I really enjoyed my Carriage deck from yesterday, so I figured that I would continue the theme today. I will select a creature type at random, and then build a theme deck around it.
What amazing creature type was selected?
Volvers.
The Volvers are a rare cycle of five cards from Apocalypse. There is one in each color, and they all have off-color kicker costs. Therefore, this deck is going to need to be all five colors and be seriously dedicated to that principle. Let’s take a look.
Creatures (20)
Lands (24)
Spells (16)
I’ve played the Rakavolver in Abe’s Deck of Happiness and Joy since it was released. It’s a great creature. I think tossed in a Necravolver because I had a foil one, not because it was any good. The Green one – the Anavolver – is the second best one after the Rakavolver, I think. The two Volvers with the Red kicker (the White Degavolver and the Blue Cetavolver) are the worst.
The deck uses two spells to round out its mana. The first is a spell from Apocalypse itself, Gaea’s Balance. This allows you to sac five lands and put into play one of each basic land type. Once you play one of these, your mana is set.
The other option is Kodama’s Reach. The Reach is a great card because it gives you two colors, getting you much closer to what you need. Odds are you have at least one other basic land besides a Forest in your opening hand, so you can get up to four colors or so after playing a Reach.
Since these spells are essential for your deck, as is Green, I upped the amount of Forests. I also tossed in four Undiscovered Paradises, so you have a few lands that will tap for anything. I initially had four City of Brass, but pulled them because of the pain of subsequent uses could add up very quickly. This is a deck that will use a five-color land practically every turn, I suspect. The slower mana development of a Paradise is fine, because you probably won’t be using it until you begin to kick or double kick your Volvers (at around five mana or so).
I decided to push the five-color theme and toss in some Last Stands, just for fun. They also work because they too are in Apocalypse. Last Stands aren’t bad, actually. Because you have a lot of Forests in your deck, expect to get some serious Saproling tokens from your Last Stands.
As a bit of fun, I tossed in a single copy of Coalition Victory. It’s been a while since I used one of them in a deck. It could go off to win you the game, and catching people by surprise like that is a lot of fun. There’s just one, reducing your chance of drawing it early or after a Wrath of God. Also, when people do the multiplayer whine, “you always seem to cast that Coalition Victory,” you can remark that there is just one copy in the deck.
One card that really works well is the Evolution Vat. All Volvers, if you double kick them, come into play with three +1/+1 counters. The Vat will toss on a fourth, and then allow you to spend mana to double it. It’s worth tapping your Rakavolver to turn it from a 5/5 flying, spirit linked creature into a 10/10 flying, spirit linked creature in one turn. Spend another turn and it jumps to a 20/20, making it a player killer. Similarly, the first striking, trampling Cetavolver that’s 4/4 normally after a double kick becomes a 9/9.
I also like the synergy between the names. Volvers are named because they evolved, and this is an Evolution Vat. And the Evolution Vat takes these Volvers and makes them even better very quickly.
Just for a bit of fun, I decided to throw in a pair of Shared Triumphs. I thought it would be nifty if you played a spell and then called out Volvers. Without the Shared Triumph, there’s no “choose a creature type” card in the deck. One of the things I liked about the Carriage deck yesterday was that you had eight cards in the deck that you selected Carriage as the creature type every time, thus proving it was a Carriage deck. I wanted the same feel here today with the Volver deck.
In other words, I didn’t want this to feel like a five-color deck that uses Volvers. Instead I wanted it to feel like a Volver deck that uses some five-color cards. The Shared Triumphs really helps me visualize the deck this way.
I hope that you enjoyed another trek through an obscure creature type. Although you may have to wait 24 hours to see what the next article’s creature type is, I’m about to write that article as soon as I finish this one, so for me, there’s no suspense at all.
Until later,