Went mono-black just because its more solid and blue is UNNECESSARY. Just let you open to Blood Moon / Anathemancer / Wasteland / Strip Mine...if you can run mono-black with no backdrops, that's the way you must go.
Worse spot removal? 2cmc instant, terror is among the best removal on Magic history paired with Snuff Out / Smother. Comparing it with Rend Flesh / Soul Reap is just being funny.
About the tutor, i could give you Vampiric Tutor, but tried to keep it at a cheap cost and still able to fetch your key spell.
Digging means nothing in a deck with 6 creatures in 60 cards. Most times you'll cast Careful Study, draw 2 non-creature spells and dump them, and also dump study, just will become a bad play and a lost turn. Cards that you might even need like reanimator spells, will just be buried if you're topdecking.
Gifts Ungiven is blue and slow, paired with other black spells. Machination is faster, let you play in a smoother land base, tutor your buring spell, and can even be played T1 with Ritual. But if you have "guts", you can run Vampiric Tutor on its place.
Also you're running bad cards like Vigor Mortis, a slow card to do the job / Dread Return with no possible way to put 3 creatures into play to fast put into play your beef.
Finally your deck has no way to deal with grave hate, so any single grave hate just screws your day.
Read the primer, follow the "rules" on deckbuilding it, then you'll understand how a reanimator should work.
Ok you may have missed the part where I said green is very underplayed in my circle. This makes Soul Reap better than Terror.
Your "tutor" means I can tutor for Buried Alive, then play Buried Alive. Gifts puts two in the yard alone, and I can use it to fetch Reanimation spells instead, if that's what I need at the time. Machination is one mana cheaper to transmute, and means I have to tie up another turn to play the Buried Alive I tutored for. Also, instant speed is better.
If you notice, my deck is meant to play slow. Hence I can play Vigor Mortis, Zombify, Dread Return. I don't need fast reanimation. I don't know if that was unclear previously.
I am not concerned with Blood Moon/Wasteland etc. Also, I think Strip Mine would function much the same, regardless of your deck being monoblack or two color.
Lastly, SB is for yard hate. I don't know if you missed the Null Rods in there, but that's what they are for. I don't expect Ground Seal (that whole nobody plays green thing again) or Withered Wretch, so I just need to watch for Crypt and Relic.
I play a deck with much of the same stuff. I also play Darkest Hour, which just makes everything black. Then your Pro Black guys are superstars and unblockable, and Sphere becomes even better, since it affects all other creatures as well. I also play CoP: Black for good measure and Idyllic Tutor to get any of the various enchants you may need.
Since you want to slow down, i didn't included the Vampiric Tutor, but instead the slowdown Transmute card, then you can find your Buried Alive cards.
Reanimation Outlets you got 8: stitch and exhume, you can also run Reanimate, but on Multi its not good, but all cheap cards.
Removal just fixed to something at least playable like Terror, cheap card, and effective.
If you can't use Duress (cheap but someguys just can't access it..), run Distress, but some sort of hand control is needed, or any grave disruption will finish your entire deck (Relic of Progenitus, Withered Wretch, Tormod's Crypt...)
You need an sac outlets, or Reanimation targets stuck on your hand, will just stay there, so Imp is there to do the dirty job.
Didn't messed with your reanimation targets since this is the fun of the deck, reanimate the "monster" you want.
Hope being helpful.
ps: By the way, awsome primer blutsau, can't suggest anything, guess you covered every viable cards here.
Ok I guess I don't get the changes you made. Mine was B/U with draw/discard stuff to dig and to pitch creatures I draw. You made it monoblack, replaced my spot removal with a worse spot removal, and gave me a weaker, less versatile tutor. What?
Here is my list. It is budget (except lands which I already had), and we play a lot of slow decks. Nobody rushes for the victory, so I wanted to play Reanimator in slow-mode to remain at the same pace as my play group. I could obviously outrace them via Reanimate or Life/Death, but that's no fun. Here goes:
Reanimation Package:
4x Stitch Together
2x Vigor Mortis
2x Zombify
2x Dread Return
Spot Removal:
4x Soul Reap
2x Rend Flesh
Other Spells:
4x Dark Ritual
4x Careful Study
4x Buried Alive
3x Gifts Ungiven
SB:
4x Slay
4x Null Rod
4x ????
1x Sundering Titan
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Angel of Despair
The creatures are a toolbox of sorts. Akroma is my normal go-to beatstick. Nishoba is my life-gainer and hard to kill via damage. Archon is for against the weenie-horde decks. Tyrant is just fun in multiplayer, which we do play often. Visara is... well... Visara. Simic Sky Swallower is just a backup plan.
I have the variety of different Reanimation spells so I can run Gifts Ungiven. It allows me to either play Gifts to fetch 2 Reanimation spells or fetch creatures to reanimate, so it is versatile in that respect. I like Stitch Together, since I have Careful Study, Gifts, Dark Ritual, Deltas, etc. filling my yard.
I have Soul Reap since nobody plays a lot of green, but I have Slay in the board to swap them out if I face a green deck. Rend Flesh is a solid secondary removal.
