When I last left you guys, I had just finished the Standard Open just outside of the Top 16 on tiebreakers. Crosby, Cedric, BenS, and I headed back to the Crosby crib where the majority of our party instantly fell asleep, but Joe and I were not so lucky. You see, Joe and I are afflicted with the same disease: We need to brew.
We each laid out our respective Reanimator lists and attempted to re-break it. Both of us agreed that going in that Reanimator was by far the best deck, but we both felt like we could do better. Joe and I both went through multiple ideas, good and bad, but in the end, he decided to just leave his deck lying out on the floor and attempt to get some sleep. I couldn’t exactly argue, as if there were one tournament where Reanimator would be perfect to play, it would be the Atlanta Open. It had some great results so far, but for some reason, no one seemed to be giving it the respect it deserved. We decided to just leave it as is and brew for some other tournament, even though we thought we had three different versions of Reanimator that would be even better than the first.
I struggled to get some sleep, which is very uncharacteristic of me. My nose was stuffy, although that was nothing some good nasal spray couldn’t cure, but I still couldn’t fall asleep. I managed to finally pass out and moments later I heard Crosby’s cell phone alarm go off. It was some type of ear piercing techno music that got even louder the longer it was left on. Not pleasant, to say the least.
The drive back to the tournament site was rather quiet all things considering, as we had basically agreed to a non-brewing pact. Once at the site, Joe again volunteered to sit it out, and again I objected. He and I had been working all week, and I would hate for him to take away basically nothing from the week, but he was determined to stick to his guns. It made things a little easier for me, as Joe had a complete copy of the deck while I was still short a few things. Still, Alex Bertoncini, Aaron Wayne, and others offered me the Entombs I was lacking, but because Joe was just going to railbird, I was no longer in dire need.
I offered to let Joe play with our complete deck for a percentage of his winnings and he seemed intrigued for a minute. He was basically ready to settle for any number, until I told him I’d railbird for 200% of his action. For some reason, he was expecting a number under 100%.
This is what I played:
Creatures (7)
Lands (17)
Spells (36)
Some people were saying, “Oh, you’re playing LSV’s Reanimator list,” but that isn’t exactly true. I was Reanimating legends on Magic Online way before Luis was, but hey, he’s the one with the Pro Tour Top 8s, so he gets the credit, right? Nah, I’m not salty…
As I said last week, I played a local Legacy tournament on Wednesday to get some prep in, but I played a Green sideboard. Pernicious Deed was excellent, but against most of those decks, Null Rod would have been just as good.
John Cuvelier grabbed my attention with his Hapless Researchers, so I tried those too. One of them even found their way into my jacket during a match! I was initially attracted to them because against some versions of Counterbalance, I would Reanimate an Iona and have to name White. If they had a Tarmogoyf, I wouldn’t be able to race. Hapless Researcher chump blocking for a turn would allow me to win the race. Minamo was added to the deck for a similar reason.
The thing was, I was missing the Careful Studies. Digging two cards is deeper than one card. Shocking, right? With the games being over before turn 5 a lot of time, that adds up to a lot of missed draw steps. I tried a version with less Thoughtseizes and more Studies and Happies, but in the end I cut the Researchers for the discard spells, more or less as a way to hedge against things like ANT.
I wouldn’t ultimately discard the Researchers though, as they do give your Reanimates a decent amount of value by allowing you to effectively cycle them. Obviously I was satisfied with the build I ran.
Cuvi was also rocking the sideboard Realm Razer, which I quickly adopted.
I had a thirteen card sideboard pre tournament, which is how the Gatekeeper of Malakir ended up in there. I was planning on boarding it in against decks with Tarmogoyf, but it was also pretty solid in the mirror, although Fleshbag Marauder would have been better in that regard. The second Coffin Purge was because of things like Dredge and the mirror, as I figured as the tournament got deeper, I would be facing more mirrors. JT Henricks and Cuvi, I had my sights on you guys! Had I known the Hatfields were there, I would have also had them in mind, but those guys are both quiet, inconspicuous masters, and I didn’t even know they were there until round 4.
Onto the tournament!
Round 1 I faced off in a tough match against Bramblewood Paragon.
Second round was against another mono colored deck, although this one was a more respectable Mono Black. Game 1, Iona got him on turn 2, but I figured the second game would be more difficult. He could have anything from Bojuka Bog to Leyline of the Void, with everything in between, so I boarded in the majority of my anti-hate to hedge. That seems like the correct play, especially against such a good matchup.
