Hey everybody.
What you'll be reading is my review on the Varina and the direction I personal chose to go with her.
I have been dying to have a new Zombie general. I also wanted one with token synergy. Once I read we were getting treated to an esper zombie commander this gave me a huge smile.
My build is a token based strategy with a focus to win without necessarily having to do direct damage. Because I limited myself to tribal, this was a challenge but overall runs well in my playgroup for both 1v1 and Multi.
There are 2 main ways to win game.
1. Smacking people with combat damage.
2. Zombie Utilization for Draining Life.
Simple..... right?
-----Creating Tokens-----
I understand that I am missing a few of the cards that create tokens. I had to keep in mind that I needed other parts of the deck that would be impacted too much if my card count was too high on token generating. The cards that generate token are Grave Titan, Noosegraf Mob, Diregraf Colussus, Josu Vess, Lich Knight (This replaced Army of the Damned), Cryptbreaker, Tombstone Stairwell, From under the floorboards, Anointed Procession and my favorite, our Commander.
Some might think 10 isn't enough and may choose to add/swap some out. The nice part about this build is you can do that - work around your playgroup. I needed more answers to the board and you'll notice that if you play a similar deck it is not hard to make zombies. We gotta keep them alive though.
-----Removals and Counter Spells-----
How do we keep the board in our favor? We run 3 changeable counterspells. Mine being Counterspell, Arcane Denial, and Swan Song. For spot removal there is Swords to Plowshare, Anguished Unmaking, Vindicate. Board wipes I have two that don't affect us Cyclonic Rift and Noxious Ghoul (which can wipe the board numerous times). I also have a Toxic Deluge.
Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos are great. I would only include one. There is a form of psychology that happens when this is out. Say we have a 2/2 zombie and Varina. We attack with the token and get the trigger. Do they block the zombie with something that can kill it? Because then everyone besides us will lose something as well. A must have. Dictate > Grave Pact.
-----Card Advantage-----
This section is what makes this deck work so well. We need to be able to loot and dig deep to grab our win cons early to secure our games.
Varina, Lich Queen can loot very well even on the turn she is played. Reconnaissance, Library of Leng, and Kindred Discovery all work well with her.
I also have The Scarab God,Treasure Cruise,Whispering Madness,and Graveborn Muse (careful you can kill yourself pretty quickly). Herald's Horn lowers the cost of playing our creatures and gives us potential card draw. I'm testing Midnight Reaper to see how it works in this deck. Add as many tutors as your budget can afford. I have Buried Alive and Diabolic Intent.
Special Interactions
For Library of Leng. Its interaction with Varina means that we can choose to effectively pick any cards in our drawn hand and put them either in the graveyard or on the top of the library. Along with having unlimited hand size this card is a staple.
Reconnaissance has a unique effect as well. With it we can "declare" our attacks which triggers Varina. After the triggers end blockers are declared. In response to blockers, we may activate Reconnaissance and remove creatures from battle. So we get all the triggers we desire and virtually no draw backs to it. Neat.
Kindred Discover and Alhammarret's Archive (if you're running one) have an interaction as well. You will draw twice the cards but only discard the original amount.
----- Recursion/Reanimate -----
Lots of looting in this deck. We need to be able to take advantage of this.
Grave to field we have Reanimate, Unearth, Animate Dead, Necromancy, and Zombie Apocalypse.
Grave to hand we have Unholy Grotto, Lord of the Undead, and Buried Ruins.
----- Lords/Anthems -----
We only carry 6 lords. I choose the ones that had the best bang for their buck. These are Lord of the Accursed, Death Baron, Lord of the Undead, and Undead Warchief, Diregraf Captain. We also have Coat of Arms which can be the best "lord" of them all.
----- Mana Ramp -----
Im always up for suggestions because tri-color mana fixing is a concept I am trying to understand.
Chromatic Lantern and Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth for color fixing.
Sol ring and Mana vault for colorless ramp.
Talisman of Dominance, Talisman of Progress, Orzhov Signet, Dimir Signets and Azorius Signet.
Two more "ramps" in the next section.
---- Sac Outlets -----
Only 4 sac outlets here. We have Carrion feeder, Altar of dementia, Ashnod's Altar, and Phyrexian Altar.
The main purpose for all of these is for their instant speed sac outlet. Their secondary ability was also considered. Milling ourselves for additional card advantage or using it in a combo to win the game. The other altars in a pinch can help with getting the mana we need to also cast critical spells. Carrion feeder is the cheapest sac outlet a zombie deck can have.
----- How We Win Utilizing Zombies -----
Sometimes we can very easily win the game by making zombies, throwing a few lords on the field and smacking someone for damage. This is most realistic in a 1v1 setting. However in any game this tactic can be very difficult to win with. Even with our removals we have to have a way to close out the game that isn't as easily as predictable.
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Aristocrats.
Lets acknowledge the elephant in the room for a minute. Yes we have Aristocrats. The power level of this tactic is a lot weaker as we only have zombies that can do this. It is still a very strong way to win. We have Wayward Servant, Diregraf Captain, Plague Belcher, and Vengeful dead. All of them bedsides Diregraf Captain target "each" not a specific player.
