Show and Tell in the board of BR Reanimator

In January I played BR Reanimator at GP Louisville (you can see my tournament report here).  As preparation for that, I tested a variety of different sideboard plans, including a white splash for Wear/Tear, a green splash for Abrupt Decay and Reverent Silence, and several transformative sideboards into threats that didn't use the graveyard, like hardcasting Grave Titan with Lake of the Dead, or casting Pack Rat and Young Pyromancer.  Ultimately, I settled on splashing blue for Show and Tell.

I went 10-5 at that event, which isn't groundbreaking but was still a record I was fairly happy with.  Since that event it seems like reddit gets a post about every two weeks by someone considering BR reanimator and asking about the right sideboard options, and since I'm getting tired of writing out my thoughts every time, I figured I'd just make the case for Show and Tell once and for all.

The original list I played is available in my tournament report.  If I were sleeving the deck up today, this is what I would play. 

Spells	Lands
Creatures 4 Griselbrand 4 Chancellor of the Annex 1 Sire of Insanity 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria Reanimation 4 Reanimate 4 Exhume 3 Animate Dead Discard Outlets 4 Faithless Looting 4 Entomb Discard 4 Unmask 2 Thoughtseize 2 Collective Brutality Fast Mana 4 Dark Ritual 4 Lotus Petal	4 Polluted Delta 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Badlands 1 Underground Sea 2 Swamp
Sideboard
4 Show and Tell 3 Blood Moon 2 Echoing Truth 2 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Collective Brutality 1 Firestorm 1 Tidespout Tyrant 1 Grave Titan

I still don't like Tidespout Tyrant as much in BR as I do in UB, mostly because he's not that great unless you've drawn a bunch of cards with Griselbrand, but finding the space for other cards means I need a more universal catch-all, and he's the best at that.  If you find you have the space, I still prefer Blazing Archon + Ashen Rider, as both accomplish what you want when reanimated without needing a followup spell.  Unfortunately you need both slots to accomplish what Tidespout will do on his own, so when space is at a premium Tidespout gets the call.  In this case, I've added an additional Deathrite answer to the board (the 3rd Collective Brutality) due to his metagame omnipresence.

Why Show and Tell?

Against some decks, fighting the permanents is difficult. You have to assemble 3 cards (the discard outlet, the reanimation spell, and the hate answer) instead of just two, and that hate answer is usually no more than a 4of, and often just a 3of in your non-brainstorm deck. Answering multiple copies can be even harder (someone opens on two leylines, for example, and you're probably just dead). Show and Tell (and also Stronghold Gambit) skirts this and instead puts you back on a two card combo against all of the hate except Containment Priest.

The decks that are most likely to bring in permanent based hate against you are the ones where you want to skirt the hate entirely. I'm largely talking about non-Delver Deathrite decks (Elves/Maverick), 4C Loam, Eldrazi, etc.  Fighting permanent based hate against these decks can be an exercise in futility.  While you're digging for an answer to Deathrite they cast Scavenging Ooze, and while you're looking for an answer to him they play Knight of the Reliquary and you have to respect the potential for Bojuka Bog.  Since these decks are all creature-heavy, Show and Tell is significantly better than Stronghold Gambit (the next best option for skirting the hate).

I side in 4 Show and Tell and 2 Echoing Truth in those matchups, which means you do have a universal answer to whatever they might have if you don't draw Show and Tell. You also never get stuck holding decay and staring at Leyline or holding Wear/Tear and staring at Deathrite or Priest.

Show and Tell isn't a universal sideboard plan.  It's not something you bring in against every deck.  In matchups that revolve around countermagic and graveyard hate that is cast from hand you're just better off  playing your regular game.  You are already prepared to fight that kind of interaction with your discard.  Don't pitch Griselbrand to Faithless Looting all willy-nilly on turn 1 hoping they don't have Surgical and you'll be fine.  For a more detailed sideboard plan, click here.

The biggest question I get asked is "Doesn't this mess up my gameplan?  How do I know if I'm supposed to discard the reanimation target to faithless looting if I don't have Show and Tell or a Reanimation spell handy?"   Obviously yes, it does have an impact on sequencing.  That said, I feel like I get this question a lot more from people who are accustomed to playing Brainstorm and Ponder in their combo decks, where you're looking for each piece individually.  In a combo deck like this, without access to a plethora of library manipulation, you're not looking for individual cards, you're looking for a plan.  You should be mulliganing to a plan.  Postboard the graveyard is not a safe space for your reanimation targets to just hang out anyway, so you shouldn't be discarding things you will want access to until you're ready to use them anyway.  It's for this reason that I side out Faithless Looting in some matchups, matchups where I don't have time to cantrip into answers and my graveyard isn't a safe place to leave a creature for an entire turn cycle.

Yes, you will have hands with Entomb and Show and Tell.  Try not to compare those hands to Entomb and Exhume, but instead compare them to Entomb and Abrupt Decay, or Entomb and Wear/Tear, since those are the other options for those sideboard slots.  You're no more likely to successfully combo off with Entomb and Abrupt Decay than you are with Entomb and Show and Tell.  On the other hand, your significantly more likely to combo off with Griselbrand and Show and Tell than with Griselbrand and Abrupt Decay.

I'm not sold, what next?

What finally made up my mind was tracking how my sideboard worked in games.  Every postboard game will fit into one of the following five categories:

1. I didn't draw my anti-hate, but I won anyway
2. I didn't draw my anti-hate and I lost
3. I drew my anti-hate, but didn't need it and I won anyway
4. I drew my anti-hate, but it wasn't good enough and I still lost
5. I drew my anti-hate and used it to win

In my testing, I won a decent amount of games with the white and green splashes, but those games almost always fell into categories  #1 and #3.  Very, very rarely did I see a game that fit into category #5.  That's when I started seriously exploring other options, because clearly the cards I was playing weren't a factor in whether I won or lost.  In fact, I lost some games that fell into the category of #4 where I drew too much anti-hate and not enough actual combo pieces to win, where the sideboard cards actively detracted from trying to win.

If you're not sold on Show and Tell, try playing your preferred strategy for a while and keeping track of your postboard results.  This deck is definitely one that plays out differently depending on your playstyle, so you might have different results than I did.

A final note on BR vs UB

Often when I'm talking about this strategy people bring up just playing UB across the board.  I usually push back against that because I don't see BR as UB's unwanted stepchild, but a deck with it's own strengths and weaknesses.

BR Reanimator and UB Reanimator are fundamentally different decks that attack different metagames. One is not better than the other in a core way, they're just better at different times because they have different strengths and weaknesses. Distilled to one word each, BR Reanimator is about speed and UB reanimator is about consistency. In a format where you have to beat Rest in Peace, Speed is more important. In my opinion this is why BR Reanimator took off when it did, because everyone was relying on slower but more thorough graveyard hate. In a format where the primary graveyard hate is Surgical or Faerie Macabre, BR loses a lot of it's value.  There's no way to be faster than Faerie Macabre, and if you combo off and fail you don't reload nearly as well as a deck with Ponder and Brainstorm.

Personally I think the Show and Tell sideboard is the best board plan for both builds, which means if you're trying to get into the deck there's a TON of crossover. Buy one of them and slowly work towards the other, then allow yourself to shift between them as necessary, and you'll be the best prepared reanimator player you can be.

Tournament Report: GP Louisville with BR Reanimator

This weekend, like many legacy players, I made the trip to Louisville to play legacy.  My preferred deck of ANT is positioned somewhat poorly these days, so I found myself playing a more aggressive combo deck.  Here's the decklist I used for the event.

