I never thought Standard would have multiple reanimator decks, but I guess Atraxa makes people a little graveyard greedy. This past weekend, Fanchen Yang made the top eight of the 135-player NRG Series $5K Standard Showdown with Dimir Crime.
First, there was Rakdos Reanimator, which used Breach the Multiverse and Cruelty of Gix. Then there was Sultai Reanimator, using Squirming Emergence and Invasion of Tolvada. With the release of Murders at Karlov Manor, Reanimator players now have access to Reenact the Crime and Conspiracy Unraveler.
The only thing better than reanimating Atraxa is reanimating Atraxa at instant speed. Reenact the Crime is a considerable threat, making your opponent always unsure when you will pop off. That level of uncertainty may be enough to cause your opponent to play suboptimally, allowing you to take advantage of their hesitations.
With Rakdos and Squirming Emergence, the primary strategy has been to get Atraxa on the battlefield and then hope that you can dominate the game with an overwhelming card advantage and a powerful 7/7 in the next turn. The problem with this strategy is that it allows your opponent to kill Atraxa and then swing in for lethal, stranding all those game-ending cards in your hand.
Conspiracy Unraveler fixes this problem by generating overwhelming mana advantage by allowing you to cast your spells for “free.” Imagine you reanimate Unraveler on turn four and then cast Breach the Multiverse by collecting evidence. Not only do you get a creature from your opponent, but you most likely will find an Atraxa from your deck, drawing you a bunch of cards.
Usually, this would be the end of your turn. However, Breach the Multiverse puts nine cards into your graveyard, not including itself, so Conspiracy Unraveler will have even more ammo to continue collecting evidence.
Maybe you cast another Breach from your hand, giving you more creatures on the battlefield and more cards in your graveyard. Perhaps you cast another Atraxa or Etali, gaining you more card advantage. Maybe you just slam a Virtue of Persistence onto the battlefield, allowing you to bring back your creatures even if your opponent kills them.
Whatever you decide, it will be difficult for your opponent to win the game from here. Sometimes, you can even chain four Breach the Multiverses together, milling your opponent out completely.
This deck can have some compelling and devastating turns, and I love that you can do stuff like this in the current Standard format. It will be interesting to see if this continues to do well, especially with the rise of Boros Convoke and Azorius Control in the format.
While I expect Dimir Reanimator to have a bad matchup against Convoke and Control, those decks made up 20% of the Standard Showdown in which Fanchen Yang made the top eight. That means that Fanchen was either able to dodge those two decks all day, or the matchup isn’t as bad as I think. Whatever the cast, with a record of 6-1-1, Fanchen Yang has proven that Reanimator is still very much alive in Standard!
You can also find the decklist here.
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