Hi there! Please note that this Primer is a work in progress as I have time to write down my thoughts on the deck. In general this deck was an experiment to see if this archetype is currently viable (and because I love and always want to play Deathspeaker). As of right now I think that this deck, while fun and sometimes very powerful, is probably too high variance to post good results consistently. It has some very busted possible openings and can have a strong late game, but struggles a bit in the mid-game as it's minions start to get outclassed. Water is also a tough matchup due to having so much burrow removal, which is rough in the current water-heavy meta. All that being said, if you like to have explosive starts reanimating a vampire on turn 2 or 3, and like to grind incremental value out of your graveyard, this deck is a blast to play.

Minions

The Deathspeaker's bread and butter, minions with genesis or genesis-like abilities. This deck currently runs 39 minions, of which 26 have a genesis ability. It's my opinion that while you want a lot of genesis with DS, you really want to prioritize the cheap genesis minions and look for higher impact minions in the 4+ parts of the curve. I rarely want to deathspeak the more expensive minions in this deck, preferring instead to double spell one with some removal or another cheap minion. The exceptions to this are those minions like Bane of Aventis or Archangel Michael that can shore up a tough matchup, get you back in the game, or win out of the graveyard. The knights, pudge, witherwing, returned king, and the vampires are just there as strong minions at their point in the curve, and for undead to work with carrionette.

Auras and Artifacts

I originally had the two relevant cores in the deck and decided for this playstyle that they just aren't necessary. You'd rather be milling or reanimating in the early turns and the cores don't really help with that, and they always feel terrible to draw in the late game. Ring is ring, it's just too good not to play, even though we aren't super mobile with our avatar. Book of the dead provides additional recursion to help us profit from the self mill, and can get back some of our non-undead stuff in the late game. The black plague is our best answer to root spider and coy nixie, and the deck is otherwise soft to those most annoying of minions.

Magic

Our magic is generally one for one removal and sweepers, with the additional reanimates in 3 Carrionettes. I think Carionette is just great with the 5 vampires, and I love to see it early or late. The Bolts and Burys are just ways to help keep pace with stronger minions in the early game. Gift of the wolf is great with the small minions and the vampires as a way to trade up or gain some extra life, or both. Earthquake does a lot of work to stabilize, though it often will get less value than you want because of the abundance of water sites running around. Craterize has been good occasionally, but I intend to cut it from the deck. I almost always am too far gone/on DD to play it effectively, or have enough relevant minions that I don't want to kill them. I will probably add the fourth Gift of the wolf and maybe another Bury instead, or possibly keep just one.

Sites

Building a wall up front of bridges, hollows, and heights is ideally what you want to be doing, which you can then fly around later or traverse with your small minions. Gumming up the ground for the first few turns is pretty critical against the more aggressive strategies. The self-mill sites are so good in this deck, it can't be overstated. I often mulligan aggressively to find one, especially if I have Boneyard or Orpheus' Crossing in hand.

Both Boneyard and Orpheus' Crossing are high risk, high reward plays, but I think the potential is worth it. Both feel insane on turn 2, though you have to be very careful with Crossing to consider how your opponent might kill you the next turn. Having blockers for minions and projectiles is highly recommended. Both the reanimate sites feel bad in the mid-game unfortunately, and I sometimes got stuck holding them. However, if you can get a Gargantula in the cemetery it effectively negates whatever your opponent might summon on Boneyard (for the most part). Crossing is also amazing for getting you back in the game if you are already on DD.

I often drew Apex of babel without the Base, and I would probably cut these sites for something better. The idea is fun, but I can't run the full 3 bases without making cuts to better sites. Would consider replacing them with Mount Ussar Sanctuary and a watchtower or other air utility site. The misers lookout is just another ordinary site to help mitigate Atlantean Fate blowouts.

Dust Reanimator 8th SCGCon Richmond (3-2)

@emperorigor