Varina, Lich Queen EDH/Commander Deck Tech

[@pakaboi77]

Man I love your deck techs

[@drdavidchacon]

He does not, would it interest you if he were to try to make one?

[@pakaboi77]

@@drdavidchacon definitely! I drive for my job and can't look at my phone but I love hearing all the details and tips in the deck techs!

[@drdavidchacon]

@@pakaboi77 ill call him and let him know. Hes going through his comments right now anyway. Hes a personal friend of mine, and we play whenever we get the chance. His selvala explorer returned deck tech is actually my personal list that i got him to post

[@troyandemilyhoward3952]

Subscribed! Great deck tech, like the amount of thought you've put into this. Great tone, easy to listen to and good information! Nice work! One more exclamation mark!

[@pakaboi77]

Do you havr a podcast?

[@maxloggins2930]

Simply amazing

[@Sucrose_Mother]

Due to the amount of card draw laboratory maniac helps you get that self mill W and because of the amount of draw I've been able to win with approach of the second sun a few times. I think those would be honorable mentions. Just my 2 cents 👌

[@mikeburke8432]

Innistrad Midnight Hunt update when?

[@drdavidchacon]

He hasn't had the time to make any more videos with life getting in the way, so we may never see new videos from this channel again.

[@Imnospy]

Nice video. I like Varina a lot. I helped my roommate make his version and we made it as mean as we could. I think Risen Executioner is a trap and a really bad card personally. Sure you can cast him from the yard early on, but what's the odd of him not being overly expensive to cast later on? The text on him has anti synergy with what every zombie tribal deck wants; zombies in your yard. You're dead accurate about Endless Ranks of the Dead. Card is bad. I do disagree about you disregarding Sidisi Brood Tyrant. Zombies is a strategy that loves self-milling and green is almost as good at removing artifacts and enchantments as white (less exile but usually comes at a cheaper cost or on creatures that are easy to recur.) And my Sidisi zombie tribal deck is very, very strong. In fact I've been told it's bordering on oppressive. I fail to see why you would brush her off as a zombie commander. I don't think she's necessarily better then Varina, but I do believe that Sidisi handles some graveyard hate and boardwipes better then Varina does. Do I do have to say that casting Approach of the Second Sun twice in the same turn with Varina feels as powerful as it is unfair tho.

[@12pimpinez]

I disagree actually. I think you could make Sidisi into a Zombie tribal, but you'd be better off focusing into self milling more than using zombies. The thing with Varina is that you use zombies to create a strategy rather than having a strategy involving zombies. But that's not knocking Sidisi, everytime I see her even ran casually my TCGPTSD triggers.

[@commandergoose2093]

Thanks for your solid and interesting input. The Opportunity cost of running Risen Executioner is so low, as it's a card that you can always discard to Varinia. I rarely cast him, but being something that I can freely pitch to Varinia makes up for the fact that it's a mediocre lord, plus if you're really desperate to play it from the graveyard, you can just exile creatures using Varinia to lower his cost back to the normal amount. Really the only cost is it taking up a deck slot. Overall I wouldn't blame people for not running him. Approach of the Second Sun cost way too much mana at 7. The 7 drop spells I run in the deck (Cyclonic Rift & Kindred Dominance) are one sided board wipes that will likely win the game, if I even have a halfway descent board state, or will wreck my opponents, so much that I'll be able to win in a turn or two as long as I have some sort of board state. Worse case scenario, I don't have a board state, and they are used just as a way to get my opponents back down to my level, which is still incredibly helpful If you're behind, so these cards are always good. The only time you wouldn't play them is if you're already ahead and your opponents boards aren't worth wiping, then you have them as a back up plan if anything goes wrong. Having a 7 mana do nothing card, is just horrible for today's meta. I don't know how you managed to cast it twice in one turn, I have literally never gotten to 14 mana in this deck, especially with my lack of mana ramp. I think if you were attacking with 7 zombies in a turn, you where probably already winning the game, or close to winning. I hate the target on your back that Second Sun can create, the whole table will team up on you, and you'll probably lose, unless you are already far ahead of everyone else. Yeah Sidisi is cool, but she has a much higher power ceiling than zombie tribal, and she should probably be played as a self mil combo deck, but you play her however you want, she is a good zombie deck too.

[@oldbordergeek]

boy... no amass cards? no cycling cards? i mean this is just UBW good stuff with zombies....

[@Baibakov88]

What would amass and cycling bring to the deck? Varina is really about the utility of Esper and her card draw/life gain off Zombies. The token creation is nice in a pinch but not really an engine. This deck still leans heavily into zombie tribal. I think Land Tax and some of the mana base pieces are extravagant though.

[@commandergoose2093]

None of the Amass cards really do anything helpful for zombie tribal. The only good one is Dreadhorde Invasion, which only makes 1 zombie, when Varina wants to go wide with zombies, not tall. The amass cards just aren't very good. I really don't know what cycling has to do with anything, it's zombie tribal not a cycling deck? By "good stuff" do you mean basic removal spells and cards that help make the deck run more efficient that any well made deck should run a decent amount of?

[@commandergoose2093]

Land Tax is an auto-include in any deck running white, especially in a mana rock light deck like this, since we need to make all of our land drops. It's especially busted when paired with Varina, since you can ditch the basics to her to draw cards.

[@drdavidchacon]

Ive seen better... Not better Varina, but better decks, i mean Selvala, Explorer Returned is better. Krenko, Mob Boss is a better token deck. Shu Yun probably isn't better idk. That's it.

[@jondo2898]

shut up, selvala sucks

[@liveandletdie4233]

Varina op my dude

[@drdavidchacon]

Guys it was a joke, i play with him weekly in person. If you ever see me comment on a deck about "Selvala" its because i have a Selvala deck he faces fairly often, and as you can see he posted my decklist online so yeah

[@drdavidchacon]

That reply was for you

[@liveandletdie4233]

@@drdavidchacon Varina op my dude.