Do you like janky creature based combos? Do you like having to walk through all of your steps to make sure that the table understands the timing rules for your win conditions? Do you like winning with combat, but not necessarily combat damage? Then this might be the deck for you!
Why would you want to play Volrath, the Shapestealer? Clone tribal is the first thing that comes to mind for me. Clone something like Viridian Joiner with Volrath and then clone Volrath with Clone and get a 7/5 Viridian Joiner that has Volrath's second ability, too. Replace Viridian Joiner with Cold-eyed Selkie or Blighted Agent. Do that a bunch of times and have something really ridiculous. A totally valid choice, but this isn't that deck.
So, this isn't a clone tribal deck. What is it then? This is a combo deck that uses Volrath, the Shapestealer in conjunction with Nacatl War-Pride to make use of War-Pride's token creation to do weird and interesting things. You're going to abuse some interesting interactions to create some interesting board states. There are multiple paths to victory through this combo, and the important ones will be explained and the rest will be for you to discover on your own, because that's half the fun of building a synergistic deck!
This deck might be for you if:
- You like weird ways of winning
- You like multi-card combos
- You like keeping things flexible
- You want a straightforward path to winning
- You want to win consistently
- You don't have a comprehensive grasp of the Comprehensive Rules
- You don't like arithmetic
This is the end of a long journey on my part to find a home for Birthing Pod and a Sultai deck that really speaks to who I am as a player.
At the same time, I was looking for a Sultai commander. It's my favorite color combo, but I was having a hard time getting an EDH deck together for it. I felt then, and still kind of do now, that most of the commanders in this color combination feel mostly "goodstuffy" and I wanted something that could make use of the commander to do something unique.
Enter Volrath.
As an aside, I started playing around the time when Weatherlight and Tempest were new. I was a sucker for the story of the Weatherlight and its crew and Volrath is my favorite MtG villain. When he finally got a card that really represented him I wanted to play it!
I bought Faceless Menace when it came out because of Kadena and Volrath (and Thieving Amalgam. GOT DAMN!). Kadena was a bust in practice because there was only one deck that could be played around her. The specifics were different, but in broad strokes, it was always a midrange value deck with morphs. That deck is fine, but I wanted something more.
Back to Volrath. He'd been sitting in my EDH box, just waiting. I'd had some vague ideas around Clone tribal, but that didn't scratch an itch that couldn't easily be fulfilled with a minor loadout change in my Thassa deck. When the world shut down thanks to COVID-19, I found myself with a bit of free time to devote just to brewing. I watched a ton of YouTube videos and read a ton of articles, and, while there were cool decks, everything seemed a bit obvious until I stumbled across a King of Jank video where Nacatl War-Pride was mentioned. Once I realized what that could do, I was off to the races.
Author's Note: I apologize in advance that this deck is so expensive for how asinine it is in practice.
If you're looking to build Volrath on a budget, I recommend going for a more straight-forward Voltron route since there are *tons* of creatures that Volrath can clone to excellent effect. I'm even running a few of them myself as a secondary path to victory.
- Birds of Paradise, Deathrite Shaman, Elves of Deep Shadow, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, Ilysian Caryatid, Llanowar Elves, Wall of Roots - Mana dorks for ramp. I chose to ramp with creatures because they provide decent fodder for the first link in the Pod chain. I'd like to call particular attention to Ilysian Caryatid since it plays very nicely with Volrath.
- Blighted Agent - One of the best targets to clone to with Volrath. Two swings from our commander and a player is out. This is a high salt value card, so feel free to swap to taste.
- Cavalier of Gales - Brainstorm on a body that flies and swings for 5. If you're looking to inflict some tedium on the table combine with Volrath and War-Pride to stack multiple Brainstorms. I really *don't* recommend this because it's hardest on you as the pilot, but you can shortcut it to draw N+2 cards, where N is the number of clones of Cavalier of Gales that entered the battlefield, and then put two back at the end. That assumes that you won't be doing any shuffling in the meantime. If you shuffle, you're on your own. This is currently a slot that should be something else, but I like it for what it is.
