So after testing Evolutionary Leap further I've decided that at least for my list, it's a definite inclusion. Against Tasigur I won a game where he resolved Toxic Deluge turn three, I was able to transmute my Muddle the Mixture to find Leap. Because I had cradle in play, my opponent cast the same Damnation three times (Tasigur activations) and eventually an upheaval, and the card advantage was still just too much for the control deck which eventually led to me beating him down with various small bodies. It's just so good against decks with sweepers or enough spot removal to kill everything you're doing, and those are the only ones that can beat me.
I've always been of the opinion that casting it for face value is really slow for a mana dork, and it requires a piece of turn one acceleration in order to give you 6 mana turn 3. It's great the turn after you cast animar, especially if you morph it for free, but otherwise I feel like it might not be worth a slot. It's a significant drop in powerlevel from Lotus Cobra and Bloom Tender, that's for sure. Thoughts?
I don't miiiind dropping it turn two. Naturally I prefer Cobra or Tender, but if I can't nail a turn two Animar I'm happy to have him as my turn two dork. One the combo turn he's the only dork I ever want to draw, acting as both a free counter #3 and he gains me a free mana. He's like a better Quirion Sentinel that requires a little more mana to function but with a better upside. I'm basically never sad to see him and it would take something big to convince me that he should be dropped.
As far as cutting ramp goes, I'd be much more likely to ditch GSZ + Dryad Arbor. GSZ really just isn't a great card in this deck and obviously I hate drawing Arbor.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
I'm actually really pondering this card. Colorless mana is generally bad for us, but there are circumstances where it's useful. The great thing is that that second ability doesn't require a tap. I'd want to fetch this with Primeval Titan while I had an Eldrazi in hand, then go to find either Ancestral Statue or Painter's Servant off of the trigger to really close out the game.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
If you're casting an eldrazi... aren't you already winning? I mean... the only reason I'd play this is in Curio versions, to be able to play one of the Eldrazis, fetch the other and keep bouncing and replaying them.
Beastcaller Expert 1G Creature - Elf Shaman Ally (R)
Haste
Tap: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast creature spells.
1/1
I am SO ready for that guy. I like everything about him; creature type, mono color, Elf, one toughness, hasty. Only thing that could possibly be better is if he were a one-drop, but that's pretty unreasonable to ask for.
I made the mistake early on in building Animar of leaning too hard on Cloudstone Curio, to the point of running Fabricate and Drift of Phantasms to tutor it. What I've learned in my time playing Imperial Animar is that as good as Curio is, you don't need it. The deck can combo very effectively without it as long as you make the right decisions, drawing Curio is just a shortcut.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Quiron Sentinal is a good comparison for the new mana dork and I never played that card, but thankfully Sentinal is miles behind in power level. He's not the most exciting card in a deck that is already so tight on slots with so many options available, but I think very much like Cloud of Faeries (less powerful, of course), the new elf is probably going to be a staple purely because of the work it does when trying to load counters on animar.
My only question is, does the deck really want 4 two mana cost dorks? Lotus Cobra and Bloom Tender are the strongest, and then between Rattleclaw and this guy i'm not too sure which is better.
While he is good with Curio, there are a ton of creatures that are that people are already running, so i'm not sure if this card is a real reason to run Curio if you already arn't.
Eh, with the exception of Bloom Tender, our other two drop guys aren't reeeaaally traditional dorks. The important thing about them is that they're able to produce mana even if we don't land them turn two. Bloom Tender gets a pass because that's such an insane upside.
As someone who does run Quirion Sentinel, even if I didn't feel there was a better cut, I'd definitely just ditch Sentinel and slot this guy in. He's almost comparable to Wall of Roots, who gives up being able to add any color for being better with Chord of Calling.
Going head to head with Rattleclaw Mystic, I'd pick Rattleclaw over this guy. The ability to get a +1/+1 counter for free then net a mana (granted, you have to have two mana to sink into it) by flipping him over is really strong, whereas this guy can only replace his own mana cost, not a particularly unique effect in Animar. I run Wirewood Symbiote so that gives Beastcaller a bit of a boost, but that's just me. So while he's mostly better than Sentinel (being able to cast Brainstorm or Shared Discovery is cool off Sentinel), I think if you're not already running Sentinel there's no reason to really want Beastcaller.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Hey guys! I thought I'd chime in here being as there's a new set and whatnot.
