[WGD] ubr Derpy Dragon Reanimator

[rufus]

Yet another bad combo deck concept. Rather than grinding out the library one way or another, this is an attempt to make Worldgorger Dragon work with ETB trigger creatures. The one that seems best to me so far is Flayer of the Hatebound.

If you have a flayer in play, then the WGD/Animate Dead loop will do infinite damage since WGD's return to play triggers the flayer's ability.

If you have a flayer (without a +1/+1 counter) in play, and reanimate another flayer into play, then you can kill-cycle each flayer to get a total of four flayer triggers on the stack for a total of 18-20 damage depending on the reanimation method.

Although it may be considered unsporting and it is risky, I don't really have any issue with forcing a draw turn 2 or later after the first game as an ersatz mulligan.


4 Street Wraith
4 Gitaxian Probe

4 Faithless Looting
4 Careful Study
4 Entomb

4 Phantom Image
3 Flayer of the Hatebound
4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Volrath's Shapeshifter

4 Reanimate
2 Animate Dead
3 Dance of the Dead
1 Necromancy

1 Mystical Teachings
1 Gifts Ungiven

Lands

I'm trying to work out whether it's feasible to run a 'naked' combo like this. Obviously it's close to having enough :u: to run 4x Brainstorm and 4xForce of Will in a sideboard, but...

[Mystical_Jackass]

Okay, just an idea. But what about Recurring Nightmare, then use Putrid Imp instead of Hapless Researcher.

The idea is that the Imp can do its job, dumping creatures into gy at instant speed, but alsothen be sac'd to Recurring Nightmare to recur Flayer or Dragon. Also since you need 2 creatures to pull off combo, if you recur a Flayer you can still cycle Dragon into gy next turn and recast Recurring Nightmare on your own Flayer to bring Dragon into play, so it keeps your card adv.

I'm thinking you'd want a good ~8 lil' guys, like maybe 4x Putrid Imp, 4x Oona's Prowler to consistently fuel Recurring Nightmare though. I also feel like the 4 Streeth Wraith should be Entombs. Oh yeah, I'm also a big fan of dark ritual.. this deck seems perfect for running it.

[rufus]

Okay, just an idea. But what about Recurring Nightmare, then use Putrid Imp instead of Hapless Researcher. ..

Yeah, the deck is was short discount outlets, so I was looking at pimp. Nightmare is slow, and won't work with WGD. Some part of me likes that researcher turns reanimation into cycling.


... I also feel like the 4 Streeth Wraith should be Entombs. Oh yeah, I'm also a big fan of dark ritual.. this deck seems perfect for running it.

Yeah, rituals and maybe lotus petals.

[Mystical_Jackass]

Hey man I just thought of something. One drawback is that you pretty much need to resolve 2 separate reanimates to execute your combo (or resolve 1 Flayer + phantasmal image), not easy to do.

A player would ask themself, why bother, at that point right just play an easier proven reanimator deck. But what if you ran Sneak Attack as well? That would cut back on your redundancy on the reanimates and allow you to play slower, throw in more disruption, card draw, and removal like innocent blood or pyroclasm, I dunno. Right now the deck seems like it wants to rush toward something that it just isn't cut out to do ya know, it's a bit of a reach, but maybe if you make it more mid-range you can play safe for like 4 turns, protect your combo better, then just win all at once. Thoughts?

[rufus]

Thinking on it some more, the lines of play with Entomb are just too strong. Any WGD deck that takes itself seriously probably has to play 4x Entomb.