This is a hardline build, streamlined to win on T3/T4. As such, please keep in mind in discussion that this one of the most competitive decks in the format, and multiplayer strategies such as Kiki-Jiki or other typical, yet-slower variants of Animar should be discussed elsewhere.
Animar, above all else, is a general of economics. The goal of this deck is by no means to win with a hoard of creatures, but rather to manage lethal general damage. Many of the big cards in here, such as the Eldrazi package, for the most part serve a utility role within the greater scheme, and of the many times they're cast, very rarely do they ever attack in.
A huge principle of Animar is the ideal mana net; that is, the net mana for any particular creature under an ideal cost reduction scenario as presented below. The principle chain is to use auxiliary amplifiers in conjunction with net-zero and above creatures in a manor that maximizes mana efficiency, and subsequently maximizes utility cards.
Ideal Cost Breakdown
Net Four
Peregrin Drake
Net One
Cloud of Faeries
Fathom Seer
Tinder Wall
Net Zero
Wood Elves
Wild Cantor
Quirion Sentinel
Wall of Roots
Spellskite
Scarecrone
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Artisan of Kozilek
Phyrexian Metamorph
Eternal Witness
Flamekin Harbinger
Fierce Empath
Elvish Visionary
Hapless Researcher
Imperial Recruiter
Owl Familiar
Primeval Titan
Slithermuse
Sea Gate Oracle
Sylvan Ranger
Fathom Seer
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Trinket Mage
Artisan of Kozilek
Wall of Blossoms
Coiling Oracle
Overview of Primary Combos
Imperial/Vindicate
The namesake combo, and by far the most volatile and lease resource intensive combo animar offers. In a situation with 2 counters on an active Animar, it costs RUG and 28 life for a 21/21 animar with ulamog spot removal off of recruiter. Of course, when you add in other resources the life cost severely decreases.
Imperial Recruiter => Phyrexian Metamorph
Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter for Shrieking Drake
Shrieking Drake returning Phyrexian Metamorph
Phyrexian Metamorph copying Shrieking drake and returning itself looping up to 7/8/9/17 counters
Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter for Fierce Empath
Fierce Empath for some Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Skullclamp T.0
By far the most complicated combo, the Skullclamp T.0 combo revolves around using clamp conversions to dig into landmarks with the sole purpose of hitting a hard finisher. Generally, it's a same turn kill ultimately focused on creating a Cloudstone Curio Ulamog loop with the intense of locking the game out before passing the turn. The big landmarks are: Survival of the Fittest, Crop Rotation, Gaea's Cradle, Earthcraft, Cloudstone Curio, Sylvan Tutor as well as most auxiliary amplifiers. The idea is utilize Gaea's Cradle in addition to Peregrin Drake and Cloud of Faeries with bounce effects to perpetuate skull clamp until it's viable to indefinitely loop with Curio.
Cloudstone Curio
The goal of a curio room is to go infinite via net 0+ creatures, and to simply recast utility creatures indefinitely, hopefully resulting in an eldrazi loop. In an animar-less situation, cloudstone combos are still viable via Peregrin Drake, Phyrexian Metamorph, Cloud of Faeries and Earthcraft. After cloudstone is active, should you be running a mana deficit and have fierce empath, but not the mana to cast him twice, tutoring artisan of kozilek over Kozilek lets you return any number of key cards from your graveyard, namely wild cantor, cloud of faeries, peregrin drake, quirion sentinel, wall of roots, phantasmal image or phyrexian metamorph. All of which allow you to recast fierce empath into kozilek, and ultimately ulamog. Wild Cantor + Artisan + a utility creature is a notable albeit overlooked cloudstone loop.
Earthcraft
Earthcraft increases the ideal net mana for any creature by one, potentially two with utopia sprawl or wild growth. At that point, your entire deck just became free and it's simply a matter of digging with utility creatures until you draw a finisher.
Primeval Titan
The pure act of casting prime time for Gaea's Cradle and Eye of Ugin can easily seal any game, animar or no. Very often, Cradle taps for enough to single handily activate Eye of Ugin, at which point the resulting eldrazi is often free. Add in an untap effect, and all of a sudden you'll likely be sporting a Kozilek with Ulamog on standby. Even in the presence of a sweeper, the Eye/Cradle package remains as an easy bounce back outlet.
Survival of the Fittest
Aside from the obvious ability to start the mentioned combos, Survival gets really interesting when you're attempting to do an infinite loop into cloudstone curio Ulamog. One mentionable tactic is to use Primeval Titan to setup gaea's cradle and eye of ugin, at which point you can use peregrine drake (potentially off of Artisan of kozilek) to generate infinite resets via Phantasmal Image, a targeting effect (skull clamp), and pitching Ulamog or Kozilek off of survival to shuffle. Generally, you'd use this tactic with intermediary clones, faeries etc off of survival to generate card advantage without committing blue mana or requiring excessive survival fodder. I'm fairly sure there is a way to do infinite ulamogs with cloudstone curio RFG with survival, purely by fueling ulamog/bouncers off of creatures drawn from intermediary skullclamp triggers. The most efficient way? Up for discussion.
Aluren - four mana is really awkward in this deck. For the most part, Aluren is card disadvantage that sets you back a turn, gives your opponent outs to eldrazi, and doesn't really even put you ahead mana wise.
Food Chain - Creatures are very relevant after being cast. With so many effects utilizing creatures beyond their initial ETB, food chain just doesn't make sense.
