[Primer] BRx Griselbrand Reanimator

[ottomanottoman]

I’ve really been struggling with the lands, maverick, and DnT matchups here lately. My strategy has been get a fatty on board ASAP G1 and try to ride it to victory and G2 try to tin fins them out with a children of korlis chain but while the children line has won me a few games idk if the sideboard slot could be better used for a different tech creature (inkwell, sire, keranos, etc.). Do you side out some number of chancellors in these matchups seeing as they aren’t FoW decks and chancellor can be dealt with fairly easily? Maybe I’ve been overthinking my G1 creature and should just go for griselbrand in almost every situation?

Here’s my list for reference:
2 Badlands
3 Polluted Delta
1 Scrubland
2 Swamp
4 Verdant Catacombs
4 Animate Dead
4 Chancellor of the Annex
2 Chrome Mox
4 Collective Brutality
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Exhume
4 Faithless Looting
4 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Lotus Petal
4 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize
1 Tidespout Tyrant

Sideboard:
1 Archetype of Endurance
1 Children of Korlis
4 Faerie Macabre
1 Grave Titan
1 Elesh Norn
1 Massacre
1 Pithing Needle
3 Serenity
2 Wear // Tear

I bring in needle, archetype, and children in all of those matchups but bring in the wear // tears & massacre against DnT/Maverick and bring in the serenities against lands because they often have chalice. I’ve been experimenting with what comes out and haven’t really nailed that down yet.

[TokenMaster]

I have a bit of an odd list, sideboard is definitely a mess. It's teched out to fight the local meta since we're overrun with fair decks/delver over here.(that, and I don't feel the need to board much against other combo decks given our favorable matchup against most of them as it is) Some cards need more testing but it's been pretty successful.

Creatures: 10
4 Chancellor of the Annex
3 Griselbrand
1 Tidespout Tyrant
2 Archfiend of Ifnir

Spells: 36
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
4 Reanimate
4 Animate Dead
4 Exhume
4 Entomb
4 Faithless Looting
4 Thoughtseize
2 Collective Brutality
2 Unmask

Land: 14
4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
2 Badlands
2 Scrubland
2 Swamp

Sideboard
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
2 Monastery Mentor
1 Grave Titan
3 Wear/Tear
1 Collective Brutality
2 Stronghold Gambit
2 Fatal Push
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pithing Needle

The little tricks I could do with Archfiend of Ifnir haven't come up often (i.e. getting around DRS/Surgical exiling your only Exhume target or opponents countering Entomb, or alternative t1/t2 lines) but the card has been a house against fair decks and makes mid-game Reanimate less risky and is also a fairly easy hardcast.

Monastery Mentor was in there before I added in the Archfiend and I don't think I need it anymore; the card was incredibly strong against decks that fought really low to the ground but it was useless against other fair matchups with bigger creatures. I want to cut it for something to improve Chalice/prison matchups since those are near-unwinnable for me right now unless I turn 1 them on the play or reveal Chancellor on the draw. It also allows me to run something closer to the conventional green splash since Mentor IMO was my primary reason for the white splash over green, aside from the absurd corner cases where I'm hardcasting my white fatties. That said I don't know how effective Abrupt Decay is in the Chalice matchups if Wear/Tear isn't cutting it either even when the opponent doesn't have Chalice on 2.

[DNSolver]

New 5-0 (should have been 4-1) tonight after I was messing around with some fun sideboard plans. I've been enjoying the Mentor sideboard plan out of my blue-based TinFins lists, and I was trying to make that work for this deck. However, this deck runs fewer lands (I was on 12 until recently I went to 13, cutting the second Chrome Mox after finding some math in the TinFins thread that showed that the 2nd Mox was bad), so you can't cast 3 mana creatures as quickly/easily and maintain a Mentor through a Wasteland or 2. List:

4 Griselbrand
4 Chancellor
1 Iona
1 Tidespout
4 Entomb
4 Looting
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask (this card seems so delicious after not playing it for awhile)
3 Badlands (want 3 if playing Young Pyromancer)
8 fetch
2 Swamp (want 2 basics if playing Pack Rat)

Sideboard:
4 Pack Rat
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Cryptbreaker
1 Archetype of Endurance (still have to beat Death and Taxes)
2 Cabal Therapy (I put these in as my last two slots, they will be changed...)

R1: Czech 2-0 (opponent misclicks to lose G1 in a weird scenario where I put myself dead to a burn spell and they misclick Kolaghan's Command). G2 Pack Rat mops up.

R2: Mirror 2-1 boarded in Pyromancer over Exhume on the draw.

R3: Sneak and Show 2-0 reanimated their Griselbrand

R4: Sneak and Show 2-0 reanimated their Griselbrand

R5: BUG Delver? 2-1. G1 Opponent plays DRS on 1 and I'm a turn slow, but they for some reason TAP their DRS to do something on their turn after I fetch Delta-> Thoughtseize -> take Force of Will. Kind of a questionable play that immediately cost him the game when I go Entomb Reanimate on my turn. G2 I turn 1 Entomb Reanimate but he has the Surgical (had to go for it in the face of DRS). My follow-up Cryptbreaker was awful, did nothing vs a flipped Delver. G3 Pack Rat mops up.

I realize that I was very fortunate in my pairings so don't assume this deck is broken. Pack Rat was pretty impressive, but if you miss on land drops or get Wastelanded it can do NOTHING without fast mana... I didn't get a chance to cast Pyromancer in a non-Griselbrand setting so I don't know how good he is.

Sideboard Changes coming up:

-4 Cryptbreaker -2 Cabal Therapy +6 ?
Pyromancer?

I have 6 slots to further facilitate a transformative plan, and Pyromancer may or may not be good. Let me know in the comments. I am considering Bitterblossom after having rejected Gurmag Angler/Tasigur/Tombstalker, Goblin Rabblemaster, Mentor, and Stoneforge.

Edit: Just caught up on the thread and want to address some things:

Blue sideboard looks good. Keep at it if you enjoy it and are having success.

I never board out Faithless Looting.

[XIII]

New 5-0 (should have been 4-1) tonight after I was messing around with some fun sideboard plans. I've been enjoying the Mentor sideboard plan out of my blue-based TinFins lists, and I was trying to make that work for this deck. However, this deck runs fewer lands (I was on 12 until recently I went to 13, cutting the second Chrome Mox after finding some math in the TinFins thread that showed that the 2nd Mox was bad), so you can't cast 3 mana creatures as quickly/easily and maintain a Mentor through a Wasteland or 2. List:

4 Griselbrand
4 Chancellor
1 Iona
1 Tidespout
4 Entomb
4 Looting
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask (this card seems so delicious after not playing it for awhile)
3 Badlands (want 3 if playing Young Pyromancer)
8 fetch
2 Swamp (want 2 basics if playing Pack Rat)

Sideboard:
4 Pack Rat
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Cryptbreaker
1 Archetype of Endurance (still have to beat Death and Taxes)
2 Cabal Therapy (I put these in as my last two slots, they will be changed...)

R1: Czech 2-0 (opponent misclicks to lose G1 in a weird scenario where I put myself dead to a burn spell and they misclick Kolaghan's Command). G2 Pack Rat mops up.

R2: Mirror 2-1 boarded in Pyromancer over Exhume on the draw.

R3: Sneak and Show 2-0 reanimated their Griselbrand

R4: Sneak and Show 2-0 reanimated their Griselbrand

R5: BUG Delver? 2-1. G1 Opponent plays DRS on 1 and I'm a turn slow, but they for some reason TAP their DRS to do something on their turn after I fetch Delta-> Thoughtseize -> take Force of Will. Kind of a questionable play that immediately cost him the game when I go Entomb Reanimate on my turn. G2 I turn 1 Entomb Reanimate but he has the Surgical (had to go for it in the face of DRS). My follow-up Cryptbreaker was awful, did nothing vs a flipped Delver. G3 Pack Rat mops up.

I realize that I was very fortunate in my pairings so don't assume this deck is broken. Pack Rat was pretty impressive, but if you miss on land drops or get Wastelanded it can do NOTHING without fast mana... I didn't get a chance to cast Pyromancer in a non-Griselbrand setting so I don't know how good he is.

Sideboard Changes coming up:

-4 Cryptbreaker -2 Cabal Therapy +6 ?
Pyromancer?

I have 6 slots to further facilitate a transformative plan, and Pyromancer may or may not be good. Let me know in the comments. I am considering Bitterblossom after having rejected Gurmag Angler/Tasigur/Tombstalker, Goblin Rabblemaster, Mentor, and Stoneforge.

Edit: Just caught up on the thread and want to address some things:

Blue sideboard looks good. Keep at it if you enjoy it and are having success.

I never board out Faithless Looting.

I would consider Bitterblossom too. SB: 4x Pack Rat, 4x Bitterblossom, 4x Pyromancer, 2x CB (or AD but then you have to add Bayou and risk of being wasted is higher), 1x Archetype. If you go for the transformative plan, do you board in 12 cards at once? If you just board in 8 transformative cards (4x Rat + 4x Bitterblossom) you can go back to 2x Badlands and add extra swamp (total 3x) in order the risk of your duals being wasted drops again.

[Darkness]

DNSolver, I was messing around with a tweak on the old Young Frankenstein as a BR splash only and it feels similar to this. It is not a transformational board thing which is why I never posted but it is doing similiar things as what you are. Personally I don't like the transform option here, too few lands and not enough can trips do not support this to function like the Esper variant does. my question is though how did you miss brutality? Unmask does feel strong when it is.

[Darkness]

Maybe I’ve been overthinking my G1 creature and should just go for griselbrand in almost every situation?

The answer is almost always yes. Think of Griselfather as our equivalent of Ad Nauseum, it is OUR engine that always our deck to do unfair things. Very few situations will occur when it is not correct to just jam it. Some of them are as the following

- If you reanimate Griselfather and cannot draw cards and your opponent will
- Kill him for sure when you pass the turn
- Kill you on the next turn
- If you can reanimate and draw cards and your opponent will
- Kill you from Burn but you aren't sure
- Kill you from a combo and you don't have enough fast mana or mana in general to interact with them even if you draw interactive piece
- Your wife goes into labor

Very few situations off the top of my head, all involve losing, that I can think of make it so slamming Griselfather is not just correct.

[Orion121]

4 Griselbrand
4 Chancellor
1 Iona
1 Tidespout
4 Entomb
4 Looting
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask (this card seems so delicious after not playing it for awhile)
3 Badlands (want 3 if playing Young Pyromancer)
8 fetch
2 Swamp (want 2 basics if playing Pack Rat)

Sideboard:
4 Pack Rat
4 Young Pyromancer
4 Cryptbreaker
1 Archetype of Endurance (still have to beat Death and Taxes)
2 Cabal Therapy (I put these in as my last two slots, they will be changed...)



I've been leaning toward the U splash and toying with a sideboard of
4 Pack Rat
4 Show and Tell
4 ancient tomb
1 children of korlis
1 archfiend of ifnir
1 archetype of Endurance

EDIT:

Pack Rat and Show and Tell continue to be all-stars post board, however the ancient tombs were too cute, many hands have been made very awkward by the addition of colourless lands. I like being able to shore up the land count by 2-3 for post board matchups though, a couple fetches and/or Urborg may be a better way to go. Archfiend proved to be worth the slot both coming out turn 1 and going face 4x and coming out late into a griselbrand to end step wipe their board.

[Zooligan]

I'm seeing multiple 5-0 lists sporting Sire lately. Is that card actually worth running now with all the Delver variants running around?

[DNSolver]

Tidespout and Iona are both still better vs Delver than Sire when on the draw. Tidespout can bounce their stuff while clocking in for 5 a turn, and at least Iona shuts off a color (blue or red, depending on life total, or black vs BUG Delver with Liliana) and clocks pretty fast - fast enough in the air to keep up against Pyromancer especially once blue spells are shut off.

Sire gets chump-blocked by Pyromancer tokens or all of their creatures, so: unless you're making it T1 on the play, like I have said before on this thread, Sire is going to be worse.

[Zooligan]

Ah ha! I knew if anything would ever draw you out it would be mention of SoI! :D

[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/comments/7nsfzu/spoiler_silent_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.

[qomori]

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

If Silent Gravestone gets popular, I'm going to start keeping a count of opponents who show me the Surgical they couldn't cast after I Exhume through it.

[ottomanottoman]

New potential fatty to reanimate:


Nezahal, Primal Tide
5UU
Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur

Nezahal, Primal Tide can't be countered.

You have no maximum hand size.

Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, draw a card.

Disacrd three cards: Exile Nezahal. Return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.

I don’t think it’s maindeck material but it seems like it could be a tech monster in the board. I could also just be blinded by the excitement of being able to play with a dinosaur in reanimator though lol.

[Evilpurplemonkey]

New potential fatty to reanimate:


Nezahal, Primal Tide
5UU
Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur

Nezahal, Primal Tide can't be countered.

You have no maximum hand size.

Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, draw a card.

Disacrd three cards: Exile Nezahal. Return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.

I don’t think it’s maindeck material but it seems like it could be a tech monster in the board. I could also just be blinded by the excitement of being able to play with a dinosaur in reanimator though lol.It's an ok board in against storm and death and taxes. But the only slot it might fit in is replacing the archetype of endurance for matchups with lots of removal. As much as I look forward to testing it out, I'm not sure it will improve the storm matchup enough to make up for probably being worse against dnt.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[splorf]

Drawing cards while they combo off doesn't do anything for BR against Storm. Why would you waste a slot for them anyway? Storm is already one of our best match ups. It's probably not bad for UB or Tin Fins though.

And against D&T Inkwell or Archetype are still better.

[ottomanottoman]

I wasn’t thinking about using it for storm. That matchup is so good I don’t think we need much post board to fight against it. I was thinking it could come in against the swords to plowshares decks like maverick, DnT, miracles, blade decks, etc. It could be particularly good against the UWx decks given every time they cantrip we get to draw a card too.

[splorf]

I wasn’t thinking about using it for storm.

But the guy above my post obviously did. :wink:


I was thinking it could come in against the swords to plowshares decks like maverick, DnT, miracles, blade decks, etc. It could be particularly good against the UWx decks given every time they cantrip we get to draw a card too.

I'd agree that it's not bad against Miracles in particular, but still: straight forward hexproof or shroud is still better against StP and/or Karakas.

[Hopo]

If we ask people what kind of a creature they have had on their reanimator wishlist, I believe none of them would answer "something like Nezahal."

[Darkness]

If we ask people what kind of a creature they have had on their reanimator wishlist, I believe none of them would answer "something like Nezahal."

Agreed, Griselbrand does a batter job of drawing cards, even Jin Gitaxias is better card draw than Nezahal. The only kind of Creatures you want in this deck are ones that end the game by Locking your opponent out or Strong draw engines. Chancellor is an exception as it acts as interrupt//protection and reanimate target, though it can lock out decks operating off of low land count.

[delfam]

I've seen some lists with Pithing Needle but never tried it myself, anyone have experience with it and how did you like it?

Show and Tell seems to be rising in popularity so shutting down Sneak Attack is nice, plus having more hate for Deathrite Shaman is always nice.

[Darkness]

Going to the classic End of month. Gonna spice it up and go in with unmasks in main. Might try pack rat in the board.

[delfam]

Going to the classic End of month. Gonna spice it up and go in with unmasks in main. Might try pack rat in the board.
I'll be playing in the Open in Philly, might play in the Classic as well depending on how the Open goes.

I'll be going with Unmask as well, but I might go 3 Unmask and 1 Brutality. I like having some Brutality in the 75 and going this route frees up 1 sideboard slot.

What are your thoughts on just cutting Reverent Silence and being dead to Leyline of the Void? There really aren't to many decks that play Leyline and having 4 cards that rarely brought in bogs up my sideboard a lot. This is the SB I'm thinking of using.

1 Collective Brutality
1 Duress (love Duress vs Delver decks instead of UnMask so I don't 2 for 1 myself, kind of want to play a 2nd)
4 Pack Rat
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Faerie McCabre (is Surgical better here?)
1 Archetype of Endurance
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ashen Rider (answer to Emrakul since Show and Tell seems to be popular in the area)

this is all speculative as I haven't played this configuration in a tournament before

I might hedge and cut the McCabre for 2 Reverent Silence as there aren't that many graveyard decks, and the ones there are we are fine against with our mainboard.

[TokenMaster]

I'll be playing in the Open in Philly, might play in the Classic as well depending on how the Open goes.

I'll be going with Unmask as well, but I might go 3 Unmask and 1 Brutality. I like having some Brutality in the 75 and going this route frees up 1 sideboard slot.

What are your thoughts on just cutting Reverent Silence and being dead to Leyline of the Void? There really aren't to many decks that play Leyline and having 4 cards that rarely brought in bogs up my sideboard a lot. This is the SB I'm thinking of using.

1 Collective Brutality
1 Duress (love Duress vs Delver decks instead of UnMask so I don't 2 for 1 myself, kind of want to play a 2nd)
4 Pack Rat
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Faerie McCabre (is Surgical better here?)
1 Archetype of Endurance
1 Pithing Needle
1 Ashen Rider (answer to Emrakul since Show and Tell seems to be popular in the area)

this is all speculative as I haven't played this configuration in a tournament before

I might hedge and cut the McCabre for 2 Reverent Silence as there aren't that many graveyard decks, and the ones there are we are fine against with our mainboard.I wouldn't cut Collective Brutality to less than 2. It's far too useful in a meta full of delver/DRS decks and adds more to your discard package. I get the appeal of Duress's 1 CMC but I think that should be Collective Brutality.

Being soft to Leyline seems like it'd be fine if you have a plan B in your SB, which you do.

Pithing Needle seems fine for hosing DRS and other combo decks.

[Karhumies]

New potential fatty to reanimate:


Nezahal, Primal Tide
5UU
Legendary Creature - Elder Dinosaur

Nezahal, Primal Tide can't be countered.

You have no maximum hand size.

Whenever an opponent casts a noncreature spell, draw a card.

Disacrd three cards: Exile Nezahal. Return it to the battlefield tapped under its owner's control at the beginning of the next end step.

I don’t think it’s maindeck material but it seems like it could be a tech monster in the board. I could also just be blinded by the excitement of being able to play with a dinosaur in reanimator though lol.

