C18 - Varina, Busted or Not?
Commander (EDH) forum
Posted on July 27, 2018, 1:35 a.m. by BlackyMTG
I’ll be completely honest I’ve been seriously disappointed so far with the commander 2018 all the way up until now I see Varina, Lich Queen. Esper colored 4 mana 4/4 - Zombie Wizard. Whenever you attack with one or more zombies, draw that many cards, then discard that many cards. You gain that much life. 2, Exile two cards from your graveyard: create a tapped 2/2 black zombie creature token.
I just feel like there’s so much to do with this card. It’s the first Esper colored zombie commander which means zombie decks have enchantment interaction, better creature protection, and so much more now. She also allows you to filter zombies and other cards into your yard which we all know is fantastic in a zombie deck. Did I mention she can make zombies of her own?
@Homelessguy I apologize because my title may be a little misleading. I was talking about Varina more specifically. To me she seems really really strong.
July 27, 2018 2:42 a.m.
LiliTiddies says... #4
imo she should become the automatic zombie commander by default. she will be the only esper colored commander that actually helps with the usual zombie plan, and esper colors are the exact color combination that zombies want imo. sure they have "some" good options in red and green, but after blue and black (they're default colors) white is the next best color by far.
also, she fuels the graveyard for Patriarch's Bidding.
July 27, 2018 11:16 a.m.
@LiliTiddies she also fuels the graveyard for another card I love that they’re printing in this new set. Entreat the Dead, BBBXX, return X creatures from the graveyard to the battlefield. Miracle BBX. This card will be a staple in any black creature or graveyard shenanigans deck.
July 27, 2018 2:13 p.m.
LiliTiddies says... #6
i'm aware of "entreat the dead". it'll go nicely in my Scion of the Ur-Dragon deck.
July 27, 2018 2:18 p.m.
beakedbard says... #7
She's not broken but I am looking forward to having Mikaeus, the Unhallowed and Solemnity in a zombie deck with blue support as well for things like The Scarab God and Rooftop Storm.
July 27, 2018 4:27 p.m.
The filtering effect is being overlooked by a lot of people in favour of zombie tribal -- That's fine, but that filter is bonkers when you break it down; Draw X (X = # of Zombies), Discard X, Gain X life. It's Sphinx's Revelation but as a looter.
In the right deck, you can really abuse this. You can run a suite of zombies ala Tribal and it'll work just as well as having some dedicated token generators.
Myself, I've been looking at her as a control deck, abusing Kozilek, Butcher of Truth and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre to reload the cards you discard ready to be used again -- House of the Dead [Varina Spellslinger] for reference, but I'm a far way away from optimising it.
She's not broken; She's powerful, certainly, but it's a fine balancing act.
July 28, 2018 3:54 a.m.
LiliTiddies says... #9
Skulloelegy: "the filtering effect is being overlooked by a lot of people in favor of zombie tribal"...
not quite. in fact, quite the opposite. the filtering effect is better the more zombies you have, and zombies already benefit from being thrown into the graveyard. so nobody is overlooking the filtering. i mean, i'm sure there might be "some" benefit to recycling your graveyard back into your deck, but i'd rather keep a fat zombie in the grave until i can reanimate it.
July 28, 2018 11:17 a.m.
And that's fine, I'm just suggesting there may be other ways to build her that take advantage of the filter beyond filling the grave for reanimator/going full zombie tribal, which is what Varina already does magnificently.
Homelessguy says... #2
I don't know about the set being broken. I will say that the artifact deck have some really neat cards in it. But espur omg I don't much care for the commander but everything else I'm seeing it is screaming to be made into a deck with some disgusting interactions.
There's yennett when it does damage to an opponent look at the top card of your library if it's CMC is odd cast it for free, do you know what's odd emrakul is odd And it still gets its cast trigger.
But me personally my love is yuriko,the tiger shadow as soon as I saw her I immediately made the deck( Ninjutsu from the command Zone)
Crouching Tiger Hidden top deck
July 27, 2018 2:06 a.m.