The full set spoiler is up. Cards which have potential in Animar:
Polymorphous Rush - Potential in a blue heavy aggro build as a finisher. Transform everything into an Eldrazi and swing. Sage of Hours - A source of infinite turns for a +1/+1 counters manipulation strategy. Scourge of Fleets - Potentially a one sided Evacuation, albeit one which requires lots of Islands. Sigiled Starfish - Nice little utility creature for blue.
Bearer of the Heavens - Big creatures with low coloured costs are right up Anikmar's alley. His ability can potentially be used as a reset button against control decks. Cyclops of Eternal Fury - Expensive, but haste is always worth it in an aggro build. Can potentially make use of the Enchantment type. Dictate of the Twin Gods - Again for an aggro build, this can be gamebreaking. Prophetic Flamespeaker - Ultra-powerful Mythics are almost always worth considering, even if they don't directly build into your overall strategy. Spawn of Thraxes - Potentially a second Bogardan Hellkite in a red heavy build.
Keranos, God of Storms - Absolutely viable. Don't know exactly how good he's going to be, but even as just a creature he's pretty strong. Kruphix, God of Horizons - Probably better than Keranos in long games, this big guy can really swing games. Stormchaser Chimera - This thing can be swinging for 14 or 15 easy in Animar. An absolute must for aggro builds.
Hall of Triumph - Probably not worth it in multicoloured decks, but still worth considering. Mana Confluence - Awesome. The life loss is minimal for the extreme utility of such a land. Temple of Epiphany - The Temples are amazing. Auto-include.
What about Twinflame? wouldn't that fall under the same category as Polymorphous rush? Granted you need a couple of biggies out to make it worth it but I can see that being helpful if you need to attack multiple opponents at once.
It's probably way too hard to pull off but sage of hours and forgotten ancient would be fun in an animar combo deck. you'd need something like to bounce like a shrieking drake and ideally flash the sage in at the end of someone else's turn so they don't see it coming. (I realise it's an awkward combo but i can see much pain if you were ever able to pull it off)
Apologies for the delay in my review, life has a habit of getting in the way of my hobbies.
Mechanics:
Journey into Nyx introduces two new mechanics Constellation and Strive, while also revisiting the mechanics of Theros and Born of the Gods (minus Tribute).
Constellation – ETB effects for enchantments. Theros block has given us a fair few Enchantment creatures to play with, so it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility to have synergy with Animar, but it does require building around to be worthwhile in my opinion.
Whitewater Naiads – Can make Animar unblockable which isn’t to be scoffed at, but you would need a certain density of enchantment creatures to make it worth running, or you could just bounce the Naiads once a turn. I do think there are better options for the effect, such as Thassa, God of the Sea.
Forgeborn Oreads - With sufficient enchantments and bounce this acts quite similarly to Purphoros, God of the Forge with the added advantage of being able to clear away opposing creatures. The RR cost is a downside and it does require more work to be effective compared to Purphoros or even Warstorm Surge.
Eidolon of Blossoms – Potentially worth playing on its own as a cantrip creature and with enough enchantments this could draw a lot of cards. It is certainly build around, but the best of the Constellation effects to consider in this deck.
Goldenhide Ox – at first I thought this creature worked like Noble Quarry by forcing all creatures to block, but in fact it doesn’t force all creatures to block, so it is probably not that useful enough to be included even in an aggro deck.
Humbler of Mortals – A nifty way of granting trample to the team before an alpha strike, but it has to complete with other trample enablers (Nylea, God of the Hunt). I’d only play this if pushing an enchantment Animar theme.
Strive – a spell based mechanic that targets multiple creatures. Designed to activate Heroic, it doesn’t have a whole lot of synergy with Animar but there are a number of interesting effects so I've reviewed a few of them.
Hour of Need – Exiles creatures and gives 4/4 flying tokens. This is fairly effective removal in blue and may be abusable if you are able to bounce the tokens. It is a bit risky if you give your opponent a bunch of large flyers and don’t have the means to defend yourself from them, but this also has the benefit that you can exile a bunch of your own utility creatures for an army of tokens to attack with the next turn. As an exile effect it is competing with Duplicant and Phyrexian Ingester, but given the scarcity of exile effects in Animar's colours it is worthy of consideration even if it lacks synergy.
Polymorphous Rush – It may be interesting to mess around with turning all of your weenie utility creatures into something like an opponents’ Sun Titan or your own Psychosis Crawler before drawing a bunch of cards. It is expensive to hit more than a couple of creatures though, and doesn’t work well with the many powerful legends in the deck (otherwise attacking with multiple Ulamogs or Kozileks would be brutal with the annihilator triggers). Unless you have meta reasons for running this I don't think it is worth a spot.
Harness by Force – With enough red mana this could be an Insurrection, so it’s a powerful effect and it also lets you give your own creatures haste if necessary. It lacks synergy and is probably more mana intensive than other similar effects that are available. Sorcery speed prevents any tricksy uses that may have been possible and the heavy red requirement will be the limiting factor.
