MTG Salvation

This thread will be about the discussion and improvement of the Reanimator archetype in casual.
Reanimation decks have many forms and play styles. An easy way to distinguish them is to take a look at their reanimation spells: Some use Makeshift Mannequin, others use Dread Return’s flashback, there are Debtors' Knell & Patriarch’s Bidding and then there is Reanimate itself. The primer will be about the deck that plays Reanimate, the deck that is known for plays like putting Akroma, Angel of Wrath into play on turn one - Reanimator. Laughed at in competitive Vintage and Legacy for it being to slow and to easy to disrupt – in casual it’s either looked at as unfun or a feared contestant to be beaten.
“So what is being a Reanimtor about?” “A Reanimator uses black magic to turn the dead into undead and force them to do his gory bidding.” “So we prey upon our enemies with walking bones and rotten flesh? I mean, even I would have ethical problems beating up a farmer with parts of his granny.” “Hell, no! Usually Reanimators don’t target some corpses but the ones of the mightiest and deadliest beings that the multiverse has to offer. You must know the very first Reanimator’s name was Timmy.” “Now why would the creatures I’ll summon be slumbering six feet under my feet in wet, worm-ridden earth if they are so mighty?” “You placed them there.”
“What did you expect? We’re not just dissecting volunteers.” “So it’s that easy, bury my minion, stitch it together and make it beat faces?” "Yes and no, you know there are grave robbers, zombies and all other sorts of vermin feeding upon the dead, not to forget the magic of people fearing what we do.” “So we must just be faster than those haters.” “Now you begin to understand.”
I tried to illustrate the three main problems Reanimator has to solve: 1) How to get the right creatures into your graveyard? 2) What are the right creatures? 3) Hate.
[spoiler=1)] Problem one can be approached in two different ways. One way leads the creature directly from your library into the graveyard. There are only two cards doing this: Entomb and Buried Alive. They allow Reanimator to run a toolbox of threats that are either an answer to an opposing deck’s threat or simply not manageable for that specific opponent. The other way is to discard the threats you have drawn and then get them back. This is insofar sub-par as you can’t control what you draw and to make efficient use of it you need to draw more cards than usual. Black has some powerhouse card-drawing spells but none really fit Reanimator. So this means you look at a splash for blue. The most common choices then are: Breakthrough – Not recommended to be played when facing counterspells, but you don’t need more than a reanimation spell in hand against most decks if you have the right target for it in your grave and if they can handle that thread holding a fuller hand would not really matter. Careful Study – Cheap digging and discarding, the fact that it’s card disadvantage, you three for two yourself, is negligible as you want and need that fatty you discarded in your grave. Frantic Search – Same as CS, it’s free but needs three lands and then it might be to late. It really depends on the build. Intuition – Pricy but as mix between Buried Alive and Demonic Tutor very flexible. On top of that the card can find a home in many decks, so they don’t get old.
Black has only discard most notable: Putrid Imp - shines through his cost. Oona’s Prowler - with his three power speeding up the clock a bit or aiding with disruption Zombie Infestation - allows to combat weenies as well as providing pressure.
Splashing blue or not has mostly an impact on the non-reanimation part of the deck and on the land-base, thus budget. The blue cards take up slots that would be filled with classic black pro-reactive disruption and then one could think about adding free blue counters as Force of Will or Daze instead of the black mana needing spells. Which way is more consistent depends on what you face, mono black should be stronger against combo and interactive decks while a splash for blue allows an optimised game play if you face a deck that does its own thing.
Playing Buried Alive as four-off is never wrong though and should be considered part of the deck’s basis.
[spoiler=2)] The Akroma section: Akroma, Angel of Wrath – the icon, Timmy’s wet dream. Hellkite Overlord – the most efficient beater, allows a turn 3 kill. Sphinx of the Steel Wind – Neo-kroma provides another suite of abilities than the original, might be worth it. Spirit of the Night – The old school target. Razia, Boros Archangel – A cheap replacement for Akroma. Rorix Bladewing – Very cheap replacement for Akroma. Simic Sky Swallower – If you need shroud over haste. Plated Slagwurm/Kalonian Behemoth – Very cheap replacements for SSS. Inkwell Leviathan – Even Vintage decks run these, they have to be good.
