My Reanimator: First Big Boy Deck

[JuJuBee]

Hey guys, I'm posting this 'cause I'm just finishing up the deck and I'm having trouble making some final decisions.
Right now I'm trying to balance how to fill out the last few slots: how many/if any: brainstorms, mystical tutors, putrid imps, cabal therapies, and in turn, how many creatures I want to include. 18 or 17 lands? That kind of thing.

My metagame's a little unusual, as I don't play in tournaments, but it's mainly me and a couple of old friends from high school. I'm prepping for a mini-tourney we put on, so I haven't been able to play-test much. The main deck to beat there has been a dredge deck, but we've got a strong showing from mono elves and soldiers (which I intend to deal handily with via Iona), as well as a few less common decks. My primary concern has been Relic of Progenitus's in terms of threats to my deck.
I do have some limitations on budget. I can't afford a set of force of wills, and I probably can't afford thoughtseize either, or the onslaught search-lands. I'd be willing to get a set of cabal therapies if people seemed to think them necessary.
Below: my deck, below that, why.

This is my deck, basically, as it stands today:
1 Blazing Archon
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Voidstone Gargoyle
5

4 Animate Dead
4 Exhume
4 Reanimate
12

4 Buried Alive
4 Entomb
8

4 Careful Study
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
12

4 Dark Ritual
1 Ancient Grudge
5

4 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
1 Island
4 City of Brass
4 Underground River
4 Gemstone Mine
18

Sideboard (in progress):
1 Ancient Grudge
3 Naturalize
2 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Crater Hellion
1 Voidstone Gargoyle
1 Blazing Archon
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Visara the Dreadful

For the unusual choices:
Voidstone Gargoyle has been very useful in my games so far, but I've yet to actually play with Iona, so it might have become obsolete. Still, I can see places where it would be very useful.
Ancient Grudge: Seeing as I have 4 tutors and 4 entombs it's a very accessible card to deal with relics and other annoying artifacts I might have to deal with on the fly. Just a handy bit of versatility.
My sideboard is still in progress, and I'm not entirely sure what to do with it. I can't afford a lot of the good sideboard cards people like to use (see pithing needle and extirpate). Loaming Shaman is in because it's a great way to ensure an already likely victory over the decking deck one of my friends have.

I have a number of other creatures I've toyed with, such as Garza Zol, Tidespout Tyrant, Bogardan Hellkite, but none of them seemed quite worth it. I want to control the opponent's casting options and do damage fast. I imagine that once I get Iona out I'll have pretty much won many of my games, so speed of creature reanimation comes above just about all else.
That said, I've been thinking about entering some real tournaments at some point, so I would like an all-around good deck.

Thanks in advance for the help!

[omega furnace]

Krosan Grip > Naturalize, no chance to respond

I hear Inkwell Leviathan is pretty hard to remove.

If you're worried about tribal decks, Engineered Plague is a pretty solid answer. Pwns most elves, soldiers, and goblins.

The problem with reanimator is that it suffers from the nearly the same hate cards as dredge, so expect plenty of graveyard hate.

[Piceli89]

If you're worried about tribal decks, Engineered Plague is a pretty solid answer. Pwns most elves, soldiers, and goblins.



Nowadays,
Tribal=Merfolk.

[JuJuBee]

The problem with krosan grip is that it's 3 mana in deck that can run off 1-2 lands. My biggest problem is a relic on the first turn. By the third turn, when I could play the grip, I should already have the creature I need out.
The reason I didn't only use ancient grudge is my fear of someday meeting Leyline of the Void.

EP is slow, and I think Iona will do the trick for those decks.

Oh, and on Inkwell, I have some of those, but I felt like the lack of flying, vigilance, or haste made it rather unaggressive. I'd rather run a Simic SS if i need shroud, or Akroma for the speed.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Not nearly enough creatures to effectively run careful study.

This is just me, but:

-4 animate dead
-4 buried alive
-4 mystical tutor

+4 Lotus Petal
+4 Putrid Imp
+4 Fatties, to discard

This will greatly improve your probability t1 dropping a heavy hitter, putrid imp with exhume offers greater gy protection too. It also allows for a blocker if it turns into a race. I'd go for the sucker punch, then SB duress game2.

