[Deck]BUx Reanimator

[Cpt-Qc]

I like the idea of Pack Rat much more personally. The only problem I have with it is, since I dropped daze for Collective Brutality, I'd be running a very low count of blue after sideboard if I didn't have SnT.

[maCHOOga]

I've been on the packrat plan for a couple weeks, recently shaving down to 2 to add more graveyard hate in the sideboard since lands is huge in the DelMarVa metagame. I've successfully pack ratted two people and came very close at the SCG philly classic of adding a third to the mix. My biggest issue with the rats is you need to devote all your resources over a series of turns to push through the winl, which doesn't leave your mana to disrupt your opponent. I've already had a turn where you have to make a decision, do I thoughtseize/brutality my opponent or make another pack rat? In the same regard, I'm also considering trying gurmag angler in the same slot. The clock is the same amount of time, just frees up mana the subsequent turns.

[DNSolver]

Now have ~12 full leagues played with various versions of this deck. I've been sticking with straight UB with a Pack Rat plan throughout. The only cards I changed around over the course of the 12 leagues:

Sideboard:

-3 Faerie Macabre: Reanimator mirror is rare, and winnable without these.
Collective Brutality: tried it, but cut it
+3 Pithing Needle: currently my sideboard plan vs D+T to beat Karakas - played against too many double plow hands with Grave Titan/Tidespout

Maindeck:

Ponder vs Hapless Researcher: Played around with 4 of either one, now trying a 2/2 split. Researcher drawing Researcher is an inefficient use of mana in Legacy, so 4 felt excessive.

2nd basic Swamp over a blue fetch: Necessary to have 3 basics for Pack Rat

Inkwell Leviathan: Concerned about the D+T matchup, I tried it over Grave Titan in a league, played vs D+T in one match, where the D+T player had Stoneforge all 3 games. One time I Thoughtseized and Force'd it, but both other games I lost through searching up BSkull to buy time and race, usually with Mother of Runes to protect it. Might have just been a bad run, but I cut it afterward.

Overall, Pack Rat has been excellent at turning the tide in Eldrazi and Grixis matchups.

Edit: Overall, sitting at 58.5% win rate the past 8 leagues.

[crowe_1]

^
How often would you say you drew Happy and wished it was Study, or vice versa? I have run Happy in the past but always as extra Studies; never thought of cutting Studies for Happies.

Also I feel some sort of Shroud creature is necessary versus Swords decks. I’ve run Inkwell and Empyrial Archangel and neither has felt fantastic but each has their benefits.

[DNSolver]

Hapless has been replacing Ponders, not Careful Studies. Nothing replaces Careful Studies.

[CabalTherapy]

Played UB Reanimator at the LGS today. Haven't played this deck for over a year I think. Went 3-1 with some grindy and good games.
I was running 2 Wastelands in the board against Depths and other decks' Karakas/Maze. I destroyed 2 DD with it after Needle took care of Thespian's Stage. 2 AD main obviously. Deck feels well positioned but I wasn't satisfied with my answers for DRS.

Did anyone test Wasteland as well?

[Cpt-Qc]

Now have ~12 full leagues played with various versions of this deck. I've been sticking with straight UB with a Pack Rat plan throughout. The only cards I changed around over the course of the 12 leagues:

Sideboard:

-3 Faerie Macabre: Reanimator mirror is rare, and winnable without these.
Collective Brutality: tried it, but cut it
+3 Pithing Needle: currently my sideboard plan vs D+T to beat Karakas - played against too many double plow hands with Grave Titan/Tidespout

Maindeck:

Ponder vs Hapless Researcher: Played around with 4 of either one, now trying a 2/2 split. Researcher drawing Researcher is an inefficient use of mana in Legacy, so 4 felt excessive.

2nd basic Swamp over a blue fetch: Necessary to have 3 basics for Pack Rat

Inkwell Leviathan: Concerned about the D+T matchup, I tried it over Grave Titan in a league, played vs D+T in one match, where the D+T player had Stoneforge all 3 games. One time I Thoughtseized and Force'd it, but both other games I lost through searching up BSkull to buy time and race, usually with Mother of Runes to protect it. Might have just been a bad run, but I cut it afterward.

Overall, Pack Rat has been excellent at turning the tide in Eldrazi and Grixis matchups.

Edit: Overall, sitting at 58.5% win rate the past 8 leagues.

I tried Brutalities in the side too and it wasn't that useful. They're better in the main since you can focus your G1 on the graveyard plan, not fearing drs anymore, and it gets rid of counterspells too (I have 5 discard + 5 forces. Very few decks have that many counterspells in G1). Thus I decided that having Show and Tell mainboard was no longer necessary. I also had to go from petal to dark rit to accommodate for the change but in doing so it opened up more T1 possibilities.