The 2:1s: Play a Buried Alive for one of these and a buddy they can get is a really brutal play. Bladewing the Risen – Why just Hellkite Overlord if you can get a 4/4 for free too? Sharuum the Hegemon – A very good reason to play SotSW. The following three cards bring their own replacement along. Broodmate Dragon – Eight flying power split on two bodies gives control fits. Penumbra Wurm – Self explaining. Symbiotic Wurm – Self explaining.
The answers: Angel of Despair – Vindicate on a stick. Kederekt Leviathan – Upheaval on a stick, if you play blue you might even unearth it (an unlikely scenario) Phantom Nishoba – simply owns burn and any aggro deck. Blazing Archon – aggro rolls over to this very easily. Empyrial Archangel – same as Nishoba; while burn can deal eight or more damage in a turn to kill it, the card advantage generated will win you the game, as the burn deck just ran out of steam. Iona, Shield of Emeria - A new star, shutting down 1C decks and against multicoloured decks choose the colour with the removal.
Pseudo-haste: Magister Sphinx – it deals up to ten damages the turn it enters the field -> it can compete with Hellkite Overlord for a turn 3 kill! Laquatus's Champion – It will most likely not die, so the six life are somewhat set. Bogardan Hellkite – Very handy, either five to the dome or blowing up opposing creatures. Kokusho, the Evening Star – Self explaining.
Specialities: Krosan Cloudscraper & Sutured Ghoul – Buried Alive for two KCs and a Ghoul represents 26 trampling damage as early as turn 3. Sundering Titan – brutal in multiplayer. If you manage to nuke two of the opponents lands it’s pretty much gg, even if he has no protection or evasion. Petradon – a cheaper Titan, less risky but also less broken and usable in less decks than Titan. Mindleech Mass – A fun little card…give it a try if you’re not heading for the cutthroat Reanimator. Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund - Just flying fat, but with Bladewing the Risen an easy, cheap and hasty kill with two swings.
This is just a list of commonly known targets and some budget gems. Choose the ones suited to your budget, meta and personal preferences.
If you play Buried Alive and Entomb it’s recommended to fill at least 6 slots with at least 5 different fatties. If you don’t play the two into-grave-tutors but blue draw and discard, fill at least 10 slots with fatties. If you just play black discard fill at least 13 slots with fatties.
[spoiler=3)] Leyline of the Void and Tormod’s Crypt are the two most obnoxious anti-Reanimator cards that exist; lately Relic of Progenitus saw print and it’s nothing Reanimator should be happy about. Bad things about these three cards, as most graveyard hate, is that they tend to be playable in every colour, are cheap, and can steamroll Reanimator all by themselves. The good thing is that they are seldom played main deck in competitive and next to not at all in casual because they tend to do nothing useful in a ‘normal’ game. So if a player in a group introduces Reanimator there are three ways the meta handles it: - The archetype is deemed unfun and gets smacked into oblivion with the ban hammer. - Better decks get played. - Specific hate is played.
Against the former two one can’t do much, maybe cripple the deck to some slow control deck that uses Zombify to keep it at the meta’s power level preventing any changes… *cough* well… hate however can be faced.
On part is the aforementioned speed. You want to get your winning creature as soon as possible out, so all spells the deck wants to play will be in the range of one to three mana, the cheaper the better.
[spoiler=Necromancy] Reanimate – The cheapest reanimation spell in existence and lending it’s name to the deck. Exhume – The second best reanimation spell. The drawback is most of the time nonexistent and even if they also have something to get back it won’t match the creature you get. Death (Life/Death) – Reanimate for the poor. It ‘only’ costs 1 more, making all the difference, getting out fat t1 gets way less likely with this. Animate Dead - An old school option. Note how it is way inferior to a spell in that it offers a target for removal other than the creature itself to kill the creature and that protection from its characteristics (f.e. black, as on Akroma) will destroy it. Dance of the Dead – Same as Animate Dead only that it needs an upkeep payment.
General advice: Stick to Reanimate and Exhume. They don’t cost the world and if you build Reanimator you can save money with the rest of the deck, there are more options that have less of an effect on the game.
[spoiler=Accel] To power out its spells, Reanimator needs more mana than the usual land per turn provides, at least in the first three turns. Dark Ritual – The classic, allowing first turn Entomb into Duress/Reanimate or Exhume; or Buried Alive into turn two reanimation. Lotus Petal, Chrome Mox & Mox Diamond are self explaining and a matter of budget and meta. Dark Ritual is another corner stone of the deck, thus a four-off heavily recommended.
When you sum up all the above cards you’ll have slots left; these should be filled with cards that directly combat hate. Black’s only way to get rid of a Crypt is to pick it out of the opponent’s hand before it gets played. So the deck ends up packing like MBC & MB-Suicide Duress and its ilk. The difference lies in the intention: MBC picks cards that are threats to the player, MBS will take stuff that stops the beating. Reanimator will take neither of those - the deck’s clock is usually faster and the fat is chosen to avoid interferences with it – but take counterspells, any graveyard hate, or selective hand disruption and that random Diabolic Edict. Duress – Cheap and able to target all you need. Thoughtseize – If you have the cash… The option of nabbing a creature is not as important as the fact that they can be Duress five to eight. Distress – Cheap to get but more expensive to play, an ok replacement for Braincat. Hymn to Tourach – Just screwing around can also be fun, but selective discard is superior in most cases. It can be a pain in the butt of storm decks though. Cabal Therapy – This card needs a bit of building around but is house if you can pull it off right.
Swords to Plowshares or any other removal spell like Edicts, even a meagre Unsummon can screw a Reanimator pretty hard, because neutralising one thread means a lot more card disadvantage and loss of tempo for the deck than for one that plays its creatures. Still, they’re not considered hate, as they see play even without the presence of Reanimator and can be handled with the choice of the right creature. Selective discard here shows another advantage over reactive answers, you see what else the opponent holds and can adjust your choices based on that. Duress takes the counter and the Boomerang you see the op. holding is rent useless by getting back Simic Sky Swallower rather than Hellkite Overlord. A deck with a blue splash has fewer slots left for protection as a monoblack one, unless the splash is made not for the drawing spells but the added diversity of protection.
Chain of Vapor – Yes, you give them the option for a free Boomerang. Now what will they bounce? Either you play it before reanimating a creature to get rid of a Crypt or after getting one that can’t be targeted by the Chain. It’s the best option viable to Reanimator when it comes to bounce. Turbulent Dreams – Xanth made me aware of this card; it does need a bit building around admittedly. In deck that splash for blue it could take the role of Zombie Infestation, sort of. Rites of Refusal – In case you want even more discard or need more counters and can’t muster slots anywhere else this is a cheap option and early game almost a hard counter.
Apart from those there are, of course, Daze and Force of WiIl. Make sure that you run enough Islands with Daze -> while the card is cheap, the landbase it needs is not. FoW simply needs enough blue spells: a total of 12 to 14 should do it. Most of the time it’s even worth it to pitch a fatty to it when you hold a blue one, so consider running more blue ones when playing with FoW.
[spoiler=lists] With the above info in mind are here two random lists to give you a picture of how the two variants can look like: [spoiler=mono black version] A Dragon based list that aims for a t3 kill with Bladewing & Overlord. Therapy has fodder in form of the Imps and saccing all fatties but Archangel and Overlord has additional benefits if you can re-reanimate them. [spoiler=BU version] The Sh’ruum package also allows a t3 kill. I’d say this version is more consistent because it plays more tutors. A FoW has 19 possible cards to pinch and Vapor takes care of Leylines and such annoyance.
Your list in this thread!
This is by no means a pile of rules on how to build a true Reanimator, but a compilation of ideas and advice. Help the community to improve and share your wisdom and secret tech with us.
Thanks & credits for crafting the great banner go to spiderboy4 from High~Light Studios. Thanks & credits for editing the primer go to his modship Memnarch.

