[Deck] The Polar Express

[Michael Keller]

The Polar Express II: When Hell Freezes Over
as of 11-16-09

[4x] Tarmogoyf
[4x] Dark Confidant
[4x] Thoughtseize
[3x] Kitchen Finks
[3x] Pernicious Deed
[3x] Smother
[3x] Sensei's Divining Top
[3x] Living Wish
[2x] Duress
[2x] Crucible of Worlds
[2x] Crop Rotation
[2x] Vampire Hexmage
[2x] Eternal Witness

//Land
[4x] Verdant Catacombs
[4x] Bayou
[4x] Wasteland
[3x] Swamp
[2x] Forest
[1x] Polluted Delta
[1x] Windswept Heath
[1x] Volrath's Stronghold
[1x] Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
[1x] Dark Depths
[1x] Horizon Canopy

//Sideboard
[3x] Krosan Grip
[3x] Choke
[1x] Yixlid Jailer
[1x] Dark Depths
[1x] Vampire Hexmage
[1x] Ghost Quarter
[1x] Shriekmaw
[1x] The Tabernacle at Pendrell Vale
[1x] Glacial Chasm
[1x] Kitchen Finks
[1x] Wickerbough Elder

[Brushwagg]

All I can say is WOW. At first I thought this was just going to be a another Hollywood joke. But after sitting next to you for a couple of rounds and you making the top 8 I must says Congrats.

[MattH]

Have you considered Jokulmorder?

EDIT: Nevermind, I thought Jokulmorder only needed to sac three lands.

[Nihil Credo]

Jokulmorder is a lot more difficult to reanimate and attack with (you need six Islands for that).

The other blue fattie is Denizen of the Deep, which doesn't have any upkeep, however it also lacks trample so it risks getting chumpblocked into oblivion. It is also a Portal rare, and as such not that easy to find. Maybe a split of Kraken and Denizen could be optimal.

[FakeSpam]

I like the idea of Polar Kraken as a beater for making Sutured Ghoul bigger.

Since you already explained all the reasons FOR playing the big man, why are you still playing cloudscraper? Right, he can morph. I don't think your deck is really designed for swamp, rit, morph, go.

I just don't see why cloudscraper is a viable choice, he doesn't even have trample. He trips over squirrels. I suppose he doesn't come into play tapped, meh. Anything that's at least ten power is good enough, right?

[Zach Tartell]

how do you deal with meddling mage on buried alive? It looks like you don't have any discard outlets, so what do you do to pitch your fatties if they get a mage out? Hope you have a force or something? I guess I can't argue on results, but, man, it seems like your engine is a bit fragile.

[Michael Keller]

Jokulmorder is a lot more difficult to reanimate and attack with (you need six Islands for that).

The other blue fattie is Denizen of the Deep, which doesn't have any upkeep, however it also lacks trample so it risks getting chumpblocked into oblivion. It is also a Portal rare, and as such not that easy to find. Maybe a split of Kraken and Denizen could be optimal.

I looked at Denizen of the Deep and it really is a house. The whole issue surrounding him is this:

Pros:
He's blue and can be Forced away.
He doesn't hurt horribly off Reanimate (8 as opposed to 11).
He's an 11/11...which is barely sufficient.
He has no upkeep.

Cons:
He doesn't trample.
There is a huge difference between a 22/22 trampler and a 26/26 trampler. All they have to do is soak up 3 damage to prevent you from winning.
You can chump him all day.
Cloudscraper can be morphed, which is always nice. Because if someone knocks him off, he goes to the graveyard (underneath Ghoul) and helps in the reanimation process.

I like Cloudscraper better. Bottom line: Your Ghoul at 26/26 is better than 22/22. It's just so close with the power and toughness issue and being able to kill someone. What we need to look at is: Is that an issue?

[Nihil Credo]

I worded that in a bad way: by "a split of Kraken and Denizen" I meant 2 Cloudscraper (for the 26/26), 1 Kraken, 1 Denizen.

And yeah, it isn't important at all. But I'm not very experienced with classic Reanimator, and between Hulk-Flash and my Counter-Rebels I don't have much time to play other decks. I just posted what little useful info I could provide.

[xsockmonkeyx]

How often do you need to reanimate Kraken in a pinch? I think that would be the biggest factor after the power toughness of Ghoul when choosing your fatties. 22 vs 26 is important but having a consistent plan B is important too.

