[WGD] Ub Dragon Reanimator

[death]

JANUARY 19, 2015, BANNED AND RESTRICTED ANNOUNCEMENT

Announcement Date: January 19, 2015
Effective Date: January 23, 2015

Legacy: Worldgorger Dragon is no longer banned.

Worldgorger Dragon has a strange and powerful interaction with Animate Dead.
This used to be too powerful for Legacy. It is not clear that this is more powerful than animating Griselbrand,
and this interaction may add an interesting variant. Worldgorger Dragon is no longer banned.



3 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae¹

4 Entomb
4 Buried Alive
4 Animate Dead
4 Dance of the Dead

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Cunning Wish
4 Pact of Negation

4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal

4 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Duskmantle, House of Shadow

SB: Stroke of Genius


Whelp. There you have it. We need a quick, solid and consistent plan that doesn't rely on 1-offs like
Nephalia Drownyard, Piranha Marsh, etc. Buried Alive and Cunning Wish are solid. The latter works as
win condition and also provides some resilience to the deck once you factor in a working wishboard.

• With infinite blue mana you can: Cunning Wish -> Stroke of Genius your opponent
• With a second copy of Entomb -> Oona, Queen of the Fae: Exile opponent's library
• With Buried Alive you can: 2 Worldgorger Dragon + Oona, Queen of the Fae in GY

I would rather have a little bit more stability and less glass cannon.

Those interested in a more traditional approach, from the list above you can swap

Buried Alive package:
4 Dark Ritual
4 Buried Alive
4 Cunning Wish

for

Intuition package:
4 Griselbrand
4 Careful Study
3 Intuition
1 Snapcaster Mage


In the list below, Intuition takes both roles of Buried Alive and Cunning Wish:

4 Griselbrand
3 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 Snapcaster Mage

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Thoughtseize

2 Ponder

4 Entomb
3 Intuition
4 Careful Study
4 Animate Dead
3 Dance of the Dead

4 Lotus Petal

4 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Duskmantle, House of Shadow


This I believe feels closer to where Dragon wants to be, being the third variant of Entomb decks.
We run Animate Dead/Dance of the Dead +/- Necromancy in place of

• Reanimate/Exhume (in Reanimator)
• Shallow Grave/Goryo's Vengeance (TinFins).

Our reanimation spells in contrast are not susceptible to storm hate cards i.e. Envelop and Flusterstorm.

Furthermore,

• we don't lose life to our reanimation spells
• the effect isn't symmetrical unlike Exhume
• we have five ways of binning our creatures
• we have 2 instant-speed tutors in the deck
• 0 Dark Ritual means room for more spells
• two Meddling Magi aren't going to stop us

Card Choices
a) Enablers
Entomb - primary enabler, can search for any card. Examples of cards that can be searched of value: Crippling Fatigue, Coffin Purge.
Careful Study - a loot card that supplements Entomb, for instances where you drew creatures or you just want to cycle lands.
Intuition - counts as Entomb 5-8. With Snapcaster Mage you can replay Intuition and find the other half of the combo.
Buried Alive - fulfills the role of Intuition + Snapcaster Mage, for budget reasons. However, unable to stop loop.
Nephalia Drownyard - you use this to find a creature that ends the loop or directly mill out the opponent.
Duskmantle, House of Shadow - cheaper to activate if you are trying to bin a card with Brainstorm.

b) Reanimation
Animate Dead - the first card printed in Magic the Gathering. Primary reanimation since the drawback is only -1/-0.
Dance of the Dead - secondary enabler, drawback is creature CIPT. You can run this into a counter spell first.
Necromancy - costly at CMC 3, the drawback is that it's sacrificed at the end of turn if used as an instant.

c) Creatures
Worldgorger Dragon + Oona, Queen of the Fae + Snapcaster Mage - see below

d) Protection
Force of Will is the only counterspell recommended.
We get more benefit from discard: Thoughtseize, Duress, Cabal Therapy, Inquisition of Kozilek and Unmask.

