Varolz, the scar striped

Commander / EDH BG (Golgari)

xekke

Creature (21)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Brawn
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Deathrite Shaman
• 1x Death's Shadow
• 1x Delighted Halfling
• 1x Elves of Deep Shadow
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Filth
• 1x Force of Savagery
• 1x Hunted Horror
• 1x Phyrexian Crusader
• 1x Phyrexian Dreadnought
• 1x Phyrexian Soulgorger
• 1x Plague Stinger
• 1x Riftsweeper
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Viridian Corrupter

Enchantment (8)

• 1x City of Solitude
• 1x Concordant Crossroads
• 1x Dark Tutelage
• 1x Phyresis
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rancor
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

Artifact (8)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Lion's Eye Diamond
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Resilience

Land (33)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Blooming Marsh
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dryad Arbor
• 8x Forest
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Inkmoth Nexus
• 1x Llanowar Wastes
• 1x Nurturing Peatland
• 1x Overgrown Tomb
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Strip Mine
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Twilight Mire
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Woodland Cemetery

Sorcery (10)

• 1x Buried Alive
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Jarad's Orders
• 1x Maelstrom Pulse
• 1x Night's Whisper
• 1x Read the Bones
• 1x Regrowth

Commander (1)

Instant (19)

• 1x Abrupt Decay
• 1x Ad Nauseam
• 1x Assassin's Trophy
• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Berserk
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Grisly Salvage
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Nature's Claim
• 1x Putrefy
• 1x Slaughter Pact
• 1x Sudden Spoiling
• 1x Tainted Strike
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Victim of Night
• 1x Vines of Vastwood
• 1x Worldly Tutor

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Maybeboard

Instant (2)

• 1x Autumn's Veil
• 1x Veil of Summer

Land (1)

• 1x Dryad Arbor

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Regrowth

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Varolz, the Scar-Striped: Boom goes the dynamite

This is a Varolz, the Scar-Striped deck that aims to kill everyone as fast as possible. With the so-called "God Hand", it can kill a player as fast as turn 1, but mostly you will aim at a turn 3 or 4 kill pretty consistently. The key to doing this rests in 2 key creatures: Phyrexian Dreadnought and Death's Shadow. Their high power, 12 & 13, and low mana cost, {1} and {B}, respectively make them perfect scavenge targets. There are other creatures in the deck that fit this roll, but these are just backups.

Gameplan

• You need to mulligan pretty aggressively with this deck. In other words, you need to see your gameplan in your opening hand. A hand that does nothing early on and goes nowhere specific is a bad hand.
• Good early turns include ramping, preferably with a mana dork like Elvish Mystic and some fast mana like Mox Diamond. The dork will come in handy later to protect Varolz, using it's own regeneration ability.

• You want to play Varolz, the Scar-Striped asap and fill your graveyard while you're at it. cards like Survival of the Fittest, Buried Alive or Entomb can do this very "targetted", to make sure the riught stuff is in your grave. There are plenty of card draw and tutor effects in the deck to help you with this.

Going for the kill

Scavenging Death's Shadow and Phyrexian Dreadnought onto varolz equals lethal commander damage

Scavenging either Death's Shadow or Phyrexian Dreadnought onto varolz + an infect spell/ berserk equals lethal infect or commander damage

Scavenging either Death's Shadow or Phyrexian Dreadnought onto an evasive infect creature like Plague Stinger, Phyrexian Crusader or Inkmoth Nexus equals lethal infect

Thrun, the Last Troll or Viridian Corrupter are great backup creatures to scavenge upon as well.

What if i don't win in the early game?

The deck is stacked with removal, card draw and tutors. Which means you should be able to survive just fine and deal with immediate threats, all while in the mean time setting up an explosive turn in which you can kill one or several players.

Pending changes

Date added	7 years
Last updated	2 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 14 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.96
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Centaur 3/3 G w/ Pro Black