Palinchron - The blue mana investment is too substantial to warrant using Palinchron, and fierce empath into Primeval Titan, or an eldrazi, leaves you in a better board position for the most part.
Tidespout Tyrant - Too much blue. Sure he's a decent pseudo cloudstone curio, but for the most part he's a dead card in your opening hand that rarely will see any play, and is comparatively clunky and slow.
Sol Ring - Colorless Mana is largely irrelevant. Mana Crypt - Colorless Mana is largely irrelevant. Vodalian Merchant/Merfolk Traders - Notable potential entries that loses out to Owl Familiar / Hapless Researcher purely because they aren't skull clampable.
Solemn Simulacrum - At 4 mana, Solemn strictly losses out to Scarecrone as a segue into Peregrin Drake and Primeval Titan.
Whirlpool Rider - It's a cool effect, but 2CC creatures serve as a segue into critical 3 drop utility creatures. As such, quite frequently whirlpool rider either doesn't curve out, or pitches away critical cards.
Snap - As much as I love snap, it's very conditional. In far too many of the situations in which you'd want to use snap, you're stuck casting it on a filler creature rather than a utility creature strictly because of the 1 mana difference it would take to cast said creature before snap. Being as it takes up a card in your hand, there is a very good chance it will inhibit your ability to curve out ideally.
Duplicant - As a fierce empath target, Duplicant looses out to Primeval Titan or any Eldrazi. In this format, Ulamog, Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph and Gilded Drake are all better solutions. Outside of the spot removal case, Duplicant doesn't work with cloudstone curio, and is an auto mulligan.
Atypical Inclusions
Flamekin Harbinger - Perhaps one of my favorite animar gems, as a one drop he contributes to a much better curve, and the ability to top Slithermuse or Mulldrifter generates a tidy card/tempo advantage.
Hapless Researcher - Simply amazing in Animar. Qualified one drops are few and far between, and this guy serves to smooth over the curve as well as act as a cycler. Despite the 32 land count, the deck requires so few lands in action that it's often useful to cycle them, especially with effects like Gush, Fathom Seer, Quirion Ranger and Sylvan ranger to push more lands into the grip. Works nicely with Worldy Tutor, Flamekin Harbinger, Sylvan Tutor.
Owl Familiar - Curves out nicely, cycles lands, and is skull clamp-able. The deck wants to dig, and every digger is appreciated.
Scarecrone - Peregrin Drakes and Primeval Titan's best friend. Scarecrone serves as a much needed freebie counter, and has the added bonus of cycling/skull clamping on demand. Every once in a while, he'll return Phyrexian Metamorph and shoot down an opposing general. Hello mirror match?
Tinder Wall - T2 Animar with a flame kin harbinger to boot? Seems decent. Add in skull clamp or cloudstone curio + Artisan of Kozilek and he really shines.
Gush - Even better than free card draw; after casting you can shamelessly replay Tropical Island.
Eye of Ugin - 7 mana sounds like a lot, but when you're sporting a gaea's cradle or bloom tender it really isn't, and the follow up on-demand Eldrazi is a scary prospect.
Utopia Sprawl - T2 Animar, enough said? Toss in Cloud of Faeries, Earthcraft or Peregrin Drake, and Uptopia Sprawl means business.
Wild Growth - Same as Utopia Sprawl. Wild Cantor - Aside from the obvious T2 Animar, Wild Cantor combos out insanely with Cloudstone Curio and Artisan of Kozilek, adds a much needed free counter to animar, and enables Peregrin Drake and Cloud of Faeries off of a skull clamp/Gaea's Cradle combo when otherwise not possible.
Slithermuse - Ever played Ancestral Recall? Well, Slithermuse is quite often better. One blue for a new hand will win a lot of games, and he's even tutor-able with Flamekin Harbinger.
Sample Goldfish Games (8 Consecutive games going for longhand kills). For the most part they were all modest hands, and I got relatively fewer T3 kills than normal. Didn't get as many T2 Animars as I'd have liked.
G1, T4 Imperial Chain
Opening Hand: Taiga, Breeding Pooi, Forest, Forest, Chord of Calling, Imperial Recruiter
Mulligan Forest, Forest, Chord of Calling, Fauna Shaman into Artisan of Kozilek, Lotus Cobra, Quirion Ranger
T1: Breeding Pool,
T2: Draw Mox Diamond, play Taiga and Lotus Cobra
T3: Draw Coiling Oracle, Play Qurion Ranger, replay Taiga, Cast Animar.
T4: Draw Wild Cantor,
- Cast Coiling Oracle into Wall of Blossoms
-Replay Taiga
-Cast Wild Cantor
-Cast Imperial Recruiter for Phyrexian Metamorph
-Phyrexian Metamorph Imperial Recruiter for Shrieking Drake
-Sac Cantor, cast Shrieking Drake returing Phyrexian Metamorph
-Loop Phyrexian Metamorph copying Shrieking Drake 4 Times
-Cast Artisan of Kozilek returning Wild Cantor
-Loop Phrexian Metamorph copying Shrieking Drake 7 Times
-Phrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter for Fierce Empath
-Sac Cantor, cast Fierce Empath for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
-Cast Ulamog, doing some spot removal
-Swing for 21
G2 T4: Infinite Ulamog
Opening Hand: Island, Island, Dryad Arbor, Glimpse of Nature, Worldy Tutor, Orcish Lumperjack
Mulligan Island, Dryad Arbor, Orcish Lumberjack into Coiling Oracle, Gaea's Cradle
T1: Draw Artisan of Kozilek, play Tropical Island
T2: Draw Polluted Delta, play and sac for Volcanic Island, Worldly Tutor for Cloud of Faeries
T3: Draw Cloud of Faeries, play Island, cast Animar
T4:
-Draw Lotus Petal
-Play Gaea's Cradle
-Play Lotus Petal
-Tap Tropical Island, Glimpse of Nature
-Sacrifice Lotus Petal, Tap Island, Coiling Oracle into Brainstorm and Simian Spirit Guide
-Tap Volcanic Island, Cloud of Faeries into Commune with Nature, respond tap Gaea's Cradle for GGG, untap Cradle and Tropical Island.
