It's extremely painful game 1 on the play to have Iona as the only viable target and blindly guessing a color.
Grave Titan does a lot of good things.
- not a legend, and cannot be bounced with karakas
- dodges edict effects if the trigger resolves
- races most any deck
- @6 CMC is castable off of dark ritual (note some also side in Lake of the Dead with multiple titans as a backup plan vs. leyline.
Haven't managed a 5-0 yet, but have yet to go worse than 3-2. It has a lot of non-graveyard ways to win post board. Occasionally I feel I run out of steam, or need some means of card selection to keep pushing out threats.
I haven't played bitterblossom yet. My only gripes with pack rat, is some games, consistently getting to 3 mana has been hard. I found i needed a 15th land or chrome mox to make this game plan reliable. it works pretty well against grixis matchups and shadow. Sometimes gets there against D&T and eldrazi if they keep hands hating on the numero uno game plan. It's been ok, but less effective vs. miracles.
I've also considered goblin rablemaster. However, this seems weaker, than pack rat/bitterblossom. I've been really trying to explore non-graveyard related plan B's as I've found many people at least on MTGO mulligan down to GY hate into oblivion.
I've also been trying to find a list that substitutes Animate Dead for shallow grave looking at the tin fins mantra, trying to abuse the quality of silent gravestone which solves a lot of the hate problems including the mirror. But grave titan and griselbrand have been the only targets that seem good game 1 and 2 with those game plans.
I like some aspects of the above list, however i think the challenge has been not diluting the mainboard too much to give up the high win % game 1.
Ima preface the following: These may all be terrible suggestions. I'm much more of a spike learning developed meta's. Feel free to disregard any of the following lol. Also, without play testing these decks it feels hard to make suggestions on keeping the meta balanced.
After some time on gatherer and above posts. I think given these are constructed decks, seeing more 3-4 ofs and a few less 1 of's would likely make the decks more consistent and therefore easier to balance out. Seems like with some of the sparsity in card choices, game to game could be fairly different and make it harder to appreciate why one deck is under performing.
Blue: Temporal Adept seems good, if not better than the Big draw spell. Maybe harder for new people, but repeatable bounce with counterspell backup seems good. I saw the comment most games were won with the "Dig Through Time", I wonder if another merfolk looter would be more efficient for finding relevant cards, and being a little more mana efficient. A control deck with Millstone win-con seems fun :).
Black: I miss hypnotic specter, and with the slow format, Abyssal Specter looks appealing. How big is Revenant usually? Feels like a lot of mana, where a second Nightmare in a deck with only swamps seems real good. Or I think someone else mentioned it too, but more grave diggers look good, with some synergy between them, Fallen angel and the Assassin. Infernal contract seems cheesy, but i can see where it works here Is 2x Corrupt really necessary This seems like a game winning spell wit 6-7 swamps in play? The Skeletons seem real bad, Ostracizes maybe better, and feels a little more "black" imo.
Hey all. I've been a long time storm player, but made a switch to Reanimator recently due to personal feelings of storm being weaker in the current meta. After running a bunch of BR reanimator to some mild success, I've been playing around with variations of the following 75. Making multiple 4-1's and a 5-0 on mtgo. It's feeling really solid, but thought the variation here could spark some good discussion.
Thoughts behind some of the choices:
Blue Vs. Red:
My friend and I felt blue had more to offer in the sideboard in terms of flexibility. I tried splashing for looting, which works, but ultimately with Arcane Artisan sideboard plan, I wanted more power to go grab basics to stick 3 lands. Also notice 15 lands in the list, to help hitting that 3rd land drop reliably.
Careful study: Faithless looting is by far superior. But study has been a sufficient replacement using Search as the further reach.
Search For Azcanta
I have limited play, but definitely helped in a couple fetches dig for outs. I felt this deck lacks reach sometimes and this seems like a reasonable addition. The ability to bin creatures felt like good synergy.
Echoing Truth
I play this like storm. Usually bouncing problems on the turn prior to going off. Been caught in multiple pieces of hate, and the ability to hit multiples has been very relevant. I avoided Chain of Vapor as I wanted a better answer for Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void
Arcane Artisan
This card is Amazing game 2 and 3. I think I want a fourth. Show and Tell seems like a feasible addition as well being in blue. Maybe its better to have some split of this and Show and Tell for games 2 and 3.
Mostly interested in how people are boarding for delver and SFM decks.
Thanks!
Grave Titan does a lot of good things.
- not a legend, and cannot be bounced with karakas
- dodges edict effects if the trigger resolves
- races most any deck
- @6 CMC is castable off of dark ritual (note some also side in Lake of the Dead with multiple titans as a backup plan vs. leyline.
