[Deck]BUx Reanimator

[alaska]

I've been fairly dismissive of Hapless Researcher in the past, but if it worked for Chase, I'm willing to give it q second chance.

Also, with the format swamped with Shardless, Researcher is a nice out to Lilly.

[Asthereal]

Yeah, ima play the slower 4c list from here on out. Get some Badlands and some promo charms.
1. Archetype was a fantastic MD choice as DnT was a large part of the meta at this GP.
2. Happy replaces itself and chump blocks also. I've only played 2x but I really like it.
3. Darkblast does kill DRS/Scooze. Upkeep, Dredge it back, replay it.
4. Jace has been good.
5-7: idk.

1. Isn't Empyrial Archangel also better against D&T? Harder to accomplish chumps with Mom protection against that one. Plus racing it with normal dudes is not an option since it sucks up the weenie damage.

2. Happy is a two for one against yourself, just like Careful Study, so it doesn't really replace itself unless you get to bin a creature you wanted gone anyway. I like the card, but never played the full set, which is why I asked how he felt about having multiples (my biggest concern, since you rarely need to bin a second guy).

3. It's dangerous to use Darkblast for killing Ooze or Deathrite. If they counter it once, you're down a card. Ooze can also pump itself in response if they have a mana left. Since the list has red mana, I'd be interested to use Firestorm in that slot. Kills Deathrite and also works as a discard outlet. Might be a tad too much though next to 4x Study, 4x Happy and Jace...

4. My concern with Jace is that he is the only target for small scale removal spells, which makes him rather likely to get killed on the spot by stuff like Bolts, Disfigure and perhaps even Abrupt Decay. If Jace transforms, his -3 ability will be useful once or twice, but I'm not sure we can count on that. Happy for instance does the looting job better, because you get to apply it regardless of their spot removal. It also fits the curve better.

[KobeBryan]

So many things I want to know!

I'll list them.
1. How did you like the Archetype guy? Isn't something like Empyrial Archangel better? (Blue, good against Miracles and so on.)
2. How is the full set of Happy Researchers? Does it hamper your play when you draw them in multiples?
3. Why the Darkblast on side? It doesn't kill Ooze or Deathrite. What did you use it for?
4. How is the new Jace dude? Does he ever survive? Have you had him transform yet? How did that help your play?
5. What's the purpose of the Snapcaster on side? Against which decks did you use it and how did you like it?
6. Did you ever suffer from mana issues with the four colour base?
7. How did you like the main deck Misdirections?

Good luck with the exams, and I hope you find time to write a report afterwards!

Instead of just copying someone's list like some player here, I think we should ask how Chase played...#6 is really concerning.

[Fox]

4. My concern with Jace is that he is the only target for small scale removal spells, which makes him rather likely to get killed on the spot by stuff like Bolts, Disfigure and perhaps even Abrupt Decay. If Jace transforms, his -3 ability will be useful once or twice, but I'm not sure we can count on that. Happy for instance does the looting job better, because you get to apply it regardless of their spot removal. It also fits the curve better.

If opponents are spending cards/mana killing origins jace, you're winning. He costs 2 life to reanimate, and you just put a flashback reanimate in the yard. Tap him next turn, discard actual reanimation target and now you have -3 reanimate flashback.
It's also important to understand that an active origins jace basically turns entomb into Intuition (entomb reanimation spell). Nihil Spellbomb is also largely useless since they're basically obligated to blow it the moment you attempt to reanimate him (jace), or in response to a reanimation spell on the stack (which then goes to the yard, where all you need is a fattie + jace minus three).

Edit: for a card like Abrupt Decay the oracle as it pertains to us is: "cannot be countered. reanimator player loses 2 life, jace has 1 more turn of summoning sickness."

[KobeBryan]

If opponents are spending cards/mana killing origins jace, you're winning. He costs 2 life to reanimate, and you just put a flashback reanimate in the yard. Tap him next turn, discard actual reanimation target and now you have -3 reanimate flashback.
It's also important to understand that an active origins jace basically turns entomb into Intuition (entomb reanimation spell). Nihil Spellbomb is also largely useless since they're basically obligated to blow it the moment you attempt to reanimate him (jace), or in response to a reanimation spell on the stack (which then goes to the yard, where all you need is a fattie + jace minus three).

Agreed. I would welcome counters being spent on jace. Its done its job.

[Asthereal]

If opponents are spending cards/mana killing origins jace, you're winning. He costs 2 life to reanimate, and you just put a flashback reanimate in the yard. Tap him next turn, discard actual reanimation target and now you have -3 reanimate flashback.
It's also important to understand that an active origins jace basically turns entomb into Intuition (entomb reanimation spell). Nihil Spellbomb is also largely useless since they're basically obligated to blow it the moment you attempt to reanimate him (jace), or in response to a reanimation spell on the stack (which then goes to the yard, where all you need is a fattie + jace minus three).

