Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Varina, Lich Queen!

Varina is a four mana 4/4 with whwnever you attack with one or more Zombies, draw that many cards, then discard that many cards, and you gain that much life and for two mana and exile two cards from your graveyard you create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token.

Zombies for days would normally be the plan, but there is an inherent risk with that. Zombies are one of the creature tokens that get made fairly frequently and in fairly high numbers, which means that at a certain point it becomes dangerous to attack with our Zombies since we have to draw cards equal to the number of Zombies that attack.

Instead, since we can fill the graveyard fairly reliably with a good amount of cards, what we are going for is setting up for a reanimator plan, where our Zombies attacking is essentially going to be slower and more deliberate in order to get cards into our graveyard that we want to bring back.

The first thing we need are to get our Zombie’s in play so that we can start setting our graveyard yp.

Zul Ashur, Lich Lord is an interesting pick because while they won’t be doing much attacking, what they will provide is a way for us to get Zombies from our graveyard back by being able to cast them, all the while having a bit of protection in the ward for 2 life.

We want some cheap Zombies to get into play, so something like Corpse Knight which whenever another creature we control enters has each opponent lose 1 life, or Wayward Servant which has whenever another Zombie enters the battlefield under our control each opponent loses 1 life and we gain 1 life, or Undead Augur which has whenever another Zombie we control dies we draw a card and lose 1 life.

The cheap Zombies are to make sure that we have a decently reliable number of Zombies for Varina to trigger off of to have us draw and discard to set up our graveyard, but we can also use lord effects like Death Baron which gives Skeletons and other Zombies we control +1/+1 and deathtouch to also help in getting some damage off.

We can also use our Zombies as another form of gaining advantage by using The Scarab God, which has it so at the beginning of our upkeep each opponent loses X life and we scry X where X is the number of Zombies we control, while also able to make a 4/4 Zombie for us by exiling a creature from a graveyard and making a copy of it.

Another way we can gain advantages while also making a decent number of Zombies is with Wand of Orcus, which has it so whenever the equipped creature attacks, it and Zombies we control gain deathtouch until the end of turn and when that creature deals combat damage to a player, we make that many 2/2 Zombie tokens.

The next thing that we need are the ways we can reanimate our creatures, as well as other cards that we can make use of in the graveyard.

Unburial Rites is perfect on both fronts because it can return a creature from the graveyard to the battlefield and can do it again via Flashback, meaning we can get two creatures back from the graveyard at separate times as we need or all at once if we have the graveyard set up and the mana for it.

Of course Reanimate is the most efficient way to bring a creature back from the graveyard to the battlefield, at the cost of some life equal to the mana value of the creature, but since Varina also gains us life when our Zombie attack, it does also offset the cost of bringing back something big.

Cauldron’s Gift mills us four cards if we spent at least three black mana to cast it and then brings a creature from our graveyard to the battlefield with a +1/+1 counter, Breath of Life can bring something back with no extra bells and whistles, and Bond of Revival can bring a creature back from our graveyard with haste.

There are also plenty of ways to bring back our smaller utility Zombies with something like Helping Hand which brings a creature with mana value three or less from our graveyard back to the battlefield tapped for one mana and Unearth which does the same thing except the creature isn’t tapped and Unearth also has Cycling.

Now since we may not always have creatures we want to get into the graveyard, we should also work to get value from our other cards in the graveyard, even with something as simple as Deep Analysis, which for four mana drawing us two cards isn’t a great rate, but it does have Flashback for two mana and for three life which is much better.

Dihada’s Ploy can be great to draw us two more cards and then discard a card and then gain life equal to the number of cards we discarded that turn which can be cast from the graveyard because Jump-start, which let’s us discard an additional card to cast it meaning we get more fuel for our reanimate cards.

Dread Return can bring a creature from our graveyard to the battlefield with a Flashback of sacrificing three creatures, Grind//Dust to put a -1/-1 counter on up to two creatures and exile any number of creatures with -1/-1 counters on them, and Hildibrand Manderville to give creature tokens we control +1/+1 and can be cast from the graveyard when dies as its Adventure Gentleman’s Rise which make a 2/2 Zombie token.

The last thing we need are the creatures that we want to bring back, of which should help us secure a win either by shutting our opponents down or helping us maintain a secure position.

Absolute Virtue is definitely one of the better reanimation targets because while we aren’t casting it often, if we do cast it then it can’t be countered and it gives us protection from each of our opponents, which means any aggro deck or control deck that targets us now has to deal with Absolute Virtue slowing them down.

Riptide Gearhulk is also a way to waylay our opponents because when it enters, for each opponent, we bounce a nonland permanent that they control third from the top of their library, and it is also a double strike threat with prowess.

Magister of Worth can either bring all creatures from each player’s graveyard back to the battlefield or destroy all other creatures when it enters, Liesa, Forgotten Archangel to return nontoken creature we control back to our hand and exile creatures our opponents control when they die, and Dragonlord Silumgar to take control of a creature or Planeswalker an opponent controls as long as we control Silumgar.

Vela the Night-Clad is a way for us to help get our creatures get some more damage through by giving our other creature intimidate and whenever they or another creature we control dies each opponent loses 1 life and Sphinx of the Steel Wind as a big creature with flying, first strike, vigilance, and protection from red and green.

Varina is a value Commander that uses Zombies as a way to generate value in drawing cards and discarding cards where we can make use of having both of those aspects in getting cards where we need to have them.

The issues come, as with all graveyard based strategies, is that the lack of having a graveyard is an issue and if our big creatures get exiled, then our reanimation spells become less effective, and they become near useless if our graveyard is gone.

Some reanimation spells that let us take cards from our opponents graveyard, but that can’t always guaranteed that there will be cards that we want to take.

There is also the nature of Varina having us draw and discard cards consistently when we have our Zombies attack. This can help us get what we need where we need it effectively and quickly, but if we don’t have Zombie in play then we are not able to get that amount of cycling going steady.

We also have the problem in the other direction where if we accumulate too many Zombies we run the risk of decking ourselves out because Varina’s ability isn’t optional.

Varina providing a fun value engine in the Zombies we have while also fueling our graveyard and making it so that we can cheat some big creatures out while also maintaining plenty of cards in our hand to either interact with our opponents or keep our cards safe and even if we can’t reanimate things, we should still have a decent amount of Zombies to swing in for some damage.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual