ReAnimator (Out of Dragon's Shadow?)

[BreathWeapon]

One deck that hasn't recieved significant mention lately is ReAnimator. After shelving the deck under the presumption that Dragon was the superior deck for so long, we have to ask if this logic still holds vs today's rampant Dragon Hate? With the release of Mirrodin and a change in the winds of our metagame, does ReAnimator deserve a second look?

Neo-ReAnimator (B/r)

Burial FAT (4)
4xPlated Slagwurm

Burial Combo (3)
1xBlade Wing, the Risen
1xNicol Bolas
1xAnger

Burial Engine (4)
4xSquee, Goblin Nabob

Outlets (8)
4xBuried Alive
4xBazaar of Baghdad

Animates (8)
4xExhume
4xReAnimate

Disruption (8)
4xDuress
4xCabal Therapy

Restricted (3)
1xYawgmoth's Will
1xDemonic Tutor
1xEntomb

Acceleration (4)
4xDark Ritual

Mana (18)
1xSol Ring
4xFetch Lands
4xBadlands
9xSwamp

Sideboard (Sample)
4xRack and Ruin
4xNull Rod
4xTormod's Crypt
1xPhantom Nishoba
1xVerdant Force
1xPlatinum Angel


While the majority of the MD is intuitive, the greatest importance rests in the addition of Plated Slagwurm and the appropriate color splash. With Plated Slagwurm in ReAnimator's arsenal, we now have an anti-Hate aspect associated with our deck that Dragon doesn't, immunity to 90% of the most common MD hate cards. You no longer have to worry about Keeper's Swords to Plowshares and Stifles. HULK's MD Pernicious Deeds (1-2) are dead weight, because ReAnimate and Entomb are not Enchant Creatures (This point also extends to the SB, where; Naturalize, Disenchant, Wax/Wayne and the new Viridian Paladin are seeing a lot of play). MD Rootmazes, O-Stompy, and Damping Matrices, MUD, no longer threaten your immediate game plan, contrary to Dragon. The Red Splash is undoubtably the appropriate color choice to solidify the deck against Prison and  to add the potent MD Combo with Anger, Bladewing and Nicol Bolas (A free win without opposition). Anger also doubles as a MD utility piece, accelerating Plated Slagwurm's attack speed.

This old dog has vicious new tricks to teach the environment. It packs solid disruption, speed and consistantcey while avoiding almost all of the non-Grave Yard Hate Dragon faces in today's metagame.

Thoughts?

[Di]

O...k...you're only running 1 copy of Verdant Force, and it's not even in the maindeck. It's without a doubt the best fatty ever printed, and you're just giving Welder Mud an auto-win for game 1? It's just much easier to play him maindeck, and get around any nasty effects like that. Sure, he can be StoPed, but that's what Slagwurm is still there for.

[martyr]

First things first (just a few basic changes I'd make)

Mana: You want as many fetch-lands in this as possible, as the more you use them the more likely you are to have a Badlands in play when you bury anger, and the better Bazaars are in the midgame. I would run mana crypt for sure, and a Mox Jet in addition.

The life loss from the fetches shouldn't REALLY matter, but obviously you're not up against decks like Goblins that can take advantage of that (or at least, due to your reasons for choosing this deck, you're not so worried about 'em).

"Combo": That is a weak-ass combo. It reduces the number of real win conditions you have, and is vulnerable to the things that you said Dragon was vulnerable to (StP and Stifle. On a similar note, I don't think Damping Matrix really had an effect on Dragon, as his CiP is not an activated ability but a triggered one. Activated abilities have colons, and triggered abilities have "during" or "when"). Sure it's a free win without opposition, but all the decks that have the answers to Dragon are going to have the answers to that, so I just wouldn't bother. If it works well for you, then awesome; go for it.  By all means, leave Mr. Bolas. He's good a lot of the time, but I'd still rather have a Demonic Consultation in Bladewing's stead.

Spoils of the Vault: This card is the nuts in this sort of deck, with lots of four ofs. You should try these out...they might have poor interactions with Reanimate, but I usually don't lose that much life with them (maybe 5-6, if I'm not desperately digging for a card).

Phantom Nishoba: This card is absolutely ridiculous against Goblins. Just fricking stupid (as well as good vs. most Suicide and such). I'd say, cut a Plated Slagworm and put him main-deck, as you have little chance vs. aggro decks in the first game.

Sideboard: Null Rod is hot. I like it a lot; it's been good to me in Fish, and I think it fits your deck well. Good choice.

