The Lich is Back

Commander / EDH snowflake3114

SCORE: 19 | 11 COMMENTS | 2313 VIEWS | IN 12 FOLDERS


pokepower116 says... #1

Mana Fixing - Hard to go wrong with Chromatic Lantern! Since your commander costs 4, Coldsteel Heart or Fellwar Stone might not be bad ideas to go along with your signets so that you can ramp it out on turn 3. As far as lands go, I think they're gonna be your best bet for filtering since you have so many options available to you! Aside from the obvious dual lands and fetch lands; there are the rest of the filter lands cycle with Mystic Gate and Sunken Ruins; there's the old Odyssey filters Skycloud Expanse and Darkwater Catacombs; River of Tears and Nimbus Maze are criminally underplayed but fantastic cards; there are the new battlebond lands Morphic Pool and Sea of Clouds; and lastly there are the lands that tap for any color like Mana Confluence, City of Brass, Forbidden Orchard.

As far as staying alive goes, I notice you already have Solemnity in your maybeboard to combo with Glacial Chasm and Delaying Shield but another card that works well with Delaying Shield is Soul Echo. As long as Soul Echo has one counter on it, you're pretty much immune from damage. Also it's another card that lets you drop below 0 life. Obviously not a great combo with Solemnity but I think running one of the two wouldn't be a bad idea!

On the other side of that coin, if you happen to have Repay in Kind in hand and need to be at 0 life, Wall of Blood or Hex Parasite can help with that. Hex Parasite can only drain in increments of 2 but is a bit more versatile of a card whereas Wall of Blood can drain one life at a time, but is pretty much there only for that.

Hope some of this helped at all!

August 17, 2018 11:12 a.m.

snowflake3114 says... #2

Thanks PokePower116! I had Solemnity on the side to combo with Phyrexian Unlike, but those other combos with it make it a keeper too! I kept Glacial Chasm in there just to have another form of protection against Lich's downsides, but Solemnity makes it even more useful.

A little later, I'll move Phyrexian Unlike and Solemnity into the main deck plus I'll figure out which lands to choose out of the ones you susuggested. Thanks again!

August 17, 2018 2:13 p.m.

Anyone who is brave enough to run a Lich deck is a +1 from me. Its a great commander for the task too. Token gen for sacing damage and card draw as well as additional draw from life gain. What could go wrong?

Why so many lands though? Maybe swap one out for Land Tax? That way you have cards to discard, choose your lands so you dont get stuck, and takes lands from your deck so you can have more usable cards for your draw.

August 29, 2018 8:27 p.m.

snowflake3114 says... #4

Thanks for the kudos and the suggestion, Zimmers_0! Yes, I know I have extra lands in the deck to use as acceptable discard fodder, but I realize having card draw and fetching is a much better plan.

The reason why I've chosen to build this deck and play Lich is because of how fundamentally the original card changes the game. Having to not worry too much about my life total but taking care of keeping Lich and Lich's Mastery from being taken out makes playing EDH a lot more exciting. It certainly does paint a target on my back when running this deck with my local playgroup, but it certainly has heads turning. Again, thanks for your support!

August 30, 2018 4:24 a.m.

Klauchi says... #5

Just so you're aware, the ruling on death's shadow was changed so it's just a 13/13 for B in this deck. Not necessarily a bad thing but it is something to consider. I otherwise love this deck and after some minor tweaks I'm going to be playing this at my LGS.

From gatherer: 7/14/2017 If your life total is negative, X is considered to be 0. (This is a change from previous rulings.)

September 27, 2018 11:46 a.m.

snowflake3114 says... #6

Ohhhhh, I really was not aware of that ruling for Death's Shadow. I will still run it in this deck, as a 13/13 is still pretty beefy for Commander. But yeah, if you have any recommendations for what you'd tweak for this deck, I'm pretty open to hearing them. After play testing it a dozen times, I have noticed some redundancies I could take out and replace with more card advantage and a little aggro that synergizes with zombies. Thanks, Klauchi!

September 28, 2018 12:55 a.m.

Klauchi says... #7

I'm proxying the deck to play tonight and then see if I have more constructive feedback after that.

September 29, 2018 6:31 a.m.

SueMe says... #8

November 9, 2019 3:16 p.m.

snowflake3114 says... #9

Yeah, K'rrik is a great addition to this deck pre-Lich state, but I would definitely need to add his buddies Vilis, Broker of Blood and Pestilence Demon with lifelink. K'rrik really does deserve his own deck with the number of life payment shenanigans he can get into.

I should take this time to mention that I am currently rebuilding this deck to be a more creature focused deck, swapping out some of the combos with zombies and zombie token producers. Some of the god mode combos will stay in, at least one or both liches will stay in, but it will be bolstered by a legion of zombies ( Endless Ranks of the Dead , Unbreathing Horde , Shepherd of Rot ), cards that interact with Varina a little bit more ( Bone Miser ), and cards that helps the deck more with draw ( Bolas's Citadel , Liliana, Dreadhorde General ). Still has a lot of testing to do, but everyone who's interested in a less combo heavy version of this deck will be in for a treat pretty soon.

November 10, 2019 5:58 a.m.

SueMe says... #10

Cool!

For that, I'd recommend Reconnaissance , as well as Dolmen Gate . Since Varina relies on having to attack people, you might be in a tough situation where everyone has blockers, and you don't want to lose any of your zombies. Also, Reconnaissance is just a sweet card that I think more people should be playing (vigilance for all your creatures).

November 10, 2019 12:05 p.m.

Tinnuki says... #11

Really cool premise, I like it! This seems like a really well thought-out deck.

March 11, 2021 8:24 a.m.

Please login to comment