Volrath, Commander

Posted on January 17, 2013

If you are checking out this article, I don’t need to tell you just how great Commander is, right? It’s a whole lot of fun for your kitchen table. The weekend approaches, and it heralds the playing of Magic, baby!¹ Today, I thought I would try out another Commander deck for the masses. I searched for all legendary creatures, and then instead of starting with Aboshan, Cephalid Emperor, who is always first in the alphabetical index, I went to the last page. There I saw my Commander, all ready to rock.

There’s no ability to build suspense when the title of the article has the card I chose, so instead of playing footsies, I’ll just inform you straight up: I was really enthralled by Volrath. The ability to grow big enough to smash someone to death in one hit with commander damage really intrigues me. Therefore, I decided to roll with Mr. Volrath and see what I could create. I’ve built a few mono-black Commander decks for GM.com before, but Volrath is different enough that I knew I could make it unique.² Let’s look at the deck list first.

"Volrath Is Displeased with Thee"

Commander (0)

Volrath wants to discard creature cards for pumping himself. Since that is the only trick he knows, I wanted to have creatures with high casting costs to assist. With these high casting costs came a few extra needs. First of all, I needed to be able to play these expensive creatures. Then, I wanted to use them while they were in the graveyard for various effects, including a smattering of reanimation.

Let’s begin by looking at the big-casting-cost creatures I wanted. To begin, I knew I had to play Draco. Yeah, it’s hard to play or keep on the board, but discarding the iconic card to slay an opponent in one hit via Volrath appealed to me. That sort of thing pleases my inner Timmy. After that, in went both Darksteel Colossus and Blightsteel Colossus. Both are happy to be discarded for the team. I have several cards that will shuffle back in for more discarding fun later. Looking at colorless creatures, I decided to play a trio of Eldrazi. Artisan of Kozilek will net one of my large creatures from the graveyard when played from my hand. Both Daddy Kozilek and Ulamog the Awesome are running around as well.

I didn’t stop with these big guns either. Also jumping in are useful creatures such as Dread Cacodemon, Reiver Demon, and Avatar of Woe. The Avatar is perfect—it’s cheap to cast but has a high cost for Volrath. After finding it suitable, it reminded me of the morph mechanic; I looked at morph creatures to see if any had a high cost, but none pleased me. Reiver Demon and Dread Cacodemon bring a bit of anti-creature game to the deck as well. I included the cycling Scion of Darkness, which is a fine body to bring back if needed.

Next came the 5-, 6-, and 7-mana bodies that gave me really powerful abilities. Dread is always a house due to its fear and No Mercy ability. Both it and Grave Titan give me very powerful bodies and abilities for 6 mana. Since its return, this is the first deck I’ve made to include Kokusho, the Evening Star. It slides nicely alongside the other cards in the deck. Frankly, once the mana comes online, it’s a bit weak compared to the other guys here, but it’s still strong enough to hold its own when needed. Rune-Scarred Demon is big enough to fight powerfully in the red zone even after you tutor with him. Sheoldred, Whispering One is simply amazing here since the deck discards big guys. She’ll often reanimate a discarded dude once a turn. Considering her power, Sheoldred is among the best creatures, and if you can protect her with something like Lightning Greaves, it’s nasty.

I then slid to supporting creatures. Magus of the Coffers and Nirkana Revenant assist my deck in producing mana. Since I need a lot of mana for the big guys, they are very important. I felt a bit more creature removal would be effective, and I included the higher-casting-cost Shriekmaw and Dark Hatchling over things such as Nekrataal and Bone Shredder. Twisted Abomination was quickly added to search for mana, discard to Volrath for a lot, or to drop down and be a decent regenerating blocker. With my need for mana obvious, Solemn Simulacrum joins the deck.³

Since I still felt that my deck needed a few more creatures, I decided to add some heft. In went guys and gals such as Geth, Lord of the Vault, Visara the Dreadful, and Mikaeus, the Unhallowed. Darksteel Sentinel joined the team. Puppeteer Clique was an interesting addition. Finally, I wrapped up my deck with Harvester of Souls and one very interesting mythic: Necropolis Regent. The Regent is really powerful with Volrath. Whenever a creature I control deals damage to a player, that dude receives that many +1/+1 counters. I didn’t see the combo at first, but I eventually hit upon it. When I attack with Volrath, suppose I discard Dread and smash a player with my 12/11. With the Regent in play, Volrath will then permanently grow by 12. That’s a potent bit of synergy.

