[Deck] Reanimator

[Water_Wizard]

Someone please explain to me the beauty of the City of Traitors sideboard tech.

Is it versus RUG Delver to fight Spell Pierce and Daze?
Is it to cast Show and Tell a turn earlier?
I've never been a huge fan of running land in my sideboard, unless I'm running Living Wish or lands with non-mana producing abilities like Bojuka Bog or Maze of Ith.

You see it in these lists:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=47007
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46969
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46986

The only person who doesn't run CoT is last week's winner, Reid Duke, and he decides to run Hornet Queen: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46983

[into_play]

^ My guess about the City of Traitors is that it is there to get the Show and Tell cast earlier. All those lists with the two Cities also have a full four Show and Tells (Duke's previous one only had two). They are probably there to make the deck somewhat transformational to a more typical Show and Tell deck, which is appealing when you're already running four Griselbrands. I feel that Show and Tell has always been busted enough in Reanimator to warrant a playset in the board.

It's great to see Tidespout Tyrant getting some love! I have played him maindeck before and he is a nice alternative to Angel of Despair and Terastodon as the permanent removal creature. In a deck full of one and two-mana cards, he can be used to keep lands out of play and set back more mana-hungry decks, and if he's not removing lands then he's probably removing something much more useful. There are always good targets for him to bounce.

My main question about the recent decklists is why the steep drop in the number of Exhumes? Are opponents having a creature of their own in the bin too common or too big a drawback these days? I'd like to hear some insight into that decision.

[Final Fortune]

Replacing Exhumes for Animate Dead is a precaution for Dredge (Golgari Grave Troll) and the mirror match, I think.

[rxavage]

Remember a few months ago when I had ancient tombs in my sb and everyone was like wtf?!?!?! Yeah.

[JDK]

Remember a few months ago when I had ancient tombs in my sb and everyone was like wtf?!?!?! Yeah.

Maybe because the lifeloss of Ancient Tomb is complete bullshit in this deck?

Yeah.

[rxavage]

Maybe because the lifeloss of Ancient Tomb is complete bullshit in this deck?

Yeah.

And it was explained that in g2-3 when you are more reliant on Show&Tell and Less on Reanimate that -2 doesn't matter. What matters is that you're able to cast your massacre and perish in a timely manner as well. Also that was before I picked up city of traitors.

[TheXile]

No, you're missing at least 1 fattie. Intuition is too slow for this strategy IMO especiialy considering you're not running Sol-lands.

While I don't agree with the full 4 intuitions, I do like to run 2 in my re-animator, the reason being that if they show and tell after turn 2 (you can intuition for an Archon) and basically lock them down without them being able to do anything relevant. I've also been using 1 Frost Titan in my Reanimator (and before people knock it...give it a shot) it locks down Emarkul/Griselbrand indefinitely (and doesn't allow them to play another..courtesy of the legend rule) it also can't get bounced by Karakas (and can lock down karakas/maze of ith)...also you can hardcast it occasionally.

[GerryT]

Someone please explain to me the beauty of the City of Traitors sideboard tech.

Is it versus RUG Delver to fight Spell Pierce and Daze?
Is it to cast Show and Tell a turn earlier?
I've never been a huge fan of running land in my sideboard, unless I'm running Living Wish or lands with non-mana producing abilities like Bojuka Bog of Maze of Ith.

You see it in these lists:
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=47007
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46969
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46986

The only person who doesn't run CoT is last week's winner, Reid Duke, and he decides to run Hornet Queen: http://sales.starcitygames.com//deck...p?DeckID=46983

I played City of Traitors because of the things you said -- it helps fight Spell Pierce and Daze and allows you to cast Show and Tell faster.

After sideboarding, you are a different deck and your mana curve is different. If you were building a hybrid Reanimator/Show and Tell deck you would want more mana sources and some City of Traitors, so if you want your deck to look like that after sideboard, you need to add some lands.

It might seem like a "wasted" slot because it's "only" a land, but it's far more effective at doing what it's supposed to do than something like Pithing Needle. Show and Tell allows you to fight most hate and City of Traitors is like City of Solitude. Both of them are worth their sideboard slots.

[Darksteel]

I played City of Traitors because of the things you said -- it helps fight Spell Pierce and Daze and allows you to cast Show and Tell faster.

After sideboarding, you are a different deck and your mana curve is different. If you were building a hybrid Reanimator/Show and Tell deck you would want more mana sources and some City of Traitors, so if you want your deck to look like that after sideboard, you need to add some lands.

It might seem like a "wasted" slot because it's "only" a land, but it's far more effective at doing what it's supposed to do than something like Pithing Needle. Show and Tell allows you to fight most hate and City of Traitors is like City of Solitude. Both of them are worth their sideboard slots.

How was Tidespout Tyrant for you?

[GerryT]

How was Tidespout Tyrant for you?

It was basically the best card of all time. With Animate Dead, it protects itself just by casting an instant (and returning the Animate). Against crazy decks with tons of hateful permanents (Ensnaring Bridge, etc) you need to be able to get rid of multiple permanents. If you ever Griselbrand and draw 7, their board will be clear in a turn or two. Other than that, you can probably just chain cantrips.

