This deck felt extremely powerful all day, the izzet charms countered spells, killed delvers, and looted admirably.
I played against:
Esper Delver (2-1)
UR OmniTell (1-2)
UR Omnitell (2-0)
Bant Stoneblade (2-0)
Infect (2-0)
Punishing Nic Fit (2-1)
Top 8:
Reanimator Mirror (2-0)
UR OmniTell, my loss in swiss (2-0)
RUG Delver (2-0)
I've been changing things around and becoming more controlling in the post board games, adding removal spells to just get to the point where you can go over whatever it is the opponent is doing. This build felt very powerful, but it felt weird not playing with basic island. That said, I only played against 3 wasteland decks, which may or may not be the norm in the meta, but even so, I felt confident in my mana against every wasteland deck that wasn't also playing stifle, and even against RUG Delver, I felt fine in the matchup.
@Stryfo
Nice! I have a couple questions: Are you happy with the current list? How do you board vs the mirror?
I've been on a bad luck streak lately.
3-1 @ LGS
2-2-1 @ LGS. I was about the win the match we drew.
2-2 @ SCG Legacy challenge Cleveland
4-4 @ SCG Legacy IQ Cleveland. I punted a game vs storm but it may not have changed the result.
Sorry I had reports typed up but the browser crashed... it wasn't meant to be.
My current list is undoubtedly the most powerful 60 I've played, since the discard outlet, reanimation spell, and blue count are all very high, and I really like Izzet Charm as a tool. That said, it also appears to be the weakest to cards like wasteland. It also should be said that I'm very happy playing Inkwell in the main again, I've always felt as though Iona is the weakest link in the main, as she makes our already good matchups better, which isn't really what I want in a silver bullet.
I was at that event. Was fun, my results where not as good:P I actually was thinking about building a reanimator. I had some questions about your build.
Why Hapless Researcher? Did you like using them?
Also why no Lotus petals?
What did you reanimate if you didn't know what you where playing against?
Hapless Researcher is a card that has tons of upside for reanimator, but people don't usually play it because at first blush it looks like a bad careful study. The reasons I like it are: It almost never gets countered, partially because it is harder to counter because pierce and flusterstorm don't hit it, and partially because no one ever points their counters at it for some reason. It allows you to invest mana and cards into your combo before you actually want to combo off, which lets you play around grave hate and also have more resources on your combo turn. It attacks and blocks, blocking being especially important in the deck that wants to trade life for cards. It lets you do exhume tricks without spending additional mana. I love Hapless Researcher, it is a beautiful card in this deck.
I don't play lotus petals because they force you to either play more mana sources, i.e. fewer spells, or take more mulligans, because openers with only petals are usually going to be mulligans. Also, the deck doesn't need the explosiveness that petal provides, I'd rather have a build that goes off more consistently on turn two than a build that has the ability to go off turn one.
When I don't know what I'm playing against and I have the choice, I go for Griselbrand, since he can usually enable a second creature fairly easily.
I don't play Iona main because she just makes good matchups better, and is poor against our worse matchups, Inkwell is fantastic against our worse matchups, so it made more sense to me to play Inkwell main.
Keranos din't do much for me this tournament, as they never got to cast containment priest against me. That said, I brought it in a lot, and almost hardcast him once, but my opponent conceded before that. I have also had success with him in previous tournaments.
I don't play Show and Tell because I don't believe it is very good in Reanimator. Playing a card that wants you to keep a creature in your hand in a deck that wants to not draw creatures and/or dump them into the yard makes for a lot of awkward draws. There are also too many decks running around that show and tell is uncastable against. It is difficult to resolve against DnT and Delver, and it is not good to cast against GW/x decks or Show and Tell decks. And since most hate currently is spell based (which we can counter) or cheap permanent based (which we can decay), there isn't much reason to play a card like Show and Tell.
This deck felt extremely powerful all day, the izzet charms countered spells, killed delvers, and looted admirably.
I played against:
Esper Delver (2-1)
UR OmniTell (1-2)
UR Omnitell (2-0)
Bant Stoneblade (2-0)
Infect (2-0)
Punishing Nic Fit (2-1)
Top 8:
Reanimator Mirror (2-0)
UR OmniTell, my loss in swiss (2-0)
RUG Delver (2-0)
I've been changing things around and becoming more controlling in the post board games, adding removal spells to just get to the point where you can go over whatever it is the opponent is doing. This build felt very powerful, but it felt weird not playing with basic island. That said, I only played against 3 wasteland decks, which may or may not be the norm in the meta, but even so, I felt confident in my mana against every wasteland deck that wasn't also playing stifle, and even against RUG Delver, I felt fine in the matchup.
Love that 4 color idea. I've personally debated between going abrupt decay vs izzet charm for a while but I'm not brave enough to go with both when stifle and wasteland are a thing. Personally I would have cut an underground sea for an island. So when did deed come in!?
I brought deed in against every non-combo deck. In theory, it should be excellent, but in practice it only ended up being a plague wind when I already had Griselbrand in play, as that's the only time I drew it. I considered cutting a USea for an island, but in the end decided it would be better to have the extra dual and just ram into wasteland face first.
I was curious if you could give us a run down of how you use your sideboard against which decks?
How did you find Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur to be?
I am not quiet getting which matches Inkwell would be better then Iona?
I would be curious to know your mulling plans? Do you auto mull your first hand if no reanimation + way to get creature in the yard?
Thanks for answering my questions. I am looking forward to trying reanimator in the new future, just waiting on entombs in the mail. I am going to go just Black/Blue with a green land for decays in the side.
As far as sideboarding goes, it's complicated. Some of the stuff is obvious or will become obvious after a few matches, so I'll go over the more strange choices. I bring in Keranos against any deck I expect containment priest from. I bring in deed against basically any non combo deck. I bring in Darkblast against DnT and it's ilk. If you want me to cover specific decks I can do that, just tell me which dekcs I need to cover.
Jin is excellent.
Inkwell smashes DnT, it's actually the best threat against them. It also is harder for miracles to deal with than Iona.
Mulliganing with this deck is something you'll just have to pick up from experience, it's very hard to explain my exact strategy for mulligans, because it differs based on a ton of factors.
Inkwell smashes DnT, it's actually the best threat against them. It also is harder for miracles to deal with than Iona.
Isn't Iona naming white pretty much a win against miracles? Seems like it locks them out of most removal. They have JTMS to get rid of her, is about it. Where as Terminus gets inkwell?
(Inkwell) is harder for miracles to deal with than Iona.
I guess it must depend on the Miracles build. Inkwell dodges Karakas, Venser and StP, but dies to Council's Judgment, Terminus & Verdict. Iona dodges everything except for Venser and Karakas. Iona seems better to me.
Iona loses to Jace as well. Yes, it does depend on the build, and in Europe, I'm sure Iona would be better against miracles, but in America, people like to play their legends and Karakas (which I think is the worse build, but it is better against us). The thing is, losing to Karakas is very real, and if you have Iona in the main deck, you get exactly one creature to beat Karakas, eschewing Iona allows for a 2nd nonlegendary creature, which is actually the reason to play Inkwell. Realistically, Griselbrand is THE target against miracles, if they deal with it, it was likely with Karakas, which is where Inkwell comes in. We have to remember that because we have four tutors, we have to look at the deck and matchups as a whole, rather than a threat by threat basis.
I would be curious to know your mulling plans? Do you auto mull your first hand if no reanimation + way to get creature in the yard?
No hand with land is an auto-mulligan. As a general guide I want a land and either a reasonable chance at combo turn 2 or 3 OR a slower hand with some form of disruption. It will become easier as you pilot the deck to see which hands have a good combo plan. Since most of the enablers draw more cards, it's usually easy to find a reanimation spell. Alternately if we have a reanimation spell and a creature, our odds of drawing a suitable enabler is high since we have 12 of those and brainstorm helps dig as well. Occasionally draw-discard is needed to bin a creature (e.g. game 1 against turn 1 chalice on 1).
Hope this helps.
Since you're playing a more controlling build, have you ever considered a singleton Dig Through Time? Seems like your deck should fill the yard fairly quickly with cards you'd rather not reanimate.
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"Be excellent to each other." - Bill S. Preston Esq. and Ted "Theodore" Logan
Game 1 the deck is trying to consistently go off on turn 2. We can't naturally cast Dig until turn 3 at the earliest.
Bringing in a graveyard-dependent card out of the board seems like a bad idea when the opponent is trying desperately to limit our graveyard and spell options. The card just doesn't make the cut. Same reasons why we don't run cephalid coliseum even though it is potentially helpful in certain situations (and actually is a combo piece).
I think dig is an interesting sideboard card against decks that can't/won't run rest in peace. A friend of mine has tried one main and one board and really liked it. I just can't find room for it in my list.
For love of black/hatred of blue reasons I've been trying to get mono black going in the reanimator department and this deck gave me some inspiration but I wanted to ask for opinions of card that I thought I might hold some potential
I was watching this VICE edition on MTG when one of the Forino brothers was explaining why it was so crucial to his vintage workshop deck and then it hit me, could I use serum powder in the same manner and just fish for the god hand?
Its not the most reliable strategy, I know, but mono black reanimator isn't very reliable to begin with
Mono-black reanimator is a glass cannon. That's not to say it isn't competitive, but I would be surprised if it increased win percentages in more than a couple matchups if any.
Black is terrible at dealing with non-creature permanents, so if I were to run mono-black I would go for more speed:
15-18 swamp
X lotus petal or possibly chrome mox
4 dark ritual
8-10 targets (minimum 3 sire of insanity)
X putrid imp
4 entomb
4 reanimate
4 exhume
4 animate dead
X thoughtseize
4 cabal therapy
4 gitaxian probe
You could try serum powder instead of probe if you want since probe actually decreases the number of keepable hands. Note that putrid imp can flashback therapy.
Hey Guys, I posted back about a year ago getting my deck ready for a tourney I was going to. Your guys advice was definitely great. I went 5/4 at the tourney (kansas city last year) so I did better than I thought I would. (went up against 2 death and tax decks in a row, ugh)
So I come to you guys with a new build I have been playtesting with. It's a mix of what I have found to work well combined with the guy who took 1st recently with no show and tells in the deck.
My friend and I have proxied up various decks to fight each other with to get a better idea of how to fight different decks. Dread of Night has been great against death and taxes, but the matchup is still very hard fought. Sire of Insanity is also very good if you get it t1 before they can drop a aether vial, but if they get one out it can still be a hard fight.
Dig through time has also been pretty good t1 but I usually side it out against decks that have graveyard hate, which makes room for the s&t in sideboard. The reason I have tropical island and bayou in the deck is I feel relying on a lotus petal or 1 bayou for my abrupt decay can sometimes be too shaky, also I feel having another blue dual is helpful when your opening hand is all dig spells and you have a bayou in your hand.
Iona, shield of emeria is one of my issues right now on mainboard; if I know what the deck is quickly it can wrap up games quite well, but if I have a slow play I feel it's tremendously weaker.
Grave titan has proven great for matches that I need a very fast clock, against death and taxes or burn it has proven quite handy, because unless they have STP or waste a lot of burn I'm getting 4 tokens.
Elesh norn, Grand Cenobite honestly I feel the only time this card is actually good is against elves or if I need to wipe a field of delvers, overall I feel she's the weakest and I am always siding her out for a better matchup. I think I would prefer having tidespout tyrant instead of her right now.
So I would just like your guys opinions on the deck as I will be going to the Chicago, IL open series in july and I hope this version of the deck will do a lot better.
Your list looks reasonable enough, but I can share my opinion on a few things:
I'm not sure how I feel about the lack of chain of vapor or echoing truth.
Iona is generally for burn and various combo matchups including sneak show/omni-tell, reanimator, every storm deck, and painter (especially once they play the painter). She is also useful against pox, elves, and merfolk under most circumstances. Because of her strength against opposing combo, she should be somewhere in the 75. In my next event there's a good chance I'll be running her in the SB rather than main.
Elesh is auto-win against dredge combo and elves (assuming no progenitus in play). She is randomly good against merfolk, goblins, and affinity. I've also found her useful as a second creature in a lot of situations, sometimes just to close a game a turn sooner. Wiping the opponent's board is a useful tool to have in the box and empty the warrens is a thing. I wouldn't say she needs to be maindeck though.
I don't buy the "fast clock" argument for grave titan and I think the situations where you'd really want him are too narrow to justify the slot. If they swords it, 2-4 zombies will probably not win the game. I'm still open to ideas about why this is a good option.
