[Primer] BRx Griselbrand Reanimator

[Darkness]

This semester is finally over till 1/16/18. I plan to do the following and present them to community

1. Finish 200 Matches and analyze the 75 that I used and very what cards are optimally used and which can be considered for potential other cards.
2. Test 50 Matches with Unmask version
3. Buy into MTGO and start streaming.

Any questions or suggestions feel free to ask. My current 75 is in my signature.

[Zooligan]

Where do you guys find the singleton CoK to be advantageous? have you ever found Blazing Archon to be worthwhile in things like the Eldrazi or Stompy matchups?

[Darkness]

Where do you guys find the singleton CoK to be advantageous? have you ever found Blazing Archon to be worthwhile in things like the Eldrazi or Stompy matchups?

I've never liked Blazing Archon, even the old days of reanimator when mental misstep was legal I always advocated elesh Norn for the board impact it made. But I'd say I only have my elesh Norn because I don't need 4 faerie macabre in my 75 and am not sure what I should replace -1 macabre as this the elesh Norn. It is a test card and hasn't been super impressive yet but I think archon would show similar results.

[Karhumies]

Where do you guys find the singleton CoK to be advantageous? have you ever found Blazing Archon to be worthwhile in things like the Eldrazi or Stompy matchups?

Back in the day, Archon used to be great in "slow and steady" Bu animator builds against midrange decks which had white, Karakas and creatures with way more than 2 toughness, making Elesh Norn and Griselbrand not that great. Especially if they chose to run other removal than StoP because they wanted to race and giving the opponent life points was counterproductive. Basically any midrange deck running KotR + Karakas or Natural Order into Progenitus. Naya Zoo, New Horizons, Gw maverick, Abzan midrange (called Junk back then), most of the Survival of the Fittest builds to give a few examples.

Merfolk, Goblins and Elves also used to be quite popular back then, and all of them relied on combat damage for the win.

Archon was also great against SnT into Emrakul decks.


What has changed?

Nearly all midrange decks are running 4x DRS as a noncombat win condition, making Archon somewhat useless against contemporary midrange decks.

Eldrazi splashing for white have access to Eldrazi Displacer. Even some of the colorless Eldrazi builds are running "silver bullets": either All Is Dust or some creature with a "when you cast" effect that can be tutored with Eye of Ugin to get rid of Blazing Archon.

Death & Taxes is much popular than the midrange decks I described above, and D&T has access to Flickerwisp.

Monored "stompy" decks nowadays pack 4x Chandra MD, and might be running Ensnaring Bridge MD themselves.

Sneaky Show is still a thing, though, so if that deck is popular in your meta, then sure why not give the good old Archon a try.

Other Karakas-dodging old target options: Empyrial Archangel, Inkwell Leviathan and Sphinx of the Steel Wind. Personally, back in the day, I used to prefer the Sphinx due to lifelink, vigilance and 6 attack over Archon for racing. But afterwards, Griselbrand got printed.


Children of Korlis, on the other hand, is a tactic from Tin Fins. CoK allows drawing enough cards and gaining enough life to setup whatever you need into your hand and into your graveyard NOW. Tin Fins can go through their library N times and generate enough mana to cast Emrakul for the win. This kind of a "I want all the stuff now" approach sounds to me more in line with fast reanimator strategy with mana acceleration than a "slow and steady" approach with tye Archon.

[Darkness]

Where do you guys find the singleton CoK to be advantageous? have you ever found Blazing Archon to be worthwhile in things like the Eldrazi or Stompy matchups?

CoK are for the Match Ups like Lands, Big Eldrazi, Storm, Sneak Attack, all decks where you just want to go all in on the combo plan and race them to get out a lock on them ASAP, whether it'd be a tidespout to bounce everything or Iona to lock them from comboing.

[Zooligan]

Should we be running a singleton Emrakul to entomb or discard so we can loop thru also??

[DNSolver]

No. Archetype and Iona is a lock. No need to loop Emrakul or whatever. Emrakul is so bad unless you are running Shallow Grave + Goryo's.

[Darkness]

Should we be running a singleton Emrakul to entomb or discard so we can loop thru also??

Agree with DNSolver it's too much and that lock sounds like win more.

[Zooligan]

No. Archetype and Iona is a lock. No need to loop Emrakul or whatever. Emrakul is so bad unless you are running Shallow Grave + Goryo's.

Then shouldn't we be running Archetype and Iona maindeck instead of waiting until after boarding to bring in the pig and leave Tyrant in the board unless we need it?

[Orion121]

Then shouldn't we be running Archetype and Iona maindeck instead of waiting until after boarding to bring in the pig and leave Tyrant in the board unless we need it?

There may be meta calls where this is right, but Archetype is very medium on it's own and if I can only have 1 creature I'd take a chancellor over Archetype most games, and tidespout over either. The versatility of tidespout puts it head and shoulders over archetype Game 1.

