Volo, Journaling on a Trapeze

[Chromaticus]

Branching off the Noble Volo thread - I had actually completely built the deck, but could not win a game - and I have too many W/X decks.

The commander and background for the deck is Volo, Itinerant Scholar with Popular Entertainer.

The problem with the previous deck was that Volo would die, perhaps after drawing a couple cards, the journal would stack up in his absence, and then if I ever recast him, he would immediately eat removal, or I would be killed to prevent drawing six cards or whatever.

Enter @pokken recommending red and a slew of haste enablers. From there, Popular Entertainer is by far the most fun of the red backgrounds, and forces a little heat off of me in a way that Noble Heritage wanted to, but ultimately didn't (mostly because making it to my upkeep with the commander was kind of the problem)

Most recent decklist:

Volo, Journaling on a Trapeze

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Commanders 2

1 Volo, Itinerant Scholar

1 Popular Entertainer

Creatures 35

1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

1 Dockside Extortionist

1 Phantasmal Image

1 Faerie Mastermind

1 Ghostly Pilferer

1 Grenzo, Havoc Raiser

1 Ledger Shredder

1 Looter Il-Kor

1 Suspicious Stowaway // Seafaring Werewolf

1 Imperial Recruiter

1 Trinket Mage

1 Combat Celebrant

1 Professional Face-Breaker

1 Phyrexian Metamorph

1 Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore

1 Yusri, Fortune's Flame

1 Vengeful Ancestor

1 Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion

1 Dack's Duplicate

1 Firkraag, Cunning Instigator

1 Goldspan Dragon

1 Karlach, Fury of Avernus

1 Neheb, the Eternal

1 Ancient Copper Dragon

1 Etali, Primal Storm

1 Hellkite Tyrant

1 Inferno Titan

1 Scourge of the Throne

1 Drakuseth, Maw of Flames

1 Palinchron

1 Ancient Silver Dragon

haste enablers 6

1 Mass Hysteria

1 Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei

1 Goblin Bushwhacker

1 Fervor

1 Hammer of Purphoros

1 Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded

Interaction 11

1 Mana Drain

1 Muddle the Mixture

1 Arcane Denial

1 Cyclonic Rift

1 Vandalblast

1 Fierce Guardianship

1 Deflecting Swat

1 Force of Will

1 Subtlety

1 Fury

Ramp 13

1 Chrome Mox

1 Mox Diamond

1 Jeweled Lotus

1 Mana Crypt

1 Sol Ring

1 Talisman of Curiosity

1 Ruby Medallion

1 Fellwar Stone

1 Izzet Signet

1 Cursed Mirror

1 Jeska's Will

1 Mana Geyser

Other 5

1 Cloudstone Curio

1 Mirage Mirror

Lands 36

1 Ancient Tomb

1 Arid Mesa

1 Bloodstained Mire

1 City of Brass

1 Command Tower

1 Exotic Orchard

1 Fiery Islet

1 Gemstone Caverns

1 Mana Confluence

1 Misty Rainforest

1 Polluted Delta

1 Prismatic Vista

1 Scalding Tarn

1 Shivan Reef

7 Snow-Covered Island

9 Snow-Covered Mountain

1 Steam Vents

1 Training Center

1 Urza's Saga

1 Volcanic Island

1 Wooded Foothills

Approximate Total Cost:

I need help flushing out the creature suite and the right mix of card draw to go along with Volo. I want to win with combat, not infinite. If the power level is too high with the fast mana, I can always tone it back - for now though, I think Volo will draw enough cards that the negative resources will work fine.

Edits:

- Spellseeker
- Lotus Petal
- An Offer You Can't Refuse
- Moraug, Fury of Akoum
- Spark Double
- Intuition
- Frantic Search
- Peregrine Drake
- Sneak Attack
- Mischievous Catgeist // Catlike Curiosity
- Force of Negation
- Anger
- Wonder

+Goblin Bushwhacker
+Looter il-Kor
+Suspicious Stowaway // Seafaring Werewolf

[pokken]

I don't like the equipment haste enablers because they give your opponents a window of interaction to remove Volo. I think the point of red would be to try to stick something that denies a window to stop Volo drawing a gajillion cards. Despite its small tension with Volo, Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded might be worth considering because of the haste and resilience combination.

