Innovations - Reanimator In Legacy, Plus Updated 5CC And Jund!

When you can have any guy you want, sometimes the guy you want only costs six.

There’s an unheard of quantity of quality events every weekend, these days. Two formats that are seeing an unreal level of play are Standard and
Legacy, thanks in part to the StarCityGames.com Open Series, obviously. Legacy, in particular, is a very interesting creature, as the card pool is so
deep, yet the number of playable cards is well beyond what anybody imagined was possible in a format, years ago. This incredibly deep, but surprisingly
balanced, pool makes Legacy the only format where there are actually more than 40 playable archetypes. It’s the only format where it’s just totally
unrealistic to test with every deck, as there are just too many of them.

This is very cool for a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the opportunities presented as a result of its nature. Some players prefer to
attack metagames where there are a somewhat small number of decks “in the wild,” which certainly does offer advantages to deckbuilders. However, there
are also plenty of advantages to be gained by savvy deckbuilders and deck-pickers in a format like Legacy. Once there are just too many decks to keep
track of, we start seeing breakout decks months into the season that people just hadn’t discovered yet, as well as forgotten decks that people always
thought were awesome, temporarily set aside, and kind of forgot to pick back up.

One such deck is Reanimator.

Entomb was unbanned as of October 1, 2009. By the time the Legacy GP in Madrid rolled around, Reanimator was arguably the best deck in Legacy. This
dominance, along with the threat of combo decks like Ad Nauseam, helped lead Wizards to make the controversial decision to ban Mystical Tutor. Not
everyone agreed with the banning, and not everyone today does (though I am sure most would agree that it is at least fineÂ that Mystical is
banned, even if they would prefer it unbanned); however the fact of the matter is it is banned and is unlikely to be unbanned anytime soon (as
they would much rather do things like unban the occasional Time Spiral).

With Mystical firmly out of the format, Reanimator shrunk into relative obscurity. It wasn’t that anyone thought it was “bad” per se; it’s just that
losing one of its best cards combined with people already so used to playing tons of graveyard hate made it less than well positioned. Grand Prix
Columbus was next, beginning to reveal just how big of an impact Rise of the Eldrazi (and Vengevine) would have on the format, beginning with Caleb
Durward. Over the course of the next four months, Survival of the Fittest dominated to a degree rarely seen for prolonged periods of time in the
history of Magic. This prolonged dominance by Vengevine, Loyal Retainer, and Necrotic Ooze perpetuated the notion of playing tons of graveyard hate.

December finally came, and with it, Survival was banned.

Legacy is back in a state of flux, a wild landscape with countless changes in the metagame week in and week out. Let’s take a look at the breakdown of
Top 16 finishing decks at SCG Opens, since the rotation (six events):

Archetypes	% of Field	Top 8s	Wins
Junk	11%	6Â Â	0Â Â
Merfolk	9%	6	1
NO Bant	8%	4	0
Goblins	7%	6	2
Team America	6%	4	1
Zoo	6%	2	0
Counter-Top	6%	3	1
High Tide	4%	1	1
Dredge	4%	1	0
Elves	4%	0	0
Ad Nauseam	4%	2	0
Painter	4%	0	0
Affinity	4%	3	0
Mangara	3%	3	0
Forgemaster	3%	1	0
Bant Mid-range	3%	0	0
Show and Tell	2%	1	0
B/W Aggro	2%	2	0
Enchantress	1%	1	0
Doom’s Day	1%	1	0
Threshold	1%	1	0
Reanimator	1%	0	0
U/W Landstill	1%	0	0
Eldrazi-Post	1%	0	0

There’s quite a bit of information in this chart, particularly between the lines. First of all, this is an extremely diverse metagame with no clear
best deck, or even tier 1. That can’t last forever, but it tells us the format is very much in flux at the moment. This is a format that’s ripe for
attacking from angles people aren’t ready for. It isn’t that the best deck to play next week is actually The Best Deck, once the format settles down.
Rather, it’s that one can make an awesome metagame call several weeks ahead of time and totally catch people off guard, which is followed by an
adjustment to everyone else’s decks. Each week we see this, things will swing more and more towards a more normal metagame. We have already seen
Goblins, Merfolk, High Tide, and Team America be the best decks of the weekend. Additionally, we’re seeing sporadic solid finishes from a massive
variety of combo decks that try to be the combo deck that people haven’t played against lately, or in the case of the Forgemaster deck, a new one
entirely.

