Hello Awesome Folks! I hope that you are having an amazing day today! Today I am doing my ninth deck built around a leader that just debuted in Battle for Baldur's Gate. In B4BG I have built around a bunch of popular and awesome folks, and I really enjoy a lot of my decks. You can see my Appendix below of the first 8. In the last D&D set I built around the first Volo (check it out here), so I was pretty happy to do it again, and this time add black instead of green to dip into a different feeling deck.

Volo makes his Journal on arrival that has hexproof and gets types that you have cast, one per creature, and then you can tap him for two mana to draw cards equal to the amount of different types noted. Also note that this is a cast trigger not an ETB one, so blinking creatures or tokens or reanimation won't work. Our black background is Agent of the Iron Throne, which will force all of our foes to lose a life as your creatures and artifacts die, and it's mostly a placeholder since I wanted black and it plays well with the color, and we won't be leaning into it much.

I'll add in a few sacrifice engines to grab a win out of nowhere just in case it's needed. There are no Volo Dimir pairings over at EDHREC.com yet with any of the backgrounds so that's nice since I don't have any canon to play into or against. And there is only one copy of a Dimir pairing with Agent, and that's the mill deck of Zellix, Sanity Flayer. Note that unlike Volo take one you can share one type as long as one is unique, so I can cast a Mulldrifter for Elemental and then a Cavalier of Gales which is an Elemental Knight for Knight.

Since this is a three drop, a two-drop mana rock won't be any faster than a three drop one, so I'll be leaning into Manaliths over Signets.

Let's get started with Creatures with Different Types that are Cool!

A 6/6 flyer that, on arrival to the battlefield or when it swings does a lot of powerful things. Drains a foe of three life, forces their discard, draws you a card, and then that foe sacrifices a dork or 'walker they control. Nasty over and over again, and with a game-winning powerhouse of size behind it. The second card is our token Clone effect here and it's a Shapeshifter when you cast it and it can copy any permanent on arrival from planeswalkers to creatures to mana rocks. It's one of the best Clones ever printed.

The Demon is a 7 mana 6/6 with flying and on arrival it brings a Demonic Tutor for any card in your deck, nice card flow and our only Tutor effect in the brew. Nice right? The Giant is also a 6/6 this time for 6 mana with deathtouch and when it arrives or swings it makes two 2/2s of the Zombie persuasion, which is great for flooding the board with the goods. It's pretty strong here, right? Right!

Sacrifice Engines and More Synergies

We also have a few ways to sacrifice and then win with your Background. You can sacrifice stuff mana-free and then scry 1 each time with the Seer, the only Vampire in your deck. The Strider is a 3/2 Horror that will make a 0/1 Goat for blocking and also sacrifices your stuff for scry 1 mana free. Nice pair!

Check out our only God. This 5-drop 5/6 with menace is pretty good at the punching and on arrival to the battlefield you can sacrifice any number of permanents to draw that many cards, nice punching fun times for the card flow. Those are my three key ways of sacrificing multiple cards at a time. We also have a few solo sacrifices here and there as well.

Remember that Volo has a "cast trigger" just like this enchantment that can spend another mana to bounce an opposing or solo dork to their hand. One key way to win is to bounce your foe's stuff, and then swing into a naked board and keep on bouncing. You can also bounce your things to get another ETB trigger and casting of a thing again.

These two also have cast triggers. The former is out only Kraken, and it's a 7-mana 7/8 with flash, cannot be countered, and can turn your casts of anything new just spells into bounces of spells or nonland at your leisure, which will also win the game with naked boards. The latter is an 8 drop 5/5 flyer that also turns the casting of any spell into bounce as well for more triggers of fun times commencing. Good pair here, right? I think so as well.

Since we want to keep on casting things and netting triggers for the above three things as well as ETB triggers for your stuff, I want to find more ways to self-bounce, enter this trio. The first two will tap for a mana and then bounce your guy if you don't spend another mana, so don't spend that mana. They can also tap and tax your foes by a mana each, and if they left just one mana open, use it, untap, and then bounce again. The third is a classic Commander staple that has been underprinted. This 3-drop artifact may bounce a non-artifact permanent which shares a type when it arrives to your battlefield so if you drop a Mulldrifter you can bounce your Liliana's Specter for free.

Because my main card draw is Volo's tap, I have some mana-free untap effects, like this two-set. The Vizier is my only Cleric and it's a 3-drop 1/3 that can tap to untap any permanent, and if you don't control Volo, you can untap a land or mana rock for more mana. The Conjurer is my only Gnome and you can tap this 2/3 to also untap anything else, so you can untap lands, mana rocks, creatures after they attack to block, and Volo for more tapping card draw. We have some other untappers in here as well with unique creature types.

I have one card that I added just to win the game: Kokusho, the Evening Star. This used to be banned in the format, and now it's just a 5/5 flyer that you can sacrifice to drain 5 life from each foe, trigger the Agent for 1 more life loss, and then gain a bunch of life from. It's also a nice suicidal attacker since it often slips past traders that don't want to lose their blocker and give you 15 life, and it's pretty sexy with its flying fun times.

