Locations
Introduction
Like a number of people, I was really intrigued at the idea of playing Reanimator in world after New Phyrexia; it’s not hard to see that there are some huge, game-ending creatures that you can jam into play. Also, like a fair number of people, I decided to go ahead and take Reanimator to SCG Cincinnati and try my luck with casting a ton of 1cc spells that my deck positively hinged on resolving. It turned out that the deck was a great choice for the metagame. Why? Total number of cards in sideboards designed to interact with the graveyard among the entire Top 8? Ten cards, in four of the decks. How about the entire Top 16? Nineteen cards in only eight of the total decks in the Top 16. Three of the last four SCG Opens have had a Reanimator in the Top 16, and half of them have had one in the Top 8. Is Reanimator a real contender again?
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur changes everything.
Reanimator and I, Since New Phyrexia
There have been several lists that have been floating around, but none of them had the exact configuration that I was looking to play. Eli Kassis had played a version that used only Careful Study and Entomb as methods of getting cards into his graveyard, which seemed really risky. Kyle Kloster was playing a list with Putrid Imp, but I wasn’t sold on Imp unless I was also going to be using Dark Ritual. Some of the lists on The Source were close, but no one was using Hapless Researcher, who seemed essential as another discard outlet that could even absorb some damage or pitch to Force of Will if needed. So, I took the steps to modify a build to include Hapless Researcher, a card that I’ve previously opposed with every fiber of my being, and I have loved him in the deck ever since.
Despite still not knowing how to properly pronounce his name, I really liked the looks of Jin-Gitaxias; I mean, really, who didn’t? Initially, I tested out a single copy, and I had a lot of fun drawing seven cards and making sure my opponents had none. Yes, that sort of soul-crushing victory is fun for some people. After that, I decided to add in a second, knowing that many people were already running three. Soon, Jin-Gitaxias had become my standby Entomb target, what I would grab unless I knew exactly what my opponent was doing and that something else would be better. Jin is fine to throw away off a Careful Study, and you’ll seldom feel bad about having him be the creature that you return off those sorts of draws. It’s a perfect catchall fit for the deck that it really wanted to have access to in order to win games, considering that the warping effects of Iona from the previous incarnations of the deck are still present in how decks are built to this day.
I had been fairly comfortable playing with just a pair of Jins in the deck for the last month, but in the week before the SCG Open, I decided that it was time to get a third foil Jin-Gitaxias and play three, like most other people, even if it meant cutting my beloved second Iona, Shield of Emeria.
Ultimately, Iona was a necessary sacrifice because playing three Jin-Gitaxias is so good, but—It is not the goal, but a process—the process of creating the perfect Phyrexia.
From this point, I had three of the eight total creatures I knew I wanted to be playing. Inkwell was still the best creature to get against Landstill and the like, and Iona was the strongest against combo decks, so those went in. I was playing Platinum Angel as an insurance policy against losing a game to Jin-Gitaxias’s mandatory draw effect, and the Angel is often strong enough to seal games against many decks. Elesh Norn was a little better than Blazing Archon in the matches I wanted to shore up, such as Merfolk, Dredge, and Elf combo, so I moved the Archon to the sideboard to help battle some decks. Sphinx of the Steel Wind was included because life was a very relevant resource and he’s often great enough to win against any deck without Swords to Plowshares. That brought my total count for creatures I wanted to Reanimate to eight, which was the place I felt most comfortable with, so from there I just needed to finish my tweaks.
Late in the preparation stages, I cut a Reanimate for a third copy of Animate Dead to both try to play around Mental Misstep a bit more and keep my life total in mind; Jin-Gitaxias really does halve your life if you Reanimate him. I wasn’t sold on the idea of playing a full set of Mental Missteps in the main; I really only ever wanted to see a single one, and that was if I was bringing Jin-Gitaxias back form the dead. I did stick the fourth in the sideboard and played a Ponder as my fifth Brainstorm. The rest of the main deck is likely self-explanatory, so I’ll move on to the sideboard.
My sideboard is likely the strangest part for most people, so I’ll try to explain a bit here. I didn’t have any answers to resolved graveyard hate; this was actually a mistake on my part. As an oversight, I thought that I’d just be able to Show and Tell past any graveyard hate, but the issue was that while it was able, it takes a long time to set it up, and I often am still able to just try to set up for the Reanimation-based win. In the future, I’d try to play a pair of Wipe Away in the board, or perhaps Rebuild, Repeal, or something else along those lines. Pithing Needle could be fine, but I wasn’t very impressed with it—although Needle is about the only answer for Karakas, which this iteration of the deck is acutely prone to losing to.