Second game I had some Forces and Blue cards, but no real action. Eventually, I Forced a Hymn and went for it, but got my Ionas Extirpated. A few turns later, Terastodon ate my lands, but also my opponent.
The next round was a feature match on ggslive.com versus Chris Woltereck roommate, Matt Garguilio. I knew Matt, but didn’t know he was Chris’s roommate, so I also didn’t put him on “43” Lands right away. It didn’t really matter though, as my hand was fine no matter what matchup it was.
He led with land, Mox Diamond, Manabond, pass. Now, he didn’t exactly give me an opportunity to respond to his Manabond, but he also didn’t indicate that he wanted to pitch his hand. That meant a couple things. First of all, it meant he probably had Intuition. Second, it meant that he probably didn’t have Life from the Loam and “good” lands.
I decided to Force of Will his Manabond so that he couldn’t explode on me, which may or may not have been correct. I haven’t played against Lands at all, as I don’t get to test Legacy much, but it would have probably just been better to Force his Intuition, assuming he did have it.
Regardless, I Forced his Manabond and Reanimated Iona a few turns later. I thought a little bit about what to name, but he wasn’t developing like he should. He had a few turns to cast Loam and play some lands in addition to cycling Tranquil Thicket, but instead he just cycled and passed, missing his land drop. I assumed this meant he didn’t have Loam, so I named Blue to shut off the Intuition in his hand. Naming Green is fine and all, but if he Intuitioned for three Maze of Iths, I couldn’t really win.
I decided to go for the throat and name Blue, a play which caused the ggslive chat to berate me to no end. Guess what, guys? He had Intuition and didn’t have Loam, but he peeled it the next turn.
He started doing his thing, and Glacial Chasm stopped me from killing him in the short term. I assembled the pieces to Terastodon him, but he had found an Exploration and was able to replay Glacial Chasm every turn. He messed up a few turns where he just kept sacking Chasm and replaying it, which with his Exploration, kept him stalled at two lands. Eventually he realized he could just get Maze of Ith and get up to four lands, and then I was really in trouble.
Tabernacle further compounded my problems, but I didn’t play a land for a few turns in order to trick him into Wastelanding me a couple times, despite me having access to two basics. I made another couple of mistakes by not attacking one turn in order to kill one of his elephants, and then much later, not allowing my Terastodon to die so that I could Reanimate it and kill him. Oops!
I was conceding a few turns later when he found Dark Depths and Vampire Hexmage.
Thankfully, the Cuvi tech was in full effect, and I more or less rode Realm Razer to victory in the next two games.
Fourth round I played against Dredge. He scooped turn 2 to a Reanimated Blazing Archon, but game 2 went much longer. He had an Undiscovered Paradise that fueled his Putrid Imp beatdown, but he didn’t have much Dredge action. Likewise, I couldn’t find an Entomb to put a fattie in the yard.
After a few Coffin Purges and a Ravenous Trap, I managed to get a Sphinx of the Steel Wind in play at five life. He had two guys to my Sphinx and attempted to Firestorm me out. I wrote down the cards he “discarded” and tried to explain how Firestorm worked, but he was having none of it. A judge was called, who then told me I was wrong. I said that X damage, cards discarded, and targets had to be the same number, in this case five, and that he didn’t have five legal targets.
Judge: No, it says creatures and OR players.
Me: That has nothing to do with anything…
Thankfully, Nick Sabin was there to save the day, and he recommended that the judge re-read Firestorm. After a few minutes, it was ruled that my opponent couldn’t use Firestorm improperly. A few railbirds noticed that I had two active Forces in hand, so the point was ultimately moot, but hey, I had argue my point, right?
It should be noted that my own Reanimate on his Grave-Troll kept him from digging too deep.
Fifth round was another feature match, this time against Reed Shindell with AJ’s Enlightened Tutor Counterbalance deck. I sat next to Reed a few other times during the Standard and Legacy Opens, and every round, he was spouting lies about Top 8ing GPs and going to various PTs, all which I knew was false. I consider myself a mini BDM as far as the MTG Historian job is concerned, and I had never seen or heard of this kid, and no self respecting Magician would just spout that nonsense. In addition, Reed played what some pros might call “loose.”
