[Free Article] R&D Reanimator, and Hitting 100

[voltron00x]

Split article this week!  

http://www.starcitygames.com/magic/vintage/21151_The_Long_And_Winding_Road_RD_Reanimator_And_Hitting_100.html

First up, a deck Brad and I have been working on for a few weeks now:  Vintage Reanimator!  It's actually a sweet deck, capable of some pretty ridiculous plays, and a bit different than anything else being played in Vintage at the moment.  Obviously I love it because it combines my love for cheating giant fatties into play with my love of abusing the Graveyard.  (If that sentence makes me sound like a necrophiliac who loves large women , its unintentional.)  

Moving quickly onward - I go through the thought process and design of the deck, which I think is useful for people who like to brew, and present a list slightly more tuned than the one over in the 2/12 Blue Bell thread, based on my experience in that tournament.  Note that the Chains of Mephistopheles in the sideboard are an untested plan against Gush (being the only deck to beat me at Blue Bell); those slots are sort of floater slots at the moment.  I'm leaning towards testing 2 REB and 1 Volcanic Island in the Sideboard (switching the fetches around to be 4 Delta, 1 Misty, 1 Tarn) instead, b/c this deck hates seeing Jace resolve.  Another option to combat Jace (and Shops, and maybe even Dredge) is to squeeze another Terastodon into the sideboard.  

Anyway, check it out, and sleeve up the deck, its a blast.  Also, to echo something Sperling says in his article this week, Steel Sabotage is the bees knees guys, it really is.  With two in my hand on the play against Sam Berse at Blue Bell, I felt like I couldn't lose.

The second part is a recap of my 20 favorite articles out of my first 100.  Hard to believe its already been over two years and 100 articles, but here we are...

Enjoy!

[madlucas]

You are just a necrophiliac who loves fat chicks...
Disgusting...

Thanks,
you definetely keep this format alive.

[Hagrid]

Matt great article I can't wait to try this monster. I also disagree w/ chains I also tried them and a good gush player just filters. Unless you are blessed enough to get both of them into Play.

[DubDub]

When I saw "Reanimator" in the title I assumed this was a Legacy article from you; imagine my surprise!

The only comment I have at the moment was that it was a bit odd to find this sentence squeaked through editing, I assume it was from an earlier version of the deck/article:

Sphinx of the Steel Wind can recover life points lost using Reanimate and is strong against Workshops as well.

[Womba]

I usually never comment on articles, but this was quite the read. Excellent article sir.

[voltron00x]

When I saw "Reanimator" in the title I assumed this was a Legacy article from you; imagine my surprise!

The only comment I have at the moment was that it was a bit odd to find this sentence squeaked through editing, I assume it was from an earlier version of the deck/article:

Sphinx of the Steel Wind can recover life points lost using Reanimate and is strong against Workshops as well.

Yes, I revised the article with changes after 2/12 and was too sloppy
 Some of the prior list snuck in, such as the Sphinx reference.  Sphinx is probably great in some metas but just doesn't feel needed right now.

[DubDub]

Umm, also, congrats on 100th article.

[Shax]

Stormtide sounds like something that can be further looked into. I really like most of the ideas mentioned in the article. God bless people like you that do it for nothing.

[vassago]

God bless people like you that do it for nothing.

2nded. High five for being awesome and congrats on your 100th article.

[TheBrassMan]

Not only do I now have to test against what is essentially a new vintage archetype, I have to go back and read dozens of articles I missed the first time around!  This seems like a hell of a lot of work.  Gee Thanks.




(... no seriously, thanks)

[Mr. Type 4]

I found this to be an interesting read, and really enjoyed looking a decklist that's pretty radical.  I'm confused by some of the decisions, though:

lack of artifact manas? Why arent we playing all the Moxes?  I understand that Reanimate hurts you so mana crypt is dangerous (although it still seems to have some good value IMO) but that other Mox seems fine in here.  At a bare minimum it makes Tinker better and gets us more turn 1 Oaths.  I feel like if we're not playing 5 moxes we need a damn good reason why not.  

