How They Brew It - Shorikai's Noncreature Reanimator

Shorikai, Genesis Engine by Wisnu Tan

It's Finally Here

Heya, I'm Michael Celani, and you're reading How They Brew It, the article series that's to Magic: The Gathering as alcohol is to Magic: The Gathering. Many of you have read my set reviews over the past couple of years, and for that, I truly apologize: I was in a dark place at the time, and didn't know that what I was doing was wrong.

Regardless, you may have noticed that throughout my set reviews I've often referred to a mythical "noncreature reanimator" deck. The idea's simple: it's a reanimator deck without black that cheats out anything but creatures. I mentioned the concept in this review, and this one, and this one, and even this one, but I've never actually written a tech on the subject. The truth is that I've been biding my time, scheming, slowly letting new cards hit the table, but like a dancer at a gentleman's club running out of clothes to remove, I can tease you no longer.

This is Shorikai, Genesis Engine. Shorikai, Genesis Engine is bonkers busted. For only four mana, you get an 8/8 Vehicle, but that's not all: you can also spend and tap it to draw two cards, discard a card, and create a Pilot. It's like if Jalum Tome bulked up, took steroids, and wasn't a book.

The plan is simple: we use Shorikai to not only stock our graveyard full of expensive artifacts and enchantments, but also to find the powerful reanimation spells we need to overwhelm the board and our opponents.

Drawing It Out

Step one in this quest to ~~prove that I can actually make playable decks and not just jank~~ cheat stuff out is drawing the pieces we want to revive and binning them. Luckily, Shorikai does this so unbelievably well that we basically need no other value engine. I'm serious: here's all the things that damn robot's got going for it.

It's cheap: at just four mana, and with our suite of two-mana ramp rocks, we're often casting Shorikai on turn three
It's resilient: players need artifact removal to snipe Shorikai, which is less common than creature removal
It's unassuming: players are reluctant to destroy stuff that's not an immediate threat, so careful control of what you bin will make you appear more modest than your opponents
It's easy to recur: even if Shorikai dies, the deck is built around reanimating artifacts, so the commander tax isn't a huge issue
It's powerful: the activated ability is extremely cheap, available at instant speed, draws more cards than it throws away, and supplies you with an endless stream of chump blockers

Putting any additional draw engines in this deck seems useless in the way that a quarter is to Mark Cuban, but that doesn't mean we're dedicating no card slots to card draw. Instead of providing redundancy, we'll be focused on buffing Shorikai's ability to be even more busted than it already is.

Double Draw

Doubling the card draw seems like a great place to start, which is why I started there. Teferi's Ageless Insight and Alhammarret's Archive both double the number of cards you draw (other than the one in your draw step). They're also both relatively cheap, so you can hard cast them as a great follow-up the turn after you slam Shorikai. If you happen to have both, you'll draw eight cards per activation, but try not to do this, because it'll draw a lot of attention your way.¹

Untap That

The flipside to increasing the number of cards drawn is boosting the number of times you can actually activate Shorikai per turn cycle. Untapping Shorikai is the most straightforward way to get additional actions, which is why the deck includes Voltaic Key, Manifold Key, and Sonic Screwdriver.² As a bonus, both Manifold Key and Sonic Screwdriver can make any creature unblockable, which is pretty relevant considering Shorikai can three-shot anyone.

Clock of Omens is also available and is often as good as a Voltaic Key or better since you can use its ability multiple times in a turn cycle and it can pay for half of its first activation. Some of our noncreature artifacts, like Alhammarret's Archive, don't particularly care if they're tapped or untapped, and it works with your mana rocks and artifact lands, too.

The best card in this category is bar-none Unwinding Clock, though. All you need is one artifact-based source of mana to make Unwinding Clock reset not only Shorikai, but the mana used to pay for its ability. That gives you quadruple the activations each turn cycle, and best of all, this deck runs enough instant-speed interaction that you can use it to pay for board control like counterspells and removal, too.

At the Controls

Unfortunately, like my gym membership card, this deck can just sit there for quite a while. To make the plan work, you'll need to find both a reanimation spell and a reanimation target, and since our deck can't contain entirely those two things, we'll need stuff to do while we assemble Exodia.

