VARINA, LICH QUEEN ZOMBIE TRIBAL COMMANDER EDH DECK TECH
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- čas přidán 23. 07. 2024
- Welcome to another Commander Insight Deck tech!
This time we are going over the 3 color ESPER Commander Varina, Lich Queen. She is a very fun and simple deck to play!
The beginning of the video I compare her to the new Wilhelt the Rottcleaver and why I think Varina is better at the Helm.
This video goes into some of the strategies and reasons behind why I chose the cards I did.
Please comment any suggestions or questions you have about the deck! - Hry
Sick art!
really cool video!!
Thank you very much! I appreciate the comment!
Great vid!
Much appreciated!
Nice deck awesome playmat I prefer wilhelt personally but adding white is always great especially with oketra and removal
Thank you! The other side of the playmat is the Witch King of Angmar from LoTR too.
Why do you prefer Wilhelt? Just curious your thoughts if you've played both.
Also great username lol
@@commanderinsight i really like his interactions with certain cards like poppet stitcher and a sac outlet also I just think he looks cooler lol but decayed is so flavorful I just had to run him
Might have missed it... But can you share decklist?
I use Varina, but purely so I can play Anointed Procession and Necromancer's Covenant. I rarely care about using Varina's effects unless I really need to fix my hand.
I considered Sidisi - Parallel Lives is a 1-1 replacement for Anointed - but the only card I found really comparable to Necromancer's Covenant was Skeletal Swarming and it's pretty naff.
Maybe if on your end step, you created x amount of skeletons, where x is the number of skeletons you controlled that died this turn +1, then it would catch my interest a bit more.
Do you maybe have a moxfield link? I would love to build varina and Id like to use your deck as a base to start on :)
Do you have a moxfield link for this deck in particular? I would love to make some changes to my Varina deck
syr konrad the grim works amazing with varina's discard or exile abilities.
Yes! I agree. I had Syr Konrad in the deck actually. I took him out for 2 reasons. 1. I already use him as a main win con in another deck (which also runs gray merchant) so i didnt want it to be a duplicate strategy, and 2 I felt i had 2 many non-zombie creatures that were 5 cmc.
But you are right he is incredible in this deck
I have been going back and forth with those two commanders and I think I like Varina a bit more because I just wanna swarm the board instead of combo
Yes I’ve had the same dilemma. I found wilhelt was slower and less fun to play. His decayed tokens are cool but I like Varina because she adds white and is faster to set up and play. Fills your graveyard quicker and has a very flexible build. You don’t need to run her as a tribal zombie deck.
Have you done a Mono Black Ghoulcaller Gisa Zombies? Its honestly insane with Meathook and Phyrexian Alter...
I have not I will look into it. I’ve always wanted to find a good home for gisa
You really should consider field of the dead and change 3 basics into snow lands. Massive value. Also consider the bolt mdfc lands. A spell in the land slot is never bad. Rhystic studies and smothering tithe will also raise the power.
What's the benefit of snow lands unless you're playing tainted pact maybe
@@jimbomctimbo1610 They are considered a different land name for field of the dead. You need 7 lands all with different names in order to trigger the token effect. A basic swamp and a basic snow swamp are 2 different lands therefore adding snow lands will help you achieve the 7 unique names more consistently without sacrificing color inefficiency
@@commanderinsight makes sense!
Can i suggest master of death ? He can be useful for having a card to discard every time instead of a good one, for just une hp
Hey! awesome suggestion, it can definitely see this being a useful card for when Varina attacks. The life loss can also be offset over the long game it isnt so bad. Thank you
Run Field of the Dead. Get zombies for playing lands. Very good
If you do, you gotta swap out some of those basics for snows as well. Basically guarentees that you are getting it to proc once you have 7 lands on the field.
@@lI-tm2pn in 3 color decks you really don’t need to with all the multi color lands there are you can hit the requirement without having to split regular basics with snow
Very interesting video! What are your thoughts about Cathars' Crusade and Drumbellower ?
Hey, thanks for the comment! I have debated on putting in cathars crusade for sure. I think I might try it to see because if you can get it out early it’s so deadly. My concern is the mana value being 5 is high so you probably aren’t doing much else that turn. It will always be one of those “kill on sight” cards because of how well we can spam tokens so I don’t feel it will last long in my playgroup. I foresee casting it and having it removed before I can get out enough creatures where it will be worth it. But I still want to try it.
drumbellower also looks like it can be a good support card. I like the effect but I don’t like that it’s not a zombie lol. Untapping each turn can keep your creatures up to block and it would also work well with cryptbreaker for draw each of your opponents turns. So it could be a great support card.
Another card i was looking at was Heliod god of the sun just because it’s an indestructible enchantment that gives everything vigilance.
Are you running crusade and bellower?
@@commanderinsight I had left a comment but now it seems removed. Hope you got to see it
@@mathijsk.4086 was it the one about cathars crusade and the bellower? I did get that one and I replied. We’re you able to see my reply?
@@commanderinsight Heya, it was an answer on your question about Crusade and Bellower but I think it got removed because I posted the full URL of my decklist.