Twinflame – Not a bad spell for getting extra value from ETB effects, but heavy on the red mana and probably less mana efficient than just bouncing and recasting creatures with Animar in play.
Consign to Dust – decent enchantment and artifact removal with the ability to take out many permanents with one card, while sparing your own. A possible meta call against Torpor Orb and Humility shenanigans, it has to complete with better destruction effects (Krosan Grip, Deglamer, Beast Within), but the ability to hit many targets is a pretty big upside.
Nature's Panoply – Instant speed +1/+1 counter addition can act as a combat trick or put that all important first counter on Animar. It may deserve a spot in the '+1/+1-counters-matter' build, but it does have to compete with gems like Bond Beetle and Savage Summoning.
Setessan Tactics – It does tap down your team, but is the closest thing to a board wipe in green. Can also be used as spot removal or to take out chump blockers and to get through with other creatures.
Solidarity of Heroes – Doubles +1/+1 counters. Probably win more on Animar, although there are times when getting from two to four or three to six counters for one spell could be worth it. Worth considering in the '+1/+1-counters-matter' build.
Nyx and Bestow – Enchantment creatures! Bestow doesn’t have much synergy with Animar, but at least it’s on a creature.
Hypnotic Siren – As a base creature if fills the low curve, while offering the utility of being able to steal an opponents’ creature late game (and giving that creature evasion). I'm not sure it fits in Animar, but if you’re playing an aggressive deck it might be worth the utility (of course Gilded Drake is almost always going to be superior).
Heroic – I've covered this Animar non-bo mechanit twice before, but this time at least there are a couple of honourable mentions(not mentioned for their Heroic ability).
Battlefield Thaumaturge – if you’re playing with spells that increase the counters on creatures, then this guy offers pretty useful utility by decreasing spell costs. He also decreases the cost of all creature removal spells, which is nice with effects like Comet Storm. This was designed to play well with the Strive ability and he protects himself to a degree with his Heroic trigger. I don’t like the direction the deck needs to go to make this guy worthwhile, but it is an option in a less creature heavy build.
Sage of Hours – If you’re playing a +1/+1 counter build and have a way of shifting counters easily onto the Sage, it is fairly easy to get infinite turns! (Just in case you needed more ways to make Animar go infinite.) I think it would be easier just to play Time Warp, Mnemonic Wall and bounce for the same effect, but that is slightly less creature based and doesn’t use +1/+1 counters.
Inspired – A ponderous creature mechanic which triggers when creatures untap. Only one thing in the set worth mentioning in relation to Animar.
Daring Thief – “I swap my Ondu Giant for your Commander. I bounce Ondu Giant back to my hand.” Daring Thief has a cool ability, but it is somewhat outclassed by options such as Gilded Drake. It may well be a good budget include in an aggressive deck that wins by turning creatures sideways.
Monstrosity – The more I’ve played with Monstrosity the better I feel about it, but it still doesn’t have a whole lot of synergy with Animar.
Hydra Broodmaster – With sufficient mana this can create an instant army of large tokens, while simultaneously become a huge monster itself. It may be worth considering as a mana sink once we have Palinchron going on and is a definite candidate for the Hydra Tribal Animar build.
Devotion and Gods – Two more gods round out the URG pantheon, yay.
Keranos, God of Storms – Much like planeswalkers I feel that the timing restriction on Keranos make it a poor fit in Animar. It can potentially give a small amount of card advantage or damage, but the way my deck plays out, it will do very little before the game ends.
Kruphix, God of Horizons – Kruphix is a bit harder to evaluate. I honestly think most of the time the only relevant ability will be ‘no maximum hand size’ and I’m not sure hand size matters that much for my deck. Colourless mana is useless a lot of the time, but that said, it becomes very valuable if Animar is kept off the field. Kruphix lends itself to the longer game but is practically useless if the game combos off quickly. For now I’m not planning on making a place for Kruphix in my deck, but I may test it out at a later date.
The Rest:
A few interesting cards that fall outside of the new mechanics. Here they are:
UUUBLUEUUU
Dakra Mystic – this little Merfolk Wizard does surprisingly good things. It’s ability is sort of group hug and sort of resource denial. It makes for interesting decisions and I imagine that would make for interesting multiplayer play. Worth considering if you need small creatures to fill out the bottom of your curve.
Dictate of Kruphix – Howling Mine with flash. I used to run Rites of Flourishing for the extra land drop, so this may well fit into a more huggy Animar build. It does lack synergy unless you push the Constellation build.
Scourge of Fleets – with sufficient Islands this will clear your opponents’ boards and leave the way clear for your creatures to crash on into the red zone! Probably only worthwhile as a meta choice against token decks.
Sigiled Starfish – An all-star in limited, but for Animar if you want this effect for this cost Omenspeaker is probably better and more abusable because of its ETB effect.
RRRREDRRR
Bearer of the Heavens – a 10/10 for a single R mana is pretty sweet in Animar, but his death rattle is a non-bo…
Dictate of the Twin Gods – Could win aggro games through surprise damage, but doesn’t have particular synergy otherwise.
