The Best Reanimation Targets in the History of Magic: the Gathering (MTG)

From Sengir Vampire and Deep Spawn to Archon of Cruelty and Atraxa, Grand Unifier, today we look back on the history of the biggest, baddest creatures in Magic: the Gathering by looking at the best reanimation targets in MTG.
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#MTG #magicthegathering #mtgmodern #mtglegacy

[@tonythepokemonguy751]

Whenever I see the old Nicol Bolas card art card I always think “all they had to do was leave him alone and let him read his books”

[@zztzgza]

The book he was reading was about total planar domination. Either way he was evil.

[@jalendbishop5756]

@@zztzgza no it was a cookbook he tryna make pancakes

[@mossa216]

@@jalendbishop5756 Makes me wonder who still is keeping that cookbook away from him.

[@whitesmith5985]

Colossal Dreadmaw

[@patrikmelkersson7825]

That’s not on the list, since most people just admit that it’s cheating

[@The-Nomad1]

The forbidden tech

[@camael4209]

That card has been rule zeored out of the format since it was too strong. So strong they felt it was unfair for their opponents

[@redmetalpanda9051]

Thats an unwritten banned card

[@weaselhatgaming1010]

Colossal Dreadmaw

[@light-chemistry]

Surprised Seth didn’t mention the fact Atraxa pitches to virtually every free spell in magic which is one of the best things about it imo, especially compared to griselbrand which is mono black.

[@The-Nomad1]

Yeah you can pitch it to every relevant pitch spell in the game that isn't named fury

[@SilverAlex92]

yeah, being a blue card for force is in my opinion, one of its strongest merits over griseldaddy

[@light-chemistry]

Pitching to force early on and then reanimating from the graveyard is such a strong line

[@conjuredlynx845]

Who's going to tell him

[@willbrechin9181]

All the forces and evoke cards are exile and not discard.

[@HalcyonUmbra]

I think the jump from Inkwell to Ionia marks a pretty huge change in Magic's competitive history, from when reanimator aimed to get a huge beater out to end the game as quick as possible, to when it aimed to get a 'win condition' that either locked the opponent out or just comboed off and won right there.

[@christopherlundgren1700]

Spirit of the Night, Empyrial Archangel, and Serra's Emissary probably all deserve at least a shout-out.

[@47Mortuus]

Spirit of the Night was one of the premium Vintage Oath of Druids targets - back when you had 3 different creatures in your Oath deck.

[@Finngrinder]

@@47Mortuus Also Recurring Survival

[@ld_raine4247]

@@Finngrinder My friend had this exact deck when we were growing up. It's not together anymore, but I never was unable to get even 1 win in against him. Truly my favorite (time-based of course) deck of all time.

[@zakbraverman]

Forgot Emrakul, which is often reanimated with Goryo's Vengeance in Modern!

[@MTGGoldfish]

Yeah, I wasn't sure what to do about Emrakul. It's shuffle back into your library trigger makes it impossible for most decks to renaimate, but in the right deck it's great.

[@Azuth65]

@@MTGGoldfish I played both her and Atraxa in an Asmo Food shell, deck's fun but I think I'd rather do Spike's esper Goryo's list.

[@Insanir]

"Am I a joke to you?" - Spirit of the Night (aka Black Akroma), 1996

[@domri4203]

To be fair Verdent Force was better

[@ankhi3585]

In 1996 yes, you had Animate Dead and Dance of the Dead that would fall of because of pro-black and Shallow Grave that would let you hit once for 6.

[@jamesdrummond7684]

"Need a Deep Spawn of your own?" Ooh Seth, you don't even know what you're doing to us...

[@TheyCallMeDio]

Griselbrand: Pay life, get cards Atraxa: Get cards, swing in, get life

[@SergioGarsiaSolano]

Griselbrand also gains life.......

