Forming the Head: Part 2

So in my last Voltron post, I went through the things that I thought can make a good Voltron commander. So far in the 54 decks I have built, 5 have been solid Voltron decks, with another few having major parts being Voltronish in nature. If that rate keeps up (and looking at the criteria I went through last time, there are plenty of viable Voltrons out there), I’m looking at somewhere around 45 or so decks that will be committed to hitting people in the face with their general.

Yeowch.

As I’ve said before, I’m not going to be spending an excess of money on this quest. This means that I’m not going to have three dozen Swords of Fire and Ice or Umezawa’s Jittes available to make these decks as good as they can be. Heck, I may not even be able to get that many Loxodon Warhammers and Lightning Greaves with my budget. This means that I’m going to have to look at alternate options when it comes to my equipment and aura selection, and loading up on some sub-par budget heroes. It’s still early in my quest, but I’ve already begun re-evaluating some cards and I thought I’d share my thoughts. Here are some oft-overlooked cards that, while they may not be what most decks are looking for, are certainly serviceable in a pinch:

Auras
First of all, any of the return-to-hand auras is worth considering, so even though I only list a few of these in this section, don’t forget the others like Launch, Brilliant Halo, False Demise, Sleeper’s Guile, and Undying Rage. I liked these cycles.

Blessing of Leeches, Fortitude, Gaea’s Embrace, Savage Silhouette, Skeletal Grimace, Trollhide – Regeneration helps boost that whole “resiliency” issue quite nicely, but you usually only want to play ones that also grant power and toughness. Still, Blessing of Leeches’ 0-cost regen and Fortitude’s hand-returning ability make for a certain amount of playability.

Canopy Cover, Shielding Plax – Hexproof! These certainly will be used in Voltron decks I make in the future, as Hexproof is certainly one of the more powerful abilities to grant. Being immune to targeted removal but still targetable for your pump sounds pretty good to me.

Aspect of Mongoose, Alexi’s Cloak, Diplomatic Immunity, Pemmin’s Aura, Zephid’s Embrace – These are decent as capstone cards, auras you put on once you’ve loaded up your creature with what you want already, since they all grant shroud and you can’t put more on after these. The blue ones are all currently starring for me in my Hakim, Loreweaver deck, which while not really a Voltron deck can become a fairly decent approximation when necessary. Hexproof is better, but sometimes shroud will do, especially on nice evasive guys.

Rancor- Rancor has been one of my favorites since its release back in my high school days. The +2 power for one mana is nice, but what really makes it powerful is the reusability and the trample. I probably didn’t even need to mention Rancor, because it actually gets respect in most circles, but since I actually have large numbers of this card, you will see me lean on it for any green-based aggressive deck quite often.

Instants/Sorceries
Instants and sorceries are often ignored by most voltron decks, as they tend to give temporary bonuses that cannot be relied on to carry you through the game. They can even be nullified completely by instant-speed removal, which is enough for most folks to write them off for good. I don’t really have that luxury here, so I’ll go into a few that I have found to be worth re-evaluating.

Elvish Fury, Seething Anger, Haze of Rage – Ah, buyback. Now there is an ability we will never see in print again. While there are many strong buyback cards in EDH, most of the ones that anyone plays are blue, by which I mean Capsize. Elvish Fury is a simple +2/+2 boost at instant speed for one green. This is normally nothing that would come anywhere near an EDH deck, but the ability to be bought back makes me take a second look at it. Four colorless mana is a piece of cake to most green decks, even cheap-o budget ones like mine, and I could see this potentially being a blowout finale card against many people. I’m currently trying one out in my Autumn Willow Voltron, to see how it works. I have good feelings here. Haze of Rage and Seething Anger are less useful due to their sorcery speed, but I could see using them in the right kinds of decks.

Predator’s Strike, Sylvan Might, Wildsize, Colossal Might – I’m lumping all of these together because they serve the same basic purpose: granting more power and the ever-important trample. Sylvan Might and Wildsize may serve better than the others also due to the slight card advantage you get with each.

