Deck Diaries: Kaalia Week 1

Welcome to Deck Diaries, the series where I tune an EDH list over the course of several weeks. Today I'm starting on the journey to rebuild an old favorite. Back before I took my hiatus from Magic, I had built a Kaalia deck that I thoroughly enjoyed. I've wanted to rebuild Kaalia since I started playing again. Unfortunately, many of the pieces have become expensive in the intervening years. I went with Varina as my first deck since there was a pretty easy path to getting the precon and updating the deck over time.

When I built Kaalia of the Vast there wasn't a term for it, but its come to be known as Group Slug. The goal is to play a variety of hate pieces to disrupt the game. Rest in Peace, Stony Silence, Torpor Orb. The deck included a number of Armageddon effects since Kaalia can shortcut mana. It used Necropotence as its primary engine. Necro has the unique property of not actually drawing cards, letting it get around Spirit of the Labrynth and Chains of Mephistopheles. It also provided constant fuel, letting Kaalia drop threat after threat until the table buckled. What makes Kaalia the best for group slug is that many Demons/Angels/Dragons are themselves hate cards. Prior to her banning, Iona was a great example. She was simultaneously a threat and a hate piece.

However, there's a problem here. The problem isn't one in game, its one in real life. That deck was expensive when I had it, and has only gotten more expensive over time. I doubt I'll ever own chains or moat or nether void again. Kaalia herself is 30 dollars, which is probably half of what I want to spend in a given week. I'm getting around that problem by going with a basic deck and using the new Kaalia. The plan is to transition to Kaalia of the Vast in a future update, probably week 3. This will let me play a deck with the same structure I want to use for its final form. The initial deck is a mix of the old decklist and cards I happen to own. I am avoiding cards specifically for Kaalia, Zenith Seeker since she's going to be demoted to the 99 in short order.

Where Varina's tagline was, "Powerful but Fair," Kaalia's game is decidedly unfair. It isn't unfair in the combo sense. In fact, the deck's genesis was from having played many combo decks. People complained about combo a lot, so I decided to build the anti-combo deck. I built it with the intention of shutting off as many combos as I could and winning with big dude beats. Its unfair in that Kaalia represents 5-8 free mana every turn. That lets you get away with mana denial plans where other decks can't keep up.

The first and most important part of building a deck like this is being aware of the anti-synergies you are creating. Torpor Orb is a great hate piece. Tainted Aether is a great hate piece. Torpor Orb turns off Tainted Aether. So the challenge is minimizing the anti-synergies and having ways to find the right piece of the right time. The goal with Varina was to build a deck that I could take to just about any table. Kaalia is a bit...different. Like Stax or other competitive decks, I won't be playing Kaalia a lot once it gets tuned up. In the intervening stage I think its fine to throw into any game. 

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/kaalia-week1/?cb=1573422029

This is the initial list I'm going to start playing this week. Its a bit more...haphazard than the precon I started from for Varina. I am hoping for the first update to smooth out the mana and drop some of the ineficient cards for better Fatties and to pick up some of the engine pieces. I'll lay out how the experiment is going next week, till then Cheers!

Varina - Final Week

Salutations!

Welcome to Deck Diary, the series where I tune a deck over the course of several weeks.
Last week can be found here: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/10/deck-diaries-varina-week-5.html
The decklist I played this week: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varinaweek6/?cb=1572322691

This past weekend I got to go to CommandFest Seattle. It was a good time, and I got in a ton of games with Varina. I think the deck is where I want it to be. I played at casual and competitive tables and ran the gamut of environments. The deck played well all day. Just having a high level of interaction in the deck let me frequently disrupt combos, and having a strong clock that finds more answers let me chain removal together to keep opponents off-balance.

Generally, the games played out that I would land an early drop and deal with a problem. Then I would land a card advantage engine, Varina, Archive, Discovery, etc. Then I would use cantrips and looting to find the right action for the board. If games went long, turning my graveyard into zombies usually out-attritioned my opponents. I think if I was willing to make the deck more unfair with Altars and other combo elements it would be really mean.