The number of games you'll lose to your opponent answering an Iona G1 (very few) will be less than the games you would lose by archetype hitting the board solo and not being good enough.

[Zooligan]

There may be meta calls where this is right, but Archetype is very medium on it's own and if I can only have 1 creature I'd take a chancellor over Archetype most games, and tidespout over either. The versatility of tidespout puts it head and shoulders over archetype Game 1.

The number of games you'll lose to your opponent answering an Iona G1 (very few) will be less than the games you would lose by archetype hitting the board solo and not being good enough.

Makes sense.

[Qweerios]

Hay guys!

I play a non-blue Young Pyro deck with Entomb and Reanimate and I have some questions regarding fatties. I only play Elesh Norn and Iona mainboard because I feel they cover the most matchups. I have space for one MAYBE two other fatties in my SB for troubling matchups. Ideally I would like a non-legendary fatty for the Karakas matchups (DnT, Lands, Depths). The decks I struggle with are Lands, Turbo Depths and SnT. I am thinking Blazing Archon seems good but gets stalled by Marrit Lage, Grisel, and Emrakul. I am also thinking aboit Ashen Rider, Grave Titan and Akroma. Akroma sounds good against Marrit Lage and Grisel but suffers against Karakas...

Any opinions?

[DNSolver]

Tidespout Tyrant wins all of those matchups.

If your opponent has Karakas, half the time you still get Griselbrand first.

[Qweerios]

Tidespout Tyrant wins all of those matchups.

If your opponent has Karakas, half the time you still get Griselbrand first.

Thanks for the quick reply!

Tyrant sounds great but requires an instant and open mana to deal with Marrit Lage which can be troublesome. I don't play Griselbrand in my deck either and I don't get to reanimate every game let along twice so I value fatties that lock the game in some way. Perhaps Tyrant is still the best answer to those matchups despite requiring other cards.

[Karhumies]

I don't play Griselbrand in my deck either and I don't get to reanimate every game let along twice

When your first animation is a Griselbrand, the draw 7/14/21 typically makes sure that you get a second, possibly third and fourth animation. Getting Griselbrand first, niche target second is typically better than getting a sub-par non-Griselbrand catch-all creature first and hopingg that's enough without a second animation.

[Qweerios]

When your first animation is a Griselbrand, the draw 7/14/21 typically makes sure that you get a second, possibly third and fourth animation. Getting Griselbrand first, niche target second is typically better than getting a sub-par non-Griselbrand catch-all creature first and hopingg that's enough without a second animation.

Read my initial post. I am not playing a reanimator deck. I am not guaranteed a second reanimate even by drawing 14 cards and I probably wouldn't have the life for it either.

[Darkness]

Read my initial post. I am not playing a reanimator deck. I am not guaranteed a second reanimate even by drawing 14 cards and I probably wouldn't have the life for it either.

Why in this thread then? Also, your deck is called Young Frankenstein.

[delfam]

Just 5-0'd with the Pack Rat/Young Pyro/Bitterblossom sideboard so hopefully my deck gets posted tomorrow. Never got to cast Blossom but Ract/Pyro did some work against Delver. I still kind of want some Collective Brutality in the SB for Delvers/Shamans but can't find room. Stronghold Gambit would also be nice against gravehate decks as sometimes the creature don't work.

DNSOLVER:

How would you SB vs white decks like D&T, Maverick, Miracles? They have swords for the big guys, graveyard hate, plus the creature SB isn't great vs them with Terminus, Jitte, or just big creatures in Maverick.

Same thing with Eldrazi, they have Leyline which I have no answers to with this SB, but the creatures are usually just too small vs TKS/Smasher/Endbringer.

[delfam]

https://www.reddit.com/r/spikes/comm...nt_gravestone/

seems like a new card we might have to play around, seems playable in Legacy with Deathrite Shaman everywhere

[DNSolver]

I wouldn't be more concerned about Silent Gravestone than Grafdigger's Cage.

I'm thinking that the Pack Rat sideboard is pretty weak against Miracles because they will be leaving in Plow and Terminus anyway, most likely. However, Miracles is weak vs our maindeck, even after sideboarding, so I would sideboard minimally in that matchup. Vs Eldrazi maybe try to squeeze 4 Reverent Silences or Wear/Tears in and not play Pack Rats in that matchup.

Maverick and D+T should be pretty easy matchups for our maindeck, especially if you play Children + Archetype post-board. D+T usually plays slower graveyard hate, not surgical but RIP / Containment Priest so you can get under it. Maverick has DRS too. Both can play Surgical or Faerie Macabre, but you're right that Pack Rat won't be very effective there and you just have to dodge the hate or discard it.

edited: misread above post.