Spells	Lands
Creatures 4 Griselbrand 4 Chancellor of the Annex 1 Sire of Insanity 1 Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite 1 Iona, Shield of Emeria Reanimation 4 Reanimate 4 Exhume 3 Animate Dead Discard Outlets 4 Faithless Looting 4 Entomb Discard 4 Unmask 2 Thoughtseize 2 Collective Brutality Fast Mana 4 Dark Ritual 4 Lotus Petal	4 Polluted Delta 4 Verdant Catacombs 3 Badlands 1 Underground Sea 2 Swamp
Sideboard
4 Show and Tell 3 Blood Moon 2 Echoing Truth 2 Simian Spirit Guide 1 Firestorm 1 Blazing Archon 1 Ashen Rider 1 Grave Titan

All in all, a fairly typical BR Reanimator list with a few interesting decisions.  In the maindeck, I elected to play Elesh Norn and Iona instead of Tidespout Tyrant.  This cost me a slot elsewhere (In testing I went back and forth between cutting the 4th Griselbrand or the 4th Animate Dead, in the tournament I elected to play the 4th Griselbrand).  I strongly prefer Elesh Norn and Iona to Tidespout because they lock the game out in ways he doesn't.  Tidespout is significantly better against Lands than either of them, but in almost all other matchups I like the pair of white creatures.

In the sideboard I settled on Show and Tell for the Eldrazi matchup.  I tested both the green and white splashes extensively, and I found that I very rarely won matches in which my opponent resolved a hate permanent, I drew my answer to that hate permanent, and I also drew my combo and was able to combo off after answering the hate.  Stronghold Gambit was a great way to sidestep that, which I liked for a long time, but I eventually went with Show and Tell because of how bad Gambit was against Eldrazi.  Being able to side 4 Show and Tell and 4 Echoing Truth (which answers both chalice and leyline) against Eldrazi put the matchup as close to even as I felt was possible.  It's still not good, but winnable.  The Show and Tell board plan is largely responsible for my decision to play the 4th Griselbrand.  If I'm relying on drawing Griselbrand specifically, and not equally happy to draw him or Entomb, then I want to maximize my chances of having him in hand.

The other major sideboard decision was playing Blood Moon.  Obviously I tried this vs Eldrazi, because it's very strong there, but shutting off my hate for their permanents was too great a cost.  On the other hand, I found it was the best answer for Deathrite Shaman vs any Delver deck.  It's an absolute must-counter.  I sided in the Simian Spirit Guides with it to help power it out and pay for Daze.  Extra mana is often as good as discard against Delver decks.

The sideboard guide I used for this tournament can be found here.  There are obviously some changes I'd make at this point, most notably to the Elves plan (and I'd add a section for Maverick that would probably be identical to Elves), but on the whole I'm happy with it.

The Tournament

I had a rough start, dropping my first two rounds to matchups I felt pretty good about, then rebounded well and made day two.  I won't give you a game by game breakdown, but here's what I faced and how I fared.

1 - Maverick (L)
2 - Grixis Delver (L)
3 - Lands (W)
4 - Storm (W)
5 - Lands (W)
6 - Sneak and Show (W)
7 - Death and Taxes (W)
8 - Belcher (L)
9 - UR Delver (W)
10 - 4C Deathblade (W)
11 - BR Reanimator (W)
12 - Elves (L)
13 - UB Reanimator (W)
14 - Elves (L)
15 - Sneak and Show (W)

Interestingly enough, I didn't face Miracles or Eldrazi the entire tournament.  I sat next to them quite a bit, just never paired up. I had some fairly predictable results (5-1 vs combo, losing only to Belcher when I kept three turn-2 hands and lost to three turn-1 hands, two of which went off turn 1 through disruption).  Even without Tidespout Tyrant I went 2-0 vs lands, though both matches were much closer than they would have been if I had Tyrant in the 75.

I lost to all three Deathrite Shaman + Basic Forest decks that I played against.  This is absolutely because I was not sideboarding appropriately for them.  I didn't get nearly as much testing with Show and Tell as I would have liked because I couldn't afford Show and Tells online.  I naively assumed my basic forest matchup would be good, and didn't actually test it.  2 Collective Brutality and 1 Firestorm simply isn't enough, and that's essentially all I had.  I did some additional testing this week at my local shop, and I'm confident the Show and Tells have to come in there.  I need to test more to see how well it actually works or if the entire board needs to be rethought, but for the most part those decks aren't going to punish the Show and Tell plan as much as the reanimation plan, and I need to plan appropriately.

