[Deck] TinFins 3: Return of the Onion Burst

[phazonmutant]

I played in the Time Vault Games 1k Legacy tournament this Sunday, ended up in 6th out of around 60 people. Shoutouts to Time Vault Games for hyping legacy in the Pacific Northwest with their open series - between them and CardKingdom, medium sized tournaments are getting to be fairly frequent.
2 Griselbrand
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
1 Children of Korlis

4 Entomb
4 Shallow Grave
3 Goryo's Vengeance
2 Reanimate

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Sensei's Divining Top

4 Cabal Therapy
2 Thoughtseize

4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual

4 Polluted Delta
2 Flooded Strand
2 Marsh Flats
2 Underground Sea
2 Tundra
1 Scrubland
1 Island
1 Swamp

// Sideboard
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Serenity
1 Flusterstorm

I was much happier with the sideboard after the event. Stoneforge felt much better than Bob and I got to board it in more matchups. I'm pretty disappointed in the loss in the quarters, it was a pretty good matchup and our draws just lined up in his favor.

I'll just do an abbreviated summary. The notes are board plans because that seems like the most likely to have been a mistake or confusing to others)
R1 - Infect 2-0 (+3 Stoneforge, +1 Umezawa's Jitte, +3 Swords to Plowshares, -2 Sensei's Divining Top, -2 Goryo's Vengeance, -1 Dark Ritual, -1 Thoughtseize, -1 Griselbrand)
R2 - BUG Delver 1-2 (grr Stifle + Wasteland draws with Deathrite... +3 Stoneforge Mystic, +1 Umezawa's Jitte, +1 Batterskull, +3 Swords to Plowshares, +4 Monastery Mentor; -1 Griselbrand, -1 Children of Korlis, -1 Emrakul, -3 Goryo's Vengeance, -2 Shallow Grave, -1 Entomb, -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Dark Ritual)
R3 - Enlightened Tutor Miracles 2-0 (Nice Rest in Peace, here's a Mentor: +3 Stoneforge Mystic, +1 Umezawa's Jitte, +1 Batterskull, +4 Monastery Mentor, +1 Flusterstorm, +2 Serenity; -1 Griselbrand, -1 Children of Korlis, -1 Emrakul, -3 Goryo's Vengeance, -1 Shallow Grave, -1 Entomb, -2 Thoughtseize, -2 Dark Ritual)
R4 - Painter 2-0 (+4 Monastery Mentor, +3 Swords to Plowshares, +2 Serenity; -1 Griselbrand, -1 Children of Korlis, -3 Goryo's Vengeance, -1 Shallow Grave, -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Gitaxian Probe)
R5 - Reanimator 2-0 (+3 Swords to Plowshares, +1 Flusterstorm; -1 Sensei's Divining Top, -1 Griselbrand, -2 Goryo's Vengeance)
R6 - Aggro Loam 2-0 (+3 Stoneforge Mystic, +1 Umezawa's Jitte, +1 Batterskull, +3 Swords to Plowshares, +4 Monastery Mentor; -1 Griselbrand, -1 Children of Korlis, -1 Emrakul, -3 Goryo's Vengeance, -2 Shallow Grave, -1 Entomb, -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Dark Ritual)
Quarters - Painter 1-2 (same)

So yeah, losing 4 games of 16 is a nice win rate. I got to bring in Stoneforge in a few matchups where Bob would be irrelevant like Infect and BUG Delver. Chain of Vapor would have been relevant for the Painter matchup, but otherwise the heavy white sideboard worked ok. Transformational plan was hella strong. Nice looks of confusion.

Hey guys,

I am sort of new to tin fins but determined to play it. I was looking through some of the posts here (not all of them so i am unsure if it has been asked before). I do get the feeling that while the maindeck seems to be somewhat set in stone (with maybe 5-6 cards differing here and there), the sideboard is still subject to constant change. Since i do not own the cardpool to freely switch back and forth between boardplans, i was wondering what the most solid configuration looks like in your opinion. I am sure its mentor +xyz or something, but before buying any possible iteration of xyz i would like to ask you,as experts. :)

You're right that the sideboard is still in flux. For me, evidence points to Stoneforge, but it's hard to say.

