[Deck] Reanimator

[SMR0079]

Just won a small Legacy event for a set of Tundras with Reanimator. I ended up deciding on redundancy in discard outlets and reanimate effects. I moved the Thoughtseize/Duress to the Board and cut the LDV/Ponders for 4x Putrid Imp and 3 Animate Dead giving me 12 outlets and 11 reanimate effects. It adds quite a bit of consistency to the deck without having to slow down for Duress, and I have been unhappy with LDV lately.

Null Rod was my sideboard MVP hosing MUD and Vial all day.

My only loss was to Zoo. Game one he had tripple Bolt for Iona naming white (it was a big Zoo version too). Kept a sketchy 6 hander game two and lost the race.

None of my opponents drew or had grave yard hate.

I beat: Dredge, Mud, Merfolk, NO Bant, Mud, Goblins.

[justindz]

Congrats! I thoroughly agree with your approach, as I've found the redundancy to be excellent. I'd be curious if you wouldn't mind posting:

What was your main and sideboard mix of fatties?
How did you board in the matches you played?

[SMR0079]

Ok, here is a quick summary.

8 disruption: 4 Fow, 1 Misdirection, 3 Daze
8 monsters: 2 Iona, 1 Terrastadon, 1 Spinx, 1 Platnium Emperion, 1 Blazing Archon, 1 Stormtide LEviathan, 1 Inkwell Leviathan
4 Putrid Imp
3 Animate Dead
17 Land
20 cards you all should be running ;)

SB:
4 Duress
3 Extirpate
3 Wipe Away
3 Null Rod
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Emprial Archangel

I side in Duress for Daze/misdirection on the Draw. You have to guess what kind of hate they will have whether you need Null Rod or Wipe Away. I often sided out various creatures for this disruption slot, along with a single Putrid Imp.

I don't think the Extirpates are really necassary, but I expected Dredge and one of our best players runs ThopterControl. It could be replaced with Spell Peirce which would help with the blue count. Some number of Imps could be hapless researcher, but besides the blue count, there is no reason you would want this change. Being able to win off a single Swamp was relavant more then once during the tournament. In certain situations fetching the Sea can cost you games to WAsteland, in others you need it for Daze back up.

The Angel was for the Storm match, but Platnimum Angel may be better with Painted Stone and High Tide decking you.
Show n Tell has not been very good to me as of late, and if there is that much yard hate for it to be really necassary then you should probably switch to another deck.

[justindz]

Looks like the same main board configuration I run, but significant differences in the SB (I use 4x Spell Pierce, for example) and I use Hapless instead of PImp. I think the Hapless has a slight advantage is certain situations where you lose unless you dig one card deeper--imp can't do that. However, Imp wins if you need a repeatable outlet. I just haven't seen that happen enough to be worth the cost of not pitching to Force and being unable to block.

Is the Dryad Arbor just a Misty Rainforest target for a blocker? When did you use that? Also, how do you feel about Wipe Away over Chain of Vapor (I use these) or Echoing Truth?

[practical joke]

you fetch it when you get warren weirding or another edict effect thrown at your head.

[SMR0079]

Looks like the same main board configuration I run, but significant differences in the SB (I use 4x Spell Pierce, for example) and I use Hapless instead of PImp. I think the Hapless has a slight advantage is certain situations where you lose unless you dig one card deeper--imp can't do that. However, Imp wins if you need a repeatable outlet. I just haven't seen that happen enough to be worth the cost of not pitching to Force and being unable to block.

Is the Dryad Arbor just a Misty Rainforest target for a blocker? When did you use that? Also, how do you feel about Wipe Away over Chain of Vapor (I use these) or Echoing Truth?

I am on the fence over Imp & Hapless Researcher. I may try a split. I run 5 fetches that can grab Arbor in response to an edict effect. I found the Gobblins match up to be surprisingly difficult if I don't get a quick start.

I prefer Wipe Away as an out to Counterbalance, and permanents like Ensnaring Bridge in Control.

[Kaslan]

Hey guys! what do you think if Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite as a reanimate target against Goblin, Merfolk, and Dredge ?

It's an auto GG for us no ?

[JonBarber]

Hey guys! what do you think if Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite as a reanimate target against Goblin, Merfolk, and Dredge ?

It's an auto GG for us no ?

Its not vs Goblins. They still have warren weirding and stingscourger, but it still seems pretty good nonetheless (especially if they're over committed to the board). Versus menfolk and dredge though, I would say yes, short of a bounce effect, they are in trouble.

[practical joke]

Cards that are good vs goblins...

iona (when there's no vial, nor lackey)
Sphinx of the steel wind (when iona doesn't cut it)
Akroma, angel of wrath ( pro vs warren weirding, you don't lose any clock)

Blazing archon and leviathan are mediocre, but decent.

