Sunday, October 13, 2019

Deck Diaries: Varina Week 3



Salutations!

Welcome to Deck Diaries, the series where I tune a list over the course of many weeks and track the changes.

The previous week can be found here: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/10/deck-diaries-varina-week-2.html
This is Week 3 of Varina tuning and this is the list I was running: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varinaweek3/

I didn't get too many games in this week, but not from lack of trying. I wound up in several marathon games that went to 2+ hours. Some players prefer that game length but for me the optimal length of a commander game is 30 minutes. I prefer more shorter games to games that drag out. If the game is intense and interesting the whole time then I don't mind going long, but many games over the hour mark are that way because they're bogged down and boring. The marathons from this week are no exception and are prompting me to make some adjustments. I won't list all the games where I felt things went wrong, but two games in particular stand out in my mind.

In the first game, a Rankle player opened on Leyline of the Void. That is obviously pretty bad for me, but I was holding Mortify so I wasn't too concerned. Until he cast Specter's Shriek and took it. My hand had no other answer for the Leyline, and I was stuck playing draw-go. I took virtually no game actions until it was just me and the Rankle player. I had drawn an Esper Charm a couple turns earlier, but decided to hold it until Rankle would have to be attacking me anyway. I'm not sure if that was the right decision as I wound up being too far behind to come back. While Varina definitely uses the graveyard, I think Tormod's Crypt or other 1-shot graveyard hate doesn't effect her as much as say, Mimeoplasm. You play on the battlefield quite a bit and you can refill your graveyard quickly. Persistent graveyard hate like Leyline or Rest In Peace is another matter. You don't get Skullclamp triggers, your Delve spells cost retail, and Varina can't generate more bodies.

In the second game I got off to a strong start with a flashback of Dread Return on Elesh Norn. An opponent on Tuvasa cast Winds of Rath and wiped my board. Two subsequent attempts to resolve Varina got countered. There was a player on an Emry deck who was terrified of the possibility that I would reanimate Elesh Norn. So much so that even though he had an Inventor's Fair in his graveyard, he continually bought back his Strip Mine with Scaretiller to put me in a strip lock. At this point, I have nothing in play except lands. I get Varina down just before I'm out of mana to recast her. He casts Stolen by the Fae on Varina, then strips me down to 1 blue source. I recast Varina, who gets stuck under a Fiend Hunter, but I manage to land a Cryptbreaker.

The turn rotates a couple of times with me just making a couple zombies. I cast an Ashnod's Altar, but I don't have anything to do with it yet since I don't want to eat the 4 zombies I've managed to make. On my turn I draw From Under the Floorboards. I get stripped again by Emry who has fallen to 6 life from getting pummeled by Derevi and a couple fliers. At the end of Derevi's turn, I activate Cryptbreaker to discard From Under the Floorboards. I eat all my zombie tokens with Altar to fuel it and make 10 zombies and gain 10 life. Let me tell you, attacking Emry to kill him with those zombies is maybe the most satisfying attack of my life. Now that I'm doing stuff, Tuvasa, Derevi, and I start battling. I manage to pull it out in no small part due to Cryptbreaker drawing a bunch of cards.

What did we learn from the games this week?
Games like the first game are a clear lesson that even though I'm trying to be less reliant on specific cards in the graveyard, I'm still leaning heavily on it existing. Rest in Peace, Leyline, Planar Void, etc, can shut me off from that resource altogether. I have answers for these permanents, but I also might not have them available. Games like the second game showed that while the deck can go long it struggles under consistently being denied Varina. Under the withering assault on mana it would have been easy to just not have access to Varina at all for the rest of the game.What they have in common is that they are resources that drive the engine of the deck and without them it flounders. What I need is a suite of cards to get ahead on resources when I can't lean on my primary game plan. In particular, I noticed that there isn't a lot of card advantage in the deck. It has a significant number of cantrips but few cards that do more than replace themselves. Cryptbreaker was one of the best draws in that game because its one of the only repeatable ways to draw cards. At the same time we don't want to ignore the foundational principles of the deck.

OUT:

Portent being a slow-trip makes it much worse than other options for deck manipulation.

Predict hasn't been removed up until now because its relatively decent, but I'm at the point where I can cut it for options that will more definitely put me at +1 card. 

Esper Charm was primarily used for its draw two cards mode, but it was nice to have it for picking off enchantments in a pinch. I'm cutting it mostly because its mana cost is kind of annoying in some situations, and while its a good all-rounder, I really need cards with a bit more punch to them.

