Hi this is Mike de Leon, one of the players who started playing the game ever since Weatherlight, then quit playing magic then went back after a 10 yr Hiatus. Before the said tourney, I was planning to play a UBR Delver Tempo, but decided to try to play a deck called Reanimator. I’ve been having problems playing the Tempo deck due to the mental stress it brings(greater than playing TES based from experience) and it was no fun for me.
I’ve been trying familiarize myself with this deck 2 weeks before the tourney and have started to read the forums(from page 1, then skipped to the part where mystical tutor was banned, then proceeded until the part where Mental Misstep was banned). My previous performance with this deck was 3-1 in a mini tourney. I was not satisfied with it because one of the wins was a bye and my friend that I played against gave me the win on our 3rd game of the 4th round. It really didn’t test my skill as a pilot, but gave me enough time to ponder upon the deck.
I was able to do playtest the night before and have realized that sundering titan was under performing from the sb. So I decided to make some changes in MD and SB. Here’s the list
Main:
Polluted delta 4
Misty Rainforest 2
Verdant Catacombs 2
Underground sea 3
Watery grave 1
Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth 1
Island 2
Swamp 2
Careful study 4
Entomb 4
Hapless researcher 2
Reanimate 4
Exhume 4
Animate dead 3
Jin Gitaxias, Core augur 3
Inkwell Leviathan
Sphinx of the steel wind
Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Angel of Despair
Brainstorm 4
Duress
Thoughtseize 2
Daze 3
Force of will 4
Sideboard:
Ponder
Blazing Archon
Empyrial Archangel
Echoing Truth 3
Show and Tell 3
Duress 3
Pithing needle 3
Tournament Day (Disclaimer: The report is not that thorough because I didn’t take notes and was trying to remember all the relevant plays/events from my head. My apologies if you see some gaps in it. )
Round 1 – Tempo Thresh(RUG)
G1: Wasn’t able to do much here. My fetches got stifled 3 times and got wasted twice.
G2: I mulled to 6, he mulled to 5. I was able to manage to get to 4 lands then one of them got wasted. I tried to Show and Tell with 2 FOW as protection. He responded with Daze, REB and FOW. How I wish I had Zoo or Gobs to beat his tempo deck to crap.
0-1
Round 2 – UBW Tempo
G1: I played a fetchland then passed the turn. He played thoughtseize and nabbed my FOW. I was able to entomb on my turn and reanimate a Jin Gitaxias unmolested and went on to draw 7. He didn’t have any removal for my Jin on his turn and we go to game 2.
SB: +1 ponder, + 3 Snt, + 3 duress; -2 Exhume, -1 Animate dead, - 3 Daze, -1 Elesh norn
G2: I risked not boarding Echoing truth for a possible Leyline. It turned out that he has Leyline and started to mull for it. To my luck, he did not find any and he decided to stop at 5. He started with thoughtseize on my reanimate. I responded with duress on his spell snare on my turn. After 1-2 turns, I was able to bin Jin with careful study and exhumed it unmolested, drawing 7 with FOW and discarding Iona. He scooped and extended his hand after a couple of turns.
1-1
Round 3 – 3C PIF ANT
We both new each other’s decks as we’ve played before in previous Tournaments.
G1: He started with thoughtseize on my entomb, but I was able to careful study and discarded Jin and sphinx. I was able to exhume Jin after he passed the turn and drew 7, but didn’t draw any FOW. He wished for silent departure on his turn and bounced my Jin to buy him some time. I had no choice but to reanimate Sphinx and get me back to 20 life. I was able to entomb to another Jin revived it with animate dead but I drew nothing but Daze among the 7 cards. Sure enough, He was able to go off on his turn.
SB: +1 Ponder, + 3 duress, -1 elesh norn, -2 hapless, -1 inkwell.
G2: I started with duress and saw Infernal, echoing truth, 2 lands, and other cards that I can’t remember but were irrelevant. I chose Infernal. Was able to exhume Iona naming blue after he passed his turn and started to beat face. He scooped after a few turns and we go to game 3.