Highlights & Lowlights

Nobody needs to hear the complete play by play, but I did have several stellar moments that highlighted an excellent weekend.

• In round 15 I beat a deck game 1 that only showed me Polluted Delta, 2x Volcanic Island, Brainstorm, and Spell Pierce.  I sided for Sneak and Show, though it could've been UR Delver, but those two sideboard plans are essentially the same.  Game 2 on the play he plays City of Traitors, Lotus Petal, Show and Tell.  I get to choose between putting in Griselbrand of Ashen Rider, go with the Rider, destroy his Omniscience, and then combo off the next turn to get a Griselbrand to go with him.
• In round 10 I played the BR mirror, which was hilarious because we both kept turn 2 combo hands that relied on Exhume.  We stared at eachother for a while before he pulled the trigger and we both got Griselbrands.  His only followup was a Sire of Insanity, so I got to try and do silly stuff too.  I drew 14 cards, 0 fast mana, and died to his fast mana the next turn.
• In round 13 I beat a UB Reanimator player when we both played very poorly and somehow ended up with a pair of Iona's staring at each other naming black.  That standoff usually ends up going to whoever attacks first, and that was me.  It was quite the board state though.
• In round 3 I unmasked my Lands opponent (postboard) and saw Diamond, Diamond, Forest, Loam, Maze, Maze, Tabernacle.  I couldn't combo off that turn, at which point I'm fairly confident the only card I could reasonably play in my 75 that beats that hand is Blood Moon.  Lucky for me, I had a copy handy and won easily.
• In round 8 my Belcher opponent put me on the play after losing game 1.  I thoughtseize him and see Taiga, Simian Spirit Guide, Simian Spirit Guide, Tinder Wall, Tinder Wall, Gitaxian Probe, Gitaxian Probe.  I take a Probe and pass.  He draws, probes me, then casts a Charbelcher leaving a Tinder Wall and tapped Taiga in play.  As I have foolishly not sided in Ashen Rider, I lose.  doh!
• In round 5 I reanimate a Blazing Archon against lands, then immediately get Ghost Quartered into oblivion.  He has a Maze of Ith keeping me from killing him, but he can't kill me either.  I have Blood Moon and Simian Spirit Guide in hand, but can't draw two more mana.  We spend at least 10 draw steps staring at eachother as I look for mana and he looks for Tabernacle.  He eventually stops loaming, draws off the top, it's Gamble, and I lose.

Conclusions

I was very happy with the list and my decision to play it.  As I've already mentioned, the Elves/Maverick board plan was a mistake, and that's the kind of thing that happens when you change your deck at the last minute.

My biggest takeaway from the event was how bad Faithless Looting was for me all day.  I was already boarding it out against Delver decks because those decks are prepared to trade 1 for 1 with you all day, and the card disadvantage was adding up too quickly for me to interact.  I tested a lot against Delver, and my win percentage went up notably when I started siding out Looting. 

More generally though, Looting is a pretty big liability games 2-3 in a format where almost all decks can be reasonably expected to have surgical extraction in the 75.  I lost one game where I ended up reanimating a chancellor instead of a Griselbrand because I was trying to bait a surgical he didn't have, and I lost another because my hand simply didn't have a sequence available that could strip the surgical before I cast the looting, so he responded to my unmask with a surgical taking the Griselbrand I had just discarded.  With this in mind, I tested a monoblack maindeck last night at my local shop.  I went 3-1, losing again to Deathrite Shaman + Basic Forest.  We tested the Show and Tell plan afterwards and things went much better for me.

I'll be writing an article about the monoblack list as soon as I have a chance to play a few more games with it.  Until then, happy BReanimating!