[Deck] Reanimator

@nastirth: I've had the same problem in Amsterdam. I came in without any bye's and was out by round 6 after going down to UW snapcaster stoneblade, canadian thresh and bant snapcaster stoneblade. Those matchups seem horrible. I kept on playing though and ended up being paired against 1 more snapcaster and a junk matchup in the process, loosing those 2 as well, then loosing the last one to ANT (god-draw in 3th game, with a turn 1 Tendrils with me on the play and already Spell Piercing his first spell... what can you do...).

For me it felt like the field was way too well prepared for reanimator and the Snapcaster builds are just too good against us. In game 2 against junk I faced an almost unwinnable situation as well: Leyline of the Void on the field, I went for a T3 Show and Tell for Jin, he dropped Knight of the Reliquary on my SnT and went for the Karakas in his turn... damn.

Ah wel, at least it was fun :-)

I went 10-5 in Amsteredam with 1 bye, dropping when picking up my fifth loss in the penultimate round. My losses were to two threshold decks, two band decks and one BUG. Had I been a little less stupid, I would have beaten BUG and started 6-0 instead of 5-1, but oh well. Both threshold and bant seems really hard matchups, and I hadn't tested against them enough, I didn't have a very strong sideboarding plan. Running 4 md thoughtseize and 1 sb duress helped a lot, though. The decks is really powerful and can fight through a lot of hate, but it's not always easy.

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Originally Posted by zmattk

I also had some unfotunate luck today at a SCG Invitational Qualifier with Reanimator. I ended up losing to UW Stoneblade with Snapcaster and Zoo. Both just had ridiculous amounts of gy hate that I couldn't do anything in games 2 or 3. I did play Dispel in the main and liked it a ton. It always got the job done whether I was protecting my creature from a swords or fighting through an extra counter. I just dont think my deck liked me today. I didn't draw what I needed to when I needed it.

Also congrats n0mad for your top 8 finish at Baltimore!

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thanks! :D

Saturday I top 4'd a 25 man tourney for an ancestral. My only round losses were to almost mirror builds, with the exception of their boards, They were both U/B team america decks running snapcaster,delver, and, riptide labs, and I believe the only other game I lost to was a U/W stoneforge, w/ snapcaster.

Basically every time they ran out snap caster I lost, badly.

Blog report for SCG Baltimore. I started out 4-1 with Reanimator, including a 2-0 win on camera in round 4. Then I lost two in a row and dropped to bird my friend who got 4th place (and had to return my cards at the end of the night).

tl;dr summary:
- Reanimator is still very good and several matches are just byes (Burn, High Tide, anything tribal, I'm looking at you)
- GW Maverick is a rough match
- playing 17 land decks is risky and high variance

Thought at least the notes about creature choices, changes, sideboard etc. would be useful.

http://justindz.tumblr.com/post/1186...-scg-baltimore

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Originally Posted by n0mad

So I top 8ed the scg baltimore today with MasterShakes Reanimator list. Super fun! I lost to calosso playing RUG CounterTop in the Top8.

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I wanted to congratulation everyone for doing so well, and especially n0mad for playing nearly my 75. It looks like you couldn't get all the Deltas together, but excellent job regardless.

It makes me chuckle a bit, because after the last SCG Open everyone said Legacy is dead. People are far too apt to jump on any given bandwagon, it seems. One event seldom shapes or is indicative of a metagame.

Addressing a few concerns that were brought up

1. GW is a hard match, Zoo isn't a slam dunk either. Why Reanimator is a very powerful deck, you're still playing Magic with most matches, you're favored but you can't do the knee-jerk reactions. If you live in Europe where GW is big, you certain;y want to test that match and will want access to Pithing Needle from the board, you'll also often need to just hope that Sphinx or Empyrial Archangel is enough to get there, because depending on Jin in that match is really risky unless you can get him on turn 2.

2. The other matches still, you need to play Magic, you can't expect to slam down your busted cards every round and have the opponent just scoop up their cards. You have two do the testing against U/W Stoneforge and U/B Snapcaster decks if you want to figure out how to beat them. And even then, you'll still run into hands where you're going to lose. It's not like you're playing 95%-5% matches, even when you're favored in a match, you can still lose it.

Keep your play tight, tune the maindeck and sideboard for the matches you're not comfortable with and practice. This is how you reach success with any deck, including Reanimator. Don't expect to pick the deck up and have the instant-wins flow forever.

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Originally Posted by Master Shake

I wanted to congratulation everyone for doing so well, and especially n0mad for playing nearly my 75. It looks like you couldn't get all the Deltas together, but excellent job regardless.