As I mentioned above, we have Volo as our major card drawer, but I do have untappers for him and then the occasional card with an ETB trigger for cards like the aforementioned Cavalier and Mulldrifter. And these! The black one is a 3-drop 3/2 with deathtouch, on curve, and can play keep away while the flyers get in smashes overhead. It's our only Scorpion, exploits for a trigger of our Commander, and then draws two and loses two life. The blue one is our only Sphinx. This 7 mana 5/6 flyer used to be a staple of the format and you saw it all over, but now it is getting replaced with Fact or Fiction and other spells, but here it helps our Volo draw another card, and acts as a Fact or Fiction on legs and then also can punch for some damage in the skies.

Answers

We have 10 counters in my deck as answers, typically for answers for mass or targeted removal, including this pair. The 6-drop is our only Illusion and will counter any spell, and has flash and flying and grows by the mana cost of the card that you answered, and the five drop is a 5/4 Shark and lacks flying but is bigger naturally and counters artifacts and creature spells and can play flash tricks.

I am running two ways to steal something. The first card is our only Siren and can drop for just one mana to draw another card from Volo and then also fly over for damage. You can also bestow it to steal an opposing dork and give it flying and a +1/+1 boost. The second card is our other Dragon Spirit and whichever you named with Kokusho you can name the other here. This 5/5 will steal any dork when it dies, and with this many sacrifice effects for our Agent, it makes sense to toss it in as well, right?

Check out these two Warriors. The first is our only Orc and you'll choose Warrior for the second since we have another key solo Zombie that's an untapper. These are three drop 3/1s that force everyone to sacrifice a dork on arrival to the battlefield, including you.

I am running these and several more for a few reasons. First, to synergize with Agent, and remember you can always sacrifice them to its own ability if you like your battlefield. The second is that Edict effects like this one often hit people with hard to interact with cards with hexproof, shroud, and/or indestructible, but if the only one they have then this can expose them to a nasty Edict effect, and things like Blightsteel Colossus and a Commander hiding behind the heavily played Lightning Greaves are reasons to run it. Nice right?

I tossed in the two expected sacrifice lands of Phyrexian Tower and High Market, but I wanted a third, enter Miren, which can tap with 3 mana to sacrifice and gain life equal to the sacrificed dork's toughness. We could use another untapper in my mana base, so check out Minamo that enters untapped for blue mana production and ready to tap for one mana to untap Volo or another legendary dork here. Nice pair!

I'd also like to add another non-Volo card flow in case he has been answered and is uncastable due to Commander Tax. War Room can tap for three mana and lose two life to draw a card and doesn't require any additional resources to do so!

New Cards from Baldur's Gate

The first and third are Manaliths that make one color of mana. The first won't give you any hand size and will let your Volo taps accumulate and the third will act as a Minamo in mana rock form, tapping for a mana to untap a legendary dork, enter Volo. The middle card costs three, sacrifices for two, and grabs two basics from your library and ramps one, so that's one more mana than Armillary Sphere for a ramp instead of to your hand.

The Spawn is our only Fish, and it has flash, ward 2 to play keep away, and will copy any ETB ability our foe just used. Nice synergy here, right? The Devil is the only one of that type here, and I am running it for another Edict effect on a stick, and in this case, this 4-drop 4/2 won't let folks sacrifice tokens to save their good stuff, so it's a nice upgrade from the others we saw.

Ready for the deck list proper?

Take Two Dimir Volo | Commander | Abe Sargent

• Commander (2)
• 1 Volo, Itinerant Scholar
• 1 Agent of the Iron Throne

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Archon of Cruelty
• 1 Bone Shredder
• 1 Burglar Rat
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Cavalier of Gales
• 1 Chain Devil
• 1 Clever Conjurer
• 1 Clever Impersonator
• 1 Draining Whelk
• 1 Fatestitcher
• 1 Fell Stinger
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Glasspool Mimic
• 1 Grave Titan
• 1 Hullbreaker Horror
• 1 Hypnotic Siren
• 1 Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1 Kelpie Guide
• 1 Kokusho, the Evening Star
• 1 Liliana's Specter
• 1 Merciless Executioner
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Nekrataal
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Ravenous Chupacabra
• 1 Rune-Scarred Demon
• 1 Slum Reaper
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Sphinx of Uthuun
• 1 Tidespout Tyrant
• 1 Virus Beetle
• 1 Vizier of Tumbling Sands
• 1 Voracious Greatshark
• 1 Vulturous Aven
• 1 Woe Strider

• Spells (17)
• 1 Agadeeem's Awakening
• 1 An Offer You Can't Refuse
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Cryptic Command
• 1 Cyclonic Rift
• 1 Disallow
• 1 Dismiss
• 1 Hagra Mauling
• 1 Insidious Will
• 1 Malakir Rebirth
• 1 Negate
• 1 Persist
• 1 Predatory Nightstalker
• 1 Sea Gate Restoration
• 1 Silumgar's Command
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Equilibrium