-Commune into Prime Time or Flamekin Harbinger, choose Flamekin Harbinger
-Remove Simian Spirit Guide, cast Flamekin into Cloudstone Curio, opting not to tutor
-Brainstorm into Forest, Rofellos, Quirion Sentinel, putting forest and Artisan of Kozilek on top.
-Cradle for 4, cast Curio floating GGG
-Quirion Sentinel into Aritsan of Kozilek, floating blue and returning cloud of faeries.
-Loop cloud of faeries and Quirion Sentinel into Ulamog, loop ulamog and swing with Animar.
G3: Turn 4 Infinite Ulamog
Opening Hand: Forest, Gaea's Cradle, Reflecting Pool, Polluted Delta, Coiling Oracle, Kozilek
Mulligan forest, reflecting pool into Wordly Tutor.
T1: Draw Flamekin Harbinger, Polluted Delta into Taiga, cast Birds of Paradise
T2: Draw Raven Familiar, play Gaea's Cradle, cast Animar
T3:
-Worldly Tutor for Sylvan Ranger,
-Cast Coiling Oracle into Flooded Grove,
-Tap grove floating UG, Ranger for Mountain
-Raven Familiar into Quirion Sentinel
-Play mountain and flamekin Harbinger into Mulldrifter (potentially slither muse),
-Swing for 5
T4:
-Sacrifice Raven Familiar
-Draw Mulldrifter
-Tap Taiga, Quirion Sentinel for Blue
-Cast Mulldrifter into Stomping Ground and Slithermuse
-Play Stomping ground, Tap grove and grounds for UU, Evoking slither muse for 2 cards (probably more) into Elvish Spirit Guide and Island. Responding to the sacrifice with Cradle as well.
-Cast Kozilek into Man-o-war, dryad arbor, chord of calling, forest
-Man-o-war targeting Kozilek, recast kozilek into Sea Gate Oracle, Sylvan Scrying, Wirewood Symbiote, Scarecrone
-Cast Scarecrone, Wirewood Symbiote
-Chord of calling into Trinket Mage for Skullclamp
-Cast clamp, clamp flame kin (tapping mountain, GG floating) into volcanic Island, spells kite
-Cast spellskite
-Clamp Sylvan Ranger into Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal
-Clamp Coiling Oracle into Forest, Green Sun's Zenith
-Cast Lotus Petal, Mox Diamond
-Pop petal and Tap birds, crack scarecrow into flooded strand, tinder wall, fierce empath
-Remove Elvish Spirit Guide, cast Tinder Wall, tap mox diamond and pop Tinder wall for RR into Cloud of Faeries, Commune with Nature
-Bounce Quirion Sentinel, untap Bird of Paradise, replay Quirion Sentinel and play Cloud of Faeries
-Untap Grove and Cradle
-Cradle for 10
-Fierce Empath into Artisan of Kozilek
-Convert Quirion Sentinal for Orcish Lumberjack, Scalding Tarn
-Convert Fierce Empath for Quirion Ranger, Rofellos
-Convert Wirewood Symbiote for Elvish Visionary, Wild Growth
-Cast Elvish Visionary, convert for Forest, Arbor Elf, Imperial Recruiter
-Green Sun's Zenith for Wild Cantor
-Sac Cantor, cast Imperial Recruiter for Phrexian Metamorph
-Cast Quirion Ranger, Arbor Elf
-Return Taiga, untag Birds, Cast Sea Gate Oracle into Phantasmal Image
-Phrexian Metamorph copying Cloud of Faeries, untapping flooded grove and Cradle
-Cradle for 13
-Convert Quirion Ranger for Forest, Lotus Cobra
-Convert Arbor Elf for Ulamog, Green Sun's Zenith
-Convert Imperial Recruiter for Gilded Drake, Wooded Foothills
-Convert Cloud of Faeries for Survival of the fittest, Island
-Cast survival, discard Rofellos for Shrieking Drake
-Artisan returning Cloud of Faeries, respond tap grove (GGGGG UU)
-Drake returning Artisan of Kozilek, responding by tapping cradle for 12
-Loop skull clamp on Drake with Artisan returning drake, drake returning metamorph, metamorph copying drake returning artisan, artisan returning drake, clamp etc.
-Draw into Cloudstone curio, ouch 8 life.
