Hello Fellow Reanimators,
Came in 3rd out of 302 players this past weekend at eternal extravaganza 3 with Jake's list, good for 10 dual lands (first place got 40!). The top tables were full of elves and miracles, I got lucky and faced elves 3 times, miracles 0 times.
Here’s the 75:
3 Griselbrand
1 Iona
1 Elesh Norn
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Grave Titan
4 Entomb
4 Careful Study
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Force of Will
4 Daze
3 Thoughtseize
3 Lotus Petal
3 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Island
1 Swamp
SB:
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
2 Pithing Needle
2 Disfigure
2 Massacre
1 Aetherling
1 Sire of Insanity
I didn’t take notes, so this is all from memory:
R1: Belcher
G1: I keep a risky no lander with just lotus petal as mana after a mull to 6, figuring the scry would help. I scry and see swamp, so I keep it on top...except my hand was all blue cantrips. After casting the first cantrip off of the petal, i fail to find a blue source and die quickly to a horde of goblin tokens.
SB:
-1 tidespout tyrant, -1 grave titan, -1 ponder, -1 careful study, -1 island
+3 duress, + 1 thoughtseize, + 1 sire of insanity
G2: I had to mull again, but so did my opponent. I casted some discard spells in the first few turns, and eventually had to thoughtseize my own sire to reanimate it and that was game.
G3:I kept a very controlling 7 with discard, daze, and FOW. After dismantling my opponent's hand I eventually exhumed a griselbrand with 2 FOW in hand and that was game.
R2: Dark Maverick
G1: I thoughtseize turn one to see no threats, except for a sylvan library, which I take, since my hand is slow and I can’t reanimate until turn 3 or 4 the earliest. I keep note of the STP in his hand. A few turns later I choose to entomb and reanimate griselbrand, knowing he has the STP. griselbrand goes farming, but gives me 7 cards before he leaves, which was enough to get another griselbrand into play to seal the deal.
SB:
-4 daze, -4 FOW, -1 ponder
+3 abrupt decay, + 2 disfigure, + 2 massacre. + 2 pithing needle
G2: This game was a grindy affair, with me trading my removal and discard for his creatures and spells. I eventually get a griselbrand into play but again, he went farming, but not before I drew 7 cards off of it. My opponent eventually got an ooze into play, but I had enough mana to hard cast grave titan for the win.
R3: Elves
G1: My memory of all the elves games are blurring together, but almost all of them ended with elesh norn or iona in play and my opponent conceding immediately. In this case, it was a turn 3 iona (I had to thoughtseize myself to exhume it)
SB:
-4 daze, -4FOW, -1 ponder
+2 needle, +3 abrupt decay, + 2 disfigure, +1 duress, +1 thought size
G2: Opponent kept a hand with no discard and promptly got destroyed after I took care of his deathrite and ooze with my removal.
R4: Elves
See round 3, I win 2-0 in similar fashion.
R5: TES piloted by Bryant Cook
G1: I’m on the draw and keep hand that can reanimate iona on turn 1 with no interaction. But the hand falls apart if I get hit with a discard spell. I thought I’m dead when Bryant casts chrome mox on turn 1, but he only did it to cast infernal tutor for another copy of dark ritual. I assume he had the kill on the following turn, but my turn 1 iona on black sealed the deal.
SB:
-1 tidespout tyrant, -1 grave titan, -1 ponder, -1 careful study, -1 island
+3 duress, + 1 thoughtseize, + 1 sire of insanity
G2: I snap keep the following hand: FOW x2, daze, sea, thoughtseize, brainstorm, careful study. My thoughtseize gets discarded by his turn 1 duress. Bryant can’t go off due to the FOWs for a few turns. I keep drawing discard spells and dismantle his hand, until griselbrand finally arrives when I have 3 FOWs in hand.
R6: RG Lands piloted by Ben Flast
G1: I have a nutty opener on the draw: iona, careful study, lotus petal, land, FOW, daze, reanimate. Ben plays exploration. I think for a bit and FOW it because I plan to name green with iona, which means he’s not going to be casting any relevant spells for the rest of the game. When I careful study on my turn, I also drew into griselbrand. So now the question is whether I should reanimate iona or griselbrand. The problem with iona is 2 folds: it gets bounced by a naturally draw karakas and doesn’t do anything vs. a maze of ith, which gives the land player time to take control of the game. Gdaddy gets bounced by crop rotation into karakas or naturally drawn karakas, but at least I can still draw 7 cards. I reanimate grislbrand and draw 7 immediately. Ben crop rotates for karakas on his turn and bounce him, but the damage has been done. With my new 7, I was able to reanimate tidespout tyrant to seal the game.
