HORRIFYING FATTIES
This is a black green reanimator deck I've been working on. It has a few advantages over traditional Blue Black builds. One being that Lotleth Troll is an amazing outlet and a house on his own. Grisly Salvage is a great tool for filling your graveyard with fatties while finding your Lotleth Troll. Eureka is green's Show and Tell and offers another great outlet. Occasionally a reanimated Griselbrand will draw you into it with several fatties combing out and sealing the deal. You can also note that Thoughtseize serves as an outlet as well.
There are 8 disruption spells with Thoughtseize and Chancellor of the Annex. 11 get a fatty out of your hand outlets with Eureka, Thoughtseize and Lotleth Troll. 8 dig/search your library for a fatty into your graveyard. 14 reanimator spells with Reanimate, Exhume, Animate Dead, Entomb-Unburial Rites and Unburial Rites giving this deck a great amount of redundancy in all the right places making it very easy to get your fatties online. It play tests nicely! Here is the deck. I need a sideboard so any help in that department along with comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome.
Pros vs. Cons to running green instead of blue:
Pros:
-More creatures. Less reliant on combo. Adds the redundancy of aggro.
-Deathrite Shaman equally adds ramp as does tech, munching opponents creatures from the yard before Exhume goes online.
-Lotleth Troll outlet for fatties, adds pressure, win cons, hard to kill, excellent blocker, gets bigger.
-Eureka has it's own pros and cons vs. Show and Tell. It costs more but can put several fatties into play making them harder to deal with vs. Liliana, Edicts, STP etc..
-Green sideboard options, Abrupt Decay, Vines of Vastwood, Root Maze etc..
-Grisly Salvage vs. Careful Study costs more and not a direct outlet but digs deeper and lines your graveyard with fatties.
-It's not blue. A nice breath of fresh air from stale Blue Black reanimator.
Cons:
-Reactive counters as opposed to blacks pro-active discard thus excelsior in top deck mode.
-Slightly faster due to the amount of one drops and free spells such as Daze and Force of Will.
-Better protection for your fatties pre-sideboard via counters.
-Cheaper faster search. Brainstorm, Careful Study etc..
EDIT: Recent changes: -3x Wasteland +3 Elvish Spirit Guide ESG boosts the speed of the deck but also adds to the aggro approach in the event you don't need her speed late game and she is also pitchable to Lotleth Troll making him bigger.
Eureka functions like a worse show and tell. With show and tell you are essentially asking your opponent to guess right. With eureka they can choose the right permanent. That said it feels like you are going all in on reanimator without the speed of UB, that doesn't seem a profitable change. Also you lack the protection that blue provides. In other words your proactive answers does not stop the top deck that you lose to.
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I was thinking the same thing especially concerning the protection of your creatures which is probably the greatest disadvantage to not running blue. Not so sure blue is all that much faster. Deathrite Shaman provides some decent ramp.
You are also less reliant on your fatties. Lotleth Troll on his own can be hard for some decks deal with adding some resilience against the control match-up. It's also a nice break from running blue and offers some originality.
The sideboard can also offer some interesting options including Autumn's Veil and Vines of Vastwood siding out Thoughtseize and IOK etc..
EDIT: Also, what do you guys think of running four Chancellor of the Annex main deck in general for any reanimator deck?
@Angel_Djinn Welcome! Thanks for the suggestions! Great advice, lets take it. First permanent changes made, I switched Angel of Despair to Ashen Rider and put him on the sideboard. Sire of Insanity is insane! No pun intended. But really, the sooner he goes online you've won against almost everything. He also puts fatties from you hand into the yard in the event you top deck reanimators. I added him as well.
I'm the most reluctant with Chancellor of the Annex but am testing. His addition would change the deck drastically, but what do you lose? Inkwell, Sphinx, Iona and Avacyn? That might not be a bad trade. He's not your first reanimate choice but he does not suck at all. He shuts down storm and almost all combo once online and is a headache for everything else but his main advantage is drawing him in your opening hand. It is difficult to catch the revelation of just how irritating he is to play against unless you've actually done so before. He's extremely annoying. If we go this route, I'd like to up the Wasteland count to 4 to add to the disruption. Not sure what to cut though. Maybe 2 Wasteland is correct. That being said, Root Maze main deck or on the sideboard is a house against almost every deck in the current environment. Even mono colored decks run fetchlands. With this route fetches would be cut for pain lands. Considerably most annoying with Chancellor. Possibly cut Inquisition of Kozilek for it's inclusion.
@Angel-Djinn I like it! Looks really fast! I'll proxy it up. It leans on the direction of a more combo reliant build rather than my aggro approach. As far as going the combo route I'm not sure red offers anything that blue doesn't offer with the exception that Faithless Looting has flashback. I think blue probably offers better protection for your creatures via counters and better dig via Brainstorm. Is Cabal Therapy there for the usual reasons and for using on yourself as a discard outlet? Or do you do something with it's flashback?
I see what you are saying about speed and Sire of Insanity in the blue vs. red debate. Can't wait to test your build. Do you typically want Sire of Insanity as your primary reanimate target or Griselbrand? In the event you want Sire of Insanity maybe -2 Griselbrand and +2 Sire of Insanity. Also, the event may arise that you want to hard cast Sire off of Ritual.
I think I'm going to take your advice on adding a 3rd Eureka. I do like Shaman maindeck and Abrupt Decay on the side. Shaman adds ramp and when combined with Lotleth Troll pressure and forces your opponent to spend their removal on him before you drop your fatties. He also removes fatties from your opponent's yard before you cast Exhume. I can always side him out for Abrupt Decay in the event my opponent is running him.
Edit: Wow! I just proxied up your build. First test I revealed two Chancellor of Annex opening hand, pitched Simian Spirit Guide for Faithless Looting played a Badlands and reanimated one of them. Damn this deck is fast! I know you're not a fan of Wasteland but it would be tight with Chancellor. If I could have followed up that turn with Wasteland my opponent would have all that more trouble getting the mana to cast their removal.
@WeaponX I just googled Burning Reanimator. It looks really fun! I'm really drawn to unique competitive decks like this. I'm going to proxy it up!
@Angel-Djinn God dang your deck is fast!!! The next three play tests I did I had Sire of Insanity in play turn one and that is after I had already Thoughtsiezed or Chancellored my opponent. The fourth game I didn't draw the combo pieces but I did have two Entombs in hand and it made me wonder. Since you are already running a lone Scrubland (presumably for the side boarded Massacre) why not run a lone Unburial Rites which can be Entombed or even pitched to Faithless Looting. I was really wishing that it was in the deck when I had two Entombs in my hand.
@Angel-Djinn I see, love your deck. I have been testing the lone Unburial Rites. It is really nice and has helped me put the combo together more than once. It's also not that bad to hard cast with all the ramp. I highly recommend adding one maindeck. The Chancellors are really solid too. The whole deck is really fast and smooth. Great design and ingenuity. The only changes I made to your build is that I cut an Animate Dead for an Unburial Rites and I cut a Griselbrand for a second Sire of Insanity but not certain that's necessary, I just really like Sire of Insanity. This deck is smokin!
HORRIFYING FATTIES
This is a black green reanimator deck I've been working on. It has a few advantages over traditional Blue Black builds. One being that Lotleth Troll is an amazing outlet and a house on his own. Grisly Salvage is a great tool for filling your graveyard with fatties while finding your Lotleth Troll. Eureka is green's Show and Tell and offers another great outlet. Occasionally a reanimated Griselbrand will draw you into it with several fatties combing out and sealing the deal. You can also note that Thoughtseize serves as an outlet as well.
There are 8 disruption spells with Thoughtseize and Chancellor of the Annex. 11 get a fatty out of your hand outlets with Eureka, Thoughtseize and Lotleth Troll. 8 dig/search your library for a fatty into your graveyard. 14 reanimator spells with Reanimate, Exhume, Animate Dead, Entomb-Unburial Rites and Unburial Rites giving this deck a great amount of redundancy in all the right places making it very easy to get your fatties online. It play tests nicely! Here is the deck. I need a sideboard so any help in that department along with comments, criticisms and suggestions are welcome.
Pros vs. Cons to running green instead of blue:
Pros:
-More creatures. Less reliant on combo. Adds the redundancy of aggro.
-Deathrite Shaman equally adds ramp as does tech, munching opponents creatures from the yard before Exhume goes online.
-Lotleth Troll outlet for fatties, adds pressure, win cons, hard to kill, excellent blocker, gets bigger.
-Eureka has it's own pros and cons vs. Show and Tell. It costs more but can put several fatties into play making them harder to deal with vs. Liliana, Edicts, STP etc..
-Green sideboard options, Abrupt Decay, Vines of Vastwood, Root Maze etc..
-Grisly Salvage vs. Careful Study costs more and not a direct outlet but digs deeper and lines your graveyard with fatties.
-It's not blue. A nice breath of fresh air from stale Blue Black reanimator.
Cons:
-Reactive counters as opposed to blacks pro-active discard thus excelsior in top deck mode.
-Slightly faster due to the amount of one drops and free spells such as Daze and Force of Will.
-Better protection for your fatties pre-sideboard via counters.
-Cheaper faster search. Brainstorm, Careful Study etc..
EDIT: Recent changes:
-3x Wasteland +3 Elvish Spirit Guide ESG boosts the speed of the deck but also adds to the aggro approach in the event you don't need her speed late game and she is also pitchable to Lotleth Troll making him bigger.
-1x Overgrown Tomb -1x Animate Dead +1x Scrubland +1x Unburial Rites The idea behind this is that when you already have a fatty in the yard but nothing to reanimate it with and you draw an Entomb you can search out Unburial Rites and cast it from the yard.
Horrifying Fatties: 60 cards
4x Chancellor of the Annex
2x Griselbrand
1x Empyrial Archangel
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
Outlets: 15
4x Lotleth Troll
4x Grisly Salvage
4x Entomb
3x Eureka
Reanimators: 10
4x Exhume
4x Reanimate
1x Animate Dead
1x Unburial Rites
4x Deathrite Shaman
3x Elivish Spirit Guide
Disruption: 4
4x Thoughtseize
Land: 16
4x Bayou
3x Overgrown Tomb
4x Polluted Delta
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Scrubland
1x Ashen Rider
1x Elesh Norn Grand Cenobite
3x Vines of Vastwood
4x Autumn's Veil
4x Abrupt Decay
2x Root Maze
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
-----The Legacy Flowchart-----
Tiny Leaders Overlord
You are also less reliant on your fatties. Lotleth Troll on his own can be hard for some decks deal with adding some resilience against the control match-up. It's also a nice break from running blue and offers some originality.
The sideboard can also offer some interesting options including Autumn's Veil and Vines of Vastwood siding out Thoughtseize and IOK etc..
EDIT: Also, what do you guys think of running four Chancellor of the Annex main deck in general for any reanimator deck?
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
I'm the most reluctant with Chancellor of the Annex but am testing. His addition would change the deck drastically, but what do you lose? Inkwell, Sphinx, Iona and Avacyn? That might not be a bad trade. He's not your first reanimate choice but he does not suck at all. He shuts down storm and almost all combo once online and is a headache for everything else but his main advantage is drawing him in your opening hand. It is difficult to catch the revelation of just how irritating he is to play against unless you've actually done so before. He's extremely annoying. If we go this route, I'd like to up the Wasteland count to 4 to add to the disruption. Not sure what to cut though. Maybe 2 Wasteland is correct. That being said, Root Maze main deck or on the sideboard is a house against almost every deck in the current environment. Even mono colored decks run fetchlands. With this route fetches would be cut for pain lands. Considerably most annoying with Chancellor. Possibly cut Inquisition of Kozilek for it's inclusion.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
I think I'm going to take your advice on adding a 3rd Eureka. I do like Shaman maindeck and Abrupt Decay on the side. Shaman adds ramp and when combined with Lotleth Troll pressure and forces your opponent to spend their removal on him before you drop your fatties. He also removes fatties from your opponent's yard before you cast Exhume. I can always side him out for Abrupt Decay in the event my opponent is running him.
Edit: Wow! I just proxied up your build. First test I revealed two Chancellor of Annex opening hand, pitched Simian Spirit Guide for Faithless Looting played a Badlands and reanimated one of them. Damn this deck is fast! I know you're not a fan of Wasteland but it would be tight with Chancellor. If I could have followed up that turn with Wasteland my opponent would have all that more trouble getting the mana to cast their removal.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
-----The Legacy Flowchart-----
Tiny Leaders Overlord
@Angel-Djinn God dang your deck is fast!!! The next three play tests I did I had Sire of Insanity in play turn one and that is after I had already Thoughtsiezed or Chancellored my opponent. The fourth game I didn't draw the combo pieces but I did have two Entombs in hand and it made me wonder. Since you are already running a lone Scrubland (presumably for the side boarded Massacre) why not run a lone Unburial Rites which can be Entombed or even pitched to Faithless Looting. I was really wishing that it was in the deck when I had two Entombs in my hand.
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox
Currently Playing:
Burning Reanimator
Eldrazi and Taxes
Bug Threshold
Enchantress
Dead Guy Ale
Combo Zombies
Pyromancer Pox