I play Sigarda as a voltron enchantress deck and it gives me the most consistent win rate across all my decks. With all the sacrifice removal being so cheap and easily accessable by black, Sigarda is imho the only voltron commander really worth playing. With Skullbriar being a close second, because it's so cheap to get it back to where it left the board. Unless sacrifice isn't a big thing in the pod.
Love my Light-Paws deck, with right hand I can start swinging for lethal by turn 3 or 4. Only issue is you are the tables target without question once they know how crazy fast she is.
i recommend pako/haldan for this: it grows alone and gives card advantage, you have good protection and ramp on the colors, and it can be fast. You can also build it with sub themes of spellslinger, landfall, theft, or play from exile. A real fun and powerfull commander on a budget.
I run a pretty deadly, streamlined Balan, Wandering Knight build, but it certainly requires plenty of skill and knowledge of the deck to pilot properly. You can't just carelessly deploy your commander and start equipping things, you need the proper ammount of mana, protection spells and ctirical mass to start dropping opponents before they know what hit them. Great video, you did an excellent job in addressing the many shortcomings of this strategy.
I don't know if it was a visual gag at 0:26, but kids: don't try at home to put both the Sword of Fire and Ice and Aqueous Form on your commander. It's gonna end bad
my first commander deck was basically a green ramp deck with counterspells that crushed ppl with x2 / x3 mana generation - my commander just served to copy big non legendary dudes into a token. which works like a charm
I have build around 7 Voltron decks so far and I definitely agree with most of this. My current favorite is Meria, Scholar of Antiquity which lets you grind value if the board gets clogged up. Nahiri, Forged in Fury is also an amazing voltron commander making it so if they do not deal with the equipment your commander can come back over and over again at little to no cost.
I only recently got into MTG and my first deck I built was a Toski Voltron mono green. Its alot of fun having an indestructible squirrel juiced to the max with as much as I can get away with putting on it. Only thing is my friend built a black white deck which is really good at exiling him now haha
Haven't run it with multani at the top yet, but I love the inevitable horror feeling of my molimo. While it has good usual support like hero int and canopy cover, it also makes use of other big creatures like archetype endurance and bellowing tanglewurm, so an overwhelming stampede becomes a commander kill one way while lethal towards others. It's greatest downside is the amount of ramp in it; while top decking 1 point of power may sometimes be enough, it's often enough underwhelming.
I run Galazeth Prismari who comes in with enough artifacts to tap for a counterspell for. Flying and okay stats body helps too. All those equips work great for slinging out massive spells to get more cards and equipment
Just made a mono black voltron deck with tinybones the pickpocket as the commander. Make sure to include inspiring statuary to an equipment heavy deck. 3 generic mana and now your equipments can tap to help pay generic mana. Doesn't tap the creature. Rogues passage land tap for a void or tap and 4 generic mana and target creature can't be blocked this turn. And, don't forget nettlecyst. Creature and equipment that's +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment you control for 3 generic and 2 generic to equipt
@@brendans1983 I was running a yawgmoth deck and somehow got a fast start, forgot how, probably sol ring. The guy still ran it out, hoping to convince me to let it live long enough to get a swing in, however then I would be powerless to remove it, so Yeet Yeet Commander Delete
I like Lazav the Multifarious because he's basically a voltron that doesn't need a bunch of equipment or auras to function. He's susceptible to graveyard hate, but you can get around that pretty easily with things like stifle, trickbind, and graveyard protection like Enhanced Surveillance. Besides very people seem to run mass graveyard hate at least in my circles. The biggest upside is that his protection for himself through copying a creature with hexproof or indestructible or something is instant speed so it feels easier to keep him safe.
