Brennless Brenntinels

This is an updated version of the Brenntinel Reanimator deck that I posted last month, but I wanted to post this separately to preserve the original build and comments. The changes are simple: -4 Brenn +3 Lightning Storm +1 Mirror Image. Credit to flash2351 for suggesting/trying out the changes.

After messing around with other decks for a few days at the start of the month, I used this deck to climb from Gold 1 to Master in the past four days, with a combined record of 37-14. (Edit: I stopped keeping track of record, but I reached rank 1 with this list on May 15.)

A few comments:

1) I did like Brenn in this deck as an early blocker against control that also speeds you up against midrange, but Storm is generally a bit better against aggro and is much, much better against Assembly Line decks. If time-based midrange becomes more common and Assembly Line decks become much less common then I could see going back to Brenn. Also, the rise of Jotun Feast-Caller makes Storm less dead against control than it once was since you are fine doing Storm + Equivocate.

2) We play Lightning Storm over Hailstorm for a few reasons: it doesn't require PP influence; it doesn't kill Observer; it doesn't enable opponents to kill SST with Torch; and it costs 2 instead of 3, making it a more reliable turn 3 play with all our crests and making it easier to combine it with other cards in a turn. Unless Rakano becomes much more popular, I expect Lightning Storm will continue to be superior in this deck.

3) After playing with the deck more, I have a clearer idea of what the mulligan strategy should be. First, I keep any hand that has decent outs to playing a turn 4 or 5 Stirring Sand on GKT or Lavablood. This basically means having Stirring Sand + discard outlet (Song or Observer) or Stirring Sand + reanimation target + a few Crests/Strategize - either way I will see a bunch of cards and have a reasonable shot of making power drops and finding the missing combo piece. Second, I keep any hand that has Sandstorm Titan and a good chance of being able to play it on turn 4. If a hand doesn't fall into either of these categories but still has decent power, I'll keep it if it has both early interaction (ideally Torch, but Storm or Equivocate are okay too) and good card selection (ideally Strategize, but Crests/Observer/Song work too).