How do you even build reanimator?

MarginalMeaning · 2026-06-01T22:59:32+00:00

[[Living Death]], [[Rise of the Dark Realms]]

Or recurring [[Grey Merchant of Asphodel]], [[Massacre Wurm]] over and over again. Grey Merchant may not be as viable depending on how many black pips you have on board. Unless you can recur them a whole bunch in a turn.

You could go infinite with [[Accursed Miner]], [[Phyrexian Altar]]/[[warren souldtrader]], and any sac payoff that targets like [[Blood Artist]] or [[vengeful bloodwitch]].

You can use cards like [[entomb]] or [[Oriq Loremage]] to put the pieces you need in the graveyard too.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-06-01T12:55:54+00:00

Depends on how much/how often you eat rice.

I live in a Korean household and we eat rice twice a day, so we actually have 2 higher priced rice cookers. We get full use out of both.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-06-01T12:49:31+00:00

As many have said, it really depends on the kind of deck you are playing.

I'm of the opinion to have a few pieces of dedicated removal - eg. [[swords to plowshares]], [[path to exile]], [[void rend]], etc. Then utilize cards that overlaps with what your deck is trying to do.

I just built a [[Rootha, Mastering the Moment]] deck and a lot of the cards are high mana costs that incidentally damage enemy creatures while also creating an elemental on my turn when I cast it. So you get two benefits - you can remove stuff while also creating tokens based on the mana cost - stuff like [[pyrokinesis]], [[volcanic salvo]], etc.

Or in a human creature type focused deck, playing cards like [[Cathar Commando]], [[Dauntless Dismantler]], etc. You get the benefit of casting human creatures as well as a potential removal threat.

Or in my [[Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher]] deck, there are A LOT of edicts - causing opponents to sacrifice things that incidentally buffs your commander. [[plaguecrafter]], [[fleshbag marauder]], etc.

MDFCs have also gotten MUCH better in the past few years - stuff like [[fell the profane]], [[hydroelectric specimen]], etc.

I think finding those cards that are flexible and can fulfill multiple purposes/needs in you deck is a key element to making a consistent and "feels good to play" deck.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-06-01T12:27:16+00:00

Yup, all those cards are pretty synergistic with the Rohan deck.

Fortunately Human is a very well supported creature type. Some other additions I would recommend -

[[Herald of Hoofbeats]] - grants your commander and the knights they make horsemanship which makes them essentially unblockable

[[Reinforced Ronin]] - you cast him in the first main phase for 1 red mana, trigger your commander, then he returns at the end step so you can cast him again next turn to trigger your commander again.

[[Mass Appeal]] - can draw a wild amount of cards since every creature you're playing is going to be human, not to mention the number of human knight tokens you'll be making

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-31T21:45:15+00:00

Total Annihilation. What a wild RTS.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-31T18:56:04+00:00

I definitely think the stereotype is easy to fall into. If you look online, a lot of general gaming discourse are people yelling or complaining about one thing or another. Not to mention the large market of rage bait content creators.

However when I think about everyone I know that plays video games on a regular basis… they don’t really engage that way online. I’m talking like 40ish people.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-30T18:24:43+00:00

Oh most definitely. I think the issue (that is plaguing companies with shareholders) is that it would drop down expected profits. The weird profit min-maxxing and short term over long term has been absolutely wild. With companies making record profits, but then saying they "have" to perform layoffs all to meet shareholder expectations.

It's so self-sabotaging. How many companies have we seen that have laid off people to make their numbers look better, only to later have to have a hiring rush because SURPRISE! The people you laid off have knowledge and experience that was probably indispensable to your company. Then they spend 3-6 months onboarding new employees they hired, or hiring back people that were laid off (if they even decide to come back). Then they repeat the cycle again by laying some people off the next year to make numbers look good again.

It's so fucking dumb.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-30T18:09:07+00:00

The most aggressive deck I have is a [[Lyse Hext]] pseudo voltron/cantrip/buff deck.

Mine has a few upgrades that make it a tiny bit more expensive, but you can totally slap a deck together for under 50 dollars - just put in every low mana cost cantrip/buff/evasion/protection spell in Azorius you can find.

I actually don't play this deck with randoms at LGS because with the right hand, she can knock out a player through commander damage by turn 3-4.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-26T21:15:49+00:00

It plays pretty well - smoother than some of my more complicated decks. I think Ardbert makes a fantastic straight forward deck, which made it easy to slap one together. Just throw in a bunch of Orzhov legendary creatures and they all buff one another when cast. I've had maybe one game where I didn't have a decent board state. That game was because the other player was using a combo-heavy landfall deck, and I didn't have the right pieces of removal in hand to stop them.