The Ponders were in the board for when I intended to go for a Show and Tell win post-board. Ponder allows me to dig for cards quickly and somewhat efficiently, and is a great top-deck. It was brought to my attention just before the event that the slots should perhaps just be Lim-Dul's Vault, which is a suggestion I’ve been considering since it was brought up, but I like that Ponder can come in in all sorts of places just over creatures that aren’t totally desirable. Ponder has been a great tool to help fight against control and combo, but I’m certainly willing to try other options, since I have no illusions about the perfection of my list.
Empyrial Archangel was the choice I made of a creature that needed to fit this criteria: non-Legendary, so it’s immune to Karakas, and preferably a card that’s also immune to Jace. Other cards on the list were It That Betrays (the largest creature you can put into your graveyard who makes it difficult for an opponent to ever cast Jace), Angel of Despair, Terastodon, and Sundering Titan (who will generally all do the same thing), Tidespout Tyrant (a pet card for me in Reanimator decks), Akroma, Angel of Fury (which is not immune to Karakas, but is immune to both Swords to Plowshares and Jace). None of the cards were perfect, but Archangel seems to be the most broad; although in the future I’d like to find a shrouded, non-Blue creature. Grave Titan is a card that several people have talked about as an option, but I think that in the future I’m going to test out for the board Kalonian Behemoth, as it has protection from everything I care about, but lacks evasion, making it fine for control matches but not stellar against G/W decks.
The Vendilion Clique in the board was a total mistake and should have likely been Wipe Away or Pithing Needle. I left myself pretty cold to resolved graveyard hate. I highly suggest that if you play this deck, you don’t make the same mistake I did.
[cardlist]
[Creatures]
3 Hapless Researcher
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Platinum Angel
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
3 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
[/Creatures]
[Spells]
2 Daze
3 Mental Misstep
4 Brainstorm
4 Entomb
4 Force of Will
1 Ponder
3 Reanimate
4 Careful Study
4 Exhume
3 Animate Dead
[/Spells]
[Lands]
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Verdant Catacombs
3 Flooded Strand
4 Polluted Delta
4 Underground Sea
[/Lands]
[Sideboard]
1 Blazing Archon
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Mental Misstep
2 Spell Pierce
2 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
4 Show and Tell
[/Sideboard]
[/cardlist]
The Report
I was asked a great question earlier today: “How do you decide to take Reanimator to a tournament?” First, I saw what I wanted to do—put gigantic, game-winning threats on the table very quickly. Next, I had to know if it would be viable, so over the last few months, I’ve been keeping very close tabs on the amount of graveyard hate that has been present in decks doing well in SCG events. I’ve spoken before about how the low numbers of graveyard hate were going to allow for graveyard-based decks—specifically Dredge—to do well, and these numbers will persist until a Dredge deck does exceptionally well. That hadn’t really happened before this event, so the coast was clear. Then, I needed to test with the deck to see if it was internally consistent, and then if it was going to be able to trounce an opponent who wasn’t swimming around his bowl. Everything had been checked out; I was comfortable with the deck; and I had not only satisfactory local finishes with it, but a lot of experience with the deck. That’s how you figure out if you should take Reanimator to a tournament.
How do you actually decide to go to an event? Well, normally you should get a room in advance and have people commit to the plan. I was invited to this trip at the zero hour while lending cards to my friend, Patrick, for his Natural Order/Show and Tell deck that he intended to play. After I handed him the cards and we talked for about an hour, he asked me, “So, do you want to go to Cincinnati?” I expected that this question would come up, and I had planned to calmly say no, but instead I quickly snapped “yes” and packed up all of my cards. We started making calls to find a second set of Show and Tells so we could both play our respective decks. After locating a second set, we drove around until about 2:00 a.m. collecting cards from friends before we got back to his apartment, where he tried to sleep and I sorted cards for the night.
When the morning came, I learned that Patrick hadn’t slept at all, and he looked it, so I figured that I’d take the initiative and be in the driver’s seat so he could try to rest for a couple of hours. We met up with Mack, who played Wizards, and Tom, who played Enchantress, and proceeded to have great conversations all the way to the city, thwarting any plans Patrick had of sleeping.