However...

Chalice of the Void is ridiculous, and considering DeathWishLong is a problem, I might play that (if you know what your environment is.)

Rack and Ruin: This card is sub-par in this deck. It might be good, but usually you don't care about your opponent in reanimator. You want to reanimate as fast as possible and then win. So I say, ditch it for a cheaper answer, or maybe a Splash. Green would give you access to Artifact Mutation and Oxidize, both of which are amazing and (given the pace of T1) very much cheaper than Rack and Ruin.

Tormod's Crypt is good...I've seen Dragon players running Coffin Purge instead of this and I think that's insane: you're stunting your development enough by throwing away cards and land drops (Buried Alive, Entomb, and Bazaar) and Cheaper is almost always better, especially in this deck. Good choice.

1x Phantom Nishoba: I already commented on this. Main-deck it, or you'll get run over.

1x Verdant Force: Why? What deck is this good against? Wouldn't you rather have a whole slew of different creatures in this deck than this one? I say, run a card that's decent against control (Sundering Titan, Symbiotic Wurm). They can deal with them, but they're going to have to suffer the consequences NOW, as opposed to Verdant Force, which has absolutely no penalty for killing.

1x Platinum Angel: What deck can this possibly be all that good against? Long? If you can reanimate before they win, sure, but I'd rather just stop them from winning. Here's my "enhanced" sideboard.

2x Null Rod
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Artifact Mutation
4x Tormod's Crypt
1x Sundering Titan
1x Symbiotic Wurm

and here's the modified deck-list...

3x Plated Slagwurm
1x Phantom Nishoba
1x Anger
1x Nicol Bolas
4x Squee, Goblin Nabob

4x Bazaar of Bagdad
4x Buried Alive
4x Reanimate
4x Exhume
4x Cabal Therapy
4x Duress
1x Yawgmoth's Will
1x Demonic Tutor
1x Demonic Consultation
1x Entomb

4x Dark Ritual
1x Sol Ring
1x Mana Vault
1x Mox Jet
3x Polluted Delta
4x Bloodstained Mire
4x Badlands
1x Bayou
1x Taiga
2x Swamp

[BreathWeapon]

All good comments, but i'd like to clear some of these points up.

First, this deck doesn't auto-lose to Prison just because I don't pack Verdant Force MD (Typical ReAnimator runs 1, not a big difference). I've got 8 Duress effects and a 3 turn clock, thats enough to give Prison a good fight game 1. Game 2, you have access to R&R and 1 Verdant Force in the SB. The deck is designed to face Aggro, Control and Aggro Control. It thrives in meta's where Dragon would be deemed unplayable. If you play against Workshops all day long, WTF are you doing playing B/r ReAnimator instead of B/g Dragon? Its important to know your metagame.

Second, I haven't lost a game to Sligh yet. First turn Dark Ritual + Buried Alive followed by second turn Animate for the Bolas Combo just wins games. In fact, thats exactly why the Combo was included in the deck ... it PWNz Aggro. Its irrelevant that STP stops the Combo because its not the primary Win Condition against Control. Bladewing is still a 5 turn clock regardless of being a part of the deck's Free Win Combo, so I am only reducing the number of my kill conditions by 1 (Marginal difference at best).

Third, what is Verdant Force good against? Your joking right? Ever heard of Workshop Prison? 1/1 Tokens are some good I hear. Damping Matrix screws Laquatos and Sliver Queen, which are the two kill conditions in Dragon. Platinum Angel is another free win card vs decks that don't MD Artifact Removal or have access to Cunning Wish. The Angel is also a saving grace vs Combo, why wouldn't you side 1 in and hope you can slow the opponent down long enough to seal the game with a ReAnimated Angel? TnT uses the Angel for the exact same reason against Combo, and its arguably even slower to Survival for. When your running 4 Buried Alive and 1 Entomb its a good idea to side in some tool box threats game 2 that your opponent can't deal with. The same applies for Phantom Nishoba against Goblins, Sligh and Suicide ... none of which remotely scare me at all to tell you the truth.

Fourth, Spoils of the Vault isn't necessary to establish consistancey with this deck. If you want to run a couple thats fine, but its counter intuitive to the deck's game plan (Outlasting Control). It also open ups a major weakness vs other Aggro decks.

Fifth, so far the Manabase is fine. I may try to sneak Mana Crypt into the deck, but it doesn't worry me that mutch.

