Rise of the Lich Queen

Commander / EDH Aggro Casual Multiplayer Tribal WUB (Esper) Zombie

Inanity

Creature (32)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Gisa and Geralf
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Gravespawn Sovereign
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born *oversized*
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Noosegraf Mob
• 1x Noxious Ghoul
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Vengeful Dead
• 1x Wayward Servant
• 1x Zombie Master

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Untouched By Death

Land (35)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Boseiju, Who Shelters All
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Esper Panorama
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 2x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Nimbus Maze
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 8x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of the False God
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of the Archangel
• 1x Watery Grave

Artifact (7)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Crucible of Worlds
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh
• 1x Urza's Incubator

Commander (1)

Instant (9)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cryptic Command *list*
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Disallow
• 1x Negate
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Return to Dust
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Ever After
• 1x From Under the Floorboards
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Stitch Together
• 1x Victimize
• 1x Wrath of God

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Necromancer's Covenant
• 1x Phyrexian Reclamation
• 1x Rooftop Storm

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Maybeboard

Creature (6)

• 1x Binding Mummy
• 1x Bone Dancer
• 1x Corpse Harvester
• 1x Psychosis Crawler
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Wonder

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Zombie Apocalypse

Artifact (4)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Diviner's Wand
• 1x Rings of Brighthearth
• 1x Strionic Resonator

Land (2)

• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Path of Ancestry

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Inner Sanctum
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Rhystic Study

Instant (2)

• 1x Shadow of the Grave
• 1x Swan Song

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I am resurrecting my old zombie deck for Varina, Lich Queen.



Yes, I know that Grimgrin, Corpse-Born is incredibly powerful, considering he is his own sac outlet that has amazing synergy with everything zombies like to do, and The Scarab God has pure, raw power. But I am intrigued with what Esper zombies brings to the mix by adding white. So let's delve in!

What does the Lich Queen offer herself? Well, for starters, she is a 4/4 body for 4 - - that's not too shabby! She's a zombie and a wizard; one of those we care about, the other is pretty irrelevant (here, anyways). And she makes her own zombies too! For the low, low price of and exiling two cards from your graveyard, she can summon forth an undead warrior for you zombie-ing pleasure. But wait, there's more! Whenever you attack with one or more zombies, you get to loot your deck for each member of your shambling horde that you turn sideways, and you gain that much life too!

Wow! Talk about incentivizing zombies to do what zombies already like to do anyways! You want to swing? Swing away! This is a card game, so we love to draw cards! But these are zombies, so we also like to fill up our graveyard too! And, hey, who doesn't like more life? So how do we work to make the most out of all of this fun stuff?

The Shambling Hordes

• Wayward Servant I'm putting this one first because it can be a real powerhouse in here. The one zombie I bothered to gain from white, and he can inflict massive pain. Army of the Damned suddenly becomes almost an Exsanguinate. Ouch!
• Undead Warchief, Mikaeus, the Unhallowed, Lord of the Undead, Lord of the Accursed, Death Baron, and Cemetery Reaper Six, count 'em six anthems on a stick! Plus a package of bonus effects like: making zombies cheaper to cast, Undying, recursion, Menace, Deathtouch, and zombie creation respectively.
• Zombie Master Swampwalk can't hurt; well, actually, it really can with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play. Regenerating zombies is good too.
• Vengeful Dead and Plague Belcher whenever a zombie dies, each opponent loses life. That makes sac outlets good, and wraths potentially downright deadly.
• Carrion Feeder Speaking of sacrifice outlets...
• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born Removal on a big beatstick, and a sac outlet to boot. He used to be the commander, but he's still lurking around, waiting to be fed.
• Fatestitcher Great with Grimgrin, handy in lots of other ways too.
• Sidisi, Undead Vizier Sac a creature to tutor on ETB. We can probably abuse this.
• Gravecrawler and Relentless Dead Self-recurring zombies! With the latter being able to recur something else too, whenever it dies.
• Noxious Ghoul This guy is board control incarnate in zombie tribal. I've seen few things draw so much hate as this guy when I've previously played zombies.
• Diregraf Colossus and Noosegraf Mob Zombie assembly lines! Yay!
• Josu Vess, Lich Knight Don't cast him unless you've got the boot to kick him. You want him to bring his friends!
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel More like Grey Merchant of Death. Every time you cast this guy, it will probably be like casting an over-charged Exsanguinate
• Phyrexian Delver is Reanimate on a stick. Yes please.
• Havengul Lich He'll keep pulling bodies from the grave if you let him!
• Gravespawn Sovereign Got five zombies standing around? Make them lie down and dig something out of a graveyard. Thanks to Chaostrash for reminding me of this guy!
• Mirror Entity It can make all your creatures zombies, handy for the supporting cast below. Plus he can make them all really big. And it's technically a zombie too.