Once we got into our room, Patrick immediately crashed, and I finished building his deck for him while Tom tried to figure out which deck he was going to audible to playing for the Legacy Challenge or the main event the next day. Quickly, we grabbed food at what had to number among the most uncomfortable Subway experiences on record (and trust me, a former employee did record us, so it’s certainly on record). When we got back, we built Patrick’s deck before leaving to go to the event center; I ended up sticking a Boseiju, Who Shelters All in his sideboard because we couldn’t find a fourth Ravenous Trap. He was too lazy to take it out of his sideboard and registered it in his deck the next day; it ended up factoring in to winning him a few games, including Game 3 against Drew Levin in the third round. Not a bad idea. Good job, me.
At the event, I got caught in some trades that caused me to miss the signups for the Legacy Challenge. Both Mack and Tom finished 2–2, so we got out of there and headed to Uno for a deep-dish dinner that everyone was pleased with. We woke in the morning and headed over to the event.
Round 1 vs. U/B ANT
Game 1
Turn one, he opens with Thoughtseize; I Mental Misstep it so he can’t see how sweet my hand is. I play a fetch, and after he plays a Ponder and Preordain, I go for Entomb and Reanimate Jin-Gitaxias on my turn to go to 7 life. He attempts to go off on his turn, but I have the Force for his Infernal Tutor.
I bring in my Spell Pierces, Thoughtseize, an extra MMS for Elesh Norn, Inkwell, and some redundant copies of reanimation.
Game 2
He opens with Duress, which is met with Mental Misstep; once again, I don’t want him to see how sweet my hand is. I dump Jin-Gitaxias off at the pool and pass the turn to him with Force waiting. He plays a pair of cantrips and passes to me. I untap and Exhume my Jin, and after drawing seven I ask him if he’ll concede if I show him four Force of Wills. He says yes, so I show them.
1–0 (2–0)
Round 2 vs. U/w/b Stoneforge Faeries
Game 1
I keep a slow hand on the draw that lets me discard an Inkwell or Iona and try to get it back on turn three and then again on four and five. He plays Thoughtseize, Dark Confidant, and Vendilion Clique; once I discard my Iona, he plays Karakas, and things get out of hand quickly.
I bring in Show and Tells, Ponders, and Empyrial Archangel, cutting back on some of the reanimation plan.
Game 2
I main-phase an Entomb, and he has a pair of Mental Missteps to deal with my lone MMS. He ends up landing Clique and plays a bunch of Spellstutter Sprites, which are troublesome. I eventually Show and Tell an Empyrial Archangel and get his life total down pretty low. On what I suspect is his final turn of the game, he plays Phantasmal Image, copying my Empyrial Archangel, and then over the next few turns Plows his own guys and Stifles his Dark Confidant triggers to stay alive. Once he’s built up an alpha strike, he gets the angel and then me the turn after.
1–1 (2–2)
Round 3 vs. Affinity
Game 1
He wins the roll and plays an Ornithopter and artifact land on turn one. I have a hand with Careful Study, Jin, and a single reanimation spell, but I decide to use Entomb to get Elesh Norn to cut him off from any sort of aggro plan. We stalemate for a few turns, and I end up needing to Force of Will a Tezzeret to prevent him from making Darksteel Citadel a creature that he can put a pair of Cranial Platings on. I finally find a Reanimate for Jin, and the game ends shortly after that.
I board in Blazing Archon for this match, and since I’m up a game, I only use a pair of Show and Tells. Mental Missteps aren’t amazing, so I cut them for the second game.
Game 2
He has a really slow development, only playing Signal Pest and Springleaf Drum over the first couple turns. On turn two, I Reanimate Sphinx of the Steel Wind, and he Dispatches it. After that turn, I’m pretty shaken, but I persist by Show and Telling Platinum Angel and then finding a Blazing Archon. We reach a point where we’re stalemated because he has four Springleaf Drums and a pair of Inkmoth Nexus, so he can activate one and move Cranial Plating at instant speed to kill both of my attackers. During this time, he chains a few Thoughtcasts, and I wonder how long it will be until he plays Tezzeret or Dispatch. I end up finding Entomb for Elesh Norn first, and the game ends immediately.
2–1 (4–2)
Round 4 vs. R/U/G
Game 1
My opponent opens up on Noble Hierarch off Tropical Island, so I suspect Bant or NO R/U/G right off the bat. My hand is really aggressive, so I just plan to bait him at EOT with Entomb and then Careful Study into my Inkwell and Reanimate it with some disruption backup. My opponent plays Tarmogoyf and passes it to me. I execute my plan, and my Entomb resolves; I grab Jin-Gitaxias and go for Animate Dead, deciding it was fine to play into Daze. It resolves, and on his turn he throws Lightning Bolt and Fire at my Jin; I counter the Fire, and we move on to Game 2.
