[Deck] Reanimator

[Arsenal]

So, I was going to order my playset of Entomb... then the Mystical Tutor banning came down and it scared me away from this deck. It was putting up really nice results prior to MT-ban, and not so much now. Is this deck still worth investing $160 in for the Entombs? Strictly tier 2 or is it just a card away from becoming tier 1 again (not counting on MT coming back)?

[Mana Drain]

So, I was going to order my playset of Entomb... then the Mystical Tutor banning came down and it scared me away from this deck. It was putting up really nice results prior to MT-ban, and not so much now. Is this deck still worth investing $160 in for the Entombs? Strictly tier 2 or is it just a card away from becoming tier 1 again (not counting on MT coming back)?

I played the hell out of this deck after entomb was unbanned all the way up until MT was banned. Without MT, the deck just isn't the same. The speed, consistency, and resiliency of really diminished. Plus, people will ALWAYS have cards in the sideboard for you, due to dredge, loam decks, and madness. Without the ability to EOT MT for Show and Tell, gravehate becomes a whole lot more relevant than it used to be. The consistency issue can be addressed by the addition of preordain, but it slows you down, giving the other guy more time to find hate, disruption, or just kill you.

Although I do love the deck, I don't expect it to be what it was without MT. Back in the day, the problem was what to reanimate. I remember shitting bricks when Akroma was printed, just because there was nothing close to her before. Now we have Iona, Sphinx, Archon, and a boatload of other good dudes to choose from. Now we don't have any tutors for spells. We have to draw and draw to get what we need, and if we get disrupted, rebuilding is not nearly as easy. To be honest, I wouldn't buy the Entombs. Unless a creature was printed that said "YOU WIN THE GAME WHEN I COME INTO PLAY", this deck just isn't going anywhere other than a fluke T8 resulting from either god draws all day or the pilot stacking his deck. Unfortunately the deck is strictly Tier 2 now.

If anything, keep waiting. Entomb isn't run in any other deck to my knowledge, so barring aforementioned random T8 in an SCG Open, the price will slowly dwindle. At least not at $35 a piece. That's highway robbery.

[addaro]

There are others in this thread that have played more, but even from my testing the deck is quiet a lot incosistent. Or your opponent is playing eldrazi and that makes the whole SnT plan not viable. Yes, there are some games when you go T1 Entomb T2 Reanimate/Exhume with Force/Daze backup and you feel unbeatable but most of the time youre trying to draw the other part of your "combo" and are just hoping. And then there is the whole part of not losing to grave hate G2/3 and drawing both parts. Sometimes you get there and sometimes you dont. Go and try some games, youre own experience is the best guide...

[jcsy]

3 weeks without a reply either signifies :

the deck is established
the deck is not played anymore

^_^

are there any recent tournament showings for our Reanimator?

[Kirbykopf432]

i'd rather say it's established and played in legacy

but without duress or thoughtseize at least in the SB, this deck is a no go against counter

[jcsy]

i think most of us main deck thoughtseize, between 2-3.

4 is abit overkill against agro, drawing extra after a reanimate is just dead draws

[Tacosnape]

FWIW, I only quit playing this because my metagame is somehow chock full of Leyline Helm combo. But I still stand by that blue is a weak splash now and that mono black is much stronger in the current meta.

[Samexnyhi]

Hello, I'm new here, but I wanted to react to Tacosnape. This is my list :

// NAME : Réanimator
// FORMAT :
1 Swamp
2 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
1 Blazing Archon
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Terastodon
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
4 Brainstorm
4 Entomb
4 Force of Will
1 Show and Tell
3 Personal Tutor
4 Careful Study
4 Exhume
4 Preordain
4 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize

A french player finishes second at the open of the french cup (sorry , I'm not fluent in english >_>)with this deck. So, we have 12 draw cards to be sure we will be able to reanimate our creature.
We have 8 disrupt cards, that's not enough but there isn't any free slot.
We need at least 7 broken creature cards, Blazing archonte against dredge & merfolks, iona against LS and combo, inkwell leviathan when we doen't know what the other plays & terastodon to destroy what we want to destroy (survival, CotV, ensnaring bridge etc...).

The sideboard will depend on your metagame.
One more time, sorry about my english :s

[The Big Ragu]

I never actually considered this deck to be tier 1 even when it was listed as a DTB. Its draws seem very inconsistent, and it's easy to find yourself top decking more often than you like.

I've never had much fun playing with Reanimator decks, but for whatever the reason it's always been my favorite deck to go up against.

[menace13]

I never actually considered this deck to be tier 1 even when it was listed as a DTB. Its draws seem very inconsistent, and it's easy to find yourself top decking more often than you like.

I've never had much fun playing with Reanimator decks, but for whatever the reason it's always been my favorite deck to go up against.

This was one of the best decks in the format while Tutor was around, it was not even close to inconsistent. Now without Tuts it is weaksauce.

[The Big Ragu]

Sorry, I meant to say post-MT banning.

