Played in the GP last weekend, had a great time seeing people and playing the deck in particular. I think in a filed of UR delver, burn and UWR stoneblade decks, we are very well placed to run the field. I played something similar to the list i had been playing for months, and was content with every slot. I was so happy with how the deck performed actually, that i wouldn't change a card. Anyway, I played this:
4 griselbrand
1 Iona, shield of emeria
1 tidespout tyrant
1 elesh norn, grand cenobyte
3 lotus petal
4 brainstorm
3 ponder
4 thoughtsieze
1 duress
4 careful study
4 entomb
4 reanimate
4 exhume
3 daze
4 force of will
4 polluted delta
3 verdant catacombs
4 underground sea
1 tropical island
1 bayou
2 swamp
Board:
4 abrupt decay
2 pithing needle
2 torymods crypt
2 duress
1 massacre
1 disfigure
1 sire of insanity
1 empyrial archangel
1 Aetherling
Some notes on cards:
Decay: fantastic as always, always did what i wanted, was often good when not killing graveyard-hate, and was easy to cast every time.
Duress: The main board duress was much better than the daze would have I'd imagine. Daze was the worst card in the deck, and actively feels that way. The duress helped to push though your combo against miracles, ur delver, and other stoneblade decks as well, where daze wouldn't actually hit anything.
2 Swamps: Island didn't cut it with the main deck duress, and the 2 others off the board. With the trop in the deck, i don't think we can afford another non-boac source with this configuration. Often you want to play a discard spell the turn that you go for the reanimate, and i was often at a loss to do that because of the island.
Tyrant: Still good, was actively the threat i got in a majority of my game ones. The fact that it gets REB'd is a little dangerous, but the card controlled the game through a multitude of things. Karakas game one was a big thing, and as long as you save the force for a swords to plowshares, tyrant often goes un-answered.
Disfigure: was like a 5th decay often. Killed a priest and a deathrite, so i can't as for much more. The split between this and massacre was awesome, as massacre is a sorcery, and only really good v the death and taxes strategies, and disfigure covers all creature matchups.
Sire: Very good against storm. Died too often in that matchup even with iona and a bunch of forces. Sire was good early in almost every midrange matchup, and was absurd on the play against storm.
Empyrial archangel: Was awesome. Killed a death and taxes player single-handedly through 3 swords, a karakas and a sword of light and shadow. Also won like 3 games against ur delver, where I'm not sure if another threat would have done the job. If i had reanimated griselbrand, i would have been burned out, so that was cool.
Aetherling: Killed 2 miracles players through terminus, swords and karakas. One opponent after seeing in on the board just concededed from like 20 life and top Karakas in play. Showed me double red blast and swords to my 3 open blue sources.
Not much more to say. Played all 15 rounds, had two buys, and went x-5. List was very good for the field. Lost to Miracles twice with both relic and clique in the main, bug delver, mud and conceded to lands instead of a draw. If the metagame shifts back away from the delver decks (Which i don't think it will), i would like to try something like a 4th ponder and maybe 2 dig through times. Until then though, discard spells are the real deal. Often you will board out the forces and dazes against the delver decks and miracles, and they die with 2 pyroclasts in hand. Feels good to be a non-blue combo deck after board. Anyway, ill leave you with this: Mud is definitely not a good matchup.
Thoughtsiezed my opponent on the play, and see chalice, chalice, three sphere, metalworker, ancient tomb, grim monolith, platinum angel. I take his angel, force his chalice, and reanimate his angel. He draws bridge, and plays chalice on one after monolith. We can't attack him to the point where he draws Karn Liberated for my angel, and his bridge. Then he plays cavern on his blight steel and i die. To be fair, i don't think that mud is that large of a threat to commit board cards to the matchup, but goddamn is turn one platinum angel sweet. :)
I played at GPNJ this weekend. Didn't pilot Reanimator on day one. Went 6-0, 0-3 to scrub out 6-3.
I Did play Reanimator in the Legacy Super Sunday Series (480 players).
