But they are also all games against vastly different opponents-and Reanimator could still clean up. They all involve reanimating a beast on turn 2 or 3 and winning, true (and being stripped of their important contextual details, for brevity's sake). Notice the things that these games have in common, as well as the things they don't have in common. Finally, a turn 2 Inkwell Leviathan against Counter-Top made irrelevant the Control player's own turn 1 Sensei's Divining Top, turn 2 Counterbalance. Having the most racist lady in all Emeria say “Black” the next turn sealed the deal. In game two I fell to 1 life before raising Blazing Archon from the dead to put the Goblins player on top-deck mode for a Gempalm Incinerator and enough Goblins to make it lethal, or just a Warren Weirding. Against Goblins, Stormtide Leviathan hit the table on turn 3 game one and swung for lethal in 2 turns alongside a Putrid Imp with flying. Mono Blue Merfolk caved to a Blazing Archon on turn 2 both games. Consider these excerpts from a few of my games at the SCG opens in Indy and Memphis in the last 2 months (the list that Ari Lax gives in the article I link to above is a slightly modified version of the list I took to Indy).Īgainst Ad Nauseum Tendrils I reanimated Iona, Shield of Emeria (naming Black) on turn 2 and on turn 3 in two different games to win the match.

I mean seriously, let's talk about power level. And the opinions of better players than I aside, the deck is just powerful. Gerry Thompson has also been trying to break the archetype ( Here). Among others, Ari Lax suggested a month ago that Reanimator could be one of the best decks out there, ( Here) and Patrick Chapin discussed it recently ( Here). Right now, the deck appears to be terrible.ĭespite this, I think Reanimator remains a solid choice, and some pretty good players seem to agree with me. The 12 appearances it has made at the SCG legacy opens of 2011 have racked up a depressing ~35% win percentage and only one top 16 ( Here). The deck's popularity has been declining since the banning of Mystical Tutor last summer. I'll talk a bit about my experiences working on the deck since the banning of Mystical Tutor and look at some of the problems (and my solutions) with the deck in the current format. Hello, my name is Kyle Kloster, and I'd like to discuss Legacy Reanimator.

Legacy pithing needle vs dredge