Volo Guide to Monsters EDH: An Overview
Volo, Guide to Monsters, inspires unique Commander decks focused on creature types, leveraging synergistic builds and powerful monster-centric strategies for exciting gameplay.
Volo, Guide to Monsters, isn’t just a set; it’s a thematic springboard for Commander decks. The Volo’s Guide to Monsters product delves into the lore surrounding various monster types – Goblins, Orcs, Elves, and more – providing flavorful foundations for deckbuilding.
This guide focuses on harnessing the power of these creatures within the EDH format. Volo himself, as a Commander, uniquely reduces the casting cost of creatures based on their power, encouraging high-impact monster strategies. Building around Volo allows for explosive plays and synergistic combinations, capitalizing on the diverse monster ecosystem presented within the set and beyond.
Why Volo’s Monsters are Great for EDH
Volo, Guide to Monsters, excels in EDH due to the format’s emphasis on creature-based strategies and synergistic interactions. His ability to reduce creature costs scales powerfully in multiplayer, enabling earlier deployment of impactful monsters. The set’s focus on tribal themes – Goblins, Orcs, Elves, and others – naturally lends itself to Commander’s tribal synergies.
Furthermore, the diverse range of monster types allows for varied deckbuilding approaches, from aggressive Goblin swarms to ramp-focused Giant strategies. Volo’s unique commander ability encourages building around high-power creatures, creating explosive turns and overwhelming board states, perfectly suited for EDH’s dynamic gameplay.
Key Monster Types & Commander Potential
Volo’s guide showcases diverse monster types – Goblins, Orcs, Giants, and Elves – each offering distinct Commander potential through unique synergies and playstyles.
Goblins: A Classic Aggro Choice
Goblins represent a quintessential aggressive strategy in EDH, benefiting from numerous tribal synergies and low mana costs. A Goblin-focused Volo deck thrives on overwhelming opponents with a relentless swarm of creatures. Key cards include Goblin Chieftain, providing a power boost, and Goblin Ringleader, enabling card advantage through Goblin reveals.
Volo amplifies this strategy by reducing the cost of these creatures, allowing for faster deployments and more impactful attacks. Consider including cards that reward Goblin synergy, like Goblin Warchief, further accelerating your board presence. The goal is a quick, decisive victory through sheer numbers and aggressive tactics, capitalizing on Goblin’s inherent strengths.
Orcs: Powerful and Cost-Effective
Orcs offer a potent blend of power and affordability, making them an excellent choice for a Volo Commander deck. They excel at mid-range aggression, boasting creatures with impactful abilities and reasonable mana costs. Cards like Orcish Bowmasters provide valuable control, while Orcish Spymaster enables card draw and disruption.
Volo’s ability significantly reduces the casting costs of Orcs, allowing for quicker development of a formidable board state. Focus on Orcs with abilities that trigger upon entering the battlefield or attacking, maximizing value. A well-built Orc deck can overwhelm opponents with efficient creatures and strategic advantages, proving a surprisingly effective strategy.
Giants: Big Threats and Ramp Potential
Giants embody raw power and scaling potential, fitting perfectly within a Volo-led Commander strategy. While often requiring more mana, their sheer size and impactful abilities can quickly turn the tide of battle. Utilizing ramp strategies is crucial to consistently deploy these colossal creatures. Cards like Giant Growth and Colossal Dreadmaw exemplify their strength.
Volo’s cost reduction synergizes beautifully with Giants, making even expensive threats manageable. Focus on Giants with trample and reach to overcome blockers. A Giant-centric deck aims to establish overwhelming board presence, leveraging size and power to crush opponents with decisive attacks and unstoppable force.
Elves: Synergy and Token Generation
Elves excel at synergistic gameplay and overwhelming opponents with token armies, making them a strong contender in a Volo Commander build. Cards like Llanowar Elves provide crucial early ramp, accelerating your ability to cast larger threats. Elves also offer powerful token generation through cards like Elvish Mystic and Imperious Perfect.
Volo’s ability further enhances Elven strategies by reducing the cost of already efficient creatures. A dedicated Elven deck focuses on building a wide board presence, utilizing lords to buff their numbers and overwhelm opponents. This strategy thrives on consistent mana production and synergistic creature abilities.