Sire might be good mainboard for that T1 back breaking play, I keep him sideboarded.
Elesh usually is worth a mainboard slot as a lot of critters can be fried with her out.
Grave Titan I can only warrant mainboard if BUG or decks packing edict effects are rampant. Yes, Grave Titan is the fastest clock in Reanimator's typical creature repertoire but the effects of the fatties are stronger than simple P/T. It's sideboard material for me.
I keep Tidespout mainboarded as he serves as a way to react to some MB gravehate that you typically don't see coming, also helps with DnT's game 1.
I don't really like Dig Through Time. Game 1 you are supposed to be comboing out fast as possible making the card rather bleh. Then on games 2 and 3 you are dealing with grave hate further nullifying the card. Abrupt Decay is a great card for the sideboard so you might want to consider cutting the EE (too slow) for some kind of bounce spells. Bounce spells serve as a backup against hate you cannot deal with AD alone.
Thanks for the thoughts dromar and judo, I also posted this on a few other forums to see what everybody thought and after playtesting it more and more I've come to change the deck up a little bit more.
Grave titan: back in sideboard slot, tidespout tyrant is now in mainboard.
Sire has continually proven well for me, granted his main weakness is late game, which he is much much worse in where they usually have a board presence.
Dread of night: I've tested countless D&T/maverick/white decks with it, and it's overall underwhelming. It seems like it has such great promise, but what ends up happening most of the time is they have a bigger creature (containment priest, stoneforge etc.) or they will flickerwhisp it, put in a 1 toughness dude while it's gone, equip it to a sword and then it lives and I'm not in a very great spot. I put massacre x2 back in.
I've tested taking out S&T entirely and runnning x4 abrupt decay in SB, and it has been interesting; when I need a permanent gone I usually have an abrupt decay now, but sometimes and I don't know if it's just because I haven't tested enough but I am getting creatures in my hand a LOT more than often with no discard and S&T was always handy for that.
Engineered explosives: it has been great for decks that can get rid of my elesh norn and has been useful against grave hate or creature heavy decks like elves/D&T where all their creatures are usually different, and it has come up so I'm hesitant to take it out. With that being said:
Echoing truth vs. chain of vapor: Thoughts? ET has the perk of being able to bounce a whole field of the same stuff, good against certain matchups, weaker than CoV against other matchups. CoV has the downside that the opponent can choose to bounce your stuff so you have to work around comboing after using CoV so it has the downside of being much less useful after you put out a threat. Personally I think echoing truth is better because while it does cost 1 more, the fact it has no downside and has potential to bounce more than 1 permanent at no extra cost.
Edit:
One more item I forgot to address that I have been trying:
Snapcaster mage x2 mainboard.
He has actually been pretty cool; it's great to have a instant blocker against D&T (like say containment priest or phyrexian revoker?) or early aggressors from other decks. Also, the flashback has been super handy especially in sideboard, flashing back an abrupt decay, OR it also has the added benefit of block, dies, reanimate him for cheap, give an exhume in the gy flashback and get a big fatty back for the low cost of 3 mana.
I've been playing Reanimator a lot lately ever since I moved to a new area. The meta was fairly hostile to my other deck (Death and Taxes) so I pulled this back out and have taken down the last 2 weekly legacy events. I'd love some more input on the deck because this list has a lot of ideas that I liked from other lists I saw that placed and tried to put them all together. The sideboard is definitely in need of work and I'm working on obtaining Show and Tells, since I don't have those. Any feedback would be appreciated.
3 Griselbrand
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Tidespout Tyrant
4 Careful Study
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
2 Animate Dead
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Daze
2 Izzet Charm
1 Misdirection
1 Swamp
4 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Tropical Island
2 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
1 Badlands
1 Volcanic Island
2 Pithing Needle
2 Thoughtseize
1 Engineered Explosives
2 Echoing Truth
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Keranos, God of Storms
1 Darkblast
This deck felt extremely powerful all day, the izzet charms countered spells, killed delvers, and looted admirably.
I played against:
Esper Delver (2-1)
UR OmniTell (1-2)
UR Omnitell (2-0)
Bant Stoneblade (2-0)
Infect (2-0)
Punishing Nic Fit (2-1)
Top 8:
Reanimator Mirror (2-0)
UR OmniTell, my loss in swiss (2-0)
RUG Delver (2-0)
I've been changing things around and becoming more controlling in the post board games, adding removal spells to just get to the point where you can go over whatever it is the opponent is doing. This build felt very powerful, but it felt weird not playing with basic island. That said, I only played against 3 wasteland decks, which may or may not be the norm in the meta, but even so, I felt confident in my mana against every wasteland deck that wasn't also playing stifle, and even against RUG Delver, I felt fine in the matchup.
Nice! I have a couple questions: Are you happy with the current list? How do you board vs the mirror?
I've been on a bad luck streak lately.
3-1 @ LGS
2-2-1 @ LGS. I was about the win the match we drew.
2-2 @ SCG Legacy challenge Cleveland
4-4 @ SCG Legacy IQ Cleveland. I punted a game vs storm but it may not have changed the result.
Sorry I had reports typed up but the browser crashed... it wasn't meant to be.
Against the mirror I go:
In:
2x ET 2x Thoughtseize 1x Iona 1x Keranos
Out:
1x Elesh 1x Careful Study 4x Exhume
Why Hapless Researcher? Did you like using them?
Also why no Lotus petals?
What did you reanimate if you didn't know what you where playing against?
Why no Iona main deck?
How was Keranos for you? Did you use him?
Why no show and tells? Budget issues?
I don't play lotus petals because they force you to either play more mana sources, i.e. fewer spells, or take more mulligans, because openers with only petals are usually going to be mulligans. Also, the deck doesn't need the explosiveness that petal provides, I'd rather have a build that goes off more consistently on turn two than a build that has the ability to go off turn one.
When I don't know what I'm playing against and I have the choice, I go for Griselbrand, since he can usually enable a second creature fairly easily.
I don't play Iona main because she just makes good matchups better, and is poor against our worse matchups, Inkwell is fantastic against our worse matchups, so it made more sense to me to play Inkwell main.
Keranos din't do much for me this tournament, as they never got to cast containment priest against me. That said, I brought it in a lot, and almost hardcast him once, but my opponent conceded before that. I have also had success with him in previous tournaments.
I don't play Show and Tell because I don't believe it is very good in Reanimator. Playing a card that wants you to keep a creature in your hand in a deck that wants to not draw creatures and/or dump them into the yard makes for a lot of awkward draws. There are also too many decks running around that show and tell is uncastable against. It is difficult to resolve against DnT and Delver, and it is not good to cast against GW/x decks or Show and Tell decks. And since most hate currently is spell based (which we can counter) or cheap permanent based (which we can decay), there isn't much reason to play a card like Show and Tell.
Love that 4 color idea. I've personally debated between going abrupt decay vs izzet charm for a while but I'm not brave enough to go with both when stifle and wasteland are a thing. Personally I would have cut an underground sea for an island. So when did deed come in!?
How did you find Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur to be?
I am not quiet getting which matches Inkwell would be better then Iona?
I would be curious to know your mulling plans? Do you auto mull your first hand if no reanimation + way to get creature in the yard?
Thanks for answering my questions. I am looking forward to trying reanimator in the new future, just waiting on entombs in the mail. I am going to go just Black/Blue with a green land for decays in the side.
Jin is excellent.
Inkwell smashes DnT, it's actually the best threat against them. It also is harder for miracles to deal with than Iona.
Mulliganing with this deck is something you'll just have to pick up from experience, it's very hard to explain my exact strategy for mulligans, because it differs based on a ton of factors.
Isn't Iona naming white pretty much a win against miracles? Seems like it locks them out of most removal. They have JTMS to get rid of her, is about it. Where as Terminus gets inkwell?
I guess it must depend on the Miracles build. Inkwell dodges Karakas, Venser and StP, but dies to Council's Judgment, Terminus & Verdict. Iona dodges everything except for Venser and Karakas. Iona seems better to me.
Trade Thread
Modern
RWGBurnGWR
GUInfectUG
GRTronRG
UWGifts TronWU
URBGrixis DelverBRU
RGWZooWGR
Legacy
BUWTinFinsWUB
UROmniTellRU
BURTESRUB
GElves!G
GBPSIBG
RGBelcherGR
UBRGWDredgeWGRBU
UBAffinityBU
RBurnR
Vintage
UBGDoomsdayGBU
0Martello Shops0
GElves!G
UBTPSBU
UBelcherU
0Dredge0
No hand with land is an auto-mulligan. As a general guide I want a land and either a reasonable chance at combo turn 2 or 3 OR a slower hand with some form of disruption. It will become easier as you pilot the deck to see which hands have a good combo plan. Since most of the enablers draw more cards, it's usually easy to find a reanimation spell. Alternately if we have a reanimation spell and a creature, our odds of drawing a suitable enabler is high since we have 12 of those and brainstorm helps dig as well. Occasionally draw-discard is needed to bin a creature (e.g. game 1 against turn 1 chalice on 1).
Hope this helps.
Bringing in a graveyard-dependent card out of the board seems like a bad idea when the opponent is trying desperately to limit our graveyard and spell options. The card just doesn't make the cut. Same reasons why we don't run cephalid coliseum even though it is potentially helpful in certain situations (and actually is a combo piece).
For love of black/hatred of blue reasons I've been trying to get mono black going in the reanimator department and this deck gave me some inspiration but I wanted to ask for opinions of card that I thought I might hold some potential
Serum Powder
I was watching this VICE edition on MTG when one of the Forino brothers was explaining why it was so crucial to his vintage workshop deck and then it hit me, could I use serum powder in the same manner and just fish for the god hand?
Its not the most reliable strategy, I know, but mono black reanimator isn't very reliable to begin with
Black is terrible at dealing with non-creature permanents, so if I were to run mono-black I would go for more speed:
15-18 swamp
X lotus petal or possibly chrome mox
4 dark ritual
8-10 targets (minimum 3 sire of insanity)
X putrid imp
4 entomb
4 reanimate
4 exhume
4 animate dead
X thoughtseize
4 cabal therapy
4 gitaxian probe
You could try serum powder instead of probe if you want since probe actually decreases the number of keepable hands. Note that putrid imp can flashback therapy.
Peace
So I come to you guys with a new build I have been playtesting with. It's a mix of what I have found to work well combined with the guy who took 1st recently with no show and tells in the deck.
3 Griselbrand
1 Sire of Insanity
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Grave Titan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
Lands:
1 Tropical Island
1 Island
2 Swamp
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
3 Lotus Petal
Instants:
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Daze
1 Dig Through Time
4 Entomb
Sorcery:
4 Careful Study
4 Ponder
4 Exhume
4 Reanimate
2 Thoughtseize
Enchantments:
1 Animate Dead
2 Show and Tell
2 Misdirection
2 Abrupt Decay
2 Dread of Night
2 Engineered Explosives
2 Pithing Needle
1 Tidespout Tyrant
1 Ashen Rider
1 Inkwell Leviathan
My friend and I have proxied up various decks to fight each other with to get a better idea of how to fight different decks. Dread of Night has been great against death and taxes, but the matchup is still very hard fought. Sire of Insanity is also very good if you get it t1 before they can drop a aether vial, but if they get one out it can still be a hard fight.
Dig through time has also been pretty good t1 but I usually side it out against decks that have graveyard hate, which makes room for the s&t in sideboard. The reason I have tropical island and bayou in the deck is I feel relying on a lotus petal or 1 bayou for my abrupt decay can sometimes be too shaky, also I feel having another blue dual is helpful when your opening hand is all dig spells and you have a bayou in your hand.
Iona, shield of emeria is one of my issues right now on mainboard; if I know what the deck is quickly it can wrap up games quite well, but if I have a slow play I feel it's tremendously weaker.
Grave titan has proven great for matches that I need a very fast clock, against death and taxes or burn it has proven quite handy, because unless they have STP or waste a lot of burn I'm getting 4 tokens.
Elesh norn, Grand Cenobite honestly I feel the only time this card is actually good is against elves or if I need to wipe a field of delvers, overall I feel she's the weakest and I am always siding her out for a better matchup. I think I would prefer having tidespout tyrant instead of her right now.
So I would just like your guys opinions on the deck as I will be going to the Chicago, IL open series in july and I hope this version of the deck will do a lot better.
Your list looks reasonable enough, but I can share my opinion on a few things:
I'm not sure how I feel about the lack of chain of vapor or echoing truth.