I'm working on making a Sevinne, the Chronoclasm voltron deck to take advantage of his natural ability to avoid damage and attack/block with impunity. All the stuff I'm running to play things from the graveyard can easily snag artifacts/enchantments as well, so that's just gravy 😊
My first commander deck was a Daxos of Meletis voltron deck. That was made out of miscellaneous cards I had in my collection, but he's still my favorite Voltron commander! Being Azorius means there's a billion different ways to protect him. Stealing catds lets you focus more on control, removal, etc, as you'll be able to take value cards from your opponents. The lifegain helps against aggro decks which might otherwise pose an issue. He's a very unique commander, even among other voltron decks. I'd highly reccomend him
I have a Sigarda Enchantress deck and while it can be iffy to try and get working it's still a lot of fun, as well as having auras that buff according to how many enchantments you have and having stuff like Privileged Position with Sterling Grove
Kediss + Yoshimaru is a cool combo and allows you to hit everyone at once preventing the nemesis problem you describe. This means if anyone is open to attacks everyone is open to attacks. Also very good with damage doublers. They are my favorite Voltron deck
I'm attempting to make a group hug style voltron deck. I will be giving out card draws, creatures, andther neat tricky surprises to my opponents using my commander. If my opponents want these benefits to last, my commander must be in play. However I will be ready to counterspell any removal they try to do once they think they have the upper hand. It's going to be fun.
I’ve started building an esper voltron deck with Soundwave, SuperSonic Spy. Soundwave can generate two different token creatures, which makes damage distribution easier to manage. I might go legendary tribal as well
@@thetrinketmage I agree. And all this talk about Me, The Immortal being a “better Skullbriar”. I just can’t see it. Not with Golgari colors supporting Skully.
I like Amalia Bene idea Aguara (I think that's the name) as a Voltron deck. I also use Lurrus as a companion. The deck is filled with little dorky effects that "gain 1 life when x happens". This can often mean I play Amalia turn 2 and by one rotation of the table she is a 5/5 or bigger. For example Soul Attendant Thanks to Lurrus I also have a reliable way to recur some of my effects, auras, or key pieces. Unlike pioneer I don't have a way to combo her up to 20 power and clear the board. But thankfully with the help of 3 players she grows way faster.
My pet commander deck is a keleth, sunmane familiar and kediss, emberclaw familiar voltron deck. it is deceptively honest in its game plan. keleth puts a 1/1 on my commanders whenever they swing and kediss makes my commanders deal symmetrical damage to the other opponents. the first turn you swing with both on the board everybody takes 2 damage, the next turn everyone takes 3 damage. its incremental value builds fast that by turn 5 or so you're swinging for around 9 damage on top of the already dealt damage. the deck runs primarily defensive instants like teferis protection to give it resilience and board wipes like slash the ranks which hurt the other players substantially more than me. despite the deck being voltron, by having 2 commanders with low initial cmc (2 cmc each), low initial damage, and seemingly "simple" triggered abilities. the deck presents as weaker than people expect and they can get blindsided by the draw and combat tricks the deck uses (such as flashing in grafted exoskeleton using sigarda's aid to deal 10 damage to the board if somebody made the mistake of not blocking).
My favourite semi-Voltron deck is Horde of Notions, which has an amalgamation of my usual mid-range deck building, enough relevant elementals, enough combo-nonsense and a powerful voltron subtheme. I just did not want to follow everyone and their mother and Horde of Notions has some spicy keywords.
Just built indominus Rex voltron and boy is it good, I have 8 indescructable cards and 8 hexproof and it’s so useful to just beat people out of nowhere
I wanted a challenge so i built a voltron deck without white, decided on Izzet. I wanted red's damage multipliers and blue's protection. Decided on an Esior/Kediss combination. All equipment, and their equip costs, cost 3 or less. Counterspell package. Multiple damage doublers and extra combat spells. Esior's 'ward' and Kediss' trigger make it really fast/brutal. Dust Corona is insane if your commander has flying 🍻
I guess it was less of a challenge, and more I have a mate that has built the same Boros voltron deck 10+ times and I wanted to prove that you don't need free equipping, tutors and Colossus Hammer to win games 🤷♂️
No Uril covered? He's naturally hexproof and grows himself huge. Arna Kennerud is my next build. Other mentions I play are Ob Nix CK and The Wise Mothman
I tried my hands at voltron so many times but just couldn’t seem to get it to work. My friend group are just too toxic only consistent combo decks or stax can be played for mid level games. So I finally just built Skullbriar he is cheap and pretty broken. I fit like 12 fog effects and so many 1 mana spells that give him indestructible or hexproof and +1+1 counters as well as spells like reanimate and unearth if he somehow got destroyed. He was so rarely even recasted from the command zone that my friends finally agreed to tone it down and play more casually if I agreed to disassemble my skullbriar deck.