Guys,

What are some thoughts about Traverse the Ulvenwald ?

I've been playing this deck online a bit and the real lynchpin in the deck are the Entombs. I have been playing 2 Buried Alive over the typical discard number 5 and 6. Buried Alive can grab 3 Griselbrands (which outright beats DRS with a Shallow Grave) if you have 3 Griselbrands, or if you're only running 2 can grab Griselbrand with Children of Korlis directly under it. Perhaps Traverse would offer some good options?

Edit: Also, what are thoughts on the power of Unmask in this kind of deck? It appears to be popular in these decks in Japan (linked below):

http://www.hareruyamtg.com/en/k/kD07565S/
http://www.hareruyamtg.com/en/k/kD02215W/

1. Traverse - why would you play this card? I does nothing for a reanimator deck.
2. It's been a while since I've tried Unmask. It was bad back then because it makes the deck more glass-cannon-y, but maybe worth trying again. Japanese lists are always incredibly weird. I don't put much stock in their decklists.

[quadich]

I am currently testing stoneforge online and i am loving it =).
While i am at it: what do you guys think about intuition in the maindeck. It certainly is slow(which is contradictory to what we want to do game 1), but i feel like it is not much slower than top or lim duls.
The reason i am trying it is that it helps beating deathrite shaman game 1. I know the deck can work around Shaman using shallow grave and double entomb, but i feel
like intuition makes it much easier, furthermore it fills the role of another entomb (which i feel is the decks weak spot). The cmc of 3 being helpful to work around chalice on 1( with Eldrazi running around
this happens more often than i'd like). It can also find any other relevant piece and while not as good as senseis+ mentor is still neat post board.

edit: i am considering adding a 4th grisel to make sure that i have 3 left in the deck at all times^^

the list i am testing with:

2 Flooded Strand
1 Island
2 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
1 Swamp
1 Tundra
3 Underground Sea
1 Children of Korlis
1 Emrakul, the Aeons Torn
3 Griselbrand
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Gitaxian Probe
3 Goryo's Vengeance
4 Ponder
4 Shallow Grave
2 Thoughtseize
4 Lotus Petal
2 Intuition
1 Reanimate

//Sideboard
SB: 1 Flusterstorm
SB: 4 Monastery Mentor
SB: 2 Serenity
SB: 3 Swords to Plowshares
SB: 3 Stoneforge Mystic
SB: 1 Batterskull
SB: 1 Umezawa's Jitte

[genuine fugazi]

How do you guys SB against RG Lands? On one hand, they are very likely to bring Chalices, Spheres of Resistance and Bojuka Bogs, which makes Monastery Mentor plan appealing, but then it's not that easy to get to 3+ mana with all the Wastelands and Rishadan Ports around. How about waiting to drop Serenity at the last possible moment with a StP backup in case of a fast Marit?

[phazonmutant]

I am currently testing stoneforge online and i am loving it =).
While i am at it: what do you guys think about intuition in the maindeck. It certainly is slow(which is contradictory to what we want to do game 1), but i feel like it is not much slower than top or lim duls.
The reason i am trying it is that it helps beating deathrite shaman game 1. I know the deck can work around Shaman using shallow grave and double entomb, but i feel
like intuition makes it much easier, furthermore it fills the role of another entomb (which i feel is the decks weak spot). The cmc of 3 being helpful to work around chalice on 1( with Eldrazi running around
this happens more often than i'd like). It can also find any other relevant piece and while not as good as senseis+ mentor is still neat post board.

I have a soft spot for Intuition. Not opposed to the idea, but I've really liked Top both pre and post board. I think on balance Top has better synergy with Mentor and is relevant earlier so I prefer it.

