[Deck]BUx Reanimator

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Originally Posted by owerbart

So after 4 years, I took a week off, and after goldfishing some hands I moved to a build without petals.
It feels nice to get much better cantrips since you can get more action cards. I brought my last list posted here with -4 petals, +1 fetch, +1 pithing needle, +1 hapless researcher, +1 animate dead.

R1 2-1 uw stoneblade
R2 2-0 grixis control
R3 2-1 Death and Taxes
R4 2-0 Painter
R5 1-2 UW stoneblade (i punted game 2 and then lost to a topdeck)

Overall the list felt extremely solid, with this new slow meta it has been nice to get a better endgame and moving up to 5 discards post board helps a lot against these blue-value control shells.

It took me 4 years but finally i joined @stryfo and @pirate king non-petal side, haha. Any other players on this idea? I know more of you guys are actually trying to move to the fastest side with Unmask, chancellor and even chrome mox. I just wanted to give my two cents that being on the slow side has been working very well for me lately.

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EDIT: Current list. Petals weren't missed, And I do believe I had a better consistency on T2 reanimations than with Petal builds. I would need to check my notes though.

Land:
3 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Island
2 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
1 Bloodstained Mire

Artifact:
1 Pithing Needle

Creatures:
3 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Grave Titan
1 Hapless Researcher

Enchantments:
2 Animate Dead

Sorceries:
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Careful Study
3 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
2 Show and Tell

Instant:
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Entomb
3 Daze

Sideboard (Maybe subjected to future change):
2 Thoughtseize
1 Duress
2 Show and Tell
1 Pithing Needle
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Echoing Truth
1 Massacre
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Teferi's Realm
1 Spell Pierce

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Originally Posted by owerbart

EDIT: Current list.

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I really like that you're running 12 reanimation spells (including Show and Tell). I'm only running 8 and I'd like to make room for more but I can't do it without sacrificing speed or protection.

Since you're on the slow and steady plan, have you given Jace, Vryn's Prodigy any thought? Or is Hapless Researcher strictly better in that role?

crowe- thanks for the suggestions, I'll try tinkering with those ideas. Not sure about cutting the 4th Chancellor since its effect is most helpful when it's in your opening hand, but you're right that it comes at the cost of fewer silver bullets. And maybe I'm just too gunshy of falling victim to the T1 combo kill. Dropping Archon and a Needle seems reasonable. I didn't have a specific reason for 3 Needles other than its ability to stop multiple hate cards (Karakas, DRS, etc). I tend to like 3-ofs in SBs b/c I figure (perhaps incorrectly) that if I'm bringing a card in post-board there must be a good reason, and as such I want to maximize my chances of drawing it, so 3 copies (1 per 20) always seems better than 2 (1 per 30).

Replies to other recent comments:
--I tried Unmask but found there was too much tension in trying to have enough B cards for Unmask and enough U cards for FoW. Making the MD more B and siding in more U when needed is interesting. Transformational SBs are always kinda neat, though difficult to tweak properly- seems like you can never side out everything you really need to.

--I've seen non-Petal builds but haven't tried one. I like that you went to 16 lands and included D. Rit. to balance it out. Lotus Petal has always been a personal favorite- I opened 2 playsets of them when Tempest was out- but I do like D. Rit. a lot too. Around Urzas/Mercadian block I built a UB Reanimator deck from scratch that aimed for T1 Swamp into D.Rit. into Hidden Horror, discarding a fattie such as Thorn Elemental and Exhuming it on T2. Also used Waterfront Bouncers for defense and discard. All this was pre-Entomb of course. I don't recall if Hidden Horror was Type 2 legal at the time; I played very casually so it never came up! :-)

@bobomb To be honest, my man, I've never given baby Jace that much of a thought. It's nice that you get the permanent loot with it but turning on bad cards against us as Push or Bolt is something I'm particularly not interested in. I know some people here tried it and even some play it Main Board, so don't take my thoughts on it as set in stone. The lone happy has actually been amazing, getting that 9th loot effect has been pretty cool so I know understand people like Stryfo that go all the way to 4. Regarding the Petals, I still believe if you feel your meta allows you to then you can go for it. Of course Petals are going to become way worse as time passes by, same as Dark Ritual, when you need your cantrips to be decent and not show you just air.

