MTG Salvation

Bitter Reunion


Could have sworn someone made a thread for this, but couldn't find it.
I've been testing this since inception and am higher on it than ever.

Tormenting voice has been in and out of my cube for a while, as additional reanimator/welder support, but I felt the power level didn't make up for it's narrowness. In a heavy reanimator deck, the discard is a positive thing, making it better than a 2 mana draw 2. The more you discard a card you want in your hand, the more it's power level sharply falls

The haste ability has proven to be a big upside over voice. You still don't want in a random good stuff deck, but in creature combo decks it's so much better.

Many big cheaty targets have powerful attack triggers that an additional turn of attacks can mean the difference between a W and a L. It also has random utility like hasting a fable of mirror breaker token, or threatening to snipe an undefended planeswalker.

I would have sworn there was a thread too.

I'm a fan of these card filtering effects and adding a permanent to the board does help off-set some of the tempo loss of going card neutral. It would have been especially spicy if it didn't have that "if you do" condition, but maybe one day if we get the rare version of this effect.

The haste on this is just a nice package deal. It lets you get back some of the tempo you typically lose with effects like this, this can really speed up your gameplan in reanimator but since it's *all* creatures it can help decks that are looking to go wide.

I think this is a bad enabler for one specific style of deck. I think if we really wanted to support reanimator, we should be Firestorm or Putrid Imp.

Important to note that this is a self-binning enchantment, and so is great support for red in cubes that support delirium. DRC is notoriously powerful, but Unholy Heat is considered premium removal in Modern, and I think it has decent potential in cube.

Firestorm sees play in a lot more than reanimator. That card's actually just good. Nobody plays that card in enough places.

Bitter Reunion is cool too. I think I like it just slightly less than Thrill of Possibility (instant speed is good). But Firestorm's a banger.

I liked Thrill when I tested it out. Being an instant provided more than just the ability to play it on your opponent's turn; it also made it a playable card in spells matters shells, and being another target for Snapcasters and JVPs was important in those decks. Plus, I do think being an instant is important for graveyard builds. Telegraphing your reanimation setup can be a big deal. Binning your target at your opponent's EOT can save a lot of mishaps. Just my $0.02.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

I liked Thrill when I tested it out. Being an instant provided more than just the ability to play it on your opponent's turn; it also made it a playable card in spells matters shells, and being another target for Snapcasters and JVPs was important in those decks. Plus, I do think being an instant is important for graveyard builds. Telegraphing your reanimation setup can be a big deal. Binning your target at your opponent's EOT can save a lot of mishaps. Just my $0.02.

Thrill was legal in several retail drafts and my firm conclusion is its not playable in any deck outside of dedicated reanimator (including spells matters, storm etc). However, I've found the haste to be incredibly strong, even for fair archetypes. During Brother's War, if the opponent has a Bitter Reunion out, I was at a virtually lower life.

I think its worth a test.

This card and Astral Dragon are both on my watch list right now. Cool cards, to be sure.

Quote from wtwlf123 »

This card and Astral Dragon are both on my watch list right now. Cool cards, to be sure.

Interestingly, I been thinking about the "reanimator storm" hybrid archetype for a while to help both be a bit more competitive, and I just realized Astral Dragon CAN be a Griselbrand/ Atraxa level reanimator target to copy LED/ Mana Doublers/ Grim Monolith etc.

I'll give it a test. My concern is with all the "JUDGE!", what happens if this copies a planeswalker/ LED etc.

I play legacy and I can tell you the Judge's favorite card is Dress Down

I’ll weigh in cause , why not… bitter reunion holding up since I posted this.
Initial evaluations were accurate.
Easy to underestimate the haste.

It’s not a high pick or a build around, but it’s a solid enabler and the #2 discard enabler in red behind faithless looting.

I haven’t tested firestorm in over 5 years but I found it to be wildly inconsistent back in the day. Sometimes it was game winning back breaking, often it was very awkward. Super high variance , hard to evaluate card.

Haven't tested it in my main cube but it has been really solid for turbo cube.

Firestorm is a card I used to like back in the day but I don't think it would get a slot 8n my regular cube now. When it's good it's a absolute blow out, but when you drew it late the red decks struggled to have the cards to pitch to it.