Varina's Zombie Knights! - 2022-06-08

Commander / EDH Combo Infinite Combo Knights Reanimator Sacrifice WUB (Esper) Zombie

Pastlebox

Lands (36)

• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Bojuka Bog
• 1x Cabal Coffers
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Fetid Heath
• 1x Fetid Pools
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Geier Reach Sanitarium
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Hallowed Fountain
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Island
• 1x Island
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Mikokoro, Center of the Sea
• 1x Morphic Pool
• 1x Phyrexian Tower
• 1x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Raffine's Tower
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Snow-Covered Island
• 1x Snow-Covered Plains
• 1x Sunken Hollow *f-pre*
• 1x Sunken Ruins
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Swamp
• 1x Underground Sea
• 1x Unholy Grotto
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Watery Grave

Acceleration (12)

• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mana Vault
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Dimir Signet
• 1x Orzhov Signet
• 1x Talisman of Dominance
• 1x Phyrexian Altar
• 1x Sword of Feast and Famine
• 1x Smothering Tithe
• 1x Dream Halls
• 1x Rooftop Storm

Removal (11)

• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Anguished Unmaking
• 1x Crib Swap
• 1x Fleshbag Marauder
• 1x Murderous Rider
• 1x Toxic Deluge
• 1x Void Rend
• 1x Damnation
• 1x Martyr's Bond
• 1x Nevinyrral, Urborg Tyrant

Recursion (9)

• 1x Gravecrawler
• 1x Pull from Eternity
• 1x Relentless Dead
• 1x Haakon, Stromgald Scourge
• 1x Necromancy
• 1x Sevinne's Reclamation
• 1x Replenish
• 1x Repository Skaab
• 1x Havengul Lich

Protection (5)

• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Narset's Reversal
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Teferi's Protection
• 1x Overcharged Amalgam

Commander (1)

Card Draw (11)

• 1x Cryptbreaker
• 1x Waste Not
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Temple Bell
• 1x Windfall
• 1x Notion Thief
• 1x Whispering Madness
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Echo of Eons
• 1x Time Spiral

Deck Control (10)

• 1x Entomb
• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Library of Leng
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Vampiric Tutor
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Intuition
• 1x Praetor's Grasp
• 1x God-Eternal Kefnet
• 1x Sidisi, Undead Vizier

Silliness (5)

• 1x Arcane Adaptation
• 1x Diregraf Colossus
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x God-Eternal Oketra
• 1x Mind Over Matter

---

Maybeboard

Other (9)

• 1x Silence
• 1x Corpse Knight
• 1x Fellwar Stone
• 1x Bitter Ordeal
• 1x Liliana's Standard Bearer
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Josu Vess, Lich Knight
• 1x Corpse Harvester
• 1x Merciless Eviction

---

This is my Wheely Fun Zombie Knight God deck.

I've toyed with various Zombie commanders. Grixis have been, for a long time, the best in my opinion. However, with the release of Varina. This Lovely Lich Lady is, hands down (attached or not) the most EFFECTIVE and FUN zombie EDH deck I've developed. No other zombie commander truly supports zombies like Varina. The deck has many different build paths.

The version listed here is a rough starting spot. Depending on what you would like to do with the deck (make it more competitive, more zombie tribal, more Royalty Pillow-Forty) all options are possible.

This version focuses a lot on combo-ing with zombies. The standard Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar gives infinite death triggers and cast triggers, which can either drain out your opponent, generate "infinite" mana or "infinite" zombies.

Haakon and Arcane Adaptation can tie together quite nicely, though with Rooftop Storm you're able to re-cast and sacrifice Sidisi repeatedly. The deck did originally run Bitter Ordeal but was switched out for Corpse Knight (which works better with Haakon - although Bitter Ordeal feels SO MUCH COOLER when you pin-pointly exile all of your opponent's libraries).

God-Eternal Kefnet + Library of Leng and a few other effects add a really nice, different aspect to this deck. If you can't find win cons, attacking with zombies and with Varina around lets you put cards back on top. With Temple Bell + Crypt Breaker you can draw cards during your opponent's turn and repeatedly cast copies of Teferi's Protection. This can work with extra turn spells too, though that is in the budget build (strangely). This also lets us use Echo of Eons + Time Spiral over and over.

With the banning of Paradox Engine, we actually found Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter to be more effective. With the number of times we're wheeling away and shuffling our graveyard back into our library, having that random chance to untap our artifacts with Dramatic Reversal is very helpful. While it does give us "infinite mana" with the Scepter, having something like Vamperic Tutor imprinted helps Kefnet too.

Being in white gives us access to enchantment resurrection - both enchantments which resurrect and cards which resurrect enchantments. [Replenish + Open the Vaults] (the later used to be in the deck - wondering if it should be re-added) lets us happily ditch Rooftop Storm and other enchantments to Varina's effects. They also help to protect if they are destroyed.

I have a budget build, will share the link to this soon.

History of Zombie Decks:

-- THRAXIMUNDER (my 1st) -- Great for removal, haste and sometimes a voltron but most games were won without him. The deck can be built in many ways. The best support he gave the zombie tribe was coming in free from Rooftop Storm with haste and swinging with Sword of Feast and Famine.

-- NEKUSAR -- Fun for a short spell but everyone knows what he does. There was no surprise factor, unlike Thrax. In addition to this, the more effective the deck became the less zombie focused it was. Card draw was nice.

-- KESS -- Best recursion in Commander. While not a zombie herself, gives fantastic value by re-using wheels and tutor effects. Though, again, the more effective, the less the zombie focus was.

-- SCARAB GOD -- Doesn't actually NEED zombies to be effective. It wants mill and destroy effects. Zombies can be added but they feel more like an afterthought, unfortunately.

-- GISA AND GERALF -- Really forces you down the zombie tribe plan. That being said, zombies really AREN'T that strong. What makes a good zombie deck are the support cards. That ETB effect can sometimes really hurt (milling a Rooftop Storm, Windfall, counterspells or certain artifacts is really painful). Only being able to cast 1 zombie from your graveyard each turn is really weak for what we want to do.

-- GRIMGRIN -- Gives you a sac outlet for zombies. He's slow a clunky. Unless you're really going for a

-- SKULLBRIAR -- It's a zombie plant. It doesn't do anything for the tribe unless you heavily invest into the token plan with Doubling Season and similar effects to swarm the board. It can be fun but is questionable. Supporting it with all the swords and +1/+1 counter effects makes can be effective BUT coming out of blue or red means no extra turn or attack phases to take out multiple opponents easily. Occasionally fun. Doesn't really do anything to HELP the zombie tribe.

Date added	5 years
Last updated	2 years
Key combos	Gravecrawler + Phyrexian Altar Dramatic Reversal + Isochron Scepter God-Eternal Kefnet + Library of Leng Echo of Eons + Time Spiral
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	15 - 0 Mythic Rares 60 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 4 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.06
Tokens	On an Adventure, Shapeshifter 1/1 C, Treasure, Zombie 2/2 B, Zombie Warrior 4/4 B