@atlain2 Using Spellshapers and things like Hidden Horror (or his strict upgrade, Mercenary Knight) are things that I always wanted to try. It's nice to have some input on this options. I feel like they could be amazing post board, since they would dodge pierce and fluster, and if it hits, you would have an early threat that they will need to maneuver around or it eats a hard counter which could always be nice. On the topic of these off-beat ideas, a card that I played once, and to be honest deserves further testing, is [CARD]Soulflayer[/CARD]. Sometimes powering a T2 4/4 that gained both Flying and Lifelink from Griselbrand can end up being pretty good, and post sideboard delver decks may not have a response.

Hello fellow reanimators. I have been reading the forums for quite some time and recently decided to register. I want to raise some questions about some fundamental issues regarding the deck.

To the players that mainboard Thoughtseize, given the opportunity to cast Thoughtseize or a cantrip (Brainstorm / Ponder), which would you choose first on turn 1 on the play? I know it heavily depends on what you're opponent is on and the rest of your hand composition, but say it is game one and you don't know what you're opponent is on, what would be the factors in your hand that would lead you to favor the one over the other as a general rule of thumb?

To the players that have other decks with countermagic, suppose you only have one countermagic in your hand, what would you prioritize to counter first, the enabler (Entomb / Careful Study) or the reanimators. A playtest partner of mine who is on Grixis Delver said it is more correct to counter reanimators but in my opinion he is wrong. It is more correct for them to counter the enablers because without resolving them, any reanimation cards in our hand and future reanimation topdecks are dead cards. The time it is correct to let the enablers resolve is post board when they are already holding their grave hate. Am I wrong in this? Or is there something that I'm missing?

What do you think is the ideal amount of blue cards to reliably cast Force of Will whenever one is in your hand? I normally see between 22-24 blue cards (including the Force), but I have seen list as low as 18 (still including the Force).

Thanks for reading.

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Originally Posted by jethstriker

Thoughtseize, a general rule of thumb?

What would you prioritize to counter first, the enabler (Entomb / Careful Study) or the reanimators.

What do you think is the ideal amount of blue cards to reliably cast Force of Will whenever one is in your hand?

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In my opinion:

Going into an unknown match you lead with Thoughtseize vs a cantrip 9/10 times. Unless that cantrip allows you to combo that turn with protection. For example, my deck would allow a hand like: Thoughtseize, Lotus Petal, Underground Sea, Careful Study, Griselbrand, Chancellor of the Annex, Reanimate - a nuts draw if you will. But in this case, revealing Chancellor and leading with Careful Study is the obvious play. Now, if instead of Careful Study, that hand had a Ponder, I'd lead with Thoughtseize.

In my experience most people try to counter the reanimation spell rather than the enabler, and that's probably the right play, given that you can naturally discard a fattie at the end of a turn.

18+ is generally the accepted answer. There are threads elsewhere that lay out the percentages of Force + Blue card in your opening hand and the diminishing returns of each additional blue card in your deck.

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Originally Posted by bobomb

In my opinion:
Now, if instead of Careful Study, that hand had a Ponder, I'd lead with Thoughtseize.

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One could argue that if you are on the play with a Chancellor trigger the best play might be thoughtseizing yourself then Petal/Reanimate Grisel. On the draw (if your draw was not relevant) it gets more interesting. Making no play, discard Grisel to hand size and have thoughtseize + Petal/Reanimate on your next seems like the strongest option to me. Other then that with so much combo and even Deathrite Shamans in the format i agree that Thoughtseize should be prioritized over any cantrips. "Comboing off now" vs. "playing disruption first and wait a turn" often is a much more tougher choice imo.

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Originally Posted by jethstriker

Hello fellow reanimators. I have been reading the forums for quite some time and recently decided to register. I want to raise some questions about some fundamental issues regarding the deck.

To the players that mainboard Thoughtseize, given the opportunity to cast Thoughtseize or a cantrip (Brainstorm / Ponder), which would you choose first on turn 1 on the play? I know it heavily depends on what you're opponent is on and the rest of your hand composition, but say it is game one and you don't know what you're opponent is on, what would be the factors in your hand that would lead you to favor the one over the other as a general rule of thumb?