I went 7-1, 0-2 and missed top 16 in the last round for a total of 7-3
List for reference:
Creatures (7):
3x Griselbrand
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1x Ashen Rider
Spells (37):
4x Entomb
4x Exhume
4x Reanimate
2x Show and Tell
4x Careful Study
4x Brainstorm
3x Ponder
4x Force of Will
3x Daze
3x Lotus Petal
2x Thoughtseize
Lands (16):
1x Island
2x Swamp
2x Verdant Catacombs
2x Flooded Strand
4x Polluted Delta
4x Underground Sea
1x Tropical Island
SB (15):
1x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Auger
1x Ashen Rider
1x Spell Pierce
2x Thoughtseize
2x Pithing Needle
2x Show and Tell
3x Abrupt Decay
2x Massacre
1x Bayou
Games:
Round 1 - Omni Tell - 2-1
G1
Not much going on. He combos on turn two on the play.
G2
I cast thought seize on turn 1 to see his mulligan (to 5) hand of 3 fetch lands, a show and tell and a ponder. Turn 2 I reanimate Iona.
G3
Turn one Iona.
Round 2 - Death and Taxes - 2-1
G1
I have to show and tell a sphinx of the steel wind into play and hope it gets there as I had nothing. It got there as he drew zero answers.
G2
Not really sure what happened. Notes are poor. My life total dropped to 0 though. I do remember reanimating two ashen riders to nuke two Karakas, but they both got STPed.
G3
I reanimated an ashen rider to nuke a Karakas, and then reanimated again to sweeten the deal for the game.
Round 3 - Don't remember - 2-1
The only thing I have written down are 3 games worth of life totals and the words "Ponder" and "fluster storm." I won game one and game 3. Game 1 looks pretty one sided and game 3 looks to have ended in a concession after I reanimated.
Round 4 - Storm - 1-2
This match! G1 I thought seize his hand to reveal mostly junk and an infernal tutor. took the tutor and then reanimated on the next turn and he dies shortly after without doing anything.
G2 I mulled to 3 and did literally nothing. G3 I was able to reanimate GBrizzle and get into a spot where I am at 23 and he is at 11. I thought seized a tutor out of his hand leaving him with 2 dark rituals and nothing else. He top decks a past in flames and ends up being able to tendrils me for 24. It was sort of nuts.
Round 5 - UWR Delver - 2-0
G1
this game was very interactive. I reanimated Gbrizzel with two delvers on the other side of the field. He quickly gets a stone forge and batter skull online and we start trading life points. I eventually realize that I can't race his damage and life gain with just one Griselbrand and decide to give it vigilance by show and telling a second copy from my hand into play to block after attacks. This gives me the advantage I need to pull slightly ahead. I use the vigilance trick again by exhuming the Grisebrand in the yard back into play to block more. Eventually pull out way ahead and he loses his delvers to chump blocks and ends up without blockers.
G2 looks like we traded spells for a bit and I reanimated Grisebrand at 4 life. Looks like my Grisebrand raced his batter skull to victory.
Round 6 - UR Delver - 2-1
G1
On the draw and cant counter turn one delver. Have to reanimate and go to 9. Some how wound up at 6 and getting double bolted before I could gain life.
G2
Not really sure. My life total stayed at 20, their life total didn't. Pretty sure I reanimated Elesh Norn and after a few draws my opponent had no outs and we went to game 3.
G3
Looks like I took a delver hit on turn 2 and then brought back a Grislebrand and my opponent conceded stating he had no outs.
Round 7 - Storm - 2-1
G1
Drew a hand of 2x petal reanimate and entomb. On the play. Went for it and reanimated Griselbrand. Opponent drew one card and conceded.
G2
I cast a thought seize. Reanimated a creature. got stormed out.
G3
Reanimate turn 1 Iona. Opponent choses to cast a cantrip instead of chain of vapor. I cast thought seize to take the chain of vapor and then brought on the angel beats (only had black spells he couldn't cast!).
Round 8 - UR Delver - 2-0
G1
Griselbrand is much better then delver.
G2
right as we were about to start trading blue spells so we could resolve our spells, my opponent resolves ponder by putting the first card in his hand. He immediately removes it and calls a judge on himself. Game loss. Match Loss.
Round 9 - BUG Delver - 0-2
G1
I mull to 4 and he mulls to 5. His mull to 5 was perfect as it had Turn one delver and then more land, cantrips and the single daze he needed to counter my reanimate for Griselbrand.
G2
No Land mull to 5 and he has double tarmogoyf and I was not able to resolve my important spells.
