The reason that deck won't be competitive is because it's a Legacy deck that relies on one spell and it has no way to protect that spell from any sort of counterspell. Force of Will. Tormod's Crypt or Relic of Progenitus both break up the combo.
Yes, well, it's not supposed to be competitive. I mean, I'm not actively trying to make it uncompetitive, but it's still an around-the-kitchentable kind of deck.
Ah well, maybe I'll put it together someday and let you know how it went.
You do have a point about the gy-hate though. It's played everywhere.
Yes, well, it's not supposed to be competitive. I mean, I'm not actively trying to make it uncompetitive, but it's still an around-the-kitchentable kind of deck.
Ah well, maybe I'll put it together someday and let you know how it went.
You do have a point about the gy-hate though. It's played everywhere.
Oh, erm ... sorry if that sounded harsh.
I was just responding to your statement "can this deck consistantly get Fluctuator out on turn 2? I think perhaps not. And that's the main reason this deck will never be competitive."
If budget wasn't an issue, I would be running a u/b build with Polluted Delta, Chrome Mox, and such. Other than that, most of my card choices are self-explanatory.
entomb is $40 each... how is this budget? Also, I recommend replacing the cabal therapies with thoughtseizes. You don't have very many creatures, so you won't get the best deal out of the therapy very often.
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Winner of the August CCL '10
Host of the July CCL '10, Host of the March CCL '11
I opened one last year, got two crap worldwake packs and 8x scathe zombies, which I promptly hid around my sister's apartment for her roommates to find. But, yeah, it was a piece of crap.
You, sir, have just won the internet. Congratulations.
I'm currently in a trade that might end up in me getting 3 more Entombs.
Seeing as how I know my meta rather well, Therapy just wrecks once I know what matchup I'm playing in. If I ever need to flashback Therapy, I'm not above sacrificing Imp to snag a few cards out of my opponent's hand.
Here is my Reanimator deck that I have been running for awhile. It actually runs pretty smooth and quick, only once have I ever had a graveyard full of creatures and no way to get them out. I think I want to update it though because I think it needs a little more reanimation power and I am thinking about switching some of the creatures out and go dragons, I really like that idea.
"Battle doesn't need a purpose; the battle is its own purpose. You don't ask why a plague spreads or a fields burns. Don't ask why I fight." - Black Knight
Got my Entomb... it's just better --v. This is really the closest mono-black can probably get to U/B builds consistency wise. The only thing I see improving here would be adding Thoughtsieze in for Duress as you can target yourself. Any suggestions otherwise, let me know.
Pretty playable at 1-2 CMC. This deck loves T1-T2 Iona, especially when you lead with an Unmask. Runs a bit different than U/B, but the amount of combo pieces make this super efficient. Fatties were not included in the curve because they are never hardcast.
In a deck designed for longer games, Teneb might make the cut. But, even at that I'd rather Reya Dawnbringer. The 2B is a tad high for a deck that runs only 17 lands. You really want everything at 2 CMC and under. The only exception mono-black re-animator should make (when going for the quick-style) would be Buried Alive as it has super-explosive plays with Dark Ritual on turn one. In a dragon-based deck though, he could be fun with repeatable Bogardan Hellkites/Kokusho, the evening Stars.
I have played a few games with this and have found myself winning by turn 4 multiple times. There are other creatures in there to cycle into lands you need (as well as those dual lands that are counted as basic so you can cycle for them). The other spells serve as ways to find or search for key cards like Buried Alive or the cascade cards. Essentially, once you have both those key cards, you win.
Thoughts? As it stands now it is very very susceptible to Counterspells and having my deck searched and exiling Living End. I could put in Red Elemental Blast or Guttural Response perhaps.... Problem is they mess with cascades =/
What I'm THINKING is switching out the green and red for white and blue since all I use them for is the cascade maybe, and putting in Ardent Plea and Counterspell, and maybe even Mana Short to tap them out before I start the cascade.
I made this yesterday just as joke for MTGO and wow, it was freakin fun!
Any budget ideas to make it better?
