MTG Salvation

Edit: Deck has been updated to reflect latest changes.

Hi folks. I'm sort of new to Commander and I would like to make this deck as competitive as possible. The deck plays well as it is, but I'd like advice from players who have experience with Animar. I feel as though I'm a few card swaps away from the deck being where it should be. Thank you for any input!

Hello. I've played Animar in 1 v 1 commander and in multiplayer for about a year now.

Your list looks really good. But I do have a few suggestions, first, I would cut Primal Surge first of all, Primal surge is weaker than having a few non-permanent cards. Ideally, it is really great to have cards like Worldly Tutor, Green Sun's Zenith, and Sylvan Tutor. Primal Surge really is too slow for most Animar decks. Generally, I like this because Animar can combo with Palinchron by itself and with a plethora of others very easily, so having more than one copy in a deck is very strong.

If you have the wallet, Imperial Recruiter is one of Animar's best cards. Prioritize your mana base first however, in general, Animar has to come out turn 2 or 3 and no later than 4. Survival of the Fittest is a very strong card in Animar builds. Usually I find that multiplayer Animar decks are geared towards combo, I know a lot of players don't like going that route so that's your choice. If you do, I like to use a Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker package with Zealous Conscripts, Pestermite, and Deceiver Exarch. All of which are good in the deck without Kiki-Jiki due to the fact that they can slow your opponents from wrathing or can accumulate counters on Animar.

I would cut some of the slower ramp cards, like Ondu Giant and Quirion Trailblazer for mana dorks like Fyndhorn Elves and Llanowar Elves, although I mostly played Animar from a 1 v 1 commander perspective where dorks were a must.

Animar also has a lot of weird interactions, but by far the coolest is with Myr Superion, I'm pretty confident if Animar has 2 counters you can cast it. It is definitely the most underplayed card in Animar decks in my opinion.

EDIT: Birthing Pod is also a monster, so good you may want to lay out by CMC for pod chains. With Birthing Pod, You can kill with a one-drop, two-drop, and 5-7 mana. If you pod the two-drop into Deceiver Exarch, use it to untap Birthing Pod, pod the one-drop into Phantasmal Image, copying the exarch, the pod the image (CMC 3) into Venser, Shaper Savant return the exarch then recast it untapping birthing pod, then pod venser into Kiki-Jiki for infinite damage.

Thanks Kangarooser. I've been thinking Primal Surge should go as well. The idea of pulling it off is fun but at 10cc, I'm thinking the game will be over before I can actually cast it 95% of the time.

Kiki-Jiki is great indeed, scares me a bit in a deck with no tutoring but I do have a Birthing Pod lying aroud so I might as well give it a try. My Jund deck is all about infinites and quite hoestly, it's by far my most boring deck. I would love to grab an Imperial Recruiter but I can never bring myself to justify the price point

I will definitely get more mana dorks. In our games last night they often meant a turn 2 Animar which is fantastic.

Zenith and the green tutors fit as well, they wern't in because of Primal Surge. They do answer the dilema of getting Animar back from my library from that one annoying white mass tuck spell.

I wish there were 12 wizard creatures with flash that countered boardwipes lol.

I've also been playing competitive Animar for about a year now, except mine was built for multiplayer, so I have some additional points.

First, gas is VERY important. Things like Raven Familiar is very useful for refilling your hand. You want cards that replace themselves.

Second, I see that you have Cloud of Faeries and Palinchron but no Peregrine Drake. I actually like Peregrine Drake the most of these because it is tutorable with Imperial Recruiter (which I ended up buying), but even if you can't tutor it, it's a mini-Palinchron that can just let you keep going for only a single blue.

Third, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary is an all-star in this deck. If nothing else, it gives you draw (since the majority of your creatures should be blue), but it also gives you tutor and occasionally tutor to hand.

Finally, I would drop the Sol Ring, at the very least, and probably all other mana rocks. You *never* need colorless mana in an Animar deck if done right, and the mana rocks take 2 mana to generate 1 mana, where you could instead just play a 3-drop creature and effectively generate 1 mana that way instead.

Thanks Samblitz. The mana rocks are only really there to compensate for my less than perfect landbase. I will defintely replace them once I buy my fetch lands and a few more duals.

I can't believe I missed Peregrine Drake! Momir Vig and Raven Familiar def fits right in too, must buy.

I don't even have fetches or duals in my deck, but with enough mulliganing, I usually get all three colors in my opening hand, and at most I am usually down to 6 cards (I simply toss anything that either isn't playable in the first three turns or isn't a land). It hurts, but it means you have less non-creature permanents in your deck. You'll find that mana-rocks are dead draws after Animar is out, and you want to avoid running out of gas as much as possible.

I'va added a lot of the suggestions to this deck and made the proper edits. I may remove Soul of New Phyrexia and something else for more fatties/win cons. Still not sure about Kiki-Jiki since im using him in another deck and would preffer to keep infinites at a minimal unless they come from interactions with Animar or Aluren/Cloudstone.