alphastryk
09-13-2011, 10:54 AM
I played Reanimator this past weekend at SCG Atlanta, finishing at 7-2 in 10th place.
My list for this can be found here (http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=40715).
To explain a few of the stranger choices, the Darkslick Shores should be a 4th Underground Sea. I wanted another non-fetchland for some of the longer games and figured I could avoid buying the last sea, forgetting about daze when I did so. Fortunately, it never came up during the tournament. The 2 nonstandard sideboard cards I'm sure you're wondering about at the Phantasmal Image and the Mindbreak Trap. The trap was to win counter wars, but in retrospect I would rather have another Thoughtseize or Spell Pierce. The image is to kill progenitus against NO RUG, and to help out in the mirror match.
I'll do my best to reconstruct what happened round by round from my notes:
-- Round 1 vs. Stoneblade (Thopter Foundry) --
I lost a long game one where Jin-Gitaxias's draw 7 found me no protection for him, and I couldn't setup another creature before his Batterskull killed me.
Game 2 I had a fast Jin,drew 7 but he was able to swords it after I attacked once. I then reanimated Iona and he didn't find anything relevant. He played a Crucible of Worlds in this game before discarding to Jin, which mad me wonder how he boarded, as crucible seems very bad in this match.
Game 3 I had a turn 2 Jin with protection and he wasn't able to get much of anything going.
1-0
-- Round 2 vs. Team America --
Game one he led off by stifling and wasting my lands to keep me from completing the combo, but I was land heavy and both careful study and brainstorm drew enough lands to lock him out, and it looked like he drew all lands the whole game.
Game 2 I had a turn 2 Jin with protection and forced his edict after taking 3 from goyf, but was able to pull the win out at 1 life through his diabolic edict, leaving my shiny new sphinx of the steel wind back to block tarmogoyf. In retrospect, I shouldn't have attacked with Jin this turn, as I was tapped out and could not counter another edict if he had it, but he didn't, so its on to round 3.
2-0
-- Round 3 vs. Stoneblade (Faeries) --
Game 1 was a long game where I cantripped for a bit to find all of the pieces, and was unable to stop his vendillion clique from cycling the last piece I needed. We fought a counter war over me reanimating his clique after getting Elesh Norn to kill it (norn got pathed). I got the clique and cycled a dead card from my hand as his hand was empty following the counter war. He had another clique after that, but I had a sphinx to lock the game up.
Game 2 I lost the counter war over his surgical extraction, and he removed all of my Jin-Gitaxias from my deck. I kept digging for an answer, and was able to Angel of Despair his batterskull but I lost the angel to a path. He finally found a spellstutter sprite to beat me down from 5, and we were on to game 3.
Game 3, He played a Relic on turn one, but tapped out to do so, and entomb + reanimate Jin got the job done.
3-0
-- Round 4 vs. Dredge (LED) --
I was on the play for game 1, and my first turn careful study discared Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias. When he didn't therapy me, I got norn and he conceded after thinking for a few seconds.
Game 2 he opened with a Leyline of the Void, which I didn't expect. I didn't board in Show and tell, and didn't have an Echoing truth in my hand at the time. Things worked out for me though, because his only discard outlet was to therapy himself turn 1, giving me perfect information. His turn 2 dredge milled his Iona, which I promptly reanimated on my next turn, naming blue for the chain of vapor in his hand. 3 turns later, it was over.
4-0
-- Round 5 vs. Bant --
He was able to swords my Jin gitaxias, but only had noble heirarch to attack with. He made a Batterskull soon after, and attacked me to 14 with it (exalted). I don't remember what target I got at this point, maybe Empyrial Archangel, but he scooped soon afterwards.
Game 2 He plays a heirarch and passes. He attempts to surgical extraction the angel of despair I discarded to careful study in response to my thoughtseize, which I misstep. He reveals Jace, Jace, Stp, Path, Phyrexian metamorph. I take StP, as I have another jmisstep for his path. I get the angel back and kill his heirach to keep him off mana for metamorph and blue for jace. He doesnt draw a 3rd land to metamorph until he is at 2, which he plays for fun, paying 2 life.
