Do you guys have any suggestions to improve my Mono Black Reanimator deck.

[Jon Stewart]

I have had close to zero experience with Reanimator before it won the GP but have been playing my friend's deck a bit (his list was basically a clone of the GP winning list) and want to try it for myself. I already traded for entomb and have just about all the other cards

I kind of want to stay with mono black, atleast for now. Yes I know monoblack is easier to hate but I really like how much more consistent mono black is compared to my firend's list. It plays a lot more reanimate spells, and a lot more ways to get cards into the yard (including the discard spells that can target yourself) and overall, I love the feel of the deck.

Here's my current list (and I'm pretty pleased with it generally).


4 Thoughtseize
2 Duress
2 Unmask
2 Cabal Therapy

4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead

3 Beseech the Queen
1 Nev's Disk

4 Entomb
4 Buried Alive

1 Iona
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Empyrical Archangel
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

3 Dark Ritual
19 Swamp

////Sideboard
3 Mishra's Factory- Answers hate cards like Edict while boosting your land count to let you Beseech for Disk.
3 Nev's Disk - Answers every nonland hate card in the game.

I play Mishra's Factory in the board so that they could block aggro cards (will trade with a 3/3, and answer landstills Factories) while also letting you boost your land count so that you could Beseech for Disk.

Alix Hatfield played Dryad Arbor in the board, presumably to bring in against Edict effects.

I would much rather side Mishras Factories than Dryad Arbor.

Factories can serve as protection against Edict effects, they can trade with a Nacatl and several other legacy creatures and they are great at slowing down goblins, merfolk and landstill by atleast a turn. And best of all, they don't have summoning sickness.

You just have to leave them untapped but only AFTER you get a big guy onto the board (ie. Only when you have the advantage) so that you can deal with Edict.


I revised my list a bit making it a lot more resilient.

I realize how awesome Beseech the Queen is. It gets you either Entomb, Buried Alive or a Reanimate effect based on exactly which card you need at that moment.

Best of all, it can be used to grab a Nev's Disk against Leyline, double Chalice, Countertop, Worship, Noetic Scales or other resolved hate cards. You will also play more Disk's in the board to help get it.

To support these higher casting cost spells, I play fewer Dark Rituals and more swamp. Unlike most decks, it's not as important that you Dark Ritual on the first turn. You never want to see multiple Dark Rituals in the same game anyways. You mainly use Dark Ritual to play Disk.

The deck also uses discard less as a means to discarding your own creatures (it plays fewer maindeck creatures to draw on your own), and uses it more heavily to protect your key spells like Disk from getting countered or destroyed, or to prevent Countertop from entering the board in the first place.

As you can see, all my discard can be used to target myself to discard my own creatures. Between that and the tutoring (Entomb/Buried Alive) and the ridiculously high number of Reanimate effects I play, I pretty much never have to worry about not having the cards to combo out. And usually, I can combo out multiple times per game and easily recover from countermagic or my threats getting destroyed somehow.

Do you guys have any tweaks or suggestions?

[Jon Stewart]

Oops, I just found out that they changed how Animate Dead works, so it can no longer bring back Akroma. Is Inkwell Leviathan the best option then, or is there something else that's better.

Also, I know that Iona is THE best reanimator target. But what are the top 3 best Reanimator targets in a generic metagame?

[Phoenix Ignition]

Also, I know that Iona is THE best reanimator target. But what are the top 3 best Reanimator targets in a generic metagame?

I would disagree with saying Iona is THE best reanimator target. In fact, if you find yourself in the position to reanimate any creature in your deck on turn 1 without any knowledge of what the opponent is playing, I would always go with Inkwell Leviathan. Shroud is better than "can't play spells" if you don't know what color to name or if they could be playing Maze of Ith.

The best creatures are probably Iona, Inkwell, and Sphinx (he isn't pro white, so if you're playing against zoo and grab him you need to make sure they don't have a path in hand).

[Jon Stewart]

Thank you so much for the advice. I'll get Inkwell Leviathan alongside Iona and Sphinx.

Does everyone else agree with Phoenix that Sphinx, Iona, and Inkwell are the three best reanimator targets in a generic metagame?

One other question, how often are Blazing Archon or Empyrical Archangel even useful.

Reading the Zoo vs. Reanimator matchup in GP Madrid, Archangel seemed pretty bad. And it's also such a slow clock.

Blazing Archon also has a very slow clock and is vulnerable to every removal spell under the sun.

[slylie]

problem is you have nothing maindeck or sideboard to get rid of a leyline. Blue splash gets chain of vapor, show and tell, ect.

Whats your plan against graveyard hate out of the sideboard?

[whienot]

I've always really liked Thraximundar, but he was never quite good enough to make the cut. But yes, Iona, Inky, and the Sphinx are the best targets usually. Have a look at Terastodon, it's pretty good, too.

[Jon Stewart]

Terastodon looks awesome, destroy Humility and other annoying permanents, or simply just give yourself up to 3 3/3s to accompany your 9/9. I wonder why no one plays it.

[kicks_422]

My mono-black solution for Leyline of the Void (and generally, every other hate piece) is Nev's Disk.

[Jon Stewart]

Awesome idea. I'll play 4 Disk in the board against random hate. I suppose I could pair it up with antiaggro cards in the board to buy me time. Keg or Culling Scales or something. Those double as answers to hate sans Leyline.

[Jon Stewart]

I revised my list a bit making it a lot more resilient.

I realize how awesome Beseech the Queen is. It gets you either Entomb, Buried Alive or a Reanimate effect based on exactly which card you need at that moment.

Best of all, it can be used to grab a Nev's Disk against Leyline, double Chalice, Countertop, Worship, Noetic Scales or other resolved hate cards. You will also play more Disk's in the board to help get it.

To support these higher casting cost spells, I play fewer Dark Rituals and more swamp. Unlike most decks, it's not as important that you Dark Ritual on the first turn. You never want to see multiple Dark Rituals in the same game anyways. You mainly use Dark Ritual to play Disk.

The deck also uses discard less as a means to discarding your own creatures (it plays fewer maindeck creatures to draw on your own), and uses it more heavily to protect your key spells like Disk from getting countered or destroyed, or to prevent Countertop from entering the board in the first place.