Leviathan or Archetype of Endurance are special. If you have access to needle on Karakas then Griselbrand is always better, but that is not always the case. It might just not be for you but I think one of those two is a must since they're houses in a variety of matchups. I think I only lost once to SFM stalling with Bskull and it required a few other cards to align perfectly. Depending on the texture of your hand, getting these might not be the best idea but a T1 Leviathan is usually GG or serves as an excellent surgical bait.

I don't hate the idea of Pack Rat but it feels really slow and people pack unconditional removal against us so it's a little awkward giving them a target that can't defend itself (you probably can't copy it on the first turn). My board is also packed full atm and I fear I'd have to drop my 2 EE so I'd have no way to kill one of the many 1-2 drops that hinders us. What's your sideboard like?

Played UB Reanimator at the LGS today. Haven't played this deck for over a year I think. Went 3-1 with some grindy and good games.
I was running 2 Wastelands in the board against Depths and other decks' Karakas/Maze. I destroyed 2 DD with it after Needle took care of Thespian's Stage. 2 AD main obviously. Deck feels well positioned but I wasn't satisfied with my answers for DRS.

Did anyone test Wasteland as well?

I never found lands based decks to be too big of a problem. Sure they have nut draws, but so do we. Needle, Etruth and Tidespout usually takes care of Lage. If not I also have the early Inkwell which they can't stop or Blazing Archon to stall the game until you're safe to attack.

[meffeo]

I never found lands based decks to be too big of a problem. Sure they have nut draws, but so do we. Needle, Etruth and Tidespout usually takes care of Lage. If not I also have the early Inkwell which they can't stop or Blazing Archon to stall the game until you're safe to attack.

^ this. Blazing Archon performed really well vs Turbo Depths, since once on the table, they are not able to remove it. Moreover, it's pretty useful against Eldrazi.
I still like reanimation targets from the sideboard, last time I played the deck at the LGS I went 4-0 (straight UB, 1 S&T MB, 2 S&T + Archon + Inkwell in the sb).

[DNSolver]

Cpt-Qc, current sideboard is like this:

4 Pack Rat
4 Thoughtseize
3 Echoing Truth
3 Pithing Needle
1 Elesh Norn

I really disagree on Pack Rat. Against fair blue decks, I have found that Rats can grind through Strixes and Leovolds. Particulary if you are bringing in discard, you can typically have counter backup vs Czech to buy the turn you need. Against Delver, you are usually able to race Delver and out-grow Angler. Young Pyromancer is the big problem, but you would probably FoW it anyway because of how disgusting it is with Cabal Therapy and because Reanimating it is a real threat. Some Pack Rat statistics:

5 match wins attributed to Pack Rat - Grixis Delver, Deadguy, Czech x2, Grixis Pyromancer Control
2 matches lost where Pack Rat didn't get there - BUG Delver where it got stalled by Goyf + DRS at a low life total, Eldrazi where I got outdone by Smashers.

Engineered Explosives is interesting, but I don't think I personally would go for EE in a world of Surgicals, Leylines, and Macabres as the principle hatecards.

[Cpt-Qc]

Alright well I might just try jamming 3 rats in my board, replacing 2xEE and 1xGrave Titan (serves the same purpose of having extra bodies for edicts). I've been on UB only with 3 basics since the top ban anyway so might as well try it.

[crowe_1]

Hapless has been replacing Ponders, not Careful Studies. Nothing replaces Careful Studies.

My reading comprehension gets worse and worse as time goes on apparently.

My Happies eventually got replaced by a singleton Brutality and a couple of Show and Tell main. DRS is too common not to have workarounds maindeck imo and Brutality fills that roll in a synergistic way. I agree it’s often not stellar though. Ponder is too important for constistency to cut them all, but it’s hard to fit a playset AND maintain a decent suite of disruption AND have an adequate number of combo pieces, so I also run two. Might up it to three and move one S&T to the board.

[Cpt-Qc]

My reading comprehension gets worse and worse as time goes on apparently.

My Happies eventually got replaced by a singleton Brutality and a couple of Show and Tell main. DRS is too common not to have workarounds maindeck imo and Brutality fills that roll in a synergistic way. I agree it’s often not stellar though. Ponder is too important for constistency to cut them all, but it’s hard to fit a playset AND maintain a decent suite of disruption AND have an adequate number of combo pieces, so I also run two. Might up it to three and move one S&T to the board.

I find that either 3 ponder or hapless is the right number but they are competing for the same slot.

