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Just because a card is going to be widely available doesn't mean it can possibly be unbanned. This card is obviously busted in combodecks and having fast access to the tutor'd card a la Gush, cantrips, Bazaar and the likes will give decks like Oath, Cephalid Breakfast, Reanimator, Scapeshift, High Tide and so on powerful plays and adds more redundancy to these combo decks. And well, the more consistent combodecks are, the more unfun the format is going to be.

Even controldecks will profit from Imperial Seal. At the moment there are still cards out there that just no-brain a certain matchup: Controlmirrors revolve around True-Name Nemesis most of the time, Moons/Ruination/B2B win against most multicolored decks, I don't think it's a good idea to give decks even better capability to tutor up such a card, jam it and then sit back and relax. Mind that Imperial Seal is very mana-efficient and plays quite smoothly with Snapcaster Mage for instance, and with Imperial Seal and Mystical Tutor in the format, I think Miracle-spells can also be relatively unfair (mostly thinking of Bonfire and Entreat).

I find the bannings reasonable. Natural Order was just stupid. I even had a mirrormatch during the last HL Cup in Hanau where both my opponent and I fired off a 3rd Turn Natural Order into Titan, and I was even on the draw there and had to take a hit from the Titan. I just happened to win because I randomly had Ajani to keep his Titan tapped. But it was probably one of the most degenerate matches I played.

The problem I see here is that Natural Order does not only give your opponent a large beatstick in form of the Titan that has to be dealt with, but at the same time missing one landdrop means he'll get Wasteland + TecEdge and you'll never be allowed to play a proper game or in a more advanced game, it will also give the opponent even more beatsticks in form of manlands or depending on the deck even fetches Dark Dephts + Stage.
This being said, a resolved Natural Order into Titan is GG most of the times because it creates at least 2 problems for the opposite player that are extremely hard to deal with simultaneously.

So I am 100% pro Natural Order ban. I was wondered why it got unbanned in the first place.

Banning SDT was probably not necessary, but I still find it good. SDT does slow down the pace of a game significantly, either because it's the inexperienced player not knowing what to do with the 3 cards or because of the experienced control players that will take their time to look at cards and inevitably stall the game. I know players that take their time to look at the artwork of the 3 lands they see in their top activation just to maintain a pokerface and draw the game to a certain lenght. During one Highlander Cup (it was the one won by Marcus Freier with UWb Control, don't know how long ago) I scooped 3 games because it took to long and I had to go for the 2-1, in 2 of these games there was a SDT involved. And the other one was Crumbling Sanctuary and other shenanigans iirc.
There are people who'll abuse SDT to stall a game when they are in the leading position, and taking away this grey zone is a good thing imo.

Now for the unban watchlist, I am not certain about Gifts Ungiven. It was banned during a time where controldecks (5color Oath stands out here, and I've been crushing tournaments with it pretty regularily) did not rely on planeswalkers, or lets better say planeswalkers were non-existent.
However, I can see it being almost as degenerate as Natural Order due to Loam-Engines (that can also enable Academy Ruins + EE), Unburial Rites, double Tutor with Noxious Revival and/or Snapcaster which can create another "oops, i (still) win" card.
However, this is a card that would definitely strenghten underplayed archetypes and probably create some more diversity in terms of control- and combodecks. Unbanning it would be interesting.

However, I would not ever think about Stoneforge Mystic, no matter how much the community wished to play that card again. It will be stuffed into any deck playing white. Controldecks gain access to Batterskull and have another Tutor to piece the super lame Thopter-Swords combo together, and midrange decks such as 4C Blood would play him to fetch the appropriate swiss army knife and break their matchup. It allows fetching up Sword of Fire and Ice to race that super annoying True-Name Nemesis or Sword of War and Piece to completely fcuk over RDW, making SFM in midrange decks somewhat a versatile "color-hoser".

Let's reanimate this topic, heh.

So I have been dead for a while and the last time I was playing Reanimator was during the time LftL was banned. I wanted to update Reanimator as LftL is unbanned which is pretty wicked and there are a lot of new beatsticks to play with like Griselbrand.

But with the presence of cards like Green Sun's Zenith, Deathrite Shaman and Scavenging Ooze as well as Liliana of the Veil and Jace TMS, I am worried whether Reanimator is still viable nowadays as I have the feeling that any deck has got plenty of outs against Reanimator in general (Bant for example has Swords, Path, O.Ring, Detention Sphere, Jace, Fauna Shaman for a bunch of clones that legend-rule big guys like Phantasmal Image, Phyrex Metamorph etc.).

How can I adjust my deck to the current meta and is Reanimator viable? I have the feeling that everyone is playing aggro and aggrocontrol at the moment, so creatures that win against control are weak, instead you need real showstoppers like Blazing Archon, Stormtide Leviathan, maximum numbers of lifelinkers and destroyers like Bogardan Hellkite (I am missing that at the moment).