No Yawg Will.  You say "Will is omitted, as there isn't much fast mana to recur, and the deck runs a light load of mana." I dont really think those are good enough reasons to not run Will in a deck that contains 4 Entomb.  Even a "fair" Yawg Will is often pretty good.  If I played it to play a couple cards and Time Walk that seems worth it.  

[voltron00x]

I will post two versions with Will and 5 mox tonight after work . Tough for me to argue with you, Brassy and Brad.

[Rico Suave]

I have been a big supporter of playing the full 5 Moxen and a Sol Ring in this deck, though it is worth noting that these mana sources are going to fight directly with business slots.  Still I think it's important to include a card like Tinker and support it well enough with sacrifice fodder.  Plus there's the whole Oath thing.  Oh yeah, and there's that deck called MUD which punishes decks without acceleration. 

Yawgmoth's Will is an interesting card.  In some situations you can Entomb a target like Black Lotus or Time Walk or even Recall, then Yawg Will and have fun.  In other circumstances the Will is going to be hit really hard by the opponent who boards in graveyard hate.  It can be frustrating enough sitting on an Entomb/Reanimate combo while staring down Leyline of the Void.  Topdecking a Will on top of that is disheartening when you know it could have been something else.

The other problem with Will is that there is no win out of it.  There's no lethal Tendrils on the same turn, there's no tutoring to assemble Vault/Key, and there's not even the ability to play Will and resolve a profitable Entomb to set up Reanimate.  While playing Will just to recur a Time Walk, Land, and maybe a cantrip is still worthwhile...that's also about the best kind of Will you can produce with this deck too.  I guess it just seems really weak to play this card when you consider that Will is actually a relatively poor card against MUD much of the time too.

[MagicMan]

Ive been tinkering with this list since the night it was posted. I really enjoyed the original list from the article and it was doing well in my testing. I then read the above comments about it needing yawgwilliuml, the 5th moxen etc and tried to find a way to fit them in.  I tested the version I made with  Mox Pearl and Yawg will added and it was terrible. Why it was terrible is mostly because I took out the wrong cards for it not realizing the my blue count to support force was so low after i went - 2 spell pierce + 1 Pearl and + 1 Yaw Will. I made this choice originally because I felt like the deck couldn't afford to have any of the other business spells that makes it so explosive taken out and of course I didn't realize the lack of blue count. Through this error and with testing it this way until my realization I found that Yawgwillium just isn't optimal in this deck for the reasons Rico Suave posted and probably for the same reasons that Matt didn't include it originally.  So realizing i need the blue cards back as well as really needing those 2 cards to be pierces I added the 2 pierces back in but instead of taking the pearl back out, I took out the sol ring. I also took went - 1 Oath and + 1 Spell pierce. These changes I feel made the deck slightly better then the original list as it added the 5th mox for the brokenness of land mox business turn 1, which i thought would be better the land tap sol ring turn one. Doing this stalls yourself by not playing thoughtseize or leaving a land open for spell pierce, or End Of Turn Entomb. Also, as great as sol ring normally is, how helpful in this deck is it really over the 5th mox when we have only 2 spells in the deck currently that require a 2 colorless mana or more CC (Show and Tell + Tinker.)   So my list right now is the same as Matt's original list posted on starcitygames and this site with the exception of the changes I've outlined below for the following reasons.

Thoughts are always appreciated!

-1 Sol Ring ( I like Mox Pearl Better then Sol Ring in this list for reasons mentioned above)
-1 Reanimate (I feel that running 3 Reanimate and 3 Exhume is better for not losing life, which is important in vintage as well as different casting costs in case of chalices)
-1 Oath of Druids ( I figured 1 Oath could be dropped for a little more protection with the extra Spell Pierce giving us 3 instead of 2 as well as a much need 17th blue spell and the fact that we still have 4 Entomb, 3 Oath, 3 or 4 Reanimate, 2 or 3 Exhume, 1 Tinker, & 1 Show and Tell)


+ 1 Mox Pearl ( Added over Sol Ring for the reasons stated above)
+ 1 Spell Pierce ( Little More Protection as well as 17th Blue Spell to Support Force)
+ 1 Exhume (Easily cast turn 2, which is when we would be casting Reanimate anyway 99% of the time and the obvious benefit of not losing life, which could be important when running 4 Thoughtseize, fetches, and Forces)

[voltron00x]

Your changes are pretty close to the list I actually ran at Blue Bell.  I didn't play Sol Ring or Tinker main, they were in the SB.  But, having played the deck with and w/out them now, I'd suggest playing them main. Sol Ring helps you power through opposing Spell Pierce and its great against Shops, plus it powers on your Tinker and Show and Tell.

