[Deck]BUx Reanimator

In my infinite wisdom I actually left my reanimator deck box at the hotel so I couldn't use it at GP Kyoto. I was luckily able to play with Jund.

The list I have is basically unchanged since going 4 Petal 4 Daze

Main Deck (60)
Creatures (7)
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Tidespout Tyrant
3 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
Spells (37)
4 Lotus Petal
2 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
4 Careful Study
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Daze
4 Exhume
2 Show and Tell
1 Misdirection
4 Force of Will
Lands (16)
1 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Scalding Tarn
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
Sideboard (15)
1 Chain of Vapor
1 Flusterstorm
1 Pithing Needle
2 Echoing Truth
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Show and Tell
1 Grave Titan
1 Sire of Insanity

In defense of the petal. Petal powers out a lot of T1 combos or a Turn 2 Show and Tell into victory. Late game it does suffer a bit, though it did allow me to hardcast an Empyrial Archangel. My normal list actually has 2 Dread of Night sideboard due to death and taxes being such a miserable matchup. I'm still very iffy on using DTT as most of my matches end very fast within 4 turns. My long protracted matches where DTT might actually be useful I'm on the receiving end of a RiP which prevents me from delving and casting Dig. I guess it's all about playing style for other pilots. I like the Show and Tell plan as it ignores grave hate so when I see a RiP I don't sweat as much.


There was one Japanese Reanimator list that puzzles me from a year ago. The sideboard turned the deck into Painter and the guy placed Top 16 with it.

That's known as a transformational sideboard. It's a concession to graveyard hate. Instead of quasi-next-leveling your opponent by trying to figure out how and what they brought in against you, just change it up with a compact combo that ignores their hate. .dk does this in Tin Fins with Doomsday in games 2/3. Completely ignoring their yard hate and having a completely different strategy. The there are a lot of free wins from utilizing a strategy such as this.

From my phone. I do my best, dammit!

It's been awhile since I've played this deck so I was wondering - how do you guys usually board for D&T?

I think Dazes and hand disruption come out for Pithing Needles / answers to their RIP / Containment Priest but I'm trying to decide if Lotus Petals should come out or not too? FoW maybe?

If you don't play Inkwell Leviathan in your main deck it's definitely worth bringing in here.

D&T can't beat it, their only answer is try and race with Batterskull or an equipped creature.

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Originally Posted by Will_L

If you don't play Inkwell Leviathan in your main deck it's definitely worth bringing in here.

D&T can't beat it, their only answer is try and race with Batterskull or an equipped creature.

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D&T running 2x council's judgement in the board is pretty standard now, so they definitely have more answer than just racing with batterskull or equipment but I do agree it's one of the better cards reanimator has against them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Will_L

If you don't play Inkwell Leviathan in your main deck it's definitely worth bringing in here.

D&T can't beat it, their only answer is try and race with Batterskull or an equipped creature.

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Is it me, or does Iona naming white beat D&T a bit better?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tantarus

Is it me, or does Iona naming white beat D&T a bit better?

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4 Karakas answer Iona. Nothing answers Leviathan. Unless... Wing Shards!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jrw1985

4 Karakas answer Iona. Nothing answers Leviathan. Unless... Wing Shards!

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Hrm, sure Karakas is an issue I guess. But I don't see many lists running more then 2 to be fair, and Needles stop that. I feel like Will of the Council is common enough that Leviathan is not as safe as it use to be.

I'm actually not a fan of Iona vs D&T. As others have looted out, Karakas is a thing. In addition to that, Aether Vial lets them get dudes down past her as well.

My sideboard questioning isn't so much about creatures, but whether or not it is correct to board out hand disruption / Dazes for answers to things like RIP / Containment Priest (obvs Needles have to come in for Karakas).

Esper3k, I guess it depends on what you have to bring in. Nowadays people have Massacre and even Contagion and Dread of Night to bring in for D&T alongside Inkwell Leviathan, if not already running main.
For me, I bring in Abrupt Decay, Pithing Needles, whatever bounce I'm running that day (I cycle between Echoing Truth, Chain of Vapor & Wipe Away depending on how I'm feeling) and Massacre. I have a copy of Engineered Explosives that might get brought in depending on how games 1 & 2 went, if their build is weak on land tricks and leans more on AEther Vial and other permanents for a more weenie-aggro build, EE might get a slot. Also in the side is a copy of Disfigure, but it's too hard to cast effectively on a Thalia with Karakas and Mother of Runes patrolling around, that's more for the first turn Deathrite Shaman decks.

