Walking the Grave
"In matters of life and death,
he trusts his gut."
- flavor text for Viscera Seer
There have always been fans and a place in gamer's hearts for reanimator. Who wouldn't want taking fatty scary monsters out from the grave or simply bringing an army of your fallen heroes en masse back onto the battlefield for cheap? And for each set and as the years go by, there never was a lack for reanimation spells nor targets to whet our appetites. Sadly, through it's own popularity and strength, there have also been a number of graveyard hate to arise. So it has been that reanimator strategies come and go depending on how strong its new archetypes would be and also on how unexpected it would come out in a certain meta. Duel Commander is no exception especially being an eternal format where every best card to deal with all of the best deck types is available. The question always remains then. When is the best time to play reanimator?
Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to retest the strategy and theory out. Going in with 2 wins using Ezuri, Renegade Leader and with Thrun, the Last Troll with Ranier Maglantay at the helm also with 2 past wins, I had this feeling other gamers might have tweaked their decks to go against aggro and mono green builds. Definitely, the regular tournament attendees would have considered and prepared extensively for their aggro and green build match-ups. Although I wouldn't really know until tournament time, I didn't want to risk frustratingly losing left and right. I did come over here to have fun, after all. So I decided I wouldn't be playing that day also 'coz the other decks I have been brewing up weren't ready and haven't been extensively playtested as yet.It was through circumstance and impulse that Mark Calienta offered his Black Green deck, which I had a bit of a hand in tuning. During our various playtest sessions, I offered and suggested appropriate cards for his deck knowing personally how it can run. I did have a deck much like it, after all. I figured the strategy could be ripe for a resurgence. "Sure," I told Mark also not wanting to pass up the opportunity to test the mettle of certain deck types for tournament play. The deck was focused on a reanimator theme along with two combo wins thrown in. Would I be able to answer the question right? Was today a good time for reanimator?
99 Duels Weekly Tournament @ Madcap Gaming
Format: 1v1 Duel Commander
Timestamp: 8:00 PM, Sunday, 9 February 2014
French Banned list + Partial Paris + Swiss
The biggest number of players yet for the weekly Commander Duels at Madcap Gaming transpired with a total of 23 players registered for the event.
The breakdown of Commanders are as follows:
Animar, Soul of Elements (Jeffrey Leal)
Ezuri, Renegade Leader (Mark Penaflorida)
Geist of Saint Traft (Israel Rodriguez)
Geist of Saint Traft (Rizalino Sanchez)
Grand Arbiter Augustin IV (Richard Casacop)
Kamahl, Fist of Krosa (Eric Vinalon)
Maelstrom Wanderer (Juin Paul San Juan)
Marath, Will of the Wild (Allan Montifar)
Marath, Will of the Wild (Julius Flores)
Mereike Ri Berit (Lawrence Tales)
Nin, the Pain Artist (Raffy Facultad)
Niv-mizzet, the Firemind (Rhoemel Jose)
Oloro, Ageless Ascetic (Dondee Abad)
Prossh, Skyraider of Kher (Chuck Lim)
Purphoros, God of the Forge (Bondee Bondoc)
Radha, Heir to Keld (Eric Talag)
Sigarda, Host of Herons (Andrew Cantillana)
Skullbriar, the Walking Grave (Leorenz Jamias)
Talrand, Sky Summoner (Dean De Ramos)
Thraximundar (Don Bunag)
Thrun, the Last Troll (Ranier Maglantay)
Trostani, Voice of Selesnya (Mike Dugaduga)
Wydwen, the Biting Gale (Lance Flor)
Top 8
1 Skullbriar, the Walking Grave (Leorenz Jamias)
2 Purphoros, God of the Forge (Bondee Bondoc)
3 Geist of Saint Traft (Israel Rodriguez)
4 Maelstrom Wanderer (Juin Paul San Juan)
5 Thrun, the Last Troll (Ranier Maglantay)
6 Thraximundar (Don Bunag)
7 Wydwen, the Biting Gale (Lance Flor)
8 Geist of Saint Traft (Rizalino Sanchez)
Match History
Round 1 - Prossh, Skyraider of Kher (Chuck Lim) - Win
Round 2 - Animar, Soul of Elements (Jeffrey Leal) - Win
Round 3 - Geist of Saint Traft (Israel Rodriguez) - Draw
Round 4 - Thrun, the Last Troll (Ranier Maglantay) - Win
Round 5 - Maelstrom Wanderer (Juin Paul San Juan) - Win
I guess that answers that. I was partially right as I saw an abundance of added mass kill and creature hate as the tournament progressed. There were some graveyard hate in most decks, but overall, I don't think gamer's were expecting a multiplayer combo favorite played during a Duel Commander tournament. At least, on this particular day they didn't. But what do I know? I was just as dumbfounded by it's win as Mark was.
