Playing with and against Unburial rites
Challenges and Articles forum
Posted on Nov. 26, 2012, 4:29 a.m. by nfcnorth
Ever since its release Unburial Rites has been a card that many people looked to build around. Sure it committed you to colors already but the effect is super powerful and there are really strong creatures to get back with it. Now that it has been around for a while I want to talk about some of the better answers to the decks playing with it and what the reanimator deck can do to deal with it.
Personally the single most problematic thing that I as a frites player hated playing against was not graveyard hate, it was Oblivion Ring . Graveyard hate can be played around and even if it is in the main. Oblivion Ring makes the creature gone for the entire game, which is huge. While shutting down one creature may not seem like much you have to remember how much of there deck is dedicated to getting that one guy out quickly. While true it does only shut down one threats and it is not as good against most reanimator lists now that RTR is out it still is an efficient answer to things like Griselbrand . The main reason I say this is cards like Angel of Serenity and Craterhoof Behemoth are not as effected by Oblivion Ring as the stuff that was in most frites builds before RTR came out. Craterhoof was around but not used as much as he is now. Now typically there are some enchantment hate in the sideboard in the form of ray-of-revelations in most reanimator decks, so it is not to big of a deal but O-ring still slows them down a turn or two. If you are in the reanimator deck you might consider War Priest of Thune as another way to deal with pesky enchantments as o-ring is not the only we are worried about.
Rest in Peace and other graveyard hate cards are like card:Tormod's Crypt are now in almost every sideboard so we do have to watch out for them. The best answer to them is to switch in to a ramp strategy and use your mana dorks to hard cast everything. Things like Mulch and Grisly Salvage should not be used with Rest in Peace unless you NEED lands. Faithless Looting is not terrible against Rest in Piece but is not great either. It certainly does get a lot worse but is more playable than the other two as it doesn't result in too many cards going to exile and you do get to choose which ones do. If you are playing against a reanimator deck and you do play a Rest in Peace DO NOT think the game is an auto win. Unburial Rites is powerful but the deck can still function without. Yes it will be slowed down a lot and your answers will usually improve but you still will be dealing with some of the most powerful creatures in standard.
Speaking of powerful creatures I want to talk about one that I think is both good against and for the reanimator deck and that is Zealous Conscripts . It should be pretty obvious why he is good against a deck full of fatties, so I will talk more about why I think it should be played in reanimator. Simply put this card is amazing against control. You have so many options on what you can steal from a control deck and stealing any of them gives you a huge advantage. One of my favorite pre-rotation memories is using one conscipts in conjunction with Unburial Rites to wear Batterskull and ultimate two planeswalkers one of them being Tamiyo, the Moon Sage with Unburial Rites and Mulch in hand needless to say I won that game. He still is pretty good in the RTR standard as stealing Thragtusk and swinging with both is a lot of damage from nowhere. I should point out I am advocating him for 4c reanimator not junk as splashing for one card is not ideal.
One final card to talk about before I wrap things up is Restoration Angel while it may seem like an odd choice it is a good way to ambush somebody. Imagine you played a turn 4 grieslbrand and attacked with him turn 5. They counter attack and you respond by flashing in the angel targeting Griselbrand (as a side note how does it make sense flavor wise she can save him but not avacyn???). That is something most people would not expect in a reanimtor deck and usually results in a massive turn in your favor. Plus if you run things like Thragtusk , Centaur Healer and Zealous Conscripts it has good synergy with those too. I should note I am not advocating a playset of either the conscripts or angel but one or two.
That pretty much does it, hope you enjoyed this and hopefully it gives you ideas for playing with and agianst reanimtor decks in standard.
sabrepaisan says... #3
One tactic i use against them is reverberate. Counter their own counter.
November 26, 2012 11:40 a.m.
Control is probably the toughest matchup for reanimtor. Not just because of the counters but a combination of things. In order to beat control you have to play smart, this is especially true after side boarding. You have to figure out what you wouldn't mind countered and what you really do want to resolve. Also if you do resolve something do not expect it will last too long. One way to beat control is to swarm them with your little guys as they will not want to waste spot removal on the small stuff. While they do have board wipes they still may not want to use it until you get a larger creature out. Also be mindful of how far you extend as you do want to be able to recover from a board wipe.
Do not be afraid of trying to hard cast your fatties as it may be the better to cast it and let make your opponent try and deal with it. Plus it is entirely possible he is running Negate s or Essence Scatter and both end up dead in certain situations so knowing which he has is advantage if you can figure out which he has. For an example if he let a Thragtusk resolve and you expect a counterspell, during your next turn it is probably better to hardcast another guy then play Unburial Rites as this is a sign his counter can not hit creatures so it is likely Negate or Izzet Charm . But be careful as it is not the only reason he could let it resolve. He may have an answer in hand and will play that and hold up the counter for your next threat. This matchuo is the single reason I mentioned Zealous Conscripts as he ends up being probably the best card you can use against them as there threats are usually game winners and stealing them even for a turn is huge.
November 26, 2012 1:37 p.m.
I personally didn't have any problems dealing with control with my Junk Reanimator. And things like Oblivion Ring and Rest in Peace didn't really affect my deck either. But, I can run the aggro-ramp hard casting route if I need to.
Something else to consider -- Sundering Growth . It works especially well in my build, along side Thragtusk and Garruk, Primal Hunter , to deal with all that pesky graveyard hate.
The one piece of graveyard hate that my deck doesn't respond well to is Rakdos Charm .
November 26, 2012 3:48 p.m.
Well to be fair my build has not been updated with to much RTR stuff so that might be a factor.
SwiftDeath says... #2
I would think it would be difficult playing against control as well. seeing as the deck has no response to counterspells that exile like Syncopate and Dissipate . How well does reanimator do when facing control?
November 26, 2012 6:15 a.m.