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Lovely Craft, Re-Animator

Standard BG (Golgari) BGW (Abzan, Junk) Reanimator

samuraizack

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Creature (24)

Land (24)

Artifact (4)

Instant (4)

Sorcery (4)

Sideboard

Creature (4)

Instant (7)

Sorcery (4)

Maybeboard

Creature (11)

Sorcery (2)

Summary

Pack Rat and Lotleth Troll here are the stars. The objective is to stall early on, dropping the rat, shaman, caryatid, or troll early on and discarding a fatty like Angel of Serenity . Keep multiplying your rats every turn while you mill yourself with Commune with the Gods and Grisly Salvage, keeping an eye out for Whip of Erebos. Once you have the whip out, start bringing in your big threats: Angel of Serenity , Obzedat, Ghost Council, Ashen Rider , and Gray Merchant of Asphodel. As a backup, use Rescue from the Underworld to sac your rat and bring a friend back.

Card Breakdown

Creatures

  • Pack Rat: A great turn 2 drop, you want him or Lotleth Troll in your opening hand. Turn 3, he allows you to discard a big creature you may have had in your opening hand. Try to keep your mana up into your opponent's turn so they think you have combat tricks or removal ready for them. Use his copy ability as an instant speed chump blocker.
  • Sylvan Caryatid: Primarily here to combat against aggro and provide you with some mana ramp. The hexproof does wonders against black and red and she allows you to get the Whip out a turn earlier.
  • Deathrite Shaman: A great creature if he can stick. Ramps nicely with his Caryatid friend and is able to gain you life or bleed your opponent every turn.
  • Lotleth Troll : You want him or Pack Rat in your opening hand to protect yourself from aggro decks and chump block. Fake your opponent out by holding onto your large creatures for as long as you can, creating fake card advantage. When he needs to get buffed, then you discard them. If the opponent has lots of removal, consider dropping him turn 3 so you can regenerate him the same turn.
  • Angel of Serenity : Now we get to the fun cards. Angel of Serenity can set them back so far, exiling their big creatures and allow you to swing with your rats or trolls and the angel against them. Have fun gaining life via the Whip also. As an aside, don't forget you can exile a rat, caryatid, troll, or shaman from your own graveyard and send it back to your hand at the end of the turn when the angel is exiled.
  • Ashen Rider : An amazing card that forces your opponent to make a difficult decision if they have a big flier. They either have to take the 5 damage or risk losing that creature altogether via the exile on death ability. The rider's exile on enter is amazing against god cards, enchantments, or even a land if they don't have anything on the board.
  • Gray Merchant of Asphodel: Self explanatory card. He can gain you life, can be cast from your hand, die then reanimated to recycle his ETB trigger. He can also be Rescue from the Underworld'ed, sac him, return him to recycle the ETB.
  • Obzedat, Ghost Council: A great card that slowly bleeds your opponent. Red decks have no answer to him, plays wonderfully with the Whip because he comes back regardless. Don't exile him at the end of your turn, chump block with him, Return from the Underworld, sac him and have him come back with a friend to recycle his ETB bleed.
Other
  • Rescue from the Underworld : Try to sac ETB creatures to recycle their abilities. If you have 9 mana, you can whip in a creature, swing, sac it with Rescue, then get it back at your next upkeep. If you have to sac a Pack Rat, make sure to sac the original, not the tokens so you get him back.
  • Grisly Salvage: Mulch for creatures and lands. Be very careful you don't mill a Whip.
  • Commune with the Gods : Digging for rats, trolls and the whip.
  • Whip of Erebos: The lifeblood of this deck. Use with the big creatures to take advantage of their ETB triggers. Obzedat can be whipped in and return again at your upkeep. If you have mana dorks out, you may be able to drop it and use the ability in the same turn.

Sideboard

I need help with the sideboard at the moment, so any assistance would be appreciated.

Maybeboard/ Cards to Consider

The maybeboard is full of creatures that either benefit from ETB or would be worth reanimating. Let me know what you all think of them. There are also some golgari cards in there to consider mainboarding. Borby could be a game winner if I reanimate him and he mills whenever you deal damage via his trample. I could purposefully save up lands for a couple turns, then discard 3 or 4 do deal some massive damage. Honestly though, Jarad could probably have more utility than Borby, especially if I whip someone in and then sac him with Jarad.

Foreseen Weakness

Also, hexproof could really shut down Ashen Rider and Angel.

Conversion via Sideboard

If for some reason your opponent is playing heavy control and completely nullifying your whips, or they're running pro-white creatures, the easy solution is to side out two whips and side in more creatures with your kill spells. The sideboard overhauls this deck into a MBD hybrid. I can't think of anything more confusing for your opponent than playing against a golgari reanimator deck, and then the next round playing against MBD out of nowhere. Even though this is a reanimator deck first and foremost, it can easily make the transition with the abrupt decays and hero's downfall. I think you could definitely catch them off guard after game 1, when they're expecting that whip but never see it. Here is a link to the deck when the sideboard has been introduced, Lovely Craft, Re-Animator Sideboarded

Suggestions

Updates Add

3rd place, 3-1 FNM Results — March 21, 2014
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This deck did some serious work at FNM, going 3-1.

