The quest for a quality reanimator deck is never-ending for graveyard junkies like myself, and a Standard that includes Atraxa, Grand Unifier and Zombify is just begging for it. So today, I have a fresh take on the archetype in Abzan with a bit of a twist.
The Main Threats
Atraxa, Grand Unifier is a reanimation target so strong, she sees play in Legacy where nearly every card in the game is legal. She's a powerhouse stabilizer against aggro and her enters trigger drawing 3-5 cards consistently is bonkers.
Valgavoth, Terror Eater, on the other hand, is here to close the game. He draws our opponent's cards as they play while also being very difficult to remove. If an opponent can't answer him, games rarely last more than a turn cycle or two.
We also have a one-of Etali, Primal Conqueror as a free spin into our opponent's deck for value. It's rarely correct to target Etali first unless you find yourself in a position where your only out is spinning into an opponent's Sunfall or other removal. Be sure to keep track of what cards are left in your deck if you decide to grab this guy.
The Reanimation Spells
Zombify is a staple in the game with its first printing in the 2001 Odyssey expansion. Setting the reanimation threshold down to four rather than five (as it has been for years) really speeds up these strategies and allows for the Magical Christmas Land scenario of turn-four nine-drop more often than you might think.
Valgavoth's Faithful also gives us a turn-four reanimation option, though it does require some setup. This card is more often used as a five-mana reanimation spell that dodges Negate and Spell Pierce. The other big benefit is it can be recurred with Overlord of the Balemurk, allowing for some reach deep into grindy matchups if your opponent doesn't exile your graveyard.
And speaking of exiling graveyards…
The Twist
Ketramose, the New Dawn is a powerhouse god from Aetherdrift that draws you cards whenever cards are exiled and cares about how many cards are in exile. If there are seven cards in exile, it's an overstatted lifelinker that can put your opponent on a clock or stabilize against aggression. Including Ketramose means players with cards like Rest in Peace or Kutzil's Flanker need to seriously consider whether or not they want to remove our graveyard or leave Ketramose unable to attack or block. Generally, the correct move is to blast our yard, but if they don't, we can take advantage. Getting something back in a position that is generally a blowout for this archetype is kind of a big deal.
Ketramose gives us an excuse, then, to run Ghost Vacuum in our main deck with additional copies in the side. Given that many opponents will try to beat us by using a Ghost Vacuum of their own, this gives us a chance to exile our own threats under it for later recursion while also drawing cards as we go.
Okay, I know the best-in-class black board wipe isn’t exactly secret tech, but the way it interacts with Ketramose deserves a callout. When you collect evidence, you can select as many cards as you wish, so when you collect evidence, you can exile a few lands in addition to the spells to make sure you get to Ketramose’s exile threshold of seven. Since Ketramose is indestructible, he’ll survive while the rest of the board is obliterated, and now he can attack.
Filling Our Graveyard
Of course, we need ways to fill our graveyard and quickly. Dredger's Insight is a powerful option from Aetherdrift that gives us incidental life gain and can even help us hit our land drops. It also can pull back an Overlord of the Balemurk or Valgavoth's Faithful to hand to tee up our big reanimation turn.
Wrenn and Realmbreaker serve a couple of functions. Primarily, she's here to prevent some damage, fill our graveyard, and draw us a card. If she can smooth out our land drops, great. She also represents a threat, however, and can really push damage if left unchecked. Her Chromatic Lantern passive also gives us the ability to hard cast Etali, Primal Conqueror or Atraxa, Grand Unifier if it comes to that.
The Overlord cycle is one of the best cycles of Magic cards we've seen in Standard in some time, and the black one is no exception. Milling cards and getting a raise dead on entry and attack is bonkers powerful and facilitates our primary game plan perfectly. Being able to pull back Wrenn and Realmbreaker, Haywire Mite, or Valgavoth's Faithful are generally the best hits.
The Removal Suite
Haywire Mite is an absolute house against enchantment decks like the Zur Overlords deck that just won the pro tour. Having this in the opening hand will go a long way to setting yourself up for success. It exiles the target to help with Ketramose and it dies itself to be recurred later. It even gains life and can be used to remove the Monster Role tokens that give mice trample after a Monstrous Rage.
Bitter Triumph continues to be the best piece of removal in any deck that wants to discard cards. Being able to chuck an uncastable Valgavoth or Etali into the board while disrupting their game plan is priceless.
In the sideboard, we have cards like Blot Out and Anoint with Affliction which should come in against Domain and Mice respectively since they line up against those threats a bit better. We even have Dreams of Steel and Oil to get creature-heavy decks to start exiling cards as early as turn one.
Conclusion
As of this writing, I’ve only played a handful of matches with this deck, but with determination, it’s been able to grind and keep up with Domain fairly consistently, which is a good sign given how popular that deck is likely to be in the coming weeks. Early results are very promising and I’ll be sure to report back as I put in more reps with the deck.
To check out those reps, drop a follow over on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/hamhocks42
