[Deck]BUx Reanimator

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Originally Posted by Islandswamp

No love for Jin Gitaxias?
I tried him for a little bit. It was ok. Space in the deck is an issue though, and I ultimately cut him. If he wasn't legendary, I'd be all about it. The seven cards is free, can't be pithing needled, and forcing your opponent to discard their hand is awesome. I don't think I ever untapped with Jin and lost that game.

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I'm not a fan of Jin Gitaxias because your opponent gets an entire turn cycle to answer him. With Sire of Insanity, my opponent doesn't get to untap or draw a card before discarding their hand. Also, 6 life loss is negligible compared to 10 off of Reanimate.

4-0'd my weekly legacy again tonight after a sad 1-3 last week. This brings me to 12-4 in matches in the last 4 weeks.

Played against Miracles in the finals, and barely squeaked out a win in game 2. What are people's opinions on the Miracles matchup? I felt like I had a large number of cards I wanted to bring in (Show and Tell + City of Traitors package, Pyroblast, Pithing Needle, Inkwell Leviathan etc) and not many obvious cards to side out.

Like Regal Force in Elves, Jin-Gitaxias really is a thing of the past. It's fine for people to try for themselves or use him as a budget option (like if you already own him). But the immediate draw, lifelink, and flying of Griselbrand really do outclass the discard that Jin brings to the table.

@TinkerRobot
The friend I play with regularly plays Miracles, and we find the matchup to be roughly even. G1 Reanimator has a keen edge, but postboard the games get grindy and difficult since Miracles is built to grind. The Abrupt Decay splash shines in this matchup for me when I ran it. Boarding a lot of cards is expected.

I found this article on the Sneak and Show forums, which briefly talks about Reanimator as well

http://puremtgo.com/articles/legacy-lessons-get-sneaky

So I'll be playing in the SCG 5k IQ tomorrow and was wondering if you guys think Reverent Silence should
be worth considering in the SB. Mind you I play a GB variant not similiar to the lists posted in this thread so obtaining the
forest is generally not a problem. I think that it might be extremely helpful in combating the ever terrible miracles matchup?
Thoughts

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Originally Posted by Rood

So I'll be playing in the SCG 5k IQ tomorrow and was wondering if you guys think Reverent Silence should
be worth considering in the SB. Mind you I play a GB variant not similiar to the lists posted in this thread so obtaining the
forest is generally not a problem. I think that it might be extremely helpful in combating the ever terrible miracles matchup?
Thoughts

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A GB variant I'd just run only abrupt decays. What troublesome enchantments does Reanimator need to worry about that is outside of Abrupt Decay range? The only ones I can think of are: Leyline of the Void, Humility, Moat (sorta), and that's about it. Also that six life kinda is a deal breaker.

For the miracles matchup I'd just use evasive fatties like Empyrial Archangel, Aetherling, or Inkwell Leviathan. If your meta is heavy on Miracles then the last two cards would be good.

Leyline is a big deal when it hits. Usually you can just say "ya got me" and move on since most people don't run that card, but in some metas I think you definitely need an answer to it.

Our Decays are certainly taxed in the Miracles matchup (which is somewhat odd). We don't run much other removal so if they're bringing in Tupperware Priests + RIP AND they're leaving in Counterbalance, then a singleton Reverent Silence starts to make a lot of sense. It's one of our difficult matchups, and many Miracles players focus on winning the stack so unfortunately a diversity in fatties isn't enough to close the gap a lot of the time.

I don't think the lifegain matters at all compared to the effect granted. And against Miracles we'll have plenty of opportunities to hardcast it.

Hi folks I made top8 in a small legacy tournament last saturday. Happy to see the deck working.

R1: Enchantress

g1: I mull to 6 and I keep a very good hand if a blue source come, which does not, lol. I only play a swamp and he lands t2 RIP which is very hurtful. I keep playing that game until i eventually realize I'm playing against enchantress and I concede
g2: i draw kind of a perfect hand with a t2 Griselbrand with FoW backup. It manages to race his build up. Accidentally before the game starts my opponent shuffles my deck and flips Serenity, I said no problem but he calls the judge and gets a warning, fair play by him. Just for insurance I land a Serenity which would've nuked his board next turn
g3: i keep a strong 7 and I just draw and discard Iona. he lands RIP but i have FoW it's over from there.

R2: Maverick

g1: I land a T2 Griselbrand that gets plowed but I draw enough cards to reanimate a second and protect it with Daze :)
g2: he goes horizon canopy->gsz->dryad arbor. i thoughtseize myself , taking sire of insanity, and then reanimate it, all turn one, which proves to be good since he had a sword but couldn't cast it, so it gets discarded by sire and it's enough from there to take a win

R3: Merfolk
g1: he lands cursecatcher t1 and I cast thoughtseize, which rarely, he sacks the catcher to. t2 he plays a lord of atlantis and at the end of his t3 I entomb for iona and exhume it, shutting his hand.
g2: i mull to 6. he goes island pass. i go u.sea->entomb, petal reanimate. he dazes, i daze, he FoWs D: . he then lands a chalice in 1 and it's downhill from there.
g3: i start with thoughtseize myself->griselbrand->petal->reanimate with daze backup, which trades with his FoW. from there griselbrand manages to beat him down.