-Peregrin Drake, cradle for 12
-Cloudstone Curio, loop Ulamog
G4: T5 Infinite Ulamog
Opening hand: Wood Elves, Steam Vents, Cloudstone Curio, Slithermuse, Bloom Tender, Quirion Ranger, Mulldrifter
Mulling Wood Elves, Slither muse, Qurion Ranger into Owl Familiar, Polluted Delta
T1: Draw RofellosSteam Vents
T2: Draw Ulamog, Tropical and cast Bloom Tender
T3: Draw Eternal Witness, cast Animar
T4:
-Draw Earthcraft
-cast Rofellos
-Cast Owl Familiar drawing Cloud of Faeries, discarding Eternal Witness
-Cast Cloud of Faeries, untapped Steam Vents and Tropical
-Tap Steam vents, evoke mull drifter into worldly tutor and glimpse of nature
-Cast earthcraft
T5:
-Worldly Tutor for wood elves, draw wood elves
-Cast Cloudstone curio floating green
-Wood Elves into Breeding pool returning Cloud of Faeries
-Cloud of Faeries returning Wood Elves
-Wood Elves searching for a forest, responding to curio by earth crafting forest with cloud of faeries
-Glimpse of Nature, Faeries returning Wood elves, looping
-Ulamog looping with Cloud of Faeries
G5: T4 Infinite Ulamog
Opening Island, Sylvan Tutor, Owl Familiar, Gaea's Cradle, Flooded Strand, Gilded Drake
Mulling owl familiar, gilded drake, gaea's cradle into cloud of faeries, llanowar elves
T1 Island
T2 draw Wall of Roots, cast wall of roots and sylvan tutor for Trinket Mage, Wall of roots on opponents turn
T3
-Draw Trinket Mage
-Cloud of Faeries off of Wall of roots floating 1
-Earthcraft leaving Flooded Grove untapped
-Llanowar and craft into trinket mage tutoring skull clamp, cast skull clamp off of trinket
T4:
Draw Arctic Merfolk
Craft and clamp llanowar drawing sylvan scrying, misty rainforest
Misty rainforest, fetch taiga, craft and tap wall of roots, cast animar
craft faeries and tap island, Arctic menfolk returning cloud of faeries
craft merfok, cast cloud of faeries
respond to the trigger, craft twice and grove for GGU, untap taiga and grove
skull clamp wall of roots into hapless researcher, tropical island
craft animar, cast hapless researcher, craft and convert
draw breeding pool, fathom seer
play a morphed fathom seer, craft and convert cloud of faeries into birds of paradise, dream stalker
infinite dream stalker
birds, craft and convert into tinder wall, forest
tinder wall, craft and convert into shrieking drake, elvish visionary
tap taiga, cast visionary into wall of blossoms
craft and convert off of floating red into rofellos, forest
grove for GG, wall of blossoms into gaea's cradle
craft, shrieking drake bouncing fathom seer
craft drake, convert into lotus cobra, scarecrone
scarecrow, craft, clamp and bust with open blue into simian spirit guide, peregrine drake, forest
fathom seer morphed, craft and peregrine drake
lotus cobra, craft and convert into wild growth, arid mesa
wild growth island, loop stalker for infinite green
sylvan scrying for command tower (doesn't actually matter)
rofellos, convert into chord of calling, survival of the fittest
survival of the fittest, discard simian spirit guide into artisan of kozilek
Artisan of Kozilek reviving Shrieking Drake
Shrieking Drake returning Arctic merfolk
Arctic merfolk returning artisan of Kozilek
Skullclamp Shrieking Drake
Loop for cloudstone curio
curio looping ulamog.
G6: T4 Almost Infinite Ulamog
Opening Hand: Lotus Cobra, Flamekin Harbinger, Glimpse of Nature, Dryad Arbor, Fyndhorn Elves, Primevil Titan
mulling brainstorm, primeval titan, glimpse of nature for stomping ground, cloud of faeries
T1: Draw quirion ranger, stomping ground into fyndhorn elves
T2: Draw Fathom Seer Lotus Cobra, Dryad arbor into quirion ranger
T3: Draw Gilded Drake
Tap grounds for red, replay floating green off of arbor, floating blue off of lotus cobra
Animar floating red
Flamekin for mull drifter
morphed fathom seer
T4: draw mull drifter
replay grounds floating red, lotus for blue
evoke mull drifter into eternal witness, skullclamp
cast clamp with floating red
clamp flamekin harbinger into island, lotus petal
clamp fyndhorn elves into fierce empath, sea gate oracle
fierce empath into primeval titan
cloud of faeries untapping arbor and grounds
primeval titan for island, island
respond to lotus cobra, morph fathom seer into forest, sylvan ranger
float UU off of cobra
clamp cloud of faeries into forest, mox diamond
mox diamond, lotus petal GG into eternal witness targeting cloud of faeries
cloud of faeries untapping stomping ground, dryad arbor
clamp cloud of faeries into scarecrone, wirewood symbiote
wirewood symbiote returning fierce empath, unapping dryad arbor
fierce empath for artisan of kozilek
artisan of kozilek returning cloud of faeries
scarecrone
clamp eternal witness into trinket mage, imperial recruiter
imperial recruiter for phyrexian metamorph
phyrexian metamorph copying primeval titan for gaea's cradle, flooded grove floating UU
skull clamp qurion ranger for wild cantor, earth craft
slull clamp imperial recruiter for crop rotation, misty rainforest
Frown a lot, swing for a lot, add Asuza to the deck.
G7: T3 Almost infinite Ulamog
Opening Hand: Forest, Forest, Forest, Command Tower, Misty Rainforest, Bloom Tender
Mull Forest, Forest, Forest for wild cantor, utopia sprawl
T1: Draw scalding tarn, misty rainforest popping for tropical island, mox diamond discarding command tower, utopia sprawl on tropical island naming blue, bloom tender.