First game was over relatively quickly, but the second went on much longer than it should have. He led with a fetchland, and I Thoughtseized, seeing:
Pithing Needle
Brainstorm
Thopter Foundry
Sword of the Meek
Seat of the Synod
Runed Halo
I have no idea why he had Pithing Needle still in his deck versus me, nor do I know why he led with a fetchland instead of Seat, nor do I know why he didn’t Brainstorm in response. As it was, his hand was complete garbage. He played Sword of the Meek and then Thopter Foundry, which I Pithing Needled.
He was still lacking WW for Halo, so I Ionaed Blue to prevent any Jace shenanigans. He went digging for double White, but found an Enlightened Tutor for Engineered Explosives instead. Once he EEed my Needle, I Wiped Away his Thopter Foundry, which he shamelessly tried to replay, despite my Iona.
A few turns later he was picking up his cards.
Sixth round I was paired against another Counterbalance deck, this time of the Pro-Bant variety. My opponent was a nice guy, and he played solid, but I basically nut drew him both games. His sideboard was lacking in the anti-Reanimator department, and that certainly didn’t help his cause.
After round 6, I figured I was a lock, but it was not to be. There were three undefeateds, and I was paired against one of the others, so I could ID if I wanted to, but my breakers were pretty bad. If I didn’t get paired against someone who could ID next round, I would be running the risk of going 6-1-1 and getting 10th or so. It seemed like IDing round 7 would be roughly the same as conceding, so I had to play. Goblins was my opponent, so it kind of sucked to be potentially knocking a good matchup out of Top 8, but let’s be honest, they were all good matchups!
First game I Ionaed Red and Forced his Weirding. Second game was more of the same, although I had to maneuver around a Leyline of the Void first. Minamo “ambushed” one of his dudes, but the game was already over by then.
Eighth round, I IDed.
In the Top 8 I had to face Jesse Hatfield. Thankfully, I had a second Coffin Purge, but most importantly, there was only one Hatfield in the Top 8. As it was, I didn’t necessarily like my chances against one Hatfield in the mirror, but if both were in the Top 8, it would have been a nightmare.
In the first game, I Thoughtseized and he Brainstormed in response, but showed me the nut low: A bunch of Exhumes and Dark Rituals. This led me to believe that he had a Force of Will on top, as why else would he keep that hand? Still, it didn’t matter, as Iona shut off his Black spells, with my own Force to counter his double Dark Ritual powered Force (to play around Daze).
Second game was awesome. We both sat there for infinity, looking to sculpt the perfect hand. Thankfully, I was drawing into excess anti-Reanimator stuff like bounce spells and the almighty Gatekeeper of Malakir. He couldn’t really go for it, but when he did, I allowed his Iona, but not before Mysticaling for Diabolic Edict. He was kind of screwed no matter which color he chose.
Eventually, I Coffin Purged his Coffin Purge and Reanimated my own Iona, and that sealed the deal.
AJ commented that a single Bloodghast or Nether Spirit would have won the game easily, and I agree. I love Nether Spirit with an unnatural passion, and I will definitely try that card in the future. Everyone is so scared to move in on reanimating something in the mirror, and rightly so. That just makes it so that cards like Nether Spirit can slowly beat them down.
I refused the chop in Top 8, as it was pretty terrible for the time invested. However, the Top 4 was a bit more threatening, and the money was good. We all agreed until it got to David, who quickly no sirred us all.
In Top 4 I had play against New Horizons, which, while I knew was a deck, I didn’t know exactly what it contained. I foolishly went for Inkwell instead of Iona, as sometimes smart Counterbalance players have a tendency to blow me out with cards like Jace, the Mind Sculptor or Sower of Temptation. I just assumed that Inky would be a lock to race him, but when he played Tropical Island, Wasteland, and Horizon Canopy for lands, I knew I was in trouble.
He played out a Knight of the Reliquary and a Tarmogoyf, but I thought I was still fine. I had to Daze a third Tarmogoyf, hoping he would screw up, and he did. He tapped his last land, a Wasteland, and then attacked me with one of the Goyfs. I attacked with a lethal Inkwell, he tapped his Knight to sacrifice his Tropical to stop my Islandwalk, but I knew I had won, as Inkwell trampled over his Goyf for exactsies.
