BR reanimator in a post deathrite world.
24/7/2018
My initial reaction to the banning was that BR would either become unplayable because people will double their hate or, br is just good enough to not care about any number of hate cards from most decks. I think in reality it is somewhere in the middle. It seems the deck isn't quite popular enough for people to fill their sideboard with more than 3-4 cards which is a number that BR can mostly ignore. I have noticed some opponents with upwards of 7-8 sb cards which is very over prepared and you just lose those match ups. Similarly, you will come across some blue players who put leyline in their sideboard. Although, I think that is wrong for a blue deck, you will likely just lose to those decks too. To start the new meta I tracked my results and came out at 73% after 180 matches online. The hate has definitely ticked up but is completely beatable. I played the list below at the MKM in Prague on the July 22nd. Ended up having a bit of a rough start but finished 7-2.
Current List
MAIN
2 badlands
3 swamp
1 scrubland
8 black fetch lands
4 lotus petal
4 cabal therapy
4 dark ritual
4 entomb
4 reanimate
4 animate dead
4 exhume
4 faithless looting
4 unmask
4 chancellor of the annex
4 griselbrand
1 tidespout tyrant
1 ashen rider
SIDE
4 wear/tear
2 pithing needle
2 abrade
1 archetype of endurance
2 thoughtseize
1 coffin purge
1 serenity
1 elesh norn
1 iona
This is a basic sideboard that I think will be good in most meta’s right now. It is purposefully ignoring the mirror because I haven’t seen a lot of BR running around and the sideboard for the mirror doesn’t always help a ton. If I were to include sideboard cards for the mirror I would put 3x faerie macabre 1x coffin purge.
Matchup Notes
Rug Delver
+2 abrade
+1 elesh norn
-1 Griselbrand
-1 therapy
-1 tidespout
This match up is pretty easy. The minus one griselbrand plus one norn is basically to help make surgical less good. Rug will lose to any of your creatures if they resolve early. Ashen rider is better than tidespout in most cases. I really like keeping in all 4 chancellor because it makes it easy to fetch a swamp turn 1 through stifle and to just discard a fow or surgical and fight through 1 mana soft counters. Abrade is for cage but also kills delver which helps a lot if you are racing with a 5 power flier.
One of the keys to this matchup is just baiting counter magic/stifles. If you want them to stifle a land over a animate dead then give them the opportunity to do that, if you want them to counter an entomb to then resolve a looting then play in a day that gives them the best chance to counter the thing they want to (entomb after they can trip etc).
Miracles
Draw
-1 griselbrand
-1 fetchland
-1 chancellor
-1 therapy
+1 iona
+1 archetype
+2 thoughtseize
Play
-1 ashen rider
-2 therapy
-1 fetchland
+1 iona
+1 archetype
+2 thoughtseize
On the draw your chancellors are bad to draw and often don't do anything in your hand but are good closers along with tidespout after you draw with griselbrand. You could even cut 2 chancellors as the trigger doesn’t usually do much on the draw. You want to leave in ashen rider in case they resolve a jace. Iona, on white is great early on but can still be bounced by a jace. On the play a reanimated (7 power) Iona on white turn 1 wins (kills before jace comes down). If you combine Iona on white with Archetype at any point the game is over unless they already have a mentor in play. As far as cutting unmask and therapy for TS, the idea is that you will probably need to trade one for one quite a few times before you can start trading two for one (entomb/reanimate for fow) to get yourself into a winning position. Trimming on fetchlands vs control decks is something new that I have been trying out and liking.
Sneak and show
Play
-1 griselbrand
-2 therapy
-1 exhume
-1 swamp
+1 iona
+1 needle
+2 TS
+1 abrade
Draw
-1 griselbrand
-1 exhume
-2 therapy
-1 unmask
-1 chancellor
-1 fetchland
+1 iona,
+2 needle
+2 TS
+1 wear/tear
+2 abrade
This is another great matchup for BR. You can safely cut a gris or two because they play 4 for you to target as well. Therapy/unmask coming out for duress is similar to doing this vs other blue decks, you'd rather they use 2 cards to fow your stuff than you use two cards to take something). Needle goes on sneak attack as that is their main way to beat you. Iona, usually goes on blue but you should know when red is best. For example if you have a griselbrand, tidespout or ashen rider in hand then you should pick red on iona. Wear/tear is for random hate stuff, you can leave them in on the play or even side in more depending on what kinda hate you see (some even play leyline) If they do play leyline game 2 and you have no answers don't concede because you can reanimate their griselbrand. Try to use animate dead as your last spell you try reanimating with because you can put it in on show and tell and attach it to a creature. Also, try to diversify what you put in your graveyard so that you have good things to put in on show and tell. If you have a way to put griselbrand into play on your next turn and they cast show and tell then put in a chancellor over griselbrand from hand. This will shut off most of their ways of beating you. Ashen rider also is good to put in and target an omniscience or emrakul. If ashen rider and griselbrand are in the graveyard and you have an animate dead to put in off show and tell you can see what they put in before you target. If they put in omniscience you can target Ashen rider, if they put in something else you can target griselbrand.