So I'll shoot you my list and hopefully, we can debate and make it perfect:

1 Bayou
1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Breeding Pool
1 Watery Grave
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Woodland Cemetery
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Drowned Catacomb
1 Wasteland
1 Barren Moor
1 Cephalid Coliseum
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Marsh Flats
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Forest
1 Daze
1 Mental Misstep
1 Circular Logic
1 Force of Will
1 Careful Study
1 Brainstorm
1 Deep Analysis
1 Lotleth Troll
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Hermit Druid
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Psychatog
1 Griselbrand
1 Angel of Despair
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Life from the Loam
1 Animate Dead
1 Stitch Together
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Life // Death
1 Necromancy
1 Exhume
1 Reanimate
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Show and Tell
1 Oath of Druids
1 Dread Return
1 Frantic Search
1 Intuition
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Mox Diamond
1 Flooded Strand
1 Chrome Mox
1 Lonely Sandbar
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Tolaria West
1 Academy Ruins
1 Maze of Ith
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Deathrite Shaman
1 Eureka
1 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Mana Drain
1 Blazing Archon
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Crop Rotation
1 Tainted Pact
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Thought Courier
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Eternal Witness
1 Living Death

So far I've been quite happy with my list, but I am considering cutting Jin-Gitaxias for Sundering Titan since we have Griselbrand now and Sundering Titan has been pretty broken most of the time.

I am also thinking about Dismember and Shriekmaw as you can seek the latter with Fauna Shaman in a pinch, but Dismember... I don't know. In the earlygame, paying 4 life can be crucial as Reanimate and Life/Death can bring you down to 10 or lower very easily.

Anyway, the question is how can I play more counters and removal without messing up the creaturebase or the amount of disruption and discardoutlets?
Hope anyone experienced with Reanimator can help me once more.

Since I didn't find a real thread for Reanimator and representative decklists, I thought it would be useful to simply start a new thread.
I'm currently rocking UGB Reanimator, but I'm still not really sure about it and/or some cardchoices.

My list looks like this:

1 Underground Sea
1 Tropical Island
1 Bayou
1 Breeding Pool
1 Overgrown Tomb
1 Watery Grave
1 Underground River
1 Yavimaya Coast
1 Llanowar Wastes
1 Island
1 Snow-Covered Island
1 Forest
1 Snow-Covered Forest
1 Swamp
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Flooded Strand
1 Polluted Delta
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Marsh Flats
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
1 Bojuka Bog
1 Tolaria West
1 Maze of Ith
1 Bazaar of Baghdad
1 Wasteland
1 City of Brass
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Forbidden Orchard
1 Enclave Cryptologist
1 Merfolk Looter
1 Thought Courier
1 Looter il-Kor
1 Hermit Druid
1 Wild Mongrel
1 Oona's Prowler
1 Psychatog
1 Eternal Witness
1 Iona, Shield of Emeria
1 Terastodon
1 Woodfall Primus
1 Angel of Despair
1 Sundering Titan
1 Pelakka Wurm
1 Sphinx of the Steel Wind
1 Phantom Nishoba
1 Wurmcoil Engine
1 Blazing Archon
1 Stormtide Leviathan
1 Empyrial Archangel
1 Inkwell Leviathan
1 Simic Sky Swallower
1 Duress
1 Thoughtseize
1 Inquisition of Kozilek
1 Mental Misstep
1 Daze
1 Mana Leak
1 Mana Drain
1 Circular Logic
1 Misdirection
1 Force of Will
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Sensei's Divining Top
1 Sylvan Library
1 Demonic Tutor
1 Brainstorm
1 Preordain
1 Ponder
1 Tainted Pact
1 Crop Rotation
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Intuition
1 Gifts Ungiven
1 Fact or Fiction
1 Buried Alive
1 Careful Study
1 Frantic Search
1 Thirst for Knowledge
1 Regrowth
1 Reanimate
1 Dance of the Dead
1 Animate Dead
1 Necromancy
1 Exhume
1 Stitch Together
1 Recurring Nightmare
1 Makeshift Mannequin
1 Diabolic Servitude
1 Living Death
1 Show and Tell
1 Oath of Druids
1 Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur
1 Life // Death
1 Bogardan Hellkite


I think my list os pretty okay. At least that's the best you can do after it got all the brokeness banned out of it (Life from the Loam, Entomb, Library of Alex).
However, I still fail to make that build as streamlined as possible. There are cards that often clog up my hand over and over again: Deed, EE, Sylvan Scrying, Tolaria West and Crop Rotation (however, Crop Rotation being very good to setup Living Death).