Sideboard
Chain of Vapor/Echoing Truth - as catch all bounce spells
Dystopia - deals with Deathrite Shaman, Containment Priest, white Leyline and Rest in Peace
Massacre - bring this in against any deck that plays Plains since they might be running hate bears
Engineered Explosives - deals with artifact hate: Grafdigger's Cage, Relic of Progenitus, Pithing Needle
Pithing Needle - use primarily against Sneak Attack/Dark Depths combo, Sensei's Divining Top and Grindstone





Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead lets you Enter an Infinite loop and "blink" all your permanents, this
is where you generate an absurd amount of mana off of lands since they come back into play untapped. You
can interrupt this loop only with an Instant spell or if Animate Dead ends up enchanting another creature.

First the Worldgorger Dragon needs to be in your graveyard (via Careful Study, Entomb, Buried Alive, or other such cards). Play Animate Dead, which turns into a local enchantment that pulls target creature out of any graveyard into play (meaning the Dragon). The Dragon comes into play, and summarily removes all of your other permanents from the game, including the Animate Dead and whatever lands (or Moxes) you have in play.

When Animate Dead leaves play, however, the creature it was enchanting is destroyed. The Dragon dies. And when the Dragon leaves play, all the permanents it had removed come back into play, including your lands (untapped), and the Animate Dead. Animate Dead pulls the Dragon back out of the graveyard, its comes-into-play ability triggers – at which point you can tap your lands for mana and then everything but the Dragon is removed from the game… again. Repeat. You net an amount of mana per cycle equal to what your mana sources can produce.

How Intuition piles work: 2 WGD + Snapcaster Mage

• Opponent hands you SCM: loop with either Dragon, interrupt by casting SCM flashback Intuition.
  Intuition for Oona + 2 Griselbrand. Animate Dead switching target to Griselbrand will stop the loop
  and you can hardcast Oona. Or if opponent chose to bin Oona, you switch to her and win on the spot.
  
• Opponent hands WGD: interrupt the loop with SCM in the yard, SCM enters play flashback Intuition.
  Intuition for Oona + 2 Animate Dead. You can hardcast Oona with your infinite mana or animate her.

Snapcaster Mage can also break the loop if there's an Entomb in the graveyard ready to be recycled.
Flashback Entomb to search for Oona, Queen of the Fae or Griselbrand if Oona is already in your hand.
(The loop ends when Animate Dead enchants another creature in the graveyard instead of Dragon.)


EDIT – For those unaware of the combo, with infi / + Duskmantle, House of Shadow/Nephalia Drownyard
you can mill your deck until you bin Oona, Queen of the Fae. You can then interrupt the loop by switching
Animate Dead target to OQotF and exile your opponent's library using the absurd amount of mana.

You can also mill your opponent out and stop the combo on one of the creatures that ended up in their graveyard.

If you drew a creature, a single Brainstorm + fetchland (or Duskmantle) activation can fix that. Or Careful Study.

Below is the non-FoW/Unmask version of the first deck, Thoughtseize replacing Pact of Negation:

3 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Scholar of Athreos²

4 Brainstorm
4 Cunning Wish

4 Entomb
4 Buried Alive
4 Animate Dead
4 Dance of the Dead

4 Unmask
4 Thoughtseize

4 Dark Ritual
4 Lotus Petal

4 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Duskmantle, House of Shadow

Cunning Wish is miles better than Read the Runes for those still in the dark.
Do I still need to include a reason to play this uber cool classic deck, lol.

[AngryTroll]

Why are you running 3 Worldgorger? Two seems like it would be plenty.

I can't imagine not running some numbers of Necromancy for the ability to go off at instant speed. Especially with Dark Ritual in the deck the single extra mana doesn't seem like a bad deal. I'm not sure what mix of Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy I'd run, but it wouldn't be 4/4/0.

