{"id":428,"date":"2018-07-17T14:38:29","date_gmt":"2018-07-17T12:38:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/?p=428"},"modified":"2018-07-17T14:47:16","modified_gmt":"2018-07-17T12:47:16","slug":"brewing-with-andy-my-reanimator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/brewing-with-andy-my-reanimator\/","title":{"rendered":"Brewing with Andy: My Reanimator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello again, Premodern humans!\u00a0 The inspiration for this week’s deck came while playing my Legacy B\/R Reanimator deck.\u00a0 I realized that, save for a few cards, a huge chunk of the list was actually Premodern legal!<\/p>\n

I’ve seen other builds of Reanimator in Premodern, most of which play cards like Buried Alive<\/a> or Intuition<\/a> in place of the banned Entomb<\/a>, to tutor creatures into the graveyard for reanimation.\u00a0 Those spells work well with a reanimation strategy, but can be a tad slow at three mana.\u00a0 What if we could get under our opponent’s counterspells by going all in on speed, and consistently put a fatty into play on turn one or two like the Legacy deck?\u00a0 I’ve got news for you: we can!<\/p>\n

Reanimator<\/div>
<\/i>Spoiler view<\/span><\/span><\/i>List with preview card<\/span><\/span><\/i>Show\/hide sideboard<\/span><\/span><\/i>Download photo of deck<\/span><\/span><\/i>Download text file of deck<\/span><\/span><\/div>
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MAIN DECK | 60 cards<\/h4>
Lands: 14<\/div>
4<\/span> City of Brass<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Gemstone Mine<\/a><\/div>
2<\/span> Undiscovered Paradise<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Swamp<\/a><\/div><\/div>
Instants and Sorceries: 22<\/div>
4<\/span> Careful Study<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Reanimate<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Exhume<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Dark Ritual<\/a><\/div>
2<\/span> Unmask<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Cabal Therapy<\/a><\/div><\/div>
Creatures: 16<\/div>
4<\/span> Symbiotic Wurm<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Putrid Imp<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Verdant Force<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Visara the Dreadful<\/a><\/div><\/div>
Others: 8<\/div>
4<\/span> Animate Dead<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Lotus Petal<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>

SIDEBOARD | 15 cards<\/h4>
2<\/span> Firestorm<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Multani, Maro-Sorcerer<\/a><\/div>
4<\/span> Phantom Nishoba<\/a><\/div>
2<\/span> Pyroblast<\/a><\/div>
3<\/span> Stronghold Gambit<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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Deck downloaded from - http:\/\/premodernmagic.com\n------------------------------------------------\nReanimator\n------------------------------------------------\nMAIN DECK (60)\n\nLands: 14\n4 City of Brass\n4 Gemstone Mine\n2 Undiscovered Paradise\n4 Swamp\n\nInstants and Sorceries: 22\n4 Careful Study\n4 Reanimate\n4 Exhume\n4 Dark Ritual\n2 Unmask\n4 Cabal Therapy\n\nCreatures: 16\n4 Symbiotic Wurm\n4 Putrid Imp\n4 Verdant Force\n4 Visara the Dreadful\n\nOthers: 8\n4 Animate Dead\n4 Lotus Petal\n\n\nSIDEBOARD (15)\n2 Firestorm\n4 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer\n4 Phantom Nishoba\n2 Pyroblast\n3 Stronghold Gambit\n------------------------------------------------\nDeck downloaded from - http:\/\/premodernmagic.com\n<\/div>
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SIDEBOARD<\/h4>
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http:\/\/premodernmagic.com<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/a>\n

This is actually a deck that I’ve done a little more testing and tuning on, and it feels pretty competitive.\u00a0 The overall structuring and mana requirements are identical to the Legacy version, except that you don’t have Entomb<\/a>, so you have to play a couple of extra reanimation targets.\u00a0 The land count and mana acceleration package are the same, and the reanimation spells are the same.\u00a0 It really is blisteringly fast, and with proper mulliganing you will get a fatty into play on turn one or two the majority of the time.<\/p>\n

Now for the differences, first being the quality of the creatures.\u00a0 Obviously, Verdant Force<\/a> is no Griselbrand<\/a>.\u00a0 That said, the creatures are all good enough for the format they exist in, and do some very nice things when put into play on turn one.\u00a0 The other difference is the lack of Entomb<\/a>, meaning you get a little less selection of the creatures you want to reanimate, and your combo basically always requires three cards.\u00a0 In practice, this doesn’t seem to be much of an issue due to the redundancy built into the deck, and it works out that the deck’s fail rate of losing to itself due to mulliganing into oblivion is not much worse than the Legacy version.<\/p>\n

Speaking of mulliganing, note that this deck mulligans aggressively as a form of card selection.\u00a0 It’s not uncommon to go to five cards, and if you find the right combination you can still win easily.<\/p>\n

I think for this one I will go card by card and break down my choices.\u00a0 The ratio of each group of cards in the deck should remain about the same, even after sideboarding.<\/p>\n

