Reanimator is in a funny place right now. On one hand, we don't have access to any cheap reanimation at the moment. SOI didn't give us anything that comes close to a new Unburial Rites. However, we do have Ever After which costs a bit extra but gives us extra punch if we can maximize the effect of getting two creatures onto the field. Oh, hey Brisela, Voice of Nightmares.
First off, to be clear, this is not a combo deck that specifically tries to cheat Brisela into play with Ever After. Instead, it is a toolbox-style reanimator deck with multiple targets, combinations and paths to victory of which Brisela is one.
Some card explanations for the non-self-explanatory cards:
Apart from Brisela's halves, the creatures we're working with are: Goblin Dark-dwellers - recycles a ton of cards that we use to interrupt the opponent and get rid of our hand Linvala, the Preserver - a nice tool to be able to get back from the graveyard. Can be fetched with Bruna (but note that Bruna needs to be hardcast for this to work). Emrakul, the Promised End - 1-of that can either be reanimated or hardcast lategame as our deck dumps a ton of card types into the graveyard. Dragonlord Kolaghan - great tool for ending the game immediately. Bonus points for bringing it back alongside Emrakul with Ever After. Thalia's Lancers - 1-of that fetches most of the above as well as our planeswalkers (nope, as pointed out by BlackRaine) and lets us deal with most situations.
One of the most exciting things to me about this deck is that Collective Brutality and Collective Defiance double as early protection as well as a way to discard our hand. I'm especially looking forward to the red one as it allows us to dump multiple targets for Ever After and take out a creature.
Corrupted Grafstone may seem like a questionable choice, but if there ever was a deck for it, this is the one. It makes it easier to access all three colors, it will almost always be online from turn 3, it helps us get to our expensive spells faster and it adds another card type to the graveyard for Emrakul.
The land base is not finalized yet, but two nonbasic lands that come to mind as potential includes are Geier Reach Sanitarium (for obvious reasons, if the mana base allows it) and Mortuary Mire. The latter is great with 'free draw' like Nahiri, the Harbinger which immediately puts any creature from our graveyard to our hand with all our mana free to cast it.
I really like the concept of Collective Defiance, but double red early seems tough given the current lands available.
Agree completely. It's a tough sell, especially since I also want double black for Liliana on turn 3 and double white for Gisela on turn 4. Realistically this is the main point of the Corrupted Grafstones, and the Defiances/Lilianas/Giselas will have to come out one turn late. Liliana may have to go in the end, as Collective Defiance and Gisela are much more instrumental to the game plan.
I don't think the lancers fetch walkers unfortunately. But I love the concept. I was toying with a more goggles/Nahiri version since Tormenting Voice is a staple in this deck. Liliana I think doesn't do enough for what the decks mana would require to support. I like her more in a seasons past style control. I would push the lancers to 4 because it guarantees a legendary in hand on resolution. Those combined with Tormenting Voice and Nahiri for sculpting should give the deck enough tools to consistently get the cards in the hand or yard. I would use the reanimator plan as kind of a plan 1-b with planeswalker control as the 1-a.
I really like the concept of Collective Defiance, but double red early seems tough given the current lands available.
Agree completely. It's a tough sell, especially since I also want double black for Liliana on turn 3 and double white for Gisela on turn 4. Realistically this is the main point of the Corrupted Grafstones, and the Defiances/Lilianas/Giselas will have to come out one turn late. Liliana may have to go in the end, as Collective Defiance and Gisela are much more instrumental to the game plan.
I think you are correct in your thought here. Liliana is awkward and would skew our black mana sources to the point of unbalanced. If you want additional planeswalkers, +2 of Sorin or Chandra would be possible additions as well. I'd lean towards Sorin for your deck list.
These have no place in a reanimator deck, and neither does any card working to just set up a card that is a fringe win condition. Let's stick to the topic.
a) what happens when an opponent just plays a Collected Company with Reflector mage to get rid of Brisela, voice of nightmares (I know what happens, I mean you essentially get severely delayed as you have to discard Gisela an look to play Bruna next turn).
b) what do you do to resist faster aggro decks which are great part of the meta.
I think this kind of reanimation is really slow, wouldn't it be better to just curve-out to Bruna? Also Bruna gets better if you play at least 2 Archangel Avacyn (instead of Dragonlord Kolaghan) and since Incendiary flow is going to be a thing, I would run at least 4 copies Gisela and at minimum 2 discard cards MB (like collective brutality or duress).
