Since the earliest days of Pauper (then known as the Deck Challenge) people have been trying to find the best way to cheat large creatures into play. As the card pool has grown the desire to find ways to get Twisted Abomination and its brethren on to the battlefield on the cheap has only increased. While in the early days this was limited to cards like Rampant Growth and Tangle Golem Urza’s Block gave Pauper access to both Exhume and Unearth- true blue reanimation spells. While people, notably David Shaffer, have experimented with Exhume to some success it has largely fallen into the vast pool of powerful cards without a home. The call of the grave remains strong and I believe that the release of Fate Reforged has provided the last few pieces of the puzzle in making the graveyard a viable source of creatures.

Reanimator is an old deck that has been around ever since someone thought getting back a Shivan Dragon with an Animate Dead was a good idea. Personally I have been enamored with the concept ever since reading about a Hidden Horror fueled deck in the pages (yes, actual physical pages) of The Duelist and my love was cemented after reading about Team Your Move Games’ Benzo from Pro Tour New Orleans 2002. From Solar Flare to Sidisi Whip getting monsters back from the graveyard has been a viable top tier strategy across formats for many years. Heck you can even cast actual Reanimate on Griselbrand in Legacy. The difference between these decks and similar strategies in Pauper is the secondary plan. While Exhume is a very strong card it is the only true Tinker style spell in the format. Unearth is fine but is better as a supplement in an attrition strategy (as seen in Mono-Black Control) and Reanimator is more of a combo deck that seeks present a threat that cannot be answered and therefore end the game in short order. While Unearth, Stir the Grave, Angelic Renewal, and Mistmoon Griffin all exist they all lack the ability to just pick and choose what comes back.

But what happens if our back up plan isn’t to make our own Frankenstein's Monster? What if, y’know, we played fair?

The key to this deck is Gurmag Angler. The Zombie Fish is unassuming with its lone line of rules text but it actually operates in a very interesting space. As the format has trended away from Mono-Black Control, Doom Blade has returned as a removal spell in decks where black is not a main color and the Angler is immune to the Blade. In a similar vein by being a rotting undead monster Gurmag Angler does get around Victim of Night. Finally as a 5/5 the fish can fight with the typical large threat (also known as Myr Enforcer and/or Carapace Forger) and win and manages to shrug off Flame Slash. The best part though is that one line of rules text: Delve. Reanimator is already a deck that wants to put multiple cards into the graveyard and this in turn makes it very easy to hard cast the Gurmag Angler for one or two mana. Except this cheap spell doesn’t wither to a Spellstutter Sprite.

This version of Reanimator traces its lineage from multiple sources and each provides some serious influence in how the deck plays and operates.

First we look to Benzo. While it is a traditional Reanimator deck in that it wants to get the best large creature on to the board and has multiple ways to get those threats into play it has a back up plan. While Bezno’s plan is a Nether Spirit-Contamination lock, this deck can play control and endeavor to resolve its threats the hard way. Forbidden Alchemy and Careful Study act as bad versions of Buried Alive to fill the yard but since the Pauper version is more hammer than scalpel this change is not too onerous.

Another huge influence on this deck is a flavor of Cephalid Breakfast. The combo deck uses a repeatable free targeting effect, such as Shuko, to hit Cephalid Illusionist over and over before putting a Sutured Ghoul and Dragon Breath into the graveyard. Once those cards hit the bin the Ghoul is returned, hopefully sufficiently large, before Dragon Breath triggers and turns it into a hasty beatstick. The influence should be clear with inclusion of Dragon Breath and Dragon Wings. While these will both snap on to an Ulamog’s Crusher the key element here is that they also find a home on Gurmag Angler regardless of how much was spent to cast the fish. While this interaction was once the bane of Bennie Smith the addition of cards since 2007 has proved rather beneficial. Forbidden Alchemy’s Impulse like ability to go and get the right card and dump the rest makes running the Dragon Auras less of a liability.