The reason I like ponder is for longer games, to set up mana and find sideboard pieces. Hapless encourages you to go all-out and if I was going to do that I'd rather play B/R instead.

[Ronald Deuce]

Anybody rocking mainboard Dark Rituals? I've been 3x; mixed results at the locals, but I like the explosivity. Feels better than Daze.

I've always been a proponent of Blazing Archon. That card is excellent against Eldrazi, too. Lately I've mostly been fighting Delvers and D&T and Truenames, so I've opted for Norn, but Archon neutralizes a whole lot of stuff.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

So what's the correct fatty to play vs. Miracles? It used to be Aetherling or Keranos, any changes?

I never saw good value in Sire vs. Miracles, but I guess if you had a strategy that worked for you, that's good.

[Cpt-Qc]

Cpt-Qc, current sideboard is like this:

4 Pack Rat
4 Thoughtseize
3 Echoing Truth
3 Pithing Needle
1 Elesh Norn

I really disagree on Pack Rat. Against fair blue decks, I have found that Rats can grind through Strixes and Leovolds. Particulary if you are bringing in discard, you can typically have counter backup vs Czech to buy the turn you need. Against Delver, you are usually able to race Delver and out-grow Angler. Young Pyromancer is the big problem, but you would probably FoW it anyway because of how disgusting it is with Cabal Therapy and because Reanimating it is a real threat. Some Pack Rat statistics:

5 match wins attributed to Pack Rat - Grixis Delver, Deadguy, Czech x2, Grixis Pyromancer Control
2 matches lost where Pack Rat didn't get there - BUG Delver where it got stalled by Goyf + DRS at a low life total, Eldrazi where I got outdone by Smashers.

Engineered Explosives is interesting, but I don't think I personally would go for EE in a world of Surgicals, Leylines, and Macabres as the principle hatecards.

I'm trying out the pack rats board atm and I am actually enjoying it more than I thought I would! ... yeah I have less ways to answer graveyard hate but I just don't care about it so there's that.

So what's the correct fatty to play vs. Miracles? It used to be Aetherling or Keranos, any changes?

I never saw good value in Sire vs. Miracles, but I guess if you had a strategy that worked for you, that's good.

Griselbrand, Iona and Leviathan are your guys. Keranos is still pretty good but they can out-race you with mentor and it's very dead in all other matchups so I'm not sure it's worth it unless your meta is miracles infested.

[Ixbpoqdxl]

Keranos is still pretty good but they can out-race you with mentor and it's very dead in all other matchups.

I wouldn't say all other matchups---Keranos dodges Edict out of Pile and Karakas out of DnT. Those two decks have rather slow clocks so bolting every turn is a reasonable wincon. I like Inkwell the most, but I recently swapped to Keranos and I don't really have enough experience yet to say for certain if it's better or worse.

Also rats rule.

[PirateKing]

So what's the correct fatty to play vs. Miracles? It used to be Aetherling or Keranos, any changes?

I never saw good value in Sire vs. Miracles, but I guess if you had a strategy that worked for you, that's good.

Right now it's probably just Griselbrand. Typical lists don't have Karakas, so their outs are Terminus, Jace bounce and Council's Judgment as slow removal and Swords to Plowshares as fast removal. Other option is to make angels to block.
The challenge against them is to resolve the reanimation, once you're past that hurdle then you'd want the best creature possible. Unless they're a turn from Mentoring out, you can afford to draw enough cards to go again if they do have the removal, or just plain kill them.
Honorable mention is Iona on white. Jace becomes their only out, but they're free to dig away until they find him.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Ok, thanks.

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[John Rohan]

Can someone explain to me - why so many builds have 4x Griselbrand?

Doesn't that make you really vulnerable to cards like Surgical Extraction? And you can't put out more than one at a time anyway.

With Entomb you can search for him, even if you just have one. I would prefer a wider choice to give me more options - Iona, It that Betrays, Jin-Gitaxias, Sheoldred, Ashen Rider, or Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sundering Titan, etc

[Rascalyote]

Can someone explain to me - why so many builds have 4x Griselbrand?

Doesn't that make you really vulnerable to cards like Surgical Extraction? And you can't put out more than one at a time anyway.

With Entomb you can search for him, even if you just have one. I would prefer a wider choice to give me more options - Iona, It that Betrays, Jin-Gitaxias, Sheoldred, Ashen Rider, or Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Sundering Titan, etc

Because you want Griselbrand more times than not seeing as how he's the best creature in most situations, and you have more ways to dump creatures from your hand than to entomb for them, so playing the full 4 gives you a higher chance of dumping and reanimating him.