Thread stickied. If you would like to discuss Reanimator decks, please refrain from posting new threads; you may use this one as an all-purpose, general discussion thread for your build.

Cool, a new primer!:D

Have you considered Darksteel Colossus for the BU deck? A nice indestructible 11/11 trampler beatstick that goes back into your library if it's killed (which is unlikely).

I thought you'd rather post something on me mentioning Infestation as good ^^.
The reason why I put those two on the list - among other creatures - is that they are cheap ($) and that apart from the obvious budget applications, I also wanted to show that one can make a Reanimator without topnotch beaters, be it because of powerlevel, budget or time the deck was build in (you know the creative urges, where you raid your collection for 10min to end up with some 'deck blank').

I left out sideboards, because from what I knwo their rather rare in casual and maindeck they would not make my cut just as anti-hate.

Go on and post your Bw version from the other thread. What I dislike 'bout white as secondary colour is that I failed to find cards that acutally have to do something with the deck - but one can allways splash for it because you like the removal it offers. and if you mention Vindicate I don't think budget is a problem for the one building it.

I wanted to begin by saying these few things:

1.) I love the Reanimate archtype!
2.) Great Primer!
3.) Thanks to Craven on another thread for pointing out yet another change to Animate Dead, Dance of the Dead, and Necromancy's interactions with Akroma and other pro-black creatures. This is just another thing that frustrates me to no end about WotC, but that is for another topic.

I would also like to say that casual decks often lead to tempered debate. Do you build on a budget? What is too good for casual? Namely, why are you playing with that card? Are you playing with it until you find something better, or do you think something better is too good? I like to balance the power of the archtype with the power of the cards. Namely, I find Force of will to be too powerful and expensive to play in Casual. I own 9 Force of Will's [two sets for two vintage decks and 1 for an EDH deck.] However, if your play group is okay with it, then I guess you should use it.

Okay, so, card ideas:

1.) Smallpox has proven it's worth to me as early as it's printing. This card is a solid disruption spell that allows you to self discard a creature. Reanimate decks are built around a quick curve and the loss of a land should not hurt you nearly as bad as it will hurt the opposition.

2.) Sickening Dreams is another budget card that can have a solid use in a Reanimate deck. Many times players using Reanimate will complain about not having their Buried Alive, and drawing only their creatures and reanimate spells. I agree that blue draw/discard is a good way to go, but in any black build, Sickening Dreams can shine as it is a removal spell and a self discard outlet.

3.) Compulsive Research A multipurpose draw/discard card that doesn't loose card advantage like Careful Study or Frantic Search does. Then you have to ask about speed. Is Compulsive research too slow? At 3cc and sorcery speed it can be. However we start to ask question of power levels then. Will your play group frown upon a turn one: Ritual, Ritual, Buried Alive, Exhume play? How fast is too fast? How slow is too slow? This is what makes casual so touchy. I find Compulsive research a good balance of speed, power, and budget.

Here is a more budget list in mind:

Simply, it isn't too fast, but isn't a super slow deck either. Dimir Machinations allows you to tutor up a buried alive, a Compulsive research or a Necromancy. Echoing truth isn't as good as Chain of vapor, but against a multiply Leyline of the void start [which can and and does happen, more so in multiplayer casual] and also token decks it is superior. Delay is a solid countersepll for 1 and a blue. Suspend 3 should be enoughtime for you to go off and/or kill someone. Not as good as a real hard counter, but at 2cc [1U at that], and not being $25-$30 like force of will, it does it's job.

