Thanks for all the help, guys. I'll keep working on making it better. Those are some good suggestions for cards.

Well, I played the current version here at home, and got really mana-hosed, so nothing worked right. I'm chalking it up to a bad shuffle; 13 turns until I drew the next land. I had Maze of Ith out and a non-basic that produced black. So, yeah, bad game. I took the draw because I thought I'd get the reanimator going by discarding some fatties, but that didn't even take off.

I've got some of the mentioned cards above on order, so I'll be making some changes and hopefully smoothing some things out.

I run a mono-black EDH deck, Vermintide (EDH Rats), and I have found myself using my tutors to grab Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx more and more often, as the mana ramp it gives me turns out to be much better than anything offensive I could tutor for at the time.
That combined with Liliana of the Dark Realms and/or Crypt Ghast have really helped my deck take off.
I know you're running the Ghast, and the others are in your maybe board, but I thought I'd cast another vote for them being added!

Thanks for the reply and suggestions, Panzerforge. I've ordered a few of the cards in my maybeboard, and will be adding them a few at a time. I will be getting Nykthos eventually and Liliana. She's just too good. I have Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth coming. I do have some tutors I could run, but how many should I run, and how much should I cut? I'm not playing at my local game store, just with my kids at home, so getting nasty early isn't necessarily the idea, but I do like consistency, so I won't balk at adding a few, either. The more I play it, the more I'll look at the balance I have and see what works.

Thanks again for the comments. I'll be playing it again soon!

Ok, a few more updates have been made. In are Blanket of Night and Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. Also in are Trailblazer's Boots and Reiver Demon, along with a few others.

Oh yeah, Filth also added.

Cool deck! I'm surprised you're not running Hero's Blade since it's a voltron-y deck and you've got a bunch of legendaries already.

Sanitarium Skeleton would give you something to pitch over and over again, but 1B for +1/+1 may not be good enough.

Carrionetteis a neat way to get a secondary removal spell, but you have to wait until someone's tapped out or can't afford to spend the mana(good way to force blue players to dump a counterspell's worth of mana)

Instead of Dauthi Trapper, you could go Dauthi Embrace, which lets you do more with it IMO, though you lose the creature.

Underworld Connections gives you safer on-demand card draw vs. Phyrexian arena, but it costs you a land tap in return. Might be worth it since you have ways to cheat in cards anyway.

Blessing of Leeches is one of my favorite budget black protections auras- free regeneration is amazing.

Looks fun! I've actually been meaning to build a Volrath deck, I might take some stuff from this :D

Snacrifice, thank you for the suggestions, and the upvote. :) I like the suggestion for Hero's Blade, so I'll consider adding it in and seeing how it performs. The reason I'm not running a lot of cards is mainly because I don't know the exist. I played heavily several years ago (I started trailing off during the Kamigawa cycle), and have recently got back in. EDH wasn't really talked about then, but I'd heard a little about it from folks who had played it before it was a "thing." Now, its the only format I'm really playing, but I'm relearning what's out there. I missed about 10 years worth of rotations, I think.

Thanks again for chiming in, I really appreciate it!

I am running both Dauthi Embrace and Dauthi Trapper right now, but when it comes time to sub new things in, I think taking out the trapper is how I'll go. All the stuff in the Maybeboard is a direction I'm trying to go, slowly but surely.

Ok, updates coming. I've placed a card order, and this is what I have coming in:Dread, Graveborn Muse, Liliana of the Dark Realms, In Garruk's Wake, Palace Siege, and two good lands, Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx and Vesuva. I decided to splurge just a little bit in the hopes of pushing this deck's performance up. I've always liked playing black, and Volrath is a lot of fun as a commander, so I'm going to make it worth while.

The lands will be easy to sub in, but the others I will take any suggestions on. In Garruk's Wake will take the place of Forced March. I'm thinking Gravedigger might get cut as well, as I have more than enough graveyard bounce spells, I think.

Comments and suggestions are welcome, please!

Ok, changes made: In Garruk's Wake in, Forced March out. Palace Siege in, Macabre Waltz out. Liliana of the Dark Realms, Dread, and Graveborn Muse are in, and out go Death Denied, Dutiful Return, and Foul Renewal. Lands in are Vesuva and Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for Subterranean Hangar and a Swamp.

That's where Volrath stands for now. I think I will be adding a Thespian's Stage in the future, as well, and I will keep looking into the other suggestions the more I play it and see how it works out. I hope that I haven't pushed my mana curve too high for it to be consistent.

If you think I should have subbed something different, please offer up more suggestions!

Its been a while since I've tinkered with this deck. I plan to add Caged Sun, along with the other artifact like it for mana ramp. I think I'll be changing out some of the equipment, too, perhaps adding Whispersilk Cloak for more evasion for Commander damage.

Glad to see an overhaul is still being done. Have you ever thought of using some dredge cards to get you closer to some of your better reanimate targets? Chainer might also be some consideration as theres a very roundabout way to getting infinite damage using chainer, a sac outlet, a haste equiptment source, magus of the coffers, and blood artist/GARY. As for the ramp, youre a little light on mana rocks so I can possibly suggest seer's lantern, mind stone and fellwar stone.

I also swear there was some other deck you asked me to build a while ago. I cant for the life of me remember.