• Artifacts (11)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Cloudstone Curio
• 1 Crystal Shard
• 1 Decanter of Endless Water
• 1 Erratic Portal
• 1 Lightning Greaves
• 1 Navigation Orb
• 1 Patriar's Seal
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Swiftfoot Boots
• 1 Thought Vessel

• Lands (37)
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Drowned Catacombs
• 1 High Market
• 1 Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1 Miren, the Moaning Well
• 1 Morphic Pool
• 1 Otawara, the Soaring City
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Reliquary Tower
• 1 Shipwreck Marsh
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 War Room
• 1 Watery Grave
• 11 Island
• 11 Swamp

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And there we go! I have these creature types in the deck:

• Archon
• Assassin
• Beast
• Bird
• Cleric
• Demon
• Devil
• Djinn
• Dragon
• Elemental
• Elk
• Fish
• Giant
• Gnome
• God
• Golem
• Horror
• Human
• Illusion
• Insect
• Knight
• Kraken
• Minion
• Nightstalker
• Orc
• Phyrexian
• Rat
• Rogue
• Scorpion
• Shaman
• Shapeshifter
• Shark
• Siren
• Specter
• Sphinx
• Spirit
• Thopter
• Vampire
• Warrior
• Wizard
• Zombie

Pretty cool, right?

Anything in here that inspired you? What color will you combine with your Volo and did I choose the right black one? Anything I missed or that you liked, just let me know in the comments below!

Appendix

1. My first deck was built around Alora, Merry Thief and Far Traveler. The goal was to self-bounce and recast your things to trigger ETB things (Mulldrifter), self-bounce things (Azorius Aethermage), leaves play things (Circuit Mender), cast things (Equilibrium) and tapping the dork for something valuable (Opposition), with a bounce of self-bounce (Erratic Portal) and a flicker backup theme (Far Traveler proper) in order to lean into the non-cast stuff. Love it loads and it was inspired by my Equilibrium self-bounce Bant Commander deck. Check it here.
2. My second deck is a Gruul deck built around the planeswalker Minsc and Boo, Timeless Heroes, which you can find here. That deck enables and is built around fun hasters (Froghemoth), tramplers (Giant Ankheg), and changelings with Hamster (Chameleon Colossus). Fun stuff and many of these cards are not on the EDHREC.com page of him either.
3. My third deck is a Pinger deck that uses Prodigal Sorcerer and Prodigal Pyromancer to tap and kill small stuff, and then combines with deathtouch equipment like Basilisk Collar, and pinging synergies like card draw (Curiosity) and creature stealing and bounce (Sigil of Sleep). It's run by the haste-giving to tapper Dynaheir, Invoker Adept, which you can find here.
4. My next deck a Tribal Rakdos build around Raphael, Fiendish Savior, and his love of Tribal and loving creature that went to the graveyard from anywhere. I tossed in tribal synergies, Aristocrats in the Tribe like Mayhem Devil, self-recurring dorks (Bloodghast), cycling cards (Archfiend of Ifnir), discard card flow (Big Score) and recursion (Living Death). It's fun!
5. Myrkul, Lord of Bones (Check it out here) was built as the leader of a Midrange and Constellation deck that ran a bunch of dorks with ETB abilities for value (like Liliana's Specter and Archon of Cruelty), sacrificed them for value (High Market and Dockside Chef), netted a return as an enchantment to trigger another ETB for it and constellation dorks (like Underworld Coinsmith and Eidolon of Blossoms) and then added in some ramp, answers, card flow, and called it a deck! I hope you enjoy this weird thing!
6. My next deck was an Aristocrats-style artifact heavy brew around Jan Jansen, Chaos Crafter, which you can find here. It's built around Black Aristocrat triggers (Disciple of the Vault) and Rakdos sacrificing (Goblin Welder, Dockside Chef) and red ETB triggers (Reckless Fireweaver) and White recursion (Open the Vaults).
7. My next deck was built around giving and trading away dorks to foes (Donate, Switcheroo) and then goading them (Bloodthirsty Blade, Psychic Impetus) and then drawing cards with Jon Irenicus, Shattered One. (Check it out here!) The deck also has ETB dorks to give away after they've done their thing (Mulldrifter, Ravenous Chupacabra) as well as bad dorks you don't want (Rotting Regisaur, Ebon Drake). Enjoy!
8. This deck sees me go black to twin with Durnan of the Yawning Portal with my Golgari Voltron direction with Agent of the Shadow Thieves which gives him deathtouch and indestructible when you attack the right person. I have win cons (Vorpal Sword), trample giving with breaks deathtouch, (Rancor), lifelink (Loxodon Warhammer) creature equipment to count for Durnan's creature exile casting (Blade of the Oni), mass removal to cast after Durnan gets indestructible (Damnation) and more. You can find it here.