I'll do a quick card-by-card assessment, and follow it up with an updated deck list.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: At face value, costing 1 less and exiling 2 seem exciting. We don't have the slots however to justify using this in tandem with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, which makes it really an either or debate. Maybe this gets undervalued, but the shuffling capabilities of Kozilek, and Ulamog both offer a lot of really useful synergies. Maybe this doesn't happen frequently, however you can in fact go infinite with Ulamog without needing Survival/Cloudstone, just by cycling creatures with clamp and re-shuffling. Having a shuffle effect opens up opportunities for non-cloudstone infinite combos. Additionally, it's actually useful being able to remove via destroy rather than exile as you can strategically use this to destroy your own permanents, such as to setup recursion targets with Artisan, or to kill Kozilek in order to reset your tutor toolbox. Also, annihilator is super devastating, and is better more often in non-combo scenarios. Also, Eye of Ugin for days? Need I say more?
Sidisi's Favorite: I overlooked this initially, however Sidisi's Favorite can bounce opponent's creatures, as is the first viable alternative to Man-'O-War we've had. In testing, like Gurmag Drowner, exploit has proven to be abusable. See above. At 1 mana, this fits the curve nicely, is a remarkably good Chord of Calling target, and ensures that we have tech in our toolbox. For those that were hesitant about Wirewood Herald, which you really never should have been, this is but another way to take advantage of Herald.
Oracle of Mul Daya: This has been in here for a while, but I wasn't sure if I had give it the proper credit. Oracle does amazing things. We have many ways to shuffle, and knowing what the top card is gives us an immense strategical advantage. Many people don't realize this, but whenever you play a land, you can declare that you're playing it using Oracle, instead of your normal land drop, allowing you to do things like bouncing Oracle via Wirewood Symbiote without losing your freebie land.
Beastcaller Savant: Savant is compelling. Wirewood Symbiote is immensely useful, and with inclusion of Woodland Bellower, getting Symbiote is so much easier, and so much more consistent. I cannot understate the synergies between Woodland Bellower, Fierce Empath, and Wirewood Symbiote. It's completely devastating. Savant fits into this mix nicely, ensuring that we're always able to get value out of Wirewood, and without forcing us to change plans in order to ensure a wirewood target is available. It's slightly worse than Quirion Sentinel with Chord of Calling, but that's forgivable.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
Interesting, I hadn't realized that. It appears that the oracle rules for Oracle of Mul Daya are out of date. As of right now, they still state on gatherer that you can designate your land drops. WOTC really needs to update that.
Here's the new rule:
305.2a To determine whether a player can play a land, compare the number of lands the player can play this turn with the number of lands he or she has already played this turn (including lands played as special actions and lands played during the resolution of spells and abilities). If the number of lands the player can play is greater, the play is legal.
Great to hear from you Jester, always nice when you drop in.
The look of your list doesn't surprise me much save for you not including Ancestral Statue. What are your thoughts there?
Also, Oracle is a cool trick, I'd been toying with the idea of Krosan Wayfarer for similar reasons. Doubling as turn one ramp seems okay to me.
Ahh I get asked about Ancestral Statue a lot. I don’t really think it's a very good fit from either a tempo perspective, nor a card advantage perspective.
First of all, there are a lot of different schools of thought as to what sort of strategies we should employ while combo-ing. In the first inception of this deck, I had a very naive notion to how the combo should work, and so I made a lot of unfortunate trade offs, and included things such as Lotus Petal, Orcish Lumberjack, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide etc. They certainly increased the likelihood of a turn two Animar, however did little to get around the fact that it’s extraordinarily difficult to combo with less than 4 combined mana/counters, especially when you’re creating card disadvantage. That sort of card disadvantage actually made the deck much more susceptible to disruption, and much more inconsistent. It’s also disadvantageous whenever you’re in a matchup that revolves around non-combo based strategies, such as against Radha.
Right now, I place a very large emphasis in prioritizing card advantage as well as board advantage above lethality or explosiveness. For example, things like Aluren, Intruder Alarm, Emrakul, Deadeye Navigator, Painter’s Savant, Kiki-Jiki etc can all be classified together, as they all could certainly win on the spot, but can also be situationally awful. Gone are the days in which looping metamorph into a giant Animar is still relevant. Rather, the deck is more rounded, and can combo organically from almost any hand, with an emphasis on being able to adapt to what’s available, and without needing specific pieces.
