fine tuning a highlander deck (U/B reanimator)

[weyker]

I’m trying to get the last few cards down on a Black/Blue re-animator deck I am working on for next season in a magic league I play in (D.C. area).

Anyway the format will be highlander duels, maximum allowed deck value around $250 with sideboard, excluding one “marquis� card. There’s no limit on the number of basic lands. That should explain the cheap dual-light mana base and lack of Mana Drain main and Chains of Meph SB.

The deck goldfishes pretty nice, seemingly being able to hold off creatures and combos long enough to drop a bomb, as well as punch through a couple big spells to beat control.

I was wondering if anyone here thinks there is anything seriously missing here.

Cards that use the grave
Deep Analysis
Skeletal Scrying
Squee, Goblin Nabob
Krovikan Horror (part of the discard Squee engine, gets trapped in grave sometimes)
Yawgmoth’s Will (SLOW without fast mana, but recasting one ancestral or animate spell is OK)

Animate Dead
Necromancy
Dance of the Dead
Stitch Together (Reanimate was too painful vs. fast aggro decks, threshold is easy)
Exhume
Recurring Nightmare (iffy, hard to use early, good late)

Creatures
Psychatog
Morphling (Maybe should be Rorix)
Verdant Force
Visara
Phantom Nishoba (Maybe should be Rorix)
Masticore

Cards that feed the grave
Careful Study
Fact or Fiction
Intuition
Forbid (maybe should be Last Rites, L.R. better early, Forbid later)
Bazaar of Baghdad
Zombie Infestation (helps feed Recur, nice with Squee/Horror)
Entomb
Sickening Dreams

More Draw, Removal, Disruption
Ancestral Recall
Impulse
Brainstorm (was Vamp. Tutor, pain, limited early black mana, and card disadvantage hurt)
Mystical Tutor (was Thirst for Knowledge, replaced to lower mana curve)
Merchant Scroll (was better when I had bounce, but still gets draw/counters/careful study)
Demonic Tutor
Night’s Whisper (enchantment/sorceries interfering with my counters some, V.Tutor instead?)

Diabolic Edict (was Vendetta, but Vendetta or N’s Whisper had to go)
Ghastly Demise
Smother
Strip Mine

Counterspell
Mana Leak
Memory Lapse
Mind Twist
Lighting Greaves (was Capsize, Boomerang, Chain of Vapor)

Mana
Sol Ring
5 Island
6 Swamp
Underground Sea
U/B fetchland
Underground River
Undiscovered Paradise (this can be annoying to get early, U/B filter land maybe?)
City of Brass
Gemstone Mine
Crosis’ Catacombs


I think the deck might have a little too much draw and might be short in other areas. But I want to keep the consistency and resilience to disruption it’s been showing.

For those about to suggest Isochron Scepter, the instant count is just a bit low, and forcing it higher would hurt card quality. Same for Force of Will and blue spells.

Anvil of Bogarden could set up reanimates and would net a card a turn with Squee for the low price of 2 colorless, but does it help opponents too much?

What sort of highlander decks do you think this deck might have problems with? I have reason to expect the field will include affinity, w/u control, mono-red land destruction, and a Recur/Survival type deck. Someone will probably try small-critter aggro.

Some SB cards I’m considering:

Affinity:
Null Rod
Hurkyl’s Recall
Rebuild
Annul
Powder Keg (for artifact lands and 0cc stuff mainly, also removes t’s crypt)

Anti-Red:
Blue Elem. Blast
Hydroblast
Chill

Anti-Rec/Sur (really just Rock with Survival/Squee and few off-color critters):
Tormod’s Crypt
Coffin Purge
Sunder
Wonder
Hibernation/Perish
(and Winter Orb)

Anti-enchantments/critter swarms:
Nev’s Disk
Engineered Explosives
Wash Out

Anti-control:
Duress
Last Rites
Winter Orb
Symbiotic Wurm

Comments welcome on SB choices too. What do you think the toughest opponent will be?

[dandan]

Diabolic Servitude and Dark Ritual are worth considering.

Depending on the metagame Evincar's Justice (Massacre) and/or Engineered Plague will slow down creature rushes.

I believe Akroma, Platinum Angel and Darksteel Collossus (sorry, brain fart. Please ignore) are all pretty good reanimation targets.

Recur/Survival will be tough as that deck naturally contained a lot of 1 offs anyway. They also commonly have anti-graveyard stuff as Oath of Ghouls is one of their all-stars plus can target your graveyard for goodies.

U/W control is a threat as they will probably have Control Magic somewhere plus the ability to find it. They may also run Moat and Humility also ruins your day. You may have enough speed to get out a threat and back it up with countermagic before they get such solutions.
If you expect some LD then use more Fetchlands.

[lilmidget]

I believe Akroma, Platinum Angel and Darksteel Collossus are all pretty good reanimation targets.

Colossus can't be put into the grave.

Wasteland?

[dandan]

You are right my friend, I guess my mind was on vacation. Tinkering him out is pretty similar to reanimating! Scratch him from the list!

[Pex]

Maybe Zombify? It's not cheap but it's still a good reanimator card.

