Deck 9 - Volrath Control

This deck is part of the Two-Headed Giant Commander decks, these are designed to be played 2v2 or 3v3 in the Commander format, but can also be played 1v1. 

Certain decks have certain themes, and will pair better with other decks, which decks work best have been listed below. These decks are on a higher skill level than most of the other decks in the club, with a lot of interacting mechanics. This can be overwhelming to learn and master but it is a whole lot of fun when you do.

The theme of the Villains box is Villains that have teamed up throughout the Multiverse to take down the heroes of the Realm. From Slivers to Phyrexians and Gods, there tactic is to empower each other and poison their way to victory. In a world teetering on the edge of chaos, the malevolent forces of the multiverse gather. Atraxa, the harbinger of Phyrexian perfection, leads an unholy crusade, seeking to spread her corrupted influence across the planes. Meanwhile, the Sliver Overlord, an ancient and cunning entity, awakens from its slumber, rallying its brood to assimilate all living creatures. These dark forces, along with ancient, malevolent gods, conspire to bring about the end of all that is good and just, plunging the world into an eternal darkness.

Volrath is a Phyrexian shapeshifter and major antagonist from Magic the Gathering. He was originally a human named Vuel who was compleated by the Phyrexians and became the Evincar (Phyrexian general) of Rath. While not the leader of the original Phyrexians, he was a major threat during Magic's early lore.

The key strategy for the deck is to win via Poison counters. There are creatures with Infect which deal damage in the for of poison counters, and Toxic, which deals damage to the opponent and also gives them poison counters equal to its toxic number. When an opponent has 10 poison counters (or the team has 15 in two-headed giant) then they lose the game, no matter how much life they have.

The deck has cards with the ability Proliferate, which lets you target any amount of targets, and add one kind of counter that they have on there already, whether its a +1/+1 counter, -1/-1 counter, Poison counter etc. This helps a lot with the Poison strategy, and helps you buff your team mates creatures if they have useful counters on them. If its a Two-Headed giant game and both opponents have at least a Poison counter each, then proliferate will add a poison counter for each opponent, adding two to the team for each proliferate. 

Volrath isn't as aggressive as some of the other Poison decks, though it can have its bursts, Volrath is designed to slowly pick off and wear down your opponents, and then it can quickly close the game by copying a big infect creature with the commanders ability. It pairs quite well with the other infect decks, as they can also put -1/-1 counters easily on your opponents creatures, giving a good selection of creatures to choose from to copy.

The deck runs a lot of the Toxic and Infect creatures, along with Proliferators to ramp up the poison counters on your opponents, if your teammate also happens to be putting +1/+1 counters on their creatures then you can also add more to theirs. Additionally if you are proliferating the  1/-1 counters on your opponents creatures, you will get a 1/1 snake for each creature you are doing this to (this counts as putting 1/-1 counters on them).