Volrath's Knockoff Factory

Commander / EDH* BUG (Sultai) Casual Counters Infect

CRAMS

Creature (30)

• 1x Blighted Agent
• 1x Invisible Stalker
• 1x Soul Diviner
• 1x Augmenter Pugilist  ^Flip
• 1x Cold-Eyed Selkie
• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Generous Patron
• 1x Kodama of the West Tree
• 1x Necroskitter
• 1x Park Heights Maverick
• 1x Plaxcaster Frogling
• 1x Predator Ooze
• 1x Scute Swarm
• 1x Tainted Observer
• 1x Viridian Joiner
• 1x Fathom Mage
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Master Biomancer
• 1x Rampant Rejuvenator
• 1x Renata, Called to the Hunt
• 1x Slippery Bogbonder
• 1x Spark Double
• 1x Spike Weaver
• 1x Viral Drake
• 1x Drana, the Last Bloodchief
• 1x Willbreaker
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Nacatl War-Pride
• 1x Vigor

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Persist
• 1x Bala Ged Recovery  ^Flip
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Emergent Ultimatum

Land (34)

• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 6x Forest
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 5x Island
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Opulent Palace
• 1x Oran-Rief, the Vastwood
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 4x Swamp
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Woodland Cemetery
• 1x Zagoth Triome

Artifact (7)

• 1x Everflowing Chalice
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Replicating Ring
• 1x Sword of Truth and Justice
• 1x The Great Henge

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jiang Yanggu, Wildcrafter *f-pre*
• 1x Oko, Thief of Crowns

Commander (1)

Instant (10)

• 1x Malakir Rebirth  ^Flip
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Assassin's Trophy *pp*
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Inspiring Call
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Force of Vigor
• 1x Hagra Mauling  ^Flip

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Blowfly Infestation
• 1x Fight Rigging
• 1x Hadana's Climb  ^Flip
• 1x Nest of Scarabs
• 1x Propaganda
• 1x Rhystic StudyGC
• 1x Path of Discovery
• 1x Inexorable Tide

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Maybeboard

Creature (20)

• 1x Pili-Pala
• 1x Sygg, River Cutthroat
• 1x Thrummingbird
• 1x Cephalid Constable
• 1x Champion of Lambholt
• 1x Farmstead Gleaner
• 1x Glasspool Mimic  ^Flip
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Troll Ascetic
• 1x Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire
• 1x Bloodtracker
• 1x Clever Impersonator
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Vhati il-Dal
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Spiritmonger
• 1x Wandering Archaic  ^Flip
• 1x Carnifex Demon
• 1x Rakshasa Debaser
• 1x Tetzimoc, Primal Death

Land (8)

• 1x Llanowar Reborn
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Myriad Landscape
• 1x Mystic Sanctuary
• 1x Novijen, Heart of Progress
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Temple of the False God

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Inevitable Betrayal
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Three Visits
• 1x Villainous Wealth
• 1x Natural Order
• 1x Skyshroud Claim
• 1x Tezzeret's Gambit

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Oko, Thief of Crowns

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Crumbling Ashes
• 1x Simic Ascendancy
• 1x Cunning Rhetoric
• 1x Curse of Predation
• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Inexorable Tide

Artifact (5)

• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Mirage Mirror
• 1x Helm of Possession

Instant (3)

• 1x Snakeskin Veil
• 1x Growth Spiral
• 1x Putrefy

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When Volrath, the Shapestealer was previewed I instantly lot this would be a fun card for shenanigans, an potentially some very complicated stack oriented combos. And was I ever right! There are a lot of fun/janky interactions and combos to be had. This deck does not however go hard into the potential infinite combos, but does give you one in case you feel like villainous wealthing your opponent into oblivion. In this build, I'm really focused on fun, crazy interactions, and flexibility to respond.

I wanted to be on theme with this as much as possible, while also utilizing a lot of cards I already owned. So our goal with this deck is to play creatures with useful counter related abilities, and copy them with Volrath and either attack in for commander damage/combat damage effects, or use his ability and the stack to create a lot of weird value.

GET COUNTERS ON YOUR STUFF So one of the most important parts of the deck is just getting counters on your creatures. So we have several things that do this very well: Master Biomancer Curse of Predation a really great card in this because all our opponents who take advantage of it then become targets for Volrath's Shapstealing ability Forgotten Ancient Hadana's Climb   Vigor Unspeakable Symbol Bow of Nylea

These all put +1 +1 Counters on your creatures in pretty interesting ways. Vigor is probably my favorite in that it can be VERY explosive and makes you a very undesirable target. Especially when we have something like Doubling Season on the board.