5-0
-- Round 6 vs. Zoo (Cat Sligh) --
Game 1 I have a choice of targets with entomb after cantripping for 2 turns, and I choose to get Elesh Norn to try to wipe out his 3 Nactyls, Grim lavamancer and Goblin Guide. This was a greedy mistake on my part, and I should have just gotten the sphinz and hoped he didn't find a path. He had the path, and I had to force it to keep Norn anyways, but was unable to gain life and got burned out of the game.
Game 2 I won a close game where I was at 3 life and he had a sylvan library in play and I just had a blazing archon, so he was trying to burn me out. fortunately I ripped the entomb to find an empyrial archangel to complete the lock, and he scooped.
Game 3 went long, with my sphinx getting pathed and him resolving sylvan library again. I was forced to reanimate the blazing archon I had found with reanimate, but this put me to 3, and he had the bolt.
I was tilting pretty hard after losing this match, becauseI knew I had punted game 1.
5-1
--Round 7 vs. Esper Stoneblade --
I won a long involved game one, having Jin but being not being able to block his Batterskull until I found a Sphinx, after which I was finally able to close it out.
Game 2 I kept a 1-lander with a show and tell, Jin, a careful study and a brainstorm. My brainstorm failed to find any more lands, and I sat there doing nothing relevant for a while after getting Jin in play, he wasted my second land and hardcast a leyline and then a jace. I brainstormed into no more lands, blanked for a few more turns, and lost the counter war at the end when he had jace (fatesealing me), 2x dark confidant and a sword of feast and famine. I was entoming random cards to shuffle every time he left a card with jace, but I couldn't get there. This game took a long time, so I wuickly added the 3rd show and tell and second echoing truth for game 3. I lost game 3 to his better draw after mulling, and that was it.
5-2
-- Round 8 vs. MonoBlue Control (Athens Blue) --
My opponent led on island pass, and he misstepped my entomb at the end of his turn. I misstepped back, got Jin gitaxias and had an animate dead and more counterspells than him. He did get a shackles and an o-stone in play before I had enough counters, and even managed to steal muy later elesh norn with shackles at one point. I found angel of despair, blew up the shackles and jin swung in for 7, putting him to 10. He found another land and popped the o-stone on his turn to wipe my board. I get back the angel and blow up a land to minimize his outs. He was at 2 life and drew his card before conceding.
In game 2 I kept a weak hand with swamp as my only land, but I had misstep, brainstorm, entomb, reanimate, force, and a pithing needle. I entombed iona, but could not resolve the reanimate. I drew the other pithing needle, and started playing them out. The first named o-stone, the second relic (this may have been wrong). I finally found a blue land to ponder, which got misstepped. I then drew the exhume to get Iona and lock him out of the game.
6-2
I checked standings after this round, and it looked like I was locked out of Top8, as there would be at least 8 22 pointers, and I could only get to 21 points, so I was playing for top16.
-- Round 9 vs. Death and Taxes --
My oppnent won the die roll and led on wastelnd, vial. debated forcing it, putting him on a loose merfolk keep, but decided I couldn't afford to pitch a cantrip to do so. He followed with a plains, and I realized what he was playing, getting worried, as they often have multiple karakas, along with jotun grunt and stonecloaker. I got a sphinx in play and beat him down with it.
In game 2, I never found the second half of the combo after cantripping and conceded after a bad brainstorm showed nothing. I countered 2 enlightened tutors in the game, knowing he would be finding a wheel of sun and moon or a relic, but never had anything.
Game 3 he mulliganed and found a karakas, forcing me to get the sphinx again instead of the Jin I had planned to go with (I had discarded it to careful study on my turn 1). Unfortunately for him, his karakas was his only white source, and after he tapped it to try to path my sphinx, which I had the counter for he couldn't stop me from drawing 7 with Jin, locking up the game.
7-3, 10th place overall.
I felt very good about the deck all day, and will be playing something similar at the next SCG Open I can attend if the metagame hasn't shifted significantly.