Death and taxes
+1 needle
+1 elesh norn
+1 iona
+1 archetype
-2 therapy
-1 reanimate/exhume
-1 tidespout
This matchup is also great now that we have ashen rider. Game one you want to combo with griselbrand before they land a Thalia. If you lose game one then you have your work cut out for you. If they have a karakas in hand you should still try to use a 2 mana reanimate spell on griselbrand, draw 14 cards, then bury them in chancellors/ashen rider triggers. Be careful about discarding creatures then casting exhume. Game one you should save your unmasks for after you exhume if at all possible.
In sideboard games watch out for 2 mana hate (rip/priest), sometimes surgical and sometimes faerie macabre. It is usually correct to just jam before they can play a thalia if at all possible. If you can go off turn 1 and play a needle then name faerie macabre in the dark as protection.
Elves
+2 TS
+1 Iona
+1 Elesh norn
+4 Wear/tear
-1 tidespout
-1 chancellors
-4 therapy
-1 gris
-1 animate dead
VS Elves I sideboard for leyline in the dark cause it's the main way you will lose, if they don't seem to have any game 2 then you can sideboard accordingly. I'd still leave some answers in if they had a fast scavenging ooze because they may play leyline and kept for the ooze.
Goblins
play/draw
+2 abrade
+1 needle
+1 iona
+1 elesh norn
+2 thoughtseize
+1 archetype
-1 chancellor
-1 exhume
-4 therapy
-1 tidespout
-1 griselbrand
Another easy match up. You should win most game ones that you don't mull to 3. After that you need to worry about relic first, faerie second, and karakas third. You can win turn 1 through relic but not faerie so keep that in mind. Archetype is in case they are playing karakas. As usual you want griselbrand first because they have answers such as sting scourger for iona (though vial) or elesh norn. A lot of people aren't running karakas but the archetype works against stingscourger and the need works against vial/port/wasteland/relic so they aren't dead. You are looking for fast hands that beat one piece of interaction because you will lose the slower games since they can deal a lot of damage quickly and an unchecked relic after turn 1 is hard to beat.
MONO R STOMPY
-3 cabal therapy
-2 chancellor of the annex
-1 griselbrand
+1 abrade
+4 wear/tear
+1 iona
This is the easiest of the stompy decks. You should win most game 1's. You will lose some when you lose the die roll and can't beat a chalice. One way to beat a chalice is to just keep lands in hand (but play the first to avoid getting blood mooned out) till you draw a gris that you can discard and animate for 2 mana.
In sideboard games you want to side for leyline but they often play faerie over leyline. Good thing wear/tear is great vs this deck even if they don't have leyline. I keep pretty much any hand that can cast a wear/tear on turn 1 or 2. If you don't have the combo and can play around blood moon before using the wear/tear sometimes you can get a huge blow out by hitting a chalice and a leyline. The only creature of theirs that you should consider reanimating on turn 1 is rabblemaster. In the sideboard games if you get a iona down before you die you can't lose. Just make sure that you aren't dead to an on board chandra if they follow up with bridge.
Lands
+1 needle
+1 serenity
+3 wear/tear
+1 archetype
-3 therapy
-3 chancellors
Another very easy match up. Wear/tear for lock pieces, get griselbrand and go to town. Griselbrand beats the 20/20. Just draw cards and protect your important creatures from bog if you can’t get rid of the 20/20 till next turn. That means holding a tidespout or ashen rider in hand till the next turn.
