Updated for Vendetta

Volibear

Relentless Storm

Fury

BodyBeginner

Volibear wants the first large unit to pay for the next one. Ramp gets that fighter onto the board, its Might makes removal cheaper, and the extra runes help the deck keep doing both.

Should you play Volibear?

Pick Volibear if you like building toward threats that change the whole turn. The payoff is more than a large attacker: it can also make your removal affordable and leave another rune behind.

Best for: Ramp players who enjoy managing two kinds of resources and turning an expensive first investment into cheaper follow-up turns.
Think twice if: You want to contest immediately with every opening hand. The ramp needs time, and an opponent attacking both battlefields can make that time expensive.

Key Cards

Platewyrm Egg is the Energy engine. Once empowered, it supplies two Energy each turn without asking you to keep another rune on the board. Kadregrin is the refill: it draws for each friendly Mighty unit when its play effect resolves, normally counting itself. Relentless Storm connects those turns by channeling an exhausted rune when you play a Mighty unit. The first body has to do enough work that you can afford the next investment.

Volibear’s Field Guide

Relentless Storm can exhaust when you play a Mighty unit, channeling an exhausted rune. Mighty means at least five Might on the board when the unit enters. A lasting increase already in play can help a smaller unit qualify; making that unit larger afterward does not retroactively trigger the Legend. The extra rune cannot produce Energy while exhausted, but you can recycle it for Power once the trigger resolves. That distinction matters constantly. Volibear can have enough Energy for a large play and still lack the right Power to make it. Plan the colored payments before turning every rune into the resources for one turn.

How Volibear wins

Get a useful threat onto the board before the ramp costs too many points. A five-Might unit can start the Legend, make Sky Splitter cheaper, and force the opponent to commit a real defender. Larger units then turn that foothold into a second attack or a hand refill. The first expensive card should make the rest of the turn easier, not consume everything and leave you hoping it survives. When ahead, another ramp card may be less valuable than keeping the current holder alive. When behind, spend on the answer that stops the next score. A bigger turn next round is irrelevant if the opponent wins this one.

Key interactions

Separate Energy from Power

Platewyrm Egg · Dragonsoul Sage · Mobilize · Volibear, Relentless Storm

Egg enters exhausted. On a later turn, empowering it costs one Energy and an exhaust; you cannot also tap it for its new two Energy without another ready effect. Sage normally enters exhausted too, so its one-Energy ability starts helping later. Mobilize and the Legend instead channel exhausted runes. Those runes can supply Power immediately if recycled, but keeping them gives future turns more Energy. Use the Gear and Sage to support your Energy payments while deciding which runes you can actually afford to spend. None of that makes a missing Fury payment disappear.

Let the large unit pay down the removal

Sky Splitter · Blazing Scorcher · Punch First · Rampage

Sky Splitter costs eight Energy and one Fury Power, reduced by your highest friendly Might. A surviving Scorcher makes that three Energy; a nine-Might unit removes the Energy payment entirely. You still owe the Fury Power, and the target must be at a battlefield. Punch First can improve the discount, but paying two Body Power just to save Energy is not automatically a bargain. Rampage offers a different answer during your own open Main Phase: your unit and the enemy damage each other. Pay its optional Body Power for +2 Might first when that changes the result, and check the return damage before sacrificing the body that was supposed to carry the next attack.

Ready the threat before asking it to attack

Confront · Volibear, Furious · Blazing Scorcher

Confront draws a card and makes subsequent unit plays that turn enter ready. It does not ready a unit already on the board or give an ordinary unit Ambush. Confront into Furious during your own Main Phase costs twelve Energy and two Fury Power, then gives you a ready nine-Might attacker. His five damage happens when he attacks, split among enemy units at that battlefield; playing him on defense does not fire it. Scorcher has its own cheaper route: Accelerate brings the total to six Energy and one Fury Power. Take the ready body when there is a useful attack, rather than spending the extra Power on a unit you intend to leave at base.

Strengths

Playing the threat can improve the rune board, so the deck does not have to stop developing its resources once it starts fighting.
High Might improves more than combat. It makes Sky Splitter efficient and gives Rampage a way to remove a defender before committing to the battlefield.
A board that survives the first exchange gives the expensive follow-ups more value. Kadregrin refills the hand, while repeated unit plays keep the opponent answering new threats.

