Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord might work if you have room for him? He'll be growing as the graveyard fills up and can work as a fatty if you can't draw into a whip. He can also recur himself by sacing lands. What do you think?

Yeaaaahhh. I've been trying to put together a Reanimator deck since Theros came out. It's just not the same without Unburial Rites . I feel that Giant Adephage and Lord of the Void are kinda useless as Whip targets. They need to attack in order to get any effect which means they can be removed before that. Things like Ashen Rider and Angel of Serenity are much more valuable as whip targets since they have etb triggers. You could even run Gary or Centaur Healer .

Looks solid either way. I'm glad they printed Mulch on a creature. +1 from me.

I'm still tinkering with the deck but I'm almost certain I'm going to drop the adephage and put in the Abhorrent Overlord. He's got a somewhat useful ETB effect and a decent sized flyer so I'll probably go with him. As for Ashen Rider, I'm still weighing his effectiveness. I like the exile permanent on entry, but he's a 5/5. I kind of like higher power flyers to swing with the whip for a greater life deficit on my opponent. Of course, it could be institutionally whipped out to deal with pesky plainswalkers to remove a god. Maybe I'll squeeze a two-for in there.

Ashen Rider isn't necessarily about the damage. It's the E/LTB trigger. If you're looking for a solid flyer then use Shadowborn Demon . Nice ETB and a solid body. You can also hardcast him since he cost 5.

Keep in mind he doesn't have a LTB effect though. Ashen Rider will get exiled by the whip and doesn't die (go to graveyard from play). If it did trigger twice, good lord I would use him in a heart beat but sadly that's not the case. I'll play with him further and see if I get enough return out of him. I do like playable things to whip... and it's 4 specific mana and 8 total CMC is a bit pricey to be hard casted in the event that I don't have a way to pitch him to the graveyard.

Obzedat's Aid is all I have to say. You could even run 1 Rescue from the Underworld . Sigh. I wish we had more tools. Aggro is such a bad matchup. Gotta wait until journey to nyx I guess.

snowbunny - Aggro is not a bad match up for a new junk re-animator deck, this is just not a finely tuned version. This deck needs a lot of changes to become competitive. things like Centaur Healer , Loxodon Smiter , Sylvan Caryatid and Voice of Resurgence give this kind of deck a much better early game that can shut down aggro before just taking over the game. I'm not sure how well the deck is, but I am about to built it online and do some testing.

Centaur healer is definitely a good sideboard card. I tested my brew tonight and went 2-2. Voice of Resurgence helped me a lot against mono black. I lost my games against R/G monsters and Rakdos Control. Slaughter Games screwed me over.

Ya Slaughter Games will definitely do that! I'm just stumped lol, I've built like 20 different decks to test over the last couple weeks and nothing is really jumping out. G/R monsters seems to be like the next BIG thing (pun intended), but then people can just make Esper control again to slow that down, until rotation at least, all of U/W based control decks are in RTR, so the next control variants are either gonna be really bad or wizards has to print some sick cards in the next few sets for them.

Reanimator's matchup against U/W is disgustingly easy. Board Sylvan Primordial and you should be okay. Reanimator thrives during late game. I just don't know what to do for most midrange decks. Reanimator's matchup against R/G is at least 3-7. Probably 1-9.

Cool deck man +1. I like to watch standard stuff and keep up with it, but its too expensive for me though. Also is there suppose to be 61 cards, or did you just make a mistake?

I have a thing for playing with 61 cards. Not sure why, but I just do. ;

Thanks for the FNM rundown. I recently made a Junk Reanimator (Lovely Craft, Re-Animator) and I was wondering how it would fare against other decks. I recommend Giant Adephage vs Armada Wurm because it pretty much does the same thing. The trample usually ensures that you get a token, otherwise they are forced to block with more than one creature. Also, honestly I think Grisly Salvage is better than satyr wayfinder due to the creature draw, but that's just my opinion. I think you should probably bump commune and whip up to 4 each, maybe drop a creature and a heros downfall.

If anything Grisly Salvage should replace the Commune with the Gods . I'm considering doing that already because originally, this deck did not run as many Obzedat's Aid . Now that I don't have to worry about losing the whips to the graveyard, I can probably go off withthe salvages instead. I like the wayfinder because he's a creature that I can discard to feed Lotleth Troll for some early beats.

Giant Adephage I had used already in my first version of the deck for the very same reason you gave. I love it's token populate nonsense, but it's just flimsy against some decks like G/R monsters. It also could be potentially Doom Blade ed before damage is dealt so it turns the whip's four mana activation into a waste. Armada Wurm isn't as big or steamrolly as a the Adephage, but it's something that can be hard casted for 6 mana that gives two creatures/attackers/blockers, and is something I can whip out and keep a 5/5 wurm in addition to the wurm brought in by whip. Simply put, the Giant Adephage is ONLY good when and IF it deals damage to your opponent. If you hard caste it, you get nothing right away and your opponent has a whole turn to find an answer for it. Believe me, it's great, but I like having ETB effects more with the whip.

Thanks for the suggestion though!

I'm glad you're happy with your FNM performance. I actually went 4-1 yesterday in a 4 round cut to top 4 night with my brew. After trying to do different things with Reanimator I realized that having consistency is more important than what you want to reanimate. I've come to terms with Voice of Resurgence and that it's really a luxury card. I've also come to terms with the fact that the only viable Whip targets are Angel of Serenity , Ashen Rider , Blood Baron, and Obzedat, Ghost Council . Everything else is a setup in order to allow you to play reanimation spells and get Whip on the field.