I cannot stress the importance of this. Because now we have a way to ping everyone on the board for 1 damage at the cost of 1 creature. Wayward Servant being the exception of netting us damage per ETB.
Special Interaction
Gravecrawler will do a ton of work in poking everyone constantly. That's why I have buried alive. Entomb would work also. With Rooftop storm you can go infinite with 1 zombie + Sacoutlet/effect.
A. Zombie + Rooftop storm + Gravecrawler + Altar of Dementia = Infinite Mill.
B. Zombie + Rooftop storm + Gravecrawler + Ashnod's Altar = Infinite Color/Colorless Mana.
C. Aristocrats + Rooftop storm + Sac outlet = Infinite damage.
D. Midnight Reaper + Rooftop storm + sac outlet + Gravecrawler = "Infinite" Card Draw.
Without Rooftop Storm - Aristocrats + Phyrexian Altar + Gravecrawler = Infinite Damage
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Other draining Spells.
These spells are not Aristocrats effects however provide a very strong to draining out opponents.
- Shephred of Rot will hit everyone on the field for damage = to ALL zombies in play.
- Gempalm Polluter - My favorite card. Instant speed 2 Black, Draw a card and target play gets dealt X damage = to ALL zombies in play. Not what it exactly saids - but it should. He is the reason why we have Grave to Hand Recursion. We want to cycle him multiple times in a game which adds up to be a lot of damage.
- Lich Lord of Unx - Simple way to deal X damage to a player = to the number of zombies you control. It also will mill them for X. You can create zombie tokens with him, but its a waste of resources doing so.
Special Interaction
Tombstone Stairwell is my favorite token generating card. It gives everyone zombies. That seems like a bad
idea but not really. We should have more creatures in the graveyard then anyone else. Also because we are
generously giving our opponents creatures. We have cards that interact with them. The two above will use
what we give to others as extra damage overall. Also cards like Vengeful Dead (our Aristocrats) states that
ANY zombie that dies it will trigger his ability. And with Tombstone Stairwell, even one turn rotation could
mean a few players losing the game.
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Assisting in Direction Damage.
There are a few cards that help with the route of attacking direction to win.
- Throne of the God-Pharaoh - Extra damage at the end of our end step again drains all opponents which adds up over time.
- Graf Harvest/ Lord of the Accursed - Both provide menance to our zombies which helps makes them more evasive to getting blocked.
----- Closing Thoughts -----
If you skipped here or read this far thank you. There are a few things I wanna clear up in case they become questions later.
I made this deck with the idea of draining everyone in the game slowly then after a certain point become too overwhelming to stop. By doing this I am not seen as an immediate threat. I am not targeting any one player down intentionally; unless the game requires it.
This deck took me a while to build. I had several Dimir Zombie Decks but none of them felt like this. I wanted a true hoard zombie deck.
The only two cards we didn't talk about are Temporal Trespass and Wither Wretched. Taking an extra turn for 3 mana is nice and I needed grave hate.
The price of Alhammarret's Archive both financially and cmc is too expensive for what it does. It is extremely redundant. Kindred Discovery will always be better for a tribal deck. A creature ETB or attacks you draw. In a 4 man game Alhammarret's Archive will see more play and I may swap it in because the pace of the game will be slower.
Removals and counters are very subjective. I suggest maintaining around 8-10 of them because board protection is important. Replace Toxic Deluge for a Wrath of God for example. If you can afford a Teferi's Protection include it in the deck it is a staple because it will protect your tokens as well.
Grave Pact and Dictate of Erebos both work in this deck great. Once the Aristocrat engine is running you will see a return in value. Between the two I'd choose Dictate of Erebos over Grave Pact only because I'd rather pay 3 uncolored and 2 black over 3 black and 1 uncolored. Plus flash can add to some sneaky plays.
I don't have Wonder in the deck because I only have 5 "Islands". I don't have any fetch lands in the deck (yet) so that spot of the 99 was replaced with more removal.
I don't like Grimgrin, Corpse-Born. He was a commander of mine at one point. I rather do other things on turn 5 then play him. He has a place in the deck. I choose to keep him out for now.
Nantuko Husk is a good zombie sac outlet for 3. However if I did want another I'd go with Grimgrin.
Aristocrats affects are very abundant in esper. Blood Artist and Zulaport Cutthroat can make using that strategy much more effective. My zombie limitation prevented me from going that far.
I considered a zombie to be any creature that had the word "zombie" in its text. Ex. Grave Titan
For Mana Fixing you can consider putting in a Celestial Dawn. It works similar to a Chromatic Lantern however consider the white cmc it requires.
I didn't touch on this much but keep note that there are several cards in the deck that serve for multi function even if they were not mentioned in a certain category. Ex. I consider Cryptbreaker a token generator however after there are a good bit of tokens on the battlefield they can be used to help draw for cards.
This deck all comes down to what you're willing to give up to gain. I'd like to add a Phyrexian Arena; do I take out a card advantage or pull from another category? How I shared my deck here will help me remember what the purpose is for each card.
Any and all feedback would be greatly appreciated.