And why not Reanimate? A Turn 2 Phantom Nishoba/Verdant Force is game against the most beatdown decks.

[weyker]

Some mana accelation would be nice to go with the card drawing. But the card disadvantage of ritual is worth it only if you can consistently cast it early (and not always then). I'm also trying now to make the deck a bit more blue to support force of will and misdirection for free countermagic.

The 6-8 pt life loss from reanimate is only supportable main deck only if you can faily consitently cast it turn two to get a creature that totally disrupts your opponent's game (ex, Nishoba vs. beatdown or multani vs. control.

With only one entomb and limited tutor power (compared to 4x vampiric in old 1.x reanimator) that isn't going to happen. Early beats from some opponents will make casting reanimate leave you so low you can't win, if you have the life to cast it at all. Remember there's other pain in the deck too.

As for the other reanimate spells, they cost way too much to be able to cast them and protect with a counterspell. Maybe Diabolic Servitude is better than recur since it doesn't need acreature in play. but I'm not sure its better than having some other kind of spell entirely like another hard counterspell (such as undermine) to protect my guys once they hit the board, or slow down my opponent untill I can get fat on the board.

If you fill your deck up with fat and self-discard, so you don't have to use entomb to get fat to the grave, the deck will become wildiy inconsistent as well as be unable to disrupt the opponent.

SB-ed in Aagainst control which doesn't pressure your life total, then Reanimate might be okay. But Duress is probably better.

Plat. Angel is interesting (particularly if you can protect it with counters) but a big spirit linked critter is better against creature decks if you have no counter since you have the benefit of the added life even once the critter gets removed. Plat Angel has to stay in play to protect your life total.

[Pex]

With highlander registricted cards are banned right?? Or do you have other rules?

[Kasuras]

No.

The highlander format lets you play each card once. So not twice, not five of them. One. Which basically means there is no restricted list, or a very big one. (Whatever you like.)

But off course the cards that are currently banned cannot be played, such as Chaos Orb or Contract from Below.

[weyker]

I'm hearing that my legaue will likely ban the restricted cards and remove the salary cap limiting total deck price. The league also has a somewhat different restricted list that excludes mox diamond, chrome mox, mana crypt, mana vault, grim monolith, and Gush but includes survival of the fittest and recurring nightmare.

That removes the following cards I'd be remotely likely to use from consideration
P9
Mind Twist
Sol Ring, Iscochron Scepter
Demonic, Vampiric, Mystical Tutor
Yawg's Will
Regrowth, Survival of the Fittest, Crop Rotation
Strip Mine
Stroke of Genius, Brain Geyser, Fact or Fiction, Tinker
Replenish

So I've got the possibility of going more 5 color with one of each of dual lands and lots of fetch lands but most of the cheap and easy card drawing is gone.

I will be much more dependent on board sweepers or Squee recursion for card advantage.

Here are some possible replacements in decreasing quality
Mana Drain
Mana Crypt
Grim Monolith
Anvil of Bogarden (note that oracle wording means they still get an end step I can play instants in)
Thirst For Knowledge
Diabolic Servitude
Wasteland
Lim-Dul's Vault
Oath of Druids (best with no other small critters besides Squee)
Force of Will, Undermine, Misdirection
The U/B talisman
Concentrate (blue cards are ranked higher than they would otherwise)
Read the Runes
Last Rites (Mind Twist replacement for control matchups, fast mana helps)
Scroll Rack with: Tithe, Fetches, maybe Mulch (no Land tax which needs basics)
Compulsion
Future Sight
Bringer of the Blue Dawn
Sylvan Library
Null Brooch (SB card for control/combo)

(beyond here stuff gets pretty mediocre)

Sleight of Hand
Serum Visions
Gush
Cunning Wish (to get stuff like Hurkyl's Recall, annul, blasts, countermagic, opportunity, sunder/upheaval from SB)
Buried Alive (I'll probably dump Horror, so this is pretty weak)
Hymn to Tourach (less good than Last Rites because of BB cost and no help in discarding big creatures?)
Quirion Dryad (not enough card draw and non-green/artifacts to be good)
Academy Rector (situational, could weaken oath of druids)
Jalum Tome / Mental Discipline
Roar of the Wurm, Call of the Herd
Living Wish (to tutor for removal creatures and recover squee when it is removed from game)
Long-Term Plans (works better with oath and draw/discard effects)

Most of the latter group are expensive, not instant, only situationally castble or good, and few of them are not blue to support FoW/MisD.

Did I miss anything or do you think I might have over or underrated anything for use in the deck?

[dandan]

Buried Alive and Thirst for Knowledge look solid and both Sneak Attack and Oath of Ghouls are worth considering but would require changes to the deck.(Sneak Attack is a good way of putting cards in the graveyard, Oath is more suitable for toolbox creatures)

I have faced ridicule but again I will say it - Dreams of the Dead is solid -Blue, can be cast before you have a good target in the graveyard, instant speed creatures. You'd need to think harder about what cards you put in the graveyard and it works far better with toolbox graveyards than fattie graveyards (creatures with CIP effects get a second use and act as blockers).

Anger is worth thinking about.
Intuition is a tutor.

I am not suggesting all of these cards go in the same deck!!