Varolz is an explosive aggro general. With a huge selection of ways to put creatures into your graveyard, you can quickly power up any creatures you have on the board and swing for huge damage. That said, he's a bit fragile. You are obviously very susceptible to graveyard hate like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, and being in :symb::symg: means you're somewhat limited in ways to protect your creatures as you make them big.
What this means is in general you want to win the game as soon as possible once you get an engine going. Thankfully, that isn't too hard!
You'll like this deck if:
-You like putting tons of counters on creatures
-You like swinging for lethal
-You like not caring if things get sent to your graveyard
You won't like this deck if:
-You like to have control over every aspect of the game
-You dislike exiling things
The high notes: Ramp: We run just enough to be able to reliably get to around 6 mana on turn 4. High notes are obviously Rofellos, Nature's Lore, etc. We focus on ramp that's playable on turns 2 and 3 so that on the following turns we can start playing action.
Tutor: In a creature-based deck, we focus mainly on tutoring for creatures, using all-stars Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman to grab large fodder creatures (such as Death's Shadow) and dump them in the graveyard. We skip the middlemen with Jarad's Orders, Entomb, and Buried Alive.
Draw: Three of the best cards in these colors appear. Sylvan Library and Phyrexian Arena are best played essentially whenever you can; Greater Good is especially useful for giving you a way to discard big fodder creatures at instant-speed, and can net you a ton of cards in response to a board sweep.
Mill/Dredge/Etc: Varolz relies on having a selection of creatures in your graveyard so you can scavenge them. We want to try and ensure that we have a reliable way of putting pretty big chunks of the deck into the yard so we can get a good set, and we do that with the amazing Mesmeric Orb and Hermit Druid. While not repeatable, Deadbridge Chant is absolutely amazing, netting you a free card every turn and dumping 10 cards in the bin. Life from the Loam is a nice way to put a few cards in every turn and lets us reuse things like Verdant Catacomb.
Fodder:Phyrexian Dreadnought has 12 power and 1 CMC. Death's Shadow costs the same and has 13. Since Varolz gives all creatures in our graveyard the scavenge ability, this means we can pay 1 or to put 12 or 13 +1/+1 counters on any creature. These are the main two targets as they are the most consistently huge. Later on the game Lord of Extinction can easily be in triple digits, and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer tends to be around 30-35 p/t in a 4-player game. Our primary use for these creatures is scavenging them from the bin, but that doesn't mean we can't just play them and turn sideways. Tarmagoyf and Boneyard Wurm are the strongest for this.
Beats: These are the creatures we try and scavenge counters onto. Lotleth troll has trample, regenerate, and lets us discard fodder at instant speed. Nether Traitor has haste, shadow, and can be recurred from the graveyard in the event of a board wipe (or if you mill him in there). Vampire Nighthawk has flying, deathtouch, and lifelink. Dreg Mangler has haste and can scavenge on its own. Skullbriar gets you double value for your scavenges, since the counters stay on him when he goes to the bin - you can just scavenge him and put the counters on something else!
Buffs:Champion of Lambholt makes your creatures essentially unblockable. Once you get Brawn into the bin they'll get trample (this is probably the most important one), and with Filth they'll get swampwalk (less important but still good). Concordant Crossroads is one of the few ways to give our stuff haste. Notable exclusion from this section is Lightning Greaves, and the reason for it is that scavenge is a targeted ability and would be blocked by shroud.
Counters: Both Corpsejack Menace and Doubling Season double the counters you put on creatures. It's extremely unlikely that you'll keep either one for more than a turn so make sure you get the most value you can out of these.
Answers: We run lots of spot removal in order to clear the way of things that turn our deck off: Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, Bloodchief Ascension, etc. Triskelion is both creature removal and a straight win condition if you get enough cards in the bin.
Lands: Pretty standard fare.
So what's the gameplan?
Early Game(turns 1-4): Ramp as much as possible. Ideally you do this by getting more lands out than anyone else but playing Rofellos is always good too. Play Varolz here if you can. You can usually play a 2-drop beater here as well.
Mid Game(turns 5-8): On turn 4 or 5 you want to do two things ideally, and have hopefully already played Varolz. First, you play something that'll dump cards into the bin - Buried Alive and Jarad's Orders are your two best options - and follow that up by scavenging some fodder onto a beater or Varolz himself. Then, you go sideways.
Late Game (turns 9-12): At this point the game has probably decided where to go. You're either going strong with a beater equipped with tons of +1/+1 counters, or you've been wiped a couple times and are having to rebuild. If you're going strong it tends to be best to just keep going with that until someone wraths. If you're trying to rebuild just remember that you can scavenge onto any creature you have - 10 damage from Wood Elves is still 10 damage after all.