I bring in the Show and Tells and Empyrial Archangel. I keep a close eye on him and determine he’s bringing in Jace, so I try not to overload on the creatures he can deal with.
Game 2
I keep a rather slow hand; my notes for this are poor, but he’s able to stop my first reanimation, and he lands a Jace that I’m not able to play around. Eventually Tarmogoyf joins the battle, and I succumb.
Game 3
I open up with a pair of lands, Thoughtseize, Careful Study, and both Empyrial Archangel and Sphinx of the Steel Wind, plus a Reanimate. Careful Study resolves and I pitch both of my creatures. I Thoughtseize him on the second turn before I go forward with Reanimate; he has Force, Fire // Ice (his only Blue card), Tarmogoyf, and a pair of Red Blasts. I take his only Blue card for Force of Will and cast Reanimate, deliberating for a moment if I should get the Angel or Sphinx. I determine that if I get Sphinx I can race him before he gets Jace mana available, but ultimately I should have just grabbed the Archangel, since he’d never be able to beat it. He Red Blasts my Hapless Researcher and takes three hits from the Sphinx before packing it in.
After the match, we talk about mono-Blue control (MUC), and how he thinks this is a great match for MUC, specifically talking about how you simply use Llawan to bounce whatever the opponent puts in off Show and Tell. I think he’s crazy, but this is a huge forecast of what’s to come.
3–1 (6–3)
Round 5 vs. Elf Combo
Game 1
I win the roll and lead by casting Careful Study, throwing away both Iona and Inkwell, but am left looking for a second land for Exhume or Animate Dead. My opponent starts off with Savannah into Fyndhorn Elves; I’m feeling pretty good about how this is shaping up. On my turn, I draw Entomb and cast Ponder, looking for a land, and find it as the third card down. He plays Bayou and Green Sun's Zenith for Priest of Titania. At the end of his turn, I have to think; I have the Exhume for Iona, but he has Bayou and Savannah on the battlefield—should I just Entomb for a different threat? I’ll feel really stupid if he’s able to kill my Iona, but he’s probably just playing Elf combo with some irrelevant duals. I go ahead and Entomb Jin-Gitaxias, but instantly regret not getting Elesh Norn, since it Plague Winds him, and he probably can’t beat it even with a Bayou and Savannah. I cast Exhume and choose Jin, to which my opponent says “That’s the wrong choice” immediately. I draw my seven and see what he can do with his turn while I have a hand of two Missteps, Entomb, and Animate Dead.
He casts Quirion Ranger, plays Gaea's Cradle, casts Mirror Entity and Qasali Pridemage. He ends his turn by casting Wirewood Symbiote; I decide to use a Mental Misstep, finally, although I should have hit the Ranger as well. On my turn, I grimace at the thought of trying to Animate Dead Elesh Norn only to have him destroy it with Qasali Pridemage after pumping all of his guys by untapping Priest of Titania and activating Mirror Entity. If he does this, killing me on the following turn is likely. I cast the only cantrip in my hand, Careful Study, to try to find something better; I find another Animate Dead. I play my fourth land, Entomb and gulp as I cast Animate Dead. He asks me the target and I inform him it’s Elesh Norn. He untaps Priest and taps to add 4 and says, “Use Mirror Entity to make all of my creatures 4/4’s.” I’m happy with this outcome and quickly say, “All right, I attack with Jin-Gitaxias.” He kicks himself pretty hard when he realizes his misplay. He could have made all of his creatures 3/3’s and then had 1 mana floating to kill the Animate Dead on Elesh Norn by activating the Qasali Pridemage, allowing him to probably kill me on the following turn. We both made a mistake that game, but only my mistake allowed him to make his mistakes.
Game 2
He plays Bayou and instantly taps it to cast what I’m positive is going to be Thoughtseize, but it’s actually Nettle Sentinel—which isn’t Thoughtseize, so I’m happy. I play a fetch and let him take his turn. He attacks and plays Elvish Visionary. I Entomb Elesh Norn at the end of the turn, making sure not to make the same mistake twice. On my turn, she’s in play, and the game is over.
4–1 (8–3)
Round 6 vs. MUC
Game 1
I have an aggressive start of turn one: Entomb with MMS backup into turn two Exhume. The opponent stays in the game for long enough for me to see that he’s playing MUC. He concedes a couple of turns later when Iona joins the party.
