Casual UBR Reanimator deck - Help cutting it down to 60

[Ninja_Bob]

Hello, my first post.  I hope it's in the right forum.

Anyway here's my deck:

Fatties:
Nicol Bolas x2
Arcanis the Omnipotent x1
Phantom Nishoba x1
Akroma, Angel of Wrath x1
Symbiotic Wurm x1
Crater Hellion x1
Visara the Dreadful x1
Scion of Darkness x1
Reya Dawnbringer x1

Reanimation Spells:
Stitch Together x3
Doomed Necromancer x3
Zombify x1

Draw/Dumping spells:
Careful Study x4
Frantic Search x1
Deep Analysis x2
Buried Alive x2
Wheel of Fortune x1

Others:
Anger x3
Squee, Goblin Nabob x1
Chainer's Edict x1
Fire/Ice x2
Demonic Tutor x1
Vampiric Tutor x1
Yawgmoth's Will x1

Mana:
Dark Ritual x3
Sol Ring x1
Mox Diamond x1
Lotus Petal x1
Badlands x4
Underground Sea x4
Volcanic Island x4
Bloodstained Mire x4
Strip Mine x1
Library of Alexandria x1
Swamp x3
Island x3

First of all, of the people I play with, no one has any of the power 9.  But there's just about everything else:  Mishra's Workshops, Library of Alexandria, Mirror Universe, Mana Drain, Force of Will... It's very casual, but we still play by Type I rules.  And we also don't play with sideboards, we could, but we know each others decks already.

The deck can usually pull off a 2nd or 3rd turn Nicol Bolas, most of the time hasted.  He also has good synergy with Scion of Darkness & Wheel of Fortune.  He's really the main focus of the deck.  Even if he's just sitting in my grave being intimidating.

The deck is 67 cards right now (if I counted correctly).  Any suggestions?

I'm thinking 10 critters to animate seems fine for 67, but if it's at 60 cards 9 or even 8 might be good enough?

How many animation spells do you play in your decks?

[Matt]

Fatties: 5
1 Nicol Bolas
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Crater Hellion
1 Petradon

The combo-kill: 2
1 Worldgorger Dragon
1 Shivan Hellkite

Reanimation: 11
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
3 Necromancy

Draw/Dumping spells: 11
4 Buried Alive
4 Careful Study
1 Frantic Search
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Entomb

Others: 6
3 Anger
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Mana: 24
4 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
4 Badlands
4 Underground Sea
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Strip Mine
3 Swamp
2 Mountain
1 Island


Petradon: A strong anti-control creature. Since you won't be seeing moxen, this double-Stone Rain is a good card. You might also consider Sundering Titan, though that would mean changing your duals into nonbasics (painlands probably) and therefore losing Anger - bad move.

You shouldn't need so much creature control as you had, nor two Bolas.

Entomb is just plain good. It's better than Demonic Tutor in this deck. Repeat after me: Ritual, Entomb, Exhume.

Adding the combo-kill gives you a way to be extremely dangerous.

Buried Alive is the best engine you could hope to run. Four are mandatory.

Your reanimation spells were poor. Exhume is the best general-purpose one, and the others I chose to work with Worldgorger Dragon. If you elect not to use the Dragon combo (a mistake), Doomed Necromancer becomes slightly better, but still probably not as good as Necromancy. Stitch Together is just bad, as you have way of reliably getting to threshold (if you had Bazaar of Baghdad, it would be a different situation and Stitch might be feasible).

The Squee wasn't really doing a whole lot, - just randomly coming back after one of your five Study-effects, so I dropped him.

Crater Hellion may not be so good, since it'll never stick around. If you want to replace it, do so with Avatar of Woe, which is better than Visara because a) it's not a legend, and b) you actually might be able to play it for BB.

This list is only 59 cards so feel free to add whatever. I would like to fit in some Cabal Therapies, personally, as they can be used on yourself as another method of getting something in the graveyard turn 1. If not, try Gamble.

[Ninja_Bob]

I like Petradon a lot, and I think I got one laying around here somewhere.  And I don't know why I didn't add Entomb on the list.  Just threw this deck together after not playing over half a year.  

But I really don't want to go for the Dragon combo.  Definitely will make the deck a lot stronger, but I know some people who will whine about it.

I have a few questions:

1) Why 2 Mountains and 1 Island?  Why not 3 Volcanic Islands?  There's no Blood Moons being thrown down here if that's the reason, but a few Wastelands.

2) Your thoughts on Mox Diamond?  I like it a lot in my deck.  Of course it also pushed my graveyard over the edge to threshold after 2 Careful Study.  Not worth it?

[Matt]

Diamond is kind of up in the air, but I'm pretty sure it's not better than any of the mana already in the deck (except possibly the nonblack basics) so you would end up cutting into your business cards, which is bad. Feel free to try out 2 Volc 1 Diamond over the mountains and island if you don't see nonbasic hate.