Your combo is:
Entomb
Animate Dead or Necromancy
Cunning Wish or a second Entomb
----or----
Buried Alive
Animate Dead or Necromancy

It seems like a few extra combo pieces to go alongside the first plan wouldn't hurt you. I'd want to fit in at least Ponder or Lim-Dul's Vault to help set up the combo, and a few extra combo pieces wouldn't hurt (the lands you mentioned, Piranha Marsh and Nephalia Drownyard, or Baleful Strix seem to me to be the best ones).

I like the Pacts of Negation, but are they better than Thoughtseize? They're certainly faster.

[apple713]

id recommend including a reason why people would play this over something else. Additionally, you have 0 answers main deck to a DRS or abrupt decay. 60% of the time you won't have FOW in your opening and probably even less because you only run 16 blue cards which is the bare minimum. No gitaxian probe to see if you will win the couter war and no discard. Back to the drawing board bro. You are practically unprotected and at that point might as well be playing something like belcher.

[death]

To answer a few questions, 3 WGD but you can downsize to 2. The advantage of 3 is that if you draw 1 or 2 without a Brainstorm in hand, the deck can still function. Also, 2 Deathrite Shamans can't beat Buried Alive -> 3 WGD in the yard. Necromancy as an instant reanimation spell is fine, although too expensive. With 3 mana (Swamp + Dark Ritual) you can just combo off with Entomb + Animate/Dance of the Dead.

4 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Nephalia Drownyard

2 Nephalia Drownyard replacing 1 U Sea/1 fetch wouldn't hurt, so we don't have to rely much on finding a win con, Cunnning Wish or second Entomb. Four copies is too much since Nephalia Drownyard doesn't give colored mana and you don't want to draw this land too often. Piranha Marsh is just too slow (CIPT) in a format where you want to race other combo decks and Deathrite Shamans before they become online.

EDIT – For those unaware of the combo, with infi U/B mana + Nephalia Drownyard you can mill your deck until you bin Oona, Queen of the Fae. You can then interrupt the loop by switching the Animate Dead target from WGD to OQotF and proceed to exile your opponent's library using the absurd amount of mana created.

id recommend including a reason why people would play this over something else. Additionally, you have 0 answers main deck to a DRS or abrupt decay. 60% of the time you won't have FOW in your opening and probably even less because you only run 16 blue cards which is the bare minimum. No gitaxian probe to see if you will win the counter war and no discard. Back to the drawing board bro. You are practically unprotected and at that point might as well be playing something like belcher.

Do I still need to include a reason to play this uber cool classic deck, lol. There are 4 Cunning Wishes main deck that I count as answers since they can tutor up almost anything from the board, if you go via Buried Alive route you can just ignore DRS. Gitaxian Probe is not needed, it's poor practice to rely on it to see if it's safe to go off. It is better to anticipate what the opponent can possibly have and sculpt a hand that can beat it. You're also not going to draw Gitaxian Probe in every game, even if you do, the card doesn't offer protection by itself. If your opponent played with his/her hand revealed you still couldn't win if you don't have an answer.

That said, Gitaxian Probe + Cabal Therapy may be added in, in place of some Lotus Petal/Dark Ritual and Pact of Negation. It's also possible to run a discard suite like Unmask + Thoughtseize instead of Force of Will + Pact of Negation counter suite. With Pacts though the deck is much faster if you can just anticipate what the opponent have and sculpt a hand that can beat it. 4 Cunning Wish + Force of Will + Pact of Negation this deck is very far from Belcher bro, lol.

[Michael Keller]

Putrid Imp, perhaps? I mean, if speed is in the equation with Petals and Rituals, wouldn't that at least be a consideration in a shell with more reanimation targets?

[death]

I tested 2 Duskmantle, House of Shadow (functionally the same as Nephalia Drownyard) in place of 2 Misty Rainforest and it definitely helps. I notice the deck now feels much like a 2-card combo. Cunning Wish is miles better than Read the Runes for those still in the dark. Also, Buried Alive over Intuition because the former leaves behind Oona in the yard. This way all you need to do is animate the Dragon, switch target = GG, without having the need for a 3rd combo piece.

Putrid Imp, perhaps? I mean, if speed is in the equation with Petals and Rituals, wouldn't that at least be a consideration in a shell with more reanimation targets?

The more compact the creature package the better. I think that is one advantage of Dragon over traditional Reanimator, we can run less creatures and more spells that actually win the game.

[alphastryk]

Scholar of Atheros is a nice upgrade over Oona because it doesn't target. Props to whoever figured that one out.

I feel like we're getting close to a real list at this point.

[phazonmutant]

I tested 2 Duskmantle, House of Shadow (functionally the same as Nephalia Drownyard) in place of 2 Misty Rainforest and it definitely helps. I notice the deck now feels much like a 2-card combo. Cunning Wish is miles better than Read the Runes for those still in the dark. Also, Buried Alive over Intuition because the former leaves behind Oona in the yard. This way all you need to do is animate the Dragon, switch target = GG, without having the need for a 3rd combo piece.



The more compact the creature package the better. I think that is one advantage of Dragon over traditional Reanimator, we can run less creatures and more spells that actually win the game.

Isn't that the same justification for TinFins? Except TinFins is a 2-card combo with getting Griselbrand in play, this is a 3-card combo where the third card can be a few different mediocre-to-crappy cards (Duskmantle? Yeah).

I guess you don't have to run as much mana acceleration because you can use lands to build mana once you combo, but those fast mana sources also give TinFins some of its explosive power. Buried Alive is a solid step in the right direction for making it a 2-card combo, that's more of what this deck needs. Although from experience with TinFins, Intuition does the same work Buried Alive does except that it pitches to Force, is an instant, and can find reanimation. I'd recommend that over Buried Alive.

[alphastryk]

...Although from experience with TinFins, Intuition does the same work Buried Alive does except that it pitches to Force, is an instant, and can find reanimation. I'd recommend that over Buried Alive.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Intuition doesn't work out so well here - we need to get two specific and different creatures in the yard - we can't cast the second one, it needs to be in the graveyard to end the loop.

As far as I know, only Buried Alive and Gifts Ungiven can do that without including some other terrible card in the deck to get the second man back into the yard (Gigapede, Raven's Crime etc).


Edit - thinking about Gifts got me to a slow true 2-card combo list - Gifts and Buried -> Animate / Dance

Here's a really rough shot at it:


1 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Scholar of Athreos
4 Buried Alive
3 Gifts Ungiven
4 Animate Dead
3 Dance of the Dead

4 Thoughtseize
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Force of Will

4 Gitaxian Probe
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Preordain

2 Island
2 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Flooded Strand
4 Underground Sea
2 Scalding Tarn
2 Marsh Flats

[jvmauck]

I posted this into the other WGD thread, but I figured I should post it here as well.

4 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
2 Griselbrand

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Entomb
4 Cunning Wish

2 Careful Study
3 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize

4 Animate Dead
3 Dance of the Dead
2 Necromancy

4 Lotus Petal

4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Misty Rainforest
2 Swamp
1 Island
2 Nephalia Drownyard
2 Duskmantle, House of Shadow

SB:
4 Leyline of Sanctity
4 Chain of Vapor
2 Flusterstorm
1 Pact of Negation
1 Blue Sun's Zenith
1 Misdirection
1 Intuition
1 Scholar of Athreos

[death]

I think we are near towards a common build. 3-4 cards different but majority of the pieces are locked in.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure Intuition doesn't work out so well here - we need to get two specific and different creatures in the yard - we can't cast the second one, it needs to be in the graveyard to end the loop.

As far as I know, only Buried Alive and Gifts Ungiven can do that without including some other terrible card in the deck to get the second man back into the yard (Gigapede, Raven's Crime etc).

