Deck Diaries: Varina Week 5

Salutations!

Welcome to Deck Diaries, the series where I tune a deck over the course of several weeks.
I'm currently tuning a Varina Delve deck, and the list being discussed today can be found here: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varinaweek4/
Last week's Diary can be found here: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/10/deck-diaries-varina-week-4.html

I got to play some games! The games were pretty sweet, and I'll be talking about some specific moments in the recap section. Overall, I am happy with what the deck has turned into. The additions of more card draw and starting to pump up the jam has made a huge difference. Varina got blown up several times, but I didn't feel as lost without her. I had plenty of cards in my graveyard whenever I wanted to use them as a resource. My hand never felt like I was running out of things to do, and I was able to land a mana accelerant and an enabler in 70-80% of my games. I don't think I'm going to make any structural changes to the deck going forward, just tuning specific card selection.

Since this was the first time I got to play with several additions to the deck I'm going to focus the recaps on moments with those cards. In the first game, I was playing in a pod of 4. I had built a decent board of zombies, but the opposing Alela had a decent number of bodies that flew. This is the first time I got to resolve Eldrazi Monument. The added flying and indestructible made it difficult for them to attack into me, and I was able to swing in with Varina without fear. Then, I was able to cast Tombstone Stairwell for the first time. The combo is as potent as I expected, but I believe I over-attacked on my first go round with it. I needed to count opposing creatures in graveyards before landing it and I got pummeled pretty hard in the first rotation. I ended up losing this game to Alela after dispatching the other two players. I left back plenty of blockers but they landed an Akroma's Memorial to push all their faeries through for lethal. The mistake I made was that I was so excited to have flipped over Consecrated Sphinx with Stitcher's Supplier that I didn't think through my other options. I could have cast Dread Return on Archfiend of Ifnir instead and Alela probably would never have had a creature in play again. I got ahead of myself by going for the new shiny toy. Let this be a lesson to myself, trying to stretch the boundaries of what a deck can do is great, but don't forget the standbys.

In the second game, we went long. Stupidly long. I had 3 cards in my library when the game ended, long. Mostly this was due to the Chaos player at the table landing Possibility Storm and a few other pieces that made the game drag. The turning point of the game came when I cast a Ponder that was transmuted into a Command the Dreadhorde, buying back 6 zombies and Elesh Norn. I was able to kill the Tasigur player, and Bone Miser stacked so many advantages off that attack that killing the other players was trivial. It may behoove me to add some kind of protection against decking out, but given the Delve nature of the deck it may be a fool's errand. Most protections involve shuffling your graveyard back into your library, and my graveyard is being eaten at a fast rate. I'll have to think about what I want to do to protect myself from decking in long games.

Now that I'm happy with structure, I'm going to focus on efficiency and power.

OUT:
Chemister's Insight
God-Eternal Bontu
Ashnod's Altar
Carrion Feeder
Fact or Fiction

Chemister's Insight was added when I felt the deck lacked spells that were actually plus card advantage rather than just cantripping. I've been happy with most of them, but Chemister's is just too clunky. The thought was that since its an instant it can be more flexible. Its also a sneaky discard outlet from the graveyard for when that matters. In practice, 4 mana is too much mana. It squeezes out anything else I could be doing that turn, and if its the only thing I have going on it isn't enough to catch me back up.

God-Eternal Bontu starts a theme. I've always liked Reprocess, and having it stapled to a Zombie seemed sweet. In practice, I rarely cast her. It turns out that its just better to keep the zombies in play. I'll find another home for her, but she's not what I want to be doing in Varina.

I spoke last week about the difference between powerful and fair. I mentioned that I thought Ashnod's was just this side of fair. The idea was that you could 'bank' a lot of mana with Varina's activations and cash them in with the Altar. As it happens, when you're only doing fair things with Ashnod's Altar its just not that good. As mentioned above, I want to keep my horde in play and not cash them in. The deck loses some explosive turns without AA so I might reintroduce it in the future but I don't think its where I want to be.

Carrion Feeder is the same story as above. Its a one drop enabler, but I don't think I've ever activated it while its in play. I like Carrion Feeder, but without an aristocrats type package, I don't think it does enough so its getting the boot.

Fact or Fiction is a classic draw spell. It puts a lot of fuel in the yard and generally draws two cards. I have a significant amount of nostalgia surrounding FoF. However, I am consistently trying to drive the cmc of the deck down. At four mana, I don't think I can justify playing FoF when there are cheaper options or whole Engines that could be added instead.

IN:
Kindred Discovery
Gurmag Angler
Vindicate
Swan Song
Lightning Greaves

Kindred Discovery is a fantastic addition to the deck. While I'm not trying to be zombie tribal, Varina's activated ability alone is enough to want to add this card. It super charges the game plan of the deck. It does cost 5, which is chunky. The good part is that if I have any zombies I can get immediate value from it.

I'm adding additional Delve cards slowly. I am certain that at some point I will have too many Delve cards and I'll have to cut some out. I haven't reached that threshold yet though, so I'm adding the Real Big Fish. Vanilla dudes aren't very exciting. I'm adding the Angler for a couple reasons. Its a zombie, so its got utility as a looter at least. Its also a 5/5. I've noticed that most of the creatures in the deck are on the small side. It makes sense since I'm focusing on mana efficient creatures and Zombies are generally small. I feel like adding a bigger body will help the deck be more threatening earlier.

Vindicate is universal removal. I dislike that it's a sorcery, but its hard to do better that 3 mana deal with a problem.

I've noticed that Varina is attracting more removal. In an effort to better protect her, I'm adding Swan Song and Boots. Swan Song's drawback definitely matters to a deck that wants to be attacking with 2/2s. Like Arcane Denial, the flexibility of Swan Song to stop incoming removal or to interrupt combo turns from opponents is too good to ignore. Ultimately, losing one zombie to their Swan is a price I'm willing to play. Greaves are a staple in EDH. I like them more than Swiftfoot Boots in this deck. There is nothing to make the hexproof better than shroud. I don't point any other effects at my own creatures other than Skullclamp. The haste is a big boost as well, getting the loot train going again immediately.

With the changes, the decklist looks like this: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varinaweek6/?cb=1572322691

I've been having a lot of fun with the deck. I'm taking it to CommandFest Seattle this weekend to smash it against as many people as I can. I'm hoping some new ideas shake loose. Cheers!

Week 6: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/11/salutations-welcome-to-deck-diary.html