Weaknesses

Ramp without a timely body can concede too many points. Several powerful late-game cards do not make an opening hand functional.
Energy engines do not pay colored Power. Recycling too aggressively can also leave the next turn short of the runes that made the deck look comfortable.
A large investment at one battlefield does not defend the other. Losing the main fighter can remove both your pressure and the discount you were relying on for removal.

Shadow's Pick

Volibear tournament list by 元气幻界小江

5th place · S4 Wuhan City Challenge, 2026-08-08

Open in Deck Builder

Buy this deck on TCGplayer

We may earn a commission if you buy through this link.

Deck total $263.02

Legend (1)

1x$0.30 ea.

Runes (12)

7x$0.11 ea.
5x$0.10 ea.

Battlefields (3)

1x$0.37 ea.
1x$0.09 ea.
1x$0.17 ea.

Spells (21)

3x$0.24 ea.
Energy
1
3x$0.16 ea.
Power
2
Energy
1
3x$0.18 ea.
Energy
2
3x$0.12 ea.
Power
1
Energy
8
3x$0.08 ea.
Energy
1
2x$0.19 ea.
Energy
3
2x$0.13 ea.
Energy
2
2x$17.35 ea.
Power
2
Energy
2

Gear (7)

3x$0.15 ea.
Energy
3
3x$46.77 ea.
Power
2
Energy
9
1x$0.16 ea.
Power
1
Energy
4

Units (12)

1xChosen$1.08 ea.
Might
9
Power
2
Energy
10
3x$1.98 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
3x$9.98 ea.
Might
9
Power
2
Energy
9
3x$0.10 ea.
Might
5
Energy
5
2x$0.10 ea.
Might
1
Energy
2

Sideboard (10)

3x$14.28 ea.
Might
10
Power
4
Energy
12
3x$0.07 ea.
Might
8
Energy
8
2x$0.23 ea.
Might
3
Energy
4
1x$0.07 ea.
Might
4
Energy
4
1x$1.18 ea.
Might
10
Power
2
Energy
10

Shadow's take

This is my Volibear pick because it has a plan for the turn after the first big unit. Egg, Sage, and Mobilize help get there; Kadregrin and Dazzling Aurora stop every later threat from asking for another full hand's worth of resources. I like Scorcher as the bridge. Five Energy gives you a Mighty body, starts the Legend, and makes Sky Splitter affordable without waiting for Furious. Aurora is the longer investment. It plays a unit from the deck at the end of each of your turns, ignoring that unit's base costs, but this list can reveal Sage or Akshan as well as a Dragon. Do not treat every activation as Kadregrin. Akshan still needs another two Body Power to steal a Gear, which is worth reserving when that Gear is the reason you cannot win the board. Decree of Strength gives you a cheap chance to remove a Mind answer before committing to Aurora. The Dragon-heavy sideboard can change the payoff mix for longer games, but I would keep the opening honest. The deck has to survive long enough for those repeated plays to matter.

The Game Plan

Early gameLook for one usable ramp route and a body you can reach, usually Scorcher. Sage starts cheaply; Egg asks for three Energy now and another turn's investment to empower; Mobilize grows the rune board directly. An opening with all three kinds of ramp and no affordable fighter can still lose before it does anything impressive. Keep Sage at base when it is supplying Energy rather than a point, especially with your own Flurry of Blades in hand. Decree of Strength can take a Mind unit as well as a spell, but it has no Action or Reaction timing. Use it in your open Main Phase to clear the specific interruption before the large play.
MidgameMake the first Mighty unit earn a battlefield. Accelerated Scorcher into a discounted Sky Splitter can remove the defender and leave a ready attacker, provided the Scorcher survives until you pay for the spell. You cannot budget the discount after the opponent has already killed its source. Falling Star is two separate instructions to deal three damage, to the same or different units, not six damage to divide however you like. Flurry cleans up every battlefield and hits your units too. Keep Punch First for the fight or removal calculation that justifies its two Body Power. It is an Action for an open Showdown, not a Reaction to a spell already on the chain.
Late gameChoose between refilling now with Kadregrin and investing in repeated Aurora plays. Kadregrin counts your surviving Mighty units when its effect resolves, so a second threat improves the draw and gives you something left if the opponent answers one. Aurora still leaves extra costs to pay: Akshan's theft, Scorcher's Accelerate, and Dragon Roost's special placement are not covered. A unit played to base at the end of the turn does not get an ordinary move afterward just because Confront made it ready. Rage Amplifier gives the board a lasting +1 Might, enough for Akshan to enter Mighty; empowering the Gear makes the increase +2 instead. Use that when the wider board benefits, not as an automatic purchase ahead of the removal needed to stop the final point.