I too like Kraken over Cloudscraper. Maybe a 3/1 split would be good. That way you get a 24 and have 2 other krakens to work with for FoW pitching, emergency reanimation etc. Reanimating Kraken is >> than Cloud obviously.

EDIT: this is awesome.

[Michael Keller]

How often do you need to reanimate Kraken in a pinch? I think that would be the biggest factor after the power toughness of Ghoul when choosing your fatties. 22 vs 26 is important but having a consistent plan B is important too.

I too like Kraken over Cloudscraper. Maybe a 3/1 split would be good. That way you get a 24 and have 2 other krakens to work with for FoW pitching, emergency reanimation etc. Reanimating Kraken is >> than Cloud obviously.

EDIT: this is awesome.

The balance of creatures the deck plays as is is perfect - which is to say 6. Remember, you're only going to Buried Alive at most twice in a game - so two Buried Alives equal a total of six creatures which is perfect. Two of these creatures maindeck are obviously going to be Sutured Ghoul. The Polar Kraken count is sufficient. I had all these same thoughts you guys are having right now with the deck and the way it played out was absolutely fine in testing. Denizen of the Deep is really freakin' cool and he is an 11/11...but the balance of creatures is already set and the fact Cloudscraper is 13/13 just wins out over an 11/11. There is a strategy to Buried Aliving - I usually play it Ghoul, Kraken, Cloudscraper. I go 24/24 to start, unless I have a Reanimate in my hand to back up Kraken (if Shallow Grave is countered). Otherwise I go all Cloudscrapers. Reanimate remember can be used against an opponent. It's important to know what to get.

As for Meddling Mage, U/G/w Thresh is obviously an extremely hard matchup to begin with and the sideboard will be adjusted to help out with that. I run Lim Dul's Vault which essentially stacks my deck so fishing for a Duress first or Force and then Buried Alive is just plain amazing. I did it against Mulletus in Top 4: I stacked Force of Will on top of Buried Alive and had a blue card in hand. I had no problem getting what I need. I also run Brainstorm. This deck can potentially dig from top to bottom and stack it how it needs. Lim Dul's Vault acts as the 5-8 slots of every other card in the deck. That's how good it is.

I was considering running Wipe Away in the board or one main deck. I'm still working on testing that.

Cabal Pit is pretty cool and would work well against Mage.

You need to be careful with four Krakens, as I said above. Being able to prevent up to 3 damage against a 22/22 is huge. I suppose if they fetch once or twice it might hurt them in an extremely bizarre way...

The mana base is perfect. I never mulliganed once in the tournament in all the games I played. Having access to blue and black mana simultaneously is very important. The two life is irrelevant (unless I need to revert to plan B and Reanimate a Polar Kraken...which is rare).

[Benie Bederios]

Hello,

Damn this deck looks slick. I have a small tournament next week and I was planning to take IGGy-pop, but I think I will take this one. I like it alot more to have real MD protection instead of Leyline and I do own most of the cards. I only have to obtain one copy of the Kraken and doesn't own the Watery Graves. I do think the manabase needs some tweaking anyhow. I'm going to play some more basics and adding Cabal Pit as a 2-off. Getting Threshold isn't very difficult and it can kill a Mage or a blocker( I'm going to play 4 Krakens). The last point I see is, that you don't play a single bounce spell in MD or SB. Is there any reason for. This means you loose to Moat, Solitary Confinement if they can keep you of balance longe enough to get in play. When I know the excact manabase and SB I will inform you.

BB

[Benie Bederios]

Hello,

Hmm there seems to be lesser intrest in the deck, probably due to Hulksmash... Well I still played a the tournament and there was huge show up: 6 people.

Anyway this was the list I played.

The Polar Express - By Benie Bederios

Maindeck

2 Island
2 Swamp
3 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea

2 Sutered Ghoul
2 Krosan Cloudscraper
2 Denizen of the Deep

4 Lotus Petal
4 Dark Ritual

4 Duress
4 Force of Will
1 Chain of Vapor

4 Mystical Tutor
4 Brainstorm
4 Buried Alive
3 Careful Study

4 Shallow Grave
3 Reanimate

Sideboard

1 Echoing Truth
2 Massacre
1 Rushing River
4 Defense Grid
4 Phyrexian Negator
3 Dark Confidant

I did some minor changes to A Legend his list. I only played 15 lands instead of 16 and didn't play the Graves. I choose Denizen of the Deep over Polar Kraken. I made this change due to Careful Study. Getting a T1 Denizen is better then a T1 Kraken who will die turn 3. I choose Mystical Tutor over Vault because of the Casting cost. It's still a nice trick to go T1 EOT Brainstorm, during your upkeep use Mystical Tutor to shuffle the bad cards away.

