Dango I haven't played it much recently, been focusing on Shuffle for the most part, but Varolz is still playable. I'd definitely consider him a gimmick deck, because I don't think there's a reason to not switch to 4 color, but he does the job and he's still a relatively unique commander/strategy, so there's nothing wrong with using him to scratch that itch.

Matchups are about the same as any fast combo/hulk deck, you're pretty ok with racing people, so fast-ish pods are fine for you, you just really want to try and avoid stax especially, and stack based interaction pods, although you have some instant speed options to beat them.

Update: I have been playing this deck recently every week for the past couple months and I really like it. The flexibility it provides depending on the board state is surprising and out of left field sometimes. With that said i Find that this deck is consistently turn three and that is in a meta with Food Chain Tazri, Teferi Chain Veil, Food Chain Prossh, Blood Pod, Four Color Rashmi, and Doomsday Zur.

Usually I jam my combo after everyone has exhausted all of there interaction. To the effect of dealing with stax since that is by far the hardest match up making sure I have some sort of removal in hand just as a security however that is not always the case and well those are the few games that are in the loss column.

Currently above 50% win rate in the meta mentioned above but I have not played against shuffle hulk yet so that’s just my opinion love the deck. And Lake of the Dead was not needed.

Lesser Masticore will certainly spice things up.

so the Masticore automatically replaces Wingrattle right?

I would love to see any updates to this deck with new cards. Seems like a fun alternative commander to surprise people with!

So, because of the Lesser Masticore inclusion, will the Body Snatcher/Sylvan Safekeeper protection line be necessary? Or will Sylvan Safekeeper just be in the normal line?

SynergyBuild Typically with Varolz out, we can just go for Safekeeper + a win now, but Body Snatcher is staying in due to its ability to make the piles way more flexable.

bUt sCareECroW NoT iN dEck HOw huLk pIlE wOrKs?

Iraruel Lesser Masticore is the effective replacement and it's just better.

Could be a meta call, but have you thought of using Doom Whisperer over Ad Nauseam ? The deck has more ways to make it work via reanimation, provides a big body against Tymna decks and lets you dig just as deep while putting Hulk directly in the yard and leaving a reanimation spell or Autumn's Veil on top. And since we aren't trying to storm off I feel like Ad Naus doesn't doesn't do what it does for other Ad Naus decks. Just some food for thought.

The only downside I can think of with Doom Whisperer is that it's not an instant and thus can telegraph when you want to go off. AND if you want to go off by the turn you cast it, it's like casting AdNaus in your main in that you have to have spare mana to play your wincon after resolving. While it is not impossible with all the ramp spells the deck have, it can still be a deterrent.

And thanks SickRobot for the updates and for hanging on to this. This is my second most loved cedh deck after my Orzhov bomberdad deck.

TuffGuy Doom whisperer doesn't actually put any cards in your hand is the issue here, so it does not actually let you assemble a win without pieces already in hand. It also doesn't have flash like Ad Naus does, so you're locked into trying to jam a 5cmc card at sorcery speed instead of instant speed. The key thing to remember about Ad Nauseam here is that we're usually not using it like dedicated Naus decks do, and casting it at sorcery speed on our own turn, we're using it in somebody else's end step to dig us just until we hit the required cards to actually go for a win attempt, not to dig ~30 cards.

chopsueyrice Great to hear!

Veil of Summer seems sweet in this deck.

Are we cutting anything for Veil of Summer? I think I'm playing both (with Autumn's Veil).

Finally build this deck minus the top 7 expensive cards I didn’t already have but have some ok replacements for now but holy moly I love this deck. I won turn 4 with one land yesterday. The consistency is great. If you’re ever at a GP in California or Oregon I want you to sign my Varolz and take you out to a nice lunch.

ALooseNoose Great to hear! I'll make sure to drop you a line if I'm ever in the area lol

chopsueyrice SynergyBuild veil of summer's definitely making it into the deck, it should be a pretty straightforward swap. I'm just waiting until we're a bit closer to the set release to make the swap, I'm going to be making all updates from the set at once.

what do you guys think of Scheming Symmetry? Is it worth throw in another tutor in, if we can ensure we can use the top deck on the same turn we tutored for it?

chopsueyrice no, as it's very difficult to guarantee that you can access the card the same turn you tutor for it, and even if you can, that's sinking more mana and cards into making a situationally bad tutor into a semi-playable one. I'd just be on Praetor's Grasp instead

Possible political usage, but overall pretty weak.

I feel like if you can tell what your opponents are playing Scheming Symmetry could be good. Its just another Imperial Seal that could also assist someone else in stopping a combo. It depends I guess both on your meta but grabbing necro doesn't seem that bad or even something like crypt.

Any thoughts on Force of Vigor ? I think it would be good in a staxy meta.

I've been playing a variant of this deck for quite some time now and most of the problems I've had is that since we want to combo off as fast as we can (and boy, the deck can in almost 90% of the time), our early board state looks like a threat in almost every game such that we attract most of the opponents' control and counterspells. Without early protection, aside from the veils and a few discard spells, we have no way to defend the combo.

Do anyone experienced the same? How did you mitigate that?

Hey y'all sorry for taking a bit to get back to you, I'll do another round of question answering here:

Federsavo Thanks for the reminder, Force was definitely supposed to make its way into the sideboard, it hurts a bit off of Naus, but it's a fantastic choice for metas where you're seeing a lot of on board hate. Adding to the side right now.

chopsueyrice So uh, that's sort of the rub with non-blue lol. If you're threatening consistently, you're just gonna end up being targeted sometimes, and there's not a whole lot you can do about it. That being said, even though I've never personally had to tune for that specific issue, I can offer some theory for how to deal with it. First of all, think about adapting your playstyle. The deck can win at instant speed with Necromancy Shallow Grave and Apprentice Necromancer , so use those to your advantage to try to slip by interaction and force people to respect it. Also, if there's no chance in hell that you're gonna win the game through people holding up countermagic, don't be afraid to aggressively tutor for card engines to get ahead while they have to hold their interaction for your wins. Now for the actual card choices:

• Boseiju, Who Shelters All is a pretty great meta choice in Flash decks, and although it's worse here because obviously, no Flash , it can still help to get big spells resolved through whatever people are holding up for them (Namely Ad Nauseam and Natural Order are the big ones here)

• Along similar lines, Praetor's Grasp is actually a secret all-star if you have any other Flash decks in your meta. It can be a tad awkward to make blue mana, but there are enough rainbow sources in the deck to be able to get there, and it's not difficult to slot in Forbidden Orchard Exotic Orchard Tarnished Citadel alongside it if you want the extra consistency. And as a fail case, if they already have the Flash in hand, it can basically function as a Grim Tutor , which we're usually playing anyway.

• Xantid Swarm honestly isn't terrible lol. It's creature tutorable and usually requires an answer from someone unless they want to just give you a turn, so I'd suggest testing it out if you're just having to deal with countermagic non-stop.

Ok, all that being said, test out literally whatever you want to help deal with those issues except for exactly two cards: Dosan the Falling Leaf and Defense Grid . Trust me, they ain't worth the trouble, you're never gonna have the mana to cast them and win in the same turn, and they're gonna kill you more often than not if you pass the turn after casting em.

sickrobot, strange, in my metagame Defense Grid has been pretty good. A lot of instant speed removal and countermagic has gummed up a lot of decks, but I also run Swarm, Boseiju, both veils, and Imp's Mischief , which hasn't been discussed here.