The Ideal Line of Play: You ramp on turn 1, 2, and 3, giving 6-7 mana available on turn 4. Play Varolz, Rancor, and Swiftfoot Boots or similar. Turn 5 you Buried Alive, binning Brawn, Phyrexian Dreadnought, and Death's Shadow. Scavenge the dreadnought and the shadow for 1 total and put 25 (count 'em 25) +1/+1 counters on Varolz. Turn sideways and kill someone.
Cards under consideration: This deck is very much a work in progress. Currently I'm considering switching for a few more dredge cards or possibly a few things with flashback, as you can usually rely on getting any individual card into the bin. If anyone can suggest anything I'd love to hear it. Let me know what you think!
Farseek puts a dual or shock into play, giving us actual ramp that's usable on turn 2. The cycling creatures only get the land into your hand. While that's better than nothing it doesn't actually accomplish what we need them to. And while they put themselves into the graveyard, it's true, but none of them is aggressively costed for their power. I'd be left with the choice between scavenging Wirewood Guardian at 5:symg::symg: for 6 +1/+1 counters vs any of my regular fodder creatures, which I've tried to ensure get me at least 2 +1/+1's per CMC (or way more than that, in the case of something like Death's Shadow).
Just glanced at ISBPathfinder's decklist (he's got a very different build) and someone suggested Rings of Brighthearth, which for some reason I hadn't considered here. Seems incredible so now I need to figure out how to fit it in here.
I may have to add Survival of the Fittest, Brawn and Filth. My deck needs more trample. And I will definitely be adding Concordent Crossroads. My deck needs a little kill acceleration. Rings of Brighthearth is definitely going in; I just need to get my hands on one.
I don't have much mana ramp as I haven't really needed it. An Exploration might be a good edition though with life from the loam. Wish it was just a little cheaper. Same is true for Crucible of Worlds.
Take a look at my deck and let me know what you think.
I may have to add Survival of the Fittest, Brawn and Filth. My deck needs more trample. And I will definitely be adding Concordent Crossroads. My deck needs a little kill acceleration. Rings of Brighthearth is definitely going in; I just need to get my hands on one.
I don't have much mana ramp as I haven't really needed it. An Exploration might be a good edition though with life from the loam. Wish it was just a little cheaper. Same is true for Crucible of Worlds.
Take a look at my deck and let me know what you think.
You definitely run a lot more creatures than I do. I focus on scavenging onto one creature and getting in with him before the board wipe or removal comes down.
I usually see more value out of a ramp spell than an artifact that costs the same CMC, for example I'd run Cultivate or similar instead of the cluestone.
Have you gotten any value out of Death's Presence? I've gotten it out once in testing and never was able to use it, so I cut it, but you have way more creatures than I do.
I was looking at Cauldron of Souls and Thought Gorger (loooooooove that interaction) as well as a few others but they just didn't make the cut. (The first one that jumps to mind is Spike Weaver.)
You definitely run a lot more creatures than I do. I focus on scavenging onto one creature and getting in with him before the board wipe or removal comes down.
I usually see more value out of a ramp spell than an artifact that costs the same CMC, for example I'd run Cultivate or similar instead of the cluestone.
Have you gotten any value out of Death's Presence? I've gotten it out once in testing and never was able to use it, so I cut it, but you have way more creatures than I do.
I was looking at Cauldron of Souls and Thought Gorger (loooooooove that interaction) as well as a few others but they just didn't make the cut. (The first one that jumps to mind is Spike Weaver.)
Death's Presence is tricky as it costs six and once you get to turn 5-9 I want to spend mana on creature's instead. It would do me better in a token gen deck. You may be right and I should cut it for something more practical. I just traded away my Spike Weaver last friday, that might have been a mistake.
I also never thought about the characteristic based power setters like Lord of Extinction and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer they can put a ridiculous amount of counters on things.
The other enchantment I was looking at for a similar effect to Death's Presence is Ooze Flux, but I decided not to go with it (or any of the others like it, such as Necrogenesis, Golgari Germination, Night Soil, etc) because I wanted to focus on playing small creatures to the battlefield and scavenging big creatures onto them.
I like that Fungal Behemoth; counter doubler. Another card I was thinking might be interesting is Necrotic Ooze. It would require some testing, but having so many creatures in the graveyard. I know in some meta he gets a bad wrap so he will be removed immediately.
Varolz is an explosive aggro general. With a huge selection of ways to put creatures into your graveyard, you can quickly power up any creatures you have on the board and swing for huge damage. That said, he's a bit fragile. You are obviously very susceptible to graveyard hate like Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, and being in :symb::symg: means you're somewhat limited in ways to protect your creatures as you make them big.
What this means is in general you want to win the game as soon as possible once you get an engine going. Thankfully, that isn't too hard!
