Approach of the Lich Queen

Commander / EDH Attrition Combo Infinite Combo Sacrifice Tokens WUB (Esper) Zombie

AnderDan

Creature (30)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Binding Mummy
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Corpse Knight
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x God-Eternal Oketra
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Graveshifter
• 1x Gray Merchant of Asphodel
• 1x Headless Rider
• 1x Hordewing Skaab
• 1x Jason Bright, Glowing Prophet
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Narfi, Betrayer King
• 1x Noxious Ghoul
• 1x Ratadrabik of Urborg
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Roaming Throne *f-pre*
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Undead Warchief
• 1x Unstoppable Slasher
• 1x Wayward Servant
• 1x Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver
• 1x Zombie Master

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Grim Tutor *f-pre*

Land (37)

• 1x Academy Ruins
• 1x Brightclimb Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Clearwater Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Drowned Catacomb *f-pre*
• 1x Field of the Dead
• 1x Glacial Floodplain
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Hengegate Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Ice Tunnel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Sea of Clouds
• 2x Snow-Covered Island
• 3x Snow-Covered Plains
• 8x Snow-Covered Swamp
• 1x Snowfield Sinkhole
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Vault of Champions
• 1x Watery Grave

Artifact (9)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Bolas's Citadel
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Herald's Horn
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sol Ring

Commander (1)

Instant (10)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Void Rend

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Anointed Procession *f-pre*
• 1x Black Market Connections *f-etch*
• 1x Call to the Grave
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Necroduality
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Rooftop Storm
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x The Meathook Massacre

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Dreadhorde General

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Maybeboard

Creature (26)

• 1x Bone Miser
• 1x Champion of the Perished
• 1x Cleaver Skaab
• 1x Corpse Harvester
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Draugr Necromancer
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Eternal Taskmaster
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Gleaming Overseer
• 1x Grave Defiler
• 1x Havengul Lich
• 1x Lich Lord of Unx
• 1x Liliana's Standard Bearer
• 1x Loyal Subordinate
• 1x Master of Death
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Siren of the Silent Song
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Tomb Tyrant
• 1x Vile Entomber
• 1x Vizier of the Scorpion
• 1x Wonder
• 1x Zombie Trailblazer

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Cathars' Crusade
• 1x Curse of Disturbance
• 1x Endless Ranks of the Dead
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x No Mercy
• 1x Radiant Destiny
• 1x Reconnaissance

Sorcery (21)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Black Sun's Zenith
• 1x Blood on the Snow
• 1x Call to the Netherworld
• 1x Cleansing Meditation
• 1x Damn
• 1x Decree of Pain
• 1x Ever After
• 1x Everything Comes to Dust
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x From Under the Floorboards
• 1x Increasing Ambition
• 1x Kindred Dominance
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Patriarch's Bidding
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Stitch Together
• 1x Supreme Verdict
• 1x Torment of Hailfire
• 1x Vindicate
• 1x Windfall

Instant (10)

• 1x And They Shall Know No Fear
• 1x Dovin's Veto
• 1x Esper Charm
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Fracture
• 1x Hero's Downfall
• 1x Plumb the Forbidden
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Utter End
• 1x Vanishing Verse

Land (18)

• 1x Azorius Chancery
• 1x Deserted Temple
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx
• 1x Orzhov Basilica
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x Tundra
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Volrath's Stronghold
• 1x Westvale Abbey  ^Flip

Artifact (10)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Alhammarret's Archive
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Elixir of Immortality
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Patchwork Banner
• 1x Skullclamp
• 1x Strionic Resonator
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Wand of Orcus

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Liliana, the Last Hope
• 1x Teferi, Time Raveler

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This is my pet deck that I'm slowly foiling out. 78/100 Foiled.
I've converted my milling Scarab God deck into Varina. Dropped the Milling focus. Added more combat-oriented effects and more efficient zombie token production.

This is supposed to be around a power level of 6-8. Great synergies, but no cEDH common win conditions like Thassa's Oracle + Tainted Pact.

Overview of Varina, Lich Queen

Primary Win Conditions:

1. Combat Damage through zombies
2. Attrition Combos with Phyrexian Altar and Gravecrawler
3. Casting Approach of the Second Sun twice in the game
4. Infinite Colored Mana

If these win cons speak to you, then this might be the esper deck for you!

Snow lands have been added specifically for Narfi, Betrayer King and Draugr Necromancer

Combat Damage with Zombie Lords

The simplist way to win in commander is to swing with creatures. However, our best zombies are usually not very big creatures. Fortunately for us, zombies have a large amount of lords to choose from that give other zombies we control +1/+1. With just a couple lords on the battlefield, we can more easily push through for damage. Each lord also has it's own secondary benefit too.

