UB Reanimator

In a recent article posted on the magicthegathering.com website, the Dimir guild was spotlit in an anlysis of the viable blue-black strategies in standard. One of the more eye-catching decks was a reanimator deck that used Zombify, Vigor Mortis and Goryo's Vengeance to reanimate 1-of's that had been graveyarded by Compulsive Research and Gifts Ungiven. A decent deck, but all the 1-of's (and the use of creatures like Kira, Great Glass-Spinner and Kuro, Pitlord) made the deck seem unreliable.

Then came StarCity.

By trimming the non-UB cards, adding better card draw and focusing the win conditions, Shenanigans (not actual name) built a very convincingly consistent strategy. The turn-4 Kokusho makes for some pretty quick pacing for a UB deck. Here's the math:

UB Vengeance

4 Sleight of Hand
4 Mana Leak
4 Remand
4 Ideas Unbound
4 Compulsive Research
4 Zombify
4 Vigor Mortis

4 Keiga, the Tide Star
4 Kokusho, the Evening Star

9 Island
5 Swamp
4 Watery Grave
4 Underground River
2 Miren, the Moaning Well

I love the synergy and focus of this build. I read once that a great deck has no card that would be a bad draw on 3rd turn. All of these are card you'd love to see opening hand or mid-game, due to the flexibility allowed by cheap recursion and discard effects, as well as the protection of Miren, The Moaning Well.

Read The Wizards Article
Read The StarCity Post