The threshold-boosting aspect of Diamond is pretty much nonexistant, given that Stitch Together is only barely playable EVEN WHEN you consistently get threshold, and there aren't really any other threshold cards worth playing.

If you're cutting the combo, change the Animates into the missing Necromancy and possibly Reanimate or that Necromancer guy. The reason I don't like the necromancer is because he's really slow unless you have Anger online. Reanimate hurts but Necromancer is so slow that you'll probably lose almost that much life just waiting to hit 3-4 mana, so the "extra" life cost really isn't extra. Also change the Dragon and Hellkite into Avatar of Woe and possibly another Akroma, which is generally your standard "go to" creature.

Alternately, you can still play A dragon combo: take out the Gorger and Hellkite and possibly the Crater Hellion for:

1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Bladewing's Thrall
1 Dragon Tyrant

You Exhume Bladewing, the Thrall comes along for the ride, and Bladewing brings the Tyrant back. Assuming you have Anger online, attack for 19 (21 if you have to spare). People might not complain about that one so much as Gorger, which is truly much stupider. If you're going this route, though, you probably want to go to 4 Anger - the Tyrant has a hideous upkeep and so you'll need to either have {R}{R}{R} handy or have haste.

[Ninja_Bob]

Ok, going to take lots of your ideas but for different reasons.

Fatties: 10
2 Nicol Bolas
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Dragon Tyrant
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Crater Hellion
1 Avatar of Woe
1 Petradon
1 Scion of Darkness

1 Bladewing's Thrall

Reanimation: 11
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead
3 Necromancy

Draw/Dumping Spells: 11
4 Buried Alive
4 Careful Study
1 Frantic Search
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Entomb

Others: 6
3 Anger
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Mana: 24
4 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
4 Badlands
4 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Strip Mine
3 Swamp

Yeah so it's 63 cards right now.

I know, I know... weaker version of what you posted.  But I really wanted to make a "Nicol Bolas Deck" not a Reanimator.  Less effective, but just personal taste.  When I said I know some people who would whine about the Dragon combo I also meant I wouldn't have fun with it.

I forgot about Bladewing, in this deck he has 2 targets, Bolas or Tyrant.  And I also like him because if you use a Animate Dead or Necromancy on him the other Dragon isn't vulnerable to enchantment kill/bounce/hate.  

I also like how Animate Dead, Necromancy, and Scion can steal critters from their grave after Nicol Bolas hits.  Probably overkill at that point, but eh.  I didn't mention that half the time we play Free For All games.  Gives it a little more staying power (but I really just play this deck to trash one person, laugh in their face, then get jumped by everyone else).  Also the reason for Arcanis, but I'll play without him for a while.  Reanimates really weren't an option.

Crater Hellion saved me lots of times against my friend's Budget Green Stompy deck.  It might get cut later on, i'll see.  And I know 2 Nicol Bolas barely increases the chance of him popping out with so many tutors, but like I said, personal taste.

Thanks for the feedback.

[Ninja_Bob]

looks like no one really cares about this thread, but i'm going to post an update anyway.

played with it a little, but the FoW's got me every time.  here's what it looks like now:

Fatties: 6
2 Nicol Bolas
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Crater Hellion
1 Scion of Darkness

Reanimation: 8
4 Exhume
4 Animate Dead

Discard: 5
4 Duress
1 Unmask

Draw/Dumping Spells: 10
3 Buried Alive
4 Careful Study
1 Frantic Search
1 Wheel of Fortune
1 Entomb

Others: 6
2 Anger
1 Bladewing's Thrall
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Yawgmoth's Will

Mana: 25
4 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Mox Diamond
1 Lotus Petal
4 Badlands
4 Underground Sea
2 Volcanic Island
4 Bloodstained Mire
1 Strip Mine
3 Swamp


Here's what I found out:

- I had way too many creatures.  Was trying to do too many things at once.

- Entomb is almost always for Akroma.

- Buried Alive almost always gets Anger, Akroma, Nicol Bolas, Bladewing the Risen, Bladewing's Thrall, Scion of Darkness in that order.

- I don't know how I played without Bladewing the Risen/Thrall before.  I got a first/second turn Buried Alive/hasted Bladewing the Risen + Nicol Bolas a few times.  After that turn they're left with no cards, down 11 life, I can't pay it's upkeep, but Bladewing was there to finish the job.

- Tried out Cabal Therapy but I rarely used it's flashback, and only used it on myself a couple times.  Duress is suprerior to me.  Unmask is great, with 29 black cards in the deck.

- Lotus Petal got thrown back in.  It just works great with Yawgmoth's Will, used it for a Careful Study/Wheel of Fortune a couple times.  It also payed the upkeep cost for Nicol Bolas after a first turn Study, 2nd turn Exhume.

- Scion might be a waste, but I've first turn Dark Ritual/Cycle, second turn exhume enough for me to keep it.

That's about it, if anyone cared.