Prophetic Flamespeaker – I mention Flamespeaker because it is a powerful set of abilities on a creature, however this deck does not take very good advantage of those abilities. With the card draw available in green and blue, this red ‘play it or lose it’ draw ability is pretty lacklustre.
Rollick of Abandon – I see this being used as a sweeper effect similar to Drown in Sorrow, so it adds some welcome versatility in red against token decks, while also acting as a power buff to bigger creatures. I think this is a hidden gem but maybe not right for Animar unless the meta is particularly heavy in tokens.
Spawn of Thraxes – Pretty much a Bogardan Hellkite without the flash, and reliant on the number of Mountains controlled. I don’t run enough mountains to warrant playing this guy, maybe if you were building An-all-in-red-imar?
GGGGREENGGG
Dictate of Karametra – Mana Flare with flash. Letting you cast this end of turn and then have first go at the double mana is a pretty powerful effect. Has to complete with Zhur-Taa Ancient which has more synergy with the deck.
Font of Fertility – permanent based ramp is welcome if you can recur it. Creature based ramp though is better in Animar (Diligent Farmhand).
Heroes' Bane - +1/+1 counters for the +1/+1-counters-matter deck and Hydra tribal.
Nessian Game Warden – Forest dependant, but essentially cantrips into the best creature in the top few cards and clears worse cards to the bottom of the library. This could be a decent addition if we’re digging for creature combo pieces, similar to Raven Familiar. If we’re generating green mana from non-forest lands though this may do nothing. Possibly too unreliable.
Satyr Grovedancer – Not a bad little creature for getting a couple of counters onto Animar, and dies to Skullclamp if you play the deck that way. Functional reprint of Timberland Guide.
XXXARTIFACTS & LANDSXXX
Armory of Iroas – A way of supplementing Animar’s +1/+1 counters by attacking, but it is a pretty small effect. Probably not even worth it in a ‘+1/+1-counters-matter’ build.
Mana Confluence – I don’t run City of Brass because the damage adds up when I’m tapping and untapping all my lands with Palinchron. Mana Confluence has the same downside and without running any life gain to offset the cost, I don’t think it’s worth running alongside the fetch lands which cost life and the shock lands which cost life. My mana base is reliable enough in my opinion (even without dual lands)
Temple of Epiphany – UR scry land. Certainly not the worst CIPT lands, worth running if you don’t have better mana fixing, maybe worth running even if you do depending on how fast you want the deck to play out. Scry 1 is surprisingly useful even as a one off effect.
That rounds out the Theros block sets and I don't think I'm going to make any changes to Animar based on Journey into Nyx. Somethings are okay, but I don't think there are any particular game changers here. Again I'm sorry it took me so long to finish my review, I hope it generates some good discussion
Its such a powerful card that heavy creature decks can take advantage of. I don't want it killing my Survial but I really like the idea of hosing artifact strategies. Plus a lot of mana bases are heavily boosted by the mana producing artifacts. If you think of it as way to kill lots of mana...
Bane of Progress is godlike, I don't see why you wouldn't include it. It only hits a handful of your cards (depending on how many artifact and enchantment creatures you play really), several of which you don't really care about (Solemn Simulacrum comes to mind). I have yet to play a game where Bane of Progress didn't inform my whole strategy; it's almost better than Damnation.
My concern about Bane of Progress is that it hits several important engine cards: Cloudstone Curio, Earthcraft, Birthing Pod. That said if the engine is winning the game it's easy enough not to play Bane. If the opponent is ahead despite the engine, then Bane of Progress is probably worth playing.
It also depends on whether what the opponent is doing is disrupting your game plan. I am not terribly worried if my opponent spends their early turns ramping with artifacts, because often I will win because they're advancing their own game plan instead of attacking mine, and mine is versatile and fast.
It is a meta call, but often will represent solid card advantage. What to cut though in the 6CMC slot?
My concern about Bane of Progress is that it hits several important engine cards: Cloudstone Curio, Earthcraft, Birthing Pod. That said if the engine is winning the game it's easy enough not to play Bane. If the opponent is ahead despite the engine, then Bane of Progress is probably worth playing.
It also depends on whether what the opponent is doing is disrupting your game plan. I am not terribly worried if my opponent spends their early turns ramping with artifacts, because often I will win because they're advancing their own game plan instead of attacking mine, and mine is versatile and fast.
It is a meta call, but often will represent solid card advantage. What to cut though in the 6CMC slot?
That's my thoughts as well. I'm also debating adding a Primal Surge wincon to my deck. I want make the deck more flexible and less of a combo deck (or at least make a bunch of combos that work independently of each other). But I fear that I will either lose some of my good instants/sorceries or lower the effectiveness of Surge.
If you drop Bane of Progress, you usually get so far ahead it doesn't matter if you lose a combo engine piece. A 15/15 Elemental is pretty difficult to beat, especially later in the game once a lot of removal has ben used up. Of course if you do have Cloudstone Curio active, you don't need to be playing Bane of Progress to win.