Let me also say that if cost were not an issue, then Tutors and fetch lands and all sorts of good stuff should be in the deck. Heck, I am someone who will tell you that cost isn't an issue, adn your friends don't care about how strong your casual deck is, I have to ask why you don't jsut play a Worldgorger Dragon combo? If the answer is that you want to reanimate big fatties and swing with them to win the game rather than winingthe game right now witha combo, then fine.

I guess another problem when playing a Reanimate deck is you have to ask why are you playing this deck? Is it to win quickly? is it to have fun a nd beat face with fat monsters that you "cheat" into play? I'd like to think it is the latter and then have to ask, how good do you want it to be?

Now I have to ask how much do you care about hate? If you are mad that people are playing graveyard hate and/or cards like Swords to Plowshares, then you almost have to play blue just to counter and bounce the hate away. The mono blakc route just wont work as Mono Black can't kill any of the graveyard hate, and you can't stop someone from drawing up an STP or Path to Exile or something. You have to counter hem when they are played.

Honestly, Reanimtor is a glass cannon. It is fun to shoot but to fragile to keep long term. I would rather just have one built to pull out from time to time to play rather than be my main casual deck.

EDIT: Also, is Dark Ritual too good for this deck, or is it a staple? Most time i play a good fast Reanimtor deck, friends just complain he deck is too good. So, do you slow the deck down? I love ritual, but honestly it is an unfair card in a casual playgroup IMO.

For the BU reanimator, can Volrath's Shapeshifter be a good choice? I know it means that U will be more than a splash, but I have been playing with him recently and he's been quite deadly, although a bit touchy in usage. He does come with discard outlet attached or even better you can play him with Psychatog.

As targets to reanimate, I also like Thraximundar, Haste + Cruel Edict; what's not to like.

Quote from Craven

I would not use this particular Shapeshifter. Dralnu's Pet would be something to laugh about, but not Volrath's Shapeshifter. I mean you want to reanimate the creatures in your graveyard, thus bereaving Volrath's little helper the chance to copy one. It's just contra-productive here. This guy only gets powerful in a deck called "Full English Breakfast" (Volrath's Shapeshifter + Survival of the Fittest + Phyrexian Dreadnought + a lot of other interesting creatures with a lot of abilities that are very difficult to stack).

Still, playing Volrath's Shapeshifter with Akroma, Angel of Wrath or Thraximundar as the top card of your library is still pretty powerful and amounts to the same result; and then I especially like the ability to surprise people by discarding critters as an instant with it or using any of the U draw/discard spells already mentionned above (Entomb is quite funky with it as well).

But I do get that this is not technically "reanimator" and that it's counterproductive if you're using stuff like Reanimate or Exhume.

I guess I would have liked a less strict interpretation of what constitues a reanimator deck and that the primer not just focus it on these 2 spells; but of course I didn't write it so I shouldn't judge. Still, forums are for giving opinions right?

Ok, here I go on a rant...

I find T1 Dark Ritual/Entomb/Exhume to be so not casual it's not funny; Why? Because I don't really agree with the 2nd statement above.

If this type of reanimator isn't banned, it forces too much metagame changes in a playgroup. More "competitive" decks can be played to oppose it, not necessarilly better ones.

Would I like being in a playgroup where competitive decks are the norm? Maybe the spike in me would, but what's the point of casual then? Casual means I'm there to have fun with friends, not win at all costs, I'm with Drain Life on this one.

Getting randomly killed by turn 3 because I don't have the answer in my starting hand is ok for a tournament, since I'll try to do the same right back next game, but it doesn't make my Magic bi-weekly gatherings very entertaining. It should also be noted that this kind of casual "competitive" environnement kills the fun for the less experienced or less fortunate players out there.

And concerning specific hate:

So in reality what happens in casual if no bannings are issued is that when the guy pulls out his superfast reanimator, he usually wins. Sorry to be so blunt, but masturbation should really be enjoyed alone :rolleyes:.

But again, maybe I am totally out of it, and the archetype should always be about turn 1 to 3.

End of rant...