I just want to be clear here, because it’s not always obvious to people, but things like Survival, Cloudstone, aren’t actually needed, nor are they huge priorities — rather it just so happens that when you’re creating a combo chain, you’re able to effectively draw your entire deck, and you’ll eventually draw into one of these two, and be able to definitively declare that you’ve gone infinite in a finite, non-deterministic, explainable fashion. This is actually an infinite combo deck without either of these two, it’s just that it’s exceedingly complex to demonstrate, and you basically need to deck yourself multiple times before you can demonstrate a non-deterministic loop. Are they needed to combo? No. Do they make the combo faster? Usually not, surprisingly. They do however create immense pressure on your opponent, as you can generate obscene card advantage either left unanswered, especially with Animar subdued.
The proper way to play this combo is to focus on card advantage, board advantage, and hopefully doing so without compromising tempo, as proper tempo maximizes card advantage in this deck.
From a tempo perspective, the first 4 counters are the most important — at 4 CMC, even though at face value Ancestral can be free, as far as tempo goes, it’s actually worse than say, Dream Stalker. We’re really more often than not going to have an Animar with 0 counters, and are interested in combo-ing off with usually 3-4 mana available. The fact that it’s 4 CMC means that it’s effectively a dead card until after we’re already able to tutor up and cast Peregrine Drake. It’s also not tutor-able by our lesser tutor effects, and wasting the likes of Chord of Calling/Worldly Tutor/Sylvan Tutor isn’t justifiable, given our toolbox.
From a card advantage perspective, there are always better targets. Faerie Imposter, for example, is still a much better card, not only from a tempo perspective, but because we can clamp it, and recur it later with Artisan of Kozilek. Effectively utilizing Artisan of Kozilek is exceedingly powerful. This should be something that every player is actively planning around, and no Animar combo deck should play without Artisan. I’ve seen a lot of lists not including him. That’s a huge mistake. This isn’t immediately obvious, but Statue directly competes with Artisan, in that they both would be used for similar purposes: both can be tutored by Eye or Survival, both would be predominately utilized in conjunction with Phyrexian Metamorph and Peregrine Drake to reset mana, both produce card advantage. The difference is that Artisan does all these things better, more reliably, and more often, and with more resilience.
Can statue be good? Yes, definitely. Is it better than Artisan of Kozilek? Not even remotely close. Without actually being able to deliver on a tempo advantage, the upsides aren’t enough when the alternatives are so compelling, and there isn’t room for both.
Finally, I just wanted to point out, it's borderline irrelevant that Statue can be cast infinite times. It's not enough to make Animar big: You'll usually have summoning sickness, your opponent will usually have blockers, and you can never expect to untap next turn without your opponent answering.
I just want to be clear here, because it’s not always obvious to people, but things like Survival, Cloudstone, aren’t actually needed, nor are they huge priorities — rather it just so happens that when you’re creating a combo chain, you’re able to effectively draw your entire deck, and you’ll eventually draw into one of these two, and be able to definitively declare that you’ve gone infinite in a finite, non-deterministic, explainable fashion. This is actually an infinite combo deck without either of these two, it’s just that it’s exceedingly complex to demonstrate, and you basically need to deck yourself multiple times before you can demonstrate a non-deterministic loop. Are they needed to combo? No. Do they make the combo faster? Usually not, surprisingly. They do however create immense pressure on your opponent, as you can generate obscene card advantage either left unanswered, especially with Animar subdued.
The proper way to play this combo is to focus on card advantage, board advantage, and hopefully doing so without compromising tempo, as proper tempo maximizes card advantage in this deck.
I think maybe this is where I'm a little stuck with the deck. My build is mostly designed like yours (things have strayed a bit in your absence), but I've always had trouble going off as quickly as I'd like. I don't consider Curio or Survival essential to comboing either, but once I've landed one or the other I'm basically set. Where I feel I'm falling flat is after I've landed my turn 2-3 Animar, going off the next turn is next to impossible. I can do a lot of great stuff that puts me in a good position with 4-5 counters on Animar and a grip full of sweet stuff to go off the next turn, but unless I somehow naturally draw into Recruiter/Peregrine Drake I'm stuck sitting around for an extra turn just waiting to be board wiped regardless of whether or not I've got Skullclamp in hand. Even Chord of Calling tends to be a bit shy on those turns. Primeval Titan in hand to get Eye + Cradle is nuts there, but only if I also am lucky enough to have Cloud or Peregrine in hand to untap after playing him plus having the open blue, which can be hard after getting four counters on Animar then paying GG.