Never cutting it from Reanimator.

[Water_Wizard]

I played City of Traitors because of the things you said -- it helps fight Spell Pierce and Daze and allows you to cast Show and Tell faster.

After sideboarding, you are a different deck and your mana curve is different. If you were building a hybrid Reanimator/Show and Tell deck you would want more mana sources and some City of Traitors, so if you want your deck to look like that after sideboard, you need to add some lands.

It might seem like a "wasted" slot because it's "only" a land, but it's far more effective at doing what it's supposed to do than something like Pithing Needle. Show and Tell allows you to fight most hate and City of Traitors is like City of Solitude. Both of them are worth their sideboard slots.

Thanks GerryT! Good point, once you add Show and Tells, it becomes a different deck with a higher mana curve.

Congrats on your finish!

Any predictions on the June 20th bannings?

[GexxX]

Thanks GerryT! Good point, once you add Show and Tells, it becomes a different deck with a higher mana curve.

Congrats on your finish!

Any predictions on the June 20th bannings?

I took out my Reanimator cards a few weeks ago when I saw Griselbrand in action. Storm is not that fun with Combo decks running FoW and all the RUG and other nasty things running around. Feels good to bash some skulls with fatties once again.
Surgical Extraction is a problem in my metagame so I run a 3/1 slpit of Jin and Grisel at the moment, but I might play 4 in the future. The list you have put together plays a lot smoother than the last one I've been playing especially postboard.

A card I am also very curious about is the Tyrant. Did it do the job? I think it's not only good against karakas and such, but it's very versatile and therefor a good inclusion in the Maindeck. I've loved this card since people abused it in Vintage Oath variants, but I completely forgot about him. Thanks for the reminder and congrats on the finish!

http://www.starcitygames.com/events/...with_gerr.html

In case anyone is as curious about some of the other inclusions as I was.

[Arsenal]

Just bought everything I need for Reanimator (used Todd Anderson's SCG list as a starting point). I'm pretty pumped about being able to play with Griselbrand. Few matchup questions:

I have Maverick, BUG Landstill, Elves, RUG Delver, and BW Stoneforge in my meta. What should I be looking for in those matchups? I feel the Maverick (none of their creatures matter), Elves (Elesh Norn > them), and Stoneforge matchups should be pretty easy without any real thought, but BUGstill and RUG Delver will probably give me a run for my money.

[aCatNamedBootsy]

Just bought everything I need for Reanimator (used Todd Anderson's SCG list as a starting point). I'm pretty pumped about being able to play with Griselbrand. Few matchup questions:

I have Maverick, BUG Landstill, Elves, RUG Delver, and BW Stoneforge in my meta. What should I be looking for in those matchups? I feel the Maverick (none of their creatures matter), Elves (Elesh Norn > them), and Stoneforge matchups should be pretty easy without any real thought, but BUGstill and RUG Delver will probably give me a run for my money.

If you land Sphinx or Griselbrand against RUG, they pretty much lose to it. I'm not sure about how to deal with BUGstill, but I'd imagine you'd use Sphinx and Griselbrand there as well.

[Esper3k]

Don't underestimate the Maverick matchup - they actually have a lot of tools to deal with Reanimator's creatures.

StP, Scavenging Ooze, Karakas, Qasali Pridemage (for Animate Dead), Thalia are all cards that need to be considered.

[Snap_Keep]

he is nowhere near the level of Jin-Gitaxias.

So do you still think Jin is better then Grizzy?

[adamt]

Kira seems like it would be good vs all the legendary fatty hate (karakas, stp, drake, etc..)

[JDK]

So do you still think Jin is better then Grizzy?

Maybe you should read the whole sentence, or at least the rest of the if-clause: "if I cannot use his ability he is nowhere near the level of Jin-Gitaxias." (this was in the context of Stifle)

Sorry, to sweep away your excitement.

[rxavage]

If I recall correctly your sole argument as to why Jin was better was because of his "mind twist" ability. Griselbrand is a better target the results speak for themselves.

[Lim-Dul]

It was basically the best card of all time. With Animate Dead, it protects itself just by casting an instant (and returning the Animate). Against crazy decks with tons of hateful permanents (Ensnaring Bridge, etc) you need to be able to get rid of multiple permanents. If you ever Griselbrand and draw 7, their board will be clear in a turn or two. Other than that, you can probably just chain cantrips.

Never cutting it from Reanimator.

Hello Gerry

I loved the idea of the tyrant and because i was never 100% happy with the angel of despair in the MB, so i replaced it.
In some game he was awsome (=clear board after one or two turns!! Love it!!), BUT i had such a hard time beating a Karakas or a Maze of Ith. Sure i can/should counter the KotR to prevent the problematic lands from beeing tutored. but lands can be drawn from the top of the deck (as we know). what to do then? how did you beat these lands?

Would you still play the same creatures? never missed shroud? Or Jin?