BASIC IDEA
1) Cast Smallpox or Rotting Rats to get opponent to discard while you drop a fatty
2) If you need some early removal until you get the combo above use Grasp and Gasp
3) If his fatty is better, by all means take it when you reanimate next turn
4) Between LD of Smallpox and your creatures, your advantage is usually enough to win
5) As a bonus, you can sac Woodfall to Smallpox for an additional land nuke
What do you guys think about playing Soul Exchange in a reanimator deck? Would it actually work? I'm thinking it can help both "counter" creature removal spells and helping me put a creature in play by sacking a Putrid Imp for example.
Hi, I'm new around here. I hope this is the right place to post this.
I'm trying to build a budget, legacy legal reanimator deck. I came up with what looks like a very unorthodox build and would like to know if it would actually work. Just casual fun, and specially not too powerful. From what I read over the internet, good reanimator decks can pull off turn 4-5 kills with considerable consistency if not properly disrupted. That's something my meta just can't handle, so I'm trying to keep it fair.
When comparing it to other decks I've seen, I realized I may have too many reanimation spells. Not sure if I should run the usual 8 though, since my meta packs too many removal spells. Swords to Plowshares, Wing Shards, Oblivion Ring, and the like. Since I'm aiming for legacy legal, I can't use any decent tutors (at least none I know appear to be playable with this deck) and I just can't afford to run out of reanimation spells or well, I'm done for.
Also, I chose what I believe to be two unusual reanimation spells, Makeshift Mannequin and Soul Exchange. My reasoning behind mannequin is it will slow down my game some (to hopefully keep the deck fair within my meta), also it's cheaper than exhume (monetarily speaking) and easier to find. I'm not sure if soul exchange will work though, since initially I will only have Imps to sacrifice, and there are only 4 of those. I'm thinking about using it as a counter to removal spells, sacrificing the creature targeted and replacing it with another one from my graveyard. Won't work against all of them, but at least it works against a decent number of them. I'm hoping it's a 2 for 1 deal, helps me puts creatures in play and helps me keep a creature in play. If anything, it should help keep the deck going, for example when greeted by a turn 3 Story Circle. But I'm not sure if I should be trading it for 4 duress or the like.
Also not sure this deck will allow me to discard cards consistently, because with only 4 Buried Alive in the deck, the last thing I want is to have a fatty stuck in my hand with no Buried Alive in sight and no way to discard.
I'm aware I can get cheaper creatures and that would help to keep the deck from being too strong, but honestly, reanimating insane creatures is exactly what makes a reanimator deck appealing to me. I just won't be satisfied with this deck if I'm not able to reanimate Akroma, or lock down a 1C deck on turn 2 with Iona in the rare scenario of getting buried alive, reanimate and dark ritual in my starting hand
While I used to play MTG as a child, I just recently started playing seriously, albeit not competitively, and this is one of the first decks I'm trying to build, so any help is deeply appreciated.
Try Recurring Nightmare and add Reassembling Skeleton. It's another creature you can throw away. Duress is usually a good idea, because you can rip counterspells out of their hands... and we all know getting your Reanimate countered sucks.
In my deck (GBW) I use the skeleton and Skullclamp to draw an insane number of cards. I don't use blue though, so I don't know. I'd say toss out the Empyrial Archangels and Inkwells. You have better creatures than that. Add more Overlords, at least, if you can. In my deck I have only 2 Buried Alives because of the card draw.
EDIT: Just saw that Skullclamp is banned in Legacy. :/
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Originally posted by mondu_the_fat: One minute you're arguing about meatlof and the next thing you know someone's sex life is being dredged up.
My playgroup: four people total.
We use the Legacy B&R list.
My meta consists of combo, control and some aggro / midrange decks.
My group uses proxies, so budget is not an issue. Because of this, things can get out of hand.
Reassembling Skeleton is a great idea with Recurring Nightmare. Maybe I can swap Soul Exchange for Recurring Nightmare with no drawbacks. However I'm not sure what to swap Reassembling Skeleton with. I'm thinking brainstorm isn't necessary, so maybe I can take it out.
