Why Electrolyze, I don't understand it's purpose. Cuz I'm sure replacing itself and raising the storm count isn't its only purpose

sam171z: The idea is to shoot two mana dorks (or a small commander), draw a card to replace itself. Good off of Vadrok's mutate trigger (kill and draw, get 2-for-1s). Great off of Thousand Year Storm. That's my thinking anyway. Might get cut for Unsubstantiate.

FURTHER further changes: Electrolyze is not doing its job correctly, so out it goes! It's being replaced with Gitaxian Probe, which is even MORE silly with Underworld Breach and/or Thousand-Year Storm... But that still leaves me without a natural place for Unsubstantiate...

Teferi, Master of Time might eventually get the axe. We'll see. He's really cool but doesn't quite help this deck enough...

Unless you looking for something specific in the teferi spot wouldn't that be best for Unsubstantiate

Out of curiosity, what made you decide to make the deck red/blue only? Are the good cards that include white like land tax, dovin's veto and jeksai ascendancy just not worth enough to commit to the white land base you'de need for them and others in your opinion?

GoldenGolgari: Mostly personal preference and desire to be creative!

I like the challenge, and I have a strong preference for two color decks (less mana fixing, less of the deck taken up by generic staples, etc).

If you cast high tide more than one time, let's say twice for an example in one turn will you get three Mana out of it or still only just two

sam171z: If you cast two copies of High Tide in the same turn, your Islands will now tap for ! Or your Steam Vents can tap for of course ;)

This is especially helpful with Thousand-Year Storm, since you can cast High Tide for perhaps four copies, then get five copies of Frantic Search and gain 72 extra mana!

Yeah, late for you cutting ascendency. But my tightest Jeskai Ascendancy loops were things like Emry, Lurker of the Loch and Tormod's Crypt. And without Emry was still untapping enough man lands for unlimited colorless mana and limited but usable access to colored to cast my other mutate cards to keep the chain going. One of the dumb things I was trying in the non-ascendency version and looks like it might be its own form of stupid is just Howl of the Horde. Just in general use, Vadrok is so good at trading dumb mutates in hand for almost anything in the graveyard. But is easily guilty of repetitive play just because a single spell can get cast 5-6 times in a game even without other shenanigans like both our decks do.

Trying Cackling Counterpart over Phyrexian Metamorph -- while the ability to copy opponents' things and clone artifacts seemed really good, it never was quite as useful as I'd hoped when I drew it. Cackling Counterpart will let me have Vadrok clone herself on mutation (remember that all mutated characteristics are copiable values), and also let me copy her in response to a removal spell. We'll see how it works in practice!

I achieved a Turn 2 kill with this today!~

My opponents got really fast starts, with two mana rocks each after turn 2. I went last, dropped Dockside Extortionist, got six treasures, cast Snap to bounce him to hand, generated infinite mana with Vadrok-Snap-Dockside, then Gamble'd for Underworld Breach, re-cast Gamble for Brain Freeze, found a second mutate creature and went off!

Everyone rage-quit. This was a cEDH game. It was glorious.

Daedalus19876:That's freakin' awesome! I would've applauded that!

I'm guessing they wasn't expecting vardok to be able to keep up with them.

MapPsycho: Thank you! :D I was quite surprised myself, haha! In a later game with a different group, I accidentally pulled off a bizarre six-card combo that I didn't know I had (Raugrin Triome + Steam Vents + Snap + Sea-Dasher Octopus + Vadrok, Apex of Thunder + multiple copies of High Tide). The point is, I love this deck so much.

sam171z: They made lots of snide comments at the beginning of the game about "Vadrok isn't cEDH, why would you bother trying to play with us if we're just gonna crush you??" They shut up pretty quickly when they ragequit. My Vadrok still isn't a true cEDH deck -- I think Vadrok has legitimate cEDH potential but I haven't fully optimized in that direction -- but I'm VERY pleased with its performance right now.

I'm +1'ing purely for the Nightwish reference. Love this deck.

Pyrezz: Thank you! I adore Nightwish, I was VERY pleased that I had a deck which fit their song so well... The deck's a lot of fun as well, haha!

Testing Teferi's Ageless Insight over Teferi, Master of Time...

I always find your decks to be quite interesting, and this one is certainly intriguing.

You mentioned that you are looking to add Stifle. I personally think you could remove one of your weaker mutate finishers. My vote is for Surrakar Spellblade. The fact that it needs to connect is a substantial weakness, and it is redundant with Ghostly Pilferer and Sea-Dasher Octopus, both of which fit into your deck better.

+1

this looks so fun to play! I really like how the mutate mechanic can work in commander. I think I might be trying a budget version of this deck

Hi_diddly_ho_neighbor: Honestly, Surrakar Spellblade is astonishingly good in my testing, as long as I have at least one counterspell to protect it. The ability to connect isn't TOO hard when I mutate Vadrok onto him -- at least one opponent has no flying creatures most of the time -- and I frequently draw 4+ cards at once with Spellblade.

thijmnesoy: Thank you! Please let me know how your budget deck works, I'd love to take a look!

Tweaks: Stitch in Time and Curfew over Mana Drain and Winds of Rebuke.

I do want to find a way to fit Mana Drain back in sometime.

Really enjoying following your development of this deck. I too have found inspiration and made a paper copy. I have only made a copy tweaks, like a couple extra lands, narsets reversal and I still have Niv. Funny I have never combo won yet.

Is firemind's Foresight abit expensive? Seems cool to grab the combo pieces.

Yes. While I'm not up on the ins and outs of cEDH, I agree that Vadrok has a lot of potential and power. Trading 4 mana and a card in hand for almost anything in your graveyard is amazing. My high end version has some limits due to me not wanting to spend too much extra cash just for the deck on MTGO (ie, no Remora or Mana Vault/Crypt) but has Jeskai Ascendency and Cephalid Breakfast based combo kills within it. I probably need a little more practice and interaction, but it's at least given me one deck that's fun for me to play when I'm playing a friend online who often builds her deck as 8s that open up fast.

Corz1lla; Thank you! I usually win through combos, but I suspect that's just a difference in playgroups :) I should probably test Narset's Reversal over Unsubstantiate... And yeah, unfortunately Firemind's Foresight is just too much mana here. Plus it doesn't fully fetch any of my combos, since all my combos require at least one non-instant card. F's F is much better in a Mizzix deck, which can use it as aa 2-or-3 mana triple tutor, and immediately win.

Brefin: I considered running Cephalid Breakfast in here, but since I'm no longer running Oracle, that combo is a bit unreliable as a wincon for me. Ascendancy loops are awesome, I just don't want to run the white haha.

Also, Stitch in Time was disappointing so it's back out again. Lotus Petal, Mana Drain, and Narset's Reversal are fighting for that slot.