Volrath, the Shapestealer - Clones
Posted: Mon Apr 26, 2021 3:58 pm
I haven't built a new deck in a long time and I have always had a fascination with Sultai. It is sort of a love hate relationship too. I think it is likely my favorite 3 color combination in EDH, but the generals for it all suck. Archelos, Lagoon Mystic is somewhat interesting but isn't really what I am looking for. Damia, Sage of Stone is the traditional good stuff commander and I did have her built at one time but it was never fun since there was no overarching theme to the deck. Yarok, the Desecrated also sort of fell inthis. "Play things with ETB triggers" isn't much of a theme and never felt all that fun.
On the other hand, Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer and Otrimi, the Ever-Playful actualy want to enforce a theme but almost too strictly. There aren't enough Mutate cards for Otrimi and I really just don't like Kadena though it otherwise fits the criteria I generally want a general to meet. Zaxara, the Exemplary sort of fits into this category as well and, again, just didn't seem all that interesting to me.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is a deck I had built a while back and one that I had a lot of fun with. Out of all the Sultai generals, she is the most fun and really hits a lot of things I care about. The problem with her is that she plays in a similar space to Karador. And, while not a huge issue, she was pretty easily shut down by things like Anafenza, the Foremost. I just didn't want to have another graveyard matters deck in the rotation.
I still tend to revisit the idea of a Sultai deck every so often but with little success. With the release of more partners, I decided to take another look at that route since the Sultai Legendaries aren't what I want. I thought Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper could provide some fun games. While she doesn't really do much to lend herself to a theme beyond "gain life" it is still the best of the ones I could see.
For a Partner I basically narrowed it down to two choices: Thrasios, Triton Hero and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces. I ultimately decided on Sakashima because Thrasios really isn't all that fun or interesting to me. Ramp and then draw/ramp more is boring. And Sakashima at least sort of lends itself to a bit of a clone theme which I haven't really done before. Ephara has a few, but not much.
But then, as I put that list together, I realized it was mostly just clones and Ikra Shidiqi wasn't actually contributing much. Based on a suggestion below, Volrath, the Shapestealer became the number one choice to helm the deck. So, with that, here is the list I am going with:
The idea isn't all that complex: I just threw a bunch of clones in with some big creatures that are worth cloning and ran with that. There is a fairly delicate balance of clones to actual threats and Spark Double is one of the more noteworthy exclusions because of this balance. It only copies my own stuff and I don't have planeswalkers so it ends up being pretty much the same thing as Sakashima of a Thousand Faces without the ability to benefit the rest of my clones in a general sense.
On the other hand, Kadena, Slinking Sorcerer and Otrimi, the Ever-Playful actualy want to enforce a theme but almost too strictly. There aren't enough Mutate cards for Otrimi and I really just don't like Kadena though it otherwise fits the criteria I generally want a general to meet. Zaxara, the Exemplary sort of fits into this category as well and, again, just didn't seem all that interesting to me.
Sidisi, Brood Tyrant is a deck I had built a while back and one that I had a lot of fun with. Out of all the Sultai generals, she is the most fun and really hits a lot of things I care about. The problem with her is that she plays in a similar space to Karador. And, while not a huge issue, she was pretty easily shut down by things like Anafenza, the Foremost. I just didn't want to have another graveyard matters deck in the rotation.
I still tend to revisit the idea of a Sultai deck every so often but with little success. With the release of more partners, I decided to take another look at that route since the Sultai Legendaries aren't what I want. I thought Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper could provide some fun games. While she doesn't really do much to lend herself to a theme beyond "gain life" it is still the best of the ones I could see.
For a Partner I basically narrowed it down to two choices: Thrasios, Triton Hero and Sakashima of a Thousand Faces. I ultimately decided on Sakashima because Thrasios really isn't all that fun or interesting to me. Ramp and then draw/ramp more is boring. And Sakashima at least sort of lends itself to a bit of a clone theme which I haven't really done before. Ephara has a few, but not much.
But then, as I put that list together, I realized it was mostly just clones and Ikra Shidiqi wasn't actually contributing much. Based on a suggestion below, Volrath, the Shapestealer became the number one choice to helm the deck. So, with that, here is the list I am going with:
Volrath, the Shapestealer
Approximate Total Cost:
The idea isn't all that complex: I just threw a bunch of clones in with some big creatures that are worth cloning and ran with that. There is a fairly delicate balance of clones to actual threats and Spark Double is one of the more noteworthy exclusions because of this balance. It only copies my own stuff and I don't have planeswalkers so it ends up being pretty much the same thing as Sakashima of a Thousand Faces without the ability to benefit the rest of my clones in a general sense.
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4/27/2021
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5/4/2021
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5/9/2021
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5/10/2021
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12/15/2021
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6/13/2022
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8/5/2022
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11/13/2022
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5/19/2023
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