Would have been amazing if it just said "permanent", letting you double Planeswalker Counters. Oh well.
Hyperviper
★★★★☆ (4.1/5.0)(7 votes)
Turn Gideon, Champion of Justice into a creature, then target him with this for some neat combat tricks, as well as driving him towards that ultimate at mach-2. Not the best synergy ever but fun all the same.
Also, flashback an Increasing Savagery onto your Gyre Sage, then double her counters with this guy. Its prone to removal but you can't have everything, and getting 20 mana from a single creature is pretty hilarious.
.Blaze.
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Double the counters double the fun.
pbnjplz
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(4 votes)
@Nucleon Notice it specifically doesn't list Enchantments as legal targets. And that Helix Pinnacle has Shroud.
Nagoragama
★★★★☆ (4.8/5.0)(4 votes)
This card is pretty good, not spectacular, but pretty good, but my favorite thing about him, besides that gorgeous artwork, is his flavor. Judging from the creature type and flavor, he was a member of the Gruul until the Simic picked him up, experimented on him and turned him into a Merfolk Human hybrid. I just think that's badass.
steev
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Winner of the Most Unwieldy Name Award 2013. You have to have a mouth full of potatoes to pronounce it!
Jake1991
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Strangest creature type combination ever.
Nucleon
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I wonder if a Darksteel Reactor deck would work with this guy. Helix Pinnacle is probably better....if it didn't have Shroud, right. Silly me.
MightySqueeth
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(7 votes)
Just like Flayer of the Hatebound you can sing his name to the tune of "Everybody Dance Now"
LordRandomness
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Plenty of ways to turn a planeswalker into an artifact, folks.
James_Kernaghan
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(8 votes)
Subtle synergy with things that have counters.
Hugomanen
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Teysa Karlov spoker on Mystic Genesis about how the Simic and Golgari would be dangerous together. Fitting that the Orzhov mazerunner fears what happens when the Simic mazerunner works together with the Golgari mazerunner. I would love to scavenge some efficiently costed creature with Varolz and then immediately double it with Vorel! (Preferably unto an Invisible Stalker) Five mana and some buildup before the first effect is achieved makes it a bit slow for standard, luckily since it makes it easier to acquire for my kitchen table. If only Varolz could drop in popularity...
kazenpaus
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(3 votes)
@jake1991: Only the second-weirdest creature type combination: Razorfin Hunter
I feel like the bairn is still in many ways superior to Vorel. Vorel is easier to activate, and has +1 toughness. But I feel his advantages end there. Bairn is less color-restrictive, has access to the easily-exploitable untap symbol, is adorable, and can target any permanent- namely planeswalkers. Not to say that Vorel isn't cool. He's a more streamlined bairn, and a pretty nice legend. And the two can certainly work well together in the same deck. Plus, you don't see to many Human Merfolk running around...
The_Evictee
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Oh great, we got aquaman.
DarthParallax
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(6 votes)
It actually makes a lot of sense to me that Jarad doesn't sac himself. I wouldn't really expect anyone without as much "I am a crazy person" flavor as MASSACRE GIRL to be able to commit suicide for profit. Jarad is Golgari and can kill for profit, take life to gain life, but...well,,it just doesn't quite seem correct for him to self-sacrifice. Actually Self-Sacrifice belongs strictly in either Red (reckless) or White (noble).
That said, this COULD still have Evolve, but look at the spacing: there's not enough room for it. (They would include the Reminder Text, MaRo my words).
Can't think of anyone on Ravnica to be Green Lantern, though. :/ BUT ON RAVNICA, AQUAMAN SUCKS LESS THAN WONDER WOMAN! :D
Also don't forget this guy actually has *TWO* strongly supported tribes. Expect this to be relevant in Casual.
Curlie-Joe
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(9 votes)
Just look at those god damn abs.
GhostCounselor
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(2 votes)
So he proliferates. Not bad. Simic-y I suppose.
yodasodabob
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
have Varolz and Vorelon the battlefield and death's shadow in graveyard. scavenge Death's shadow and use Vorel's ablility. result: INSTANT HUGE CREATURE!!!!
Sleaw
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Vorel started from the bottom now he's here, yo.
