For the longest time I had a UB zombie themed deck with the Locus God as my commander. It was good and fun but there were a few cards that I really felt were missing from the deck. I really wanted to get white into the deck for cards like Anointed Procession. So I did some looking and found Varina, Lich Queen and it was perfect. I got to keep the Dimir staples that I was used to and sprinkle in some fun that I hadn’t been able to use before. So here are some of the synergies and fun cards I specifically went after. I wanted a fun, strong, casual deck to play with my local playgroup and I honestly believe I succeeded.
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Let’s start with what the commander says:
“Whenever you attack with one or more Zombies, draw that many cards, then discard that many cards. You gain that much life.
{2}, Exile two cards from your graveyard: Create a tapped 2/2 black Zombie creature token.”
This gives us an excellent source of card draw that we can control. We can attack with as many or as few zombies as we would like. Even the discarding is not an issue for this deck. There are numerous ways to bring back our creatures from the graveyard and use the graveyard as a second hand. But to do that, we need to be making enough zombies to get the engine going.
With almost all of our creatures being zombies we are off to a fine start but with certain creatures, we can bring more out over time. Using Wilhelt from the midnight hunt commander decks, even if they remove our zombies there will be a replacement open the field for more draw next time. Grave Tyrant helps us keep the zombie tokens coming, and with our litany of enchantments, we are either doubling those tokens, casting zombies for free, or making sure that each creature that dies is replaced.
Speaking of creatures dying, this is also a pay off for us in the end. Gisa and Geralf, Tomb Tyrant, Gravespawn Sovereign, and Zombie Apocalypse (among others) let us bring creatures back almost as much as we want. The graveyard is just another resource and this is nothing new to many commander players.
So how do we end this? Besides the endless waves of zombies? Well, there are a few ways I love to finish games. Let’s look at just a few.
- Gary!!! I love the Grey merchant of Asphodel. With all the enchantments and zombies our devotion is usually pretty high. So we can bring him in, sacrifice him with the few outlets we have to just make sure he dies, and bring him back. In the end game, I do this with Debtors Knell. Bringing him back every turn is crippling. Between their life lost and the life you gain, it can be brutal.
- Zombie Storm! With all the card draw that we can have in this deck we want to dig to some of our more important enchantments. Rooftop storm is one of the keys. Allowing us to cast our zombies for free is back breaking. We attack with 5 zombies, draw 5 cards, and then hopefully unload 5 more zombies onto the field. It snowballs quickly and if your opponents don’t have an answer quickly, its game over.
- All hail Vecna! Ok, this one is admittedly not the strongest but man is it fun lol. Bringing an 8/8 indestructible god out and having your way with the table feels good for a D&D nerd like me! Remember, this deck is more casual than competitive. It’s supposed to be fun.
This deck is a blast pilot and can become something unstoppable very quickly. This is a stronger casual deck but not meant to be a house. I could add more recursion, a few more interactions, and upgrade the basic cards to the better versions. If you wanted to take this deck to 8-9 power level, it honestly wouldn’t take too much. What would you add and take out if you wanted to do what? Let me know in the comments below or find us on social media and tell me there! Until next time!
AoE Table Top 