Quote Originally Posted by merfolkotpt View Post
Hey all,

I have been acquiring the cards for reanimator because it looks like it is pretty broken and fast enough to get under Miracles a lot of the time, but I am a little confused about some of the options and what matchups they make better and worse?

For the reanimation targets, why Jin-Gitaxious/Sire over additional Griselbrand? Why not or why to include Grave titan main and or tidespout tyrant? Is aetherling vs inkwell just preference out of the sideboard? Also for the maindeck, what does running or not running ponder say about how you expect the deck to work, likewise hapless researcher/JVP.

Finally, why are some versions eschewing show and tell completely from the 75, it seems so important when you consider the kinds of hate that people can bring in against you.

Thanks for the advice, I am mostly just looking to understand the pretty diverse versions of the deck that are out there, since there doesn't seem to be a consensus, mainstream build in top 8s.
1. Sire is great in a meta where you can expect a lot of storm or really any combo deck that requires a critical mass of cards to win (I'll include sneak and show in that as well and kinda infect). If you can land him it's usually game over for those decks.

2. Grave Titan is good against Liliana of the Veil decks specifically, but is a beating against any fair deck in general. You can also realistically cast him if the game drags on which you can't say for a lot of the creatures. Tidespout Tyrant is lights out against Lands and generally very good against the big mana decks like MUD where you can bounce their expensive crap and go to work on their mana base.

3. Aetherling is specifically for Miracles since it's so hard for them to deal with. Inkwell is kinda a generally good card since it's so big, has shroud, and is mostly unblockable since so many decks in legacy play blue (plus trample). Some people like him as a sideboard card to bring in against Death and Taxes since all your legendary threats are so anemic in that matchup.

4. I really like Ponder since this is a combo deck and Ponder is always good in combo decks. I haven't played Hapless Researcher so I'm not gonna try to speak on him. JVP is a good card in Reanimator but its possible he's better as a sideboard card. On the one hand, he does everything you want (loot, flashback discarded/countered spells). On the other hand, he's a 2 drop that does nothing when you cast him while this deck is trying to be lightning fast game 1. In sideboarded games that tend to slow down to a grind when you have to slog through hate, he's a lot more reasonable of a card.

5. The biggest problem with Show and Tell is that Reanimator isn't really designed to be a Show and Tell deck. You've got cards like Entomb and Careful Study that are in the deck to get creatures into the yard, but you don't want that at all with S&T. It kinda pulls the deck in two different directions. It really comes down to personal preference though, S&T is definitely a powerful card that just invalidates a large amount of hate cards that will be brought in against you.