Dusmourn gave us some new bombs to reanimate in one of our favorite archetypes. There are good options that are both legendary and non-legendary. One thing that people don't always think about is: How can we creatures into the graveyard? How can we get them out of our hand when we accidentally draw them? There are a few cards that came out that can solve both problems for us. We also get to use a familiar friend from Bloomburrow as another discard outlet, and, in doing so, we are able to cast spells for free! You can probably guess who the new reanimation target is, as we are using Rakdos Joins Up to bring back our favorite legendary creatures. If that wasn't enough action, we also got another easter egg from the set in the form of a one mana creature that allows us to reanimate anything for four mana. This deck is sure to have some very high power level turns and will be incredibly explosive if left unchecked. Let's get into the cards!
As you can see, the deck is actually capable of playing a bit of a midrange game and has other combos available outside of simple reanimation. There will be times where we have two combat steps and cast two cards for free, or maybe we simply attack with an Atraxa twice for 14 damage. Some of the new cards from Duskmourn allow this to be more than a reanimator deck, and demand respect from the opponent as such.
Relevant New Cards
Sometimes it is just that easy. We can play this one mana creature on turn three, and then use it to reanimate on turn four. The deck can now threaten reanimation on turn four and turn five. It is pretty remarkable the number of times that our one mana 1/1 draws out a removal spell, and then we can use Rakdos Joins Up the next turn in order to bring back our large creature.
Here is our new bomb. Good luck removing this thing. If an opponent is not playing to the board, they are being punished to the max with our new Elder Demon. I have to say that it still likely isn't as good of a target as Atraxa, so we only run two copies, but man is it fun to let it sit there and make them deal with it. It's probably best that this card doesn't have an ETB effect though, because otherwise I believe it would be ban-worthy.
This is one of the best discard outlets that is in Standard right now. We get to re-draw after doing so, and we get to fill the graveyard to go for delirium so that we can have extra combat phases. The card plays so well off of itself, and I can't help but love the overall design of it. It also blocks well since it has three toughness as a two drop, so we are amassing great value early in the game, which is something the average reanimator deck sometimes fails to do. Since we are getting this value early on, it is another creature in the early game that demands removal.
The new overlords are all pretty awesome in their own way. I thought it was important to add this one in our deck because it is yet another turn two play that gets our engines going. You can also play this right after playing FOMO, and sometimes you can get delirium as early as turn three with it. The impending counters also present a clock, and allow us to ready ourselves for our explosive turn where we can win the game.
Not-So-New Cards to Help the Deck
This was in a previous iteration of a reanimator deck that I played, and it is pretty sweet. It is the card that gives us a discard outlet like I mentioned earlier, and it also allows us to play off of that to cast the free spells after doing combat damage. It really is a spin of the wheel. Sometimes all you get is a Valgavoth's Faithful, and sometimes you get a free Atraxa.
Atraxa is something I finally conceded to needing in the deck. I tried to get around using it for so long, but at this point, we need to add the "best" reanimation target for the deck to be viable in a competitive environment. We used to be able to get away with not using it, but the power level just keeps going up, and it's time to play ball. Filling up our hand is also supreme, as it can ensure that we don't run out of gas. We also have a finisher in the deck, and being able to look at ten cards after Atraxa hitting the board creates a high probability of us finding a card that will end the game.
This is our finisher. We don't often actually play out the creature, because if you cast Burn Together as the adventure, it usually ends the game. Even if it doesn't, it can get us close to being there, or even act as a removal spell if we absolutely need one. We can also get double damage from the fling effect with our reanimation enchantment.
I have been enamored with this card since OTJ, and if you have followed my builds since that set came out, you have seen me trying to find the best way to make it work. The fact that we get residual value from it after reanimating makes it that much more enticing for me, and it gives us the double damage needed to sometimes deal 27 damage with an Atraxa on the board.
The deck ends up always being fun to play, but we do have some sideboard cards to deal with the fast meta, and playing red and black allows us to have the best removal. I hope this deck treats you well, and don't forget to check back soon for Foundations builds!