[Tristal]

Do you need the second Anger?

[Ninja_Bob]

I think so.  3 was too many, and 1 is to little.  Just in case there's one already in my hand if i try to Buried Alive.  He's that important.

More Changes (Again):

-1 Swamp
-1 Animate Dead
-1 Crater Hellion

+2 Unmask
+1 Avatar of Woe

More stuff I've noticed:

- Demonic Tutor is almost always cast for Frantic Search.  Having to cast Demonic Tutor usually means I had a slow hand and I'm going into my 3rd turn.  Frantic Search makes beautiful 3rd turns.

- Unmask is just too good not to have more.

- Swapped Hellion for Avatar to up to black card count for more cards to pitch to Unmask.  Now 31 out of 60 cards are black.  And it is true that there might be the off chance of a Wheel of Fortune that gets 10+ creatures in both graves to play it for it's alternate cost.  But now Anger is even more important since Hellion didn't need haste, and Avatar does.

- Trying out Fact or Fiction and Burning Wish.  FoF would be the highest costed spell in the whole deck (hard casted).  That's the only reason it's not in already.

But overall I'm pretty happy to the changes to the deck so far from what it was before.  Instead of getting a 3rd turn hasted Nicol Bolas and occasionally 2nd turn, I get a nice rate of 1st and 2nd turn Bolas + Bladewing the Risen (without counter).

[Shabbaman]

When you're not running the WGD combo, maybe you should run reanimate instead of animate dead.
Besides that, you have to follow a certain strategy in picking your reanimation targets. In extended and type 2, one of the reasons why reanimator was good was because of the versatility of it's reanimation targets. Your targets seem mainly aimed at beatdown. If you go and check the starcitygames archive you could find many articles on this archetype.

Okay, those are on extended and type 2 only, but your deck looks more like an updated extended deck than a "real" type 1 deck (nothing wrong with that, it's casual isn't it?). I won't summarize all of it for you, but I'll say this: at least you need either verdant force or symbiotic wurm to overcome diabolic edict.

And pray that your opponents don't discover gilded drake. Or tormod's crypt.

[Norm4eva]

Pardon my rambling on an 'older' thread but Reanimator is one of my favorite casual decks.. I see the synergy inherent with Bolas/Bladewing/Thrall, but getting these guys in the yard along with Anger seems like a slow plan.  In my casual mono-black deck I've opted for something a little less dramatic but more redundant - I suppose if I were to include Anger the potential for a turn 2 win arises but that means dropping cash on duals  Anyway, since the creature base is probably the most debated part of the deck this is mine...

Reanimate targets
1 Akroma
1 Verdant Force
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Rorix Bladewing
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Plated Slagwurm

Utility creatures
4 Putrid Imp
4 Hypnotic Specter

Putrid Imp.... used to be Zombie Infestation.  Obviously a fattie drawn in a fattie not reanimated without some means of discard.  Non-threatening as Putrid Imp is, it's a 1/1 that eats Nishoba from your hand and pukes it into play.  The Infestation just needed too many cards and only really won me a game one time.  Imp turns many would-be trash opening hands into keepers.
Hyppies?  Derf.  Would that I could play Spoils of the Vault in a deck that loses life like it's its job.  As horrible as Plan B cards are... this is my Plan B.  They get sided out pretty fast if they aren't going to be prudent, but first turn Hypnotic Specter still makes some people cringe.
Anyway the real point is the Reanimation base.  Most goes without saying; Akroma, Nishoba, V. Force; staples.  Plated Slagwurm one-ups the Multani plan of old by staying an 8/8 even after you're both in topdeck mode.  Bladewing the Risen only has one target in the deck; himself from 5 minutes ago (Rorix ).  Using those two in a R/B Reanimator in concert with Anger creates the potential for a second turn kill - but as stated, I play mono-black.  For now.
I like this creature base for its ability to let most of the fatties function on their own (with the exception of Risen; he's just a brick in the combo wall); if my first turn Buried Alive gets Crypt'ed, I still have 3-4 fatties in my deck that can win the game on their own.  And even though Imps and Hyppies don't look impressive, they still come in handy as Edict fodder and aid 6-power creatures (namely Rorix/Akroma) to kill a turn sooner than they would by themselves.

Full list..

4 Duress
2 Cabal Therapy
4 Hypnotic Specter

3 Buried Alive (that stupid 4th copy is a horrible topdeck most of the time)
1 Entomb
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Tainted Pact (not restricted obviously, but removing fatties = ow)
4 Reanimate
4 Exhume
4 Putrid Imp

1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Verdant Force
1 Rorix Bladewing
1 Bladewing the Risen
1 Plated Slagwurm

4 Dark Ritual
1 Sol Ring
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lotus Petal

18 Swamp

SB
1 Duplicant
1 Sundering Titan
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Mutilate
3 Withered Wretch
4 Hymn to Tourach
3 Phyrexian Negator