Shorikai's Pilot tokens have us mostly covered for blockers against anything other than the most Gruuling decks, meaning our best defense is taking out specific threats at crucial times. Obviously, all-stars, like Swords to Plowshares and Generous Gift, make the cut, but there's a few additional inclusions worth taking a special look at.

Counterspells

Counterspells are an obvious pick for the list, and we're running quite a few. Wash Away is a Cancel that can also counter commanders for just . This means you can hold up a single mana, counter a commander if need be, and activate Shorikai if it's unnecessary. Arcane Denial is a classic staple, but it's included over something like Counterspell or Dovin's Veto since it digs us deeper towards our win condition. Sink into Stupor doubles as a land if we need it. If you want a real counterspell, though, Forbid is an absolute beating here. Its buyback cost actually helps our gameplan, as we can bin whatever we want to cheat out.

Board Clears

Since Shorikai dodges most board wipes, I've included some in the deck just in case the field gets a little too unwieldy for us to deal with. Supreme Verdict can't be countered, and Vanquish the Horde is extremely cheap, so you should be able to rebuild the turn you play it, and although What Must Be Done will kill Shorikai, its second mode happens to reanimate artifacts, so it gets in by default.

Repeatable Removal

Argent Dais is an infinitely repeatable Oblation that we can refresh by swinging with our dopey Pilot tokens. It also gains oil counters if your opponents attack with multiple creatures, which you use to politick. Try to stall combat as much as possible, because the odds tilt more in your favor the longer the game goes.

Rift at Home

Ugin's Binding is a fairly overcosted single-target bounce spell, but it's also a free Cyclonic Rift if you cast a seven-drop or more colorless spell when it's in the graveyard. This might seem like it goes against the spirit of cheating out our big artifacts, but it turns out some of the deck's reanimation spells actually cast the damn spell. Ugin's Binding doesn't care if you actually paid mana or not, so pay attention to how your stuff gets reanimated if it's in your graveyard.

Bringing it Back

Alright, enough stalling. We've stocked our graveyard with a healthy amount of Shorikai activations. How are we gonna get those big artifacts and enchantments back to the battlefield? Well, there's a couple main categories.

The Single-Target Spells

The single-target spells are generally around four or five mana and will return either a single permanent or a small handful of permanents from your graveyard to the battlefield.

Refurbish and Argivian Restoration each cheat out an artifact with no bells or whistles.
Abuelo's Awakening gets either an artifact or non-Aura enchantment. Unfortunately, it does come back as an easier-to-remove creature, though in a pinch you can use this to animate an indestructible Darksteel Citadel.
Repair and Recharge can revive either an artifact or an enchantment, and it gives you a free rock that you can use on Shorikai activations to boot.
What Must Be Done returns a historic permanent, which in practice means an artifact. There are Sagas and legendary permanents you can hit, but they're nowhere near as plentiful in the deck.
Invoke Justice returns any permanent you want. That mana cost might look prohibitive, but your draws are so smoothed out that you're hitting your land drop nearly every turn anyway.
One Last Job can get back a creature, a Vehicle, and an Equipment, all on one spell. There's really only one Equipment worth reanimating (Kaldra Compleat), but you'll often be able to hit a Vehicle and a creature if you get lucky enough.
Builder's Talent returns any noncreature, nonland permanent at a total cost of eight mana. That Wall token is actually pretty effective at protecting you from saboteurs if you can land it in the early turns.
Desecrate Reality gets any odd-mana permanent from your graveyard, provided you hit the adamant cost on it by paying three colorless mana. This should be trivial with the number of rocks we're running; obviously, it's not worth casting outside that except for dire emergencies.

The Creatures

There's a couple of creatures that'll get stuff back for you, too. Ironsoul Enforcer is, itself, an artifact, and by attacking alone with it, you can cheat out artifacts way more expensive than it. Emeria Shepherd only requires that you play a Plains the turn it comes down to revive anything you want, and Scholar of the Lost Trove can either flashback an instant or sorcery spell you need or cast any artifact you want.

