For today’s article, I am again turning to Grand Prix: Montreal, but this time I’m venturing outside of the Top 8 of that event. Lurking down in 23rd place was Pierre Canali’s Reanimator deck, which Brian David Marshall touched upon in his column following the Grand Prix.
The deck is interesting, in that it can play two different games. One is the obvious: dump an Akroma or a Hellkite into the graveyard with a Looter and then bring it back with Dread Return or Body Double. This plan is very strong against many aggro decks in the Block format, since few of them have a good way to stop a second-turn Looter from getting online. The second plan is a non-quite-perfect aggro strategy. Tarmogoyf is easy to build to epic proportions when he’s backed by a Looter or a Raider, and the Raider himself is 3/3 or bigger. You plan to sit on these decent clocks against a control deck, letting them worry about the fact that dealing with your 3/3 means they have to deal with two Zombie tokens.
Pierre Canali’s List:
Creatures (24)
- 3 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
- 3 Bogardan Hellkite
- 4 Looter il-Kor
- 2 Body Double
- 4 Bonded Fetch
- 4 Gathan Raiders
- 4 Tarmogoyf
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
Sideboard
A friend of mine from Pittsburgh happened to see this deck in action at the Grand Prix, and when he found the decklist in BDM’s article, he started to go to work. He left the maindeck exactly the same as Pierre’s, but he did a lot for the deck’s sideboard.
Ripple’s major advancement was the addition of three Akroma, Angel of Fury, which are extremely strong against decks like G/W Aggro that hope to contain your reanimation plan with Temporal Isolations. This simple change gives you a much better post-board gameplan against them, since you can continue to rely on your reanimation to win the game. He also added an extra Seal of Primordium (since you board them in so many different matchups), and turned the singleton Wall of Roots into a Vesuvan Shapeshifter. The Shapeshifter lets you ride various opposing gameplans, most importantly the Pickles lock.
Chris Ripple’s List:
Creatures (24)
- 3 Akroma, Angel of Wrath
- 3 Bogardan Hellkite
- 4 Looter il-Kor
- 2 Body Double
- 4 Bonded Fetch
- 4 Gathan Raiders
- 4 Tarmogoyf
Lands (23)
Spells (13)
Sideboard
Ripple took his deck to a seven-round PTQ in Pittsburgh, and emerged victorious. He claimed that “none of his matches were close” and that the only games he lost were complete punts. At the sound of this, I threw the deck together on Magic Online and started preparing for a PTQ of my own.
Matchups
U/B Control — Determining whether they’re running counterspells or not is relatively important, but more important is how many Temporal Isolations they have. Reanimating an Akroma shouldn’t be too difficult, since they’ll want to deal with your Looters and Tarmogoyfs fast, but if you’re just going to run into an Isolation then you probably don’t want to go overboard on Dread Return flashbacks.
Your best weapon is Bridge from Below. When you have a Bridge or two in the graveyard then you can play the game very safely; you don’t have to extend into possible answers like Isolation when you can just attack for three to five damage every turn and fall back on Zombie tokens. Your hope, then, is to build up to a point where your opponent must finally try to defend from your weenies and then you just come over the top with multiple Hellkites in one turn.
Sideboarding gives you access to Seal of Primordium, which lets you break up their artifact mana or answer Temporal Isolation, whichever is more pressing. You also get to bring in Delays to stave off something huge like Damnation or an Urborg-powered Tendrils. To make room, take out Chromatic Stars and Snapbacks.
Pickles — Everything depends on how fast they can lock you and then what they can do after the lock. Akroma doesn’t need to untap to kill them, but at the same time, Shapeshifters are pretty good at answering Legendary creatures. Kenji’s GP: Montreal decklist has the ability to slow you down with Delays and Cancels, a relatively fast lock with three Brine Elementals, and four Shapeshifters, four Cloudskates, and two Vensers to answer an Akroma.
Your plan to win, then, is to stop the combo from hitting. If you can go for a fast Hellkite when they’re tapped out from playing a morph, do so, but they will likely slow-play to defend with counterspells. Outside of Hellkite, your only way to interact with their combo is Snapback, so it is usually the right play to sandbag them to try to break out of a lock with them.
Sideboarding gives you Spell Bursts, but you’re not using them in the old-fashioned Tron way. You don’t have the mana to support a hard lock, and their long game is much better than yours, but the Bursts are still one-mana counters to morphs and two-mana counters for Ancestral Visions. You also get two more Snapbacks as ways to try to break things up. To make room, cut the Bridges and a Chromatic Star. Keep in mind that you can swap White Akromas for Red ones. It’s not necessarily right, but each has its benefits. The White Akroma can win through Brine Elemental, but it can be bounced by any number of cards. Red Akroma can only be stopped by Vesuvan Shapeshifter, but it can’t do anything about Brine Elemental.
G/W Aggro — The most dangerous cards that they can play against you are Tarmogoyf when you don’t have your own, Griffin Guide when you do, and Temporal Isolation in any circumstance. Early Isolations can shut down Looters, making it hard for you to get your deck’s gameplan rolling, and late Isolations can stop Hellkites and Akromas. The good news is that Snapback is usually devastating against them, buying you multiple extra turns. Looters and Fetches also give you enough selection that you can often get your reanimates in early enough that they’ll hit hard, while your opponent is still playing out threats. And when all else is going poorly, Tarmogoyfs and Hellbent Raiders do a pretty good job of holding the fort.
Sideboarding lets you max out your Snapbacks and bring in Seals for their Isolations and Griffin Guides. You also get to run the Akroma swap to make their Isolations much worse. Red Akroma also laughs at Mystic Enforcer, which is wonderful when they try to defend by putting Griffin Guide on a thresholded Enforcer. Cut the Bridges and one Chromatic Star. Something to keep in mind is your opponent’s potential sideboard strategies. Chances are good that you’ll be looking at 4-6 Enchantment answers and potentially Sunlances as well. This means that you can’t really afford to keep a two-land one-Looter hand, since there is a fairly good chance that they’ll be able to stop your first utility guy. In other words, keeping what would be a reasonable hand (in game 1) that leans heavily on a Looter can be a death sentence post-board, especially if they’re on the play.
Fiery Justice — The Red splash swings this matchup from favorable to unfavorable. They have Isolations just like G/W, but they also have Dead/Gone to answer Looters and bounce Hellkites. Fiery Justice itself is very good against you, since it provides another good way for them to kill off your enablers, and at times it will create a 7/7 along the way. Games play out very similar to games against G/W, except you will often find yourself with your back to the wall after they answer your early plays.
Sideboarding is the same as above, except that the Akroma swap is up to personal preference. They have both Temporal Isolation to answer White Akroma and Dead/Gone to answer Red Akroma. I like to bring in the Red Akromas because I find that my opponents are more willing to spend Dead/Gone than Temporal Isolation early, because Isolation answers more things later in the game. Red Akroma also runs through Mystic Enforcer, though sometimes it’s only good for five damage and a dead Thornweald Archer.
Wild Pair — This matchup is very favorable as long as you don’t keep slow hands. The Wild Pair deck is relatively stable if you’re relying on an aggro draw; Tarmogoyfs and Gathan Raiders are usually no good against Wall of Roots, and just generally too slow to get the job done before they start to combo off. If instead you look for reanimation draws, your Looters and Fetches should get things going before they can bring the lock together. Hellkites are the most attractive targets, because they can clean out all the opposing slivers even if Telekinetic is online. Beware falling behind, because getting back in the game can be very difficult against any number of cards they may have.
Sideboarding gives you Seals to kill the namesake Wild Pair, Take Possession, or Coalition Relic. You also get Snapbacks and all three Delays to slow them down. Cut Bridges because they do nothing against Frenetic and Darkheart Sliver, and cut Chromatic Stars. You could sideboard out Tarmogoyfs if you want to go all-in on reanimation, but I like to leave them in for draws that involve wiping their board with Hellkite and swinging in with Goyf on the same turn.
Tournament Report
Round 1
I win the roll and lead off with a Chromatic Star into Tarmogoyf. He drops a Looter on turn 2, and follows it up with a Bonded Fetch after I miss my land drop. When he plays a Dread Return on turn 4, I pack it in before revealing that I’m also playing Reanimator.
I bring in 2 Snapbacks, Vesuvan Shapeshifter for Chromatic Stars, and I swap my White Akromas for Red ones.
In game 2, I have a turn 2 Looter and a turn 3 Bonded Fetch. My opponent has a Bonded Fetch of his own, but uses Urborg to play it, which allows me to cast Dread Return for a Hellkite on turn 4, killing his Fetch. When he plays another Fetch but misses his land drop, I lock the game up with an Urborg of my own to put him at just two Islands.