Ancestral Statue has played well for me in testing. He shortcuts me to having enough mana to get to the really big guys, then I use him as a Faerie Imposter effect to keep myself going. Of course I wish he were clampable, but when I've only got one tutor for Clamp in my deck I don't want to assume I'm going to somehow get it every game. The fact is there are some games where I just can't find Peregrine Drake and Statue can get me into a comfortable position. I'm not about to drop Artisan for him, though in Clampless games I'm a lot less impressed with Artisan than otherwise.
Also as a more general question, when you have a turn one dork plus Bloom Tender/Rofellos/Cobra in hand, do you put off playing Animar until turn three in order to get the other dork out turn two? I've always played it that way but was just curious about your line there.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
I'm not sure it's actually that terrible. First of all, we never have been the kind of combo deck that actively mulligans for combo pieces/tutors. Not only that, but what we consider as a keepable hand is a lot broader than average: we can usually keep hands that by normal standards would be insane, and more or less any hand with a workable curve is gravy.
It's clearly not the best -- obviously now we won't be able to stubborning hold onto Earthcraft as we whittle down our hand. But, I think it could work to our advantage. This deck is already markedly more consistent than average, and more likely than not, this rules change will hurt our opponents greater than it hurts us. Maybe this means we encounter fewer things like Umezawa's Jitte, Force of Will, Wasteland, Blood Moon, etc.
So I guess, silver lining, maybe our opponents are much more screwed? Perks of systemic combo decks
Has anybody tried the deck with the new mulligan rule? I did a couple of goldfishing games (around 60 to be more precise) and I realized that the manabase needs to be tuned a bit (at least for me, more on that later). First 30 games I tested with 32 lands including Dryad Arbor, excluding Eye of Ugin (it is basically 33rd land, but I treat it more like spell) and I had an average of 2 lands on my opening hand. That actually doesn't seem that bad but I had to mulligan both more often and also "deeper" into 5-4 card hands. After that I tried to increase the land count to 34 lands with Dryad Arbor (35 with Eye of Ugin) and the odds of getting a keepable hand increased significantly (I got slightly over 2.5 lands on average in my 7 card opener). I am still unsure if 34-35 lands is the right number, but I definitely like it more than 31-32 lands. The question is obviously what to cut (always the hardest part of deckbuilding) and more importantly what will such change do to the deck. I am leaning towards cutting some of the beefier stuff. At the moment I play Titan, Bellower, Artisan, Kozilek, Ulamog and I think I might ditch one of those for either Tinder Wall or Wild Cantor and maybe play 33 lands. I am even considering cutting Eye, since it is usually only good once Titan resolves and at that time I feel like the game is already over. I am afraid that once I start adding lands to prevent mulligans into awkward hands (and some of those mulled hands in the first 30 games were really ugly) I will slightly decrease threat density which isn't very good either...
I haven't really done much testing with the new mulligan rules, so I'll have to do some more testing here, but as far as card cuts go, I regard Titan, Artisan, Kozilek, Ulamog and Eye all as uncuttable. These cards win so many games it's not even funny, and not just within a combo capacity. Against control, Eye is probably our single most lethal card. If you're very strategic, even if you don't draw Eye, you can cheat it into play with a strategic Primeval Titan, either hard cast or via Artisan/Chord of Calling. These also comically wreck decks like Radha that can readily neutralize Animar while applying pressure, but are helpless if we don't waste time with Animar and start ramping.
The real problem with the land count issue is that if we start playing another 2-3 lands, it doesn't significantly affect how many lands we'll have in our opening hand on average, but it does significantly affect the frequency we draw lands while combo-ing which is the rationale for having so few lands in the first place. If anything, we get the most bang for the buck out of things like Sage of Epityr, Sage Owl, Sylvan Ranger, Gatecreeper Vine etc. Even something like Ponder will suite our needs better.
Anyway, just something to think about. We have a LOT of options to smooth things out and cater to this change without needing to bog ourselves down.