- Cephalid Constable - This is a no-brainer inclusion. You can kill an opposing player's tempo with one swing from Volrath as the Constable.
- Clever Impersonator - Clones work well with Volrath, but this one doubles as a clone for Pod, too.
- Coiling Oracle - It cantrips for certain and has an approximately 40% chance to ramp one land.
- Cold-Eyed Selkie - Another no-brainer inclusion. 7 cards off the top? Yes, please!
- Eternal Witness - Standard recursion. Might be better off as Regrowth, but it's good off of Pod.
- Fauna Shaman - Survival number two. An excellent tutor and a common 2CMC target for Pod.
- Forgotten Ancient - Our best source of +1/+1 counters. What I like about this (and to a lesser extent, Kraj) is that it can put counters on any creature allowing you to play a bit of politics while broadening your variety of targets.
- Glen Elendra Archmage - A two-for-one counterspell, this is usually a pretty good target for Birthing Pod because Persist allows you to sac it for a 5 CMC creature. (Note to self: get more 5 CMC creatures).
- Gray Merchant of Asphodel - Combos excellently with Volrath and War-Pride. Remember that it drains everyone and you gain as much life as the total life lost that way. I have often forgotten that part in the past.
- Merfolk Skydiver - This is one of my pet cards for the deck. One of the people I play with on the regular has an Infect deck that he likes to play and this can help me to turn the tables on him. Also, it's fun with the -1/-1 counters that Volrath provides.
- Nacatl War-Pride - The core of it all. The second most important card in the deck. This card with its silly little combat trick is the heart of the deck and I just think that's neat.
- Nezahal, Primal Tide - This is something of a pet card of mine, but it's so powerful it can win games on its own through massive card advantage. Of the few games I've won, this card was integral to one of them keeping my hand full of removal and counter magic.
- Nezumi Graverobber - Grave hate that can become surprisingly good instant-speed recursion.
- Pathbreaker Ibex - Victory through combat damage. With Volrath on the 'field, you're looking at a minimum of +21/+21 (if you copy it with Volrath) for your creatures which should be enough to trample through to a win a majority of the time.
- Phantasmal Image - This is the cheapest, most efficient clone in all of Magic. Combos great with Volrath.
- Plaguecrafter - Another excellent ETB target for Volrath + War-Pride. This attacks creatures, 'walkers, and hands. Very powerful response.
- Phyrexian Metamorph - A clone that can become a second Pod in a pinch.
- Reclamation Sage - Artifact and enchantment removal that's good with Pod.
- Sakura-Tribe Elder - Chump blocker + ramp? Yes, please.
- Spark Double - Whatever creature you clone with this can then be cloned by Volrath immediately.
- Tetzimoc, Primal Death - In here strictly for the prey counter ability, but sometimes the mass destruction can come in handy. Primarily for counters, though, since Volrath can clone any creature with any kind of counter on it.
- Viridian Joiner - All the mana with this and Volrath.
- Wood Elves - Ramp + Pod Synergy
- Zameck Guildmage - A source of +1/+1 counters
I'm only calling out the utility lands because the lands that produce colored mana can be built to taste. Just make sure you have plenty of colored mana available because this is a color intensive deck.
- Forbidden Orchard - Create tokens that you can force to block more of your new Cat Warrior friends.
- Novijen, Heart of Progress - The only land in our colors that make +1/+1 counters.
- Maze of Ith - Keeps Volrath safe from blockers while he's swinging out. Can also be used to protect from opposing Voltron decks, but mostly it protects Volrath.
- Strip Mine - This can easily become Ghost Quarter or Tectonic Edge. It's useful for taking out opposing problem lands and we only need one in most cases.
- Greater Good - This combos well with all of the clones you can make off of Volrath and War-Pride. I'm not sure if this is a win-more card or not, but it can draw you a lot of cards.
- Mystic Remora - A cheap source of card draw since no one ever pays 4. There are worse things to spend mana on.