One particular game stands out. The game had gone on a long time. I had Kindred Discovery and Alhammaret's Archive in play. I had 20 mana in play. The plan was to Unburial Rites on Wayward Servant to draw some cards. Well, one of the cards I hit was Army of the Damned. So I drew 26 cards, which left me with 1 card in my deck and drained everyone for 13. This knocked out two players but there was a Karlov player at 80. With the rest of my mana, I cast Zombie Infestation and then Bone Miser. I proceeded to make zombies with the lethal Kindred Discovery trigger on the stack. Not letting the draw triggers resolve while letting the mana and zombie making triggers resolve from Miser. Stacking more and more mana until casting a From Under the Floorboards for 15, then casting Shadow of the Grave to buy all the cards back, doing it again, then casting Empty the Pits for turbo lethal. It was pretty sweet

I actually liked that aspect of the deck quite a bit and may explore it further in the future. I like that its a way to end the game but only works when I've got a lot of pieces. Its also fairly unique. People don't mind being combo'ed out the more novel the combo. Killing everyone with Zombie Fireball definitely feels different.

OUT:
Yawgmoth, Thran Physician
Scourge of Nel Toth
Brainstorm

Yawgmoth is fundamentally not a fair card, and it also follows the same pattern as the Altars.
I'm benching him, but he may come back.

Scourge of Nel Toth is a neat card. Its a zombie. It gets into the air. Its castable from the graveyard. It checks boxes that make it seem like a good idea. In practice, I have almost always ignored it. I'm benching Scourge for now.

Cutting Brainstorm feels like sacrilege, but I don't have many ways to get rid of the cards I put back. Once I get the fetchlands in the deck Brainstorm will make a triumphant return, but until then I'm going to bench it to make room for other cards.

IN:
Dig Through Time
Vampiric Tutor
Demonic Tutor

Dig Through Time is a classic Delve spell. Its probably going to be the last delve spell I add to the deck since the others don't look interesting. I was hoping it would get banned in Pioneer before ordering one, but in the end the 3-4 dollars I might save isn't worth waiting it out.

Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor. Tutors are somewhat contentious in EDH. 100 card singleton is supposed to heavily increase variance. Tutors undercut the replay-ability of the format by being wildcards for the same set of targets. If I wanted this deck to be competitive I would likely be adding way more tutors. As is, I wanted to wait till I identified what I would be tutoring for before adding tutors to the deck. Now that I know what cards I want in a given situation, I'm adding the two best tutors and leaving it at that. I may eventually add more tutors as the deck continues to improve. I expect Varina may come in a bit higher than I anticipated.

The list as it stands now: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varina-final/?cb=1573003424
I feel like I've gotten there with Varina, and this is likely my last entry specifically about her. There are some upgrades left to be made. The mana rocks could include more expensive options like Mana Crypt. A commenter on a previous article pointed out that Land Tax would be quite excellent. Given the cost of further upgrades. the week to week changes are going to be much fewer now. Worry not! I intend to write a monthly recap of changes and games from all my current decks. I have a plan for the next deck. I'll give you a hint, it shares two colors with Varina and also likes to attack. Cheers!

Back to Week 1 if you want to see how I got here: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/09/deck-diaries-varina-week-1.html

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

Deck Diaries: Varina Week 4

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-3.html
This is Week 4 of Varina tuning and this is the list as it stands: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varinaweek4/

Unfortunately, this week is going to be a shorter update as I have been quite ill since this past Wednesday. I missed my usual game night and haven't gotten any practical games in with the current list. As such, I'm not removing any of the cards added last week until I get to see them in the real world. There are several other cards that have been under performing for me that I'd like to upgrade.

Many of the comments I've received when posting the list is that it's underpowered. While I believe that's accurate, some of the suggestions coming in weren't for more powerful cards, but for unfair cards. Since I don't have a lot of practical stuff to add today, I thought I'd talk about the difference between powerful and fair. The surest way to show the difference is with examples, and I thought I'd use a couple that have been considered for this deck. 