I've been tooling around with a variation of a mono b reanimator list i saw online:
4 Badlands
2 Bloodstained Mire
2 Lake of the Dead
2 Marsh Flats
4 Polluted Delta
5 Swamp
Spells:
4 Dark Ritual
1 Duress
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
4 Thoughtseize
3 Faithless Looting
3 Animate Dead
2 Collective Brutality
2 Exhume
4 Hymn to Tourach
2 Liliana of the Veil
Creatures:
4 Grave Titan
1 Massacre Wurm
1 Tidespout Tyrant
2 Griselbrand
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Pack Rat
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Massacre Wurm
2 Abrade
2 Magus of the Moon
2 Liliana, the Last Hope
2 Ratchet Bomb
Haven't managed a 5-0 yet, but have yet to go worse than 3-2. It has a lot of non-graveyard ways to win post board. Occasionally I feel I run out of steam, or need some means of card selection to keep pushing out threats.
I've also considered goblin rablemaster. However, this seems weaker, than pack rat/bitterblossom. I've been really trying to explore non-graveyard related plan B's as I've found many people at least on MTGO mulligan down to GY hate into oblivion.
I've also been trying to find a list that substitutes Animate Dead for shallow grave looking at the tin fins mantra, trying to abuse the quality of silent gravestone which solves a lot of the hate problems including the mirror. But grave titan and griselbrand have been the only targets that seem good game 1 and 2 with those game plans.
I like some aspects of the above list, however i think the challenge has been not diluting the mainboard too much to give up the high win % game 1.
After some time on gatherer and above posts. I think given these are constructed decks, seeing more 3-4 ofs and a few less 1 of's would likely make the decks more consistent and therefore easier to balance out. Seems like with some of the sparsity in card choices, game to game could be fairly different and make it harder to appreciate why one deck is under performing.
Blue: Temporal Adept seems good, if not better than the Big draw spell. Maybe harder for new people, but repeatable bounce with counterspell backup seems good. I saw the comment most games were won with the "Dig Through Time", I wonder if another merfolk looter would be more efficient for finding relevant cards, and being a little more mana efficient. A control deck with Millstone win-con seems fun :).
Black: I miss hypnotic specter, and with the slow format, Abyssal Specter looks appealing. How big is Revenant usually? Feels like a lot of mana, where a second Nightmare in a deck with only swamps seems real good. Or I think someone else mentioned it too, but more grave diggers look good, with some synergy between them, Fallen angel and the Assassin. Infernal contract seems cheesy, but i can see where it works here Is 2x Corrupt really necessary This seems like a game winning spell wit 6-7 swamps in play? The Skeletons seem real bad, Ostracizes maybe better, and feels a little more "black" imo.
4 Polluted Delta
1 Island
5 Swamp
2 Underground Sea
4 Lotus Petal
4 Careful Study
3 Thoughtseize
4 Dark Ritual
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
3 Animate Dead
4 Exhume
1 Search for Azcanta
4 Unmask
4 Chancellor of the Annex
1 Tidespout Tyrant
4 Griselbrand
1 Ashen Rider
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
4 Echoing Truth
3 Arcane Artisan
3 Faerie Macabre
1 Massacre
1 Pithing Needle
1 Search for Azcanta
Thoughts behind some of the choices:
Blue Vs. Red:
My friend and I felt blue had more to offer in the sideboard in terms of flexibility. I tried splashing for looting, which works, but ultimately with Arcane Artisan sideboard plan, I wanted more power to go grab basics to stick 3 lands. Also notice 15 lands in the list, to help hitting that 3rd land drop reliably.
Careful study:
Faithless looting is by far superior. But study has been a sufficient replacement using Search as the further reach.
Search For Azcanta
I have limited play, but definitely helped in a couple fetches dig for outs. I felt this deck lacks reach sometimes and this seems like a reasonable addition. The ability to bin creatures felt like good synergy.
Echoing Truth
I play this like storm. Usually bouncing problems on the turn prior to going off. Been caught in multiple pieces of hate, and the ability to hit multiples has been very relevant. I avoided Chain of Vapor as I wanted a better answer for Counterbalance and Chalice of the Void
Arcane Artisan
This card is Amazing game 2 and 3. I think I want a fourth. Show and Tell seems like a feasible addition as well being in blue. Maybe its better to have some split of this and Show and Tell for games 2 and 3.
Faerie Macabre
I love this card in the mirror as it plays around Chancellor of the Annex
Liliana of the Veil
I wouldn't mind trying to find room for this in the control match ups.
Pack Rat
I like this card and have done well, but Artisan has been much more game breaking.