The real problem with the land count issue is that if we start playing another 2-3 lands, it doesn't significantly affect how many lands we'll have in our opening hand on average, but it does significantly affect the frequency we draw lands while combo-ing
You can't just draw a line in the sand for "significance". Adding 3 lands does impact your chance of getting an extra one in your opening hand, and it does impact your chance of getting one in the say 20 cards you draw while combo-ing out. I think you're saying that adding 3 lands will add maybe 0.2 more lands to your opening hand, while it would add maybe 0.6 more lands to the pile of 20 cards you draw when combo-ing out.
BUT... you can far more easily tolerate +1 extra land out of 20 cards drawn when combo-ing, than you can -1 land in the opening hand. Because... it's 1 card in 20, versus 1 in 7. And one's opening hand is of far more importance than the chunk of cards you draw when combo-ing. Think about this: there is far more variance in a group of 7 chance drawings than there is in a group of 20... and you don't get to do the 20 if you fail the 7
Anyways just my .02... this can be checked to a very accurate degree (http://www.kibble.net/magic/magic10.php), but I think qualitatively it makes sense as well.
I do agree that other combo decks are more injured by the new mulligan rule than this deck is. But this deck is probably a little worse off than the median deck, since control and aggro decks are less impacted by the new rules, from what I can tell.
Pilgrim's Eye's problem is costing 3. Gatecreeper Vine and Sylvan Ranger come down for one after only having one counter on Animar. Those first few counters count for a lot and having to use three drops to get them hurts so bad.
URGImperial AnimarGRU BRGProssh, Tokenmaker of KherGRB WURNarset NostalgicRUW UBR"I like your deck better" JelevaRBU UBlue BraidsU GAzusa, Lost but RampingG
WUHanna, Pillowfort's NavigatorUW WBRAleshacratsBRW UBRGrixis Pew PewRBU URGYasova the ThreateningGRU BGGlissa the ArticiferGB WUSygg MerfolkUW RSquee, Value NabobR
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Have you guys seen this? I don't think it's playable in Animar, actually (maybe if it cost 2G?).
I've always been of the opinion that casting it for face value is really slow for a mana dork, and it requires a piece of turn one acceleration in order to give you 6 mana turn 3. It's great the turn after you cast animar, especially if you morph it for free, but otherwise I feel like it might not be worth a slot. It's a significant drop in powerlevel from Lotus Cobra and Bloom Tender, that's for sure. Thoughts?
As far as cutting ramp goes, I'd be much more likely to ditch GSZ + Dryad Arbor. GSZ really just isn't a great card in this deck and obviously I hate drawing Arbor.
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Beastcaller Expert 1G
Creature - Elf Shaman Ally (R)
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Tap: Add one mana of any color to your mana pool. Use this mana only to cast creature spells.
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I made the mistake early on in building Animar of leaning too hard on Cloudstone Curio, to the point of running Fabricate and Drift of Phantasms to tutor it. What I've learned in my time playing Imperial Animar is that as good as Curio is, you don't need it. The deck can combo very effectively without it as long as you make the right decisions, drawing Curio is just a shortcut.
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My only question is, does the deck really want 4 two mana cost dorks? Lotus Cobra and Bloom Tender are the strongest, and then between Rattleclaw and this guy i'm not too sure which is better.
While he is good with Curio, there are a ton of creatures that are that people are already running, so i'm not sure if this card is a real reason to run Curio if you already arn't.
As someone who does run Quirion Sentinel, even if I didn't feel there was a better cut, I'd definitely just ditch Sentinel and slot this guy in. He's almost comparable to Wall of Roots, who gives up being able to add any color for being better with Chord of Calling.
Going head to head with Rattleclaw Mystic, I'd pick Rattleclaw over this guy. The ability to get a +1/+1 counter for free then net a mana (granted, you have to have two mana to sink into it) by flipping him over is really strong, whereas this guy can only replace his own mana cost, not a particularly unique effect in Animar. I run Wirewood Symbiote so that gives Beastcaller a bit of a boost, but that's just me. So while he's mostly better than Sentinel (being able to cast Brainstorm or Shared Discovery is cool off Sentinel), I think if you're not already running Sentinel there's no reason to really want Beastcaller.
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I'll do a quick card-by-card assessment, and follow it up with an updated deck list.