R4: Dredge (this player won the tournament)

g1: i mull to 5 and keep a hand which the only thing it can do is showing a Tidespout Tyrant t3 without any spells to bounce stuff. he dredges and luckily he doesn't name SnT with his therapy, but because i have only a tyrant with no spells to abuse I get blown the fuck out by ichorids and zombie tokens :(
g2: i go swamp and pass. he therapies and I entomb in response, sending elesh norn to the bin. he decides to name Reanimate but luckily i had exhume.
g3: i mull again to 5 and he reanimates FKZ T3 and a shitload of zombies kill me

R5: Elves
g1: I reanimate Iona T2 FoWing a T1 shaman by him
g2: i keep a very sketchy 7 but my opponent mulls to 4! he leads with t1 shaman, and I again I'm out of blue source, so i use a petal to cast ponder. eventually i reanimate a t3 griselbrand by putting two monsters in the bin and casting two reanimates to overpower the shaman.

R6: MonoRed Sneak Attack

after 5 rounds i'm 3rd in the standings so my opponent and i can draw to put us both in top 8 :)

Top 8 match: against MonoRed Sneak Attack same person I drawed in R6
g1: because of tiebreakers he is now ranked higher than me and gets to go first. i keep 7 cards with tons of disruption, but without FoW, which i believe was a mistake. he goes T1 Sneak Attack with mana floating, but he didn't have a big guy to kill me. i go u. sea and pass. he draws emrakul, hits, i entomb in response, searching for griselbrand (maybe tidespout tyrant was the better option but i didn't have spells to bounce anything) he swings with emrakul, i drop to 5 and in my turn i drop a swamp + petal and exhume griselbrand. I swing once and I start to believe i can actually win this but ghe topdecks another emrakul which shits on my face
g2: I seize him revealing big guys and a grafdigger cage which i take. from there i hold counters and i wait to discard to hand size Iona, which gets reanimated (naming red of course)
g3: I keep a hand with forces of will and dazes. He goes T1 chalice in 1 which i counter. i play ponder seeing only land, so i shuffle. he goes t2 defense grid which i daze. i brainstorm and find a force of will for his t3 trinisphere. i manage to entomb and reanimate a t4 Griselbrand (I had Iona + Sire of Insanity in hand), but he goes t5 Through the breach. I'm at 10 so i'm able to draw 7 cards and i find a Force of Will! but no blue card to pitch to it :( a WorldSpine Wurm comes Through the Breach and laughs with his trample ability against my Griselbrand which now looks really small haha.

Overall it was a fun tournament and really nice experience. I got a Tasigur and two fetches as prize, only if I could've sneaked into top 4 i would've get a dual :(

final standings were:
1. dredge
2. rug
3. mono red sneak attack
3. affinity with chalices and FoWs
5. reanimator
5. reanimator
7. UR delver
7. Sneak and Show

really a nice day for the "cheat big creatures into play" office :)

the list i played was:

2 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
4 Polluted Delta
3 Flooded Strand
3 Swamp
2 Island
4 Lotus Petal
3 Daze
4 Force of Will
2 Thoughtseize
2 Show and Tell
4 Careful Study
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
3 Exhume
1 Animate Dead
4 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Sire of Insanity
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder

SB:

2 Serenity
2 Thoughtseize
2 City of Traitors
2 Show and Tell
1 Ashen Rider
3 Pithing Needle
1 Echoing Truth
1 Swan Song
1 Void Snare

any suggestions and critics (also questions) are welcome

Just won a 46 person charity tournament for VHLA and won a a box of modern masters with this monstrosity:


4 Hapless Researcher
3 Griselbrand
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Tidespout Tyrant
4 Careful Study
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
2 Animate Dead
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
2 Izzet Charm
1 Misdirection
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Badlands
1 Volcanic Island

SB: 2 Pithing Needle
SB: 2 Thoughtseize
SB: 1 Engineered Explosives
SB: 2 Echoing Truth
SB: 3 Abrupt Decay
SB: 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
SB: 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
SB: 1 Pernicious Deed
SB: 1 Keranos, God of Storms
SB: 1 Darkblast


This deck felt extremely powerful all day, the izzet charms countered spells, killed delvers, and looted admirably.
I played against:

Esper Delver (2-1)
UR OmniTell (1-2)
UR Omnitell (2-0)
Bant Stoneblade (2-0)
Infect (2-0)
Punishing Nic Fit (2-1)

Top 8:
Reanimator Mirror (2-0)
UR OmniTell, my loss in swiss (2-0)
RUG Delver (2-0)

I've been changing things around and becoming more controlling in the post board games, adding removal spells to just get to the point where you can go over whatever it is the opponent is doing, and this build felt very powerful. That said, I only played against 3 wasteland decks, which may or may not be the norm in the meta, but even so, I felt confident against every wasteland deck that wasn't also playing stifle, and even against RUG Delver, I felt fine in the matchup.