Borderline German highlander playable target. Not good enough in Legacy. Three cards is expensive compared to e.g. Inkwell Leviathan, Iona on opponent's removal color or Archtype of Endurance.

If you want to draw tons of cards with triggers, consider Consecrated Sphinx. It's not legendary for Karakas like Nezahal is.

Can't countered is useless and no max hand size is win more.

[Cringe]

I’ve been a creeper in here for a few days. Just started playing BR and first things first. I absolutely love this deck. Coming over from Goblins so I feel great being able to get wins lol. My only real question is when we get a turn one Grislebang, do we usually draw 14? Or are we passing and then drawing on our T2? Also why 4 pack rat in the board? Is it for Grindy matches?

[Darkness]

I’ve been a creeper in here for a few days. Just started playing BR and first things first. I absolutely love this deck. Coming over from Goblins so I feel great being able to get wins lol. My only real question is when we get a turn one Grislebang, do we usually draw 14? Or are we passing and then drawing on our T2? Also why 4 pack rat in the board? Is it for Grindy matches?

Depends on scenario there is no RULE, you have to access what you need what your opponent has and the clock either of you have on one another. IE a deck with lightning bolts and attacks may not be the best to draw if you have no available mana, but against something like storm you may want to be more aggressive.

Pack Rat is to dodge GY hate and have a plan B for when they take out removal.

[Karhumies]

Depends on scenario there is no RULE, you have to access what you need what your opponent has and the clock either of you have on one another. IE a deck with lightning bolts and attacks may not be the best to draw if you have no available mana, but against something like storm you may want to be more aggressive.

Pack Rat is to dodge GY hate and have a plan B for when they take out removal.

Draw 7 vs 14 also depends on what you get in first 7. What you are lopking for is a second fatty to cleanup discard and animate without life loss next turn, or enough mana accel to hardcast it. If you got that, why draw more? If you didn't get that, why stop drawing?

Getting discard effects now to play them now is also a thing.

[DNSolver]

Pack Rat in grindy games?

THERE ARE NO GRINDY GAMES

[Darkness]

Pack Rat in grindy games?

THERE ARE NO GRINDY GAMES

A'men to that.

[Bluehen28]

Thinking of running this deck at the classic in Philly. Couple questions. How strongly do people feel between the white, green, or blue side boards. I may or may not have access to an underground sea for blue. Unmask vs Brutality main. Also I have seen list s running sneak attack, which is on color but seems slow out of the board.

[qomori]

Thinking of running this deck at the classic in Philly. Couple questions. How strongly do people feel between the white, green, or blue side boards. I may or may not have access to an underground sea for blue. Unmask vs Brutality main. Also I have seen list s running sneak attack, which is on color but seems slow out of the board.

I like the green splash--gives you options for enchantment and artifact hate, plus Decay being uncounterable is way too good sometimes. Unmask is nice on those turn 1 hands where you're tight on mana acceleration, but Brutality seems so much better in a DRS heavy meta.

[DNSolver]

I've been liking Unmask lately.

Just got a 5-0 with a straight BR, no splash, list with an old-fashioned sideboard reminiscent of the original Dindon Rea:

4 Griz
4 Chancellor
1 Tidespout
1 Iona
14 land: 4 Bloodstained Mire, 5 black fetch, 3 Badlands, 2 Swamp
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask
4 Entomb
4 Looting
12 reanimation

Sideboard:
4 Stronghold Gambit
4 Sneak Attack
1 Mountain (need 4 Mires main)
4 Firestorm
2 Collective Brutality

Never cast Sneak Attack in any of my matches but it could be worth exploring. I tried Obliterator recently, but even Delver decks could beat it by racing it or sacrificing some of their board.

R1: BUG Pile 2-0. G1 reveal Chancellor and turn 1 Griselbrand. G2 Loot away Iona turn 1 (didn't sideboard), turn 2 cast Reanimate to bait DRS activation, then land -> dark rit -> entomb -> Animate Dead Griselbrand. Draw 14, was lucky and hit 3 Unmasks to take his Decay (could kill Animate Dead), Strix (could block), and Snapcaster (for Decay). Notably, Animate Dead could have been pretty embarrassing there.

R2: Lands 2-0. Stronghold Gambit.

R3: Eldrazi 2-0. Opponent did not have Leyline in G2, both games keeping turn 2 TKS.

R4: Mirror 2-0. G1 had a turn 1, G2 opponent Unmask'd my exhume, leaving me with dark rit, entomb x2, petal, lands, then Looting'd away a Griselbrand. I drew a 2nd petal. Entomb'd Faithless Looting, flashed it back, found Reanimate, took his Griselbrand.

R5: Lands 2-1. Lost G1 due to 14 cards with no Entomb and only 1 two-mana reanimation spell in the face of a turn 1 Karakas. G2 and G3 were Stronghold Gambit games.

[delfam]

I've been liking Unmask lately.

Just got a 5-0 with a straight BR, no splash, list with an old-fashioned sideboard reminiscent of the original Dindon Rea:

4 Griz
4 Chancellor
1 Tidespout
1 Iona
14 land: 4 Bloodstained Mire, 5 black fetch, 3 Badlands, 2 Swamp
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask
4 Entomb
4 Looting
12 reanimation

Sideboard:
4 Stronghold Gambit
4 Sneak Attack
1 Mountain (need 4 Mires main)
4 Firestorm
2 Collective Brutality

Never cast Sneak Attack in any of my matches but it could be worth exploring. I tried Obliterator recently, but even Delver decks could beat it by racing it or sacrificing some of their board.

R1: BUG Pile 2-0. G1 reveal Chancellor and turn 1 Griselbrand. G2 Loot away Iona turn 1 (didn't sideboard), turn 2 cast Reanimate to bait DRS activation, then land -> dark rit -> entomb -> Animate Dead Griselbrand. Draw 14, was lucky and hit 3 Unmasks to take his Decay (could kill Animate Dead), Strix (could block), and Snapcaster (for Decay). Notably, Animate Dead could have been pretty embarrassing there.

R2: Lands 2-0. Stronghold Gambit.

R3: Eldrazi 2-0. Opponent did not have Leyline in G2, both games keeping turn 2 TKS.

R4: Mirror 2-0. G1 had a turn 1, G2 opponent Unmask'd my exhume, leaving me with dark rit, entomb x2, petal, lands, then Looting'd away a Griselbrand. I drew a 2nd petal. Entomb'd Faithless Looting, flashed it back, found Reanimate, took his Griselbrand.

R5: Lands 2-1. Lost G1 due to 14 cards with no Entomb and only 1 two-mana reanimation spell in the face of a turn 1 Karakas. G2 and G3 were Stronghold Gambit games.
Seems nice, but how do you beat a Karakas out of Lands?

Is Firestorm mostly for delver?

[Hopo]

Seems nice, but how do you beat a Karakas out of Lands?


Tidespout Tyrant beats lands. I also like to play 1-2 Blood Moon in SB to side in against Karakas.

[Bluehen28]

I've been liking Unmask lately.

Just got a 5-0 with a straight BR, no splash, list with an old-fashioned sideboard reminiscent of the original Dindon Rea:

4 Griz
4 Chancellor
1 Tidespout
1 Iona
14 land: 4 Bloodstained Mire, 5 black fetch, 3 Badlands, 2 Swamp
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask
4 Entomb
4 Looting
12 reanimation

Sideboard:
4 Stronghold Gambit
4 Sneak Attack
1 Mountain (need 4 Mires main)
4 Firestorm
2 Collective Brutality

Never cast Sneak Attack in any of my matches but it could be worth exploring. I tried Obliterator recently, but even Delver decks could beat it by racing it or sacrificing some of their board.

R1: BUG Pile 2-0. G1 reveal Chancellor and turn 1 Griselbrand. G2 Loot away Iona turn 1 (didn't sideboard), turn 2 cast Reanimate to bait DRS activation, then land -> dark rit -> entomb -> Animate Dead Griselbrand. Draw 14, was lucky and hit 3 Unmasks to take his Decay (could kill Animate Dead), Strix (could block), and Snapcaster (for Decay). Notably, Animate Dead could have been pretty embarrassing there.

R2: Lands 2-0. Stronghold Gambit.

R3: Eldrazi 2-0. Opponent did not have Leyline in G2, both games keeping turn 2 TKS.

R4: Mirror 2-0. G1 had a turn 1, G2 opponent Unmask'd my exhume, leaving me with dark rit, entomb x2, petal, lands, then Looting'd away a Griselbrand. I drew a 2nd petal. Entomb'd Faithless Looting, flashed it back, found Reanimate, took his Griselbrand.

R5: Lands 2-1. Lost G1 due to 14 cards with no Entomb and only 1 two-mana reanimation spell in the face of a turn 1 Karakas. G2 and G3 were Stronghold Gambit games.
Seems pretty sweet. There is a lot of Dnt around. Would you make room for archetype and possibly cok if you expected a fair number of dnt?

[DNSolver]

Against Karakas, get Griselbrand, draw 14, then Tidespout Tyrant with a hand full of spells. If you already have enough spells, you *can* get Tidespout first.

Yeah, I realized that cutting Archetype was really bad. Fitting the pig back in is on the list of sideboard changes to be done. Might abandon Sneak Attack for 2 more Brutalities, Archetype, and Children of Korlis.

[Bluehen28]

Against Karakas, get Griselbrand, draw 14, then Tidespout Tyrant with a hand full of spells. If you already have enough spells, you *can* get Tidespout first.

Yeah, I realized that cutting Archetype was really bad. Fitting the pig back in is on the list of sideboard changes to be done. Might abandon Sneak Attack for 2 more Brutalities, Archetype, and Children of Korlis.
Sounds good. We have a couple smaller legacy events at Bearded Dragon in Feb and I know there will be several dnt there including mt son, can't let him win ;) Hopingto run several leagues with different configurations before the classic next weekend

[Ewlandon]

Against Karakas, get Griselbrand, draw 14, then Tidespout Tyrant with a hand full of spells. If you already have enough spells, you *can* get Tidespout first.

Yeah, I realized that cutting Archetype was really bad. Fitting the pig back in is on the list of sideboard changes to be done. Might abandon Sneak Attack for 2 more Brutalities, Archetype, and Children of Korlis.


hey dnsolver do you struggle vs humility if not what is your game plan? Also why are you making blue mana with stage?"

[GhostXEmpire]

hey dnsolver do you struggle vs humility if not what is your game plan? Also why are you making blue mana with stage?"
Blue is the strongest color of all time and we need it. Without it we are nothing.

[filln]

Also why are you making blue mana with stage?"

I think that was back when Turbo Depths was trying out Academy Ruins + Walking Ballista in the sideboard vs. Miracles.

[Ewlandon]

I think that was back when Turbo Depths was trying out Academy Ruins + Walking Ballista in the sideboard vs. Miracles.

Wow, I did not know that was a thing. Did it work?

[Ewlandon]

I recently changed out the thoughtseizes for cabal therapies and I have been having a lot of success with it. It helps for a few reasons. First, the dmg adds up making reanimate dead faster or thoughtseizes dead draws cards from griselbrand. Second, it helps a ton vs FOW decks. Double FOW is very hard to beat but this pretty much makes that a non issue because they have to fow the therapy. Third, it helps a bit when you have like double chancellor vs a drs or something like that, also just binning two creatures is good. Third, if you brick on their hand it usually doesn't matter. The only time I can really imagine it mattering is if you name FOW and they have a daze or pierce (daze is easy enough to play around). Lastly, it isn't 100% blind because you should be playing unmask.

I recommend trying it. Always blind name FOW game 1. I'm 18-8 in games so far.

On another note, I have been really liking a green sb with rev silence and 2x carpet of flowers (combo!), i cut the pack rat though it was bad.

[DNSolver]

Landon and others: this is NOT the turbo depths thread.

Therapies are interesting. I really like Thoughtseize in this deck, but I can see your points. Might give those a try.

Without additional lands out of the sideboard, Pack Rat can definitely be bad if you are Wastelanded. The package therefore uses up a few too many slots.

I am definitely an advocate of Reverent Silence. The Carpets are interesting - I imagine you are using these to *cast* the creatures? Maybe a 4 Carpet 4 Grave Titan approach? There are some mono-black lists out of Japan that are playing Grim Monolith to ramp into Grave Titan - that might be more reliable?

[splorf]

I'll second using Cabal Therapy. I play it for almost a year and I can tell it is really good. It combos nice with Ashen Rider and in fringe situations it's even entomb'able. I wouldn't recommend to play more than 2, but a split works for me.

[delfam]

vs Show and Tell, how do you beat a Grafdigger's Cage?

Decay isn't worth bringing in, and if they have it T1 do you just lose? I've had it come up a lot recently and not sure how to beat it. Stronghold's Gambit isn't the best vs them, but that might be the best answer.

[DNSolver]

Yeah, with a typical sideboard you pretty much auto-lose to Cage. On the play you can discard it, or you can reveal Chancellor to maybe stop them from playing it turn 1. You can play Gambit against them, though, because discarding Griselbrand from their hand is already a reasonable play (allows you to Reanimate it). Or you could play your own Sneak Attacks out of the board.

[Bluehen28]

Yeah, with a typical sideboard you pretty much auto-lose to Cage. On the play you can discard it, or you can reveal Chancellor to maybe stop them from playing it turn 1. You can play Gambit against them, though, because discarding Griselbrand from their hand is already a reasonable play (allows you to Reanimate it). Or you could play your own Sneak Attacks out of the board.

Played a league last night with the white sideboard with wear/tears they were great against cage. Also brought in Gambit as well against Sneak and Show. It was very good especially after playing a discard spell.

[Bluehen28]

What are the thoughts on land counts. 13 lands or 14? 13 with a mox. If 14 lands no mox 8 fetches 3 duals 2 swamps or 7 fetches 4 duals and 2 swaps?

[Ewlandon]

Landon and others: this is NOT the turbo depths thread.

Therapies are interesting. I really like Thoughtseize in this deck, but I can see your points. Might give those a try.

Without additional lands out of the sideboard, Pack Rat can definitely be bad if you are Wastelanded. The package therefore uses up a few too many slots.

I am definitely an advocate of Reverent Silence. The Carpets are interesting - I imagine you are using these to *cast* the creatures? Maybe a 4 Carpet 4 Grave Titan approach? There are some mono-black lists out of Japan that are playing Grim Monolith to ramp into Grave Titan - that might be more reliable?

Originally the carpet was for the rats but I found the rats don't actually race that well unless they come down early so needing both parts was basically just not happening. But I found that the carpet was a great reusable petal vs delver that later in the game does a lot more like letting you flashback loot + animate in the same turn, on occasion you can play a fatty vs miracles but that isn't really what it is for.

[Ewlandon]

Landon and others: this is NOT the turbo depths thread.

Therapies are interesting. I really like Thoughtseize in this deck, but I can see your points. Might give those a try.

Without additional lands out of the sideboard, Pack Rat can definitely be bad if you are Wastelanded. The package therefore uses up a few too many slots.

I am definitely an advocate of Reverent Silence. The Carpets are interesting - I imagine you are using these to *cast* the creatures? Maybe a 4 Carpet 4 Grave Titan approach? There are some mono-black lists out of Japan that are playing Grim Monolith to ramp into Grave Titan - that might be more reliable?

I came across another not so insignificant upside to therapy even though I blew the play because I had a card in the reveal zone after a brainstorm. The thing is, sacking their creatures to a therapy. The play I missed was opponent tapped out with a drs in play to get a man-o-war with a recruiter to bounce his ooze that I had gotten him down to 7 with. I had a therapy in the yard and one in hand with iona in hand as well(3 mana in play) I should have known he had a surgical based on tapping out like that (not worth it with just a fow), if I sacked the ooze to name surgical then play iona on blue he would have one draw step to find an edict if he even had any.

So this is a specific case but it isn't uncommon that you reanimate their creatures to add a bit of pressure or draw a card with strix etc, so being able to flash back therapy to protect the combo is kinda nice.

[delfam]

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=118417

[Darkness]

http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=118417

Pretty sure 3 Griselbrand is wrong, especially if you are replacing it with a Sire. But grats on his or her finish.

[delfam]

Pretty sure 3 Griselbrand is wrong, especially if you are replacing it with a Sire. But grats on his or her finish.

yeah I would agree. Do you like Defense Grid?

Trying to finalize my list for the Philly Open, wondering how your testing has been going. Grid seems real nice against Delver, but you still need an answer to Deathrite as well so it probably isn't enough by itself. Obviously it's great vs Miracles

[Darkness]

yeah I would agree. Do you like Defense Grid?

Trying to finalize my list for the Philly Open, wondering how your testing has been going. Grid seems real nice against Delver, but you still need an answer to Deathrite as well so it probably isn't enough by itself. Obviously it's great vs Miracles

Grid seems like a bad discard effect. It gets the counter out of their hand like a discard spell would but at a higher CMC and potentially can be removed. As general rule of thumb I follow a much more linear play style, does card X push through and progress my combo at the cheapest cost. I haven't tried it but I don't think I would like it. I'm going Wednesday to my LGS and will be testing out on mtgo for Sunday. Still gonna test out the unmasks since I haven't ever brought them to a live event.

[Meester Roboto]

For those who have tried pack rat out of the board, what have been your results?

Is it real or is it just cute?

My first impression is that pack rat is slow and fragile until it becomes an unstoppable freight train. Is this accurate?

[splorf]

Grid is a good sideboard option in reactive metas. It not only taxes countermagic, but hate like Surgicals, too.

[delfam]

How does everyone handle Chancellor when Sideboarding? Do you ever take them all out?

I feel on the draw we should cut 1-2 as they can play through it easier, but on the play we always want all 4 to go as fast as possible. Is it ever right to take out all 4?

[Darkness]

How does everyone handle Chancellor when Sideboarding? Do you ever take them all out?

I feel on the draw we should cut 1-2 as they can play through it easier, but on the play we always want all 4 to go as fast as possible. Is it ever right to take out all 4?

I rarely take them out except for big mana decks, I have never taken out 4. The problem would be low threat count. Our blue counter part usually plays 7 targets and they have about 6 more cantrips than. Us on average I have taken maybe 1-2 out against big mana decks.