How do you guys SB against RG Lands? On one hand, they are very likely to bring Chalices, Spheres of Resistance and Bojuka Bogs, which makes Monastery Mentor plan appealing, but then it's not that easy to get to 3+ mana with all the Wastelands and Rishadan Ports around. How about waiting to drop Serenity at the last possible moment with a StP backup in case of a fast Marit?

Lands tends to have a difficult time with fast combo, but they are great against single creatures. This is a matchup where not having Needle or Tendrils really hurts because of Karakas and Maze of Ith. I haven't played the matchup enough to know for sure. I would guess they board out Chasm, PFire / Vortex, Decays (if playing black), Tabernacle, and some list-dependent cards for some combination of discard, Spheres, Chalice, Karakas, and Bojuka Bog. They're almost certainly going to leave in Maze and depend on the Marit Lage combo to win. That implies to me that Mentor will be strong, Plow will be great at buying time, and Serenity should come in if they're not playing black. Griselbrand will be difficult to win with on his own because of Maze and Karakas, so he should be a supplement to kill with Mentor. I'd board like:
Play: -1 Goryo's Vengeance, -2 Reanimate, -1 Griselbrand, -1 Children of Korlis, -2 Cabal Therapy, -2 Gitaxian Probe; +4 Mentor, +3 Swords to Plowshares, +2 Serenity
Draw: -4 Cabal Therapy, -2 Gitaxian Probe, -1 Reanimate; +4 Mentor, +3 Swords to Plowshares, +2 Serenity

[Technics]

I have a soft spot for Intuition. Not opposed to the idea, but I've really liked Top both pre and post board. I think on balance Top has better synergy with Mentor and is relevant earlier so I prefer it.



Lands tends to have a difficult time with fast combo, but they are great against single creatures. This is a matchup where not having Needle or Tendrils really hurts because of Karakas and Maze of Ith. I haven't played the matchup enough to know for sure. I would guess they board out Chasm, PFire / Vortex, Decays (if playing black), Tabernacle, and some list-dependent cards for some combination of discard, Spheres, Chalice, Karakas, and Bojuka Bog. They're almost certainly going to leave in Maze and depend on the Marit Lage combo to win. That implies to me that Mentor will be strong, Plow will be great at buying time, and Serenity should come in if they're not playing black. Griselbrand will be difficult to win with on his own because of Maze and Karakas, so he should be a supplement to kill with Mentor. I'd board like:
Play: -1 Goryo's Vengeance, -2 Reanimate, -1 Griselbrand, -1 Children of Korlis, -2 Cabal Therapy, -2 Gitaxian Probe; +4 Mentor, +3 Swords to Plowshares, +2 Serenity
Draw: -4 Cabal Therapy, -2 Gitaxian Probe, -1 Reanimate; +4 Mentor, +3 Swords to Plowshares, +2 Serenity

For me I have never had an issue with just Karakas or Maze of Ith. Drawing 14 cards usually is enough to get another fatty and just "do it again". I usually do not go for any transformitive board against lands and just rely on playing through the Karakas and Maze and only board to deal with the much more troublesome Sphere/Chalices.

[Whitefaces]

How do you guys sideboard v DnT? Specifically on the draw? I've had people leave in StP vs me in the past because 'they had so many worse cards to take out', which is a little frustrating when I throw down a Mentor. I guess it's not going to happen with all pilots but something to keep in mind. Some of the more savvy pilots will know of the SB plan too.

My only concern is being on the draw we need a turn one hand before they can start laying hate pieces, and the SB man plan doesn't leave much space for things to remove them (currently I just have two Serenity like phazonmutant).

[Pomegrant]

Why would you board into Mentor against Death and Taxes? The whole concept of that deck is to slow the game down and control the board. By turning yourself into a deck that plays to the board, a bad one at that, they will crush you. The whole point of a transformational sideboard is the "gotcha" factor. Death and Taxes has problem with really fast combo and this is a really fast combo deck. Be what you are already. They have cards that can beat you but they don't have any sculpting to find them. Keep fast hands and win.

