[EDH] Reanimator

[AngryTroll]

I'd like to build a Reanimation deck for EDH, as my 5C Control deck draws a lot of ire from the more casual players. So, I need something more fun that will still win games, but not win every game.

There are a couple of immediate downsides to running this type of deck in EDH. First, everyone's packing removal; second, the good reanimation stuff in is UB, but the good creatures are spread across all colors. Unfortunately, that makes choosing a general pretty hard. Now, if you could put your general into your hand at any time to cast him, it'd be great...but dropping him straight into play is pretty terrible.

Alright, the good stuff I've found:

--Good Card Filtering and Stuff--
Careful Study
Compulsion
Compulsive Research
Thirst for Knowledge
Frantic Search
Pulse of the Grid
Careful Consideration
Probe
Fact or Fiction
Buried Alive
Intuition
Entomb

--Possible Card Filtering--
Ghastly Discovery
Catalog
Ideas Unbound
Forget
Mental Discipline
Sift through Sands
Sift

--Creatures to Dig and Stuff--
Thought Courier
Merfolk Looter
Looter il-Kor
Krovikan Sorcerer
Bonded Fetch
Cephalid Looter
Vexing Sphinx

--Reanimation Spells--
Reanimate
Exhume
Animate Dead
Life//Death
Dance of the Dead
Stitch Together
Necromancy
Zombify
Dread Return
Vigor Mortis
Strands of Night
Makeshift Mannequin
Debtor's Knell
Profane Command
Living Death

--Possible Reanimation Spells--
Soul Exchange (if I run the dig creatures)
Victimize (if I run dig creatures)
Twilight's Call
Beacon of Unrest

--Good Creatures to Reanimate--
Empyrial Archangel
Inkwell Leviathan
Reya Dawnbringer
Verdant Force
Multani, Maro-Sorcerer
Super Meddling Mage Angel (name a color)

--Possible Reanimation Targets--
Keiga, the Tide Star
Angel of Despair
Akroma
Hellkite Overlord
Simic Sky Swallower
Magister Sphynx
Teneb, the Harvester
Crosis, the Purger
Dromar, the Banisher
Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund (steals other Generals sometimes)
Duplicant
Thraximunder
Sundering Titan
Baneslayer Angel
Phantom Nishoba
Sphinx of the Steel Wind
Razia, Boros Archangel

--Tutors--
Demonic Tutor
Vampiric Tutor
Mystical Tutor
Beseech the Queen

--Stuff--
Vanishing
Lightning Greaves
Safe Haven
Brain Gorgers
Big Game Hunter
Obsessive Search

--Creature Steal-- (For generals and Exhume and such)
Control Magic
Treachery
Mind Control
Persuasion

--Good Removal--
Shriekmaw
Visara the Dreadful
Avatar of Woe
Innocent Blood
Ghastly Demise
Dark Withering
Doomblade
Terror
Diabolic Edict
Chainer's Edict
Rend Flesh
Eyeblight's Ending
Dark Banishing
Death Rattle
Toxic Stench
Expunge



So, it looks like there's more than enough cards to do this (about 90 in that list), but I don't know how I would narrow it down to 99 of them. How many creatures versus dig spells versus reanimation spells do you play? What creatures do you reanimate? The number of good, survivable creatures (the Shroud ones, basically) is pretty slim (Leviathan, the Angel, Multani, Simic Sky Swallower, Plated Slagwurm...only the first three of those are very impressive).

Am I missing any key cards for this? What's chaff from that list? I wish Worldgorger Dragon was legal.

I'm pretty sure that there's a fun list in here, that'll do a fine (but not spectacular) job against the more casual players. Like I said, I'd like to build something strong enough to win or at least threaten to win, but not so strong that the more casual crowd I've found here stop playing with me.

[Roman Candle]

Sedris gives you UBR for your colors, and gives you a Reanimator effect as a general.

[Aggro_zombies]

Scion of the Ur-Dragon? Finds Dragons and puts them directly into the yard, where you can reanimate them. Plus, you're in five colors, so you have access to all the best reanimation targets on the side.

[Media314r8]

Reaper King as general,

5c survival engine with:

enlightened tutor
idyllic tutor
demonic tutor
beseech the queen
diabolic tutor

welder
master transmuter

sharuum
sphinx summoner
duplicant
sundering titan (build your 5c manabase accordingly)

genesis
e witness
squee
anger
rofellos
quirion ranger
scryb ranger
thousand-year elixer

Decent scarecrows (theres about 5-10 of them, if you consider the ones with conditional persist 'good', as they still trigger Reaper King when they persist.

Should be a decent starting point. Recurring nightmare in banned in EDH, so I would recommend welder type-recursion or Sedrixis over straight reanimation spells.

[MattH]

Extractor Demon and, uh, Deep Spawn are synergistic fatties...

[Eatatjoes]

Teneb, the harvester

[JeroenC]

Best generals for this are definitely Scion of the Ur-Dragon (this guy is such a beating) and the Grixis dude.

[MattH]

Best generals for this are definitely Scion of the Ur-Dragon (this guy is such a beating) and the Grixis dude.

Personally I like Sharuum -> ArtiFat as a reanimation strategy (Magister Sphinx yayyy), but that's probably not what this guy's looking for.

[AngryTroll]

Personally I like Sharuum -> ArtiFat as a reanimation strategy (Magister Sphinx yayyy), but that's probably not what this guy's looking for.

And Mindslaver. It's so dirty.

[beastman]

Don, I'm ashamed that you didn't even mention trying a survival engine. It gets your fatties to the yard, and it's a super badass card for EDH anyway.

[Sims]

I personally run Teneb as my reanimator general. You lose the "dig" that blue provides, but I have never had a problem getting fat into my yard with Buried Alive, Entomb, a few Dredgers (Loam, Stinkweed), and hell I don't even use Survival (don't own one.) Being BGW you have the best reanimation effects, wrath effects, mana acceleration, and a good amount of ridic fatties. Even without survival I've been able to combo out with infinite mill or a huge husk.

If you're set on using blue, I'd say either Sedris or possibly a 5C general, but at least Sedris plays into the reanimation strategy by giving you another way of reanimating your fat for explosive turns.