Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Volrath, the Shapestealer!

Volrath is a five mana 7/5 with at the beginning of combat on your turn you put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature and for one mana you can have Volrath be a copy of a target creature with a counter on it, except it is a 7/5 and has this ability.

Volrath is a funky card in that you can copy a creature that has any type of counter, not just the -1/-1 counter that is given, which means that if a creature happens to be playing a +1/+1 counters deck we can take advantage of the creatures that they have.

We should also be able to take advantage of -1/-1 counters strategies that are available, being able to control the battlefield until we can hit our win condition.

The first thing we need to do is find ways to get a bunch of counters on as many things as possible.

Black Sun’s Zenith is perfect for this because it puts counters on everything and shuffles itself back into the library. It’s even better because it allows us to get at least one counter on everything, which means we should have the pick of the litter of what creature we want to copy, provided they don’t die first.

Persistent Constrictor has an opponent lose a life and allows us to out a -1/-1 counter in one creature they control and has persist to come back, Obelisk Spider allows us to put a -1/-1 counter on a creature when it deals combat damage to a creature and drains each opponent whenever one or more -1/-1 counter are put on a creature, and Blowfly Infestation to add a -1/-1 counter to a creature if a creature with a -1/-1 counter died.

We can also make use of cards that have wither or give creatures wither, like Massacre Girl, Known Killer, which not only gives our creatures wither but if a creature an opponent controls dies and its toughness was less than 1 then we draw a card.

We don’t even need to put -1/-1 counters on creatures for Volrath to copy, so Tetzimoc, Primal Death can put a prey counter on a creature if we pay a black and reveal it from our hand on our turn, and also has the extra utility of being able to destroy each creature with a prey counter when it enters.

The next thing we should look for are ways we can make use of all the counters that we are putting on things.

Flourishing Defenses allows us to make an Elf Warrior token whenever a -1/-1 counter is put on a creature. Similarly there is also Nest of Scarabs which whenever one or more -1/-1 counters are put on a creature then we get that many Insect tokens.

The cheapest version of an effect that gets a creature whenever a -1/-1 counter is given to a creature is Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons which not only puts a -1/-1 counter when it deals combat damage, but also makes a Snake token with deathtouch whenever we put one or more -1/-1 counters on a creature.

There is also Crumbling Ashes which destroys a creature with a -1/-1 counter at the beginning of our upkeep, which means that if there isn’t a creature that Volrath can make use of by copying then we can get rid of it.

We also have access to a fun interaction with Generous Patron in that we can draw more and more cards whenever a counter is put onto a creature we don’t control, which means when Volrath is in play we can just draw a free card at the beginning of combat on our turn when he puts a counter on something.

Now while giving a bunch of creatures a number of counters can help us control the game, it doesn’t win us the game necessarily.

Something like Biovisionary helps us in that regard because if we run a decent number of other clone cards then we can with the game on our end step when we have four of them in play, which is not often the case with win the game cards.

We can play something like Undercover Operative to give itself a shield counter while it copies Biovisionary so that when Volrath enters it can copy Undercover Operative (who is now a Biovisionary) if Biovisionary doesn’t have a counter.

If we can’t reliably get Biovisionary in play we can shift our game plan to completely kill out opponents creatures, proliferating the -1/-1 counters with an effect like Tezzeret’s Gamit which also draws us cards, while also having Necroskitter out, which allows us to take our opponents creatures if they happen to die with a -1/-1 counter.

If we have a wide enough board and our opponents have a bunch of creatures with -1/-1 counters then we can use Spitting Dilophosaurus to keep them from blocking and allowing us to get damage through.

Volrath is a Commander that has a flexible range of uses, and while we can use his ability to copy our opponents creatures, we can’t guarantee that their best creatures has a counter on it or can be targeted by Volrath. We can shift our game plan as the game goes on to make the best use of Volrath, while not having to completely rely on him being in play to win the game.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual