MTG Salvation

Why the 1x Unmask? it's a budget thread so obviously not everything is going to be optimized. But I was curious if there was an interaction i am overlooking

Unmask was there to Protect my reanimation from Force of Will or Daze, the deck is very repetitive so ditching an extra Imp or Duress is no real loss.

You can also target yourself with unmask, should you be desperate to get a fatty into the graveyard.

True Spooky, though luckily I never had to.

While this thread has little to no following I will post my results from a Legacy Tournament at a local game store. My deck has changed some as of the earlier posting as I have gotten some of the better Reanimate targets. The tourney was a success and I got 2nd out of 17 players. Tourney was 5 rounds of Swiss followed by a Top 8, single elim. Prize pool was cash plus a Savannah for the winner.



Tourney Report

Round 1 vs Miracles 0-2 (0-1 Swiss)
Game 1=Had to Mulligan to 4, got no pieces together.
Game 2=Tried to go 2nd turn, Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur but he Force of Will, had no hand disruption.

Round 2 vs Bye sucks not playing (1-1 Swiss)

Round 3 vs Ad-Nausem 2-1 (2-1 Swiss)
Game 1=Had to Mulligan to 4 again, dropped a Putrid Imp but no real pressure he combos off
Game 2=Start strong with 2nd turn Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, he drops Lion's Eye Diamond and a couple of Goblin tokens. Second turn I go Iona on black, he tries to combo but too short on life.
Game 3=1st turn Iona, name Red hoping to stop his Burning Wish for removal. Beat down he tries to combo from 20 life but cannot go as he cannot use his Red rituals and kills him self.

Round 4 vs Death & Taxes 0-2 (2-2 Swiss)
Game 1=Mulligan to 5, he goes first and drops Karakas, which sucks as I have first turn Iona in my hand, drop Imp and swing a couple of times, top deck an Ashen Rider to blow up Karakas, game looks in hand, I cannot though get out Iona as I am short on Mana and cannot pop my Lotus Petal because it is shut down by Phyrexian Revoker. Game still looks in hand but he top decks a Swords for the Rider and wins out.
Game 2=Starts strong with 2nd Turn Rider but after 2 swings he tops a Swords, never saw another reanimate.

Round 5 vs Junk (2-1) (3-2 Swiss, 8th Place)
Game 1=On the draw, he plays a fetch for a Tiaga and played nothing. I go 1st turn Iona and guess Red. decent guess and she goes the distance
Game 2=He goes 2nd turn Thalia, I can Entomb but never get enough mana to cast Exhume or Animate Dead in my hand
Game 3=Craziest nut draw I have had, I play no land draw and go Lotus Petal, Ritual, Duress, Entomb, Reanimate Iona, she goes the distance and I never play a land

Top 8
Round 1 vs BUR Delver (2-0)
Game 1=Nut draw on the draw, 1st turn ritual leads to Duress, Imp and Reanimate on Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, he survives so I win
Game 2=Nut draw 2, he drops a Lavamaner with a Volcanic, I go Swamp to Duress, drop Lotus Petal to Dark Ritual to fuel 2 Cabal Therapy to strip out all his counters,then Entomb an It That Betrays that I Reanimate

Round 2 vs Death & Taxes (2-0) Same guy from Round 4
Game 1=On the Go drop 2nd turn It That Betrays, after Duress took his Swords on turn 1, he goes the distance
Game 2=Drop 1st turn Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur, he top decks a Swords but I was already set up with the 7 draw, 2nd turn I reanimate Grieselbrand and Iona on White, he fights on but no recovery

Round 3 vs Sneak & Show (1-2)
Game 1=On the draw he drops Ancient Tomb and Lotus Petal to Show out Griselbrand, I though drop a Pathrazer of Ulamog, Annihilate his land and Griselbrand and go the distance
Game 2=He hits turn 1 Cage and goes the distance
Game 3=Good game, I Duress discarding Cage but he has 2 in hand, I have a Ratchet Bomb in hand so am not dead. Couple of turns happen and he gets out a Sneak Attack, I Entomb for a Blazing Archon that will shut down his Emrrakul, when I move to Reanimate he had top decked a Force the turn before, good game and interaction.

Overall really happy with the deck though it started the day slow it picked up steam when it counted. Every deck I played was pretty much loaded with duals, Forces and other Legacy bombs but the deck scraps and has the ability to win. Has to be one of the top couple of Budget decks available.

I would lose the 2 main deck surgical extraction. There is no reason to have them in the main deck. Replace them with a 4th putrid imp and lotus petal. Mono black reanimator is not as resilient as blue/black, so you need to make up for this with speed.