Those interested in a traditional approach, from my list in the OP try swapping out

Buried Alive package:
4 Dark Ritual
4 Buried Alive
4 Cunning Wish

for

Intuition package:
4 Griselbrand
4 Careful Study
3 Intuition
1 Snapcaster Mage


How Intuition works:
Intuition for 2 WGD + Snapcaster Mage

• Opponent hands you SCM: loop with either Dragon, interrupt by casting SCM flashback Intuition.
  Intuition for Oona + 2 Griselbrand. Animate Dead switching target to Griselbrand will stop the loop
  and you can hardcast Oona. Or if opponent chose to bin Oona, you switch to her and win on the spot.
• Opponent hands WGD: interrupt the loop with SCM in the yard, SCM enters play flashback Intuition.
  Intuition for Oona + 2 Animate Dead. You can hardcast Oona with your infinite mana or animate her.

credit: Caleb Durward

[death]

4 Griselbrand
3 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Oona, Queen of the Fae
1 Snapcaster Mage

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Thoughtseize

2 Ponder

4 Entomb
3 Intuition
4 Careful Study
4 Animate Dead
3 Dance of the Dead

4 Lotus Petal

4 Underground Sea
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Duskmantle, House of Shadow

In this list, Intuition takes the place of Buried Alive/Cunning Wish. Having Griselbrand on the team makes for a formidable combination. The difference between this and traditional Reanimator is that this one has the option to win on the spot or ride Griselbrand to victory. Our reanimation spells are also less susceptible to storm hate cards i.e. Envelop and Flusterstorm.

[Jander78]

What's the advantage of reanimating Griselbrand over just winning with Dragon? Dedicating 4 more slots to an uncastable creature seems like overkill.

[L-Luck]

if you go via Buried Alive route you can just ignore DRS

Really, how? Seems like Tropical Island + Deathrite just counters your reanimation spell indepently on the number of Dragons in your grave since you most certainly can't run Exhume.

[Finn]

Pact of Negation and Oona in the same deck makes no sense. The whole point of Oona is that she can attack the next turn.

[death]

What's the advantage of reanimating Griselbrand over just winning with Dragon? Dedicating 4 more slots to an uncastable creature seems like overkill.

Dragon requires a 3rd combo piece which you might not have at the time you can reanimate. Griselbrand lets you find those missing pieces and do it all again, in addition it can find silver bullets and countermagic for hate cards, while being an active blocker or potential game ender.

In short, he gives you an option to win and not just draw with Dragon. I have seen the deck above in action but I haven't tested it myself and 3 might be the correct number. Against Show and Tell, putting him into play just lets you take over the game, a nice option when you don't have anything to stop the Dragon from looping.

Really, how? Seems like Tropical Island + Deathrite just counters your reanimation spell indepently on the number of Dragons in your grave since you most certainly can't run Exhume.

That's only possible if you have multiple reanimation spells available.

Pact of Negation and Oona in the same deck makes no sense. The whole point of Oona is that she can attack the next turn.

It doesn't in a deck with Griselbrands where Thoughtseize is better. In a dedicated Dragon deck however you almost never attack with anything.

[Finn]

It doesn't in a deck with Griselbrands where Thoughtseize is better. In a dedicated Dragon deck however you almost never attack with anything.

Right. So you don't use Oona, who is there because she can attack, but she does not kill on the spot. Try one of the other kill-now creatures like Duskmantle Guildmage or the invoker.

[LennonMarx]

Right. So you don't use Oona, who is there because she can attack, but she does not kill on the spot. Try one of the other kill-now creatures like Duskmantle Guildmage or the invoker.

Oona does kill on the spot for all intents and purposes. You exile their entire library and pass the turn and they die in their draw step. If pact is the concern it will never come back around to your upkeep to matter. The fact that in some spots you can animate her "for value" is just bonus.

[death]

The latter doesn't pitch to Force of Will, the former just enables your opponent's DTT which can be used to find an answer like Trickbind. Scholar of Athreos is the second best creature since she doesn't target (value against white Leyline and Solitary Confinement) and doesn't die to cards like Sudden Shock.

[troopatroop]

Love the work you've done death, I respect your opinion alot on combo.

If you could, break down some reasons why the deck is good? Some idiosyncrasy that might not be obvious?

Also, is there a "best" list currently? Is it the top of the thread? Thanks, and Great work.