[DNSolver]

In some matchups, chancellor is just bad and never going to win you the game, ex. Lands, so I board them out even though I'm bringing in Stronghold Gambit in that matchup. Against big mana decks like Eldrazi and Red Stompy, revealing Chancellor can make them unable to play Chalice on 1 or Trinisphere on turn 1 so you can keep them in, besides sometimes that will be enough to win because it can fly over their guys to race, makes their guys a bit more expensive, and sometimes they will be hurting themselves with Ancient Tomb so it can be a quick enough clock.

Against any DRS or blue deck I would keep them (play or draw) because it delays DRS a turn and protects you if you have a turn 1 on the play.

[delfam]

assuming Helm is too slow in this deck? I haven't seen in discussed but I'm just looking for other ways to beat Leyline.

[qomori]

assuming Helm is too slow in this deck? I haven't seen in discussed but I'm just looking for other ways to beat Leyline.

Reverent Silence or Wear/Tear. You have to follow them both up with more spells, but like you mentioned, Helm costs more and I'd rather be casting RS for free and going off, instead of trying to get to 5 mana to cast and activate Helm

[Karhumies]

assuming Helm is too slow in this deck? I haven't seen in discussed but I'm just looking for other ways to beat Leyline.

Colorless:
Dark Depths + Thespian Stage (+ Vampire Hexmage)
Quiksilver Amulet
Nevinyrral's Disk

Red:
Chaos Warp
Confusion in the Ranks (triggers itself when EtB)
Stronghold Gambit
Sneak Attack
Through the Breach
Young Pyromancer transformation
Burning Wish for answers

Black:
Thoughtseize opponent and animate from their graveyard instead of yours (can win e.g. vs Eldrazi)
Pack Rat transformation
Cryptbreaker transformation
Leyline of the Void + Helm of Awakening transformation
Dark Ritual hardcasting stuff

Green:
Reverent Silence
Nature's Claim
Tranquil Domain
Krosan Grip
Maelstrom Pulse
Reclamation Sage

White:
Wear // Tear
Serenity
Disenchant
Monastery Mentor transformation

Blue:
Show and Tell
Echoing Truth
Teferi's Realm
Steal Enchantment

Take your pick. Wear // Tear tends to be the popular option. Reverent Silence if you prefer a green splash to get rid of multiple Leylines at once, and you are certain they won't bring in artifact hate as well. Tranquil Domain is the old school option if you are running Animate Dead and plan to keep them in to animate from the opponent's graveyard.

Helm was only good versus opposing Rest in Peace. It's meh versus opposing Leyline of the Void because you need to run your own Leyline with the Helm.

[Darkness]

Missing abrupt decay in green

[Karhumies]

Missing abrupt decay in green

You are missing that Leyline of the Void is cmc4.

[Darkness]

You are missing that Leyline of the Void is cmc4.

Sorry I thought you were just listing all sideboard options, missed the quote, thanks for the correction.

[Karhumies]

Sorry I thought you were just listing all sideboard options, missed the quote, thanks for the correction.

Personally, I like Wear // Tear instead of running Abrupt Decay + Reverent Silence because Wear // Tear hits both enchantments and artifacts. What I mean is, in Br shell you don't have the blue cantrips of the Bu animator build to filter through your deck for the SB cards, so in my personal opinion running 4x catch-all (Wear // Tear) is better than running 2x leyline hate (Reverent Silence or Tranquil Domain) and 2x hate which hits everything other than leyline (Abrupt Decay). The only problems with Wear // Tear instead of Abrupt Decay is that it can get countered (well, they would still have that counter for the first animation spell anyhow) and it doesn't hit creatures, namely DRS. But against DRS, Br build has Chancellor, can aggressively mulligan to t1 animation, and can run Collective Brutality. Which is why I like MD Collective Brutality a lot in a Brw list splashing for Wear // Tear, since there is no Abrupt Decay from green against DRS.

[Bluehen28]

DNSolver I see that you got a couple more 5-0 leagues. Were these with BR and if so what list did you run?

[DNSolver]

Those 5-0s were with Turbo Depths, not BR.

[Bluehen28]

Those 5-0s were with Turbo Depths, not BR.
Ah ok. Thanks.

[Darkness]

Whos going to the classic tomorrow I'll be there!

[Bluehen28]

Whos going to the classic tomorrow I'll be there!

My Son an I will be there

[Ewlandon]

Is there any tech anyone has found helps a lot vs drs decks? I feel like im beating non drs decks 80%. Grixis delver is like 50% and czech pile is like 35-40%. I have 3x needle in the sb but vs pile it's too little too late most of the time since they have leo, jace, kcommand (for needle), strix etc. Basically only winning when i nut draw them. Anyone found an approach or sb tech that works vs these decks?

[Francisco Pires]

Is there any tech anyone has found helps a lot vs drs decks? I feel like im beating non drs decks 80%. Grixis delver is like 50% and czech pile is like 35-40%. I have 3x needle in the sb but vs pile it's too little too late most of the time since they have leo, jace, kcommand (for needle), strix etc. Basically only winning when i nut draw them. Anyone found an approach or sb tech that works vs these decks?

I play with a green splash so, i usually put abrupt decay on game 2.
In my opinion i don't think DRS is very dangerous, you can go off quickly and (i assume) you play with collective brutality which is very good against it.

[Darkness]

Is there any tech anyone has found helps a lot vs drs decks? I feel like im beating non drs decks 80%. Grixis delver is like 50% and czech pile is like 35-40%. I have 3x needle in the sb but vs pile it's too little too late most of the time since they have leo, jace, kcommand (for needle), strix etc. Basically only winning when i nut draw them. Anyone found an approach or sb tech that works vs these decks?

I have similar results my guess it's a bad MU. Not much we can do.

[TokenMaster]

Is there any tech anyone has found helps a lot vs drs decks? I feel like im beating non drs decks 80%. Grixis delver is like 50% and czech pile is like 35-40%. I have 3x needle in the sb but vs pile it's too little too late most of the time since they have leo, jace, kcommand (for needle), strix etc. Basically only winning when i nut draw them. Anyone found an approach or sb tech that works vs these decks?I've tried running 1 Pyroclasm and 2 Fatal Push along with 1 Needle. I also have Archfiend of Ifnir mainboard which is another way to go under DRS and deals with a lot of common threats coming from these decks, namely Strix and TNN. You can also try attacking from a different angle with Pack Rat. Overall my results are somewhat similar to yours though; I feel like I'm 4-6 vs BUG/Czech but grixis feels even to slightly-favorable.

[Ewlandon]

I've tried running 1 Pyroclasm and 2 Fatal Push along with 1 Needle. I also have Archfiend of Ifnir mainboard which is another way to go under DRS and deals with a lot of common threats coming from these decks, namely Strix and TNN. You can also try attacking from a different angle with Pack Rat. Overall my results are somewhat similar to yours though; I feel like I'm 4-6 vs BUG/Czech but grixis feels even to slightly-favorable.

Yeh, maybe getting closer to 50% vs czech is just asking too much. I have been thinking about fatal push, decay seems like too much mana to run more than the 1 (for artifacts) that i have in the sb. I've tried pack rat and didn't end up like it at all. Pyroclasm prob has the same problem as decay, by the time you fire it off and pass the turn and hope to have the combo there is just no way it is going to resolve/not get surgicalled/not have a leovold or jace in play.

I think I'll put some pushes in the sb and see how that goes.

[DNSolver]

If you're worried about permanents (DRS, Nihil Spellbomb, Cage) against Czech, you could try Ratchet Bomb. Slow but flexible.

[Ewlandon]

If you're worried about permanents (DRS, Nihil Spellbomb, Cage) against Czech, you could try Ratchet Bomb. Slow but flexible.

That's an interesting idea esp as an answer to cage. Seems very slow but the flexibility and the fact that it would hit drs along with other threats is pretty good, also kills a chalice. an interesting choice.

[Darkness]

Sadly I will be switching Legacy decks for now, going back to Eldrazi Stompy. I learned a lot working with you all and I be viewing this thread from time to time to help answer questions. Thanks to all for helping me grow but for now I must move on to my next project.

P.S. I will be playing Leylines if we every cross paths! :tongue:

[qomori]

Sadly I will be switching Legacy decks for now, going back to Eldrazi Stompy. I learned a lot working with you all and I be viewing this thread from time to time to help answer questions. Thanks to all for helping me grow but for now I must move on to my next project.

P.S. I will be playing Leylines if we every cross paths! :tongue:

I mean, I do like reanimating a Reality Smasher... :laugh:

Thanks for all the insights--your posts always help me out when I'm on this deck.

[splorf]

Good luck, Judas! :tongue:

[Cringe]

Went 2-2 in the Legacy half of a tournament today. Both losses coming from tezz when they Black leyline me before game starts. Technically played “bad” against the first guy when I hard cast sire but that’s all I had and then he drops bridge off a top deck and I never got a chance to come back. Game three he plays into an eventual chalice on 2 after he had 3 leyline out and I had truth in hand but no blue mana (top decked it the following turn)

Next round same deck the guy stops me with counters after I mull to 5 and then tezz wins. Next game he helm combos after I bounce leyline twice with truth and dig for hand hate but I fail. I learned a ton about the matchup and I’ll do better with it next time

Round 1: turn 1 sire and then once we discard he’s on Reanimator (ester with stoneforge package in the side) we laugh. I win. Game 2 I keep a no lander with surgical thinking my chances of drawing into mana isn’t strong and it’s all I needed. I draw pass discard grislebrand and he politely thanks me for the turn two win and I Surgical my own grislebrand. We laugh again. (You can fail to find if you’re targeting yourself and nothing gets revealed) he wins with Batterskull after I fail to find anything meaningful besides chancellor. If I paid for Surgical I won but no mana at the time. Game 3 I sire and win

Round 2: turn one sire and he discards, I see the cradle and I tell him I’m sorry and he agrees that’s its ugly hahaha. We actually go 2-1 here thanks to Surgical after a landed DRS.

Rounds 3&4 of Legacy were the tezz players. If I’m bringing in more big cretches in a matchup and then show and tells so I just scrap animate dead? I’m not really good with taking things out of the deck when siding. I love everything lol

[Slick752]

Hello everyone!
What do you prefer to play against Deatn & Taxes?
Massacre or Dread of Night? Why?

[TokenMaster]

Hello everyone!
What do you prefer to play against Deatn & Taxes?
Massacre or Dread of Night? Why?
Massacre for sure because you usually go off the same turn it resolves and Port/Wasteland doesn't stop it. Your opponent needs to have harder graveyard hate or surgical and the ability to rebuild their board to win through Massacre.

[DNSolver]

I don't prefer to play Dread of Night or Massacre. Spending sideboard slots on extremely narrow cards that would only improve a good matchup is not good in Legacy. Death and Taxes is an excellent matchup for this deck - much more so than typical UB Reanimator. The matchup is, in fact, one of the reasons to play Dark Ritual in Reanimator and one of the matchups that drove the creation of this deck.

Death and Taxes cannot interact with a turn 1 or turn 2 unless they are on the play and can play a 2-drop like Containment Priest, RIP, Thalia, etc. Therefore, against D+T, especially post-board once you know what's going on, mulligan hands that are susceptible to this. I might keep a turn 2 hand on the draw that spends turn 1 Thoughtseizing or Unmasking a hatecard, but otherwise go for a fast hand - this deck has them.

The only card you would definitely want to sideboard in is Archetype of Endurance, as that + Griselbrand should beat almost anything as long as you watch out for Council's Judgment on Archetype.

[ye_old_storm_boy]

I played RB reanimator when the deck initially became a thing (early 2016), and then sold out of it. Ive been playing TES for a while, but got bored and am diving back in with BRg, and unmask not collective brutality. I havent really kept up with the deck, and am wondering how the sideboard should be set up.

[Ewlandon]

I played RB reanimator when the deck initially became a thing (early 2016), and then sold out of it. Ive been playing TES for a while, but got bored and am diving back in with BRg, and unmask not collective brutality. I havent really kept up with the deck, and am wondering how the sideboard should be set up.

15 shadowborn apostle to get around drs.

[Kobra_D]

I played RB reanimator when the deck initially became a thing (early 2016), and then sold out of it. Ive been playing TES for a while, but got bored and am diving back in with BRg, and unmask not collective brutality. I havent really kept up with the deck, and am wondering how the sideboard should be set up.

Green is less necessary with less miracles around but for a Jund splash I usually set up something like:

2 Reverent Silence
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Massacre
2 Pithing Needle
3 Stronghold Gambit
1 Grave Titan
1 Tidespout Tyrant


With all that being said, once I moved to the white splash and just had 3 wear//tear there was no going back for me.

[Slick752]

Green is less necessary with less miracles around but for a Jund splash I usually set up something like:

2 Reverent Silence
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Massacre
2 Pithing Needle
3 Stronghold Gambit
1 Grave Titan
1 Tidespout Tyrant


With all that being said, once I moved to the white splash and just had 3 wear//tear there was no going back for me.


Is 2 Reverent Silence enough in Leyline of the Void MU?
Why abrupt decay are not 3, but 4?
Could you say what is your discard package?

[Darkness]

Green is less necessary with less miracles around but for a Jund splash I usually set up something like:

2 Reverent Silence
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Massacre
2 Pithing Needle
3 Stronghold Gambit
1 Grave Titan
1 Tidespout Tyrant


With all that being said, once I moved to the white splash and just had 3 wear//tear there was no going back for me.

Why titan sac effects against Lily and Diabolic Edict?

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Why titan sac effects against Lily and Diabolic Edict?Fastest clock in the deck (2 turn), castable off rits, and yes, sac effects.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[Kobra_D]

Is 2 Reverent Silence enough in Leyline of the Void MU?
Why abrupt decay are not 3, but 4?
Could you say what is your discard package?

My discard is 2 therapy, 2 CoBru, and 4 Unmask.

Reverent is great for leyline, but that's about it. Sometimes you're digging against rip but I'm not as concerned.

Decay hits all relevant cards in D&T, hits Drs, rip, relics, needles, thorn effects, chalice, bridges..... I've seen lists split differently adding nature's claim to the mix and k-grip prior to the top ban but I always found decay had the most game. Also, having a bayou stick around for when you need it is not always trivial. Decks that play leyline, I find, tend to be wasteland/stompy decks, so you either keep a fetch around, or don't fetch red. It always felt clunky to me.



Why titan sac effects against Lily and Diabolic Edict?

Titan is good in a lot of fair match ups. Any deck that plays stoneforge mystic or delver tends to struggle with Titan. Control decks can also stumble against the card. Lands has to prioritize Tabernacle instead of wasteland, maze, Karakas, which are all better as a whole. Pile can try to race? Or set up baleful strix, but if their plan is to chump block we are still left with 8 power. Miracles must dig for terminus, or maybe an entreat, but that means that their cantrips are not being used as efficiently.

It is castable, but the icing on the cake for me is that it is not legendary. A lot of karakas' in my locals. I might be overselling the card a little at this point but I'm hard pressed to think of a sideboard with ~3 fatty slots and no Titan.

[ottomanottoman]

Why titan sac effects against Lily and Diabolic Edict?

I've been rolling with grave titan for a while now and he's been great out of the board against any of the UBx delver/pile decks. Given that their answers to our fatties are most commonly edicts he's nigh unkillable and bigger than every one of their creatures. He's also been good against eldrazi given he leaves back blockers, is bigger than their stuff, isn't legendary, etc. (I'm on a BRw build for reference)

[Boneflute]

Has anyone tried running Gilded Drake out of the board?
I'm running the grixis show and tell build, and it seems to synergize with stronghold gambit.
I'm preparing this deck for GP Seattle.

[TokenMaster]

Has anyone tried running Gilded Drake out of the board?
I'm running the grixis show and tell build, and it seems to synergize with stronghold gambit.
I'm preparing this deck for GP Seattle.I'm not sure how it synergizes with Stronghold Gambit? Stronghold Gambit will rarely allow both players to put a creature into play and even if it did Gilded Drake out-values a lot of creatures at CMC 2 as it's a better Delver on the opponent's board.

EDIT: Went 1-2 at a local legacy. Not a good result but I definitely saw game-costing misplays on my end.(boarded out all my outs to containment priest vs miracles and didn't thoughtseize before casting Entomb vs an opponent who mulled to 5 and had to play through a chancellor trigger) But a big takeaway for me is that Archfiend of Ifnir and Pack Rat are really, really good in decks that can make some room for both in the 75.

[Boneflute]

I'm not sure how it synergizes with Stronghold Gambit? Stronghold Gambit will rarely allow both players to put a creature into play and even if it did Gilded Drake out-values a lot of creatures at CMC 2 as it's a better Delver on the opponent's board.

EDIT: Went 1-2 at a local legacy. Not a good result but I definitely saw game-costing misplays on my end.(boarded out all my outs to containment priest vs miracles and didn't thoughtseize before casting Entomb vs an opponent who mulled to 5 and had to play through a chancellor trigger) But a big takeaway for me is that Archfiend of Ifnir and Pack Rat are really, really good in decks that can make some room for both in the 75.

Yeah, total brain-fart on my end. But I still wonder if Gilded Drake would be viable.


Thanks for the lead, that sounds spicy!

[ShiftedClock]

This BR Reanimator list (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/973271#paper) placed 2nd at the latest Legacy Challenge (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/legacy-challenge-2018-03-05) with 2 Pack Rat and 2 Archfiend in the board.

The 4 Stronghold Gambit and 4 Show and Tell are interesting to me. I hadn't considered running both before, but they could allow you to side out Reanimate and Animate Dead, leaving only Exhume as a reanimation spell. That lets you dodge targeted grave hate entirely. I don't know if that's what Cucaracha_Gigante did, but it's an interesting possibility.

In the brackets you can see he beat Grixis Delver in the semi's, but lost in the finals to a virtually identical version of Grixis Delver.

[TokenMaster]

This BR Reanimator list (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/973271#paper) placed 2nd at the latest Legacy Challenge (https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/mtgo-standings/legacy-challenge-2018-03-05) with 2 Pack Rat and 2 Archfiend in the board.

The 4 Stronghold Gambit and 4 Show and Tell are interesting to me. I hadn't considered running both before, but they could allow you to side out Reanimate and Animate Dead, leaving only Exhume as a reanimation spell. That lets you dodge targeted grave hate entirely. I don't know if that's what Cucaracha_Gigante did, but it's an interesting possibility.