The final ancestor I want to discuss today is Solar Flare. A deck that helped to cement Paul Cheon and Luis Scott-Vargas as household names was a midrange control deck with a Zombify backup plan. A version of tap-out control Solar Flare could shift roles from beatdown to control from moment to moment and was a slower deck that sought to invalidate opposing plays with its reanimation targets. Unlike getting down a Griselbrand these cards would rarely win the game outright and instead clock the adversary over the next three or four turns.

So how does this deck play out? Reanimator operates along two main lines of attack. The first is a combo style kill fueled by Exhume, Dragon Breath, and Ulamog’s Crusher. The line here is to get the Eldrazi non-titan and aura into the graveyard and then cast Exhume to start crushing. Literally. This list does have five ways to protect this kill including Duress and Negate. While it is possible to get this as early as turn two thanks to Careful Study it most often takes place in the middle stages of the game which quickly become the final moments. If taking this line of play will not lead to victory in short order than it is likely the game is already lost.

Subsequently there is the Gurmag Angler plan. While it is perfectly alright to get back and Angler with Exhume and give it some hot wing aftertaste, the goal of this line is to resolve an Angler and use it as the best Baneslayer threat available. Setting this up is very similar to the Ulamog’s Crusher plan except that the dig spells and protective suite double as mana. Often the Gurmag Angler plan is used as a decoy for Exhuming a Crusher and presenting two serious monsters.

Before talking about what is in the deck I want to touch on a card that is absent: Treasure Cruise. Initially I was running two copies of Treasure Cruise as a seemingly obvious mechanism to reload in the mid game. In reality Treasure Cruise inhibited the Gurmag Angler plan by stealing mana. Additionally as I will discuss this deck wants its card draw and selection to come at instant speed and the boat did not oblige. Make no mistake- Treasure Cruise is a very strong card and should be at home in most blue decks, just not this one.

Threats

The virtues of Gurmag Angler and Ulamog’s Crusher have already been extolled. It is possible that a card such as Shambling Attendants may want a slot for similar reasons to Angler but it is a very poor offensive threat. Benthic Giant deserves a look as a sideboard option since it can dodge other forms of removal. All that being said the creatures included are some of the best possible attackers in the format.

Dragon Breath and Dragon Wings fall here as well. Dragon Breath is a dead card unless it finds its way into the graveyard at which point it becomes a key element in the first games of matches. Dragon Wings provides an important evasion element that also has cycling so it can ditch itself. Initially I had Dragon Shadow in this slot but the ability to ditch itself is huge.

Selection

Careful Study is one of the best cards for this deck early in the game. While not card advantage the selection it provides is incredibly important to enabling both axes of attack. Knowing when to cast Careful Study is one the hardest skills to master in the deck and I am still working at that but what I can say is this: you never want to cast Careful Study if it is not actively advancing your game plan. Early on this may be digging for land and later on it might mean setting up a kill. Sometimes it just means holding on to one to discard later. Regardless do not just cast this sorcery whenever you have the opportunity.

Ponder mines a similar vein. Early on it can be useful in setting up land drops and digging for key cards. As the game moves past the early turns holding Ponder until it is time to go for the kill. At the point Ponder becomes valuable for its ability to find protective elements or key combo pieces.

Forbidden Alchemy and Think Twice are both instants and that is of note. If the early game does not yield a kill with Ulamog’s Crusher then the deck wants to shift into a more defensive posture. In this state being able to use Forbidden Alchemy to find key cards at instant speed and Think Twice to add cards to the hand becomes paramount.

Owl Familiar and Merfolk Traders are early drops that can pitch key cards early. More importantly they can block. While I started on four Traders my friend and former podcast co-host Mike Vadman reminded me about Owl Familiar. Moving to four Owls made a huge difference in the Delver matchup as it just sucked up damage. I could see a world where one wants different splits on these cards but currently I value flying.

Protection

Duress and Negate are there to stop your opponent from killing a resolved threat. Duress is clearly preemptive and works better with the haste plan. Negate does a fine job in the mid game against sandbagged removal or bounce. Snuff Out is defense for the life total as spending four life to kill an Insectile Aberration is often a net positive for your health.