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger: At face value, costing 1 less and exiling 2 seem exciting. We don't have the slots however to justify using this in tandem with Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, which makes it really an either or debate. Maybe this gets undervalued, but the shuffling capabilities of Kozilek, and Ulamog both offer a lot of really useful synergies. Maybe this doesn't happen frequently, however you can in fact go infinite with Ulamog without needing Survival/Cloudstone, just by cycling creatures with clamp and re-shuffling. Having a shuffle effect opens up opportunities for non-cloudstone infinite combos. Additionally, it's actually useful being able to remove via destroy rather than exile as you can strategically use this to destroy your own permanents, such as to setup recursion targets with Artisan, or to kill Kozilek in order to reset your tutor toolbox. Also, annihilator is super devastating, and is better more often in non-combo scenarios. Also, Eye of Ugin for days? Need I say more?
Gurmag Drowner: Top 4 cards is compelling, and in play testing exploit can actually be used in creative ways, such as to kill off Peregrine Drake and setup Artisan of Kozilek, or to give you super value with Skullclamp. It's worth noting, like evoke, the timing rules of exploit are very favorable, and give us opportunities to use things like Chord of Calling, or Earthcraft in response. Maybe Chord of Calling into Slithermuse, Wirewood Herald or Peregrine Drake in response to exploit. You would be able to stack the triggers such that Gurmag can be used to convoke Chord of Calling, exploit Slithermuse, and draw from Slithermuse, all before looking at the top 4.
Sidisi's Favorite: I overlooked this initially, however Sidisi's Favorite can bounce opponent's creatures, as is the first viable alternative to Man-'O-War we've had. In testing, like Gurmag Drowner, exploit has proven to be abusable. See above. At 1 mana, this fits the curve nicely, is a remarkably good Chord of Calling target, and ensures that we have tech in our toolbox. For those that were hesitant about Wirewood Herald, which you really never should have been, this is but another way to take advantage of Herald.
Woodland Bellower: This is actually quite a bit better than I expected. Depending on the scenario, I'm usually using this to tutor Fierce Empath, or Wirewood Symbiote, with the occasional Wood Elves/Beastcaller Savant/Coiling Oracle.
Oracle of Mul Daya: This has been in here for a while, but I wasn't sure if I had give it the proper credit. Oracle does amazing things. We have many ways to shuffle, and knowing what the top card is gives us an immense strategical advantage. Many people don't realize this, but whenever you play a land, you can declare that you're playing it using Oracle, instead of your normal land drop, allowing you to do things like bouncing Oracle via Wirewood Symbiote without losing your freebie land.
Beastcaller Savant: Savant is compelling. Wirewood Symbiote is immensely useful, and with inclusion of Woodland Bellower, getting Symbiote is so much easier, and so much more consistent. I cannot understate the synergies between Woodland Bellower, Fierce Empath, and Wirewood Symbiote. It's completely devastating. Savant fits into this mix nicely, ensuring that we're always able to get value out of Wirewood, and without forcing us to change plans in order to ensure a wirewood target is available. It's slightly worse than Quirion Sentinel with Chord of Calling, but that's forgivable.
Here's the current list I'm working with:
1x Arctic Merfolk
1x Arid Mesa
1x Artisan of Kozilek
1x Beastcaller Savant
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Bloom Tender
1x Bond Beetle
1x Brainstorm
1x Breeding Pool
1x Chord of Calling
1x Cloud of Faeries
1x Cloudstone Curio
1x Coiling Oracle
1x Command Tower
1x Daze
1x Dryad Arbor
1x Earthcraft
1x Elvish Mystic
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Eye of Ugin
1x Faerie Impostor
1x Fathom Seer
1x Fierce Empath
1x Flamekin Harbinger
1x Flooded Grove
1x Flooded Strand 6x Forest
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Gatecreeper Vine
1x Gilded Drake
1x Gitaxian Probe
1x Glimpse of Nature
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Grove of the Burnwillows
1x Gurmag Drowner
1x Hapless Researcher
1x Imperial Recruiter
4x Island
1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1x Land Grant
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Lotus Cobra
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Mountain
1x Mox Diamond
1x Mulldrifter
1x Oracle of Mul Daya
1x Owl Familiar
1x Peregrine Drake
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Polluted Delta
1x Primeval Titan
1x Rattleclaw Mystic
1x Raven Familiar
1x Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1x Sage of Epityr
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Sea Gate Oracle
1x Shardless Agent
1x Shared Discovery
1x Shrieking Drake
1x Sidisi's Faithful
1x Skullclamp
1x Slithermuse
1x Spellskite
1x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Sylvan Ranger
1x Sylvan Tutor
1x Taiga
1x Trinket Mage
1x Tropical Island
1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1x Utopia Sprawl
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Volcanic Island
1x Wall of Blossoms
1x Wall of Roots
1x Wild Growth
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wirewood Herald
1x Wirewood Symbiote
1x Wood Elves
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Woodland Bellower
1x Worldly Tutor Sideboard
1x Animar, Soul of Elements
Link to deck @ TappedOut.net
The look of your list doesn't surprise me much save for you not including Ancestral Statue. What are your thoughts there?