[@TheyCallMeDio]

@@SergioGarsiaSolano thats not the point

[@SergioGarsiaSolano]

@@TheyCallMeDio also griselbrand can swing as well, don't know where do you get that he can't attack

[@NULLxFORxNONE]

The one negative with Atraxa I will say is that it's possible to wiff and only draw 2 cards, which I have seen once. But it's just a small chance

[@christopherlundgren1700]

Griselbrand is more powerful when you're ahead; Atraxa is way better when you're behind. Atraxa also has some other side benefits like interacting with cards that care about colors, but everything else being equal, it's probably right to just have a mix of both.

[@aappaapp6627]

Every time I see Inkwell Leviathan, I get nostalgia flashbacks to duels of the planeswalkers 2012 and 2013

[@Enja_Near]

I'm thankful for Seth's Description of Iona's effect. I played against a Polymorph deck in the finals of FNM. Game2 Got a Malakir Bloodwitch out which stalemated his Iona and proceeded to wait until I could reanimate my Bloodghasts I discarded to handsize. Really satisfying 1st place match. Opened up a mind sculptor and immediately sold it for $120 P.s. he discarded his path to exiles as he forgot I can still reanimate bloodghasts under an Iona lock.

[@brettruest1210]

At the same time Griselbrand came out, Craterhoof Behemoth was a popular reanimation target. Self milling a few Lingering Souls, Hoof, and an Unburial Rites with Grisly Salvage and Mulch was a deck I saw 4-5 times a week at FNM

[@vancekuto]

Goryobrand has been my favorite modern deck for, well, as long as it's existed. Even with the banning of faithless and spirit guide I kept trucking on with it. It might just be time to go for Atraxa.

[@-homerow-]

I love this style of video! Thanks Seth!

[@MTGGoldfish]

Glad you enjoy them!

[@NoGreatImport]

Phantom Nishoba and Rorix Bladewing also saw play in Extended Reanimator.

[@manubiessy140]

No love for Spirit of the night ? When mirage dropped he was the baddest monster on the block

[@michaelchan1629]

I started in Mirrodin block and saw a vintage match using Oat of Druids. So Spirit of the night was the other creature besides Akroma that I saw as reanimation targets for the first time.

[@ankhi3585]

It wasn't a viable target until Tempest came around since it doesn't do much with Shallow Grave and all the other reanimation spells were black enchantments that would fall off because of pro-black.

[@manubiessy140]

Hells caretaker for the win, the Seck played like rec sur , but shitty😅

[@hyperchord]

wasn't that in just Oath of druid?

[@WideDad]

Love the timeline videos! Keep it up seth!

[@crovax1375]

Back in the day my brother would reanimate Polar Kraken

[@MTGGoldfish]

Ha, that's awesome!

[@mr.zvonek9565]

There used to be a deck that would use Volrath's Shapeshifter, to attack then discard a Flowstone Hellion, use its ability 9x on the stack, then change it into a Polar Kraken to become a 20/2 trample for the win.

[@shayneweyker]

Back around the time of Deep Spawn I liked Yawgmoth Demon which like Deep Spawn got better with Dance if the Dead covering it's drawback. Another fun thing to do in that era was play Fallen Angel then next turn cast Sengir Autocrat to make 4 creatures for the angel to sacrifice. Then reanimate it to get four more creatures and a 19 power Fallen Angel.

[@maxtojicic7877]

I used to see a lot of reanimator decks on arena play a handful of different targets not mentioned here - namely serra's emissary and scholar of the lost trove. Not saying they're better than grislebrand, but was surprised they didn't get a mention

[@zztzgza]

The title of the video should tell you why you didn't see them mentioned.

[@MTGGoldfish]

I don't think they were ever the best thing to reanimate, although they did show up a bit here and there. I think Serra's Emissary sort of got wrecked by being in the same set as Archon of Cruelty, which just ended up being better.

[@rekenner]

​@@MTGGoldfish and yet, Serra's Emissary sees roughly similar levels of play to Atraxa in Legacy Reanimator, so... Probably worth a mention.

[@craigstuckey319]

Crimson Hellkite was a unstoppable beast back in the day.

[@alienplatypus7712]

Kinda wild that ulamog's crusher and rust goliath in pauper are much more traditional "big beatsticks" than basically any of these.