Eldrazi Monument is a powerful card. It removes interaction from your opponents and makes your clock faster. Its the kind of card you hope to draw when you have someone on the edge of dead. However, it has counterplay. It is itself able to be destroyed, and if done so when you're already committed to an attack can be disastrous. At five mana, its also going to be most of what you do in a turn, and it requires an upkeep cost. The upkeep cost is marginal for decks that want it but its also a real concern in the face of a Terminus or other sweeper it doesn't protect against. Eldrazi Monument is powerful, but it is inherently a fair card.

Phyrexian Altar is an unfair card. Unbound sacrifice outlets are notorious for enabling loops so they tend toward unfair on their face. Cards that convert resources to mana tend toward the unfair. Phyrexian Altar is unique as its both an unbound sacrifice outlet and converts creatures to mana. I have Ashnod's Altar in the deck currently and have considered cutting it on several occasions since its similar to Phyrexian Altar, but only making colorless has thus far prevented me from giving it the ax. There is no 'fair' use of Phyrexian Altar unless the person playing the deck deliberately stops themselves from using the card to its potential. If I were to put it into Varina I'm not even sure of the implications but I know Gravecrawler would immediately lead to infinite combos. 

Individuals each have their own tolerances to what's 'fair' and 'unfair.' Personally, I'm trying to use Varina to explore that question. It would be easy to throw Phyrexian Altar in here and a bunch of tutors and focus on establishing that combo. Or to put Labratory Maniac into the deck and use Varina's massive looting and Dread Return/Unburial Rites to buy him back for the win. So, while I think the deck is currently not powerful, when adding power to the deck I want to be careful that I don't make it more unfair in the process. 

OUT:

Worn Powerstone

Tomebound Lich

Liliana's Mastery

Shepherd of Rot

Forbidden Alchemy

I'm removing Worn Powerstone for Talisman as a 1-for-1 swap. I've noticed that colored mana is at a premium in the deck and Talisman lines up with the deck's play pattern much better. Worn Powerstone doesn't cast Varina any faster, doesn't contribute to casting her more than any other mana rock, and I'm trying to be efficient rather than going for maximum ramp. Talisman gives another early colored source, and only costs 1 on the turn you play it.

Tomebound Lich seemed like a natural fit. Its a looter, its a zombie, its got deathtouch and lifelink. The reality is that I almost always pitch him to looter triggers. The versatility is there, but Tomebound Lich is a jack of all trades and master of none type card. Its not good enough at any one thing to justify it's spot. 

Liliana's Mastery is maybe the card that is the most surprising to be on the list of cuts. Its an anthem, and it makes two bodies when it comes down. This is where I think I'll have to reiterate that this version of Varina is not zombie tribal. The deck plays zombies as a means to an end. Enhancing your zombies is fine if it comes at no additional cost, but the two bodies you get from playing Mastery are overpaying if you cut out the anthem from the equation. I think I want to focus on better token makers that are more efficient at producing bodies.

Shepherd of Rot was put in as a way of dealing maximum damage to the table and to close games where you couldn't attack. Wayward Servant has filled that role much better while also bolstering my life total and not needing haste to get the job done before people can react. I'm benching Shepherd for now since I haven't liked it, but the door is open for Shepherd to return if I notice closing out games is harder.

Forbidden Alchemy has never been an impressive card. I played it as an Impulse that got some cards in the graveyard. I don't think I've ever flashed it back. As stated in previous articles, my breakpoint on instants is two mana. At three mana, I don't think Forbidden Alchemy is exciting or efficient so its getting cut.

IN: 

Eldrazi Monument

Empty the Pits

Alhammarret's Archive

Talisman of Hierarchy

Tombstone Stairwell

Eldrazi Monument I mentioned above, but its being added as a way to give my team evasion and protection. Feeding it every turn should be pretty do-able through Varina and other token makers. I think I'll also be adding other types of evasion but Monument stands out as a powerful option to start with.

Empty the Pits gives me a back up option to Varina. The rate is the same, but Empty lets me convert my whole graveyard at once. It also works well in combination with Varina. From Under the Floorboards has proven to be surprisingly strong when it goes off at the end of the opponent's turn. Empty gives another Army-in-a-can option to get back on the table after a board wipe.