[ddt15]

How about this then:

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/l..._Cuvelier.html

list:

Reanimator
A Legacy deck, by John Cuvelier
14th place at a StarCityGames.com Legacy Open tournament in Boxborough, Massachusetts, United States on 2010-11-07

Maindeck:

Artifacts
1 Lightning Greaves
3 Lotus Petal
1 Pithing Needle

Artifact Creatures
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Platinum Angel
1 Platinum Emperion
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Steel Hellkite
2 Sundering Titan

Creatures
4 Goblin Welder
4 Hapless Researcher

Instants
4 Entomb
4 Force of Will
2 Intuition

Legendary Creatures
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

Sorceries
4 Careful Study
4 Exhume
3 Reanimate

Artifact Lands
2 Great Furnace
4 Seat of the Synod
4 Vault of Whispers

Lands
2 City of Brass
4 Darkslick Shores
2 Gemstone Mine

Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
1 Mindlock Orb
2 Pithing Needle
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Lodestone Golem
1 Ancient Grudge
1 Coffin Purge
3 Show and Tell
3 Thoughtseize

[Dark Ritual]

Interesting list, goblin welder is quite the innovation IMO. Lightning greaves seems like leet sauce in reanimator making welder nigh unkillable and welding out a petal for a hellkite, equipping the greaves to hellkite, swinging, then nuking part of your opponents board seems like a great play. Or you can just put sundering titan out there and armageddon over and over with welder. For obvious reasons the darkslick shores are suboptimal to u. sea's clearly just a budget choice and to be honest there is no drawback with darkslick shores in a deck running 16 land. I LOL'ed when I saw mindlock orb in the SB but clearly that card is the tech with welder since casting it seems hard. The problem with FoW in that list is the dangerously low number of blue cards the grand total of blue cards in that list including the reanimation targets which are also blue is 16. That's dangerously low and IMO I would rather just play thoughtseize in its place because of faerie macabre in some decks. Or duress. Overall very interesting list though I might actually sleeve it up and try it out.

Welder in a reanimator deck is just something I never would have expected to see lol although in a way welder survival is part reanimator since it runs some giant fatties to weld out.

[whienot]

Sundering Titan can't hit Darkslick Shores, where you would lose an Underground Sea in some cases. Daze and Brainstorm are the only cards that really want Fetches/Seas, in Reanimator anyway. Seeing the double Titan in the list leads me to believe Mr. Cuvelier was focused on LD plan.

It's quite an interesting list. I love seeing welder get some play.

[Dark Ritual]

Touche I forgot that line of text on sundering titan...his list is LD focused which is why he runs 2 of the titan's. And why the entire list for that matter runs no basic land so sundering titan is completely one-sided. I love the welder + greaves interaction so much though its sweet usually a topdecked welder can be terrible in some situations but with greaves in play its just a bomby draw. Not to mention greaves protects all your reanimation targets and I love me some hasty sphinx of the steel winds against aggro just a huge tempo swing.

[ddt15]

Well I put this together and it runs pretty smooth. Welder kind of allows you to put constant pressure or keep reanimating stuff. Entomb->pithing needle->weld it at instant speed is very nice against survival. Hapless Researcher seems weird at first but fits in pretty well, as extra careful study's or FoW food, or simply as an extra creature to dodge Edict spells. Welder can really profit as an engine card from people cutting back on burn and other pinpoint creature removal spells.

[Oxmo39]

I've done some little tests with this list and welder brings consistency to the deck, future will tell us if he can bring enough to compensate the lack of MT...
The only thing i can tell for now, is that i am not convinced by all the creatures choice, particularly for platinum angel & emperyion. They look weak and less gamebreaker than the others. think i'll test further with a second copy of Inkwell and Sphinx of steel wind to make it more consistent.

Finally, huge congrats to the deckbuilder for this amazing revolution!

[whienot]

Just noticed that the Welder version is actually Teen Titans from Extended 2005. Goes to show the value in revisiting past strategies.

[Blackmagic]

Just want to hear what you guys would replace the intuitions with in the list as I'm thinking of putting the deck together but don't own any intuitions (I'm talking about the starcity t16 list).

off the top of my head I'm considering
thirst for knowledge, what else?

[Oxmo39]

TFK seems the best replacement for intuition. The lists counts 23 artifacts, this should warrant you to draw 2 and drop a fattie ( or other welder-stuff) quite often.

By the way, I had time lately to test this list out. It works good, welder brings solution but THE solution.
Despite the adds of Hapless Researcher & Intuition, I found that i was not always able to drop a fattie in the yard.
I consider replacing 1 Hapless R by the third Intuition, which is slower but always brings something in the yard. And allowing reanimating EOT (with welder) is awesome!

Here are my current adaptations of the list but it deserves more tests!

-2 Darkslick Shores ; + 1 Gemstome Mine + 1 City of Brass
- Platinum Angel - Platinum Emperyion : + 1 Inkwell Leviathan + 1 Sphinx of Steel Wind (I hate wasting 2 or 3 cards to reanimate a fattie that opponent can deal with!)
- 1 Hapless Researcher ; + 1 Intuition

Has anybody else tested this list ? Other opinions would be interesting...