I would heavily recommend Inquisitor's Flail: it's a cheaper version of "double strike" that also stacks with the real thing (especially since you don't plan to be blocked). My Avacyn deck has killed people out of the blue by giving a 6/5 double-double strike :)

Hi Daedalus19876, thanks for your suggestion :)

I had both Inquisitor's Flail and Serra Ascendant ready on my maybeboard. I am still looking for both copies.the stacking of the flail is indeed insane :)

I was looking at some 8.5 tail decks. The control versions seem stronger. How do the two versions compare. I always so 8.5 as a protector of cards instead of an attacker.

Hi Jamesbrine, I have played a previous control version (stax type). But I felt this Voltron style is much more competitive. With 21 commander damage for the win is theoretically faster than from 40 to 0. I prefer to take the initiative, since my meta will usually go berzerk once you give them too much time.And if I want to play more slowly, I can prepare the board with equipment before I even cast my commander for a devastating blow. There are plenty of other creatues who can hold up my defences.

Thanks for the clarification. As mentioned earlier I know very little on voltron. I saw your above comment on nevermore. I tend to run it more for busted commanders who I will have a hard time beating or cyclonic rift (bane of white decks everywhere) and urgin. Which brings me to my next pint, how do you beat urgin. It just occurred to me that 8.5 plays nice against ugin.

You may also consider tragic arrogance. If you are single creature; it can be strong to keep that creature plus best artifact. Trading post seems good and kjoldan outpost. Both consitantly easy ways to get tokens for equipping. Post can also get back equipment.

Hi Jamesbrine,

Nevermore could be a dead card, when you have no real threat out there. Especially since you take the aggresive lead.

Tragic Arrogance : The thing with this is that even when you could decide, they tend to keep some things. When they own only one pesky card of a type, you can't remove it. The backfire from this keeps me from using it. When you can time your own sweeper, make sure you sweep all they got. Then get your voltron out.

Trading Post : I had it in an early build. But it was slow and required alot of moves. The only real asset was the artifact recovery. But I can assure you that Argivian Archaeologist and Nahiri, the Lithomancer do a perfect job for this.

The tokens I do not really need when my other creatures get out.

Did you see this latest spoiler : Sigarda's Blessing

This just rocks!!

Hi PartyJ thanks for your post on my wall! I'm always looking for help and suggestions! You're deck is awesome and I am going through the comments section now. A link to my deck if you have any interest in taking a look! Auriela and the Masters of the Universe

Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant might be helpful to avoid red targetted removal without you having to stress about always keeping mana up. Also lets you outright ignore Blasphemous Act

The deck is looking good :) A couple small tweaks I might consider, though - first, because Godsend is white, it falls off whenever you give yourself protection (ie it can't be used alongside a Sword of Light and Shadow, and disappears when 8.5 protects himself from removal). Second, in terms of removal, Declaration in Stone has been doing amazing things for me recently - in particular, it acts like Echoing Truth and sweeps away an arbitrary number of tokens. Hope that's helpful! :)

Interesting comment you made Daedalus19876, I will review this later on, when I get the time to process your thoughts.

One thing I notice and does make me wonder how you see this from your experience; the reason I ignored Declaration in Stone is due to the fact that it is a sorcery. All my single removal I run is instant speed, which is so nice. I feel it's lacking due to the fact it's sorcery speed. And I hardly encounter any token decks in my meta. Just being exile on sorcery speed makes me doubt if it should hold a legitimate place in the mainboard.

Godsend went to the eternal fields of my binder Daedalus19876. Thanks for your clever notice!

I have made some additional tweaks. I plan on going less stax and more mass removal and ramp, since I experienced that in a multiplayer environment this is something valuable. And the mana doubers I chose now also help me cast my commander more often after being wiped. I am on the fence about Mind Stone. I can activate the card draw and recover my artifact. But perhaps you have better options in your mind?

Hey, nice build. I like it a lot, and what I have below are mostly minor thoughts and comments I had while looking at it. I'm not an expert, but these might be things worth looking at critically.

Idyllic Tutor looks like it doesn't have many targets. Sigarda's Aid, Darksteel Mutation, Aura of Silence, Endless Horizons, all good, but a 3 mana sorcery is not great if you're not getting things that are really central to the deck. It's a powerful tutor, but I think maybe you cut quite a few enchantments when you moved away from some of the stax elements towards equipment voltron. You could include more silver bullet enchantments in your sideboard to make it more worth it (e.g. switch in Eidolon of Rhetoric for Ethersworn Canonist).

