I think you could drop a few of the 4 drops for a couple Borborygmos Enraged and a couple Obzedat's Aid By turn 4 (with your ramp) you should be able to discard with Lotleth Troll and reanimate Borborygmos Enraged . . and he is a beast.

goodness gracious, he is a beast. I will do him as a 1-of for sure. Might do the OA as 1-of as well, gonna add the OA to the SB for now, and the other to the maybe board, thanks for the suggestion!

I'm glad someone is making use of Lord of the Void and Obzedat's Aid . I felt like both of those had potential but got completely ignored by nearly everyone I knew. Same thing with Giant Adephage , which I really like with Whip of Erebos .

Thanks Dritz!! I like the combo with the whip and Giant Adephage then followed by Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord for a total of 14 damage and a token if any damage gets through and its not triple blocked.

love this deck, i would swap [reaper of the wilds] for [trostani, selesnya's voice] as it would also have great synergy with the [giant adephage] and help you gain back some of that early beat down.I would also consider squeezing sin some [armada wurm] as this also works well with the [whip of erebos] and [trostani, selesnya's voice].

love this deck, i would swap reaper of the wilds for trostani, selesnya's voice as it would also have great synergy with the giant adephage and help you gain back some of that early beat down.I would also consider squeezing sin some armada wurm as this also works well with the whip of erebos and trostani, selesnya's voice.

love this deck, i would swap Reaper of the Wilds for Trostani, Selesnya's Voice as it would also have great synergy with the Giant Adephage and help you gain back some of that early beat down.I would also consider squeezing sin some Armada Wurm as this also works well with the Whip of Erebos and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice .

@ darkshia, I originally had both Armada Wurm and Trostani, Selesnya's Voice in the deck, but Trostani was so much harder to cast early game than Reaper of the Wilds , and I found that Armada Wurm didn't do as much for me as my other re-animation targets. I still have not ruled out side boarding either of them though for when I need them. Good suggestions, spot on!

maybe Loxodon Smiter would be a better choice than Reaper of the Wilds costs one less and is a hardy early blocker and attacker also it can not be countered so is a really good offense in a control match up?

I like Reaper of the Wilds because its SO hard to get rid of, and is consistent. Plus it stops them quickly from swinging in with big creatures with that deathtouch looming in there, and I have found by the point I no longer need to protect it, that I don't mind trading it. Its just extremely versatile.

Reaper of the Wilds has only one weakness, and that is that it hits the field on turn 3 or 4, and does almost nothing until your next turn. Until your next turn, it cannot gain hexproof, or deathtouch because you're probably tapped out at that point. If you're not tapped out, then you played him late, and now a 4-drop is competing with a 5-drop or 6-drop.

All in all, I think he's a little slow for a 4-drop, and you may just consider Deadly Recluse as an alternative because of it playing almost an equal role in the idea of trading for big creatures. In limited, Reaper of the Wilds can shift the game in your favor bigtime, but in standard, I'd have to see it in action. Definitely above the curve, but I couldn't possibly consider running 3 of him in this deck without Hythonia the Cruel

because Reaper is a gorgon.

@ ccharlie9999, most games I have enough ramp to cast her turn 3, and having a 4/5 with deathtouch on the field and a Sylvan Caryatid tappable on their turn to give it the defense deathtouch on their turn 3, that's a good card. Now it doesn't ALWAYS work that way, but quite a few times it has, and late game it fixes what I draw with the Scry ability whenever something on the field dies. Or its something I can discard to pump the troll. I considered Hythonia the Cruel , but found she is a terrible re-animator target, and ties up too much mana at any other point of the game. So not good for this style of deck. In a heavy golgari beater deck, I agree that she has a place, but just not here. Thanks for the comments and suggestions though!

The only reason I recommend that you at least find a place for Deadly Recluse in the sideboard is that the only defense you have against flying creatures in the early-game is Desecration Demon... or maybe Lord of the void if you're lucky enough to reanimate him. Deadly recluse is a very good trade, and the trade always works in your favor, because you only paid 2 mana for the creature you're losing, and they probably paid at least twice that for what they're losing. But yes, I see your point about Hythonia the Cruel being too slow. Makes sense.

Don't get me wrong, I love Reaper of the Wilds , and he almost found a place in my Golgari Control deck... almost. I think it was Thoughtseize that I put in his place because... well... it's Thoughtseize . Have you considered Thoughtseize for this deck?

Solid advice there ccharlie9999, and yes, I have considered Thoughtseize for this deck, and I hadn't looked at Deadly Recluse .

Thoughtseize - is a fantastic card, and I've heard the argument for it's place in ANY deck that is running black, and I totally understand that. But in this build, the reanimation is more of a focus than anything. And it's more what I'm losing to play it, than what I'm gaining by playing it.