Due to Oath I wanted to keep the small-creature-count as low as possible, there have been like 6 games lifetime where I fully relied on Oath and flipped creatures liek Waterfront Bouncer, Birds of Paradise, Squee and Noble Hierarch. I prefer to have a solid Oath instead of accelerating into nowhere (although taht might make sense with Diabolic Servitude and Makeshift Mannequin).

Due to the unbanning of Buried Alive it would also be possible to play the Necrotic Ooze-Phyrexian Devourer-Triskelion Combo. Worldgorger Dragon can also combo with Animate Dead, Necromancy and Dance of the Dead.

I'm also thinking about adding an Elesh-Norn because I can see it tearing decks like White Weenie apart
I hope I can get some good advice and maybe someone has got some sample lists I can steal ideas from. :>

- Adan

Maybe because Controldecks got their engines (LoA & Life) banned which turns Highlander into an aggroformat...

Yes, 5color Oath definitely is a insanely strong deck.

I also won yesterday's Highlander tournament in Mannheim going 4-0 with the same build as it can be seen above.

My matchups were:

Round 1: John Doe with 5color Oath

Mirrormatch -.- But he doesn't run Life from the Loam, so g1 I punish him with Exploration and Gifts into Life-Waste-Cycle Engine and go nuts with Decree of Justice. G2 he tries to assemble early Orchard-Oath, but I take his Oath with Seal of Cleansing and beat him down with the 5 tokens he gave me. In both games I had Life-Engine running which breaks his back.

2-0, 1-0-0

Round 2: John Doe with Mono Black Sui thingy.

g1 I just remember that he beats me down, I wrath, he replays a creature, I play Oath, he disposes his creature with Sudden Death and then I had like infinite time to back myself up with Moat and then found Orchard ftw.

g2 was similar, I have LoA and Confinement. I cycle myself through my library until I find Moat. And then the rest of the game goes like in g1. I find Merchant Scroll, go for Muddle which I transmute into a Oath of Druids.

2-0, 2-0-0

Round 3: Stefan with UG Manaramp (the same deck Arne Fricke piloted to 2nd place at the HL GP)

g1 he does not have beats, just a Wall of Roots and a Survival which I dispose quickly with Seal of Cleansing. In response he uses Survival to fetch a Gigapede (I expected Eternal Witness, but hey, better for me!). He then plays Gigapede and I wipe his board clean with Firespout.
Some turns later he plays a random critter, I play Oath. He does mainphase Intuition for Regrowth, Witness and Naturalize and has 2 Mana left. I give him Regrowth, he plays it and then I Daze it for the win.

g2 he has early beats in form of Garruk and Ravenous Baloth. In combination with my manaproblems I go down in a few turns. Meh.

g3 he played a Meloku on Turn 4, I remember that I have SDT and only 3 lands. I play Enlightened tutor for Oath and play it, that's why I am tapped out. He plays Pact of Negation. I exchange SDT for the top card in hope to find a Force of WIll or a Daze, but I draw Wasteland. Very lucky indeed as he has a Tropical Island and I did not make my land drop yet. I waste his Tropical and he dies to his own Pact.

2-1, 3-0

Round 4: Christian with UR Counterburn

We ID and play for the 1st Place store voucher.

Bad matchup, but I have a insane draw g1, having Plains, Island and Mox Diamond for absolute immunity to B2B, Moon, Magus of the Moon and PoP. Additionally, I E.Tutor for Oath. He does not play a single creature, but I find Orchard and win.

g2 was similar, this time he resolves a Magus of the Moon which I Fire // Ice'd and then some turns later resolve Oath with backup ftw.

2-0, 4-0-0

We both take Top2 and I end up being 1st.

edit: There is a mistake in the decklist above. There are 2 Disenchants. 1 of those Disenchants is supposed to be a Seal of Cleansing. Just btw.

[Nevinyrral's Disk 1 [TSP] Gauntlet of Power 1 [DS] Panoptic Mirror 1 [FD] Vedalken Shackles 1 [MR] Oblivion Stone 1 [GP] Repeal 1 [TSP] Walk the Aeons 1 [ST] Time Warp 1 [P2] Temporal Manipulation 1 [P3] Capture of Jingzhou 1 [TE] Intuition 1 [CHK] Gifts Ungiven 1 [IN] Fact or Fiction 1 [MM] Bribery 1 [A] Control Magic 1 [FD] Wayfarer's Bauble 1 [UD] Treachery 1 [IN] Repulse 1 [VI] Impulse 1 [TE] Sapphire Medallion 1 [TE] Capsize 1 [TSP] Wipe Away 1 [PS] Rushing River 1 [SH] Mana Leak 1 [EX] Forbid 1 [AL] Force of Will 1 [US] Rewind 1 [LRW] Cryptic Command 1 [TE] Dismiss 1 [MM] Misdirection 1 [CHK] Hinder 1 [MI] Dissipate 1 [LRW] Faerie Trickery 1 [MM] Counterspell 1 [LG] Mana Drain 1 [MR] Mindslaver 1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top 1 [UL] Opportunity 1 [US] Stroke of Genius 1 [OD] Concentrate 1 [LRW] Ponder 1 [OD] Syncopate 1 [FD] Condescend 1 [RAV] Remand 1 [WL] Phyrexian Furnace 1 [MR] Scrabbling Claws 1 [US] Back to Basics 1 [CST] Brainstorm 1 [CST] PortentSo far it has been pretty sick, but I still have no clue what form of carddraw is appropriate. There are also a lot more playable cards such as Draining Whelk and such, but at the moment I am already quite satisfied with it.Do counters such as Force Spike and Spell Snare have their right to exist in this deck? What about Last Word or Dismal Failure?Are the cantrips (Brainstorm, Ponder, Portent, Impulse) ok or can there be more such as Telling Time? Would Merchant Scroll be good?What about artifact-accel such as Mind Stone, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus (Sol Ring is also allowed as we are only playing kitchen-table-Highlander)?I built that list according to what FrankT said in one of his posts in the other forum but you can't figure out what carddraw to play or which ~16 counters are playable or not. I hope you can help me.]