T2:
Draw Imperial Recruiter (o.O)
Cast Animar
Bloom Tender
Cast Wild Cantor
Cast Imperial Recruiter for Shrieking drake
Pop Scaling tarn for Taiga
Cast shrieking drake off of wild cantor
return imperial recruiter
cast imperial recruiter off of taiga for Phrexian Metamorph
T3: Draw gilded Drake
Phyrexian Metamorph copying shrieking drake 12 times
Phrexian Metamorph copying imperial recruiter for Fierce Empath
Fiece Empath for Kozilek
Kozilek into Gush, Wooded Foothills, Slithermuse, Simian Spirit Guide
Foothills for volcanic island
RFG Simian Spirit Guide
Evoke slithermuse drawing peregrine drake, flamekin harbinger
flamekin harbinger for mulldrifter
Peregrine Drake floating G (pool is UUG)
float total of UUUUBB, gush volcanic and tropical into chord of calling, mull drifter
mulldrifter into wordily tutor, forest
chord of calling for trinket mage => skull clamp
cast clamp, clamp shrieking drake, draw artisan of kozilek, birds of paradise
clamp phyrexian metamorph, draw gaea's cradle, sylvan ranger
worldly tutor for primeval titan
clamp flamekin harbinger for primeval titan, fyndhorn elves
primevil titan for polluted delta, wooded foothills
artisan of kozilek returning phyrexian metamorph, copying peregrin drake
pop fetch lands for a forest and an island
clamp imperial recruiter for wall of blossoms, island
clamp fierce empath for commune with nature, verdant catacombs
commune with nature reveal a sad and lonely earthcraft, grabbing arbor elves
swing for a lot, and frown that you didn't loop ulamog because you drew cradle then realize oh, that was T3
G8: T4 Infinite Ulamog, potential for a curio-less infinite
Opening Hand: Eternal Witness, Sylvan Ranger, Llanowar Elves, Scalding Tarn, Steam Vents, Glimpse of Nature
mull eternal witness, sylvan ranger, forest
T1: Draw topical island, tropical island, llanowar elves
T2: Draw Lotus petal, play steam vents, cast Animar
T3: Draw Gilded Drake, play lotus petal
Glimpse of Nature
Play Sylvan ranger drawing reflecting pool, tutor a basic island
Reflecting pool, pop petal, eternal witness drawing shrieking drake
Return Glimpse of Nature
T4: Draw Wood elves
cast glimpse of nature
play a forest, wood elves drawing green sun's zenith, tutoring breeding pool
Green sun's zenith for Wirewood Symbiote
Return wood elves untapping llanowar elves
Wood elves, drawing phyrexian metamorph, tutoring forest
Shrieking drake, drawing skull clamp, returning Wirewood Symbiote
Wirewood Symbiote, drawing coiling oracle
return wood elves, replay wood elves, drawing polluted delta
loop metamorph, copying shrieking drake 10 times, drawing mull drifter, orcish lumberjack, dryad arbor, flame kin harbinger, fyndhorn elves, survival of the fittest, sea gate oracle, spellskite, owl familiar, crop rotation.
Crop rotation, sacrificing forest for gaea's cradle
cast spellskite, drawing wooded foothills
Cradle for 8, cast survival
survival for cloud of faeries
survival for prime time
prime time for flooded grove, eye of ugin
faeries untapping grove, cradle
clamp faeries
survival for phantasmal image
phantsmal peregrine drake
eye of ugin ulamog
survival reset ulamog, tutoring phantasmal
loop phantasmal, ugin, and resets until cloudstone curio is drawn
curio loop ulamog
Isn't the namesake combo pretty bad? It leaves you at 2 life so you can't even do it if you've taken any damage, cracked 2 fetches or played an untapped Rav dual. And if you didn't do any of those things you can still be pretty easily burned out and cheap burn is starting to get more popular because its really good against Edric who is one of the most popular generals.
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On Mono Black in Commander:
Quote from BlackJack68 »
But whomever your commander is, Cabal Coffers is really in charge.
Isn't the namesake combo pretty bad? It leaves you at 2 life so you can't even do it if you've taken any damage, cracked 2 fetches or played an untapped Rav dual. And if you didn't do any of those things you can still be pretty easily burned out and cheap burn is starting to get more popular because its really good against Edric who is one of the most popular generals.
Not so much. The list adheres to the french ban list, but for the most part it prefers standard 40 life games. Even if you do play french, as I do a lot, the majority of the time you're going to have more cards in your hand, and you're going to be able to reduce the life cost substantially. There's also nothing stopping you from stopping at 7-9 counters, and following up with Artisan of Kozilek, Kozilek or Ulamog. Got an extra bounce effect in your hand? By all means end the blood loop early, cast Kozilek, and reassess. There's no shame in putting a T3 Eldrazi in play, and not winning that turn.
Sweet deck, I have had a big respect for Animar when I was shown his interaction with Imperial Recruiter.
I have to wonder, though: is Shrieking Drake really necessary? Can't you accomplish the same thing for the same mana with Man-o'-War? That should free up a slot in the decklist for more utility or whatever, which is huge unless of course I am missing something.
Isn't 31 lands far too low? Is running a terribad card like Dryad Arbor just for the GSZ interaction worth it? Dryad Arbor isn't a spell, so when you play Dryad Arbor from your hand, it won't put a counter on Animar. It's just a CiPt forest that dies to sweepers.
