Varina, Lich Queen - Esper Zombie Midrange

[plaganegra]

+1
I think it's really important to drop Varina and immediately farm triggers.

Hello, friend! haha. I have been trying to maximize her triggers as my main objective for the deck. Glad to have you here! Cant wait to hear more of your thoughts on how to do that. It is not easy with so many options.

I posted my ideas for this deck in the one of the early pages of the thread, maybe page 5 or 6, but basically my main goal for the deck is to win through mass reanimation.
To that end I value farming triggers and filling the graveyard a lot. So I'm interested in low drops, multiple bodies for card that get extra triggers and pings from our pingers.
I don't place a lot of value on the lords, with exception of Diregraf Captain, because I don't find the buff particularly relevant and rarely win through combat alone.

With that said, Rhystic Study has been very good to me but I don't like Remora because I don't want to lose the tempo to pay the upkeep.
Stitcher's Supplier and Shambling Ghast are good, but I'm not interested in Champion of the Perished because it's only a body.
Entrails Feaster seems very bad.
I also liked the idea of Mariner, but in my playtest I found the mana cost is bad, the effect not really relevant and the aesthetic of the art does not fit with the deck eheh
Swan Song is very good. That said I chose to nut run any counterspells in my deck.
Massacre is a nice effect but it's not on a body, and doesn't work with reanimation so I'll skip it.

In my mind the most unique or flavorful way to win with this commander is to swing with a lot of zombies, fill the yard, and then bring them all back for an epic finale. Mass reanimate will always have a place in zombie tribal no matter how you go about it.

From what I can tell there seems to be two competing schools of thought on how to achieve the same goal:
1: lots of attacks, varina in play as quickly and as often as possible.
2: more controlling/tempo plays, varina is optional much of the time but nice to have.

I fit firmly in the same category as you and Reya I think. With these new releases the past few sets especially I want to see what this commander would look like in a deck that cares more about swinging with the undead than controlling the game (but still does a mix of both).

Yeah for sure Entrails Feaster is a bad card lol. I will take one for the team and try it out unless more 1 drops get spoiled lol.

[Falkenbach]

Toc how has Mission Briefing been for you (or anyone else who plays it)
I have one sitting in my binder and was wondering how good it is with the double blue pips it being an instant and not a creature.
Has it gotten mass reanimate/boardwipes or single target removal out of the yard for any of you guys and changed a game?

(I know snapcaster is probably better but i can not afford a second one)

[plaganegra]

Toc how has Mission Briefing been for you (or anyone else who plays it)
I have one sitting in my binder and was wondering how good it is with the double blue pips it being an instant and not a creature.
Has it gotten mass reanimate/boardwipes or single target removal out of the yard for any of you guys and changed a game?

(I know snapcaster is probably better but i can not afford a second one)

I found it way too hard to cast reactively after playing with it in a few games. Keeping up two blue or more mana (for the flashback) to use it at instant speed was challenging. It barely gets the job done in place of snapcaster in my experience. Lets keep holding out for as reprint lol

[Kvothe]

In my mind the most unique or flavorful way to win with this commander is to swing with a lot of zombies, fill the yard, and then bring them all back for an epic finale. Mass reanimate will always have a place in zombie tribal no matter how you go about it.

From what I can tell there seems to be two competing schools of thought on how to achieve the same goal:
1: lots of attacks, varina in play as quickly and as often as possible.
2: more controlling/tempo plays, varina is optional much of the time but nice to have.

I fit firmly in the same category as you and Reya I think. With these new releases the past few sets especially I want to see what this commander would look like in a deck that cares more about swinging with the undead than controlling the game (but still does a mix of both).

Yeah for sure Entrails Feaster is a bad card lol. I will take one for the team and try it out unless more 1 drops get spoiled lol.

Yeah, I play the deck to get in situations where I can cast a mass reanimation spells as often and early as possible. I even have in my deck a couple of Windfall effects, and had a lot more but cut the ones that were card disadvantage.

I find Mission Briefing a little slow and too intensive on blue mana.

[WizardMN]

@Falkenbach
I am in agreement with the posts above: the double blue is tough. I have had a few situations where I couldn't cast Mana Drain off of it because I didn't have 4 blue total. I also shy away from Snapcaster due to not being a Zombie so that isn't really an option for me as a replacement.

I will admit that I have played enough games where I wanted to see Mission Briefing come up to get back some powerful spell which is why it is still in my list. However, in those same games I didn't see MB and I still ended up doing just fine. Either I won or something happened where MB likely wouldn't have changed much. I am honestly starting to think that the effect itself (or, at least, MB) just isn't worth it at all and likely isn't even needed. I might start looking at it as a potential cut during the next set.