I was at that event. Was fun, my results where not as good:P I actually was thinking about building a reanimator. I had some questions about your build.

Why Hapless Researcher? Did you like using them?

Also why no Lotus petals?

What did you reanimate if you didn't know what you where playing against?

Why no Iona main deck?

How was Keranos for you? Did you use him?

Why no show and tells? Budget issues?

Hapless Researcher is a card that has tons of upside for reanimator, but people don't usually play it because at first blush it looks like a bad careful study. The reasons I like it are: It almost never gets countered, partially because it is harder to counter because pierce and flusterstorm don't hit it, and partially because no one ever points their counters at it for some reason. It allows you to invest mana and cards into your combo before you actually want to combo off, which lets you play around grave hate and also have more resources on your combo turn. It attacks and blocks, blocking being especially important in the deck that wants to trade life for cards. It lets you do exhume tricks without spending additional mana. I love Hapless Researcher, it is a beautiful card in this deck.

I don't play lotus petals because they force you to either play more mana sources, i.e. fewer spells, or take more mulligans, because openers with only petals are usually going to be mulligans. Also, the deck doesn't need the explosiveness that petal provides, I'd rather have a build that goes off more consistently on turn two than a build that has the ability to go off turn one.

When I don't know what I'm playing against and I have the choice, I go for Griselbrand, since he can usually enable a second creature fairly easily.

I don't play Iona main because she just makes good matchups better, and is poor against our worse matchups, Inkwell is fantastic against our worse matchups, so it made more sense to me to play Inkwell main.

Keranos din't do much for me this tournament, as they never got to cast containment priest against me. That said, I brought it in a lot, and almost hardcast him once, but my opponent conceded before that. I have also had success with him in previous tournaments.

I don't play Show and Tell because I don't believe it is very good in Reanimator. Playing a card that wants you to keep a creature in your hand in a deck that wants to not draw creatures and/or dump them into the yard makes for a lot of awkward draws. There are also too many decks running around that show and tell is uncastable against. It is difficult to resolve against DnT and Delver, and it is not good to cast against GW/x decks or Show and Tell decks. And since most hate currently is spell based (which we can counter) or cheap permanent based (which we can decay), there isn't much reason to play a card like Show and Tell.

Styfo how comfortable were you being borderline Rainbow without any Petals or other 5c producers? Did you ever get stuck or otherwise limited in your plays because you couldn't get BB or something?

But you'd just run 2 s&t and 3 griselda. ItS reasonable

Enviado desde mi XT890 mediante Tapatalk

Stryfo : could you explain the current merits for using jin-gitaxias over some of the other choices (most importantly grave titan and iona, or even a 4th griselbrand?) the only one i can think of is an extra blue card for force of will. i'm wondering if you have any other reasons.

@ PirateKing, I rarely have mana issues with the deck, they do occur sometimes, but I don't think that they occur more frequently than a regular build. I mean, the deck plays 15 black sources and 14 blue sources effectively, which is what I've been working with for years, this version just gets hit a bit harder by wasteland. I messed up in fetch sequencing a few times, Bayou+Volc doesn't cast izzet charm, but Trop+Badlands does, which I messed up once (In a postboard game where I wanted my colors) but it didn't actually matter once, and that was user error rather than a problem with the deck itself.

@mistercakes: I like Jin for a variety of reasons. I like being able to entomb for a D7 that doesn't cost a ton of life. Even with reanimate, if I need to draw 7, Jin is going to be initially cheaper than Griselbrand, at 10 rather than 15. Playing Jin also allows for a D7 effect to exist in the deck after an extraction effect is used (I like to look at deckbuilding holistically, and this is a mainboard solution I have come up with for extraction effects). As I stated earlier, I'm of the oppinion that Iona is the worst creature in the deck, but she does have uses, which is why she still is in the 75, but I'd rather have Jin main. Grave Titan is simply not necessary in a list running 4 hapless researchers, edict effects are rarely problematic and the clock difference is irrelevant agaist most decks. Putting all of this together, I think having Jin as an entomb bullet is more powerful than having Iona, Grave Titan, or a 4th Grisel in the main.

Has anyone else given some thought to including a singleton Dig Through Time? Yesterday I faced a game against the mirror and the guy played 1 main deck. It seems really good with all the fetches, cantrips etc. Definitely if the game lasts a bit longer than it usually does.

