Premodern: Mono Black Reanimator - Deck Tech & Sideboard Guide

Ah... Reanimator!

Ever since I started playing Magic back in 2008, Reanimator was a deck. Over the years, it gained more tools, transformed a dozen times, and evolved to the point of blending a Tempo strategy with a combo-kill in Legacy that led to the banning of Grief, Psychic Frog, and Troll of Khazad-dûm, until finally Wizards decided to ban its key card, Reanimate.

The ban felt symbolic. A testament to how much the power creep of the last decade was not only able to completely reshape competitive archetypes but also push one of them to levels where, after two decades, they were no longer acceptable by competitive standards.

That's part of what makes Reanimate so iconic in Premodern. The format doesn't have Grief or any of the main bombs the archetype uses in Legacy, and it still gets by with options like Phantom Nishoba and Akroma, Angel of Wrath. That doesn't mean it's weak by the format's standards: Reanimator shows up considerably in the Top 32 of Challenges, and it's frequently present in Leagues due to the speed at which it can win games.

This is a combo deck in its purest form. Your goal is to put together "Piece A" (Akroma, Angel of Wrath or any other big creature) with "Piece B" (Reanimate, Exhume, Life / Death) and hope it carries you to victory. The rest of the list is made up of enablers—Putrid Imp, Sickening Dreams, Cabal Therapy—and resource disruption to execute the combo.

Your goal with this list is as clear and straightforward as it gets: use discard outlets, put pieces in the graveyard, clear the path, and bring them back to the board. If you fail, try again. If the opponent tries to lock you out with Tormod's Crypt or Phyrexian Furnace, force them to pop the hate and try again. In the worst-case scenario, Putrid Imp and Zombie Infestation will do the beatdown.

Maindeck

Akroma, Angel of Wrath will be the ideal target in most matches. Her soup of keywords closes out games rapidly and protects her from black Midrange removal or Burn.

Verdant Force piles on permanent power each turn it goes unanswered. 1/1 tokens might seem irrelevant, but just two turn cycles give you four power on the board against more reactive strategies, and infinite chump blocks against Aggro.

Symbiotic Wurm is another answer against Midrange decks running black removal. You could swap it for Rorix Bladewing if you prefer aggression, or even Phantom Nishoba if you want to respect Sligh/Red Aggro.

To reanimate creatures, we need to get them into the graveyard.

Putrid Imp is the most mana-efficient repeatable discard outlet. It's rare, but there are moments when turning it into a 2/2 with Flying makes a difference in closing out the game.

The split between Sickening Dreams and Zombie Infestation is to adapt to two different playstyles. Dreams is better against go-wide Aggro like Goblins, Elves, and other archetypes that flood the board quickly, while Zombie Infestation works as an alternate win condition in Control games.

Once the bombs are in the graveyard, it's time to bring them back. Any of these work perfectly in a sequence of Dark Ritual into Putrid Imp or Cabal Therapy on turn one, but only Reanimate works with Zombie Infestation or Sickening Dreams.

The split of Animate Dead and Life // Death is due to matchup variety. Some archetypes already expect an enchantment and run Naturalize maindeck for other matches, while Life // Death carries more risk against Aggro, especially in Game 1 without Phantom Nishoba.

Discard spells primarily serve to protect our combo from interaction and keep our bombs on the board, but Unmask and Cabal Therapy can target any player and discard any card, letting you use them to pitch a bomb into the graveyard on turn one.

Sideboard

The backup bombs. Sometimes using one of the maindeck pieces becomes redundant for a given matchup, and we need to swap them for more appropriate cards to win the game when they hit the board.

Phantom Nishoba serves this role against Aggro. Seven damage per turn with pseudo-Lifelink and Trample is very difficult to overcome when playing Sligh, Goblins, or any other Red Aggro.

Multani, Maro-Sorcerer comes in against Control or in matches where the opponent's main interaction is Swords to Plowshares or Bounce.

Snuff Out comes in against Stiflenought or other archetypes with troublesome individual threats. It can also work against Meddling Mage in Azorius Weenie.

Null Rod is hate against hate, permanently shutting down Tormod's Crypt or Phyrexian Furnace.

Mono Blue Stiflenought

IN

OUT

Sligh

IN

OUT

Goblins

IN

OUT

Elves

IN

OUT

Mono Black Midrange

IN

OUT

Replenish

IN

OUT

Azorius Landstill

IN

OUT

That's all for today!

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

Thanks for reading!