Supporting Cast: (all the non-zombies)

• Ghoulcaller Gisa and Grave Titan They make zombie tokens. Probably lots of them.
• Gisa and Geralf Recasting zombies from the graveyard is good.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One Recursion for you, forced sacrifice for your opponents. Yes please.
• The Scarab God What can't he do? He can non-Eternalize Eternalize creatures in any graveyard (which is a bonus win if you snatch an opponent's creature, exiling it for them). Oh! And he lets you Scry, for probably a lot, and damages your opponents at the same time. And he can be hard to get rid of too!
• Laboratory Maniac There's a reasonable chance we'll draw out due to our commander. This will turn that into a victory!
• Archfiend of Ifnir This guy turns your combat phases into one-sided Toxic Deluges. Swing with a bunch of zombies, and watch the blockers melt before they know what's coming!

Endless Legions of the Dead

• Anointed Procession This deck can make lots of zombie tokens. So why not make double lots of zombie tokens?
• Cemetery Reaper Exile a dead creature, gain a zombie. Zombie anthem too!
• Diregraf Colossus Cast a zombie, get a bonus zombie!
• Ghoulcaller Gisa A small sacrifice can raise a lot of zombies.
• Grave Titan Get two zombies on ETB and when attacking. Free dead people!
• Noosegraf Mob Odds are it'll split apart into five zombies pretty quick. That's not a bad thing.
• The Scarab God Non-Eternalize Eternalize, and you can get good stuff this way!
• Josu Vess, Lich Knight Kick him and he brings eight friends, 16 with Anointed Procession in play!
• Necromancer's Covenant Post wrath, this can really ruin an opponent's grave, or ransack your own to make a lot of zombies! Oh ... Did I mention zombies have Lifelink?
• Army of the Damned This is a lot of zombies! And it's got built-in Deja Vu!
• From Under the Floorboards With our commander's draw and discard, there's no reason you shouldn't be able to cast this for its Madness cost and get

They Keep Getting Back Up!

• Ever After Get back two and, in theory, it comes back up to!
• Victimize Sacrifice one to get two, and the one could cause some pain on his way out too.
• Reanimate and Stitch Together Efficient recursion.
• Phyrexian Delver It's Reanimate on a rotting stick. How is that not good?
• Patriarch's Bidding Mass recursion. And, if Noxious Ghoul happens to be around, your opponents probably get nothing for it too.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One Bring back one creature per turn, make your opponents sacrifice one per turn. Bi-winning!
• Havengul Lich Cast any creature from the grave, and gain its abilities for the turn. With Chromatic Lantern you can take pretty much anything from anyone's graveyard!
• Gravespawn Sovereign He can raise anything from any graveyard, so long as you've got zombies to tap in multiples of five.
• Unholy Grotto Put a zombie on top of your deck from the graveyard. Okay.
• Lord of the Undead and Phyrexian Reclamation Recall zombies from the graveyard to your hand. Even better!
• Gisa and Geralf Casting one zombie per turn from the grave is good.
• Liliana, Untouched By Death Casting all your zombies from the grave is even better!
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Now all non-token zombies can recur themselves! Absent Cathars' Crusade, of course.

Control and Removal

White adds some good stuff to the removal package (not like black is lacking there...)

• Path to Exile and Swords to Plowshares are incredibly cheap creature removal.
• Return to Dust Got an annoying artifact, enchantment, or two? Gone now!
• Anguished Unmaking Say good-bye to anything that's not a land.
• Wrath of God and Damnation It's hard to get more classic, for board wipes.
• Cyclonic Rift Blue can board wipe too! Does anyone ever cast this and not Overload it?
• Noxious Ghoul This stinky li'l rotter is frequently able to wipe the board of anything not a zombie.
• Grimgrin, Corpse-Born He may have stepped down for the Queen, but he's still a cold, undead killer.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One Opponents sacrifice,, we reanimate. So. Much. Value. She will draw hate.

Plus a pretty standard counter package:

• Cryptic Command Because versatility is good, and being able to tap out your opponents for an alpha strike is even better!
• Disallow Because it's so versatile!
• Counterspell It may be a classic, but it hasn't lost its class.
• Negate It's pretty rare that I ever counter a creature anyways...

Other Goodstuff

If it's not in another panel, then this is why it's in the deck.