Building Your Volo Monster Deck
Constructing a Volo deck requires careful commander selection, core card inclusion, ramp strategies, and efficient card draw to maximize monster synergy and power.
Commander Selection: Volo, Guide to Monsters
Volo, Guide to Monsters, is the natural choice for this archetype, offering a unique ability to reduce the cost of creatures based on their power. This encourages building around high-power monsters, maximizing value from Volo’s discount. His ability synergizes exceptionally well with tribal strategies, particularly those focused on Goblins, Orcs, or Giants.
Choosing Volo allows for a flexible deck-building approach, enabling diverse monster types and strategies. While other monster-themed commanders exist, Volo’s cost reduction is unparalleled for raw creature deployment. He truly embodies the spirit of showcasing and benefiting from powerful monsters, making him the ideal leader for this exciting EDH build.
Core Cards for a Volo EDH Deck
A successful Volo deck demands high-impact creatures. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger and Griselbrand offer powerful effects, benefiting from Volo’s cost reduction. Tribal lords like Goblin King and Orcish Bowmasters are essential for synergistic builds. Ramp staples such as Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach accelerate monster deployment.
Don’t overlook cards that benefit from creatures entering the battlefield, like Guardian Project. Include removal like Swords to Plowshares and Path to Exile. Prioritize creatures with impactful enter-the-battlefield effects and those that synergize with your chosen monster tribe for maximum effectiveness.
Ramp Strategies for Monster Decks
Monster decks, particularly in Commander, require robust ramp to deploy high-cost threats quickly. Traditional mana rocks like Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Commander’s Sphere are foundational. Green ramp spells – Rampant Growth, Farseek, and Cultivate – accelerate land development. Consider land-fetching creatures like Wood Elves for consistent mana fixing.
Exploit synergies with creature-based ramp, such as those providing extra land plays. Prioritize ramp that doesn’t hinder Volo’s ability to reveal creatures, ensuring consistent access to cost reduction benefits. A fast mana base is crucial for overwhelming opponents with powerful monsters.
Card Draw & Filtering
Maintaining hand advantage is vital in Commander, especially for monster-heavy strategies. Harmonize and Rishkar’s Expertise provide card draw tied to creature types. Filtering tools like Ponder and Preordain refine your draws, seeking key monsters or ramp spells; Consider effects that draw cards upon creature entering the battlefield, like Beast Whisperer.
Volo’s ability benefits from a full hand, allowing more creature reveals for cost reduction. Prioritize consistent card draw to ensure a steady stream of monsters and support spells. Efficient filtering helps navigate to crucial cards quickly, maximizing Volo’s impact.
Synergies & Combos
Volo excels with tribal synergies, reducing costs for numerous creatures. Combining him with creature-focused payoffs and combat buffs creates powerful, game-winning combinations.
Monster Tribal Synergies
Volo, Guide to Monsters truly shines when built around a specific monster tribe. Goblins, Orcs, and Elves all benefit immensely from his cost reduction ability, allowing for explosive board states. Cards like Goblin Chieftain or Lord of the Undercity amplify Goblin aggression, while Orcish commanders gain value from cheaper, larger threats.
Elves leverage token generation and synergistic abilities. Focusing on a tribe unlocks dedicated tribal lords and payoffs, maximizing Volo’s impact. Consider cards that reward you for controlling many creatures of a single type, creating a snowball effect that overwhelms opponents. Building tribally ensures consistent synergy and a focused game plan.
Volo’s Ability & Creature Interactions
Volo, Guide to Monsters’ key strength lies in reducing the cost of creatures based on their power. This dramatically impacts high-power monsters, making expensive threats playable much earlier. Synergies abound with creatures possessing triggered abilities upon entering the battlefield, as these become cheaper to repeatedly cast and trigger.
Consider creatures with “enters the battlefield” effects or those that generate value when played. Volo also interacts well with creatures that copy themselves, creating cascading cost reductions. Prioritize creatures with high power to maximize Volo’s discount, building a deck that consistently floods the board with impactful monsters.
Combat Tricks & Buffs
Volo, Guide to Monsters decks benefit immensely from combat tricks and temporary power boosts. Since Volo discounts based on power, even a small power increase can lead to significant cost savings on subsequent casts. Cards like Giant Growth or Rogue’s Passage become incredibly valuable, turning moderate creatures into game-winning threats.
