Reanimator is one of the oldest, and simplest, archetypes in MTG history. You get chunky creatures into your graveyard, you bring them back for cheap, and you ride that advantage to an early win. The specific targets and reanimation methods have changed over time, but these principles have remained.
What has also remained is the deck’s color identity. Almost every Reanimator deck has been black, white, or a combination of the two. Given that fact, the recent emergence of a Mono-Red Reanimator deck in MTG Pauper is a pretty big twist. Somehow, without any access to black or white mana, this list has been taking down Pauper Leagues with ease.
Mono-Red Reanimator In MTG Pauper
The list in question comes to us via Natalino_91, though they credit keiga_jp with its original creation. According to one of their tweets, they piloted the deck to a 5-0 finish in a Pauper League on Saturday, having achieved 4-1 results with it previously. These are pretty stellar numbers for a deck that sounds completely impossible on the surface.
Mono-Red decks in MTG are, after all, known mainly for blistering Aggro and not Reanimator shenanigans. The color tends to lack both big creatures and the means to resurrect them. What it does have, however, and what forms the basis of this deck, is card filtering. Red is exceptional at drawing and discarding cards, thus loading up your graveyard for all manner of synergies.
Faithless Looting is the classic example: a filtering spell so good it’s banned in Modern. It’s joined by Cathartic Reunion, which is the same thing on a bigger scale, and Insolent Neonate, which provides a body as well. Scrapwork Mutt rounds out this package with one of its best cards. It’s a 2/1 for two that rummages on entry and can be Unearthed later on to do the same again. This makes it a double threat in this deck: it gets cards into your graveyard and does something from the graveyard itself.
These cards all help to fill your graveyard early. They also serve as discard outlets, which will be important for some synergies later. Crucially they can also all be cast for just red mana, which lets the deck get away with running only basic Mountains in the mana base. While this sounds restrictive, it turns out this deck actually plays cards from four different colors all told.
Four Colors, Only Mountains
This is the big secret behind Mono-Red Reanimator: it’s not really Mono-Red at all. Sure you’ll only be playing Mountains as your lands, but you’ll also be casting spells from other colors through alternate means. Dread Return is probably the most significant example. You’ll never cast this from your hand since it requires black mana, but its Flashback cost doesn’t. This means you can cast it from your ‘yard while still sticking to just red mana.
Dread Return is the card that really puts the ‘Reanimator’ in this deck’s title. Your best target for it is Lotleth Giant, a beefy 6/5 beater that burns your opponent for each creature in your graveyard. With 32 total creatures in the deck, the ceiling here is an instant kill. That’s unlikely, of course, but with the amount of filtering and self-mill the deck has access to something around the 10 damage mark should be more than feasible.
How do you quickly amass three creatures on board to fuel Dread Return? That’s where Basking Rootwalla and Sneaky Snacker come in. Rootwalla comes out for free via Madness, which is comically easy to trigger in this deck. Snacker’s resurrection clause is also much easier to meet than it sounds. Just one Faithless Looting will get you there alongside your draw for the turn, after all.
These creatures can also just swarm your opponent if the Reanimator plan isn’t working out. Molten Gatekeeper and Scourge Devil can turn them into significant damage, and both can come out of the graveyard for cheap to boot. This gives the deck a lot of flexibility with its game plan, which is doubtless a big factor in its recent League success.
A Link To The Past
Long-time Pauper players looking through this list are likely feeling a bit of déjà vu right about now. The Mono-Red gimmick is interesting, sure, but mechanically it plays a lot like the existing Dredge decks in the format. It even includes an actual Dredge card in Stinkweed Imp. Is this ‘new’ deck really as innovative as it seems?
Yes and no. The Dread Return/Stinkweed Imp/Lotleth Giant plan is very much lifted straight from Dredge, that much is true. The rest of the shell that surrounds it here is completely different, however. It’s much more aggressive, with low-to-the-ground creatures that can end the game on their own outside of big Reanimator plays. In fact, the combination of Rootwalla and Snacker gives the deck a vibe not unlike that of Arclight Phoenix decks in Pioneer. With the right draws, you can field explosive wins out of the graveyard here.
Typical Pauper Dredge decks are a lot more all-in on the Reanimator plan. This is a bit of a double-edged sword. On one hand, it means those decks can bring back their big creatures much more consistently. On the other, it makes them particularly vulnerable to single-target removal. Mono-Red Reanimator can afford to have its Lotleth Giant exiled because it can recover later with Unearth creatures and Rootwallas. This gives the deck its own niche, beyond that of traditional Dredge.
While Dredge is still a meta deck in Pauper, it’s fairly low-tier overall. MTG Decks puts its most popular Jund variant at around a 2% meta share. Mono-Red Reanimator, with its streamlined mana base and speedier gameplan, could surpass its inspiration in time. Its early performance is certainly encouraging, in any case.
