Designed to be a fast Annihilator deck focusing on reanimation to avoid raw casting costs of yuuuuge creatures.
The Fodder:
Reassembling Skeleton - Summon for 2 mana and/or send to grave. Reanimate with its own ability and is the primary target for Victimize.
Shambling Remains - Another discard option and is pretty offensive by itself as a 4/3. Cheap Unearth cost at .
The Powerhouses:
Pathrazer of Ulamog - A great destroyer with Annihilator 3 and it comes with some good combat evasion.
It That Betrays - Annihilator 2 and steals things the opponent sacrifices. Opponent is -5 and you are +5 with this and Pathrazer.
Aurelia, the Warleader - A good target for Animate Dead. Try to use after using Victimize to bring back two Eldrazi in the same turn. Since Aurelia has Haste, you can attack in the same turn she is reanimated, hopefully granting a second combat phase with two untapped Eldrazi in the same turn they were reborn.
The Locks:
Void Winnower - Great for shutting down token blockers and limiting opponent's options to only odd CMC cards. Just another way to help pressure.
Iona, Shield of Emeria - Can be brought out as early as T2 (see below). Reanimate, declare, and potentially crush a mono (or even dual) color deck in early game. My favorite covfefe.
The Supply Lines:
Faithless Looting - Very cheap and great discard option. For one mana, we draw two cards to find Buried Alive, Victimize, or Animate Dead faster. Having to discard two cards helps get creatures into the grave faster.
Buried Alive - Primary method for getting creatures to the grave quickly. Make sure to send a self-reanimator like Remains or Skeleton the first time you cast this. The three I like to send are Skeleton, Iona, and Pathrazer.
Dimir Machinations - Primary use is to Transmute to find Buried Alive or Victimize.
Dark Ritual - Extra mana to get the strategy started by end of T1 in some cases or to help use Victimize easier in the early-mid game if mana is scarce.
The Gravediggers:
Animate Dead - Resurrect whatever for 2 mana. Love this card.
Victimize - Sacrifice Skeleton or Remains to bring out a couple Eldrazi.
An example of the ease of summoning:
(I play first. Assume Swamp, Dark Ritual, Buried Alive in opening hand. Animate Dead would be good too, but it may be drawn at start of T2.)
T1: Play Swamp and tap it for . Play Dark Ritual then Buried Alive. Send Shambling Remains or Reassembling Skeleton, one of the Eldrazi (probably Pathrazer of Ulamog), and Iona, Shield of Emeria to the grave.
T2: Play another land. Tap 2 lands for Animate Dead on Iona. Declare opponents primary color.
Some things I'm questioning/considering:
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Cut back on the self-resurrecting creatures? If I can search and send them to the grave with Buried Alive, why do I need to be worried about 4 to increase my chance to draw one? Maybe 2 Skeletons and 2 Shambling Remains?
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Any better self-reanimating creatures out there?
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I was using Fling for the easy kill with an Eldrazi, but I replaced them with Dark Ritual - deck can be much faster with the Rituals. Any different ideas?
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Thinking about using Sedris, the Traitor King to make every creature in the grave a self-reanimator.
Thoughts?
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Suggestions on some better bomb creatures along the lines of things that are normally hard to summon but totally annihilate the opponent? I can summon fast here so I love dropping these on the board in early game.
Thanks for looking, all suggestions welcome!