Focus on instant-speed effects to maximize surprise and impact. Buffs that grant trample are particularly effective, ensuring damage gets through. Consider cards that provide double strike, effectively doubling a creature’s power for Volo’s discount and combat damage. Prioritize versatility in your combat trick suite.
Specific Monster Commanders & Builds
Exploring diverse monster commanders unlocks unique strategies; Kroxa utilizes sacrifice, Gisa focuses on zombies, and Vorinclex emphasizes power and growth within EDH.
Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger ‒ Sacrifice Strategy
Kroxa excels in a sacrifice-focused Commander build, utilizing creatures that benefit from dying. This strategy revolves around repeatedly sacrificing monsters to trigger Kroxa’s devastating ability, draining opponents’ life totals with each activation. Cards like Carrion Feeder and Viscera Seer provide efficient sacrifice outlets, while token generators ensure a constant stream of fodder.
Prioritize creatures with “dies” triggers, such as Blood Artist, to maximize value from each sacrifice. Ramp is crucial to cast Kroxa consistently, and card draw helps maintain momentum. Protecting Kroxa from removal is also key, as its presence quickly dominates the board and pressures opponents into difficult positions. This build thrives on aggressive, proactive gameplay.
Gisa and Geralf ‒ Zombie Monster Focus
Gisa and Geralf perfectly embody a Zombie tribal strategy within the Volo framework. This Commander pairing thrives on filling the graveyard with creatures, then reanimating them for value. Focus on cards that generate Zombie tokens, like Army of the Damned, and those that benefit from Zombie synergies, such as Lord of the Undead.
Utilize sacrifice outlets to quickly populate the graveyard and trigger Gisa and Geralf’s ability, milling opponents while bolstering your own ranks. Card draw is essential to maintain a constant flow of Zombies. Protection from graveyard hate is also vital, ensuring your engine doesn’t stall. This build offers resilient, overwhelming board presence.
Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider ‒ Power and Growth
Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider excels at overwhelming opponents with sheer power and exponential growth. This strategy centers around maximizing creature stats and doubling your mana production. Prioritize creatures with high power and impactful enter-the-battlefield effects. Ramp is crucial, enabling you to cast larger threats sooner and consistently activate Vorinclex’s ability.
Cards that grant +1/+1 counters or boost power synergize exceptionally well. Consider including cards that punish opponents for playing spells, capitalizing on Vorinclex’s ability to disrupt their plans. Protection is key; keep Vorinclex alive to maintain dominance and accelerate your board state to victory.
Budget Considerations
Building affordably involves prioritizing common and uncommon monster cards, utilizing proxies for expensive pieces, and focusing on synergistic, cost-effective strategies.
Affordable Monster Options
Constructing a Volo deck on a budget doesn’t necessitate sacrificing power. Many impactful monsters boast low mana values, offering significant value without breaking the bank. Consider creatures like Giant Spider, or common Goblin variants for early-game presence. Exploring uncommon options, such as various Elves with synergistic abilities, provides substantial benefits.
Focusing on creatures that generate value through tokens or provide utility beyond raw power is key. Prioritize cards that complement Volo’s ability, reducing overall costs. Remember, a well-tuned, budget-friendly deck can outperform expensive builds through clever synergy and strategic gameplay, proving that cost doesn’t always equate to effectiveness.
Proxying and Alternatives
Building a Volo deck can become costly with high-demand monster cards. Proxying – using copies of cards for playtesting – is a viable option to experience the deck’s potential without significant expense. Alternatively, explore functional reprints or similar cards offering comparable effects at lower prices.
Consider budget-friendly alternatives that fulfill similar roles within the deck’s strategy. For example, if a specific Giant is too expensive, explore other large creatures with comparable stats. Utilizing online resources to identify affordable substitutes expands deckbuilding possibilities, ensuring a fun and competitive experience regardless of budgetary constraints;
Meta Considerations & Weaknesses
Volo decks can struggle against widespread removal and control strategies; resilience requires redundancy and recursion to recover from board wipes effectively.
Dealing with Board Wipes
Volo, Guide to Monsters decks, reliant on creature presence, are vulnerable to board wipes. Mitigation involves redundancy – running multiple copies of key monsters – and recursion effects. Cards like “Eternal Witness” or “Regrowth” can retrieve crucial creatures from the graveyard. Consider including creatures with “when this creature enters the battlefield” abilities, gaining value even after a wipe.