Wow, that's waay more controllish than I ever played this deck.
I guess the question how Chase played is a very fair one.

[tescrin]

On paper I think Jace looks quite wrong, but knowing how the guy made it work would be interesting. If someone could mention what cards Jace replaced (in your deck is fine) it may make it make sense to me. To me, opening the deck up to lightning bolt and abrupt decay seems bad, and waiting a turn to go off seems even worse when you're giving your opponent 1-5 cards to look at (easy) to find Cage, Priest, or some other terrible card for you.

E.G. you pass the turn with Jace.
They draw a card, ponder, shuffle, draw a card; find a 1 in 3 answer (a 26+% chance on T2); turns out to be Cage. They slam it down.

I just feel like any waiting in a deck this vulnerable to really heavy handed disruption seems like asking for trouble.
However, if it's just Careful Study you replaced.. maybe it's better?

[Fox]

Wow, that's waay more controllish than I ever played this deck.
I guess the question how Chase played is a very fair one.

It's not really about control, so much as acknowledging the limitations of removal spells and actual yard hate, and how doing either of those preserves your [reanimator's] life total. Their answers are: exile jace [no swords/path left over for real threat], revoke jace [this one is good, but you can counter -> reanimate revoker and name aether vial], or draw absolute perfect [turn 1 cage into turn 2 decay-type removal spell]. In the case of shardless, it's arguably better to slam goyf after goyf after any piece of interference (totally siding out decay) - it may be technically *more* incorrect for them to leave in decay for jace g2/3 as it is to totally roll the dice and turn2 hymn; origins jace is ban-worthy levels of oppressive in reanimator shell...and you just have to play it yourself to realize how ridiculous it truly is.

More than how Chase played, I'm interested to know what his matchups were day 1 (specifically the ones that aren't free wins vs iona/elesh). Looking at the trops in the list, I'd have to imagine that very little delver with pyromancer + submerge was encountered. I'm a little confused as to what misdirections hit; but having played that card before, I'd imagine the info you gain by misdirecting a thoughtsieze to them (they must reveal hand) is the main benefit. I definitely like reactive nature of his list (preparing to go off by blowing them out on the end of their turn); but I find myself asking whether or not I'd want archetype to be a castable Kira, Great Glass-Spinner or Scumlord (aka Silumgar, the Drifting Death) instead. Very cool list though, excellent work on getting us into the top 8!

[danyul]

Grats Chase! I wasn't at all surprised to see you do so well. YOUR SUCCESS BRINGS ME GREAT JOY.

Chase has always been an innovator with the deck and isn't afraid to try crazy ideas. On top of that, he always Top 8's and has knocked me out of many local win-and-ins. I trust his Reanimator knowledge over any other. Grats again!

[owerbart]

Hey Chase, first, congrats again in your top 4 finish, also, did you miss Show and Tell at all?

I guess I'm one of the only ones still playing it

[Alex_UNLIMITED]

Chase, I've a request for your report: can you write your sideboarding strategies? Currently I'm not a Reanimator player, but I like your version. Unfortunately the sideboarding is not so clear, so if you can write your choices, it would be great!

[Stryfo]

Alright, I posted my report in the tournament report section, but I will answer some of the questions asked by you guys here.

1. How did you like the Archetype guy? Isn't something like Empyrial Archangel better? (Blue, good against Miracles and so on.)

Archetype is insane against karakas, Archangel is worse than Inkwell Leviathan, which I think has less utility than archetype. Everything that inkwell and archangel are good against, archetype is good against for the same reasons and then some.

2. How is the full set of Happy Researchers? Does it hamper your play when you draw them in multiples?

I love this card, it is excellent when drawn in multiples or singles

3. Why the Darkblast on side? It doesn't kill Ooze or Deathrite. What did you use it for?

It's there for DnT and infect, neither of which I got to play sideboarded games against.

4. How is the new Jace dude? Does he ever survive? Have you had him transform yet? How did that help your play?

He was ok, I'll keep him there for now but I could honestly see that slot being the fourth izzet charm.

5. What's the purpose of the Snapcaster on side? Against which decks did you use it and how did you like it?

I bring it in against combo mirrors, this may sound strange, but they usually have a bit of grave hate and disruption and having a way to gain back the advantage and start whittling their life total down can be very strong.

6. Did you ever suffer from mana issues with the four colour base?

No more than I would have if I was playing 3 colors.

7. How did you like the main deck Misdirections?

They were good, I liked them a lot better than daze.