(Geez, that really sounded a lot harsher than I thought it would, I didn't want to put anyone on the spot, just giving my honest opinion... I'll stop my "heresy" and go pollute some other thread now ;)).

Important change to the OP: I changed Zombify to Mannequin. So now people can also talk about slower/cheaper builds of Reanimator.

I'll have to browse W and G for cards that justify a splash (Survival of the Fittest comes to mind) - I frankly can't see R as splash tho, 'cuz it doesn't offer solutions.

@ Drain Life: I don't think a fast build needs a sweeper or whatever Small Pox should be classified under. SP can oly be played pre-reanimation & is a one shot effect without clear focus. Dunno, if one enjoys adding injury to insult...
Compulsive Research (as SD) is a good card for slower builds - I have to mention Thirst for Knowledge, it's instant speed, but needs a bit deck-tinkering.

@ fdtori: Shapeshifter is an other archetype's key card and I don't second mixing the two together, as their optimal targets and what they do with 'em are to different. But heck, if you have some super-secret tech that breaks the Full English Breakfast/Reanimator hybrid in either a powerfull or very fun way: Share it, please.

I'm missing Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund in the Dragon deck.
I have my own Dragon Reanimator deck, and it includes one of at least Karrthus, Bladewing the Risen and Broodmate Dragon.
Bladewing + Karrthus = 11 hasty damage.
Broodmate + Karrthus = 15 hasty damage.
That is not something to sneeze at.

Can I suggest Godsire? It's a fatty 8/8 beater that has vigilance AND copies itself. Someone in my playgroup uses it and unless you can do something about it, you die.

My favorite reanimation strategy involves Sutured Ghoul.

This may fall more under combo, but the end goal is to reanimate a giant Sutured Ghoul and swing kill your opponent in one hit.

There best strategy for this came from a deck called Angry Hermit.

This deck functioned on all non-basic lands so that by playing and activating Hermit Druid's ability, you could mill your entire deck.

Following that, using a variety of reanimation spells such as Reanimate, Corpse Dance or Exhume, you bring Sutured Ghoul back into play and remove all your other creatures from the graveyard. When Sutured Ghoul comes into play, you attach Dragon Breath from your graveyard to it and swing for +20 damage. Killing your opponent in one turn.



A more updated version of this deck could use the Dread Return strategy with several copies of Narcromoeba to achieve the same reanimation effect as well as copies of Pact of Negation to protect your Ghoul.

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

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.

Put into tag.
I'll repost with changes:



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.

Quote from Halted Asylum

Scrow's Reanimation DeckMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
// Reanimation Package (10) 4 Stitch Together 2 Vigor Mortis 2 Zombify 2 Dread Return // Spot Removal (06) 4 Soul Reap 2 Rend Flesh // Other Spells (15) 4 Dark Ritual 4 Careful Study 4 Buried Alive 3 Gifts Ungiven	// Creatures (06) 1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath 1 Phantom Nishoba 1 Blazing Archon 1 Blood Tyrant 1 Visara the Dreadful 1 Simic Sky Swallower Lands (23) 4 Polluted Delta 4 Watery Grave 4 Underground River 4 Tainted Isle 7 Swamp	SIDEBOARD 4 Slay 4 Null Rod 4 ???? 1 Sundering Titan 1 Inkwell Leviathan 1 Angel of Despair

Put into tag.
I'll repost with changes:

Scrow's Reanimation Deck SuggestedMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
// Reanimation Package (08) 04 Stitch Together 04 Exhume // Spot Removal (04) 04 Terror // Other Spells (16) 04 Dark Ritual 04 Buried Alive 04 Distress 04 Dimir Machinations // Creatures (10) 04 Putrid Imp 01 Akroma, Angel of Wrath 01 Phantom Nishoba 01 Blazing Archon 01 Blood Tyrant 01 Visara the Dreadful 01 Simic Sky Swallower	Lands (20) 4 Bloodstained Mire 16 Swamp	SIDEBOARD 4 Slay 4 Null Rod 4 ???? 1 Sundering Titan 1 Inkwell Leviathan 1 Angel of Despair

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?