In game 3 I keep three lands, two Tarmogoyfs, Hellkite, and Gathan Raiders. I start off with both Goyfs, and they’re 3/4s thanks to my opponent’s Expanse, Dread Return, and Chromatic Star, but he also has a Tormod’s Crypt. When I play a morph and swing in, my opponent doesn’t block. I decide to flip over Raiders with my Hellkite (I could also have pitched Bridge from Below), since I don’t have any pitch outlets and I don’t want to be stuck with fatties in-hand if I draw a reanimation spell. My opponent Crypts himself, takes two, and untaps into Body Double on my Hellkite. I die four turns later.
Round 2
I lead off with a Looter il-Kor and a morph, and my opponent shows me Island, Dreadship Reef, and Prismatic Lens. I use my Looter to pitch two Bridge from Belows, and apply a little bit of pressure with a second morph. He can’t really kill any of my guys without just putting himself in a worse position, and I close the game out with weenies instead of trying to go for a reanimate win.
I bring in 3 Seal of Primordium and 2 Delay. I take out the Chromatic Stars and Snapbacks.
I keep a hand that has Gemstone Mine, Urborg, and Looter to go with some reanimates and fatties. I manage to get my Looter into play on turn 2, but my opponent Legends my Urborg on his third turn. I get a few hits in with Looter but can’t find a third (now second) land, though I do pitch two Bridges again. When my opponent finds his third land he Slaughter Pacts my Looter, and the tokens start to go to work. I get slowed down by a Shadowmage Infiltrator, and then a second, but I eventually draw into some lands a play a Bonded Fetch and a morph. With three Bridges in my graveyard, I cast Dread Return on Hellkite, which gets countered, but the flashback gets through and my opponent concedes.
Round 3
I win the die roll, and have a near-perfect draw. While my opponent starts off with Llanowar Reborn, Tarmogoyf, Call of the Herd plus cycle Edge of Autumn off Flagstones, there’s no way he can keep up with my Looter, Fetch, Akroma, and Hellkite on turns 2 through 5.
I board in 2 Snapbacks, 3 Seals, and the Red Akromas, for 4 Bridges, one Chromatic Star, and White Akromas.
I lead off with a Looter, but it gets immediately hit by a Temporal Isolation. I have a second, but it too takes an Isolation right away. I miss my third land drop for a few turns, but it’s mostly okay because my opponent’s threats are all Call tokens, and I have two Snapbacks. I eventually draw some lands and play a morph, though it’s an Akroma and not a Raiders. I topdeck a Bonded Fetch, and it gets a face-up Akroma online, but then my Akroma gets hit by Utopia Vow. However, this gives me Green mana for the Seal in my hand, and Akroma starts going to town. The race is close though, and on one turn my opponent can kill me if he draws any card that will go to his graveyard (threshold for Mystic Enforcer), but he misses and I take a close game.
I missed a play that could have closed this out, however. I had only a Dread Return in my graveyard, and a Body Double in my hand with no good targets. However, I could cast the Body Double as a 0/0, let it die, and then flashback my Dread Return with my two Isolated Looters and Red Akroma, bringing Body Double back and copying the Akroma. A convoluted way of untapping my guy, definitely, but also a safe play.
Round 4
I’m up against U/B again, and I get an Akroma into play with no resistance on turn 4. However, the Akroma and the Fetch that enabled it both get hit by Damnation when my opponent’s on eight life. I rebuild with a Looter and a morph, but they get hit by a second Damnation. My next shot at getting back in the game is hit by a six-point Tendrils, and he closes the game out with a Triskelavus squad.
I bring in the Seals and 2 Delays for Stars and Snapbacks, as in Round 2.
I start off with a Looter and a Tarmogoyf, and decide to play things safe by sitting on my Bridges. This is going great until he Extirpates my Bridges and wipes my board, but I have a morph and a Bonded Fetch waiting in the wings. He starts to chain Teachings and pulls out a Temporal Isolation along the way, so I don’t have a safe point to go for Hellkite or Akroma, until one turn where he taps low to hit a Pendelhaven-backed Looter with a seven-point Tendrils. I swing in with a morph and a Tarmogoyf, and he Isolations the Goyf to stay at seven. I have Dread Return for Body Double on Hellkite, and then the flashback to dome him out.
