I realize the irony of the thread title. Get over it.
As a Reanimator player for the last ~7 months, I felt rather confident going into Vestal. After seeing Geoff Smelski's performance at the last Vestal tournament, I knew the deck would treat me well. It basically had to. I've helped the design the deck to near-perfection, understand sideboarding very well (a fatal flaw I might add seeing all these other Reanimator players. It's not the deck people, it's you. Learn to sideboard and stop losing.) and happen to just be awesome which helps my case for victory.
Team Left Field Reanimator - by Colin Chilbert/Geoff Smelski
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Blazing Archon
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Sundering Titan
4 Entomb
4 Careful Study
4 Exhume
4 Reanimate
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
3 Mystical Tutor
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
4 Underground Sea
4 Polluted Delta
3 Marsh Flats
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Island
2 Swamp
Sideboard:
4 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
1 Show and Tell
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Hurkyl's Recall
1 Echoing Truth
1 Rushing River
1 Wipe Away
1 Extirpate
1 Ravenous Trap
2 Faerie Macabre
I naturally kept our maindeck the same as it's arguably the most consistent build of the deck game 1. For some reason nobody else gives love for Ponder, but the card was insane for me. I changed the sideboard a little bit for meta predictions, but the board happened to be pretty awesome.
Round 1: Ray (Iamfishman) playing UWR Countertop Landstill
Game 1: I'm on the play, and lead with fetch, Ponder. He plays a Factory and a Top. I play another land and pass. His turn he plays a Volcanic Island and passes. I cast Mystical Tutor on his end step for Careful Study. On my turn I play Careful Study dumping Iona, and cast Reanimate. He attempts to Force, but I have a Force back (with another one ready in hand. I name Iona on blue. He can't find another colored source of mana and loses in short order.
I'll note here that I don't remember my exact sideboarding for each match, so I'm not going to bother listing it specifically. But I do recall I brought in discard and bounce, and Show and Tell. Generally 8-9 cards came in for blue matchups, something like 4 Thoughtseize, 1 Duress, and 4 assorted bounce.
Game 2: I mulligan to 5, he keeps his hand. He leads with a Relic. I Ponder, shuffle, and pass. He plays a Counterbalance. I Thoughtseize him, he flips a land, and take a Top. We play draw-go a little as he hits me a couple times with a Factory. I draw a Duress when I know he has a Force in hand, but he flips a Top with Counterbalance. From there it goes downhill and I can't find answers.
Game 3: I lead with a Ponder, go. He plays a turn 1 Top. My turn I Thoughtseize him to see lands, 2 Spell Snare, and an StP. He draws a Relic off the top. I play cantrips and dig, and find Show and Tell with Archangel in hand. Then he plays a Counterbalance with a mana open. My turn I go for Show and Tell without backup, and it resolves. He can't handle the Archangel and she takes it home.
2-1
1-0
Round 2: John, Monowhite Painter Grindstone
Game 1: He does a lot of irrelevant stuff, and I Entomb on his endstep turn 2 for Iona and play her turn 3. He doesn't play white spells for the rest of the game. It was fun.
I remember bringing in all bounce spells, and that's it.
Game 2: I mulligan, he mulls to 4. I Entomb during his 2nd end step for Iona lacking the animate spell, Careful Study dumping Inkwell, then Ponder and find Exhume on top. He draws Relic, and I frown, as I left only 3 creatures in the deck and 2 were gone. We go back and forth a bit as I'm searching for another Entomb, and find one. He draws another Relic, but I have the bounce spell, and get Iona in play. He then plays a Meekstone, and I frown. He also has Scrying Sheets and a Sensei's Top in play. I manage to bounce the Meekstone once and swing him down to 6, but I never draw another bounce spell for the rest of the game and get slow-grinded out by double Grindstone. It was sad to watch.