[@1000Tomatoes]

I wonder if the giant lobster creature that Gisa reanimated to fight phyrexians in the MOM Innistrad side story was a reference to Deep Spawn.

[@shmerelize]

Lobster? . . . . . must be a reference to dominance hierarchies.

[@Gaswafers]

Kind of weird that Etali might end up eclipsing Atraxa in standard reanimator specifically.

[@adamtobiasz8793]

Well that was a fun episode brother Set. 😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@DMCDCW]

As a 2003 reanimator player this video brought back memories of akroma stomping games❤

[@kismetsoul4593]

While it does have a small downside, I remember Devouring Strossus being a beast for it's time of release back in Invasion. 9/9 Flying Trample closes out games pretty fast if not dealt with. I had a friend at the time that would Sneak Attack and then Reanimate big threats.

[@guilhermeribeiromichelino3852]

Seth, Entomb was only in 2002. U couldn't use it in 1999 for Multani

[@khub5660]

Part of why I don't normally watch Seth's content

[@rekenner]

No mention of Chancellor of the Annex? That's about as iconic to Legacy Reanimator as Griselbrand for a long time

[@kylegonewild]

"I will reanimate my Kird Ape for value." As is tradition.

[@McArRuIzO]

You did Storm Crow a massive injustice by excluding it. It's still the #1 reanimator target to this day.

[@renzuki5830]

Atraxa honeymoon period is over as far as legacy is concerned. Just looking at 10 lists I could not find a deck playing more atraxas than grisels. It seems to be a fairly consistent 1of. Some decks don't run it at all, some run 2. Despite pitching for FoW Atraxa can't match the speed of grisel. You can usually drop a few griefs/unmasks and petal/ritual into whatever else you want to reanimate on the same turn with grisel, whereas you can't really do that with Atraxa.

[@jsum33]

It breaks my heart Serra Avatar gets shuffled back in.

[@darthparallax5207]

1993 did not understand its own metal correctly. Serendib Efreet, Serra Angel, and Shivan Dragon should have seen more play than Sengir Vampire. In OS they are valued now. Additionally Guardian Beast would have been worth it as a combo with Chaos Orb. Juzam Djinn has enough stats that it should be favored over Kird Ape. The truest explanation though is that Mana fixing that did not exactly involve artifacts was in a wierd place in 1993 because land destruction was able to hit the Duals with many kinds of wipes, so it made sense to stay close to your colors, and on top of all that Dark Ritual made more sense to play than Animate Dead for Lord of the Pit and Juzam Djinn. Reanimator decks were supposed to not be what they later became, and Alpha was correctly balanced to favor aggro in this regard. Discard outlets were basically nonexistent. They still had much better options than Kird Ape though and could have been using it on Sedge Troll or any 4/4 or higher. Balance was surprisingly effective at making Moxen more fair than it ever should have. What a Reanimator deck wants to be wasn't fully possible because Shivan Dragon needed continuous red so there wasn't anything to race to you couldn't just get to with Aggro though. Dark Ritual was so insane that the 2 black mana to play Animate Dead with were way better spent on 2 Dark Rit. Scrubland Scrubland 4xDark Rit and you have 10 mana to play 3 Hypnotic Spectre. That wouldn't even really be good enough compared to the opposing player playing Balance. And at least up to 1995 all Reanimation targets had to worry about Swords to Plowshares. The archetype had no real breathing room at first.

[@JoeCamarillo]

Well said!

[@kevinmorris9362]

Fun story: I started in 10th edition with the weird "Start Here" product. My first rare was Verdant Force.

[@DeathsjesterKMNP]

I know it's not super broken, so most people won't care, but I think an overlooked target for reanimator is a card called Dusk Mangler. It can give a lot of value, being able to get all its upside with the down.

[@seandun7083]

I think it's generally just a worse Archon of cruelty. Nice budget option though.

[@chuckwagon3718]

"Some players played Ashen Rider as a 'removal-y' reanimation target." There's this one guy named SaffronOlive who REALLY seemed to love playing that card 😂

[@tarmo9010]

And in the end, the best target of the reanimator, a 6/5 common creature with a cycle

[@parazightsporch2523]

If moving things from the graveyard to the battlefield is the goal, then the coolest play is Goblin Welder + Mindslaver, IMO.

