Overview:

This Varina, Lich Queen deck is a Zombie tribal build leveraging aggressive token generation, graveyard recursion, and life-gain synergies. Varina serves as the engine, enabling card filtering, zombie token creation via her activated ability, and incidental life gain. The deck aims to flood the board with Zombies enhanced by tribal lords like Death Baron and Diregraf Captain, while alternate win conditions like Approach of the Second Sun, Test of Endurance, and Jace, Wielder of Mysteries provide backup plans. Secondary value engines like The Scarab God and Syr Konrad, the Grim amplify graveyard recursion and damage triggers, while Rooftop Storm enables explosive plays.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Early Setup (Turns 1-4): Prioritize ramping with Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, or land drops. Cast low-cost Zombies like Cryptbreaker or Champion of the Perished to start building board presence.
2. Deploy Varina (Turn 4+): Cast Varina to begin cycling cards and generating Zombie tokens. Use her attack trigger to dig for key pieces like Rooftop Storm or Army of the Damned.
3. Midgame Value (Turns 5-7): Resolve tribal payoffs like Lord of the Accursed, Etchings of the Chosen, or Cover of Darkness to buff Zombies. Leverage recursion with Forever Young or Tomb Tyrant to rebuild after wipes.
4. Win Conditions:
   • Combat Overkill: Overwhelm with boosted Zombies, using evasion from Cover of Darkness or On Wings of Gold.
   • Alternate Wins: Cast Approach of the Second Sun twice, stabilize at 50+ life for Test of Endurance, or deck out with Jace, Wielder of Mysteries.
   • Graveyard Synergies: Reanimate armies with Zombie Apocalypse or ping opponents via Syr Konrad, the Grim.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with 2-3 lands (including color-fixing like Command Tower).
• Prioritize early Zombies (e.g., Cryptbreaker, Champion of the Perished) and ramp.
• Look for Varina enablers like Rooftop Storm or protection like Counterspell.

Key Tips:

• Use Varina’s discard ability to fuel Archfiend of Ifnir or Enhanced Surveillance.
• Rooftop Storm + Army of the Damned creates 13 Zombies for free.
• Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver ensures token generation even when Zombies die.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Board Wipes: Lacks mass recursion outside Zombie Apocalypse; rebuilding post-wipe is slow.
• Graveyard Hate: Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void cripples recursion and Syr Konrad triggers.

Moderate

• Slow Start: Limited ramp beyond Sol Ring/Signet delays key plays like Rooftop Storm.
• Commander Reliance: Varina removal disrupts card draw and token generation.

Minor

• Flyers/Evasion: Relies on On Wings of Gold for air defense; limited reach against tall threats.

Most Important Cards:

• Varina, Lich Queen (Engine: card draw, tokens, life gain)
• Rooftop Storm (Free Zombie casting enables explosive turns)
• The Scarab God (Recurrence and token generation)
• Syr Konrad, the Grim (Passive damage and graveyard synergy)
• Approach of the Second Sun (Alternate win condition)
• Army of the Damned (Mass token generation)
• Diregraf Captain (Tribal lord with drain effect)
• Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver (Token sustain and card draw)
• Cover of Darkness (Evasion enabler for Zombies)
• Test of Endurance (Life-gain win condition)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 5/10

• Wins typically occur around turns 8-10 via combat or alternate wincons. Rooftop Storm and Army of the Damned can accelerate this, but setup is required.

Resilience: 5/10

• Limited protection for Varina and key pieces. Some recursion (e.g., Oversold Cemetery) helps, but relies heavily on rebuilding after wipes.

Consistency: 6/10

• Varina’s card filtering and tribal synergy provide steady value, but tutors are sparse, making combo lines inconsistent.

Interaction: 5/10

• Includes targeted removal (Void Rend, Eaten Alive) and counterspells (Dovin’s Veto), but lacks board wipes and stack control for multi-threat metas.

Rating Justification:

The deck’s reliance on combat and moderate-speed wincons (T8-10) aligns with the "Focused Casual" tier, while its vulnerability to disruption and slow recovery caps its resilience. It outperforms precons but lacks the speed and redundancy of optimized lists.

Power level: 4.5 - 5.0