Game 3: I keep a risky hand and lead with Careful Study dumping Inkwell. He plays a turn 1 Meekstone and I Force. I have a turn 2 Exhume and get Inky into play. His 2nd turn involved a Sensei's Top and pass. My turn I swing putting him at 13, then Thoughtseize him seeing 2 Painter, 2 Swords to Plowshares. I take a Painter. He tops eot, and on his turn drops a Grindstone. However, he didn't have the land to cast Painter as well. My turn I swing him down to 6, and the Painter he plays has to chump Inky, and it ends up getting there.
2-1
2-0
Round 3: Chris, UBW Landstill
Game 1: I open with a nutty hand. I cast Entomb on his 2nd end step and it resolved, and I also cast a Mystical as well and it resolved, and I got Force. On my turn I cast Exhume, he casts Negate, I cast Force. I also had a 2nd Force in hand, but Iona on white went the distance.
See round 1 sideboarding.
Game 2: He opens with a turn 1 Relic. I get him to burn through the Relic by baiting it with an Inkwell. He manages to draw another one and my hand is lacking a bounce spell and I have trouble finding one. By the time I do I'm low on life thanks to a Factory and am forced to Entomb for Empyrial Archangel over Iona as I was using Reanimate. I manage to resolve the Reanimate but the following turn he plays Humility and I I can't find an answer to handle double Factory.
Game 3: My hand is nuts and I have an Iona on turn 2 with Daze backup. It was fun.
2-1
3-0
Round 4: Token, playing GBW Rock
Game 1: I play fetch, go. He plays Thoughtseize, and I respond with Entomb. He takes my Exhume. I Play Ponder and find Entomb and Exhume on top. His turn he plays Bojuka Bog and nukes the Iona I dumped. My turn I draw Exhume and pass. He plays a Tarmogoyf and passes. On my turn I draw Entomb and get Iona naming white into play, and his entire hand is white. Fun.
See round 1 sideboarding.
Game 2: I keep an odd hand of 3 land, Mystical, and 3 bounce spells. He has a turn 1 Thoughtseize, turn 2 Tidehollow Sculler, turn 3 Tarmogoyf. My draws are bad and I burn bounce spells on the creatures to stall, and by the time I can animate he has a Faerie Macabre ready for it.
Game 3: I keep an amazing hand. I play fetch, go. He opens with Thoughtseize, I respond with Entomb, then Daze it. On my turn I cast Reanimate and it resolves, putting Iona on white. He can't find a Diabolic Edict in time and I win quickly.
2-1
4-0
Round 5: Matt McNally, playing Countertop Bant
Game 1: I open with Ponder, go. He plays a Top. My 2nd turn involves a Careful Study dumping Iona and Empyrial Archangel, then cast Reanimate. He draws with Top, then Dazes. I Daze back. Iona on white. His next turn he replays the top. My next turn I Exhume Archangel into play. That was fun.
Game 2: He leads with a Top, and I lead with a Thoughtseize taking a Counterbalance and seeing he has a Force but an otherwise awful hand. My hand was also awful though and it took forever to find cards. He makes 5 land drops in a row and starts beating with a Dryad Arbor. I finally manage an Entomb on his end step with 5 cards left. He lets it resolve. I also Mystical on his end step, and it resolves, and I get Exhume. On my turn I cast Exhume, and he tops in response. He Tops in response, then attempts to Force, and I Daze. He pays with 1 land left untapped. I then Daze again, and he stops and thinks. He then decides to Top in response again, and I manage to bluff him into letting the Exhume resolve as he put me on triple Daze when the last cards in my hand were land. Iona on white comes into play. However, he untaps and plays Sower of Temptation, and I don't find a bounce spell in time.
Game 3: I open a nutty hand of Sea, 2 Daze, Reanimate, Iona, Mystical Tutor, Exhume. I play land, go. He plays a fetchland and cracks it, and I respond by playing Mystical Tutor for Careful Study. He plays a Hierarch. I play Careful Study, he attempts to Daze, and I Daze back. I draw stuff and dump Iona, then replay the land and play Reanimate. Iona on white. He can't race, and I win.
2-1
5-0
I draw in round 6 and 7 into top8.
