Today’s Tiny Leaders Deck Tech comes in the wake of the recent rise in popularity the format has been enjoying . Since my Shu Yun Deck Tech (here), Tapped Out have started supporting the format on their deck builder, MTGGoldfish have added a section to their website for the Tiny Leaders meta-game and some big names at WOTC have been seen tweeting about their interest in the format. This is fantastic news for the formats creators (congrats guys!) and as a result, we are beginning to see which directions people are taking their deck building and which legendary creatures are the most popular Tiny Leaders.

This deck is built around the one of the most popular Tiny Leader, according to MTGGoldfish, the Golgari Maze Runner from Dragon’s Maze, Varolz, the Scar-Striped. Happy Scavenging!

Scavenger Hunt

Mainboard

Creatures (20) 1x Deathrite Shaman

1x Fauna Shaman

1x Greenseeker

1x Death’s Shadow

1x Phyrexian Dreadnought

1x Scythe Tiger

1x Korozda Guildmage

1x Lotleth Troll

1x Plague Stinger

1x Satyr Wayfinder

1x Hunted Horror

1x Myr Superion

1x Glissa, the Traitor

1x Pharika, God of Affliction

1x Phyrexian Crusader

1x Nyx Weaver

1x Force of Savagery

1x Master of the Feast

1x Nyxathid

1x Phyrexian Soulgorger Other Spells (11) 1x Entomb

1x Grisly Salvage

1x Mulch

1x Commune with the Gods

1x Buried Alive

1x Dark Deal

1x Abrupt Decay

1x Smother

1x Putrefy

1x Gaze of Granite

1x Green Sun’s Zenith

Land (18) 1x Bojuka Bog

1x Cavern of Souls

1x Command Tower

1x Dryad Arbor

1x Forest

1x Ghost Quarter

1x Grim Backwoods

1x Inkmoth Nexus

1x Llanowar Wastes

1x Overgrown Tomb

1x Shizo, Death’s Storehouse

1x Svogthos, the Restless Tomb

1x Swamp

1x Tainted Wood

1x Twilight Mire

1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

1x Verdant Catacombs

1x Woodland Cemetery Sideboard 1x Back to Nature

1x Chainer’s Edict

1x Crawlspace

1x Diabolic Edict

1x Gnaw to the Bone

1x Golgari Charm

1x Maelstrom Pulse

1x Phyrexian Revoker

1x Pithing Needle

1x Toxic Deluge

Deck Breakdown

Varolz, the Scar-Striped is definitely a ‘build-around’ Tiny Leader. Fortunately, that can be very interesting. Giving scavenge to all of your creatures in the graveyard leads to some interesting deck building choices. Immediately my mind turned to the original Scavenge creatures from RTR block, however none that are legal in the format are amazing. Fortunately there are many unusual creatures in printed in Magic’s history that suddenly become a lot better when you give them Scavenge for their converted mana cost.

Cards like Death’s Shadow, Hunted Horror and Force of Savagery, when given Scavenge by Varolz, can dish out +1/+1 counter very aggressively with their high power and low CMC. Obviously these creatures are terrible on their own without some kind of build around, but Scavenge is the perfect mechanic for that. Putting thirteen +1/+1 counters on a creature for B from Death’s Shadow is ridiculous, and this deck loves doing ridiculous things. The downside about playing these creatures – and Varolz’s biggest weakness – is, if Varolz isn’t on the battlefield for whatever reason, these creatures do absolutely nothing for you. If Varolz dies to many times and casting him becomes too difficult, the deck is going to struggle, so protecting Varolz is the number one priority.