SB:
-1 elesh norn, -4 daze
+2 needles, +3 abrupt decay
G2: I kept a hand with entomb, reanimate, swamp and a bunch of other discard and reanimation spells, planning to go off turn 2. Ben went turn 1 mox diamond into gamble, discarding karakas. I assumed he gambled for life from the loam. On my turn I topdeck lotus petal. Turn 1 griselbrand seals the deal. Note that I could have gotten the tyrant instead, but given I was stuck on one swamp, I didn’t want risking not being able to cast any spells afterwards. Griselbrand can get bounced but the 7 extra cards should be enough to win.
R7: Stoneforge Bant piloted by Nathan
G1: I had to mulligan down to 6 and keep a risky hand that is both mana light and slow. Nathan had a wasteland and the rest of his cards were good enough to beat me before I can draw another land.
SB:
-4 daze, -4 FOW, -1 ponder
+3 abrupt decay, + 2 disfigure, + 2 massacre. + 2 pithing needle
G2: Don’t remember exactly what happened this game, but it probably involved me casting a bunch of discard spells, decaying an ooze and then reanimating a grave titan into play.
G3: The win and in for all the marbles! I kept an medium 7 that didn’t have a quick reanimate, just some discard, reanimation spells and a ponder. I went for the turn 1 duress, but Nathan had the brainstorm to hide some goodies, revealing just ooze and JTMS, which duress discards. He then played ooze AND tormod’s crypt. I was in a bad spot as my hand at that point was 2 exhumes, 1 reanimate, and a ponder. I thought I needed to draw into an entomb and a way to get rid of the ooze and the crypt, which is a tall order. I played ponder, which got me the entomb I needed. But Nathan played a clique that took my entomb. Now I was really under the gun and really needed a massacre. I drew into another ponder which I casted immediately…whiff, shuffle, draw…another ponder. I casted this one right away too…whiff again, shuffle draw…MASSACRE! I casted the massacre right away, clearing away his board of ooze, dryad arbor, and clique. Since I didn’t have a fatty to reanimate, I reanimated his ooze, use my green mana to eat his arbor and clique and proceed to beat him down 4 at a time. I kept drawing lands and fatties, but Nathan also drew nothing expect for a pridemage during these turns. Eventually I drew 2 lotus petals and had 6 lands in play. I can cast either the elesh norn or griselbrand in my hand. I chose to play elesh norn, which ended the game on the spot.
R8: ID
R9: ID
On to the Top 8!
Quarterfinal: Elves
G1: I’m on the play and dazes a turn 1 deathrite shaman. This slows me down a turn, but I eventually get an elesh norn into play on turn 3 with FOW in hand to stop any shenanigans before it happened.
SB:
-4 daze, -4FOW, -1 ponder
+2 needle, +3 abrupt decay, + 2 disfigure, +1 duress, +1 thought size
G2: Opponent mulls and keeps a hand without discard, he green sun for an ooze on turn 3 ooze with no open green mana, and I use this opportunity to reanimate a griselbrand, which brings elesh norn to the party the following turn to seal the deal.
Semifinal: Grixis Delver
G1: I keep a hand with 2 blue sources, some cantrips, and a couple reanimation spells along with entomb. Being on the draw really hurt as my turn 1 play got dazed, then I got wasted all the while getting beat by a turn 1 delver and turn 3 young pyro. Eventually I stabilize at 1 with elesh norn, just have to dodge bolt for 5 turns and I win. Except my opponent plays fire covenant, yep, look that up. Once elesh hits the yard, a deathrite deals the last 2 damage.
SB:
-4 daze, -4FOW, -1 Tidespout Tyrant, -1 careful study
+2 needle, +2 abrupt decay, + 2 disfigure, +3 duress, +1 thought size
G2: I discard his young pyro and FOW for the first 2 turns and set up a griselbrand in the yard, looking to bring it back the following turn with reanimate. From the discard I know my opponent only has a fire/ice, lands and 1 unknown card he just drew. I draw ponder for the turn and decide to ponder to find another discard spell in case he topdecked a FOW. My ponder didn’t reveal a discard spell, but was good enough that I kept the cards on top. Then I went for the reanimate on the griselbrand only to get hit by the top decked spell pierce. If I just went for the reanimate, then I could have paid for the spell pierce. Looking back, I don’t regret casting the ponder, but once it didn’t reveal a discard spell or a second reanimation spell, I should have shuffled so that it gives one more chance at one or another reanimation spell in case my opponent did rip the FOW. I drew a few blanks after that and when I did draw a exhume, my opponent had the surgical ready to seal the match.
In conclusion, the deck felt extremely powerful. It was nice avoiding blue decks all day, but I feel favored vs. blue decks that are not miracles. The grixis match felt very winnable. If my opponent didn't top deck exactly what he needed in both games, I would've won easily. There was another elves deck in the finals, so I could have easily won the whole thing.