Battlefields

Blind

Dragon Roost · Dazzling Aurora · Kadregrin the Infernal

Roost gives your Dragons a route directly to the battlefield for an additional two Power of any domain, even without control. Aurora can use that permission when it plays a Dragon at the end of your turn, but you must reserve the extra Power first. The later Legend trigger cannot fund the play that caused it. Roost does not ready the Dragon; an exhausted unit can still defend, and an uncontested legal arrival can earn a conquest after the normal response and scoring checks. Furious is not a Dragon. The opponent can use Roost too, so prefer another battlefield when their direct Dragon plays create more pressure than yours.

Going First

Mystic Vortex · Sky Splitter · Punch First · Flurry of Blades

Vortex is useful when you can establish a fighter and make the opponent spend more on their combat response. Reaction cards played during its Showdown cost another Power. Sky Splitter and Punch First only have Action, so they do not pay that tax; your own Flurry does. Hidden cards have Reaction and pay it too. Count both players' likely responses before choosing Vortex, and leave the extra Power when Flurry is the card supposed to preserve your holder. Activated abilities are not Reaction cards and are not taxed by this text.

Going Second

Sigil of the Storm · Volibear, Relentless Storm · Platewyrm Egg

Sigil makes each conquest cost its conqueror a rune. That recycle is mandatory and does not generate Power. Volibear can be better equipped to rebuild through later Mighty plays, and Egg keeps producing Energy without being a rune, but neither makes the loss free. I would choose it when the opponent's repeated conquests strain their resources more than mine. Recycle an exhausted rune when possible and check the next turn's colored payments. If your own ramp is already struggling, choose the battlefield that helps the actual attack instead of adding another bill.

Sideboard

Make the Dragon package affordable together

Gentle Gemdragon · Herald of Scales · Dazzling Aurora

Gemdragon readies up to two runes when it or another friendly Dragon is played. It does not restore runes already recycled, and its simultaneous trigger cannot automatically choose the new rune a pending Legend trigger has yet to channel. Herald reduces Dragon Energy costs by two, to a minimum of one, but does not discount Furious or Aurora. I would start by exchanging a Sage for Herald and a situational spell for Gemdragon in games where a four-Energy setup unit is realistic. Keep enough early ramp to play the package. Adding these units improves Aurora's Dragon density, but a Herald hit is still a Herald, not an eight-Might Gemdragon.

Use Elder when damage needs to clear everything

Elder Dragon · Flurry of Blades · Falling Star

Elder makes positive damage from your sources lethal to enemy units. Its play effect can deal one to an enemy at each location, then Flurry can finish every enemy unit at the battlefields while Elder remains active. Flurry still does only its normal damage to your own units and does not hit units at base. Damage prevention can stop a one-damage kill. I would bring Elder when the board is too large for the ordinary damage spells, trimming a poorly matched Decree and an Aurora if the game demands an immediate clear rather than another investment. Twelve Energy and four Body Power is a serious manual payment even with ramp; bring the support needed to reach it instead of adding three Elders to every matchup.

Turn large payments into another card

Yordle Explorer · Punch First · Kadregrin the Infernal

Explorer draws when you play a card with at least two printed Power cost. Punch First, Falling Star, Kadregrin, Furious, and Aurora all qualify. Akshan does not qualify just because you paid the optional theft cost. I would exchange a Sage for Explorer when games leave time for a four-Energy draw engine and the extra Energy from Sage is no longer the limiting resource. Keep Sage when reaching the first large play matters more than earning cards from later ones.

Attack through the small blockers

Corrupted Dragon · Confront · Dragon Roost

Corrupted Dragon can arrive ready while your score is still more than three points from victory. In a normal eight-point game, that means four points or fewer; at five points, its own ready clause switches off. Its attack can send enemy units here with five Might or less back to base, opening a lane without killing them. Confront can supply a ready entry after the built-in condition stops working. I would replace a Kadregrin when clearing small defenders for an immediate point matters more than refilling the hand. Do not count on the Dragon arriving ready for your last attack unless the condition or Confront actually provides it.