This deck drew heavy inspiration from Kreinas' 5 Color Reanimator for the creature base, reanimation spells, and a few niche utility cards that I'd have been unaware of had I not seen their list.
This is my first attempt at building a 75% deck that can choose not to be too oppressive at most casual tables while still being able to keep up in a slightly more competitive meta (It can pull off a T3 win after casting T2
Doomsday
). If your meta is prone to disruption and more specifically graveyard hate, you may want to swap out
Inkwell Leviathan
or
Resolute Archangel
for either
Leyline of Sanctity
or
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
.
The Combos
Doomsday
Since this deck has 3 main combos with multiple pieces to them, it can be pretty difficult to have dedicated lines of play for each one. The easiest combo to pull off is easily Doomsday since it requires only one card in hand to set it up for the next turn or Doomsday and a cantrip if you want to win the same turn. The most common pile this deck uses is
Predict
->
Laboratory Maniac
->
Unearth
->
Gitaxian Probe
->
Street Wraith
. If you're unfamiliar with Doomsday piles this one is relatively simple. If you can draw Predict from the pile you cast it naming LabMan, it goes to the graveyard and you draw Unearth and Gitaxian Probe. You cast Unearth targeting LabMan, cast Gitaxian Probe(I normally target myself so an opponent doesn't scoop to counter the spell) to draw Street Wraith. Cycle Street Wraith to draw from your empty library and win the game. This is a fairly slow pile that has a few openings for a
Counterspell
to disrupt the game plan which lowers the power level enough for casual tables to be able to deal with it if they need to.
Now, Doomsday is an incredibly complex card that can lead to many unusual lines of play and it would take too long for me to explain alternative piles for if you have a piece of your regular pile exiled or in your hand. If you'd like to familiarize yourself more with the card and the strategies surrounding it an incredibly detailed Doomsday Primer has been typed up here.
Dramatic Scepter
Since we have that out of the way it's time to talk about... yep, you guessed it! the Dramatic Scepter combo. This combo uses
Isochron Scepter
and
Dramatic Reversal
to generate infinite mana and/or casts, provided you have
Sol Ring
and/or another mana rock that taps for more than 1 mana on the battlefield. It's probably the simplest combo in the deck to understand but if you've never seen it used, here's how it works. With your mana rocks (Sol Ring,
Gilded Lotus
, etc.) on the battlefield, you cast Isochron Scepter and exile Dramatic Reversal from your hand when the imprint trigger on the stack resolves. You can now pay 2 mana to untap all your non-land permanents and repeat. While this infinite mana doesn't necessarily win the game by itself it does have a few outlets in the deck that can enable some degeneracy. The quickest way to victory is to resolve Dramatic Scepter while Guttersnipe is on the battlefield with your mana rocks and then
Shock
your opponents to death. If you're sure someone will try to disrupt your combo then it's best to pass the turn and activate in response to someone else's spell or ability on the stack.
The second way to set up a win using this card is having
Sensei's Divining Top
on the battlefield and resolve Dramatic Scepter. This allows you to tap Top and activate Isochron Scepter in response to Top's ability on the stack then keep repeating until you have enough Top triggers on the stack to draw as many cards as you please and then put Top back on top of your library. If you have multiple mana rocks then this also nets you infinite mana.
The third way is probably the most complicated but also the most fun if you manage to pull it off. This involves having your Dramatic Scepter on the battlefield and casting
Copy Artifact
targeting Isochron Scepter. Your second Isochron Scepter enters the battlefield and you exile
Swan Song
from your hand. at this point you want to just pass the turn and hope the other players don't kill you this turn. On your opponents' turns you either wait for them to cast an instant, sorcery, or enchantment or cast an instant on the last end step. While the instant is on the stack, you pay 2 mana, tap the Isochron Scepter copy to cast Swan Song targeting the spell and hold priority. You then pay 2 more and cast Dramatic Reversal with the original Isochron Scepter to untap all non-land permanents you control. Then you'll pay 2 more to cast Swan Song Targeting the first Swan Song and cast Dramatic Reversal again, let both Dramatic Reversal and the second Swan Song Resolve, countering the first Swan Song to give yourself a 2/2 bird. Then you repeat ad infinitum to amass yourself an army of tiny flying creatures.
Worldgorger Dragon
DISCLAIMER: I take no responsibility for friendships lost while playing this combo because it's a dumb combo and all of your friends immediately think less of you when they see you
Entomb
Worldgorger Dragon
on turn 1.
There are 2 ways I can think of to go about being the most annoying person at your kitchen table or LGS with this card and there is only one way in this deck. It goes like this: Cast Entomb or
Buried Alive
to put Worldgorger Dragon in the graveyard as soon as possible. Then you either cast or
Reanimate
Baleful Strix
and draw yourself a card. on turn 3 you cast
Animate Dead
,
Dance of the Dead
, or
Necromancy
to bring back Worldgorger to the battlefield. When it enters it exiles all other permanents you control and since your enchantment keeping it on the battlefield leaves then you put it back in your graveyard and return all cards exiled with it to the battlefield including Baleful Strix, your enchantment, and your lands(which you hope enter untapped). So have your enchantment trigger be first on the stack, followed by Baleful Strix and lastly your lands still hoping that you don't have all Shocklands on the battlefield. Baleful Strix's trigger resolves and you draw a card, then in response to Worldgorger's etb you tap all lands you control for mana and repeat until you have all of the cards in your deck in hand and nigh infinite mana. THIS WILL KILL YOU IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANOTHER REANIMATION TARGET IN YOUR GRAVEYARD. This combo is mostly used just to gather the pieces for the Dramatic Scepter combo or Doomsday.
If you want,
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
makes a great replacement for Baleful Strix in this context because instead of drawing your whole deck you can just exile your opponents' libraries to end the game right there.
Creature Beats
I guess it wouldn't be much of a Reanimator deck if we didn't talk more about the ways you can win with the beefy creatures in here. One of the fastest ways to make certain things descend into madness is casting
Dark Ritual
-> Buried Alive turn 1 to put
Sheoldred, Whispering One
,
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
, and
Blazing Archon
into the graveyard. Turn 2 cast Reanimate or Animate Dead to bring back Sheoldred, and bring out the other two by turn 4 and just have the game devolve into your opponent's searching for removal while trying to stay alive. Alternatively you can Entomb
Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
turn 1 and bring him back turn 2 but that would be just a little bit rude and I don't like bringing him out unless someone else is about to win in the next turn or two.
Gisela, Blade of Goldnight also quickly makes
Phyrexian Swarmlord
the most dangerous thing to possibly be on the table.
That's the deck! If you have any suggestions or corrections to interactions I may have misinterpreted in my description I'll be happy to hear them.
