The Red Queen

Commander / EDH WUB (Esper)

OrmsByGore

Land (36)

• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cephalid Coliseum
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Drownyard Temple
• 1x Esper Panorama
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Glacial Fortress
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Irrigated Farmland
• 2x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Path of Ancestry
• 2x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Tolaria West
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Army of the Damned
• 1x Deep Analysis
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Entreat the Dead
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Merciless Eviction
• 1x Reanimate

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Jace Beleren
• 1x Liliana, Death's Majesty

Creature (22)

• 1x Archfiend of Ifnir
• 1x Binding Mummy
• 1x Cemetery Reaper
• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Death Baron
• 1x Diregraf Captain
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Grave Titan
• 1x Graveborn Muse
• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Lord of the Accursed
• 1x Lord of the Undead
• 1x Mikaeus, the Unhallowed
• 1x Phyrexian Delver
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Shepherd of Rot
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x The Scarab God
• 1x Undead Augur
• 1x Wonder
• 1x Zombie Master

Artifact (11)

• 1x Azorius Signet
• 1x Coalition Relic
• 1x Coat of Arms
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Talisman of Progress

Commander (1)

Instant (13)

• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Empty the Pits
• 1x Entomb
• 1x Go for the Throat
• 1x Negate
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Shadow of the Grave
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Teferi's Protection

Enchantment (8)

• 1x Anointed Procession
• 1x Kindred Discovery
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Liliana's Mastery
• 1x Phyrexian Arena
• 1x Reconnaissance
• 1x Training Grounds
• 1x Zombie Infestation

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Maybeboard

Creature (5)

• 1x Boneknitter
• 1x Ghoulcaller Gisa
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Vizier of Many Faces
• 1x Wayward Servant

Artifact (3)

• 1x Aetherflux Reservoir
• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Crucible of Worlds

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Approach of the Second Sun

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Liliana, Untouched By Death

Enchantment (1)

• 1x Necromancy

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Varina Zombie control. The bodies that Varina can make herself enables this build to run a lot of card draw and control cards, and then turn those into bodies to fuel more card draw. This means I'm on very few non-lord zombies, and a couple of mass zombie token producers that are flexible, timing-wise. I tried out From Under the Floorboards and Josu Vess, both of which turn out to be generally too expensive to ever pull their real weight. I'm sticking with Zombie Infestation, Army of the Damned, and Empty the Pits for now, since all are very useable late game (Army has Flashback, Empty has Delve and is Instant speed). Shadow of the Grave seems like a weird enabler but I'm so consistently discarding large amounts in this deck that being able to buy it all back seems very powerful, and it's extra strong with Zombie Infestation.

Typical Varina decks seem to have a bit more disposable cheap zombie fodder than I run. Most of my reps have been in a lower power meta, so it may turn out that having more zombie filler helps out in games where I can't keep Varina alive, but so far having fairly consistent card selection makes finding protection for her fairly doable, especially since people don't find a 4/4 that really just wants to turn sideways every turn to be a major threat compared to the nonsense people are typically doing in 4 player EDH.

I know Approach the Second Sun is popular with Varina, and it works great with the Library of Leng I already run and love, but I just don't love how alt-wincons feel in practice, personally. I'm currently off most sac outlets, as Varina mostly wants to keep a full board to keep cycling through cards, but I might want to add Ashnod's Altar to feed the expensive stuff. Approach might come back as this deck does seem to have game in slightly higher power games than I'd expected it to, so I might want to add wincons to account for this (thinking Approach and Aetherflux Reservoir fit pretty well to start).

Most of the card draw I'm running is intended to keep my hand full. My first draft of the deck was light on card draw because I figured Varina would let me see a lot of cards. She does, but having a larger hand size lets me keep more of the best stuff. Library of Leng is really here for the discard-to-library aspect more than the hand size, as I really don't find myself with a full grip very often. Library works very well with Entreat the Dead, which so far has been great despite the cost. Being able to reanimate multiple lords with one spell has felt very powerful, even hardcast. Both feel a little clunky but are fun enough that I want to keep them for now. Same with Liliana's Mastery, which feels overcosted at 5 but 2 bodies and an anthem effect has done work every time I've found it so far.

Rooftop Storm is also out b/c despite the power, I'm on a low (relatively, for tribal) zombie count and I don't have the sac outlet available for the Gravecrawler combo. If I find myself losing Varina a lot, I could almost see including it just to make her forever-available. I'd want to bring Wayward Servant in with this if I bring it back in, which I may want back anyway with the recent swarm additions.

Considering adding alt wincons, as I find I win a lot by mass drawing into Coat of Arms, and it might be nice to have a non combat way to win. Kindred Discovery makes Lab Maniac almost a necessity, might also try adding Lab-Jace but he's harder to recur.

Date added	6 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 43 - 0 Rares 20 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.91
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Copy Clone, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	EDH