I board in just a pair of Show and Tells here, along with the pairs of Thoughtseizes and Spell Pierces.
Game 2
The opponent leads with turn-one Relic of Progenitus; my hand is pretty well set up to Reanimate, but I have a Show and Tell in hand, so I elect not to Force of Will it. I Thoughtseize him a couple of turns later and see that his hand is Flooded Strand, Island, Island, Crucible of Worlds. Two turns later, when I cast Show and Tell, he has Llawan, bouncing my Empyrial Archangel. I’m out of the game since he has the Relic, still.
Game 3
I make a really poor call and fight over a Brainstorm I want to resolve in the early game; the result is that he has far more time than he needs to set up an impressive hand and kill me with Vendilion Clique.
4–2 (8–5)
Coming off this loss, I’m pretty upset, but the best thing you can do is to keep trucking along if you still have a shot.
Round 7 vs. Zoo
My opponent this round, Gene Reischmeier, is by far the nicest person I’ve met at the venue all weekend. He’s a great guy, and after our match, we each do a little bit of networking. He’s written a few articles over at Star City and has some finishes in SCG events. He has a good grasp on what he’s doing, so go ahead and check him out.
Game 1
I go for turn-one Entomb Jin-Gitaxias before I can see what he’s playing and grimace when he leads with Goblin Guide. I gulp a bit—the race for life is going to be close. I top-deck an Animate Dead so my life total is a bit more controlled. He sends in some guys, and I decide that I can afford to block because I have a pair of Missteps in hand, He has Lightning Helix, which he taps out for—which is fine as well, because I also have Daze. I’m able to Exhume another creature on my turn and, after looking at his top card, he packs it in.
I watched him board in a lot of cards, so I’m not sure what the plan is. I bring in a pair of Show and Tells and the Ponders over an Animate Dead and all of my Reanimates.
Game 2
Gene leads on a fetch for Plateau and gets Steppe Lynx. I have kind of a slow hand that I expect the Lynx is going to punish, but I can’t do anything about it now. On Gene’s turn, I learn that he actually doesn’t have a second land, or another 1cc, so the game takes a favorable turn for me, I’m able to Entomb Sphinx of the Steel Wind on turn two and Exhume it on turn three after he flings a few burn spells at me. He does finally get lands, but the horde of Tarmogoyfs he has just can’t stand up to The Steel Wind.
5–2 (10–5)
Round 8 vs. Zoo
Game 1
I win the roll and play a land and pass. He leads with a Kird Ape; this prompts me to get Sphinx of the Steel Wind on his end step, and I figure I’m doing fine because I have a Misstep to back it up. On my turn, I Exhume it, and he has a pair of Paths; I’m not able to stabilize before his Tarmogoyfs get me.
I keep a close eye on his sideboarding, and he brings in two cards; I decide to just bring in the Archangel and Blazing Archon and we’ll see how it flows. After losing Game 1, I didn’t have high expectations for getting Game 2.
Game 2
I start off aggressively, dumping Jin-Gitaxias off Careful Study. My opponent once again has a Kird Ape on his turn. On the second turn, I have Jin, and he has a Sylvan Library. On the third turn, I have a Sphinx of the Steel Wind as well, and he packs it in after looking at his top three.
Game 3
I have no notes for or memory of this game, but his life drops in increments of 5, then 7. I believe this was a team of Jin-Gitaxias and Elesh Norn. I end the game at a comfortable 9 life.
6–2 (12–6)
Round 9 vs. Esper Blade
I was really excited to be able to play against Edgar Flores; I had never met him, and I wanted to see if he was as good as the hype, but more specifically how I would match up.
Game 1
For those of you who don’t know that much about me, I have a fascination with luck. I feel that all of the best players in the game are absurdly lucky, and when you have two competent players playing, luck is the only factor that counts. I figure, if Edgar Flores is as great as I’ve read and heard, I’m not going to possibly be able to draw a hand that beats him.
On the play, I draw:
Better lucky than good.
I lead with a fetch for a basic Swamp (no need to lose to a Wasteland), and cast Entomb; he Missteps. He plays only an Island and passes. On my turn, I draw a second land and cast Entomb; it resolves, so I get Jin-Gitaxias. I cast Reanimate, and it resolves, so I’m at 8 life. There’s a bit of confusion over what Jin-Gitaxias actually does, but once that’s resolved, he takes his turn and attempts to Swords to Plowshares my Praetor; I Force of Will it, and he concedes.
I board in a pair of Show and Tells, Ponders, and the Empyrial Archangel.