But now the only blue spells left are careful study, so maybe I should just run mono black. Swap CS for Last Rites maybe. But now all my draw spells are gone. Without them the deck will run out of steam quite fast.
Regarding creatures, I was thinking about running both Empyrial Archangel and Inkwell since both have shroud and therefore are hard to get rid off. So when facing a deck with a considerable amount of removal spells, I would use those instead of Overlord or Akroma.
The problem now is I have no draw spells. A bad hand will most likely be fatal since I have no way to recover. Mulliganing to 5 with still nothing useful might be a frequent occurrence.
EDIT: The Reassembling Skeleton + Recurring Nightmare combo sounds great, but Recurring Nightmare is too expensive. I'm removing them in favor of Duress and Exume instead to keep the price down. Not sure if I should keep Last Rites or change it for Sickening Dreams. I suppose Last Rites is the better choice since I have no counter spells. Also changed Blazing Archon for Thraximundar again to keep the price down.
EDIT: Sickening Dreams is better, since you have to pay the discard as a cost, so even if it's countered you still get what you want. Besides the fact that it costs 1B instead of the Rites' 2B.
As for the price, my playgroup plays with proxies, so we really don't care about prices. I guess you're playing seriously then?
Originally posted by mondu_the_fat: One minute you're arguing about meatlof and the next thing you know someone's sex life is being dredged up.
My playgroup: four people total.
We use the Legacy B&R list.
My meta consists of combo, control and some aggro / midrange decks.
My group uses proxies, so budget is not an issue. Because of this, things can get out of hand.
I thought Last Rites was the better choice because it helps to clean the opponents hand from serious threats. You bring up a good point though, having it countered would prevent me from discarding.
Not sure I like the 2 point drawback of those draw spells, but I suppose black won't have anything better. I'm hoping the high number of reanimation spells will prevent me from getting locked up. I'm still not sure if this deck will allow me to consistently get fatties in the graveyard though. With only 4 Buried Alive I may have no choice but to run draw spells, loosing life or not.
Anyway, I suppose you can say I'm playing seriously since I'm paying a lot to get this. I still have no intention to enter any tournaments though. My play group allows for some proxies without frowning, but I don't know, winning a game with real cards feels a lot more rewarding. At least to me.
Back when I still had real cards, I paid a lot of money for the creatures and Entombs (which I think is banned in Legacy). The problem with reanimator is that once you thwart its initial attacks, it's like a sitting duck. It has only one win condition.
A variation I did had Titans in it, and it kicked ass :). Another variation loops through multiple copies of Angel of Despair with the Nightmare out, blowing everything up. The current incarnation of the deck abuses World Queller, Braids and It That Betrays.
EDIT: For discard I mainly used Duress, never had the money or chance to buy Thoughtseize or Hymn, which are obviously better choices.
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Originally posted by mondu_the_fat: One minute you're arguing about meatlof and the next thing you know someone's sex life is being dredged up.
My playgroup: four people total.
We use the Legacy B&R list.
My meta consists of combo, control and some aggro / midrange decks.
My group uses proxies, so budget is not an issue. Because of this, things can get out of hand.
Yes, well, it's not supposed to be competitive. I mean, I'm not actively trying to make it uncompetitive, but it's still an around-the-kitchentable kind of deck.
Ah well, maybe I'll put it together someday and let you know how it went.
You do have a point about the gy-hate though. It's played everywhere.
Oh, erm ... sorry if that sounded harsh.
I was just responding to your statement "can this deck consistantly get Fluctuator out on turn 2? I think perhaps not. And that's the main reason this deck will never be competitive."
4 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Angel of Despair
1 Blazing Archon
4 Putrid Imp
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Sign in Blood
4 Dark Ritual
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Entomb
4 Duress
18 Snow-Covered Swamp
If budget wasn't an issue, I would be running a u/b build with Polluted Delta, Chrome Mox, and such. Other than that, most of my card choices are self-explanatory.
