P.Crusader is a better target for scavenge as a finisher and is less vulnerable to removal (though it doesn't recurr) and the discard is necessary to both slow down the opponent and protect the combo from potential removal while discarding Death's Shadow and extra copies of "Varolz" or other redundant cards for value.
This was my first real Modern deck, man this takes me back. I do really like the idea of the Ballista. It would seem to enable some really busted wins, and without needing to go to combat. I agree that it's not anything special, and even subpar without the combo online, but once it's one line you can start doming people with the ballista. Death's Shadow would read B: deal 13 damage to target opponent. Even Hangarback Walker would be an interesting scavenge target. You wouldn't want to kill a Walker with a ton of counters, and you could respond to Path by sacrificing it to Valroz as long as he is still alive.
I don't like them very much, the stats are very weak and having to sink mana to activate their abilities isn't particulary efficient.
Even a creature like Warden of the First Tree seems better.
I recently made a varolz deck but it was more like a +1/+1 counter stompy deck it was okay and won some games. Sharing it here in case it gives someone inspiration
My brother and i came up with a list of the best creatures to use with Varolz as soon as he came out because we thought he had potential as a card to build a deck around. the only unfortunate thing about him is that he's the only creature with the ability to give other creatures scavenge...
since Green Sun's Zenith is still banned, unfortunately, we are left with limited choices to search out Varolz. initially, we thought to use Chord of Calling, but by the time we Chord a Varolz, it'd already be turn 4 or 5. we'd already be dead against a competitive deck. But then, i remembered Fauna Shaman. She gets the creatures we want to scavenge to the graveyard While searching for the creature we needed at the time or for next turn.
Spark Elemental and Vexing Devil are awesome additions as well. they cost one mana and have the potential to deal damage on turn 1. on top of these things, they also scavenge quite well. Spark will give 3 +1/+1 counters and Devil will give 4 +1/+1 counters. Since we couldn't find another decent card like Llanowar Mentor to use, i decided to go with some cheap scavengable creatures with a lot of bang for their 1-mana casting cost. i also had Silhanna Ledgewalker in here and a rather unblockable creature, but i took her out due to being a 2-drop. i've been thinking of testing Slippery Bogle as a body to keep dumping scavenge counters onto. Thrunn, The Last Troll might not be a bad idea, either.
screw discard. everybody uses it. it's in every deck. watch, thoughtseize is going to be the next card banned in modern because it's making it's way into every deck it can. i'm going to add white into my manabase just for Leyline of Sanctity. oh, and so i can also laugh at everybody running discard. but i digress. only 8 control cards is less than what i usually like to run, but it should be enough.
i hope some of this helps you guys out. i haven't taken the deck to an FNM or anything, but it's a lot of fun to play with in multiplayer games at my or a friends house or just a casual match of 1v1. it's not quite where i want it to be on a competitive level, but if it gets there, i've got to try it out at a tournament to see how it does.
LEGACY: Soldier Stompy WW // Blue Stompy UU // Fit Variants BGRW // Sol Land Brews BGRUWC MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
Many will argue that Walking Ballista and Hangarback Walker should be in there. Fine, take out the Essence Harvest and put them in. I'm going with Essence Harvest because a single Fatal Push kills either of the 2 creatures. If you want Inkmoth Nexus, go for it.
1 out of 2 players think this deck is a lot of fun.
Hi everyone, been tooling around with this deck for a few days. I take a more controlling, midrange approach instead of a full on aggro attack. A few cards I feel are worthy of discussion:
Walking Ballista is pretty good to supplement your removal suite when you have mana available to invest in it, but its a complete blowout against aggro when you can scavenge onto it. I won from pretty far behind against Humans and Affinity, something like turn 3 Varolz, turn 4 Traverse for Balllista, play Ballista as a 1/1, scavenge Death's Shadow, and clear the board. This leads me to Traverse - 3 copies combined with 4 Grisly Salvage work well together to ensure you have targets in the yard and can tutor up any silver bullets you may have included. I think since we are dumping things into the graveyard anyway, we might as well capitalize on the Delirium mechanic a bit. Eternal Scourge is something new I brought to the deck after trying it in Skred a few months back. Here, its a reusable scavenge target, especially good with a trample creature or a flyer. Its not great on its own so only 2 copies.
My list below for reference.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
2 Eternal Scourge
2 Walking Ballista
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
2 Fatal Push
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Grisly Salvage
1 Dismember
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
2 Swamp
2 Forest
2 Inkmoth Nexus
My 2 cents is look for a midrange strategy that does not worry about the graveyard and either include that strategy in the maindeck or have it as an option in the sideboard. I would say eliminate any potential strategy that relies on the graveyard, because there is often good graveyard hate in the meta. The deck is playing some very good midrange cards. Lotleth Troll is just good on its own, it can block, its very hard for opponents to remove. I wouldn't think you'd need too many enablers to combo with some reliability.