This is why I feel like playing it like a planeswalker control is better. Early discard and sweepers should hold coco in check.
Exactly, play like a BW control deck and then have a reanimator as a finisher. Either piece can get there on their own though which is great. I almost don't think there is a need for the Red splash. You have things like Call of the Bloodline which will let you discard cards, give you tokens to sacrifice to Westvale Abbey and worst cast let you chump block aggro decks with small lifelinkers. Play the long grindy game and eventually you can Dark Petition and get Ever After.
Unsure as to the land count, but since there's only one red card in the main it shouldn't be too hard to make the mana base primarily B/W and still have enough red sources to reliably cast Nahiri. I know also that the removal is all sorcery speed, which is a concern with Company in the mix (Spirits also have a lot of flash, too). The emphasis may have to switch to more mass removal, like Flaying Tendrils, in order to combat aggro decks. I went with Dark Petition over Thalia's Lancers because it's a more versatile searcher even though it doesn't leave behind a body. As for the planeswalkers, I don't envision protecting them too hard; if your opponent goes after them that's less damage going to you and you are guaranteed at least one activation if they hit the field.
I would say, that it would seem too slow, and if it was just Nahiri, I would probably just drop here and run your shell with just B/W. I play tested Liliana, and she never fit well in my shell.
After more play testing, Goblin Dark-Dwellers is such an amazing card for this deck and it translates very well against aggro or control. After more tweaks, testing and info from this thread and OP, here is what I am running now:
with human company decks, I expect to see liliana, the last hope trying to kill of those x/1 creatures. Also she helps you get back GDD and Kalitas or whatnot from the yard and may even trigger madness in the process.
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First off, to be clear, this is not a combo deck that specifically tries to cheat Brisela into play with Ever After. Instead, it is a toolbox-style reanimator deck with multiple targets, combinations and paths to victory of which Brisela is one.
First, the decklist:
3 Gisela, The Broken Blade
2 Bruna, The Fading Light
2 Goblin Dark-dwellers
1 Linvala, the Preserver
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
1 Thalia's Lancers
3 Liliana, the Last Hope
3 Nahiri, the Harbinger
Sorceries / Instants:
4 Collective Defiance
4 Ever After
2 Collective Brutality
2 Anguished Unmaking
2 Sinister Concoction
Artifacts:
4 Corrupted Grafstone
Lands:
25 TBD (see below)
Some card explanations for the non-self-explanatory cards:
Apart from Brisela's halves, the creatures we're working with are:
Goblin Dark-dwellers - recycles a ton of cards that we use to interrupt the opponent and get rid of our hand
Linvala, the Preserver - a nice tool to be able to get back from the graveyard. Can be fetched with Bruna (but note that Bruna needs to be hardcast for this to work).
Emrakul, the Promised End - 1-of that can either be reanimated or hardcast lategame as our deck dumps a ton of card types into the graveyard.
Dragonlord Kolaghan - great tool for ending the game immediately. Bonus points for bringing it back alongside Emrakul with Ever After.
Thalia's Lancers - 1-of that fetches most of the above
as well as our planeswalkers(nope, as pointed out by BlackRaine) and lets us deal with most situations.One of the most exciting things to me about this deck is that Collective Brutality and Collective Defiance double as early protection as well as a way to discard our hand. I'm especially looking forward to the red one as it allows us to dump multiple targets for Ever After and take out a creature.
Liliana, the Last Hope does the same thing by giving us early board control and allowing us to fill the graveyard for Ever After and Goblin Dark-dwellers if the board is stable.
Corrupted Grafstone may seem like a questionable choice, but if there ever was a deck for it, this is the one. It makes it easier to access all three colors, it will almost always be online from turn 3, it helps us get to our expensive spells faster and it adds another card type to the graveyard for Emrakul.
The land base is not finalized yet, but two nonbasic lands that come to mind as potential includes are Geier Reach Sanitarium (for obvious reasons, if the mana base allows it) and Mortuary Mire. The latter is great with 'free draw' like Nahiri, the Harbinger which immediately puts any creature from our graveyard to our hand with all our mana free to cast it.
What do you think?