[fdiv_bug]

Akroma, angel of wrath ( pro vs warren weirding, you don't lose any clock)

While I implicitly trust your judgment with regard to Reanimator... am I missing something? Protection from black doesn't stop Warren Weirding since the Weirding doesn't target the creature, but the player. Leyline of Sanctity would stop Warren Weirding, but man would that card be a poor choice for this deck.

[Di]

Its not vs Goblins. They still have warren weirding and stingscourger, but it still seems pretty good nonetheless (especially if they're over committed to the board). Versus menfolk and dredge though, I would say yes, short of a bounce effect, they are in trouble.

Short of a bounce effect, he'd be stricly worse than Blazing Archon against Merfolk. Merfolk can still rack up lords and level up Coralhelm Commanders to offset this and either swing through it thanks to islandwalk, or even potentially gang-block to kill it as it also lacks evasion. Either one is fine vs. Dredge, except I suppose Blazing Archon is slightly weaker in the random corner-case scenario that they have an army and randomly Dread Return Angel of Despair.

I'd still prefer Sphinx of the Steel Wind against Goblins regardless, although he's nice to reset the board.

[practical joke]

Sphinx is fine, but if they start chaining the nuts with piledrivers...

not even the sphinx is going to help. ( yeah happened to me once...he took me from 33 life to 0 in 2 attack phases)
I won my 9th round game vs goblins by akroma (was worth the sideboard slot since she's borderline against some random match-ups that play bitterblossom and crap.)

[Kaslan]

For merfolk to beat Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite they would have to have 2 lords on the board. and reanimator go's off turn 2 or 3 . they don't have the time to set up 2 lords.

what do you guys think if this list ? :

LANDS x 17
2 x Scalding Tarn
4 x Polluted Delta
2 x Underground Sea
1 x Badlands
2 x Volcanic Island
3 x Seat of the Synod
3 x Vault of Whispers

INSTANTS x 15
4 x Brainstorm
3 x Force of Will
4 x Entomb
4 x Lim-Dul's Vault

SORCERY x 14
3 x Exhume
3 x Reanimate
4 x Thoughtseize
4 x Careful Study

ARTIFACT x 5
3 x Chrome Mox
2 x Sensei's Divining Top

CREATURE x 9
1 x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 x Inkwell Leviathan
1 x Platinum Emperion
1 x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 x Sundering Titan
4 x Goblin Welder


SB x 15

2 x Echoing Truth
3 x Pithing Needle
1 x Nihil Spellbomb
1 x Tormod's Crypt
3 x Show and Tell
2 x Spell Pierce
1 x Gilded Drake
1 x Blazing Archon
1 x Novablast Wurm

MVP of this deck : Goblin welder + Sundering Titan .

[TheSleeper]

I'm surprised this deck hasn't popped up in SCG lately, given that Dredge has been able to. Do you have any thoughts on this? I always thought Reanimator was a more all-in deck than Dredge; being faster but more susceptible to disruption (ie Thoughtseize). Regardless I want to get into this deck and have been playing around with it, using P Chapin's list as a starting point. For testing I dropped -1 Daze -1 Preordain -1 Fetch for +2 Hapless Researcher +1 Animate Dead. For those unfamiliar Chapin's list has 6 reanimate targets (2 Iona).

I decided to run 40 goldfish games for various reasons. Yes goldfishing is terrible etc however not having played the deck, I wanted to get a handle on expected speed, which hands to keep, consistency etc, with a view to tweaking ratios (enablers, reanimators, disruption, etc) afterwards.

Here are some observations (always on the play):
26/40 (65%) - had a T2/T3 Iona in play, with either a Thoughtseize beforehand or FoW backup. 6/26 (23%) of these were after mulling to 6.
5/40 (12.5%) - had a creature in turns 2-4, however it either wasn't Iona or had no pre-Seize/countermagic
9/40 (22.5%) - didn't reanimate a creature before turn 4 thus fizzling/losing

Of my 'fizzles', 4/9 (44%) were because I kept a hand with no creature/Entomb. This obviously looks like a problem and probably wouldn't keep a 7-card no creature/Entomb in future. Especially considering 23% of the good games came after mulliganing, it seems this deck can mull aggressively and pretty well. For those more experienced with the deck, is this the consensus? Reanimate targets also look like a potential ratio to tweak (I see a number of posters already run more than 6).

Cheers!

[TheSleeper]

<double post>

[justindz]

I'm surprised this deck hasn't popped up in SCG lately, given that Dredge has been able to. Do you have any thoughts on this? I always thought Reanimator was a more all-in deck than Dredge; being faster but more susceptible to disruption (ie Thoughtseize). Regardless I want to get into this deck and have been playing around with it, using P Chapin's list as a starting point. For testing I dropped -1 Daze -1 Preordain -1 Fetch for +2 Hapless Researcher +1 Animate Dead. For those unfamiliar Chapin's list has 6 reanimate targets (2 Iona).