Ok, now here's my list. I need some food for thought and hope you can help me:

// Lands
    1 [FUT] Tolaria West
    1 [TE] Wasteland
    1 [MM] Rishadan Port
    1 [ON] Polluted Delta
    1 [ON] Flooded Strand
    1 [OD] Petrified Field
    25 [UG] Island
    1 [TSP] Academy Ruins
    1 [MR] Seat of the Synod
    1 [DIS] Ghost Quarter
    1 [AQ] Mishra's Factory (3)
    1 [UL] Faerie Conclave

// Creatures
    1 [FD] Razormane Masticore
    1 [VI] Man-o'-War
    1 [FD] Trinket Mage
    1 [CHK] Jushi Apprentice
    1 [ON] Arcanis the Omnipotent
    1 [10E] Thieving Magpie
    1 [P3] Lu Xun, Scholar General
    1 [DS] Spire Golem
    1 [US] Morphling
    1 [UD] Masticore
    1 [UL] Palinchron
    1 [TSP] Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
    1 [FUT] Venser, Shaper Savant
    1 [VI] Rainbow Efreet
    1 [CHK] Meloku the Clouded Mirror

// Spells
    1 Nevinyrral's Disk
    1 [TSP] Gauntlet of Power
    1 [DS] Panoptic Mirror
    1 [FD] Vedalken Shackles
    1 [MR] Oblivion Stone
    1 [GP] Repeal
    1 [TSP] Walk the Aeons
    1 [ST] Time Warp
    1 [P2] Temporal Manipulation
    1 [P3] Capture of Jingzhou
    1 [TE] Intuition
    1 [CHK] Gifts Ungiven
    1 [IN] Fact or Fiction
    1 [MM] Bribery
    1 [A] Control Magic
    1 [FD] Wayfarer's Bauble
    1 [UD] Treachery
    1 [IN] Repulse
    1 [VI] Impulse
    1 [TE] Sapphire Medallion
    1 [TE] Capsize
    1 [TSP] Wipe Away
    1 [PS] Rushing River
    1 [SH] Mana Leak
    1 [EX] Forbid
    1 [AL] Force of Will
    1 [US] Rewind
    1 [LRW] Cryptic Command
    1 [TE] Dismiss
    1 [MM] Misdirection
    1 [CHK] Hinder
    1 [MI] Dissipate
    1 [LRW] Faerie Trickery
    1 [MM] Counterspell
    1 [LG] Mana Drain
    1 [MR] Mindslaver
    1 [CHK] Sensei's Divining Top
    1 [UL] Opportunity
    1 [US] Stroke of Genius
    1 [OD] Concentrate
    1 [LRW] Ponder
    1 [OD] Syncopate
    1 [FD] Condescend
    1 [RAV] Remand
    1 [WL] Phyrexian Furnace
    1 [MR] Scrabbling Claws
    1 [US] Back to Basics
    1 [CST] Brainstorm
    1 [CST] Portent

So far it has been pretty sick, but I still have no clue what form of carddraw is appropriate. There are also a lot more playable cards such as Draining Whelk and such, but at the moment I am already quite satisfied with it.

Do counters such as Force Spike and Spell Snare have their right to exist in this deck? What about Last Word or Dismal Failure?

Are the cantrips (Brainstorm, Ponder, Portent, Impulse) ok or can there be more such as Telling Time? Would Merchant Scroll be good?

What about artifact-accel such as Mind Stone, Thran Dynamo, Gilded Lotus (Sol Ring is also allowed as we are only playing kitchen-table-Highlander)?

I built that list according to what FrankT said in one of his posts in the other forum but you can't figure out what carddraw to play or which ~16 counters are playable or not. I hope you can help me.