Also, your deck seems to be very lacking in wincons if your recruiter gets countered, as casting the Eldrazi in a timely manner really only happens with a goldfish that can't interact. If you can't get the chain off I really don't see how your list gets consistent turn 3/4 wins as you are saying, as your other listed win conditions arn't tutorable at all aside from skull clamp but that's not actually a win condition. You would be much better off running Palinchron instead, because infinite mana and an infinite Animar in this deck really never fails to win upon resolution and it would cut several slots from your deck. It's also a great instant win to tutor for when you can't get recruiter which the Eldrazi are not. How your deck could possibly have the tempo to recover from your t2 Animar getting removed as I don't see you hitting five mana without casting a bunch of dorks which would accell you into an animar and an empty hand. Gush and Fathom Seer seem terrible in a 3 color deck trying to win on turn 3/4.
Just my 2 cents.
LATE EDIT: I just noticed that you have Primeval Titan listed twice....under lands. 0_0
Sweet deck, I have had a big respect for Animar when I was shown his interaction with Imperial Recruiter.
I have to wonder, though: is Shrieking Drake really necessary? Can't you accomplish the same thing for the same mana with Man-o'-War? That should free up a slot in the decklist for more utility or whatever, which is huge unless of course I am missing something.
Shrieking drake is significantly better than Man-o'-war for a whole host of reasons: it curves out much better, it's able to be skull clamped, and it doesn't target. With Man-o'-war, you're always at risk of your opponent responding to your targeting by using spot removal and should they use spot removal in response to the trigger, it's beneficial to be able to still return something. It also has the added bonus of being able to return Phantasmal Image. Either way though, both cards are integral pieces of the all of the principal combos both in their ability to recast themselves, and their ability to recast key cards: Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake, etc.
Isn't 31 lands far too low? Is running a terribad card like Dryad Arbor just for the GSZ interaction worth it? Dryad Arbor isn't a spell, so when you play Dryad Arbor from your hand, it won't put a counter on Animar. It's just a CiPt forest that dies to sweepers.
Dropping the land count increased the decks consistency substantially. You have to keep in mind, the deck has just about every piece of supplemental acceleration in the format.
As for Dryad Arbor, aside from Green Sun's Zenith, there're still many other relevant interactions such as: Gaea's Cradle, Primeval Titan, Cloudstone Curio, Wirewood Symbiote, Quirion Ranger, Skull Clamp not to mention all the fetch lands and Wood Elves. Quite frequently, Primeval into Gaea's Cradle and Dryad Arbor with Cloud of Faeries ready will be that extra little push towards pulling off a successful full stack combo.
Also, your deck seems to be very lacking in wincons if your recruiter gets countered, as casting the Eldrazi in a timely manner really only happens with a goldfish that can't interact. If you can't get the chain off I really don't see how your list gets consistent turn 3/4 wins as you are saying, as your other listed win conditions arn't tutorable at all aside from skull clamp but that's not actually a win condition. You would be much better off running Palinchron instead, because infinite mana and an infinite Animar in this deck really never fails to win upon resolution and it would cut several slots from your deck. It's also a great instant win to tutor for when you can't get recruiter which the Eldrazi are not. How your deck could possibly have the tempo to recover from your t2 Animar getting removed as I don't see you hitting five mana without casting a bunch of dorks which would accell you into an animar and an empty hand. Gush and Fathom Seer seem terrible in a 3 color deck trying to win on turn 3/4.
Well, there certainly are plenty of win conditions, but mainly what makes the deck so strong is it's synergy. There're are so many different ways to combo off in this deck it's not even funny, and in the occurrence of critical counters and sweepers, that ability to bounce back and combo off on the spot makes animar downright scary. The list doesn't depend on any single card, and merely countering something like Recruiter isn't all that big of an issue. Also, despite the low land count, getting 5 mana is not that difficult.
Palinchron is just bad, no ways around it. On paper yea, infinite mana and counters yay, but in reality requiring 4 blue mana to loop and a 5th land to capitalize is far too situational and doesn't fit with the decks land strategy. Far too often, Palinchron is a dead card that bogs down the deck.
As for Fathom Seer / Gush, when you're consistently fetching dual lands and have supplemental land drops off of primeval titan and wood elves, neither of these are hard to use. Outside of it's gush ability, Fathom Seer's ability to played for free is very relavent when casting Peregrine Drake or Primeval Titan, and it goes haywire with Cloudstone Curio. The returned lands generally create a tempo boost rather than the typical tempo loss, and the extra cards smooth things out considerably.
I play tested this deck for a good 3 months before making this primer, and believe me, this probably as least fragile as combos decks come. I didn't really go into all that comprehensive of a late game strategical breakdown, but this is by no means a one shot wonder deck.
Depends on the build, how would feel about adding Trinket Mage and Grafdigger's Cage? My build is French AND regular list. It's a double-edged card but I still need to revamp my list with DA cards coming in. My list also includes Edric, Spymaster of Trest.
How's your build against much more faster and much more tier one decks (other than French)? Your scenarios are ok but i'm much more interested with matchups against better decks...
Having played against this deck, I can confirm its probably the fastest combo deck in the format. Its ridiculously consistent (don't forget there are like 4 infinite combos in the deck without animar) and so quick its nonsensical. The deck might be a bit soft to decks specifially built to beat Edric (and consequently Animar), but its not unwinnable.