A number of people have asked why Will is missing from the deck now.  Honestly, I just didn’t find Will to be all that exciting here.  Every time I drew it, I wished it was something else, usually just more gas.  I know that’s like Vintage blasphemy or whatever, but it’s just how it felt.  If you’re in a situation where you’re Entombing for value, you’re probably already in trouble.  Once you will, if you have Entomb in the yard, its not like you can Entomb again.  There's no way to actually win off Will.  Now, you can of course, say, Recall, draw Will, Entomb Lotus, play Will, and have a nice little mini-Will for lots of value.  So, that doesn’t mean that Will and another Mox aren’t right.  Paul, Brad, and Andy all said variations of the same thing.  That’s a lot of Vintage knowledge right there, certainly more than I’m going to ignore, so I'll revisit Will, for a number of reasons.  For one, I cut Will relatively early on in the process, and the deck that I ended up with is more suited to it than where I started.  I also know for a fact I’m overly fixated on Shops and Dredge.  For whatever reason, 50% of my matches, going back to the middle of last year, have been against those decks, so my card evaluation is probably “off” compared to a lot of people right now.
 
You could certainly cut another fetch for an off-color Mox, but I’d suggest it’s probably going to have to go in for a spell and not a land.  I think if you chopped a land, that’s really pushing the land count dangerously low.  The spells that are really providing the gas to the deck just don’t involve a lot of colorless mana.  If you had to, I’d cut a fetch I suppose.  The other thing to consider is the blue spell count, and how to maintain a high enough count that you’re able to support Force.
 
If you’re looking to fit Will and the last off-color Mox, this would probably work:
 
-1 Show and Tell, -2 Thoughtseize, -1 Careful Study
 
+2 Spell Pierce, +1 Yawgmoth’s Will, +1 Mox
 
That keeps your parity in terms of blue cards (although it’s still pretty low at 16, let’s be honest, and that’s still one of my concerns, I didn't realize I'd chopped it below 17 when I took out Sphinx for Blightsteel).  You are giving up some ability to bin your creatures via Thoughtseize, and an alternate win main-deck via Show and Tell, which was very good for me in testing and on 2/12.  I also really liked Thoughtseize against blue decks considerably more than Spell Pierce; you could also just jettison them completely, and play more blue cards that way.  For instance, you could cut them both for, say, a Merchant Scroll and the Show and Tell.  And, I’d definitely suggest that Show and Tell would need to move to the SB if you cut it completely.  That card has been great.
 
That’d leave the following deck lists, which you may find more appealing.  If you’re willing to gamble on your mana, cut a Fetch for a Mox and add a spell back in.
 
With 2 Thoughtseize:
 
4 Oath of Druids
1 Tinker
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
2 Exhume
2 Careful Study
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Terastodon
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
3 Spell Pierce
2 Thoughtseize
1 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
 
Sideboard:
 
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Terastodon
2 Show and Tell
1 Nature’s Claim
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Forest
 
Without Thoughtseize:
 
4 Oath of Druids
1 Tinker
1 Show and Tell
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
2 Exhume
2 Careful Study
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Terastodon
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Merchant Scroll
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Yawgmoth’s Will
4 Spell Pierce
4 Force of Will
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
1 Mox Pearl
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
 
Sideboard:
 
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Terastodon
1 Show and Tell
1 Dispel
1 Nature’s Claim
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Forest
 
One point of caution, based on my testing and the one tournament.  Thoughtseize is actually kind of important to the Reanimator plan in another way:  It lets you know what deck your opponent is playing on turn one.  That might sound unimportant, but it often matters, in my experience, as the lines of play are going to be very different, and your window to get it right is usually pretty low.  I probably wouldn’t play Spell Pierce at all if not for my inability to cut them for Duress and still support Force of Will.  Now, I did know most of my opponents decks via scouting after round 1, so I may be overemphasizing this; it may be training wheels, as GT would say.
 
