Overview:

This Mardu (W/B/R) reanimator deck leverages Tariel, Reckoner of Souls to steal creatures from opponents' graveyards while utilizing self-mill, discard, and global sacrifice effects to fuel its own reanimation engines. The primary strategy involves cheating out high-impact creatures like Archon of Cruelty, Ancient Brass Dragon, and Sepulchral Primordial through spells like Reanimate, Animate Dead, and Living Death. Secondary win conditions include Syr Konrad, the Grim + Mindcrank synergy for incremental damage and Palantír of Orthanc for late-game inevitability. Tariel acts as a value engine but isn’t essential to the deck’s core strategy, which relies more on standalone reanimation spells and graveyard recursion.

Primer:

Core Strategy Execution:

1. Setup (Turns 1–4): Use self-mill (Golgari Thug, Mesmeric Orb), discard outlets (Faithless Looting, Cathartic Reunion), and global sacrifice effects (Mythos of Snapdax, The Meathook Massacre) to fill graveyards. Deploy mana accelerators like Land Tax, Throne of Eldraine, or Crypt of Agadeem.
2. Reanimation Payoffs (Turns 4–7): Cast Buried Alive or Hostile Negotiations to bin key threats, then reanimate them with Animate Dead, Necromancy, or Reanimate. Prioritize Archon of Cruelty for repeated value or Ancient Brass Dragon for mass recursion.
3. Late-Game Dominance (Turns 7+): Resolve Rise of the Dark Realms or Living Death to overwhelm the board. Activate Syr Konrad, the Grim with Mindcrank to drain opponents, or leverage Palantír of Orthanc to mill opponents into lethal life loss.

Mulligan Priorities:

• Keep hands with at least 2–3 lands, including black sources.
• Prioritize early interaction (Soul Shatter, Meathook Massacre) or setup pieces (Buried Alive, Faithless Looting).
• Avoid hands with only high-CMC threats and no enablers.

Key Tips:

• Use Living Death as both a board wipe and a win condition by stacking your graveyard with high-value creatures.
• Yawgmoth's Will enables explosive turns by replaying reanimation spells from the graveyard.
• Promise of Tomorrow protects against board wipes by exiling creatures for later recovery.

Weaknesses:

Critical

• Graveyard hate (Rest in Peace, Leyline of the Void) shuts down reanimation engines and Syr Konrad.
• Lack of fast mana slows setup, making early reanimation inconsistent.

Moderate

• Board wipes disrupt creature-based strategies, though the deck can rebuild with Living Death or Rise of the Dark Realms.
• Artifact/enchantment removal targets key engines like Mindcrank or Palantír of Orthanc.

Minor

• Limited stack interaction (no counterspells) leaves the deck vulnerable to combo finishes.
• High average CMC risks clunky draws without sufficient ramp.

Most Important Cards:

• Archon of Cruelty (Recurring value engine and life drain)
• Living Death (Mass reanimation and board reset)
• Syr Konrad, the Grim (Incremental damage and mill synergy)
• Buried Alive (Tutors win conditions into the graveyard)
• Animate Dead (Low-cost reanimation)
• Mindcrank (Combo piece with Syr Konrad)
• Rise of the Dark Realms (Game-ending mass reanimation)
• Yawgmoth's Will (Recasts key spells from the graveyard)
• Palantír of Orthanc (Late-game inevitability)
• Sepulchral Primordial (Steals opponents' best creatures)

Attribute Ratings:

Speed: 6/10

• Capable of reanimating threats as early as turn 3–4 with ideal hands, but typically wins via attrition or combo around turns 7–9.

Resilience: 5/10

• Recovers from board wipes via recursion but folds to graveyard hate. Limited protection for key pieces.

Consistency: 6/10

• Multiple discard/mill enablers and tutors (Buried Alive, Hostile Negotiations), but lacks redundancy for critical combo pieces.

Interaction: 5/10

• Runs targeted removal (Soul Shatter, Meathook Massacre) and board wipes but lacks counterspells or instant-speed answers to combos.

Rating Justification:

This deck has moderate speed (T7–9 wins) and fair resilience but struggles against common meta answers like graveyard hate. Its reliance on incremental value over explosive combos places it in the Optimized Casual tier, with room to improve via faster mana and combo redundancy.

Power level: 5.0 - 5.5