He was somewhat taken aback by the fact that Inkwell tramples, but as he is a Legacy only player, he should have not only known that, but also just called a judge to be sure (as my Inkwell was in Japanese).
Bill Stark asked me if the Inkwell in my deck was Japanese for just that reason, but it was a bit more complicated than that. I purchased that Inkwell when I was playing Rich Shay awesome Mystic Remora/Meditate deck in Vintage, as it was the premier Tinker target at the time. The second Inkwell in my deck was English, but I fetched the Japanese one every time I had the opportunity, because it was cooler and because of the off chance that it could cause my opponents to mess up.
In this case it ended up winning me a game due to my opponent not knowing what it did, but I didn’t expect that happen, especially versus David Price. In the end, my affinity for pretty things won me a game that I shouldn’t have won otherwise. Ding!
In the second game, my opponent started with a Tormod’s Crypt for which I didn’t have an answer. Instead, I was forced to try and power through it. My attempted Reanimate was Dazed, which unfortunately kept his Crypt on the battlefield.
However, that meant that a couple turns later, I was able to use my favorite trick: I cast Exhume and he Crypted me in response. I let that resolve, and then cast Entomb for the full on blowout. This time, I got Iona, and that proved to be more than enough.
Onto the finals!
I asked David for the split, and he quickly agreed. Now, a lot of you might think that he looks like a durdle and made some terrible plays in the Top 8, and that might all be correct. However, David is a very solid Magician, and I know because as a friend of Crosby’s, I was talking strategy with David all week. The man knows his stuff, especially ANT.
I snap kept my first hand that had turn 1 Iona through a Thoughtseize, on the play. That might be enough to defeat most ANT opponents, but not David. He Thoughtseized me, and then killed me on turn 1. Talk about running good!
I probably could have just ran the Owen Turtenwald by saying, “Nope, you don’t have enough, you have to keep Ad Nauseam-ing,” but I figured that David would figure it out before he put himself at risk again, but maybe I was wrong. After we split, I didn’t exactly have the killer instinct in me anymore, told him to stop, and let him kill me.
Second game was a blowout, this time in my favor. I mulliganed aggressively, but Thoughtseized him, cheated an Iona into play, and used Null Rod to add insult to injury. He used Sadistic Sacrament to search through my deck before conceding.
Third game was kind of awkward. I thought I was winning at every point, until he peeled a Brainstorm, even though it was immediately after cracking a fetchland for no value. I just couldn’t find a way to put a fattie in the graveyard, and then it was David who was hoisting the trophy instead of me.
I could have waited a turn or two before casting Careful Study, but that seemed poor at the time. It’s not like his deck is going to give me a ton of time, and Study has more applications than just putting boom booms in the yard. There were any number of Brainstorms, Entombs, Mystical Tutors, etc that I could draw into, but instead I drew into redundant cards, then fatties, then died. Oh well.
Would I play Reanimator again? I can’t even imagine someone asking me that with a straight face. Of course I would! LSV and I had been toting this deck as the best in the format for quite some time, and it still is. No one seems prepared to beat it in the least.
Would I change the list? Definitely. Even the best things can be improved. This is what I would play if there were another SCG Open tomorrow:
Creatures (7)
- 1 Nether Spirit
- 1 Blazing Archon
- 1 Inkwell Leviathan
- 1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
- 2 Iona, Shield of Emeria
- 1 Terastodon
Lands (17)
Spells (36)
Yes, that’s a lot of cards for the mirror. No, I don’t really feel like anything else matters. You steamroll everyone else, and once you get into the final rounds, the mirror will be a big issue.
I have adopted the Hatfield’s Dryad Arbor for racing purposes and to effectively counter their Curfews or Diabolic Edicts. Maybe there needs to be another Green fetchland though.
The second Coffin Purge could and should be an Extirpate. Sadistic Sacrament was something I was toying with beforehand, but deemed unnecessary. As it turns out, ANT might be a worse matchup than I thought.
The Deep Analysis maindeck could go, but it’s pretty nice against Counterbalance or other control decks. I used it a few times during playtesting, the local tourney, and the Open, but it wasn’t even vital to my success.
As always, winning breeds more winning, and my confidence has spiked after this weekend. I even recently took an archaic Jund list to a PTQ Top 4 finish in Lincoln, Nebraska, which, while not known for being the pinnacle of Magic stardom, was packed with ringers.
Next week: Being the Bad Guy.
GerryT