My concern about Bane of Progress is that it hits several important engine cards: Cloudstone Curio, Earthcraft, Birthing Pod. That said if the engine is winning the game it's easy enough not to play Bane. If the opponent is ahead despite the engine, then Bane of Progress is probably worth playing.
It also depends on whether what the opponent is doing is disrupting your game plan. I am not terribly worried if my opponent spends their early turns ramping with artifacts, because often I will win because they're advancing their own game plan instead of attacking mine, and mine is versatile and fast.
It is a meta call, but often will represent solid card advantage. What to cut though in the 6CMC slot?
If you untap or you're going off with the combo pieces then you probably don't need him. But if you're opponents kill these cards then they've cleared the way for Bane to wreck the board. I think hes pretty solid, or at least worth testing. I would cut either Etherium Horn Sorcerer or Steel Hellkite as they both sorta nonbo with him.
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer is very strong in an empty board, something Animar decks typically lack. Steel Hellkite is similar, but is much more mana intensive and requires a hit before becoming useful. As such I'd cut Hellkite for Bane.
It seems there will be more clone variants coming in Conspiracy and M15 Core Set which have generated some discussion in the new cards thread. The question, are they good enough to include in Animar decks?
Clones are fairly difficult to evaluate because they are situational. There has to be something on board worth copying, whether it is under our control or our opponents' control. In this deck there are plenty of ETB effects worth copying so clones will almost always offer something for their (heavily discounted) cost. I prefer not to include cards that rely purely on my opponents' to have worthwhile effects, so the ability to clone an opponent's creature is a bonus, but it shouldn't really be a deciding factor.
Dack's Duplicate - A clone with haste obviously lets us activate tap abilities or attack with a hasty aggro creature, but what are our targets likely to be? In my deck the only creatures with tap abilities are Merfolk Looter and Fauna Shaman, neither of which is likely to be worth cloning if we already have them on the board. The best creatures to grant haste to would be the Eldrazilegends, but to do that would require sacrificing the actual Eldrazi and shuffling them back into the library, so if we have to bounce the clone, we've lost our target. Unfortunately to me, it doesn't seem worthwhile copying a creature purely to have a copy with haste, especially because we already have access to haste enablers such as Maelstrom Wanderer, Xenagos, God of Revels and Urabrask the Hidden. There certainly will be times when copying an opponent's creature and giving it haste would lead to interesting scenarios, however that relies on the opponent having something worth copying, and we would still gain the same benefit from a normal clone with one of the haste enablers already in the deck. Finally when we are deciding on creatures to include in Animar, the fewer coloured mana symbols in the cost, the bigger the discount we can enjoy. Dack's Duplicate is likely to cost us UR instead of a single U. Is it effectively worth twice the cost for a situational haste effect that is likely dependent on the opponent having a powerful creature for us to copy? I don't think it is. It's not to say Dack's Duplicate isn't an interesting clone variant. I think it would certainly have potential in other decks where it would effectively cost the same as a normal clone, but Animar's discount really forces us to examine what it can do for us and I don't think it does enough in this context.
Mercurial Pretender - a clone that gains the Palinchron self bounce ability gives us a lot more options given the ETB focus of the deck. It's probably not worth cloning Palinchron itself, but cloning Great Whale, effectively turns it into a Palinchron. Cloning Peregrine Drake, might be worth while if you can tap some lands for morethan a singlemana, otherwise it only breaks even on mana (Animar must have 4+ counters) and requires UUU to keep bouncing. This isn't necessarily bad, as it does provide a free (if not mana profitable) bounce loop, which combined with other effects can win the game (Primordial Sage and Psychosis Crawler, or simply Purphoros, God of the Forge). However it also has a lot of value when combined with other ETB effects. Copying cards like Deadwood Treefolk, Duplicant or Solemn Simulacrum and being to bounce it when we don't have another bounce engine available, can generate a lot of value, especially when we can discount Mercurial Pretender to a single U mana.
Personally I will have trouble making cuts for either of these clones (but I have trouble cutting anything these days as everything has earned a spot in the deck) but Mercurial Pretender offers far more advantages and synergy compared to Dack's Duplicate in my opinion. Are either of them good enough to replace Phyrexian Metamorph or Vesuvan Shapeshifter? The two clones I already run both potentially can be played for zero mana. Sure Vesuvan Shapeshifter isn't actually a clone if I'm playing it for free, but what it does offer is an infinite ETB loop, which interacts so well with other effects in the deck. Mercurial Pretender may be able to do the same thing, but requires Peregrine Drake and a preloaded Animar on the field and is only worthwhile if Cloudstone Curio has not yet made an appearnece. On the other hand, when Cloudstone Curio, Equilibrium of Words of Wind are unavailable, Mercurial Pretender can bounce itself for value, much like Etherium-Horn Sorcerer.
Am I wildly misevaluating these clone variants? Thoughts?