My dear tech priest, may I suggest that you have missed the ideal mono-red Voltron Commander? For it is SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL! I built my Voltron deck around him and it is hilarious; I put in a ton of equipment so it survives past removal, and have a bunch of equipment that gives haste so he's likely to attack when he comes into play. The best part: You NEVER pay Commander tax. Did you exile SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL? That's great, he returns from the beyond. Did you murder SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL? That's fine, he shall rise from the dead, and all for his casting cost - no commander tax! So all your mana goes to summoning him, and equipping stuff. (Also, yes, I do say, "Hello, my name is SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL, and I am here to destroy you!" every single time I summon him back, in my best weird-al as a mad wizard voice.) Great vid, I just wanted to chime in 7 months later. XD
Honestly, you play voltron style decks because they are fun and not because they are powerful. I am working on building two voltron decks in paper that is Umbris and Anzrag. Both only need 1 or 2 turns of combat to deal lethal damage to a player and have plenty of protection. A good voltron decks should be built around creatures that can boost themselves easily or already have high amount of damage. Red is good at giving creatures haste and first/double strike which is good for a voltron deck.
@@thetrinketmage Yeah the power of the deck style can be hit or miss, but that is the nature of high risk high reward strategies. Though some commanders just feel right for the style. Both Umbris and Anzrag didn't start out as a voltron deck when I was first building them.
Ivy is a fucking problem. It is so resilient, has access to ramp and card draw, is a flier, comes down fast, and can win via commander damage if it wants to be fair or just infect you out if its trying to end the game quick (which it should.) I have a pod that does hyperbudget commanders and a well-built, well-piloted Ivy is like a meme in terms of power per dollar. In terms of fun? There is no budget in an Ivy deck for fun. It is a miserable experience for everyone involved. There are so many triggers, so many clones and copies, just so much STUFF to manage that seeing it happen two or three times is enough for most people. You can die extremely quickly or get buried in value unless the table bands together against the Ivy and commits to killing it or not permitting it to resolve, and I'd honestly make that commitment even if the deck was 50% worse to avoid dealing with solitaire turns in a voltron deck. It reads so cool and fun, but in practice either the Ivy pilot feels hated out of the game or everyone else dies an uninteractive death. At higher powerlevels and budgetless it evens out because answers are better, but it can still run away with games and still has the solitaire, one million tokens and copied auras, "only one of us is going to leave the table with any joy left in our hearts"-style gameplay. Overall, it exemplifies one of my issues with some voltron design, which is that cards can feel like zero-sum lopsided assholes without actually being strong.
My first commander deck was a gift from a buddy of mine, a mono red Valduk Keeper of the Flame deck. Such a fun and super aggro voltron commander
I’ve seen that commander pop off before it’s dope!
That is a very fun deck
I play Sigarda as a voltron enchantress deck and it gives me the most consistent win rate across all my decks. With all the sacrifice removal being so cheap and easily accessable by black, Sigarda is imho the only voltron commander really worth playing. With Skullbriar being a close second, because it's so cheap to get it back to where it left the board. Unless sacrifice isn't a big thing in the pod.
Love my Light-Paws deck, with right hand I can start swinging for lethal by turn 3 or 4. Only issue is you are the tables target without question once they know how crazy fast she is.
i recommend pako/haldan for this: it grows alone and gives card advantage, you have good protection and ramp on the colors, and it can be fast. You can also build it with sub themes of spellslinger, landfall, theft, or play from exile. A real fun and powerfull commander on a budget.
I run a pretty deadly, streamlined Balan, Wandering Knight build, but it certainly requires plenty of skill and knowledge of the deck to pilot properly. You can't just carelessly deploy your commander and start equipping things, you need the proper ammount of mana, protection spells and ctirical mass to start dropping opponents before they know what hit them. Great video, you did an excellent job in addressing the many shortcomings of this strategy.
