{"ops":[{"insert":"Complete primer forthcoming. This dimir reanimator centers on moving creatures to the graveyard by quickly milling or discarding, reanimating them fast to establish an oppressive board state. If you're not at risk of decking yourself, you're not doing it right. \n\nStrategic guide: \n-the goal of the deck is to put substantial portions of the library into the graveyard. \n-the deck runs clean at just 4 mana. commander can play at 2, and 3 is usually good for draw spells or reanimators. \n-early game, we're aiming for discard/draw/mill engines or a big hitting reanimation right from the start (entomb/reanimate/animate dead). \n-it is acceptable, particularly at strong tables, to not play anything turn 1 and just discard that big creature you want to reanimate turn 2 or 3. \n-early reanimation should be selected cautiously: come out too strong too early and you're very much marked as the Archenemy of the table. \n-similarly with mill engines: turn 2 mesmeric orb can draw the table's ire, but with a hand full of reanimation spells, it can be a risk worth taking to fill the graveyard.\n-creature combos can become oppressive and should be selected with intention:\n-jin-gitaxias core augur + jin-gitaxias progress tyrant creates a soft lock, inasmuch as players can't keep a hand and the first non-creatuer spell they cast on the turn is countered. this can force the table to work together against you, which can be a fun psychological game to force upon everyone.\n-teresian mindbreaker & fleet swallower tilt the strategy towards mill, because they force a huge mill when they attack---this can be great with something like Rise of the Dark Realms or Breach the Multiverse where you can gain control of creatures from the opponent's graveyard. Alongside Syr Konrad, these can add substantial burn damage. An Archfiend of Despair can then amplify this burn damage. \n-the deck can run slow with most pro-active spells being sorcery speed. \n-even instants and sorceries can be returned to hand, and recurring Reanimate /Persist/Exhume can be easier than trying to draw into another reanimation spell. \n-the deck is severely inhibited by Rest In Peace, so the targeted removal should be saved for such enchantments. the deck is entirely shut down by artifacts like Grafdiggers Cage or Tormod's Crypt. Tread cautiously.\n\n"},{"attributes":{"bold":true},"insert":"Old Working Notes:"},{"insert":"\nupdate 1: \nRecent updates have focused on card draw, as the deck moved way too slow to keep up with the threat it likes to pose early on, so I added more sift/loot and some self-mill. During a recent gamenight, against a high-power 3, the deck lost consistently but made a fair showing. I don't know if it's an issue of shuffling or deckbuilding ratios, but I consistently found myself either with a hand full of reanimation or a hand full of creatures. One game I was able to piggy-back off of another graveyard player (Sedris) using reanimate to put cards onto my battlefield, and then recur reanimate to keep going with it. That was very effective. Another player started off with a windfall, and I was able to follow up with Dark Deal AND Whispering Maddness, forcing everyone to wheel like 4 times or more over 2 turns. This put The Ancient One online and would have gotten me into a solid spot if the dominant deck did not crush us that turn. The pod itself was varying in power, and perhaps if there were one or two more strong decks in the pod we could have kept the Archenemy in check, which would have allowed this deck to really hit its stride. Breathstealer's Crypt was out for several of the wheels and did its job damaging other players who had to cast creatures from the hand. I just was not hitting enough creatures to take advantage of it. \n\nNext steps: upgrade mana an draw, that's always the solution. \n\nUpdate 2: \nI've removed Sphinx of the Second Sun and replaced it with Stargaze. The Sphinx added second untap & draw steps, but I think the engine was too slow to warrant keeping it, even for a 6/6. With Stargaze, I can burst cards and pack the graveyard, which is the primary synergy I'm aiming for. My goal is to see 50 cards or more each game. I had added Forbidden Ritual as part of this everything-fills-the-graveyard strategy, and as a card from Visions it fits my play style, but for 2BB, the payoff wasn't worth it--sac a permanent to cause 2 damage or maybe get an opponent to sac or discard just isn't worth it. So I replaced Forbitten Rit with Culling the Weak (an old favorite, but in the new SOS secret archive printing). My thought is the necessary creatures