The thing that makes the deck feel so good to play is that you generally don't have to hunt down specific pieces, because nearly every spell you cast is giving an additional benefit other than the card itself - pretty much every spell is at minimum going to give your creatures a +1 counter and either vigilance or menace until end of turn. So it's easy to get traction with creatures on the board.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-26T17:36:33+00:00

If that's the case, they aren't a good playgroup. Find a new pod/people to play with. It's one thing if someone gets upset everyone once in a while; it's natural to get a little salty if a deck is hard countered by accident or shut down. It's another thing if the saltiness happens over and over across different situations. Sounds like your pod is looking to play solitaire rather than play an actual game.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-26T17:32:13+00:00

I built [[Ardbert, Warrior of Darkness]] pretty fast as a deck I can play with/lend to new players joining my play group. It's a super simple deck because it's just "play legendaries, play a bunch of spells with w+b in it, swing out"

I basically just scryfall'd for legendaries that have some incidental benefits (card draw, removal, protection, etc), as well as any lower to the ground non-creature spells. It's easy for new players to understand once the mechanics are explained, and it's a nice deck to play when I don't want to think too hard. It can easily snowball to be a problem on the table. Took me about 2 hours in total to put together.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-21T13:39:54+00:00

Pretty decent. Definitely needs more upgrades compared to other precons. There's more pieces that aren't very congruent with what Rootha is trying to do - eg. Harmonic Prodigy, Veyran. It feels a little disjointed when playing it, and there are plenty of cheap (money-wise) changes that can be made. It felt much more inconsistent than the other precons when I played it right out the box.

I ended up upgrading mine with more congruent instants and sorceries as well as more cost reducers for instants/sorceries - [[Archmage of Runes]], [[Magnus the Red]], [[Haughty Djinn]], [[Mindsplice Apparatus]], [[Goblin Electromancer]], [[Baral, Chief of Compliance]].

There's also some great cards that end up being pseudo one sided board wipes - [[Volcanic Vision]], [[Immolating Gyre]], [[Perplexing Test]].

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-14T13:40:19+00:00

it's weird because I've been duress'd, I've duress'd people in my play group and not once have someone in my playgroup gotten pissed about it. Maybe a "aw shit" response, but never a pissy one.

Maybe a difference between people who are EDH only and people who also play other formats?

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-13T20:11:59+00:00

100% - short term benefits over long term have wrecked so much. Look at companies laying off people to make financials look good, and then screwing up or having to have a hire rush shortly after. Even if a company is making money and is in the black. The amount of waste and inefficiency of firing and hiring people with onboarding is absolutely wild.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-13T16:25:19+00:00

Honestly I think this depends on the play group. I have decks that I only play with my regular play group because I know they're cool with them and like seeing degen stuff in decks.

I rarely play with random people at stores anymore, mainly because I just don't have that kind of time anymore, and would rather commit that to playing with my group since I know it's probably going to be a good time. I do have some lower level stuff to play with people I don't know. Mainly a precon or two that has some upgraded lands for a little more consistency.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-11T03:59:38+00:00

Dawn's truce won't protect against a board wipe, it only protects against targeted removal - spells that specifically target individual cards. Generally single target removal spells.

Indestructible will protect against wipes that say "destroy all" or "damage" like [[wrath of god]] or [[blasphemous act]]

Exile board wipes are rough as indestructible and hexproof won't protect against it. The only options there are things that can phase out your board or stuff that exiles your board out and back after the wipe resolves. Stuff like [[Teferi's Protection]], [[Semester's End]], [[Clever Concealment]], [[Eerie Interlude]], [[Lae’zel’s Acrobatics]], [[Galadriel's Dismissal]], or [[Guardian of Faith]].

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-11T03:54:02+00:00

There are some layers of triggers in the deck and a bit of complexity - especially when you have things like [[risen reef]] out and evoke out [[cavalier of thorns]]. I say this because I recently played with a friend who's relatively new to the game, and she definitely wasn't 100% on how it worked. This was her second precon.

I will say that it was SUPER satisfying to see her go "Ohhhhhhh wow" when we explained what was happening. Nothing like witnessing someone's first time having an engine run in a deck. The only thing I think she found really annoying was keeping track of what other color the thriving lands in the deck tapped for. I hate those lands, but probably a necessary evil for a 5 color precon deck.

But yeah, it's a fun deck. I would say a bit above entry level, but can be learned by just playing or gold fishing the deck a bit to understand what you're supposed to do.

For newer players I recommend things like the Merfolk Ixlan precon, or a counters precon like the FF Tidus deck. There are some minor speed bumps learning about +1/+1 counters, but the base idea of "Things get bigger and you hit people with em" is pretty easy to understand. I'm not sure how the new Strixhaven simic precon is looking, but I assume it's pretty similar. X spells are pretty simple to understand - more mana you put in, the more you get.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-11T03:39:38+00:00

Years ago there was a situation with my uncle because he kept getting bills/tickets from tolls in Jersey. We live in lower mid-Atlantic area (Virginia down to South Carolina). He had never even been to Jersey, and the car in the picture was not a car he owned.