I can't go into a deep analysis right now, but I can say that Mercurial Pretender can only target creatures you control, which can be worse, but not by much, since there's enough synergy in Animar decks already.
It's true I didn't notice that Mercurial Pretender can only target creatures I control, but I don't consider that a huge drawback, because I'm usually targeting creatures I control anyway. It is still a strike against the Pretender if it is in your hand and your opponents' have creature while you don't (but that it a fairly dire situation for Animar in any case).
Great Whale is the second best 7-drop in Animar behind Palinchron, auto-include. Morph allows you to go infinite with Cloudstone Curio. Teferi is too much blue to justify. I did not know about Reclamation Sage, seems very good.
So I have to ask. I played this deck fairly heavily for a year with plenty of enjoyment. I have loved Ceta colors in this format for a long time and still do. Before I played this deck I played a heartbeat combo Riku deck. I recently rebuild this deck using my old list and the first post as a guide because newer cards have come out. I am finding that with my current group Animar just isn't as good as I remember. It plays very Timmy but I fold so often to the dreaded Supreme Verdict. I am not over extending in these matches but I am noticing the power level of the newer commanders are certainly higher. Understand again I play in a very top tier play group that is very cut throat.
Nullstone Gargoyle is great protection with almost no impact to Animar, because we win with creature spells and are weak against non-creature spells. I have never regreted putting it into play (often for 0) and it has won me some games. Erayo, Soratami Ascendant can do exactly the same thing, but also stops your opponents from casting creature spells. Erayo is slightly more dependant on other cards in your deck, as you have to flip her, but she can potentially come out earlier. She is also harder to remove once flipped. I personally have not run her in my version of Animar, although I do run her in my Edric deck. My initial reservation that made me reject her was that she was 'too oppressive' and I stand by that assessment in regards to my meta, but I recognise that she is an excellent source of control and combo protection. Pushing the deck towards it's most competitive, I would recommend including both Nullstone Gargoyle and Erayo, Soratami Ascendant.
More often than not Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Nantuko Vigilante and Willbender are never flipped, and instead constantly cast as 2/2s for 0 to combo with Cloudstone Curio and create an infinite loop which pumps Animar to infinite size and interacts with other creatures such as Primordial Sage to draw cards or Purphoros, God of the Forge to damage opponents. These three morph creatures in particular were chosen for their utility:
Vesuvan Shapeshifter is a clone variant able to copy an opponent's powerful creature or one of your own. It can copy an ETB ability and then change into another creature the next turn, or it can be cast as a morph creature, and then flip next turn to copy something and give it psuedo-haste.
Nantuko Vigilante offers a way to deal with troublesome enchantments and artifacts, particularly Torpor Orb.
Willbender is excellent protection against targeted spells and abilities, even able to do tricks like redirecting card draw and extra turns. Also if opponents know you have Willbender in your deck, they are likely to be wary of any morph creature you have on the board. Sometimes just the threat of Willbender will stop them casting spells.
Great Whale is just as good as Palinchron if you have a bounce engine. I don't think it is an auto-include, as it depends how many of these 'untap lands' effects you want to run. We do have plenty of tutors available so it's not hard to find Palinchron, and at some point you want to include more varied effects rather than further redundancy. Because Palinchron goes infinite on its own with Animar, if you want to play a slightly 'fairer' combo deck you may consider replacing Palinchron with Great Whale, which requires a bit more work to push to the infinite.
Reclamation Sage is another utility creature coming from M15. It's a meta decision whether you need extra answers against artifacts and enchantments. If I did play it, I would probably replace Acidic Slime, to reduce the G requirement on cast. Acidic Slime is better (never underestimate deathtouch!) but has a more difficult cost, and for the most part plays the same role Reclamation Sage could.
So I have to ask. I played this deck fairly heavily for a year with plenty of enjoyment. I have loved Ceta colors in this format for a long time and still do. Before I played this deck I played a heartbeat combo Riku deck. I recently rebuild this deck using my old list and the first post as a guide because newer cards have come out. I am finding that with my current group Animar just isn't as good as I remember. It plays very Timmy but I fold so often to the dreaded Supreme Verdict. I am not over extending in these matches but I am noticing the power level of the newer commanders are certainly higher. Understand again I play in a very top tier play group that is very cut throat.
Whats your thoughts Gelf? Do we have a good example of a Hardcore resilient deck?
Animar is always weak to multiple sweeper effects. If your meta heads down a path where creatures don't last a turn around the table, then it is very difficult to get the deck off the ground. You could try to push in the direction of fast combo, getting Animar out turn 2 and winning before your opponent hits 4 mana to cast Supreme Verdict. Or you could move the deck in a control direction and only play Animar the turn you intend to win, spending your earlier turns ramping and protecting your life total. Remember there are several ways to combo out which don't include Animar.
