It’s Modern Regional Championship season, and a lot of MTG players appear to be discouraged trying to find a deck to play. Since the banning of
Fury
Fury
Double strike
When this creature enters, it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers.
Evoke—Exile a red card from your hand.
, Modern has ironically become incredibly stale. Temur Rhinos and Yawgmoth combo appear to be the best decks, with Amulet Titan, Izzet Murktide, Rakdos Scam being other strong choices. Finally, Living End threatens to prey on a metagame that forgets about it but, for now, its time is not quite ripe. Want to play anything else? It’s probably not a good idea.
This can make engaging in bigger Modern tournaments for some players rather frustrating. If you don’t like what the top archetypes have to offer, or simply do not have the time to learn intricate strategies like Yawgmoth Combo and Amulet Titan, it can be tough to break into Modern right now. Even if you are playing the best decks in the format, there are already players who have been on these decks for months.
That’s why, at least for the time being, whenever a deck outside of the ones listed above does well, people take notice. Scam Reanimator is not a new strategy by any means, but in a ‘solved’ Modern format, any changes are worth talking about.
Rolling High
With the right hand, Scam Reanimator can completely roll over any opponent you may come across. This is not a new archetype, but it’s not a mainstay either. Scam Reanimator managed a top eight finish in a recent Modern Challenge in the hands of MTGO player Soulstrong.
The key synergies in this deck revolve around
Ephemerate
Ephemerate
Exile target creature you control, then return it to the battlefield under its owner's control.
Rebound (If you cast this spell from your hand, exile it as it resolves. At the beginning of your next upkeep, you may cast this card from exile without paying its mana cost.)
. Ephemerate allows for a neat cross-section of strategies to excel alongside each other. The Ephemerate combo that Modern players should be familiar with appears alongside the various Evoke Elementals. Play your Grief for free and discard an opponent’s card. Then, Ephemerate it before it gets sacrificed to the Evoke trigger to get an extra discard and a body. Rebound can get an extra card out of an opponent’s hand, making it even more devastating.
Solitude
Solitude
Flash
Lifelink
When this creature enters, exile up to one other target creature. That creature's controller gains life equal to its power.
Evoke—Exile a white card from your hand.
can be Scammed in a similar way to create a powerful piece of removal.
Ephemerate also provides a ton of value alongside
Goryo’s Vengeance
Goryo’s Vengeance
Return target legendary creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. That creature gains haste. Exile it at the beginning of the next end step.
Splice onto Arcane {2}{B} (As you cast an Arcane spell, you may reveal this card from your hand and pay its splice cost. If you do, add this card's effects to that spell.)
. Both
Griselbrand
Griselbrand
Flying, lifelink
Pay 7 life: Draw seven cards.
and
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Atraxa, Grand Unifier
Flying, vigilance, deathtouch, lifelink
When Atraxa enters, reveal the top ten cards of your library. For each card type, you may put a card of that type from among the revealed cards into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. (Artifact, battle, creature, enchantment, instant, land, planeswalker, and sorcery are card types.)
can be resurrected with this card, refilling your hand with threats and creating a massive, but temporary board presence. Ephemerate turns this board presence into a permanent one, and when working alongside Atraxa, instantly doubles the value Atraxa provides. Considering Atraxa digs deeper into your deck on impact, finding Ephemerate after resolving an Atraxa is easy. Of course, Griselbrand can do the same.
Even if you cannot Scam right away, these packages interact with one another quite well. Grief can help clear the way for a successful Goryo’s Vengeance, and Solitude can remove problematic creatures pressuring your life total or that are otherwise stopping your combo, like
Dauthi Voidwalker
Dauthi Voidwalker
Shadow (This creature can block or be blocked by only creatures with shadow.)
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, instead exile it with a void counter on it.
{T}, Sacrifice this creature: Choose an exiled card an opponent owns with a void counter on it. You may play it this turn without paying its mana cost.
.
A New Addition?
One potentially overlooked addition to this deck since its last emergence is Preordain. This somewhat recently unbanned MTG card is a fantastic tool to increase the consistency of a majority of combo decks that need to stitch a few key pieces together. In order for this deck to work, you need to get your Legendary creatures into your grave and reanimate them. Preordain has been around for quite some time now, but it undeniably increases the consistency of this strategy, which is its biggest weakness currently.