I don't know if it was a visual gag at 0:26, but kids: don't try at home to put both the Sword of Fire and Ice and Aqueous Form on your commander. It's gonna end bad
Honestly I was just putting up examples of equipment and auras that you could use. I didn’t think too much of it but you are correct
Good video for the "better to look at colors rather than a specific creature in most cases in voltron" case
Have a nice day
Wilson!!! My favorite Voltron Commamder. I have a deck for every color of background. 🙃
could use vorpal sword and stuff that makes ur commander unblockable so you easily win
my first commander deck was basically a green ramp deck with counterspells that crushed ppl with x2 / x3 mana generation - my commander just served to copy big non legendary dudes into a token. which works like a charm
I have build around 7 Voltron decks so far and I definitely agree with most of this. My current favorite is Meria, Scholar of Antiquity which lets you grind value if the board gets clogged up. Nahiri, Forged in Fury is also an amazing voltron commander making it so if they do not deal with the equipment your commander can come back over and over again at little to no cost.
I only recently got into MTG and my first deck I built was a Toski Voltron mono green. Its alot of fun having an indestructible squirrel juiced to the max with as much as I can get away with putting on it. Only thing is my friend built a black white deck which is really good at exiling him now haha
Haven't run it with multani at the top yet, but I love the inevitable horror feeling of my molimo. While it has good usual support like hero int and canopy cover, it also makes use of other big creatures like archetype endurance and bellowing tanglewurm, so an overwhelming stampede becomes a commander kill one way while lethal towards others. It's greatest downside is the amount of ramp in it; while top decking 1 point of power may sometimes be enough, it's often enough underwhelming.
I have a wilson deck, running flaming fist as the background, colossus hammer is funny
Wilson is a great commander!
@@thetrinketmage especially since you can give the funny bear a very large hammer and double strike
Just put this together. Trying it tomorrow. Play group should love it lol
I run Galazeth Prismari who comes in with enough artifacts to tap for a counterspell for. Flying and okay stats body helps too. All those equips work great for slinging out massive spells to get more cards and equipment
Just made a mono black voltron deck with tinybones the pickpocket as the commander.
Make sure to include inspiring statuary to an equipment heavy deck. 3 generic mana and now your equipments can tap to help pay generic mana. Doesn't tap the creature. Rogues passage land tap for a void or tap and 4 generic mana and target creature can't be blocked this turn. And, don't forget nettlecyst. Creature and equipment that's +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment you control for 3 generic and 2 generic to equipt
The memory I have of my most evil moment is putting a -1/-1 counter on a Skullbriar that was just played, turn 2-3.
They never recovered from that
That’s so funny! A -1/-1 counter deck would be rough for a skullbriar to beat
How did you apply the counter?
@@brendans1983 I was running a yawgmoth deck and somehow got a fast start, forgot how, probably sol ring.
The guy still ran it out, hoping to convince me to let it live long enough to get a swing in, however then I would be powerless to remove it, so Yeet Yeet Commander Delete
I like Lazav the Multifarious because he's basically a voltron that doesn't need a bunch of equipment or auras to function.
He's susceptible to graveyard hate, but you can get around that pretty easily with things like stifle, trickbind, and graveyard protection like Enhanced Surveillance.
Besides very people seem to run mass graveyard hate at least in my circles. The biggest upside is that his protection for himself through copying a creature with hexproof or indestructible or something is instant speed so it feels easier to keep him safe.
I'm working on making a Sevinne, the Chronoclasm voltron deck to take advantage of his natural ability to avoid damage and attack/block with impunity.
All the stuff I'm running to play things from the graveyard can easily snag artifacts/enchantments as well, so that's just gravy 😊
Sounds like a fun deck! I think Sevine is really cool
I have a Voltron Etali deck that is a lot of fun
Something about a flying dinosaur with double strike that makes you smile doesn't it? Lol
My first commander deck was a Daxos of Meletis voltron deck. That was made out of miscellaneous cards I had in my collection, but he's still my favorite Voltron commander!
Being Azorius means there's a billion different ways to protect him. Stealing catds lets you focus more on control, removal, etc, as you'll be able to take value cards from your opponents. The lifegain helps against aggro decks which might otherwise pose an issue.