Fury Charm – I LOVE THIS CARD. I discovered this one as I was searching for cool red stuff to put on an Isochron Scepter, and this is EXACTLY the sort of thing I need to find more of for this quest. It’s cheap to acquire and is versatile, covering something that every deck needs to do (kill artifacts) but can be used as creature pump / evasion-granter when it has to be.

Might of Oaks – This one doesn’t give the almighty trample, but it does give seven power and seven toughness. Not good enough for a typical EDH deck, but good enough for me.

Consume Strength, Agony Warp – Not… horrible, at least. They can boost one guy and weaken/possibly kill another. These two probably won’t get played only because they are two-colored, and there probably will be only a few decks that they could fit in logically, and there may be better options available.
Daring Leap, Leap of Flame, Mighty Leap – This card and others like it are also possibilities, as they grant flying in addition to P/T. Again, whether or not they are used will likely depend on the specific decks/generals that they could logically fit into.

Equipment
Equipment is definitely the main go-to card type for Voltrons. Most of the best stuff that people like slapping onto the generals is equipment, as the ability to stick around when the creature dies is certainly nice. Here's a list of pretty much all the equipment that I've found to be both helpful for Voltrons, and also low in price. Some you know, many you may laugh at, but my point here is to dig really deep for things that can work well that some people may never have considered before.

Whispersilk cloak - Probably the best equipment available for a low, low price, the cloak offers both the ever-important shroud and the wonderful inability to be blocked. An absolute staple for Voltrons, even when budge is not an issue.

Neurok Stealthsuit - For any deck using blue, this is a viable substitute for lightning greaves / whispersilk cloak as a shroud enabler. The extra bonus of being able to move it at instant speed can be incredibly helpful as well

Horned Helm - Also transferable at instant speed, this is good for green generals that don’t already have the pseudo-evasion ability of trample. Not the greatest, but workable enough to get by in many instances.

Trailblazer’s Boots - Good for most decks as a redundancy to the cloak, since this will essentially mean “unblockable” against 99% of decks out there.

Grafted Exoskeleton - This one turns heads when it is played. Even the most benign general starts looking quite scary when he or she has been granted infect. A very solid choice that can be had for not much money, but don’t expect it to stay in play long.

Darksteel Axe - Seriously underestimated by many. The ability to stick around through numerous board wipes and immunity to other “destroy effects” makes it definitely useable, and the cheap cost to cast and equip means that that +2 damage can be present easily and may go a long way towards the required 21 damage.

Fireshrieker - Double strike! Not as cheap as some on this list, but many people who played during Mirrodin block have tons of these lying around. Alas, I was out during that time, but I have picked up a few since my return.

Grafted Wargear - Three to cast and zero to equip for +3/+2 isn’t shabby. Who cares if you have to sac your guy if you unequip? Why would you want to equip this to someone other than your general? Just watch out for Tower of the Magistrates…

Infiltration Lens - Though this doesn’t directly help you do 21 points of general damage, when it becomes obvious that you’re trying to do that, you will be blocked. So get some advantage from it!

Mask of Avacyn - A newcomer, but yay for hexproof! And a little bit of power boost as a nice bonus, too.

Specter’s Shroud - If your general of choice already has some evasion, this can help keep an opponent’s resources low for a cheap casting and equip cost, but beware reanimation decks.

Strider Harness - This is on here solely for being the cheapest haste-granting equipment around, and sometimes haste is incredibly important. Swiftfoot boots are better though.

Swiftfoot Boots - Obvious choice is obvious? Cheap for now, so pick up a bunch if you can. Though not better than greaves (because you can’t equip them as soon as you have the ability to cast your general), they are certainly excellent.

Vorrac Battle horns - More trample, for a low equip cost and a bonus of being unable to be gang-blocked.


The last parts of this post were written on far too little sleep, so I apologize if they aren’t phrased as well as they could be. I could probably list dozens more in each category that are serviceable, but I figure that most people aren’t going to be digging quite as I am, so this should cover for most people. When I find a truly good gem, I may post about it later.

Until then, happy deck building!

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.