[@sebbbi2]

(Re)animating a Deep Spawn was not popular. In my experience Spirit of the Night was the first viable reanimation target. Dance of the Dead made Spirit of the Night kill your opponent in 3 turns (flying haste 7 power). Turn 1 Ritual + Buried Alive and turn 2 Dance Spirit attack for 7. That was fast back then.

[@sebbbi2]

Verdant Force was reanimated too, but that creature really broke Natural Order.

[@CRL444]

Dance of the dead brings back the creature tapped. So... no.

[@shayneweyker]

Spirit of the night was also pro black so only exhume and reanimate and recur could get him out.

[@Hanmacx]

My favorite Reanimator Targets are card that themselves can reanimate I built a mono black Standard deck around it

[@derpyderperson2912]

Sweet Video:)

[@minervadetauro7646]

Honestly surprised you didn’t even mention both Phantom Nishoba and Serra Emissary

[@everythingisbizzaaaaaro3694]

Iona's original text: Choose target player or players who showed up to play Magic. The chosen player or players are no longer allowed to play Magic. During your next Magic event, you may choose not to invite chosen player or players, as they probably won't bother playing with you again, anyways.

[@ToniMayol]

My first reanimator deck was Akroma and Life//Death and won me some fnms.

[@ReadyAimFire_]

I think you missed few ones. Maybe not best, but really solid, at least worth mentioning.

[@cybe9717]

You forgot Elesh Norn. I know it's mostly for stopping weenie decks and Infect, but it was a notable reanimator target.

[@christopherlundgren1700]

He mentioned Elesh Norn and Jin Gitaxias as kind of honorable mentions while he was talking about Griselbrand.

[@cybe9717]

@@christopherlundgren1700 Ahh, kk

[@SephieRothe]

Shallow grave was mirage, which was after fallen empires. Like I started Ice age, and mirage and visions were two of my favorite sets.

[@SephieRothe]

So I did dark ritual buried alive into Reanimate/necromancy Verdant force as my first deck of tempest. With Living death as a late game reanimation spell.

[@jonathanmillis2015]

I think that the Eldrazi deserve an honorable mansion. those decks don't work quite the same but its all the same idea

[@SmaugUKA]

Grizz is still the #1 Reanimation target for a few decks. The most popular one being Tin Fins...a deck you know well. Most prefer Grizz still if the deck is Combo. Otherwise, Atraxa has taken over that spot nowadays for sure.

[@TunnelSnakesrule13]

HYPNOTIC SPECTER

[@gillablecam]

Teeka's Dragon

[@SuperbFairy]

I am absolutely appalled and disappointed that such a high profile mtg content source missed an entire era of magic, where reanimating a Colossal Dreadmaw would often force an opponent to concede on the spot, it was such an unhealthy time for the game and I'm glad we have perfectly reasonable things like Atraxa legal now

[@daleway5429]

Surprised there was no mention of emmrakul for modern gyro vengeance

[@stephenhousman6975]

I am surprised you didn't say it is also a blue card for force with atraxa.

[@ultimateo621]

I think you should have given a mention to emrakul, even though you need to use instant speed reanimation like exhume, shallow grave, or goryos vengeance it still has seen play as a reanimation targte

[@NMS127]

Exhume is a sorcery.

[@iankane3732]

Makeshift mannequin and loyal retainers also work on emrakul(thanks vintage cube)

[@Mark101dg]

I usually go for Villis, Broker of Blood in EDH with black.

[@MindstabThrull]

Unsurprisingly, the best reanimation targets have also generally been the best Oath of Druids and/or Tinker targets.

[@ryancooper3629]

I feel where Atraxa falls flat is not only do you have to run every card type in your deck you need to also hope a good variety of types shows up in the top 10 cards when she hits the battlefield. Griselbrand always gets you insane card advantage but atraxa is super hit or miss. Personally I would always lean to the reliability of Griselbrand over her. I also lile that Griselbrand is mono black meaning worse case you can play him on curve if the game goes long or your opponent has graveyard hate.