Alhammarret's Archive doubles Varina's trigger to get an absurd amount of card advantage and life. It also turbo charges the cantrips in the deck, turning them all into +1 card, and has a positive interaction with Frantic Search and Careful Study. The low cost of cantrips generally means I'll be able to play archive and immediately play a cantrip so the Archive will pay for itself. 

Tombstone Stairwell is an odd card. I encourage people to read the Oracle text since its a bit on the old side. This came up in last week's thread and was suggested by u/HarshPerspective. The gist of it is, at the start of each player's turn, they make a 2/2 zombie with haste for each creature card in their graveyard. While it has some negatives that might cut its run in the deck short, I want to give it a try. The negatives are that it has a cumulative upkeep cost so it cuts me off of making other plays or activating Varina. It relies on the number of creature cards in my graveyard, which might conflict with Delve too much if I'm trying to take full advantage. It's also symmetrical, so while I'm expecting to get the most use out of it its possible it gets hijacked by someone else at the table. What interests me is just how many bodies it makes. Zombies entering the battlefield are useful for Wayward Servant. Getting to attack with them is obviously great and goes a long way to mitigating other people getting the TS trigger. I'm also adding Eldrazi Monument to the deck, which is a natural pairing for TS since the Tombspawn are destroyed instead of sacrificed. This addition is speculative, but might wind up being awesome.

Week 5 List: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varina-week5/?cb=1571616720

I hope to have actual games to report next week. I'm going to be paying special attention to Tombstone Stairwell and the cards that I haven't gotten to play with from the last update.

Week 5: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/10/deck-diaries-varina-week-5.html

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:

Esper Charm

Commander's Sphere

Crib Swap

Pilgrim's Eye

Portent

Predict

Return to Dust

Syphon Flesh

Bojuka Bog

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:

Compulsive Research
Chemister's Insight
Deep Analysis
Night's Whisper
Consecrated Sphinx
Erebos, God of the Dead
Castle Locthwain
Frantic Search
Chart a Course

Compulsive Research, Chemister's Insight, Deep Analysis, Chart a Course, Frantic Search:

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

Deck Diaries: Varina Week 2

Salutations!

This week we're continuing with the tuning process for Varina.
Here is a link to last week's article for reference: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/09/deck-diaries-varina-week-1.html.

The deck performed much better in my games this week. Focusing on getting the mana base into shape payed significant dividends as the wheels started turning much earlier. There's still too many land in the deck overall, so this week I'm planning to cut the last of the lands that have to enter tapped, and picking up a Watery Grave and Hallowed Fountain. I likely would have gotten them last week, but I'm trying to stay under 50$ an order. It was the two shocklands or a bunch of cheaper untapped dual lands. I went with the larger volume of lands to get the deck into playable shape faster.

The proactive plan of the deck is working quite well. Varina is generating value through attacking and has plenty of cards in the graveyard to use as fuel. That's the good news.
The bad news is that the deck frequently was unable to interact with the opponents. One of the strengths of Varina is that like all commanders with an activated ability, you can leave mana up to interact at instant speed and then do something with that mana instead of spewing it off at the end of the last opponent's turn. The problem with the Week 2 incarnation is that its interaction is all prohibitively expensive. The instant speed cantrips are generally fine to leave up, but leaving up Utter End or Mortify is detrimental to your early game. So my goal with this week's updates is to introduce more cheap interaction.

Out:
Sejiri Refuge
Jwar Isle Refuge
Dismal Backwater
Scoured Barrens
Island
Aminatou's Augury
Altar's Reap
Mulldrifter

In:
Swords to Plowshares
Arcane Denial
Careful Study
Hallowed Fountain
Watery Grave
Path to Exile
Lazotep Plating
Anguished Unmaking

Last week's article was a bit more of a general update. I didn't feel like anyone needed to know why I wanted Zombie Infestation in my Varina deck. Now that the changes are going to be smaller and more focused on solving problems, I'm going to go into more detail about why the specific cards are coming out or going in.

Tapped lands need to have some reason to be in a deck like this. We want to be going enabler, accelerant, Varina as consistently as possible and tapped lands are awful for aggressive game plans. There are still a couple tapped lands in the deck, but they have enough utility where I'm going to leave them alone until I start looking to add the Fetchlands.