In the brackets you can see he beat Grixis Delver in the semi's, but lost in the finals to a virtually identical version of Grixis Delver.I'm a little interested in the decision of just 2 Pack Rat but also 4 Show and Tell as you'd probably bring both in, as well as Archfiend of Ifnir, Firestorm, and possibly Iona/Inkwell against fair decks. I'm in agreement with the idea that he boards out a lot of the reanimation for cards to sidestep hate.

I'm also a little surprised by choice of Unmask but not Collective Brutality though, especially with Archfiend of Ifnir in the board. But I do think Unmask pairs up with Stronghold Gambit and Show and Tell better and he doesn't have to worry about DRS or most hatebears postboard either nor does he particularly care about getting a creature in the bin in postboard games.

[Kraus]

Digging through the Dominaria notes that got released early, I came across this:

Torgaar, Famine Incarnate
6BB
Legendary Creature — Avatar
7/6
As an additional cost to cast this spell, you may sacrifice any number of creatures. This spell costs 2 less to cast for each creature sacrificed this way.
When Torgaar, Famine Incarnate enters the battlefield, up to one target player's life total becomes half their starting life total, rounded down.

It seems like a cute target.

[Boneflute]

I'm a little interested in the decision of just 2 Pack Rat but also 4 Show and Tell as you'd probably bring both in, as well as Archfiend of Ifnir, Firestorm, and possibly Iona/Inkwell against fair decks. I'm in agreement with the idea that he boards out a lot of the reanimation for cards to sidestep hate.

I'm also a little surprised by choice of Unmask but not Collective Brutality though, especially with Archfiend of Ifnir in the board. But I do think Unmask pairs up with Stronghold Gambit and Show and Tell better and he doesn't have to worry about DRS or most hatebears postboard either nor does he particularly care about getting a creature in the bin in postboard games.

Hey guys, Giant Cockroach here. Here's some of my side boarding notes, hopefully it can be of help;

1. Regardless of the match up, I always boarded out 4 copies of Entomb, replacing them with 4 copies of Show and Tell. (Except Sneak and Show)

2. I found myself boarding-in Inkwell Leviathan almost every game. I happened to draw the card a lot, and it almost always delivered. Turns out, the card is absolute house in the current meta. I'm considering running 2 of them in my 75.

3. If I brought in Stronghold Gambits, then I would shave my resurrection spells. Usually something like -2 Exhume, -1 Reanimate, and -1 Animate Dead.

4. Pack Rats were underwhelming, and should probably be replaced by Collective Brutality. Firestorm could also be replaced, maybe by a 3rd Collective Brutality. (The only reason I didn't play copies of of Collective Brutality is purely budget related.) Collective Brutality should be included in the 75 somewhere, perhaps in the main deck.

5. Archfiend of Ifnir is deceptively good. But, perhaps he is better suited in a more grindy build, like Jund Reanimator. Where this grixis build is more oriented with being fast. The card has definite potential in Legacy Reanimator, because he's not very difficult to hard-cast. I would usually board them in replacing reanimation spells against aggro strategies. The Pack Rats + Archfiend combo (thanks DNSolver :smile:) is absolutely bonkers, if you have the mana to support it. Perhaps a "Carpet of Flowers" type of boarding strategy would supplement it well.


Overall, regarding the overall experience of the tournament, I would say that this deck has serious game. Yeah, I had some good luck, but also, this grixis build seems pretty difficult to play against. And gives a lot of room for improvisation during game play. I'm really excited to take this deck to GP Seattle. LMK if any of you have any specific questions.

[fullmetal779]

So i am hoping to get my sideboard plan in order here is my main deck and my board please help me with any match ups.
4x Chancellor of the Annex
1x Sire of Insanity
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
4x Griselbbbbrand
1x Chrome Mox
4x Lotus Petal
4x Animate Dead
4x Dark Ritual
4x Entomb
4x Exhume
4x Faithless looting
4x Reanimate
4x Thoughtseize
4x Unmask
2x Swamp
2x Badlands
1x Bayou
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Polluted Delta

Side Board:
2x Abrupt Decay
2x Stronghold Gambit
3x Reverent Silence
3x Collective Brutality
1x Tidespout Tyrant
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
2x Pithing Needle

[GhostXEmpire]

Hey guys, Giant Cockroach here. Here's some of my side boarding notes, hopefully it can be of help;

1. Regardless of the match up, I always boarded out 4 copies of Entomb, replacing them with 4 copies of Show and Tell. (Except Sneak and Show)

2. I found myself boarding-in Inkwell Leviathan almost every game. I happened to draw the card a lot, and it almost always delivered. Turns out, the card is absolute house in the current meta. I'm considering running 2 of them in my 75.

3. If I brought in Stronghold Gambits, then I would shave my resurrection spells. Usually something like -2 Exhume, -1 Reanimate, and -1 Animate Dead.

4. Pack Rats were underwhelming, and should probably be replaced by Collective Brutality. Firestorm could also be replaced, maybe by a 3rd Collective Brutality. (The only reason I didn't play copies of of Collective Brutality is purely budget related.) Collective Brutality should be included in the 75 somewhere, perhaps in the main deck.

5. Archfiend of Ifnir is deceptively good. But, perhaps he is better suited in a more grindy build, like Jund Reanimator. Where this grixis build is more oriented with being fast. The card has definite potential in Legacy Reanimator, because he's not very difficult to hard-cast. I would usually board them in replacing reanimation spells against aggro strategies. The Pack Rats + Archfiend combo (thanks DNSolver :smile:) is absolutely bonkers, if you have the mana to support it. Perhaps a "Carpet of Flowers" type of boarding strategy would supplement it well.


Overall, regarding the overall experience of the tournament, I would say that this deck has serious game. Yeah, I had some good luck, but also, this grixis build seems pretty difficult to play against. And gives a lot of room for improvisation during game play. I'm really excited to take this deck to GP Seattle. LMK if any of you have any specific questions.
PM'd you for help :)

[TokenMaster]

I played this list a decent amount for the past couple of weeks, including a Legacy 4K at CFB.

4 Griselbrand
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Archfiend of Ifnir

4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
4 Entomb
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Thoughtseize
2 Unmask
2 Collective Brutality

4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
3 Badlands
2 Swamp
1 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Pack Rat
4 Stronghold Gambit
2 Unmask
1 Collective Brutality
1 Pithing Needle
1 Pyroclasm
1 Archfiend of Ifnir
1 Inkwell Leviathan

My overall record at the 4K wasn't great but I didn't have a whole lot of matchup experience and definitely punted hard at times. But I think the biggest highlight of my experience with this 75 is that I'm 6-0 vs Grixis Delver.

Final record at the 4K was 4-3, don't remember all my boarding decisions because I ran into a lot of matchups I wasn't too familiar with and this was a fairly new list though.

Round 1: Turbo Depths 1-0
Game 1
I'm on a slow hand of Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality, Entomb, Dark Rit, Griselbrand. Opponent cracks Hexmage turn 2 and I don't have it.

Game 2
My opponent doesn't know what I'm on because I scooped early last game. I have Unmask and Stronghold Gambit turn 2 and Griselbrand draws into Unmask again to rip out his Crop Roto and clear the path for reanimating Tidespout Tyrant.

Game 3
My opponent thinks for a few seconds and keeps, so I know I have to act fast or make a turn 2 with disruption. I mull into a turn 2 with Unmask which becomes turn 1 off the Entomb I scry back on top. Opponent jams Into the North with Spirit Guide turn 1 and I jam Griseldaddy turn 1 which extends into Tidespout Tyrant and multiple discard effects after I draw 14.

Round 2: Turbo Depths 2-0
Game 1
I have a turn 2 or turn 3 with Thoughtseize backup. I'm on the play and my opponent plays Bayou turn 1 and passes. I take the turn 2 gamble and he drops Crop Roto fetching Bog. I die before I recover.

Game 2
I Stronghold Gambit a Tidespout Tyrant and that keeps my opponent locked out of Depths.

Game 3
My opponent plays Ground Seal. I get lucky ripping Exhume off the top which becomes Griseldude and extends into Tidespout again.

Round 3: Jund Nic Fit 2-1
Game 1
Definitely not familiar with Jund Nic Fit vs BUG or the classic one. I miss lethal by accidentally drawing before untapping. Didn't think it was a huge setback as I still had lethal next turn and my opponent didn't have a hand or board. Big mistake because the opponent Sylvan Libraries to find Emrakul and Sneak Attack.

Game 2
I flub hard here because I had a turn 3 hardcast Griselbrand knowing the opponent isn't on blue but the opponent Thoughtseized to take that away. The opponent follows up with Lost Legacy and takes Griselbrand and I no longer have fatties that hit hard and fast enough to beat the creatures in his deck.

Round 4: Food Chain 2-2
Game 1
Opponent on the play. I'm on a hand with Chancellor but needs a mana source to go off. Opponent goes turn 2 Strix into Chancellor, turn 3 Strix and DRS, and then I find a mana source and bring out Griselbrand turn 3. Griselbrand rips into a 7 of just fatties and lands. Turn 4 my opponent plays Leovold and turn 5 my opponent plays another Strix. I can't fight through the strixes, DRS, and Leovold with no reanimation in my hand.

Game 2
I mull to 6 with just Lotus Petal and Chancellor; needed to find another mana source as I have Entomb and Reanimate in my hand. Opponent rips my hand apart with Thoughtseize and has Flusterstorm/FoW/DRS backup.

Round 5: Grixis Delver 3-2
Game 1
I turn 1 here and my opponent scoops it up, but not before I saw what he was on.

Game 2
I keep a no-lander with Reanimate , Chancellor, Collective Brutality, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Animate Dead. I see the land on my first draw. Opponent is on a mull to 6, lets Chancellor eat Git Probe, and blind Cabal Therapies hitting nothing. I see the land off my first draw and rip his hand apart before reanimating Chancellor while he has no board and no hand.

Round 6: BR Reanimator 3-3
Game 1
Opponent on the play reveals double Chancellor, goes Faithless Looting pithching both, Lotus Petal, Dark Rit, double Reanimate. I scoop without revealing anything but my opponent already knows what I'm on.

Game 2
I keep a 6 with Thoughtseize, Entomb, Reanimate, Faithless Looting, Stronghold Gambit, land. Opponent reveals Chancellor and I play Faithless Looting into it. Opponent plays Dark Rit, Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality turn 1 leaving me with only Entomb but he needs to topdeck reanimation. He sees reanimation before I do and gets to Tidespout to lock me out of the game.

Round 7: Food Chain 4-3
Game 1
My opponent plays Ponder into a revealed Chancellor. I have Unmask, Dark Rit, Collective Brutality, Reanimate, Tidespout Tyrant and it gets there.

Game 2
I'm playing a more disruptive match here and rip apart my opponent's board and hand with CoBru and Thoughtseize/Unmask. I eventually put a Pack Rat on the board and it gets out of hand quick.

Overall
The deck feels pretty solid but I was lucky to not see BUG delver or any stompy as those matchups are my demons. It still has the natural problem of losing to itself once in a while but I think my post-board games are interesting as I can turn my redundant reanimation spells into more gas and streamline my disruption depending on the matchup. It's especially brutal vs Grixis Delver because postboard I have a lot of spells they need to answer on the spot which only gets backed up by more spells that they can't allow to resolve and that really drains the power out of their cantrips. I think I have a harder time against some of the less-seen decks because the sideboard is built to be strong against more common archetypes and I haven't had much experience against some of the more obscure decks with this particular list. Also even thought I beat my 2 Turbo Depths opponents I don't think it's really in my favor. It didn't come up in tournament but Pack Rat is huge in the grixis delver matchup and is nearly impossible for fair decks to keep up with when combined with Archfiend of Ifnir. Pack Rat is also pretty nice protection against Edict in some situations and can be a cheap target for Reanimate.

On the 3 Collective Brutality:
I'm only running 3 because getting an escalated CoBru Dazed or Flustered feels bad and while it lets you bin creatures from your hand you don't necessarily want to do that vs DRS not knowing if you can stick the creature on the board right away. I'm running Pyroclasm instead of CoBru #4 because sometimes Pyroclasm steals games you should've already lost. I'm only on a 2/2 split between CoBru and Unmask mainboard because while CoBru is often nice in fair matchups Unmask raises the power level of Griseldad by a lot and gives you interaction vs fast combo even when they open strong. It also gives your Stronghold Gambit a bit of extra security postboard.

The basic mountain:
Sometimes your hand becomes terrible because you drew the basic mountain and no other mana source but there are a lot of matchups and situations where you want access to red but would die to Wasteland, especially postboard. Also I wanted a third basic for Pack Rat and between these two things I think being stuck on basic mountain occasionally is a relatively small opportunity cost.

[JDK]

Reanimate , Chancellor, Collective Brutality, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Animate Dead
Have you ever heard about taking another mulligan? :tongue:

[TokenMaster]

Have you ever heard about taking another mulligan? :tongue: I remember my exact hand now, it was all those plus Lotus Petal and my plan initially was to jam Dark Rit into Lotus Petal and see if my opponent throws a Force or Daze at it, but thankfully I didn't have to.

Maybe it wasn't the correct play to keep there but it was a hand that had a lot of gas once I got to my first land(and could operate off a basic swamp if I want to play around Wasteland) and was further protected by Chancellor and I was also up a game while also knowing I have a very strong matchup against them if it goes to game 3 and I'm on the play. I'm sure there are other people here with a pretty different opinion but I think mulliganing aggressively against decks that most likely will be able to interact turn 1 isn't ideal, especially decks that will pack both Flusterstorm and Surgical because while you do have a chance of opening unbeatable hands even mulliganing down to 4 your odds of finding protected turn 1s goes down drastically after you start mulliganing so I think hands where you're only missing one piece that makes up a significant portion of your deck and you still have disruption against the opponent; completely different story if you have no disruption and no combo.

[Mannaus]

You don't play any kind of Artifacts/Enchants hate in your side? Is this a meta call? How do you plan matchups where it is highly relevant and pack rat is just not doing the job? Thinking of MonoRed Stompy (with trinisphere or ensnaring bridge that can drop on turn 1), Jund, 4c Loam and so on ...

[TokenMaster]

You don't play any kind of Artifacts/Enchants hate in your side? Is this a meta call? How do you plan matchups where it is highly relevant and pack rat is just not doing the job? Thinking of MonoRed Stompy (with trinisphere or ensnaring bridge that can drop on turn 1), Jund, 4c Loam and so on ...In those matchups I try to get over the top with Stronghold Gambit (after playing some discard effects to look at their hand) or try to protect from turn 1s with Chancellor and discard effects or a turn 1. I don't feel stompy is a great matchup even with Abrupt Decay/Reverent Silence but we can still win off an alternative angle and our deck's sheer speed. I'm essentially giving up some percentage of our chances against those decks to have strong matchups against tempo/midrange decks and to be more resilient to wasteland as I can also run more basics this way.

It's also a bit of a meta call as I don't see those decks often so I do think the white/green splash builds can do better if you expect to face a lot of stompy. I also think my experience vs these decks can differ a bit because my opponents often cut creatures for lock pieces and that leaves them more vulnerable to Stronghold Gambit than they normally should be.

[GhostXEmpire]

I played this list a decent amount for the past couple of weeks, including a Legacy 4K at CFB.

4 Griselbrand
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Archfiend of Ifnir

4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
4 Entomb
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Thoughtseize
2 Unmask
2 Collective Brutality

4 Bloodstained Mire
4 Polluted Delta
3 Badlands
2 Swamp
1 Mountain

Sideboard:
4 Pack Rat
4 Stronghold Gambit
2 Unmask
1 Collective Brutality
1 Pithing Needle
1 Pyroclasm
1 Archfiend of Ifnir
1 Inkwell Leviathan

My overall record at the 4K wasn't great but I didn't have a whole lot of matchup experience and definitely punted hard at times. But I think the biggest highlight of my experience with this 75 is that I'm 6-0 vs Grixis Delver.

Final record at the 4K was 4-3, don't remember all my boarding decisions because I ran into a lot of matchups I wasn't too familiar with and this was a fairly new list though.

Round 1: Turbo Depths 1-0
Game 1
I'm on a slow hand of Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality, Entomb, Dark Rit, Griselbrand. Opponent cracks Hexmage turn 2 and I don't have it.

Game 2
My opponent doesn't know what I'm on because I scooped early last game. I have Unmask and Stronghold Gambit turn 2 and Griselbrand draws into Unmask again to rip out his Crop Roto and clear the path for reanimating Tidespout Tyrant.

Game 3
My opponent thinks for a few seconds and keeps, so I know I have to act fast or make a turn 2 with disruption. I mull into a turn 2 with Unmask which becomes turn 1 off the Entomb I scry back on top. Opponent jams Into the North with Spirit Guide turn 1 and I jam Griseldaddy turn 1 which extends into Tidespout Tyrant and multiple discard effects after I draw 14.

Round 2: Turbo Depths 2-0
Game 1
I have a turn 2 or turn 3 with Thoughtseize backup. I'm on the play and my opponent plays Bayou turn 1 and passes. I take the turn 2 gamble and he drops Crop Roto fetching Bog. I die before I recover.

Game 2
I Stronghold Gambit a Tidespout Tyrant and that keeps my opponent locked out of Depths.

Game 3
My opponent plays Ground Seal. I get lucky ripping Exhume off the top which becomes Griseldude and extends into Tidespout again.

Round 3: Jund Nic Fit 2-1
Game 1
Definitely not familiar with Jund Nic Fit vs BUG or the classic one. I miss lethal by accidentally drawing before untapping. Didn't think it was a huge setback as I still had lethal next turn and my opponent didn't have a hand or board. Big mistake because the opponent Sylvan Libraries to find Emrakul and Sneak Attack.

Game 2
I flub hard here because I had a turn 3 hardcast Griselbrand knowing the opponent isn't on blue but the opponent Thoughtseized to take that away. The opponent follows up with Lost Legacy and takes Griselbrand and I no longer have fatties that hit hard and fast enough to beat the creatures in his deck.

Round 4: Food Chain 2-2
Game 1
Opponent on the play. I'm on a hand with Chancellor but needs a mana source to go off. Opponent goes turn 2 Strix into Chancellor, turn 3 Strix and DRS, and then I find a mana source and bring out Griselbrand turn 3. Griselbrand rips into a 7 of just fatties and lands. Turn 4 my opponent plays Leovold and turn 5 my opponent plays another Strix. I can't fight through the strixes, DRS, and Leovold with no reanimation in my hand.

