Disclaimer: I am no expert on the deck, but I'll share some things I've learned so far. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. At the moment, I know the sideboard needs attention at least. I borrowed ideas for this build (and description) from LSV, Anthony Lowry, Joe Lossett, and others.
T1 Combo: Reanimate or Animate Dead or Exhume, Land, Dark Ritual or Lotus Petal, Entomb, Force of Will plus blue card, seventh card.
Play your land, tap for black mana. Cast Dark Ritual or Lotus Petal for an extra black mana. Cast Entomb for a beater, (probably
Griselbrand
) and put him into your graveyard. With your other (or other two) black mana, cast Reanimate or Animate Dead or Exhume to put your beater into play. Keep Force of Will at the ready to protect your combo.
Not actually a T1 kill, but at this point most players will resign, as you can begin gaining life and drawing cards all you want.
Here's a breakdown of the Mainboard.
BEATERS:
2
Griselbrand
: The best creature to cheat into play in the format. We all know how powerful it is, so not much explanation is needed here. Run him, and never, ever look back.
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria: There are plenty of decks that simply cannot beat this card. Being a 3 turn clock doesn't hurt either. A great tool to have in the maindeck, and also one of the easiest ways to get free wins against decks that depend on one main color and aren't prepared to beat it.
1 Tidespout Tyrant: Bounces any permanent, even lands!
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite: Perfect against most creature based decks.
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur: Griselbrand number three, but also effective against opposing Griselbrands. You want Jin against other decks trying to cheat the demon onto the battlefield and against Storm-based decks. Delver decks also have a hard time beating it, but you generally would rather have a Griselbrand or Iona first. Just don't let him deck you! It's also worth noting that Jin is our most expensive creature, therefore be careful when cheating him into play with Reanimate.
1 Sheoldred, Whispering One is here to deal with opposing creatures as well as functioning as repeating reanimation.
SPELLS:
1 Dark Ritual: One of the easiest ways to ramp almost anything out as quickly as possible. Dark Ritual plays a crucial role at almost all points of the game. It enables everything, from Turn 1 Reanimates, to hardcasting
Griselbrand
, to helping sidestep a Spell Pierce. I would run more, but some top players run zero because of the card disadvantage.
3 Lotus Petal: Most unfair decks that want to maximize explosiveness will run Petals. Petal is also important because it helps you play around Daze, a counterspell that hurts us a lot. While it's weaker than Dark Ritual, it can still mean the difference between going off on Turn 1-2 and not going off at all. It also can make any color, which helps with our splash.
4 Entomb: A staple of any reanimator deck by now. Grabs whichever beater you want and puts it in the graveyard.
4 Exhume, 4 Reanimate, 1 Animate Dead: Exhume and Reanimate are the most efficient ways you can get something into play from the graveyard quickly. This is sped up because of how Dark Ritual and Lotus Petal function in this deck.
4 Careful Study: Here for the loot effect, to dig and then put your beaters into your graveyard, as well as uneeded cards or
Dragon Breath
.
1
Dragon Breath
: If you can loot/discard this into your graveyard, your next beater comes out with haste for free.
1 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
: Also loots, then later can flash back any sorceries or instants in your gravyard. You can get a free block from Jace by blocking, using the loot ability, and then transforming him into the planeswalker. However unlikely, Jace is also an alternate win condition via milling your opponent with the ultimate.
2
Firestorm
: Great early game and late. In the first few turns, it puts a beater into your graveyard, and burns your opponent or a creature they have in play. Once
Griselbrand
is in play, you can draw 14 cards or so and cast
Firestorm
, discarding your hand as an alternate win condition. Notably, the discard effect is uncounterable, as it is part of the cards' cost to cast.
Brainstorm, Ponder, Force of Will: Your standard Legacy counterspell/card draw/manipulation package.
1
Izzet Charm
: Perfect catch-all for the deck, giving you a counter-spell, burn spell, or loot spell, whichever is needed.
Lands:
A pretty simple manabase for Legacy. Running my fetches and Dual lands, two basic Swamps. Running four Scalding Tarn because it manages to hit all of my mana-producing lands except the basic swamp, and can make opponents think not to expect black mana. 21 "lands" in total if you count the Petals and the Ritual. Notably, I have a total of 8 mana producing lands, just in case we need to hardcast a beater.
That's about it! Please let me know your thoughts.
