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Tymna/Kraum RazBeary Farm


RazBearies is a hatebear-centric reanimator deck. The primary objective of Razbearies is to cast hatebears to slow down opponents and grid value with Tymna and Kraum in the early/mid game. Then combo off with Razaketh or go for the beat down with Elesh Norn.

I am a reanimator player at heart, and I have been spending several years trying to successfully construct a cEDH deck that can utilize reanimate as a winning strategy in sans-green. Why sans-green? I do not like green in magic so I wanted to develop a deck that does not use it, I suppose as a challenge, or perhaps a new interpretation of reanimator. Every iteration I have tried, I have found that miss greening leads to reanimator decks that uses the reanimated creatures as value and not as a winning line. This meant spending all your resources for value felt pretty bad with someone cast Gilded Drake and Swords to Plowshares. I pondered what I could do in these colors (with these commanders) that could make running reanimator worth it.

Well, Tymna wants to hit players with creatures for card advantage, and Kraum is good for grinding card advantage as well. Maybe a grindier game would be preferred. A lot of hate bears are evasive fliers or have key words like first strike making them good attackers for Tymna; They are also excellent fodder for Razaketh...

This is a first iteration of this primer. It will be thorough, but updated as new matches and cards are revealed in the never-ending hype season Wizards product release cycle. The primer will be split into Deck Motivation & Game Plan, Tested Match Ups, Key Weaknesses, and Notable Inclusions & Exclusions.


As stated in the opener, the primary motive of this deck was to use reanimation and recursion as a means to hate out the opponents and wait for the right time to combo. This deck is sans-green as I wanted to find a good reanimator strategy that played well with tymna and kraum and did not need green to be successful and was not hindered by it missing. The hatebears are good with Tymna, but why not Thrassios instead of Kraum? With Kraum we game an additional evassive beater for the beat down plan as well as having access to red. Red gives us the wonderful ritual on a stick Dockside Extortionist and the power house combo engine Underworld Breach. Well, if I want red, why not Thrassios/Vial-Smasher? Then we lose all the hatebears and Tynma. Kenrith then? Well Kenrith is 5 cmc, and as I will discuss later, this game deck was to get underway well a quick as possible to stop the lightning fast decks in the format such as Hermit Druid and Blue Farm. While yes, Kraum is 5 cmc, Tymna, the draw engine, is cheaper.

Piloting this deck well requires some practice and strong knowledge of the other decks at the table. Knowing the game plan of the other commanders and decks will help determine what hands to keep. KEEP HANDS TO HATE THE FASTEST DECK AT THE TABLE. One of the biggest problems for this deck is failing to keeping hands that interact or stax early. Slow hands all the druid and food chain decks to get under the hate.

Hands with early game reanimation are might look tempting but are not the best. This deck works better when the hatebears can be built up and work as beaters for Elesh Norn or fodder for Razaketh. Without enough creatures, these reanimation targets are not as powerful. Note: if you are against a lot of green dork decks, Elesh Norn can be used as a great early board wipe, but outside that... Better for later.

The recent hatebear Drannith Magistrate is probably the best general case hatebear as many decks in the post-flash meta rely more and more on their commander. So early drannith can lock out most players quickly. It also hates food chain and other graveyard plans. This creature is a magnet for removal for the previously stated reasons; it is worth protecting if most players have yet to cast their commander. If commanders are already in play, then probably less so with keeping alive. Hushbringer & Aven Mindcensor are also strong hatebears to get in play early for slowing down opponents.

Tymna is a very important for this deck, and when presented with the mana, it is usually a good option to cast her. As it is quite easy to get the combat damage with the bears. Kraum is less important to cast but is a good beater and draw engine when Archon of Emeria is not in play. Note, there is a risk of drawing Demonic Consultation and Thassa's Oracle early or while hushbringer in play. In these cases, it is ok to hold out on consult but cast oracle, as there are several avenues to recure oracle or bounce it. Jace, Wielder of Mysteries is also back up.

The two main reanimation targets are Elesh Norn and Razaketh, the Foulblooded. Razaketh is the primary target. During the late game, a free sacrifice outlet and tutor engine is very powerful. Once it is in play, you can eat any hatebears stopping you from winning to get thassa's oracle and demonic consultation or tainted pact, and some protection. If razaketh is not an option or the opponent is on a heavy dork strategy, then Elesh Norn is powerful for going in on the beat down plan. Norn will not end the game immediately, unless life totals are extremely low, but her in play with all the powered up hate bears should be enough to close out the game (or until you draw consult pieces).

Outside of Animate Dead, Necromancy, and Reanimate this deck runs additional recursion in the form of Sevinne's Reclamation and Underworld Breach. These cards allow you to recast or replay hatebears that get removed early and out value the other players at the table.


Tl;dr


A hatebears style Reanimator-combo deck that focuses on soft locking opponents with creatures and grinding card advantage with tymna/kraum/draw dorks then reanimating either elesh norn for the beat down plan or razaketh to tutor combo and win.

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Date added 4 years
Last updated 3 years
Legality

This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

14 - 7 Mythic Rares

60 - 20 Rares

18 - 4 Uncommons

7 - 2 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 1.97
Tokens Bird 2/2 U, Companion Zone, Frog Lizard 3/3 G, Spirit 1/1 WB, Treasure
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