My board is interesting. I have Slay to swap out for Soul Reap, obviously. I have Null Rod to board in against Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, etc. I have Inkwell in case they play Islands, Angel of Despair and Sundering Titan just in case they seem useful against my opponent, and 4 slots available. I don't know what precisely to put there, but probably Tsabo's Decree, since we play a lot of Tribal decks in my play group.
Any thoughts? Remember, I could easily switch to Reanimates and whatnot, but I am trying to keep it a little slower so I don't outrace everyone and make it not fun to play against. They already don't like it, but with boarding they are able to stand up to it.
I suggest cutting the Zombie master by 1, you don't need 4 of something that doesn't stack. Urborg is needed in the land base. Zombie master you need two on the field to give it self Swampwalk and regen. Mutavalts or Unholy grotos would be good for the land base also.
What? You say I should cut one, then turn around and say I need two on the board?
Also, I didn't post a manabase. I am aware of the usefulness of all those listed lands.
Here is my current list, designed to be just straight beats. We play multiplayer, and the list needs some improvements, but right now it seems to always be the biggest threat at the table.
4x Zombie Master
4x Lord of the Undead
4x Death Baron
4x Undead Warchief
4x Zombie Trailblazer
4x Grave Defiler
4x Phyrexian Scuta
4x Dark Ritual
4x Nameless Inversion
24x Lands
I am liking Phyrexian Scuta less and less. It is solid, but the deck can do better, I think. You can see all the lords represented, as well as Zombie Trailblazer to ensure that the opponent has a swamp for swampwalk (don't own Urborgs) as well as Grave Defiler for some CA. Nameless Inversion is just a minor spot removal that can be grabbed with Defilers or Lord of the Undead.
I get the feeling we will get a cycle of lands with one of the functions from Futuresight. Except they will count as their types, of course.
Grove of the Burnwillows, V2.0
Land - Mountain Forest
Whenever ~ is tapped for mana, opponent gains 1 life.
It doesn't hurt the controller, and it's enough of a drawback to make you think about how you pay for stuff. And it's easy for new players to understand. Something like this seems highly probable.
Please read the thread. This has been mentioned and dismissed countless times already. Old idea is old.
I wanted my land to only work if there is absolutly no other color involved other than blue and/or white in the spell. Otherwise it wouldnt untap.
Like playing a Rhox Wa Monk with this land it doesnt untap as green was included in in the casting costs.
Could be like:
t: Add U or W to your mana pool. If this mana is used to play a spell or ability with B, R, or G in its mana cost, ~ doesn't untap during your next untap step.
They won't put a straight 'geddon back for a number of reasons:
1) It's been done, twice.
2) It's too simple
3) it'd be seen as a pure money grab, if they're doing a money grab, I think it'll be done through Wrath of God.
It's entirely possible they'll add an extra mana, some flavour and the clause "cannot be regenerated" but I doubt that they'll just reprint it under a different name.
Stupid points:
1. There have been a number of "functional reprints" for cards in the past.
2. So are a large number of other things. (See "Destroy all creatures", "Counter target spell" and "Target player discards a card")
3. No it would not. The lands are going to be the money grab. People will see the 'geddon and a deck or two will play it, unlike most chase-rares that are played heavily in several decks.
Realm Razer has 2 toughness. It means he can be easily killed. But you can do the following trick: play Realm Razer, his comes-into-play ability goes on stack, then sacrifice him, say to Nantuko Husk, his leaves-play ability goes on top of the stack and resolves. He has not removed lands from the game yet, so the ability does nothing. Then his comes-into-play ability resolves and removes lands from the game forever.
However, I think Boom // Bust shows what wizards think of armageddon today.
Well Bust is naturally higher-priced since it is on a split card. Since it is 6 mana, one of which is color restricted, they could easily print one that is 5 mana with only one color required.
They could also do something like
New Geddon
Enchantment - 2WW
Vanishing 4
Remove all lands from the game. When ~ leaves play, return those lands to play.
This can produce color off the bat too. And the turn it drops. And every time you tap for colorless it adds another counter, so all those turns you don't need colored mana, you are adding counters.
Could be something similar to the charge counter idea posted before:
Ghetto Tundra
Land
~ comes into play with a charge counter on it T: Add 1 to your mana pool and add a charge counter to ~ T, Remove a counter: Add U or W to your mana pool.
That seems both playable and not broken. Wouldn't be strictly better than any other land, would produce colored mana right away, always produce mana, and be a viable source of colored mana mid- to late-game. You could adjust to start with 2 or 3 counters too. I would play it.
Ok you may have missed the part where I said green is very underplayed in my circle. This makes Soul Reap better than Terror.
Your "tutor" means I can tutor for Buried Alive, then play Buried Alive. Gifts puts two in the yard alone, and I can use it to fetch Reanimation spells instead, if that's what I need at the time. Machination is one mana cheaper to transmute, and means I have to tie up another turn to play the Buried Alive I tutored for. Also, instant speed is better.