So in total I'm bringing in 7-8 cards & a creature.
Out comes Thoughtseize and Daze & a creature. For me that's 7 cards right there.

So I mean, I agree that D&T isn't taxed well and their card pool is so broad 1 for 1 hand disruption is weak against them. But what your sideboard strategy is will matter greatly to what you bring in. A Show and Tell board versus an Abrupt Decay board will value speed versus resiliency a bit differently. Some decks even have both at the same time, so you're looking at 10 or more cards coming in. If that's your flavor, you'd have to find a S&T guy to explain his strategies.

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Originally Posted by PirateKing

So I mean, I agree that D&T isn't taxed well and their card pool is so broad 1 for 1 hand disruption is weak against them. But what your sideboard strategy is will matter greatly to what you bring in. A Show and Tell board versus an Abrupt Decay board will value speed versus resiliency a bit differently. Some decks even have both at the same time, so you're looking at 10 or more cards coming in. If that's your flavor, you'd have to find a S&T guy to explain his strategies.

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Ok, this is where I come in, the Death and Taxes matchup is still rather miserable for me but it's been getting better.

Game 1 I have Empyrial Archangel and Tidespout Tyrant mainboard to fight them.
Game 2 my board changes a bit:

-2 Griselbrand only keeping 1
-4 Daze
-1 Misdirection
-1 Careful Study
-1 Exhume
+1 Pithing Needle
+1 Show and Tell
+3 Abrupt Decay
+2 Dread of Night
+1 Sire of Insanity
+1 Show and Tell

It's not full on the Show and Tell plan due to Tupperware priest. The goal is usually to aim for a T1 sire of insanity and hope he didn't drop a white source of mana to break his back. Later in the game Show and Tell serves as an out if you ran out of abrupt decays trying to deal with hate. Rest in Peace is low on the abrupt decay priority list unless you have a entomb/careful study+reanimate. Exhume is a bit slower so I cut one. Containment Priest is higher on the list of things to react to since it attacks both angles of attack. I don't use Thoughtseizes mainboard due to how my meta looks. I don't use many bounce spells due to the taxing nature of our opponents, i'd probably only have enough mana to bounce only for them in the next turn to recast whatever I just bounced.

If the game goes on too long you just end up like me and hard casting Elesh Norn with Petals killing your opponent.

Yeah, I think I may be over boarding for the matchup.

I brought in 2x Massacre, 2x Abrupt Decay, 2x Golgari Charm, 2x Pithing Needle, 1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind, 1x Inkwell and took out 3x Daze, 2x Thoughtseize, 3x Lotus Petal, 1x Iona, 1x Griselbrand (I run 1 Grave Titan in the main).

Massacre was alright but I actually wasn't a huge fan of it. My problem is that it just stalls the game and doesn't actually deal with any hate permanent other than Containment Priest, which shouldn't be caught by Massacre unless they've already flashed it in and wrecked you with it (ie, Massacreing one would be too late). I also think I should've just left Lotus Petals in.

My future plans would probably be something like:

-3 Daze
-2 Thoughtseize
-1 DTT
-1 Iona
-1 Griselbrand

+3 Pithing Needle
+3 Abrupt Decay
+1 Inkwell
+1 Sphinx

My Massacre wasn't for Containment Priest, but for Thalia, and to delay their game. I only have the 1 so it never feels overboarding, and the D&T players here lean on the Death heavily and don't really focus on the Tax. Beyond Thalia and some Wasteland, they're SFM into Sword onto Serra Avenger into beatz. They'll have the RiP and Priest and stuff brought in for me, but it's handled well enough if I get time to assemble the right cards. So turning back the clock 2~3 turns is paramount.
If you got a good player locking you down with Ports and using cruel Flickerwisp tricks, then greedy routes like Echoing Truth are not for you.