He's a very unique commander, even among other voltron decks. I'd highly reccomend him
I have a Sigarda Enchantress deck and while it can be iffy to try and get working it's still a lot of fun, as well as having auras that buff according to how many enchantments you have and having stuff like Privileged Position with Sterling Grove
Kediss + Yoshimaru is a cool combo and allows you to hit everyone at once preventing the nemesis problem you describe. This means if anyone is open to attacks everyone is open to attacks. Also very good with damage doublers. They are my favorite Voltron deck
Zur the enchanter is good at using voltron tactics to finish the game after putting up its defenses.
I'm attempting to make a group hug style voltron deck. I will be giving out card draws, creatures, andther neat tricky surprises to my opponents using my commander. If my opponents want these benefits to last, my commander must be in play. However I will be ready to counterspell any removal they try to do once they think they have the upper hand. It's going to be fun.
I’ve started building an esper voltron deck with Soundwave, SuperSonic Spy. Soundwave can generate two different token creatures, which makes damage distribution easier to manage. I might go legendary tribal as well
I love my Skullbriar deck. I have multiple sacrifice spells/creatures in the deck to help get value from his power if someone attempts to remove him.
Skullbriar is criminally underrated
@@thetrinketmage I agree. And all this talk about Me, The Immortal being a “better Skullbriar”. I just can’t see it. Not with Golgari colors supporting Skully.
@@zer0c0ol-95 she has access to red and blue over black, arguably better, since she can give herself ability counters
Also has access to the funny goblins
I like Amalia Bene idea Aguara (I think that's the name) as a Voltron deck. I also use Lurrus as a companion.
The deck is filled with little dorky effects that "gain 1 life when x happens". This can often mean I play Amalia turn 2 and by one rotation of the table she is a 5/5 or bigger.
For example Soul Attendant
Thanks to Lurrus I also have a reliable way to recur some of my effects, auras, or key pieces.
Unlike pioneer I don't have a way to combo her up to 20 power and clear the board. But thankfully with the help of 3 players she grows way faster.
Thanks for the video man! Would love insights on making my Raiyuu Voltron deck better
I’m working on a upgraded Dogmeat, ever loyal list. Going down the equipment route, can’t help but make my favorite dog good in casual.
If you're afraid of removal, just run one of the many hexproof generals like Uril, GOST, or Thrun (as mentioned in the video)
My pet commander deck is a keleth, sunmane familiar and kediss, emberclaw familiar voltron deck. it is deceptively honest in its game plan. keleth puts a 1/1 on my commanders whenever they swing and kediss makes my commanders deal symmetrical damage to the other opponents. the first turn you swing with both on the board everybody takes 2 damage, the next turn everyone takes 3 damage. its incremental value builds fast that by turn 5 or so you're swinging for around 9 damage on top of the already dealt damage. the deck runs primarily defensive instants like teferis protection to give it resilience and board wipes like slash the ranks which hurt the other players substantially more than me.
despite the deck being voltron, by having 2 commanders with low initial cmc (2 cmc each), low initial damage, and seemingly "simple" triggered abilities. the deck presents as weaker than people expect and they can get blindsided by the draw and combat tricks the deck uses (such as flashing in grafted exoskeleton using sigarda's aid to deal 10 damage to the board if somebody made the mistake of not blocking).
I use Wilson, + flamimg fist. He protects himself early on, and at 2 mana, he usually comes into play turn 1. I think he's waaaay better than Thrun.
My favourite semi-Voltron deck is Horde of Notions, which has an amalgamation of my usual mid-range deck building, enough relevant elementals, enough combo-nonsense and a powerful voltron subtheme.
I just did not want to follow everyone and their mother and Horde of Notions has some spicy keywords.
Just built indominus Rex voltron and boy is it good, I have 8 indescructable cards and 8 hexproof and it’s so useful to just beat people out of nowhere
Seems like a pretty interesting commander!
I wanted a challenge so i built a voltron deck without white, decided on Izzet. I wanted red's damage multipliers and blue's protection.
Decided on an Esior/Kediss combination. All equipment, and their equip costs, cost 3 or less. Counterspell package. Multiple damage doublers and extra combat spells. Esior's 'ward' and Kediss' trigger make it really fast/brutal.
