A golgari take on a reanimator deck in standard. The aim is to ramp and mill yourself in the early game before reanimating some huge behemoth and smashing your opponent with it. To fill the role of ramp and self mill are creatures like Glowspore Shaman, Mire Triton, Paradise Druid, Skull Prophet and Leyline Prowler. It is crucial to get these creatures down early because the deck really can't function if you don't get to 5 mana or have something in the yard to reanimate.
Then we have our reanimation spells, which you ideally want to be casting as early as turn three, but around turn four or five is probably more realistic. I've chosen Blood for Bones, Bond of Revival and Back for More, as I believe they do a better and faster job for this deck than some of the other options I cut like Unbreakable Bond and Cauldron's Gift. Blood for Bones made the cut because of the ability to play it a turn earlier than the others and returning something else to your hand is very useful as well. Also the cost of sacrificing a creature isn't too much of a drawback because we have a lot of small creatures like Glowspore Shaman which are prime sacrifice fodder. Bond of Revival is in here over Cauldron's Gift and Unbreakable Bond because I value haste over +1/+1 counters or lifelink. Even though the mill effect from Cauldron's Gift is nice if we can make it to triple black, I think swinging in with a beater the turn it is reanimated is not only better than the extra size, but it also gives your opponent a turn less to deal with it.
Back for More is the one I'm not entirely convinced about though. The fight effect can be devastating and bringing something back at instant speed is just incredible as well. Six mana is a lot though but the upsides are so strong that I'm willing to keep it in.
Now comes the juicy bit: the reanimation targets. First up we have Titanoth Rex. An 11/11 is pretty big and the cycling ability is fantastic as it means that it can get itself into the graveyard and isn't completely dead if it makes it into our hand. End-Raze Forerunners is next, and a 7/7 may not be incredibly big, but the haste and the vigilance are very strong, and the pump effect can turn our team of mana dorks into actual creatures, especially since a lot of them have reasonably high power. Then there's one Impervious Greatwurm because a 16/16 indestructible is not bad on turn 5. It's possible this should just be the fourth titanoth.
We also have Murderous Rider to just get rid of pesky creatures and planeswalkers that may be interfering, and leave leave behind a decent blocker to keep us alive. Cavalier of Thorns is another all-round great multi-purpose creature in this deck. It can mill you, ramp you, block well, apply pressure and even when it dies it can bring you back a reanimation spell or a threat if you need to hard cast one. It's also not a bad thing to reanimate if you haven't managed to hit any of the big guys yet, and can help you put them in the yard when it comes down too.
And in the manabase we have the BG scrylands, shocklands, Fabled Passage, and Castle Locthwain to help find the cards we need if we are out of gas.
