necrologia

1 Vivisection

Removal

1 Cannibalize

1 Beast Within|C19

1 Essence Scatter|M13

1 Perplex

1 Putrefy

1 Surgical Extraction|NPH

1 Warped Physique

Counter Support

1 Bioshift

1 Contagion

1 Cytoplast Manipulator

1 Experiment Kraj

1 Glistening Oil

1 Greater Werewolf|HML

1 Neoform

1 Unstable Mutation|5ED

1 Vedalken Anatomist

Volrath Support

1 Beetleform Mage

1 Docent of Perfection

1 Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore|5ED

1 Guiltfeeder

1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped

1 Vulturous Zombie

Recursion & Reanimation

1 Body Snatcher

1 Gleancrawler|DDJ

1 Necromantic Summons

1 Noxious Revival

1 Stitch Together

Other

1 Fleshwrither

1 Grim Feast

1 Mindstab Thrull|5ED

Lands

1 Ash Barrens

8 Forest

8 Island

1 Simic Growth Chamber

8 Swamp

Approximate Total Cost:

Notes:
By "Volrath Support," I mean cards which are more or less meant to help Volrath connect with damage or keep him alive longer.

In many cases, cards in some sections serve dual purposes.

Card Choice Discussion

I'm going to use this section primarily to speak about cards which may or may not be clear when it comes to how they apply to deck goals.

Cytoplast Manipulator & Helium Squirter - these cards both have useful +1/+1 counter effects, and the idea that these creatures literally carve a piece of themselves off and attach it to something else is fairly horrific.

Docent of Perfection - it's almost like they designed the Innistrad block just to make a card for Brundlefly. Based on flavor alone I'm including this card. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to flip the card, but it does have pretty high potential when copied by Volrath. There are two other cards which are similar to Docent of Perfection, but they're harder to flip and don't provide as good benefits for Volrath. They also aren't very good cards in Commander.

Evil Eye of Orms-by-Gore|5ED & Evil Eye of Urborg - besides the useful evasion ability on one and blocker-killing ability of the other, these two are pretty much pets cards of mine.

Generous Patron - a late inclusion I've been hesitant to include; ultimately, its effect is very strong with Volrath and it slips just vaguely enough into body horror that I'm allowing it to support Goal 2. The card reminds me of the Dutch businessman in the Hostel film, and the idea of a rich person luring an unsuspecting person into getting experimented on/tortured.

Guiltfeeder - light on the body horror in its image, the implication of a bizarre creature invading your brain to manipulate you isn't too far outside the theme to take out. It's also a card with a fantastic set of abilities (evasion and graveyard punishment) to gift Volrath.

Leyline Prowler - the combination of combat-relevant abilities and ramp made this card. Most of the land and artifact ramp options available aren't especially horror oriented, so relying more on creatures was necessary. At the same time, I didn't want to just slam a lot of elves in here, which is why you're seeing these strange choices.

Phyrexian Arena - less on the art and mostly connects to the body horror on the loose Phyrexian connection, but initial drafts of the deck really needed more card draw. This should fit the bill.

Surgical Extraction|NPH - more about the artwork than function, I did want to include at least one piece of graveyard removal--although this one is admittedly very limited--as I do with most decks. Going into unknown metas requires better rounding of removal suite.

Varolz, the Scar-Striped - instant speed regeneration is super useful. Also, if you didn't know, the scavenge effect can target opponent's creatures.

Potential Inclusions & Other Card Considerations

This section is particularly sparse, but I plan on adding more to this section over time.

Emrakul's Evangel - could be a great inclusion, but I don't really have enough token support to make this work. If I shift some of the deck towards that direction, I'll be looking at this card much more.

Plague Myr - ramp and relevant ability, but I'm not sure yet that I want to include too many infect cards.

Song of the Dryads - possibly better than something like Putrefy that's already in the deck? I'm not sure and happy to hear arguments either way. It fits enough since it reminds me of the movie The Ruins.

Raw List of Card I Considered

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I'm including this here without explanation for why I pulled them and why I didn't include them. Over time I may go through an give them actual explanation, but for now I just wanted to get it typed out in no particular order.

