I like the idea of having Walking Ballista as a straight shooter win-con.

CharonSquared actually, Death’s Shadow ends up being a threat pretty quickly that only grows with time, but I do know what you’re saying. The idea has always been to evolve varolz as the center piece. Every creature has evasion too.

Chasmolinker ballista used to have more copies but what I ran into was he wasn’t a consistent body in early game plays. He only really holds his ground after turn 3 in best case scenarios. Life from the loam is a great suggestion. Lotleth troll used to be in the deck but I kept running into issues keeping him out. I opted for evasive creatures over toolbox creatures. The tower archer being the best inclusion I’ve found.

I agree with you on these points. Ballista is definitely a 1-of alternate win-con. I've not tried any hexproof in my build, But I can see why it's better than having a body to block. Especially since losing life is only making Death's Shadow more versatile as both a GY threat with Scavenge or a board presence threat as it continues to grow the longer the game goes on.

Not sure if Predator's Strike is worth it anymore. I'd recommend either Massive Might if you still want a buff, or Charge Through to still give trample but you draw instead of making the creature stronger. Either way they are both at instant speed.

This might be an unorthodox idea, but since it's now modern legal and it can grab back Varolz, the Scar-Striped, why not run Unearth. It can grab back any creature in your deck for one mana and, though it may not be ideal, you can cycle it if you don't need it.

Piglord98 Massive Might is PERFECT. Ty!

Unearth is an idea for sure, I just debate how much recursion is really needed. Varolz only needs to be played to be active for the ability.

Yeah I only really suggested Unearth incase you planned on adding more self milling. That way you can get Varolz back easily. It would really only be at it's full potential if you ever plan to do that change.

I think that the deck is interesting but you are extremely reliant on Varolz. As it stands it looks like you either have to mull till you get him or just hope you can hold out until you draw him. And that doesn't even consider the issue of him being removed. I think the deck either needs a way to consistently find him, or more reasonably shifting some of the focus to cards that work well without Varloz, but better with him. Slippery Bogle is great when you put 13 counters on it, but terrible in all other cases.

I think the direction to go would be to add cards that like being in the grave and possibly +1/+1 counters. cards with dredge or undying are the first things off the top of my head. something like Life from the Loam can help keep land drops consistent and give you extra uses of Boseiju, Who Endures while also filling the grave with targets for varolz or other effects. a card like Kitchen Finks is an example of a card that would be good in all situations but gets better if you can put +1/+1 counters on it repeatedly. if you need to scavenge it it's still worth more than a boggle. cards like Persist or Unearth could also be used to fetch any of the targets you put into the grave.

This would make your deck less of an all in glass cannon combo build and closer to a mid-range deck with a combo finisher, but i think the consistency boost would give you better odds overall.

Glass cannons are always so fun though.

in that case Time of Need to search out varolz. or Chord of Calling or Eldritch Evolution.

Those are great suggestions aholder7, I feel like Eldritch Evolution is the best one of those since there are multiple copies of the smaller creatures, you'd be able to sac one and guarantee to get Varloz. Feel like that's better than Time of Need cause it will give you Varloz ready after the spell resolves. Time of Need is good for just Varloz the other cards can get you Walking Ballista which can be grabbed the other spells incase you draw multiple copies. Chord of Calling feel like is too mana heavy and is not as cost effective even though it has convoke if you convoke there's a good chance you'll run out of creatures to attack with when Varloz is out.

Though Chord of Calling is instant speed so it could be used on the opponents turn as a surprise. If the three green mana isn't intimidating it might be a better card to run than Eldritch Evolution

one note about EE. while you can legally grab Walking Ballista it will put it on the battlefield as X=0 and instantly die.

Oops that was a major brain fart, yeah disregard what I said with the Tudors in regards to Walking Ballista not my smartest moment

I tried Chord and it’s super slow in pacing vs the “glass cannon” setup. More consistent sure, but a turn or two behind this build. Ballista only serves as a target for counters and because it’s not tutorable it is at 1 copy.

Unearth and life from the loam are definitely on the hot list.

Hello PickleNutz i myself play Varolz: Death's Shadow Scavanger and you should give it a look. I played it on a Tournament last Saturday with 75 Players in total and placed 50 and played 3 wins 4 losses whereas one loss was me doing shitty plays.

I played the Deck in different Styles over the Years and found the one iam currently playing to be the one most consistent yet. iam still on it with some adjustments in Sideboard and some in main but i figured out, that the self mill + recursion + steady and reliable card choices yields the best results.

There is currently some near the Top Decks that are playing a combo in Golgari colors and its a similar Decklist but with an easier to pull off combo than Varolz so it isnt even that Janky to be fair.

I hope you will get some Insights from my Decklist. If you have any questions about it just hit me up.