Game 2
I mull to 6 with just Lotus Petal and Chancellor; needed to find another mana source as I have Entomb and Reanimate in my hand. Opponent rips my hand apart with Thoughtseize and has Flusterstorm/FoW/DRS backup.

Round 5: Grixis Delver 3-2
Game 1
I turn 1 here and my opponent scoops it up, but not before I saw what he was on.

Game 2
I keep a no-lander with Reanimate , Chancellor, Collective Brutality, Dark Ritual, Thoughtseize, Animate Dead. I see the land on my first draw. Opponent is on a mull to 6, lets Chancellor eat Git Probe, and blind Cabal Therapies hitting nothing. I see the land off my first draw and rip his hand apart before reanimating Chancellor while he has no board and no hand.

Round 6: BR Reanimator 3-3
Game 1
Opponent on the play reveals double Chancellor, goes Faithless Looting pithching both, Lotus Petal, Dark Rit, double Reanimate. I scoop without revealing anything but my opponent already knows what I'm on.

Game 2
I keep a 6 with Thoughtseize, Entomb, Reanimate, Faithless Looting, Stronghold Gambit, land. Opponent reveals Chancellor and I play Faithless Looting into it. Opponent plays Dark Rit, Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality turn 1 leaving me with only Entomb but he needs to topdeck reanimation. He sees reanimation before I do and gets to Tidespout to lock me out of the game.

Round 7: Food Chain 4-3
Game 1
My opponent plays Ponder into a revealed Chancellor. I have Unmask, Dark Rit, Collective Brutality, Reanimate, Tidespout Tyrant and it gets there.

Game 2
I'm playing a more disruptive match here and rip apart my opponent's board and hand with CoBru and Thoughtseize/Unmask. I eventually put a Pack Rat on the board and it gets out of hand quick.

Overall
The deck feels pretty solid but I was lucky to not see BUG delver or any stompy as those matchups are my demons. It still has the natural problem of losing to itself once in a while but I think my post-board games are interesting as I can turn my redundant reanimation spells into more gas and streamline my disruption depending on the matchup. It's especially brutal vs Grixis Delver because postboard I have a lot of spells they need to answer on the spot which only gets backed up by more spells that they can't allow to resolve and that really drains the power out of their cantrips. I think I have a harder time against some of the less-seen decks because the sideboard is built to be strong against more common archetypes and I haven't had much experience against some of the more obscure decks with this particular list. Also even thought I beat my 2 Turbo Depths opponents I don't think it's really in my favor. It didn't come up in tournament but Pack Rat is huge in the grixis delver matchup and is nearly impossible for fair decks to keep up with when combined with Archfiend of Ifnir. Pack Rat is also pretty nice protection against Edict in some situations and can be a cheap target for Reanimate.

On the 3 Collective Brutality:
I'm only running 3 because getting an escalated CoBru Dazed or Flustered feels bad and while it lets you bin creatures from your hand you don't necessarily want to do that vs DRS not knowing if you can stick the creature on the board right away. I'm running Pyroclasm instead of CoBru #4 because sometimes Pyroclasm steals games you should've already lost. I'm only on a 2/2 split between CoBru and Unmask mainboard because while CoBru is often nice in fair matchups Unmask raises the power level of Griseldad by a lot and gives you interaction vs fast combo even when they open strong. It also gives your Stronghold Gambit a bit of extra security postboard.

The basic mountain:
Sometimes your hand becomes terrible because you drew the basic mountain and no other mana source but there are a lot of matchups and situations where you want access to red but would die to Wasteland, especially postboard. Also I wanted a third basic for Pack Rat and between these two things I think being stuck on basic mountain occasionally is a relatively small opportunity cost.I also played BR at the 4K, similarly I ended up with a 4-3 record.

R1: Pox/Lands (1-2) L
R2: Burn (2-1) W
R3: Grixis Delver (0-2) L
R4: Tezz.dek (1-2) L
R5: Mono-White Rebels? (2-0) W
R6: Esper Stoneblade (2-0) W
R7: Belcher (2-1) W

[Listlik]

What do you think about Grim Lavamancer in the sideboard? Is he worthy to be there or not?

[splorf]

What do you think about Grim Lavamancer in the sideboard? Is he worthy to be there or not?

It's a dead card against R.I.P. or Leylines of the Void. When I consider cards for SB, I'm looking for silver bullets or cards improving a certain match up. What do you have in mind to bring Lavamancer in against?

[Listlik]

It's a dead card against R.I.P. or Leylines of the Void. When I consider cards for SB, I'm looking for silver bullets or cards improving a certain match up. What do you have in mind to bring Lavamancer in against?

I have seen Lavamancer in the sidebord of MTGO 5-0 Reanimator and it was very surprising for me. I do not have much experience about the deck (cos i am new legacy player) and about sideboard especially but i think that Lavamancer can be pretty cool against Grixis Delver annoying and dangerous creatures: shaman, delver and pyromancer. Also grim guy is excellent versus Strix, maybe versus DnT creatures without mom protection. Right now i use Fatal Push and Decay against all of this threats, but maybe Lavamancer is just a better option.

He can be very useful in situations where opponent countered all of your spells and you both in topdeck mode - when Lavamancer is a clock and another corner of the attack. The corner that your opponent can not expect.

[TokenMaster]

I have seen Lavamancer in the sidebord of MTGO 5-0 Reanimator and it was very surprising for me. I do not have much experience about the deck (cos i am new legacy player) and about sideboard especially but i think that Lavamancer can be pretty cool against Grixis Delver annoying and dangerous creatures: shaman, delver and pyromancer. Also grim guy is excellent versus Strix, maybe versus DnT creatures without mom protection. Right now i use Fatal Push and Decay against all of this threats, but maybe Lavamancer is just a better option.

He can be very useful in situations where opponent countered all of your spells and you both in topdeck mode - when Lavamancer is a clock and another corner of the attack. The corner that your opponent can not expect.If the mana investment isn't too much of a problem for you Pack Rat may be a better option. You might run out of fuel for Lavamancer's effect especially if it doesn't come down early and an opponent becomes aware that you're running it and you always have to wait a turn to activate it. Pack Rat can win the game on its own, can help you bin fatties and dead spells, and can be activated the turn you jam it if you happen to have the mana/Dark Ritual.

[splorf]

I have seen Lavamancer in the sidebord of MTGO 5-0 Reanimator and it was very surprising for me. I do not have much experience about the deck (cos i am new legacy player) and about sideboard especially but i think that Lavamancer can be pretty cool against Grixis Delver annoying and dangerous creatures: shaman, delver and pyromancer. Also grim guy is excellent versus Strix, maybe versus DnT creatures without mom protection. Right now i use Fatal Push and Decay against all of this threats, but maybe Lavamancer is just a better option.

He can be very useful in situations where opponent countered all of your spells and you both in topdeck mode - when Lavamancer is a clock and another corner of the attack. The corner that your opponent can not expect.

DnT plays R.I.P, so Lavamancer is probably just a lonely goblin token. If you find yourself in a attrition war with DnT, you are most likely losing anyway. I'd rather jam Phyrexian Crusader, if hating out DnT is my concern.
Against Delver Chancellor of the Annex and Collective B. were the MVPs for me most of the time.

So maybe it's just me, but I think it's neither necessary to improve the abovementioned match ups, nor is GL able to do so, especially since it uses the same resource as your main deck plan AND is easy to remove for (respectively can be ignored by) these decks.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

I'd rather jam Phyrexian Crusader, if hating out DnT is my concern.

Is this a thing? Have people tried this to much success?

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[Luklinda]

I


Round 3: Jund Nic Fit 2-1
Game 1
Definitely not familiar with Jund Nic Fit vs BUG or the classic one. I miss lethal by accidentally drawing before untapping. Didn't think it was a huge setback as I still had lethal next turn and my opponent didn't have a hand or board. Big mistake because the opponent Sylvan Libraries to find Emrakul and Sneak Attack.


Untapping is not an optional effect, just like your draw for the turn. You puntrd by not calling for a judge to correct the game state.

[splorf]

Is this a thing? Have people tried this to much success?

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

No, this was just an example for a card I'd try before considering Lavamancer against DnT. But it's obsolete anyway, because this is an okay MU imho, so I would rather try to improve other MUs.

Heck, if it's good, play it! :tongue: Just sharing my thoughts and I'd be happy to allow myself to be convinced to try some new tech, no matter what.

[Slick752]

Hello everyone!
What 75 would you run on big event?

[ye_old_storm_boy]

New to this deck, switching from TES.
In a Lands, DnT, and Delver heavy meta should I play a blue splash fro show and tell or a green splash for Decay?

[KingColver]

This is the list that I took to 32nd place at GP Seattle.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1028854#paper

I lost to grixis delver 2x, and temur delver once. Other than that, I beat grixis delver 2x, sneak and show 2x, miracles, dredge, omnitell, cephallid breakfast, lands, monored prison, the mirror, mono blue omnitell, and death and taxes.

During day one I didn't have my sideboard strategy down yet, mostly in regards to what to take out. My general experience with the deck is that in just about every matchup you want to take out 4 animate dead for 4 stronghold gambit, 1 entomb and 1 fetch ( I was cutting bayou, but if I were to play in another GP I would cut the bayou for a fetch, so any fetch) for 2 thoughtseize, and 1 grisselbrand and a chancellor for the grave titan and the inkwell Leviathan. You do the creature swap because other wise surigicals can get all your threats.

[kinda]

What do ya’ll think of the pile match up and what do u board?

[KingColver]

I have not played against pile very much, but from what I have I would say that the matchup is tough. They have a lot of counter magic, deathrites, and they run main board edicts most of the time. I would do my standard side boarding +4stronghold gambit +2 thoughtseize +1 grave titan +1 inkwell leviathan, -4 animate dead -1 grisselbrand -1 chancellor of the annex, -1 land -1 entomb, and also bring in the collective brutalities for 2 cabal therapys.

[magicmurph]

Hi everybody,
Long time reader, appreciate all the info ive gotten from here !
preparing for GP Birmingham in 4 weeks time.
Just wanted to get some help/feedback/advice on my list and sideboard guides ETC.
Always find it helpful writing it down as well!

LIST:
4 x Delta
4 x Mire
2 x Swamp
2 x Badlands
1 x Underground Sea

4 x Griselbrand
4 x Chancellor of the Annex
1 x Tidesprout Tyrant
1 x Sire of Insanity

3 x Thoughtseize
3 x Unmask
2 x Collective Brutality
4 x Entomb
4 x Faithless Looting
4 x Reanimate
4 x exhume
4 x Animate Dead
4 x Dark Ritual
4 x Lotus Petal
1 x Chrome Mox

SIDEBOARD:
4 x Show & Tell
2 x Stronghold Gambit
2 x Echoing Truth
1 x Pithing Needle
1 x Collective Brutality
1 x Faerie Macabre
1 x Archetype of Endurance
1 x Iona
1 x Elesh Norn
1 x Grave Titan


MY LIST:
After a lot of changing I have decided to go with the blue splash.
I always felt that with the white and green splash we were too reactive and at the mercy of our opponents hate, it also meant we would need to assemble hat removal (the correct piece) then a creature, a way to put it in the bin and a way to reanimate before hate piece number 2 came down. With the blue splash with have some answers in the form of echoing truth but another angle of attack in S&T which sidesteps most hate including chalice.
My hand disruption numbers are fluid but I feel like I want the full 4 unmasks as thewy are so explosive. I also like have atleast 2 CB in the main for the times we are on the draw against DRS decks. Im going to tweak and test ASAP.
My creature suite over the 75 is what I like. I have recently swapped inkwell for archetype, not sure which is superior yet but I like having a hexproof threat. I have previously dropped to 3 Griselbrand as I pretty much always cut one post board but am happy with 4.
The sideboard is not by any means set, would be interested to hear peoples thoughts

SIDEBOARDING:
With this sort of proactive combo deck its hard to strike the right balance of keeping your velocity and have disruptive elements for the hate other decks bring in. my current full guide is in process and ill publish upon competition but id like as much input as possible. We have to assume nearly every deck is going to have some hate, from hard hate in white sideboards to soft off colour hate in faerie macabre and surgical extraction.
My current philosophy is to automatically adjust my creature suite to fit the matchup and to minimise surgical effect. Bring in echoeing truths against the decks that play white and/or leylines and bring in show and tell against pretty much everything in place of entomb as a hedge.
CB comes in against containment preist and DRS decks. Needle is great against karakas and LOTV aswell as many annoying permanents including sneak attack and JTMS

Are there any tips for sideboarding against the popular matchups?

[splorf]

From my experience I can recommend the blue proactive sideboard plan for the reasons you mentioned. Bypassing the hate is way more straight forward than answering it and hoping to draw the right cards. With blue you "just" need to grind through countermagic and Containment Priest. There is also an older, but still useful sb guide available for this strategy (written by jeffderek, if I remember correctly).

I'd cut Sire of Insanity for Elesh Norn maindeck. I don't know where the recent popularity of Sire comes from. Sure, most of the time it's the coffin nail as the 2nd reanimation target, but so is almost any other random fatty and it's simply not good on its own. Elesh Norn shuts down a lot of decks alone (Dredge, Elves, Infect) or is at least not bad (Delver, DnT).
Probably someone could enlighten me why Sire is played again? :confused:

[magicmurph]

I think sire for me is a due to a heavy dnt meta and turn 1 sore on the play has been my most successful line against them it’s also another non legendary target game 1.
I think I’m going to go back to Elesh norm for a GP meta.

I’ll search for jeffderek. Any idea how old it was ?

[splorf]

For Dnt you'd rather go with Inkwell Leviathan or Archetype of Endurance.

I found the blog post: here (http://delifscube.blogspot.de/2017/08/show-and-tell-in-board-of-br-reanimator.html)

[magicmurph]

For Dnt you'd rather go with Inkwell Leviathan or Archetype of Endurance.

I found the blog post: here (http://delifscube.blogspot.de/2017/08/show-and-tell-in-board-of-br-reanimator.html)

Thank you !

I'm now trying Endurance over inkwell in the board. in theory it is 1000000 x better as the second reanimation target. but inkwell is better as the first reanimation target due to evasion.

not sure which I value more postboard?

[Boneflute]

This is the list that I took to 32nd place at GP Seattle.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1028854#paper

I lost to grixis delver 2x, and temur delver once. Other than that, I beat grixis delver 2x, sneak and show 2x, miracles, dredge, omnitell, cephallid breakfast, lands, monored prison, the mirror, mono blue omnitell, and death and taxes.

During day one I didn't have my sideboard strategy down yet, mostly in regards to what to take out. My general experience with the deck is that in just about every matchup you want to take out 4 animate dead for 4 stronghold gambit, 1 entomb and 1 fetch ( I was cutting bayou, but if I were to play in another GP I would cut the bayou for a fetch, so any fetch) for 2 thoughtseize, and 1 grisselbrand and a chancellor for the grave titan and the inkwell Leviathan. You do the creature swap because other wise surigicals can get all your threats.

That's awesome dude! I was playing BR Reanimator in Seattle too! It was my first GP, and scrubbed out at 3-3. Nice job on the finish! Love to hear more about it!

[Boneflute]

Hey, everybody. I made a side boarding guide for the list I been playing online. I got two 5-0's this week, love to hear some feedback!

https://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/rb-reanimator-blue-splash-1/?cb=1523643783
'

[atlain2]

Hi-
Been retooling my UB Reanimator deck into a RB list and trying to figure out a SB build.
Was wondering if anyone had thoughts about the transformational SB used by Yuuki?
https://mtgtop8.com/event?e=18761&d=317344&f=LE
Essentially it's 4 Grave Titan, 4 Pack Rat, and 4 Grim Monoliths. I'm guessing it all gets brought in at once and the reanimation package is sided out, but I'm not really clear on what elements would be left in. Also, why splash G for 3 Krosan Grip? If the reanimation package is mostly sided out, is it still needed for Leyline of the Void? Or is it more for Ensnaring Bridge, maybe Sneak Attack, Chalice....?
Thanks for any insights. I kinda like the idea of siding out a lot of reanimation as a way to dodge all the hate that gets brought in against Reanimator post-SB, and I also like smashing with Grave Titans :-)
I've also thought about splashing U for Show & Tell post-SB to get around grave hate, but that seems somewhat fragile (still weak to Containment Priest) and requires cramming in an Underground Sea.

[Francisco Pires]

Is it worth to play with 3 Dread of Night in sideboard?

[DNSolver]

Death and Taxes has been pretty favorable in my experience. Do you think your losses come from your opponent playing X/1 creatures? Containment Priest, RIP, Prelate, and other random grave hate is not affected by 1 Dread of Night.

[splorf]

So, did anyone try Grim Lavamancer? I stumbled over this list (http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/120497) in a reddit thread about lavaman and obviously I was wrong about it (I still think it's not that good vs D&T though). I'd appreciate some reports, if available!

[biglongjohns]

So, did anyone try Grim Lavamancer? I stumbled over this list (http://www.starcitygames.com/decks/120497) in a reddit thread about lavaman and obviously I was wrong about it (I still think it's not that good vs D&T though). I'd appreciate some reports, if available!

I just played ewlandon's list (with sb Grim Lavamancers) in the Legacy Classic on Sunday and placed 12th out of 111. I can confirm that Grim Lavamancer was really good! You generally side them in in matchups where Magus is also good, giving you a lot of early backbreaking plays that aren't just bin a creature and try and reanimate. GL on turn one killed several DRS and other Grixis Delver creatures. I did not play against D&T so I can't speak to that matchup.

[Atherion]

Anybody tried out xantid swarm yet? Was thinking about it for a long time.

[TokenMaster]

I ran ewlandon's list with a couple of differences (1-3 split of Thoughtseize and Cabal Therapy instead of 4 Therapy and Archfiend of Ifnir instead of Iona for local meta) and it worke out really well. I need to play with it more but I'm sold on the Lavamancer/Magus sideboard plan. Every single game 2/3 that I won was won off those cards. Having the option to flash back Cabal Therapy to put the nail in the coffin or to trigger Tidespout Tyrant an extra time is neat. Also it didn't come up but having the option to Entomb for Ancient Grudge was nice too.

