That Esper Zombie commander looks SICK. Looting, lifegain, not expensive, decent body, and a (probably not very useful) token generation ability? I'm sold
Varina, Lich Queen
1WUB 4/4 Zombie Wizard
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 zombie token.
Skull Storm
7BB, Sorcery
When you cast this spell, copy it for each time you've cast your commander from the command zone this game.
Each opponent sacrifices a creature. Each opponent who can't loses half their life, rounded up.
Entreat the Dead
XXBBB, Sorcery
Miracle XBB
Return X target creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield.
If I can read the unreadable, it's this:
Skull Storm:
Copies for each time commander was cast.
Each opponent sacs a creature. Each opponent who can't loses half their life, rounded up.
Entreat the dead:
Return X target creatures from your yard to the battlefield
Varina, Lich Queen:
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 yard: create a 2/2 tapped zombie token
Varina, Lich Queen is the Esper Zombie general I have wanted to see get printed for some time now. I’m definitely booting Oloro to the curb for my Zombie deck.
Entreat the Dead seems okay. If you are equipped to set up Miracle with Scroll Rack, Sensei’s Divining Top, and Vampiric Tutor then it could be really good. I think that there’s some potential here, but there are some hoops to jump through to get there.
Skull Storm is really expensive, but maybe that’s okay when it allows you to cast your Commander a few times before dropping this. I guess that most big mana black decks wouldn’t have a problem with the mana, but I’m not sure that this is the game winning play at that point. For every game that you can cast this with 3 copies post-Damnation and drop your opponents from 40 life to 2 life, you are going to have a game where you are scrambling to cast your Commander enough times to just take out a few tokens or it will rot in your hand because you never get to 9 mana.
Is the 'lose half your life' clause cumulative?
Lets I say I played my commander 3x before and buddy has no creatures, what happens?
Each copy is seperate. So if youve cast your commander three times and they're at 40 with no creatures they would lose half their life 4 times, going to 20 then 10 then 5 then 2. Twice more would be lethal since its round up.
Going into my Virtus the veiled and Gorm the great deck that plays with halving life totals. Plus, casting two generals builds up the commander storm twice as fast.
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Something really bugs me. Why Varina got the template "when you attack with one or more creature, do that many X" while Thantis of Kesta got the old wording of "whenever a creature attack, do X"? Isn't the same?
Anyway zombies are cool, glad they made an Esper one finally.
I imagine it's for online; Thantis just draws cards so its only one thing you can "yield" to and just draw the cards. Varina draws AND Discards, which means it'd be simultaneously less powerful if it was technically one trigger for each creature (draw, discard, draw, discard, draw, discard, instead of draw 3 discard 3) and more of a hassle for online play.
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Something really bugs me. Why Varina got the template "when you attack with one or more creature, do that many X" while Thantis of Kesta got the old wording of "whenever a creature attack, do X"? Isn't the same?
Anyway zombies are cool, glad they made an Esper one finally.
I imagine it's for online; Thantis just draws cards so its only one thing you can "yield" to and just draw the cards. Varina draws AND Discards, which means it'd be simultaneously less powerful if it was technically one trigger for each creature (draw, discard, draw, discard, draw, discard, instead of draw 3 discard 3) and more of a hassle for online play.
I agree for online, and even for paper its a simpler decision to draw four and discard four than to draw one discard one four times because you get to see all the cards at once rather than guessing what the next three might be to make your decision.
Going into my Virtus the veiled and Gorm the great deck that plays with halving life totals. Plus, casting two generals builds up the commander storm twice as fast.
Do you have a decklist for that? I've been toying with the same idea and am looking for ideas.
"Whenever a creature attacks" gives you a trigger, in this case a card, per attacking creature. "Whenever one or more creatures attack" gives you a trigger per combat.
The first version therefore is usually more powerful.
why is it sometimes "whenever a creature you control attacks" (or zombie in this case) and now "when you attack with one or more zombies draw that many cards..." ???
what is the difference and why do they print them in different wordings when the mechanic is the same ?
or can some1 tell me the functional difference between Sanctum Seeker & Varina ?
The reason is digital Magic.
The first one triggers once per creature attacking
The second one triggers only once per combat
At the end of the day the number of card draws will be the same, but the number of clicks can be very different.
Of course, they are not EXACTLY the same thing. A single trigger is more easily countered. But this is kind of a corner case scenario.
Difficult to see even on a HD computer monitor. So you are not alone.
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1WUB 4/4 Zombie Wizard
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 zombie token.
Skull Storm
7BB, Sorcery
When you cast this spell, copy it for each time you've cast your commander from the command zone this game.
Each opponent sacrifices a creature. Each opponent who can't loses half their life, rounded up.
Entreat the Dead
XXBBB, Sorcery
Miracle XBB
Return X target creature cards from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Skull Storm:
Copies for each time commander was cast.
Each opponent sacs a creature. Each opponent who can't loses half their life, rounded up.
Entreat the dead:
Return X target creatures from your yard to the battlefield
Varina, Lich Queen:
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 yard: create a 2/2 tapped zombie token
I've been neutral on the esper zombie commander this whole tkme but a lich queen is certainly a cool way to go about that.
Skull Storm seems expensive but I guess it could be back breaking or even game ending so theres that.
Entreat the Dead is super sweet through.
Lets I say I played my commander 3x before and buddy has no creatures, what happens?
Entreat the Dead seems okay. If you are equipped to set up Miracle with Scroll Rack, Sensei’s Divining Top, and Vampiric Tutor then it could be really good. I think that there’s some potential here, but there are some hoops to jump through to get there.
Skull Storm is really expensive, but maybe that’s okay when it allows you to cast your Commander a few times before dropping this. I guess that most big mana black decks wouldn’t have a problem with the mana, but I’m not sure that this is the game winning play at that point. For every game that you can cast this with 3 copies post-Damnation and drop your opponents from 40 life to 2 life, you are going to have a game where you are scrambling to cast your Commander enough times to just take out a few tokens or it will rot in your hand because you never get to 9 mana.
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Each copy is seperate. So if youve cast your commander three times and they're at 40 with no creatures they would lose half their life 4 times, going to 20 then 10 then 5 then 2. Twice more would be lethal since its round up.
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I imagine it's for online; Thantis just draws cards so its only one thing you can "yield" to and just draw the cards. Varina draws AND Discards, which means it'd be simultaneously less powerful if it was technically one trigger for each creature (draw, discard, draw, discard, draw, discard, instead of draw 3 discard 3) and more of a hassle for online play.
RCRDaretti: Superfriends Forever RCR
WGBDoran: Ent-mootWBG
GGGMultani: Group Bear HugGGG
GB(B/G)The Gitrog Monster: Dredgefall DurdleGB(B/G)
RGWGahiji, the Honored Group Hug MonsterRGW
UB(U/B)Yuriko, Ninja Trinket AggroUB(U/B)
WUBRGAtogatog: Assembling a OHKOWUBRG
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StaffI agree for online, and even for paper its a simpler decision to draw four and discard four than to draw one discard one four times because you get to see all the cards at once rather than guessing what the next three might be to make your decision.
Do you have a decklist for that? I've been toying with the same idea and am looking for ideas.
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"Whenever one or more creatures attack" gives you a trigger per combat.
The first version therefore is usually more powerful.
The reason is digital Magic.
The first one triggers once per creature attacking
The second one triggers only once per combat
At the end of the day the number of card draws will be the same, but the number of clicks can be very different.
Of course, they are not EXACTLY the same thing. A single trigger is more easily countered. But this is kind of a corner case scenario.
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