To the players that have other decks with countermagic, suppose you only have one countermagic in your hand, what would you prioritize to counter first, the enabler (Entomb / Careful Study) or the reanimators. A playtest partner of mine who is on Grixis Delver said it is more correct to counter reanimators but in my opinion he is wrong. It is more correct for them to counter the enablers because without resolving them, any reanimation cards in our hand and future reanimation topdecks are dead cards. The time it is correct to let the enablers resolve is post board when they are already holding their grave hate. Am I wrong in this? Or is there something that I'm missing?

What do you think is the ideal amount of blue cards to reliably cast Force of Will whenever one is in your hand? I normally see between 22-24 blue cards (including the Force), but I have seen list as low as 18 (still including the Force).

Thanks for reading.

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To answer your first question, with no hunch of what my opponent might be on, I'd lead with Thoughtseize first. Gives you the opportunity to snipe DRS out of your opponents hand before it can hit the battlefield, and lets you know what you need to find with your cantrips when you cast them later on. Situations where you might do otherwise obviously depend on your hand, like if you have a Grislebrand, a Thoughtseize, and lands and cantrips and you think you can find a reanimation spell but may need to target yourself with Thoughtseize to get Grislebrand in the yard. Stuff like that.

As to your second question, at least for UBx Reanimator, I've always found the choke-point to be getting a creature into the yard. There are generally fewer ways to do that than reanimation spells (I can't speak to RB reanimator since I've never played the deck and I figure you're more interested in a response tailored to UBx Reanimator since you posted in this thread). So in general, I'd always counter Entomb rather than wait to counter the reanimation spell. I don't think I'd ever counter Careful Study unless you knew for a fact (Gitaxian Probe, soul read, etc.) that Study was guaranteed to get a creature in the yard. The exception to always countering Entomb is if you have a Surgical Extraction or a Faerie Macabre in hand where you can really get a lot of value by removing the creature in the yard in response to the reanimation spell. Another exception is if it's the mirror or something and you have the ability to reanimate your opponent's entombed fatty.

Hello @jethstriker welcome aboard :)

I agree with fellow posters that on the play against an unknown opponent I would always thoughtseize unless I can sculpt a very strong hand for t2. I feel like thoughtseize is a card that either you want to play t1 on the play, to possible snipe something like a shaman or COTV, so you get the best card and your opponent doesn't get to respond with brainstorm, or either I wait with it till the turn I plan to go off. I feel most people think that Reanimator is a deck that is only good on the first few turns but against 60% of the field landing a griselbrand T3-4 will give you the game anyway.

On your second question, about the what to counter against reanimator, I feel most of the time people let the enablers pass and let the fight happen against the reanimation spells, which can sometimes be wrong. I'm sure a lot of games un-complicate themselves because your opponent lets your only enabler resolve and then by "brute force" one of your reanimation spells gets in. Also on the flipside, sometimes a heads-up play is to bait your opponent into counter one of your redundant enabler spells, by casting, let say, one of the entombs on your hand in the moment it would be extremely convenient for your opponent to daze/pierce it. Careful study is one of the cards that people counter the less because they play with the thought that you might be still looking for the monster, and there's the chance that you actually generate negative card advantage on yourself if you whiff. What people should know is that any player with some experience in UB Reanimator would never fire off a study without already having the monster in hand.

About the blue-card count for Force, I'm currently at 22 (counting the FoWs themselves) and it feels alright, but I wouldn't argue if somebody says that you need 24. Having maindeck Show and Tell helps with that number, thankfully.

Talking about Show and Tell, how many of you guys actually go for the bluffs with it? I've been having great success early, cast Show and Tell, even without a monster in your hand, and 99.9% of times people won't call you and will counter it, wasting their permission in something that it was actually meaningless and then be naked to the actual pay off cards. One wacky story: Last weekend, against a highly skilled player on Grixis Control, I casted on show and tell with 5 cards in hand, 3 of which were known by him due to an earlier Cabal Therapy. So that left me with only two cards which could actually be monsters. He decided to call the bluff and let it resolve, and turns out one of the two was indeed a Grave Titan. I bluffed him like three times before in previous weekends, and he decided to counter everytime, so the one time I was being serious, and he had the Force in hand, all those previous psych-outs paid off :laugh:

I don't have much experience with the deck but I'll add my thoughts:

Re: TS or cantrip, in the scenario you laid out I'd also choose to TS on T1. You may cut off a T1 combo kill from your opponent, and even if you don't do something that dramatic, you'll know what your opponent is on, know how to play your hand on the next turn(s), and you'll take something important from their hand. My understanding is that you want to hod your cantrip- especially Bstorm- as long as possible to get the most value from it.