[Eburon]

Mission Briefing is ok for me. Surveil is not irrelevant. Double UU sucks at times, but until I get my hands on Snapcaster Mage, it is a budget replacement. I have had good uses out of it, but obviously snappy if preferred.

[plaganegra]

I dont like including non-zombies in my deck either, but with snapcaster the body is the biggest reason it is relevant. You can get it back with a reanimate spell. I have toyed with the idea of including dread return because of its uses with snapcaster and mass reanimates. I havent found room for it yet though...

I dont think the effect of snapcaster is essential to the deck. It is probably the best way to get big spells back though.

[Reya]

We don't need to play Snapcaster. We can just play more mass reanimation spell.

[plaganegra]

We don't need to play Snapcaster. We can just play more mass reanimation spell.

Most often I use it on a removal spell or free counterspell TBH. I actually haven't used it on mass reanimate yet since I added it to the deck several weeks ago.

[Falkenbach]

We don't need to play Snapcaster. We can just play more mass reanimation spell.

At the moment i am running only 3: Patriarch's Bidding, Zombie Apocalypse and Living Death,
I saw 6 mana passing by in the thread wich for 8 mana could be instant speed that i might consider, to bad i can't find the name of it anymore

[Kvothe]

We don't need to play Snapcaster. We can just play more mass reanimation spell.

At the moment i am running only 3: Patriarch's Bidding, Zombie Apocalypse and Living Death,
I saw 6 mana passing by in the thread wich for 8 mana could be instant speed that i might consider, to bad i can't find the name of it anymore

Twilight's Call

[toctheyounger]

We don't need to play Snapcaster. We can just play more mass reanimation spell.

At the moment i am running only 3: Patriarch's Bidding, Zombie Apocalypse and Living Death,
I saw 6 mana passing by in the thread wich for 8 mana could be instant speed that i might consider, to bad i can't find the name of it anymore

Twilight's Call

There's also Pyrrhic Revival as an option. I think on balance theres some stuff of ours that'll die instantly, but Mike will fix that right up. And it'll mean anything low to the ground goes right back where it came from on the other sides of the board. Great if goblins or elves are in your meta.

[toctheyounger]

I posted my ideas for this deck in the one of the early pages of the thread, maybe page 5 or 6, but basically my main goal for the deck is to win through mass reanimation.

With that said, Rhystic Study has been very good to me but I don't like Remora because I don't want to lose the tempo to pay the upkeep.

Massacre is a nice effect but it's not on a body, and doesn't work with reanimation so I'll skip it.

Yeah, I can't be sure i gave you any critique on the list, so apologies if I didn't! Truth be told the primer is pretty crazy now, so it's a lot easier in terms of time management to talk in broad strokes about wider strategies to use and what card inclusions might work than to go over lists. Not that I'm a master brewer anyway, this build has come together from communal brewing.

I want to defend Remora a little by saying that it's far more likely to draw you an overfull grip early game than Rhystic is. The upkeep is rough, but I'm usually happy to pay it once, keep it in play a couple turn cycles to give myself some options then let it die. The cost is very rarely ever detrimental to me. Even in the later stages of the game it has its moments; 4 is a lot to pay, so people will often just not bother. Not many players have that much spare mana, which makes it often a much easier 'no, i won't pay' than Rhystic.

I also think Massacre deserves a fair shake. I've personally been loving Sevinne's Reclamation in the list, and this is an
easy inclusion for being something that it can pick up. X=0 on the stack, so it will just be another pinger, but it's also nice to have one that doesn't get caught up by the same board wipes often. If your opponents haven't diversified their removal options it'll stick around.

Toc how has Mission Briefing been for you (or anyone else who plays it)
I have one sitting in my binder and was wondering how good it is with the double blue pips it being an instant and not a creature.
Has it gotten mass reanimate/boardwipes or single target removal out of the yard for any of you guys and changed a game?

(I know snapcaster is probably better but i can not afford a second one)

My experience reflects what other have mentioned. It's fine, but it's often hard to splash for. Snapcaster is definitely the optimal option, but it is out of reach for a lot of us.

I dont like including non-zombies in my deck either, but with snapcaster the body is the biggest reason it is relevant. You can get it back with a reanimate spell. I have toyed with the idea of including dread return because of its uses with snapcaster and mass reanimates. I havent found room for it yet though...

I dont think the effect of snapcaster is essential to the deck. It is probably the best way to get big spells back though.

Animate Dead basically becomes a second Snapcaster Mage with both in the deck.

We don't need to play Snapcaster. We can just play more mass reanimation spell.