G3: If I remember correctly, I had an opening hand of Entomb, duress, FOW, Brainstorm, Jin, and 2 lands. He started with thoughtseize on my entomb, played LED and passed the turn. I responded with duress on his brainstorm on my turn. I was able to draw another duress on my next turn and saw PIF, and Pyroblast. I decided to nab pyroblast, since I have brainstorm on my hand and I didn’t want him to mess with it. After we passed our turns, he played Infernal on his next turn without cracking LED. I decided to FOW pitching Jin since he was trying to get another mana source for his PIF. I drew my second FOW, played a fetch land then passed the turn. He drew a cantrip on his next turn, used it and passed which I responded with brainstorm. I saw 2 thoughtseize, and Jin. My hand was 2 thoughtseize, FOW, Animate dead, Jin and a land. I couldn’t use my fetch in play because it will shuffle away my animate dead. So I decided not to and return a land with animate dead on top of my lib. I played thoughseize on my turn targeting his PIF and the second one, targeting myself in order to bin my Jin. I revived it with animate dead and drew 7, giving me a blue card to pitch for FOW and Daze for a tax counter. I knew he needs to have 7 mana or more in order to flashback his PIF with protection. It was mandatory for him to try to go off in his turn which he tried to do so by flashbacking his PIF that met my FOW. We shook hands after. Good game.
2-1
Round 4 – UW stoneblade
G1: With only Daze in hand as a protection for my entomb, I decided to play round his Daze and FOW by playing lands on my first 2 turns. He tapped out by playing stoneforge on his turn searching for batterskull then passed. I responded with entomb, binning Jin. I reanimated it on my next turn, unmolested and drew 7. I did not find any FOW a lot of reanimation spells, brainstorm, and fetch. He didn’t have swords on his turn and was forced to play his batter skull and discard. I didn’t attack with Jin , drew another 7 and still no FOW but got entomb and an angel of despair to discard. After he played SoFaF on his next turn and attcking with batterskull, I exhumed my Angel sending his batterskull packing and started to beat with Jin. He equipped his stoneforge with SoFaFand attacked on his turn. I entombed with Elesh Norn then animated which buffed my Jin and Angel and we move to game 2.
G2: I tried to entomb a Jin trying to bait for a hate card which he did by playing purify the grave. I duressed his hand and he responded with spell pierce. Then he exiled all of my duress with surgical extraction. I was able to draw thoughtseize and saw his hand of swords, pte and 2 snapcasters. I chose one of the snapcasters. He decided to play the other at end of my turn and tried to beat me down with it. I played reanimate on my turn , targeting the snapcaster from his grave. Then I flashbacked my entomb for Empyrial archangel. He tried to flashback his Purify but it met my FOW. I exhumed eventually the Archangel after he pathed the reanimated snapcaster. The Archangel’s fat ass saved my life and gave me the win.
3-1
Round 5 – UB Ant
G1: I was on the draw and tried to draw discard Iona. He played thoughseize on his turn which I had to FOW and he went off with Ad Nauseam. Tendrils for 20.
SB: +1 Ponder, + 2 duress, + 1 Blazing archon -1 elesh norn, -2 hapless, -1 inkwell
G2: I started with duress and saw Ad Nauseam, 2 chain of vapor and other mana sources. I chose Ad Naus. I was able to Entomb Iona and revive it, naming blue. He was able to draw his second Ad Nauseam and played it after his thoughtseize with 1 untapped land. Unfortunately, he goes down to 2 after drawing bricks and drew Tendrils as his next card. On to game 3.
SB: + 1 duress, -1 blazing. I realized he did not board his Doomsday-Shelldock-Emrakul package.
G3: I decided to keep my hand of duress, Careful study, reanimate, exhume, brainstorm and 2 lands while he mulled to 5. I started with a duress on his infernal, leaving a darkrit, preordain and 2 lands. I was able to bin a Jin using careful study and brainstormed entomb for Iona. I reanimated Iona first naming blue, then exhumed Jin after he passed his turn. The 7 cards I drew had FOW, Jin, Daze, other reanimation spells and lands. He tried to go off on his turn with 2 lands in play. He started with darkrit then thoughtseize which I FOW’ed. He played his second darkrit, then Ad Nauseam which I dazed. He immediately tapped his untapped island after that. I reminded him that he only has 4 black mana floating and Ad Nauseam costs 5. I guess he forgot or was trying to do a Jedi Mind trick. Iona an Jin swung in my turn, bringing him down to a single digit life. He conceded after seeing the inevitable and we shook hands.