Mind Maggots
Sewer Nemesis
Entomber Exarch
Pith Driller
Reaper of Sheoldred
Hooded Horror
Simic Basilisk
Gnarled Effigy
Vigean Hydropon
Phyrexian Infiltrator
Tangle Angler
Coiling Oracle
Grisly Tranformation
Gruesome Deformity
Strands of Undeath
Ego Erasure
Torture
Price of Knowledge
Millikin
Vorel of the Hull Clade
Metamorphic Alteration
Wail of the Nim
Accelerated Mutation
Mutagenic Growth
Monstrify
Forgotten Creation
Dread Slaver
Rise from the Grave|PRM
Golgari Germination
Grisly Salvage
Void Grafter
Smothering Abomination
Vile Redeemer
Carapace
Sudden Strength
Curse of Inertia
Decomposition
Urborg Elf
Soul Manipulation
Fleshbag Marauder
Mind Warp
Withering Boon
Wrench Mind
Polymorph
Deathmark|M12
Transgree the Mind
Pick the Brain
Syphon Flesh
Death Mutation
Rising Miasma
Not of this World
Flesh Allergy
Scalpelexis
Stinging Licid
Dominating Licid
Ludevic's Test Subject
Inexorable Blob
Dark Hatchling
Forbidden Alchemy
Notion Rain
Uninvited Geist
Carrion
Cinderbones
Devour Flesh
Thought Scour
Tainted Aether
Phyrexian Monitor
Necromantic Thirst
Phyrexian Rager
Quagmire Lamprey
Squirming Mass
Parallax Dementia
Horror of the Dim
Krovikan Vampire
Fume Spitter
Biting Tether
Pathrazer of Ulamog
BAne of Bala Ged
Conduit of Ruin
Urban Evolution
Delver of Secrets
Sift
Vicious Betrayal
Frankenstein's Monster
Blighted Agent
Slith Bloodletter
Thelon's Chant
Nameless Inversion
Tendrils of Agony
Diseased Vermin
Grim Flowering
Ashes to Ashes|5ED
Read the Bones
Mortus Strider
Xenic Poltergeist
Necromantic Selection
Titania's Song
Infest
Smallpox
Pox
Elvish Aberration
Blood Vassal
Gliding Licid
Soul Exchange
Aberrant Researcher
Reaping the Graves
Transmutation
Permeating Mass
Grotesque Mutation
Breeding Pit
Altered Ego
Ovinize
Horribly Awry
Deathsprout
Sudden Death
Agony Warp
Rapid Hybridization
Erratic Mutation
Crypt Incursion
Phthisis
Corpse Dance
Tainted Strike
Essence Harvest
Havengul Runebinder
Thrull Parasite
Fetid Horror
Bane of the Living
Spike Soldier
Tangle Mantis
Carrion Call
Thelonite Monk
Locust Swarm
Call of the Nightwing
Consuming Aberration
Thoughtleech
Krovikan Plague
Spitting Image
Shifty Doppelganger
and a bunch of zombies...

Alternate Deck Build Ideas

Insects

Lots of great insect cards - Bane of the Living, Endless Cockroaches, Hornet Queen, Mortician Beetle
Often falls into body horror due to invasion/mutation stuff
Includes some counter support - Nest of Scarabs
There's a lot of token support, which can be utilized strategically to grind board and card advantage
Might work well with the right reanimation effects

Despite the seemingly vast support, I didn't feel like I wanted to go too far down the insect route. Similarly to zombies, there's so many cards in this category that I was easily losing sight of where it all really connected to body horror. And I'd also lose out on some pretty grotesque imagery available outside of insects. Outside of a handful of great art, insect artwork in MTG is really focused on the insect itself which doesn't leave much horror outside of imagination. Although not actually insects, this *could* be supplemented with some spider cards to rope in the horror element (generally speaking, I think most of the spider art is 'scarier'). While I continue working out the build I currently have, I may set aside what I think an insect-focused version of this deck might look like.

Closing

I'm still open to changes and improvements on this deck. The deck is in the casual sphere of play and I think there's still room to make it better. I've gotten a lot of help from lyonhaert on getting in some more card draw and ramp, as well as just keeping me motivated on working on it. So if you think I've missed something super obvious to work in, please let me know.

toctheyounger · Post by **toctheyounger** » 4 years ago

I'm so glad you ended up posting this. I'm gonna have a closer look and rack the brain catalog for any grotesqueries that might suit, and I'll see if I can find time to post up some thoughts in the next few days.

Segrus · Post by **Segrus** » 4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑
4 years ago
I'm so glad you ended up posting this. I'm gonna have a closer look and rack the brain catalog for any grotesqueries that might suit, and I'll see if I can find time to post up some thoughts in the next few days.