You also want Sundering Titan. You go against decks like Zoo it really does a number on them.

[whienot]

You can find Pithing Needles for ~$4. They turn off most grave hate. I would suggest 3, but I'm not sure what your budget is. Also, look into Empyrial Archangel. It's a strong versatile big guy.

[JuJuBee]

Pithing Needle's cheaper than I thought. Yeah, looks good.

My original reanimator, a year ago, ran a bunch of Empyrials, but they'd always die as soon as the other deck got going. I feel like I'd rather have a creature I could choose whether to block with (IE Simic). But I dunno, maybe.
Sundering Titan's cool, but not especially useful in my metagame. It'd be good if I went to tourneys though, I'm thinking SB

I feel like 4 Lotus Petals AND 4 Dark Rituals is overkill, especially with no Buried Alives to spend it on. Also, is 8 total reanimate cards really enough? Even with all that draw, that would worry me.
Maybe Animate Dead>Brainstorm?

Now, I could also go the other direction; minimal creatures and counterspells/disruption. That sounds fun, but I'm not sure I could do that effectively w/o Force of Will (which is definitely out of my reach).

[omega furnace]

Would Life//Death be helpful (Death half obv)?

My biggest problem with naturalize is that Spell Snare hits it, and Counterbalance gets it quite frequently too. A CMC 3 version with split second is as close to uncounterable as we see.

Moving on, ur aim is the have an openning hand consisting of
1 entomb
1 swamp or sub
1 reanimate/exhume
1 dark ritual

I can tell u now, it's not going to turn up often enough.

at the very least
-4 careful study
+4 putrid imp


The reason Inkwell is good is not that it's super-agressive. It's good cuz it's a 7/11 TRAMPLE SHROUD. Trample means they have to pretty much feed a small army to it each attack or take a big hit. Shroud turns off most spot removal. And Islandwalk is pretty handy since a great deal of decks run blue.

[JuJuBee]

I tried with Inkwell before, but I kept finding that without haste and no vigilance/flying, I was having to race with it and usually losing the race. I'll definitely try it though, perhaps in the Empyrial slot.

That may not happen, but I'm at least content with a 2nd turn drop, and that most likely will happen.
(1 land, 1 entomb, 1 reanimate), (2 lands, 1 entomb, 1 reanimate/exhume/animate dead), etc. You get the picture. Still, I think my mystical tutors and Buried Alives may have been slowing things down.

Thoughts on this build?
2 Blazing Archon
2 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Voidstone Gargoyle
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
9

4 Animate Dead
4 Exhume
4 Reanimate
12

4 Putrid Imp
4 Entomb
4 Careful Study
12

4 Brainstorm
4

4 Dark Ritual
1 Lotus Petal
1 Ancient Grudge
6

3 Swamp
1 Watery Grave
1 Island
4 City of Brass
4 Underground River
4 Gemstone Mine
17

Here I have more creatures in hand, and more ways to put them to the graveyard. I get chump blockers, and I still get to cycle through cards with careful study.
Inkwell and Empyrial both have their benefits, still deciding which. I could always go for max fast damage, ie. 2 Razia instead of Empyrial+Sphinx.
Is Voidstone worth it, guys? Now that I'm discarding creatures from hand more I get less choice about which one I get, and Voidstone would be a shitty only creature to get stuck with as my first drop. Still, it cripples combo decks, and an almost unstoppable force when teamed with Iona.

Life-Death is good 'cause it allows me to bring back Akroma and is dispel-impervious, but I worry because I already take a lot of land-damage with this deck. I want to be able to bring back 2-3 creatures if I need to, and if I don't draw exhume I would be very unable to do so with Life-Death+Reanimate.

The other thing is that if I'm running putrid imps, Cabal Therapy is good 'cause it offers A) Preemptive options B) Knowledge of opponent's hand C) Discard outlet D) Possibility of double-use. Still, wherever would I put it... Cabal Therapy vs. Brainstorm?