If you notice, my deck is meant to play slow. Hence I can play Vigor Mortis, Zombify, Dread Return. I don't need fast reanimation. I don't know if that was unclear previously.
I am not concerned with Blood Moon/Wasteland etc. Also, I think Strip Mine would function much the same, regardless of your deck being monoblack or two color.
Lastly, SB is for yard hate. I don't know if you missed the Null Rods in there, but that's what they are for. I don't expect Ground Seal (that whole nobody plays green thing again) or Withered Wretch, so I just need to watch for Crypt and Relic.
You're kidding right?
Just a thought.
Ok I guess I don't get the changes you made. Mine was B/U with draw/discard stuff to dig and to pitch creatures I draw. You made it monoblack, replaced my spot removal with a worse spot removal, and gave me a weaker, less versatile tutor. What?
Reanimation Package:
4x Stitch Together
2x Vigor Mortis
2x Zombify
2x Dread Return
Spot Removal:
4x Soul Reap
2x Rend Flesh
Other Spells:
4x Dark Ritual
4x Careful Study
4x Buried Alive
3x Gifts Ungiven
Creatures:
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Phantom Nishoba
1x Blazing Archon
1x Blood Tyrant
1x Visara the Dreadful
1x Simic Sky Swallower
Lands:
4x Polluted Delta
4x Watery Grave
4x Underground River
4x Tainted Isle
7x Swamp
SB:
4x Slay
4x Null Rod
4x ????
1x Sundering Titan
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Angel of Despair
The creatures are a toolbox of sorts. Akroma is my normal go-to beatstick. Nishoba is my life-gainer and hard to kill via damage. Archon is for against the weenie-horde decks. Tyrant is just fun in multiplayer, which we do play often. Visara is... well... Visara. Simic Sky Swallower is just a backup plan.
I have the variety of different Reanimation spells so I can run Gifts Ungiven. It allows me to either play Gifts to fetch 2 Reanimation spells or fetch creatures to reanimate, so it is versatile in that respect. I like Stitch Together, since I have Careful Study, Gifts, Dark Ritual, Deltas, etc. filling my yard.
I have Soul Reap since nobody plays a lot of green, but I have Slay in the board to swap them out if I face a green deck. Rend Flesh is a solid secondary removal.
My board is interesting. I have Slay to swap out for Soul Reap, obviously. I have Null Rod to board in against Tormod's Crypt, Relic of Progenitus, etc. I have Inkwell in case they play Islands, Angel of Despair and Sundering Titan just in case they seem useful against my opponent, and 4 slots available. I don't know what precisely to put there, but probably Tsabo's Decree, since we play a lot of Tribal decks in my play group.
Any thoughts? Remember, I could easily switch to Reanimates and whatnot, but I am trying to keep it a little slower so I don't outrace everyone and make it not fun to play against. They already don't like it, but with boarding they are able to stand up to it.
What? You say I should cut one, then turn around and say I need two on the board?
Also, I didn't post a manabase. I am aware of the usefulness of all those listed lands.
4x Zombie Master
4x Lord of the Undead
4x Death Baron
4x Undead Warchief
4x Zombie Trailblazer
4x Grave Defiler
4x Phyrexian Scuta
4x Dark Ritual
4x Nameless Inversion
24x Lands
I am liking Phyrexian Scuta less and less. It is solid, but the deck can do better, I think. You can see all the lords represented, as well as Zombie Trailblazer to ensure that the opponent has a swamp for swampwalk (don't own Urborgs) as well as Grave Defiler for some CA. Nameless Inversion is just a minor spot removal that can be grabbed with Defilers or Lord of the Undead.
Thoughts?
Vindicate, Pernicious Deed, Shadowmage Infiltraitor, Mystic Snake, etc.
Does this actually work? Guile creates a replacement effect which replaces the counter.
Please read the thread. This has been mentioned and dismissed countless times already. Old idea is old.
Could be like:
t: Add U or W to your mana pool. If this mana is used to play a spell or ability with B, R, or G in its mana cost, ~ doesn't untap during your next untap step.
Stupid points:
1. There have been a number of "functional reprints" for cards in the past.
2. So are a large number of other things. (See "Destroy all creatures", "Counter target spell" and "Target player discards a card")
3. No it would not. The lands are going to be the money grab. People will see the 'geddon and a deck or two will play it, unlike most chase-rares that are played heavily in several decks.
I would put that at uncommon. Not rare.
Well Bust is naturally higher-priced since it is on a split card. Since it is 6 mana, one of which is color restricted, they could easily print one that is 5 mana with only one color required.
They could also do something like
New Geddon
Enchantment - 2WW
Vanishing 4
Remove all lands from the game. When ~ leaves play, return those lands to play.
Ghetto Tundra
Land
~ comes into play with a charge counter on it
T: Add 1 to your mana pool and add a charge counter to ~
T, Remove a counter: Add U or W to your mana pool.
That seems both playable and not broken. Wouldn't be strictly better than any other land, would produce colored mana right away, always produce mana, and be a viable source of colored mana mid- to late-game. You could adjust to start with 2 or 3 counters too. I would play it.