COUNTERS COUNTERS EVERYWHERE AND VOLRATH LOVES TO DRINK So as a friend of mine pointed out, utilizing your own creatures for copying is good, but it makes you more vulnerable to board wipes. So it's equally important AND on theme to dump counters on your opponents creatures. This is great because we can do it both positively and negatively. This can be an extremely useful political move and de-incentivize board wipes. So we can redundantly use Unspeakable Symbol, or Bow of Nylea to put counters on our opponent's creatures, Generous Patron accomplishes the same thing and draws you cards when you are 'generous'. If we want to drop some negs on opponent's creatures, look no further than our fantastic commander, who gives us at least one counter a turn. We've also got Serrated Arrows, Contagion Clasp, Blowfly Infestation, Black Sun's Zenith, and Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. All of these keep the counters coming in various ways and keep our opponents boards down, while giving us the ability to copy anything. Blowfly Infestation is incredibly useful with the because the counters keep jumping around.

MAKE MORE COUNTERS So our non-commander related plan in this deck is to make a lot of big things with counters. So we have Doubling Season, Hardened Scales,Corpsejack Menace And then we have a lot of cards to help us Proliferate like Contagion Clasp,Karn's Bastion,Viral Drake, Inexorable Tide, Evolution Sage, card:Sword of Trush and Justice, and Thrummingbird.

MTG IS ALL ABOUT DRAWING CARDS So to stay competitive with this relatively casual deck we are going to have to draw cards. We have some really easy ways to do it, and some more 'labor intensive' methods. Most of these are a little roundabout, but I'm trying to keep everything copyable, and so cards like Guardian Project which would create a lot of card draw, are just not quite efficient enough for this. EASY Rhystic Study - Just a super powerful card The Great Henge Which will also ramp and put counters. This thing is incredible in this deck. Inspiring Call -one time but very useful in a pinch Fathom Mage - this can create a lot of card draw at a speed we can manage. Path of Discovery will also give us ramp and an engine to keep us moving through our deck.

Then we have cards like Cold-Eyed Selkie which deliver quite a bit of card draw on contact. Having volrath transform and connect copying her nets us 7 cards! Generous Patron also creates a lot of card advantage for us while multitasking, and a card like Thada Adel, Acquisitor creates a lot of unconventional value when she (or a Volrath copy) connects. This will work as both removal AND card advantage for us.

Now there are a few very fun synergies. And when you add your opponent's cards there are infinite janky plays that are REALLY fun. Being able to stack Volrath's transformations and making him unblockable can unleash a lot of pain. For example... Getting a token on Volrath, and then having Herald of Secret Streams allows him to get in unblocked, then transform him into anything to get the trigger. THIS is pretty easy. But it gets better. Volrath becomes Blighted Agent so he becomes unblockable, you declare attackers, then have him copy Cold-Eyed Selkie to draw at LEAST 7 cards. OR Volrath copies Nacatl War-Pride, attacks, before the war-pride trigger resolves he become a copy of any other creature you want multiples of you can copy! It's a sneaky way to essentially give myriad to anything.

We are running one infinite combo which involves Viridian Joiner and Farmstead Gleaner. Really simply, Get a counter on each, then turn Volrath into Viridian Joiner, tap him for 7G then use 1 to turn Volrath into Farmstead Gleaner, then pay 2G to untap Volrath. AND REPEAT!

WINNING Well I just described a few ways to create a lot of on board power to push a win through, but we have other ways as well. A simple one is Simic Ascendancy. Usually I don't love this card, but I think in this deck its a reasonable stress to put on your opponents, and late game you can win in a turn with it. Even just one trigger may be enough. We also have a Villainous Wealth, because if we are going to play Sultai, we are going to play one of the most fun cards. This is yet another way to take things from our opponents and use them to pusha win through. I will say, this card is not worth playing until the late game in this deck though, I don't think the deck has the finishishing power to grab one or two cards early game and close. Finally, use your opponents things! Volrath is very good at copying your opponents things and using their best abilities against them. If someone has a giant eldrazi with some annihilator 4, then USE IT. If someone has a Memnarch, USE IT. I've stayed away from playing some of the biggest baddest creatures, because my hope is that we'll be able to utilize our opponent's as often as possible.

If you've got some feedback, I'm still heavily into designing this, but here is my first draft!

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 22 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.38
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Elk 3/3 G, Food, Insect 1/1 B, Insect 1/1 G, Replicated Ring