The rest of the outs are a bit trickier, but its mostly about cost. Aminatou's Augury is a strong card. Mulldrifter is a classic in value oriented blue decks. The problem they have in common is that they cost 5 mana or more. Mulldrifter can be cheaper, but the cheaper version is not much better than Divination, and we already have a lot of targets for our limited reanimation. Going back to my thesis for this week's changes, I want to have more mana available to cast my interactive spells. I want to limit the number of 5+ mana cards in the deck to leave more room open for casting interaction on my opponents' turns. These cards are good, but they don't line up with the values of the deck.

Altar's Reap isn't expensive and is an instant. I'm cutting it because we win through attacking people to death. Every zombie is a looter so we'll see more than two cards with the zombie in play. I don't want to reduce my zombie count unless the sacrifice outlet pays me back for something that the deck is lacking. Altar's Reap isn't repeatable, and it doesn't give you back enough to justify eating a body. It doesn't help that I just don't like the card. I would much rather this slot eventually become Night's Whisper or something similar.

The Ins mostly follow what I'm trying to introduce into the deck, point and click removal and defense against the same. My break point for the cost of interaction is two mana. A two mana card is an OR statement. I can cast this, OR I can activate Varina. You'd have to leave up four mana to play a three mana card to get two activations or you'll be wasting a mana. The card has to be outstanding to be included past two mana. I say this knowing full well that Anguished Unmaking is in the list of cards being added. I would argue that Anguished Unmaking is outstanding. Exile any non-land permanent at instant speed is absurd. The draw back of losing three life isn't that bad in EDH in general, and specifically isn't a big deal in a deck that gains as much life as Varina.

Our other answers, Path and Swords, are classic white removal. Arcane Denial is a mainstay in my EDH decks. The drawback has less meaning in multiplayer, and a hard counter at 1U that cantrips is some of the best protection you can slot into your deck. I am trying Lazotep Plating out in this deck. Blanket hexproof is a useful defensive tool, but I'd be lying if I said that the Amass wasn't what put it over the line for me. Its an instant zombie that gives all your stuff hexproof! It might not live up to my expectations, but I have high hopes that it does work.

The last card coming in is Careful Study. I generally don't like Careful Study. Its card disadvantage, and I think inferior to Mental Note and Thought Scour since they put the same number of cards in the graveyard and replace themselves. However, Careful Study has some properties that are good here when they aren't other places. The first thing is that we like the game action of discarding cards. From Under The Floorboards,  Bone Miser, Shadow of the Grave, Archfiend of Ifnir, and future inclusions are going to care about discarding cards. The second thing is that while I primarily just want to bulk up the graveyard, I do care about which cards are put there if I can choose. I'd much rather put Gravecrawler in my graveyard than Phyrexian Delver.

The Week 3 incarnation looks like this: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/varinaweek3/?cb=1570383310
I think I'm going to have a lot more ability to break up combos and stop voltron shenanigans with the new additions and I expect axing four tapped lands is going to make the deck even better at hitting its benchmarks. I'm going to try to get in more games this week since I only got to play 7 or 8 last week. I'm excited to see what goes down with this iteration. I have a suspicion I may have gone under by one land but we'll see how it goes. See you next week.

Week 3: https://lefowens.blogspot.com/2019/10/deck-diaries-varina-week-3.html

Constructing Commanders: Yawgmoth, Thran Physician

Yawgmoth

Holy shit


Yawgmoth


I've waited 15 years or so for this card and it does not disappoint. Yawgmoth is dripping with black mana. Whenever I write an article I like to spend some time dissecting the card.

We start at the mana cost. 2BB is quite reasonable on color requirement, and is low enough where we can expect to cast him 2-3 times in a game. You shouldn't be afraid of just running him out on 4 and then recasting him if someone has an answer. BB is also reasonable to put in multi-color deck, so we'll see Yawgmoth in other strategies that want him in the 99.

Protection from humans probably won't come up often. It's not irrelevant but it's also not going to be something that you can proactively build around.

