blue/black Reanimator

[Maraxus of Keld]

This deck isn't legal in any format because Entomb is restricted in Vintage and banned everywhere else.

It seems at some point that Entomb was unbanned and unrestricted, so I think this deck would now be legal in Vintage and Legacy. However, much has changed in the past few years and none of the creatures I use are common in that format anymore from what I can tell.

I know competitive reanimator often has blue for Careful Study and other card draw, but I just don't have room for a second color in this deck. Anyway, here it is:

Land:

17x Swamp

Misc.:

4x Dark Ritual
3x Terror

Tutors:

4x Entomb
4x Buried Alive

Reanimation:

3x Animate Dead
4x Exhume
4x Reanimate
1x Living Death

Creatures:

4x Putrid Imp
4x Coffin Queen
2x Ashen Ghoul
2x Faceless Butcher
2x Phantom Nishoba
4x Laquatas's Champion
1x Spirit of the Night
1x Visara the Dreadful
1x Reya Dawnbringer

As always, feedback is not only welcomed but encouraged. Suggestions for creatures to add or remove, anything to make the deck faster or more consistent, all are appreciated.

[Volrath, the Fallen]

this is an awesome deck. i just thought of this now, but have you ever thought of sticking Platinum Angel? It will help if the deck you are facing is faster than you. As far as more consistent, i really don't know. I'd have to look at some other builds of the deck because yours is really the only one i know well.

[Maraxus of Keld]

The idea of the deck is pretty simple. I try to get all these big creatures into the graveyard as quickly as possible (either directly with Entomb or Buried Alive, or by discarding them to Putrid Imp), and then use my reanimation spells to bring them directly into play much quicker than they could ordinarily get there.

I know I made what seem like some odd choices for creatures to reanimate in this deck. Visara is there as a way to respond to threats my opponent puts in, plus it's a 5/5 body that can fly. Faceless Butcher backs it up by taking things out more immediately, or removing things that Visara can't kill, like Darksteel Colossus.

Spirit of the Night is a beast, thanks to its size, flying and most importantly, haste. It's pretty much a black Akroma, minus the pro-red.

Phantom Nishoba is an excellent way to replenish my life after Reanimating a large creature, plus they're hard to get rid of.

Laquatus's Champion is the main reanimation target because it erases opponents' life quickly and leaves them little to do about it.

Reya Dawnbringer may seem like a strange choice, but once I bring her into play she reanimates another creature for free every turn, which I find really handy. I can't count the number of times I've cast Buried Alive for Reya and two other creatures, Exhumed Reya into play and used her to bring in the other two.


Basically, the only things that go wrong when I'm playing this deck is that it will either draw no reanimation spells (rare, as there are 11 reanimation spells and 4 Coffin Queens to do the job), or not draw the stuff to let me reanimate. What I need is to make the deck more consistent, preferably without losing any speed. As I said in the last post, suggestions are more than welcome.

[Maraxus of Keld]

I'd really like to improve this deck some. The decklist up above is not up to date, as I have added some blue and changed a few other things, but I still find that it's in need of improvement. I will try and get the current deck list updated in the next couple days when I have more time, so that I can ask for proper feedback.

In other words, bumping this topic for later. ;-)

[Baron Sengir]

When you get the list up I can definitely toss some suggestions up. There are some very scary creatures you can use now and you can mold the deck's creatures around multi-player, one on one, or a mixture of the two; it just depends on how nasty you want to be.

[Maraxus of Keld]

Here's my updated deck list:

Creatures:

Putrid Imp x3
Faceless Butcher x2
Laquatas's Champion x2
Visara the Dreadful x1
Yosei, the Morning Star x2
Platinum Angel x1
Phantom Nishoba x2
Akroma, Angel of Wrath x1
Reya Dawnbringer x1

Reanimation:
Reanimate x4
Exhume x4
Animate Dead x3

Searching/Tutoring:

Entomb x4
Buried Alive x3
Mystical Tutor x1
Frantic Search x3
Fact or Fiction x3

Mana:
Dark Ritual x3
Polluted Delta x1
Tainted Isle x4
Underground River x1
Island x2
Swamp x12

[Maraxus of Keld]

I eventually added some blue in order to make the deck more consistent. Sometimes the deck works fine, but sometimes I don't draw a reanimation spell, or sometimes I can't get a good creature into the graveyard. Blue is supposed to help with that. I would use Careful Study instead of Frantic Search, but I don't have any. I wish I did, because then I could put Frantic Search back into by blue/white deck where it can help me abuse Academy some more.

I'm interested in improving the creatures to reanimate (preferably with enough flexibility to be better in multiplayer without losing too much effectiveness in single player), but that is NOT my main concern right now.

I'm more interested in finding ways to make sure that I have all of the following:
a reanimation spell,
one or more creatures in the graveyard to reanimate,
the mana to do so,

as quickly and as often as possible. I'm not opposed to improving the mana base if I can, but I can not dish out money for better dual lands, unfortunately.

[Baron Sengir]

You may want to consider 4 Brainstorms and 4 Ponders for drawing. Of course Demonic Tutor but I'm guessing you don't have any or it would have already been in there. Brainstorm is restricted in Vintage, but not banned in Legacy so feel free to abuse it as I did! ;D (Nothing is restricted in Legacy)

You don't really run a lot of Islands, but Daze is a nice counterspell for reanimator decks. So is Force of Will but again I know you don't have that one.

For creatures the list is endless honestly but Sheoldred, Whispering One is a scary one to go against. Elesh Norn Grand, Cenobite is great too. Avacyn, Angel of Hope, Inkwell Leviathan, Iona Shield of Emeria, Jin Gitaxias Core Augur, Empyrial Archangel and Blazing Archon to name a few are all good ones also. I know you probably don't have any of those but you really only need one of each depending on what you want to do.

Otherwise there isn't much more you need to do to the deck. You already have some fetchlands which really help a reanimator deck out that has blue in it and more couldn't hurt but they are crazy expensive now, especially Polluted Delta; its the highest I think sadly as Blue/Black are favorites in Legacy/Vintage and maybe Modern.

[Maraxus of Keld]

I have Brainstorms sitting in another deck, I think only three but that's still something. What should I pull for them?

I believe I have one single Demonic Tutor and it's in another deck. I do play this more often than that, so it's worth thinking about.

I don't have Dazes, but if I find an opportunity to pick them up without costing much money I will consider it. I'm still kicking myself for trading a Force of Will back in high school. I think I traded for a couple Thawing Glaciers because I was dumb enough to believe InQuest magazine that it was a really good card.

Sheoldred is interesting, it's like a black Reya Dawnbringer with an extra effect. I am intrigued.

[Baron Sengir]

I really don't think you need the Dark Rituals for this deck. Most of your spells should be cheap enough that you won't need them, especially in our casual multi-player games. Besides those I would get rid of the Fact or Fictions. Honestly I think I'd get rid of those before the Dark Rituals thinking more about it.

[Maraxus of Keld]

I renamed the topic since it isn't a mono-black deck anymore.