For those who don’t keep up on the Legacy scene there has been a new deck that has been popping up in the tournament scene within the last few months. Reanimator has proven to be a versatile and successful deck in the format. Here you can see some of the recent decklists that have placed well in Legacy tournaments. It’s true that the idea of this deck is not new, but the recent printing of cards such as Iona, Shield of Emeria, Sphinx of the Steel Wind, Inkwell Leviathan, Empyrial Archangel, and Terastodon have given the deck a huge boost of power. With these newly added goodies the deck became much more viable in the Legacy format.
Looking at the recent top decks in the online metagame (found here) I noticed that many of the players were playing variants of aggro decks. In the first slot we have Goblins. This is no surprise as the entry to this format is extremely expensive, and Goblins is a very cheap way to get into the format. The second most played deck is Countertop with many different variants, but the idea is the same to stall your opponent and lock them out of the game and take control. The most played deck in the format is Zoo again with many different versions, but the idea is the same to lay down fast beats/burn to win the game. I would also like to say that a newer mono White deck has been making a scene especially on the online meta. This White deck is known as Death and Taxes. The basic concept behind Death and Taxes is to take control of the board using a variety of tools such as Mangara of Corondor, Karakas, Oblivion Ring, Flickerwisp, and Stoneforge Mystic.
I decided to finally get around to playing an online Legacy event and looked at the top 10 Legacy decks. Here is the list from first to last:
| 1. | Goblins |
| 2. | CounterTop |
| 3. | Zoo |
| 4. | Death&Taxes |
| 5. | Dredge |
| 6. | Merfolk |
| 7. | Reanimator |
| 8. | Enchantress |
| 9. | Thopter |
| 10. | Ad Nauseam |
Looking at the decklists I wasn’t surprised except that Ad Nauseam was in the tenth spot. Seeing as how Lion’s Eye Diamond shot up in price right after Legacy was announced I was expecting to see more people playing the deck, for the deck is extremely good. I was expecting Merfolk, Zoo, Ad Nauseam, and CounterTop to be the top decks, and my guess wasn’t too far off. After taking time to review the decks I decided that Reanimator would be an excellent deck choice. It has the ability to shut down many of the mono colored decks such as Goblins, Death and Taxes, Merfolk as well as the multicolored decks Zoo, Reanimator, Enchantress, Thopter, and Ad Nauseam. Although these decks sometimes have a color splash for removal it’s still very easy to work around and still gain advantage. Players might add Warren Weirding, Path to Exile, Diabolic Edict, or Chainers Edict to their decks to try to deal with reanimator, but you can simply named the splash color with Iona to shut down this removal. Iona can’t shut down a Dredge player, but with Blazing Archon the deck can withstand the zombie token army and gain the position to win the game. Reanimator also runs many shroud creatures as and creatures with protection from various colors to deal with these decks, whatever creatures one chooses should be based upon the current metagame.
I would like to take a moment to apologize for not breaking down each of these decks and delving further into each one. My college finals have hindered my time to spend working on this article. I do hope that you find it useful in giving you a sense of the current meta as well as an idea of what to play. I have provided videos for a Reanimator deckteck as well as 4 rounds from a Legacy daily event. Please let me know if you found this helpful, and to leave any criticisms of things you like and didn’t like. I am also interested in knowing if anyone would like me to do more of these decktechs and tournament videos on other decks you may be interested in. Please make sure to leave them in the comments below.
REANIMATOR DECKTECH
Game 1 I should have kept my opening hand hoping to get a land, but I had no way of knowing that my mulligans would be so terrible. At 1:45 I should have also pitched my Bayou instead of my Underground Sea since my Green is all in my sideboard. At 5:50 when my opponent played Gifts Ungiven I should have discarded the Oblivion Stone and Beseech the Queen instead of Oblivion Stone and Staff of Domination since we could get a creature with shroud and prevent my opponent from tutoring. At 12:06 I should have taken the Senseis Divining Top instead of the Oblivion Stone since we didn’t have any creatures, and he wouldn’t be able to manipulate his deck. At 17:54 I should have kept the Entomb for use in the future. At 21:15 I should have kept the Careful Study instead of using it that turn. This was by far the worst game I played in the event, and will correct my mistakes.
LEGACY DAILY EVENT ROUND 2
I believe I played this round the best I could.
LEGACY DAILY EVENT ROUND 3
At 3:40 I made the right choice in card selection, besides I wouldn’t have been able to cast both the Mystical Tutor and Brainstorm on the same turn. Game 2 my hand seemed really good against Ad Nauseam, but I had no way of knowing my opponent would go off on turn one. Overall I thought I played this round the best I could.