Time of Need might be a really excellent 5-8 versions of Eldritch Evolution. It may allow a tool box of legendary creatures that are actually good. It might be something to explore, especially if you can tutor for cards like Gadock Teeg and Kataki, War's Wage if you splash white. I am sure there are more quality Legend Tool box cards available to get out of the sideboard. But Ghalta, Primal Hunger might also be a Legendary Creature that might be cheap enough to cast with a couple creatures out or cheap to scavenge after you have scavenged other creatures to combo kill.
Honestly the Hardened Scales approach maybe good, because it plays a lot of quality creatures and the scales in many ways serve as more versions of Vrolz.
It has great snyergy with all Discard-Outlets and the creatures are small enough to trigger it constantly.
Green @ it's best
Fauna is able to tutor for Value and Vengevine can easily be triggered.
Green @ it's best
P.Crusader is a better target for scavenge as a finisher and is less vulnerable to removal (though it doesn't recurr) and the discard is necessary to both slow down the opponent and protect the combo from potential removal while discarding Death's Shadow and extra copies of "Varolz" or other redundant cards for value.
Cheeri0sXWU
Reid Duke's Level One
Who's the Beatdown
Alt+0198=Æ
Hangarback is similar but really needs a sac' outlet, it is better in the fair plan however.
With so many other discard outlets for Death's Shadow (Lotleth Troll, Fauna Shaman or even Grim Flayer) Collective Brutality seems less necessary so I replaced it with more Thoughtseize and Inquisition of Kozilek.
I'm still not sure about the manabase and the SB but the deck is getting closer to a straight "BG Rock" deck (but with much more creatures).
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Death's Shadow
4x Grim Flayer
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Fauna Shaman
4x Tarmogoyf
4x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Instant (6)
3x Fatal Push
3x Abrupt Decay
Sorcery (4)
2x Inquisition of Kozilek
2x Thoughtseize
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Windswept Heath
1x Bloodstained Mire
2x Overgrown Tomb
4x Blooming Marsh
2x Forest
2x Swamp
4x Inkmoth Nexus
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Treetop Village
2x Scavenging Ooze
1x Thrun, the Last Troll
2x Thoughtseize
2x Collective Brutality
3x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Fulminator Mage
2x Nihil Spellbomb
I like the possible flying and protect too
Even a creature like Warden of the First Tree seems better.
With more fetches (and cheap discard spells) delve creatures like Tasigur, the Golden Fang or Hooting Mandrills can also be good.
4x Birds of Paradise
4x Death's Shadow
2x Grim Flayer
2x Lotleth Troll
4x Bassara Tower Archer
4x Varolz, the Scar-Striped
2x Rhonas the Indomitable
2x Bontu the Glorified
4x Soulflayer
1x Samut, Voice of Dissent
1x Gurmag Swiftwing
3x Claim // Fame
2x Grisly Salvage
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Rancor
2x Lead the Stampede
Land (18)
4x Verdant Catacombs
2x Bloodstained Mire
2x Wooded Foothills
2x Overgrown Tomb
1x Stomping ground
1x Blood Crypt
1x Forest
1x Swamp
2x Blinkmoth Nexus
1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1x Treetop Village
Bassara Tower Archer + Rhonas the Indomitable = Soulflayer with hexproof + indestructible + reach
you can get fly, trample, Double strike, haste, vigilance
4x Experiment one
4x Narnam Renegade
4x Servant of The scale
4x Avatar of the resolute
4x Winding Constrictor
3x Lotleth Troll
3x Varolz, The Scar-Striped
4x Abrupt decay
21x Lands
3x Oran-rief, the vastwood
3 Vexing Devil
4 Llanowar Mentor
4 Fauna Shaman
2 Myr Superion
2 Spellskite
4 Death's Shadow
4 Varolz, the scar-striped
1 Hunted Horror
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Maelstrom Pulse
2 Fatal Push
22 lands
1 Blood Crypt
2 Stomping Ground
4 Copperline Gorge
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Dragonskull Summit
1 Sulfurous Springs
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Wooded Foothills
1 Mountain
1 Forest
1 Swamp
My brother and i came up with a list of the best creatures to use with Varolz as soon as he came out because we thought he had potential as a card to build a deck around. the only unfortunate thing about him is that he's the only creature with the ability to give other creatures scavenge...
since Green Sun's Zenith is still banned, unfortunately, we are left with limited choices to search out Varolz. initially, we thought to use Chord of Calling, but by the time we Chord a Varolz, it'd already be turn 4 or 5. we'd already be dead against a competitive deck. But then, i remembered Fauna Shaman. She gets the creatures we want to scavenge to the graveyard While searching for the creature we needed at the time or for next turn.