- Survival of the Fittest - Since so much virtual ink has been spilled over this card over the last two decades, I'll spare you my thoughts on its power. Suffice it to say, if you have one run it, but it's so expensive that I wouldn't go out of my way to get it. Just run another creature or try out Evolutionary Leap.
- Abrupt Decay, Beast Within, Return to Nature - Instant speed removal suite.
- Arcane Denial, Negate, Stubborn Denial, Swan Song - Every blue deck needs some counterspells
- Brainstorm, Impulse, Lim-Dul's Vault - Instant speed card selection is always good.
- Mystical Tutor, Worldly Tutor - Our instant speed tutor suite.
- Heroic Intervention - Boardwipe protection. This deck is more vulnerable than most to catastrophic setbacks due to a Wrath.
- Diabolic Intent - I don't have a Demonic Tutor, but I do have one of these and a ton of expendable creatures.
- Fabricate - Effectively, this is Birthing Pod number 3. Even though, Pod is effectively the only target, I want to be able to find it as often as I can.
- Green Sun's Zenith - While this finds Nacatl War-Pride, it's an excellent creature tutor that can bring up a lot of other cards in our key categories like removal and +1/+1 counter generation.
- Neoform - A one-shot Pod time effect, this can tutor up just about whatever we need as we need it. Of note, this puts a +1/+1 counter on the creature it puts into play meaning that Volrath can immediately clone it.
- Ponder, Preordain - I have a hard time not running these cards (along with Brainstorm and Impulse) in any deck that runs blue. I'm a sucker for card selection and these are the best of the best.
- Reanimate - This should probably be a Turn Aside or some sort of one CMC removal spell, but Reanimate never fails to delight me. Being able to recur anyone's creature to do my bidding is a powerful effect that fits into our game plan nicely.
- Birthing Pod - Our primary tutoring value engine. So important in most cases that we're running Fabricate with this as its only real target. Curve ETBs into other ETBs for value or cheat your way up your CMC costs to get to the next level faster. It gets what you need at sorcery speed!
- Bow of Nylea - A very powerful static ability with a number of good choices for its activated ability. Deathtouch on attacking creatures is very good in conjunction with War-Pride
- Sol Ring - Not always an auto-include for me, but it can ramp us into Volrath, Pod, or Nacatl War-Pride. Definitely worthy of a slot in this case.
- Mana Drain, Vampiric Tutor, Force of Will, Force of Negation, etc - Budget. I've got a lot of expensive cards in my collection, but not as many as I would like and I generally avoid playing proxies, primarily for aesthetic reasons.
- Assassin's Trophy - I hate ramping my opponents. I refuse to play Path to Exile for the same reason.
This deck is heavly inspired by Paul Barclay's Full English Breakfast deck, an all time favorite of mine. As such, it has a similar philosophy of taking advantage of the stack to make ridiculous plays happen. Additionally, this deck is all in on its one victory combo, much like its inspiration and namesake.
Unfortunately, there's a lot more hate available for creatures on the battlefield than there is for creatures in a graveyard. As such, this is a glass cannon of a deck. You want to do one thing and you're doing it for the fun, the aesthetic, or both. This isn't a deck for everyone, but it's rewarding to those willing to put in the effort to make it work for them.
I'm going to level with you. It can be hard to win with this deck because it requires a minimum of 18 mana over at least two turns in order to combo out. That doesn't happen every game. With that said, I believe the times when it does work out make up for all the times when it does not. Just mulligan aggressively and keep your fingers crossed.
Now, let's talk about the combos we'll eventually want to assemble and how they work.
Volrath + Nacatl War-Pride + Pathbreaker Ibex
This is our baseline combo. It's relatively straightforward. You clone Nacatl War-Pride with Volrath and get 7/5 tokens instead of 3/3 tokens. Not the greatest, but it works. Then, add in Pathbreaker Ibex, stack the triggers so that Volrath is a copy of Ibex, the tokens get created first and the Ibex triggers comes second and Volrath pumps out X 28/26 tokens, where X is the number of blocking creatures, with trample and you've got a decent win condition that will work against most decks in a 75% or slower meta.