Round 10 - Storm - 1-2
G1
I knew this kid was on storm. My opening hand was Brainstorm, Force, Entomb, Reanimate, Fetch land, underground sea, and Iona. I was thinking its a great hand. Brainstorm the iona back to my library and entomb it and reanimate it on turn 2 and life would be great. He's on the play and turn one duresses me. I force it and thought seize him and remove a tutor from his hand (which is stacked with rituals). I eventually get to untap and entomb/reanimate Griselbrand since iona is stuck in my hand. With griselbrand in play he puts me on have force or die when he casts grim tutor with 6 floating. I drew 7 to go to 3. didn't draw force. got stormed out.
G2
Not much happens. Demon beats. Was at a life total impossible to storm out with his hand.
G3
After a few turns of cantrips and discard, I reanimate iona. He then naturally draws his one of Karakas and then proceeds to storm me out. Im Sad.
All in all a pretty good tourney. 7-3 was good enough for 27th and about a box worth of prizes. Having two Ashen Riders in the board was pretty nice if only to make me not worry about any pesky permanents like Karakas. I feel like I got luck sacked by storm, but thus ls life. The spell pierce in my board should be a fluster storm and the Gin Gitaxias should be Sire of Insanity. I still really like Sphinx of the Steel Wind. I boarded out Daze a lot on the draw. All of the builds of Storm were ANT and not TES. Getting to draw 14 and counter a dig through time is a pretty good feeling. Hope this provides some insight.
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This is a sweet list. I like the sideboard creature choices.Originally Posted by Gilderbarin216
Have you missed having Show and Tell? I'm just worried Abrupt Decays alone won't be enough against Death and Taxes and their variety of hate cards.
I'm not sure Show and Tell should still be in our playbook. Containment Priest makes what was previously an excellent plan B for dodging all the hate, a liability instead. We can still fight over the Priest like we do with all the hate, but the whole point of Show was to not have to go through that, making the 3-cmc worth it.
Never really missed show and tell, but to be fair I have never cast the card in this deck, so I am not so attached to it. In reality, i think thats a good thing because again, with BBD doing so well at the gp, there are approximately 1,000,000 pyroblasts running around, and against death and taxes, the card doesnt really do much that you dont already have access to. Karakas is still near unbeatable with the show and tell plan, and so is priest. I just think that the deck is so efficient and low to the ground that show and tell adds an element that is too clunky. Also yeah, the package was on point for the gp, and probably for the future.
Is Sire needed in the SB? Reanimator is known as one of the worst possible match ups for storm decks. Also Massacre is insane idk why you didn't start playing it earlier.
Storm is still very losable with discard spells and such. As well, naming red gets burning wish and past in flames, but bounce spells brought in could still kill you through Iona. Anyway, sire is just good in a myriad of matchups, basically wherever Elesh Norn is not good, so i think it earns the spot.
As for massacre, I am naive, thats why Ive waited so long.
In the last match I played against Storm, I played Iona for black to shut up Tendrils, Infernal, ritual, Ad... but finally he brainstorms Empty the warrens and gg. Probably it would be more clever playing Iona for Red.
After all, was a good match.
In terms of storm we typically have 3-4 thoughseize in the sideboard and sideboard even more. I do like having Sire of Insanity to seal the deal though.
On containment priest: I've thought about speeding up my combo by going 4 lotus petals but my blue spell count is on the low side as it is, so I'm contemplating if it's worth cutting my 2 dazes.
how can people play this deck without 4 hapless researcher 0 petal? am i going crazy?
Well what are your experiences playing with that build? What are some examples you've had while playing that suggests this is a superior build?
in a counter heavy meta thoughtseize is worse than a combo piece, and we don't really need it to beat other combo decks because reanimator already does that. people red blasting careful studies 1-4 is an issue and we can never really get around it with thoughtseizing ourselves because then our resources are so low we lose to any counterspell. not being able to thoughtseize, reanimate gbrand, draw 7 vs. bolt is another real problem.
Red blast effects in general aren't that great against us since our most powerful draws are the Entomb ones. I do like Researcher though, not only as redundancy with Careful Study but as a lategame combo with Reanimate.
I don't like Thoughtseize as a combo piece either, but it does a lot of work against some of the tougher matchups. Against decks with Lightning Bolt we usually don't need to draw 7; the only deck that complicates this is the confused Jeskai aggro, who packs both Swords and Bolt.
