Volrath, the Shapestealer

Volrath, the Shapestealer is a versatile shapeshifter that wants you to build a board full of creatures with counters—then steal their best abilities while growing into a 7/5 powerhouse. Your core gameplan is simple: play creatures that naturally accumulate counters (experience counters, +1/+1 counters, -1/-1 counters, etc.), then activate Volrath to copy whichever creature has the most game-winning ability. He's a commander that rewards creature diversity and card selection—you're not locked into one strategy, just creatures that do cool things.

The deck wins through a mix of commander damage and adapting to your table's threats. Turn Volrath into a Managorger Hydra to go wide, copy a Scute Swarm for exponential growth, or clone whatever finisher your opponents leave lying around. You'll often find yourself turning Volrath into the exact creature your table fears most, which makes him politically flexible and satisfying to pilot. The -1/-1 counter on combat also lets you weaken threats while you're at it.

Build around creatures with built-in counter synergies and lords that amplify them. Include some utility creatures to copy, ways to generate experience counters with cards like Ozolith or Ozolith the Shattered, and enough mana fixing to consistently cast your Grixis threats. This is a tempo-focused midrange deck that scales from "good at combat" to "broken" depending on what creatures are on the table.

Strategy generated by Tapped Decks AI. Not affiliated with Wizards of the Coast.