[Whitefaces]

Why would you board into Mentor against Death and Taxes? The whole concept of that deck is to slow the game down and control the board. By turning yourself into a deck that plays to the board, a bad one at that, they will crush you. The whole point of a transformational sideboard is the "gotcha" factor. Death and Taxes has problem with really fast combo and this is a really fast combo deck. Be what you are already. They have cards that can beat you but they don't have any sculpting to find them. Keep fast hands and win.

Makes sense, thanks. In the past I've assumed they'd take out Swords to Plowshares and Jitte as they're so weak vs the MD, so Mentor would be left to run rampant.

[Koby]

Makes sense, thanks. In the past I've assumed they'd take out Swords to Plowshares and Jitte as they're so weak vs the MD, so Mentor would be left to run rampant.

This was my assumption as well, then I got wrecked by being too slow to a smorgasbord of hate bears.
Massacre, Serenity, and Pithing Needle, as well as aggressive discard, plus the combo seems to be the best approach.

[CabalTherapy]

Excuse me please if this already was subject to discussion:

Have you guys thought about Thing in the Ice in the SB? Since there is some tendency to play a dude plan post-board with Mentor, Bob, or Mystic. How bad/good is TitI here?

[hoolegr]

Has anyone considered the Mentors going mainboard, leaving a bit more flex in the SB? Currently testing with Replacing the 2 thoughtseize, and 2 of the Gitaxian Probes with the 4 mentors, and haven't found that it has slowed down my plays at all, (only on small amount of testing and currently having to base on F6ing responses, as i don't have the cards for this on MTGO, and Not been able to jam legacy locally just yet.), but has enabled a slower hand to still be acceptable, as you can pump out Mentor and some monks with your cantrips while you look for the missing bit of the puzzle.

Plus if you find extra entombs but still no reanimation, you can always Entomb Cabal Therapy and flashback those with the monks, to get extra prowess, thin the deck slightly, shuffle away bad cards etc.

Just thinking With the Idea of having the Stoneforge package in the side, this frees it up for some more removal/Support cards for the games we want to stay on combo, or even more threats post board (Things like Thing in the Ice, have been mentioned recently, and could work if not for the Returning all the monks issue, So I'd say if you were doing that you'd board out the Mentors for TitI)

Just an idle thought but figured I'd run it by people

[hoolegr]

Excuse me please if this already was subject to discussion:

Have you guys thought about Thing in the Ice in the SB? Since there is some tendency to play a dude plan post-board with Mentor, Bob, or Mystic. How bad/good is TitI here?

Had the same consideration due to the high amount of Instants and Sorceries we run, but Possibly counter intuitive with the Mentor plan, due to its Board clearing effect.

[alastair]

// Sideboard
4 Monastery Mentor
3 Stoneforge Mystic
1 Batterskull
1 Umezawa's Jitte
3 Swords to Plowshares
2 Serenity
1 Flusterstorm[/cards]
.

Nice write up.

Im interested as to what the default equipment to fetch was, or the framework / decisions to fetch Jitte over Batterskull or vice versa. With SFM before Mentor, did you favour batterskul, or with SFM after Mentor was the jitte preferred ?

Where you able to win of a SFM + Batterskull alone ?

[phazonmutant]

Nice write up.

Im interested as to what the default equipment to fetch was, or the framework / decisions to fetch Jitte over Batterskull or vice versa. With SFM before Mentor, did you favour batterskul, or with SFM after Mentor was the jitte preferred ?

Where you able to win of a SFM + Batterskull alone ?