are high CMC, and sometimes I'm going to need to cast from hand. So, Culling will let me sac a cheaper early creature to burst a larger creature into play. Or if the stars really align, I can sac a solid ETB creature, use the 4 black to case two reanimation spells, and bring the creature back along with a friend. Or maybe it'll pay for Breach the Multiverse or Rise of the Dark Realms. \n\nI'm noticing the deck is overweight in sorceries. This is necessary given the reanimation powers, but it's a definite weak spot. Also, for a control strategy, it lacks nonpermanent control and relies heavily on creature ETB to slow down opponents' boards. I think the decklist is largely complete for this stage of its development: it has the juice to get moving and it is strong when it does its thing. But the next phase of tinkering will be to probably optimize the creature base, which was somewhat haphazard based on coolness factor, and add more counterspell and targeted permanent removal.\n\nUpdate 3: \nI know I said more counterspell--and it'll come--but for next week, the strategy is to intensify the discard & mill effects to supplement the graveyard reanimation. Between Windfall, Dark Deal, and Whispering Madness, there's a fair amount of wheeling going on, and so I returned Jin-Gitaxias Core Augur (in place of the JG, Progress Tyrant) to supplement that theme. I also added Delirium Skeins (cutting Diresight surveil/draw) as a group discard; although discard is not a strong EDH strategy, I strategize it as a \"pre-counterspell\" that synthesizes with the wheeling strategy and works as a demoralizer. By hitting 3 cards per player, I can drop the cards I want while also juicing up the opponents' graveyards and undercutting anything they were planning. \n\nUpdate 4:\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Fact or Fiction -> Thirst for identity"},{"insert":": Looking to lower CMC of draw spells. The deck is adding more mill, so the discard aspect of a draw is less critical. Removing FoF puts the graveyard fill decision into my hands rather than an opponent. \n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Tergrid -> Valgavoth"},{"insert":": This moves the deck away from discard/sacrifice and allows mill more space to grow. It also allows me to bring in ConSphinx as a gamechanger to really intensify the draw strength. \n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Personal Tutor -> Consecrated Sphinx"},{"insert":": The deck-to-hand tutor is not what I'm going for in this deck. I like ConSphinx and the reanimaton offers a discounts on its huge CMC. I'm moving the deck goal to seeing 75-90 cards from the deck per game, so this will help some of those cards wind up in my hand.\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Call to Mind -> Toxic Deluge"},{"insert":": The deck is in need of a couple board wipes, so this is one of them. If the engine is slow to turn on, this can wipe out opponents' early setup, so feed some cheap creatures to Valgavoth. And the the fact is, there's enough consistency in the deck already that the spell recursion is mostly unnecessary; it's nice to recur Reanimate, but at a certain point it's too expensive to recur a spell when you've got another similar one coming up through the library. I'm going to keep the spell recursion in the Maybeboard, but lighten it up some.\n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Vile Mutilator -> Jin Gitaxias, Progress Tyrant"},{"insert":": I love the art and vibe of Vile Mutilator, and that it's sacrifice hits both enchantments and creatures. But as a one-off sac, it doesn't create the oppressive battlefield atmosphere I'm going for. The Progress Tyrant both copies my spells while also countering opponents' first spell per turn, which is deliciously brutal. \n"},{"attributes":{"italic":true},"insert":"Exhibition Tidecaller -> Mesmeric Orb"},{"insert":": I love the orb as an obsessive object; I've long wanted to have it, but it has seemed too dangerous to play aggressively. The time has come and the orb fits the mind-flayer slot. Either we'll fill the graveyard with oppressive creatures that reanimate quickly and overtake the board, or we deck ourselves into insanity. I like a deck with a gun to its head. At this point I'm not including Lab Maniac--the deck wins through oppression not technicality. Tidecaller is cool but subject to easy removal; it may have a place in the future as mill continues to intensify, but for now it can have a seat.