Another interesting point is that Junk may be the most played archetype, but it has yet to close an event out. This is still a terribly small sample
size, but we’re beginning to see a mounting argument that as far as “Rocks” go in a metagame, this one is not particularly favored over anything else,
leading to the classic Paper Problem. What happens in large Swiss tournaments when Paper, Rock, and Scissors are all relatively balanced with one
another, beat the matchup they’re “supposed to beat,” and Rock is the most popular? Paper becomes the most popular deck in the Top 8, and Scissors
becomes a winning strategy (if you can make it to the Top 8)! It’s a bit tangential, but for more on this phenomenon, check out this
article by Flores. Long story short, when the most popular decks aren’t actually stronger than the other decks, it breeds Top 8s that are full of decks
good against the best deck and winners that are good against those decks.

Something that screams out to me when I look at this metagame is the incredible lack of graveyard-based decks. In fact, the inspiration behind this
article was my realization that there had not been many graveyard decks at the top lately, followed by a quick check to see how much graveyard hate
people were playing. The result?

Very little.

In fact, after scouring all 96 decks finishing in the Top 16s, the total number of Tormod’s Crypts, Relics of Progenitus, Nihil Spellbombs, Ravenous
Traps, Faerie Macabre, Leylines of the Void, Extirpates, Wheels of Sun and Moon, and Bojuka Bogs comes out to 142. That’s an average of almost exactly
1.5 graveyard hate cards per player! Recall that back during Reanimator’s prime, the average number of graveyard hate cards in Top 16 decks was
somewhere around 4 to 4.5 per. This change shouldn’t be surprising, as the metagame has changed radically. Where are the 37-Land decks? The Bomberman
decks? The Vengevine decks? Loyal Retainer decks? The Reanimator decks? Dredge? In fact, it looks like only about 5% of the top finishing decks have
actually been dedicated graveyard decks, as opposed to past formats where that number is much more like 40%+.

With so little graveyard hate being played, this seems a perfect opportunity to bring Reanimator back again for a Gruesome Encore. The question? What to replace Mystical
Tutor with? Lim-Dul’s Vault is an obvious possibility, which is basically just Mystical Tutor for a mana more. The problem? I really don’t want to have
to spend two mana setting up my library. Outside of how much more of a turn three deck this becomes, instead of a turn two deck, I hate Lim-Dul’s Vault
being Dazed. It may just be that Lim-Dul’s Vault is the right direction, but the first place I wanted to explore was a “faster” version, with more
redundancy and less manipulation.

Intuition is a card that can both be more Entombs or just a Demonic Tutor at instant speed, but it’s also unbelievably slow in a deck like this and
probably only worth it if you need it for a transformational plan or you have Wasteland in your deck to actually have enough mana to cast it. I had
also considered just using more Ponders or Preordains. This also seems fine but would still “slow” the deck down a little.

“Why would you ever Enlightened Tutor for something when you can just topdeck it?” –Gerard Fabiano

He obviously says this half-jokingly, here, but there is some truth in what he says. It’s not that Tutors are bad (far from it). It’s just that
sometimes you care less about having a specific thing at a specific time, preferring whatever you get (without having to pay extra for it). In the case
of Reanimator, I wonder if we wouldn’t rather just have more of each type of card instead of lots of library manipulation. After all, Animate Dead and
Hapless Researcher do reasonable impressions of Exhume and Careful Study for a mana less than having to Ponder into them. My current list:

Reanimator

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 03-27-2011

Standard

Creatures (8)

Lands (18)

Spells (34)

Sideboard

Reanimator only has a few types of cards:

Reanimate the Fatty- 4 Reanimate, 4 Exhume, 1 Animate Dead

Get Fatty in Graveyard- 4 Entomb, 4 Careful Study, 2 Hapless Researcher

Fatties Themselves- 2 Iona, 1 Blazing Archon, 1 Inkwell Leviathan, 1 Platinum Emperion, 1 Terastodon, 4 Entomb*

