Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Volrath, the Shapestealer

Volrath, the Shapestealer

Volrath, the Shapestealer

Legendary Creature — Phyrexian Shapeshifter · {2}{B}{G}{U} · Black/Green/Blue commander

At the beginning of combat on your turn, put a -1/-1 counter on up to one target creature. {1}: Until your next turn, Volrath becomes a copy of target creature with a counter on it, except it's 7/5 and it has this ability.
Build a Volrath, the Shapestealer deck →

What Volrath, the Shapestealer actually does

Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.

What a Volrath, the Shapestealer deck needs

Plays as -1/-1 counters. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.

The Volrath, the Shapestealer deck plan

The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.

Best cards for Volrath, the Shapestealer

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.

A permanent whose value is in its enter-the-battlefield trigger — the payload a blink deck reuses

  1. Orcish Bowmasters2 mana
  2. Eternal Witness3 mana
  3. Accursed Marauder2 mana
  4. Baleful Strix2 mana
  5. Solemn Simulacrum4 mana
  6. Arboreal Grazer1 mana
  7. Cauldron Familiar1 mana
  8. Thousand-Faced Shadow1 mana

Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it

  1. Assassin's Trophy2 mana
  2. Reality Shift2 mana
  3. Pongify1 mana
  4. Rapid Hybridization1 mana
  5. Resculpt2 mana
  6. Defile1 mana
  7. Tragic Slip1 mana
  8. Infernal Grasp2 mana

Find the exact card the plan needs

  1. Demonic Tutor2 mana
  2. Diabolic Intent2 mana
  3. Vampiric Tutor1 mana
  4. Green Sun's Zenith1 mana
  5. Imperial Seal1 mana
  6. Demonic Consultation1 mana
  7. Nature's Rhythm2 mana
  8. Neoform2 mana

Answer a spell or ability before it resolves

  1. Mindbreak Trap4 mana
  2. Fierce Guardianship3 mana
  3. Force of Negation3 mana
  4. Force of Will5 mana
  5. Flare of Denial3 mana
  6. Pact of Negation0 mana
  7. An Offer You Can't Refuse1 mana
  8. Arcane Denial2 mana

Answer a whole board at once

  1. Toxic Deluge3 mana
  2. Damnation4 mana
  3. Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
  4. Sickening Dreams2 mana
  5. Crypt Rats3 mana
  6. Extinction Event4 mana
  7. Vicious Rivalry4 mana
  8. Endemic Plague4 mana

Refill your hand

  1. Mystic Remora1 mana
  2. Skullclamp1 mana
  3. Sylvan Library2 mana
  4. Curiosity1 mana
  5. Wizard Class1 mana
  6. Black Market Connections3 mana
  7. Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
  8. Garruk's Uprising3 mana

Keep a permanent you control alive through removal

  1. Guardian Augmenter3 mana
  2. Saryth, the Viper's Fang4 mana
  3. Lost in the Maze2 mana
  4. Lightning Greaves2 mana
  5. Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
  6. Asceticism5 mana
  7. Eldrazi Monument5 mana
  8. Commander's Plate1 mana

Get ahead on mana

  1. Sol Ring1 mana
  2. Dimir Signet2 mana
  3. Golgari Signet2 mana
  4. Incubation Druid2 mana
  5. Simic Signet2 mana
  6. Palladium Myr3 mana
  7. Worn Powerstone3 mana
  8. Ilysian Caryatid2 mana

Put +1/+1 counters on creatures you control, or multiply the ones already there

  1. Branching Evolution3 mana
  2. Hardened Scales1 mana
  3. Ozolith, the Shattered Spire2 mana
  4. Winding Constrictor2 mana
  5. Kami of Whispered Hopes3 mana
  6. Benevolent Hydra2 mana
  7. Michelangelo, Weirdness to 112 mana
  8. The Earth Crystal4 mana

Combos with Volrath, the Shapestealer

Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Volrath, the Shapestealer is a piece of, and how many decks list them.

Build this deck in the Arcane Forge →

Arcane Foundry is free to join and every tool is included: the Arcane Forge deck builder, the ARCANE Analyzer that scores a deck by simulating games rather than counting staples, a card scanner, a collection vault, and live webcam Commander tables. Read the guide · Browse all commanders · Pricing