Because of the Goad effect I would consider Mass Hysteria as a cheap haste effect. It's fun too

Frantic Search is going to be really good (since it helps you bin Wonder/Anger)

I'd consider an Intuition package as a good way to get Anger into the bin too (anger+wonder+Faithless Looting seems awright)

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx could be pretty good in some circumstances.

Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei seems really solid.

Trinket Mage is pretty good in Jeweled Lotus decks since it winds up being functionally free.

I'm not sure about the ramp package in this deck, but I'd definitely play Ancient Tomb if you're on signets. Despite you wanting haste on Volo, that's more to make it so you don't care about Volo dying since you always want the journal out as soon as possible--so you pretty much always want to run Volo out as soon as you can. That means your sequencing should revolve around that, and probably not have a ton of on-curve 3 drops.

One very nice thing about Popular Entertainer from a sequencing perspective is you can wait to cast it til whenever, so I guess ramping early with rocks makes some sense, since you kinda want to go Ramp → Volo → haste enabler → creature spam.

I think you may want to consider a Ruby Medallion or Sapphire Medallion and structure your creature package about that.

I definitely like Imperial Recruiter packages in this deck since you can storm out pretty easy with recruiter → dockside.

One nice thing about a large haste enabler package is it lets your wincon be Cloudstone Curio (or some bounce effect) + Volo, Itinerant Scholar + Dockside Extortionist.

So it may be worth thinking about if there is another alternative to Dockside Extortionist ... Palinchron off the top of my head seems reasonable, since it self-bounces.

In general, creatures that untap lands are going to be great in this deck.

Definitely play Muddle the Mixture for dockside

[Chromaticus]

I don't like the equipment haste enablers because they give your opponents a window of interaction to remove Volo. I think the point of red would be to try to stick something that denies a window to stop Volo drawing a gajillion cards. Despite its small tension with Volo, Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded might be worth considering because of the haste and resilience combination.

Because of the Goad effect I would consider Mass Hysteria as a cheap haste effect. It's fun too

Frantic Search is going to be really good (since it helps you bin Wonder/Anger)

I'd consider an Intuition package as a good way to get Anger into the bin too (anger+wonder+Faithless Looting seems awright)

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx could be pretty good in some circumstances.

Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei seems really solid.

Trinket Mage is pretty good in Jeweled Lotus decks since it winds up being functionally free.

I'm not sure about the ramp package in this deck, but I'd definitely play Ancient Tomb if you're on signets. Despite you wanting haste on Volo, that's more to make it so you don't care about Volo dying since you always want the journal out as soon as possible--so you pretty much always want to run Volo out as soon as you can. That means your sequencing should revolve around that, and probably not have a ton of on-curve 3 drops.

One very nice thing about Popular Entertainer from a sequencing perspective is you can wait to cast it til whenever, so I guess ramping early with rocks makes some sense, since you kinda want to go Ramp → Volo → haste enabler → creature spam.

I think you may want to consider a Ruby Medallion or Sapphire Medallion and structure your creature package about that.

I definitely like Imperial Recruiter packages in this deck since you can storm out pretty easy with recruiter → dockside.

One nice thing about a large haste enabler package is it lets your wincon be Cloudstone Curio (or some bounce effect) + Volo, Itinerant Scholar + Dockside Extortionist.

So it may be worth thinking about if there is another alternative to Dockside Extortionist ... Palinchron off the top of my head seems reasonable, since it self-bounces.

In general, creatures that untap lands are going to be great in this deck.

Definitely play Muddle the Mixture for dockside

Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded is one I'm definitely familiar with - didn't know if I wanted the haste at that cost - but I do like the idea of drawing a gazillion and being able to dump the fattys with his ability. He's pretty sweet with Palinchron as well!

I definitely like that the haste enablers dissuade people from killing Volo in the first place - like, okay, yes you're costing me mana, but I'm going to be juuust fine.

Not sure if I want to go all-in on combo. Normally not really my thing, and it's completely absent in my play group at present.

[pokken]

I think you could definitely get by with just aggro'ing. The Raid guys might be kinda cool even.

[Chromaticus]

I wonder if this is a Sneak Attack deck… gassing up with Volo, Itinerant Scholar and then dropping the fat is very attractive.