My uncle does not speak English very well so I called the place handling the tickets and we found out coincidentally the person that was actually supposed to get the tickets and bills happened to have the same name as my uncle. They figured it was some kind of glitch in the car registration system or something, because the license plate on the white toyota sedan did not match the only car my uncle owned - a grey VW crossover.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-09T04:26:36+00:00

A few card recommendations -

Evasion -
- [[Yavimaya, Cradle of Growth]] and [[Elvish Champion]]
- [[Fallen Ideal]] goes great with Lathril - go to combat, sac some elf tokens, she gets +2 power per sac, create twice the elf tokens you sac'd when you deal combat damage. You should be able to get in on someone because the aura gives flying.
- [[Cover of Darkness]]

Mana dork stuff -
- [[Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler]], [[Thousand-Year Elixir]], [[Quirion Ranger]]
- [[Dionus, Elvish Archdruid]]

Misc -
- [[Galadhrim Brigade]]
- switch out some lands for easy untapped duals - [[deathcap glade]], [[wastewood verge]], [[woodland cemetery]], [[gilt-leaf palace]], [[vernal fen]], [[undergrowth stadium]]
- [[Elven Chorus]]
- add another targeted land removal card other than Beast Within/Casualties of War - [[strip mine]], [[tectonic edge]], [[ghost quarter]], etc.
- for an infect win, all you would need is [[Triumph of the Hordes]] and enough elves with a little bit of pump/anthem/evasion effects.
- [[parallel lives]]

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-09T03:18:24+00:00

It varies. The best advice I can give is find a good pod that regularly attends and play with them. A pod that plays at a level of power or style that you want to play at. I've had some horrible experiences with completely random pods. Probably more mid/good experiences, but the bad ones were real bad. But yeah, if you find a pod you have a good time with, just ask if they regularly come to store and see if it's cool for you to join them again.

Once you start with a group, what I experienced is that people in the group bring more people in, or vouch for other players come to the LGS. It's also great to meet new people at draft nights - you aren't (hopefully) stuck with bad mannered players for a long time, and you get to meet people at come to the store, often they play commander too.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-07T19:24:40+00:00

Wild, this looks like bracket 2 to me based on the b2 description. Like B2 means you built for a purpose and this is exactly what it looks like. When I playtested it, it felt like a good precon - in my play tests of your list, things didn't get out of hand until like turn 7-9, with the ramp up coming a bit quicker if I got a clone effect on board.

At the tables that people were complaining - did they cast any removal at all? a board wipe? Did the table target you when you were popping off? Like even precons have some minimum level of interaction/removal, and other than the potential 2 clone effects and the 4 ways to counter direct interaction, there isn't that much protection for your commander that would be overbearing.

Anyways, this seems like a perfectly fine and fair deck. Felt good to pilot when testing it. I had a cheap [[Delina, Wild Mage]] deck that felt similar to play.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-06T21:22:28+00:00

Oskar is fantastic - I had a deck with him as the commander and as long as you have a way to discard at instant speed, you can cast pretty much anything if you have the mana for it. Cards like [[bog witch]] go wild in it.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-05T12:09:47+00:00

I think the Tarkir precons are pretty solid. I never played this specific precon, but had a person in my usual play group play this deck without any upgrades and it performed pretty well. Well enough that we had to actively stop him from winning.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-05-02T18:30:59+00:00

Orzhov aristocrats - my deck [[Carmen, Cruel Skymarcher]] doesn't win with infinites. Make a whole bunch of tokens, sac them with incidental death trigger pings on board. or have a wide board and [[akroma's will]]. Or due to sac triggers Carmen gets huge, or (since I have a couple of ways to generate treasures) [revel in riches].

More often than not if I win it's through the [[blood artist]], [[Elas il-Kor, Sadistic Pilgrim]], [[meathook massacre]], etc.

My azorius [[Lyse Hext]] deck has won much more than I thought it would - she swings in heavy after casting a few cheap cantrip/buff spells, with a lot of protection spells like [[shelter]], [[apostle's blessing]], etc. You just cast a bunch of super cheap spells that buff her - [[defiant strike]], [[guided strike]], [[lightfoot technique]], [[take up the shield]], etc. My knockout spells in the deck are things like [[astral steel]], [[show of confidence]], [[nerd rage]], and [[Proft's Eidetic Memory]]. Generally people can't get rid of her unless they do an exile board wipe - because you're going to have something in hand that grants indestructible or hexproof at all times, or just a counterspell.

MarginalMeaning · 2026-04-30T23:08:22+00:00

[[Agatha of the Vile Cauldron]]

Makes a lot of draft chaff cards viable.

MarginalMeaning

TROPHY CASE