You'll like this deck if:
-You like putting tons of counters on creatures
-You like swinging for lethal
-You like not caring if things get sent to your graveyard
You won't like this deck if:
-You like to have control over every aspect of the game
-You dislike exiling things
The Deck:
1 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Ramp:
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Solemn Simulacrum
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Sol Ring
1 Wood Elves
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Cultivate
1 Kodama's Reach
1 Nature's Lore
1 Farseek
1 Three Visits
1 Exploration
Tutor:
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Jarad's Orders
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Entomb
1 Buried Alive
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
Draw:
1 Phyrexian Arena
1 Sylvan Library
1 Greater Good
Mill/Dredge/Graveyard Stuff:
1 Deadbridge Chant
1 Rot Farm Skeleton
1 Life from the Loam
1 Crucible of Worlds
1 Eternal Witness
1 Mesmeric Orb
1 Hermit Druid
1 Lord of Extinction
1 Death's Shadow
1 Hunted Horror
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Tarmogoyf
1 Boneyard Wurm
1 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
1 Force of Savagery
Beats:
1 Lotleth Troll
1 Nether Traitor
1 Thrun, the Last Troll
1 Vampire Nighthawk
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
1 Dreg Mangler
1 Bloodghast
Buffs:
1 Champion of Lambholt
1 Loxodon Warhammer
1 Brawn
1 Filth
1 Swiftfoot Boots
1 Rancor
1 Asceticism
1 Concordant Crossroads
Fun with Counters:
1 Corpsejack Menace
1 Doubling Season
Answers:
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Beast Within
1 Krosan Grip
1 Damnation
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Triskelion
1 Riftsweeper
1 Spike Weaver
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Cavern of Souls
1 High Market
1 Homeward Path
1 Maze of Ith
1 Strip Mine
1 Volrath's Stronghold
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Hall of the Bandit Lord
Mana Lands:
1 Golgari Rot Farm
1 Bayou
1 Cabal Coffers
1 Command Tower
8 Forest
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Overgrown Tomb
5 Swamp
1 Twilight Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Vesuva
1 Woodland Cemetery
The high notes:
Ramp: We run just enough to be able to reliably get to around 6 mana on turn 4. High notes are obviously Rofellos, Nature's Lore, etc. We focus on ramp that's playable on turns 2 and 3 so that on the following turns we can start playing action.
Tutor: In a creature-based deck, we focus mainly on tutoring for creatures, using all-stars Survival of the Fittest and Fauna Shaman to grab large fodder creatures (such as Death's Shadow) and dump them in the graveyard. We skip the middlemen with Jarad's Orders, Entomb, and Buried Alive.
Draw: Three of the best cards in these colors appear. Sylvan Library and Phyrexian Arena are best played essentially whenever you can; Greater Good is especially useful for giving you a way to discard big fodder creatures at instant-speed, and can net you a ton of cards in response to a board sweep.
Mill/Dredge/Etc: Varolz relies on having a selection of creatures in your graveyard so you can scavenge them. We want to try and ensure that we have a reliable way of putting pretty big chunks of the deck into the yard so we can get a good set, and we do that with the amazing Mesmeric Orb and Hermit Druid. While not repeatable, Deadbridge Chant is absolutely amazing, netting you a free card every turn and dumping 10 cards in the bin. Life from the Loam is a nice way to put a few cards in every turn and lets us reuse things like Verdant Catacomb.
Fodder: Phyrexian Dreadnought has 12 power and 1 CMC. Death's Shadow costs the same and has 13. Since Varolz gives all creatures in our graveyard the scavenge ability, this means we can pay 1 or to put 12 or 13 +1/+1 counters on any creature. These are the main two targets as they are the most consistently huge. Later on the game Lord of Extinction can easily be in triple digits, and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer tends to be around 30-35 p/t in a 4-player game. Our primary use for these creatures is scavenging them from the bin, but that doesn't mean we can't just play them and turn sideways. Tarmagoyf and Boneyard Wurm are the strongest for this.
Beats: These are the creatures we try and scavenge counters onto. Lotleth troll has trample, regenerate, and lets us discard fodder at instant speed. Nether Traitor has haste, shadow, and can be recurred from the graveyard in the event of a board wipe (or if you mill him in there). Vampire Nighthawk has flying, deathtouch, and lifelink. Dreg Mangler has haste and can scavenge on its own. Skullbriar gets you double value for your scavenges, since the counters stay on him when he goes to the bin - you can just scavenge him and put the counters on something else!