Pretty sure ponder is just better than hapless researcher
You cannot reanimate Ponder, researcher also dodges Thalia tax and spell pierce.
My Legacy Decks of choice: Pox, Miracles, D&T or Lands.
Online Trading Reference Checker
I played a solid tournament today and wanted to share my experience, as well as some ruminations on the MB and SB. I piloted the UBg version for 5 rounds, with a cut to top 8. We used the SCG play/ draw rule. I went 3-1-1, enough for the 6th seed.
Here is the list that I ran:
Creatures:
3 Grizzle
1 Tidespout
1 Elesh
1 Iona
1 Empyrial Archangel
Business:
4 Entomb
4 Careful Study
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
1 Animate Dead
Cantrip:
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
Disruption:
4 FoW
3 Daze
3 Thoughtseize
Lands:
3 Lotus Petal
4 U Sea
1 Trop
1 Bayou
1 Swamp
4 Polluted Delta
4 Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard:
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Show and Tell
2 Surgical Extraction
2 Pithing Needle
2 Massacre
1 Krosan Grip
1 Ashen Rider
1 Thoughtseize
Some comments on the list:
I think the maindeck is near perfect. 3 Lotus petals for velocity, and I feel like 15 lands is the correct number, at least for a 3 color list.
I want daze and thoughtseize, I like the varied disruption, and both cards shine in this deck. If only thoughtseize didn’t cost 2 life
Empyrial Archangel is the ever-changing flex spot of mine. When it is good, it is really good (like when you only have reanimate at lower life against a bolt deck), but it can be weak. I might try a sire of insanity in this slot, but I’m unsure. I was running Inkwell in this slot, but DnT is not very present around me anymore so I thought Empyrial the better choice.
I’m obviously not running maindeck SnT. Honestly, even when BUG Delver was #1 and deathrite was everywhere, SnT was still seldom used G1 to combo, so I really don’t think it belongs in the main right now. That gave me the ability to run the 10 disruption, as well as the full set of ponders for consistency. I only kept SnT in the list for the BUG Delver matchup, and maybe Jund, but I didn’t play either all day. I’m still unsure about cutting them completely (I moved down to 3), but they are a bit of a liability with all the blasts in the format. I didn’t use this card all day.
I still want to try Aetherling against miracles, but Iona is also pretty good here. Maybe Sire would be as well? Does anyone have any experience with this?
Also, you can see that I am not running an SB counters. I was debating between 2 Spell Pierce or 2 Surgical, but upon thinking realize that I never really even use Spell Pierce, and I think they might be unnecessary. Surgical is at least as good, but can be devastating against combo, fight GY decks, and honestly, I would almost rather surgical an opponent’s forces than board in pierce to fight counter wars and slow the deck down. What matches do you guys typically side in counterspells?
And here is a quick tournament report:
Round 1 vs G/B/W Junk? 0-1 (0-2)
G1: I keep a hand with two reanimate spells and a couple ponders. I draw lands, lands, and more lands as my hand is thrashed with therapy. I lose.
SB: +3 AD, +1 Ashen Rider, +2 Massacre (was worried about thalia/ hatebear potential out of the board, but have little experience with this matchup) -3 TS, -1 Iona, -1 Ponder, -1 Animate Dead
G3: I keep a similar hand. Opponent lands a quick stoneforge, and has discard therapy/ veteran explorer going. End up getting an Archangel in the GY off of a careful study. I try to buy time with it but lose to some 4 mana trample creature with a sword and batterskull on it. I lose.
Round 2 vs Enchantress 1-1 (2-2)
G1: He mulls to 6. I reanimate Iona turn 2 on green.
SB: +3 AD, +1 K Grip (I saw he had helm combo), +1 Thoughtseize, -3 Daze, -1 Ponder, -1 CS
G2: I Turn 1 grizzle, turn two Iona. Profit.
Round 3 vs. Sneak and Show 2-1 (4-3)
G1: I turn 2 grizlebrand, and force his SnT next turn.
SB: I think it was +1 Ashen Rider, -1 Elesh, +2 Needle, +1 K Grip (in case of leyline mostly), +1 Thoughtseize, -3 Daze, -1 Ponder
G2: He gets out a T1 relic of progenitus. I force him to pop it turn 3 with entomb/ reanimate, and I’m just digging for another entomb/CS. He gets out through the breach on turn 4 or 5 and I die.
G3: Normally I might switch Daze/ Thoughtseize on play/ draw, but I kept in TS since I am playing combo. He SnT T3 with overmaster protection for my force. I play grizzle, he plays Emrakul. My turn, I dig 7 or 14 and get Ashen Rider and win.
Round 4 vs Miracles
G1 I turn 2 Iona on white with force backup, and ride it to victory.
SB: +3 AD, +1 K Grip, +1 Rider, +2 Needle -3 Daze, -1 Elesh, -1 CS, -1 Ponder, -1 exhume
G2: I get a turn 2 Iona on white, and ride it to victory.
Round 5 ID
Quarterfinals vs DDFT
G1: I keep the greediest hand, no land, but double force and reanimate and cantrips. Since I am on the draw, I decide to gamble knowing my opponent is on combo and I had 2 forces. I get duress’d and therapy’d, ruining the natural discard plan, and can’t rebuild fast enough. Don’t be this greedy! I was running hot and was clearly overconfident.
SB: +2 Surgical, +2 Pithing Needle, +1 Thoughtseize, -3 Daze, -1 ponder, -reanimate (I think)
G2: I turn 2 Grizle. I get him low life but he finds karakas. I dig 14, and exhume an ashen rider on his xantid swarm, and he scoops when I show him my forces.
G3: I turn 1 Grizzle. Wait. He ponders into his only Karakas. I draw 14, thinking I need to rebuild ASAP. I get 5 lands in my first 7 His t3 He plays a SDT, I force. He plays another, I force again. Pitching two brainstorms and leaving me with combo pieces but no disruption. I get out a t3 Ashen, but being at one life from TS him, forcing, and drawing with GBrand, he burning wishes into tendrils and I lose.
This last game, should I have fought so hard over the tops? My idea was that he had little cards in hand, maybe 3, and top was going to find him business and discard to use on me before going off. Also, I know top is used in a LOT of piles. In hindsight, it seems like a poor choice looking back but it seemed to make sense at the time.
I would be very interested in hearing from experienced players what they think of my sideboarding.
All in all, I had a great day. Until next time, keep on reanimating!
From the testing I have done, Sire is only really good against Miracles if you can do it turn one maybe two, and with that logic grislebrand would just be better. Been trying ashen rider in the flew spot and it hasn't been terrible.
Miracles will typically scoop to Aetherling, their only outs are to race with Entreat or a Clique if you're at a low life total. I'm trying him maindeck since I feel that Miracles is the matchup that could use the most G1 improvement, and I think he improves it quite a lot since we typically get to reanimate but have issues when they slam Karakas or a Terminus we can't stop. He's got a slower natural clock but should be able to hold his own in other fair matchups. He will not beat nut aggro draws, however.
I tried Spell Pierce, too, and found myself almost never wanting to hold up mana for it. We are lower to the ground than a deck like Sneak n' Show, so counters that cost mana aren't terribly appealing. Duress is basically a proactive Pierce some players here have discussed already which you could consider if you want that kind of effect.
I don't know DDFT well enough to be 100% on this, but I don't think fighting over Tops run by a combo deck is worthwhile unless you know they also have Counterbalance. You fight over it against Miracles because otherwise they will have an endless supply of answers, but combo will have less lands to operate it and other more important cards to actually fight over (like Wish or Doomsday).
I agree on the tops. Against ANT I would almost never fight over it, but as I was somewhat unfamiliar with DDFT and did know that it is essential in a large amount of piles. However, considering we were also both at low life totals, I should have kept the forces for B Wish/ DD. But at least I learned more about the matchup :)
Edit: let me clarify the board state when I fought over the tops. I was at 4 life and he was at three. He had a dual, karakas, and a fetch. I also knew I could entomb/ exhume a non legendary next turn, and win the following turn.
I am going to test out aetherling, but I also think that AD and K Grip do a lot of work in that matchup.
Last edited by cogitoergosum; 12-07-2014 at 10:24 PM.
Yeah, I can totally see the tactical value in the moment. I overthink things plenty, myself.
It's possible we're already fine and my hedge is hurting my other matchups. Still need to test. Krosan Grip is a real sideboard card, I just realized that it also deals with Leylines, which are horrifying otherwise. I already switched to Grixis otherwise I'd snap one into my board already.
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