And in case someone was going to ask, yes, it is worth supporting Force of Will.

I'd probably suggest this build.  I really still don't think you need Will or another piece of fast mana, unless you're expecting to play against tons of blue decks all day (which I don't when playing at Blue Bell or NYSE, but I hear that's the norm for some areas).  This one gets back up to 17 blue spells.

4 Oath of Druids
1 Tinker
4 Entomb
4 Reanimate
2 Exhume
2 Careful Study
1 Show and Tell
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Terastodon
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Blightsteel Colossus
1 Vampiric Tutor
1 Mystical Tutor
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Ancestral Recall
1 Time Walk
1 Brainstorm
3 Spell Pierce
3 Thoughtseize
4 Force of Will
1 Sol Ring
1 Black Lotus
1 Mox Jet
1 Mox Sapphire
1 Mox Emerald
1 Mox Ruby
4 Forbidden Orchard
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Polluted Delta
1 Verdant Catacombs
 
Sideboard:
 
4 Leyline of the Void
1 Pithing Needle
1 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Strip Mine
1 Terastodon
1 Show and Tell
1 Nature’s Claim
2 Steel Sabotage
1 Hurkyl’s Recall
1 Forest
1 Dispel
 

[scipio]

This deck is awesome, and congrats on your 100th article.  I've been assembling oathinator since playing "fair" decks lately has been frustrating for me.  The sheer brokenness and resilience reminds me a bit of your 2-card monte deck.  It's fairly cool that you're developing a style to your deck development.

At any rate, I had a couple of questions.  Why a second terastadon in the board?  Have you found a need for double elephants in any particular matches?  Also, is the singleton strip mine for the oath mirror, or are you worried about lands like Maze of Ith and Karakas?  The pithing seems to handle those two lands well enough, and a land like phyrexian tower in conjunction with your own orchards would handle other oath decks while giving you some value.  Has the tutor suite been sufficient to find your singletons, or do you ever find yourself needing something more like imperial seal?  Did Emrakul ever enter the discussion?

Thanks for developing this list.  Reanimator was my first "real" deck in magic, using a combination of resurrection, breeding pit, and hell's caretaker.  This one has substantially more gas.  If you have any more testing or tournament results, I'm sure everyone love to hear about them.

[voltron00x]

First, I'm glad you enjoyed the article, and the deck; I think it has a lot of potential.  I'm in the middle of back-to-back SCG weekends, so I'm not playing a lot of Vintage, but I probably will be playing the deck again at the next Blue Bell.  Mark Hornung came close to making top 8 with it at the last NYSE.  It isn't a tremendously hard deck to play but knowing which strategy to use when, and which creatures to Entomb/Reanimate, does take some practice.  I have faith that this deck will be in a top 8 in the near future if people pick it up and put some time in.

Terastodon is there for Workshop decks, but also for combo decks including Gush, and for Jace decks.  Brad suggested this from the start, but I came around to it the hard way.  Against combo, you want your creatures to be as immediately impactful as possible, thus Don/Don/Iona/BSC is a reasonable configuration.  Against Jace decks, Don/Don/Iona/Inkwell makes sense.  

Strip Mine is a super-versatile card.  It helps maintain Orchard superiority in the mirror.  It attacks Bazaar of Baghdad.  It is an extra mana source against Workshops.  Strip is a good example of the type of card I think you want to have in your board right now, in that it improves multiple match-ups for you.

[StanleyAugust]

voltron:

Have you tested Intuition in the deck? Or is it too slow? Also, Regrowth should definately be in there somewhere - it seems pretty awesome in this deck.

[voltron00x]

I tried Intuition and wasn't that excited with it, but your mileage may vary depending on your metagame.

Regrowth is definitely powerful in the deck, but I don't know if there's space for it.