Buffs: Champion of Lambholt makes your creatures essentially unblockable. Once you get Brawn into the bin they'll get trample (this is probably the most important one), and with Filth they'll get swampwalk (less important but still good). Concordant Crossroads is one of the few ways to give our stuff haste. Notable exclusion from this section is Lightning Greaves, and the reason for it is that scavenge is a targeted ability and would be blocked by shroud.
Counters: Both Corpsejack Menace and Doubling Season double the counters you put on creatures. It's extremely unlikely that you'll keep either one for more than a turn so make sure you get the most value you can out of these.
Answers: We run lots of spot removal in order to clear the way of things that turn our deck off: Leyline of the Void, Rest in Peace, Bloodchief Ascension, etc. Triskelion is both creature removal and a straight win condition if you get enough cards in the bin.
Lands: Pretty standard fare.
So what's the gameplan?
Early Game(turns 1-4): Ramp as much as possible. Ideally you do this by getting more lands out than anyone else but playing Rofellos is always good too. Play Varolz here if you can. You can usually play a 2-drop beater here as well.
Mid Game(turns 5-8): On turn 4 or 5 you want to do two things ideally, and have hopefully already played Varolz. First, you play something that'll dump cards into the bin - Buried Alive and Jarad's Orders are your two best options - and follow that up by scavenging some fodder onto a beater or Varolz himself. Then, you go sideways.
Late Game (turns 9-12): At this point the game has probably decided where to go. You're either going strong with a beater equipped with tons of +1/+1 counters, or you've been wiped a couple times and are having to rebuild. If you're going strong it tends to be best to just keep going with that until someone wraths. If you're trying to rebuild just remember that you can scavenge onto any creature you have - 10 damage from Wood Elves is still 10 damage after all.
The Ideal Line of Play: You ramp on turn 1, 2, and 3, giving 6-7 mana available on turn 4. Play Varolz, Rancor, and Swiftfoot Boots or similar. Turn 5 you Buried Alive, binning Brawn, Phyrexian Dreadnought, and Death's Shadow. Scavenge the dreadnought and the shadow for 1 total and put 25 (count 'em 25) +1/+1 counters on Varolz. Turn sideways and kill someone.
Cards under consideration: This deck is very much a work in progress. Currently I'm considering switching for a few more dredge cards or possibly a few things with flashback, as you can usually rely on getting any individual card into the bin. If anyone can suggest anything I'd love to hear it. Let me know what you think!
Just glanced at ISBPathfinder's decklist (he's got a very different build) and someone suggested Rings of Brighthearth, which for some reason I hadn't considered here. Seems incredible so now I need to figure out how to fit it in here.
I have recently also put together a Varolz deck. It's quite a bit different than yours and runs a lot more creatures.
http://deckstats.net/decks/2217/13078-varolz/en
Some fun interactions I've had playing are:
Cauldron of Souls + Thought Gorger
Hell's Caretaker/Gleancrawler/Birthing Pod/Mitotic Slime
Forbidden Ancient for counter distribution.
I may have to add Survival of the Fittest, Brawn and Filth. My deck needs more trample. And I will definitely be adding Concordent Crossroads. My deck needs a little kill acceleration. Rings of Brighthearth is definitely going in; I just need to get my hands on one.
I don't have much mana ramp as I haven't really needed it. An Exploration might be a good edition though with life from the loam. Wish it was just a little cheaper. Same is true for Crucible of Worlds.
Take a look at my deck and let me know what you think.
You definitely run a lot more creatures than I do. I focus on scavenging onto one creature and getting in with him before the board wipe or removal comes down.
I usually see more value out of a ramp spell than an artifact that costs the same CMC, for example I'd run Cultivate or similar instead of the cluestone.
Have you gotten any value out of Death's Presence? I've gotten it out once in testing and never was able to use it, so I cut it, but you have way more creatures than I do.
I was looking at Cauldron of Souls and Thought Gorger (loooooooove that interaction) as well as a few others but they just didn't make the cut. (The first one that jumps to mind is Spike Weaver.)
Death's Presence is tricky as it costs six and once you get to turn 5-9 I want to spend mana on creature's instead. It would do me better in a token gen deck. You may be right and I should cut it for something more practical. I just traded away my Spike Weaver last friday, that might have been a mistake.
Scavenge Death's Shadow + Rings of Brighthearth + Corpsejack Menace = Insane
I also never thought about the characteristic based power setters like Lord of Extinction and Multani, Maro-Sorcerer they can put a ridiculous amount of counters on things.
Also, Mwonvuli Beast Tracker to find a Phyrexian Dreadnought that was previously scavenged(exiled) and brought back from a Riftsweeper is some quality magic.
I like that Fungal Behemoth; counter doubler. Another card I was thinking might be interesting is Necrotic Ooze. It would require some testing, but having so many creatures in the graveyard. I know in some meta he gets a bad wrap so he will be removed immediately.