Host of the July CCL '10, Host of the March CCL '11
Seeing as how I know my meta rather well, Therapy just wrecks once I know what matchup I'm playing in. If I ever need to flashback Therapy, I'm not above sacrificing Imp to snag a few cards out of my opponent's hand.
Anyway, this is my decklist...
Creatures:
4x Auger of Skulls
4x Steel Wall
2x Undead Gladiator
2x Kokusho, the Evening Star
1x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Spirit of the Night
1x Visara the Dreadful
1x Laquatus's Champion
1x Rorix Bladewing
1x Bladewing the Risen
Spells:
4x Recurring Nightmare
4x Animate Dead
4x Buried Alive
4x Dark Ritual
4x Hymn of Tourach
3x Exhume
2x Entomb
Land:
15x Swamp
2x Lake of the Dead
17 Snow-covered Swamp
4 Dark Ritual
// Disruption/Discard (11)
4 Unmask
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
2 Life//Death
// Tutor (8)
4 Buried Alive
4 Entomb
2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
2 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Blazing Archon
4 Unmask
// 1 CMC (19)
4 Reanimate
4 Entomb
4 Dark Ritual
4 Duress
3 Cabal Therapy
4 Animate Dead
4 Exhume
2 Life//Death
4 Buried Alive
Pretty playable at 1-2 CMC. This deck loves T1-T2 Iona, especially when you lead with an Unmask. Runs a bit different than U/B, but the amount of combo pieces make this super efficient. Fatties were not included in the curve because they are never hardcast.
Hooray Necromancy --v
4 Gaea's Revenge
4 Gempalm Polluter
2 Twisted Abomination
4 Igneous Pouncer
2 Valley Rannet
Other Spells: 25
4 Buried Alive
4 Demonic Dread
4 Violent Outburst
4 Living End
3 Diabolic Tutor
4 Dimir Machinations
2 Soul Spike
3 Swamp
2 Mountain
2 Forest
4 Blood Crypt
4 Stomping Ground
4 Overgrown Tomb
The deck basically focuses on two things:
1. Getting 3 mana to do Buried Alive and then saccing 3 Gaea's Revenge
2. Using either Violent Outburst or Demonic Dread next turn to cascade into Living End, bringing out all 3 Gaeas' and swinging for 24 hasted damage (who are also protected from spells).
I have played a few games with this and have found myself winning by turn 4 multiple times. There are other creatures in there to cycle into lands you need (as well as those dual lands that are counted as basic so you can cycle for them). The other spells serve as ways to find or search for key cards like Buried Alive or the cascade cards. Essentially, once you have both those key cards, you win.
Thoughts? As it stands now it is very very susceptible to Counterspells and having my deck searched and exiling Living End. I could put in Red Elemental Blast or Guttural Response perhaps.... Problem is they mess with cascades =/
What I'm THINKING is switching out the green and red for white and blue since all I use them for is the cascade maybe, and putting in Ardent Plea and Counterspell, and maybe even Mana Short to tap them out before I start the cascade.
4 Demon of Death's Gate
2 Xathrid Demon
2 Pestilence Demon
Resurrection (8)
2 Animate Dead
1 Living End
3 Dread Return
2 Patriarch's Bidding
3 Doom Blade
2 Consume the Meek
3 Infest
Sacrifice Creatures (8)
4 Putrid Imp
4 Deathgreeter
2 Zombie Infestation
4 Buried Alive
Mana (22)
18 Swamps
4 Dark Ritual
Signature done by DNC from the Heroes of the Plane Studios
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Official Ink Bearer of [The Crafters]
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Old Custom Set: Imminence over Marycion
Is there some cool synergy with Deathgreeter? I wonder if he'd be better served by Bog Witch?
DRum
Old school group, sometimes more beer than cards. Revised thru Tempest block (and a little of Urza), sorry if I don't know all the new cards
Ye' Olde Schoole Casual Decks: BUReanimate -- GRAggro -- BWPestilence -- G10-land Stompy -- GRElfball -- GWEnchantress -- RAnkh Sligh -- BDiscard -- MUC "Draw-go" -- BRSuicide -- UWSkies -- UHigh Tide Mill -- WWeenie -- UMutated Bombers -- URThe great land-toss -- UB Molasass
Signature done by DNC from the Heroes of the Plane Studios
--------------------
Official Ink Bearer of [The Crafters]
--------------------
Old Custom Set: Imminence over Marycion
Any budget ideas to make it better?