Infect I didn't even board in Batterskull because lifelink doesn't matter, while Jitte is almost impossible to beat. Against BUG Delver, I resolved Stoneforge in two games. In the second game I got Batterskull, he had no immediate answer, and it raced his board of Deathrite. In the second game, he had double Deathrite and had blown up 3 lands, so it was fairly late in the game. I thought that it was more necessary to kill Deathrites with Jitte, but in retrospect the clock was too great and I didn't have the mana to play + equip on the same turn. So that was a game I could have won by getting Batterskull.

It's very possible Jitte is not necessary, but I thought it could be better than a Dread of Night for the D&T matchup because it's more versatile in other matchups.

[Whitefaces]

I played phazonmutants list at my LGS last night and went 3-1 losing the last round, just -1 Reanimate +1 Chrome Mox simply because I couldn't find another Reanimate and I've always liked the Mox. They'll be hiding in a box somewhere. Loved it!

This was the first time I played without Tendrils and didn't miss it at all. Once you start going off hardcasting Emrakul isn't hard. Overall the MD felt really streamlined, Tendrils is such a clunker when you're not winning!

The SB was especially amazing. I actually lost every G1 of the matches I won weirdly enough. Despite most of my opponents knowing what I was up to they still had to SB awkwardly. The SfM package pulled more weight than I thought, I tried bobs before and they didn't feel anywhere near as high impact.

This is how I sided for the man plan, would be interested if people agree/disagree. If I was bringing in Serenity too it would usually be -2 more Shallow Grave or -1 SG -1 Dark Ritual.

-4 Entomb
-3 Goryo's Vengeance
-1 Shallow Grave
-2 Dark Ritual
-1 Griselbrand
-1 Emrakul
-1 Children of Korlis

Quick recap

R1 vs Goblin Stompy. He won the dice roll, T1 Trinisphere followed by a T2 Rabblemaster. Over in 10 seconds! G2 I discarded a number of lock pieces and Mentor took over. G3 he mulled to 5 but had Chalice at 0 and at 1 on the play. I had a T2 SfM which won pretty easily.

R2 vs Eldrazi. G1 otp I discard a Chalice and a Trinisphere but fail to find a discard spell for the Griselbrand in my hand or an Entomb from a Brainstorm, 2 Ponders, a Probe and digging with a top. Frustrating! G2 he's very happy when he lays down a couple of Leyline of the Void after I've mulled. SfM on turn two takes him by surprise and gets there. G3 is similar to G2 except it's mentor that ends it very quickly. After he shows me Ratchet Bombs still in the SB. Mentor and SfM needing two different answers is a huge plus.

R3 vs Shardless. G1 I keep a slow hand odt, he has a DRS and I'm not able to find an opportunity to go off. He was sitting by me while I was playing vs Eldrazi, so knew about SfM and Mentors. I kept with the combo, and killed him quite quickly G2. G3 I sided into the boys and they took it home.

R4 vs Omni. G1 I kill him T2 otp through a FoW. This deck can do some disgusting things! I stick with the same 60. G2 is a grindfest, and I'm stuck on 1 land for a while after he FoWs and Flusters my first attempt at going off. He eventually finds a window to Cunning Wish for an Extraction on Griselbrand. I don't manage to find the tools to give him some spaghetti. G3 was frustrating, my hand is Shallow Grave, Shallow Grave, Goryo's Vengeance, Entomb, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Polluted Delta. He kept fast, which led me to believe he had a FoW so I TS on T1 and see nothing relevant except a Brainstorm, which I take. He draws a probe, which finds a Brainstorm which finds two Force of Wills. He Cunning Wishes to extract Griselbrands and I have a window of 3 turns to find an Entomb to spaghetti him for lethal, but two Ponders and a Top don't get there and he Shows his own spaghetti overlord into play.

[phazonmutant]

I played phazonmutants list at my LGS last night and went 3-1 losing the last round, just -1 Reanimate +1 Chrome Mox simply because I couldn't find another Reanimate and I've always liked the Mox. They'll be hiding in a box somewhere. Loved it!