Dust Corona is insane if your commander has flying 🍻
I guess it was less of a challenge, and more I have a mate that has built the same Boros voltron deck 10+ times and I wanted to prove that you don't need free equipping, tutors and Colossus Hammer to win games 🤷♂️
I’ve never seen the card dust corona! That’s pretty dope… mind if I steal that and make a short about the card?
@@thetrinketmage mate, it would make my day 🍻🤘
No Uril covered? He's naturally hexproof and grows himself huge. Arna Kennerud is my next build. Other mentions I play are Ob Nix CK and The Wise Mothman
My first 5 decks have pet comanders - legends from shards of alara, so i have an exalted voltron rafiq. This made deck less fragile also
I tried my hands at voltron so many times but just couldn’t seem to get it to work. My friend group are just too toxic only consistent combo decks or stax can be played for mid level games. So I finally just built Skullbriar he is cheap and pretty broken. I fit like 12 fog effects and so many 1 mana spells that give him indestructible or hexproof and +1+1 counters as well as spells like reanimate and unearth if he somehow got destroyed. He was so rarely even recasted from the command zone that my friends finally agreed to tone it down and play more casually if I agreed to disassemble my skullbriar deck.
My dear tech priest, may I suggest that you have missed the ideal mono-red Voltron Commander? For it is SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL!
I built my Voltron deck around him and it is hilarious; I put in a ton of equipment so it survives past removal, and have a bunch of equipment that gives haste so he's likely to attack when he comes into play. The best part: You NEVER pay Commander tax. Did you exile SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL? That's great, he returns from the beyond. Did you murder SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL? That's fine, he shall rise from the dead, and all for his casting cost - no commander tax! So all your mana goes to summoning him, and equipping stuff.
(Also, yes, I do say, "Hello, my name is SQUEE, THE IMMORTAL, and I am here to destroy you!" every single time I summon him back, in my best weird-al as a mad wizard voice.)
Great vid, I just wanted to chime in 7 months later. XD
Honestly, you play voltron style decks because they are fun and not because they are powerful. I am working on building two voltron decks in paper that is Umbris and Anzrag. Both only need 1 or 2 turns of combat to deal lethal damage to a player and have plenty of protection. A good voltron decks should be built around creatures that can boost themselves easily or already have high amount of damage. Red is good at giving creatures haste and first/double strike which is good for a voltron deck.
You are correct but I can only comment on power. Fun is subjective so I can’t tell anyone what is and isn’t fun
@@thetrinketmage Yeah the power of the deck style can be hit or miss, but that is the nature of high risk high reward strategies.
Though some commanders just feel right for the style. Both Umbris and Anzrag didn't start out as a voltron deck when I was first building them.
I like Ruhan, It is a Fun commander
Mirko Vosk Mind Drinker Voltron
Building uchbenbak
Ivy is a fucking problem. It is so resilient, has access to ramp and card draw, is a flier, comes down fast, and can win via commander damage if it wants to be fair or just infect you out if its trying to end the game quick (which it should.) I have a pod that does hyperbudget commanders and a well-built, well-piloted Ivy is like a meme in terms of power per dollar.
In terms of fun? There is no budget in an Ivy deck for fun. It is a miserable experience for everyone involved. There are so many triggers, so many clones and copies, just so much STUFF to manage that seeing it happen two or three times is enough for most people. You can die extremely quickly or get buried in value unless the table bands together against the Ivy and commits to killing it or not permitting it to resolve, and I'd honestly make that commitment even if the deck was 50% worse to avoid dealing with solitaire turns in a voltron deck.
It reads so cool and fun, but in practice either the Ivy pilot feels hated out of the game or everyone else dies an uninteractive death.
At higher powerlevels and budgetless it evens out because answers are better, but it can still run away with games and still has the solitaire, one million tokens and copied auras, "only one of us is going to leave the table with any joy left in our hearts"-style gameplay.
Overall, it exemplifies one of my issues with some voltron design, which is that cards can feel like zero-sum lopsided assholes without actually being strong.
Unblockable aragorn deck