Top8: Nick, Dragon Stompy
Game 1: He mulligans. I keep a good hand but it's all 1cc cards (I didn't know what he was playing until game 2). He opens with Mountain, go. I play land, go. He attempts a Chalice for 1, I Brainstorm in response and find the Force of Will. My next turn involves Entombing on my upkeep and Reanimating Iona. It's on red. He can't play spells and loses.
I boarded in all bounce spells and Show and Tell.
Game 2: He mulligans. I open a hand of Brainstorm, FoW, and Sphinx, with 4 lands. A weak hand, but I was on the draw and opened Force. He plays a turn 1 Chalice, and I FoW pitching Sphinx. I draw a land, play a fetch and say go. He plays a Crypt, and I respond with Brainstorm. Brainstorm draws me into 3 lands. I now have 7 in hand. That was great. Naturally, I lose this game as I don't play spells for the rest of the time.
Game 3: I open a hand of 5 land, Iona, and Show and Tell. I debated mulling, but this avoided both Chalice and Crypt so I decided to keep. He mulls to 4, so I'm happy. I play land, go. He plays land, Crypt, go. I draw an Exhume, and play a land. He draws and plays Tomb, removes Spirit Guide, and plays Rakdos Pit Dragon. I frown. My turn I draw Reanimate, play a land, and Show and Tell Iona. He drops Gathan Raiders off it. On his turn he draws a red card, and doesn't swing. My turn I draw Ponder, and Ponder into Rushing River. I attack. His turn he goes to swing, and I River both his creatures. He scoops afterwards.
2-1
6-0-2
Top 4: Jim, Countertop Bant
Game 1: I keep an awful hand on the play of 3 land, 2 Daze, Force, and Sundering Titan. Not sure why I kept, but oh well. He attempts a Counterbalance on turn 2 and we fight over it but I win. I eventually draw relevant cards and Careful Study Titan then Reanimate him, blowing up 3 of his lands and leaving him with a Top and Hierarch. His next turn he drops a land and StP, but I Force. I swing. The next turn he plays another StP. I fall behind after that but start to build my hand, but he gets a Goyf into play the turn before I can Exhume an Iona into play.
See round 1 sideboarding.
Game 2: I open an interesting hand with no disruption but lots of business. I attempt an Entomb on his 2nd endstep and he Spell Pierces it. On my turn I go for Show and Tell and it resolves. I drop Iona and he drops Counterbalance. He ends up playing 2 Tarmogoyf but they can't race Iona.
Game 3: I don't have notes for this game, but I believe it involves a turn 3 Iona with backup, and he doesn't have a Tarmogoyf to race.
2-1
7-0-2
Finals: Dave Price (Quicksilver) playing NOT New Horizons, but tempo bant with KotR and Terravore.
Game 1: I mull to 5 and he mulls to 4. I open with Ponder and shuffle. He plays a land. I play a Careful Study and dump Iona with Exhume and FoW in hand. He plays a Tarmogoyf. I don't draw a blue card, but go for Iona. He has a Force of Will pitching Force of Will. Nice 4 card hand jackass. I don't find another animate spell and he plays another Tarmogoyf.
See round 1 sideboarding.
Game 2: I open with Careful Study dumping Iona. He plays Ponder. I go for Exhume with no backup, and he has a Daze. He plays another Ponder, then Crypt. yay. I draw Force of Will for the turn (yeah), Thoughtseize him, and see 2 Brainstorms and another Ponder. wtf. He drops another Crypt, and I Force. He Brainstorms, and plays a Goyf. I lose interest, and let him beat me down with some green creatures as I can't compete with those kind of draws.
0-2
7-1-2
I could've waited a turn game 2 as I had a Thoughtseize in hand, but I was worried he'd have a Crypt or Bog if I didn't go for it then (which it turns out he did the following turn. Overall, I think this build of the deck is about as strong as it gets. The consistency is just absurd. The amount of draw I had really put me ahead all the time. Too bad I couldn't win the entire thing though, but I was happy taking home a set of Tundras and a box of Worldwake, which sadly didn't yield me the Jace I desired.
I don't see why there is so much hostility for dave price....