Tiggurix
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Meh. I still prefer Gilder Bairn. First of all, Gilder Bairn is not legendary, second, it can affect any permanent, in contrast to Vorel, and lastly, untap is more interesting than tap. All in all, I'd say this is a downgrade from Gilder Bairn.
K1nG_0f_Sh0v3l5
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So... Umezawa's Jitte?
FlatDuoJets
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Not much for standard. Azor's Elocutors might become an option. There's Ludevic's Test Subject, Otherworld Atlas, Hellion Crucible, Grimoire of the Dead, Jar of Eyeballs. Maybe throw Illusionist's Bracers on him to get things up to speed for Azor's. We'll see.
Gcrudaplaneswalker
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(2 votes)
HUMAN MERFOLK??! Those Simic are weird. I like his 4 toughness, and his counter ability is just waiting to become broken. As for the art... Only Orzhov has that much gold, which sort of disagrees with Simic... But interesting design; this card gets a 4/5 from me.
ANMist
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Hey look, Ariel and Eric had a son.
Fictional backstories aside, anyone else notice the amazing green/blue flavor this guy has with Give // Take:
2GGU for putting six +1/+1 counters ATLEAST from 'give' alone. 2GUU for drawing twice as many cards as you normally would from 'take' alone.
Seeing how you could do that potentially on 5th or even 4th turn (mana ramp example {standard}: gyre sage, or druids' repository), this guy is a real good tempo builder.
Granted Vorel has less feasibility than gilder, but he is cheaper in ability, stronger, and doesn't need to attack or depend on other neat shenanigans for his ability to work. These are some real good plus points if you think about it.
Nadorou
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Also worth mentioning the possibilities of doubling counters on your opponents' side. While you can't double poison counters on players, he should have little trouble removing anything with -1/-1 counters on it. It is now my wish to see his ability used against a suspended spell.
vantha
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
Let it never be said that WoTC never printed a Human Merfolk, yes now you have one.
Kidding aside this guy is decent. He is a solid 1/4 body, most blue creatures tend to be small in toughness and you never get to use them to block. This guy blocks centaurs then doubles the counters on your creatures. Heck, he even double counters on himself if he acquired any.
My only gripe is I wish he were a wizard. He has two species classes Human Merfolk but they couldn't add Wizard to him as well? I guess they ran out of room on his text line. Its a shame he is human, being Merfolk would've been just fine.
Here is what makes Vorel better than gilder barin. HE TAPS. With the barin, you have to either attack, and have your barin get killed, or have another way to tap him. However, those other ways eat up card slots. Vorel does not need those other cards. A combo with him needs two cards rather than three. Therefore, it is more consistent. Yes, you cannot go infinate with Vorel as easily, but I would rather a consistent, yet reasonable combo to a hit or miss, powerful one. Also, being out of bolt range helps alot.
danialjames
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I'm surprised that no one mentions this but if you splash in black corpsejack menace
Continue
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Human Merfolk. Let that sink in.
Also, anyone else think this guy is a less-broken Gilder Bairn? Because I certainly do.
Perkins
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
Unless I'm mistaken, you could Liquimetal Coating a planeswalker into an artifact to make it targetable by Vorel?
If you hit six mana with Vorel, and a Liquimetal Coating in play then you could play and instantly use Ral Zarek's -7, or any other planeswalker.
Forfymo
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(2 votes)
Step 1: Vorel. Step 2: Corpsejack Menace Step 3: Primordial Hydra Infinite possibilities from here, the simplest being attacking with a ridiculously large Hydra.
I used to be a merfolk like you, then I took a simic to the brain.
TentacleTitan
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
i mean primordial hydra
syrazemyla
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(2 votes)
If you have out Gilder Bairn and Experiment Kraj, and both Vorel and Gilder Bairn have +1/+1 counters, it gets ridiculous. Tap Kraj to double the counters on something, untap Kraj to double the counters on something again, et cetera.
Seedborn Muse is fantastic in commander games. Since you untap lands, it allows you to activate Vorel on every player's end step, or twice every end step with an untapper. It also lets you hold up counterspells while still spending all of your mana every turn, which is very valuable. Murkfiend Liege is slightly worse for combo potential, but still buffs everything.