Anyway, I build Varina in the last couple of weeks and yesterday evening was the first time I played the deck! It was only 3 games so it's not that much of data but Drumbellower is awesome! First because many tokens enter tapped and second because you want some blockers after a big swing for Varinas loot ability. The Crusade I got to see only once in the 3 games and I couldn't cast it because 5 mana is a lot as you said in your comment, those turns I needed more of something else... I didn't win any of the 3 games, but while looting through my deck I had fun and I'm looking forward to play Varina again. There will definitely be some changes but feel free to check my deck out. It's over at TappedOut and you should copy paste this behind it without the spaces: mtg-decks / 27-03-22- FqA-varina
I have build Varina only once (only months after starting Magic, so not a big arsenal of cards back then) and it was quite fun to play, but it was a very bad deck since I did not have access to impactful cards at the time.
I'll probably build my varina with the focus on Draw and Discard instead of pure zombies.
Yeah you can build her so that there’s no zombies and it’s all fodder for her to make her own army.
I want to build a zombie tribal deck, and I was also thinking about Varina. But I am afraid it will be too weak in my pod. We play around power level 8 and we have some 9s too.
If that’s true, I’m afraid most tribal decks won’t hold up against power 8-9. Varina is the strongest zombie commander because of the colors. You can build her different ways to make her more competitive. Tribal decks just can’t compete sometimes because they are even more restricted. I can’t think of any other zombie tribal commander that would be more competitive than varina. Maybe scarab god but he’s not a zombie and can also just fit in varina.
@@commanderinsight We have a guy with Scarab god and it's without a joke the weakest deck from all :-( But we still run some highly tuned 8 tribals in my pod. I play a very strong mardu human tribal and it is crazy. My friends are playing Elves ( Lathril ), Tovolar ( Wolves ), Krenko ( Goblins ). Goblins without a doubt are the fastest, can wipe the board at turn 4. Elves are close, and Tovolar and my Humans are even. Now I am thinking about a Varina deck, which can match these decks we play. Of course I won't play Varina against a cedh Gitrog, Animar or Orvar deck :-) We have separated our decks based on power level. But I still need her at 7,5 or 8 at best. So you are saying it's not possible ? Just to add some more info we don't really play battlecruiser games, when playing our most powerful decks, games lasts anywhere between 20 - 40 minutes, when playing our weaker decks then about an hour per game. But the 2 hour games with upgraded precons are long gone.
@@pearce1984 yeah scarab god used to be fast and good but Mtg has come out with so many more commanders that outshine now.
I think varina can definitely be competitive. She has really good colors in esper. I would say she can keep up. I would say she’s a 7.5 in my playgroup but I feel power levels are still skewed from different peoples perception. It sounds like your play group might be a little higher power lvl than mine. Regardless I still think she is viable.
My deck focused on zombie tribal and was meant to actually be a more toned down deck. I run a lot of higher cmc zombies that Probly should be swapped out for counter magic and target removal. Maybe a little too much recursion but to me that’s a zombie deck.
The biggest things to note about varina before you build her is you gotta be attacking with zombies in order to get the engine working otherwise it’s very slow. This risks her or your other zombies getting blocked and dying so putting in cards to prevent that Is important. Also tapping zombies to attack can leave you open for crack backs in a creature heavy meta. My video goes over cards to help that. Giving your creatures vigilance will also help. Anyway to keep them useful after they’ve attacked. Reconnaissance is incredible for that.
Lastly varina is great at keeping your life total higher and chewing through the cards in your deck however she’s not good card draw. You end up being in situations where you draw 4 and discard 4 and it’s very hard choices if you only have 2 other cards in hand. If you can have consistent card draw elsewhere then varina will allow you to always have the best hand. Most cards you put in the deck will end up in the graveyard which is why I run so much recursion. Varina can make your zombie army herself too with all those cards in the gy
Based on what you told me your playgroup is like I think she can be viable. She’s not a turn 5 win commander she takes a little time but can build up very fast once she gets going. Token generation is also a great because it acts outside the deck meaning it can be support on offense or defense while your drawing through other cards in your deck to win.
@@commanderinsight Thank you so much this was very helpful, your comments and deck in the video really inspired me. I will try it out :-)
@@pearce1984 glad to hear! if you think of it, comment back once youve built and played it and let me know how it goes!
You need Library of Leng...
For varinas ability with tormod you would only get one zombie not two
If you use Varina's effect with a tormod on the field as well you end up with 2 zombie tokens....1 from Varina's effect and the other from triggering Tormod
@@commanderinsight yes, I was thinking you meant two from tormods ability alone
I built Varina a couple months ago, played it twice won both games back to back, it was disgustingly good. I choose not to play it now because it feels like cheating, it just does so much with little effort and almost always has a board state or good enough recursion to bring it all back.
lets see a deck list!! im very interested!
@@commanderinsight when I get some time at home sure thing, prolly not much different than what's on edh but it just runs so well. Fun highlight of the matches, playing geth for free with rooftop storm and playing a sliver deck from the grave, fun stuff
also it had alot of mill discard synergies i took out that id really like to explore a bit more with her.
Library of leng?
I had it in the deck before and took it out because it didnt help me the way I wanted but i may reconsider putting it in.
Thanks for the suggestion