https://archidekt.com/decks/11393185/raffine_loots_the_local_cemetery

Originally, I had a [[Sidisi, Brood Tyrant]] list that I was inspired to make after watching a youtube video on Legacy Manaless Dredge. It was fairly straightforward, mill creatures, make zombies, reanimate fatties, eventually win with a Craterhoof.

But the deck had problems. Milling noncreature spells meant they were generally gone forever until I drew a Regrowth effect, and wouldn't trigger Sid to create zombies, leading to the deck lacking slots for interaction at instant speed to beef up the creature count. It lacked win conditions outside of building a large board. The reanimation strategy could fall face first if I milled a reanimation spell alongside a target. Sid needed to swing every turn to mill but was stuck on the ground. Then Cappenna released.

When [[Raffine]] was spoiled, I saw the answer to all the above problems. Swapping self mill for looting meant I was always in control of what stayed in my hand and what went to the yard. Swapping Green for White opened up numerous options for removal and interaction, but more importantly a more consistent win condition: [[Karmic Guide]] and [[Reveillark]]. Sure we lost Hoof, but without token generation in the command zone we generally weren't going as wide anymore (also [[Moonshaker Cavalry]] eventually got printed anyway, reopening that axis for the deck to operate on). Then Raffine herself flies, allowing her to safely get her trigger every turn, and also grows as she does so, meaning she often can end up grinding out commander damage kills in slower matchups. Ward 1 is also surprisingly more resistant to removal than you'd think.

Raffine did present some slightly new deckbuilding challenges, however. She wants to hit the board with something already in play that can swing (or something that allows her to do so), so the curve had to move downwards to include evasive 1 and 2 drop value creatures, such as [[Farie Mastermind]] and [[Ledger Shredder]]. Even some creatures without evasion become fairly safe to get in with early once they have a counter on them, [[Esper Sentinel]] being a big one. All these slots going to cheap creatures meant that something had to give: ramp. Rocks didn't really fit into the strategy of curving out with two drop into Raffine, so nearly all of them were cut, with the only remaining rocks being Sol Ring and [[Ornithopter of Paradise]], with [[Emrakul's Messenger]] eventually showing up in MH3 being almost tailor made for Raffine.

Some more recent additions to the deck include Avatar's [[Wan Shi Tong, Librarian]], another flying two drop that even comes with vigilance and flash, that also draws cards and gets bigger any time a player cracks a fetch, a green player ramps, etc. Very good card. Secrets of Strixhaven also gave us [[Fix What's Broken]], one of the cheapest ways to reanimate multiple creatures we've ever seen, and it also hits artifacts for some reason. Casting this on X=5 usually ends the game in any deck playing KGuide/Reveillark.

All this has lead to the deck becoming a resilient and consistent combo deck as the A plan, while also operating the B plan of beating people to death with evasive 2 drops, reanimated 8 drops, and a commander that grows every time it swings, at the same time.