\n\nUpdate 5: \nI goldfished a 1v1 against Maralen to try out the new Update 4 mechanics and whoo boy, this deck draws. Turn 2 Mesmeric Orb was not a strategic move but I wanted to see what happens. This won't slow down any experienced player, but milling 4-5 cards on the early turns can certainly get blood rushing. I also hit the Palantir on turn 4, and by five or 6 had reanimated ConSphinx and Jin-Gitaxias Core Augur, so the draw-mill engine was pumping. I'd say this is an unlikely early board state in a multi-player game: between the mill and massive card draw, it would really present you as the archenemy. On the other hand, if Jin-Gitaxias survives a turn, you're in a good position to be the archenemy. \n\nThe deck was having fun and kicking but until Springleaf Parade landed for 12 with Maralen on board: exiling 24 cards and casting Dreamborn Muse from our deck! That meant when the turn returned, The Ancient One had to mill another 12 cards, plus 8 on the untap. Given the intensity with which we had drawn and milled already, that decked the deck. Defeat. \n\nOverall reflection: with the number of draw and self-mill engines here, such an intense board state may not be super common in a commander game, but it won't be rare, either. I want to avoid LabManiac, so the alternative is likely more strategic deployment of mill engines later in the game (or discarding them if another engine is humming) and planning out which creatures to always target early on that oppress the board enough to begin attacking. I tend to prefer no-attack/wait-to-attack style decks, but by diving towards madness and risking decking itself out, this deck demands the large creatures start attacking early. \n\nThis shall end my day-by-day note-taking. The deck is pretty sharp, and there are a few tweaks to make, but hopefully the next update will be an initial deck primer. \n\nUpdate 6: \nGame play update - played this deck with a new pod at the end of the night. i like to feel out everyone's power levels and game understanding before breaking this out. I was able to land an early-game Hullbreaker Horror off a Turn 3 dark ritual/entomb/dance of the dead, and I used it to bounce opponent's value engines as they landed, though it couldn't keep everyone down forever. I binned an early Oppression rather than play it, both for the table's sake and for mine; without creatures to discard or reanimation spells to cast, Oppression would just make the game even more of a slog. Dreamborn Muse helped feed Consuming Aberration into 24/24, causing it to get targeted and land, fortunately, in the graveyard. \nFortunately, because the game had dragged on long enough I had 9 mana available (8 lands and a leftover treasure from losing an Animate Dead stack-war), enough for Rise of the Dark Realms. In come both Jin Gitaxias; Sheoldred Awakened One; Archfiend of Despair; Archon of Cruelty; and the Aberration again (whose power I don't calculate but estimate with two large d20s). And also 9-10 bodies from my opponents, following an earlier one-sided board wipe.\nHands are already small, and I explain the Progress Tyrant's bind: they must cast a noncreature spell to be countered before the next can land. The Core Augur will force them to discard at the end of their turn. The table tries to collude against me, with the Galadriel player trying to convince the Hakbal player to target the Progress Tyrant, as he can wipe my board next turn but has no other spell to cast first. Hakbal, however, has cards in hand they want to keep. And so, after failed negotiation, Hakbal destroys the Core Augur, keeping their hand for the round. Galadriel cannot cast anything but a creature, and the turn moves to me--returning the Core Augur via Sheoldred, then casting Tergrid from hand, with a Mesmeric Orb, and then Glimpse the Unthinkable, because why not at this point.\nFrom here out, each player would be sacrificing a creature each turn, putting it into my battlefield. Anything of mine they destroy, I can recur. Hand sizes are zero, and so any noncreature card they draw, they cannot cast, because they won't have another to first allow the counter. And any card they cannot cast, they must discard at their discard phase. Some more negotiations, and the table concedes. \n\nupdate 7:\nremoved Tergrid and Braids. They're a core part of the deck building, but they rarely come out and rarely meaningfully impact the board. by the time they can come into play and survive, I'm usually at the point of closing out the game, so I replaced them with mill-synergies, Riverchurn Monument and Necrogoyf. My earliest two builds were this deck and a dedicated dimir mill, and over time my goal has been to integrate them. so this pushes that further. \n"}]}