BASIC IDEA
1) Cast Smallpox or Rotting Rats to get opponent to discard while you drop a fatty
2) If you need some early removal until you get the combo above use Grasp and Gasp
3) If his fatty is better, by all means take it when you reanimate next turn
4) Between LD of Smallpox and your creatures, your advantage is usually enough to win
5) As a bonus, you can sac Woodfall to Smallpox for an additional land nuke
4 Animate Dead
4 Dance of the Dead
CC 2 Discard / LD
4 Smallpox
4 Rotting Rats
4 Sign in Blood
2 Night's Whisper
CC2 Kill
4 Last Gasp
4 Grasp of Darkness
4 Petradon
4 Woodfall Primus
LANDS
22 Swamp
I'm trying to build a budget, legacy legal reanimator deck. I came up with what looks like a very unorthodox build and would like to know if it would actually work. Just casual fun, and specially not too powerful. From what I read over the internet, good reanimator decks can pull off turn 4-5 kills with considerable consistency if not properly disrupted. That's something my meta just can't handle, so I'm trying to keep it fair.
Well here is the deck:
4x Putrid Imp
2x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1x Empyrial Archangel
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Blazing Archon
1x Hellkite Overlord
4x Reanimate
4x Soul Exchange
4x Buried alive
4x Careful Study
--Instant 12--
4x Dark Ritual
4x Makeshift Mannequin
4x Brainstorm
4x Island
8x Swamp
4x Underground Sea //Proxy
4x Polluted Delta //Proxy
When comparing it to other decks I've seen, I realized I may have too many reanimation spells. Not sure if I should run the usual 8 though, since my meta packs too many removal spells. Swords to Plowshares, Wing Shards, Oblivion Ring, and the like. Since I'm aiming for legacy legal, I can't use any decent tutors (at least none I know appear to be playable with this deck) and I just can't afford to run out of reanimation spells or well, I'm done for.
Also, I chose what I believe to be two unusual reanimation spells, Makeshift Mannequin and Soul Exchange. My reasoning behind mannequin is it will slow down my game some (to hopefully keep the deck fair within my meta), also it's cheaper than exhume (monetarily speaking) and easier to find. I'm not sure if soul exchange will work though, since initially I will only have Imps to sacrifice, and there are only 4 of those.
I'm thinking about using it as a counter to removal spells, sacrificing the creature targeted and replacing it with another one from my graveyard. Won't work against all of them, but at least it works against a decent number of them. I'm hoping it's a 2 for 1 deal, helps me puts creatures in play and helps me keep a creature in play.If anything, it should help keep the deck going, for example when greeted by a turn 3 Story Circle. But I'm not sure if I should be trading it for 4 duress or the like.Also not sure this deck will allow me to discard cards consistently, because with only 4 Buried Alive in the deck, the last thing I want is to have a fatty stuck in my hand with no Buried Alive in sight and no way to discard.
I'm aware I can get cheaper creatures and that would help to keep the deck from being too strong, but honestly, reanimating insane creatures is exactly what makes a reanimator deck appealing to me. I just won't be satisfied with this deck if I'm not able to reanimate Akroma, or lock down a 1C deck on turn 2 with Iona in the rare scenario of getting buried alive, reanimate and dark ritual in my starting hand
While I used to play MTG as a child, I just recently started playing seriously, albeit not competitively, and this is one of the first decks I'm trying to build, so any help is deeply appreciated.
EDIT: Soul Exchange is a sorcery, duh.
