If you like the deck, give it a +1 :)
Remember that the first splash color the deck should receive is green for Abrupt Decay.
Mono-Black Reanimator
Hello, everyone! Welcome to one of my favourite archetypes in all of MTG.
Reanimator is a deck that is given that name because of the card Reanimate. Pretty straightforward combo: ditch some fatty to the grave, and bring it back.
Very simple, use Entomb to tutor to the graveyard, or discard yourself with one of the discard spells and use one of the 11 reanimation spells to get your guy back.
Why Run Mono-Black
Ok, we know Reanimator has 3 members of its family: UB Reanimator, BR Reanimator and Mono-Black Reanimator. We also know BR and UB are both equally powerful (since one of them relies on consistency and the other one relies on its speed - 34% of turn-1 combos and 82% of turn-1+turn-2 combos) and that Mono-Black is the weakest of the brothers.
So, why run the weaker brother?
Well, Mono-Black is a strategy that has one main advantage: it's cheap. But, there's a catch to it: Since the rise of BR Reanimator as a tier deck, it became clearer that Reanimator doesn't always need a Show and Tell effect on the sideboard. It's very good and helps a lot, but it isn't always needed (after all the BR's
Stronghold Gambit
is a very hard one to use).
Now, there's something that we SHOULD have access to, and that is Abrupt Decay... I'm not going to lie, this one is the most vital piece in the sideboard... not only because it gets rid of pretty much most grave-hate, but because it cracks Counterbalance. For this purpose we'll have to run Ratchet Bomb.
But we are running a mono-black after all because the core combo is still there. It hasn't changed and it is one of the best combos in legacy. Even though the sideboard weakens with the lack of a splash color, the sideboard still has pretty neat options to deal with the many decks in the format.
It is a valid deck. And I recommend it to anyone wishing to start in legacy as a Reanimator player.
New Techs
Alright, so we DO have to talk about the cards added to this version of reanimator. And this is actually what I wanted you to focus on.
First of all, we have 4 copies of Raven's Crime on this list. You might notice we are actually running that instead of one card that should be on the list (
Putrid Imp
).
Why that? Well... here's why:
Putrid imp serves the purpose to repeatedly discard fatties that get stuck in your hand and a secondary purpose of chump blocking something.
We are maintaining the purpose of self discard due to Raven's Crime capability of targeting any player, but we are ALSO increasing the disruption for certain grindy matchups via the Retrace imbued in Raven's Crime.
Secondly, there's the Land Base: we are running fetches and a singleton of
Cabal Pit
!
Cabal pit is an utility land that allows us to crack a nuisance: Deathrite Shaman in most cases. It's just there to serve this purpose and increase the chances of comboing off. And the fetches are there to add a filtering property to the deck.
AND NOW, THE CARD THAT DREW EVERYONE'S ATTEITION:
Sensei's Diving Top
!!!!!!!!!!!
Basicly, Top is an awesome card. It gives some more consistency to the deck in a way Mono-Black Reanimator has never seen. It is here to serve this sole purpose. And this is actually the main reason we are running fetchlands instead of the basic swamps the list usually runs. It allows a greater number of keepable hands since it can repeatedly check the top of your deck for a combo piece, a land to retrace raven's crime or anythig you need. Usually a reanimator deck has AT LEAST 4 slots for draw (even the BR version that has 4 Faithless Lootings). So I decided this deck needed a draw/consistency engine that was missing in the previous lists.
For other options to spice the deck or add a persona touch, check the "Maybeboard"
