Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Volo, Itinerant Scholar
Volo, Itinerant Scholar
Legendary Creature — Human Wizard · {2}{U} · Blue commander
What Volo, Itinerant Scholar actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Triggered ability · etbWhen Volo enters, create Volo's Journal, a legendary colorless Book artifact token with hexproof and "Whenever you cast a creature spell, note one of its creature types that hasn't been noted for Volo
- Activated ability{2}, {T}: Draw a card for each creature type noted for target permanent you control named Volo's Journal.
- Keyword · choose a backgroundchoose a background
What a Volo, Itinerant Scholar deck needs
Plays as creature types. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- creatures of many different types (each new type noted draws a card later)
The Volo, Itinerant Scholar deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 8× Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- 5× Untap the commander so the tap ability is an engine, not a one-shot
- 4× Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- 20× A card that is CAST to trigger the commander — reanimating or blinking it does not count
- 8× A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 2× Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
Best cards for Volo, Itinerant Scholar
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- Thousand-Year Elixir3 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- Lavaspur Boots1 mana
- Sting, the Glinting Dagger2 mana
- Haunted Cloak3 mana
- Sword of Vengeance3 mana
Untap the commander so the tap ability is an engine, not a one-shot
- Freed from the Real3 mana
- Pemmin's Aura3 mana
- Sting, the Glinting Dagger2 mana
- Umbral Mantle3 mana
- Unstoppable Plan3 mana
- Genji Glove5 mana
- Honor-Worn Shaku3 mana
- Sword of the Paruns4 mana
Exile a permanent you control and return it — the button a value-ETB deck presses
- Displacer Kitten4 mana
- Conjurer's Closet5 mana
- Gossip's Talent2 mana
- Thassa, Deep-Dwelling4 mana
- Nephalia Smuggler1 mana
- Voyager Staff1 mana
- Jill, Shiva's Dominant // Shiva, Warden of Ice3 mana
- Deadeye Navigator6 mana
A card that is CAST to trigger the commander — reanimating or blinking it does not count
- Ornithopter0 mana
- Walking Ballista0 mana
- Hangarback Walker0 mana
- Memnite0 mana
- Phyrexian Walker0 mana
- Stonecoil Serpent0 mana
- Mockingbird1 mana
- Ornithopter of Paradise2 mana
A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses
- Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
- Thousand-Faced Shadow1 mana
- Snapcaster Mage2 mana
- Wan Shi Tong, Librarian2 mana
- Archaeomancer4 mana
- Urza, Lord High Artificer4 mana
- Aether Channeler3 mana
- Spellseeker3 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Reality Shift2 mana
- Pongify1 mana
- Rapid Hybridization1 mana
- Resculpt2 mana
- Umezawa's Jitte2 mana
- Titan's Presence3 mana
- Icy Prison2 mana
- Kozilek's Command2 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Reshape2 mana
- Mask of the Mimic1 mana
- Long-Term Plans3 mana
- Whir of Invention3 mana
- Merchant Scroll2 mana
- Mystical Tutor1 mana
- Muddle the Mixture2 mana
- Personal Tutor1 mana
Answer a spell or ability before it resolves
- Mindbreak Trap4 mana
- Fierce Guardianship3 mana
- Force of Negation3 mana
- Force of Will5 mana
- Flare of Denial3 mana
- Pact of Negation0 mana
- An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
- Arcane Denial2 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Desynchronization4 mana
- Wave Goodbye4 mana
- Whelming Wave4 mana
- Consuming Tide4 mana
- Selective Obliteration5 mana
- Evacuation5 mana
- Perplexing Test5 mana
- Cyclonic Rift2 mana
Combos with Volo, Itinerant Scholar
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Volo, Itinerant Scholar is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Volo, Itinerant Scholar + Mind Over Matter157 decks
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