Making all of these +1/+1 is only the first part of this deck, the second is getting those creatures into the graveyard. Fortunately, B/G has some of the best self-mill cards every printed. Recent cards like Grisly Salvage, Commune with the Gods and Satyr Wayfinder fill the graveyard whilst allowing you to find other pieces you might need. With so many ‘Scavenge’ creatures you are bound to hit one or two with each spell. Older cards like Entomb and Buried Alive perform even better, allowing you to search out the best creatures – usually Death’s Shadow and Phyrexian Dreadnought – and put them straight into the graveyard. Fate Reforged brought with it a nice addition to this suit of spells. Dark Deal is a great way to empty your hand of any creatures you didn’t want to draw whilst also disrupting your opponents plans. There is obviously a risk that you’ll allow your opponent to draw into something good, but for the effect you’re after and considering they, more than likely, had their next couple of turns planned. the payoff is completely worth it.

Once you have chosen the creatures and your’ve gotten them into the graveyard, the last step is choosing what to put the counter on. Varolz himself is a completely acceptable target. His ability to regenerate by sacrificing creature fits in well with the theme of the deck, fueling the graveyard for the next Scavenge. Other options include Infect creatures such as Phyrexian Crusader, Plague Stinger and Inkmoth Nexus, allowing you to win incredibly quickly! Lotleth Troll is also included as he acts as second Varolz as far as a +1/+1 counter target goes, however he also has Trample and the ability to discard the creature from your hand for more counters which is another great way to get right of the ‘Scavenge’ creatures you naturally draw.

The other creatures in the deck include Deathrite Sharman who is arguably one of the best 1-drops ever printed, Glissa, the Traitor who acts as a hard to kill threat, Korozda Guildmage who can help your large creature push through damage or break it down to form a large board state and Pharika, God of Affliction who can push the game long similarly to how she performs in Standard currently.

Finally, the deck has a few slots left for some removal spells. Abrupt Decay and Smother kill pretty much anything in the format. Putrefy acts as a decent removal spell and a way in the mainboard to deal with problematic artifacts. Finally, Gaze of Granite is a very powerful mass removal spell in these colours. With X = 3, the board will be wiped of every non-land permanent which, while scary, this deck is more likely to be able to recover from.

Sideboard Breakdown

Crawlspace, Gnaw to the Bone and Toxic Deluge are for the Aggro matches. Crawlspace can nullify large swarms of creature very quickly. Gnaw to the Bone is an interesting card that wouldn’t fit into any other strategy’s sideboard other than this one’s. This can easily be ten life on each activation which can push most aggro decks out of the game. Toxic Deluge adds to Gaze of Granite in the mainboard as an additional sweeper. Having to pay life against an aggro deck can be painful, however when paired with Gnaw to the Bone it isn’t too bad. Plus three mana wraths are hard to come by!

These two help against Hexproof decks. I’m looking at you Geist of Saint Traft! They also help against any deck that brings in protection for it’s Tiny Leader, allowing you to get around any enchantments or equipments – such as the swords – without directly targeting the creature.

Phyrexian Revoker and Pithing Needle are cards I like to run in all of my Tiny Leaders Sideboards. They are great hosers for any deck that uses a Tiny Leader with activated abilities.

These three cards don’t lend themselves to any of the above groups, but they are all very powerful. Back to Nature is used as a the standard enchantment hate and Maelstrom Pulse is used for an extra board wipe against token decks or as support for Abrupt Decay for troublesome non-land permanent.

Golgari Charm works as an incredible utility spell. I can be paired with Back to Nature for enchantment hate. It can act as another sweeper against aggro strategies and it can be used as a regenerate against opponents with a lot of removal. Overall, the best card in the sideboard due to is versatility.

Conclusion

So that was the Deck Tech for Varolz, the Scar-Stripped. Overall this deck looks to be a lot of fun and contains some of the most powerful cards in Magic history. I’ll be looking to build this as soon as I can and take it to a couple tournaments to see how it performs. What do you think of the deck? Do you think there’s anything I haven’t including that I should have? I’ll be interested to know if there are any good Scavenge-loving creatures, like Death’s Shadow, I missed! Leave your opinions and deck suggestions in the comment section below.

You can play the deck on Tapped Out here.