Also, Oracle is a cool trick, I'd been toying with the idea of Krosan Wayfarer for similar reasons. Doubling as turn one ramp seems okay to me.
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Here's the new rule:
Ahh I get asked about Ancestral Statue a lot. I don’t really think it's a very good fit from either a tempo perspective, nor a card advantage perspective.
First of all, there are a lot of different schools of thought as to what sort of strategies we should employ while combo-ing. In the first inception of this deck, I had a very naive notion to how the combo should work, and so I made a lot of unfortunate trade offs, and included things such as Lotus Petal, Orcish Lumberjack, Chrome Mox, Elvish Spirit Guide etc. They certainly increased the likelihood of a turn two Animar, however did little to get around the fact that it’s extraordinarily difficult to combo with less than 4 combined mana/counters, especially when you’re creating card disadvantage. That sort of card disadvantage actually made the deck much more susceptible to disruption, and much more inconsistent. It’s also disadvantageous whenever you’re in a matchup that revolves around non-combo based strategies, such as against Radha.
Right now, I place a very large emphasis in prioritizing card advantage as well as board advantage above lethality or explosiveness. For example, things like Aluren, Intruder Alarm, Emrakul, Deadeye Navigator, Painter’s Savant, Kiki-Jiki etc can all be classified together, as they all could certainly win on the spot, but can also be situationally awful. Gone are the days in which looping metamorph into a giant Animar is still relevant. Rather, the deck is more rounded, and can combo organically from almost any hand, with an emphasis on being able to adapt to what’s available, and without needing specific pieces.
I just want to be clear here, because it’s not always obvious to people, but things like Survival, Cloudstone, aren’t actually needed, nor are they huge priorities — rather it just so happens that when you’re creating a combo chain, you’re able to effectively draw your entire deck, and you’ll eventually draw into one of these two, and be able to definitively declare that you’ve gone infinite in a finite, non-deterministic, explainable fashion. This is actually an infinite combo deck without either of these two, it’s just that it’s exceedingly complex to demonstrate, and you basically need to deck yourself multiple times before you can demonstrate a non-deterministic loop. Are they needed to combo? No. Do they make the combo faster? Usually not, surprisingly. They do however create immense pressure on your opponent, as you can generate obscene card advantage either left unanswered, especially with Animar subdued.
The proper way to play this combo is to focus on card advantage, board advantage, and hopefully doing so without compromising tempo, as proper tempo maximizes card advantage in this deck.
How does Ancestral Statue fit into all of this?
From a tempo perspective, the first 4 counters are the most important — at 4 CMC, even though at face value Ancestral can be free, as far as tempo goes, it’s actually worse than say, Dream Stalker. We’re really more often than not going to have an Animar with 0 counters, and are interested in combo-ing off with usually 3-4 mana available. The fact that it’s 4 CMC means that it’s effectively a dead card until after we’re already able to tutor up and cast Peregrine Drake. It’s also not tutor-able by our lesser tutor effects, and wasting the likes of Chord of Calling/Worldly Tutor/Sylvan Tutor isn’t justifiable, given our toolbox.
From a card advantage perspective, there are always better targets. Faerie Imposter, for example, is still a much better card, not only from a tempo perspective, but because we can clamp it, and recur it later with Artisan of Kozilek. Effectively utilizing Artisan of Kozilek is exceedingly powerful. This should be something that every player is actively planning around, and no Animar combo deck should play without Artisan. I’ve seen a lot of lists not including him. That’s a huge mistake. This isn’t immediately obvious, but Statue directly competes with Artisan, in that they both would be used for similar purposes: both can be tutored by Eye or Survival, both would be predominately utilized in conjunction with Phyrexian Metamorph and Peregrine Drake to reset mana, both produce card advantage. The difference is that Artisan does all these things better, more reliably, and more often, and with more resilience.