The deck is a fairly tight package. The key cards, those that should not be messed with, are as follows:

4 Ponder

3 Careful Study

3 Duress

2 Dragon Breath

4 Gurmag Angler

3 Ulamog’s Crusher

4 Owl Familiar/Merfolk Traders

4 Exhume

Everything else is flexible but if you are planning on tweaking this list and want to keep similar lines of play I would avoid messing with this core.

But Alex, you might be saying, what about graveyard hate?

The dirty little secret is that cards like Relic of Progenitus does not matter for this version of Reanimator. If the villain plays a turn one Relic then the paradigm shifts immediately towards resolving a Gurmag Angler and keeping it alive as the person across the table continues to split their defenses against creatures and the graveyard. At some point Reanimator will have enough lands on the table and enough selection to make two attempts at Exhume in one turn which can render a Relic of Progenitus useless.

The sideboard is designed to increase the deck’s flexibility in defense. Dispel and Negate are key for stopping opposing decks with their own counters. Duress comes in as well and Mesmeric Fiend can often find a home against blue decks and removal light opponents to keep the adversary off balance. Essence Scatter fights Affinity and Temur Tron while Echoing Decay is general small creature removal. Dragon Scales may seem odd but it has a home against decks running Flame Slash style removal rendering those spells far less effective. Echoing Truth is a wonderful catch all that stops you from folding to a Journey to Nowhere.

Matchups

Delver: A relatively even matchup the goal here is to try for the combo kill early. If that does not work by, say, turn two, pivot to the Angler plan and draw out their answers. Do not delve to aggressively with Angler as they will try to graveyard lock you with Snap.

In sideboarded games aim to play for the long game with Duress, Negate, Dispel, and Mesmeric Fiend. Copies of Careful Study, a Dragon Breath, and Ulamog’s Crusher are all candidates for the bench.

Cloud of Faeries Combo: A pure race to who can break out first. Ulamog’s Crusher is the best possible threat here as it can choke them on resources. Lean hard on Duress. Snuff Out is fine but less useful in games two and three. Mesmeric Fiend may seem strong but only if you are on the play and are able to apply pressure.

Izzet Control: A relatively easy pairing if you can avoid their counters. Duress, again, is key and the fourth comes in post-board. Negate and Dispel are powerful defensive tools while Snuff Out rides the pine.

Izzet Blitz: Another race. Removal is terrible here and Negate is mediocre - it stops key cards but is slow. Aim to keep the life total high and try to attack early as Ulamog’s Crusher can sometimes just win.

Affinity: This one is tough. If you can establish an early Angler or Crusher life gets easier. Block aggressively to keep your life total high and don’t be afraid to snap off Snuff Out for four life. Essence Scatter comes in for Negate but there is not much else that can be done.

Hexproof: Guess what? Another race! Negate, Duress, and Mesmeric Fiend are all-stars here in the the latter two thirds of a match while Echoing Truth can take away the important pairs of pants. Think Twice loses utility as it is built more for a long game.

Stompy: The toughest matchup I have encountered so far. Without an early creature to block and eat their attackers Stompy can quickly stampede for the win. Negate is not great whereas Echoing Decay and Echoing Truth are stellar. Block to keep the life total high and try to pressure their defenses.

MBC: This pairing is all about exhausting their removal. Taking a long view may seem attractive but then they can go over the top with Gray Merchant of Asphodel and Corrupt. Use Negate to protect Ulamog’s Crusher to keep them low on mana. Mesmeric Fiend is an undercover hero here as it automatically eats a removal spell. Using Fiend to take a kill card will force them to spend a spell to get their intended one back, buying the time for Duress or Negate to show up.

Temur Tron: Both Temur Tron and Reanimator work by cheating mana. The big difference is that Reanimator can do it faster. Again, Duress, Mesmeric Fiend, and Negate are all key cards in the back half of the match. Haste is important as it can completely wreck someone trying to assemble the Tron.

Reanimator is a fringe deck that may have just received the boost it needed to be competitive. The list presented is far from perfect but has tons of raw power and attacks the Pauper metagame from a very unique angle. If you like the idea of undead horrors, this is the deck for you.

Keep slingin’ commons-

-Alex

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@nerdtothecore

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