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Commander Nexus
  1. Commander Nexus
  2. Archetypes
  3. Reanimator
Reanimator artwork

Reanimator

decks put big creatures into their own early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to it.

  • KindArchetype
  • Cards814

An archetype is a whole game plan: the way a deck tries to win.

Find these cards in the app Commanders with this archetype

How it plays

You put huge creatures into your on purpose, by discarding them or milling your own deck, then a cheap spell that returns one to the battlefield. A creature that costs eight mana is on the table on turn three.

How it wins

By having the biggest thing on the table far earlier than anyone else, and by doing it again when it dies. Many of the creatures you bring back win on their own if they attack twice.

What beats it

. A card that removes your from the game, or exiles your creature instead of destroying it, takes away the whole plan. Opponents who kill the creature before it attacks force you to find another spell.

If this is your first deck

A good second deck. Putting your own cards into the feels wrong until you have seen it work. Learn what the graveyard is in your first deck, then build this.

Commanders to Start With

The most played commanders where Reanimator is one of their two main plans, in order from EDHREC, a site that counts the Commander decks players post online.

Example Cards

ReanimatorReanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.Open the full glossaryGraveyardThe discard pile. Cards that are destroyed, discarded or used up go here. In Commander plenty of cards bring them back, which is why graveyards are a resource rather than a bin.Open the full glossaryCastTo cast a spell is to put it on the stack and pay its cost, usually from your hand. Playing a land is not casting, and a copy of a spell is not cast either.Open the full glossaryExileRemoves a card from the game entirely rather than putting it in the graveyard. Exiled cards are much harder to get back, which is why exile is the strongest answer to recursion.Open the full glossaryReanimationBringing a creature back from a graveyard onto the battlefield. Reanimator decks get a huge creature into the graveyard early, then return it for far less mana than casting it would cost.ReanimateOpen the full glossary