Plaxcaster Frogling comes in with enough counters so that it doesn't take long to make him huge, and stops targeted removal, which normally shuts down Vorel's strategy.
Thallid is a good target for putting +1/+1 counters on since Vorel copies both types of counters. Furthermore, he's resilient to removal since even if you spend a lot of time pumping him up to a 65/65 or something, the hordes of saprolings he leaves behind should be more than enough to deal with the board state.
I understand completely why they made him not work with Planeswalkers. Working with Enchantments would have been pretty cool though. The argument of "Simics don't have anything to do with Enchantments" is kind of invalidated by the fact that he works with Artifacts, which they have equally little (actually less, considering they're all about organic life) to do with.
TowerDefender
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Edit comment removed by user as doesn't work with Enchantments.
Callahan09
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Varolz, the Scar-Striped, scavenge something crazy from your graveyard (Death's Shadow or Phyrexian Dreadnaught) and then double the power/toughness with Vorel of the Hull Clade. Can't go wrong with that.
Audio
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.5/5.0)(1 vote)
Human Merfolk must be a Planeswalker's best friend.
Arachnos
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I used to hurl rocks and eat scraps of meat burned over a fire, but then I took a Simic to the everything.
*notices Atemu's comment*
...crap.
TheBringer
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
So doubling counters counts as placing counters. Fathom Mage is happy to hear that.
infernox10
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Interestingly neat enough, If you have no previously Evolved creatures on the battlefield, This guy will at least activate the Evolve trigger once upon entering the battlefield. Pretty awesome, in my opinion, especially from a flavor perspective.
Jhyrryl
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Vorel is loving M14: Door of Destinies, Ratchet Bomb, Ring of Three Wishes, multiple hydras, Savage Summoning, Primeval Bounty, Hunt the Weak, Advocate of the Beast, and who knows what else.
Hey it's a Human Merfolk! Too bad he was born a Gruul muggle and couldn't be a Wizard too... Oh well, who needs magic when you have SCIENCE!!
Tyrant103
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Vorel of the Hull Clade, with 2 Corpsejack Menace, and Kalonian Hydra can make for one deadly combo.
SkyknightXi
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Also think about extending the lifespan of anything with fading or vanishing. Well, not Blastoderm. But Woodripper is really going to like working with him. Too bad Parallax Tide isn't a valid target.
If you find anyone still play with cumulative upkeep cards, they shall hate you.
Discoduck
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I use him in fun casual deck that moves +1/+1 counters and -1/-1 counters around at my leisure. Goes great with Dusk Urchins and makes the Skinrender a sure kill (albeit sometimes eventual).
That said, goes straight into any Vorosh, the Hunter or The Mimeoplasm EDH to get that juicy commander damage high enough to knock someone out in one swing.
hidden strings makes it possible to use this twice every turn. crazy!!!!!
E-n-S
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
"And thus, the little bairn became their king, and they called him 'Vorel'."
leafbladefighter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Vantha I think they liked his flavor text, and making him just a merfolk would've made no sense. Fire, underwater? Although I would've preferred him being a merfolk wizard as well.
MasterOfTheVault
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
"Hah! Suck it dark depths!" -Vorel of the hull clade
The most interesting thing about this card is that he can target a land.
There are no lands in standard right now that interact with counters! (Excluding Mutavault shenanigans)
SirLibraryEater
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
"Hey guys, remember that one card from Eventide, Gilder Bairn?" "No..." "Great. I have an idea." ~excerpts from Dragon's Maze set development meeting
All jokes aside though, this guy's ridiculous in EDH. All of the storage-counter lands (Sand Silos, Rushwood Grove, Saprazzan Cove and the like) from Mercadian Masques immediately become the most ridiculous. Astral Cornucopia becomes even more crazy. Cold-Eye Selkie with some +1/+1 counters draws you your whole library. Sekki, Season's Guide doesn't die. Ever. Solarion gets even more double-counters. I think my favorite combos in my version of the deck, however, has happened to me but once. Imagine this: I play Gyre Sage. The next turn, I follow up with Wall of Wood and Vorel of the Hull Clade. Gyre Sage evolves twice. Over the next few turns, Vorel doubles those two counters to four, then eight, then sixteen. I tap out for 24 mana, then play Take on the Gyre Sage and draw sixteen cards.
deep_shadow
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Use with Tangle Wire if you want to lose some friends.
D1234
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I've used this in a Simic deck that included this, a primordial hydra, a kalonian hydra, and a protean hydra. That worked well for a while, but I ended up using him in an infect deck later, so I could basically kill any creature that was infected. It's too bad that he can't target players though.
A_Real_Travesty
★★★★☆ (4.0/5.0)(1 vote)
Standing around in his crazy Willy Wonka Wonderland room.
Q. How did Vorel of the Hull Clade get to be so funny?
A. He became a Humerfolk.
IamjustnotCreative
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Hey guys! He levels up creatures!
mattcrowone
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Guys guys ready ima blow your mind( kalonian hydra+Vorel of the Hull Clade=losing friends)
spirit_of_blue
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@yesennes "If you find anyone still play with cumulative upkeep cards, they shall hate you."
Please do not be so hasty with conclusions. At example I play cards with cumulative upkeep in my EDH decks and because Hibernation's End and Braid of Fire can not be targeted, I would gladly help opponent with it and make them artifacts with help of Liquimetal Coating. Also Arctic Nishoba would not be bad to not pay its upkeep with 10+ age counters etc. There are more cumulative upkeep cards, which I would definitely not target with Vorel, if those cards would be on opponent's side.
In fact, in deck where I use those cumulative upkeep cards, I have also proliferate artifacts to be able to increase number of age counters on my cards, when situation for it is suitable.
Comments (78)
Also, flashback an Increasing Savagery onto your Gyre Sage, then double her counters with this guy. Its prone to removal but you can't have everything, and getting 20 mana from a single creature is pretty hilarious.
I would love to scavenge some efficiently costed creature with Varolz and then immediately double it with Vorel! (Preferably unto an Invisible Stalker)
Five mana and some buildup before the first effect is achieved makes it a bit slow for standard, luckily since it makes it easier to acquire for my kitchen table. If only Varolz could drop in popularity...
Vorel is easier to activate, and has +1 toughness. But I feel his advantages end there.
Bairn is less color-restrictive, has access to the easily-exploitable untap symbol, is adorable, and can target any permanent- namely planeswalkers.
Not to say that Vorel isn't cool. He's a more streamlined bairn, and a pretty nice legend. And the two can certainly work well together in the same deck.
Plus, you don't see to many Human Merfolk running around...
That said, this COULD still have Evolve, but look at the spacing: there's not enough room for it. (They would include the Reminder Text, MaRo my words).
Tajic: Superman
Mirko Vosk: Batman
Emmara Tandris: Wonder Woman
Melek: Flash
Vorel: Aquaman
Lazav: Martian Manhunter
Aurelia: Hawkgirl
Can't think of anyone on Ravnica to be Green Lantern, though. :/ BUT ON RAVNICA, AQUAMAN SUCKS LESS THAN WONDER WOMAN! :D
Also don't forget this guy actually has *TWO* strongly supported tribes. Expect this to be relevant in Casual.
Fictional backstories aside, anyone else notice the amazing green/blue flavor this guy has with Give // Take:
2GGU for putting six +1/+1 counters ATLEAST from 'give' alone.
2GUU for drawing twice as many cards as you normally would from 'take' alone.
Seeing how you could do that potentially on 5th or even 4th turn (mana ramp example {standard}: gyre sage, or druids' repository), this guy is a real good tempo builder.
Granted Vorel has less feasibility than gilder, but he is cheaper in ability, stronger, and doesn't need to attack or depend on other neat shenanigans for his ability to work. These are some real good plus points if you think about it.
Kidding aside this guy is decent. He is a solid 1/4 body, most blue creatures tend to be small in toughness and you never get to use them to block. This guy blocks centaurs then doubles the counters on your creatures. Heck, he even double counters on himself if he acquired any.
My only gripe is I wish he were a wizard. He has two species classes Human Merfolk but they couldn't add Wizard to him as well? I guess they ran out of room on his text line. Its a shame he is human, being Merfolk would've been just fine.
It's the same problem Jarad has where he can't sac himself. Why are they against self synergy?
Also, according to the art, Vorel went to the prom alone. :(
Also, anyone else think this guy is a less-broken Gilder Bairn? Because I certainly do.
If you hit six mana with Vorel, and a Liquimetal Coating in play then you could play and instantly use Ral Zarek's -7, or any other planeswalker.
Step 2: Corpsejack Menace
Step 3: Primordial Hydra
Infinite possibilities from here, the simplest being attacking with a ridiculously large Hydra.
Among the best combo pieces:
Culling Dais: Allows you to draw all the cards after only saccing a single creature.
Untap effects such as Seeker of Skybreak, Fatestitcher, and Niblis of the Breath are all extremely powerful. While the Niblis costs mana, it also allows you to tap Gilder Bairn if you want to double the counters on a planeswalker or enchantment.
Seedborn Muse is fantastic in commander games. Since you untap lands, it allows you to activate Vorel on every player's end step, or twice every end step with an untapper. It also lets you hold up counterspells while still spending all of your mana every turn, which is very valuable.
Murkfiend Liege is slightly worse for combo potential, but still buffs everything.
Plaxcaster Frogling comes in with enough counters so that it doesn't take long to make him huge, and stops targeted removal, which normally shuts down Vorel's strategy.
Thallid is a good target for putting +1/+1 counters on since Vorel copies both types of counters. Furthermore, he's resilient to removal since even if you spend a lot of time pumping him up to a 65/65 or something, the hordes of saprolings he leaves behind should be more than enough to deal with the board state.
Triskelion also becomes extremely scary.
In terms of lands, I play Llanowar Reborn and Oran-Rief, the Vastwood. Vorel can double the counters on lands like Hickory Woodlot, but you would often rather just use it on a creature.
Vorel's worst nightmare is Supreme Verdict-type boardwipes.
*notices Atemu's comment*
...crap.
If you have no previously Evolved creatures on the battlefield,
This guy will at least activate the Evolve trigger once upon entering the battlefield.
Pretty awesome, in my opinion, especially from a flavor perspective.
Pentad Prism
Everflowing Chalice
Game winners:
Helix Pinnacle (when combined with mana accel)
Darksteel Reactor
Other cards/combo's:
Minamo, School at Water's Edge + Garruk Wildspeaker
Instill Energy
That said, goes straight into any Vorosh, the Hunter or The Mimeoplasm EDH to get that juicy commander damage high enough to knock someone out in one swing.
-Vorel of the hull clade
There are no lands in standard right now that interact with counters! (Excluding Mutavault shenanigans)
"No..."
"Great. I have an idea."
~excerpts from Dragon's Maze set development meeting
All jokes aside though, this guy's ridiculous in EDH. All of the storage-counter lands (Sand Silos, Rushwood Grove, Saprazzan Cove and the like) from Mercadian Masques immediately become the most ridiculous. Astral Cornucopia becomes even more crazy. Cold-Eye Selkie with some +1/+1 counters draws you your whole library. Sekki, Season's Guide doesn't die. Ever. Solarion gets even more double-counters.
I think my favorite combos in my version of the deck, however, has happened to me but once.
Imagine this:
I play Gyre Sage. The next turn, I follow up with Wall of Wood and Vorel of the Hull Clade. Gyre Sage evolves twice. Over the next few turns, Vorel doubles those two counters to four, then eight, then sixteen.
I tap out for 24 mana, then play Take on the Gyre Sage and draw sixteen cards.
A. He became a Humerfolk.
"If you find anyone still play with cumulative upkeep cards, they shall hate you."
Please do not be so hasty with conclusions. At example I play cards with cumulative upkeep in my EDH decks and because Hibernation's End and Braid of Fire can not be targeted, I would gladly help opponent with it and make them artifacts with help of Liquimetal Coating. Also Arctic Nishoba would not be bad to not pay its upkeep with 10+ age counters etc. There are more cumulative upkeep cards, which I would definitely not target with Vorel, if those cards would be on opponent's side.
In fact, in deck where I use those cumulative upkeep cards, I have also proliferate artifacts to be able to increase number of age counters on my cards, when situation for it is suitable.
Ral Zarek
Sage of Hours
Also.... Doubling Season