I've included a long list of a lot of the cards I looked at. It isn't all of them, but most of them. Once you've put together some thoughts I'll be happy to hear them.

Discussing with lyonhaert and then taking the deck to an LGS last night finally convinced me to put the list on here. I'm still feel a little weird about it, but there's no turning back now.

toctheyounger · Post by **toctheyounger** » 4 years ago

Nah, don't feel weird. There's definitely more theme decks on the forums here than their first appears. Airi has a Lovisa barbarians build, benjameenbear's Yawgmoth primer is built with Phyrexian flavour in mind, and I'm going to post my Malazan builds at some point when I have spare time at work. Ain't no thang at all.

toctheyounger · Post by **toctheyounger** » 4 years ago

Alright, so I figured out this is a weirdly difficult thing to find cards for. Partly because it's just hard to know what to search for - I ended up searching for watermarks for Sultai, Golgari and Simic, and just generally for keywords like 'flesh', 'brutal', 'vicious', 'sadistic', 'rend', 'gouge' and such. Needless to say there's not a TON of cards I've come up with. That being said, there's not nothing either. So here's what I've got that might be of use:

Thematics:
Corpse Churn
Grisly Salvage
Necrotic Wound
Torture
Blowfly Infestation
Typhoid Rats
Pain's Reward
Blood Artist
Grim Haruspex
Grim Flayer
Grim Poppet
Cytoshape
Blood Celebrant
Disembowel
Viscera Seer
Dominating Licid
Transmogrifying Licid
Ashnod's Altar
Spawning Pit
Victimize
Breeding Pool

Characters that fit the vibe:
Stitcher Geralf
Whisper, Blood Liturgist
Circu, Dimir Lobotomist (not reeeally great in this format though)
Tasigur, the Golden Fang
Momir Vig, Simic Visionary (these last two might be a reach but you never know I guess)

I also thought there might be some room for shapeshifting Volrath a bit quicker with some ways to spread counters a bit more freely and quickly. There's a couple of mechanics that do this well, namely wither and infect (although the latter might be a bit much for casual play):
Blowfly Infestation (see above)
Corrosive Mentor (wasn't sure if this guy fits the vibe enough tbh)
Tower Above
Instil Infection
Grim Affliction
Necroskitter
Scarscale Ritual
Fate Transfer
Sadistic Obsession
Grafted Exoskeleton (fits the vibe but maybe OTT for your meta?)
Nest of Scarabs

I hope at least some of this helps. Some of it feels like it fits, some of it seems a stretch so there might be limited value in this, but I found it fun to search anyway - it put me in mind of the time I spent in my reckless youth listening to a crap ton of death metal and brutal metal - things like Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Decapitated, Sarcophago, Dethklok, Behemoth, Necrophagist and such.

edit: I totally didn't check if there was any double up in your already checked list, so apologies if I'm retreading ground here.

Segrus · Post by **Segrus** » 4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Alright, so I figured out this is a weirdly difficult thing to find cards for. Partly because it's just hard to know what to search for - I ended up searching for watermarks for Sultai, Golgari and Simic, and just generally for keywords like 'flesh', 'brutal', 'vicious', 'sadistic', 'rend', 'gouge' and such. Needless to say there's not a TON of cards I've come up with. That being said, there's not nothing either. So here's what I've got that might be of use

I agree with it being a hard theme to look for, at least when it comes to using card engines. So much of it will be tied up in the artwork and while I think there are some search engines for that I don't know how easy it is. Hunting for good key words related to horror ends up taking a lot of time (although I didn't think about watermarks, which is clever). I always begin building by going through my collection--also takes a lot of time--but I get to see all of the card images.

Great list here, by the way. Some stuff I looked at, some other stuff I would definitely have pulled out if I'd run across it in my collection. I gave a really serious eye to all the Licids. One of the other things I had going into building the deck is a first draft at a Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons deck which had a ton of great -1/-1 counter support. Testing that deck, I noticed it was dreadfully slow. Just too slow to be good. I think trying to push that way with this Volrath build might be slower. This is why I didn't end up keeping Blowfly Infestation and Nest of Scarabs in.