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre and / or Kozilek, Butcher of Truth as the top end seem pretty ferocious.

For other non Eldrazi fat, I'm thinking Balefire Dragon, Scourge of the Throne, Hellkite Tyrant and Utvara Hellkite are some of the better attack trigger guys.

How much beef is too much? :D

Mass Hysteria seems like it lines up pretty poorly with goad unless I'm missing something.

[pokken]

My thinking is with mass hysteria people are going to want to attack but if they attack it's shields down and they get goaded forever. It's a way to keep people from having as many blockers. It might not play out like that though.

It's definitely risk it for the biscuit territory tho lol.

I'm not sure about sneak attack. I think it's very strong but kinda no no with journal?

I like that it helps goad. But I can't help but think you want cheaper creatures and not a ton of fat.

Still it does set up some great turns with volo but your creature density has to be crazy high.

[Chromaticus]

So more Robber of the Rich style cards, less Utvara Hellkite?

When I tested this before, I was running things like Phoenix Chick and Sprite Dragon - no haste enablers.

[pokken]

So more Robber of the Rich style cards, less Utvara Hellkite?

When I tested this before, I was running things like Phoenix Chick and Sprite Dragon - no haste enablers.

I think you still want a decent amount of fatties but you want ones that blow up your mana, more Ancient Copper Dragon and Palinchron and less Utvara Hellkite ? I think?

I don't think you want entirely super cheap creatures because they don't take advantage of the haste, and you really only need a handful of attackers to maximize the goadings. So maybe you want a mix.

Things that can bounce themselves seem decent.

I'm sure there are some mid priced guys who make treasures or untap your lands or similar too.

Oh god...CLONES!

If Volo has haste, you can clone volo and chain activations with clones. That's hilarious.

[Chromaticus]

Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion
Neheb, the Eternal
, Palinchron,
Ancient Copper Dragon,
Great Whale
Professional Face-Breaker
Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
Hellkite Tyrant
Goldspan Dragon as mana producers.

Phantasmal Image and Phyrexian Metamorph and that mdfc card Glasspool Mimic // Glasspool Shore for clones.

[pokken]

Dack's Duplicate is probably good.

And this is likely a Spark Double deck, as well as maybe a Mirage Mirror.

man there's so much crazy stuff you can do!

It's neat that so many of the clones are different creature types too. shapshifter, illusion, shapeshifter rogue.

[Chromaticus]

Ooh, Yusri, Fortune's Flame is a card that I've been interested in for forever.

Faerie Mastermind and Ledger Shredder are evasive staple-level cards. Mischievous Catgeist // Catlike Curiosity is as cheap as an Ophidian gets.

Firkraag, Cunning Instigator doubles up on the goad theme, as does Komainu Battle Armor.

Trying to find the middle of the curve is a little more difficult.

[pokken]

Ghostly Pilferer maybe pretty good?
and Birgi, God of Storytelling // Harnfel, Horn of Bounty

[Chromaticus]

Preliminary decklist is up in the original post -- sitting at 109 cards, which is nice, because I originally only had about 40 cards brainstormed.

[pokken]

Wow cursed mirror is such a nice find.

I don't know where to start cutting since I have to read almost every creature lol. I'll try to take a longer look tomorrow but I think it's mostly creatures you have to prune

[Chromaticus]

I fixed up the formatting a little bit - the way I had done it before made it so I couldn't copy the list or goldfish hands.

I think it's going to be important to have enough low drop creatures to reliably get Volo's Journal boosted up quickly. I'm thinking about the little evasive looters— especially Looter il-Kor and Suspicious Stowaway // Seafaring Werewolf, but there might be others. I'm wondering if this is a Goblin Rabblemaster / Legion Warboss kind of deck.

Sequencing is a little tough to imagine, especially without a proper mana balance to goldfish.

[pokken]

Yeah I think the sequencing is going to be the hardest part to get right. I think you just have to hack at it and try to get the balance right.

One card I forgot that might be worth trying at the low end is Goblin Bushwhacker - lots of utility on there.