Sire of Insanity seems like a great sideboard fatty. I would not play creature protection. Pathrazer is good against non white decks that dont have a reliable way to remove him, as he can take the game over with his annihilator.

I think Unmask needs to be replaced with cabal therapy. You want to be able to target yourself, sure, but you also need most of your cards. I think its safer to play therapy.

Surgical is a much more reactive form of anti counter hate, and that is not what you want. Discard is your proactive hate. You get rid of their counter magic and then summon your fatty. Compare this to getting a reanimation or discard countered, then casting surgical and waiting for another chance to get a fatty out while they draw more cards and create a board presence.

You choosing what they discard is almost negligible imho. You will always know what you are looking for before either spell resolves. Cabal has a lower cost, and can hit multiple targets. also, if you ever need to hit yourself you wont lose 3 cards to it, only 2. The idea of rushing is fine, but keep in mind not every card in your deck is black. You have lands, and non-black fatties. Also consider that many of your cards are key to getting a reanimation off. You need a fatty, a discard, and a reanimation spell. It's not going to be uncommon that you cannot cast your unmask turn one or two either way. I would also be more inclined to bank on griselbrand filling your hand if you had a full play set of him.

I'm curious about Smallpox. I feel like there will be many situations where you will only have 1 creature, and the smallpox would make you lose it. Also, I think 20 lands is too many, maybe take out 3-4 for some more reanimate and gitaxian probe?

Zombie Infestation won't do at all. I would play 2-4 Funeral Charm instead. It can kill a creature, and you can target yourself with its discard affect. This is my casual mono black reanimator list. It is extremely budget. You can take some ideas from it. If you can afford them, Lotus Petal would be good too. Mono Black Reanimator needs speed to make up for the lack of protection and consistency that blue gives it.

Quote from lascaossos »

Thank u for your suggestion since i have all 4 funeral charms already i'm going to include it and i ordered the deck just now (happy guy).A question how good would it be to cast buried alive to dump sharuum, p. metamorph and another artifact beater in the yard to bring them all to play via reanimate? Oh yeah nvm since sharuum is legendary it doesnt work

If you have any Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth it combos nicely with Funeral charm

What do you guys think of soulflayer as game 2/3 anti-hate tech? After a spell resolves, like buried alive or entomb, they can't react to you casting soulflayer until the pertinent cards have already been exiled. Pottential 4/4 hasty doublestrike lifelink shroud/hexproof indestructible creature

Hi Everyone. I've decided to dip into legacy with mono b reanimator. I've posted my proposed deck below and I was hoping to get your thoughts. First off, do you think I have enough cards for getting creatures in the graveyard, or should I add a couple Buried Alive? Also, what are your thoughts on Gitaxian Probe? Should we run it or replace it with more discard/removal? Finally, what are you guys running in your sideboard? Thanks for any help.

Hi everyone!

Is anyone still checking this topic? We will have an Ultra Budget Legacy Tournament ($100 or below Mainboard + Sideboard) on our LGS and I'm planning to use Mono Black Reanimator deck. Below is my current list. I would appreciate if anyone can comment or suggest anything to make the deck better. Strategies and Sideboard tips would also be great. I'm currently playing Commander (EDH) so I have very few experience with Legacy.

ULTRA BUDGET LEGACY MONO BLACK REANIMATOR
LANDS (16)
16 Swamp

RAMP (4)
4 Dark Ritual

FATTIES (12)
4 Griselbrand
4 Sire of Insanity
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria

FATTIES TO GRAVEYARD (9)
4 Putrid Imp
1 Entomb
3 Zombie Infestation
1 Buried Alive

REANIMATE SPELLS (11)
4 Animate Dead
4 Exhume
3 Dance of the Dead

DISCARD (8)
4 Duress
4 Inquisition of Kozilek

SIDEBOARD (15)
4 Faerie Macabre
1 Blazing Archon
1 Platinum Angel
1 Resolute Archangel
1 Terastodon
1 Archetype of Endurance
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Distress

Hey there! One thing that sticks out to me about your list is Zombie Infestation. Because you are only playing 12 fatties and 16 lands I think it will be very rare that you will want to discard more than one card. Instead, I think you should play a card that allows you to discard only once card, and can help in multiple situations as well, since you have very little card sorting. Something like Funeral Charm can target you for discard, or be used as removal.

Also, Cabal Therapy can be used to target yourself as well, or simply be used to disrupt your opponent. It is probably more useful to you than Inquisition because of this.