Quote from Scrow

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?

You're kidding right?

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.

Quote from Halted Asylum

You're kidding right?

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.

You're kidding right?

Reanimation, regardless of build is suppose to be a fast strategy.

It often lacks counter magic or other win conditions. It has it's own control but it's designed for a short game term, meaning disrupting any possible way of stopping your one creature that you get out and making sure it kills your opponent before they get moving.

The decklist below is what I run in my casual group when I want to win real fast.


Consistency issues aside, it's a fast deck designed to play out as quickly as possible. Usually between turns 2 and 4 I have a 30/30 Trampling Haste Zombie coming down at you and after a well placed Duress or a Pact of Negation in hand, there's not much you can do it save yourself.

Reanimation late game isn't as good because early on you have limited resources. As the game progresses your opponents get more mana to play more spells such as board sweepers or big creatures to block yours. This will render the "All eggs in one basket" strategy that is reanimation useless.

Late game reanimating via Patriarch's Bidding is a great secondary strategy for Zombies and Goblins. Usually the creatures have abilities to stack and make them into large threats all at once giving you an army of beaters, but beyond that it's hard to rely on.

Hello guys.
This post has really inspired me to try to improve my reanimator deck.
I would like you too see how I built it so that I can improve it.
Bare in mind that this is a casual/budget deck. I built all of it with less than $70 bucks.



Things that can make you wonder:

Innocent Blood:
Of course its main purpose is to defend you in the beginning from creatures. But sometimes it is a good idea to sacrifice your own creatures. For example, Symbiotic Wurm or Woodfall Primus. Or even a pacified creature.

Rotting Rats:
In most of the games I end up with more than 1 creature in my hand (drawing them or bouncing to me). This card helps me put my creatures where they belong and at the same time damage my opponent a bit. The unearth ability is also really a key component. And, also, it can help to flashback a Dread Return.

Dread Return:
It's a little weak in the deck, that is why I only have 2. But there are good combos with it. You can sacrifice Woodfall Primus with two other creatures (a Putrid Imp or a Rotting Rats, Remeber the rats' unearth ) to destroy maybe two lands. Or sacrifice Symbiotic Wurm (or wait for it to be killed/destroyed) and flashback it again (or something else) with 3 tokens.

Defense Grid:
My weakest match has proven to be against control. It's tough to deal with counters and bouncers. This is the reason for this card. Bouncers and counters are harder to play on your turn (even the damned Force of Will). Duress is also meant to help with this, but it's also good against almost all other decks.


So what do you guys think about the deck?
It has some good combos and even a turn one biggie drop:
I.E.: Swamp -> Dark Ritual -> Putrid Imp -> Discard Hellkite Overlord -> Exhume - >
It has come up in more than one game for me!

But this deck has some problems from time to time. Sometimes I have everything in my graveyard... nothing to reanimate. And sometimes I cannot get anything into the graveyard.

So, what will you change?

I would replace Godsire with Akroma, Angel of Wrath

Protection from terror/terminate

Ends games quicker

Evasion.

Godsire doesn't have haste and unlike Phantom Nishoba he can't offset lifeloss from Reanimate

Akroma is indeed one of the best things that can be in a reanimator. The only thing that kept me from having her was the fact that it's difficult to get one (and damn expensive).

I was also considering adding Liliana Vess? What do you guys think about her?

If I wanted to add 2 more Duress to the deck, what would you take out for those spells?

I also forgot to mention, and what about Reya Dawnbringer?

Quote from Undead_Knight

Akroma is indeed one of the best things that can be in a reanimator. The only thing that kept me from having her was the fact that it's difficult to get one (and damn expensive).

I was also considering adding Liliana Vess? What do you guys think about her?

If I wanted to add 2 more Duress to the deck, what would you take out for those spells?

I also forgot to mention, and what about Reya Dawnbringer?