If you're looking for ramp (to replace Mind Stone in this case), it's hard to go past Mana Crypt. I also want something in that slot and can't afford Mana Crypt. Knight of the White Orchid would go nicely here, I'm a little surprised it's not. I have tried Gold Myr, to later wear equipment, or cash in with Skullclamp/Trading Post (obviously in a different build).

Ajani, Caller of the Pride is pretty low-impact. It's not a bad card, but it's also not doing in a lot of situations (although you may obviously have a different experience).

Darksteel Mutation is not the strongest removal (but is tutorable, I don't think it's worth it), only instant speed with Sigarda's Aid out, 2 mana, and doesn't completely remove it. I would greatly prefer something like Tragic Arrogance. I know you said above that you didn't like it because it left things for your opponents. You're right, but that can also be secretly one of the best things about it (if you are playing with the right people), you can use it politically to your advantage, and most of the time people don't feel like you are pulling ahead too far. It doesn't always fix everything, but what one card does? And sometimes it can do things that no other board wipe can.

Bottled Cloister is great if you can protect it or you've already dumped your hand, but for me it has too many vulnerabilities.

I haven't played with a sideboard in commander, so I don't know in what situations you would bring these in, but Blade of Selves and Quarantine Field seem like strange inclusions. I guess Quarantine Field is against slow decks that have no Enchantment removal? Maybe I'm not being creative enough, but I'm not sure what Myriad does in this deck.

I'm sure there are more things to add, but this is all I have at the moment.

Hi htruane

Thank you for your thoughtful input!

Idyllic Tutor is here because I want to have better odds to get my Land Tax / Scroll Rack combo on the battlefield. But I think this extra tutor could be replaced for something that holds more value in any given situation. Thanks for the advise.

Mana Crypt is just a budget choice not to add. I have to make choices, if you know the value I have to devide over my current running decks. Knight of the White Orchid I had in this build before. But many times I was unable to profit from it. Perhaps I should give him a shot again?

Ajani, Caller of the Pride is here to finish the game. I would only play it when my 8.5 is geared enough that the flying and the double strike will seal the deal with commander damage. His second ability rocks just for this reason!

Tragic Arrogance will also hit me. And I usually have several Artifacts out, which removes most of them as well. Too much backfire in most cases.

What do you think of the new monarch land? Throne of the High City, is it worth running?

I would most definitely say "no" on Throne of the High City for a multitude of reasons. First, the "pay 5 and sacrifice a land to draw a card, plus possibly more if I'm lucky" is a huge loss in tempo that a Voltron deck can't usually afford (I'd play Sea Gate Wreckage first, and that's a bad card). Second, Voltron decks have to direct their attacks (quickly push one player to 21 CD, then move on to the next, etc) if they want to actually have a shot at winning. You have no control over who get the Monarch after you initially take it, and there's only a small chance that it ends up where you want it (attached to the player you're already attacking). I very much suspect that in this case, Throne of the High City would read "4, T, Sac: Draw a card, then choose an opponent at random. They draw a card at their end step for the rest of the game".

TLDR: overcosted, unreliable, helps your opponents very frequently, and loses you a land

If you want more draw, Avarice Amulet is a great card. Since your commander never dies, you never lose control of it ;)

Hi Daedalus19876, point taken.

I had to mention that I am aiming at a 1 vs 1 environment with this card. But I do not like to sideboard solely for such a shitty multiplayer card :)

Avarice Amulet is a beauty, since I really enjoy more carddraw in this deck. And it was in the build before, but I think I misread how it actuually works and not be lost after it falls of my commander.

I also found a leftover copy of Avacyn, Angel of Hope. What would you replace from my current deck. For this one and the amulet? Im on the fence about this. Bastion Protector feels kinda weak, since it only adds value when my commander is out. Other than this, I am having a hard time to pick something to drop.