It makes me chuckle a bit, because after the last SCG Open everyone said Legacy is dead. People are far too apt to jump on any given bandwagon, it seems. One event seldom shapes or is indicative of a metagame.

Addressing a few concerns that were brought up

1. GW is a hard match, Zoo isn't a slam dunk either. Why Reanimator is a very powerful deck, you're still playing Magic with most matches, you're favored but you can't do the knee-jerk reactions. If you live in Europe where GW is big, you certain;y want to test that match and will want access to Pithing Needle from the board, you'll also often need to just hope that Sphinx or Empyrial Archangel is enough to get there, because depending on Jin in that match is really risky unless you can get him on turn 2.

2. The other matches still, you need to play Magic, you can't expect to slam down your busted cards every round and have the opponent just scoop up their cards. You have two do the testing against U/W Stoneforge and U/B Snapcaster decks if you want to figure out how to beat them. And even then, you'll still run into hands where you're going to lose. It's not like you're playing 95%-5% matches, even when you're favored in a match, you can still lose it.

Keep your play tight, tune the maindeck and sideboard for the matches you're not comfortable with and practice. This is how you reach success with any deck, including Reanimator. Don't expect to pick the deck up and have the instant-wins flow forever.

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Thanks bro! The list was really strong and I had been testing it locally (we have a pretty competent legacy meta here in northern virginia) so the testing was good but just limited.

So sick bragg side story of the weekend lol, I ended up playing a Reanimator mirror match round 3, he won the die roll and stated that he wished to play first. I kept a Hand of Underground sea, Reanimate, Fetch, Daze and some other cards. He goes Fetch, Underground Sea, Careful Study, Pitching Island and Jin-Gitaxias. He passes and I draw a fetch, play underground sea, cast reanimate taking his jin. He forces and I daze and draw 7. ^_^ I was in mythical magic land sliding on rainbows and shit lol~

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Originally Posted by n0mad

Thanks bro! The list was really strong and I had been testing it locally (we have a pretty competent legacy meta here in northern virginia) so the testing was good but just limited.

So sick bragg side story of the weekend lol, I ended up playing a Reanimator mirror match round 3, he won the die roll and stated that he wished to play first. I kept a Hand of Underground sea, Reanimate, Fetch, Daze and some other cards. He goes Fetch, Underground Sea, Careful Study, Pitching Island and Jin-Gitaxias. He passes and I draw a fetch, play underground sea, cast reanimate taking his jin. He forces and I daze and draw 7. ^_^ I was in mythical magic land sliding on rainbows and shit lol~

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Yeah, I've been in the oppisite side of that, except I was playing against a Pox player. One of the worst Magic experiences of my life was when my opponent had my Jin-Gitaxias and decided to cast a Smallpox, yet still won.

The testing statements weren't so much directed at you, but other people had been asking questions or making statements.

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Originally Posted by n0mad

So sick bragg side story of the weekend lol, I ended up playing a Reanimator mirror match round 3, he won the die roll and stated that he wished to play first. I kept a Hand of Underground sea, Reanimate, Fetch, Daze and some other cards. He goes Fetch, Underground Sea, Careful Study, Pitching Island and Jin-Gitaxias. He passes and I draw a fetch, play underground sea, cast reanimate taking his jin. He forces and I daze and draw 7. ^_^ I was in mythical magic land sliding on rainbows and shit lol~

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He didn't know what you were playing, did he?

I was in Amsterdam playing Maverick, and both faced and watched some Reanimator games. I played Reanimator in Madrid last year and will be picking up the deck again since I'm tired of attacking with small green/white men. However, Snapcaster Mage + counters / surgical extraction is a beating and this problem must be adressed. Almost all Reanimators that make it to T8 are 99% identical, is there really no room for development?

Ideas worth trying, saw some of them at the GP, some are just things I'm brainstorming:

Noxious Revival: is free, saves guys from extirpate effects and can regrow used/countered spells (at the cost of the draw step)
Snapcaster Mage: Allows us to run less of each spell, can be Entomb 5-8 and buyback Brainstorms. Also, a blocker is sometimes a good thing to have.
Cabal Therapy: Good synergies if you play Snapcaster, can be entombed.
Gitaxian Probe: Awesome with cabal therapy and the information provided will let you now if you can go for it or not without protection or need a certain Entomb target.
Lilliana: Creature kill, discard outlet, can grind down opponents hand size.

I'm also thinking about Noxious Revival. At least as sb card. Note that Entomb + Noxious Revival == Vampiric Tutor 2.0 with card disadvantage. But it will need a lot of build around.