After these creatures, the next thing I wanted to shore up was my mana production. In went Cabal Coffers and that trio of artifacts: Extraplanar Lens, Caged Sun, and Gauntlet of Power. I also felt that Crypt of Agadeem would result in a powerful injection of mana considering how many creatures I might be discarding to good ol’ Volrath. After that, Sol Ring was added, and I wanted more acceleration. In went both Thran Dynamo and Dreamstone Hedron.

My land-search began with Expedition Map. In any deck with Cabal Coffers, I want a Map to fetch it. I know I won’t have many other utility lands to grab. I need Swamps for the mana acceleration. Let’s cut it at the Crypt, Volrath's Stronghold,⁴ and Bojuka Bog. Everything else will be Swamps. That quartet of awesome nonbasics gives me enough game for the Map to prove very useful in any situation. Armillary Sphere makes the cut to fetch two Swamps, and Liliana of the Dark Realms was the first planeswalker to make the cut. I want to search out a Swamp every turn, thank you very much.

While I was on the planeswalker kick, I included another trio. Every mono-black Commander deck needs Karn Liberated to handle permanents that black is traditionally weak against. I love Sorin Markov in Commander decks, but not as much in a format where people begin with 20 life. The ability to hack someone to 10 life right out of the box is basically Sorin’s ultimate in Commander. Finally, the card-advantage discard ability of Liliana Vess and her tutoring capabilities both really appeal to me for multiplayer. She is my favorite mono-black planeswalker for multiplayer.⁵

I knew I needed to get in a hit with Mr. No Evasion, so I moved to Equipment next. Whispersilk Cloak is an essential with Volrath. I like Lightning Greaves to give me an equip and smash with haste. You can often hit an exposed defense with the assistance of some Greaves. Sword of Vengeance may not give me evasion, but it does grant haste and trample among its many other abilities, so you can smash quickly and through a defense. I wanted to make Volrath more threatening, so in went Bonehoard and Batterskull. They can equip anything and make it dangerous, but they are nasty on Volrath. Imagine discarding creatures with Batterskull on Volrath. Any Commander with a large Bonehoard does a great Phage the Untouchable impersonation—it will kill in one hit. After looking at my Equipment, I felt one more trick was called for, so in went Dauthi Embrace, to enshadow a creature, such as Volrath, to snake through defenses.

With the majority of my deck established, the rest was just fleshing it out. In went Oversold Cemetery to yield a creature back in each of my upkeeps. I tossed in Beacon of Unrest to animate many possible targets, including a big creature or mana-producing artifact in my own discard pile. I wanted a smattering of card-drawing, so Syphon Mind joined the team. I included both Nihil Spellbomb and Suffer the Past so Bojuka Bog won’t be the lone graveyard abuse fighter. Sensei's Divining Top fills a nice niche early or late. Both Decree of Pain and Damnation stretch my mass removal a bit as Nevinyrral's Disk is adequate as a last resort. Death Denied will return a lot of ammo to my hand for another go-around either for Volrath or for the board. Fueled by Coffers and friends, Exsanguinate is a must-include. Demonic Tutor won’t raise any suspicions, and finally, Diabolic Revelation is here since the deck is making enough mana to fuel it already. In here, it’s going to be a firecracker.

Some of the last cards cut from this deck include Tortured Existence, Haunted Crossroads, Murder, and Gilded Lotus.

That concludes our look at another mono-black Commander that is harnessed in a different way.

Remember, thou shalt not offend thy Volrath!

See you next week,

Abe Sargent

¹ Unless you have your Magic night on a non-weekend night, which is cool, too.

² Did you know that this is the fourth mono-black Commander deck I’ve built for this website? The first three used Drana, Marrow-Gnawer, and Nefarox as their commanders.

³ Check out Crypt Ghast from Gatecrash for a good choice after it’s released.

⁴ If I didn’t run Volrath's Stronghold in this deck, you should shoot me now.

⁵ In general multiplayer use, I rank the mono-black planeswalkers in this order: