Cash Money Varina: Zombie Tokens Primer [DMU]

Commander / EDH Control Tokens WUB (Esper) Zombie

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Lands (37)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dromar's Cavern
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 3x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 3x Plains
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Sejiri Refuge
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 7x Swamp
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Unclaimed Territory
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Treasure Package (6)

• 1x Treasure Map  ^Flip
• 1x Ruthless Knave
• 1x Pitiless Plunderer
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Revel in Riches
• 1x Spell Swindle

Control Package (13)

• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Despark
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Heliod's Intervention
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Tale's End
• 1x Undermine
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Excavation Technique
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Teferi, Hero of Dominaria

Lords of the Dead (10)

• 1x Glory
• 1x Wonder
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Wand of Orcus
• 1x Teysa Karlov
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Necromancer's Covenant

Value (7)

• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh
• 1x Wayward Servant
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Gravespawn Sovereign
• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

Finishing Stroke (4)

• 1x Debt to the Deathless
• 1x Dread Return
• 1x Empty the Pits
• 1x Approach of the Second Sun

Commander (1)

Card Draw (10)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Ayara, First of Locthwain
• 1x Long-Term Plans
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Parallel Thoughts

Ramp (9)

• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Commander's Sphere
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation

Tokens (3)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Tombstone Stairwell
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa

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Maybeboard

Others (6)

• 1x Deadly Dispute
• 1x Body Count
• 1x Monologue Tax
• 1x Filth
• 1x Necroduality
• 1x Ravenous Rotbelly

Wincons/Combos (5)

• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Tainted Pact
• 1x Thassa's Oracle
• 1x Doomsday
• 1x Laboratory Maniac

Control (3)

• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Sudden Substitution
• 1x Blood Money

Tutors (2)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Diabolic Intent

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A beatdown tokens Varina build aiming to amass Zombie and Treasure tokens and swing for the win with a large control and card draw package. The deck feels part Oloro, Ageless Ascetic control, part Rhys the Redeemed vomit out tokens.

The Lich Queen

Varina, Lich Queen can help us filter through our deck rapidly whilst also applying pressure to our opponents and pad our life total. Given black's tendency to burn through its life total, Varina can help us quite a bit. We can also exile worthless cardboard from our graveyard to fill out our board with 2/2 Zombies which can help us filter even faster.

Rampant Growth (Ramp)

To start with we run the mana rocks such as Sol Ring and Mana Crypt.

Running three colors can stress our mana base quite a lot, so running Chromatic Lantern, Commander's Sphere and Arcane Signet will go a long way.

Lords of the Dead (Anthems)

In this deck we are filled to the brim with Zombie lords from Wonder, Glory and Teysa Karlov providing keyword soup, to straight up Zombie anthems with Lord of the Undead, Undead Warchief and Death Baron, making our undead Bears far more intimidating.

We also run a few drain effects when zombies flood the board, with Wayward Servant, Corpse Knight, Throne of the God-Pharaoh and Diregraf Captain.

Undying Horde (Tokens)

To spit out zombies though we rely on a handful of cards including our commander Varina, Lich Queen. Lich Lord of Unx spits out smaller zombies but comes with a REPEATABLE burn effect. We aren't concerned too much with the mill part of the ability since people run recursion anyway.

Cemetery Reaper, Field of the Dead and Ghoulcaller Gisa can regularly spit out tokens, with Cemetery Reaper acting as graveyard hate, Field of the Dead rewarding us for playing Magic and Ghoulcaller Gisa spitting out multiple tokens with anthem effects.

Liliana, Dreadhorde General takes us to valuetown, dropping zombies, drawing cards, and sacrificing creatures.

Army of the Damned and Necromancer's Covenant flood the board with tokens.

Anointed Procession is literally 2x the fun, but may be dangerous with cards like Undead Augur, Graveborn Muse and Shepherd of Rot.

Open the Vaults (Treasures)

In order to pay for our undying horde and the control magic behind them, we are also running a treasure package as well.

Spell Swindle is no Mana Drain but with Anointed Procession it pulls it's weight.

Ruthless Knave and Treasure Map   give us additional card draw at the cost of treasures.

Pitiless Plunderer and Revel in Riches lets us capitalise on board wipes and make some good money.

As we do run white, we are also running Smothering Tithe for incidental ramp as well. Smarter players will opt to pay the {2}, but that gives us room to act without repercussion.

Well Prepared (Card Draw)

One thing I realised when I first played this deck was that without enough card draw, Varina doesn't reload her hand but cycles through it. Although that would be great for a discard or reanimation build, we can't maintain a steady hand filled with disruption.

Almost all of the card draw in the deck is repeatable with cards like Cryptbreaker and Ayara, First of Lochthwain giving us consistent amounts of card draw, while Long-Term Plans is a relatively budget tutor which functions well with Varina.

Mystic Remora acts as incidental card draw since no one really wants to feed the fish.

Windfall and Graveborn Muse and provide massive burst of cards, which will hopefully keep our hand fully stocked for Varina shenanigans.

Alhammarret's Archive lets us double up on Varina's attack trigger whilst discarding half the number of cards.

Kindred Discovery is a bit steep in terms of mana cost, but greatly rewards us for playing our deck.

Parallel Thoughts lets us search for our best seven cards, and draw most of them through Varina.

Cease and Desist (Control)

The control package is loaded with countermagic from Counterspell to Undermine, to removal like Swords to Plowshares, Vindicate and Supreme Verdict.

Tale's End is one of the newer cards from M20, which is a Stifle which also stops commanders.

Finishing Blow (Finishers and Combo Pieces)

We can combo off as well but the deck does not focus around that, otherwise we would run a few tutor effects as well.

Approach of the Second Sun can give us an instant win if we attack with 7 zombies after casting whilst Debt to the Deathless lets us drain our opponents significantly. Both of these are enhanced significantly with Ashnod's Altar.

End step Empty the Pits for a final swing or combined with Ayara, First of Locthwain or Wayward Servant can also do a lot of damage.

Revel in Riches gives us the win with all of the cash money we'll be making, especially with all of the death triggers from throwing zombies at people.

Date added	3 years
Last updated	3 months
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 48 - 0 Rares 21 - 0 Uncommons 10 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.08
Tokens	Copy Clone, Emblem Teferi, Hero of Dominaria, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Haste
Folders	EDH, Maybe