Re: countering enabler or reanimator, I think it depends a lot on the scenario. Against other reanimator decks, you probably want to let the enabler resolve IF you can reanimate the creature form their graveyard before they can- both Reanimate and Animate Dead let you target a creature in ANY graveyard, which is something that a lot of players forget. On the other hand, if you think they can reanimate the target before you can, you may want to prevent it from hitting the yard. Also depends on the enabler; countering Faithless Looting (in the RB Reanimator pseudo mirror) feels bad b/c they can just flash it back. But RB also typically has 12 reanimation spells, and UB does not have enough counters to prevent multiple reanimation attempts in that matchup. While I definitely see the logic of countering the enabler and trying to maroon the fattie in their hand, I don't think that'll work out well in every scenario (also remember that some lists, like Mono B reanimator and even RB Reanimator, can just hardcast some fatties by stringing together Dark Rits & Petals).

Re: U sources for FoW, the number I have seen cited in most 'guide to legacy' type articles is 20 total U cards (so 16 + 4 FoW). But I have definitely seen experienced pilots say they don't need that many and cut to 16-18. I currently have 18; while I wouldn't mind 1-2 more, I'm not sure what non-U cards I would cut and what U card(s) I would try to jam in. I can only recall having a FoW stranded in my hand 1x, at least when I needed to cast it.

Re: bluffing with SaT; haven't tried that.

Re: 'old' options to explore: I've never seen Mercenary Knight before, I would definitely have run him in that old deck! I don't remember the exact deck list offhand, but I know it had a roughly 11-11-11 split between discard outlets, reanimation spells, and fatties. It was something like this (again, it was a casual deck so it didn't adhere to Type 2 or anything):
Discard:
4 waterfront bouncer (very useful if not killed right away)
4 frantic search
4 hidden horror (also a nice, early threat)
Reanimate
4 exhume
4 animate dead
1-2 reanimate(can't remember how many I owned then; it was not a playset)
2 living death (why reanimate 1 fattie at a time?)
Fatties
These varied over time, but some favorites were Spirit of the Night, Sliver Queen, Thundermare, Thorn Elemental, Avatar of Woe, Greven, Verdant Force, and Blizzard Elemental. Mostly one-ofs though occasionally I'd run a pair of something.
Fast Mana
4 Petal
4 D Rit
Other
X Carrion Beetle (chump blocker that could help ensure they didn't get something good off my Exhumes)
I think the rest were lands, just whatever UB duals I could cobble together. I had 1 Underground Sea, some Gemstone Mines, at least 1 Undiscovered Paradise, City of Brass, etc.
It was always fun to play; the Bouncers and Horrors gave you early game defense/pressure, and the fast mana gave you plenty of acceleration. Since this was a few years before Entomb was printed you couldn't select which silver bullet you could reanimate, but I still aimed for a range of creatures. Thundermare (and later Thorn Elemental) were great for getting past stalled boards, Verdant Force/Sliver Queen could quickly gum up the board vs aggro, Avatar for removal, Spirit for all the keywords, etc.

jethstriker,

My thoughts on your first question is unfortunately there is no universal answer to a T1 play. The advice I can offer however, especially with 1-2 combo decks like Reanimator, is that the Golden Rule is to always have a plan. When it comes to deciding on keeping your opening hand, you need to evaluate what you have, what you're missing and how you plan on getting it. This isn't a grindy value deck, a hand of countermagic and cantrips and a Thoughtseize isn't what we're playing for. We're looking for land, a reanimation effect & a way to get a target in the graveyard. Add some protection to that and you have a nuts hand. Find out what you're missing and prioritize getting that. You should always be executing that plan.