I've talked with a lot of people about Reanimation and The basic shell consists of:
Lotleth Troll
Satyr Wayfinder
Sylvan Caryatid
Angel of Serenity
Ashen Rider
Grisly Salvage
Whip of Erebos
Obzedat's Aid

Things that I know are very good for the deck from personal experience are Deathrite Shaman and Abrupt Decay . I play two of each. I split my removal package 2:2 between Decay and Hero's Downfall . I mean, Planeswalkers are easy pickings with your flying fatties so 4 Downfalls is a bit overkill. Playing a double color costing card on turn 3 in a tri-color deck requires you to have at least 15 sources of that color to ensure you are consistently able to play said card.

I disagree with Adephage over Armada. ETB > Attack Trigger. Also, I only run 2 Whips. I've found that I never want to see two Whips in my opening hand but I want to see it enough after digging. If I oops my Whip into the graveyard then Aid will let me get it back for only 1 more mana than it would cost to cast Whip. The thing I see with this deck is that your gameplan is either a) Feed the Troll and beat them down because your reanimation was thrown to the graveyard, b) You curve out great and start reanimating, or c) You are stuck playing 1/1's and waiting to hard cast your fatties. Deathrite Shaman helps so much in scenario C.

But to each his own. Junk is so caried between players. Good luck perfecting it! I'm probably going to put my Reanimation deck brew away for a bit until Journey to Nyx gets released.

I see what you guys mean about the Adephage. In my reanimator, I have it sideboarded against boros or anything with protection from white like blood baron or stormbreath dragon. I simply run 4 angels because they are pretty much the best whip option. Also, I've considered Borborygmos Enraged for sideboard. You can purposefully save up lands, whip him in, deal like 9 damage with the discard. If you guys are adamant about keeping the worm, Trostani's Summoner is another option.

I don't even splash white in my junk and rely more on resolving a whip or using rescue from the underworld. The result is a very strong early game with no mana troubles and taking little to no damage from shocklands. The Shaman is such a good card also, I run 3 in mine and he is a gamebreaker when it comes to a stalemate. Especially if your opponent is on the backfoot, punishing them for 2 damage every turn can really accelerate their demise. The lifegain doesn't hurt either, exiling your mana dorks in the grave that have no whip potential. Also, I run 4 packrats to help defend, toss fatties to the grave, and withstand board wipes. From playtesting, pack rat is oftentimes a wincon on his own, especially if you have 2 or 3 out and top deck another, you're swinging with 4/4's with the ability to make another.

Since I don't run Obzedat's Aid, I've considered running Treasured Find , just in case I mill something that I needed. I've also considered running Codex Shredder , which would do awesome in long matches and can bring stuff back to my hand.

Anyway, that's my take and hopefully there is takeaway from it. I hope we get some decent golgari cards in Journey to Nyx, I would really like to see Unburial Rites come back. Good luck with your reanimators guys.

If you saw somebody running this deck at SCG open, you should give credit to this guy for it, not claim it's yours.

The archetype has been around for ages, man. I don't really claim ownership to it at all. I saw it in SCG yesterday, yeah, but I posted this brew up last week. I'll give credit to the fact that I've also seen it in a small SCG article about junk reanimater by Chris Vanmeter and it was still very different from mine. I did take the 4 Voice of Resurgence from his list because I like its ability to defend in the early game but other than that, the rest is my take on the deck. He ran 2 Deathrite Shaman which I love but I think he made his deck more along the lines of hard casting a lot of his fatties then whipping them back out. He ran 2 Lotleth Troll instead of 4 so like the other guy, to each his own.

I will also mention that I have had trouble with Abrupt Decay . I know the can't be countered is great. But I haven't had a use for it. Ive been liking Golgari Charm s versatility and has managed to resolve against detention spheres or regenerate against supreme verdicts early game.

This looks awesome +1!

I normally hate advertising decks, but this looks a lot like my: How to Abuse ETB effects. I use a few other fatties, including Sylvan Primordial and Nessian Wilds Ravager . Pack Rat also helps Lotleth Troll as another discard method (though less efficient).

I've seen that Stormbreath Dragon can be a real pain in the arse. It seems like Hero's Downfall would do the trick there, but if not, Utvara Hellkite isn't a bad off-color threat in the sideboard.

I DIDN'T EVEN READ THE COMMENTS- YOUR CURVING IS $#!7! Where's Varolz? Where's Jarad? Why are you not playing Grave Betrayal if you have anything above five? What happened to elvish mystic? Where's karametra? Where's golgari removal? Where's fleecemane Lion? Where's deadbridge chant? Where is a good deck?

I am thinking Commune with the Gods so you can get that whip you are liiking for?

I had commune originally but now I opted to put in more Obzedat's Aid . With 3 whips and 3 aids, it's quite okay to risk pitching a whip accidentally to the grave yard. Grisly Salvage ended up taking over for the communes for me because I found this deck works amazingly better if you hit your land drops. Grisly allows you to fetch a land to help you hard cast your big stuff which is just as bad as whipping them out.

Really, it doesn't matter. It comes down to player preference, really. You can have either Commune with the Gods or Grisly Salvage and it'll work just as good either way. :D

Hey man! How's your deck doing? Any good tournament reports? I just updated my Reanimator deck page with my two previous FNM reports. Check it out! Placed 5th(just out of reach for top 4) and placed top 8 the next week.

Gonna Get You Like a Spaceboy! (5th/8th @ FNM)