Forming the Head (Voltron generals part 1)

One of the more common archetypes found in EDH/Commander is the “Voltron” style deck, where the deck attempts to play its general and then use equipment and/or auras to focus on doing 21 general damage to each of its opponents. There are a lot of popular Voltron generals out there, with the most frequent I’ve seen being Rafiq of the Many, Uril the Miststalker, Jenara, and more recently Ruhan of the Fomori and Skithryx the Blight Dragon. These are, however, far from the only legends that work well as Voltron generals. My first Voltron-style deck was a fun take on Lord of Tresserhorn, who with his ten power can pack a real punch, if you can avoid dying to his drawbacks. I’ve also built my own Rafiq deck, and since this little quest began I’ve built Konda, Morinfen, and Autumn Willow as all having significant Voltron aspects.

As I’ve been working on Uril lately, I’ve had some thoughts on Voltron generals that I decided to write down, and so I figured I’d write them down. There are a few aspects that make generals better at being battle leaders and swinging for 21 than other generals. These aren’t hard and fast rules, but they are a good starting point, I believe:

1. High power: The bigger the power, the faster 21 damage can be dealt. Certainly any general with at least 7 power should be considered a fairly good prospect to become a Voltron general. Three swings is a lot easier than four in most circumstances, and a quick jump from equipment can bring that down to two in many cases. Here are a list of (legal) legends with at least that much power:
Kozilek (12)
Ulamog (10)
Progenitus (10)
Lord of Tresserhorn (10)
Kuro, Pitlord (9)
Zhou Yu, Chief Commander (8)
Silvos, Rogue Elemental (8)
Myojin of Life’s Web (8)
Lorthos, the Tidemaker (8)
Iname as One (8)
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger (7)
Vaevictis Asmadi (7)
Tsabo Tavoc (7)
Taniwha (7)
Sliver Queen (7)
Sliver Overlord (7)
Sliver Legion (7)
Sisters of Stone Death (7)
Ruhan of the Fomori (7)
Rakdos the Defiler (7)
Patron of the Orochi (7)
Palladia-Mors (7)
Nicol Bolas (7)
Myojin of Infinite Rage (7)
Lady Orca (7)
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (7)
Iona, Shield of Emeria (7)
Commander Greven il-Vec (7)
Chromium (7)
Ayumi, the Last Visitor (7)
Arcades Sabboth (7)

Long list, right? Now, you may have noticed that not all of those would really make a good general. Who wants to swing with a Myojin, which as a general won’t even have the best, indestructible part of itself? This leads me to the second of my criteria:

2. Resiliency: Many of the best generals have ways of protecting themselves once on the field. These could be as simple as a cheap regeneration cost (Lord of Tresserhorn, Silvos, Korlash, Thrun), or as mind-blowingly good as indestructible (Konda, Ulamog, Sapling of Colfenor) or even shroud / hexproof (Autumn Willow, Multani, Uril, Thrun again). All of these help a creature stay on the field once it has arrived there, and that leaves one less thing to worry about as you proceed. Even better, they can make the “Voltron” aspect that much better, because of the next of my criteria:

3. Synergy with auras/ equipment: While you can build a deck to play aggressively with its general without using outside boosters, it really doesn’t feel all that Voltron-y if you’re not putting multiple pieces together to create a monstrosity that opponents will fear. The aforementioned “resilient” creatures are good at this, save the shroud folks, because they are less likely to be killed in response to whatever you are pumping them with, so you’re not wasting as many spells nor as much mana when you boost them. There are some creatures that are even better, however. Uril the Miststalker probably stands out as the best example in this category, as he was built in the veins of the old Rabid Wombat, a creature that gets bigger the more auras you enchant it with. The Hakim, Loreweaver deck I recently finished has aspects of this as well; though mine isn’t truly meant to be a Voltron deck, it could be built to be such. Other types of creatures that go well with these boosts are ones with double strike. The most obvious of these is Rafiq of the Many, but I’ve seen a pretty effective Rashka, Golden Cub deck as well. Rafiq and Uril also help tie into the next section as well, though they require a bit of help

4. Easy Gigantification: Okay, so I may have made up that word, but some creatures can get pretty large all on their lonesome. Omnath, Locus of Mana is the big example here, and he makes for a very quick, very threatening opponent. The Blackblade clan brings us Korlash and Dakkon, both of whom can have fairly large strength with which to beat with. There is a large group of legends who base their P/T off of cards in hand, be they your opponents’ or your own, or all of the above. Multani, Soramaro, Adamaro, Masumaro, Kiyomaro, Kagemaro, and Maromaro (may not exist) all look to there in order to get large, and with all the card draw in EDH and the relative depowering of discard spells, they can all manage to be rather effective when it comes time to beat. And once these guys get super-large, it’s time to look into hitting faces with them, which leads to the final, and most classic, piece of criteria for face-beating.

5. Evasion: What good is a 10/4 (good buddy) regenerating creature if you keep running into freaking saprolings? Having some way around all those little ground-pounders at some point will become a necessity. Many Voltron decks just let the auras and equipment do this work for them, but I find that generals that have this built in will tend to be just a little bit more flexible when it comes to smash options. This last point is one reason why many people love Portal: Three Kingdoms generals. It’s more than just the pimpness of having hard-to-find guys in command; it’s the inability to be blocked except by horsemanship that can make for some killer beats. Now, you don’t have to saddle up to be evasive in EDH; there are still the fallbacks of flying, trample, and unblockability that can each get the job done. To list all of the flying and trampling generals would probably just insult your intelligence, so I’ll just proceed on now.

Now, of course I’m not saying that a good Voltron general must have all of these aspects. I’m not even saying that it needs to have three, or two, or even one of them. Heck, I’ve seen some pretty killer Isamaru, Hound of of Konda lists, who fits none of those (I don’t think there are enough low cost guys that are good to make another full point). I’m just saying is that when I look at a general and it does meet one or more of these criteria, I think about the Voltron route.

In my next post, I'll go through some of the less commonly used pieces that can work in a Voltron deck for those working on the cheap like me.