[@aklepatzky]

its amazing, the lifelink is huge in EDH when yorue the archenemy and if your deck is well built draws on average 4 cards (source: my deck and experience with it)

[@camdenharper7244]

No mention of the first good reanimation with no upkeep or drawback? Spirit of the Night? Am I the only one that remembers this?

[@ankhi3585]

The problem is that it has protection from black so all the enchantment reanimation doesn't work. So it took a little while for it to become a good reanimation target.

[@mightyone3737]

IIRC Fallen Empires has a 94 on it? Anyways, I use Breeding Pit to provide bodies so I can reanimate Ebon Praetor or Lord of the Pit, this lets me use Soul Exchange too, which gives +2/+2 if a sac a Thrull! Still not 2 turn clocks though.

[@JoeCamarillo]

Yup, the first Praetor! Glad you mentioned him.

[@Bradley-b1h]

is mana flare available on the other format apart from arena?

[@spegynmerbles3993]

RB atraxa reanimator is so fun to play

[@michaelclifford6659]

2:30 ayh-lin cornmer

[@losmaletones5036]

Hidetsugu and Kairi + Aminatou's Augury

[@Deta1lafo]

I think Razaketh deserves a spot, its the best target in cedh reanimation decks

[@Cosminen]

God I miss the times when a Reanimator deck was also a "toolbox" deck, as you had many different creatures to reanimate depending on the situation.... ....and not just 4x the best creature or two.....

[@davidhouseman4328]

Yes, though it was partly because Phantom Nishoba got a look and its a fav of mine.

[@Cosminen]

@@davidhouseman4328 I still have a deck like that 🙂

[@nix4mayor187]

No love for Spirit of the Night, the original Akroma? It was even in a 1998 World Championship Reccurring Nightmare deck. Huge snub my dude.

[@josephrion3514]

Iona shield of emeria looks good.

[@griffinreed1076]

Avatar of Might / Thorn Elemental way back when

[@mr.zvonek9565]

1st time seeing Atraxa... Is tribal no longer a card type?

[@gawbe]

I still go for Sire of Insanity and Griselbrand.

[@LightninSharples]

i hope ulamog and kozilek make the list--- now ill watch and find out

[@LightninSharples]

seriously? you just went from grizzlebrand to atraxa??? No Ulamog???? no kozilek??? screw grizzlebrand- 7 ife to use his ability, HA! what? you *might* have that half of the games you play once you get into end game... screw grizzlebrand. screw atraxa too for that matter.

[@papanurgle1169]

​@@LightninSharples man.. you know the og eldrazis shuffle back into the library when they ar put into the gy right? And they all have on cast abilities..

[@LightninSharples]

@@papanurgle1169 Ulamog doesn't 'shuffle back' bro, he exiles the top 20 cards of opponents library every time he attacks, a wonderful deal sealer- especially if you can give him haste. and Kozilek, the great distortion might not give you the card draw bonus with a reanimate, and i know it's not as cool as the one with annihilator 4- but the counterspell thing really comes in handy- he's maybe worth a mention i think

[@Reversespacehippie]

My boi Phantom Nishoba...

[@Finngrinder]

1996 Spirit of the Night from Mirage

[@multimedia_messiah4271]

At one point Seth says "1999" with the graphic saying 1997 then later while talking about 1999 mentions Entomb that wasn't printed til 2001, wtf are you talking about? Also, how do you not mention Spirit of the Night?

[@dontbleedthadalo]

No Hornet Queen?

[@MTGGoldfish]

I don't think Hornet Queen was ever the beset reanimate target, it is a fun one though for sure and it did see some play.

[@dom2056]

pretty sure elesh norn is the most played reanimation target of all time, though only because griselband is banned in commander

[@quantum_beeb]

Thorn elemental was played more than Multani at that time, no?

[@hecatomb1864]

Blazing Archon was used sometimes. Shut down creature decks.

