[Deck] Reanimator

[Zirath]

What is Reanimator?

Reanimator is a graveyard based combo deck that seeks to win games by returning large, game winning creatures from its graveyard to play. Although many of the older creatures have been replaced as a result of power creep (or whatever you want to call it), the principle has not changed that the deck utilizes black reanimation (and some small amounts of discard) paired with another color (most predominately blue, but it was once red) to round out its strategy.

Although Reanimator is primarily a combo deck and even runs permission, in many ways, it behaves like an aggro deck; it has a proactive, aggressive plan and it uses its permission in the same way that Merfolk does: to deny its opponents a way out.

A Brief History:

Reanimator (named after Reanimate) is an old deck, the basic ideas of which most likely date back as far as people were able to cheat out great creatures from their graveyard. My first experience with Reanimator comes from Odyssey block; at this time, Entomb powered Reanimator, allowing it to swiftly put a devastating creature in its yard and follow up with a reanimation spell (Reanimate, Exhume, Stitch Together, Zombify) to seal the deal. In fact, the incredible consistency and raw power of Entomb as an enabler resulted in a banning in 2003 (not for Reanimator; you can blame Hermit Druid for this one).

Reanimator was demoted to a fringe strategy; variants of it appeared in Standard when applicable (Solar Flare) but it did not reappear in its full power until 2009, when Entomb, along with Dream Halls and Metal Worker, were pulled off the Legacy banlist. As a result of the very large number of absurdly large creatures that have been printed over the years, Reanimator, along with ANT, managed to get Mystical Tutor banned in mid-2010. This was a pretty big hit for Reanimator, since the deck needed to make up the fact that the power level of legacy cards was high enough to fight turn 2 Iona and similar threats the first time, which is unfortunate when you deplete your hand trying to retrieve them.

A year later, Wizards put out New Phyrexia; Reanimator has been singing of the glory of Jin-Gitaxias since then. This has put Reanimator at the position of one of the premier decks of the format, due heavily to the raw power of Jin.

Why play Reanimator over Dredge?

Dredge is the other prominent Graveyard deck of the format. In some ways, it is completely different from Reanimator; it beats face with Ichorid and Zombies and it uses Cabal Therapy to attack its opponent’s hand. However, there is overlap; Dread Return can be used to deploy Reanimator-style threats and Cabal Therapy can be used as a safety measure to protect your spells as you try to build your graveyard. As a result, Dredge does perform a similar role as Reanimator in this sense.

Reanimator’s advantage is that it reactively fights hate with permission, giving it a stronger combo match up, and because it does not put its entire library to the graveyard, it can ignore graveyard hosers. In addition, Reanimator can more consistently set up and follow through with its plan due to its high redundancy. This makes both decks very attractive choices and it is up what the pilot wants to be doing.

The Deck

The Reanimator deck list is fairly straightforward to build currently. Your deck is divided up into 6 sections:

Reanimation Targets
Enablers
Reanimation Spells
Protection
Cantrips
Lands

Here’s a standard list.

Deck
Targets 3 Jin Gitaxias, Core Augur 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Empyrial Archangel 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind 1 Angel of Despair Enablers 4 Entomb 3 Careful Study Reanimation 3 Reanimate 4 Exhume 4 Animate Dead Protection 4 Force of Will 3 Daze 3 Duress	Cantrips 4 Brainstorm 4 Ponder Lands 4 Polluted Delta 2 Blue Fetch 2 Black Fetch 2 Island 2 Swamp 4 Underground Sea 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

The maindeck can be changed a little bit; slots can be cut for Hapless Researcher or the reanimation targets can be altered. However, this configuration has shown itself to be fairly consistent.

The sideboard is built on the idea that you want to be fighting against your opponent’s counter strategy. A standard sideboard would be:

Deck
3 Pithing Needle 3 Thoughtseize 3 Show and Tell 3 Echoing Truth 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 1 Sundering Titan 1 Blazing Archon

Another card that typically goes into the sideboard is Spell Pierce/Dispel/Flusterstorm to combat disruption. Additional reanimation targets should be included to attack the metagame you expect. Iona is traditionally strong since she can win many match ups by herself. Additional targets that I have not mentioned above are:

Deck
1 Terastrodon 1 Inkwell Leviathan 1 Platinum Emperion 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One

Playing the deck:

Reanimator is one of the simplest decks to play. You need to put a monster in the yard and bring it back and try to stop your opponent from stopping/killing you. Similar to Merfolk, you are use your permission to directly a spell from hurting you; usually permission or removal for your The difficulty in playing the deck is when have trouble bringing back a man. There are a few tricks that make it easier to fight these situations, most of which are completely non-interactive.

