“Dirt” Cheap Reanimation

Legacy BG (Golgari) Budget Reanimator

Balaam__

Creature (20)

• 3x Ayumi, the Last Visitor
• 3x Body of Jukai
• 3x Iname as One
• 4x Lotleth Troll
• 4x Putrid Imp
• 3x Spectral Force

Land (20)

• 4x Forest
• 4x Golgari Rot Farm
• 4x Khalni Garden
• 8x Swamp

Enchantment (6)

• 2x Breeding Pit
• 4x Tortured Existence

Instant (8)

• 4x Fungal Infection
• 2x Goryo's Vengeance
• 2x Reincarnation

Sorcery (6)

• 4x Soul Exchange
• 2x Victimize

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Sideboard

Instant (10)

• 4x Apostle's Blessing
• 4x Doom Blade
• 2x Putrefy

Sorcery (5)

• 3x Duress
• 2x Feed the Swarm

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Just a quick build thrown together to prove Magic doesn’t need to be an expensive hobby to be fun.

Graveyard reanimation decks have been my favorite archetype since the game’s inception. This budget build aims to fill the pits of Sheol and then recall them to play. To that end we will break down the various tools at our disposal.

The Mana Base

•Swamps and Forests represent life and death, two themes our deck revolves around simultaneously.

•Golgari Rot Farm functions stupendously. Not only does it net us both mana types we could possibly use, but the added bounce effect can help produce tokens by returning a certain land to our hand to be replayed next turn. That land, of course, is Khalni Garden, which we will cover later.

Enablers

You see, in order to pull something out of the graveyard, we first need to get things into it. To that end we need discard sources. The cards listed below will fill that role.

•Putrid Imp is our first discard enabler. It’s cheap and if used to discard gains a little bit of temporary evasion through flying.

•Lotleth Troll is next. It will let us discard the specific creatures we want and will benefit from so doing-for each one dumped into the graveyard, the troll gets stronger. Throw in a built in regenerative ability and this 2 cmc creature becomes an early threat.

•Tortured Existence is an enchanted back up plan, of sorts. Should either the imp or the troll have failed and been sent to the graveyard themselves, with this enchantment we can inter a creature we want in the grave while returning the imp or troll to our hand to be replayed.

Token Generation: Why and How

Tokens play a key role in this deck. Their main purpose is to be used as sacrificial currency when paying the additional costs of certain specific cards. Hence, a reliable way to produce tokens is required.

•Khalni Garden will create a token as an ETB effect. That alone is mediocre, but when bounced back to your hand as a ‘penalty’ of Golgari Rot Farm and then replayed next turn for another token, it’s value is increased. Doesn’t hurt that it can be tapped for a green, too.

•Breeding Pit is a more reliable source of tokens, as it will produce one each and every turn. A free chump blocker every turn helps us stay afloat long enough to pursue our win strategy. The fact that they are thrull-type creature tokens is a bonus we will cover in a bit.

•Fungal Infection is fantastic. Play it to snipe a weak early game creature and be rewarded with a token as a matter of course. Use it mid game and it might help kill off that ‘just barely squeezed by without dying to damage’ blocker.

Spirits of the Grave

These are the creatures we will want to focus on piling into the graveyard, for future reanimation. They share the creature type Spirit for a reason detailed in the final creature’s summary.

•Ayumi, the Last Visitor, at 7 power and 3 toughness, is no joke. While she will probably die in a skirmish, she will no doubt deal lethal damage herself in the process. And since this whole deck revolves around pulling things out of the graveyard, it isn’t a big deal if she goes back in once in a while. Oh, and what are the odds the opponent will have a legendary land in play? Not bad, not bad at all.

•Spectral Force is an 8/8 Trampler with an unfortunate drawback. There were other, better spirits to choose from, but this being a budget build they were excluded due to price. Still, black is a very popular color. Don’t be surprised if this creature untaps more often than not.

•Body of Jukai is an 8/5 Trampler with an ability we will unfortunately not be making use of. Again, pricing mattered when designing this deck, so some sacrifices had to be made.

•Iname as One is our powerhouse. It’s another 8/8, yes, but it’s second ability is where it shines. So long as another spirit is in the graveyard, when the Iname is sent there it will then be exiled, returning the other spirit directly into play. Synergistic spirits, to be sure.

Death Receipts

In order to return our interred spirits, we have a few options at our disposal.

•Goryo's Vengeance will work on either Ayumi or Iname. They’ll be exiled, but when used to catch an opponent off guard it can be quite effective.

•Victimize is very efficient. Kill off a pathetic 0/1 green plant creature token to bring back two 8/8 Tramplers? Yes please.

•Reincarnation can be played targeting any token you already intend to sacrifice for additional value.

•Soul Exchange is the reason Breeding Pit is so valuable. For a mere two black mana, exile a thrull token to bring what becomes up to a 10/10 Trampler out of the graveyard.

Sideboard

Cards held in reserve for games two and three are straightforward and effective.

•Duress for cheap hand disruption.

•Doom Blade for effective creature removal.

•Putrefy lets us hit a creature or artifact.

•Feed the Swarm lets us zap an enchantment, something rather difficult for black up until recently.

•Apostle's Blessing bestows protection on one of our enabler creatures in the early game, or upon one of our threatening spirits in the mid to late game.

Top Ranked	Achieved #17 position overall 3 years ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Legacy legal.
Rarity (main - side)	2 - 0 Mythic Rares 13 - 0 Rares 17 - 2 Uncommons 16 - 13 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	3.62
Tokens	Plant 0/1 G, Saproling 1/1 G, Thrull 0/1 B
Folders	Legacy, WOW!!!, Fav decks, Legacy Decks, Budget Legacy Decks, Budget Legacy