Deadly Recluse - It's a great fit, and does a lot of what I am wanting early game. To slow momentum down for my opponent long enough to get my reanimation strategy to go off. However, keep reading . . . lol

The more I playtested this from the beginning, utilizing the Whip of Erebos as my main reanimator strategy, I realized that I could be getting those creatures back permanently through Obzedat's Aid , Rescue from the Underworld and Deadbridge Chant much more reliably than the whip, but the whip does add Lifelink, which is pretty essential to long term survival. Another thing I noticed, is if I lose the dredge and go exclusively with Deadbridge Chant instead of Grisly Salvage and Commune with the Gods , I have to up my mana base to get to where I can play it reliably within a set amount of turns. At that point I contemplated Jarad's Orders to put a creature I needed now in my hand, and a specific reanimation card in my graveyard. AND I needed a way to get the non-creature cards from my graveyard back into my library, so my odds of throwing a creature back on the field rise drastically, that comes with Bow of Nylea , which also provides for Flying defense, tucking the cards and gaining life. And it gives the bonus of all my attacking creatures gaining deathtouch, which in turn sets the Scry off on Reaper of the Wilds if they choose to block. And if not, than it's going to be a pretty fast game.

So with that all said, I might want to do some restructuring anyways, I'm just not really sure what way to take it until I've actually played it in my meta to see where I need to make the changes, and what works better than others. Does that make sense?

Makes perfect sense. Ultimately, it comes down to your meta. You'll know what you need to do in about about a week or two. Deadbridge Chant is interesting, but will be difficult to use it consistently and not just lose before you can get it to resolve. Also keep in mind that Rescue from the Underworld can be annoying sometimes. It's almost as if you need to have already reanimated once to feel the full power of Rescue from the Underworld. When you have say, a Lotleth Troll out on turn 5, and you're finally ready to use Rescue from the underworld, you must keep in mind that you don't get anything until your next upkeep. You sacrifice board state on turn 5 in order to have more board state on turn 6. Often times, you'll find yourself not investing enough board state early game to make the necessary sacrifice later game (because instead of playing creatures, you're using Jarad's Orders, Grisly Salvage etc), because you need all the board state you can manage just to stay alive. Keep that in mind when restructuring; knowing that you must have board state early game. The deck looks pretty brutal regardless, and I'd hate be against it in late game.

@ ccharlie9999 If only that Sylvan Caryatid could have deathtouch . . Lol. I usually don't run into a problem sacking because of my Elvish Mystic and Sylvan Caryatid presence, I can tap one out for mana and sack it to a rescue, and not lose out on much except a mana next turn, and I don't mind trading a mana drop for a 7/7 trample that copies itself. But good advice yet, will keep it in mind!

I honestly want to find a way to make this much simpler, just haven't hit the brilliant idea yet.

I like your deck a lot. I actually like it so much I've been using it as a base to form my reanimator deck. I can see where you're wanting to restructure because it is a very hard decision to make on how you want it to play. I decided to go a more midrange style but still keep the animation going so I added creatures that I would benefit from either using whip or obzedats aid. I kept my.reanimation targets to about 6 or 7 so I have a good chance of getting them without interrupting much with my midrange strategy. The only thing I'm having trouble with is deciding how much removal to have because it seems there are just too many good cards to take out or leave out

@ Eerryykk1313 - RIGHT!! I know, it's so hard to choose because you lose something so good for something else so good. I mean, the list of re-animator targets is pretty small right now, so it's pretty easy to hash those out without too much difficulty, but the support spells make you want to pull your hair out!! Thanks for the comments, link your deck when you get it where you want it, I will check it out!

Idk if its exactly where I want it to be but my deck is named Theros Reanimator. Couldn't get the link to work

Nice deck, +1. The timmy in me loves it to death.

I was trawling around for decks to playtest my The Storm Troopers [MWD]] against and found yours. I my deck won four of eleven games, (To be fair, I may have played yours wrong, and I definitely kept some bad hands). From the little I saw of it, your deck had trouble keeping the early blitz at bay due to color issues, mostly black. I think you wouldn't miss your plains, and maybe even a temple garden and a couple of forests for some swamps. I think you'll lose more games due to lack of black mana symbols than lack of white ones!

Sylvan Caryatid is so good here; I don't know why you'd only run three.

I don't like Lord of the Void here. There are better bombs. I'm pretty sure nine times out of ten you'd rather be dropping Angel of Serenity or Giant Adaphage.

Good advice smithereen and duely noted, I will make some adjustments as I have noticed the same things with the mana curve, and true with LOTV, Shadowborn Demon is often one I eye in replacement for him, and I have a 4th Sylvan Caryatid I can add too

To correct a typo in my above comment, Troopers won seven, Reanimator won four.

Shadowborn Demon is powerful, but I suspect you will often not have the six require creatures in your yard. Six is a big number. Have you considered Blood Baron of Vizkopa or Trostani, Selesnya's Voice ?

@ smithereen

I have two of each currently, and Shadowborn Demon is good because you can sack it to itself and then whip it back with haste to destroy more stuff.

Awesome deck ShadowLand. I wanted to make a reanimator as well, and had the same train of thought with Lotleth Troll and Garruk, Caller of Beasts .

I always imagined Ashen Rider on main board though.