• Death Baron to give our zombies deathtouch.
• Diregraf Captain for lifedrain to an opponent
• Lord of the Accursed to give our zombies menace
• Lord of the Undead to recure zombies from the graveyard
• Narfi, Betrayer King can recure himself over and over
• Undead Warchief give us reduced cost zombies
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed brings back our zombies if we get board wiped and destroys any humans that hit us

We also run nontraditional lords that don't make our zombies bigger, but still give them additional effects:

• Zombie Master for unblockable zombies
• Hordewing Skaab for flying zombies

Winning through Attrition

With zombies, we have a special gem that should be in any zombie deck called Gravecrawler. This thing is relentless and as long as you have another zombie on the field will keep coming back for {B}. It fits into many zombie stategies, but for now we're gonna talk about attrition. The core package of our Attrition Engine is:

Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar and any other zombie on our battlefield.

How this works is:

1. Gravecrawler, 1 other zombie and Phyrexian Altar on the battlefield
2. We sacrifice Gravecrawler to the Phyrexian Altar and use the {B} from the Altar to recast Gravecrawler.

That's it. That's the engine. Now how we benefit from recasting Gravecrawler over and over is dependant on what else we have on the battlefield.

When the other zombie on the battlefield is one in the following list, we can just outright drain our opponents of their life and win.

• Corpse Knight
• Diregraf Captain
• Wayward Servant

We do have some synergies with this engine built into the deck too:

• Liliana, Dreadhorde General will draw us a card each time Gravecrawler dies
• Undead Augur will also draw us a card each time we sacrifice Gravecrawler at the cost of 1 life.
• Noxious Ghoul will board wipe your opponents creatures
• Diregraf Colossus will generate a zombie token for each time Gravecrawler is cast. _This will create infinite colored mana as the tokens can then be sacrificed to the Altar._
• God-Eternal Oketra will generate a zombie token for each time Gravecrawler is cast. _This will create infinite colored mana as the tokens can then be sacrificed to the Altar._
• Mikaeus, the Unhallowed will generate an extra colored mana every other time Gravecrawler is sacrificed. _This will create infinite colored mana._
• Rooftop Storm on the field will allow us to generate _infinite colored mana_ due to being able to recast Gravecrawler for free.
• Binding Mummy will tap down all of your opponents creatures and artifacts

Infinite Colored Mana Outlets

With the right setup from Phyrexian Altar, we can generate infinite mana. (See 'Winning Through Attrition' above for how to generate the mana.)

• Torment of Hailfire will outright win if it resolves
• Lich Lord of Unx will cause an opponent to lose life and mill their library
• The Scarab God can steal all creatures from graveyards and turn them into 4/4 zombies
• Havengul Lich can allow you to cast all creatures from graveyards with the infinite mana
• Varina, Lich Queen can create some zombie tokens in a pinch

Notable Synergies

• Anointed Procession + Smothering Tithe to double treasure token production.
• Anointed Procession + Curse of Disturbance to double treasure token production.
• Varina, Lich Queen + Approach of the Second Sun, as Varina can dig for Approach quicker with her combat trigger and a few zombies attacking on the field. Just be careful about digging down to it and then having to discard it too.
• Varina, Lich Queen + Archfiend of Ifnir board wipes before combat damage.
• Varina, Lich Queen + Alhammarret's Archive to keep our life high and draw extra cards.

Recursion

• The Scarab God takes any creature from any graveyard.
• Graveshifter to bring something back in case of fear of exiling from The Scarab God's recursion.
• Academy Ruins to get back a key utility artifact card such as Phyrexian Altar
• Draugr Necromancer allows us to take stuff from other people

Tutors

We run a couple tutors to search for combo pieces or answers. If we don't have to answer a looming issue, we search for pieces to our win conditions.

• Demonic Tutor
• Grim Tutor
• Intuition
• Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• Tolaria West we use to go search for
  
  1. Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is our first pick
  2. Cabal Coffers if we have Urborg
  3. If we're desperate, lands to color fix

When casting Intuition, we seek out Gravecrawler, Narfi, Betrayer King and Snow-Covered Swamp. It doesn't really matter which one they give you and what goes into the graveyard. If they give you the land, then you paid 3 mana to go grab a land and still able to cast the other two from the graveyard.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	1 month
Exclude colors	RG
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 2 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.22
Tokens	Copy Clone, On an Adventure, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B w/ Decayed, Zombie Warrior 4/4 B
Based on	The Scarab Commander AnderDan EDH