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No time to rest – Drana, Reanimator (Primer)

Commander / EDH Creature Cheat Discard Mono-Black Primer Reanimator

Rossa

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Creature (20)

Sorcery (14)

Artifact (20)

Instant (7)

Enchantment (5)

Commander (1)

Commander: Drana, the Last Bloodchief

Land (33)

Maybeboard

Creature (9)

Planeswalker (1)

Instant (6)

Artifact (3)

Sorcery (5)

Land (2)

This deck is an oldschool re-animator deck, with some fresh combos. I think it offers a real cool game experience with fearsome black creatures, continuous board presence, and recurring control spells.

So let’s see the concept in details!

Ideal gameplay:
 1. Start with ramp, - actually there are tons of mana stones in the deck like the popular Arcane Signet , Charcoal Diamond , Worn Powerstone etc.
2. Fill up your graveyard as soon as possible. This deck prefers to have 1 or few creatures in the graveyard, because we do not want to provide options to choose to our enemies. So it is better to have one creature in the graveyard if it is possible. Graveyard fill is the strongest part of this deck, here is the reason why: Jalum Tome , Key to the City , Mask of Memory , Archfiend of Ifnir , Gravebreaker Lamia , Doom Whisperer , Netherborn Phalanx , Demonic Collusion , Final Parting , Geier Reach Sanitarium , Call the Bloodline , Buried Alive , Scion of Darkness , Burning-Rune Demon , Skirge Familiar , Tortured Existence .
3. Summon Drana to the battlefield, and try to protect her. Here is a trick, it is better to summon her first, and in the next turn when she is able to attack put a creature to the graveyard (the best to put it there instant speed with Geier Reach Sanitarium , Call the Bloodline ). Because with this she seems to be just a 4/4 flier, which is not a big deal, but if we put a big creature to the graveyard and after summon Drana to the Battlefield, it might be a bit scarry to the opponents. Regarding protection, there are some card in the deck to serve this purpose: Swiftfoot Boots , Lightning Greaves , Whispersilk Cloak , Dark Dabbling , Malakir Rebirth  , Soul of New Phyrexia . And then attaaaaaaack! :-)
4. Keep up continuous board presence with attacking Drana and reanimating big black creatures to decimate your opponents’ forces. (Other cards that can help in this: Rakshasa Debaser , Scion of Darkness , Sheoldred, Whispering One )

How to win with this deck?
Plan A: With big flying creatures put to the Battlefield without paying their casting cost (with Drana’s ability).
Plan B: Using either Finale of Eternity to reanimate all creatures in our graveyard, or Living Death for the same purpose.
Plan C: Tricky ways… It requires some preparation tasks, but it is possible, last time I have won by this method. Put Skirge Familiar and/or Bone Miser into play one turn in advance. In the next turn cast Peer into the Abyss to draw the half of your library. Discard the most of your cards with the Skirge’s ability (if Bone Miser is in play one land discard generates 3 black mana), and when you have 30+ mana summon black creatures and Gray Merchant of Asphodel kill it, reanimate, or simply create 30+ zombie tokens with Bone Miser and Tortured Existence .

Honorable mentions:
Dark Dabbling and Soul of New Phyrexia works well with board wipes. Wipe the board, save you creatures and attack the opponent in the next turn.
Skeletal Scrying is extremely useful card in this deck, because it is cheap, we always have cards in the graveyard, and if there is a weeker creature int he graveyard you can simply exile it with Skeletal Scrying, so Drana will bring back the stronger one.
Burning-Rune Demon is the king of this deck. It puts a creature to the graveyard, and another to your hand – it is simply awesome. There are some cards in the deck that are better to go to the graveyard first, even without entering to the battlefield. Like Soul of New Phyrexia , Soul of Innistrad , Phyrexian Triniform . It can be surprising to cast them in later game (or use their abilities) when everybody already forgot them.
Instant spot removals are good, but recurring removal spells are better in this deck, like Patron of the Vein , Noxious Gearhulk , Meteor Golem . Do not fear to kill them and put those guys to the graveyard. One turn later you can bring them back with Drana freely and destroy something from the opponents’ toolkit.

I hope you will be enjoying to play with this deck as much as I have enjoyed it! :-)

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93% Casual

Competitive