If you have taken out Tooth and Nail as I have, you could put it back in to find one of the above combos. You might also include Defense of the Heart for redundancy. Savage Summoning is a great way of setting up a winning turn, by casting Animar at the end of your opponents turn and then comboing during your own. You might also consider increasing the number of creature tutors you run to find these combos, Birthing Pod is particularly good at finding what you need to win games. You might even consider warping the whole deck around a Primal Surge and win off the back of Laboratory Maniac and a Mulldrifter draw trigger. Or put in Squirrel Nest and combo off with Earthcraft. Kessig Wolf Run is another card that can let you win out of nowhere if it is late game and all you have is a lot of mana and a single utility creature on board.
Imperial Recruiter Animar is certainly a powerful combo engine and if you think that would win you more games, certainly move the deck in that direction, but without more information about your metagame it is hard to recommend any particular changes. In my meta, this version of the deck is very resilient. So many synergies feed into each other, that it is quite difficult to disrupt once it gets going and it can win out of nowhere with a lucky top deck or tutoring the right creature. I have won games where I have never cast Animar, or only cast him as a way of drawing removal from my opponent. Sometimes I stumble onto a combo I didn't intend to set up, I don't always see the victory coming and sometimes despite everything, I am beaten. Even a resilient deck won't win every game and the more often you bring out Animar, the more likely your meta will shift to exploit the decks weaknesses. If you're not having fun playing Animar, maybe give it up for a while. No matter how competitive the playgroup I would argue that the point is to have fun, so don't force something that isn't giving you enjoyment
Polymorphous Rush - Potential in a blue heavy aggro build as a finisher. Transform everything into an Eldrazi and swing.
Sage of Hours - A source of infinite turns for a +1/+1 counters manipulation strategy.
Scourge of Fleets - Potentially a one sided Evacuation, albeit one which requires lots of Islands.
Sigiled Starfish - Nice little utility creature for blue.
Bearer of the Heavens - Big creatures with low coloured costs are right up Anikmar's alley. His ability can potentially be used as a reset button against control decks.
Cyclops of Eternal Fury - Expensive, but haste is always worth it in an aggro build. Can potentially make use of the Enchantment type.
Dictate of the Twin Gods - Again for an aggro build, this can be gamebreaking.
Prophetic Flamespeaker - Ultra-powerful Mythics are almost always worth considering, even if they don't directly build into your overall strategy.
Spawn of Thraxes - Potentially a second Bogardan Hellkite in a red heavy build.
Eidolon of Blossoms - Seems to me to be the best way to make use of Enchantment Creatures' unique typing.
Goldenhide Ox - Constellation is sweet, but is it right for Animar?
Heroes' Bane - Chameleon Colossus 2.0, this time with +1/+1 counters.
Nessian Game Warden - A poor man's creature search.
Oakheart Dryads - Again Enchantment's may be viable, though I doubt there are enough that build directly into Animar to be worthwhile.
Satyr Grovedancer - Elvish Visionary for +1/+1 counters strategies.
Keranos, God of Storms - Absolutely viable. Don't know exactly how good he's going to be, but even as just a creature he's pretty strong.
Kruphix, God of Horizons - Probably better than Keranos in long games, this big guy can really swing games.
Stormchaser Chimera - This thing can be swinging for 14 or 15 easy in Animar. An absolute must for aggro builds.
Hall of Triumph - Probably not worth it in multicoloured decks, but still worth considering.
Mana Confluence - Awesome. The life loss is minimal for the extreme utility of such a land.
Temple of Epiphany - The Temples are amazing. Auto-include.
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
Steam Trades - I play Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, and trade cards heavily. Add me if you like.
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
Steam Trades - I play Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, and trade cards heavily. Add me if you like.
GWU Rafiq
RWB Zurgo
WBG Ghave
WUB Oloro
WBR Kaalia (Archived)
My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
Steam Trades - I play Dota 2, CS:GO, TF2, and trade cards heavily. Add me if you like.
Apologies for the delay in my review, life has a habit of getting in the way of my hobbies.
Mechanics:
Journey into Nyx introduces two new mechanics Constellation and Strive, while also revisiting the mechanics of Theros and Born of the Gods (minus Tribute).
Constellation – ETB effects for enchantments. Theros block has given us a fair few Enchantment creatures to play with, so it’s not entirely out of the realm of possibility to have synergy with Animar, but it does require building around to be worthwhile in my opinion.
Strive – a spell based mechanic that targets multiple creatures. Designed to activate Heroic, it doesn’t have a whole lot of synergy with Animar but there are a number of interesting effects so I've reviewed a few of them.
Nyx and Bestow – Enchantment creatures! Bestow doesn’t have much synergy with Animar, but at least it’s on a creature.
Heroic – I've covered this Animar non-bo mechanit twice before, but this time at least there are a couple of honourable mentions(not mentioned for their Heroic ability).
Inspired – A ponderous creature mechanic which triggers when creatures untap. Only one thing in the set worth mentioning in relation to Animar.
Monstrosity – The more I’ve played with Monstrosity the better I feel about it, but it still doesn’t have a whole lot of synergy with Animar.
Devotion and Gods – Two more gods round out the URG pantheon, yay.