In card specifics, there really isn't any value in a T1 Brainstorm. You see 3 new cards and put 2 back, 1 that you're guaranteed to draw next turn. The card is an instant, so there's no rush to jam it as soon as possible. Unless you're planning on doing something else that turn, like Petal Petal win the game, just play a land and pass. on your T2 you can play a fetch land, Brainstorm and shuffle away the flak for significantly more value, without cutting you off from responding to an opponent's Thoughtseize.

In comparing Ponder and Thoughtseize, what is your hand missing? If you have all the cards already, something like a creature, Careful Study and Reanimate, and you just need a window to T2, open with Thoughtseize, ensure the coast is clear and play out your plan next turn. If you're holding onto just an Entomb and need a reanimation effect before you're doing anything of relevance, I'd advocate starting off with the Ponder, make sure you're drawing into something that matters and set up a T2 of Thoughtseize, EOT Entomb and a T3 reanimation. Playing Thoughtseize first does snipe away their best card, but then what's the plan after that? T2 Ponder means you have 1 land open which isn't enough to do anything in a Petal-less build, and whiffing on the Ponder means you're stuck letting them rebuild a hateful hand while you scramble. These examples might be idyllic, but that's the lesson; play the line the executes the plan. Whatever nuances are present in the situation, we're a Reanimator deck, if you're not reanimating, you're not playing the deck.

As for the suspiciously traitorous questions regarding which spell to counter, it'll just be numbers. Assuming a standard deck has 4 Entomb, 4 Careful Study and probably 2 Thoughtseize, you'd count that as 7 ways to get a card in the graveyard, figuring the cards that require a creature in hand to be relevant to be worth 1/2 a card. You could blindly get something with Careful Study, but that's a desperation play, so we shouldn't really be considering that. The same sort of standard deck would have 4 Reanimate, 4 Exhume, 2 Animate Dead and a single Show and Tell main. That'd count up to 10-1/2 ways to get a creature into play, again figuring the Show and Tell at 1/2 a card. So with this build the bottleneck and best target would be the enabler spells, not the business spells. In lists I've played to success in the past, I ran 4 Entomb, 4 Careful Study, 4 Hapless Researcher & 2 Izzet Charm for a pretty remarkable 9 ways to bin a creature, and played 4 Reanimate, 4 Exhume, 2 Animate Dead for 10 ways to bring it back out again. My experience was even without an opponent trying their hardest to disrupt me, I was having a difficult time getting the creature into the graveyard, and my hand equity was pretty exhausted when it came time to fight over bringing it back out again. I sacrificed by playing zero Show and Tell in the deck and relied heavily on 1 for 1 removal against the hate cards that typically force us into the Show and Tell route.

My current list is grossly outdated in the brave new post-top world, so I don't have the finger on the pulse of what Reanimator guys are doing. As with anything I write take it with context and test for yourself.

@PirateKing - Great piece of advice. One of the most important concepts when playing these type of decks is that given your initial hand you should already be able to figure out your plan. If you feel your hand can't sculpt one, then you should send it back.

As an afterthought while on the subway - how do you guys feel about running more than 1 sweeper in the board? Maybe a copy of toxic deluge? Post-board games usually go long and handling more than one hate creature with a single answer could be good.

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Originally Posted by owerbart

As an afterthought while on the subway - how do you guys feel about running more than 1 sweeper in the board? Maybe a copy of toxic deluge? Post-board games usually go long and handling more than one hate creature with a single answer could be good.

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Is Elesh not enough? Which are the creatures that need to be taken care of? I do believe that two copies of Collective Brutality suit the role.

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Originally Posted by meffeo

Is Elesh not enough? Which are the creatures that need to be taken care of? I do believe that two copies of Collective Brutality suit the role.

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I mean overall as a way to buy time while you set up your combo turn - maybe taking care of two shamans, a sanctum prelate, a containment priest, a scavenging ooze..

That's usually the role played by Massacre, but if your opponents don't show up with many Plains then Toxic Deluge could work as well. I enjoyed Pernicious Deed as a catchall sweeper, though more than once the outdated Planeswalker-less scope hurt me against a pesky Jace or Liliana.

The best moments to Thoughtseize the opponent are:
- T1 on the play (Chalice, Trinisphere, DRS, etc.)
- One turn before you reanimate to clear the way. However, the opponent can Brainstorm in response so this is not the strongest play.
- During the reanimation turn if you have the mana for it.
- Post-SB t1 on the draw is pretty good as well if you are playing against white and therefore suspecting Containment Priest or Rest in Peace with cmc2.

