Brainstorm
IQ on Magic: the
Gathering
Reanimator (UB)
April 28,
2006
(“The first birth celebrates life. The second
mocks it.”
REANIMATOR
A terrible nightmare is when that which you fear most
appears before you and you can do nothing but feel helpless
before it. Wherever you go it hunts you and every attempt to
exterminate it is repaid by a malevolent smirk as it
reincarnates before you. It’s time to unleash that darkens
upon your enemies.
THE UNLEASHING
Here’s an archetype I’ve been kicking around for the past
few weeks. It has the potential to do a great deal of
horrible things to your opponent
starting on turn four, but it wasn’t until Dissension’s
release that the final key cards came
into being.
Simic Sky Swallower is simply Kodama
of the North Tree with the kicker, it shares Kodama’s
ability to not be able to be targeted by spells or abilities
and it keeps its six attack power. The new improvements are
a defense of six instead of Kodama’s four and the ability to
fly and trample over anything it may encounter. It doesn’t
only take down dragons but it also tramples over them. What
else could one ask for?
Simic Sky Swallower is good but the most important addition
would have to be Tidespout Tyrant replacing Angel of
Despair. The deck has an answer to just about everything out
there but the one problem I kept running into was the lack
of removal. Angel of Despair’s ability to destroy any
permanent when it comes into play is great but if there were
multiple threats in play I had to pray for a second angel or
Footsteps of the Goryo which is another card the deck no
longer needs. Footsteps worked great with the Angels and it
wasn’t all that bad when combined with Kokusho, the Evening
Star and Yosei, the Morning Star but the deck needs to be
able to keep those creatures into play to keep itself from
being overran.
Tidespout Tyrant answers all of those problems with his
ability to return any permanent to its owners hand every
time you play a spell. The fact that he’s a 5/5 flyer and
you can have multiples in play is the icing on the cake. The
deck’s already a card drawing, spell playing engine which
makes this effect that much better along with Niv-Mizzet’s
ability to deal one damage to any target every time you draw
a card. Add Blazing Archon to the mix with his ability to
keep any and all creatures from attacking you and you got
yourself a way to victory against every major deck archetype
out there.
HOW IT WORKS
The number one rule with this deck is don’t keep a
starting
hand that doesn’t offer at least an Ideas Unbound,
Compulsive Research or Consult the Necrosages. The reason
for this is that you may have Zombify or Vigor Mortis in
hand but with out any of the three cards mentioned you won’t
have a way to get a creature into your discard pile. The
deck can give you a very appealing hand with multiple ways
to reanimate your creatures and even the perfect creature to
take down your opponent but with out a way to get that
creature into your discard pile by turn four you will lose.
Your card drawing plays two major roles, the first one is to
help you drill through you deck for anything you may need,
but the most important one is to get creatures into your
discard pile. Take Compulsive Research for example, the card
allows you to draw three cards and you can either discard
two non-land cards from your hand or one land. You will very
rarely if ever discard a land with it. I know it may seem
odd to discard two cards when you could only discard one but
that’s the way the deck is, and don’t be surprised when you
have to use Consult the Necrosages to make yourselves
discard two cards instead of drawing two or forcing your
opponent to discard two cards instead.
The deck only plays fourteen creatures and even though it
may be able to actually hard cast creatures like Ink-Eyes,
Kokusho and a few others with the help of Tendo Ice Bridge
don’t forget the main goal, you want to play creatures from
your discard pile, not from your hand. Use every way
possible to get creatures into your graveyard, including
Sensei’s Divining Top and the Duskmantle to get creatures
straight from your deck into your discard pile. Do whatever
it takes no matter how silly it may seem and you’ll take
down your opponent before he knows what hit him.
As you can see this deck’s weapon of choice and only way to
achieve victory is speed. It allows you to play eight drops
on turn four but the catch is that you can’t miss a beat.
Going to late game is not horribly bad because worst come to
worst you can fall back on Debtor’s Knell, it’s the early
game you have to worry about. Enjoy trampling over your
opponent with creatures no one ever expected to see in play,
I’ll be back on Monday to give you a few more pointers.
Until then... sweet dreams. >;~)
This is Q signing off.
THE NIGHTMARE
Land: 23
1x Minamo, School at Water’s Edge
1x Shizo, Death’s Storehouse
1x Miren, the Moaning Well
1x Duskmantle, House of Shadows
4x Watery Grave
4x Underground River
4x Tendo Ice Bridge
3x Swamp
4x Island
Creatures: 14
1x Niv-Mizet, the Firemind
1x Ink-Eyes, Servant of Oni
2x Kokusho, the Evening Star
2x Simic Sky Swallower
2x Angel of Despair
3x Tidespout Tyrant
3x Blazing Archon
Other: 23
3x Sensei’s Divining Top
4x Ideas Unbound
4x Compulsive Research
3x Consult the Necrosages
4x Zombify
4x Vigor Mortis
1x Debtor’s Knell