Group 1: Discard outlets (14)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u20224 Careful Study<\/a>.\u00a0 This is the best discard outlet in the deck and you always want to see it in your opening hand.\u00a0 It helps to dig for whatever you need, and puts fatties in the bin at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u20224 Putrid Imp<\/a>.\u00a0 Originally I had Firestorm<\/a> in this slot, but after I started testing the Imp, it became clear that it was the much better card.\u00a0 This thing has a ton of interesting fringe benefits, apart from the fact that it’s a great free discard outlet.\u00a0 It protects against Edict effects.\u00a0 It lets your flashback Cabal Therapy<\/a> early to clear out disruption.\u00a0 It can stop early aggression from a Goblin Lackey<\/a>.\u00a0 It can chip in for extra damage.\u00a0 It can pitch to Unmask<\/a>.\u00a0 It can be cast off a Dark Ritual<\/a>.\u00a0 Key card in the deck.<\/p>\n

\u20224 Cabal Therapy<\/a>.\u00a0 Another extremely important card.\u00a0 It’s our main form of disruption for clearing out things like Swords to Plowshares<\/a> (most common blind name), and it has a lot of synergy with some of the fatties, which we’ll talk about below.\u00a0 It’s also a good way to bin our own reanimation targets and can be reused later.<\/p>\n

\u20222 Unmask<\/a>.\u00a0 Can hit ourselves or our opponent depending on what we need.\u00a0 Another great disruption\/self discard effect.<\/p>\n

Group 2: Reanimation targets (12)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u20224 Verdant Force<\/a>.\u00a0 Some decks just cannot deal with this guy on turn one, especially backed by disruption to get rid of Swords to Plowshares<\/a> or Terminate<\/a>.\u00a0 The tokens get out of hand quickly and can be used to flashback Cabal Therapy<\/a>.\u00a0 Wrath of God<\/a> is just not fast enough sometimes.<\/p>\n

\u20224 Symbiotic Wurm<\/a>.\u00a0 This card is a house against anything but exactly Swords to Plowshares<\/a>, and there are ways to get around even that.\u00a0 This line of play is not uncommon on turn one: Land, Ritual, Therapy myself naming Wurm, Exhume, sac Wurm to flashback Therapy on you, make seven 1\/1s, go!<\/p>\n

\u20224 Visara the Dreadful<\/a>.\u00a0 This one is somewhat flexible and there are certainly more powerful creatures to reanimate in a vacuum, but I like Visara for a couple of reasons.\u00a0 1) You can actually hard cast it with a Ritual or two, and 2) It’s a big, flying body.\u00a0 Other options include Spirit of the Night<\/a> (not castable), Akroma, Angel of Wrath<\/a> (awesome but doesn’t work with Animate Dead<\/a>) or Exalted Angel<\/a> (strong contender but a little small and maybe better in sideboard).<\/p>\n

Group 3: Reanimation spells (12)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u20224 Reanimate<\/a>. This will give you the most turn one reanimations, and it can be great to use on your opponent too.\u00a0 The life loss can hurt, but if they Swords your creature, you get most of it back!<\/p>\n

\u20224 Exhume<\/a>. Very solid two mana reanimation, just remember to check your opponent’s graveyard.<\/p>\n

\u20224 Animate Dead<\/a>. Third best but still very efficient, and the redundancy is what makes this deck consistent and resilient to having your first threat answered.<\/p>\n

Group 4: Mana acceleration (8)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u20224 Dark Ritual<\/a>.\u00a0 Absurd. The only card this doesn’t help cast is Careful Study<\/a>, but it’s responsible for most of you turn one reanimations.<\/p>\n

\u20224 Lotus Petal<\/a>.\u00a0 Helps with colors and can also accelerate you to a turn one fatty.<\/p>\n

Group 5: Lands (14)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u202210 rainbow lands.\u00a0 Really no issues with running these, and you need blue in the main and red out of the sideboard.<\/p>\n

\u20224 Swamp<\/a>.\u00a0 The maindeck is almost mono-black, after all.<\/p>\n

Sideboard:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u20224 Multani, Maro-Sorcerer<\/a>.\u00a0 This guy comes in against controllish decks with Swords to Plowshares<\/a> or other targeted removal.\u00a0 Having an untargetable creature with seven to ten (or more) power around for a few turns will finish things quickly.\u00a0 In practice, I think I’ve laid out how Swords to Plowshares<\/a> isn’t a game ender, but it’s nice to have this guy in the board.<\/p>\n

\u20224 Phantom Nishoba<\/a>.\u00a0 This one is for aggro matchups where the life loss from Reanimate<\/a> might be problematic.<\/p>\n

\u20222 Firestorm<\/a>.\u00a0 A nice discard outlet, and can clear out early creatures.<\/p>\n

\u20222 Pyroblast<\/a>.\u00a0 The only card in the sideboard that slightly dilutes the deck’s game plan, but it can be worth it for extra combo protection.<\/p>\n

\u20223 Stronghold Gambit<\/a>.\u00a0 Basically a Show and Tell<\/a> against creatureless decks, and avoids graveyard hate.\u00a0 Can also come in against decks with few creatures, but it’s best to clear the way with discard spells first.<\/p>\n

Whew, this was a longer one today, but I hope you enjoyed the breakdown of my Reanimator deck!\u00a0 I would love to hear your thoughts; as always leave comments in the Premodern Facebook group<\/a> or hit me up on Instagram<\/a> @mtgdojoera.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello again, Premodern humans!\u00a0 The inspiration for this week’s deck came while playing my Legacy B\/R Reanimator deck.\u00a0 I realized that, save for a few…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-brewing-with-andy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":439,"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions\/439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/premodernmagic.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}