[@adonoghuea02]

I used to play a very different kind of reanimator, just at the time Grislebrand came onto the scene. I would play a whole bunch of targets, basicaly I would have something that could answer any deck, weenies, elesh norn, mono coloured, iona, if I was unsure, inkwell, and I had all the asnwers in my sideboard, then came along gristlebrand, and I watched as everyone saw me entomb exhume and not get gristlebrand, be really confused, go to game two and my deck changed from mono black to black white. So much fun, and surprisingly successful.

[@pauls5745]

ya Polar Kraken is popular for this, my buddy likes it but I always liked Chromium.

[@PLee-cy9nu]

Shouldn’t the title be “best reanimatee”?

[@Rorschachqp]

Sengir Vampire wouldn't make a good reanimation target. In those days the quick removal spells Lightning Bolt, Terror and for those in the know, Swords To Plowshares. None of those affect Sengir Vampire in a way where you could reanimate. There were also Psionic Blast, rarely played, and Fireball/Disintegrate but usually those were used to kill the controller of said creature. Back then there was a lot of multiplayer so you usually used Animate Dead in an open field and take another player's dead creature. And no one used their own Nicol Bolas as a reanimate target. What's the point of discarding and reanimating Nicol Bolas...when you have to pay upkeep right afterward. Old school reanimator usually revolved around combos like Bazaar Of Baghdad and All Hallows' Eve.

[@cloudmane4159]

You missed solar flare and 10 fins… angel of despair and emrakul respectively…

[@morbidpanda25]

I think Atraxa is now back to on par with griselbrand in legacy, if not slightly worse, and straight up just worse than Archon in modern. Hell, she's not even the best reanimate target in standard! She's REALLY strong, but at the end of the day, her etb really doesn't do enough to match those other two unless you build your deck incredibly unoptimally for a lot of formats. Her pitchability is really what is keeping her alove, but the second a strong five color creature worth reanimating shows up she'll lose that advantage too

[@aklepatzky]

shes great in edh, draws 4 cards on average and the lifelink is HUGE

[@maybeisuckatlife]

No mention of new Etali as an up an comer? That thing is broke.

[@jamesrule1338]

Oof... the power creep is real....

[@oldbordergeek]

aw im feeling nostalgiC when i see the blasing arChon and shield of emeria. what happened to legaCy????

[@raphaelmckerley5912]

Atraxa is almost certainly worse than Griselbrand in reanimator, at least in Legacy. It’s better sometimes but certainly not a clear step above.

[@T4N7]

How is Emrakul, the Aeons Torn not on this list?

[@christopherlundgren1700]

Not really a traditional reanimation target because of its shuffle clause. (You can do it with stuff like Loyal Retainers or Shallow Grave, but those decks are more fringe.) Slots more typically into Sneak & Show or Omniscience strategies.

[@syntec4322]

@boshnroll turn ones is my favourite turn one

[@taylorarnold880]

Penumbra worm

[@jamesrule1338]

A very funny card to use with Hell's Caretaker. Back when a 4 casting cost 1/1 with an ability that didn't do anything until your next upkeep was playable in casual/janky decks, and not outright unplayable garbage. But at the time, nothing was funnier than "I sacrifice a Penumbra Worm to bring back a Penumbra Worm."

[@taylorarnold880]

Spiritmonger, pelakka wurm, symbiotic wurm, Arcanis, avatar of woe, visara the dreadful, avatar of might... lots of good reanimation targets. Keeping a variety is what won games.

[@michaelcornell5138]

Where is Storm Crow?

[@maximuscesar]

How could you not talk about Hypnox, Phantom Nishoba, Avatar of Woe, Visara; any of those had more history in reanimator decks than worldgouger dragon. Visara and Nishoba even appeared in world championship deck.

[@88Vrus88]

Did i miss Crosis?

[@ben668]

Think you missed spirit of the night

[@roshandala]

What about etali?

[@gottinrod]

Etali roars in dino

[@shot040]

u missed the strongest part of atraxa; u can pitch her to force.

[@MTGGoldfish]

That is an upside for sure.