Raising Hell In Legacy

Author: Zen Takahashi

Hello everybody!

Today I will be talking about one of Legacy’s oldest combo decks – Reanimator! The deck has been around since the initial days of the format, when Careful Study was being used to discard powerful creatures such as Inkwell Leviathan and Empyrial Archangel! These days, you’ll seldom see such creatures being reanimated, as instead you’ll most likely be facing down a big Griselbrand.

I’ve always liked Reanimator, and it was even the deck I played at my first Legacy Grand Prix when I competed in GP Chiba in 2016. Unfortunately, I ended up just missing Day Two, but I was woefully underprepared as we’d made the trip to Japan on the way back from the World Magic Cup in Rotterdam and I hadn’t played any games with the deck before the tournament. Still, I remembered enjoying playing the deck, and so when I decided to build a non-blue deck so I could lend out a spare deck for our fortnightly Legacy events, I decided Reanimator was the one!

I initially built a Blue-Black version of the deck and played it in some local events. Having realised I do in fact enjoy playing the deck, I decided to pick up a second Badlands (purchased right here, from Three for One!) so I could build the Black-Red version of the deck, which I believe is just strictly better (being able to flashback Faithless Looting is too important). I also upgraded my Animate Deads to Traditional Chinese FBB!

The maindeck is fairly stock if you look at lists from the past few months. The only notable difference is that I played the full playset of Archon of Cruelty, while most lists play three Archons and one Serra’s Emissary. To be totally honest, the main reason why I didn’t play the Angel was that I don’t own one, and I was happy with the full playset of Archons anyway because Death and Taxes is popular here. If I was to play a major event though, I think the three/one split would be better, as some decks cannot beat the Angel in game one, but I would play the fourth Archon in the sideboard.

The significant change to this deck from prior years has been the total omission of Chancellor of the Annex from the maindeck. For nearly ten years, the card had been a staple of Reanimator decks, but in recent times most people have now dropped it, though online Reanimator master Ewlandon still plays the full playset. The main problem with Chancellor of the Annex is that it is primarily only good on the play and if you have a quick hand, except in such a scenario you should already be winning. If you are on the draw and/or your hand is slow, then the opening hand trigger is likely to matter less for your opponent. On the flip side, Chancellor of the Annex is not a good enough reanimation target against non-combo decks and is often a complete blank to draw as you cannot pitch it to Unmask or Grief as it’s not black.

Unsurprisingly, the two key additions from the past year are from Modern Horizons 2, in the form of Archon of Cruelty and Grief. The big flier has been a significant addition to the deck, as you now have a reanimation target that isn’t weak to Karakas, and is also great against Death and Taxes, which is the main Karakas deck of the format.

It’s also good against Delver, which happens to be the best deck in the format. While it can be dealt with cleanly by a Swords to Plowshares, assuming you managed to hit a creature or planeswalker of theirs, they would have paid three cards (Swords, discarded card and creature/planeswalker) for your one (Entomb/Faithless Looting and reanimation spell offset by drawing a card).

Grief has also been a solid addition to the deck, acting as a fifth and sixth copy of Unmask. I believe it is worse than the sorcery spell as you cannot target yourself, which comes up regularly for putting a creature into the graveyard, but having the ability to reanimate Grief from the graveyard is nice. Against combo decks, being able to evoke Grief then reanimate it back on turn one is sometimes enough to win games on its own.

Hands to Keep

I think it is important to view the deck in four components – enablers (eight in total – Entomb and Faithless Looting with eight creatures to discard), reanimation spells (twelve in total – Reanimate, Animate Dead and Exhume), disruption (ten in total – Thoughtseize, Unmask and Grief) and mana (twenty-two in total – Lotus Petal, Dark Ritual and fourteen lands)

The ideal hand in pre-board games is one that has a route to the combo (Entomb or Faithless Looting plus Creature, and a reanimation spell), a disruption spell (Thoughtseize, Unmask or Grief) and enough mana to make it all happen.