Can statue be good? Yes, definitely. Is it better than Artisan of Kozilek? Not even remotely close. Without actually being able to deliver on a tempo advantage, the upsides aren’t enough when the alternatives are so compelling, and there isn’t room for both.
Finally, I just wanted to point out, it's borderline irrelevant that Statue can be cast infinite times. It's not enough to make Animar big: You'll usually have summoning sickness, your opponent will usually have blockers, and you can never expect to untap next turn without your opponent answering.
I think maybe this is where I'm a little stuck with the deck. My build is mostly designed like yours (things have strayed a bit in your absence), but I've always had trouble going off as quickly as I'd like. I don't consider Curio or Survival essential to comboing either, but once I've landed one or the other I'm basically set. Where I feel I'm falling flat is after I've landed my turn 2-3 Animar, going off the next turn is next to impossible. I can do a lot of great stuff that puts me in a good position with 4-5 counters on Animar and a grip full of sweet stuff to go off the next turn, but unless I somehow naturally draw into Recruiter/Peregrine Drake I'm stuck sitting around for an extra turn just waiting to be board wiped regardless of whether or not I've got Skullclamp in hand. Even Chord of Calling tends to be a bit shy on those turns. Primeval Titan in hand to get Eye + Cradle is nuts there, but only if I also am lucky enough to have Cloud or Peregrine in hand to untap after playing him plus having the open blue, which can be hard after getting four counters on Animar then paying GG.
Ancestral Statue has played well for me in testing. He shortcuts me to having enough mana to get to the really big guys, then I use him as a Faerie Imposter effect to keep myself going. Of course I wish he were clampable, but when I've only got one tutor for Clamp in my deck I don't want to assume I'm going to somehow get it every game. The fact is there are some games where I just can't find Peregrine Drake and Statue can get me into a comfortable position. I'm not about to drop Artisan for him, though in Clampless games I'm a lot less impressed with Artisan than otherwise.
Also as a more general question, when you have a turn one dork plus Bloom Tender/Rofellos/Cobra in hand, do you put off playing Animar until turn three in order to get the other dork out turn two? I've always played it that way but was just curious about your line there.
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This is pretty bad for Animar, IMO.
It's clearly not the best -- obviously now we won't be able to stubborning hold onto Earthcraft as we whittle down our hand. But, I think it could work to our advantage. This deck is already markedly more consistent than average, and more likely than not, this rules change will hurt our opponents greater than it hurts us. Maybe this means we encounter fewer things like Umezawa's Jitte, Force of Will, Wasteland, Blood Moon, etc.
So I guess, silver lining, maybe our opponents are much more screwed? Perks of systemic combo decks
The real problem with the land count issue is that if we start playing another 2-3 lands, it doesn't significantly affect how many lands we'll have in our opening hand on average, but it does significantly affect the frequency we draw lands while combo-ing which is the rationale for having so few lands in the first place. If anything, we get the most bang for the buck out of things like Sage of Epityr, Sage Owl, Sylvan Ranger, Gatecreeper Vine etc. Even something like Ponder will suite our needs better.
Anyway, just something to think about. We have a LOT of options to smooth things out and cater to this change without needing to bog ourselves down.
You can't just draw a line in the sand for "significance". Adding 3 lands does impact your chance of getting an extra one in your opening hand, and it does impact your chance of getting one in the say 20 cards you draw while combo-ing out. I think you're saying that adding 3 lands will add maybe 0.2 more lands to your opening hand, while it would add maybe 0.6 more lands to the pile of 20 cards you draw when combo-ing out.
BUT... you can far more easily tolerate +1 extra land out of 20 cards drawn when combo-ing, than you can -1 land in the opening hand. Because... it's 1 card in 20, versus 1 in 7. And one's opening hand is of far more importance than the chunk of cards you draw when combo-ing. Think about this: there is far more variance in a group of 7 chance drawings than there is in a group of 20... and you don't get to do the 20 if you fail the 7
Anyways just my .02... this can be checked to a very accurate degree (http://www.kibble.net/magic/magic10.php), but I think qualitatively it makes sense as well.
I do agree that other combo decks are more injured by the new mulligan rule than this deck is. But this deck is probably a little worse off than the median deck, since control and aggro decks are less impacted by the new rules, from what I can tell.
Pilgrim's Eye's problem is costing 3. Gatecreeper Vine and Sylvan Ranger come down for one after only having one counter on Animar. Those first few counters count for a lot and having to use three drops to get them hurts so bad.
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