I'm not huge on the idea of non-zombies in the deck either, but the fact is there's only so many mass reanimators, and frankly past the first 2-3 the drop in quality is fairly significant. None of them are totally unplayable, but past a certain point you're really, really hoping your spell ends the game. The same goes with removal and counters to some degree, and even if that's not totally accurate, the problem is once you've built redundancy into the deck you've lost more than a few slots anyway, so it can be a tough choice to make.

[plaganegra]

I dont like including non-zombies in my deck either, but with snapcaster the body is the biggest reason it is relevant. You can get it back with a reanimate spell. I have toyed with the idea of including dread return because of its uses with snapcaster and mass reanimates. I havent found room for it yet though...

I dont think the effect of snapcaster is essential to the deck. It is probably the best way to get big spells back though.

Animate Dead basically becomes a second Snapcaster Mage with both in the deck.

I have been considering Animate Dead for a while now and this was the push I needed. I am going to give it a shot

[toctheyounger]

I dont like including non-zombies in my deck either, but with snapcaster the body is the biggest reason it is relevant. You can get it back with a reanimate spell. I have toyed with the idea of including dread return because of its uses with snapcaster and mass reanimates. I havent found room for it yet though...

I dont think the effect of snapcaster is essential to the deck. It is probably the best way to get big spells back though.

Animate Dead basically becomes a second Snapcaster Mage with both in the deck.

I have been considering Animate Dead for a while now and this was the push I needed. I am going to give it a shot

I certainly didn't regret it.

[Reya]

Animate Dead and Reanimate (and Necromancy too) are very great cards. They allow us to cheat our commander into play for a ultra low cost. It seems to be pretty good in Varina. Opponent will often try to stop your engine by killing Varina. Bring it back for 1, 2 or 3 mana next turn !

[Falkenbach]

Animate Dead and ( what I run Necromancy ) can both be returned by Sevinne's Reclamation. What makes that card even more great.

[Reya]

Yeah I always use that strategy to cheaply regain access to my commander if I play black. Graveyard is an important zone full of resources.

[toctheyounger]

Yeah I'd definitely drop Necromancy in too if I had a spare copy. Price spiked up pretty good on that one recently!

[Eburon]

We don't need to play Snapcaster. We can just play more mass reanimation spell.

We don't NEED it, BUT it is more versatile than another mass reanimation spell. It's versatility is why I like Snapcaster.

I recently picked up Sevinne's Reclamanation for another deck, but it might find it's why in here. Especially since I could play Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead. I recently added Vindicate over Despark in my list. Still have to see how that plays out.

[Eburon]

They couldn't make this cost 1U (or make it an unconditional counter)? Still, a counter that makes a zombie is pretty neat.

[Eburon]

I can kinda get behind this card

[WizardMN]

I can kinda get behind this card

I included this card in my review of the set in my thread but this is a 1 drop zombie that also has a relevant ability. Flashback is nice since milling it with Varina still gives us a Zombie. And the "Up to one" for the target means we can just slam out a zombie without having to have a card to exile. I am not quite sure it meets the threshold of being included since the tokens go away but I do think it is getting close. Having "Flash" is also nice

[Reya]

Falcon Abomination

Comes the turn before triggering Varina with 2 bodies.

Not so bad, no ?

[Kvothe]

Yeah, I can't be sure i gave you any critique on the list, so apologies if I didn't! Truth be told the primer is pretty crazy now, so it's a lot easier in terms of time management to talk in broad strokes about wider strategies to use and what card inclusions might work than to go over lists. Not that I'm a master brewer anyway, this build has come together from communal brewing.

I want to defend Remora a little by saying that it's far more likely to draw you an overfull grip early game than Rhystic is. The upkeep is rough, but I'm usually happy to pay it once, keep it in play a couple turn cycles to give myself some options then let it die. The cost is very rarely ever detrimental to me. Even in the later stages of the game it has its moments; 4 is a lot to pay, so people will often just not bother. Not many players have that much spare mana, which makes it often a much easier 'no, i won't pay' than Rhystic.

I also think Massacre deserves a fair shake. I've personally been loving Sevinne's Reclamation in the list, and this is an
easy inclusion for being something that it can pick up. X=0 on the stack, so it will just be another pinger, but it's also nice to have one that doesn't get caught up by the same board wipes often. If your opponents haven't diversified their removal options it'll stick around.

Yeah, we traded ideas back then but the thread has grown a lot

In this deck I prefer to hit the board first and not having to worry with the upkeep cost in the early turns, but happy to know it pulls its weight outside the usual type of decks.

Rotten Reunion is interesting in not needing a target, you can just get a token for B.