One major part of playing Reanimator is knowing if your hand is keepable; you want a way to follow through your plan. This means you need either a way put a threat in your yard and retrieve it or a fistful of cantrips to dig. Once a threat is on the battlefield, the rest is straightforward: you need to protect either your creature or yourself.

Jin Gitaxias should almost always be your first target to reanimate (and Entomb unless another creature is more gamebreaking). Because of Jin’s abilities, he is in general, the easiest creature to protect and does the most damage to your opponent. In addition, he also will continue to feed more targets into your graveyard and allows you to always have gas. If you need to retrieve another target, it is because you either could not find Jin in time or because another target is more relevant to the board state (lots of creatures, a handful of burn, Jace, etc).

One of the most difficult positions to play through is when you are trying to resolve your combo through some sort of pressure, either permission, disruption or a fast clock. The trick here is always patience; you have an enormous number of cantrips and access to Duress. You can take advantage of that by rationing out your time and permission to return a monster without being disrupted by sculpting a hand of permission/excess reanimation effects.

Sideboarding:

Sideboarding with Reanimator is very simple. You want to board to fight your opponent’s strategy.

Pithing Needle – used to fight Faerie Macabre, Crypt/Relic/Spellbomb and is also used to attack cards that generate card advantage (Jace, Top, Riptide Lab/Karakas, Wasteland).

Thoughtseize/Spell Pierce – used to fight both combo decks and tempo decks. You want to limit your opponent’s options as much as possible and gain the most amount of information about your opponent’s hand. This allows you to have control over the pressure your opponent can apply to you.

Show and Tell – used to fight decks that rely solely on graveyard hate to fight you. Zoo, Maverick and fringe aggro/prison strategies are usually cold to Show and Tell, letting you deploy a monster without being disrupted.

Echoing Truth – used to as an additional way to fight hate alongside Needle. It can also be used to remove hate that Needle can’t stop, such as Leyline of the Void.

Additional Monsters – you have to carefully pick more targets to round out other match ups, since not every target will be useful. I will outline the various Reanimation targets that are played for reference.

• Jin Gitaxias, Core Augur – Jin is essentially the best target and is almost unstoppable once you get that first draw. You should always want Jin.
• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite – Elesh is your sweeper. She cleans up the board and allows you to quicken your clock. Only combo decks that have 0 creature threats will make Elesh a weak choice
• Empyrial Archangel – A removal-guarded shield is never a problem; Archangel will be able to buy enormous numbers of turns against many decks. In addition, she is quite good at taking out Jace.
• Sphinx of the Steel Wind – A godsend against aggro; extremely hard to kill and gets you way ahead in a single turn.
• Angel of Despair – Sometimes you need to get rid of a card just to protect yourself. Angel does it and then wins combat most of the time.
• Iona, Shield of Emeria – At printing, Iona was considered a game winning target, instantly ending the game. While that is not true all the time, she is still quite good at stopping a deck. Many decks still have problems with Iona, so she is always a good choice.
• Sundering Titan – With the greedy mana bases floating around in Legacy, Sundering Titan can clean out an opponent’s board, giving you complete control. An 8/10 body is no laughing matter either.
• Blazing Archon – Merfolk still has enormous trouble with this card. So does Elves. So does many other decks. If you can protect him, this Little Lion Man can ride you to victory.
• Terastrodon – Sometimes destroying 1 thing isn’t enough. Sometimes you have destroy all of them. Sometimes you need 3 elephants against decks with weak creatures to deal 18 damage. Generally weaker than Angel, because it is more vulnerable when it gives away 3/3s.
• Inkwell Leviathan – The Jace killer. Inkwell Leviathan is only removed by Edicts and Wrath of God. Blue decks have a lot of trouble with this guy and he can take them out very quickly if you can hold back the creatures.
• Platinum Emperion – Similar to Blazing Archon, Emperion stops decks that can’t remove him cold. Archon is a little more reliable since it doesn’t die to as much removal.
• Sheoldred, Whispering One – Sheoldred is one of my personal favorites. She recovers your board against decks with non-white spot removal. She also cleans up decks that play creatures too big for Elesh alone (stupid goyfs and knights).

Matchups:

Reanimator fundamentally does not have “poor” matchups. It is a little variance high on its draws since turn 2 Jin can end a game in a flash. In addition, you can be unable to find your combo after 10 turns. It is similar to Dredge in this way; the advantage is that it has more consistency and protects the combo much better. However, in general there is not a match up Reanimator is completely cold too.

In general, decks with a lot of spot removal or disruption have a better chance fighting back against Reanimator. If you can keep them off either a target or a reanimation spell, you can probably get enough time to win.