[Chromaticus]

- Spellseeker
- Lotus Petal
- An Offer You Can't Refuse
- Moraug, Fury of Akoum
- Spark Double
- Intuition
- Frantic Search
- Peregrine Drake
- Sneak Attack
- Mischievous Catgeist // Catlike Curiosity
- Force of Negation
- Anger
- Wonder

+Goblin Bushwhacker
+Looter il-Kor
+Suspicious Stowaway // Seafaring Werewolf

OP is updated. Had to cut some darlings, but the name of the game in this first iteration is the deck actually working. I think the incarnations are a little cute - realistically the plan for dumping them is overdrawing, and that's… a little ambitious.

[Chromaticus]

Built the deck in Moxfield and ran through some tests —

Couple initial impressions —

The clones are bonkers.
Karlach, Fury of Avernus and Scourge of the Throne only untap attackers - they might still be strong enough, but are not as auto-include as I was thinking.
Ancient Silver Dragon costs a LOT of mana - not willing to cut her yet because I really want to swing with it hasted :p

Moxfield also revealed that I had the Talisman name wrong, so Talisman of Creativity is in for Talisman of Curiosity.
Suspicious Stowaway // Seafaring Werewolf is not legal, so I'm going to try out Robber of the Rich.

I will also note that all interaction feels like mulligans when goldfishing, so I hate that 🤣

[Chromaticus]

First outing with the deck -

Played a solitaire game with my Ebondeath, Dracolich, Tivit, Seller of Secrets, and Carth the Lion decks.

Had an Ancient Tomb start that enabled a turn 2 Volo, Itinerant Scholar, and a turn 3 Mirage Mirror.

Carth accelerated out a turn 3 Carth the Lion and turn 4 Professor Onyx that went sac mode- taking out Ebondeath, Dracolich, Volo, Itinerant Scholar and Solemn Simulacrum from Tivit, Seller of Secrets. Ebondeath, Dracolich played out Bladewing's Thrall and Drew a card off Tome of Legends.

Turn 4, Volo played Firkraag, Cunning Instigator, which unfortunately kind of needed to go at Professor Onyx.

Turn 5, Tivit, Seller of Secrets played Shorikai, Genesis Engine and left up 2 mana. Carth played Nissa, Vital Force and Ophiomancer and Vampiric Tutor.

Ebondeath, Dracolich attacked Nissa, Vital Force with Bladewing's Thrall, essentially to force a death, and recast the commander, getting back Thrall and a previously Entombed Poxwalkers. In retrospect, I would have kept mana up for Ebondeath, but I wasn't certain something would die, and I didn't have enough mana to kill something and recast it.

Volo had kind of a lame turn here, animating Mirage Mirror to swing 5 power at Tivit and play Popular Entertainer. At end of turn Tivit activated Shorikai, Genesis Engine and played Vampiric Tutor for Ephemerate.

Tivit then played their commander, holding up 1 mana and 2 treasures.

Carth went for Doubling Season which Tivit countered with Swan Song, then Liliana, Dreadhorde General which resolved and went sacrifice mode. Poxwalkers and Thrall went down for Ebondeath, Dracolich, Volo went to no creatures, and Tivit activated Shorikai to make a second pilot, saving both.

Ebondeath played Lashwrithe and put Carth the Lion to 14 commander damage.

Volo played Dockside Extortionist for 8 treasures, then Ancient Copper Dragon, which ate removal from Carth in response to Dack's Duplicate who then copied Tivit, and attacked. I used the extra mana to play Volo, copy it with mirage mirror, and activate to draw 7 cards.

Tivit played Ephemerate at eot for some value, then Sun Titan on their turn.

Carth played Garruk, Cursed Huntsman, used the ultimate, played Garruk, Apex Predator which went for Sun Titan - Tivit played Disorder in the Court to attempt to slide out Tivit, Seller of Secrets and Sun Titan, but Sun Titan are a Deadly Rollick and Carth swung lethal at Tivit, Seller of Secrets, then downticked Liliana, Dreadhorde General to mostly clear out the board. Ebondeath, Dracolich played her out again, getting back the other two zombies.

On Ebondeath's turn, they suited up Lashwrithe, swung into Volo (Carth had held back the swan to block) and held up removal.