It's possible some of the token related cards (Spawning Pit, Ashnod's Altar) would probably be solid if I bent the deck's direction that way. I'm not sure if that direction is better than what I already have and wouldn't mind hearing some opinions on this subject as it applies to Volrath. That being said, most of my best token support cards (Doubling Season, etc.) are already in other token decks.

toctheyounger wrote: ↑
4 years ago
I also thought there might be some room for shapeshifting Volrath a bit quicker with some ways to spread counters a bit more freely and quickly. There's a couple of mechanics that do this well, namely wither and infect (although the latter might be a bit much for casual play)

Yeah, infect would give the deck teeth--even OHKO teeth--but I'm not sure how much to implement without drawing unnecessary attention to myself.

I kinda wish Carnifex Demon, Midnight Banshee, and Harbinger of Night were a little less straight horror, because they'd be really strong in spreading counters.

toctheyounger wrote: ↑
4 years ago
I hope at least some of this helps. Some of it feels like it fits, some of it seems a stretch so there might be limited value in this, but I found it fun to search anyway - it put me in mind of the time I spent in my reckless youth listening to a crap ton of death metal and brutal metal - things like Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, Decapitated, Sarcophago, Dethklok, Behemoth, Necrophagist and such.

It does help, even if it means I keep thinking about the deck and keep looking for ways to improve it. I think the big question is understanding how good the deck really is: do I have an appropriate amount of ramp? card draw? targets/support for Volrath? Can what I have be improved by switching it out with something better? Would the deck be served by adjusting the deck's strategy away from Voltron and towards something else (tokens; infect; etc.)?

Oooo, death metal.

I'm glad you had fun searching! And don't worry about any retreading. I don't mind talking about or reconsidering any particular card.

toctheyounger · Post by **toctheyounger** » 4 years ago

Yeah it's a funny thing, it could be a reasonable card mechanically but if it doesn't feel right to you it's a no-go. I almost suggested Banshee too.

I think in terms of the deck itself I'd probably want to see a little more ramp and draw myself, but otherwise I feel like the theme carries over really well. There's not a ton you can do for horror themed ramp (Perilous Forays?), draw is a little different I guess (Necropotence seems like a strong add for theme and power).

I'll keep an eye out for anything else that crops up for you - this was just off a gatherer search, I didn't folder browse or anything, so you never know.

Segrus · Post by **Segrus** » 4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Yeah it's a funny thing, it could be a reasonable card mechanically but if it doesn't feel right to you it's a no-go. I almost suggested Banshee too.

I think in terms of the deck itself I'd probably want to see a little more ramp and draw myself, but otherwise I feel like the theme carries over really well. There's not a ton you can do for horror themed ramp (Perilous Forays?), draw is a little different I guess (Necropotence seems like a strong add for theme and power).

I'll keep an eye out for anything else that crops up for you - this was just off a gatherer search, I didn't folder browse or anything, so you never know.

Yeah, ramp and card draw was actually worse before and lyonhaert helped by giving a lot of potentials. The ramp though, from my testing and one real, hasn't been too bad. While obviously a turn three Volrath would likely be the very best, I've been hitting turn 4 Volrath most of the time. Getting on theme ramp is difficult though, since there's hardly any horrific artifacts and land ramp is generally cheery. And Deathsprout doesn't really get me a quicker Volrath.

When it comes to card draw, here's some of the other ones we considered:

SPOILER

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Disciple of Bolas
Ad Nauseam
Read the Bones et al
Deep Analysis
Ambition's Cost
Sift
Underworld Connections
Psychic Possession
Fathom Mage
Cold-Eyed Selkie
Life's Legacy
Momentous Fall
Rush of Knowledge
Rishkar's Expertise
Return of the Wildspeaker
Siphon Mind
Grim Haruspex

This isn't all of them, just a lot of them that are probably closest to theme. And when it comes to Necropotence...I could technically swing one. I've been slowly dissolving my Cube and there's one available from that. It sorta fits into the style, but I can't help feeling there could be more on theme options and I don't necessarily want just throw in the obvious winner of best card draw ever (since the rest of the deck has virtually no other powerhouse cards). Suffice it to say I'm on the fence. Card draw could definitely be improved.

The only other thing I wonder about is Smallpox, Pox, and Death Cloud. They are on theme for sure, it's just a question of whether I could actually get good use out of them to solidify a board position.

toctheyounger · Post by **toctheyounger** » 4 years ago

Yeah, they're pretty savage cards and you do sorta need to be able to capitalize on their sheer destructive power. It seems a stretch to me, but you know your deck best.