You get props for suggesting Sundering Titan. When he becomes legal he will be an excellent addition to the MD or the SB. He has awesome synergy with the Animate Effects and combos with Cabal Therapy when flashed back.

[Pago]

You dont necessarily have to add a colour just because you run creatures that fall into the colour wheel. I dont think you will be actually casting any of those red creatures anyways, unless you count Bladewing the Risen, but that probably wont happen either.

[EchoBoy]

Damping Matrix doesn't shut down dragons, correct. Damping Matrix is meant to shut down the Ambassador Laqutus.  

[Blackest Lotus]

.

Second, I haven't lost a game to Sligh yet. First turn Dark Ritual + Buried Alive followed by second turn Animate for the Bolas Combo just wins games. In fact, thats exactly why the Combo was included in the deck ... it PWNz Aggro. Its irrelevant that STP stops the Combo because its not the primary Win Condition against Control. Bladewing is still a 5 turn clock regardless of being a part of the deck's Free Win Combo, so I am only reducing the number of my kill conditions by 1 (Marginal difference at best).

Perhaps its just me, but I have never had very much trouble against aggro decks when I was playing Reanimator. Their 1/1s and 2/1s never really scared me that much, and Suicides disruption was subpar at best. Bad Hymns 4L! An early Phantom Nishoba cleaned house AND took out the trash. I have never tested against any of the new green decks so I dont have any idea as to how that matchup would go. Nevertheless, it would seem to me that those are wasted slots.

[BreathWeapon]

The combo doesn't exist to take down bad Aggro like Suicide and Sligh, its there to roll TnT and other FAT decks. Its simply far too conveniant of a combo not to run when Buried Alive ensures all 3 combo pieces hit the grave yard at the same time. Wouldn't you play a Combo that reads, "Target opponent discards his hand and dies two turns from now?"

[XnecrontyrX]

I hate to point this one out, but isnt Reya Dawnbringer sensible for this deck? I hear not paying mana to animate critters from your grave is some good, but I may be wrong.

My personal preference would be to do the following:
-3 Plated Slagwurm
+1 Reya Dawnbringer
+1 Phantom Nishoba
+1 Verdant Force

[BreathWeapon]

Reya is pretty awesome, i'd like to include soo many different creature configurations but being immune to STP is soo important right now.

[Spizzard]

I don't quite see how a lot of the hate for dragon, doesn't affect reanimator.

Here's some commonly used maindeck cards:

Swords to plowshares/Instant Removal (Hits win conditions - dragon worse)
Wasteland/Strip (Hits bazaars)
Wish (Can get Removal, Grave hate)

Sideboard:
Tormod's Crypt (Hits both, but isn't the greatest/best against either.)
Planar Void (If it starts seeing more play, its great against both.)
Coffin Purge (More grave hate.)
Tsabo's Web? (Shuts down bazaar)

I don't see reanimator as being better now, just a 'budget-like' replacement.  You can run it without power easily, whereas dragon, really likes the acceleration.

That said, game 1, many decks will scoop against Platinum Angel.  

While Verdant Force is very good, game 1 against Stax/Lock it is really good, but against Aggro (Non-tnt) Going for something such as Nishoba.  Aggro builds of smaller creatures (Oshawa, Sligh) should be scared staring at 'any' fatty across the board.  I still think you should run 1 Verdant maindeck, since it is good against Lock/Stax which is being played more and more often.

[Matt]

You dont necessarily have to add a colour just because you run creatures that fall into the colour wheel. I dont think you will be actually casting any of those red creatures anyways, unless you count Bladewing the Risen, but that probably wont happen either.

He needs mountains for Anger.

[Lord of the Goats]

The Angel is also a saving grace vs Combo, why wouldn't you side 1 in and hope you can slow the opponent down long enough to seal the game with a ReAnimated Angel? TnT uses the Angel for the exact same reason against Combo, and its arguably even slower to Survival for.

tnt doesn't plan on survivaling for platinum angel against combo that is too slow. angel is specifically to be used against dragon because dragon's win condition is to mill to you out via ambassador and letting you draw on your turn. one of the side effects of milling someone's deck is that their deck is in their graveyard the dragon deck removes the need to survival for angel since you ultimately need i in your grave yard anyway. also, since you can weld on your turn before you draw, your welder can be summoning sick (or tapped) when they go off.(Also, the milling puts Anger in your graveyard -- Matt)  thus tnt runs angel because all it needs to do is drop a welder and an artifact in order to buy itself multiple turns if the dragon player can deal with that.

also, i think reanimator could be reallt good, and i've been working on it myself. something in the direction of jp's hermit dragon is very strong because it can set ut a sutured ghoul kill to combo out if you need to... which is just as fast as dragon.