As this deck does not have any card manipulation other than Faithless Looting, I will seldom keep a seven or six card hand that doesn’t have all four of these components. If my hand contains a Faithless Looting, I would be okay keeping a hand if it was missing one of the pieces, especially if it’s a reanimation spell or mana as you have a larger number of those, but I wouldn’t keep it if I was missing multiple pieces as you’re not digging enough to consistently hit everything you need. 

I would also be willing to keep a hand without disruption if I had two or more of both enablers and reanimation spells e.g. two Entomb and/or Faithless Looting, and two Reanimate, as that means you can still combo through a piece of disruption irrespective of what they choose to hit. Alternatively, you can also Thoughtseize or Unmask yourself to discard a creature, which acts as an enabler, so that can work if you have another disruption spell to go with it.

I am also willing to keep hands without disruption if they can land a Griselbrand on turn-one, as the chances of you winning if you do so is high enough to the point that you’re basically imitating an Oops, All Spells deck. However, I would be unlikely to keep it if it’s just an Archon of Cruelty unless you know the matchup. Going all in on a turn-one Archon just to lose to a Swords to Plowshares is too risky of a keep.

Post-board it is a bit different, as you’re now having to account for the cards you are sideboarding in as well. Post-board games also tend to be slightly slower, as your opponents bring in sideboard hate and try to play conservatively around the powerful answer they’ve brought in. Ultimately, in post-board games you cannot be as strict with your hand keeping since you’ll probably need multiple disruption and/or a Show and Tell to pave a path to victory, which means mulliganing comes at a higher cost as you have less cards to work with. On the flip side though, you can also afford to be a bit slower.

Overall, in post-board games I would still follow a pretty similar regiment to the pre-board games, with the added caveat that you probably want two pieces of disruption to try to navigate through your opponent’s hate, but can likely afford to keep a hand that is missing one of the components if it’s one of the ones you have more of – you still wouldn’t be able to keep a hand without Entomb or Faithless Lootingg (unless you brought in Show and Tell). 

Below are some hands that I’ve generated for pre-board games where I don’t know what my opponent is playing:

Tips and Tricks

Sideboarding

The sideboard of this deck can be broken up into three distinctive parts – cards for their hate cards (Silence, Wear // Tear, Serenity and Massacre), an alternate gameplan (Show and Tell), and different reanimation targets (Chancellor of the Annex). 

In most matchups, you will bring in some combination of cards to prepare against their hate cards unless they have nothing, and against fair decks you’ll usually sideboard in Show and Tell as an alternate game plan. The other reanimation targets in the sideboard are primarily for combo decks where they swap out directly for Archon of Cruelty.

Silence is for decks with counterspells, Surgical Extraction or Endurance aka instant-speed interaction that they plan to deploy on the turn you combo off. Wear // Tear and Serenity is for permanent-based hate cards like Leyline of the Void and Grafdigger’s Cage (I like having a split as Serenity is better against artifact decks like 8-Cast but Wear // Tear is a more efficient answer specifically for hate cards), and Massacre is for white-based hatebears. Coffin Purge is for graveyard mirrors, and you can fetch it with Entomb. 

When it comes to sideboarding, I think the most “obvious” cards you can cut are as follows:

1-2 Exhume or Animate Dead

Going down to ten reanimation spells is okay, and which you cut depends on the matchup.

1-2 Grief

You generally want to shave on disruption as you’ll be bringing in more answers anyway, and these “pitch” ones are worse in post-board games as the card disadvantage hurts more. While you can reanimate Grief, not being able to target yourself makes it worse than Unmask.

1-2 Dark Ritual

I would only cut these against fair decks where speed doesn’t matter as much. Post-board games tend to be more attritional and go longer, so you don’t want to be stuck with too much fast mana when you don’t plan to deploy your combo that quickly anyway. Dark Ritual does help play around Daze against Blue-Red Delver though.

Never cut any lands or Lotus Petals

You don’t have many lands, and Lotus Petals are important post-board as you sideboard in more non-black cards.

Never cut any enablers (Entomb or Faithless Looting)

You only have eight copies of these so it’s already a stretch. Faithless Looting is also important post-board for finding sideboard cards.

I think you can go down to seven reanimation targets if you’re not bringing in Show and Tell

You definitely want to keep eight in if you are bringing in Show and Tell.