Achievement Unlocked: Building Reanimation in Multiplayer
November 27, 2023 by
Benjamin Nicol 
(Indominus Rex, Alpha | Art by Miro Petrov)
Keyword: Reanimator
Have you ever made a Commander bucket list? Welcome to Achievement Unlocked, where we take a look at the cool and unique things you can do in this format other than just winning.
Reanimation is one of Magic's most powerful strategies. From reanimating Griselbrand to more recently reanimating Archon of Cruelty. Constructed formats have often had this deck either as an integral part of their metagame or at least lingering on the fringes of playability.
Commander, however, provides a unique challenge to the archetype. Often one bomb creature will not be enough to take down three opponents. For that reason, reanimation decks have never really piqued my interest. However, that all changed when I saw a certain dino in one of Magic's newest releases.
Indominus Rex, Alpha does a few things I really love. First, it's an enabler for the deck while also being a somewhat formidable threat in itself. It also draws cards to help us find the spells to take advantage of the creatures we dump into the graveyard. Finally, it's in the most important colors for the archetype and gives us access to the full Sultai suite of cards. Let's take a look at what reanimation can look like in Commander.
Life Finds a Way
What makes Indominus unique? For one, we want our reanimation targets to have keywords. Some of the top cards that appear in decks so far are Venomthrope (87%) and Nighthawk Scavenger (79%). I can see the vision with these cards as they have a lot of keywords. However, if our primary strategy focuses on reanimation rather than finishing the game with our commander, then we want some creatures that pack a bigger punch when being reanimated. Triplicate Titan has many of the same keywords but is formidable enough on its own to present a threat.
To better find cards that fit this strategy, I looked to EDHREC's filters. In this case, only six decks are showing as as a reanimator theme, which is not a big enough sample size to have confidence in the data. That didn't discourage me, though. Instead, I filtered for all decks that include a key card to the strategy that I want to make work. 641 decks include the card Living Death which is one of if not the best win condition in our deck. This gives us way more data to work with, so let's break it down.
You Didn't Ask for Reality; You Asked for More Teeth
What creatures best fit this strategy? 93% of these decks are on the right path with Scavenged Brawler. This is a threat that can stabilize your board and push through damage. Importantly, it has FOUR keywords and even has an ability from the graveyard if you don't have the spells to recur it. It doesn't look like the traditional reanimator threat, but it plays into exactly what our deck wants to do. It's important to note that we're looking to play a grindy game and reanimate multiple threats. For that reason, it's an extra plus to have creatures that aren't embarrassing if we have to cast from our hand, and they'll never rot in our hand unable to cast them. This playstyle is very different to reanimator in other formats, but it gives us the flexibility to play the long game and not run out of gas too quickly.
Elder Gargaroth fulfills a similar role as a creature that can really fit in any green Commander deck, but it excels here, especially with the keywords it grants. Wurmcoil Engine plays in a similar space as a midrange threat with keywords that isn't a problem to cast.
Tying the Room Together
This commander costs just five mana, but with the colored-pips required to cast it it's important that we set up our mana in this deck and even ramp out our commander early if possible. Luckily, we're in green, so we can rely on the tried-and-true green land ramp. In general I prefer the two-mana spells, such as Farseek and Nature's Lore, but when you have a five-mana commander with such color-intensive mana costs, I think Cultivate and Harrow can fit in this deck as well.
Mana dorks can be underwhelming in Commander, but there are a few great options here. Leyline Prowler and Birds of Paradise are both mana dorks that can also contribute to our commander's keywords once they would otherwise be less useful late in the game.
Reanimation spells are plentiful, and the best bang for our buck is cards that can reanimate two creatures at once, like the aforementioned Living Death. Reanimate is good, but in this deck I think Victimize is even better. Rise of the Dark Realms will end the game in almost any situation, and Virtue of Persistence gives us early game removal that doubles as repeated reanimation later in the game.
One of my favorite parts of Commander deckbuilding are finding hidden gems that excel specifically with what our deck is trying to do, but wouldn't see play in the average deck. One standout here is Archfiend of Ifnir. This plays naturally into our reanimation plan by putting itself in the graveyard if we need, but when set up correctly this card can become an asymmetrical board wipe. Similarly, Shadow of the Grave can leverage our commander for even more card draw and can combine with blink effects such as Ghostly Flicker to help us stick even more cards in our graveyard.
This commander also plays in a space that recently the game has been exploring more in the keywords-matter theme. Because of the density of creatures we are running with keywords, Selective Adaptation can serve as an alternate win condition and another way to cheat out multiple creatures. Majestic Myriarch also packs significantly more punch when combined with all these other creatures. Soulflayer is a little counterintuitive as it exiles cards from our graveyard, but I feel it is efficient enough that we can leverage it as an additional way to get a big hitter for cheap.
Winning the Game
The main gameplan here is to reanimate many creatures at once, but there are a few creatures here that can win the game on their own. The best part is that they are also full of keywords for our commander. Craterhoof Behemoth is maybe a cheat here, but it does have haste, so I don't feel too bad stating the obvious that it is a potential win condition here. However, with even more keywords and a much lower pricetag, End-Raze Forerunners does a pretty solid impression.
It's important not to count out commander damage either, although it's not the deck's main gameplan. This commander can quickly turn into a clock for our opponents especially when double strike is paired with some sport of evasion and even haste. Luxior, Giada's Gift makes this line of play even more aggressive and deadly. The best part of this commander is that it's an enabler that our opponents can't just ignore once it is in play. If they do kill it, we can recast it to refuel and go again.
Conclusion
This deck was a lot of fun to think about and build. Have you built reanimator in Commander? Who was your commander and how did you adapt your gameplan to a multiplayer environment? Let me know in the comments below!
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Benjamin Nicol
Ben is a Michigan native who fell in love with Magic just a few years ago in 2019. He loves making big splashy plays in Commander as well as crunching the number to optimize his decks. Outside of Magic, he works in marketing and loves a great cup of coffee to start each morning… maybe with a splash of hot chocolate for his sweet tooth.
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