Volrath + Nacatl War-Pride + Biovisionary
This is the "easy" way to win:
- Move to attack phase
- Clone War-Pride with Volrath
- Attack
- With War-Pride Trigger on the stack, clone Biovisionary with Volrath
- Get at least two tokens named "Biovisionary"
- Put Biovisionary's trigger on the stack last so that it happens first in the end phase
- Profit!
Volrath + Nacatl War-Pride + Any ETB or Combat Trigger Effect
This is where things start to get tricky and knowledge of the stack will start to come in handy. Get your basic combo set up to the start of the attack phase. Then stack your triggers as follows: token creation, copy your ETB creature. This will give you a number of ETB or combat damage effects equal to the number of tokens you create. Example creatures that this is great for: Plaguecrafter, Cephalid Constable, Eternal Witness, Wood Elves, and Reclamation Sage.
Also note, clones make all of these effects better. Just be sure to use them to copy Volrath after he's already copied another creature. This gives you a 7/5 copy of the creature that also has Volrath's activated ability.
Now, without further ado, how to pilot this deck!
Early on, you'll be looking for ramp and some tutors to help you assemble your board state. Your first targets should be creatures that make counters. I find that if you've got a x/1 that you want to clone with Volrath (e.g. Cephalid Constable), going for Tetzimoc to your hand is generally a good first stop. Secondary targets will likely be removal of some sort. Don't worry about getting combo pieces just yet. Focus on developing your resources, especially your mana base. This deck is mana hungry and color intensive. Make sure you have enough mana, especially enough green, given the three green pip price of Nacatl War-Pride.
Finally, get your hands on Survival or Pod so that you can get to the end of the mid game. You'll need some recurring tutoring in order to fully build out your combo engine as well to help you find your answers.
Once you get Pod (or Fauna Shaman or Survival of the Fittest) online, the board state dictates where you go next.
If you find yourself in a position where you have some removal or counterspells in hand and a pretty developed boardstate, start trying to assemble your victory combo. Caution is key, though, because this deck is approximately as resilient as a wet Kleenex. However, given the way your board develops, you're likely to be evaluated as less of a threat. This deck isn't flashy, so play to that. Feel free to slow roll your play. Don't give in to the temptation to over commit.
When you're hoping to bait out some removal, I recommend searching up Nezahal. He will quickly become the elephant in the room that everyone needs to deal with. You can also generate a ton of card advantage in the process. I feel like this is a slightly underrated threat and it provides an excellent sideshow to the main event. You'll definitely get some attention for Nezahal, directing it away from what else you'll be trying to do.
Likewise, if you need to deal with an opponent's board, tutor up some creature based removal. There's a nice, compact suite (Reclamation Sage, Plaguecrafter, Deathrite Shaman, &c.) available for this purpose. Bow of Nylea's "Attacking creatures have deathtouch" clause is especially nasty in conjunction with the forced blocking clause on War-Pride. If all else fails, Cyclonic Rift will reset things very nicely. Note, though, that an opponent's board full of creatures might be best left alone to allow more copies through War-Pride. It can take a while to get a hang of when to blow things up and when to leave them be, but it's a big portion of mastering the deck.
As previously indicated, another avenue of attack is to use clones to make better versions of cards like Viridian Joiner. Ramping up 7 mana in a turn can be pretty good, I hear. Here's how you do it: as usual, start by getting a counter of some sort on the creature you want to clone. There's plenty of choices, so use what's at hand. Clone that creature with Volrath. Volrath is now a 7/5 version of Viridian Joiner. Next, play a clone targeting Volrath. You now have an additional 7/5 version of Viridian Joiner that also has Volrath's activated ability. This can get even sillier with targets like Blighted Agent or Cold-eyed Selkie. This is a pretty aggressive move, so do so with caution while keeping in mind that this can be an additional avenue to bait out removal that might otherwise hit War-Pride or Ibex.