Commander's Sphere is an odd card to cut, but I have not particularly liked the three mana accelerant in this deck. A four mana general wants you to play a two-drop mana rock to play your Commander a turn early. Commander's sphere is in an awkward spot due to that. I'm not adding them this week, but I expect I'm going to eventually get the other Talismans in the deck over some of the other acceleration.

Pilgrim's Eye has been a decent body to help smooth out mana, but I never intended to keep it around for too long. With the number of cantrips already in the deck, and the additions I'm adding for the next iteration, I think its time to wave goodbye to the little guy.

Return to Dust is a strong card. Being able to eat two problems is strong. The problem I was running into is that if I used it on my turn it took up almost all of my mana. If I cast it as an instant it was just a worse version of Utter End. I'm cutting it for now, but its on the back burner of cards to keep in mind if I want to add more ways to deal with artifacts/enchantments back into the deck.

Syphon Flesh is pretty sweet. I liked its ability to generate several bodies on its own and that it was a form of resource denial. The problem, like with Return to Dust, is that five mana at sorcery speed could be spent on better cards. If I were to play Demonic Tutor, I don't think I'd ever tutor for this card. I'm going to cut it to make room for more powerful cards.

Bojuka Bog is a low opportunity cost way to mess with opposing graveyards. I was planning on keeping it, but the utility it provides is not as large as the forward momentum provided by the land I'm replacing it with. In an effort to keep the number of lands that enter tapped to a minimum, I'm cutting the Bog over a basic. Like Return to Dust, Bojuka Bog is on the bench of cards that might get re-added if opposing graveyard decks become a problem in the future.

IN:
The main thrust of this week's update. I went looking for draw spells that fit with the deck's overall strategy. Chemister's Insight and Deep Analysis are not exciting to pay retail for, but when in top deck mode they serve the point of getting some velocity going. They are also active from the graveyard so when I am playing without impairment they give extra options for what to discard to Varina triggers. Compulsive Research and Chart a course let me dig out of situations where I'm behind while also providing discard outlets when I'm ahead. Frantic Search is not card advantage. Its essentially Careful Study, but it costs 0 mana. Search is banned in a lot of formats because getting to dig two cards without spending mana is incredibly powerful. Search, like Compulsive Research and Chart a Course, also functions as an additional discard outlet for when that matters.

Night's Whisper, Erebos, Castle Locthwain:
Black has a long history of providing cards for life. One of the aspects of Varina that I haven't talked about much is that her attack trigger provides quite a bit of extra life. When behind, black draw might end up being a liability. I'm gambling that if it catches me up then I'll probably get my life back from Varina. Unfortunately Necropotence, the classic life-for-cards engine, has a clause that discarded cards are exiled. I'd absolutely run it in this deck otherwise. As is, I chose the above as my foray into black draw effects. Night's Whisper is efficient draw that I was going to find a home for in this deck eventually. It mana efficient, and two life is paltry to pay in EDH. Castle Locthwain has potential to hit for more than 1 life per card, but if I have 3+ cards in hand, I'd probably rather be doing something else with my mana. Its also a land, so it gets more leeway. 
Erebos is an interesting card that I don't think see's enough play. His activated ability is solid if a bit expensive. However, it comes bundled with an extremely powerful hate effect. One of the problems of an aggressive fair deck is that there so much life you have to get through. Your cards are made with the idea that you need to do 20 damage, when you need to do double that to kill one player, and six times that to kill most pods. This is only aggravated by someone flipping over Trostani and gaining an extra 40 life. Erebos shuts down those lines while providing repeatable card advantage. Indestructibility makes him pretty hard to get rid of without specifically targeting him with an exile effect. Infrequently, he comes alive and can get in on the beatdowns.

Consecrated Sphinx:
When I built the deck I talked about my goals for it. I want it to be an aggressive fair deck that uses its graveyard as part of a feedback loop with Varina. How does Consecrated Sphinx play into that? Realistically, it doesn't. Part of deck building, especially when you are building towards synergy, is knowing when you just need some Goodstuff. Goodstuff, to me, are cards that are generically powerful and can slot into just about any strategy. Sphinx, Cyclonic Rift, Sylvan Library. Cards that you'd probably put in just about any deck that can run them. I tend to run more niche, synergy driven cards, but sometimes you just need those pillars to fall back on.

After these updates, this is the week 4 decklist: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varinaweek4/?cb=1571013387

I'm hopeful that this version gives me more stuff to be doing if I can't get Varina going. I think I might have some more work to do to have a consistent plan B, but for now I'm happy getting some of the random leftovers from the pre-con out for more card advantage.

Week 4: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/10/deck-diaries-varina-week-4.html
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