MTG Salvation

Hey everyone!

I am starting this thread for Child of Alara 5c Reanimator! The deck has been putting up great results, is very powerful and consistent. It has almost 0 bad matchups and can pull of free wins. I hope that starting this thread will lead to better deck building and better card options in certain slots. I am a big Sneak and Show player in Legacy and this deck makes me feel right at home!

WHY PLAY CHILD OF ALARA 5c REANIMATOR?
- You love broken spells
- You love putting huge creatures into play unfairly
- You love playing a control game when needed
- You love resiliency (this deck is VERY resilient!)
- You love punishing your opponent quickly

THIS DECK IS NOT FOR YOU IF:
- You like playing fair decks
- You like mono colored decks
- You like aggro decks
- You like midrange creatures

Here is the current decklist...

I've always wondered: why Child of Alara over Scion?

Also, I've been playing a Merieke Ri Berit reanimator for quite a while now and it seems much more consistent than the 5-color versions... what am I missing?

EDIT: I mean, the only 3 cards I'd like to have on Merieke that are not Esper colors are Fire Covenant, Dack Fayden and Sylvan Library. I don't think these 3 are worth the manabase vulnerability...

The 5c version is very fun and still is pretty solid and broken. I agree with you that Esper versions or Mimeoplasm may be more consistent but the 5c decks are still very viable. I also play Prossh too so those are the ones I alrernate with. Also, I want to cut the Quicken for a Izzet Charm.

I'm playing scion a long time and all the tourneys i played i got some prizes.

Nice to finally see a thread on 5c reanimator! I've also been trying to make this deck work.

Just a few questions as I believe you've played this deck more than I did: Aren't temples a bit slow? GY hates (permanents e.g. Rest in Peace/Relic) usually drop on first/second turns. Having tapped lands means you can't bluff them to having counterspells in hand. Also no abrupt decay? Once they land these GY hates, it gets harder to play around.

Hey! Yeah I am in the USA and my group loves this format and I decided to make this thread. Abrupt Decay is in the list you may have missed it. The temples are essential to the control gameplan to smooth out some draws and make possible loot spells more consistent.

Was able to playtest this list against GST (Sharky from GST topic). Record was 4-0 in favor of him. GST's clock is too fast and mass land destruction with GST on board is usually GG.

How do you match-up with GST?

I play against it a lot as my friend has Geist. The matchup to me has been in my favor. You really need to mulligan for 1-2 quick ways to get a big creature into play. Iona, Griselbrand, Jin-Gitaxias or an early Woodfall Primus will lock it up. But there are the games where Geist has the amazing draw of land destruction, Geist equipped. I will be testing against him today and give some more feedback.

Exactly, they are two different decks. Child is a very good board wipe when needed. I did test against GST yesterday and I got beat 2-0. Both games I had to mulligan but Gilded drake destroyed me as well as finding no combo pieces. I also play Prossh and Anafenza since they are both very solid right now but I want to keep trying to make this my #1 go to deck... It's just to broken to not keep playing!

I've never had problems with Geist playing the 3-color version. I really don't know what 5c can add to the mix that makes it so much better. In fact, the vulnerable mana base makes it way worse, in my point of view. I only lost 1 match with my 3c Reanimator, against Skithiryx, because he managed to drop a Inkmoth Nexus and a Lashwrithe under Iona for black

About Child, I don't like it as a board wipe, since you need a way to kill it. Depending on things like Cabal Therapy is not that trust-worthy. Scion seems nice because you always have a "reanimation spell" available to you in the form of your commander.

Ridcully, very strong points! I was under the impression Child of Alara had a decent matchup against Geist, but now I beg to differ. It is so difficult to resolve your spells and they just tempo you out quickly with Geist of Saint Traft.

I do think that the 5c Reanimator lists were doing very well lately with the fall out of Geist of Saint Traft. It looks now that he is making a come back, so I would probably go back to the Mimeoplasm which is another strong reanimator deck. I am currently on Prossh, Skyraider of Kher (Food Chain) since the deck is completely nuts and I wouldnt be surprised if a banning were to happen with Food Chain (but I think it shouldnt). I will continue to keep testing Child of Alara but there are a lot of hates right now, even Anafenza, the Foremost is growing in popularity as well it should since its so solid.

Most to the time I don't even play Merieke, just as I didn't even play Oloro. She's there for Maelstrom, basically. She can also mess up any opponent depending on manlands and I even slowed down an opponent that had a Depths + Thespian Stage in play token long enough to take control of the game. I think it's far better than Sen Triplets simply because it can tackle aggro strategies that, for me, are much harder to attack than control. I don't even see Narset or Geist coming. My only game loss with this deck, after 3 tournaments with it, was to a Skythirix infect deck. Merieke even helped me there during G2 (which I won) doing what she does best: taking targeted removal out of your opponents hand.

Gaviro, glad you saw this thread! Been off this deck though... Been playing Prossh

Do you really like Terminus? I mean, isn't it the worst Wrath effect for you? I feel I'd rather play Supreme Verdict or Damnation over this. Also, why no Living Death? I can't count how many games Living Death won me.

ps: wow, Jeskai Ascendancy is INSANE.

I think Living Death is a lot more "oops I win" than Terminus, and easier to cast. After an Intuition, it's quite devastating. And man, Sun Titan is so awesome... he returns Liliana, Jeskai Asc, Wasteland, fetches and Recurring Nightmare to play. It gets me out of a lot of situations.

One of the creatures I don't play yet but am probably going to add is Kederekt Leviathan. Seems like it can really take over the game together with Animate Dead, Dance and Necromancy.

Gaviro, is there a tournament report somewhere?

Yeah, we'll have to agree to disagree then

I can't count how many games Living Death won me, even when my opponent had creatures in his graveyard. I can't say the same about Exhume, for example. That card always hits me back. I ended up substituting it for Recurring Nightmare, which will turn 1 reanimate into a game win and works quite well with Ashen Rider, Sun Titan, etc.

I'll try Terminus and see what it does, although I think I prefer Supreme Verdict in that slot

I have to say in testing Terminus has been an all star! Gets you our of bad situations rather easily to set up as well with Mystical Tutor or Brainstorm etc. I do want to try Living Death as fsecco i believe your words on how good its been for you. Also, I have been testing the Mimeoplasm that deck is so boring compared to Child of Alara

Why terminus over hallowed burial? I've had better luck with burial due to that 1 CMC. Plus top deck manipulation and tutors are being used for pressure/early plays rather than finding answers.

I guess Hallowed Burial is worth testing. Agreed you want to save your tutors for reanimate spells but it can get you out of a jam to find Terminus occasionally.

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