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Main » Articles » Magic the Classroom – Redundancy

Magic the Classroom – Redundancy

Dan Eckstein
Posted on January 20, 2010
 Reddit

A few months ago people were screaming at Wizards. "Those cheap money grabbers just printed this…."

"When they could have just reprinted this….."

Everyone was all up in arms. I just ask "really?" Is this a money grab by Wizards? I mean even if a 2/2 vanilla for 2 mana was in a deck would you really have to shell out the big bucks for this little common. Just go to any good size draft tourney and ask who got it. They'll probably give you a full playset for free. How is this a money grab? Let's not forget that in WOTC history we also have: Ashcoat Bear (bonus Flash), Balduvian Bears, Bear Cub, and Forest Bear. And that's just the actual Bears. The list gets even longer if you throw out the creature type and just look at 2/2's for 1G.

Wizards is always printing cards that function the same as other cards. Let's face it the creativeness and new ideas going into mechanics alone can be daunting. Now we want every new card to function differently than all the other bazillion cards that have been printed before. Be honest, many of you would complain about the learning curve getting harder and harder. Also our rules text on a card would start looking like Yu-Gi-Oh and who wants that?

Instead we can use these functional reprints to our advantage. How? By abusing the 4 copy rule that's how. Here is a quote from the Basic Rule Book.

[easybox]You play a Magic game with your own customized deck. You build it yourself using whichever Magic cards you want.[/easybox]

There are two rules: Your deck must have at least 60 cards, and your deck can't have more than four copies of any single card (except for basic lands).

Now imagine that you really want to play with a 2/2 Bear. With both Grizzly Bears and Runeclaw Bears you now have 8 cards that serve the same function. (Why would you want this? I don't know but it serves as an example. Maybe if Master of the Wild Hunt made Bears instead of Wolves.) Even you didn't worry about pesky things like Format you could actually build a deck with 24 2/2 Bears. That'll make your inner Cub Scout happy. The math no longer is a question of probability but instead a statement of inevitability.

When Zendikar first came out I brushed on this matter a little bit when I presented a couple of decks that could abuse the fact that you could now basically have 8 Wrath of Gods in your Extended deck. Between Day of Judgment and Wrath of God I figured that some Control Decks would get a leg up on a Zoo heavy environment. So far it appears that I was wrong on that one (SO FAR). In fact the only case that I've heard for carrying both is to avoid Meddling Mage shut downs. I personally don't think I'll ever hear Meddling Mage being played declaring Wrath of God as its card of choice.

But redundancy doesn't stop at exact reprints. What we want to look for is functional Reprints. If you where Mono Red in Extended how many cards can destroy lands on turn 3? How about turn 4?

And that's not including more expensive tricks or cards like Detritivore. That's quite a choice. If we could build a deck that also survived until all of this LD could get going we would have a contender deck. But alas going 1 for 1 with decks that drop 3/3's on the first turn just isn't going to work. (I do think it would be cool to have an active Emeria with Avalanche Riders in the Yard.) It still serves as another example of how we can mathematically assure ourselves of the card we want.

This week we are going to build a deck that uses Reanimation as a theme. In a world with Dredge hate it isn't going to work and it won't be anywhere near as good as Dredge but the Redundancy theme will be there.

What do you need for a Reanimator deck any way? First you need Targets, creatures that you can reanimate that'll truly put your opponent on a clock. Second, you need ways to get them into your graveyard so that you can dig them up later. Third, you need some cards that will serve as shovels and bring them up out of the Grave for your pleasure. I also add a fourth component to today's build and that's acceleration. Like Land Destruction it appears that Wizards is more than happy to have Reanimation cost 4 mana. I would rather have my Uber Critters hit the field on turn three. The added benefit of needing less lands in the deck helps us as well. It seems convenient to split the deck as follows. 20 Land, 10 Targets, 10 Discards, 10 Shovels, and 10 Accelerants.

So basically I want to see if there are enough functional spells for each category.

Are there enough targets? The answer is an emphatic YES! With little thought you can probably make a list of 10 different individual cards even though you only need 3 (2 four of's and 1 2 of). I myself like to diversify and I don't like to put more than one legendary in a deck. I like my reanimations to have at least 5 power and some extra abilities. First ability I desire is Vigilance. Extended options would be:

This list is long enough but let's look at some other options as well. Aside from Vigilance I like Haste next. The thing with Reanimator is you need to Hit and win before your opponent finds answers. Dropping and Swinging goes a long way to making that happen.

Another impressive list. Notice the repeat offenders. They should definitely make our final list. The final thing I look for is some kind of evasion. Nothing is more annoying than having all the muscle on the field and being stopped by some Insect Token. The two above list yield plenty of options so I stick with these.

Discard effects are our next consideration. We'll try to limit ourselves to cards with 2 or less mana costs. That way we will be able to use our actual reanimation on turn 3 or 4. The list of one drops is plenty long to reach our 10.

I personally notice the Llanowar Mentor first. It gives me a discard outlet as well as a mana accelerant. How I count it is two copies for Discard and two for the mana. Raven's Crime is also a very easy fix and will take advantage of our extra mana we're sure to have. Finally I chose Funeral Charm because of the additional options. Thoughtsieze is also a great card but the Charm is easier on the pocket book.

The list of true reanimation spells is a bit shorter but still very functional. Almost to a card each does the same thing. Return target creature from the Graveyard to the Battlefield.

The double white for Resurrection throws it out. Also the tapping requirement for Doomed Necromancer makes it to vulnerable. Makeshift Mannequin is also too risky I don't want my Glorius Reanimated Angel of Dispair to be removed by a simple Disfigure (or maybe I do). That leaves me with Dread Return, Vigor Mortis, and Zombify. If I chose a best of these it would be Vigor Mortis since I'm looking to use Green anyway. Also don't forget to look for token Generators in your Target list if you run a full Dread Return set. There will be times where you may hard cast a Dread Return to reanimate a token maker and then sac the tokens for a second re-up in the same turn.

Finally, we look at accelerants. Since we're involving Green there are plenty to choose from. I personally avoid the "mana dorks" since they are so fragile. Instead I focused on cards that are less likely to see main deck removal. Remember that I've already committed 2 of my 10 slots to Llanowar Mentor earlier. Here are my choices.

From this I will stay with 2 Llanowar Mentor and add in a playset of Fertile Ground and Utopia Sprawl. Which will leave us with the following list.

Redundant Reanimator

[cardlist]1 Akroma, Angel of Wrath

1 Garza Zol, Plague Queen

1 Godsire

1 Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund

2 Meglonoth

1 Razia, Boros Archangel

2 Sphinx of the Steel Wind

1 Thraximundar

4 Llanowar Mentor

4 Raven's Crime

4 Funeral Charm

2 Dread Return

4 Vigor Mortis

4 Zombify

4 Fertile Ground

4 Utopia Sprawl

4 Verdant Catacombs

4 Overgrown Tomb

4 Llanowar Waste

4 Forest

4 Swamp[/cardlist]

That'll be the end of Official Class today. Now I would like to make an appeal to you all. If you live ANYWHERE near Pittsburg (no H), Kansas please plan on attending the Worldwake Prerelease there. My local Store Asylum Anime needs to have 32 players in a tournament to achieve Advanced status. That would be very cool. I've mentioned before how far I have to travel for big tournaments. This at least would get Magic Game Day and Grand Prix Trials nearby. The Stores Organizer has promised an extra pack of product to every participant if he gets 32 so it's a win/win.

Class dismissed. See you on the 30th for the pre-release!

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