We start game 3 with five minutes on the clock. I have a Hellkite for 5 to the face on turn 4, but my opponent unmorphs a Shapeshifter at the end of my turn, and then drops another one to kill my dragon and hit me for five. I have a Looter and morph out, so I drop another guy, flip Raiders with Bridge, and sac all three for six Zombies and another five-to-the-face Hellkite, leaving me with enough mana to cast Delay, but that’s turn 5 and I need one more turn to win. I ask my opponent if he’s willing to concede, but since we’re both theoretically still in it at x-1-1, he is not.
Round 5
I lead off with a Looter and my opponent has two Islands and an Epochrasite. I get an Akroma on turn 4, and my opponent doesn’t make any plays until he dies.
Sideboarding is a little strange to me. I decide that I’m putting my opponent on a morph deck of some variety, but not Pickles since I think he’s looking to flip fatties with Momentary Blink (because of the combo with Epochrasite). I’m not really sure though, so I decide to only sort of sideboard in case I’m horribly wrong about my read. I swap in Red Akromas so he can’t bounce them. I bring in Shapeshifter to ride the Pickles combo if he has it, and I bring in two Spell Bursts for general morphs. I take out the Chromatic Stars.
I have an aggro draw in game 2, and I decide that it’s fine. This means that I have multiple Goyfs and Looters, and I start things out with a Looter. Tarmogoyf number one gets hit by Cancel off UUW mana, but Tarmogoyf number two hits on turn 4. The Looter that I play after it gets slowed down by Venser, and on my next turn my opponent blocks my Goyf and Blinks Venser to bounce my Looter, though I simply drop both Looters into play again. This pattern continues for a while, but eventually my opponent runs out of Blinks and dies.
Round 6
I mulligan on the draw and keep two Gemstone Mines, Tarmogoyf, Bonded Fetch, Dread Return, and Chromatic Star. I don’t play the Star on my first turn to conserve Gemstone counters, and I match my opponent’s Tarmogoyf with my own. However, he has a Griffin Guide and a Serra Avenger, and I have absolutely nothing.
I board in Snapbacks, Seals, and Red Akromas for Bridges, one Star, and White Akromas.
We both lead off with massive Tarmogoyfs, but I follow up with Bonded Fetch this time. My opponent puts a Guide on his again, and I get hit for four before I untap and Snapback it away. He replays it just in time to have it run into Hellkite, and Red Akroma is met with a concession.
Game 3 is fairly depressing. We both have Tarmogoyf on turn 2, but he again sails over the top with a third-turn Griffin Guide. I have Bonded Fetch on turns 3 and 4, but my opponent plays Serra Avenger and another Goyf. I have more ground-based threats, and I start to dig frantically with my Fetches. I get approximately twenty cards deep into my deck, but I don’t find a single Snapback, Dread Return, or Body Double to take the game. The math behind this ten-outer says that I win this game over 85% of the time, so this knock-out loss stings even worse than usual.
Conclusion
If I had a second chance to play that PTQ, I would want to make some changes, starting with my sideboard. I don’t think that the Spell Bursts are worth their space; they’re very strong against Pickles, but I just never play against it (on MTGO). I don’t know what I would replace them with, but I was entertaining thoughts of running Rough/Tumble to shore up possible aggro-Sliver matchups. I would also take a long look at the manabase of the deck. There’s a good chance that Forests number two and three should be Llanowar Reborns. That would still give you a Forest to search up with Expanse and still have the power boost of a first-turn Reborn. It is also possible that there should be some number of River of Tears in the deck. Not necessarily the full four, but likely two or three, since it’s a very easy land to control and the only bad situation would be where you topdeck it on turn 2 with no other Blue sources.
At the same time, I would definitely play the same deck. I honestly believe that you have favorable matchups against U/B Control, G/W Aggro, and Wild Pair Slivers. You are behind against decks that can consistently kill your enablers on sight, but decks that can do that are few and far between. You are also behind against decks that can win even through your reanimation plan, such as Pickles, but I simply have not seen that deck out in force. The mirror match is a hassle, and it will be won by people who have decided to devote slots to it, but for now I don’t think that that’s worth it.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to contact me in the forums, via email, or on AIM.
Benjamin Peebles-Mundy
ben at mundy dot net
SlickPeebles on AIM