Much Abrew: Alesha Reanimator (Modern)

Tweet by SaffronOlive // Jan 16, 2017

video Much Abrew About Nothing modern

Hello, everyone! Welcome to another episode of Much Abrew About Nothing. Last week during our Instant Deck Techs, it was a spicy combo deck for Modern that came out on top: Alesha Reanimator! So, this week, we are heading to Modern to see if we can kill our opponent in one attack step by reanimating a Master of Cruelties with Alesha, Who Smiles at Death! Can we dodge the graveyard hate and get some surprise wins? Let's see!

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Alesha Reanimator Instant Deck Tech

Alesha Reanimator vs. Lantern Control (Match 1)

Alesha Reanimator vs. Eldrazi & Taxes (Match 2)

Alesha Reanimator vs. Naya Burn (Match 3)

Alesha Reanimator vs. UR Prowess (Match 4)

Alesha Reanimator vs. Madcap Breach Reanimator (Match 5)

Alesha Reanimator (Wrap-Up)

Discussion

First off, we ended up going 3-2 in our matches, losing to the crazy Madcap Breach Reanimator deck and to some really bad draws against Eldrazi & Taxes.

Thankfully, we got pretty lucky to dodge the graveyard hate and were even able to combo off with Master of Cruelties. However, after playing with the deck, I'm not sure how essential the graveyard plan really is to winning. While it's nice that we can generate some random value with Eternal Witness or get a surprise win with Master of Cruelties, we play enough good cards that we can put up a good fight even if our graveyard synergies are offline.

Maybe the biggest question for the deck is why we should play it over a normal Jund deck, and I'm really not sure. I guess the upside of our deck is that we can win out of nowhere with Master of Cruelties, but this comes with the downside of occasionally getting the clunky five-drop stuck in our hand.

Our other Alesha, Who Smiles at Death targets are pretty solid, mostly because they are fine when we cast them. Both Huntmaster of the Fells and Pia and Kiran Nalaar do a good job of gumming up the board; Eternal Witness was great, helping us get back Abrupt Decay to beat Lantern Control; and Scavenging Ooze gives us a main-deck way to deal with the graveyard. On the other hand, since most of these cards are one- or two-ofs, we sometimes can't find the one we need when we need it, which makes me wonder if we would be better off streamlining our threats.

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death herself is great when she is reanimating things but otherwise only passable. A 3/2, even with first strike, isn't very big in Modern, especially on the ground, which means she gets outclassed as the game goes along. While having good removal and discard helps, they aren't always enough.

Maybe the best aspect of the deck is that we have a lot of the cards that make normal Jund a powerhouse in Modern. Our discard is great in a lot of matchups, and our removal is solid. As a result, we can sort of just play like a weird Jund Midrange deck, and sometimes Jund without Tarmogoyf, Dark Confidant, and Liliana of the Veil is even good enough to win, thanks to the efficiency of its spells.

So, should you play Alesha Reanimator? I think the answer is maybe. After playing the deck, I think maybe its purpose is to be a more budget friendly (and upgradable) version of Jund. Since most of the lands and spells are found in the tier-one version of Jund (and even some of the creatures) and this build costs less than $500, it seems like a competitive way to play a fun and interesting deck while you are waiting to get the most expensive cards for Jund proper. This is not to say that Alesha Reanimator is bad, because it isn't, but if budget isn't a concern, I'm not sure why you'd play it over a more traditional build of Jund, except for the novelty of the combo kill (which is pretty awesome), but like I said earlier, this build does offer a good (and possibly the best) way to have a playable deck for Modern that can also be upgraded to tier-one Jund.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's all for today. Don't forget to vote for next week's deck by liking, commenting on, and subscribing to Instant Deck Tech videos. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive, or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.