G1 vs RDW, 2-1:

Game 1, Lotleth troll was simply too much. Got the whip out turn 5 so I could emergency regen. Was able to double block with a rat and troll to kill his madcap skills creature. Whipped in Angel of Serenity next turn, wiped his board. Was able to win in the coming turns with the troll and whip'ees. Game 2, He had shocks and Lightning Strikes for all my creatures, along with his own dude with madcap skills, couldn't keep up. Game 3, drew two of my abrupt decays and was able to stifle his early game madcap skills by zapping his dude on turn 2. Dropped rats for multiple turns, went to the draw and got my whip of erebos about 10 turns later. Whipped in 3 Angel of Serenity's while gaining life and dealing the 5+ every turn, took the win.

G2 vs Jund 2-1:

Game 1 I got my combo off absolutely perfect. T1 deathrite shaman, T2 Packrat, T3 Lotleth Troll, T4 Whip, drop Angel of Serenity, draw a mill, mill another angel and rider, whip them in the coming turns whiping his Reaper of the Wilds, Polukranos, and friends. Game 2 I had a misplay where I played a whip and then decided to thoughtseize after it, he played Golgari charm and blew up my whip, then revealed 2 stormbreaths in hand. I lost in the coming turns when he drew into another stormbreath. G3 he kept a poor hand with a heros downfall and mizzium mortars and the rest were lands. I put on very early pressure with deathrite, troll, and rats, killing him with those creatures alone. By turn 6 or so, he had one or two creatures out and I overran him.

G3 vs MBD 0-2 loss:

G1 was very close, I built up a wall and got my whip out. Unfortunately, I was not able to dump any good creatures to my grave. Got off 3 Gray Merchants, 2 from hand, 1 from grave. He was able to Hero's Downfall my Merchant's ETB trigger to save his last two life. Then he top decked his own Gray Merchant and put his life way up, just out of range for my deathrite shaman to ping him for the remaining 2. G2, I got thoughtseized, revealing my two Pack rats. He decided to take the gray merchant in my hand, which was probably the right choice. Turn 5 I had 3 rats out, he top decked Bile Blight and from then on, I had nothing to really protect myself, drawing 5 lands in a row.

G4 vs Naya 2-0:

G1 was one of the closest games and biggest comebacks I've ever made. I had 5/5 rats clogging up his attacks. I also had whip out, constantly saving me, but he had Scavenging Ooze out. He had Nylea, Xenagos, like 6 creatures out. Finally he swung with the ooze, I double blocked the huge 7/7 ooze, was able to discard all my whip creatures into the grave FINALLY via Lotleth Troll. I whipped in Ashen Rider to exile his Nylea the next turn, after taking massive trample damage, going to 2 or 3 life. Next turn he ultimated Xenagos, getting like 4 creatures onto the board. My rats were starting to dwindle, me not being able to really chump and protect my life and regenerate them every turn. Had to chump with my 3 remaining rats, only had a deathrite shaman and 8/7 troll left on the board, with my whip. Drew into 2 Angel of Serenities, one after another, was able to wipe his huge threats and keep his weenies out while I could afford to swing out and gain like 13 life. The next Angel I drew that I whipped in was lethal damage, getting rid of his blockers and swinging with troll and angel. G2, my combo went off so much better and was able to give a Fanatic of Xenagos haste on turn 3, let him attack into my troll and discard 4 creatures. That troll lived the entire game, gaining me life via my whip. Was able to mulch 2 angels, 2 obzedats, and a gray merchant, but Angel of Serenity won me the game, wiping his weenies off the board and letting me get in with the angel and my troll to deal huge damage.

Conclusion: The deck is surprisingly resilient. Lotleth troll did some serious work here, getting up to 6/5 and higher many times and being able to lay on a beating. I think the Whip is so damn good. Having permanent lifelink lets you stabilize by turn 3 and really turn the game around quick. The games against MBD were a bit of a fluke due to his topdecks, but it was still a difficult matchup. MBD is just good against everything, so I wasn't expecting to really win anyway. I'm pretty surprised but this deck really has a 1-up against RDW. Lotleth troll is the perfect counter while rats can help keep up with their dudes midgame. Once the whip goes down, if you have some board presence, that's pretty much game. 3rd place in a tournament of about 30 people isn't too bad, especially when my LGS's meta is mostly MUD, MBD, boros, and a few control players here and there.

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Revision 10 See all

(10 years ago)

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #45 position overall 10 years ago
Date added 10 years
Last updated 10 years
Legality

This deck is not Standard legal.
Rarity (main - side)

6 - 4 Mythic Rares

23 - 7 Rares

3 - 4 Uncommons

8 - 0 Commons
Cards 60
Avg. CMC 3.44
Tokens Copy Clone
Folders Lovely Craft, Re-Animator, Reanimator, Green , fun, Inspiration, Junk, Decks from Tappedout, Things I Like From Others
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