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Caves of Koilos
3 Mountain
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Needle Spires
4 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
4 Smoldering Marsh
3 Swamp
3 Gisela, the Broken Blade
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
2 Dragonlord Kolaghan
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
2 Thalia's Lancers
Planswalkers
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
4 Declaration in Stone
3 Ever After
3 Read the Bones
4 Tormenting Voice
3 Ultimate Price
2 Anguished Unmaking
Contingency Plan is also another one, too. It is BLUE, but, geez, you could really stack up SORIN for a big +1 hit!
We're not going to play blue in Mardu Reanimator for a fringe combo with a card that's maybe a 1- or 2-of in the deck.
Agree completely. It's a tough sell, especially since I also want double black for Liliana on turn 3 and double white for Gisela on turn 4. Realistically this is the main point of the Corrupted Grafstones, and the Defiances/Lilianas/Giselas will have to come out one turn late. Liliana may have to go in the end, as Collective Defiance and Gisela are much more instrumental to the game plan.
I think you are correct in your thought here. Liliana is awkward and would skew our black mana sources to the point of unbalanced. If you want additional planeswalkers, +2 of Sorin or Chandra would be possible additions as well. I'd lean towards Sorin for your deck list.
I've done a little more research and found these other ways to make Sorin, Grim Nemesis +1 hit hard...
Gravepurge
Not Forgotten
These two will set him up nicely.
These have no place in a reanimator deck, and neither does any card working to just set up a card that is a fringe win condition. Let's stick to the topic.
a) what happens when an opponent just plays a Collected Company with Reflector mage to get rid of Brisela, voice of nightmares (I know what happens, I mean you essentially get severely delayed as you have to discard Gisela an look to play Bruna next turn).
b) what do you do to resist faster aggro decks which are great part of the meta.
I think this kind of reanimation is really slow, wouldn't it be better to just curve-out to Bruna? Also Bruna gets better if you play at least 2 Archangel Avacyn (instead of Dragonlord Kolaghan) and since Incendiary flow is going to be a thing, I would run at least 4 copies Gisela and at minimum 2 discard cards MB (like collective brutality or duress).
Exactly, play like a BW control deck and then have a reanimator as a finisher. Either piece can get there on their own though which is great. I almost don't think there is a need for the Red splash. You have things like Call of the Bloodline which will let you discard cards, give you tokens to sacrifice to Westvale Abbey and worst cast let you chump block aggro decks with small lifelinkers. Play the long grindy game and eventually you can Dark Petition and get Ever After.
You got it.
1x Bruna, the Fading Light
3x Gisela, the Broken Blade
1x Linvala, the Preserver
2x Archangel Avacyn
4x Languish
4x Collective Brutality
3x Declaration in Stone
3x Ruinous Path
3x Read the Bones
2x Dark Petition
1x Ever After
4x Nahiri, the Harbinger
4x Liliana, the Last Hope
Unsure as to the land count, but since there's only one red card in the main it shouldn't be too hard to make the mana base primarily B/W and still have enough red sources to reliably cast Nahiri. I know also that the removal is all sorcery speed, which is a concern with Company in the mix (Spirits also have a lot of flash, too). The emphasis may have to switch to more mass removal, like Flaying Tendrils, in order to combat aggro decks. I went with Dark Petition over Thalia's Lancers because it's a more versatile searcher even though it doesn't leave behind a body. As for the planeswalkers, I don't envision protecting them too hard; if your opponent goes after them that's less damage going to you and you are guaranteed at least one activation if they hit the field.
2 Battlefield Forge
2 Caves of Koilos
4 Evolving Wilds
3 Mountain
2 Needle Spires
4 Plains
2 Shambling Vent
4 Smoldering Marsh
3 Swamp
Creatures
1 Thalia's Lancers
1 Bruna, the Fading Light
1 Dragonlord Kolaghan
1 Emrakul, the Promised End
3 Gisela, the Broken Blade
2 Goblin Dark-Dwellers
4 Nahiri, the Harbinger
2 Sorin, Grim Nemesis
Spells 'n Stuff
2 Read the Bones
3 Declaration in Stone
2 Anguished Unmaking
4 Tormenting Voice
3 Ultimate Price
3 Ever After
2 Sinister Concoction
2 Anguished Unmaking
1 Demolish
3 Duress
2 Infinite Obliteration
2 Languish
2 Radiant Flames
3 Transgress the Mind