Depends on the build, how would feel about adding Trinket Mage and Grafdigger's Cage? My build is French AND regular list. It's a double-edged card but I still need to revamp my list with DA cards coming in. My list also includes Edric, Spymaster of Trest.
How's your build against much more faster and much more tier one decks (other than French)? Your scenarios are ok but i'm much more interested with matchups against better decks...
Trinket Mage is already in the list. Grafdigger's Cage however probably screws up Evergreens deck pretty bad, but it's not adding in tech solely for that matchup, especially when Skull Clamp is already a target. Edric, Spymaster of Trest isn't really all that interesting. Other than Animar, most of your creatures aren't going to be attacking in, and the UG cost will end up ending the combo too frequently.
As far as match ups go, I tested quite a bit against hermit druid, and it was a relatively fair matchup. We were both capable of T3 kills, however Animar was more consistent, and before I helped rebuild his deck to run the Sun Titan variant with more disruption it was slightly in my favor largely because he needed too many mana sources.
Against Ad Nauseam, especially the Maralen of the Mornsong builds, if they ever cast their general, I'd easily win off of the tutor, or at the very least phantasmal Maralen, making them rely more on tutors to get Ad Nauseam. Generally, this made it more difficult for them to go off T3, and Animar's consistency would prevail.
A quick breakdown of matchups:
Ruhan, of the Fomori - probably the hardest matchup solely because of a combination burn, bounce and counters to slow down animar while still managing considerable pressure. If you can manage adding several counters to animar the same turn it's cast you can frequently avoid being burnt out. Otherwise, focus on drawing out counters and getting prime time in play.
Edric - the bounce aspect can throw off animar, but for the most part they just cast Edric, and you untap and win. A lot of the times, this is an eldrazi matchup, in which annihilator will break their chump blockers if you're unable to manage spot removal on their only blocker (freshly cast Edric) or an infinite ulamog loop.
Zur - despite it's counters, Zur lacks the efficiency and pressure to fend off animar. It's far too easy to punish them for casting zur, and they end up relying Jace, the Mind Sculptor and possibly Jitte for making the match win able. Phantasmal Image eats an un-targetable/protected Zur. Aside from the easy picking game steals if they do any play mistakes, this is a matchup where prime time/ Eye of Ugin really stands out.
Azusa - the lack of ways to deal with Animar makes the matchup pretty easy.
I'm surprised that you get to beat out Zur and Edric... Those are my terrible matchups especially when dealing those 3 mention in this posts.
What are your thoughts in Opposition in your current build? It's useful for me against aggro matchups and it's an ideal target for the annoying counters...
Wyden is an easier matchup than zur. If you're on the play, it's very easy to jam an uncountered Animar out T2. Later however, if you can goad a counter and slide in an undisputed skull clamp, eye of ugin, primeval titan, earthcraft, cloudstone curio, survival of the fittest, gaea's cradle or glimpse of nature, it's very easy to punish them. It is a very strange matchup though.
Opposition is certainly an interesting card, but the issue remains that more often than not you'll have it, it'll be a dead card, and you'll suffer a dramatic tempo loss.
Sylvan Library is certainly interesting, but in practice you really don't want to play it T2, and the life loss is substancial when you're already paying life for metamorph counters.
Great Primer, it made me realize the potential of Animar. By your primer I see how good it can be in a vacuum. The "on paper" version seems great, and your goldfishing examples were nice. But what happens when you're disrupted in the beginning. Animar is observably the "linchpin" of the combo. So what happens when Animar gets countered or killed early? Can you enlighten me on your alternative win cons? Your "secondary" combos? With 31 lands it seems hard for you to hit 5 or 7 lands to recast Animar.
Take a second, and look at the sheer volume of mana producers in the deck. Getting 5/7 mana isn't hard at all, and very often it is beneficial to bait counters with animar to clear the way for key cards like cloudstone curio, earthcraft and survival of the fittest.
Also, its not actually all that easy for people to deal with Animar. His pro black/pro white status really nullifies the majority of removal in this format, and while burn is certainly a concern, it's not really all that prevalent in the meta. You can play around bounce, and around burn, or even play through it.
Survival of the Fittest, Cloudstone Curio, Earthcraft, Skull Clamp and Primeval Titan all are more than impressive in an Animar-less game.
Not so much. The list adheres to the french ban list, but for the most part it prefers standard 40 life games. Even if you do play french, as I do a lot, the majority of the time you're going to have more cards in your hand, and you're going to be able to reduce the life cost substantially. There's also nothing stopping you from stopping at 7-9 counters, and following up with Artisan of Kozilek, Kozilek or Ulamog. Got an extra bounce effect in your hand? By all means end the blood loop early, cast Kozilek, and reassess. There's no shame in putting a T3 Eldrazi in play, and not winning that turn.
Why even bother conforming to the French list if you're not going to actually play by their rules? Also I think 31 mana is a bit short to have cards like the Eldrazi in the list. They don't some castable without cradle/animar which you aren't always going to have. It also seems like you have literally 0 protection in the deck so you're just planning on always being faster? What happens if you don't get a fast Animar and are on the draw and they play Edric, smash and then proceed to counter all of your relevant spells for the rest of the game? I feel like playing no protection is incorrect for a combo deck like this especially since every single combo piece is vulnerable to removal in addition to just being straight up countered.
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It's a very weird that your Wyden matchups is much more tolerable. Unless you're just lucky. I find Wyden, Edric and such as are more bad matchups in my case... especially competitive players.
