Human Reanimator

[Travis Lannoye]

This thread is for discussion of the Human Reanimator deck, most recently piloted by Brian Braun-Duin and Brad Nelson at SCG Atlanta. Their list was as follows:

4 Angel of Glory's Rise
4 Cartel Aristocrat
1 Cathedral Sanctifier
4 Fiend Hunter
4 Huntmaster of the Fells

4 Grisly Salvage
4 Faithless Looting
4 Farseek
4 Mulch
4 Unburial Rites

1 Blood Crypt
4 Cavern of Souls
2 Clifftop Retreat
1 Godless Shrine
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Sacred Foundry
4 Stomping Ground
3 Sunpetal Grove
2 Temple Garden
4 Woodland Cemetery

Side:
3 Cathedral Sanctifier for aggressive decks
2 Purify the Grave for mirror matches
3 Ray of Revelation for Rest in Peace
4 Appetite for Brains for Slaughter Games and planeswalkers
3 Slaughter Games for mirror matches

BBD wrote an article about it on SCG here: www.starcitygames.com/article/25643_Running-Hot-In-Hotlanta.html.

He freely admitted that he had no answer to Grafdigger's Cage (which I found out against John a few times in testing), and that his card of choice for beating it would likely be Abrupt Decay (most likely in the place of Ray of Revelation). I was thinking about going for a mix of Manic Vandal/War Priest of Thune, since both are Humans and interact with Angels and Caverns, but Abrupt Decay is like Naturalize plus "can't be countered", so I'll probably just run that.

Other than that, I like that this deck has a nice balance of aggro and combo in it. Assuming I can find a couple more Huntmasters, I will likely be running it at SCG Milwaukee.

Other notable Humans/other spells that could see play:
- War Priest of Thune
- Manic Vandal
- Zealous Conscripts
- Kessig Malcontents
- Chronic Flooding
- Tracker's Instincts

[John Galli]

Abrupt Decay seems like an auto-include to me, much better than Naturalize as just about every "difficult" card for you is 3cc or less. You could also combine it with ray of revelation (which is nice in control matchups where they have sphere + o-ring) but it's probably not necessary.

Purify the grave seems kind of meh to me in his sideboard. I feel like I'd want something else even though it is a reusable instant speed option. There also seems to be an awful amount towards the mirror and control, which I agree there should be a focus towards, but I don't know if I like his numbers / choices. I'd see what people are running on MTGO too

I would imagine what beats this deck are two scenarios-

1. Counterspells
2. Aggro'd out (Good Mono Red Draws)

The deck can on the flipside beat both of the above, but it's more a matter of increasing your chances in those situations and that's what I'd lean towards trying to do

[Travis Lannoye]

Your last couple of points seem very spot-on.
- Against control/counterspells, Abrupt Decays and Appetite for Brains seem like the things you want to have, along with some early pressure. I'd want to take out the non-threats like Mulch and Grisly Salvage because I'll need to make sure that every spell I play is a threat so that they won't have enough counters for all the Unburial Rites. Might take out Farseeks as well because I'll have plenty of time to draw more lands.
- Against aggro decks, Cathedral Sanctifiers are gonna be the way to go, and I'll probably wanna take out Farseek because it's too slow and I need to be playing creatures as much as possible. Might have to shave one Angel or one Rites depending on speed.
- Against the mirror, I'll want Appetites, Slaughter Games, and maybe Purifys. Not really sure what I'd take out...

I really wish people would take more time to discuss what they want to board OUT as well as what they want to board in.

[John Galli]

I can help you with that stuff and we can test it. I would never take out all of your accelerators, especially grisly salvage as you only run 23 lands and it's an important tool to that Deck getting to paydirt whether it be combo or sideboard cards. As Brian mentioned in his article there's a lot of matches where you can board out farseek. I've played against reanimator a lot, I can help you with some of the nuances.