Iona is generally for burn and various combo matchups including sneak show/omni-tell, reanimator, every storm deck, and painter (especially once they play the painter). She is also useful against pox, elves, and merfolk under most circumstances. Because of her strength against opposing combo, she should be somewhere in the 75. In my next event there's a good chance I'll be running her in the SB rather than main.
Elesh is auto-win against dredge combo and elves (assuming no progenitus in play). She is randomly good against merfolk, goblins, and affinity. I've also found her useful as a second creature in a lot of situations, sometimes just to close a game a turn sooner. Wiping the opponent's board is a useful tool to have in the box and empty the warrens is a thing. I wouldn't say she needs to be maindeck though.
I don't buy the "fast clock" argument for grave titan and I think the situations where you'd really want him are too narrow to justify the slot. If they swords it, 2-4 zombies will probably not win the game. I'm still open to ideas about why this is a good option.
Peace
Sire might be good mainboard for that T1 back breaking play, I keep him sideboarded.
Elesh usually is worth a mainboard slot as a lot of critters can be fried with her out.
Grave Titan I can only warrant mainboard if BUG or decks packing edict effects are rampant. Yes, Grave Titan is the fastest clock in Reanimator's typical creature repertoire but the effects of the fatties are stronger than simple P/T. It's sideboard material for me.
I keep Tidespout mainboarded as he serves as a way to react to some MB gravehate that you typically don't see coming, also helps with DnT's game 1.
I don't really like Dig Through Time. Game 1 you are supposed to be comboing out fast as possible making the card rather bleh. Then on games 2 and 3 you are dealing with grave hate further nullifying the card. Abrupt Decay is a great card for the sideboard so you might want to consider cutting the EE (too slow) for some kind of bounce spells. Bounce spells serve as a backup against hate you cannot deal with AD alone.
R/W Devotion
Mono-R Devotion
Legacy
Burn
Punishing Jund
Grave titan: back in sideboard slot, tidespout tyrant is now in mainboard.
Sire has continually proven well for me, granted his main weakness is late game, which he is much much worse in where they usually have a board presence.
Dread of night: I've tested countless D&T/maverick/white decks with it, and it's overall underwhelming. It seems like it has such great promise, but what ends up happening most of the time is they have a bigger creature (containment priest, stoneforge etc.) or they will flickerwhisp it, put in a 1 toughness dude while it's gone, equip it to a sword and then it lives and I'm not in a very great spot. I put massacre x2 back in.
I've tested taking out S&T entirely and runnning x4 abrupt decay in SB, and it has been interesting; when I need a permanent gone I usually have an abrupt decay now, but sometimes and I don't know if it's just because I haven't tested enough but I am getting creatures in my hand a LOT more than often with no discard and S&T was always handy for that.
Engineered explosives: it has been great for decks that can get rid of my elesh norn and has been useful against grave hate or creature heavy decks like elves/D&T where all their creatures are usually different, and it has come up so I'm hesitant to take it out. With that being said:
Echoing truth vs. chain of vapor: Thoughts? ET has the perk of being able to bounce a whole field of the same stuff, good against certain matchups, weaker than CoV against other matchups. CoV has the downside that the opponent can choose to bounce your stuff so you have to work around comboing after using CoV so it has the downside of being much less useful after you put out a threat. Personally I think echoing truth is better because while it does cost 1 more, the fact it has no downside and has potential to bounce more than 1 permanent at no extra cost.
Edit:
One more item I forgot to address that I have been trying:
Snapcaster mage x2 mainboard.
He has actually been pretty cool; it's great to have a instant blocker against D&T (like say containment priest or phyrexian revoker?) or early aggressors from other decks. Also, the flashback has been super handy especially in sideboard, flashing back an abrupt decay, OR it also has the added benefit of block, dies, reanimate him for cheap, give an exhume in the gy flashback and get a big fatty back for the low cost of 3 mana.
http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/31-05-15-reanimator/
Also sorry about the link, apparently I can't get the list to appear in the thread.
Marath, Will of the Wild
Friendly Kess Twin Combo
Tatyova - Sir Bounce A Lot
Gonti's Luxury Pie
Prime (Eldrazi) Speaker Zegana (Retired)