Protective measures, such as “Swiftfoot Boots” or “Lightning Greaves,” can safeguard Volo himself. Building a resilient board state with token generators also provides a buffer. Anticipate wipes and hold back resources to rebuild quickly, turning a setback into an opportunity.
Addressing Control Strategies
Volo, Guide to Monsters decks can struggle against control strategies that counter spells and remove threats repeatedly. Combatting this requires diversifying your threats – don’t rely solely on high-cost creatures. Include a mix of efficient, low-cost monsters alongside your impactful ones. Card draw and filtering become crucial to consistently find answers and rebuild after disruption.
Consider cards that generate value even when countered, like creatures with triggered abilities. Utilizing protection spells on Volo is vital, and having resilient creatures with hexproof or shroud can bypass targeted removal. Overwhelming the opponent with a constant stream of monsters can also disrupt their control.
Volo’s Vulnerabilities
Volo, Guide to Monsters, while powerful, has key vulnerabilities. As a creature himself, Volo is susceptible to removal – targeted spells, board wipes, and even combat damage can eliminate him, crippling your strategy. Protecting Volo with counterspells, hexproof, or indestructible effects is paramount.
Furthermore, Volo’s ability relies on having creatures in play; board wipes are particularly devastating. Building redundancy into your deck with multiple creature-focused synergies mitigates this risk. Opponents may also attempt to exile creatures to limit Volo’s effectiveness, so recursion spells are valuable assets.
Upgrading Your Volo Deck
Enhance your Volo build with impactful creatures like Craterhoof Behemoth and powerful support spells, maximizing synergy and overwhelming opponents with monstrous power.
High-Impact Monster Cards
Investing in high-impact monsters significantly elevates a Volo deck’s power. Consider cards like Craterhoof Behemoth for game-ending alpha strikes, especially with a wide board presence Volo facilitates. Kroxa, Titan of Death’s Hunger offers sacrifice synergy and consistent value. Archon of Cruelty provides disruptive control and substantial benefits.
Other strong choices include Griselbrand for card advantage, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur for control and copying, and impactful legendary creatures fitting your chosen monster tribe. Prioritize creatures with strong ETB (Enter the Battlefield) effects or abilities that synergize with Volo’s discount, creating explosive turns and overwhelming advantages.
Powerful Support Spells
Complementing your monster strategy requires potent support spells. Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach provide essential ramp, accelerating monster deployment. Harmonize and Wheel of Fortune offer crucial card draw, fueling consistent plays. Beast Within and Chaos Warp handle problematic permanents, ensuring board control.
Consider tribal synergies like Goblin War Drums or Elvish Mysticism. Protection spells like Swiftfoot Boots and Lightning Greaves safeguard your key creatures. Don’t underestimate the power of board wipes like Wrath of God to reset the board when behind, setting up for a monster resurgence.
Resources & Further Reading
Explore EDHREC for Volo decklists and popular card choices, alongside MTGGoldfish meta analysis to refine your strategy and stay competitive.
EDHREC for Volo Guide to Monsters
EDHREC is an invaluable resource for building a Volo, Guide to Monsters Commander deck. It aggregates data from thousands of publicly shared decklists, revealing the most popular and effective card choices. You’ll discover frequently included creatures like Bonecrusher Giant, alongside essential ramp options such as Cultivate and Kodama’s Reach.
EDHREC also highlights synergistic cards, showing which creatures pair well with Volo’s ability to reduce costs based on creature type. Explore the site to identify potential upgrades, budget-friendly alternatives, and cards that address common weaknesses in Volo-led monster tribal strategies. Analyzing EDHREC data provides a strong foundation for optimizing your deck’s performance.
MTGGoldfish Meta Analysis
MTGGoldfish offers insights into the current Commander metagame, helping you understand how Volo, Guide to Monsters performs against popular archetypes. Their meta analysis tracks deck win rates, card popularity, and common strategies encountered in online play. This data reveals potential challenges and opportunities for refining your Volo build.
You can identify cards that are particularly effective against Volo’s strategy, allowing you to incorporate sideboard options or adjust your decklist accordingly. MTGGoldfish also provides price tracking, assisting with budget considerations and identifying potential upgrades to enhance your deck’s competitive edge within the evolving Commander landscape.