T1 Brainstorming sounds like a desperation play to me. Brainstorm is strongest with an active fetchland or other shuffle effect as a follow up so you don't re-draw what you sent away. Brainstorm is also super strong as a protection spell cast in response to opposing spot discard.

Going at it blindly, without Chancellor triggers and assuming the opponent does not have nonbasic hate, I would t1 ug sea into thoughtseize, t2 fetchland pass with active brainstorm and entomb in the opponent's end step, t3 mana source play exhume/animate dead around daze. This is a relatively conservative line of play which is open to opposing Wasteland. If you have a speedy hand, you might choose to go for it unprotected on turn 1 if you can because that gives the opponent much less time to sculpt their hand and more pressure to have answers.

When talking about (lack of) discard outlets, the fatty count does affect the usefulness of Careful Study. I have seen lists go as low as 8 fatties, but my best play records have been with 10-11 fatties, which I believe is the right minimum number if you are running Show and Tell in the 75.

New players don't always realize this, but on the draw, we can keep 7, t1draw cleanup discard fatty, t2 mana source reanimation spell. Cleanup discard can not be countered, but if the opponent plays a t1 spot discard on the play, this can backfire because we don't get to 8 cards.

Hi again-
So I've been playing in a small, local league and have made the cut to Top 8 for the finals (not to make it bigger than it is; there have only been 9-10 regulars so making Top 8 wasn't that hard :) ). I have a couple of weeks to prep before the Top 8 Tournament and I've decided to do some tuning to my deck. While I don't expect to win, I want to do my best. After 7 weeks of league play people have gotten pretty used to one another's decks, so I think some tweaks could not only make the deck better but may also catch some folks off guard. I know what changes I want to make MB, but could use some advice on what changes the SB needs. Below is my revised list and some notes on the local meta. Thanks for any suggestions on how I should tune my SB. I'll post a separate message with a quick synopsis of last night's league results to give some insight into how I'm currently sideboarding so folks can see my logic, or lack thereof.

Local Meta
I don't know exactly what will be in the Top 8 since a couple of folks run more than 1 deck, but it'll likely be something like this:
-UB Reanimator (me)
-RB Reanimator
-RB Reanimator
-Sneak & Show
-Elves
-Death and Taxes
-?
-?
The ?s could be another D&T, a BUG deck, or a Delver deck

Revised MB List
15 lands
-Keeping 3 UGS, 4 deltas, 2 U fetches, 2 B fetches, 1 island and 2 swamps. Replacing the 2nd island with a 3rd swamp. Started with a 2/2 island/swamp split, but having B on T1 seems more important than another island for Daze.

8 Creatures
-Big change here as I think I'll cut the 4 Chancellors and instead run 3 Griselbrand, 1 Elesh, 1 Iona, 1 Tidespout, 1 Grave Titan, and 1 Ashen Rider. The Chancellors have their moments, but they're not great reanimation targets a lot of the time, so if there's not one in my opening hand it just isn't as useful as I'd like. On multiple occasions opponents on decks like RB Reanimator can just power through the Chancellor trigger, so it's not even always getting the job done. On the other hand, I'm often siding them out for those other fatties and I'm doing much better post-SB, so I think it's time to move them to the MB. This is opening up SB slots for me.

9 Reanimators
-No change here: 4 exhume, 4 reanimate, 1 show and tell main (an out vs an early DRS from ELves or BUG)

8 Discard
-No changes: 4 entomb 4 careful study

10 Disruption
-No changes: 2 TS and 1 C. Brutality, 4 FoW, 3 Daze

4 Acceleration
-I'm gonna goldfish with 4 D Rituals in place of the 4 Petals to see what I think. I know this is unconventional, but having played against the 2 RB Reanimator decks a lot, D Rit gives them a lot of acceleration and allows them to have some very 'big' early turns that I don't get with a Petal. Someone mentioned this in a recent post and I'm curious to see how it works, though I know earlier posts have cautioned against DRit in UB lists.