Eldrazi Stompy
+4 wear/tear
+1 serenity
+2 abrade
-4 therapy
-1 chancellor
-1 exhume
-1 ashen rider
This is a tough match up. If you lose the die roll and they have a chalice on one it often times screws up your whole plan. If that happens you want to keep 7 cards in your hand at all times in case you draw a griselbrand so you can discard it to cleanup then animate dead/exhume it. In the sideboard games you have to mull to a hand that can answer leyline or you will usually lose. If you both mull to 6 and then they mull to 5 and you have a nut draw but no answer to leyline you can consider keeping the hand in hopes that they either quit mulling or mull super low finding leyline giving you time to draw the wear/tear.
4c Loam
+4 wear/tear
+2 abrade
+1 serenity
+1 archetype
+1 Iona
+2 needle
-3 chancellor
-1 griselbrand
-4 therapy
-1 reanimate
-1 unmask
This is probably the toughest match up. You really need to steal a game one to have a chance. The problem cards they have are priest, thalia, knight, chalice, karakas, wasteland, liliana, leyline… You get the point, the whole deck is good vs us. They even have moxes to help power things out or eat chancellor triggers. In the sideboard games you basically need a wear/tear + a nut draw and dodge chalice or, hope they kept a hand based solely on leyline (which you mulled to wear/tear to answer). GOOD LUCK with this one.
COMING SOON: Updated guide/list now that the meta has sorta settled and delver decks are running wild again.
Updates to the deck
Ashen Rider/Tidespout interactions
The best way to get the most out of your ashen riders and tidespout is to get them into play with animate dead. You can use your tidespout to bounce the animate dead to protect tidespout or to exile 3 more permanents with ashen rider.
General Notes:
Some notes on how to generally approach the deck and some changes I have made that people have asked me about.
Approach
The main thing is always get griselbrand and draw maximum cards. The combo is about burying your opponent in card advantage more than it is about the fatty that you get to attack with (you may notice most opponents never actually let you attack them to zero). There are a few exceptions to this:
vs dredge you can get elesh norn and the game is over.
Vs burn/mono red stompy you may want to get iona on red.
If you are in a tricky situation not easily fixed by tidespout tyrant look for lines that include ashen rider/therapy.
Sideboarding
The +/- on cards above is a general idea of how I sideboard not a strict rule I follow. Sometimes you see sideboard cards you weren’t expecting or notice they didn’t sideboard how you expected so you will need to make changes. Also, if you want to do certain things (e.g. kill RIP vs dnt) you can sideboard for it but I prefer not to.
Sideboarding in the dark
It is pretty common for you to have a turn on on the play game one where you don’t know what they opponent is playing. Try your hardest to fire off a discard before comboing if possible or off your first 7 with griselbrand. If your opponent thinks about letting you see before they concede then it usually means they are on storm or dnt and sometimes miracles. I sideboard accordingly but never the full plan just a few cards to hedge (e.g. +1 needle, +1 wear/tear, +1 abrade, +2 seize)
In the end there really isn’t much you can do in this situation but hope that your main-deck is good enough for game 2.
Cabal Therapy
The reason I put therapy in the deck over thoughtseize
Sire of insanity
Don’t play it, it is bad. It is actually the opposite of what this deck wants to do. This deck wants to bury your opponent in card advantage. Almost every deck is equipped to beat any single silver bullet/fatty reanimate target. Sire is actually the easiest one to beat for the majority of decks. You will have a lot better success with the deck if you treat your creatures as spells that give you an advantage over your opponent more than as a deck that puts a big fat dude into play and asks the opponent to answer it.
14 lands and no chrome mox
This is because I didn’t find the mox to be great until after you draw with griselbrand. If you preserve your petals or cast dark ritual before reanimating you will usually have mana after drawing with griselbrand which makes the moxes unnecessary.
Collective Brutality
Collective brutality is a powerful card/effect that I have tried 1, 2, 3 and 4 copies of but in the end I prefer zero. As discard it is too expensive and as removal it is too expensive. Putting them together and giving you a free way to discard a creature is amazing but it ends up being either not actually useful or a huge liability against the cards you most want to discard/kill. It exposes your creature to surgical.
After the DRS ban I tried a few of these in the sideboard for control decks but the free discard still ends up being a liability vs surgical extraction.
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-Ewlandon
Requests?
Want me to add notes on a certain match-up or have any questions in general you can email me at the email address below in the donate section. I will do my best to get back to you or add the match-up you requested.
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Edits and Additions
Dredge added April 20th
UR Delver Added April 23rd
Maverick added April 25th
Lands and Storm edits April 28th
Added additional reason for running therapy that I spaced April 28th
Post-ban list update and sb notes July 24th 2018