This deck intends to use Varolz to scavenge a Dreadnought or Death's Shadow onto himself and Berserk for the win or to scavenge onto an infect creature and finish it in one turn. Dig and tutors are abundant and you've got a small collection of removal for any hate you could see. The biggest lose from Glenn Jones list, which this is based off of, is Ad Nauseum, but your deck is half the size, so you can manage fine. Sideboard is in progress and may do well as a Death Wish package.
Please tear it apart, I'd like it to be as lean as it can be. Sometimes you just wanna be a little ruthless.
The ramp package seems a little strange in my mind. Birds are fine, but the rest seems lackluster, mox 2 for 1's yourself, Elves shoots yourself in the foot, the petal and ritual are 1 shots that are pretty small. Rampant Growth would serve better.
Removal and Dig packages seem solid. Tutor seems kinda meh as well, reanimator is ok, but you seem to have too much there, it's cutting into your business creatures.
Lands are meh, too many fetches and land count is a bit low, though at a second glance, you only have 4+1 commander at 3. 5 fetches and only 8 cards to hit seems bad, lower the fetch or raise the basics.
Overall it's pretty solid, looks similar to my old Varolz Infect EDH.
I would think that to play competitively, Crucible of Worlds, Wasteland and Inkmoth Nexus all want to be part of this team. I really feel that in a dual-based format, you'd be more competitive making something more similar to Tom Ross's Legacy or Modern builds. YMMV, but I would want to give myself the chance for T3 wins out of no where.
The ramp package seems a little strange in my mind. Birds are fine, but the rest seems lackluster, mox 2 for 1's yourself, Elves shoots yourself in the foot, the petal and ritual are 1 shots that are pretty small. Rampant Growth would serve better.
Why do you say that? This deck isn't intended to grind out advantage, or even to maintain card parity. It's solely interested in exploiting the early lull in tempo from "building up" and turning that into a quick win. If I win a turn earlier, what do I care that I'm down a card or my mana was one shot? Likewise, something like Rampant Growth is very slow.
Removal and Dig packages seem solid. Tutor seems kinda meh as well, reanimator is ok, but you seem to have too much there, it's cutting into your business creatures.
That whole package IS the business creatures? It allows me to circumvent the inherent variance in a singleton format.
What would I be hitting with any of those that I'm afraid of? I can't think of any creatures I'm terribly afraid of in this format, and Hymn doesn't garuntee I hit what would stop my kill, it might, but I'd rather pick out something that can beat me than gamble. Additional reactive protection may be better than Therapy anyway, I'll have to look for a cheaper option though, every mana sets the clock back and makes disruption more likely.
Expensive and slow, why would I play those when I get the same value out of an entomb or a GSZ? Phyresis/Oil is tempting if I find I need an extra berserk effect, because they do that fairly well though.
Lands are meh, too many fetches and land count is a bit low, though at a second glance, you only have 4+1 commander at 3. 5 fetches and only 8 cards to hit seems bad, lower the fetch or raise the basics.
Hitting all my colors is much more important than having something to grab with my fetches all the time. If I'm at the point where my fetches can't get something, I'm far too flooded already.
Overall it's pretty solid, looks similar to my old Varolz Infect EDH.
I would think that to play competitively, Crucible of Worlds, Wasteland and Inkmoth Nexus all want to be part of this team. I really feel that in a dual-based format, you'd be more competitive making something more similar to Tom Ross's Legacy or Modern builds. YMMV, but I would want to give myself the chance for T3 wins out of no where.
Inkmoth Nexus is already included, however Wasteland Crucible seems pretty slow in my experience with the format. I haven't been getting the opportunity to attempt to grind advantage much at all, and it certainly doesn't help the combo kill, why do you suggest it?
Responses in bold. I like some of the ideas, but a number of them are confusing to me, I'd like to hear why you think a lot of those suggestions are what I should be doing?
ive been thinking about building a ver of this deck based more on Varolz, Death's Dreadnought. Have you playtested any other versions of this deck? I'm more wondering if a less "all-in" style of Varolz could be good even if it was less explosive.
i've been playing the list you linked with some changes for duel commander. i have to say that when you can't cast varolz, you need to have some really dangerous creatures or lose the game on the spot. something like pack rat comes to mind, but troll ascetic as well.