This is the meat and potatoes ability. He's an unbound sacrifice outlet that trades life for cards. This is an absurd text-line and the community would probably have been satisfied if it's all Yawgmoth did. There are tons of sacrifice oriented abilities in black, and trading life for cards has similarly been a consistent theme of black since Necropotence. Both abilities are powerful powerful enough that in modern design they're usually bounded by a mana cost. Yawgmoth gives access to both at no mana cost. This lets him slot into established strategies like Ghave, Teysa, or Grimgrin. Access to his ability on demand is a powerful incentive to put him in the command zone. While the -1/-1 counters are not the draw of this ability, they are quite relevant. There are plenty of low toughness targets at an EDH table. Even just picking off tokens has value. This part of the ability also enables loops with undying creatures or blowfly infestation to get tons of extra activations.

His discard is on demand, enabling madness, flashback, and reanimation. There are relatively fewer strategies where this slots in. Atraxa, obviously, and some others will want this either to beef up creatures or get people dead with poison counters. There is value in having a repeatable discard outlet for graveyard commanders, but this ability on its own won't carry the card the way that his other activated ability will.

Taken together, these abilities paint a picture of a card that completely dominates a game. You sacrifice creatures to draw cards and spread out -1/-1 counters. Then you use the cards you draw to either play more spells or proliferate your counters and maintain control of the board. The problem is fuel. Yawgmoth is constrained more by fueling his abilities than anything else. The challenge is coming up with enough creatures and life.

I like to create an 80 card “Core” deck that uses all the parts of the buffalo and showcases all the aspects of a new Yawgmoth commander, and then explores several 20 card “Packages” that lean in one direction or another. Yawgmoth is an expansive card in this regard. He touches on almost all of black's major strategies. I made an effort not to reuse cards between the packages. In reality, I expect there would be crossover between these decks, but as a thought exercise we want to explore more cards.

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/30-05-19-WHi-yawgmoth-thran-physician/

This is what I would consider the "Core" of a Yawgmoth deck. It has removal, mana, and cards that are specifically great with Yawgmoth. -1/-1 counters annihilate with +1/+1 counters like antimatter and matter. This interaction makes Undying creatures fantastic with Yawgmoth. 

It is possible to generate a loop with two undying creatures and Yawgmoth. Let's say you have Geralf's Messenger and Butcher Ghoul. You sacrifice the Messenger to Yawgmoth putting a counter on nothing. It comes back with a +1/+1 counter on it. Now you sacrifice the Butcher to put a -1/-1 counter on Geralf's Messenger. The Butcher comes back into play. Now you sacrifice the Messenger, it will come back because it doesn't have a +1/+1 counter on it anymore. You put the -1/-1 counter from sacrificing the messenger onto the Butcher and you have now demonstrated a loop. You can repeat the loop for each life you have or card in your library.
Undying is not a common keyword, so our choices are pretty limited. We're only including the ones that I think are good enough: Mikaeus, Messenger, and Butcher. Mikaeus grants Undying to lots of creatures that would not otherwise have it. Mikaeus is also the source of a lot of the combo wins you accomplish with the deck, the most obvious being his interaction with Triskellion.

Sacrifice: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/yawgsac/?cb=1570319804

This is what I expect many of those that are looking at Yawgmoth are imagining he'll turn out. This is a pretty cutthroat list. It tries to efficiently set up loops and kills through infinite combos. Mono-black loses many of the combo enablers from other colors, but makes up for this by having significantly more redundancy with multiple tutors. This package has a number of auxiliary engines in case Yawgmoth gets locked out. Doomsday sets up several kills on its own as a form of super tutor. Since we're more on the sacrifice plan, Grave Pact adds a layer of defense to the deck. Bitter Ordeal is a combo kill card, which I usually avoid. In general, cards should have functions aside from just killing the opponent. I’m making an exception for Bitter Ordeal because while it's mostly just a win condition, but it can be fired off for lower numbers and cripple an opponent's strategy. Since it is a form of storm, each copy can also target different opponents in Commander, letting you snag multiple answers from the whole table. Endling makes it into this iteration of the deck that leans on Undying the most. Sanguine Bond and Exquisite Blood make a two card combo, but also function as powerful engines on their own. I am including them in this package due to the larger number of tutors and card draw this version is running.They as make for an excellent backup plan in case the main engines get removed. Bolas's Citadel is another strong engine, using the various life gain cards in the deck to fuel its free-spell shindig. Citadel also pairs well with Aetherflux Reservoir and various tutors like Doomsday and Vampiric Tutor.