On Volo's turn, they played Goldspan Dragon and transmuted for Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei, playing it. When Scourge of the Throne came down, Goro-Goro, Disciple of Ryusei ate a removal spell, but Mirage Mirror was able to copy Scourge and attack Ebondeath, while Goldspan Dragon attacked Carth. On the second swing, both dragons went at Carth, knocking them out.

On Ebondeath, Dracolich's turn they attacked with the suited up Ebondeath, Dracolich, then had a funny move of playing Crux of Fate on dragon mode (something I don't anticipate a lot for that deck) and holding removal.

The next turn was too much though - Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded came down, and enabled a hasty Volo to draw 9 and into Palinchron + Phantasmal Image + Cloudstone Curio for good measure.

…

Game review:

Every deck got to do their thing!

What I didn't anticipate in testing this deck is what happens when the Journal just keeps ticking up… being able to draw an overfull grip off hasty Volo was the plan - but I kept thinking of it as, draw a couple cards, maybe draw 4. Instead, I drew 7 cards, then 9 cards back to back. I never wound up goading creatures that had to attack (multiple Liliana, Dreadhorde General activations will do that) in part because Volo kept dying.

Mirage Mirror was the mvp of the game by a wide margin- to the point where I will probably kill it on its first activation if I get the chance in games going forwards.

[pokken]

What I didn't anticipate in testing this deck is what happens when the Journal just keeps ticking up… being able to draw an overfull grip off hasty Volo was the plan - but I kept thinking of it as, draw a couple cards, maybe draw 4. Instead, I drew 7 cards, then 9 cards back to back. I never wound up goading creatures that had to attack (multiple Liliana, Dreadhorde General activations will do that) in part because Volo kept dying.

Yeah, that is kinda my read on hasty volo. they are forced to start thinking about killing your journal somehow, but it's pretty resilient--basically artifact sweepers.

A nice part about hasting Volo is it acts kind of like Lightning Greaves but without a window for interaction. So people are somewhat disincentivized to actually bother killing him since all it does is cost you a few mana and them a removal spell.

[Chromaticus]

Weird little card from scryfall:

Reinforced Ronin - 2 card types for Volo, and I can pitch him afterwards to cash in.

I think I want Mulldrifter in for Neheb, Dreadhorde Champion - every time I see Neheb I wish he was someone else.

I also want to try out Simian Spirit Guide for Fury.

Wondering if I want Drift of Phantasms as a way to get a haste outlet. Worst case scenario it's a butt that gives me a journal note.

[pokken]

Seems worth trying drift. The haste really helps.

Oh how about Trophy mage for thousand year elixir? Also gets cursed mirror.

[Chromaticus]

Thousand-Year Elixir is probably worth adding along with Trophy Mage, even though the true haste enablers are so nasty with the beaters in this deck.

I tested the deck last night without Palinchron and Cloudstone Curio - just not what I'm looking to do in games. Dockside Extortionist is fine in a game if it's once - he's too easy to infinite with otherwise.

The power of goad was in full force - @pokken - pray that no one ever runs this into your Breena, the Demagogue deck - because the goad was EXTREMELY annoying to deal with. I could basically orchestrate it to nearly completely turn off Breena triggers.

Another commanding win, this time off of a 20 mana Mana Geyser into Purphoros, Bronze-Blooded Ancient Silver Dragon plus Cursed Mirror. Even though one of the dragons was Maze of Ithed, I drew into free interaction on the board wipe the following turn and that was it.

[Chromaticus]

Turn 1 Mass Hysteria massively changes the way a commander game is played. In retrospect, the correct move was probably to sandbag it and play it on a turn where I would have had impact myself, but the experimental part of me couldn't resist.

I was able to get substantial goad value, and a lot of damage done - probably would have won if the Golos Sorrow's Path deck hadn't assembled Tamanoa and Pyrohemia on the turn before they would have died.

I am thinking this deck does want non-creature based extra combats - the on-attack ones are great, but a common play pattern is Ancient Copper Dragon or Neheb, the Eternal make oodles of mana after combat, draw a million cards, stare at Karlach, Fury of Avernus / Scourge of the Throne and tell them, next turn buddy.

[pokken]

Yeah you might want to play a couple extra turn spells instead. They're a bit more flexible?

But maybe savage beating world at war or seize the day? Seize is really efficient.