Hi,
I've been playing Reanimator for a while now and I do like it a lot. The deck is very fast and consistent.
@Allek
I like your ideas but almost all of them are at the cost of speed and I think that is one of the deck's biggest strengths. And the question then is, can Reanimator make it, if you reanimate turn 3-5 instead of 2-3?

Noxious Revival is intresting because it's "free". We lost MM and that IS a loss. What to replace it with? In my opinion it is a good idea to replace it with another "free" spell. Misdirection is among the best aternatives, in theory anyway. I've only been testing it a few games. Anyone who have som experience and analysis?

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Originally Posted by allek

I was in Amsterdam playing Maverick, and both faced and watched some Reanimator games. I played Reanimator in Madrid last year and will be picking up the deck again since I'm tired of attacking with small green/white men. However, Snapcaster Mage + counters / surgical extraction is a beating and this problem must be adressed. Almost all Reanimators that make it to T8 are 99% identical, is there really no room for development?

Ideas worth trying, saw some of them at the GP, some are just things I'm brainstorming:

Noxious Revival: is free, saves guys from extirpate effects and can regrow used/countered spells (at the cost of the draw step)
Snapcaster Mage: Allows us to run less of each spell, can be Entomb 5-8 and buyback Brainstorms. Also, a blocker is sometimes a good thing to have.
Cabal Therapy: Good synergies if you play Snapcaster, can be entombed.
Gitaxian Probe: Awesome with cabal therapy and the information provided will let you now if you can go for it or not without protection or need a certain Entomb target.
Lilliana: Creature kill, discard outlet, can grind down opponents hand size.

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I have to say, I REALLY, REALLY like the idea of Noxious Revival in the sideboard. My biggest issue was instant speed graveyard hate so that card seems like what I have been looking for! Thanks! :)

Well my thoughts on noxious revival are that first off it does nothing against extirpate since it has split second. Other than that it isn't too bad. I feel like misdirection might do the job better though. You can make their surgical extraction hit themselves. Another thing I don't like about noxious revival is that it puts your creature back on top of your deck which means without a fetch or brainstorm, you draw that card next turn. With limited ways to get our creatures to the gy, noxious might end up setting us back a few turns. I don't think it's a terrible idea, I'll probably end up testing it out a bit, but I'm just not sure it's the best card for our deck.

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Originally Posted by zmattk

Well my thoughts on noxious revival are that first off it does nothing against extirpate since it has split second. Other than that it isn't too bad. I feel like misdirection might do the job better though. You can make their surgical extraction hit themselves. Another thing I don't like about noxious revival is that it puts your creature back on top of your deck which means without a fetch or brainstorm, you draw that card next turn. With limited ways to get our creatures to the gy, noxious might end up setting us back a few turns. I don't think it's a terrible idea, I'll probably end up testing it out a bit, but I'm just not sure it's the best card for our deck.

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misdirection seemed really cool too but i didn't feel like paying the $15 for them lol

so, side note... has anyone seen the new Graveborn premium foil set with Entomb/Animate Dead in it? :O
http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardd...product=300501

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Originally Posted by n0mad

so, side note... has anyone seen the new Graveborn premium foil set with Entomb/Animate Dead in it? :O
http://sales.starcitygames.com/cardd...product=300501

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I think a lot of people have seen it; just waiting to see the full deck list. I shall be getting two.

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Originally Posted by zmattk

Well my thoughts on noxious revival are that first off it does nothing against
...
I don't think it's a terrible idea, I'll probably end up testing it out a bit, but I'm just not sure it's the best card for our deck.

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You do not have to put a creature on top. You can grab any reanimate spell, Entomb or even a counterspell. That is where I think it will shine.

.............

i wonder what the new entomb and animate dead artwork look like.... /dreams
(i still need my entomb's lol)

I know noxious can get any card back but I think of we are going to use it, it's main purpose would be to save our creatures from removal. I do like that it can get any card back such as counterspells or any of our spells that were countered, but I'm unsure of how we would fit it into the deck. It most likely won't be going into the main board and if it's put in the sb we probably can only fit 2-3 max. Also, being in the sb pretty much guarantees that it's going to be used as gy protection because there's no real logic to bring it in unless you need a way to protect your creatures. I know that by having it in the deck gives you both ways to play it, but you're gonna get into situations where you have it in hand but it's game 2 and you're worried about surgical extraction so you just keep it until they try to extract you, which kind of takes away from the point of using it to grab counters, reanimate spells, ect.

Also about Graveborn, the entomb is the same art. I am excited to get black bordered animate deads with new wording though.

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Originally Posted by n0mad

i wonder what the new entomb and animate dead artwork look like.... /dreams
(i still need my entomb's lol)

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I think Entomb is the same art, judging by the 5% of the art you can make out on the box