Graveyard: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/yawg-graveyard/?cb=1570321787

Yawgmoth's second ability gives you an on-demand discard outlet. While there are many commanders that play in this space, the efficiency of Yawg's discard is hard to match.

The real trick here is that Yawg draws so many cards that you are far more likely to want low cost ways to turn the excess cards into value. If we're planning on using the ability to generate value, making use of the graveyard is a great way of extending the purpose of the cards you draw. Until the proliferate portion of the ability, you don't need permanents to make use of the ability either. The graveyard is conserved much more regularly that permanents.
So, we add reanimation cards to take advantage of having essentially a larger hand.
I also added madness cards because of how well Yawg can take advantage of the madness keyword. There's relatively few of them, but only because there are relatively few madness cards that are worth the inclusion. I think this version is the least combo version of Yawgmoth.
However, it relies on him quite a bit to enable the madness and graveyard effects.
Strands of Night is an odd card. Its simultaneously great at converting excess lands into action, and incredibly dangerous to activate too much in a deck with Cabal Coffers. I like it but it's also one to be careful activating. Given the increased use of the graveyard, adding Crypt of Agadeem gives us another target for our Expedition Map. Crypt replaces a land slot. Crypt takes longer to get going in most cases, put its a late game power house in the vein of Cabal Coffers once you get there.


Proliferate: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/yawg-proliferate-1/?cb=1570323631

This version leans on the second ability of Yawgmoth, but this one wants to build big board states. This iteration wants to be pouring its mana into accruing permanents. Planeswalkers are the name of the game here. Getting tons of mileage out of their repeated activation and fueling them with proliferate. While not explicitly combo, it's still going to feel that way when you play Liliana and pump her to ultimate on the same turn.
While the majority of these cards are ones that directly benefit from the proliferate ability, I also included Necropotence and Arguel’s Blood Fast. The deck will likely not have as much fodder for the first ability. Necro has the disadvantage of discard being exiled, but that’s a small price to pay for always having cards to pay for proliferation. Thrilling Encore is also not a direct recipient of proliferate. Encore, however, feeds on the -1/-1 counter proliferation killing wide swaths of the opponent’s battlefield. Given that proliferate is a may ability, you can also put lots of creatures down to one toughness then wait to capitalize on the deaths all at once.

Infect: https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/yawg-infect/?cb=1570324165

Infect is not a particularly well viewed strategy in EDH so play this version at your own risk. Proliferate can win you the game outside combat, which is something that the deck has needed for a long time. However, getting the initial counter on the opponent outside of combat is a challenge. That pushes this version to be more about the combat step and getting things out of the way. Given the importance of infect, and the scarcity of creatures with the ability, we are running some cards that would normally be sub-optimal. The deck is chasing the dream of getting one counter and then proliferating your way to victory.

The highlights here are Traitor’s Clutch and Dauthi Embrace. Traitor’s Clutch is a fairly unremarkable card in most places and I first noticed it while building Mimeoplasm, which also had an infect sub-theme. Shadow is virtually non-existent, making it essentially unblockable. Traitor’s Clutch in particular is interesting because the flashback is so cheap, and discarding it via Yawgmoth’s second ability lines up with the deck’s game plan. Dauthi Embrace is a similar effect that you can’t cheat like Traitor’s Clutch, but it repeatable, and you can target any creature. Turning off blockers can be more efficient than turning on attackers, and you can use it politically on other peoples' creatures. The other highlight is Unspeakable Symbol. Symbol converts life into damage and has popped up in decks with powerful lifegain creatures from time to time. Here, we wouldn’t be getting the life back quickly, but it gives us a base to proliferate from.

This is the bare minimum of what you would need to make infect your strategy. I would suggest trimming some cards out of the Core deck for more removal and unblockable if you want to go all in on the infect theme instead of just having it as a sub-theme the way its presented here.


I am so happy they finally printed the big man.
I hope you enjoyed the exploration of The Lord of the Wastes.