My list for this can be found here (http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=40715).
To explain a few of the stranger choices, the Darkslick Shores should be a 4th Underground Sea. I wanted another non-fetchland for some of the longer games and figured I could avoid buying the last sea, forgetting about daze when I did so. Fortunately, it never came up during the tournament. The 2 nonstandard sideboard cards I'm sure you're wondering about at the Phantasmal Image and the Mindbreak Trap. The trap was to win counter wars, but in retrospect I would rather have another Thoughtseize or Spell Pierce. The image is to kill progenitus against NO RUG, and to help out in the mirror match.
I'll do my best to reconstruct what happened round by round from my notes:
-- Round 1 vs. Stoneblade (Thopter Foundry) --
I lost a long game one where Jin-Gitaxias's draw 7 found me no protection for him, and I couldn't setup another creature before his Batterskull killed me.
Game 2 I had a fast Jin,drew 7 but he was able to swords it after I attacked once. I then reanimated Iona and he didn't find anything relevant. He played a Crucible of Worlds in this game before discarding to Jin, which mad me wonder how he boarded, as crucible seems very bad in this match.
Game 3 I had a turn 2 Jin with protection and he wasn't able to get much of anything going.
1-0
-- Round 2 vs. Team America --
Game one he led off by stifling and wasting my lands to keep me from completing the combo, but I was land heavy and both careful study and brainstorm drew enough lands to lock him out, and it looked like he drew all lands the whole game.
Game 2 I had a turn 2 Jin with protection and forced his edict after taking 3 from goyf, but was able to pull the win out at 1 life through his diabolic edict, leaving my shiny new sphinx of the steel wind back to block tarmogoyf. In retrospect, I shouldn't have attacked with Jin this turn, as I was tapped out and could not counter another edict if he had it, but he didn't, so its on to round 3.
2-0
-- Round 3 vs. Stoneblade (Faeries) --
Game 1 was a long game where I cantripped for a bit to find all of the pieces, and was unable to stop his vendillion clique from cycling the last piece I needed. We fought a counter war over me reanimating his clique after getting Elesh Norn to kill it (norn got pathed). I got the clique and cycled a dead card from my hand as his hand was empty following the counter war. He had another clique after that, but I had a sphinx to lock the game up.
Game 2 I lost the counter war over his surgical extraction, and he removed all of my Jin-Gitaxias from my deck. I kept digging for an answer, and was able to Angel of Despair his batterskull but I lost the angel to a path. He finally found a spellstutter sprite to beat me down from 5, and we were on to game 3.
Game 3, He played a Relic on turn one, but tapped out to do so, and entomb + reanimate Jin got the job done.
3-0
-- Round 4 vs. Dredge (LED) --
I was on the play for game 1, and my first turn careful study discared Elesh Norn and Jin-Gitaxias. When he didn't therapy me, I got norn and he conceded after thinking for a few seconds.
Game 2 he opened with a Leyline of the Void, which I didn't expect. I didn't board in Show and tell, and didn't have an Echoing truth in my hand at the time. Things worked out for me though, because his only discard outlet was to therapy himself turn 1, giving me perfect information. His turn 2 dredge milled his Iona, which I promptly reanimated on my next turn, naming blue for the chain of vapor in his hand. 3 turns later, it was over.
4-0
-- Round 5 vs. Bant --
He was able to swords my Jin gitaxias, but only had noble heirarch to attack with. He made a Batterskull soon after, and attacked me to 14 with it (exalted). I don't remember what target I got at this point, maybe Empyrial Archangel, but he scooped soon afterwards.
Game 2 He plays a heirarch and passes. He attempts to surgical extraction the angel of despair I discarded to careful study in response to my thoughtseize, which I misstep. He reveals Jace, Jace, Stp, Path, Phyrexian metamorph. I take StP, as I have another jmisstep for his path. I get the angel back and kill his heirach to keep him off mana for metamorph and blue for jace. He doesnt draw a 3rd land to metamorph until he is at 2, which he plays for fun, paying 2 life.