Other than that, good report.
Team Unicorn: We're horny...get it?
Originally Posted by Ewokslayer
That's pretty funny, Colin; I did get a chuckle. Nice work, btw.
Good jobz!
No hostility towards him at all. I was just bummed that the only time my deck decided to not do what I wanted it to was the finals of the tournament. But then again, I was also mad that he had a 4 card hand that produced a turn 2 Tarmogoyf with Force backup. And I had a really good hand game 2, but he played 6 cantrips by turn 5 game 2 and steamrolled me. I suppose if anything I was just bummed because I have a really good matchup against that deck given his only defense is Force of Will and Daze, which I can handle quite capably. Oh well, I was happy I got that far, and was happy for him on winning the event.
Did you go 2-1 every match (other than your loss)?
Lol yes. I lost every one of my game 2s all the way until top4, where I lost game 1 then won the others. It was a weird combination of mulligans, bad hands, bad draws, and a lot of hate. I was on the draw a good portion of the time as well (I only won the die roll twice).
I'm not really sure what conclusions to make of that, and personally don't think it's anything to worry about. Most of my game 2's were really close despite losing all but one of them, but it was odd how it played out. I do think though part of that has to do with how I prepared the deck post-board on the draw and how it affected sideboarding. I'm tinkering with different sideboarding packages right now to see if I can make it better post-board because I'd obviously prefer going 2-0 instead of having to fight for game 3 every time.
Congratulations! I think you have too much mana for a deck that needs so little, but maybe that's just me.
Personally, I was thinking about the Paranoia thread about Reanimator which seems to cling to chicken little philosophy. I won't doubt the power of the new Reanimator, but I would hardly say that the sky is falling when a deck went 2-1 all day long.
I'm happy to see good Reanimator lists. I remember loving the deck when reanimation targets of choice where Multani, Phantom Nishoba, and Visara the Dreadful.
That opinion doesn't take into consideration that the field was full of graveyard hate, that he faced several copies of discard/FoW/Crypt of Tormod/Relic of Progenitus and still had enough discard/counters/bounce to bypass them even after mulliganing twice in some matches.
There's no way to hate this deck. The most you can do is to slow it down a bit, assuming it doesn't get lucky and has force backup. Di said it best
Congrats on your finish! I have 2 questions though, why no Show and Tell md and was your opponent on the last round the real David Price, Grandfather of beatdown? LOL.
Last edited by Sureshot; 03-17-2010 at 11:04 PM.
It sure as hell does. First, won't ANY deck in a Legacy tourney face multiple copies of FoW and Daze and Discard? Also, when the hell did decks NOT pack any yard hate in their SBs?
Plus, your opinion doesn't take into consideration the other Reanimator players at this tourney that did NOT make it to T8. Did Geoff also play Reanimator at this tourney?
Let's also keep in mind some great luck on Di's part.
Yes, but those are supposed to stop combo decks, or at least, that's what people said in the reanimator paranoia thread. Which is why I find so puzzling that you used it as a confirmation that the deck is not unfair. Packing tons of hate only seems to slightly balance the match, but the end result is 2-1 in favor of Reanimator.
It could also be that Di is a really good player. I know because I faced him once and good players are easy to spot, heh.
But no. These are not supposed to STOP combo; they are supposed to provide the speed bumps needed to give you a fighting chance against a combo deck. I'll paraphrase a quote from SCG. Some people drop hate and expect the combo player to concede. We're not playing against Fluctuator here. We can't just drop Crypt and then laugh as they try to find their single Chain of Vapor.
TONS of hate? Was this really tons of hate? This was the average amount of hate ANY deck would face. And, yes, sometimes the hate ain't enough. Sometimes the Burn player can still beat CoP:Red. Sometimes AggroLoam can win after you Extirpate their Loams. Sometimes Dredge can beat Leyline.Packing tons of hate only seems to slightly balance the match, but the end result is 2-1 in favor of Reanimator.