Protect the Fatty- 4 Thoughtseize, 4 Daze, 4 Force of Will

Library Manipulation- 4 Careful Study, 4 Brainstorm, 1 Preordain

Land- 4 Delta, 1 Misty, 1 Verdant, 4 Underground Sea, 4 Darkslick, 2 Swamp, 2 Island

You aren’t exactly looking to find the right solutions to lots of different problems. All your cards do the same thing, making this a terribly
consistent strategy. Entomb counts as both a fatty and a way to get a fatty in the graveyard, as it does both. Hapless Researcher does provide a
non-zero amount of library manipulation but is certainly not a major source. Additionally, it’s important to remember that in a pinch, there is nothing
wrong with Thoughtseizing yourself. Obviously, the experiment here is decreasing the consistency (less tutors) but increasing the power (more copies of
Reanimate a Fatty and Get Fatty in Graveyard), hopefully leading to slightly more turn two monsters (even if we “fizzle” a slightly higher percentage
of the time).

Iona is, of course, the go-to monster. She is generally the most powerful creature in Magic without an anti-reanimation clause and just straight up
wins the game most of the time against an awful lot of decks. Even when she is not a hard lock, she is pretty unreal. The second copy is just for
randomly having it to discard to Careful Study and Researcher more often, as well as making sure you can Entomb for her when you draw her.

Terastodon is our solution to almost every “problem,” can provide a mana-denial aspect, or sometimes just puts people on a one-turn clock (if they have
dealt two to themselves already). Additionally, he is another monster that beats the Edict effects that people used to play a lot of (but play less of
now, making Reanimator even better…).

Inkwell Leviathan is totally standard, as well. He isn’t the best body on the table, but he’s often the most reliable. Shroud ensures you aren’t foiled
by decks with both Jace, the Mind Sculptor and Swords to Plowshares (a weakness of Iona’s), and the eleven toughness is ridiculous (it’s not even funny), ensuring that few armies of
creatures will be able to take it down in combat, even if they can block (from not having any Island).

Platinum Emperion is a must, as it just auto-wins against a lot of people, plus stops creature assaults cold. Additionally, it’s very important that
you can Reanimate Platinum Emperion with Reanimate, even when you are very low on life, as it will be in play before the life-loss ability triggers
(meaning it won’t). It sounds funny, but it really is important, especially if someone is able to dispose of your first fatty, and you’re on a double
Reanimate draw.

The final fatty I like is Blazing Archon. Gerry asked me about this one, wondering if he should just play a third Iona, instead. After all, why do you
need Blazing Archon when you can get Platinum Emperion? The advantages of Blazing Archon are:

1) You can still cast Force of Will, Thoughtseize, and activate fetchlands when you have it in play. Being able to protect your “lock” with Force of
Will is crucial, and Emperion doesn’t let you alternate-cast Force of Will.

2) Archon flies, which is particularly important when your fatty is actually just a soft lock. Let’s say you need to get a guy to stop an assault from
multiple Tarmogoyfs (and the opponent plays Plow). If you get Inkwell, you aren’t actually safe from the opponent just attacking through him. If you
get Emperion, you still can’t attack, and eventually your opponent draws a Plow (which you can’t Force). The Archon stops the attack and puts them on a
relatively short clock.

3) Having a second creature that totally locks out attacking gives you added protection against removal and lets you just naturally “do it” more,
rather than rely on Entomb to find the exact one you need.

4) Some people actually do just have artifact removal, making Emperion vulnerable at times.

I like having a few fatties in the sideboard, as well, letting you tune your deck after game one to have a better mix against your opponent. Generally,
this means at least one against creature decks and one against spell decks. Iona is obviously the anti-spell fatty of choice, and I’ve selected Sphinx
of the Steel Wind for her combination of defensive abilities (while putting a fast clock on) and protective abilities. She is certainly not a must, and
another great option is Platinum Angel. Finally, I have Grave Titan, at Gerry’s suggestion. Grave Titan serves a couple of functions. First of all,
it’s the best bullet against Goblins (a deck that can give problems to an unprepared Reanimator player with cards like Warren Weirding out of a mostly
red deck). Additionally, it’s a very fast clock (kills in two hits) and is excellent against most removal spells like Plow, Edict, Vindicate, or Jace.
Always remember to check while sideboarding that you have the best mix of fatties in your deck.