4-1
Round 6 – ID
I was on the 5th or 6th spot after 5 rounds. We saw that those ranked 1-7 can still go to the top 8, so we all decided to draw.
4-1-1
Playoffs – NO Bant
G1: I was able to entomb an Inkwell and exhumed it on turn 3. He was able to land a Goyf and Clique and the race is on. I was able to careful study an Angel of despair but did not reanimate it yet, as I was waiting for him to use his 2 swords that I saw from a duress that I played on earlier turns. He used his 2 swords on his smaller dudes to try to stall but I reanimated my the Angel to knock off his Goyf. Game 2.
SB: +1 ponder, + 3 Snt, + 3 duress, + 3 needles; -2 Exhume, -1 Animate dead, - 3 Daze, -1 Elesh norn, -2 hapless, -1 entomb
G2: I wasn’t able to do anything much here as I kept and slow hand and saw 2 surgical and 2 Cliques when I played with thoughtseize. I chose Clique after I played a needle on my earlier turns, that named his Maindeck Scavenging ooze. Then I risked reanimating Clique even if he had Karakas in Play to get rid of one of his hate cards(which btw was now 2 surgical, 1 meddling mage). Surely, he bounced it with Karakas and rinsed and repeated the process.
SB: +2 hapless, +1 entomb; -3 needles.
G3: Not knowing how to sb vs. this deck and keeping an iffy hand was costly for me. Basically, he was able to fetch his scavenging ooze, played 2 meddling mages naming SNT and exhume plus the Cliques spelled doom for me. I conceded after I went down to 3.
Props:
There were no MVP’s. It was a team effort from my creatures.
Not seeing any Leylines
Reanimating Snapcaster to flashback my entomb.
Bryant Cook’s habit of saying Good luck for good games to his opponents has been working for me so far for the past 2 tournaments.
Cons:
Not knowing how to SB against NO Bant
Not having the balls to mulligan and misplays in the playoffs.
I decided to go for 4 packs of Innistrad instead of 2 Verdant Catacombs. Fortunately, I was able to get rare cards that amounted to approximately 20$. It covered more than enough for the entry fee of 8$.
Thanks for reading!!
Congrats on your finish. I run a very similar build as I prefer the speed of hapless to ponders. As far as NO bant and maverick are concerned (Karakas/Maze of Ith/Ooze hurts), I find them much easier to overcome if you sacrifice your anti-control cards in the sideboard for perish/massacre. I usually board -daze/hapless/duress for +needle/SnT/echoing truth/perish. Perish is an absolute house in these match ups as you'll hit knight/goyf as well as mana dorks and dryad arbor. Massacre is much weaker here, but is very helpful for stoneblade.
"Bryant Cook’s habit of saying Good luck for good games to his opponents has been working for me so far for the past 2 tournaments. "
-What is that habit, never heard of it. Btw, you boarded in Ponder so often, why dont move it to the maindeck directly?
greetings
In response...Hypothek!
Thanks for the tip man. I think you're suggesting that I replace duress or a mixture of duress and needles. I'll try them out during playtesting. I used duress as sb for the purpose of fighting surgical extraction, extirpate, and purify the grave. Question is, how do you suggest I play around them?Originally Posted by Telperion
It brings good karma. You can read his article for your reference.
http://jupitergamesonline.com/2011/6...e2%80%93-11511
I initially had it main deck before the tourney. Then I decided that I wanted to have more creature utility pre board, then more cantrips to find anti hate cards post. So I moved angel of despair main, then ponder to sb.
It also just makes you not seem like a dick when you sit across from someone. I don't understand some people when they play Magic sometimes.
this past week at FNM some guy pulled the ol' "good games" "not really", then declined my handshake and walked off without signing the slip. What the hell bro.
Maybe it was out of frustration or he was a real jerk. Not all people are a "sport". That's why the word "douchebag" still exists.
I was thinking that a singleton lim-dul's vault from the sb might be more helpful than ponder. Since my intention post board was to have better cantrips, I figured out this can dig deeper. I might try it during playtesting as well.
Congrats on your win....Got yourself to top 8 and you only get 4 packs of Innistrad?
The entrance fee for your side event is so cheap for $8, seriously, i like it.
i don't think that LDV will help u get what you want, it's been tested and proven. Your list is very much the same as other Top8'd reanimators in the net and i believe it's already optimized.
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