MTG Salvation

General Varchild was one of the most tragic figures of the Ice Age. Instrumental in leading Kjeldor and its allies to victory against the forces of Lim-Dûl, necromancer and puppet of the planeswalker Leshrac, thus setting the stage for Freyalise's World Spell, the ending of the Ice Age saw her lost in a changing world. With the kingdom of Kjeldor growing ever closer to the Balduvian barbarians whose raids she spent a lifetime fending off on behalf of her kingdom, she fought a fool's war aimed at disrupting the coming together of these two nations. The marriage of Alexandrite, daughter of King Darien of Kjeldor and Lothar Lovisasson, son of the Balduvian chieftain Lovisa Coldeyes, marked the end of Varchild's failed attempt to stem the flow of history.

Varchild had one of the most tragic character arcs in the excellent Magic novels Eternal Ice and Shattered Alliance. Until Commander 2018 her fight was only depicted in the card Varchild's War-Riders. As a longtime Vorthos seeing characters from Magic's past come to life (or at least cardboard) is always one of the highlights of the annual Commander releases. It also helps that the art is stunning.

This deck is designed to bring Varchild's doomed crusade to the table. This deck doesn't necessarily aim to win, but rather create enough chaos on the battlefield that any possibility of political alliance breaks down. The survivor tokens Varchild creates are the lynchpin of this strategy, with a suite of equipment cards aimed at enabling token creation, but it also runs plenty of other cards aimed at creating havoc in the combat phase, cards such as Goblin Spymaster and Goblin Diplomats, the Goad mechanic and instant speed cards that remove the ability to block, as well as cards that punish blocking.

Like Varchild herself, your chance at victory is close to zero. That's not the point. The point is to create so much chaos that other players end up tearing each other apart.