Walking the Grave
Format: 1v1 Duel Commander
Commander: Skullbriar, the Walking Grave
You'll Like The Deck If...
You love your graveyard tricks.
You love combo wins.
You want to play the unexpected during a tournament.
You Won't Like The Deck If...
You're not a fan of reanimator strategies.
You feel combo wins are a cheap trick.
You don't like unsettling the dead.
Deck Deconstruction
The deck probably doesn't need much introduction. The game play is reanimation. The win conditions include combo. You can go with one or a combination of many plays. You can play it aggressively by tutoring out the combo cards as fast as you can while holding on to one of your reanimator cards which runs in abundant redundancy. You can play proactively by disrupting your opponent's strategy through discard, disruption, and destruction. You can do beat down with your dorks and reanimated cheatin' monstrosities. Or you can win with your frighteningly growing Commander.
So why Skullbriar, the Walking Grave? He is a great distraction for your opponent/s as a you progress through the game. If left unnoticed, he will grow into a fatty ending the game quite quickly. If given too much focus, it gives you enough leeway to pull off one of your combo wins.
Card Highlights
Griselbrand
Whether cheated into play through reanimation or "hard-casted," he alone can win you the game most of the time. Grabbing 7 cards for a mere 7 life will always be a big advantage over your opponent. You only have to make sure you don't draw yourself to death and you'll do just fine. Frankly, I think this card should be banned. It can easily be supported by its color or can easily be supported for as a huge game breaker.
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion
Undying. It fits very much into the theme, doesn't it? If you are able to bring them into play at the same time and if uninterrupted, you can just ping your opponent to submission for a game win. You do know how the combo works, right? Throw one +1/+1 counter from Triskelion to your opponent then throw the remaining two +1/+1 counters on itself. He dies without any +1/+1 counters and returns through undying. He now has four +1/+1 counters on him. Do your pinging this time with 2 damage to your opponent and 2 to itself. It comes back and you do it again until you deal enough for the win.
Necrotic Ooze + Triskelion + Phyrexian Devourer
Same as above and only as slightly different. This time you have to leave Triskelion and Phyrexian Devourer in your graveyard. Cast or reanimate Necrotic Ooze. Use the Devourer's ability to place +1/+1 counters on him (Exile the top card of your library: Put X +1/+1 counters on Phyrexian Devourer, where X is the exiled card's converted mana cost.) and use Triskelion's ability to ping the +1/+1 counters on your opponent.
| Artifacts [3] Birthing Pod Lightning Greaves Skull Clamp Creatures [29] Acidic Slime Arbor Elf Birds of Paradise Carrion Feeder Deathrite Shaman Elves of Deep Shadow Elvish Mystic Eternal Witness Fauna Shaman Fierce Empath Fyndhorn Elves Griselbrand Jarad, Golgari Lich Lord Llanowar Elves Lotleth Troll Massacre Wurm Mikaeus, the Unhallowed Necrotic Ooze Priest of Titania Primeval Titan Phyrexian Devourer Putrid Imp Rune-Scarred Demon Sheoldred, Whispering One Terastodon Triskelion Varolz, the Scar Striped Vicera Seer Wild Mongrel Enchantments [6] Animate Dead Dance of the Dead Necromancy Pernicious Deed Survival of the Fittest Sylvan Library Planeswalkers [1] Garruk Wildspeaker | Instants [8] Abrupt Decay Beast Within Crop Rotation Entomb Krosan Grip {Split Second} Putrefy Skeletal Scrying Wordly Tutor Sorceries [17] Appetite for Brains Blackmail Black Sun Zenith Buried Alive Cabal Therapy {Flashback} Damnation Demonic Tutor Duress Exhume Green Sun's Zenith Inquisition of Kozilek Last Rites Life // Death Reanimate Stitch Together {Threshold} Thoughtsieze Victimize Lands [35] Bloodstained Mire City of Brass Command Tower Dryad Arbor {Forest Dryad} Gaea's Cradle Gemstone Mine Ghost Quarter High Market Homeward Path Llanowar Waste Marsh Flats Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx {Devotion} Overgrown Tomb {Forest Swamp} Phyrexian Tower Polluted Delta Tainted Wood Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth Verdant Catacombs Wasteland Windswept Heath Wooded Foothills Wooded Cemetery Forests - 6 Snow-Covered Swamp - 1 Swamps - 6 |
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