Choosing the Wrench

Noble* Control Midrange Reanimator Theme/Gimmick UB (Dimir)

gnikrul

Creature (19)

• 4x Baleful Strix
• 2x Cloudkin Seer
• 4x Jeskai Sage
• 3x Mulldrifter
• 1x Prized Amalgam
• 2x Sultai Emissary
• 3x Viscera Seer

Instant (16)

• 2x Mana Leak
• 2x Negate
• 4x Supernatural Stamina
• 4x Tragic Slip
• 4x Undying Evil

Land (22)

• 4x Dismal Backwater
• 8x Island
• 10x Swamp

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Unearth

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Maybeboard

Creature (50)

• 1x Abyssal Gatekeeper
• 1x AEthersnipe
• 1x Augur of Bolas
• 1x Banewhip Punisher
• 1x Blind Zealot
• 1x Blood Artist
• 1x Brackwater Elemental
• 1x Butcher Ghoul
• 1x Carrion Feeder
• 1x Corpse Blockade
• 1x Deadly Grub
• 1x Deathgreeter
• 1x Dregscape Zombie
• 1x Dusk Legion Zealot
• 1x Faerie Seer
• 1x Festering Mummy
• 1x Geralf's Messenger
• 1x Haunted Cadaver
• 1x Impaler Shrike
• 1x Kathari Screecher
• 1x Lazotep Reaver
• 1x Liliana's Specter
• 1x Man-o'-War
• 1x Mardu Skullhunter
• 1x Midnight Reaper
• 1x Mindstab Thrull
• 1x Mortician Beetle
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Oona's Gatewarden
• 1x Orzhov Euthanist
• 1x Parasitic Strix
• 1x Phyrexian Rager
• 1x Plague Mare
• 1x Reassembling Skeleton
• 1x Rendclaw Trow
• 1x Rishadan Cutpurse
• 1x Rotting Rats
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Shipwreck Singer
• 1x Sidisi's Faithful
• 1x Snapcaster Mage
• 1x Stormbound Geist
• 1x Surveilling Sprite
• 1x Thoughtpicker Witch
• 1x Vengeful Rebel
• 1x Vraska's Finisher
• 1x Wakedancer
• 1x Wall of Corpses
• 1x Wormfang Drake
• 1x Yarok's Fenlurker

Instant (8)

• 1x Agony Warp
• 1x Countersquall
• 1x Curfew
• 1x Echoing Decay
• 1x Force Spike
• 1x Memory Lapse
• 1x Recoil
• 1x Spell Pierce

Artifact (2)

• 1x Ashnod's Altar
• 1x Culling Dais

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Exhume
• 2x Innocent Blood
• 1x Probe
• 1x Scarscale Ritual
• 1x Unearth

Enchantment (3)

• 1x False Demise
• 1x Shade's Form
• 1x Unhallowed Pact

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The Coolest Trick

What's the most exciting new card in Amonkhet, you ask? Well, for me, it's Supernatural Stamina. Not because it's a powerhouse (though I'd argue that even in Noble it isn't a weak card), but because I love Undying Evil. I enjoy finding new ways to eke out value from that little card, and in many cases a game loss would be no object to me if I can first make my opponent sweat by completely upsetting their vision of how the game is going for .

Sure, Cloudshift is a thing, but so much less satisfying. Both let you save a creature and potentially re-use enters-the-battlefield effects and the like. In many ways Cloudshift is superior as it requires no outside help to dodge Oblivion Ring, Pacifism, and so on. However, where dodging death is annoying to our opponent, defying death and coming back even stronger is something far more special. It exists on a spectrum from grim defiance to cackling villainy. It's choosing the wrench. "Yeah, that creature will take that three damage from Lightning Bolt. Let's see just how much it helps you." To me, the feeling of a good Undying Evil blowout is unique, and its own reward.

This is how you know I'm a Timmy.

So, then, Supernatural Stamina. If we simplify things and consider it four more copies of Undying Evil, then we cross the threshold of consistency from an effect that supports some decks well, to an effect we can build a deck from. Loving Undying Evil as I do, how could I pass up an opportunity to build that deck?

This is how you know I'm a Johnny.

Targets

We need lots of targets if we're going to run 4x Undying Evil and 4x Supernatural Stamina. We're looking for evasive threats with strong enters-the-battlefield effects, death effects, or other synergy, and regardless of they need to be worth more than , or it wouldn't make sense to protect them with these spells when we could just be playing more creatures.

Mulldrifter is the obvious one, and it just keeps getting better the closer one looks: Yeah, getting to keep your flier and draw another two cards when they try to remove it is great. What if they aren't running removal, or its turn 4 and you need gas now? Well, you can always Evoke it for , Undying Evil it in response to the Evoke trigger with , and wind up with a 3/3 flier and digging 4 cards into your library on turn 4. Yeah baby!

The real star is our Uncommon, Baleful Strix. We'll never get to Mulldrifter mana if we don't have some fast plays that can stop, say, a turn 2 Ulamog's Crusher in its tracks, so we need cheap plays that capitalize on death/ETB as much as possible. Drawing a card and killing an attacker is about as good as it gets for , and flying means it transitions seamlessly to a decent clock once it comes back with a +1/+1 counter.

That moves us to the second tier of targets. Cloudkin Seer also draws cards and acts as an even better clock, but is less useful defensively. Jeskai Sage is the right price and blocks beautifully with a Supernatural Stamina on the stack. Sultai Emissary has no friends with Morph abilities to enable here, but nonetheless getting a 2/2 that could possibly turn into a flier if needed isn't bad and sometimes you just need some toughness to soak up trample damage.

Support

We need to buy time for all this synergy to do its work, and stop complete blowouts that just win against a "fair" deck like this. That means blockers, countermagic, and removal.

The star here is our Rare, Prized Amalgam. He comes back every time we cast our death defying spells! a 3/3 blocker that keeps coming back for free will go a long way to stabilizing our board. Against a more fully controlling deck, he provides a resilient threat as well.

Then we have Mana Leak, Negate, and Tragic Slip to deal with impactful plays that threaten to overwhelm our grinding engine of card advantage and evasive creatures.

Finally, we have a problem. Sometimes your opponent just has lots of efficient removal, or sees through our gambit and leaves mana up to set up a blowout once we've cast an Undying Evil or Supernatural Stamina. Sooner or later we'll be on the back foot, with our targets already dead and our tricks stuck in our hand. Unearth acts almost like copies 9-12 of Undying Evil, but also restarts the engine when its been dismantled and can cycle away when we've got a band hand of all tricks and no targets.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	G
Legality	This deck is Noble legal.
Rarity (main - side)	5 - 0 Rares 3 - 0 Uncommons 31 - 0 Commons
Cards	61
Avg. CMC	1.82
Tokens	Manifest 2/2 C
Folders	Noble