I'm not going to go into a sideboarding strategy for each matchup, because context is everything and there are a LOT of decks out there. I will, however, go over each of my choices in the sideboard and describe when I bring them in. I will also mention quickly what I take out of the main in most matchups.


My sideboard was:

3 Abrupt Decay (these should be obvious)
2 Thoughtseize (combo mirrors and control decks, especially when I suspect surgical)
2 Duress (combo mirrors, sometimes I'll bring in one against control, depending on what I know about their list (number of surgicals)
1 Echoing Truth ( I bring these in against nonblue decks that I suspect have Leylines. I should probably have a second one in here)
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind (Delver can't beat this)
1 Jin-Gitaxias (Good against the BUG Decks, they can't easily kill it and it's helpful for playing around cards like surgical extraction)
1 Golgari Charm (Good against DnT and leylines)
1 Darkblast (Beats up DnT and Infect, also can make semi-uncounterable discard effects in concert with brainstorm)
2 Pithing Needle (punishes miracles and DnT, can be brought in against DRS, but I usually don't
1 Snapcaster (This is what I will likely cut for the second echoing truth, so don't worry about this)


Cards that come out of the main a lot:

Tidespout, Elesh, Archetype, Iona (Each of these is incredibly useful in the matchups where they are good, but in some matches, the other big creatures will just be better, or you only want 6 creatures.)

Careful Study (I think that as a discard effect, this is largely worse than hapless researcher, I cut them in ones or twos very frequently)

Reanimate, Exhume, Animate Dead (Because I play ten of this effect, I get to trim the worst few in whichever matchup I happen to be in, frequently reanimate and animate dead take that spot, but sometimes exhume is the worst)

Misdirection (This card is pretty bad against combo and certain non-blue decks)

Izzet Charm (I sometimes cut one of these when I really need that last card out of the board, but not frequently)

A land (Sometimes you don't need all 17 if they aren't pressuring your mana base)

Jace (This guy is mainly there for delver decks, so he gets cut in a number of other matchups)


I hope this was at least somewhat helpful to those of you asking questions, I tried to answer all the questions I saw (except for the sideboarding one I guess).

[sunlith42]

Thanks for the updates Stryfo. What I am wondering is in matchups against blue decks do you side out your forces and other counter magic? I remember Jake saying in almost all matchups against blue decks he sides out his counter magic and as many blue spells as possible so that REB won't have targets. He opts instead to add in more discard.

[Stryfo]

I very rarely side out my forces, Jake and I have differing opinions regarding how to play against blue decks. Even if his strategy was correct during the DTT era (I can't say for sure whether or not it was), I would consider re-evaluating that strategy now that there are fewer REBs floating around.

[jattra]

Hi Stryfo,
congrats to great achievement and thank you for your explanation.

I would like to ask you and other guys here, what you are thinking about Misthollow Griffin against RiP and Leyline decks. I know, four mana can be too much. One the other hand, it is a recurring threat tutorable with Entomb.
Another card I would like to test is Pack Rat, any thoughts on that?

[turbo]

Thank you for the thorough report and further comments. We appreciate it.

[Damaku]

Congratulations and thank you for the nice report!

Do you have sideboard in and out list for the usual matchups? What is your oppinion on S&T?

[Stryfo]

@ Damaku: I don't really know what you consider to be the usual matchups. As far as show and tell goes, I don't like it in this deck. It forces you to keep in a bunch of creatures, some of which are not good, and it also makes your entomb and discard effects worse. Further, it is a 3 mana spell in a world of daze, spell pierce, flusterstorm, etc. this deck doesn't usually have tons of mana to play around soft counters on three drops.


@Jattra, these are things that I have tried before mainly against miracles. They were fine at one point but with monastery mentor being so common out of miracles I no longer believe they have a spot in the deck.

[KobeBryan]

I was playing on cockatrice just now

I had archetype in the game and I still lost to DNT because of an overpowered Jitte on a serra avenger.

Then game 2, he plays magnus of the moon, I board wipe with Elesh Norn, then I still lost because of karakas on Norn.

I'm really thinking of just giving up on this matchup and go full out against combo and miracles so I wouldn't lose to those two.

[Fox]

@KobeBryan:
Transformative sideboards are what ruin DnT. Force them to play yard hate/not-cast hate in games 2 and 3 but rotate into "honestly" cast critters that trample, are colorless, and non-legendary. Alternatively stop trying to fight/kill their threats on a 1-for-1 basis, you need cards that ignore them like Teferi's Realm.
The same is true for fighting things like Chalice of the Void; stop trying to kill it, just proliferate x=1 to x=2 and they'll never resolve a chalice on 1 again.