• Crucible of Worlds Al those cards we're discarding? Well, some of them can be lands too. We can play creatures from the grave ... Why not lands too?
• Rooftop Storm Does this card need any explanation? Well, other than why it's blue and not black, or at least blue/black.
• Cathars' Crusade Put out creatures, make your other creatures bigger. Need I say more? Well, I guess I could say that if it's in play when you cast Army of the Damned then the rest of your horde just got really ugly...
• Chromatic Lantern Mana fixing is good. Also, as Raphiezar reminded me, makes Havengul Lich able to call up creatures from opponents' graveyard.
• Sol Ring and cardThought Vessel Mana rocks are good; so is no max hand-size.
• Throne of the God-Pharaoh How many of those zombie tokens come into play tapped? Lots of them. How many zombies are tapped after you attack? All of them. Ouch.
• Urza's Incubator If they can't be free, vis-a-vis Rooftop Storm, then let's make them cheap!
• Alhammarret's Archive Soooo ... Now I gain two life and draw two cards for every attacking zombie?? Also, the replacement effect only affects the draw portion of Varina's ability, so you draw two cards, but only discard one, per attacking zombie. Sign me up!!
• Vault of the Archangel Speaking of Lifelink... Also, I like the irony of undead hordes shambling forth from an ostensibly holy grave...
• Boseiju, Who Shelters All My meta doesn't use much countermagic (fools), but I don't want the few spells I do want to use getting counters!

Notable Exclusions

Some cards I've previously considered, but decided against or removed. WOuld consider again, if there's a strong enough argument (unless it was excluded as a consideration for my meta).

• Undead Alchemist My meta doesn't care for massive mill. Does anyone's? It's not a very casual friendly card.
• Panharmonicon Could be very potent with some of the ETB stuff in here. Ultimately, I just feel it is unnecessary and, again, not friendly to my meta.
• Filth I used to love swampwalking all over everyone. Then I realized that, every time I did, it was usually the last game of Magic for the night.
• Mystical Tutor and Personal Tutor This deck is less reliant on instants and sorceries than these two cards really warrant.
• Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor Eschewing these tutors too. It's a self-handicap I am imposing for my meta. By all means, though, include them in yours!
• Cavern of Souls I have it, yes. But there's not much countermagic in my meta (mostly it's me). And when counters do pop up, they're very rarely against creatures. If you have a problem with it in your meta, recommend adding this.
• Cryptbreaker I think I've got enough draw and discard going on here, as well as plenty of ways to make zombies.

So what are we trying to do here, anyways? Well, at heart we've got your standard tribal zombie horde type of deck. But now we've got a commander that really rewards you for being aggressive by giving you lots of card draw and plenty of lifegain. We've got all the anthem sticks to make zombies big (well, most of them). Mirror Entity can make them even bigger. Lord of the Accursed means your opponents have to block each of your zombies with at least two creatures, while Death Baron ensures that you'll be killing at least two creatures with even the lowly 2/2 zombie tokens. Make sure Varina is in play, swing with a bunch of zombie, and reap the rewards!

Speaking of our commander, Varina really is a beast. She can easily hit the table on turn four with three zombies in play, allowing you to swing and net more card and more life. When it comes to Varina, take advantage of the ability to discard things that you know you can get back. Toss lands if you have Crucible of Worlds, toss zombies because they pretty much always come back, and discard From Under the Floorboards because you want to cast it for its Madness cost. But keep your power cards. We really want that Wayward Servant, Alhammarret's Archive, and especially card:Annointed Procession. Double up on the zombie tokens, as well as the card draw and lifegain, and punish your opponents for every zombie that claws its way onto the battlefield.

Win conditions are:

• Aetherflux Reservoir With all the lifegain, it will be easy to drop 50 damage on one opponent's head. If you're mean, include Rings of Brighthearth in your list (I still might, thanks to BlueBat93 for the suggestion!), and take two out together.
• Gray Merchant of Asphodel Cast, sacrifice, recur, repeat for plenty of ETB Devotion-based Exsanguinate. Your devotion to black is probably going to be high.
• The Scarab God If you have enough zombies in play, your upkeep will be plenty lethal to your opponents. Stacking your deck for Varina doesn't hurt either.
• Wayward Servant Causes pain for every zombie that hits the board. It will make your opponents really suffer if you cast Army of the Damned, From Under the Floorboards, or kick Josu Vess, Lich Knight. Throne of the God-Pharaoh rubs some sharp, pointy salt into those wounds, as well as adding an extra screw you from all the zombies you attack with.
• Oh, yeah! And it's a zombie deck. Swing away!

This deck and the description are a work in progress. I'll be working on it over the weekend, so look for updates. But I would also love any suggestions for improvement, how to make it better, what to add, and what to clip. The most helpful suggestions would be thoughts on what to add, what to take out for it, and why. And, if you like it, !

Top Ranked	Achieved #1 position overall 6 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.72
Tokens	Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Knight 2/2 B
Folders	Active Decks, EDH Decks, Favorite EDH Decks, esper zombies, I like it, Want to Build (EDH), Commander, EDH Ideas, Commander, Good ideas