The M.E.T.H.O.D
09-04-2006, 11:34 PM
Yay for my first discussion post!
I think REanimator is a very viable archtype for the legacy metagame for many reasons. Legacy has hit critical mass with the amount of cheap CC powerful cards for this style of deck. And besides running into swords to plowshares and the mandatory crypts that most people SB there aren't many matchup specific cards that you might risk running to because of the aggressive speed and card digging ability. I chose to follow this route instead of the combo version (karmic guide + guys) and my teammate Jacob Orlove's versions for a variety of reasons. The main reason was that those kinds of builds are up to a turn/2turns slower then this build and they are more prone to encountering the hate cards and running into the maindeck problematic cards. Being even a turn slower you risk yourself running into the swords/crypts that my list would possibly run into, but you also leave yourself open to mage, daze, counterspell, bounce spells, or allowing your opponent to set up his gameplan to beat you or simply lose to the combo decks, goblins, or allow the control variants a chance to actually play permission. I also feel that a lot of the cards that those decks are forced to run by nature are underpowered or dead at many times. The combo version requirs most of the time for you to win via buried alive and jacob's version is prone to you having the wrong cards in the hand at the wrong time. (drawing a random squee off the top would the nut low.)
I tried to mirror my deck to two different reanimator decks that were legal in each format shift in extended. I looked at lists from 2 rotations ago and decks from the likes of Gadiel from the last rotation. They were pretty fast back in their day and with the legacy cardpool the lists could only get faster.
Without further ado, here's the list i posted in the Mana Leak open thread.
'shok style reanimator
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Buried Alive
4 Exhume
4 Reanimate
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 Spirit of the Night
2 Duress
1 Sickening Dreams
1 Show and Tell
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
2 Island
/sb
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Pithing Needle
2 Duress
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Echoing Truth
- I don't run animate dead even with the "fall off" trick that now works with the guys because you can't tutor for it with mystical, it gives your opponent a chance to kill simic sky swalloer, usually your opponent doesn't have a creature to reanimate anyways (besides like a mogg fanatic or something), and it can randomly get annuled or something.
- Pithing needle was a champion all day in the board. It fights crypts, maze of ith, and counters many other of the cards people are prone to sb'ing against you as well as being a very proactive solution to a lot of matchups.
- SSS is obviously there for plow and it was also another all star post board. I won many games on Saturday and had my opponent flash me plows all the time when the game was over.
- The suicide black/napster cards in the SB were a very good transitional technique post board. I usually boarded out buried alive and mystical tutor because against they are funadamentally the weakest cards game 2 because mystical tutor is card disadvantage when your opponent frequently counters the card you tutored for and buried alive becomes a play over 2 turns when counters are involved and risks you losing to the buried alive go, opponent draws and plays crypt and says go. Negators are soo important post board against the combo and control decks because they provide a fast cheap clock and usually help combo kill your opponent when you reanimate after ripping their hand apart and team attack. The disruption is awsome because it lets you run the good aspect of the suicide black decks post board without the bad fluff and fodder they ran before.
- The deck digs very quickly and throws out guys on turn 1 or 2. The way this deck is build it also allows you to aggressively dig for cards very quickly and it top decks nice, and lets you throw out many reanimate spells against decks packing force of will and daze.
- I'll edit this post with more comments after but i think this thread would work better with me responding to comments but be sure i will add more stuff.
I think this deck is a consideration for people wanting a good deck to play in this format. I played every single popular archtype in my testing and in the actual tourney.
Im including the skeleton for my tourney report here so I can slowly add coverage after reflecting on my matches (i didn't take notes) to ensure accuracy!
Round 1 Goblins
Round 2 Rifter
Round 3 Elias with r/b goblins
Round 4 David Gearheart? with high tide
Round 5 Burning tog?
Round 6 ID
Round 7 ID
Top Eight Nick Cogley with Affinity.
I think REanimator is a very viable archtype for the legacy metagame for many reasons. Legacy has hit critical mass with the amount of cheap CC powerful cards for this style of deck. And besides running into swords to plowshares and the mandatory crypts that most people SB there aren't many matchup specific cards that you might risk running to because of the aggressive speed and card digging ability. I chose to follow this route instead of the combo version (karmic guide + guys) and my teammate Jacob Orlove's versions for a variety of reasons. The main reason was that those kinds of builds are up to a turn/2turns slower then this build and they are more prone to encountering the hate cards and running into the maindeck problematic cards. Being even a turn slower you risk yourself running into the swords/crypts that my list would possibly run into, but you also leave yourself open to mage, daze, counterspell, bounce spells, or allowing your opponent to set up his gameplan to beat you or simply lose to the combo decks, goblins, or allow the control variants a chance to actually play permission. I also feel that a lot of the cards that those decks are forced to run by nature are underpowered or dead at many times. The combo version requirs most of the time for you to win via buried alive and jacob's version is prone to you having the wrong cards in the hand at the wrong time. (drawing a random squee off the top would the nut low.)
I tried to mirror my deck to two different reanimator decks that were legal in each format shift in extended. I looked at lists from 2 rotations ago and decks from the likes of Gadiel from the last rotation. They were pretty fast back in their day and with the legacy cardpool the lists could only get faster.
Without further ado, here's the list i posted in the Mana Leak open thread.
'shok style reanimator
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Buried Alive
4 Exhume
4 Reanimate
4 Mystical Tutor
4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
4 Spirit of the Night
2 Duress
1 Sickening Dreams
1 Show and Tell
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Chrome Mox
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
2 Swamp
2 Island
/sb
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Pithing Needle
2 Duress
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Echoing Truth
- I don't run animate dead even with the "fall off" trick that now works with the guys because you can't tutor for it with mystical, it gives your opponent a chance to kill simic sky swalloer, usually your opponent doesn't have a creature to reanimate anyways (besides like a mogg fanatic or something), and it can randomly get annuled or something.
- Pithing needle was a champion all day in the board. It fights crypts, maze of ith, and counters many other of the cards people are prone to sb'ing against you as well as being a very proactive solution to a lot of matchups.
- SSS is obviously there for plow and it was also another all star post board. I won many games on Saturday and had my opponent flash me plows all the time when the game was over.
- The suicide black/napster cards in the SB were a very good transitional technique post board. I usually boarded out buried alive and mystical tutor because against they are funadamentally the weakest cards game 2 because mystical tutor is card disadvantage when your opponent frequently counters the card you tutored for and buried alive becomes a play over 2 turns when counters are involved and risks you losing to the buried alive go, opponent draws and plays crypt and says go. Negators are soo important post board against the combo and control decks because they provide a fast cheap clock and usually help combo kill your opponent when you reanimate after ripping their hand apart and team attack. The disruption is awsome because it lets you run the good aspect of the suicide black decks post board without the bad fluff and fodder they ran before.
- The deck digs very quickly and throws out guys on turn 1 or 2. The way this deck is build it also allows you to aggressively dig for cards very quickly and it top decks nice, and lets you throw out many reanimate spells against decks packing force of will and daze.
- I'll edit this post with more comments after but i think this thread would work better with me responding to comments but be sure i will add more stuff.
I think this deck is a consideration for people wanting a good deck to play in this format. I played every single popular archtype in my testing and in the actual tourney.
Im including the skeleton for my tourney report here so I can slowly add coverage after reflecting on my matches (i didn't take notes) to ensure accuracy!
Round 1 Goblins
Round 2 Rifter
Round 3 Elias with r/b goblins
Round 4 David Gearheart? with high tide
Round 5 Burning tog?
Round 6 ID
Round 7 ID
Top Eight Nick Cogley with Affinity.