Another weekend another post...Fun with Conference Calls

H

Heavy B

Guest
Fun with Conference Calls...that may well become the name of this deck. I was in a 30min conference today. When the call hit 50min I knew we were in for a long one so I turned the page on the notebook and started fleshing out a Reanimator deck.

1x Genesis
1x Brawn
2x Nekrataal
3x Will O' Wisp
3x Wall of Blossoms
2x Eternal Witness
2x Stampeding Wildebeests
3x Spirit Monger
3x Scion of Darkness

4x Recurring Nightmare
4x Survival of the Fittest
2x Demonic Tutor
3x Naturalize
3x Corpse Dance
1x Fastbond

8x Swamp
7x Forest
4x BG Guild Land
4x BG Pain Land


Brawn is there for Trample. My kill creatures are not the normal 74/76 factories of stomping death normally associated with Reanimator - I want to be able to cast them the old fashioned way if need be. A 6/6 Spiritmonger is scary but not crazy scary.

A 6/6 Trampling, Recursing Regenerator is another matter, IMO (Spiritmonger + Brawn + Genesis or other G'Yard cards).

Genesis is there to get my recursion going after a mass permanent removal or to move things along until Survival hits the board.

Nekrataal is there for obvious reasons. I prefer him to Bone Shredder due to the first strike being able to handle many creatures.

I don't love Will O' Wisp here. It's basically a flying regenerating wall but I have it in the deck because the regen will allow it to survive disking, etc and because I feel that I need a lot of early cover in this deck to allow some set up time.

Wall/Witness/Wildebeests are there for the card advantage bounce combos and because I want some early speedbumps (Blossoms).

He's a big trampler who can steal critters - great for long games. And he can put himself in the graveyard.

Rec / Sur is the main engine. I don't want to do a Rec / Sur deck in the traditional fashion so I'm trying it as a graveyard filler.

Two Demonic Tutors! Please allow me to explain: The other two guys (the third didn't care) in my playgroup elected to allow 4 of any card in a deck. The Legend rule still applies but up to 4 Demonic Tutors is a go.

Naturalize: It was either this or mass destruction like Pernicious or a Disk and since this deck will require multiple permanents I went with point removal. Hopefully I can recurse them using the Witness.

Corpse Dance? Well...yes. I think. I want an instant speed way to remove creatures from the graveyard. Obviously Nightmare does this but it can't be cast on my opponent's turn. Is this overkill? Without them I have only 4 ways to get critters out of the Yard. I was also considering Necromancy and may go this route as it allows me instant speed, can be recursed via the Witness, and gives me access to other graveyards. Dance's advantage is that it recurses itself with buyback.

Fastbond? This may not be a great choice but I needed some mana accelleration. Please help with this if you can.

Thanks again for reading so far and thanks for any help you can give.
 
L

Limited

Guest
I don't really get Corpse Dance.. your only sacrifice outlet is the Recurring Nightmare, for which this card is supposed to be a back-up. Seems to me a good old Zombify or Vigor Mortis would help you a lot more. Or really abuse the Corpse Dance and go with Bottle Gnomes (dancing Gnomes is soooo annoying)

And in a Reanimator deck, Will-o-the-wisp should probably be either Putrid Imp or Wild Mongrel

:)
 
H

Heavy B

Guest
Oversoul said:
You're missing a Squee...
I thought about the little fella. Maybe I'm not clear on him...

At the beginning of your upkeep, if Squee, Goblin Nabob is in your Graveyard, you may return Squee to your hand.
If I'm in my Upkeep phase the way that I read this is "at the beginning" means before I pay any costs or meet any upkeep phase conditions that don't read:"at the beginning of your upkeep". If there are multiple "at the beginning of your upkeep then as the active player I can choose the order in which they resolve unless the card reads otherwise. Is that correct?