I have on in my main deck. My thought processes is that digging through my deck for two cards in a two card combo deck seems pretty good. In practice it has been hit or miss. Ive usually had to force it away before getting to cast it. I also usually board it out for my abrupt decay and anti hate package games 2 and 3. When it has been good, it has been GREAT however. When it is bad, it is the worst card in the deck. I am keeping it in for now, but it is a card I am currently keeping an eye on right now as I am not convinced.

I use to Digs on main deck. They are really awesome in my experience, dig for a FOW or a missing combo piece is really nice.

Of course they are the main cards that I side out, mainly for decays or needles.

I feel dig could be a replacement for some reanimation targets. Finishers are only good with careful study in hand, while dig is insane even without it. WIthout careful study in hand, what do you want to have, a griselbrand in hand or a dig?
Now I suspect the risk that comes with less finishers and more digs (the risk is of course not finding a creature with careful study) is not that much of a risk, if you have a dig instead you can at the very least dig T3 every time if you have careful study in hand which is also an accetable way to victory.

The advantage with less finishers is of course is way less dead cards and improved ancestrals instead.
It's of course amazing to have dig after a Draw7 as well since it's a Draw 14 then making it almost impossible to lose.

If I looked correctly, if one casts Careful Study T1, chances to find a creature are:

8 Finishers in Deck:
75% chance to find a creature

5 Finishers in Deck:
57% chance to find a creature


With Brainstorm T2, fetch and Careful Study:

8 FInishers:
88% chance

5 Finishers:
72% chance

I for one am running 4 dig and 4 probe and had very good results so far, prizing in all of my three tournaments I played.

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Originally Posted by Cuddlecow

I feel dig could be a replacement for some reanimation targets. Finishers are only good with careful study in hand, while dig is insane even without it. WIthout careful study in hand, what do you want to have, a griselbrand in hand or a dig?
Now I suspect the risk that comes with less finishers and more digs (the risk is of course not finding a creature with careful study) is not that much of a risk, if you have a dig instead you can at the very least dig T3 every time if you have careful study in hand which is also an accetable way to victory.

The advantage with less finishers is of course is way less dead cards and improved ancestrals instead.
It's of course amazing to have dig after a Draw7 as well since it's a Draw 14 then making it almost impossible to lose.

If I looked correctly, if one casts Careful Study T1, chances to find a creature are:

8 Finishers in Deck:
75% chance to find a creature

5 Finishers in Deck:
57% chance to find a creature


With Brainstorm T2, fetch and Careful Study:

8 FInishers:
88% chance

5 Finishers:
72% chance

I for one am running 4 dig and 4 probe and had very good results so far, prizing in all of my three tournaments I played.

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I think that having all of the reanimates just makes the digs more powerful. I've recently dumped the lotus petals as per advice from stryfo and I don't think I want to ever go back. Having that 17th land is way more consistent anecdotally. I too love dig through time though.

I'm also sick of getting run over by containment priest in every match regardless of show and tell or reanimate. I think that we need to get creative in terms of answering that card. Maybe just increasing hand disruption could be the way.

Some on color card like silence would be sweet.

Having read some of the recent comments I'm considering cutting the petals as well. I'm still a new player when it comes to playing Legacy and this deck, so I'll post my current version here for reference:

Artifact (3)
3x Lotus Petal

Creatures (7)
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Grave Titan
3x Griselbrand
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Tidespout Tyrant

Instant (16)
4x Brainstorm
3x Daze
1x Dig Through Time
4x Entomb
4x Force of Will

Sorcery (19)
4x Careful Study
4x Exhume
3x Ponder
4x Reanimate
4x Thoughtseize

Land (15)
1x Bayou
1x Island
2x Misty Rainforest
4x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
4x Underground Sea
2x Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard
2x Pithing Needle
2x Tormod's Crypt
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Sire of Insanity
3x Abrupt Decay
1x Disfigure
1x Golgari Charm
1x Tropical Island
2x Duress
1x Massacre

Until recently that 1 DTT main was a Duress but I replaced it with Dig just to give that a try. With the little experience I've gathered so far by playing the deck I can definitely relate to the petal issue. Oftentimes I get a good opener but instead of a land it contains a petal. It kinda sucks to mulligan there and if I'm on the draw I do sometimes take the risk and just hope to draw a land straight away. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't. Then sometimes there's the choice about just going for it or playing Thoughtseize. And Thoughtseize is pretty strong. So I was thinking about these changes MD:

- 3x Petals
+ 1x Tropical Island
+ 1x Swamp (fetch?)
+ 1x Duress (or DTT?)

Sideboard
- 1x Tropical Island
+ 1x ??? (4th Decay?)

I usually side out DTT for games 2 and 3.