[Carlos El Salvador]

I have played [card]Reanimator[/card] in t1.5 for a long time, and all I can say is that it shines in metagames without control.  Slagwurm defenetly took a slot as soon as I saw him, simply because he is the ONLY CARD IN THE DECK that can handle control at all.  The whole nontargebility thing is good.  I have used many different creatures for many different effects in the past in reanimator...  I'll list some creatures to conciter and why...  many of them have already been listed.
[card]Verdant Force[/card]:  The deck needs 1 MD to deal with MUD and other prision styled control decks.  I would always run 1 of these.  It is also the heveyweight champion of the world.
[card]Plated Slagwurm[/card]:  This guy is house VS Targeted removal.dec, and since the current metagame has the LOWEST amount of sacrifice effects I have seen since I've been watching t1, I'd say that this guy is worth 2 slots at least, as you want him almost every other matchup.  Not the heaveyweight Champion of the world.
[card]Phantom Nishoba[/card]:  I love this guy simply because he dosn't die to sligh.  1 of for sure, especially if your forced to reanimate, that puts your life total within burn range.
[card]Reya Dawnbringer[/card]:  I love and hate this woman.  She is wonderful late game, but in the early game, you don't really care to reanimate her.  I'd concider 1.
Dragons/[card]Anger[/card]:  Those three cards spell certain doom for control...  they will most defenetly waste a Force of Will on your reanimation spell if they see you put those two in your graveyard.  It gives Reanimator a controllish feel.  I would also play 2 [card]Angers[/card] MD, so you can draw into him occaconally, and toss him.
[card]Arcanis, the Omnipotent[/card]:  If your playing some way to dump creatures into the graveyard from your hand, this guy is great, otherwise, he is a wasted slot.  sometimes you'll just reanimate him because drawing six cards every turn will outrace hulk.  Fragile, though.  Up to you.
[card]Platnum Angel[/card]:  I honeslty do not think I would play Platnum in reanimator.  She's a 4/4 with evasion and a "You suck and shouldn't play magic if you can't deal with me" ability.
[card]Avatar of Woe[/card]:  A legend of olde, the Avatar of Woe...  hehe.. that sounds cool.  Anyhow, The clock is a bit slow, but reanimated VS Dragon can be very useful.  Also a good reaniamtion target VS random aggro.deq...  as killing things is a good ability.  I wouldn't put him in this version of reanimator, but if I were to build, lets say, Angry Ghoul Reanimator, I would.
[card]Darksteel Colossus[/card]:  No matter how much you try, you can't reaniamte him, but you can draw with dragon with him!  Poo.  Next!
[card]Petradon[/card] (sp?):  A mana denial creature, great as a third turn reanimation target VS control.  Once again, fits more if you have some way to randomly discard from your hand than if you do not.
[card]Akroma, Angel of Wrath[/card] and [card]Spirit of the Night[/card], avatars of keywords:  As the name syas, they are the avatar of keywords.  Uhh... I think that's all I have to say about these two.... they are okay, though.
[card]Surtured Ghoul[/card]:  This guy's only place to belong is in a druid based reanimator.
[card]Dragon Tyrant[/card]:  Doing 12 damage with one creature is good.  Very good combo with Bladewing VS random prison decks, as it kills your oppoent (when combined with bladewing) In two turns.

Also, this is what I would play for Hermit Reanimator (excluding power, since I have none)
Angry Hermits of Type 1!:
Creatures:
4 [card]Hermit Druid[/card]
3 [card]Surtured Ghoul[/card]
1 [card]Krosan Colossus[/card]
1 [card]Verdant Force[/card]
1 [card]Avatar of Woe[/card]
1 [card]Plated Slagwurm[/card]
4 [card]Elvish Spirit Guide[/card]
Reanimators:
4 [card]Exhume[/card]
4 [card]Reanimate[/card]
Disruption:
4 [card]Duress[/card]
4 [card]Cabal Therapy[/card]
Things that allow you not to die when your 20+/20+ dude is killed or randomly returned to hand after you've decked yourself:
2 [card]Krosan Recclamtion[/card]
Tutors, Search, Burial Effects, and random jank:
1 [card]Demonic Tutor[/card]
1 [card]Vampiric Tutor[/card]
1 [card]Worldy Tutor[/card]
1 [card]Dragon's Breath[/card]
3 [card]Buried Alive[/card]
Mana:
4 [card]Dark Ritual[/card]
1 [card]Chrome Mox[/card]
1 [card]Mana Crypt[/card]
1 [card]Sol Ring[/card]
1 [card]Lotus Petal[/card]
4 [card]Bayou[/card]
3 [card]City of Brass[/card]
3 [card]Polluted Delta[/card]
3 [card]Windswept Heath[/card]