My initial concern with Lavamancer was that the deck wouldn't have enough gas for it until after I reanimate Griselbrand but that was not the case at all. The deck's abundance of proactive disruption really helps to keep things going. It also messes with the opponent's edicts or can serve as an extra clock or as a chump blocker to win the damage race in situations where you reanimated something besides Griselbrand.

[Francisco Pires]

What are your thoughts of silence in the sideboard?

[Atherion]

don't like it, since it's difficult to cast it - white - and then combo off.

[TokenMaster]

What are your thoughts of silence in the sideboard?
Silence is very clunky and all it gets around is counters if your opponent can only cast 1 to begin with.(if they can cast 2 then they counter both your silence and your combo) It doesn't beat an active DRS, you'd have to Entomb *after* Silence in the same turn to play around Surgical since otherwise they can just Surgical in response to Silence, and Daze + another counter can make your lines very awkward unless you have a lot of mana to work with.

If the opponent multiple counters are a big problem for you I'd recommend giving Defense Grid a try.

[Aus-Rotten]

I just played ewlandon's list (with sb Grim Lavamancers) in the Legacy Classic on Sunday and placed 12th out of 111. I can confirm that Grim Lavamancer was really good! You generally side them in in matchups where Magus is also good, giving you a lot of early backbreaking plays that aren't just bin a creature and try and reanimate. GL on turn one killed several DRS and other Grixis Delver creatures. I did not play against D&T so I can't speak to that matchup.

What did you side out when you brought in the magus and the lavamancer?

[qomori]

What did you side out when you brought in the magus and the lavamancer?

biglongjohns' approach might've been a bit different, but ewlandon posted a sideboard guide for his list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JsAcFFcLSUE6I7Ot1wF7w7lpjDEiIgxmdlRo4bivonc/edit

[Aus-Rotten]

biglongjohns' approach might've been a bit different, but ewlandon posted a sideboard guide for his list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JsAcFFcLSUE6I7Ot1wF7w7lpjDEiIgxmdlRo4bivonc/edit

Thank you.

[qomori]

I realized I linked to the printable cheat sheet I made not Eric's original deck tech (sorry, was at work in a meeting :P ). Here's the full deck tech, which is awesome: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NVuPujPlt-PlDC_q7HB0yrQRCOwdOnvaOWVtSlYScGU/edit

[Atherion]

So I made day 2 GP Birmingham with the green splash.

Went 6-2 first day, lost first match to czech pile and one to eldrazi, beat 2x red prison, dnt, grixis delver (only post board, blood moons are strong), aggro loam and pox.

Day two I beat show and tell and then screwed up against red prison, I had grisel out, he had 2x rabblemaster, ensnaring bridge and fiery conf. in hand, I didn't exhume Iona (waited for reanimating tidespout), that mistake cost me the first game since he didn't have to attack after having 0 cards in hand, after I exhume Iona, he didn't draw a red card in 5 turns and after that had 14 goblins and I was at 1 life, this is what happens when you don't playtest a MU.. Then I promptly lost to DnT and turbo dephts, DnT had swords for my turn one chancellor and then judgment for my turn 1 archetype. Against dephts game 1 I couldn't find a reanimation spell even with two lootings and game 2 I had game one grisel but he had surgical, so game over.

Overall I am happy with the deck although it won't be an easy task to win a tournament because the top tables were flooded with DRS blue decks. Other well represented decks at the top tables were moon stompy and miracles.

[Rocco111]

Surprised no one here mentioned Jérémy "Dindon" Charles who was on the Feature Table for the Round 13 -and who was then 10-2...
Go check the Replay since it was vs Grixis, the bid bad boy of the moment.:cool:

[biglongjohns]

What did you side out when you brought in the magus and the lavamancer?

Just as qomori suggested, I used ewlandon's sideboard guide as well. IIRC, my wins were against Grixis Delver, Grixis Delver, Burn, BUG Lands, Storm, Czech Pile. My losses were to two folks in the top 8: Grixis Delver and Miracles. Both of these losses my deck beat me more than my opponent did...mulls to five.

[Boneflute]

DRS banned, good riddance. There is a lot to be excited about.
Anybody got some thoughts on how the DRS ban will affect our strategy?

[Grand Superior]

DRS banned, good riddance. There is a lot to be excited about.
Anybody got some thoughts on how the DRS ban will affect our strategy?

To be honest I think the banlist changes are good news for UBx Reanimator and not so much for us. Without Deathrite Shaman to have to race, the cantrips and countermagic that the UB version provides feels more appealing than the velocity of RB. Furthermore, without Deathrite Shaman providing "free" maindeck graveyard hate, postboard graveyard hate options will likely become more robust (think more Surgicals and Leylines). I'd much rather fight that with postboard Show and Tell and bounce spells and maindeck countermagic than anything RB can provide.

I'm not switching to UBx anytime soon but I think blue-based Reanimator decks made out much better.

[Boneflute]

To be honest I think the banlist changes are good news for UBx Reanimator and not so much for us. Without Deathrite Shaman to have to race, the cantrips and countermagic that the UB version provides feels more appealing than the velocity of RB. Furthermore, without Deathrite Shaman providing "free" maindeck graveyard hate, postboard graveyard hate options will likely become more robust (think more Surgicals and Leylines). I'd much rather fight that with postboard Show and Tell and bounce spells and maindeck countermagic than anything RB can provide.

I'm not switching to UBx anytime soon but I think blue-based Reanimator decks made out much better.

Yeah, I agree that the UB version benefits more from the ban. But you can't say that it doesn't make a considerable difference, especially during game one, where you usually scoop to an active DRS. Assuming you are running the Unmask version.

These bans are going to completely change the meta, so it is hard to make predictions. But I still have a hard time believing you. Especially when RB has access to Show and Tell out of the sideboard with the blue splash.

[TokenMaster]

UB is better vs Leyline and Surgical Extraction but I think we are better vs Graffdigger's Cage and Faerie Macabre. UB doesn't run a lot of hand disruption or enablers and even if they have outs to permanent-based hate the odds they can assemble it and combo off through counters and mana denial from decks like miracles, Death and Taxes and RUG are fairly slim regardless. We can board our own outs to permanent-based hate and still have the potential to just be faster than the hate that comes in against us.

Also UB's post-Griselbrand plays aren't as explosive and it's possible they can reanimate Griselbrand and not have a strong enough play to close out the game. If we get Griselbrand we're very likely to have an unbreakable board state or we're ripping out the opponent's hand, or both, within the same turn.

[ShiftedClock]

Short-term I'll be trying out BRu with sideboard Show and Tells, similar to this list (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/810348#paper). Just drop the Brutalities for Therapies and throw an Ashen Rider in the side. You get the game one speed of BR and the post-board answers to grave hate of UB.

I'm a bit afraid that chalice decks will get better, making UB (w/ FoW) better positioned than BR. Past that, I have no idea how the meta will change in the coming months, but it should be an interesting ride.

[fblthp]

A post-ban 5-0 BR Reanimator list (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1183666#paper)- may be of interest. I like the sb Phyrexian Crusader hedging on more taxes decks and gulag/big red/prison/whatever it's called these days. Not sure what to make of Bitterblossom. I was considering winter orb for miracles but Bitterblossom gives you a clock. 3 Chancellor is also unorthodox. Food for thought.

[qomori]

Short-term I'll be trying out BRu with sideboard Show and Tells, similar to this list (https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/810348#paper). Just drop the Brutalities for Therapies and throw an Ashen Rider in the side. You get the game one speed of BR and the post-board answers to grave hate of UB.

I'm a bit afraid that chalice decks will get better, making UB (w/ FoW) better positioned than BR. Past that, I have no idea how the meta will change in the coming months, but it should be an interesting ride.

You lose Stronghold Gambit in the side, but if the only other red card is Looting, can't you just run 3 U Seas and Careful Study to make the mana base more consistent?

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Isn't the flashback of FL still just too good to pass up for Careful Study?

[splorf]

If you want to play Careful Study over Faithless Looting, you are in the wrong thread. The mana base should never ever be an issue for B/R. The idea to bypass gy hate with Gambits and S & T is not new and certainly not a bad idea in an unsolved meta with presumably way more "hard" gy hate. But I wouldn't skip CB, since D&T and UW Stoneblade seem to become more popular. CB is just too good imho.

That said, apparantly Phyrexian Crusader became a serious option against those white decks. With Deathrite axed there's no longer a reason to play Grim Lavamancer over it.

[TokenMaster]

Thought I'd take a crack at turning BR's sideboard into burning reanimator since the meta is so heavy on graveyard hate right now. Definitely nowhere near perfect but I'm looking for advice on improvements.

Mainboard:

3 Griselbrand
4 Chancellor
1 Iona
1 Tidespout
1 Elesh Norn

4 Faithless Looting
4 Unmask
2 Thoughtseize
4 Entomb
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal
1 Chrome Mox
4 Reanimate
4 Animated Dead
4 Exhume

4 Bloodstained Mire
3 Polluted Delta
3 Swamp
2 Badlands
1 Bayou
1 Mountain

Sideboard:
3 Burning Wish
2 Reverent Silence
1 Ancient Grudge
1 By Force
2 Nature's Claim
2 Massacre
3 Defense Grid
1 Inkwell Leviathan

I run 1 extra land and 1 Chrome Mox in place of 2 more discard spells because Defense Grid, Burning Wish, and By Force are mana-intensive cards and I don't want to get taxed out or Wastelanded out of the game so easily. There's a 2/2 split between Reverent Silence and Nature's Claim because Leyline of the Void plus Wasteland on your 1 Bayou spells doom, and its ability to take artifacts isn't irrelevant either. Maybe it's correct to just run a second Bayou but it leaves you that much more vulnerable to Wasteland, especially coming from RUG delver.

Ideally I'd make one more slot in the sideboard for Iona/Elesh Norn so I can run the fourth Griselbrand but space is really tight. I also had thoughts about a singleton Stronghold Gambit in the board since it's situational but amazing but it's way less good with only 3 Griselbrand and the cards it's competing with are much better.

Any thoughts/ideas/criticisms appreciated.

[scottpou]

Love me some burning wish. Have you tried to get some LEDs in there as well? Burning wish/Exhume/Animate Dead/Reanimate, hold priority crack LED, discard a fatty, reanimate fatty? I have posted some BW lists in TinFins if you want to check it out. I usually take 1 Exhume put it in the sideboard and main deck 1 unburial rites because you can entomb fetch the URites. Just a thought. BW just becomes another reanimate slot.

[Final Fortune]

Love me some burning wish. Have you tried to get some LEDs in there as well? Burning wish/Exhume/Animate Dead/Reanimate, hold priority crack LED, discard a fatty, reanimate fatty? I have posted some BW lists in TinFins if you want to check it out. I usually take 1 Exhume put it in the sideboard and main deck 1 unburial rites because you can entomb fetch the URites. Just a thought. BW just becomes another reanimate slot.

I like how you think my good sir, something like this?

4 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Jin Gitaxis
4 Exhume
4 Unburial Rites
4 Burning Wish
4 Entomb
4 Faithless Looting
4 Thoughtseize
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Lion's Eye Diamond
4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual
4 Polluted Delta
4 Bloodstained Mire
2 Badlands
2 Swamps
1 Scrublands

1 Tendrils of Agony
1 Empty the Warrens
1 Stronghold Gambit
1 Reanimate
1 Stitch Together
1 Massacre
1 Meltdown
1 Cabal Therapy
1 Unmask
4 Wear/Tear
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

[scottpou]

- You need 1 Exhume for the sideboard so 3x Exhume and 1x URites takes that 4 slot.
- I would also take a similar role with Reanimate and do 3x Reanimate main, 1x side.
- You don't need the spirit guides. I probably want more disruption of Annex or Discard.

So here's my TinFins list and the subs // I would make for BR Reanimator:

4 Griselbrand
1 Children of Korlis // Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Laboratory Maniac // Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur

4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Shallow Grave // 3 Reanimate, 1 Animate Dead

3 Exhume
1 Unburial Rites
4 Thoughtseize
2 Unmask // 2 Collective Brutality
1 Cabal Therapy // Collective Brutality
1 Conflagrate

4 Faithless Looting
4 Burning Wish

4 Lotus Petal
4 Lion's Eye Diamond

2 Badlands
2 Swamp
1 Bayou // 1 Scrubland
1 Scrubland
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Marsh Flats
2 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs

// Sideboard
4 Silent Gravestone // 4 Wear // Tear
1 Reanimate
1 Exhume
1 Tendrils of Agony
2 Empty the Warrens // 1 Empty the Warrens, 1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 By Force
1 Reverent Silence // 1 Ashen Rider
1 Massacre
1 Stronghold Gambit
1 Innocent Blood // 1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Toxic Deluge// 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite

For sideboarding, it is a bad idea to play LEDs into counter decks so I would just swap the 4 LEDs for 4 Wear//Tear. Also, the above list would just be my version because of personal preferences, but I always viewed BR Reanimator as being threat dense. So I could easily see a combination of -1 Burning Wish, -1/2 LED, -1 Conflagrate, and/or -1/2/3 Collective Brutality for 4x more creatures. If you wanted more threats, I would probably lean towards the -1 BW, -2 LED, -1 CBru for 4x Chancellor of the Annex.

[Final Fortune]

MDing Reanimate and SBing Exhume in a LED based deck makes no sense to me, MD Reanimate has no synergy with Lion's Eye Diamond and SB Reanimate can already be used with Burning Wish and Lion's Eye Diamond in order to reanimate a creature from in hand - if you're worried about life loss then you can SB a Stitch Together as you're likely to have threshold off of a Lion's Eye Diamond activation and keep the MD Exhume where it belongs.

Simian Spirit Guide is hit and miss, without the Land, Simian Spirit Guide, Faithless Looting into Reanimate play I'm leaning towards Unmask or Cabal Therapy to free up SB space.

Unfortunately I just realized Animate Dead gets countered by Stifle, so I think I'm going to cut 4 Animate Dead for 3 more Burial Rites and another Jin Gitaxis.

[scottpou]

MDing Reanimate and SBing Exhume in a LED based deck makes no sense to me, MD Reanimate has no synergy with Lion's Eye Diamond and SB Reanimate can already be used with Burning Wish and Lion's Eye Diamond in order to reanimate a creature from in hand - if you're worried about life loss then you can SB a Stitch Together as you're likely to have threshold off of a Lion's Eye Diamond activation and keep the MD Exhume where it belongs.
- You really should have an exhume in the sideboard. Cast LED, Cast BW, hold priority, crack LED in response, bin fatty, fetch Exhume, cast exhume.
- Brutality with escalate/Thoughtseize/Faithless then reanimate. You don't want to dilute your main ggez route, no? I still think Reanimate is a very strong card.


Simian Spirit Guide is hit and miss, without the Land, Simian Spirit Guide, Faithless Looting into Reanimate play I'm leaning towards Unmask or Cabal Therapy to free up SB space.
- I myself went up to 14 lands over the 13 because of similar thoughts. Just remember if you do 4 BW and 4 LED, you are lowering the B count for Unmask. That's the reason I went down to 2 myself over the 3/4 I had ran for awhile.


Unfortunately I just realized Animate Dead gets countered by Stifle, so I think I'm going to cut 4 Animate Dead for 3 more Burial Rites and another Jin Gitaxis.
- I think swapping another URites instead of the Animate Dead is a good call at the minimum. It is mana intensive though and you won't always have an LED. Remember you can fetch it too. I don't think you want 4x.

[scottpou]

Sideboard Exhume also is good against Surgical...

[Final Fortune]

- You really should have an exhume in the sideboard. Cast LED, Cast BW, hold priority, crack LED in response, bin fatty, fetch Exhume, cast exhume.
- Brutality with escalate/Thoughtseize/Faithless then reanimate. You don't want to dilute your main ggez route, no? I still think Reanimate is a very strong card.


- I myself went up to 14 lands over the 13 because of similar thoughts. Just remember if you do 4 BW and 4 LED, you are lowering the B count for Unmask. That's the reason I went down to 2 myself over the 3/4 I had ran for awhile.


- I think swapping another URites instead of the Animate Dead is a good call at the minimum. It is mana intensive though and you won't always have an LED. Remember you can fetch it too. I don't think you want 4x.

4xUnburial Rites aims for aggressive mulligans into land/petal, LED, Unburial Rites and GGEZ while giving you the ability to grind thru' counters by casting it from hand and then flashing it back from yard - my list looks really close to this list http://www.starcitygames.com/article/28608_Burning-Reanimator-in-Legacy.html

Unmask is too resource intensive, in normal BR Reanimator you've got more black cards to discard and Reanimate to bring back a creature immediately so Cabal Therapy looks better in the end. Collective Brutality is expensive and there's no Dark Ritual -> Collective Burtality -> Reanimate line to be had, I think those are all normal BR choices but not necessarily suited for Wish/LED builds.

Again, SB Exhume makes no sense to me, Reanimate does the same thing and Stiched Together is close enough to Exhume if you're worried about your life total.

Edit: Ah, you're going the Shallow Graves/Goryo's Vengeance route, I'll try that a bit later as it leaves the deck "threat" lite without being able to Jin Gitaxis at all - I'm trying to keep my threats on the board for now.

[Hanni]

Sideboard Exhume also is good against Surgical...

lol... nobody is going to waste a Surgical on Exhume against Reanimator.

[Secretly.A.Bee]

Idk if you guys have had much discussion on Remorseful Cleric, but it is extremely powerful against Exhume. In testing, I've vialed one in in response to Exhume, popped it removing their graveyard, then allowed Exhume to resolve and choosing Remorseful Cleric to be put back on the battlefield. I know sometimes you can get ahead of it but it's an interaction you should be aware of, at least.

[splorf]

Idk if you guys have had much discussion on Remorseful Cleric, but it is extremely powerful against Exhume. In testing, I've vialed one in in response to Exhume, popped it removing their graveyard, then allowed Exhume to resolve and choosing Remorseful Cleric to be put back on the battlefield. I know sometimes you can get ahead of it but it's an interaction you should be aware of, at least.

Yeah, this could be a bummer. On the other hand: is it worse than Containment Priest at the same speed? Or R.I.P.?

[TokenMaster]

I'm jamming a new list with the DRS banning and the return of hard graveyard hate, haven't tried this exact list yet as Show and Tell and USea is in the mail but I think it's worth a look.