It's been a quite a while since I looked up tiny leaders, and I stumbled on this post by chance. I made a competitive list when the format was new and entered in a tournament in 2015 hosted by BadWolfMTG. I'm glad to say that this deck won the tournament (nobody thought it would win, all the speculators thought it would be ezuri, the renegade leader), so I hope you can take some ideas away from it. It's a tainted pact deck hence why you see no duplicates of any kind because it turns that card into an instant tutor. Therefore something like tainted pact into berserk at instant speed mid combat is possible and utterly ridiculous.
Here is the deck itself with sideboard
Combo
1 Berserk
1 Death's Shadow
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
Tutors
1 Entomb
1 Reanimate
1 Unearth
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Regrowth
1 Treasured Find
1 Buried Alive
1 Grim Tutor
Dig
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Night's Whisper
1 Sign in Blood
1 Sylvan Library
1 Dark Confidant
1 Glistener Elf
1 Plague Stinger
1 Inkmoth Nexus
Protection
1 Thoughtseize
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Duress
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Ranger's Guile
Ramp
1 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
1 Dark Ritual
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
Removal
1 Nature's Claim
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Beast Within
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Bayou
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Windswept Heath
1 Marsh Flats
1 Twilight Mire
1 Dryad Arbor
3 Forest
3 Swamp
This deck intends to use Varolz to scavenge a Dreadnought or Death's Shadow onto himself and Berserk for the win or to scavenge onto an infect creature and finish it in one turn. Dig and tutors are abundant and you've got a small collection of removal for any hate you could see. The biggest lose from Glenn Jones list, which this is based off of, is Ad Nauseum, but your deck is half the size, so you can manage fine. Sideboard is in progress and may do well as a Death Wish package.
Please tear it apart, I'd like it to be as lean as it can be. Sometimes you just wanna be a little ruthless.
Removal and Dig packages seem solid. Tutor seems kinda meh as well, reanimator is ok, but you seem to have too much there, it's cutting into your business creatures.
Protection could modify, take out Cabal for Hymn to Tourach or Ostracize/Despise/Blackmail. Another creature protection would be optimal, Sheltering Word?
Creatures - Blight Mamba for built-regen, Whispering Specter (Glistening Oil/Phyresis for Varolz conversion?)
Lands are meh, too many fetches and land count is a bit low, though at a second glance, you only have 4+1 commander at 3. 5 fetches and only 8 cards to hit seems bad, lower the fetch or raise the basics.
Overall it's pretty solid, looks similar to my old Varolz Infect EDH.
Responses in bold. I like some of the ideas, but a number of them are confusing to me, I'd like to hear why you think a lot of those suggestions are what I should be doing?
Here is the deck itself with sideboard
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Cavern of Souls
1 Command Tower
1 Forest
1 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Mana Confluence
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Pendelhaven
1 Shizo, Death's Storehouse
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Swamp
1 Tainted Wood
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Windswept Heath
ENCHANTMENTS
1 Fists of Ironwood
1 Rancor
1 Spider Umbra
1 Sylvan Library
ARTIFACTS
1 lotus petal
1 mox diamond
INSTANTS
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Berserk
1 Chord of Calling
1 Consume Strength
1 Dark Ritual
1 Entomb
1 Invigorate
1 Ranger's Guile
1 Skeletal Scrying
1 Tainted Pact
1 Tainted Strike
1 Vines of Vastwood
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Dark Confidant
1 Death's Shadow
1 Elves of Deep Shadow
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Phyrexian Crusader
1 Phyrexian Dreadnought
1 Plague Stinger
1 Silhana Ledgewalker
1 Sylvan Safekeeper
SORCERY
1 Buried Alive
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Thoughtseize
PLANESWALKER
1 Liliana of the Veil
1 Autumn's Veil
1 Choke
1 Crawlspace
1 Dismember
1 Duress
1 Golgari Charm
1 Nature's Claim
1 Phyrexian Revoker
1 Self-Inflicted Wound
1 Torpor Orb
It's basically a smaller version of my EDH deck which features varolz, the scar-striped which I'll put a link below here.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/im-counting-on-the-dead/
Here is the youtube tournament bracket it was in:
http://challonge.com/SummerShenanigans2015
If you're interested in the matches here is the link to the them (just skip to the ones that have "I'm all in Varolz" in them)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLv8abqJalmhyNMAHhY7ldqeoyr9dNQquJ]