Reenact the Crime

It's worth talking about Reenact the Crime separately, since it is a reanimation spell. In fact, it's the most flexible of the reanimation spells, as it can not only get any nonland permanent your heart desires, it also can get any instant and sorcery spell too, from any graveyard... provided it was put there this turn.

With Shorikai, this is easy enough to time: simply hold what you want to cheat until you're ready to cast Reenact the Crime, pitch it to a Shorikai activation, and then target your newly pitched card.

Reenact the Crime is an instant, so you can use this to give your spells flash-at-home. Strangely enough, it's not at its most potent when using it to cheat out an artifact or enchantment: it's actually at its best when paired with a spell in our final category.

The Mass Reanimation Spells

These three spells all do the same thing: return every artifact and enchantment from your graveyard to the battlefield. You do have to be a little careful with Open the Vaults, since it's symmetrical, but your opponents are substantially less likely to get more out of it than you do.³ Press your luck with these cards at your own risk, though: you don't want to wait too long for value and risk getting killed, or worse, having your graveyard exiled.

Big Bad Bots

What are we reanimating with this highly efficient (genesis) engine? Well, that's up to you! Customize the deck to your own tastes. I've included a smattering of the cards talked about below in the actual list, but you may find yourself a fan of one strategy over another. Let's take a look at some categories, and you can decide what's best for you.

More Cheating

Take a page from my ex and follow up your cheating with more cheating. Big spells, like Omniscience, Darksteel Monolith, and One with the Multiverse make it possible to actually cast spells from your hand once they're in play, Omniscience especially: dumping your hand after cheating it out on turn six is incredibly satisfying.

Portal to Phyrexia is also a damn good card, instantly killing up to nine creatures when it enters and rewarding you with the best one from a graveyard each turn. I'd say (if nothing else) spring for a copy of Portal to Phyrexia and a copy of Omniscience; price aside, I'm hard pressed to find any variant of this deck that isn't made immediately better with these both in the ninety-nine.

Vehicles

You can decide to go heavy on Vehicles, too, which is ostensibly what Shorikai decks are supposed to be about. Since you've got a steady stream of Pilots already, crewing them is no problem. Go for the heavy hitters at the top end of the curve, like Parhelion II and Reaver Titan, and you'll be able to win in a couple of combats.

Anthems & Tokens

Speaking of your pilots, why not take a page from United's book and help your opponents fly some unfriendly skies? A wide variety of anthems and go-wide creature buffs are available to you in the artifact and enchantment space, including powerful effects like Eldrazi Monument, Coat of Arms, and even Akroma's Memorial. Your Pilots all share a creature type, and if buffing 1/1s doesn't sound appealing to you, try making them Angels instead with Divine Visitation.

Actual Creatures

Oh yeah, some creatures are artifacts or enchantments. It's not quite noncreature reanimator if you go all in on these, but it does open you up to additional reanimation spells, like Resurrection, if you're willing to be slightly less of a hipster. You can also focus on Sagas that make big butts; I'm partial to Kiora Bests the Sea God, myself.

It's Over

After what felt like forever, I've finally done it: I've finally made an article about noncreature reanimator. And it's only the (checks notes) most popular Azorius commander?! I really need to get back to my hipster roots. Where's my They Might Be Giants CD?

If you liked this How They Brew It, come check out our Discord, where you can chat with like-minded brewers, suggest ideas for the column, and vote on which you want to see next! You can also check out my other projects on my website. Hope you enjoyed reading, and I'll see you next time!

Commander (1)

1 Shorikai, Genesis Engine

Creatures (12)

Sorceries (12)

Instants (13)

Artifacts (22)

Enchantments (8)

Lands (32)

Buy this decklist from Card Kingdom
Buy this decklist from TCGplayer
View this decklist on Archidekt

View this decklist on Moxfield

You might be tempted to also include Thought Reflection, but by the time you could either cast it or cheat it out, you're better off presenting an actual threat.
Although more generic untappers, like Kelpie Guide, exist and can be used on Shorikai, I eschewed them to get around summoning sickness.
A more enchantment-focused version of this deck could also consider Replenish, though I'd question why you wouldn't just run Anikthea, Hand of Erebos if that's your strategy.