10 Creatures:
3 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Griselbrand
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Ashen Rider

12 Reanimation:
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead

15 Discard/Enablers:
4 Entomb
4 Faithless Looting
4 Unmask
2 Thoughtseize
1 Cabal Therapy

9 Fast mana:
4 Dark Ritual
3 Lotus Petal
2 Chrome Mox

14 land:
4 Polluted Delta
3 Bloodstained Mire
3 Badlands
1 Underground Sea
1 Island
2 Swamp

Sideboard:
4 Show and Tell
4 Defense Grid
3 Burning wish
1 Massacre
1 Coffin Purge
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

The list is a bit rough but Defense Grid at least has felt solid and is, IMO, a great reason to continue playing BR over UB. It's a blowout vs RUG delver and holds down a lot of the redundant answers miracles has. It also makes targeting yourself for discard a much less risky proposition and allows for more protected early combo turns postboard and even silly stuff like Burning Wish for Show and Tell to cast the next turn becomes a good option when your opponent is unable to answer it.

I've cut down on Chancellors because it's usually our worst reanimation target and because we no longer have to worry about turn 1 DRS coming down. I added an Ashen Rider because it's a better Show and Tell target than Chancellor, same reason why I cut Archetype of Endurance for Inkwell Leviathan. I've also cut a piece of discard and a Lotus Petal for Chrome Mox to power out the Defense Grid/Show and Tell/Burning Wish plays more consistently. There's a single island there so we don't get get swept off our Show and Tell plan by a single Wasteland; maybe it's a mistake especially with it being useless pre-board but I feel it plays an important role postboard in Wasteland matchups. Will update with results as soon as I can but for now I'd like some opinions and ideas.

[splorf]

This looks very close to my own list, therefor I like it (with a few exceptions).

First of all: I'd play the 4th Petal over a 2nd Chrome Mox anytime all the time. It's card disadvantage and with 4 Unmask in addition you possibly get some awkward hands.
Regarding Chancellor I am pretty sure playing 3 is even worse than playing 4. You really want them in your opening hand game 1, so I'd rather play 0 than 3.
Then I'd max BW and cut 1-2 Defense Grid to fit some Artifact hate into the board. You need sth. to remove Chalice, etc.

For some spice I'm using Cephalid Colisseum, but haven't tested it a lot so far, so I wouldn't recommend it.

[TheStalk]

I got an idea today which may be amazing or horrible, I'm genuinely not sure which. I was watching some Legacy coverage, and TES was going off and Burning Wish looked pretty amazing and it got me thinking. Currently, most lists are either splashing green for Reverent Silence or white for Wear//Tear. While these cards are excellent at what they do, they're very narrrow and siding in 4 copies feels pretty terrible. However, if we played a Burning Wish sideboard, it would be possible to play only 1 copy of these narrow effects. Our game 1 right now is pretty great with DRS gone so there's no sense slowing down the deck, so I'd put Wish and its targets all in the SB. Here are some quick pros and cons:

Pros:
- Avoids siding in multiple potentially dead cards (i.e. RevSilence when they don't open Leyline). If the opponent doesn't have the hate, Burning Wish isn't a dead card, it can grab a Sorcery we sided out (discard spell, reanimation spell, looting)
- Adds consistency in post-board games: As alluded to above, we often have to trim a few copies of different effects post-board to make space for sideboard cards. For instance, we might go from 12 reanimation spells down to 10. By using Burning Wish, even if we side out 2 Exhume, we actually end up with 14 reanimation spells since Wish can grab one from the board if we don't need an anti-hate card.

Cons:
- Slows down the deck: Burning Wish is a 2 mana sorcery which gets us another sorcery. Unless we're in the late game, it's very unlikely that we can go Wish into Answer into Combo in a single turn. To me this doesn't seem like a game breaker since we're slowing down post-board anyway, but it would be disengenuous not to mention it.
- Prone to blowouts vs countermagic: If our opponent lets us Wish for a card, then counters that card, we've invested lots of time and mana into doing nothing, which can be a brutal tempo swing.

Below is an example sideboard built on this principle, using the green splash (although options exist for the white splash as well). The board isn't all dedicated to the Wish package, I'm still packing utility fatties, gy hate and an Abrade as a versatile card that's easy to bring in for multiple matchups. Without further ado:

1 Thoughtseize
1 Coffin Purge
1 By Force
1 Collective Brutality
4 Burning Wish
1 Abrade
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Reverent Silence
1 Elesh Norn
1 Archetype of Endurance
1 Iona

There's lots of other interesting options I couldn't fit it, such as Massacre or a lone copy of Stronghold Gambit for when you know the coast is clear and have a fatty ready to go, I threw this particular board together in just a few minutes, but I think the idea has potential.

Any thoughts? Is this genius or stupidity?

PS. Before anyone says, I did see TokenMaster's post just a little above mine with Burning Wish, but his list seems to use it mainly as extra copies of Show and Tell and a lone Massacre rather than a toolbox approach (which also seems worth exploring frankly, but I don't have U-Seas so I'll leave that experiment to others).

[scottpou]

*cough* check TinFins on the forum right now *cough* ... We're playing with a lot of Burning builds.

[DNSolver]

There's one of my Burning Wish lists on the OP.

https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/426193#online

[TheStalk]

*cough* check TinFins on the forum right now *cough* ... We're playing with a lot of Burning builds.

No offense, but I feel like you kind of missed the point of my post. I'm not saying no one has ever played Burning Wish in Griselbrand shells before, I'm saying that no one is doing so NOW in the way which I suggest. Tin Fins, although a close relative of BR Reanimator, has a wholly different use for Wish, it wants to draw its deck with Children then Wish for Tendrils and kill people on the spot. The fact that Wish can grab sideboard cards is a plus, but in my understanding, not the primary reason it is played. Also, Tins Fins plays LED which interacts very favorably with Burning Wish, so the fact that it is viable in that deck doesn't automatically mean it would be viable in this one, which was the point of my post - is a Burning Wish SB a good option for "stock" BR Reanimator lists right now.

@ DNSolver: Similarly to above, the decklist you're referring to is quite different from current stock BR lists, and seems to be a cross with Tin Fins, looking to Tendrils people out. In all honesty, I hadn't looked at the OP in a while and thought for sure that list played the Wishes in the main as well, but I still think that your list's objective is different enough from what "regular" BR Reanimator is doing that we can't equate Wish being good in your list and Wish being good in a stock list.

Maybe I should have clarified in my post, I wasn't trying to imply that no one has ever thought of what I suggested, merely that no one seems to be trying that right now and it seems like it might be exactly what we're looking for to avoid diluting our deck post board with narrow answers that are horrible when they're unneeded (ever draw Reverent Silence when opponent doesn't have Leyline? Feels pretty bad). Could we have an actual discussion on whether a Burning Wish board is good CURRENTLY in BR, or should we just stick to being pedantic and pointing out that other similar decks have played Burning Wish before?

[scottpou]

No offense, but I feel like you kind of missed the point of my post.

my apologies. I was just trying to give you different burning options. i will refrain myself from further posts.

[DNSolver]

Well, most sideboard options out of BR aren't great vs Surgical, which is still the number one played hate card. Although post-ban people have been playing Cage/RIP etc., the two most popular are Surgical and Leyline. Leylines are very beatable with Reverent Silence or Burning Wish -> Reverent Silence. Surgicals less so - we can't play Silent Gravestone or Ground Seal in this deck like you can in Shallow Grave shells. You can board in more discard, but then that would take slots away from the board.

As far as playing the Wishes in the maindeck, absolutely not. The deck is very well put together right now, and adding two-mana cards over at least one reanimation spell isn't the way to go. Speed is still important for a combo deck in Legacy.

[ShiftedClock]

4 Cryptbreaker in the PT list (https://magic.wizards.com/en/events/coverage/pt25a/pro-tour-25th-anniversary-legacy-decklists-2018-08-05#angelin_marcus_-_br_reanimator) sideboard seems interesting.

It's a slower clock than Pack Rat, but functions with less mana.

[RackDose]

In the current meta how do we feel about Empyrial Archangel against burn and Sheoldred, Whispering One in the mirror? I don't see these two in a lot of lists but they seem like good sideboard options.

[Peebs]

I think Iona is a little better than Archangel against Burn, but on the off chance they play Path to Exile, it might work. If your local meta is saturated with Burn players, that seems like a decent idea. Sheoldred seems like win more, since you can already Reanimate and Animate Dead your opponent's creatures. In addition, they'd probably Ashen Rider / Tidespout Tyrant it away before their next upkeep, whereas if you had reanimated Archetype, Iona on Black, or Griselbrand, you'd probably already have won by then.

[Cryoclasm]

Can anyone enlighten me which matches Cryptbreaker / Pack rat are sided in and what to side out for them?

Are they meant against control matches?

[qomori]

Can anyone enlighten me which matches Cryptbreaker / Pack rat are sided in and what to side out for them?

Are they meant against control matches?

Pascal Maynard (who tested/got advice from ewlandon) says he started with them in the board for the 4c Loam and Shadow match ups, but ended up bringing a few in almost always on the draw https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/the-black-red-reanimator-bible/

[Cryoclasm]

Thank you very much! That article proved very useful for me since Pascal covers in detail basically every card in main and side.

[alohazendo]

ewlandon doesn't seem to have much going on on his twitch feed. Does anyone know of a good BR Reanimator player who posts videos?

[Vissah]

ewlandon doesn't seem to have much going on on his twitch feed. Does anyone know of a good BR Reanimator player who posts videos?

You can check out his YouTube page. He got some nice content on there.

[alohazendo]

Thank you!

[Luca Grease]

I was checking TC decks in an attempt to update my pre-ban list, and I noticed a lot of people are running md Cabal Therapy over Thoughtseize now (or a split). Is there a specific reason for it? I understand the number of cards you care about is relatively small (at least in g1) and that the lifeloss of thoughtseize can sometimes be an issue combined with reanimate and G-daddy activations, but is that enough to make it superior?

Also, is Collective Brutality gone with Shaman? It still seems like it would be good against UW decks which are trying to fight you with both counterspells and hatebears (although admittedly a little clunky against both Surgical and Containment Priest).

SB Abrades: meh. What are those for?

[qomori]

I was checking TC decks in an attempt to update my pre-ban list, and I noticed a lot of people are running md Cabal Therapy over Thoughtseize now (or a split). Is there a specific reason for it? I understand the number of cards you care about is relatively small (at least in g1) and that the lifeloss of thoughtseize can sometimes be an issue combined with reanimate and G-daddy activations, but is that enough to make it superior?

Also, is Collective Brutality gone with Shaman? It still seems like it would be good against UW decks which are trying to fight you with both counterspells and hatebears (although admittedly a little clunky against both Surgical and Containment Priest).

SB Abrades: meh. What are those for?

Therapy requires more knowledge of opposing decks, but there's also 2-for-1 possibility. It also has more synergy with the SB Cryptbreaker plan.

[ottomanottoman]

I was checking TC decks in an attempt to update my pre-ban list, and I noticed a lot of people are running md Cabal Therapy over Thoughtseize now (or a split). Is there a specific reason for it? I understand the number of cards you care about is relatively small (at least in g1) and that the lifeloss of thoughtseize can sometimes be an issue combined with reanimate and G-daddy activations, but is that enough to make it superior?

Also, is Collective Brutality gone with Shaman? It still seems like it would be good against UW decks which are trying to fight you with both counterspells and hatebears (although admittedly a little clunky against both Surgical and Containment Priest).

SB Abrades: meh. What are those for?

It’s been a groupthink trend since ewlandon and the pro tour players started using the cabal therapy+ashen rider list. That’s not to say I think it’s a wrong way to build he deck but I don’t like the opportunity cost that comes with therapy. I also believe tidespout takes care of ashen rider’s job better in most situations and that rider is unnecessarily redundant in a non-therapy build. However, the rider-sac rider to therapy-rider again lines are legit.

As for brutality, I still really like the flexibility the card provides to the deck and it’s not like there aren’t targets for it anymore (baleful strix being target number 1 preboard and stuff like priest post board).

Abrade is good against DnT as it answers their vial & creatures. It also started being good against Sneak and Show when they started running arcane arrisan because the card answers both artisan and cage. Not sure how many people are still on artisan though. With Assassin’s Trophy coming out though I don’t think the abrades are necessary anymore.

[TokenMaster]

Therapy also lets you turn your additional reanimation spells into more discard spells by targeting your opponent's creatures.

[EronRelentless]

Anybody thought about Arcane Artisan as a SB option to dodge Gy Hate Cards?

What Do you players think of 3 Lingering Souls in the SB for Grindy Matchups like Grixis and Miracles and a way to make edicts bad?

Any way to update the starting post with Deathrite Shaman being banned?

[dsck]

Anybody thought about Arcane Artisan as a SB option to dodge Gy Hate Cards?

I think Artisan would be good if you didnt need 3 mana to activate it next turn, also we dont run Emrakul and Griselbrand might not be enough that late.


What Do you players think of 3 Lingering Souls in the SB for Grindy Matchups like Grixis and Miracles and a way to make edicts bad?

Arent edicts fairly bad vs us? I dont find myself losing if I get Grizel down. Monastery Mentor seems better than Lingering Souls to me for a few reasons, 1. it wont care about grave hate whereas LS might get hit by some, 2. Mentor might solo win the game whereas LS might buy time but very unlikely would straight up win.

[Venomous72]

Not sure if this thread is really active anymore, but is Green or White the preferable splash now? It seems with Assassin's Trophy that Green has taken the lead over Wear / Tear?

Thoughts?

[merfolkotpt]

I played last night with the green splash, and definitely had circumstances where i wasn't sure what hate was coming in, and wear//tear or collective brutality would have both been awkward depending as people had a mix of dudes and permanent based hate.

I like green more than white, but it seems ulike it isn't such a huge downgrade that it is crazy to splash white instead.

[Venomous72]

I played last night with the green splash, and definitely had circumstances where i wasn't sure what hate was coming in, and wear//tear or collective brutality would have both been awkward depending as people had a mix of dudes and permanent based hate.

I like green more than white, but it seems ulike it isn't such a huge downgrade that it is crazy to splash white instead.

Thanks, that's what I was figuring as well. Assassin's Trophy hits so much. And Bayou's are only about $50 more than a Scrub right now.

[guillemnicolau]

So I'm coming back to Legacy after a few years, and I want to try with a Brx Reanimator. Right now, I'm thinking about 2 possible decklists. I don't have any bayous or scrublands, so I'll have to do with BRU colors for now:

Bru
Maindeck
3 Badlands
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
4 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
4 Animate Dead
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Exhume
4 Faithless Looting
4 Lotus Petal
3 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask
1 Ashen Rider
4 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Griselbrand
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Sideboard
2 Abrade
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Pithing Needle
4 Show and Tell
4 Stronghold Gambit

This one is more timmy, better in the early game with the chancellors, and using show and tells and gambits in 2nd and 3rd games (as I don't have access to scrublands or bayous right now, this is a way to ignore leyline of the void and other graveyard hate). As the sideboard strategy requires to take out many black cards, I tried to keep having many black spells for the Unmasks by mainly having black creatures.

Br
Maindeck
3 Badlands
3 Bloodstained Mire
2 Polluted Delta
6 Swamp
4 Animate Dead
4 Dark Ritual
2 Duress
3 Entomb
2 Exhume
3 Hymn to Tourach
4 Lotus Petal
4 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize
4 Unmask
4 Cryptbreaker
4 Grave Titan
4 Griselbrand
Sideboard
4 Pack Rat
3 Abrade
3 Blood Moon
3 Stronghold Gambit
2 Pithing Needle

This one is more controlish. The idea is to keep being good in the late game, by having creatures that can be played without reanimation spells. Blood moons should also be quite good. I doubt about the hymn to tourachs, as they might not take the removal spells, but card advantage is never bad (as many of my creatures aren't 1x2 being able to be played from hand, if the opponent removes them is not that bad).


Any opinion or idea will be helpful, I don't really know which are the best decks right now, I'm kinda lost.
Thanks!

[Rood]

Not sure if this thread is really active anymore, but is Green or White the preferable splash now? It seems with Assassin's Trophy that Green has taken the lead over Wear / Tear?

Thoughts?

Trophy is basically your best option at this point. Card just so versatile it's ridiculous.

[alvoi]

How do you think that the new mulligan rule would affect this deck? I see it better in game 1 but worse post sideboard, not exactly what we needed

[McMasterJ]

Hello,

1st post here. Back on the reanimator plan, played it casually before.

I seem to have some struggle sideboarding against UWx Stoneblade decks. How do you guys approach the matchup/sideboard plan draw-play?

I would think it's similar to the Miracle matchup, but clearly my recent numbers shows otherwise.

For reference, i'm on Ewlandon list (https://teamrankstar.com/br-reanimator-sideboard-guide/?fbclid=IwAR2f9ZjsR29KVpR2DwxQT9Ogk8eS_oJHBMMuKnhQnluBBSE0RCrCM7V9vrQ).

Thanks!

[caprino]

Hello,

1st post here. Back on the reanimator plan, played it casually before.

I seem to have some struggle sideboarding against UWx Stoneblade decks. How do you guys approach the matchup/sideboard plan draw-play?

I would think it's similar to the Miracle matchup, but clearly my recent numbers shows otherwise.

For reference, i'm on Ewlandon list (https://teamrankstar.com/br-reanimator-sideboard-guide/?fbclid=IwAR2f9ZjsR29KVpR2DwxQT9Ogk8eS_oJHBMMuKnhQnluBBSE0RCrCM7V9vrQ).

Thanks!

Nice!!!

Vs elf, dredge,burn side in and side out?

Thanks

[caprino]

https://teamrankstar.com/br-reanimator-sideboard-guide/?fbclid=IwAR2f9ZjsR29KVpR2DwxQT9Ogk8eS_oJHBMMuKnhQnluBBSE0RCrCM7V9vrQ

Vs ub shadow

On the draw - 1 tidespout. +2ts
- 4 chancellor. +1 iona
- 1 Therapy +2 grave titan
+1 lake
On the play
-1 griselbrand. +1 iona
-3 therapy. +1 grave titan
-1 tidespout +1 lake
+2 ts

Someone help me side in and side out vs lands, elf, dragon Stompy, dredge, stoneblade.

Thanks

[alvoi]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the deck, so maybe you can help me to understand some card choices:

For the maindeck, I think 56 cards are common to every list except for the second discard spell beyond unmask: I saw lists with 4 therapies (like ewlandon's) and lists with 4 TS (like the one that top4d a scg last month). Which is the best discard spell in your opinion? Why someone prefers one and someone the other?