You will need to fight hate to win your matches usually. Most of the understanding is outlined briefly above and requires a little practice and patients to follow through well. If your meta is overflowing with graveyard hate and you aren’t confident, you might want to put this one on the shelf for a little bit.

Conclusion

Not much else to say here. Reanimator is sure to be a top contender in Legacy as long as Jin-Gitaxias and Entomb stay around.

[BaronSengir]

This is greatly appreciated. Thanks for this.

[JoshuaD]

This is great.

A question for people trying to battle reanimator: Does it make more sense to try to stop the entombs/careful studies, or more sense to try to stop the reanimate spell? If it depends on the specific deck, consider Merfolk and Tempo-RUG.

[BaronSengir]

Hmm early on I think I would worry more about Entomb/Careful Study because they get to put stuff in their graveyard for a potential turn two beat stick. Careful Study lets them draw though and early on that could be more dangerous; from when I've played against Animator they always have a creature to discard especially after drawing two. However, if they already have creatures in the graveyard then I would definitely stop the reanimates and at least delay them a turn; though with Reanimate they do lose life equal to its cost so maybe you can play that to your advantage if you have a plan, but it's risky for sure.

[phuture2k]

Originally Posted by JoshuaD

This is great.

A question for people trying to battle reanimator: Does it make more sense to try to stop the entombs/careful studies, or more sense to try to stop the reanimate spell? If it depends on the specific deck, consider Merfolk and Tempo-RUG.

I never tried stopping the enablers, only the reanimators. But, thinking about it, consider the following situations:

1) You have hate in your hand - Hate that grave and keep your counters to protect your hate.
2) You have hate in deck - I would say, stop the reanimators.
3) You don't have hate - I would say, stop the enablers because they more reanimators than enablers.

[Grand Superior]

Very nice. I'm a few copies of Premium Deck: Graveborn, a Show and Tell and Sphinx of the Steel Wind away from having this deck and will frequent this thread often. I'm a huge fan of the deck's strategy and this is a great primer.

[Zirath]

Thanks for the comments. I've been playing Reanimator a lot so I felt like I could write a strong primer easily.

You should be stopping enablers. There are more reanimation spells than enablers. Unless you have hate in hand and you are sure you can rely on it, enablers are more dangerous.

[Grand Superior]

A question for those more experienced with the deck:

Are there any good replacements for Sphinx of the Steel Wind, or is that card absolutely essential? I have every other reanimation target except for that because for some reason nobody around here has that card for sale/trade. I'm thinking Blazing Archon in the main might do the trick but I'm not 100% sure.

[zmattk]

Sphinx is pretty much my go to creature outside of Jin. Sphinx is great against aggro decks and stops goyfs, knight of the reliquary, and pretty much the entire zoo deck like a champ. He also is great as a second reanimation target if you needed to use reanimate first because of lifelink. He isn't as essential as Jin but I'd say he's pretty important. You can replace him with any of the other proven creatures like Archon, Inkwell, ect but you should be aware of the role Sphinx fills and that he is both offensive and defensive at the same time. He's never really a bad choice where you can definitely make mistakes going for a different creature.

To me Archon and Elesh fill the same role in the deck. Both are used to stop creatures from connecting with you. Archon just delays the attacks where Elesh for the most part will wipe the board which is why most lists have Elesh in the main and Archon in the board. Archon is better against decks that get out Progenitus, Emrakul, or the mirror which is why it has a slot in the board. If I was to replace Sphinx in the main, I probably would go with something like Inkwell or a 4th Jin. I think having non-legendary creatures is important because of Karakas and shroud is also a great thing to have right now.

[BaronSengir]

The sphinx is pretty irreplaceable. That protection from red and green on the sphinx is one reason I'd use it over Baneslayer Angel; that and its a 6/6 and the angel is only a 5/5.

[Darksteel Machine]

It's the combination of Vigilance, First Strike, and Lifelink that makes me love Sphinx (or as I call her, "Robot Akroma"). It's such a beating against aggressive decks that it's not even funny. The protections are just the icing on the cake, really. She's still vulnerable to Swords to Plowshares, of course, but against non-white decks she's insane. Plus, in a pinch, she can be pitched to Force of Will.

I agree with the sentiment that generally countering Entomb and Careful Study is the way to go when fighting this deck, unless the creature has already made it into the graveyard, of course. I often find myself having enough reanimation spells but few enablers each game.

A card that I like in the sideboard which I didn't see mentioned is Stifle. It's reactive to Pithing Needle's proactive, but it stops the same things (namely Faerie Macabre, which my local metagame has started using X_X). In addition, it can randomly hose a variety of effects, and can even be used against fetch lands to great effect.

Of course, Needle is better against Karakas/Maze of Ith, so it comes down to play style, I guess. I just love Stifle's versatility.

