Sire of Insanity

[TheWhiteDragon]

4BR
Creature - Demon   
At the beginning of each end step, each player discards his or her hand.
Illus. Peter Mohrbacher   6/4

Okay guys...ya'll must be slacking.  I have NO idea why this guy has been out so long and nobody's even talking about him.  Perhaps people are planning on breaking out their secret (even though everyone is already thinking the same idea) deck.  Well, I'm bustin' ya'll's bubble and putting the idea out there anyway.

Vintage:
turn 1 black land, jet, entomb, reanimate OR turn 1 black land (or lotus), ritual, entomb, animate dead/exhume -> Sire of Insanity.  Now you have a land and possibly a mox, and a 6/4 beater.  Your opponent has 0 permanents and 0 cards at your end step.  How in the hell do you lose?

Open with unmask, duress, thoughtseize and you are crazy money.  They need to find 1 mana and dismember/plow within 4 turns or they're toast - all the while discarding every card they draw and don't immediately play.  You also get to establish board at a faster rate (having a mana or 2 in play already).  If you pitch a 2nd sire, you now can reanimate another should one get killed.  Could even go blue with FoW backup and careful study to pitch in hand to animate.  You need to have the combo turn 1 to be most broken, and turn 2 isn't terrible.

Legacy:
They don't have mental misstep and tend to be slower decks - and you play the exact same concept except with chrome mox/mox diamond/lotus petal x4.

WHY is nobody discussing this?  Yes, there is leyline of the Void, but there is also nature's claim, erase, or chain of vapor depending on the secondary color you wish to splash.  Can we get some discussion going on this?  Turn 1 6/4 + mind twist for 7 seems REALLY good to me.  Why nobody else?

[MaximumCDawg]

I don't see what you're so excited about.

Mind Twist isn't restricted anymore, and hitting two rituals and a Twist seems easier than binning and reanimating this guy.  On the flip side, why not just do exactly the same thing you suggest but use Grislebrand?

I also think you overestimate the value of going straight into topdeck mode when you're running a B/R aggro plan.  If you do it first turn, yes, you probably win all the marbles before they can find an answer.  But do it on any other turn and they are probably more likely to find a StP or combo out before you can finish them off.

I mean, go for it, make the deck, but I'm not seeing how this is more powerful than other alternatives.

[TheWhiteDragon]

Well, you obviously run 4 grisel as well - I run black red with 4 faithless looting - so between those and the entombs, I'm binning/reanimating one or the other (and usually a grisel into sire) on turn 1 50% of games and then turn 2 the other 50%. If you can't see yourself doing it turn 1 or setting up for turn 2, you mull.  It's like balestrade.dec, but way cheaper and more consistent.  You don't win on the spot, but you virtually win on the spot.

[MaximumCDawg]

Seems like you lose to yard hate even harder than Rogue Hermit does.

See, the problem with this duder (compared to Grislebrand or Hermit decks) is that he only really locks up the game for you if you cast him on the first turn.  After that, the enemy can keep mana up to remove him or use a topdeck tutor to fetch an answer.  I get how it is nice for an all-in deck to be able to Twist both players, but I feel like that effect means so much less against a blue deck, for example, since they can outdraw you and tutor for answers.  Casting Brink of Insanity or whatever just doesn't seem like a particularly powerful thing to do.

Oh, and of course this "combo" you suggest is hilarious against Dredge...

EDIT: Also: Jin-Gitaxis, Core Auger.  Sire of Insanity gets speed at the expense of allowing you to draw 7 each turn.  I like Jin better.

[TheWhiteDragon]

Well, the idea is that you do it on turn 1.  The thing I like about sire over Jin is that you don't give them 1 turn to play land, moxen, tutor/answer.  They begin their game with 0 cards and 0 permanents.  And they can't just draw/tutor because they'll have no mana and discard after every end step. So unless they topdeck land, topdeck answer/vamp/mystical, they have little chance. Leyline hurts and giving your opponents turns to set up a mana base hurts...but all grave strategies fall into that same boat.

[xouman]

Besides, if playing rituals, sire is not that hard to have in early turns. Seems to have good synergy with Blood Scrivener.

I'm not sure if it could be really playable, but can scrap some wins, and it should be easy to skip the entomb package after SB if opponent is siding GY hate in.

[credmond]

Seems like a deck could come out of this guy. I would explore using bazaars, life from the loam, mox diamonds, squees, and scrivener action. Those cards are good with a deck that tries to go hellbent asap. With life from the loam and diamonds, your fifth turn one twist effect could be balance. Basically, this card could go in a Dawn of the Dead shell or a Vintage version of 43 lands.

[hvndr3d y34r h3x]

The problem is that reanimater is just bad in vintage because dredge is a thing. So they need to print something better than Grislebrand, and give you a reason to not want to just safely and efficiently oath it up.

[mmcgeach]

While it is true that reanimator suffers from a vulnerability to dredge hate, this card does have an ability that no other card does, which is the immediate and continuous mindtwist attached to a 4-turn clock.  Anytime there's a new effect that's never been available before, the card merits some vintage consideration.  That it's a potential turn-one play is pretty important.  I don't think you can rule this out just because "vintage reanimator is not currently a very competitive deck" or similar logic; this really does add something new to a reanimator deck.  Also with some acceleration this guy is hard-castable.  Or show-and-tell able.

Of course, dredge is largely immune to countermagic, whereas this really folds to force of will.  And it seems a lot worse on the draw than on the play.  But ruling it out right now seems premature.

[StanleyAugust]

It's actually quite interesting. I really like the idea of reanimating this guy, because as you mention it's almost impossible for your opponent to win if you get this guy down turn 1. It's definitely one of the best turn 1 reanimate targets I can think of - if not the best. It loses a lot of value after turn 1 though.