This was the first time I played without Tendrils and didn't miss it at all. Once you start going off hardcasting Emrakul isn't hard. Overall the MD felt really streamlined, Tendrils is such a clunker when you're not winning!

The SB was especially amazing. I actually lost every G1 of the matches I won weirdly enough. Despite most of my opponents knowing what I was up to they still had to SB awkwardly. The SfM package pulled more weight than I thought, I tried bobs before and they didn't feel anywhere near as high impact.

Cool, congrats! Agreed, SFM is great. Being able to lose g1 and still crush a match is one of the things that makes me think that maybe the creatures should be main. Still haven't had a chance to test it

This is how I sided for the man plan, would be interested if people agree/disagree. If I was bringing in Serenity too it would usually be -2 more Shallow Grave or -1 SG -1 Dark Ritual.

-4 Entomb
-3 Goryo's Vengeance
-1 Shallow Grave
-2 Dark Ritual
-1 Griselbrand
-1 Emrakul
-1 Children of Korlis

I really disagree with a couple of things. If you're cutting all the Entombs, I don't think it makes sense to leave a single Griselbrand in. The only way you'd have to bin it is with discard spells. However, I'm pretty sure it's wrong to board out the possibility of Entomb + Shallow Grave for Griselbrand. He's still just so good, especially when you pressure your opponent to have an answer for Mentor and the graveyard.

R4 vs Omni. G1 I kill him T2 otp through a FoW. This deck can do some disgusting things! I stick with the same 60. G2 is a grindfest, and I'm stuck on 1 land for a while after he FoWs and Flusters my first attempt at going off. He eventually finds a window to Cunning Wish for an Extraction on Griselbrand. I don't manage to find the tools to give him some spaghetti. G3 was frustrating, my hand is Shallow Grave, Shallow Grave, Goryo's Vengeance, Entomb, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Polluted Delta. He kept fast, which led me to believe he had a FoW so I TS on T1 and see nothing relevant except a Brainstorm, which I take. He draws a probe, which finds a Brainstorm which finds two Force of Wills. He Cunning Wishes to extract Griselbrands and I have a window of 3 turns to find an Entomb to spaghetti him for lethal, but two Ponders and a Top don't get there and he Shows his own spaghetti overlord into play.

You should have cut 1 Griselbrand for 1 Flusterstorm here. Flusterstorm is for storm and S&T.

[Whitefaces]

Cool, congrats! Agreed, SFM is great. Being able to lose g1 and still crush a match is one of the things that makes me think that maybe the creatures should be main. Still haven't had a chance to test it

I do see the appeal of having Mentors/SfM G1, but isn't the main idea that they'll be siding out removal and we get to run rampant? And then make them guess for G3. I shuffled my SB into the MD between every game to keep my opponent off knowing what to expect. Also took care to see how they sided in/out after G2. It always amazes me when people so clearly show you how many cards are coming in/out between games. The information they give is lovely! A perfect example was my match vs Shardless. I saw he kept in Decays for G2 from a Probe when I was still on the combo, he then switched up 4-5 cards for G3.

I really disagree with a couple of things. If you're cutting all the Entombs, I don't think it makes sense to leave a single Griselbrand in. The only way you'd have to bin it is with discard spells. However, I'm pretty sure it's wrong to board out the possibility of Entomb + Shallow Grave for Griselbrand. He's still just so good, especially when you pressure your opponent to have an answer for Mentor and the graveyard.

Fair point on Entomb if I'm leaving a Griselbrand in. How many copies do you tend to leave in, two? And what do you board out instead of for them usually?

You should have cut 1 Griselbrand for 1 Flusterstorm here. Flusterstorm is for storm and S&T.

Ah, you're right. I did side the Flusterstorm in for Omni, I can't remember what I cut though. I think it was a SDT, and I added in a single Mentor for G3 after seeing he had Surgical Extraction G2, probably for the second SDT, but I really can't recall. Could have been a Ponder too. Siding out a Griselbrand makes perfect sense though, there's no need for two it just didn't occur to me.