At this tourney, we didn't see Edict effects. I'm betting DEdict and friends are going to make a cute little comeback. We also didn't see Leyline. Leyline is great free uncounterable hate that makes Reanimator play the "hand-scultping" game. Hopefully your deck can play that game too (or at least be fast enough that that game doesn't matter.)
The meta will adjust.
Running a higher number of lands goes a long way towards beating the tempo matchups like Merfolk, Canadian Theshold, Tempo Bant, etc. Although the latter two aren't too difficult, Merfolk can be an incredibly difficult matchup. Due to their fast clock and Daze/Cursecatcher, having 18 lands really helps to resolve stuff and fight through land disruption. I generally have a sufficient amount of lands without getting flooded, and the extras are always nice to pitch to Careful Study. I've been debating cutting back down to 17, but that really hurts post-board with 3cc spells, not to mention it can be an occasional issue due to Daze slowing you down at times.
Oh, I certainly don't think the deck is banworthy. It's really good, but it has problems. Chalice of the Void hits really hard as does Counterbalance, and graveyard hate is still a problem. I was fortunate enough to bypass some hate in a few games and had some luck on my side. But I certainly don't think it's at the level where it's too good for the format. I personally do think it's the best deck, however.
I've discussed maindeck Show and Tell, but I feel it's too slow to be worth the maindeck slot. It's really there to handle excessive hate, Chalice, or Counterbalance, but I don't want to skew my maindeck consistency for a card that's a bit slow. I don't think it's bad by any means for the maindeck, but I just think it isn't worth maindecking, at least until I start seeing graveyard hate.Congrats on your finish! I have 2 questions though, why no Show and Tell md and was your opponent on the last round the real David Price, Grandfather of beatdown? LOL.
And no, it was not the real Dave price :p
A few questions about your list:
why only 3 mysticals when you use a tutor sideboard list?
I haven't seen a single part of your report where you picked up the sundering titan. Dead card?
About the games:
What the heck happened to that meekstone?!
If I read it correctly you also walked straight into graveyard hate once in a while. ( iona in grave, bojuka bog) Things like this should not happen unless stuff you play gets countered.
You hardly calculated the ammount of forces/dazes he might have.
I might be wrong in my observations but some parts are written like you do.
Anyways congrats on your nice result.
Good read. Few things to point out though:
"It's not the deck people, it's you. Learn to sideboard and stop losing." seems pretty ignorant considering that this game has a luck element. Considering post #13...
Sundering Titan? Did this work at all for you? It seems like a stall tactic at best--but I'm definitely open and interested in why you run it.
As practical joke said, what happened to that meekstone in R2G3? Meekstone is a PITA. :<
Did you see a lot of Macabre? I played three people in a row with what felt like 3+ in the board. It was rough considering all of them were running FoW so I couldn't even set up an exhume->macabre->entomb without excessive duress/fow/daze backup.
I haven't seen a single part of your report where you picked up the sundering titan. Dead card?Use your browser's search feature--Sundering Titan? Did this work at all for you?
@ DiGame 1: I keep an awful hand on the play of 3 land, 2 Daze, Force, and Sundering Titan. Not sure why I kept, but oh well. He attempts a Counterbalance on turn 2 and we fight over it but I win. I eventually draw relevant cards and Careful Study Titan then Reanimate him, blowing up 3 of his lands and leaving him with a Top and Hierarch. His next turn he drops a land and StP, but I Force. I swing. The next turn he plays another StP. I fall behind after that but start to build my hand, but he gets a Goyf into play the turn before I can Exhume an Iona into play.
First off, congratz.
I'd also like to echo:
Why Titan? I find the card is too easy to answer and recover from. Usually I can find reanimation targets which are just plain stronger.
Why only 3 mystical tutors?
Why no Thoughtseize at all in the main? I consider it vital to know the deck and flavor (and sometimes current hand in clutch situations) in game 1, but the information is less useful in games 2 and 3. I actually side the card out in games 2 and 3 in some cases.
peace,
4eak
I haven't seen a single part of your report where you picked up the sundering titan. Dead card?Sundering Titan? Did this work at all for you?Use your browser's search feature--Why Titan?
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