The Rest:
A few interesting cards that fall outside of the new mechanics. Here they are:
UUU BLUE UUU
RRR RED RRR
GGG GREEN GGG
XXX ARTIFACTS & LANDS XXX
That rounds out the Theros block sets and I don't think I'm going to make any changes to Animar based on Journey into Nyx. Somethings are okay, but I don't think there are any particular game changers here. Again I'm sorry it took me so long to finish my review, I hope it generates some good discussion
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I've still yet to add that to my deck. Still debating it.
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Hmm me too. I might just throw it in and have some games. Can always take it out again
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My Blog, currently working on series about my custom set Cazia.
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It also depends on whether what the opponent is doing is disrupting your game plan. I am not terribly worried if my opponent spends their early turns ramping with artifacts, because often I will win because they're advancing their own game plan instead of attacking mine, and mine is versatile and fast.
It is a meta call, but often will represent solid card advantage. What to cut though in the 6CMC slot?
That's my thoughts as well. I'm also debating adding a Primal Surge wincon to my deck. I want make the deck more flexible and less of a combo deck (or at least make a bunch of combos that work independently of each other). But I fear that I will either lose some of my good instants/sorceries or lower the effectiveness of Surge.
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If you untap or you're going off with the combo pieces then you probably don't need him. But if you're opponents kill these cards then they've cleared the way for Bane to wreck the board. I think hes pretty solid, or at least worth testing. I would cut either Etherium Horn Sorcerer or Steel Hellkite as they both sorta nonbo with him.
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Etherium-Horn Sorcerer can bounce itself to avoid destruction, so it's probably fine alongside Bane of Progress.
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Clones are fairly difficult to evaluate because they are situational. There has to be something on board worth copying, whether it is under our control or our opponents' control. In this deck there are plenty of ETB effects worth copying so clones will almost always offer something for their (heavily discounted) cost. I prefer not to include cards that rely purely on my opponents' to have worthwhile effects, so the ability to clone an opponent's creature is a bonus, but it shouldn't really be a deciding factor.
Dack's Duplicate - A clone with haste obviously lets us activate tap abilities or attack with a hasty aggro creature, but what are our targets likely to be? In my deck the only creatures with tap abilities are Merfolk Looter and Fauna Shaman, neither of which is likely to be worth cloning if we already have them on the board. The best creatures to grant haste to would be the Eldrazi legends, but to do that would require sacrificing the actual Eldrazi and shuffling them back into the library, so if we have to bounce the clone, we've lost our target. Unfortunately to me, it doesn't seem worthwhile copying a creature purely to have a copy with haste, especially because we already have access to haste enablers such as Maelstrom Wanderer, Xenagos, God of Revels and Urabrask the Hidden. There certainly will be times when copying an opponent's creature and giving it haste would lead to interesting scenarios, however that relies on the opponent having something worth copying, and we would still gain the same benefit from a normal clone with one of the haste enablers already in the deck. Finally when we are deciding on creatures to include in Animar, the fewer coloured mana symbols in the cost, the bigger the discount we can enjoy. Dack's Duplicate is likely to cost us UR instead of a single U. Is it effectively worth twice the cost for a situational haste effect that is likely dependent on the opponent having a powerful creature for us to copy? I don't think it is. It's not to say Dack's Duplicate isn't an interesting clone variant. I think it would certainly have potential in other decks where it would effectively cost the same as a normal clone, but Animar's discount really forces us to examine what it can do for us and I don't think it does enough in this context.
Mercurial Pretender - a clone that gains the Palinchron self bounce ability gives us a lot more options given the ETB focus of the deck. It's probably not worth cloning Palinchron itself, but cloning Great Whale, effectively turns it into a Palinchron. Cloning Peregrine Drake, might be worth while if you can tap some lands for more than a single mana, otherwise it only breaks even on mana (Animar must have 4+ counters) and requires UUU to keep bouncing. This isn't necessarily bad, as it does provide a free (if not mana profitable) bounce loop, which combined with other effects can win the game (Primordial Sage and Psychosis Crawler, or simply Purphoros, God of the Forge). However it also has a lot of value when combined with other ETB effects. Copying cards like Deadwood Treefolk, Duplicant or Solemn Simulacrum and being to bounce it when we don't have another bounce engine available, can generate a lot of value, especially when we can discount Mercurial Pretender to a single U mana.
Personally I will have trouble making cuts for either of these clones (but I have trouble cutting anything these days as everything has earned a spot in the deck) but Mercurial Pretender offers far more advantages and synergy compared to Dack's Duplicate in my opinion. Are either of them good enough to replace Phyrexian Metamorph or Vesuvan Shapeshifter? The two clones I already run both potentially can be played for zero mana. Sure Vesuvan Shapeshifter isn't actually a clone if I'm playing it for free, but what it does offer is an infinite ETB loop, which interacts so well with other effects in the deck. Mercurial Pretender may be able to do the same thing, but requires Peregrine Drake and a preloaded Animar on the field and is only worthwhile if Cloudstone Curio has not yet made an appearnece. On the other hand, when Cloudstone Curio, Equilibrium of Words of Wind are unavailable, Mercurial Pretender can bounce itself for value, much like Etherium-Horn Sorcerer.