[phazonmutant]

I do see the appeal of having Mentors/SfM G1, but isn't the main idea that they'll be siding out removal and we get to run rampant? And then make them guess for G3. I shuffled my SB into the MD between every game to keep my opponent off knowing what to expect. Also took care to see how they sided in/out after G2. It always amazes me when people so clearly show you how many cards are coming in/out between games. The information they give is lovely! A perfect example was my match vs Shardless. I saw he kept in Decays for G2 from a Probe when I was still on the combo, he then switched up 4-5 cards for G3.



Fair point on Entomb if I'm leaving a Griselbrand in. How many copies do you tend to leave in, two? And what do you board out instead of for them usually?

Ah, you're right. I did side the Flusterstorm in for Omni, I can't remember what I cut though. I think it was a SDT, and I added in a single Mentor for G3 after seeing he had Surgical Extraction G2, probably for the second SDT, but I really can't recall. Could have been a Ponder too. Siding out a Griselbrand makes perfect sense though, there's no need for two it just didn't occur to me.

You're probably right. Being a blazing fast combo deck has value too. It's so true! People give up information in lots of ways.

Check out my tournament report from the Time Vault 1k for my sideboarding notes: http://www.mtgthesource.com/forums/s...l=1#post943976

Cutting SDT is reasonable as well. Cutting a Griselbrand slightly hurts consistency but only for corner cases where it's in your hand and you have an Entomb.

[.dk]

So I finally got around to testing your sideboard Greg - you're right. I liked the Stoneforge Mystics a lot. I think if I were playing a dedicated Mentor deck, maybe I would want Bob, but SFM allows you a lot more flexibility with sideboarding. You don't have to run the flip Griselbrand gauntlet off of Bob gamut if you want a hybrid approach.

My results were awful, but I hadn't played magic in a few weeks and saw some obvious misplays I was making all over the place, so I'll account for my poor performance with that. ;)

I couldn't find a 3rd Swords in time for the event, so I ended up running 2 STP and 1 Chain of Vapor. In my matches, I wished it was the 3rd swords.... but I think Chain of Vapor is probably really reasonable in the slot overall.

Good work on the sideboard dude - I like it a lot.

[Wess]

I've been playing this deck for a long time, I might have been the one of the first to propose using Children of Korlis and help to refine it into its current form....After quite a lot of testing with UB Reanimator, BR Reanimator and Tinfins, I think I've finally come up with the most optimal version of reanimator, the power level and flexibility of this build is great with more turn 1 wins then other builds, without sacrificing consistency. Here's my current list:

Creatures

Griselbrand X 4
Chancellor of the Annex x 4
Emrakul X 1
Children of Korlis X1

Disruption

Thoughtseize X 4
Duress X 3
Cabal Therapy X 1

Mana Accel

Lotus Petal X 4
Dark Ritual X 4

Getting Monsters in GY

Faithless Looting x 4
Entomb X 4

Reanimation

Reanimate X 4
Shallow Grave X 3
Goryo's Vengenance X 3

Alt Wincon

Tendrils of Agony X 1

Lands

Badlands X 4
Bloodstained Mire X 4
Polluted Delta X 3
Swamp X 2
Bayou X 2

Sideboard

Tidespout X 1
Elesh Norn X 1
Iona X 1
Inkwell Leviathan X 1
Abrupt Decay X 3
Pithing Needle X 2
Leyline X 4
Stronghold Gambit X 2


So, obviously this deck plays more like a hybrid with the option of instant lockups which traditional reanimator has, with increased durability against Karakas etc sideboard.
Chancellor of the Annex feels broken in this deck, allowing turn 1 and 2 protected wins. Really the rational of this build was that blue wasn't adding much, and the power of faithless looting trumps ponder and brainstorm and cuts a lot of deck space.

Enjoy!