Now with 300% more Zombies!! - Varina [C18][EDH]

Commander / EDH Tokens Tribal WUB (Esper) Zombie

Krashtak

*Zombie Generator (13)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Dread Summons
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Grave Betrayal
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty
• 1x Necromancer's Covenant
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Zombie Infestation

*Zombie Synergizer (7)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Binding Mummy
• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Undead Warchief

+Direct Damage (7)

• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Plague Belcher
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Throne of the God-Pharaoh
• 1x Vengeful Dead
• 1x Wayward Servant

+Looting Synergy (7)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Gisa and Geralf
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Zombie Apocalypse

+Sac Outlet (5)

• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Grimgrin, Corpse-Born *oversized*
• 1x Phyrexian Altar

Draw (7)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Esper Charm
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Ponder
• 1x Rhystic Study

Land (39)

• 1x Arcane Sanctum
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Caves of Koilos
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Darkwater Catacombs
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dromar's Cavern
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Halimar Depths
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mortuary Mire
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 2x Swamp
• 1x Tainted Field
• 1x Tainted Isle
• 1x Temple of Deceit
• 1x Temple of Silence
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave
• 1x Windbrisk Heights

Ramp (7)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Chromatic Lantern
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Mind Stone
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Sol Ring

Removal (7)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Devastation Tide
• 1x Mortify
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Utter End

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Other (33)

• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Altar of Dementia
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Call to the Netherworld
• 1x Cleansing Meditation
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Desecrated Tomb
• 1x Fatestitcher
• 1x From Under the Floorboards
• 1x Gisa and Geralf
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Nantuko Husk
• 1x Necromancer's Covenant
• 1x Perpetual Timepiece
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Soulless One
• 1x Stitch Together
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Unbreathing Horde
• 1x Vengeful Dead
• 1x Welcome to the Fold
• 1x Zombie Apocalypse
• 1x Zombie Infestation
• 1x Zombie Trailblazer

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Commander League is officially over.

While the deck went undefeated the final night after full changes, I missed several weeks early on putting me securely in the back of the pack. All-in-all I'm pretty happy with it's performance.

Deck description to be updated as the list gets refined for non-league play.

This deck was made for a Commander 2018 Precon League that I play with my local group. We all start with the newly released preconstructed decks and replace 5 cards per week for about 8 weeks, keeping track of the results until a winner is decided!

I chose this commander because I have been dubbed the Token "Token Guy" of the group and am admittedly excited to try out the new Esper Zombie Tribal Commander.

Primary Goals:

My first changes are going to be to refocus the deck on maximizing the synergy with the commander and really turn it into that Zombie Tribal deck I'm going for:

• Add more Zombie generators
• Add more value from Zombie Tokens

Aside from the commander this deck starts with very few Token Generators, which are essential for the deck's success. I'd like to build up to at least 10 sources of Zombie Tokens ASAP.

As a player that loves wide token strategies, having white in the deck is super exciting. As it gives me access to two of my favorite token synergy cards: Anointed Procession and Cathars' Crusade, which will go in the deck immediately. In addition to these, white brings some very interesting zombie synergy with Wayward Servant and Binding Mummy. And of course, I will be adding as many of the classic Zombie Lords as I can fit in the deck, to make that Zombie horde count and completely overwhelm the board.

Secondary Goals:

• Create a secondary sources of noncombat damage
• Utilize the card draw/discard
• Utilize the full graveyard

Many players are inherently ready to deal with combat damage, and utterly shut down tokens with things like Ghostly Prison and the like. In order to get around that black and white bring to the table some really nice draining effects that work amazingly with mass amounts of creatures. Once I'm comfortable with the number of token generators in the deck, I'd like to start creating more ways to get around my opponents defenses with sac outlets and these direct damage sources.

With Varina, Lich Queen as a commander and plenty of token sources, filling my graveyard and cycling through my deck is going to happen quite quickly. If I can, I'd like to utilize these mechanics more as I continue to replace cards from the precon.

Baseline Goals:

For all of my EDH decks, in addition to their primary focus, I try to ensure there is a healthy amount (8-10 cards) of:

• Draw
• Ramp
• Removal

Most of these things exist in the preconstructed deck in good numbers, but as usual with these decks, the quality can be pretty bad.

Draw shouldn't be as much of an issue, because of Varina, and the fact that the precon heavily utilizes blue for draw power.

Making sure I have enough acceleration and mana fixing is going to be a bit trickier with these colors, but definitely doable if I add a few more rocks, and upgrade the mana base.

The deck starts with a good bit of removal, but the quality isn't the best. I'll be looking to improve that as I go, and these colors certainly excel at that.

General Deckbuilding Strategy:

When building decks I find it useful to categorize cards into their primary function, and then build around roughly 6-7 mechanics having about 8-12 cards each (and ~40 lands). As stated above, 3 of these in every deck are: draw (card advantage), ramp (acceleration), and removal. Which leaves me with 3 signature mechanics and 1-2 secondary mechanics and a few staple "goodstuff" cards for the colors.

The categories and target card counts I am using for this deck are as follows: (for the final deck with as many adds/cuts as I want)

Signatures:

• Zombie Generators (10+)
• Zombie Synergizers (~6)
• Sac Outlets (~5)
• Direct Damage (~6)
• Looting Synergy (~6)

Baseline:

• Draw (~8)
• Ramp (~8)
• Removal (~8)
• Misc (~3)
• Lands (~40)

I'm going a bit lighter on the Zombie Synergizers signature category, because the Sac Outlets and Direct Damage categories are basically subcategories of Synergizers for this deck.

Currently we are at Full Changes!!

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	12 - 0 Mythic Rares 49 - 0 Rares 23 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.26
Tokens	Bat 1/1 B, Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Wizard 1/1 UB
Folders	decklists