5-0
-- Round 6 vs. Zoo (Cat Sligh) --
Game 1 I have a choice of targets with entomb after cantripping for 2 turns, and I choose to get Elesh Norn to try to wipe out his 3 Nactyls, Grim lavamancer and Goblin Guide. This was a greedy mistake on my part, and I should have just gotten the sphinz and hoped he didn't find a path. He had the path, and I had to force it to keep Norn anyways, but was unable to gain life and got burned out of the game.
Game 2 I won a close game where I was at 3 life and he had a sylvan library in play and I just had a blazing archon, so he was trying to burn me out. fortunately I ripped the entomb to find an empyrial archangel to complete the lock, and he scooped.
Game 3 went long, with my sphinx getting pathed and him resolving sylvan library again. I was forced to reanimate the blazing archon I had found with reanimate, but this put me to 3, and he had the bolt.
I was tilting pretty hard after losing this match, becauseI knew I had punted game 1.
5-1
--Round 7 vs. Esper Stoneblade --
I won a long involved game one, having Jin but being not being able to block his Batterskull until I found a Sphinx, after which I was finally able to close it out.
Game 2 I kept a 1-lander with a show and tell, Jin, a careful study and a brainstorm. My brainstorm failed to find any more lands, and I sat there doing nothing relevant for a while after getting Jin in play, he wasted my second land and hardcast a leyline and then a jace. I brainstormed into no more lands, blanked for a few more turns, and lost the counter war at the end when he had jace (fatesealing me), 2x dark confidant and a sword of feast and famine. I was entoming random cards to shuffle every time he left a card with jace, but I couldn't get there. This game took a long time, so I wuickly added the 3rd show and tell and second echoing truth for game 3. I lost game 3 to his better draw after mulling, and that was it.
5-2
-- Round 8 vs. MonoBlue Control (Athens Blue) --
My opponent led on island pass, and he misstepped my entomb at the end of his turn. I misstepped back, got Jin gitaxias and had an animate dead and more counterspells than him. He did get a shackles and an o-stone in play before I had enough counters, and even managed to steal muy later elesh norn with shackles at one point. I found angel of despair, blew up the shackles and jin swung in for 7, putting him to 10. He found another land and popped the o-stone on his turn to wipe my board. I get back the angel and blow up a land to minimize his outs. He was at 2 life and drew his card before conceding.
In game 2 I kept a weak hand with swamp as my only land, but I had misstep, brainstorm, entomb, reanimate, force, and a pithing needle. I entombed iona, but could not resolve the reanimate. I drew the other pithing needle, and started playing them out. The first named o-stone, the second relic (this may have been wrong). I finally found a blue land to ponder, which got misstepped. I then drew the exhume to get Iona and lock him out of the game.
6-2
I checked standings after this round, and it looked like I was locked out of Top8, as there would be at least 8 22 pointers, and I could only get to 21 points, so I was playing for top16.
-- Round 9 vs. Death and Taxes --
My oppnent won the die roll and led on wastelnd, vial. debated forcing it, putting him on a loose merfolk keep, but decided I couldn't afford to pitch a cantrip to do so. He followed with a plains, and I realized what he was playing, getting worried, as they often have multiple karakas, along with jotun grunt and stonecloaker. I got a sphinx in play and beat him down with it.
In game 2, I never found the second half of the combo after cantripping and conceded after a bad brainstorm showed nothing. I countered 2 enlightened tutors in the game, knowing he would be finding a wheel of sun and moon or a relic, but never had anything.
Game 3 he mulliganed and found a karakas, forcing me to get the sphinx again instead of the Jin I had planned to go with (I had discarded it to careful study on my turn 1). Unfortunately for him, his karakas was his only white source, and after he tapped it to try to path my sphinx, which I had the counter for he couldn't stop me from drawing 7 with Jin, locking up the game.
7-3, 10th place overall.
I felt very good about the deck all day, and will be playing something similar at the next SCG Open I can attend if the metagame hasn't shifted significantly.