This deck is just a basic build of what i used to play...  though I never played crap tutors (wordly).  It seems kind of needed as [card]Demonic Consultation[/card] would half the time force you to go into straight reanimator.  The deck was desinged to do a couple things turn 1 as a budget deck.
1) Play Hermit Druid, or get Hermit Druid into play turn two.
2) Reanimate fat and begin to put pressure on fast
3} Setup for the Kill
4) H8 your oppoent's hand.
The creatures in the deck worth reanimating all have two to three turn killing times (With the exception of [card]Avatar of Woe[/card]), making the beatdown role easy to play.  The combo role is easy as well, seeing if you get a druid activated during your own upkeep with GG1B on the board, you should win that turn.

[bebe]

Carlos - that is very close to the budget build we tested back in November/December. There are just a few differences. First we played A Spiritmonger main deck and a Xantid Swarm. This led us to use three copies of the lousy tutor - W. Tutor - main deck. Absent from our build is Plated Slagwurm and the Avatar and two Therapy.

Our sideboard was
 Sideboard
3 Xantid Swarm
3 Sylvan Safekeeper
1 Plated Slagwurm
4 Chalice of the Void
4 Pernicious Deed

This gave us a game against the field.

[Carlos El Salvador]

Well, the bad part is that the deck itself cannot afford a better control thing other than swarm.   Swarm, while is good, is combersome.  I would most defenetly play them in the sideboard.  I honestly feel that the slagwurm should be MD, since it is almsot impossable to deal with, plus you can chuck him and Colossus for a 21/21 hasted ghoul!

[bebe]

Swarm is found easily wirth the Tutor and come down turn two. I had a Safekeeper in the slot originally but Swarm proved better. As for pumping the Ghoul both builds have enough to fuel it. I think it is really play style and meta that will determine the last five or six slots in the deck. I'm surprised this deck is not showing up more as it is a great budget build - better than Dragon without Bazaars. The possiblity of turn two - five consistent kills in a budget deck is nice.

[Vegeta2711]

I have a few issues with the deck. I played against it last night with Madness and won 4-0. Something seems wrong when aggro is beating Reanimator.

1. Other than Bazaar, no way to discard from hand. I got to see more Cabal Therapies targeting their owner than I had ever seen before. Zombie Infestation may be useful.

2. Grave hate owns the hell out of this and it has no back up options.

3. This deck can't even deal with a swarm of creatures well. Plated Slagwurm simply doesn't do enough outside of the control match-up. I even managed to stall one out one game until I won off dual Bazaar's with Wild Mongrel + Basking Rootwalla.

4. The Nicol Bolas combo is cute, but not all the efficent unless it's happening on turn 1 or 2. Odds are it's not and even if it does, your opponent has a decent chance of dropping most of it's hand.

5. Is there any plus side this deck has over Dragon?

These are just some issues I took note of.

[ELD]

Just a couple points on Reanimator.  

Perhaps I'm just no good at this game, but Platnum Angel is big trouble for my versions of R/G beats, Big O, Sui, Goblin Sligh, TnT, TPS and Dragon pre-side board.  Many aggro decks have few to no outs once she hits the board.  Couple that with the fact a decent clock and it's worth a slot in my view.  If you reanimate against a combo deck, they now have to deal with her instead of just killing you and ignoring your random creature.

A few personal opinions on reanimator - A way to discard critters from hand is everything.  Zombie Infestation is probably the best way to go outside of baazar.  It is a win condition all by itself and strong with squee.  When running Blue, Intuition is IMHO far stronger than Buried Alive due to instant speed.   It can also fetch your animate spells or a duress to clear the way to victory.  

On the whole though, the problem with reanimator is it goes through alot of trouble to "maybe" win the game.  I prefer the concept of Hermit decks because they're trying to win, not just put out a fat creature and hope to win in a few turns.  In closing, all of these are not, IMHO as strong as dragon.  Also if you want a fun combo deck, try out the one land BG belcher decks, they're a party.  

Peace,
Eric
ELD