I decided to run 40 goldfish games for various reasons. Yes goldfishing is terrible etc however not having played the deck, I wanted to get a handle on expected speed, which hands to keep, consistency etc, with a view to tweaking ratios (enablers, reanimators, disruption, etc) afterwards.

Here are some observations (always on the play):
26/40 (65%) - had a T2/T3 Iona in play, with either a Thoughtseize beforehand or FoW backup. 6/26 (23%) of these were after mulling to 6.
5/40 (12.5%) - had a creature in turns 2-4, however it either wasn't Iona or had no pre-Seize/countermagic
9/40 (22.5%) - didn't reanimate a creature before turn 4 thus fizzling/losing

Of my 'fizzles', 4/9 (44%) were because I kept a hand with no creature/Entomb. This obviously looks like a problem and probably wouldn't keep a 7-card no creature/Entomb in future. Especially considering 23% of the good games came after mulliganing, it seems this deck can mull aggressively and pretty well. For those more experienced with the deck, is this the consensus? Reanimate targets also look like a potential ratio to tweak (I see a number of posters already run more than 6).

Cheers!

Anecdotally, I noticed that a lot of my more harder fought wins (aka, not stuff like turn 2 Iona against ANT or turn 2 Inkwell against control pre-board) were achieved by redundancy. They hold off the first 2 effects, but I just dig for a third because there are so many. That sort of thing.

I personally run 7 creatures main (2 Iona, Plat Emp, Stormtide, Blazing Archon, the 'Don, Inkwell) and I think that's good because it gives you a good chance of having one in the first 8 cards where it counts and helps out with the redundancy I cited above.

I also mulligan more aggressively now that I've played the deck more. I always say that some decks will just lose to Swamp, Entomb, Reanimate. So just to illustrate the point, there is a theoretically keep-able 2-card hand with a nice peel off the top ;-). Like Dredge, I think you can afford in some cases and against the right decks to go down to 5 cards without a high cost. Do RDW type statistics as well. If you run 11 reanimate effects (4 Reanimate, 4 Exhume, 3 Animate Dead) and you open a hand with Careful Study, Brainstorm, fetch, a creature and no Reanimate effects, that's probably keep-able unless you're facing a really bad match. Between drawing, the storm, the study and the fetch, the odds of getting to the right effect are pretty good. Better than not having a creature or discard outlet, for example.

[RaNDoMxGeSTuReS]

I recently started playing Reanimator. Here's my current list:

17 Land
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

10 Creatures
4 Hapless Researcher
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Blazing Archon
1 Platinum Angel
1 Terastodon

34 Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Careful Study
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Burning Wish
4 Exhume
4 Entomb
3 Reanimate
2 Animate Dead

15 Sideboard
4 Pithing Needle
3 Spell Pierce
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away
1 Show and Tell
1 Reanimate
1 Pulverize
1 Pyroclasm
1 Deathmark
1 Flameslash

I splashed Burning Wish to see if it made the deck more consistent. It's working well so far, but I'm not sure if it's just a "cute trick."

Any ideas? Comments are appreciated

[justindz]

I recently started playing Reanimator. Here's my current list:

17 Land
4 Polluted Delta
4 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Mountain

10 Creatures
4 Hapless Researcher
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Blazing Archon
1 Platinum Angel
1 Terastodon

34 Spells
4 Force of Will
4 Careful Study
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
4 Burning Wish
4 Exhume
4 Entomb
3 Reanimate
2 Animate Dead

15 Sideboard
4 Pithing Needle
3 Spell Pierce
1 Echoing Truth
1 Wipe Away
1 Show and Tell
1 Reanimate
1 Pulverize
1 Pyroclasm
1 Deathmark
1 Flameslash

I splashed Burning Wish to see if it made the deck more consistent. It's working well so far, but I'm not sure if it's just a "cute trick."

Any ideas? Comments are appreciated

Try it both ways and see which works better. I know that wasn't too helpful. I would personally be quite uncomfortable playing without Daze and the ability to rely on basic lands.

[jcsy]

no Thoughtseize or discard effects?

[RexFTW]

Creature selection is easy:
decks that attack: sphinx of the steel wind
merefolk or dredge: blazing archon or sphinx
control decks: inwell leviathan
combo: iona or terastadon


also re the goblin discussion:
your best plan is to get a sphinx in the bin and reanimate it every time they kill it. If you can set up Iona on red + sphinx you are usually golden. The iona stops matrons from looking for weirdings. sphinx has protection for stingscourger.