Presuming that is correct then during my upkeep w/ Squee in my hand I trigger Survival by paying one Green and discarding Squee. Can I repeat this as many times as I can pay the cost and still be "at the beginning" of my upkeep. My thought is "yes" but since I've been out for awhile the finer points of some of the rules are a bit hazy for me.
 
H

Heavy B

Guest
Limited said:
I don't really get Corpse Dance.. your only sacrifice outlet is the Recurring Nightmare, for which this card is supposed to be a back-up. Seems to me a good old Zombify or Vigor Mortis would help you a lot more. Or really abuse the Corpse Dance and go with Bottle Gnomes (dancing Gnomes is soooo annoying)

And in a Reanimator deck, Will-o-the-wisp should probably be either Putrid Imp or Wild Mongrel

:)

Earlier versions of this deck also utilized Fallen Angel as a sac outlet. The Dances were in there and I left them in pending a decision perhaps to utilize Necromancy as my backup to Recurring as I can in theory get Necromancy back out of the graveyard.

Zombify and Vigor Mortis effectively do the same thing which duplicates Recurring in that it can be cast only on my turn. Necromancy and Corpse Dance are both one-shots and the creature effect disappears at end of turn unless a sacrifice or bounce is involved.

Do you think I should structure the strategy for the sorceries or stay with Corpse or Necro and build in another sacrifice outlet? I was thinking Claws of Gix, Fallen Angel, or Phyrexian Portal.
 

Oversoul

The Tentacled One
Heavy B said:
Presuming that is correct then during my upkeep w/ Squee in my hand I trigger Survival by paying one Green and discarding Squee. Can I repeat this as many times as I can pay the cost and still be "at the beginning" of my upkeep. My thought is "yes" but since I've been out for awhile the finer points of some of the rules are a bit hazy for me.
Huh? :confused:

I'm not positive I know what you're asking, but I'm going to say "no." Squee goes in ANY deck with Survival of the Fittest because as soon as you get Survival, a creature in your hand, and some mana, you can pitch it to grab Anger/Genesis/whatever, pitch that to grab Squee, and from now on, you'll have a piece of perfectly good Survival fodder that will return to your hand during your upkeep.
 
L

Limited

Guest
Heavy B said:
Presuming that is correct then during my upkeep w/ Squee in my hand I trigger Survival by paying one Green and discarding Squee. Can I repeat this as many times as I can pay the cost and still be "at the beginning" of my upkeep. My thought is "yes" but since I've been out for awhile the finer points of some of the rules are a bit hazy for me.
The answer is no. All 'at the beginning of your upkeep' triggers are put on the stack (so Squee needs to be in your graveyard before your upkeep) and then that moment is passed.
If you discard Squee during your upkeep (when you get to play spells) the "begining of upkeep" is already passed. So you can use Squee only once each turn... which is still very good :)
 
H

Heavy B

Guest
Limited said:
The answer is no. All 'at the beginning of your upkeep' triggers are put on the stack (so Squee needs to be in your graveyard before your upkeep) and then that moment is passed.
If you discard Squee during your upkeep (when you get to play spells) the "begining of upkeep" is already passed. So you can use Squee only once each turn... which is still very good :)
Oversoul said:
I'm not positive I know what you're asking, but I'm going to say "no." Squee goes in ANY deck with Survival of the Fittest because as soon as you get Survival, a creature in your hand, and some mana, you can pitch it to grab Anger/Genesis/whatever, pitch that to grab Squee, and from now on, you'll have a piece of perfectly good Survival fodder that will return to your hand during your upkeep.
I'll take 1x / turn. The reason that I didn't put him in was the thought that there are a number of creatures in here that I want in the graveyard. Discarding the creatures under most circumstances is a benefit to this deck.

But as I respect your opinions I will work the little fella in there and play it that way for awhile. If I like it I'll make him a permanent occupant of this deck.

I also like Putrid Imp as a replacement for Will O' Wisp and will try to work that in as well.

New name idea: "Bored to Death". Combines the graveyard mechanic with the circumstances surrounding the creation of the initial deck list.
 
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