6 Cantrips
-No changes: 4 BStorm 2 Ponder

SIDBOARD
This is where I could really use some advice. Here's what I've been running:
-2 Show & Tell- almost always board in, replacing 2 Exhume in anticipation of graveyard hate. Is a 3rd in the SB (1 is in the MB) a good idea?
-2 Massacre- for the D&T lists
-3 Pithing Needle. They're usually quite handy, shutting down DRS, Karakas, Sneak Attack, etc etc. Someone mentioned that 2 may be better than 3....?
-3 Echoing Truth. To bounce hate that can't be needled, like Leyline of the Void, Containment Priest, Cages, etc. Also good against the RB Reanimator lists.
-The last 5 have been 'silver bullet fatties' but 4 are being moved to the MB to replace the Chancellors, leaving only Blazing Archon and 4 empty slots. And based on advice given in this thread recently, the Blazing Archon could probably be cut, opening up 5 slots.

So what to pack into those 5 open SB slots given the decks I'm likely gonna face? I'll brainstorm a few options, but these may be terrible:
-More disruption, such as more TS, C Brutality, or Duress?
-Graveyard hate? Could be good vs the RB Reanimator decks, though I do pretty well against them already as long as I play tight. A quickly reanimated Iona is game over, and a well-timed FoW or TS can leave them in topdeck mode.
-The 4th Show and Tell? Not good vs Reanimator or Sneak & Show.
-A 4th Daze? I've been pretty happy with 3, as they get worse in multiples and are often ineffective vs RB Reanimator, Sneak/Show, Elves, and D&T.
-More cantrips? I tinkered with the number early in the league and have been really happy with 6 total. 4-5 seemed too few, and > 6 felt like too much air.
-4 Monastery Mentor and a Scrubland- because hey, if Tin Fins can do it.... but seriously, any other 'contingency plan' besides Show & Tell? I've wondered if the Dark Depths/Hexmage/Thespians Stage package could be crammed into UB Reanimator, but I think it takes up too much room. Perhaps the Lake of the Dead/Grim Monolith ramp package, though hardcasting my non-U/B fatties may not be feasible.

Thanks again for any suggestions.

Following up on my request above, here's a quick run-down of last night's matches in the league to provide some insights into how and why I'm sideboardng. Constructive criticism is welcome.I don't keep exact notes, so I may be off by a card here and there in the SB descriptions.

Match 1 vs RB Reanimator: won 2-1
G1: keep a good opening hand with a Daze and a Chancellor on the draw. She burns a Petal to take care of the Chancellor trigger, then proceed with land, petal, dark rit, thoughtseize, entomb. I can't catch up and am quickly beaten down.
SB out: -4 Chancellor, -3 Daze -1 Elesh
SB in: +3 Echoing Truth, +1 Needle, +1 Ashen Rider, +1 Tidespout, +1 Iona, +1 Blazing Archon
Rationale: I know this opponent packs a range of graveyard hate, including LotV, Relic, and Surgicals. She have too much acceleration for Chancellor or Daze to be really useful.
G2: We both mull to 6, trade disruption, and are both left to spin our wheels for a couple of turns. This is where UB can outpace RB since I can cantrip into business and she can only topdeck. I find Entomb for Iona, Reanimate, game.
G3: She keeps a fast hand but I FoW, cutting her off right away. Then T1 land, petal, entomb iona, reanimate game.

Match 2 vs RB Reanimator: lost 1-2
G1: I get an early lead but have to use Exhume to get my Grisel reanimated, which gives him a Tidespout. I draw 14 blanks with Grisel. I hang on for several turns, but can't keep a board stable vs the Tidespout and eventually lose. Could have waited for a Reanimate instead of using the Exhume- I knew giving him the Tidespout was risky- but RB has more reanimation spells than me, so I thought he'd just get Tidespout online soon anyway, and I hoped the Grisel draws would net me enough business to stay ahead.
SB: same plan as in match 1.
G2: I quickly entomb and reanimate Iona naming black. Game.
G3: I don't remember much about this one. He got a Grisel into play off a T2 Stronghold Gambit. I was set to Echoing Truth it; that would have put us pretty much at parity, and I think I could have developed a board faster than him. But he followed up Gambit with an Unmask stripping the ET and I couldn't recover; I hung in there for a few turns but was all but dead before my second turn.