I've been noticing I never go with Reya even though shes in my deck. Why? Because if your opponent has any sort of removal, its gone and you don't get any other creatures, which will hurt you.

I play White Akroma, Red Akroma, and the new Sphinx, thus, they usually are protected from which ever color(s) my opponent has and it helps insure the win.

First of all, thank you for your suggestions Craven. You made me realize a couple of things.

I have some other question though:

Quote from Craven »

First of all, it's 4 Duress! Always! Drop two Swamps for them...

I think dropping two swamps is going to hurt me a bit. Do you think 18 lands will be able to support the consistency of the strategy? Although I know the spells for this deck do not require too much mana, it is still important to have a starting hand of 2 or 3 swamps. I think I may remove 1 innocent blood and 1 chainer's edict for the duress. (but that tickles my mind...)

And then there is Dimir Machinations:

Quote from Craven »

Dimir Machinations could help, though - it can't search for Exhume, but it can grap Zombify and the Doomed Necromancer.

It's a perfect solution for me. I don't think I can afford the tutors (and their restriction/banning), but this card can do the job of getting something to reanimate and get creatures into the GY. Also, I don't think it can grab a Zombify, or am I missing something with the mechanic?

In regards to Cabal Therapy:

Quote from Craven »

I'd rather go for Cabal Therapy. It's a sac-outlet, can serve as a discard-outlet for your own creatures as well, can target your opponent if needed...

Ok, you convinced me. That indeed can do the job. Although I hate paying that much money for uncommon cards
I think I am going to replace Rotting Rats with that card. I have discovered that too often I play that card and my opponent, knowing that I may have exhume in hand, discards a powerful creature so that he can also benefit from it.

Lastly, what would you take out for Dimir Machinations? I am not sure how I can make that card fit into the deck without taking out good things from it.

A newer, overlooked reanimation target is Empyrial Archangel Shroud + Damage absorption will keep you all but invincible early game and puts your opponent on a 4 turn clock

Craven, I realize my Sutured Ghoul deck is a bit messy in terms of... it's construction and yes, in play sometimes it does go off explosively, and sometimes it doesn't. Consistency is one issue I've always had with the deck but playing it is fun none the less. Thank you for the input I'm going to try and improve it.

Yeah, I've been trying to make a reanimator, but none of the store near me or the people near me have a single copy of Reanimate, Exhume, Buried Alive, or Entomb. Since the best I can get is Zombify, Dread Return, and Doomed Necromancer, what should I use to control the field on a budget untill I get the mana to pull off one of those spells? Should I splash blue for better control?

Quote from xInfamousLegatox

Reanimation, regardless of build is suppose to be a fast strategy.

It often lacks counter magic or other win conditions. It has it's own control but it's designed for a short game term, meaning disrupting any possible way of stopping your one creature that you get out and making sure it kills your opponent before they get moving.

The decklist below is what I run in my casual group when I want to win real fast.

Illegal HermitMagic OnlineOCTGN2ApprenticeBuy These Cards
Land 4 City of Brass 4 Forbidden Orchard 4 Tarnished Citadel 4 Tendo Ice Bridge 4 Gemstone Mine 2 Forsaken City	Creature 4 Hermit Druid 3 Narcomoeba 3 Street Wraith 2 Krosan Cloudscraper 2 Sutured Ghoul Enchantment 1 Dragon Breath	Instant 4 Brainstorm 4 Worldly Tutor 4 Pact of Negation Sorcery 4 Duress 2 Dread Return 1 Demonic Tutor	Artifact 4 Lotus Petal

Consistency issues aside, it's a fast deck designed to play out as quickly as possible. Usually between turns 2 and 4 I have a 30/30 Trampling Haste Zombie coming down at you and after a well placed Duress or a Pact of Negation in hand, there's not much you can do it save yourself.
.

The idea is the best I have seen in the thread, but poorly executed. Your kill is terrible. Use Karmic Guide + Kiki-Jikki Mirror Breaker + PesterMite/Sky Hussar. Or use the old Lark Kill.