Varina, Lich Queen - Beauty and BRAAAAINS
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 11 | 10 COMMENTS | 1090 VIEWS | IN 2 FOLDERS
Cuts and replacements —Nov. 15, 2020
12/10/2020
Replaced Dreadhorde Invasion with Reconnaissance. Dreadhorde invasion felt like it gave too little value since most other tokens will not go to 6. Instead being able to attack and save my zombies to still get the trigger from Varina or giving them pseudo vigilance by untapping them after damage is dealt feels like it would be way better.
Replaced Dark Salvation with Calculating Lich. Dark salvation felt a bit costly and I didn't see myself using it in a lot of situations. If it's to deal with indestructible creatures, there's exiles for that. Calculating lich rewards for attacking with zombies which is exactly what I want this deck to do. And on top of that it also works together well with the newly added Reconnaissance
23/10/2020
After a lot of thought I've decided to take out Army of the Damned. As much as I love the flavor of the card, it puts a massive bullseye on your head. All zombies enter tapped, it costs 8 mana so it mostly costs the entire turn most of the time and also, you just rarely untap with all the zombies still on the field at that point in the game. I decided to take Pphatty87's suggestion and try adding Noxious Ghoul for some more board control.
25/10/2020
As per suggestion of meilers I'm indeed going to try out Graveborn Muse and cutting Undead Augur for it. I'm also taking out Endless Ranks of the Dead. As good as the card sounds it's just too slow. Potentially it's strong when combined with Anointed Procession but that's too big of an "if" for me. Instead I'm going to add Vengeful Pharaoh Which can be a nice deterrent from attackers since my playgroup plays with a lot of big beaters or it can be a beater himself.
06/11/2020
With commander legends coming out we got a few new interesting toys that I'm aching to try out. I cut Binding Mummy and From Under the Floorboards for Tormod, the Desecrator and Necrotic Hex. From Under the Floorboards never really yielded a lot of impressive results and I'm glad to have an additional "Boardwipe" from Necrotic Hex. I'm not too sure about Binding Mummy being gone as I never really got to test it out so it might go back in at some point. But Tormod, the Desecrator is too good not to include.
15/11/2020
Did some further tweaking on the mana base to help color fixing.
Added two fetches, Cavern of Souls, Reflecting Pool
and Vault of Champions
I also cut the following:
Orzhov Signet for Expedition Map
Talisman of Hierarchy for Urza's Incubator
Calculating Lich for Leyline of Anticipation Cutting the Lich hurt me a little bit since I love the card, but the last few games I played I couldn't close because I had to wait a full turn after my plays before I could do anything and by then it was too late. So trying out giving my spells Flash to see if that can improve the impact of cards like Zombie Apocalypse, Living Death and Necrotic Hex.
09/03/2021
Necromancer's Covenant for Rise of the Dread Marn While I really like covenant for the lifelink and graveyard hate, it was an extremely expensive spell to cast for a potentially mediocre result. Instead I'm going for the new card from Kaldheim Rise of the dread Marn, which will allow to very rapidly recreate a boardstate after a wipe. This leaves me without any graveyard hate in the deck, but I decided to take the risk. If you decide to try out this deck and have a meta with a lot of graveyard nonsense, it's probably better to just stuff in a Tormod's crypt instead.
21/04/2021
Hey I love the list and appreciate seeing a fellow Zombie Commander Player! I have had trouble in my group too getting zombies functioning, but I think I finally made a scarab god deck that at least performed well in my group. Not sure what your meta is like though! Feel free to check it out! I also liked the new Thassa for my zombie deck as it allowed me to blink Gary for extra drain. Grave Born Muse provides lots of draw, which is needed in the colors, and Liliana Untouched by death goes GREAT with Roof Top Storm. -3, means all zombies in your grave, which is easy to do with Varina, can be played for free in 1 turn. Have won many games with that! Another great card is Rise of the Dark Realms. Get every creature back in 1 awesome swoop. Expedition Map can also help you tutor for the Urborg/Cabal Coffers combo. Let me know what you think! Happy to hear what also works for you as I am looking to make changes as well!
October 24, 2020 12:59 p.m.
Hey meilers! Thanks! Glad you like the deck. :) My group's meta is flyer and beater heavy with decks like The Ur-Dragon
, Xyris, the Writhing Storm, Kozilek, the Great Distortion. I love the idea of Thassa in your deck, but you have a lot more ETB effects than I do, so I feel like it'd waste a slot in mine. I was in need of good card draw and was on the fence for Graveborn Muse since it can drain scary amounts of your own life, but I'll give it a try! Liliana, Untouched By Death and Expedition Map seem amazing as well but I don't know what I'd cut out for them at this point.
October 25, 2020 11:24 a.m.
Dumannios The amount of life that I have lost can get a little scary at times, but the card advantage that Graveborn Muse can get is almost always worth it. Especially in early game. Usually my life total gets really low from my own board, but then Gray Merchant of Asphodel (Gary) comes in to boost my life total.
Looking at your cards now, I would agree, think Thassa could be a wasted slot.
Just curious how has God-Eternal Oketra played out for you?
October 28, 2020 1:44 p.m.
Have you also thought about Necromancer's Covenant? That enchantment seems like a cool way to abuse what sounds like a heavy creature deck in your meta. It would give you a good amount of tokens late game which has synergy with Corpse Knight and Wayward Servant. It would also give all your zombies lifelink which could help offset some of the damage, especially from some of the crazy damage The Ur-Dragon can dish out (he is also in my meta).
Not sure how you feel on some removal, but Imprisoned in the Moon and Oubliette can take care of some pesky commanders for a while, and Teferi's Protection can be a save for when someone is about to win.
October 28, 2020 3:02 p.m.
meilers Necromancer's Covenant was already in mate! That card is so incredibly good and has turned a lot of games around for me where I was low initially. And it has the bonus of somewhat being graveyard hate at the same time.
I'm not too keen on removal that is "temporary". I can't tell you why exactly. It just feels bad when I put it on a creature or permanent and it then gets undone on that player's step if they have an enchant removal in their hands. I'd rather just see it get exiled or go to the graveyard. But that's just personal preference.
I have been wondering how I could include Teferi's Protection as it's literally in every white deck I own, but I've just not been able to figure out what to cut for it.
As for God-Eternal Oketra, it's been doing really well for me actually. We have an "If it goes infinite, you can do it 5x per full cycle max" rule in my playgroup, but I had her out and I had Phyrexian Altar and Gravecrawler out. So I basically made 5 zombie warriors each turn and it won me the game.
Pphatty87 says... #1
I have relatively the same deck. Try adding Noxious Ghoul. With the ammount of zombies you can make, it will almost always win the game.
Also Call to the Grave and Grave Betrayal, they will help even the odds if you are finding it hard to draw into a wincon
October 12, 2020 3:11 p.m.