In the SB I played bounce to stop GY hate( bounce > Pithing Needle, if you don't agree, read the IGGy-pop thread) and a transformal SB against control.

I don't have a detailed report. I ended second(4-2)after Thresh, with my only lost against Thresh and Hulk Flash. The decks I played against were.

1 Rw Vial Goblins
1 UGw Thresh
1 Hulk Flash( Disciple Kill)
1 Uw Fish
1 random aggro
1 Uw control deck

The Goblin and random aggro match( something RG with few burn and small creatures) were easy. UGw Thresh was a horrid matchup wich I lost bigtime. I really hate Swords to Plowshare+Jotun Grunt+ Meddling Mage. The Fishlike deck was built to beat Hulkflash, but didn't play black so he couldn't keep my graveyard under control. I lost 1-2 to Hulkflash. Game one I snatched a game from him with a first turn kill. After that I didn't have much change against that speed. I still ended above him because he lost to Fish, Thresh and Uw Control. The Controldeck didn't scare me, espacially after I sided in Negator and Confidant.

After all I was quite satisfied with the deck. Careful Study was a great card and I would surely keep an extra discard outlet in, but maybe I will change it to Mental Note( not really discard but comboes nice with Brainstorm) or Thirst for Knowledge( now card disadvantage but a CC of 3).

The one thing I wasn't really happy about was Reanimate. I only hit a creature in a opponent his Graveyard once( an Mystic Enforcer from Thresh) so Exhume might fit the spot better.
Next to that the Grids didn't feel optimal, might change them too.

Anyway tell me what you think.

BB

[Michael Keller]

Nice work, Benie. If those changes worked for you, then by all means keep retooling the deck to fit your needs.

Yeah much hasn't been said or written about this one because of the 'Hulk Trash' craze going on. The deck is really running the entire Source, so it's hard to compete with unquestionably the hottest deck in the format. The list I'm running for the Polar Express is still the same except for 2 Cabal Pit in place of the two Swamps. I haven't hd much time to test because of work...but I'm working on it.

[noobslayer]

Will you be playing this deck for the Grand Prix Hollywood? I do certainly hope so.

[Cait_Sith]

OK. I think I want to repeat here what I said when I first looked at the at Kadi's.

I LIKE the Polar Kraken tech. (Conceivably they could also be Denizen of the Deep, Jokulmorder, Phyrexian Maurader, etc. [I like Jokulmorder the best, only because its fun to say. I'd call it "Jokulmorder - The Polar Express" just so I can say Jokulmorder all the time.]).

Why do I like it? Because decks like these roll over to Swords and there are enough times that it would make decks like these risky to play. The added use of Jokulmorder means that you can survive two Swords before you have problems. With this deck's defenses, your opponent digging up two swords is far less likely to happen.

[noobslayer]

Polar Kraken and Denizen of the Deep are far better options, as you can feasibly reanimate them given the needed circumstance.

[Michael Keller]

Getting pumped up...

EDIT: I'll have a full in-depth report on how the deck fares at the box-office next weekend.

[Sevryn]

A few quick thoughts:
-Thoughtseize over duress? Hits creatures, can also hit yourself in a pinch.
-Why no entomb? I feel like I am missing something but shouldn't entomb be in reanimator?

[beastman]

The primer was written over two years ago dude.....

[android]

I've played SG based Reanimator for a number of years now and the list is constantly in flux. Typically, I like to have a backup plan for when I'm not able to run out Ghoul or he gets the old Swords treatment. This ranged anywhere from the now defunct reanimation targets like Akroma and Spirit of the Night to utility targets that give better odds vs Control decks. Anyhow, I'm getting off track because I really only have one bit of advice to offer; something which has worked for me and I truly believe in.

I understand the need for Cloudscraper or one of the Kraken to fatten up Ghoul but I always run Kuro, PitLord as a one off. Not only can he make Ghoul lethal when combined with another fatty, but he can be reanimated and machine gun problematic creatures. If you happen to have BBBB you can even have him stick around for awhile and swing.