For the sideboard, some slots are almost certain (1 iona, 1 elesh, 1 archetype, 4 reverent silence, 2 ass trophy, 2 discard spells that are TS in the therapies list and brutality in the TS lists). Then there is three slots for the grindy matchups(?): crypt breaker or pack rat or grim lavaman or 2 grave titans + 1 lake. Which is the best? Then there is a flex slot I think, to choose between the third trophy, pithing needle, magus of the moon, coffin purge, etc. I would go with the third trophy, but maybe it's excessive. What do you think?

[merfolkotpt]

Personally i am not super happy with any of the "grindy" plans. I don't think there is a consensus on it, though I think more lists are on the grave titan plan if you are just going by numbers on mtgtop8. I think, especially if you are new to the archetype and legacy, you will have more success with thoughtseize, but I think cabal therapy might be the better card if you know all the other decks in the format really well, and what beats you when. Thoughtseize 2 life points can be relevant to the number of g brand activations you have queued up. Fetch + thoughtseize + reanimate griseldad = puts you at 9 + activation puts you at 2 vs 4 off of therapy, which is relevant since bolt exists. I don't really like 3rd trophy mostly because it is hard to side board in a ton of cards, you still want a critical mass of dudes, enablers, and reanimate spells after boarding and it is hard to maintain that the more cards you side in. That being said, a lot of this comes down to your preferences, and play-style.

[alvoi]

Yeah, I didn't like the idea of playing grindy too, so I think I'll go for grave titan plan. I'm pretty new to the archetype but not new to legacy, so I will go with the therapies (and TS in sideboard). This leaves me with only one sideboard slot left, and I think I will play pithing needle. Thank you!

[Riukk]

Hi guys!! We are trying to make a great sideboard guide for BRx, and we need the help of all the people who want to participate in this project.
We have a huge Discord channel where we discuss all strategies vs every matchup, our torunament reports, etc.
Please, join us and be part of the community!! https://discord.gg/66nPY8d
When the guide is complete, we will upload it to this page so that we all enjoy it

[kinda]

I got 9th in a 51 person event yesterday, missed 8th on tie breakers :cry:. Beat maverick, dnt, buried phoenixes, and manaless dredge. Lost to sneak and show purely due to punting g3 and miracles.


4 gemstone mine
4 mana confluence
1 Badlands
1 bayou
2 Bloodstained Mire
1 Swamp
1 Underground Sea
4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal

1 children of korlis
1 tendrils of agony
2 shallow Grave
1 Animate Dead
4 Entomb
4 Exhume
4 Faithless Looting
1 careful study
4 Reanimate
2 Thoughtseize
1 cabal therapy
1 collective brutality
3 Unmask
3 Chancellor of the Annex
4 Griselbrand
1 Sire of Insanity
1 grave titan

Sideboard
1 boseiju, who shelters all
1 inkwell leviathan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 ancient tomb
4 Show and Tell
4 assassin's trophy

[kinda]

I'm considering in my list in the above post if I could run new teferi in the board...it deals with everything...

[Francisco Pires]

What are your opinions on Gurmag Angler in sideboard as an alternative win condition against graveyard hate that isn't rest in peace/leyline of the void?

[EronRelentless]

What are your opinions on Gurmag Angler in sideboard as an alternative win condition against graveyard hate that isn't rest in peace/leyline of the void?

It is too fair and it does not pass Baleful Strix.

[guillemnicolau]

What are your opinions on Gurmag Angler in sideboard as an alternative win condition against graveyard hate that isn't rest in peace/leyline of the void?

If it doesn't work against leyline of the void I don't think it's good enough.

This saturday I will try with the gravetitans aproach together with cryptbreakers, and SB pack rats.

[Von]

If the idea is to ramp into fats Grave Titan is much better. Angler is soft to the same hate as the main deck, making it bad.

[Captain Hammer]

https://media.wizards.com/2019/m20/en_J3kJLv7DZs.png

I am actually most excited about this in BR and in Mono Black Reanimator.

Turn 1 Ritual into this is yet another fantastic play here. It applies a lot of pressure on your opponents life total unless your opponents uses up removal on it that otherwise would have hit your Sire of Insanity/Griselbrand later.

It gives the deck another workaround against graveyard hate. Your opponent mulligans to 5 to open with a Leyline postboard only to face down a 7/6 three turn clock on turn 1. Even if it doesnt win you the game, while they try to deal with that, it buys you time to find your Stronghold Gambit or Ass Trophy.

[paraszczak]

http://mythicspoiler.com/m20/cards/vilisbrokerofblood1.jpg

I think that for the first time from ages we get great fatty to reanimate. This is Griselbrand number 5 in decklists (or at least 3 Griselbrands / 1 Vilis split). If your reanimation spell is Reanimate, then I would definetly go for this over Griselbrand. Instant draw 8 cards after Reanimate.


Also what's your opinion about Scheming Symmetry?
http://mythicspoiler.com/m20/cards/schemingsymmetry.jpg

[Clark Kant]

If your reanimation spell is Reanimate, then I would definetly go for this over Griselbrand. Instant draw 8 cards after Reanimate.

Wait, would that work? Wouldn't the lifeloss from Reanimate occur before this guy enters the battlefield?

If not, then yes it's an instant 1 of atleast in all Reanimator lists as an Entomb target.

[paraszczak]

As far as I know this works exactly like that. Reddit seems to came with the same conclusion.

[Rivfader]

The Oracle text of reanimate says this:

You lose life after the creature is already on the battlefield. Any abilities it has that interact with loss of life, such as that of Platinum Emperion, apply to that loss of life.

So yes, lifeloss from reanimate would trigger Vilis.

[Jax-]

If your reanimation spell is Reanimate, then I would definetly go for this over Griselbrand.

Im not that sure that this statement is true. This is way worse unless you draw the nuts with the first 8 cards.

[paraszczak]

The longer I think about Vilis, the more I'm convinced that this creature is the second best creature that we can have in our arsenal. The priority in reanimating in most cases will be Griselbrand but I don't think that this will be like 95% of the time as it used to be. Vilis, Broker of Blood in some cases is just better suited. Ability to shot down cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or Baleful Strix and draw 2 cards is just to good to be skipped.

And yes... I agree that my previous statement about Reanimate and Vilis was overreacted but there will be cases when playing this way, will be the only way to draw some cards. Like for example to little life points.

I also think of Vilis as of card that can shake, a little rusty at this time, Reanimator archetype. In a deckbuilding manner i mean. Just think about new possibilities he give you. Every Thoughtseize is now +3 card advantage, fetchland plus shockland is now an Ancestral Recall, maybe even it's time to look for an old Life//Death. I'm really excited to be honest.

[kinda]

Vilis is incredible, definitely into the md.

[paraszczak]

Vilis is incredible, definitely into the md.

Same here. Also I would strongly advice to buy 4-offs this. You know... just in case B&R.

[Captain Hammer]

Same here. Also I would strongly advice to buy 4-offs this. You know... just in case B&R.

If Gris gets banned, they should ban Emrakul too. Neither card needs a ban.

[guillemnicolau]

I am actually most excited about this in BR and in Mono Black Reanimator.

Turn 1 Ritual into this is yet another fantastic play here. It applies a lot of pressure on your opponents life total unless your opponents uses up removal on it that otherwise would have hit your Sire of Insanity/Griselbrand later.

It gives the deck another workaround against graveyard hate. Your opponent mulligans to 5 to open with a Leyline postboard only to face down a 7/6 three turn clock on turn 1. Even if it doesnt win you the game, while they try to deal with that, it buys you time to find your Stronghold Gambit or Ass Trophy.

Yes, I'll definitely play 4 in Br reani. It's not even legendary... What were they thinking about? I'm not saying it's too good, but 7/6? lol

[paraszczak]

If Gris gets banned, they should ban Emrakul too. Neither card needs a ban.
Believe me, I'm the last person to force banning of Griselbrand. I'm playing reanimator from ages and I know that he's not that oppresive to the format. But one thing I've learned from Wizards over my 16 years playing Magic, is that you can never be sure that they will do what community is expecting from them. We can say whatever we believe, but in the end, Wizards will do whatever they want. Last example - new mulligan rule. I don't say that it's a good or bad decission, but it was so controversial that it split Legacy (hell whole Magic) scene, that it should be more tested.




Yes, I'll definitely play 4 in Br reani. It's not even legendary... What were they thinking about? I'm not saying it's too good, but 7/6? lol
This is something that was always bothering me. Why people get so excited on cards like Pack Rat, Cryptbreaker, Bitterblossom and now this zombie dinosaur thing. Sideboarding those cards to your deck is weakening your main strategy. Now you're not the best reanimator nor the best "aggro" deck. What you do is essentially an oversideboarding. We've learned in the past the same when BR reanimator took place from BU as the Reanimator strategy deck. BU wasn't the best reanimator, among others, because after sideboarding it was trying to be half Show and Tell, half reanimator deck.

You have so many great sideboarding anti-hate cards that doesn't hurt your main plan, that to not using them is a crime. Cards like new dinosaur thing, sure gives you a way to walkaroung gravehate, but rest of your deck turn to garbage as long, as you don't remove those ani-grave card from your opponent arsenal. Mono black/Lake of the dead/Grave Titan decks are something different because their strategy from the beggining is build around ramp and reanimation, althrough I'm not a fan of this strategy either.

I specifically play mono-Black reanimator (but in a manner more like BR, not like Lake of the Deck) and even when my sideboard options are so much worse than two or three color combination of this deck, I refuse to mess around my main strategy. Only card that I'm really afraid of is Leyline of the Void for which my only answer is Ratchet Bomb. But for my luck LotV is mainly related to aggro decks (Eldrazi, Aggro Loam etc.) so my startegy is to hand dissrupt their hands from creatures and reanimate them from their graveyards. Every other gravehate I fight with Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy and Duress - those cards don't change my main strategy and they are in my mainboard.

[guillemnicolau]

This is something that was always bothering me. Why people get so excited on cards like Pack Rat, Cryptbreaker, Bitterblossom and now this zombie dinosaur thing. Sideboarding those cards to your deck is weakening your main strategy. Now you're not the best reanimator nor the best "aggro" deck. What you do is essentially an oversideboarding. We've learned in the past the same when BR reanimator took place from BU as the Reanimator strategy deck. BU wasn't the best reanimator, among others, because after sideboarding it was trying to be half Show and Tell, half reanimator deck.

You have so many great sideboarding anti-hate cards that doesn't hurt your main plan, that to not using them is a crime. Cards like new dinosaur thing, sure gives you a way to walkaroung gravehate, but rest of your deck turn to garbage as long, as you don't remove those ani-grave card from your opponent arsenal. Mono black/Lake of the dead/Grave Titan decks are something different because their strategy from the beggining is build around ramp and reanimation, althrough I'm not a fan of this strategy either.

I specifically play mono-Black reanimator (but in a manner more like BR, not like Lake of the Deck) and even when my sideboard options are so much worse than two or three color combination of this deck, I refuse to mess around my main strategy. Only card that I'm really afraid of is Leyline of the Void for which my only answer is Ratchet Bomb. But for my luck LotV is mainly related to aggro decks (Eldrazi, Aggro Loam etc.) so my startegy is to hand dissrupt their hands from creatures and reanimate them from their graveyards. Every other gravehate I fight with Thoughtseize, Cabal Therapy and Duress - those cards don't change my main strategy and they are in my mainboard.

I will play these maindeck, not in the sideboard. The meta in my LGS has 4 LotV in every SB, so I need to find alternate ways to win in my pure BR reani deck. And it is a zombie, so it actually goes well with my cryptbreakers lol

[kinda]

I'm considering running this with breach. Breach plus petal plus entomb to find brain freeze is enough to win with enough cards in the gy. Only uses 5 slots (more if you support the combo further like I did below). On its own breach provides resiliency like meh-snapcaster or can loop dark rits to hard cast grizzly or grave titan. Thoughts?


4 underworld breach
1 brain freeze
4 entomb
4 faithless looting
4 reanimate
4 exhume
4 grizzly
1 sire of insanity
1 grave titan
4 thoughtseize
2 ashiok, dream render
4 glimpse the unthinkable

4 lotus petal
4 dark ritual
15 L

[Kraus]

This creature package allows for you to explosively win on your turn and turns the deck into more pure combo than combo-aggro.

4 Chancellor of the Annex
3 Griselbrand
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Children of Korlis
1 Thassa's Oracle

So, you loop the Children, drawing your deck down to 2 or fewer cards. Then, cast Thassa's Oracle to win. You should have enough discard to shred their hand. If they somehow counter the Oracle, reanimate it. If they Stifle the Oracle, sac it to Therapy and reanimate it. If you get stuck at 6 cards, use Entomb and Faithless Looting to bring the deck size down. If you get stuck there, get Tidespout out and win at 5 cards. There's lots of little corner cases, so goldfish heavily.

[kinda]

This creature package allows for you to explosively win on your turn and turns the deck into more pure combo than combo-aggro.

4 Chancellor of the Annex
3 Griselbrand
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Children of Korlis
1 Thassa's Oracle

So, you loop the Children, drawing your deck down to 2 or fewer cards. Then, cast Thassa's Oracle to win. You should have enough discard to shred their hand. If they somehow counter the Oracle, reanimate it. If they Stifle the Oracle, sac it to Therapy and reanimate it. If you get stuck at 6 cards, use Entomb and Faithless Looting to bring the deck size down. If you get stuck there, get Tidespout out and win at 5 cards. There's lots of little corner cases, so goldfish heavily.

I run tendrils/children/2 shallow grave...highly recommend it. How r u getting 2 blue? My list is on pg 74.

[Kraus]

I run tendrils/children/2 shallow grave...highly recommend it. How r u getting 2 blue? My list is on pg 74.

Petals give me blue!

[Evilpurplemonkey]

This creature package allows for you to explosively win on your turn and turns the deck into more pure combo than combo-aggro.

4 Chancellor of the Annex
3 Griselbrand
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Children of Korlis
1 Thassa's Oracle

So, you loop the Children, drawing your deck down to 2 or fewer cards. Then, cast Thassa's Oracle to win. You should have enough discard to shred their hand. If they somehow counter the Oracle, reanimate it. If they Stifle the Oracle, sac it to Therapy and reanimate it. If you get stuck at 6 cards, use Entomb and Faithless Looting to bring the deck size down. If you get stuck there, get Tidespout out and win at 5 cards. There's lots of little corner cases, so goldfish heavily.Tin fins. The deck you're describing is tin fins. One of my favorite reanimator variants.

I think lab man is still better than Oracle in the deck though, because the reason to play Oracle is so you don't have to wait to draw cards, but gDaddy means we never wait to draw cards, and lab man only needs U instead of UU

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[Troll_ov_Grimness]

I realize this thread may be really dead but I can’t get an answer to this anywhere.

What is the strategic difference upsides and downsides between siding Dauthi Voidwalker or Show And Tell? So, either BRW or BRWU?

I’m building this deck and it’s a big decision for me to get a 3rd Badlands or Underground Sea. I’d rather just get a badlands but if the blue splash is really really good I will consider getting the sea. I don’t want to play Stronghold Gambit if that matters.

[ESG]

I realize this thread may be really dead

Well, it is Reanimator ...




What is the strategic difference upsides and downsides between siding Dauthi Voidwalker or Show And Tell? So, either BRW or BRWU?

I’m building this deck and it’s a big decision for me to get a 3rd Badlands or Underground Sea. I’d rather just get a badlands but if the blue splash is really really good I will consider getting the sea. I don’t want to play Stronghold Gambit if that matters.

I would get the Sea. A third Badlands will make much less of a difference in terms of sideboarding options. I don't think the sideboarding question you proposed has to be an either/or situation. I played against a strong player a few days ago who had both in the sideboard. His plan was to bring in Dauthi Voidwalker and Sheoldred, the Apocalypse along with Show and Tell. He still had discard for disruption and information, and he was going to jam whatever plan his deck delivered. The Show and Tell plan wants a higher number of fatties, so if you run it, it changes what you board out. With the printing of Troll of Khazad-dûm, there's a greater density of creatures and black cards. Personally, I would not want to pin my hopes on Showing in a Troll, but it can work in postboard games when the opposing deck is depleted on resources and committed to hating out the graveyard. When Reanimator was predominantly BR, people didn't board in Pyroblasts, so Show and Tell had some surprise value. It's less surprising now, but it's still a solid way to cheat in a fatty. Stronghold Gambit, by comparison, is really hard to pull off. You need to have supplemental discard so that you can completely clear out the opponent's hand, or you need to face creatureless decks.

Edit: Adding list I mentioned: https://melee.gg/Decklist/View/318536

[Captain Hammer]

Wanted to share my list. It plays both Reanimate and Animate Dead (better than Exhume in a meta full of Trolls?) so it should count as Reanimator right?

Scaminator

//Creatures: 26
4 Orcish Bowmasters
4 Opposition Agent
4 Grief
4 Troll of Khazad-dum

3 Dauthi Voidwalker
3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
2 Rotting Regisaur
1 Shriekmaw
1 Plague Engineer

//Other: 10
4 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize
1 Animate Dead
1 Trinisphere

//Lands: 17
2-3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4-5 Swamp
4 Agadeem's Awakening
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

//Acceleration: 7
3 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual

Thoughts?

[ESG]

Wanted to share my list. It plays both Reanimate and Animate Dead (better than Exhume in a meta full of Trolls?) so it should count as Reanimator right?

Scaminator

//Creatures: 26
4 Orcish Bowmasters
4 Opposition Agent
4 Grief
4 Troll of Khazad-dum

3 Dauthi Voidwalker
3 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
2 Rotting Regisaur
1 Shriekmaw
1 Plague Engineer

//Other: 10
4 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize
1 Animate Dead
1 Trinisphere

//Lands: 17
2-3 City of Traitors
4 Ancient Tomb
4-5 Swamp
4 Agadeem's Awakening
1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

//Acceleration: 7
3 Chrome Mox
4 Dark Ritual

Thoughts?

It's a cool deck, but it's not Reanimator. It's a mono-black aggro deck with one more reanimation spell than UB Scam. It sometimes has a graveyard angle, but it can easily win without using the graveyard.