Signature done by DNC from the Heroes of the Plane Studios
--------------------
Official Ink Bearer of [The Crafters]
--------------------
Old Custom Set: Imminence over Marycion
In my deck (GBW) I use the skeleton and Skullclamp to draw an insane number of cards. I don't use blue though, so I don't know. I'd say toss out the Empyrial Archangels and Inkwells. You have better creatures than that. Add more Overlords, at least, if you can. In my deck I have only 2 Buried Alives because of the card draw.
EDIT: Just saw that Skullclamp is banned in Legacy. :/
My playgroup: four people total.
We use the Legacy B&R list.
My meta consists of combo, control and some aggro / midrange decks.
My group uses proxies, so budget is not an issue. Because of this, things can get out of hand.
But now the only blue spells left are careful study, so maybe I should just run mono black. Swap CS for Last Rites maybe. But now all my draw spells are gone. Without them the deck will run out of steam quite fast.
Regarding creatures, I was thinking about running both Empyrial Archangel and Inkwell since both have shroud and therefore are hard to get rid off. So when facing a deck with a considerable amount of removal spells, I would use those instead of Overlord or Akroma.
Well this is the updated deck:
4x Putrid Imp
2x Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria
1x Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1x Empyrial Archangel
1x Inkwell Leviathan
1x Thraximundar
1x Hellkite Overlord
4x Reanimate
4x Exume
4x Buried alive
4x Last Rites
4x Duress
4x Dark Ritual
4x Makeshift Mannequin
--Lands 20--
20x Swamp
The problem now is I have no draw spells. A bad hand will most likely be fatal since I have no way to recover. Mulliganing to 5 with still nothing useful might be a frequent occurrence.
EDIT: The Reassembling Skeleton + Recurring Nightmare combo sounds great, but Recurring Nightmare is too expensive. I'm removing them in favor of Duress and Exume instead to keep the price down. Not sure if I should keep Last Rites or change it for Sickening Dreams. I suppose Last Rites is the better choice since I have no counter spells. Also changed Blazing Archon for Thraximundar again to keep the price down.
Well, I suppose Recurring Nightmare is the better choice even though it costs 1 more mana.
Also, I don't play Legacy. Have you looked into Sign in Blood and Night's Whisper for drawing cards?
The Mannequin is a great idea though.
EDIT: Sickening Dreams is better, since you have to pay the discard as a cost, so even if it's countered you still get what you want. Besides the fact that it costs 1B instead of the Rites' 2B.
As for the price, my playgroup plays with proxies, so we really don't care about prices. I guess you're playing seriously then?
My playgroup: four people total.
We use the Legacy B&R list.
My meta consists of combo, control and some aggro / midrange decks.
My group uses proxies, so budget is not an issue. Because of this, things can get out of hand.
Not sure I like the 2 point drawback of those draw spells, but I suppose black won't have anything better. I'm hoping the high number of reanimation spells will prevent me from getting locked up. I'm still not sure if this deck will allow me to consistently get fatties in the graveyard though. With only 4 Buried Alive I may have no choice but to run draw spells, loosing life or not.
Anyway, I suppose you can say I'm playing seriously since I'm paying a lot to get this. I still have no intention to enter any tournaments though. My play group allows for some proxies without frowning, but I don't know, winning a game with real cards feels a lot more rewarding. At least to me.
A variation I did had Titans in it, and it kicked ass :). Another variation loops through multiple copies of Angel of Despair with the Nightmare out, blowing everything up. The current incarnation of the deck abuses World Queller, Braids and It That Betrays.
EDIT: For discard I mainly used Duress, never had the money or chance to buy Thoughtseize or Hymn, which are obviously better choices.
My playgroup: four people total.
We use the Legacy B&R list.
My meta consists of combo, control and some aggro / midrange decks.
My group uses proxies, so budget is not an issue. Because of this, things can get out of hand.
4 Kokusho the Evening Star
4 Demigod of Revenge
2 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Akroma, the Angel of Wrath
1 Ionia, Shield of Emeria
Spells: 25
4 Entomb
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Necropotence
3 Demonic Tutor
3 Thoughtseize
2 Yawgmoth's Will
7 Swamp
4 Scrubland
4 Marsh Flats
4 Godless Shrine
4 Fetid Heath