I think the ramp thing is kinda hard in that there's not many that convey your theme, aside from the black burst mana spells like say Culling the Weak and altar style stuff like Ashnod's, Food Chain and Phyrexian, but these might be too spiky for you anyway (besides I think the most flavorful altar for your deck is Altar of Dementia which doesn't really help you in this respect). That being said I think if your draw game is on point you kinda get a pass - draw enough cards and you're guaranteed to hit your drops right?

I think in that respect there's a pretty good wealth of cards that could fit nicely. Personally I wonder if things like Minds Aglow, Whispering Madness and Dark Deal suit your theme well enough. Maybe a bit of a stretch, but they are all pretty great for seeing a crap ton of your deck, and aren't as spikey as Necropotence (I think it still fits theme, but can totally see why you'd be hesitant).

Segrus · Post by **Segrus** » 4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Yeah, they're pretty savage cards and you do sorta need to be able to capitalize on their sheer destructive power. It seems a stretch to me, but you know your deck best.

I think the ramp thing is kinda hard in that there's not many that convey your theme, aside from the black burst mana spells like say Culling the Weak and altar style stuff like Ashnod's, Food Chain and Phyrexian, but these might be too spiky for you anyway (besides I think the most flavorful altar for your deck is Altar of Dementia which doesn't really help you in this respect). That being said I think if your draw game is on point you kinda get a pass - draw enough cards and you're guaranteed to hit your drops right?

I think in that respect there's a pretty good wealth of cards that could fit nicely. Personally I wonder if things like Minds Aglow, Whispering Madness and Dark Deal suit your theme well enough. Maybe a bit of a stretch, but they are all pretty great for seeing a crap ton of your deck, and aren't as spikey as Necropotence (I think it still fits theme, but can totally see why you'd be hesitant).

Yeah, I'm not exactly against Necropotence, just not wanting to limit myself to it if there's just something so sweet I haven't found yet. I definitely agree there's some one-use-only spells and altars which could be good. I think it's just a matter of knowing a lot of my creatures are ones I want to stick around instead of just being sacrifice fodder, and I don't have a lot of recursion/reanimation. Which pulls back to the topic of whether I should be running more token generators...and so on.

Here's some more card draw I dug up:
Arguel's Blood Fast - weak human is walking through a swamp, which could imply infection/disease/invasion?
Bankrupt in Blood - super on theme, but falls into the "do I sacrifice good copy targets since I don't have tokens?" problem.
Minions' Murmurs - again, theme scream, best with tokens.
Parting thoughts - yes and yes? I need to remember where I put my copy of this card.
Sanguimancy - better than Vivisection maybe? Hard to say.

Also, I should really think about Force of Despair and see if it's better than something I already have. Its got an awesome image.

toctheyounger · Post by **toctheyounger** » 4 years ago

Force of Despair is great, I run it in Yawgmoth and it's excellent. Great if you have a token deck in your meta or any Primal Surge/Genesis Wave style decks that need to be brought in line.

Maybe something you could think about instead of tokens is creature recursion. Sac for draw is a common theme in black and it's pretty prevalent in the types of cards you're looking at. I don't know if there's anything spectacularly gore-laden in that area, but it makes a lot of the cards you're thinking about work, so there's that. Even if it's not direct reanimation to battlefield, Phyrexian Reclamation and Oversold Cemetery are relatively close to theme.

Segrus · Post by **Segrus** » 4 years ago

toctheyounger wrote: ↑
4 years ago
Force of Despair is great, I run it in Yawgmoth and it's excellent. Great if you have a token deck in your meta or any Primal Surge/Genesis Wave style decks that need to be brought in line.

Maybe something you could think about instead of tokens is creature recursion. Sac for draw is a common theme in black and it's pretty prevalent in the types of cards you're looking at. I don't know if there's anything spectacularly gore-laden in that area, but it makes a lot of the cards you're thinking about work, so there's that. Even if it's not direct reanimation to battlefield, Phyrexian Reclamation and Oversold Cemetery are relatively close to theme.

I do have a Phyrexian Reclamation available, but I don't think I have a Cemetery floating around. I'll have to see about that. Corpse Dance is around though, which might be workable if I hand a sac effect lined up already. It's possible this is the direction I should work towards and see how it plays out.

Also, somehow I've been missing Wharf Infiltrator. Could go along with a recursion/reanimation line.

toctheyounger · Post by **toctheyounger** » 4 years ago

I was gonna mention that one too! It kind of covers two areas you need covered in draw and tokens, as well as theme. Could be a starter.

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