To progress your board state to the end game, you have two main outs: Pathbreaker Ibex and Nacatl War-Pride. You can win with them singly or with them in conjunction with each other. As noted previously, Pathbreaker Ibex can lead to +21/+21 and trample for your team and we have a plethora of fun available to us with War-Pride. This is where you choose your own adventure and set yourself up to win with your chosen combo.
How do you choose between the two if you only have the opportunity to get one of them? If your board state is underdeveloped, Ibex is probably your best bet. It can allow Volrath to one-shot an opponent and will turn any of your mana dorks into absolute beasts. If you've got an ETB creature sitting lonely on the board, then you might want to consider War-Pride instead to get additional value (see below for more info). War-Pride is also the correct choice if any of your opponents are going wide and/or if you have Bow of Nylea out. Deathtouch on attacking creatures, ftw!
Failing that, however, there are still alternate paths to victory.
Cloning Volrath into a Selkie or Blighted Agent will get you a W. Basically, if you can make Volrath unblockable, he's quite viable as a Voltron commander as a backup here, provided you only have one opponent to deal with at this point.
Abusing ETB is another alternative. Repeatedly cloning multiple Plaguecrafters or Reclamation Sages can absolutely dominate a board. If you can clear things out, you can make your path to victory easier. Especially if you've lost Ibex to exile based removal. Last, but certainly not least, give consideration to draining out the board using Gray Merchant of Asphodel. Remember, all of the copies enter the battlefield at the same time and thus see all of the black mana pips that are on all of the copies.
At the end of the day, this is a jank fest, but it's got the potential to make your friends scratch their heads, go "Wait, what?" and ask my favorite question: "What's that card again?" And that, my friend, is priceless.
All due credit to Paul Barclay for the original inspiration and to the King of Jank for pointing out the specific interactions with Nacatl War-Pride that allowed me to bring this concept to its final form.
- Merciless Executioner
- Sunken Hollow
- Phyrexian Metamorph
- Wall of Blossoms
- Rogue's Passage
- Exotic Orchard
We'll see how these changes play out.
- Greater Good
- Demonic Tutor
- Lim-Dul's Vault
- Coiling Oracle
- Bow of Nylea
- Cavalier of Gales
- Stubborn Denial
- Mystic Remora
- Return to Nature
- Phyrexian Metamorph
- Reflecting Pool
- Nezumi Graverobber
- Bramble Sovereign
- Dimir House Guard
- Genesis
- Invisible Stalker
- Mindblade Render
- Rainbow Efreet
- Spike Feeder
- Experiment Kraj
- Krosan Grip
- Crop Rotation
- Bojuka Bog
- Withered Wretch
On the departing cards: Bramble Sovereign is out because it can't clone Volrath. Dimir House Guard has finally been upgraded to Demonic Tutor. Genesis has been too hard to get into the graveyard; it's good, but not for this deck. Invisible Stalker is just a slightly less desirable Blighted Agent. Mindblade Render might have a higher ceiling than Wall of Blossoms, but it also has a lower floor. Rainbow Efreet, Spike Feeder, and Experiment Kraj never worked quite as well as I wanted them to work. Split-second hasn't be relevant, so Krosan Grip gets the axe. Crop Rotation + Bojuka Bog just weren't good enough in this deck, and Withered Wretch got upgraded to Nezumi Graverobber because the rat can also reanimate.
On the new arrivals:
Greater Good, Lim-Dul's Vault, Demonic Tutor, Coiling Oracle, and Mystic Remora all provide additional card draw/selection. Lim-Dul's Vault has really held its own and I think it's seriously underplayed at only 11% of potential decks. Bow of Nylea comes in as a Swiss army knife of value. Cavalier of Gales is back (as I knew it would be) for ETB shenanigans. Stubborn Denial and Return to Nature come in as efficient protection and removal. Reflecting Pool replaces Bojuka Bog. And last, but certainly not least, Nezumi Graverobber provides some graveyard hate as well as some recursion since doing more is always better than doing less.
- Heroic Intervention
- Cyclonic Rift