Game 2
We both start out slow. I lead with a Ponder on turn one and Hapless Researcher on turn two. His first play is a Thoughtseize, which I can Force of Will, but then I can’t actually fight him, so I let it resolve.
My hand is:
He chooses Force of Will; at the end of his turn, I cast Entomb, and it resolves, so I grab Inkwell Leviathan. My draw for the turn is Mental Misstep, and I proceed to attack him with Hapless Researcher and sacrifice it post-combat to draw the land I need to play around Daze, discarding Jin-Gitaxias. Comfortable with Misstep + Daze, I go ahead and cast Exhume. He casts Spell Pierce, which I calmly Mental Misstep, considering that I only have a single land open. He thinks for a long time, and I interrupt his train of thought by asking him if Mental Misstep resolves, and he agrees. When he goes back to thinking, there is some confusion over if I need to target with Exhume, which I don’t, so he Brainstorms, and while there is some additional confusion, he concedes, showing me Surgical Extraction, which is unable to answer Exhume’s ability to get either monster on resolution.
7–2 (14–6)
Aftermath
I was really hoping to Top 8 this event, but those dreams were crushed fairly early into the day. I was still happy with the idea of making Top 16 after the day’s events and breaking even on the trip, and I was surprised to see that I’d finished in twelfth rather than something closer to sixteenth place, considering that many of my breakers were quite low. The deck choice and most of the card choices were right on, and I beat everything I wanted to beat, losing only to what I think are mostly unreal decks, but you can never plan for that sort of thing, so beating all of the real decks will have to be good enough.
Now that there has been a saturation of graveyard decks in the Top 16, it may be time to let the deck cool off for a few weeks, but even considering that, the control and aggro control decks are needing to dedicate a lot of sideboard slots to fighting each other. In fact, everyone is using a lot of sideboard slots to fight a lot of things, and it almost feels like fifteen sideboard slots aren’t enough for Legacy anymore; you want cards to fight control, aggro, combo, graveyard decks, Emrakul and Progenitus, and Batterskull, and most decks want something for the mirror, too. Even with the success of some graveyard decks, I don’t think too many people are going to want to weaken their Merfolk or Zoo matches in order to ensure they can’t lose to Mana-less Dredge, because all graveyard-based decks are still making up a relatively small portion of the metagame.
On a Totally Different Note
I thought about something regarding Legacy as a whole after playing this deck in Cincinnati: Jin-Gitaxias is a great example of why Hermit Druid can actually never be unbanned in Legacy. Consider how many of my opponents simply lost the game after I landed Jin-Gitaxias. It’s a two-card combo that must be answered with several cards, and in the rare event my opponent did have the removal spell, I nearly always had the ability to counter it. Hermit Druid is exactly the same, except it is seldom a two-card combo to assemble; you’ll just often be able to play it on turn two, or perhaps you can Entomb and Reanimate it like I was doing with similarly absurd creatures that cause the opponent to instantly lose the game. Sure, Jin-Gitaxias will let me draw a fresh new seven cards, but no one was ever able to stop me from doing it, which is exactly the same logic that people use to defend the absurdity of Hermit Druid, “You can just kill it.” Well, maybe. But probably not; Hermit Druid wouldn’t be on the table if the controller couldn’t protect it.
The short of it is—Hermit Druid is never going to be unbanned in Legacy.
And yes, I know it has nothing to do with Reanimator.
But how about Land Tax? That one is fun! Right?
Conclusion
Whether Reanimator will continue to be a strong choice for a deck is really going to hinge on the hate that the deck receives after the last two weekends. Regardless of how good a choice it is, if you’re able to build a version of the deck, not only is the deck incredibly potent, it’s also a lot of fun to play. As LeVar Burton would say, “But you don’t have to take my word for it!” Try drawing eight cards every turn; it’s a rare thrill that in Magic’s past you’d have to go through quite the series of loops to do even once, but with a simple two-card combo, you can do it every turn.
GenCon is coming up in just under a couple of weeks, and while I’d really love to make it out there, I’m going to be in New Orleans for that entire week, which means not only will I be missing out on “The Best Four Days in Gaming,” but my local metagame will get to take a bit of a breather from the Reanimator terror. I’ll be in the South for a couple of weeks, but I’ll still be submitting articles during that time. I may even get ahead of the curve on this trip. Depending on how active I get while I’m out, I may even share a couple of pictures, but let’s hope not.
~Christopher Walton in the real world
im00pi at gmail dot com
Master Shake on The Source
@EmperorTopDeck on Twitter