Spark Elemental and Vexing Devil are awesome additions as well. they cost one mana and have the potential to deal damage on turn 1. on top of these things, they also scavenge quite well. Spark will give 3 +1/+1 counters and Devil will give 4 +1/+1 counters. Since we couldn't find another decent card like Llanowar Mentor to use, i decided to go with some cheap scavengable creatures with a lot of bang for their 1-mana casting cost. i also had Silhanna Ledgewalker in here and a rather unblockable creature, but i took her out due to being a 2-drop. i've been thinking of testing Slippery Bogle as a body to keep dumping scavenge counters onto. Thrunn, The Last Troll might not be a bad idea, either.
screw discard. everybody uses it. it's in every deck. watch, thoughtseize is going to be the next card banned in modern because it's making it's way into every deck it can. i'm going to add white into my manabase just for Leyline of Sanctity. oh, and so i can also laugh at everybody running discard. but i digress. only 8 control cards is less than what i usually like to run, but it should be enough.
i hope some of this helps you guys out. i haven't taken the deck to an FNM or anything, but it's a lot of fun to play with in multiplayer games at my or a friends house or just a casual match of 1v1. it's not quite where i want it to be on a competitive level, but if it gets there, i've got to try it out at a tournament to see how it does.
Ways to improve it would be nice.
// 1 Artifact
1 Basilisk Collar
// 30 Creature
4 Death's Shadow
4 Walking Ballista
4 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
4 Winding Constrictor
4 Birds of Paradise
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Trinket Mage
4 Lotleth Troll
1 Eternal Witness
// 7 Instant
4 Collected Company
3 Chord of Calling
3 Overgrown Tomb
1 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Vault of the Archangel
3 Blooming Marsh
1 Horizon Canopy
1 Breeding Pool
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Pithing Needle
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Nihil Spellbomb
2 Reclamation Sage
3 Kitchen Finks
1 Glen Elendra Archmage
1 Shriekmaw
3 Fulminator Mage
1 Great Sable Stag
MODERN: Pure Pili-ness GU // Red Devotion RR // Green Devotion Variants GRWUG // U/G Emerge CGU // Lots and Lots of Brews BGRUWC
Creatures (20)
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Death's Shadow
4 Grim Flayer
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
Instant (17)
4 Blossoming Defense
4 Fatal Push
3 Grapple with the Past
4 Grisly Salvage
2 Heroic Intervention
Sorcery (2)
2 Essence Harvest
Lands (21)
6 Forest
1 Overgrown Tomb
6 Swamp
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Woodland Cemetery
Many will argue that Walking Ballista and Hangarback Walker should be in there. Fine, take out the Essence Harvest and put them in. I'm going with Essence Harvest because a single Fatal Push kills either of the 2 creatures. If you want Inkmoth Nexus, go for it.
1 out of 2 players think this deck is a lot of fun.
Walking Ballista is pretty good to supplement your removal suite when you have mana available to invest in it, but its a complete blowout against aggro when you can scavenge onto it. I won from pretty far behind against Humans and Affinity, something like turn 3 Varolz, turn 4 Traverse for Balllista, play Ballista as a 1/1, scavenge Death's Shadow, and clear the board. This leads me to Traverse - 3 copies combined with 4 Grisly Salvage work well together to ensure you have targets in the yard and can tutor up any silver bullets you may have included. I think since we are dumping things into the graveyard anyway, we might as well capitalize on the Delirium mechanic a bit. Eternal Scourge is something new I brought to the deck after trying it in Skred a few months back. Here, its a reusable scavenge target, especially good with a trample creature or a flyer. Its not great on its own so only 2 copies.
My list below for reference.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Lotleth Troll
4 Varolz, the Scar-Striped
2 Eternal Scourge
2 Walking Ballista
1 Tasigur, the Golden Fang
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Thoughtseize
2 Fatal Push
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Grisly Salvage
1 Dismember
2 Liliana of the Veil
4 Verdant Catacombs
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
2 Marsh Flats
2 Overgrown Tomb
1 Blood Crypt
2 Swamp
2 Forest
2 Inkmoth Nexus
https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/545496-varolz-vials
Oona's Prowler
Avatar of Discord
Big Game Hunter
Illness in the Ranks, Virulent Plague, Could be good cards on their own in Modern with so many token creatures, I see you Lingering Souls, so it might be a decent Hunted Strategy alongside just using Hunted Horror and Hunted Troll.
Time of Need might be a really excellent 5-8 versions of Eldritch Evolution. It may allow a tool box of legendary creatures that are actually good. It might be something to explore, especially if you can tutor for cards like Gadock Teeg and Kataki, War's Wage if you splash white. I am sure there are more quality Legend Tool box cards available to get out of the sideboard. But Ghalta, Primal Hunger might also be a Legendary Creature that might be cheap enough to cast with a couple creatures out or cheap to scavenge after you have scavenged other creatures to combo kill.
Honestly the Hardened Scales approach maybe good, because it plays a lot of quality creatures and the scales in many ways serve as more versions of Vrolz.
4 Death's Shadow
4 Tarmogoyf
4 Plague Stinger
4 Street Wraith
2 Varolz, the scar-striped
Spells (22)
4 Mishra's Bauble
4 Thoughtseize
2 Fatal Push
2 Assassin's Trophy
2 Collective Brutality
3 Traverse the Ulvenwald
2 Blossoming Defense
3 Liliana of the Veil
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
2 Overgrown Tomb
4 Blooming Marsh
4 Inkmoth Nexus
1 Swamp
1 Forest
It seems wild but a deck like this took first in a major tournament about a year ago and I've been toying with the idea ever since
Draft My Cube!