Hey guys, i'm returning to magic and modern after nearly two years. I wanted to start with a new deck, which contains an old combo that i have in my mind for years without having the time and energy to make this into a complete deck: Varolz, the Scar-Striped and Death's Shadow. I know that there are some decks floating around here containing the two cards, but these are often unfinished "throw-in" copys of jund/death shadow decks.
For those who don't know the combo, you can basically scavenge a death shadow out of your graveyard for 1 mana while Varolz is on the board, which provides 13 +1/+1 counter.
This leads us to the 4 key points of the deck:
- Get Varolz on the board
- Get Death Shadow in the Graveyard
- Get a good target for scavenge
- Support/protect the main gameplan or provide a plan B
So my selection criteria for every card in this deck is to fulfill at least one of this 4 roles. In the following, i will refer to every nonland card in this deck, because there are some hidden synergies:
Varolz, the Scar-Striped/Death's Shadow: obviously the main combo of the deck. Death Shadow can also be a second win condition if we face heavy graveyard hate.
Lotleth Troll: Main target for Varolz (trample and regenerate), also a discard outlet for unearth and stinkweed imp.
Stitcher's Supplier: Early mill to hit targets for Varolz, Unearth, growing Fiend Artisan and a sac target for Varolz (regenerate), Fiend Artisan and Grist. This card alone makes the deck viable.
Birds of Paradise: While the curve ends with 3 mana, we often need more than that. Unearth, scavenge and regenerate are additional costs, so the extra mana is never wasted. Birds is also a good target for Varolz.
Rotting Regisaur: Graveyard independant beater, discard outlet and still 7 +1/+1 counter for 3 mana.
Stinkweed Imp: fills the graveyard, can kill big blue dragon boy and is also a target for the counter.
Fiend Artisan: Tutor for everything and a potential beater on his own.
Grist, the Hunger Tide: Just a planeswa... oh no, it can be discarded with Lothlet Troll, can be hit by Unearth, counts for Fiend Artisan (both tutoring and growing), kills creatures and planeswalkers, provides tokens to sac for Varolz and is able to end games with his ult. Very cool card.
Unearth: together with Stitcher's Supplier the bread and butter of this deck. Together with all the sac outlets and milling effects, this card hits every creature in this deck (including Grist) and makes quick and cheap combo finishes possible, as early as turn 2 (t1 stitchers, t2 unearth on a varolz, scavenge for 13 and attack for 14. Pretty unlikely, but this shows how powerful this deck can be)
Fatal Push / Thoughtseize: boring basic stuff which has to be played in a competetive environment.
Inkmoth Nexus: Additional target for counters
Sideboard: for sideboard options i wanted to stick on the "mostly-creature" gameplan and i think most choices are obvious. Creatures can be discarded by lotleth troll and reanimated by unearth. Big Game Hunter may look a bit exotic but is my removal for every creature fatal push can't hit.
Some questions you might ask at this point:
Why not Walking Ballista as a target for Scavenge?
I see that ballista would be obvious, but i have 2 problems with it: i can't cheat it out with unearth or tutoring it with fiend artisan; when ballista is in the yard, it's gone. Secondly, if we arent able to scavenge, which WILL happen, ballista is useless.
Why not play jund and Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger?
Kroxa would be a nice fit because besides it's obvious strengths it provides 6 counter for 2 mana. On the other side, he is weak against graveyard hate, eats important cards if escaped and i dont want to splash into jund only for this card.
Why no Tarmogoyf or Grim Flayer?
Both didn't make it in the first version of the deck but I'm definetely going to try these out at some point. Goyf still keeps his stats in the graveyard for scavenging and his role on the board is clear. Grim Flayer is a good target for counters (trample) and could provide some filter/mill. I am thinking about throwing him in with Ignoble Hierarch to make sure he does some damage early on. Both cards depends on how much an additional beater is needed.
I did a few tests against a friend playing burn and tron and the deck performed pretty well. I will post some more representative experiences later.
Be aware that this is deck was not created to be a "meta killer" but as a fun and "unique" way to get back into the more or less competetive events at my local gamestore. This is not a budget list and i'm always open for cool interactions and off-meta cards, so you are completeley free in your critique and suggestions.
Thank you for reading.
