Varina's Slowlock - Zombies Anti-Storm

Commander / EDH Control WUB (Esper) Zombie

molok

Land (35)

• 1x Adarkar Wastes
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 1x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Mystic Gate
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windswept Heath

Zombie Synergy (15)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Binding Mummy
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Etchings of the Chosen
• 1x Gisa's Bidding
• 1x Gleaming Overseer
• 1x Lazotep Reaver
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Unsettled Mariner
• 1x Wonder
• 1x Zombie Master

Disruption (10)

• 1x Arcane Laboratory
• 1x Ashiok, Dream Render
• 1x Awaken the Erstwhile
• 1x Deafening Silence
• 1x Grafdigger's Cage
• 1x Rule of Law
• 1x Torpor Orb
• 1x Withered Wretch
• 1x Yixlid Jailer
• 1x Zur's Weirding

Counter (8)

• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Drown in the Loch
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Negate
• 1x Soul Manipulation
• 1x Stubborn Denial

Draw (6)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Bone Miser
• 1x Coastal Piracy
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Reconnaissance Mission
• 1x Undead Augur

Commander (1)

Ramp (12)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Charcoal Diamond
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Marble Diamond
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Sky Diamond
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Hierarchy
• 1x Talisman of Progress
• 1x Wayfarer's Bauble

Removal (10)

• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Despark
• 1x Frantic Purification
• 1x Maze of Ith
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Rapid Hybridization
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Vindicate

Filter (3)

• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Tithe

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Maybeboard

Other (16)

• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Damping Sphere
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Disdainful Stroke
• 1x Dreadhorde Invasion
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Filth
• 1x Flawless Maneuver
• 1x Forbid
• 1x Frantic Purification
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Mindlock Orb
• 1x Neurok Stealthsuit
• 1x Undead Augur

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Recently updated with Commander 2020 and Ikoria!

Power Level: Optimized (not cEDH). No infinite combos. Mildly salt-inducing.

Playstyle:

Goal is to land Varina, use her to cycle through lots of cards while slowly taking over the board with our zombie hoard. The win condition is incremental advantage, so we run a lot of Rule of Law and other disruptive effects to keep other players from going off.

We make use of the graveyard but it is mostly just fuel for Varina.

We play a lot of disruption with counter-magic, and the deck is not fast to win. Ongoing disruption comes in two main forms:

1. Arcane Laboratory and Rule of Law makes it very hard for some decks to do their thing. We mostly want to leave mana untapped and activate Varina with our mana instead of casting lots of spells, anyways.

2. Zur's Weirding can grind the table to a halt by effectively locking all players out of meaningful draws. Varina gains us life to pay for it, and we don't care if our draws get dumped in the graveyard - they just turn into more zombies.

The most significant weakness is that we need Varina to stick around for our gameplan to work. Protecting her is top priority. Also, we must be attacking someone every turn which can make enemies easily depending on your playgroup.

It is often correct to wait to cast Varina until there's also mana available to protect her.

Notable Exclusions:

• Madness cards such as Grave Scrabbler and From Underneath the Floorboards. Aside from the commander there aren't all that many discard enablers, and these require too many things to go right before they start being good.

Converting to cEDH: In a competitive pod, the gameplan remains largely the same, but swap out some of the slower value-oriented cards for a few more mana rocks and cheaper countermagic. Most cEDH decks can't win through a Rule of Law effect. They get to run out of gas while you pound on them with zombies.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	4 - 0 Mythic Rares 46 - 0 Rares 33 - 0 Uncommons 11 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.45
Tokens	Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Based on	Zombies Tribal molok EDH