Nothing is Ever Truly Dead

Hello everybody! Innistrad Spoilers have been pouring in by the dozen recently! As of right now, there are 175 cards spoiled out of the 264 in the set,although only 14 Mythics have been spoiled thus far. Overall, we have a very good idea of what this set is going to be all about, and we know a ton of essential cards that will help define Standard going forwards. Today, in BDM's preview article, he released the much anticipated Zombify. Except it's not quite Zombify... Check it out:

So basically it a Rise from the Grave that becomes a Breath of Life! I can't possibly think of any card I would ever want to get into play turn 5... oh hey there Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur what's up? The big problem with Jin-Gitaxias is that there Dismember card. But Unburial Rights is awesome because it has FLASHBACK!!! Now you can bring back Jin-Gitaxias, terrify your opponent, force them to burn a Dismember on it. Then you can untap, play an island, bring back Jin-Gitaxias AGAIN, and then mana leak whatever they have to try and kill it. If you have ever played against Jin-Gitaxias before, you know the game just ends right there. This would be some kind of an Esper deck, though there's almost no need for much white at all beyond the flashback. BDM had a ton of cards listed as to make a cool deck, but never posted a decklist. Here's the decklist I think would be good:

4x Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
2x Grave Titan
3x Solemn Simulcrum
3x Merfolk Looter

4x Liliana of the Veil
4x Forbidden Alchemy
4x Unburial Rites
4x Ponder
4x Mana Leak
2x Dismember
1x Go for the Throat

1x Plains
5x Island
4x Swamp
4x Isolated Chapel
4x Darkslick Shores
3x Nephalia Drownyard
4x Drowned Catacombs

So the first plan for this deck is to dump a Jin-Gitaxias into the yard and then bring it back with an Unburial Rites. There are many ways to do this ranging from Liliana to Merfolk Looter to this newfangled card Forbidden Alchemy... Can we see that up on the screen Chuck?

Oh hey! Check that out! While this card by no means garuntee that you will get a fattie in the yard, it does do a fantastic job of digging through your deck quickly to find the combo pieces you need. Imagine playing a Ponder and seeing Jin-Gitaxias in the top 3. You could put him on the bottom of the 3, then draw the first card. Your nect turn, you would draw card number 2, then cast Forbidden Alchemy dumping Jin Gitaxias in the graveyard. You know what other card does great in the graveyard? Unburial Rites! It is absolutely viable to take a Mana Leak out of the top 4, dumping Jin-Gitaxias and Unburial Rites in the GY. Then untap (oh yeah, Fobidden Alchemy is an Instant!) and go all Breath of Life on their face with mana leak backup. What's that? Did you just draw 3 cards for 3 mana at instant speed? Sounds fair!

However, this deck doesn't stop there! 2 Grave Titans means this deck has game still even if for some reason Jin-Gitaxias doesn't get there, making this deck similar to traditional UB Control. I'm thinking I may want to put some Despises in there, maybe I replace the Merfolk Looters? Also a board sweeper wouldn't be bad either. One thing that's awesome about Reanimator decks, is that you can have a toolbox sideboard. For example, let's say a weenie tribal deck emerges like Humans or Vampires (or even Werewolves in the daytime) we can board in a card like Elesh Norn! Talk about domination! Just completely wrath your opponent's board then take a few swings to win the game once your opponent is completely locked out!

Now, it is terribly important to mention 1 specific card: Nihil Spellbomb. I don't even need to explain how this card will ruin your day mid-combo, so it is absolutely essential you have a sideboard plan when that does hit play. One idea is to simply bring in Mental Misstep and counter the Bomb. But that's boring...

A much cooler idea is to board out your combo in games 2 and 3 and play traditional UB Control. That's a good reason to remove Merfolk Looter from the Maindeck for Despise, because then we would have to sideboard out 8 cards to have a transformative sideboard: 4x Jin Gitaxias and 4x Unburial Rites. An 8 card board to make a tradional UB Control might look like this:

1x Despise
3x Black Sun's Zenith
2x Stoic Rebuttal
2x Hex Parasite

And then we still have another 7 slots in our board! Mental Misstep will probably work it's way in there, but that's still 3 slots of us being able to do absolutely anything we want with! It's nowhere near as quick or powerful as the Legacy or Modern versions of the deck, but it's powerful nonetheless.

One random point real quick: Yesterday I posted about the Werewolf deck and mentioned that the 1-drop Werewolf would probably make it's way into the deck. I figured a 0/1 that transformed into a 2/1 would have been fine for the card, but WotC made their 1-drop Werewolf quite insane!

WOW! Say hello to the new Wild Nacatl of Standard! Turn 1 you play Reckless Waif, and your opponent is in a really tough spot immediatly! Do you cast a useless ponder to prevent the transformation? Do you just take the beats? I think thanks almost single-handedly to this card that Werewolves will be the Zoo deck of the format right out of the gates! Time will tell if our white splash is even necessary, but for now I'm going to keep it. Here's the new decklist:

4x Grand Abolisher
4x Mayor of Avabruck
4x Instigator Gang
4x Kruin Outlaw
4x Gatstaf Shephard
2x Village Ironsmith
4x Reckless Waif


4x Moonmist
1x Full Moon's Rise
3x Silence
2x Lead the Stampede

4x Kesseg Wolf Ruin
4x Copperline Gorge
4x Razorverge Thicket
3x Clifftop Retreat
3x Plains
3x Forest
3x Mountain

26/60 cards being creatures makes Lead the Stampede draw 2.16 cards. I feel like that it could be a very good part of the deck, but that's a bell as opposed to a knut of the deck. Full Moon's Rise might not make the cut depending on how Standard develops. It only stops Day of Judgement as Black Sun's Zenith is completely unaffected by regeneration. I kinda feel like it's not going to make the cut, but sadly there's not an overabundance of great Werewolves yet. I would reccomend casually trading for these until more Werewolves are printed in the next 2 sets. Like allies, the more Werewolves there are to chose from, the better they get!

That's all I have for today! I am getting VERY excited for Innistrad! Sadly I cannot go to the pre-release, but I will force a set of Mayor of Avabruck if its the last thing I do! Well maybe not really.... But I do like the promo more than the real version (which isn't necessarily always true.... I'm looking at you Hero of Bladehold!). I'm still trying to decide what deck to play the first FNM of new standard. I think I may play Puresteel Paladin w/blue for the Unblockable Hexproof guy simply because it doesn't take too many new cards to make good. I don't think I have any hope of getting 4 Liliana by the first FNM.... But I'm out for now! Until next time, Stay Classy!

Ryan Lackie
Ryan.Lackie92@gmail.com
@ThingsILack