Revamp my deck: 5c Ally Reanimator

Edit: I could have posted this earlier, but due to some technical issues with the blog, I raged quitted this post after the site not saving my draft. I decided to skip some of the game-play content and just concentrate in updating this post as an article on revamping my deck.
Also, this article was drafted 3 weeks prior, so the comments in Italic and the pointers are the more of the updates over what I had intended to post earlier on. Nevertheless, it's still a good pointer to show how much my deck has changed over the last couple of weeks.

Another Modern event coverage at MTG-Asia @ Aliwal Street. This time round, I'm focusing more on the changes of the deck and how it performs for the event.

Deck: 5C Ally Reanimator Ally Gifts Reanimator!

The original version of the deck after the changes to improve consistency of the deck. The deck strategy only revolves around Angel of Glory's Rise's ability and Empyrial Archangel to hold the board. The issue with the deck is that it ended up too linear and could not hold out against disruptive strategies. The lack of removal and the lack of any form of stall / protection basically prevents the deck to hold out against Aggro decks or big threats as well. 

The 2nd version of the deck after incorporating the GIFTS package. Added more removals and disruption to help ease turns 1 to 3 against aggressive or disruptive decks. More tuning to be done, but the core of the deck is a synergistic hybrid of Gifts Ungiven and Reanimator package!

Some of the major changes I did over the past 2 months. I originally updated the deck and was about to publish it. However, the deck did not perform as expected and I need to update and change the deck to perform better in the new meta...

Remove Green
I didn't want to do this, but to ensure the consistency of the deck, I had no choice but to remove the green colour altogether to improve the mana base consistency.  So hence, there goes Life from the Loam, Harabaz Druid and Mirror Entity. Those pieces of synergy allows my creatures to be bigger easily, but it lacks the consistency and made the deck clunky to pilot.

Also, the main idea is to reanimate the combo and mill the opponent; not to dominate the board. But, when needed, a strong turn of the board may work in certain match-ups. That said, the keyword here is CERTAIN. If that is the case, I'd rather stick to my original plan or make my back-up plan more effective.

Upon changes to the deck, the best plan is actually to hold early game board while triggering the milling or lifegain to hold out game. The core strategy of the deck is still reanimating big threats or Angel of Glory's Rise; just that the approach is slightly different. 
Previously, the first 3 turns solely is to dig and mill myself to get the combo in the graveyard. While that is efficient, it is very prone to over-committing the strategy and just any disruptions like grave-hate or counterspells can severely hurt the deck. Hence, the digging options have been reduced significantly in place for Gifts Ungiven.

The next Empress... 
With that said, I have revamped the list with a permanent inclusion of Empyrial Archangel. That card is a definite game changers whenever they appear. They hoses aggro decks and actually shut down some midrange decks. 8 redirected damage meant that I have 8 extra life. It's a huge thing for aggro decks to deal with and it mean re-stabilizing the board!

Originally, I planned to play 2 pieces of Empyrial Archangel. But, I decided to cut it down to 1 piece. She is still strong though. Just that not applicable to have 2 pieces. 

Enablers / Consistency

I want to play a game...

As mentioned, my deck runs reanimator as the core engine, I've maxed out all the reanimator enablers to increase consistency. The idea is that so long as I am able to hit the pieces and reanimate, I'm half-done with my game plan. Now it's really up to how my opponent react. If he or she can't, the game will end really quickly. Otherwise, it's an escaping chance. Yea, now that I think about it, the deck is like SAW...
Furthermore, I also made changes in the number of enablers. Initially, I intended to max out all the 3 types of enablers, but it ended up getting more of a wasted slot; the cards ended up thrown out more than its used as a filter. Hence, I had to cut down some enablers to make space for other options like disruption or cheaper drops to minimize the cost of the mana curve.

Now more updates to make the game plan even more torturous...

To update here, 3x Gifts Ungiven was added formally as a combined strategy of a gifts package + Ally reanimator. That is the biggest change so far to date. It really changes the deck strategies, giving it a new angle to approach the meta and match-ups.

The Weakest Link
A few games saw myself in the need to disrupt. This will work well against other combo decks. Because I am running more of disruption to remove their grave hates, I think that disrupting their hands gave more options and reason to than just run Pithing Needle. 5 pieces of disruption is now in the 75 to make this as an alternative turn 1 game plan.
I feel that after a few games with my friend's rouge decks prior to tuning to this list, the choice of playing 3 duress was great to know what is coming up next, but 3 pieces wasn't enough for game 2. Luckily, I found 2 Inquisition of Kozilek lying in a pile and I promptly added those into the deck.

The number will change to 4+1 pieces of Inquisition of Kozilek / Thoughtseize / Duress; any number in that combination will work out. 
The mainboard also now consists of some removals and disruption to help stall early game or mid-games if required. 


The Tactical Advantage (maybe...)
Sideboard went through a lot of testing and planning before coming up with this list. It will still change according to meta. Slaughter Games is a very powerful card as a sideboard piece and have earned a permanent slot to combat the new combo-based meta of Twin, Scapeshift, Tron, etc..
Iona, Shield of Emeria and Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite still are the Big 2 in my sideboard and they have proven in certain match-ups that they are effective.

They are moved to the mainboard. They are proven to be extremely powerful to the new meta and can effectively be used to hose certain strategies.

As mentioned, the 2 Inquisition of Kozilek made it into the deck. Sowing Salt, Stony Silence and Pithing Needle are included into the Sideboard for specific deck-type hates. Sideboard requires a bit more rework to properly compliment the deck. I haven't thought of a proper SB list for the new "iteration" of the deck.

Lastly, in-lieu with the grave-hate running around in the decks, I decided to try out Quicksilver Amulet as a back-up piece to pull out threats. While this will be significantly weaker, it still gets the job done. Especially if this lands Iona, Shield of Emeria,  Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite or Empyrial Archangel. the threat level is devastating enough.

Pointers for this week;

I'm not going to post my gameplay review. I'll revamp that portion to give a better review in future. At the moment now, I'll run through a couple of pointers which I have learnt during the game.

• Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite is best against creature decks which has low P/T. They may swarm the board, but still lose to the -2/-2 debuff. She is very susceptible to removal, so some form of protection will be needed to make sure she survives.
• Iona, Shield of Emeria is best against control decks and interactive decks! This was the important lesson I have learn from my game that I would want to go into details. But, to save all that, TL;DR: She can stop Abzan decks by naming "Black". Note to self: 7/7 flyer clock that stops Siege Rhino is the Way to go! She is also very powerful against mono-coloured and spell-based decks!
• Empyrial Archangel is best against singleton beaters like boggles or against burn decks. She herself is a "tank" which supports you with a pseudo 8-life gain. The synergy with Makeshift Mannequin is enough to tilt opponents if they are unprepared.
• Other fatties I would consider would go with Stormtide Leviathan and Inkwell Leviathan. Testing is required to affirm this. At the moment now, these will go into the sideboard, rather than replacing anything in the mainboard.
• Sideboard requires rework against meta-hate. However, I may consider reworking the sideboard for more removals / disruptions in game 2. I may consider abusing Gifts package to improve my deck consistency.