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Strengths
If this deck is able to ‘do its thing,’ it becomes very difficult to lose. Grief Scamming is one of the strongest ways to open a game of Modern, ripping two cards out of your opponent’s hand and getting a body into play. Reanimating a gigantic creature and refilling your hand is, a lot of the time, going to pull you so far ahead that winning is trivial.
The Living End matchup, in particular, is funny. Living End struggles against decks that can advance their gameplan with the strategy’s signature spell, and letting the opponent do your job for you makes the matchup a dream. Otherwise, one dishonest interaction (namely, reanimating either Atraxa or Griselbrand) is generally all you need to pull ahead of midrange strategies. Scamming Solitude can also do a lackluster
Fury
Fury
Double strike
When this creature enters, it deals 4 damage divided as you choose among any number of target creatures and/or planeswalkers.
Evoke—Exile a red card from your hand.
impression, blowing out Yawgmoth Combo boards.
Even the cards outside of the core engine in this deck match up with the metagame quite well.
Teferi, Time Raveler
Teferi, Time Raveler
Each opponent can cast spells only any time they could cast a sorcery.
+1: Until your next turn, you may cast sorcery spells as though they had flash.
−3: Return up to one target artifact, creature, or enchantment to its owner's hand. Draw a card.
shuts down interaction from counterspells that can stop your plan, and puts the breaks on players trying to Cascade their way to victory.
The shock factor this deck has in a closed decklist tournament is also worth mentioning. Your main deck is primed to get your reanimator combo off and win the game, utilizing effects like
Tainted Indulgence
Tainted Indulgence
Draw two cards. Then discard a card unless there are five or more mana values among cards in your graveyard.
and
Faithful Mending
Faithful Mending
You gain 2 life, draw two cards, then discard two cards.
Flashback {1}{W}{U} (You may cast this card from your graveyard for its flashback cost. Then exile it.)
to get your Legendary Creatures into your grave while finding Goryo’s Vengeance to reanimate it. In an open decklist environment, if your opponent knows what you’re doing and has maindeck ways of stopping it, they can use it to play a lot more carefully, making your plan more difficult to pull off right out of the gate.
Fortunately, the sideboard comes packed with ways to interact with your opponent while protecting your own gameplan.
Dovin’s Veto
Dovin’s Veto
This spell can't be countered.
Counter target noncreature spell.
and
Force of Negation
Force of Negation
If it's not your turn, you may exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
Counter target noncreature spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard.
allows you to attempt your gameplan at instant speed while holding up interaction.
Leyline of Sanctity
Leyline of Sanctity
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
You have hexproof. (You can't be the target of spells or abilities your opponents control.)
, while having consistency issues, is a good plan to combat opposing Grief Scams. Finally,
Subtlety
Subtlety
Flash
Flying
When this creature enters, choose up to one target creature spell or planeswalker spell. Its owner puts it on their choice of the top or bottom of their library.
Evoke—Exile a blue card from your hand.
can temporarily stop cards like
Primeval Titan
Primeval Titan
Trample
Whenever this creature enters or attacks, you may search your library for up to two land cards, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.
when you need extra time. Additionally, it’s a good tool to prevent
Endurance
Endurance
Flash
Reach
When this creature enters, up to one target player puts all the cards from their graveyard on the bottom of their library in a random order.
Evoke—Exile a green card from your hand.
from resetting your grave in response to a reanimation attempt.
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Weaknesses
Having played this deck a bit myself, it can sometimes be difficult to draw all the right pieces together. Sure, all you need to win is one good interaction, but if digging towards that interaction takes too long, your opponents have had a ton of time to find the cards to stop it. Endurance, countermagic, Dauthi Voidwalker,
Leyline of the Void
Leyline of the Void
If this card is in your opening hand, you may begin the game with it on the battlefield.
If a card would be put into an opponent's graveyard from anywhere, exile it instead.
, and any other piece of graveyard hate stops your deck from functioning.
Additionally, while the Grief Scam start is incredibly powerful, it’s generally not enough to win the game on its own. In Rakdos Scam, you have a lot of other threats that hit the board quickly and can snowball the advantage that your attacking Grief creates. In Scam Reanimator, you win by lining up flashy plays, which means that the chip damage that your Scammed Grief creates rarely impacts the game heavily. This deck is really about having flashy starts that lead the way to bigger plays, and cannot snowball off a busted start the same way Rakdos Scam can.
When Scam Reanimator functions at peak efficiency, it’s hard to lose. The issue is how consistently that happens. If you’re drawing hot, and not expecting a lot of graveyard hate, this deck is fantastic.
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