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Always hated it when my friend dropped out a Geralf's Messenger, so I designed a deck to make it as nasty as possible.
Get Geralf's Messenger and Ashnod's Altar on the board as soon as possible. Sac the Messenger to Ashnod's Altar twice, Unearth it, then sac it twice again to fuel a big Profane Command to make your opponent lose 8 life and bring back the Messenger again. With nothing else, playing the Messenger and this combo results in your opponent losing 18 life. Shouldn't be too hard to eke out the last 2 life.Ideal PlayTurn 1: Swamp, Dark Ritual, Geralf's Messenger (Opponent's life:18)Turn 2: Swamp, Blood ArtistTurn 3: Swamp, Ashnod's AltarTurn 4: Swamp, Sacrifice Geralf's Messenger to the Ashnod's Altar for 2 mana (Life: 17) Geralf's Messenger returns with a counter (Life: 15) Sacrifice Geralf's Messenger to the Ashnod's Altar for 2 mana (Life: 14) Unearth targeting Geralf's Messenger (Life: 12) Sacrifice Geralf's Messenger to the Ashnod's Altar for 2 mana (Life: 11) Geralf's Messenger returns with a counter (Life: 9) Sacrifice Geralf's Messenger to the Ashnod's Altar for 2 mana (Life: 8) Play Profane Command with X=9, Choose opponent loses X life and return a creature of converted mana cost X or less to return Geralf's Messenger. (Life: -3) Sacrifice Geralf's Messenger to the Ashnod's Altar for 2 mana (Life: -5)
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There are a lot of better reanimator cards out there. Exhume, Dread Return, Buried Alive, Sheoldred.
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The only real target for reanimation in this deck is Geralf's Messenger, so Unearth fits perfectly. Exhume has drawbacks, Dread Return and Sheoldred are too slow. Buried Alive is a good idea though, to find Geralf's Messenger. If I really need to reanimate Gray Merchant, I can probably do it with Profane Command.
Play exhume early on and you opponent rarely has anything in their graveyard. I'd suggest entomb but it is very expensive cash wise. But I run them and love them. Entomb a fatty then exhume it. Sheoldred is nice because she pulls stuff out of your graveyard without relying on drawing reanimator cards. With buried alive you can sink tons of fattys in and bring out each turn with her.I like to run Oona's Prowler for it's discard ability in case I draw something I need in my graveyard. I also run Oona's Gatewarden, it's cheap and a flying defender but the wither makes players think twice about attacking. Those two make good early defenders plus cannon fodder. You can also discard the dread return then play it for it's flashback.I also like to run It that Betrays and some Pathrazer of Ulamogs. With It that Betrays plus the Pathrazer of Ulamogs annihilator, plus Sheoldred's ability that makes opponents sacrifice their creatures and you end up with all them while wiping your opponent out. Then of course if you don't do mono black you can just reanimate Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur and/or Iona, Shield of Emeria usually on turn three or four and your opponent will just give up, or die in a turn or two.I mean you called your deck a reanimator deck, if that's so then why, as you say it "The only real target for reanimation in this deck is Geralf's Messenger." Any way I'm just a big reanimator fan which is why I looked at your deck. I've thrown out ideas on how I do my reanimator deck if they help great, if it's not what your going for that's fine too.
Yeah, I suppose I should rename the deck and change the tags. What you're describing is the classic reanimator deck that drops a fatty in the graveyard, then reanimates it. If that was my goal, I would pretty much follow the exact plan you've described. The goal of this deck is to abuse Geralf's Messenger's enter the battlefield trigger and undying multiple times using a sacrifice ability (Ashnod's Altar) and cheap reanimation (Unearth) to both make my opponent lose life and generate a lot of colorless mana for a big X spell (Profane Command). If I can reanimate Geralf's Messenger multiple times in a single turn, I can generate a lot more mana and do a lot more damage. Hence, the mana cost of my reanimate spell is pretty important. Dread Return is far too expensive, and the likelihood of my having three creatures that I am willing to sacrifice is low. Exhume costs only one more colorless mana than Unearth, but I don't feel it gives any benefit in this deck besides the ability to reanimate Gray Merchant. I'd consider running Reanimate, but I generally try to keep the $$ cost of my decks as low as possible, especially since I'm designing for a friend.
Ah, I see that now. You may be interested in Victimize then. Sacrifice one Messenger (or other creature) and bring back two. I like the title now, very clever.
Gravedigger or Ghoulraiser might be helpful too, maybe instead of Butcher Ghoul?