Match 3 vs D&T: won 2-1
G1: He T1 Aether Vials. I T1 land, petal, entomb Elesh, Reanimate. I went for Elesh b/c, against an early Vial, she seems like my best bet, as no crts he can cast or vial in will stick around. Yes, I'm vulnerable to Karakas and Swords, but my only other MB options are Grisel and Chancellor. Vial laughs at Chancellor, and Grisel has the same vulnerabilities as Elesh and also doesn't keep his hatebears off the table. But he has the Swords and quickly overruns me with W weenies.
SB out: -4 Chancellor, -3 Daze, -2 Exhume, -2 Study
SB In: +2 Show and Tell, + 2 Massacre, +3 Needle, +1 each of Tidespout, Iona, Grave Titan, and Ashen Rider.
Rationale: Changing 11 cards seems like a LOT of boarding, but I keep the same number of fatties but have stronger reanimation targets. Daze is weak vs Thalia, Cavernn of Souls, and vial. Massacre is a no-brainer, and less Studies since I may run into graveyard hate (Priest or RIP in particular)
G2: I tank on my opening hand and eventually throw it back.
Island, petal, entomb, reanimate, needle, grisel, exhume.
Rationale: I need 2 B sources for that hand to work and I only had 1. I have no cantrips in hand and there are 16 B sources left in my deck (13 lands + 3 more petals). That's only a 37% chance of top decking a B source, so I could be stuck high and dry with no B mana for multiple turns.
The resulting mull to 6 is solid and I T1 land, petal, entomb Grave Titan and Reanimate it. 10 power on 3 bodies that doesn't care about Karakas seemed better than Iona naming W. Was I wrong? He conceeds before I can kill him on T3.
G3: (no additional SBing). I mull to 6. My scry is an Entomb. I already have one in hand so I almost bottom it, but then reconsider b/c I have a Reanimate and an Exhume in my hand. I decide to keep the Entomb on top b/c, in previous weeks, I've noticed that my ability to get 2 fatties out quickly seems like a strong strategy vs D&T.
his T1: Vial
my T1: swamp, Thoughtseize taking Faerie Macabre
his T2, wasteland, mom
my T2, fetch swamp, entomb and reanimate Titan.
his T3: Swords the Titan, Phyrexian Revoker naming Grisel.
my T3: entomb and exhume Elesh. Slight error, I did this after combat; obviously should've done it before so I could attack with 4/4 zombies. I was originally thinking I would entomb and Reanimate Iona naming White post-combat, but changed my mind. As mentioned above, I think Elesh is better against an active Vial, but if I'm wrong please let me know. Elesh let me clear away mom and the revoker. Mom could have been annoying.
his T4: I think he passed
my T4: swing in, he vials in Flickerwisp, targeting Elesh, takes 4 from the zombies.
his T5: I think he tried to cast something and I forced it. He's at 12 life and I have lethal on board. He conceeds.

So I ended the night at 2-1. While I made a couple of mistakes, overall I played very tight. My main goal in the league is just to have fun and get more practice/experience playing the deck so I can improve my play.

Thanks for any pointers if you notice something I'm doing incorrectly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by owerbart

@PirateKing - Great piece of advice. One of the most important concepts when playing these type of decks is that given your initial hand you should already be able to figure out your plan. If you feel your hand can't sculpt one, then you should send it back.

As an afterthought while on the subway - how do you guys feel about running more than 1 sweeper in the board? Maybe a copy of toxic deluge? Post-board games usually go long and handling more than one hate creature with a single answer could be good.

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I currently run a Massacre Wurm as a non-lengendary elesh and 2 massacre as sweepers (DnT has been fading away from my meta so I have not needed Dread of Night so much). I've had a lot success Show and Tell'ing a Wurm because if often takes a good chunk of health while clearing the board for the next reanimation.

Going back to UB only I've had more sideboard spaces to spare for sweepers which takes care of many DRS and/or most hatebears. Deluge seems like an "OK" card but it does cost 3 and life so by the time you cast it your might be unable to activate a griselbrand which is a concern.

Also since our staple cards are mostly 1 or 2 CMC (including the newest Collective Brutality) things like chalice or prelate can choke us so having higher cmc spells is always a good thing.

What do you all think of a white splash with Scrubland for Wear//Tear compared with Bayou for Reverent Silence and Abrupt Decay?