Am I wildly misevaluating these clone variants? Thoughts?
1)I'm also thinking of cut Teferi, Mage of Zhalfirand perhaps cut too Slithermuse/Sea Gate Oracle... And I was thinking of put Nullstone Gargoyle or Erayo, Soratami Ascendant . What do you think? How do you rate Nullstone Gargoyle on your deck?
2)Also wanted to know how is being run Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Nantuko Vigilante and Willbender in your build? Advise me to use them (or some of them)?
3)And you think Reclamation Sage will have a slot in this deck? And Great Whale?
Thanks !
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Maybe I should try a Imperial Recruiter build.
Whats your thoughts Gelf? Do we have a good example of a Hardcore resilient deck?
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Nullstone Gargoyle is great protection with almost no impact to Animar, because we win with creature spells and are weak against non-creature spells. I have never regreted putting it into play (often for 0) and it has won me some games. Erayo, Soratami Ascendant can do exactly the same thing, but also stops your opponents from casting creature spells. Erayo is slightly more dependant on other cards in your deck, as you have to flip her, but she can potentially come out earlier. She is also harder to remove once flipped. I personally have not run her in my version of Animar, although I do run her in my Edric deck. My initial reservation that made me reject her was that she was 'too oppressive' and I stand by that assessment in regards to my meta, but I recognise that she is an excellent source of control and combo protection. Pushing the deck towards it's most competitive, I would recommend including both Nullstone Gargoyle and Erayo, Soratami Ascendant.
More often than not Vesuvan Shapeshifter, Nantuko Vigilante and Willbender are never flipped, and instead constantly cast as 2/2s for 0 to combo with Cloudstone Curio and create an infinite loop which pumps Animar to infinite size and interacts with other creatures such as Primordial Sage to draw cards or Purphoros, God of the Forge to damage opponents. These three morph creatures in particular were chosen for their utility:
Great Whale is just as good as Palinchron if you have a bounce engine. I don't think it is an auto-include, as it depends how many of these 'untap lands' effects you want to run. We do have plenty of tutors available so it's not hard to find Palinchron, and at some point you want to include more varied effects rather than further redundancy. Because Palinchron goes infinite on its own with Animar, if you want to play a slightly 'fairer' combo deck you may consider replacing Palinchron with Great Whale, which requires a bit more work to push to the infinite.
Reclamation Sage is another utility creature coming from M15. It's a meta decision whether you need extra answers against artifacts and enchantments. If I did play it, I would probably replace Acidic Slime, to reduce the G requirement on cast. Acidic Slime is better (never underestimate deathtouch!) but has a more difficult cost, and for the most part plays the same role Reclamation Sage could.
Animar is always weak to multiple sweeper effects. If your meta heads down a path where creatures don't last a turn around the table, then it is very difficult to get the deck off the ground. You could try to push in the direction of fast combo, getting Animar out turn 2 and winning before your opponent hits 4 mana to cast Supreme Verdict. Or you could move the deck in a control direction and only play Animar the turn you intend to win, spending your earlier turns ramping and protecting your life total. Remember there are several ways to combo out which don't include Animar.
Vorinclex and Palinchron go infinite together if you have sufficent mana to start with, add Purphoros, God of the Forge and you win.
Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts go infinite together and you just need an attack phase to win.
If you have taken out Tooth and Nail as I have, you could put it back in to find one of the above combos. You might also include Defense of the Heart for redundancy. Savage Summoning is a great way of setting up a winning turn, by casting Animar at the end of your opponents turn and then comboing during your own. You might also consider increasing the number of creature tutors you run to find these combos, Birthing Pod is particularly good at finding what you need to win games. You might even consider warping the whole deck around a Primal Surge and win off the back of Laboratory Maniac and a Mulldrifter draw trigger. Or put in Squirrel Nest and combo off with Earthcraft. Kessig Wolf Run is another card that can let you win out of nowhere if it is late game and all you have is a lot of mana and a single utility creature on board.
Imperial Recruiter Animar is certainly a powerful combo engine and if you think that would win you more games, certainly move the deck in that direction, but without more information about your metagame it is hard to recommend any particular changes. In my meta, this version of the deck is very resilient. So many synergies feed into each other, that it is quite difficult to disrupt once it gets going and it can win out of nowhere with a lucky top deck or tutoring the right creature. I have won games where I have never cast Animar, or only cast him as a way of drawing removal from my opponent. Sometimes I stumble onto a combo I didn't intend to set up, I don't always see the victory coming and sometimes despite everything, I am beaten. Even a resilient deck won't win every game and the more often you bring out Animar, the more likely your meta will shift to exploit the decks weaknesses. If you're not having fun playing Animar, maybe give it up for a while. No matter how competitive the playgroup I would argue that the point is to have fun, so don't force something that isn't giving you enjoyment
Edit: fixing card links