Darkslick Shores is totally awesome in Legacy, right now. In fact, all of the Scars dual lands are actually pretty awesome and are highly recommended
to players who are looking for budget solutions to the cost of Revised dual lands. As good as fetching dual lands is, there are so many Stifles, these
days that I think it’s often better to have Scars duals than more fetches (depending on your deck). In Reanimator, Darkslick Shores might as well be
Underground Sea, most of the time. Obviously, you need at least a couple Underground Seas to fetch with your Deltas, but beyond that, Darkslick Shores
is just an untapped dual land (as you almost never need more than three mana, seeing as almost no card in your deck costs more than one). Reanimator
has so few lands, getting one Stifled can be backbreaking, and Team America is a very real presence, these days.

A lot of people like sideboarding Pithing Needles in these sorts of decks, but I share Gerry Thompson sentiments that Null Rod is better, at the
moment. Back when people played Pithing Needle, people used to play Survival of the Fittest. Additionally, Faerie Macabre was a popular card (which
Needle can hit). Null Rod hits all the Tormod’s Crypts, Relics, Nihil Spellbombs, whatever, without having to guess which they have and without having
to worry about people who have a variety (which is a popular tactic among those with graveyard hate, these days). Out of the 142 graveyard-hate cards
mentioned above, only five were Faerie Macabre (which is traditionally the best against actual Reanimator). On top of this, Null Rod gives you free
wins against Affinity, which has been showing up regularly since the printing of Mox Opal.

Echoing Truth is a card I have very mixed feelings about. The common practice is to just play a bunch of copies of Chain of Vapor, letting you do
things like beat Leyline of the Void more often. I don’t like becoming so reactive. I have instead gone with Echoing Truth and less of it so that I can
beat multiple Leylines; I can still use my bounce spell when I have a fatty on the table and so that I can beat a Chalice of the Void on one.
Additionally, I only use a couple copies because I’d rather try to sidestep whatever hateful card they play with Show and Tell. It may just be that
cards like Humility mean that I should make room for a third, however, possibly at the expense of the miser’s Disrupt (which is really more of a greedy
indulgence).

All in all, I think this is a perfect time for Reanimator to strike and punish the metagame for getting so used to playing so little graveyard hate.
Lim-Dul’s Vault, Intuition, Ponder/Preordain, and just straight up redundancy are all worthwhile options to consider, but the core is so strong I think
all are probably fine.

Before I take off for the week, I’d like to post updated versions of some decks that people have been asking me about for Extended and Standard. I’m
not sure I could get away from Faeries with Blades and Esper Caw-Blade, but here are my latest 5CC and Jund lists:

5-Color Control

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 03-27-2011

Extended

Creatures (7)

Planeswalkers (3)

3 Jace, the Mind Sculptor

Lands (26)

Spells (24)

Sideboard

Jund

Patrick Chapin

Test deck on 03-27-2011

Standard

Creatures (18)

Lands (24)

Spells (18)

Sideboard

Sword of Feast and Famine changes Faeries enough that Stag isn’t the end-all, be-all solution, whereas the Baneslayer transformation is better than
ever. I also love Sunblast Angel, right now, and think it’s the finisher of choice, given the large number of Paths and decks you want to Wrath.

As for Jund, I’ve been reasonably happy with Hexmage as another early play that helps against Gideon and goes great on a Vat. Massacre Wurm does a nice
impression of both Grave Titan and Black Sun’s Zenith, as well as providing some much needed reach.

I think Five-Color might be an excellent choice for PTQs, this weekend, as the format has become so creature heavy. Jund is looking promising but still
needs to cook a bit. Other cards to consider for Jund include Lotus Cobra and Cultivate, but that really depends on what direction you want to take
things. I’m really not turned on by Cobra, here, all things considered. I like removal spells being bad against us. Still, the card’s power is worth
keeping in mind, and turn 3 Sword-equip is monstrous.

See you guys next week!

Patrick Chapin

“The Innovator”