Hey man, I'm not sure if anyone has suggested Coalition Relic yet but it is great for 6cmc commanders getting you there on turn 4 by itself.

dlamars, thanks for the suggestion of Coalition Relic. Its more pricey than I thought, but I'll consider it for down the road, unless I have one here at home to use.

chaosumbreon87, its great to hear from you. I haven't seen you in a while! I guess I'm a bit leary of dredge, and if I can control it very well or not. I'd prefer to have the draw, I guess, but I don't know. It is worth tinkering with in the deck, I guess. Mind Stone and Fellwar Stone are good suggestions for mana rocks, and if Dark Ritual and Cabal Ritual don't play out like I hope, I'll drop them for the rocks, unless you have other suggestions for the cuts.

The other deck you were going to help me with was Phelddacombo. :) Remember though, I'm kind of on a budget, but do have some nice stuff already.

Hey,

I like your deck. Didn't even know that Volrath the Fallen existed.

Some suggestions:

• Draco, Spirit of the Night and Dread are not that good on their own. They seem to be in here mainly because of their high cmc. Maybe add Grave Titan, Overseer of the Damned, Sheoldred, Whispering One and Solemn Simulacrum as cards that are more useful on their own. They still have a reasonable cmc for Volraths ability.

• Rings of Brighthearth for copying Volraths ability

• although you already have a lot of cards that grant evasion, you maybe could consider Dragon Shadow but I'm not sure about the usefulness of Fear to be honest

• I'd not recommend to run Rituals cause they're one-shots. Better play Mind Stone because ramp that cycles in the lategame is great. You already run Commander's Sphere. Maybe consider Hedron Archive as well.

I forgot to suggest running Strip Mine and Tectonic Edge to have an answer for Maze of Ith and Glacial Chasm as they completely shut down your volthron strategy. They get even better with Expedition Map which you are already running

@Bxbx

Thanks for taking a look. Sheoldred, Whispering One and Rings of Brighthearth are no-gos right now, due to their cost. Over $40 for two cards is a bit out of my price range at this time.

chaosumbreon87 also mentioned mana rocks for the Rituals if they don't pan out. I'm playing them for now, to see how well they work for me. If I find they aren't consistent enough, I'll go for more mana rocks. I like Hedron Archive, but might go with Fellwar Stone because of a cheaper casting cost.

Dread is there for a second copy of No Mercy, and in case of a mill strategy (although nobody mills at my house yet). It could be kicked, though. I like Draco simply because if I get the damage through, its a finisher. Your others are great suggestions, though, and I'll consider them as I play the deck more.

I will add Strip Mine and Tectonic Edge, if at least to the sideboard to throw in if I get to play at my LGS sometime, in a stronger meta. Good thoughts on those, I didn't even consider that happening.

I did order a few more cards today, and will be adding Sidisi, Undead Vizier, Illusionist's Bracers to double up Volrath's ability, and Ob Nixilis Reignited for some more card draw. Your suggestions will help me with some switches, so thanks a bunch!

So, reading through this deck, and how it works, there's not much that I can say would be good to add that hasn't already been stated. Honestly, I'm not well versed enough in the ideas that this deck is built on to be able to give a valid opinion on how to improve it. That being said, I like the concept, and the way it's been designed.

@bushido_man96

Yeah, I like your new orders as well!

Didn't think about Dread as an anti-mill card. That's something nice to have!

One last card that came to my mind is Dread Cacodemon. It fits your deck better than In Garruk's Wake. You'll still be able to kill planeswalkers somehow.

CrazedPorcupine, thanks for the comments!

Bxbx, I like the ability Dread Cacodemon brings to the table, just not how it does it. I had Reiver Demon in the deck, but I took it out along with some of the Eldrazi I had because their ETB effects only work if cast from my hand. My goal is to discard and then reanimate, and I found myself never holding onto those cards to actually cast, and if I did, it takes a big swing away from Volrath. I am considering going after Toxic Deluge, though, as another option for board wipe.

Ok, you're right that Reiver Demon and Dread Cacodemon are no great reanimation-targets. But In Garruk's Wake isn't a good target for reanimation either. So my idea was, that the Dread Cacodemon in hand at least gives the option for discarding to volrath besides giving the alternative option to wipe the board, while In Garruk's Wake does only give one option at all.

Utimately it's a decision between having a [onesided boardwipe incl. planeswalkers for 9 mana] or having a [onesided boardwipe excl. planeswalkers and tapping your creatures for 10 mana plus the option to alternatively combo with your commander]. In this case I would prefer the extra versatility over the better effectiveness/efficiency.

You're probably right that Toxic Deluge is even better than both though.

As a mana rock, how do you feel about Inspiring Statuary? obviously you cant use it to cast artifacts and your mana rocks will tap for better than . However, this makes use of your equipment and even has a nasty trick with howling mine.

Bxbx, you make a good point of consideration there. Perhaps it is more worth looking into. Perhaps I'll put Reiver Demon in the sideboard to test a bit more, and try to acquire the other one, too. Thanks for laying that out for me there.

chaosumbreon87, that's an interesting point, too. I suppose if anything, it at least can tap for each turn. It might be worth a look. Thanks.

2 things. Have you considered archiving the comments? This section took a while to scroll through.

And

You consider something like Dictate of Erebos or Grave Pact? I mean if you find yourself sacrificing a significant amount of creatures in your games, this may be an include? Or Butcher of Malakir? Creature version that is good with Volrath

Byuante, I don't really do a lot of sacrificing with this deck, that's why I'm not running the edict effects. I had Butcher of Malakir in the deck, but removed it because I wasn't using a lot of edict effects. Its a lot more discard than sac oriented.