Commander Deck Tech: Old Stickfingers Reanimator
Time for another commander article!
I decided to stick with another Innistrad Midnight Hunt Legendary Creature. After probing the set I decided that the name and theme of “Old Stickfingers” fit the month of October. On the casting of Old Stickfingers you get to reveal the top of your library until you reveal X Creatures. Those Creatures will then go to your Graveyard and the rest of the cards will go randomly on the bottom of your library. Old Stickfingers also has Power / Toughness equal to the number of Creatures in your Graveyard. Keep in mind you do not have to pay anything for X later in the game. Maybe we just want to recast it as a big 20/20 for only 2 mana plus whatever additional Commander mana you must pay. So we want to get Creatures into the Graveyard as quickly as possible and make our guys really big. Then we add some Trample or evasion to not get blocked and wipe out your opponents with one to two Creatures.
This deck is Creature heavy because we want to be able to make our guys 20/20's or bigger if possible. We also want to have some Creatures in the Graveyard that have some interaction with something else going on. Cards like Brawn give trample to get over blockers. Filth is also really cool with Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth in play.
The only real combo we have in the deck is:
Mikaeus, the Unhallowed + Triskelion
However you could always have a ton of cards in your Graveyard and play:
Living Death + Craterhoof Behemoth (in Graveyard) + Lightning Greaves
The interaction of Syr Konrad, the Grim and Old Stickfingers + other mill cards is very interesting. For instance, if you played Living Death with Syr Konrad in play you'd get doubled 1 damage triggers. One for “whenever another Creature dies” and another for when “a Creature card leaves your Graveyard”. I like how the 1 damage triggers hit all opponents and not just one person.
The deck runs twelve reanimate spells or Creatures not including Sheoldred, Whispering One. I did not count Sheoldred here because it does not reanimate the turn it comes into play. We also have a little spot removal in: Putrefy, Deadly Rollick, Deathsprout, Ravenous Chupacabra, and Shriekmaw.
There are also 10 Creatures in the deck that have power and toughness either equal to Creatures in your Graveyard, all Creatures in all Graveyards, or all cards in all Graveyards. In order to get cards and Creatures in our Graveyard we've employed the Dredgers. Stinkweed Imp can Dredge 5 and act as a really good blocker with it's pseudo-deathtouch ability. Life from the Loam can Dredge 3 and help mana fix. Golgari-Grave Troll will Dredge 6 and be a really big body on the battlefield with Regenerate evasion. I counted eleven cards in total that either mill, or put cards in your Graveyard from your library. This is one area that may need to be tweaked and upped in the future. We have a few tutors and a couple of Enchantments that help with card advantage.
The main weaknesses of the deck I see are counterspells and Graveyard disruption. We don't have a ton of things to do against these obstacles, but playing smart and trying to play around counterspells is still very doable. On the other hand, if you get Bojuka Bog'd late game you're going to be hurting. Luckily this will probably be a new deck to you and your playgroup so chances are some things will slide by. I also added a random Elixir of Immortality just in case you end up milling too much. You could also mill the wrong cards and not have access to one of the three Regrowth effects in the deck.
It's pretty straightforward to play spells, mill yourself, then reanimate and start attacking. The deck is definitely not overpowered, but if your opponents aren't paying attention to what's going on they'll soon be dead.
I hope Old Stickfingers makes an entrance into your playgroup meta.
Happy Battling!
Until next time,
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