B/R Reanimator
Andrew Sullano, 2nd place at GP Louisville

Sorcery (20)

4x Exhume
4x Faithless Looting
4x Reanimate
4x Thoughtseize
4x Unmask

Land (12)
2x Badlands
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Polluted Delta
1x Scrubland
2x Swamp

Creature (10)

4x Chancellor of the Annex
1x Children of Korlis
4x Griselbrand
1x Iona, Shield of Emeria

Instant (8)

4x Dark Ritual
4x Entomb

Enchantment (4)

4x Animate Dead

Artifact (6)

2x Chrome Mox
4x Lotus Petal


Sideboard (15)

1x Blazing Archon
3x Collective Brutality
4x Faerie Macabre
1x Pithing Needle
2x Surgical Extraction
1x Tidespout Tyrant
3x Wear / Tear

U/B Reanimator has been a popular deck for a while now, but B/R Reanimator managed to fly under the radar until it won Eternal Champs Europe a few months back. It’s been gaining a traction on Magic Online, and the affordability and power of the deck have made it popular. The deck has some key differences from its blue cousin, and these differences mean the two decks play out quite differently.




First of all, the B/R Reanimator build plays Dark Ritual (and potentially Chrome Mox), which means that it’s more likely to combo on turn 1 or 2. This burst of speed makes it a turn-1.5 combo deck, whereas U/B Reanimator is more of a turn-2.5 combo deck. Furthermore, B/R Reanimator doesn’t really have cantrips, just 4 copies of Faithless Looting. This means that the deck is built to live and die by its opening hands as the lack of card manipulation means it’s not set up to win a longer game.


As a result, one of the most important skills in playing the deck is mulliganing. You only get one chance to “filter” your draw, and for the most part the deck can mulligan very well. You only need 3 cards to win on turn 2 (land, Entomb, Reanimate), so you should generally mulligan down to 5 any hand that doesn’t have a way of getting a creature in play. On 5 card hands, you are still looking for a Faithless Looting or an Entomb.


The deck also has considerable built-in redundancy. It plays 10 creatures and 12 reanimation spells, so once you have a creature in the graveyard, you are likely to run your opponents out of counterspells because you have so many reanimation effects.


In terms of disruption, the deck relies on discard effects (Unmask, Thoughtseize, Collective Brutality) and Chancellor of the Annex. Chancellor doubles as disruption and a creature to reanimate. Against most combo decks and Delver decks, an early Chancellor is enough to finish the game. For the discard package, I like playing the full playset of Unmask. It makes your Griselbrands more potent as you can draw 7 and Thoughtseize your opponents with no mana. Unmask is also a free way to bin your own fatties if needed, and definitely increases the goldfish speed of the deck. Finally, in post-sideboard games, most decks in Legacy run Surgical Extraction, and the discard effects are one way to beat it.


For extra reanimation targets, Andrew chose Sire of Insanity, Tidespout Tyrant, Grave Titan, Inkwell Leviathan, Elesh Norn, and Iona. Sire of Insanity is great on turn 1 on the play as it forces your opponents to topdeck land and removal for it. Tidespout Tyrant can answer troublesome permanents like Ensnaring Bridge while also letting you “catch up” from a behind board state in conjunction with Griselbrand’s draw 7. A common play is to reanimate Griselbrand, and then reanimate a Tidespout Tyrant to bounce your opponent’s board. In the sideboard, Andrew plays Elesh Norn as a sweeper to beat creature decks like Delver and Elves. Iona comes in against mono-color decks and combo decks. Inkwell Leviathan and Grave Titan are good against decks with Karakas and Swords to Plowshares because they are more resilient threats.





Andrew also plays the full set of 4 Reverent Silence, which in conjunction with his 7 fetchlands and Bayou gives him a way to beat Leyline of the Void. Personally, I tested this plan and didn’t find it that effective because there are times when you won’t have access to the Bayou, and other times where the Leyline decks play Chalice and Thorn/Thalia, which are also difficult to beat. Personally, I prefer to sidestep Leyline through a Show and Tell splash or Stronghold Gambit + discard, but the important thing is to have a plan for Leyline.