I would cut Eternal Dragon and Transcendent Master. The former because it's overcosted for what it does in EDH (there are better ways to find a land, and its cost to recur is too high in all but the grindiest games) and the latter because it requires WAY way way too much mana input and still can be removed super easily by a single removal spell (bounce, exile, or Doom Blade in response to the 12th level). In terms of mana, a wise opponent can 15-for-1 you. Another good card to consider cutting is Sword of Vengeance. I personally think it's overcosted for its effect. Or you could cut Aven Mindcensor: although it's incredibly useful in the right circumstance, you don't want to keep open the mana in the early game (because you want to Voltron someone to death as quickly as possible) and it's less useful in the late game (imo).

You could also get away with Dispatch in this deck ;) The third Swords to Plowshares!

Thanks for yet more food for thought.

Eternal Dragon is a card that went in, went out, went in again. I had and still have my doubts too.... basically this already answers how strong his main-board position is going to be. I agree with you that it's too costly for what it does. He;s gone and this time for good :) * Please don't judge me when the future will prove me wrong xD

Regarding Transcendent Master I am still undecided. This card was added recently. Meanwhile I had one game in which she functioned greatly in a multiplayer environment, being a backup plan after my commander was sweeped a few times with mass removal. She holds equipment pretty nicely and functions as a sinkhole for your mana when the game drags on. I want some more playtests before I am certain about her position in this deck. After all, this will never be a toptier deck.

Sword of Vengeance is abit of a mehh card indeed. But the amount of Voltron support is carefully tuned. And this card is the bottom of the list. I am hoping for some neat new equipment to be exposed in the new Kaladesh set. After a severe equipment drought we need this! Give us some new kick*ss equipment WOTC! It has been a while since the swords went public ;-)

In a multiplayer game I tend not to use many single removal spells. But an extra one might not hurt my game at all.

I will keep Avacyn at bay for now. As I prefer the extra removal you proposed.

Thanks mate!

As you probably already saw in my take of Eight-and-a-Half-Tails I am going with a unique "hate on dmg" approach. From the cards I play I would suggest Protector of the Crown. While on the first glance it might not see as very much, it allows for beautiful interaction with the sly fox while mitigating the big problem of voltron style decks: enemies that go wide. Giving Protector of the Crown pro white and then turning those 7 5/5 tokens with trample into white creatures saves your hide. And equipped with a Darksteel Plate it could be almost called unfair as Eight-and-a-Half-Tails spectacularly protect the combo pieces from most common hate cards. BUT! I wouldn't recommend Protector of the Crown if it be just part of a lousy combo, no. Protector makes you the monarch which can mean some serious card advantage.

The take away for my own build is probably to include some hatebears while streamlining my creature package, Grand Abolisher will be included for sure.

Mangara of Corondor?

I've heard Razor Boomerang is a good card.

Condemn, and Oust are good removal spells in mono-white. Also Oblivion Ring.

Hi! saw you left me a message in my wall, about an EDH deck with 8.5, well I was using him as my commander but Im in love with nahiri, and right now she is my commander and I have a lot of mass removal and humility, so the build is different.

But I have now almost all the card you also have, so I will run a list similar to you, with swords and all to 8.5, Im going to try that list tomorrow and tell you what did I cut and what did I add.

Good luck fellow monowhite commander!

You should look at Karmic Justice, perfect for a voltron deck! Pretty cool deck idea though!

Hi lunoh, I have been making a few tweaks to this build and I am very curious how my deck copes with your suggestion Protector of the Crown. I gave it a mainboard spot, so let's see how this evolves.

Your suggestion has been added to my maybeboard Bovine073. I have this card in my Sisay deck and another copy might be interesting for this deck too. For now I have to get a new copy first :) Razor Boomerang is not a good equipment card for Voltron. The impact is way too low for this to be included. I am going for a Voltron kill, meaning that I want to suit up one creature to the max. This does not power my creature at all.

keiga6, thanks for your comment!

Thanks for the suggestion Bassmaster. I think you missed its presence. But nevertheless I appreciate your input!

The deck has been updated with a few new additions!

So. Have you seen Sram, Senior Edificer yet? :D

I certainly did Daedalus19876. And while I am still here, doing nothing at the moment, I might as well give this deck some attention.

The card has taken me pretty much by surprise. I have been thinking about this card; should I even make him my commander?!

How nice is this to have in your command zone; card draw in white! If I plan to do this, I might even chop 2 draw cards in favor of something else...

One of them should become the tails and the other something else nice and shiny

Touch call, but very appealing nevertheless...

A big update is incoming for this deck.

See the update that will show up on top later this day...