LEGACY DAILY EVENT ROUND 4
I will admit knowing that I was going to win the round no matter what made me play a bit sloppy this round and I apologize for that. At 11:03 I should have grabbed Ravenous Trap since I had 4 lands to hard cast it on my turn and remove my opponents whole graveyard. This would allow me to attack with my Iona without him being able to produce more zombies, and it would have prevented my opponent from dredging or playing Ichorid. Playing late at night is no excuse for such a mistake as this and I hope that you all can learn something from this mistake. Last of all at 13:50 I want you all to know I finally got my 4th foil Narcomoeba so no worries there 
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Thanks for taking the time to check out my article and videos. Once again please remember to leave comment both positive and negative along with any questions you might have. Until next time may the Force of Will be with you!
Owen Robbins
Hell of an article Owen! Nicely done!
Thanks for the nice tournament report! I really like the structure.
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Why not run Chalice or Pithing Needle?
Chalice could take care of Ritual (Ad Nausem) and Crypt, but it’s probably too much of a liability with how many 1-casts you have.
But Pithing Needle seems really good–It prevents Tormod’s Crypt from doing anything, and it can also stop Karakas. Can’t search for it, though.
Maybe Stifle?
I didn’t play chalice since my deck isn’t really mana heavy and like you said a lot of decks I want to shut down will also shut my own down. I do think pithing needle needs to be in the sideboard. The white deck has been gaining popularity and its even more important than before. I might take out a trap, deeds, or duress and add 2 needles in. I was not too worried about it at the time of this daily, but now I think it would be more versatile.
Nice videos, I like that you took the time to analyse your play afterwards.
- byertron
p.s. you should check the batteries in your smoke detector.
Round 3, Game 1 there were quite a number of mistakes; Exhuming Empyrial Archangel instead of Inkwell Leviathan was the first. Archangel’s ability wouldn’t save you from a lethal Tendrils, as it is life loss, not damage. The extra 2 points of damage are quite important against ANT, as it gets him down to ~5 sooner, and thus gives him less cards before he has to start worrying about flipping a lethal Ad Nauseam.
That’s not the worst play, though, which was Entombing after whiffing with your Brainstorm and before Ad Nauseam resolves. This gives him an extra Storm +1 for absolutely no gain on your part besides being able to be lazy and F6.
Definitely appreciate the effort put into doing these kinds of articles, though.
Snafu964 the detector is just that way I didn’t choose to have them installed I am so used to it I don’t even notice it anymore.
Zeitgeist thank you for clearing that up. I did not fully read the text and after doing some digging you are correct in that play since the angel would not prevent the life loss and only damage. You are also correct about the entombing before he ad nauseam for a lazy f6 I was rather beat that day and just taking it easy for the most part. That is my bad and I will correct that, and once again thank you for pointing out any flaws I missed. I appreciate it and I can become a better player because of this.
Bro i love ya but seriously at times…Sigh…Echoing truth is your friend..psst it can bounce a leyline!!
Lol Ranth I know that, but I was in a position where that was not beneficial for me to do so. I normally would, but when I am behind I need to pull ahead in other ways. Like I stated above I should have got the trapped and got rid of his grave and that would have prevented him from gaining board position.
Great article owen!
Haha, I loved the way you introduced terrastadon.
If they play chalice for 1 and 4 of your 6 answers cost one how does that work out? (nature’s claim, chain of vapor)
Rd 3 Game 1, when you brainstorm the turn before he tried to go off, you could have put the exhume back to the library instead of the mystical tutor. This way, you have a blue card for the force of will when you brainstorm. If he has nothing, u can entomb for iona and mystical tutor for the exhume anyway.
Love it, good stuff.
Blue we have rushing river, echoing truth, and the 2 deads that can also get rid of the chalices. We can also hold say mystical tutor in our hand and when they cast it we can tutor up a spell to deal with the chalice.
ChonG that probably would have been the best situation for me, but I was pretty much banking on hitting a blue card+FoW or a daze. You are correct in that I could have tutored for the exhume, which makes your version of the play optimal in that situation.
Hot damn!
Man your plan of fetching then hardcasting the trap at 11:03. U still have IONA on black so u did the right thing gettin truth.
Danne great observation. I can’t say weather or not I knew that at the time, but you are correct. At least I know I didn’t misplay actually even though I wasn’t sure of it at the time. Thanks for all the input and feedback guys I appreciate it!
Actually I was right the first time Iona only shuts down the opponent and not myself, therefore I would still be able to cast the trap.