I'm also starting to think +2 Buried Alive, -1 Ancient Grudge -1 Lotus Petal.

[RexFTW]

I have built this deck. I dont have the exact list but here are some tips.

Best possible mana base:
4 savanah
4 fetches
1 swamp
4 dark ritual
4 lotus petal
4 chrome mox

4 serum powders help a lot because this deck must mull a ton.

Your graveyard/reanimation spells are correct.

1 Inkwell goes a long way vs maze of ith.

Blazing archon is not that good.

Iona is auto win vs many decks.

Turn 1 Iona vs unknown opponents pick blue or white.

Sideboard must contain 4 pithing needle 4 leyline of the void

[practical joke]

mulligan a lot? not really. I know you checked out the other reanimation threat in the Established part.

I'd say pick one of the 2-3 played versions that you can find in there and then tune it to your liking.
You can go for buried alive, but only if you play rituals instead of petals. That way you can up the reanimation count with +2 animate dead and putrid imps.
be aware that playing both force of will and daze will be a lot harder without that blue support.
Start playing fetch and use brainstorm, that card is pure goodness.
Sundering titan is pretty good, but only when you play a 2-color build. the three color build ( or when you have 3 basic landtypes) will give you problems.

serum is not that good. Forcing someone to play pithing needle and leyline is rubbish as well. Since pithing does have some uses, doesn't mean you need it.
Leyline is only good when you play rituals, so that means you can recast it when it gets bounced. you can play tormod's crypt if you like.
blazing archon is also an auto-win against a few decks, I don't say it's good, but it does win some matches.
If you can go turn 1 iona and don't know what the opposing deck is.. you did something wrong. at that moment you wait for him to play his first land. if you don't know what he's playing go for a shroud creature. inkwell or empyrial or even simic sky swallower are better options.

because the deck empties your hand very fast, I don't think chrome mox would be the right addition to the deck. I also have no clue what the savannah's are good for in a blue/black deck with a green splash.

Adjusting the base mana is your own preferences. you can play from as low as 19 mana sources to about 23.

[JuJuBee]

Hey, thanks for dropping by practical joke. And everyone else here, too.
I'd love to run fetch lands, especially with Underground Seas, but that would simply cost too much for me. I do wish... But alas, I'm stuck feeling like I'm drawing too much mana or I'm screwing myself. (That is, 18 lands or 17 lands.)

I've sort of been referencing Master Shake's list because it's the only one not going the $$$ Force of Will route:
http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=406663&postcount=826

Which is one reason I'm stuck with a dilemma:
+4 Cabal Therapy, -both Buried Alives, -1 Animate Dead, -1 Creature?
Is it worth it? I would have quite a number of discard outlets at that point, 12 actually, and only my 4 Entombs for search. Of course, Cabal Therapy would give my deck disruption (is also more $.....).
This is my main question that remains for my build right now. I do love my Buried Alives, and I'd hate to see them go, but right now I have no countering/force discard stuff.
I could also get rid of a Dark Ritual, as they're not as useful without/with fewer Buried Alives.

Also, since I'm relying less on search cards (especially if I added Cabal Therapy) would I want more Ionas for consistency?


Yeah, Blazing Archon's a win against at least two of my friends' decks, likely more, and certainly more if I get Iona out too.

I'm still not certain if I feel the need to pick up Pithing Needles in my SB. I like how Ancient Grudge takes advantage of the deck's capabilities with entomb; though I realize this only really makes a difference against Relic of Progenitus where they need to pay :1: . I'll think about it; Pithing Needle's a very dynamic card, and damn cool.
I don't understand why I need Leyline. It's really just for dredge and other reanimators n' stuff, right? Not worth the $ for me to SB that.

So I'm thinking:
Sideboard:
4 Pithing Needle
2 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Blazing Archon
1 Sundering Titan
1 Loaming Shaman
1 Crater Hellion
4 Duress

I also like Spell Pierce, but Duress seems that much better.

I'm also starting to consider running Tombstalker over Inkwell as my 8th creature, just as a back-up measure. Not sure.