Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire is a Demon Rogue creature from Magic the Gathering’s Kaldheim set. Rogues have become a fairly powerful tribe in Magic thanks to Zendikar Rising’s Merfolk Windrobber and Soaring Thought-Thief, as well as the Thieves’ Guild Enforcer from the Magic 2021 Core Set. As if the Rogue tribe needed another weapon, they get one that can double as a Vampiric Tutor. Whenever Varragoth attacks, you cast pay one generic mana and one Black mana to take any card from a target player’s library and put it on top of that player’s library.
One downside of Varragoth is that he costs three mana to cast, while the Rogues that have been seeing the most competitive play cost two mana or less, allowing them to play Lurrus of the Dream-Den as a companion. The other major downside is that his tutor ability only works if you’ve attacked with Varragoth during that turn. Even having Deathtouch, opponent’s will look to remove Varragoth before it can successfully tutor a card.
The upside is that Varragoth may be one of the most powerful tutors in the game when his Boast ability becomes live. Being able to get any card to the top of your deck every turn is incredibly powerful. Also, it’s notable that his tutor ability can target any player. So, you could target an opponent’s deck, pick a card that they would probably not want to go to the graveyard, put it on top, and with your other Rogues see that it ends up in the graveyard. You could also put a land on top of their deck or another card that doesn’t help them in that particular moment.
Of course, using Varragoth’s tutor ability for yourself isn’t all that excellent against other Rogues decks, which are looking to mill as many cards as possible from your library. But, a 2 / 3 creature with deathtouch and a tutor ability you can use once each turn when he attacks certainly seems good enough to see play. If you’re not facing off against other Rogues decks. He’s probably pretty good, even if he essentially replaces himself with potentially drawing you the best card in your deck at that particular moment.
The question then becomes, is this tutoring effect worth playing him? Having deathtouch makes him a productive attacker or blocker at the very least. But, just to tutor one card requires an investment of 3 generic and two Black mana, essentially a worse version of the four-mana Diabolic Tutor. Is being a deathtouch creature that can potentially tutor multiple cards while he’s in play worth the overall investment? We’ll have to see how things play out
Varragoth will probably find more than a few homes in Commander for the reason that he’s pretty much a budget replacement for Vampiric Tutor. Granted you have to attack with him, but he serves his purpose as soon as you can tutor up two cards or more with him. Tutors are very good in Commander and repeatable tutors have to be considered in a strategy that would be aggressively pushing with creatures anyway.
Also, early on Commander players found that Varragoth could make a decent Voltron-style Commander. That makes sense, as he can tutor up the best card he can use at any moment when he attacks. He can also be a great political commander, and in that vein, here’s one potential Varragoth Commander deck list here that was submitted to MTG Goldfish. Of course, he also works well in Rogue Tribal decks, such as those led by Anowon, the Ruin Thief.
How would you play Varragoth, Bloodsky Sire?
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