Also, I'm not too much of a fan of Ponder in the deck. (It may be from personal bias; I only seem to Ponder into chaff :P) I only run Brainstorm in the deck and increase the number of all the various pieces of the deck and it works fine.

Deck
3 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 1 Angel of Despair 1 Empyrial Archangel 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind 4 Entomb 4 Careful Study 1 Hapless Researcher 4 Reanimate 4 Exhume 3 Animate Dead 4 Force of Will 4 Daze 3 Thoughtseize/Spell Pierce	4 Brainstorm 4 Polluted Delta 1 Flooded Strand 1 Bloodstained Mire 1 Scalding Tarn 1 Verdant Catacombs 1 Marsh Flats 1 Misty Rainforest 4 Underground Sea 2 Swamp 1 Island	Sideboard 3 Stifle 2 Echoing Truth 1 Wipe Away 1 Show and Tell (Working on getting more) 1 Blazing Archon 1 Inkwell Leviathan 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria 3 Thoughtseize/Spell Pierce (Depending on which is in the main) 2 Flusterstorm

[Morningstar81]

@Zirath: Great work on the primer.

The only thing I would add is that Flusterstorm is the nuts for battling against tempo and control decks (as well as other combo).

I've been very well impressed every time I've played it, and have managed to pull off a 2-1 with it in several games, which was always a blowout for my opponent.

Originally Posted by JoshuaD

A question for people trying to battle reanimator: Does it make more sense to try to stop the entombs/careful studies, or more sense to try to stop the reanimate spell?

The most common mistake people make when playing against me is letting me resolve Entomb because they think they can counter the reanimation spells.

They can't! The deck plays 10-12 reanimation spells and a lot of disruption to boot, so it will eventually break through your defenses. But there are only 4 Entombs, which is by far the strongest card in Reanimator.

It breaks down to this: if you counter Entomb, you may not need to counter anything else, or just another enabler spell; if you let Entomb resolve, you'll have to counter everything they throw at you plus the kitchen sink.
So you must ALWAYS counter Entomb unless you have a 100% sure way of removing the target (namely Crypt/Relic/Spellbomb in play or Extirpate + available mana or Faerie Macabre in hand).

Careful Study is slightly different because it is more situational.
Unlike Entomb which can fetch a singleton creature that screws your game plan completely, Study is limited to the cards they have in hand/top.
It will be discarding Jin Gitaxias more often than not, but may also be discarding a creature that is not particularly efficient against your deck, or even no creature at all (but don't count on this if your opponent is skilled).

So it is generally better to counter Study, than to count on countering reanimation spells, but it is not as bad as letting Entomb resolve.

Originally Posted by phuture2k

1) You have hate in your hand - Hate that grave and keep your counters to protect your hate.
2) You have hate in deck - I would say, stop the reanimators.

These are generally wrong.
You can affort to let an enabler resolve IF you have Extirpate and mana up, or Faerie Macabre, or an artifact hate in play.
Otherwise, you should counter the enabler.

Saving your counters to protect hate is pointless. If you counter the enabler, you don't need to protect your hate in the first place. And if I counter back, then you've essentially proactively protected your hate by making me spend a counter.
If you are waiting to draw your hate, then countering the enablers is exactly what you have to do, since those are the resources I have less off.
Letting Entomb or Study resolve and counting on beating my barrage of reanimation spells and disruption, and on topdecking hate within 2 turns, is a sure stratagy to lose the game.

[BaronSengir]

Originally Posted by Morningstar81

The most common mistake people make when playing against me is letting me resolve Entomb because they think they can counter the reanimation spells.

They can't! The deck plays 10-12 reanimation spells and a lot of disruption to boot, so it will eventually break through your defenses. But there are only 4 Entombs, which is by far the strongest card in Reanimator.

Exactly true. I tested my reanimator against my merfolk and this was exactly the case. Even if I was able to counter the entombs there are other methods to get things in the graveyard, but all in all the re-animator deck wins in the end because you can only counter so much before you run out of gas, and then its over.

[jake556]

Is there any reason to run thoughtseize over duress ? The 2 life could hurt. Or when you sideboard thoughtseize you don't replace duress you play it in addition to?

[Lectrys]

Thoughtseize is better in a field full of creature aggro, as they may not have non-creatures or non-lands to boot from hands. Duress is definitely the better Thoughtseize substitute, though, as this is a deck that worries about Force of Will and Swords to Plowshares.

(For example, if your opponent's hand is 3 lands, Bob, SFM, Elspeth, Chrome Mox, you might want to discard Bob with Thoughtseize. You're stuck with Elspeth or Mox with Duress, though.)