[Top 250] Meta-Tuned Sent Reanimator (No Set 5)

Hi!

I find this to be one of the strongest decks on the ladder meta at this point. I reached Masters less than a week into December and the drop of Defiance did little to mitigate its power (in fact it got better).

There are a few reasons for this: Banish is one of the strongest cards against the plethora of Relics in the meta (such as Avigraft). Any deck which can realistically run Banish is incredibly strong. Having access to the Yellow Market and therefore Passage of Eons is also an amazing game-changer on a common basis.

The fact is very few meta decks are running Xenan colors at this moment, but these colors just happen to have many answers to the meta's greatest threats.

Now on to why I like the Reanimator archetype in general:
1. It's enjoyable. Playing huge, game-ending cards several turns before they're supposed to be played. Fun.
2. Nearly unstoppable lategame. Very few decks can trade blows with you toe for toe while you're sitting with multiple Azindels and/or Titans on your board. You'll quickly grind them out using their own cards against them.
3. Sometimes you just win. If you draw the nuts and get Great-Kiln Titan or Azindel out on turn 4 or 5, often times you just win the game. These threats are too huge to be left on the board for any amount of time, and if your opponent has no immediate answer they must concede.

This deck is (in my opinion) about as greedy as a serious meta deck can possibly be while still being able to handle aggro and aggressive midrange lists reliably. Which makes it my kind of deck.

I'll give Tournament deck builder Sifar the credit for the original inspiration of this deck, and I'll explain why I've made some of the major changes I have to his list.

1. I think Vara's Choice is a better form of removal than Annihilate. Annihilate is useless against targets with Aegis and multicolored (or no-colored like Caiphus) targets, Vara's Choice works against everything. Vara's Choice is also useful before the opponent even plays the card, removing a threat before it even becomes a threat and silencing it so it can't be replayed.

I used to be running 4x Vara's Choice before Set 5, but I found that with the advent of Relic Spam, especially Avigraft, Banish became more useful in the majority of situations.

2. I think Trailmaker is a better 2 drop than Back-Alley Delinquent. Trailmaker is good for a variety of reasons. This deck is greedy and expensive, so Ramp is always a significant plus. This deck has massive influence requirements (3T3F for Heart of the Vault, 2T2S for Azindel) so any card which can help mana fix you can sometimes save you an otherwise lost game. Finally, Trailmaker acts an Explorer, which has Stirring Sand synergy. This technically makes Trailmaker useful at *all* points of the game.

B-AD essentially has one job, to discard a big creature so you can Reanimate it. The Sabotage is a nice perk, but ultimately that's all it does. This means it's basically useless in the lategame, or once you already have a threat in your graveyard. B-AD doesn't ramp you, it doesn't act as an explorer for Stirring Sand, and the Sabotage it gives you is usually useless once your opponent is down to 1 or 2 cards. In other words, B-AD is good for a few turns, in very specific circumstances, Trailmaker is useful in more circumstances, for more of the game. Finally, after significant testing, you don't need B-AD to discard big threats. The 4x Quarry and 4x Learned Herbalists (including the 1 in your Merchant) are usually enough.

3. The deck hugely benefits from Amber Acolyte. It took me an embarrassingly long time to discover the power of this creature in this particular Reanimator strategy. Amber Acolyte on paper is pretty weak and unassuming, but in practice there are a lot of reasons to include it. Again, the deck is greedy, and the influence requirements are stiff. Choosing the exact sigil you need fixes two problems at once (power and influence). Like Trailmaker, it acts as an explorer as well, creating amazing lategame synergy in addition to the early game boon.

Those are the 3 biggest differences between the two decks, but in practice those differences lead to a massive disparity in outcome as the deck performs fundamentally differently with 12x different cards in play. Furthermore, due to my deck changes I have altered the power structure quite a bit to reflect the new cards. I believe my power base to be much more reliable and solid in general, in combination with the particular changes I made to the list which help to complement and fix your mana issues as well.

How to play:

Perhaps this is the most important component of a guide so I saved it for last.

I won't mince words, this deck is very difficult to pilot (which is also partly what makes it fun). The mulligan phase is difficult, and the fact that you're running 12x Crests is difficult. Knowing what to take out of the market is often difficult and knowing what to discard (and when to discard it) can be difficult as well.

In other words, in each game there are a lot of difficult choices which require some experience, some calculations about future draws, and some reacting to what you believe your opponent will be doing.

For starting hands, you are looking for Torches, Quarry, Trailmaker, Amber Acolyte, Vara's Choice, and preferably 1x Merchant, Stirring Sand or Grasping at Shadows as this allows you to prime the main win condition of the deck (Reanimating).

There will be many, many situations where it is impossible to have a starting hand which is good against all deck types. Sometimes you will have to make a choice between keeping a starting hand which is greedy (no card less than 3 mana and no undepleted power) which is decent against slower decks, or keeping a starting hand that is super reactive (lots of cheap removal, but no lategame guarantees or puzzle pieces for your combo).

So, what's the right answer? Sometimes you must simply take a gamble. Obviously Mulligan is a gamble (and Mulligan twice is even more of a gamble), but for any deck the perfect starting hand is relatively rare. Therefore often times, if your starting hand is a little greedy, or a little reactive, you must simply take the chance and hope that it plays well against whatever you are facing (and that you draw what you need).

As a general rule, if you can draw a starting hand with all 3 influence types that pretty great. Starting with at least 1 Crest is great (that early Scout makes a huge difference). Starting with 3 or more power cards is great. (2 Power Cards is incredibly risky for a greedy deck like this, proceed with caution, especially if you have nothing to play on 2 mana).

Another very difficult decision when playing this deck is when and what to Discard with Learned Herbalist (or when to pull her from the market). Many times, you *can* discard an Azindel or Great-Kiln Titan on 4 or 5, but the question then becomes is it worth it? Think about this: When you discard a card with Herbalist, you get Secret Pages, which ramps you the next turn, plus if you have any ramp on the board, you may be nearing 8 mana (to play your big threats) in the first place.

However, you must also wrestle with the knowledge that your opponent could easily Silence some of your Ramp or Harsh Rule your board, meaning that being greedy (not discarding your big threats so you can Reanimate it) gets punished.

This kind of decision is often very difficult, and can make or break the game. Obviously playing a huge threat twice (once for its mana cost, then again from your graveyard) is much preferable to playing it once (from the graveyard), but is also much more risky for the aforementioned reasons. You may never meet the mana requirements, and thus lose the game with a dead card in your hand.

Many of the answers to these questions come with experience.

Anyway, if there's enough interest I'll make a playguide video. Thanks for reading!