How They Brew It - Volo, Guide to Monsters: Two-Faced

Volo, Guide to Monster

by Zoltan Boros 

^{Yes, I built two Morph decks. This one is different, I swear.}

Shapely Figure

Good evening, everyone! Tell me: are you afraid to truly be yourself? Have you ever felt like you just don't fit in, no matter what you do? And whenever you meet someone new, do you feel the need to mimic them so that they're not weirded out? Well, you're not alone. Changelings, transformers, and unfathomable monsters of the depths, welcome to Amorphous Anonymous, the original group therapy session for shapeshifters who want to discover their true selves!

I'm Michael Celani, and my preferred form is that of a Rorschach test which exhaustive analysis has revealed can only ever be interpreted as a picture of one of the Spice Girls. Fun psychology fact: if you see Baby Spice in it, you're seventy-eight times more likely than normal to be mauled by bears.

When I'm not in that body, though, I like to channel the form of a late-twenties white guy with a podcast that likes to talk about Magic: the Gathering on the internet. Yes, changelings can truly be anything! And although not having the stability that a fixed form provides can be daunting, the first step to recovery is accepting one fact: just because you were born an amorphous blob, that doesn't have reflect poorly on you when you look in the mirror.

Take Volo, Guide to Monsters

Face Off

This deck is all about typeless creatures, and our main method of getting typeless creature spells is -- you guessed it -- casting that one card that looks exactly like Prince Zuko

Now, there is a catch: you'll only ever end up with an extra vanilla 2/2. Volo

Morphin' Time

Morphs have been around since Onslaught, where they were all (and this is canon) hatched from spiders made out of clay. That's why the symbol for that set is what it is; look it up. The point I'm trying to make here, though, is that this mechanic has been around for a while, and that gives us plenty of options for what we want to include in our list. Luckily, we don't have to try that hard; one of the major benefits of this deck is its consistency.

Thanks to Volo

Regardless, we'll still want to squeeze as much extra utility out of our cards as we can, so we might as well include face-down creatures with decent front faces instead of running straight beaters like Treespring Lorian

Similarly, Willbender

Megamorphin' Time

Maybe that extra +1/+1 counter made a difference in Limited, but for those of us in a format where we don't have to have skill because we're going to lose most of the time anyway and therefore can easily externalize our own failure to the luck of the draw or the fact that there were three other people in the game vying for a win, it doesn't really matter all that much. These guys are just more morphs: more removal

However, there is one card here that has a catch, and that's Salt Road Ambushers

Let's See Who This Monster Really Is

One of the good things about being a shapeshifter is that I'm fantastic at violent crime, seeing as I can get away from the scene by becoming a different person entirely. One time, I assassinated a man and made my escape by masquerading as the corpse! Boy, do I feel bad for President Kennedy. Yes, learning how to disguise is great, because it's basically another morph except now those face-down creatures come with a wonderful ward cost that Volo

Printlifter Ooze

Since we're focused on going wide, Coveted Falcon

A Wide Net

So you see, shapeshifters, being comfortable in your own not-skin is a skill that will pay you dividends over the course of your life. People can detect fakeness really well, so the more confident you are when being yourself, the more confident you'll be when being someone else, too. Look around you: right now, you're surrounded by others that are facing the same problems you are. We're all in this together, and it's time to take the first step: there's only friends here among us, so there's no need to be an imposter anymore. Here're the cards that lift us all up, together:

Stronger Together

Let's be real for a second: for the vast majority of the game, your board is going to be ninety percent colorless 2/2s. That makes colorless anthems, like It That Heralds the End

You've Got Value

To get that huge board of colorless creatures, though, you're going to be casting a lot of morphs. A full fourth of the deck can be cast face-down, so it would be absurd to not lean into that. Since morphs are all creature spells, Beast Whisperer

Also, remember that face-down creatures have no name, meaning Guardian Project

A Priceless Lesson

There's one more thing you need to learn before you're ready to shed this seveteen thousand, four hundred and eighty-seven step program and face the world a new you: your own self-worth. That's right, no matter what or how many shapes your body takes, you are still worth something. Now, I could leave it there and have this How They Brew It end on a heartwarming message about how all body types are valid, which I truly believe. Unfortunately, I can't, because it would immediately be undermined by the next section, which involves reducing the worth of all your morph's bodies until they hit zero. Oops.

Discounted Rate

Yes, it turns out that since face-down creatures only cost colorless mana to cast, you can use cost-reducers, like Nylea, Keen-Eyed

Obviously, not having to pay mana to cast creatures is incredible, but that only gets you so far. You're eventually going to run out of cards in your hand, which means you'll be unable to generate more 2/2 colorless tokens to dome your opponents with. Unless, of course, you're running jank:

Either of these two permanents work together with enough cost-reducers to turn any morph into a Volo

Primordial Mist

Shapeshifting Into an Exit Sign

If you've made it this far, congratulations. As a shapeshifter, we might be tempted to reinvent and reimagine ourselves to become the best people we can be. But the true best person you can be is the one that you're the happiest to be. Even if that person is a gigantic floating banana that likes to talk about anime all day. Thank you.

If you enjoy How They Brew It, please check out the Discord and my other projects at my website, where you can vote on which deck you get to see next. Next time, the ultimate showdown: will it be a return to Licids, or a return to the cleanup step? Which gets to take the coveted third part in the How to Make the Judge Cry trilogy? It's all up to you. Thanks for reading!

View this decklist on Moxfield