Golgari Charm seems like a worse Abrupt Decay, I mean it'll hit multiple creatures or the RiP, but too many of their dudes are x/2. I can see why it'd be wroth the look, but just seems like not enough to be worth the slot, especially in a crowded sideboard like ours. But maybe I'm selling short or not seeing the use. What are your experiences?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by PirateKing

My Massacre wasn't for Containment Priest, but for Thalia, and to delay their game. I only have the 1 so it never feels overboarding, and the D&T players here lean on the Death heavily and don't really focus on the Tax. Beyond Thalia and some Wasteland, they're SFM into Sword onto Serra Avenger into beatz. They'll have the RiP and Priest and stuff brought in for me, but it's handled well enough if I get time to assemble the right cards. So turning back the clock 2~3 turns is paramount.
If you got a good player locking you down with Ports and using cruel Flickerwisp tricks, then greedy routes like Echoing Truth are not for you.

Golgari Charm seems like a worse Abrupt Decay, I mean it'll hit multiple creatures or the RiP, but too many of their dudes are x/2. I can see why it'd be wroth the look, but just seems like not enough to be worth the slot, especially in a crowded sideboard like ours. But maybe I'm selling short or not seeing the use. What are your experiences?

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I've liked Golgari Charm myself. As you said, it doubles as X/1 ie, Thalia hate or RIP hate. The nice thing about Charm is that it deals with Thalia + Mom, which Abrupt Decay doesn't.

I actually think though that probably the correct way to go about this is to go back to 3 Pithing Needles since Karakas is really our main problem. Thalia's not that bad as long as we can get a guy out and of their 2 drops, the only things we care about are RIP and Priest, both of which are Daze/Fow able if we're going off early.

So I just finished a game against LED Dredge where I boarded in 2x Tormod's Crypt (something my opponent couldn't really deal with apparently [both personal and in game]). Anyway he seemed to be really surprised that I was running them in my sideboard. Now, I'm still new the deck (and format) and it just made me win a game, but that made me wonder: do we need graveyard hate or are we better off running something else? And which do you guys prefer?

Here's the current list for reference:

Artifact (2)
2x Lotus Petal

Creature (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 (16)
1x Bayou
1x Island
2x Misty Rainforest
4x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
1x Tropical Island
4x Underground Sea
2x Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard

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

I run an Extirpate in my side for the mirror or other graveyard decks. I used to run Coffin Purge when Reanimator was the deck of the week, occasionally making use of Faerie Macabre when I thought it was going to be a graveyard intense tournament, since a split of the two is better than doubling up on Coffin Purge alone. Now though those decks are a rarity and I've moved to a heavy black style with four Thoughtseize main, so I can typically afford the hard :b: when I bring it in. Not worrying about responses is worth it for me.

Tormod's Crypt is a fine sideboard card to have, number of copies depends on your meta.

So I am going to play reanimator for the first time tonight. I am not on how to deal this choice.

I am on the play. I have entomb, fetch, any reanimation spell. Do I:

1) Play fetch, pass. On their EoT fetch up land and entomb to avoid wastelands and letting them know what deck I am on. Or

2) Crack fetch on my turn, entomb on my turn to play around daze/spell pierces?

Depends on your hand.

Do you also have Daze? The reanimation spell you have matters too. For example, if you're trying to play around Daze, if your Reanimation spell is Exhume or Animate Dead, you need a 3rd mana source to play around Daze so there's no real point in Entombing on your turn to play around Daze.

If you are playing against an unknown opponent, you entomb right away to play around daze/pierce (getting GB), the only time you don't do this is if you know the opponent has DRS AND free counters.

If they are a DRS deck without counters, you can reanimate on turn two and not care. If they are a counterspell deck, you resolve entomb because that is the most important spell in the deck. This is assuming you have exactly one entomb and one reanimation effect, if you have multiple entombs, you pop one during their turn to bait the counter. This is all stuff you should pick up while just playing the deck.

Hi,

I wanted to ask a question to the experts reanimator players, Why the lists playing S&T do not play Abrupt Decay in side?

You do not believe that the two cards can coexist?

especially now that the containment priest is played more, it might be a good thing to have more ways to play our creatures (both reanimate and S&T), and with decay can be removed the problem of the problematic permanents for the cemetery (cage, RIP etc ..), and the problematic creatures more played as containment priests, meddling mage etc...

What do you think about this coexistence?