Originally Posted by
atlain2
I've tried this list a little bit just via goldfishing. Yes, it does run more like RB Reanimator, aiming to be very fast and very redundant so that it can reanimate multiple creatures per game if need be. From my limited tinkering, I think the reason to play this over RB is for access to Brainstorm (and possibly Ponder if you cram a couple in). One thing I've noticed playing against RB is that they quickly fall into topdeck mode, and they don't have much to help them dig besides Faithless Looting, which doesn't help if you don't have anything else left to discard besides the cards you draw with it. This build gives the deck just a little more opportunity to dig for 'the right card' after the opening hand is depleted.
The other goal of the deck is to ramp up the pressure via discard rather than relying on counters. Currently, discard seems to be viewed as stronger than leaning on countermagic, especially against decks like Sneak and Show, Storm, and perhaps Topless Miracles. Daze is weak on the draw and can rot in your hand if there's no good use for it on the first 1-2 turns, so it's a terrible late draw. E.g., I think there have been 3 times in recent games where an opponent played something I needed to counter, but the Daze in my hand was worthless b/c they had a mana left open. Conversely, I can only recall successfully Dazing a single spell in recent weeks. The Defense Grids are likely a response to a meta with lots of Delver and Miracles strategies.
That said, on first impression I'm not too impressed with the deck. Like RB Reanimator, it tends to empty its hand really fast and then it has little to work with after the first turn or two. If they draw into their removal or they have more removal than you have discard spells, then you're going nowhere fast. I also found this version harder to SB with. In the Daze version of the deck, it's pretty routine to side out the Dazes on the draw, opening up room for good SB tech pieces. But in this version there's less to sideboard out without cutting discard spells, but those are meant to be the protection for your fatties, so cutting them post-board leaves you even more vulnerable to your opponent's interaction.
I thus suspect I'll return to the more traditional build. I kinda like the Defense Grids in the SB vs a counter-heavy meta. I'm less sold on the W splash for Serenity as an answer to Cage/RIP/Leyline since you have to wait a full turn for it to work, they see it coming a mile away, and it messes with your mana base a little.
