Modern: Esper Reanimator - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

While we wait for news on MH3, the Modern Metagame remains constantly evolving. Before the recent ban of Violent Outburst, an archetype continued to grow in the competitive environment, close to reaching the top five most played decks in the format - the Esper Reanimator.

Using Goryo’s Vengeance to bring Atraxa, Grand Unifier from the graveyard, it has become one of the most played in the format recently. In this article, we delve deeper into its new version and present a guide to the post-ban format!

Like several other archetypes existing in pre-power creep Modern, Esper Reanimator is the natural evolution of a strategy already known in the format: Goryo's Vengeance, where the speed of the classic combo was replaced by an efficient attrition plan, with another famous combination from the current Metagame, informally named as “scam”.

“Scam” refers to the combination of the Evoke Elementals from Modern Horizons II with effects that bring them back to the battlefield. While this nomenclature became known in Rakdos variants, Esper's version doubles this bet by running Ephemerate, used in response to Evoke's ability on the stack to exile and return the elemental to the battlefield as a new object, without the need to sacrifice it.

The result is to exile up to three creatures, or discard up to three cards from your opponent's hand, establishing a significant advantage for its controller, which Reanimator uses to enable its "fair" plan.

Ephemerate also operates as a means of “countering” the restriction of Goryo’s Vengeance when reanimating a legendary creature. Just like Evoke, the reanimated creature is treated as a new object if it leaves the game, and no longer needs to be sacrificed at the end of the turn.

These absurd play combinations create one of the most consistent archetypes in Modern today in a strategy that is still evolving, with the potential to look for more ways to balance its plan between fair and unfair.

This is the list I ran in the first post-bans week in Modern Leagues.

The big difference compared to the last few weeks is the lesser need to respect Cascade spells, although Domain Rhinos is still a viable archetype and players are testing a Bant version () with Ardent Plea and Solitude.

Chalice of the Void can leave the Sideboards to give more space to other cards, but I prefer to keep most of the other options with the same numbers as before the ban to have a good balance of possibilities in each matchup while the Metagame still adapts.

Maindeck

Our combo.

Goryo's Vengeance was always used alongside Griselbrand in Modern, but just like in Legacy's Reanimator, the demon was replaced by Atraxa, Grand Unifier, which offers up to five cards in the hand of its controller when it comes into play without the need to pay life for it, in addition to having one of the most absurd keyword soups in Magic.

Atraxa also works as a pitch for any of our elementals and for Commandeer and Force of Negation on the Sideboard, triples in value if exiled with Ephemerate and operates better in combat, making it superior Griselbrand in every way.

The Evoke package.

The combination of Grief with blink and/or reanimate effects has become so famous to the point that the best Legacy deck today is based on this interaction, just like Rakdos Evoke did before Fury was banned.

Here, Grief features the same disruptive proposal and has the potential to remove up to three cards from your opponent's hand over the course of two turns, making it even more threatening against combos and/or archetypes that depend on specific sequencing to work.

Solitude is one of the best removals in the format and works as another wincondition in this list. The potential to exile up to three creatures with two cards is excellent in matchups against Aggro or Midrange, while also dealing with creature-based combos.

Ephemerate is our main means of “cheating” in the game. For one mana, we can use it to blink Grief or Solitude up to two times, or keep Atraxa, Grand Unifier in play while filling our hand with resources,

Touch the Spirit Realm is the “backup” of Ephemerate, of which its channel ability is only countered by Tishana's Tidebinder or Trickbind, giving us guaranteed to blink our creatures. It also works as a removal when necessary.

Our enablers.

Fallaji Archaeologist was one of the main pushes Reanimator needed to gain more space in the Metagame, being an excellent card selection combined with a useful body for blocking and the ability to place our bombs directly in the graveyard.

Faithful Mending is the Faithless Looting we have at home, with the advantage of being usable on the opponent's turn, in addition to being a pitch for Solitude, Subtlety and Force of Negation.

Tainted Indulgence complements this package by offering good card filtering without generating a negative trade like Faithful Mending. It is also a pitch for Grief, Subtlety and Force of Negation.

Our interaction.

Thoughtseize works as extra protection for our combo, and we can even go up to four copies in the maindeck if the format becomes too focused on combos and/or if we need to watch out for more counterspells (in this second case, we can consider Teferi, Time Raveler in the maindeck).

Bone Shards interacts with our game plan while dealing with creatures or Planeswalkers. Unfortunately, because it's a sorcery, it's not as useful in dealing with combos like Golgari Yawgmoth or Amulet Titan.

Prismatic Ending is our comprehensive answer to low-cost permanents, from Amulet of Vigor to Hardened Scales.

Esper Reanimator was the archetype that benefited most from the Surveil Lands of Murders at Karlov Manor. After all, we naturally want to put some cards in the graveyard, and our first turn tends to be slower if we don't have a combination of Grief and Ephemerate.

The rest of the lands are the expected base of an Esper-colored deck in Modern, with a decent amount of Fetch Lands and Shocklands to add consistency, as well as Otawara, Soaring City as an extra answer for specific situations.

Sideboard

More interaction against specific matchups.

March of Otherworldly Light handles several permanents at instant speed, making it ideal for games where we need to exile cheap threats, such as Young Wolf, Amulet of Vigor, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, among others.

The extra copy of Prismatic Ending complements March in this regard, trading speed for a lower cost to deal with threats.

Celestial Purge is essential against Rakdos Evoke, while it has other specific targets in other games. It is excellent at dealing with Leyline of the Guildpact and several other threats from Domain Zoo, as well as exiling Yawgmoth, Thran Physician.

Damn is a one-off answer against bigger creatures like Murktide Regent, but we can also use it as a sweeper in “go wide” matchups.

Subtlety delays the opponent's turns, is an ideal answer against Murktide Regent and also acts as a threat on its own in attrition games. We can use it more than once if we cast it, as it is possible to exile it with Ephemerate or Touch the Spirit Realm.

Force of Negation and Commandeer are means of dealing with other unfair decks. Taking control of a Crashing Footfalls or even Ugin, the Spirit Dragon puts us far ahead, and Force of Negation is a more solid, safe and even castable option by its mana value if we need it.

Teferi, Time Raveler is a decent protection against counterspells that also works in some attrition games, as well as delaying Domain Rhinos' plans for at least a turn.

Surgical Extraction is our standard answer against combo, excellent in the Mirror, but also against other archetypes who rely on specific cards to work.

Emrakul, The Aeons' Torn is on the list initially as a way to disrupt Mill decks, which have grown in popularity lately, but we can also use it to force “free wins” in very non-interactive unfair matchups.

Golgari Yawgmoth

IN

OUT

Amulet Titan

IN

OUT

Domain Zoo

IN

OUT

Izzet Murktide

IN

OUT

Tron

IN

OUT

Personally, I favor a quick game for this matchup, as not even Atraxa is enough to play over Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, and we don't usually have enough time to capitalize on Grief's disruption with Ephemerate, then going for the “combo kill” seems more efficient.

That's all for today!

If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!