Foundations has brought a lot of powerful tools from the game's history back to Standard and, in some cases, to Arena for the first time. Among them are Llanowar Elves and Zombify, which both add speed to strategies by ramping on turn one and reducing the total cost of the target spell, respectively. Given this perfect storm, I had to create a Golgari reanimator deck leveraging these two with the hope of jamming out an Atraxa, Grand Unifier or Valgavoth, Terror Eater on turn three.
The Main Gameplan
With a Llanowar Elves on turn one, we could theoretically fire Zombify as early as turn three with relative ease. We have to, somehow, get a Zombify target into our graveyard on turn two and have our Llanowar Elves survive. Given that if the elves die, we can still pull off our gameplan on turn four, that's not our primary concern, and we don't have any card slots devoted to protecting our elves.
The tools we're using to fill our graveyard are crazy efficient. Seed of Hope only costs a single mana, gains us life to survive early pressure, and helps us dig for lands to make sure we stay on curve. In a perfect world, a turn two Seed of Hope mills Atraxa or Val and finds us an untapped land. Bitter Triumph is a four-of in the main deck because of the added utility of dumping a threat that's stuck in our hand while also efficiently removing key threats to break up our opponent's gameplan. We also have a planeswalker in the list at the three-drop slot that can come out as early as turn two with elves and a dual land, but she deserves more discussion.
The Reanimation Targets
There’s probably no surprise in the two studs that we’ll be pulling out of the graveyard. Atraxa refills our hand while Valgavoth simply ends the game from many positions. Given that they’re both so competent in their respective areas of expertise, I didn’t see the need to add any other targets.
There was consideration for Sire of Seven Deaths or Koma, World-Eater, but in the end, I decided it was best not to diversify more than was necessary and maximize consistency with the two best bombs available. There'll be brews featuring these two in the future, though, don't worry.
The Reanimation Spells
Valgavoth's Faithful is nearly additional copies of Zombify within this deck, but it also has the benefit of being recursive through Seed of Hope or Overlord of the Balemurk. If the stars align, it could also give us a turn three or four big creature pretty easily. Also, keep in mind that if it eats a piece of removal like a Go for the Throat or Get Lost from our opponent, that's one fewer piece of removal they can use on our big threats down the line.
The Cruelty of Gix is back because it's a powerhouse reanimation spell that also has a ton of utility. As a permanent, it's eligible for Seed of Hope recursion, and it gives us the ability to steal our opponent's creatures, too. With all the Sheoldred, the Apocalypses, and Archfiend of the Drosses running around, that option can't be overstated.
The Grinding Stars
Liliana of the Veil is possibly the best card in this type of archetype, bar none. She's key removal against midrange strategies and can hate your opponent's hand while filling your graveyard. She's honestly a powerhouse and even represents a threat your opponent has to respect because if you get to her -6 ability, the game is likely done whether or not you pulled off the other strategies. Also, as a permanent, she's eligible to get scooped up by Seed of Hope, and she's an eligible target for the next beast I'm going to talk about.
Overlord of the Balemurk might be the finest mill dork ever made. It fills the graveyard on entry and attack while also being a sizable body your opponents will be forced to respect if you ramp into it. The ability to return spent Lilianas to hand is insanely powerful and leaves decks with only a few creatures high and dry. We also have Valgavoth's Faithful in the mix to act as a Zombify that we can reload if the Overlord is doing its thing.
These two pieces together give this deck a surprising amount of staying power even in the face of repeated graveyard removal via Soul-Guide Lantern, Ghost Vacuum, or Tranquil Frillback. Until your opponent literally exiles every copy of these pieces you have, the reanimation engine will just stay online. There's still Rest in Peace to consider, of course, but there are answers for that in the sideboard.
Sideboard Considerations
When you need to answer a Deep-Cavern Bat or Heartfire Hero, you need instant-speed removal on the cheap. Cut Down is excellent, especially when you're on the draw versus the bat, while Anoint with Affliction is the best against the Gruul prowess decks. The prowess creatures tend to grow out of Cut Down range shockingly fast, and denying the Heartfire Hero death trigger is a pretty big deal.
Sheoldred's Edict is also a consideration here that I'll probably look into because it works around Snakeskin Veil, but it's not great later in the game because the opponent will get choices.
Pick Your Poison is an absolute staple in older formats, and I'm starting to see why. The range of options makes it perfect against a deck running Deep-Cavern Bat, Unholy Annex, and Ghost Vacuum post-board. It costing only one green also means you can stack it into an early turn off of the Llanowar Elves mana rather than let that ramp go to waste. We also have Tear Asunder because of how well it lines up against Sheltered by Ghosts and the aforementioned Unholy Annex. We even have one Fade from History to slot in in case our opponent is on an enchantment-heavy boggles deck running Gremlin Tamer and a million auras.
Conclusion
Playing this deck is firing all the happy chemicals in my brain, and I look forward to spending hours with it on the ladder. If you’re a GB reanimation enthusiast like me, this should be right up your alley. The sideboard will likely shift over time as the meta develops, but I’m very happy with where this deck currently sits. I hope you are too!
Thanks for reading, and happy brewing!