Opposition is certainly an interesting card, but the issue remains that more often than not you'll have it, it'll be a dead card, and you'll suffer a dramatic tempo loss.
The reason for suggesting is against tempo... I've played against blockers which in my case annoying since Animar doesn't have trample. After seeing Elrdic plays which much more control/aggro combination, I included which is almost the without a second thought. I used it, and it's awesome.
Sylvan Library is certainly interesting, but in practice you really don't want to play it T2, and the life loss is substancial when you're already paying life for metamorph counters.
That's where you're wrong. Life doesn't matter if you have FTK. I've played players who used the Library down to 2 and managed to flew right through me... in both 1v1, Multi and French in different competitive green decks.
I play french and non-french, but mainly the deck doesn't actually want to play any cards that would otherwise be legal in non-french settings. There is no modification between either rules set.
If an opponent drops a T3 Edric, then they aren't leaving mana open for counters, and it's easy to punish them for that.
Do you actually have any suggestions for protection? Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily opposed to adding in combo protection cards, it's just for the most part I've focused on resiliency and consistency as a substitue for protection.
I know it's Primeval Titan... but you have 2 of them? Albeit misspelled.
Ah, in the lands... that was a typo.
That's where you're wrong. Life doesn't matter if you have FTK. I've played players who used the Library down to 2 and managed to flew right through me... in both 1v1, Multi and French in different competitive green decks.
If sylvan could just start in play, yes I would run that so quickly. The problem is though that it can't, and it's downright awkward to pitch a critical turn to play Sylvan. You're barely ever going to do it T2 over Animar, and it's completely useless within any combo chain.
I think you need to take a little time, and really try out pulling off a long hand combo. When you start pulling off 40 card chains relatively consistently, it dramatically changes your perspective on the deck, and on card selection. Hit me up on cockatrice sometime if you want some pointers.
I played either way... I played cockratice too and I'm looking for much quicker and more annoying decklist... your list is still in need some convincing, since I've played Animar and having heard that your opening hand is godly is bit farfetched.
i.e. I've experienced a not so godly hands and have to mulligan down to nothing... which happens too often to any players online or in real life.
I know that Animar is a hidden gem and the only weakness is players playing blue counters like Edric, Wyden, Clique, and others.
and also your primer "seemed" to state that Animar is one of the top tier decks especially with your decklist. I find it cheaper and much more consistent in paper however I feel that it lacks something... something that we've missed. Until then, I'll try and help you make it better.
I play french and non-french, but mainly the deck doesn't actually want to play any cards that would otherwise be legal in non-french settings. There is no modification between either rules set.
If an opponent drops a T3 Edric, then they aren't leaving mana open for counters, and it's easy to punish them for that.
Do you actually have any suggestions for protection? Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily opposed to adding in combo protection cards, it's just for the most part I've focused on resiliency and consistency as a substitue for protection.
They can still leave up their free counters of which they play a bunch and not to mention they don't have to cast Edric, they can just hold up counter magic. I just don't see this deck doing well against any of the blue Tempo/Aggro-control decks which make up the vast majority of the top tier decks. As for protection I'd probably thing about playing FoW and Pact of Negation so you can potentially fight to resolve one of your key pieces. There is also REB and Pyroblast which are both cheap answers to counterspells but they will be dead in some matchups.
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On Mono Black in Commander:
Quote from BlackJack68 »
But whomever your commander is, Cabal Coffers is really in charge.
I wanted to see an Animar deck in any French tournaments (locals and nationals) but sadly we can't... we only see top winners such as Edric, Geist and friends... Based on the tier list in this thread... Animar is not an A or S.
My design is mostly base on an Edric deck + Cam's design...
This version of the deck in particular has never been represented in a French Tournament. It's a new deck to the format. The lack of an A or S tier has nothing to do with the deck quality at this point, it's just unrepresented and, being as this variant in particular is significantly harder to pilot, the deck probably will never see the kind of representation it deserves. That said, I do personally have a very strong win% against the Tier 1 decks, and plan on breaking the format ;p
I'm aware of CamWallin's design, and it's notable to mention that within the time span of that particular tournament, his working development deck changed greatly. The newer version of his deck incorporates a lot of elements from my list.
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This is a hardline build, streamlined to win on T3/T4. As such, please keep in mind in discussion that this one of the most competitive decks in the format, and multiplayer strategies such as Kiki-Jiki or other typical, yet-slower variants of Animar should be discussed elsewhere.
Animar, above all else, is a general of economics. The goal of this deck is by no means to win with a hoard of creatures, but rather to manage lethal general damage. Many of the big cards in here, such as the Eldrazi package, for the most part serve a utility role within the greater scheme, and of the many times they're cast, very rarely do they ever attack in.
A huge principle of Animar is the ideal mana net; that is, the net mana for any particular creature under an ideal cost reduction scenario as presented below. The principle chain is to use auxiliary amplifiers in conjunction with net-zero and above creatures in a manor that maximizes mana efficiency, and subsequently maximizes utility cards.
Ideal Cost Breakdown
Net Four
Peregrin Drake
Net One
Cloud of Faeries
Fathom Seer
Tinder Wall
Net Zero
Wood Elves
Wild Cantor
Quirion Sentinel
Wall of Roots
Spellskite
Scarecrone
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Artisan of Kozilek
Phyrexian Metamorph
Auxiliary Cards
Utopia Sprawl
Wild Growth
Phrexian Metamorph
Dream Stalker
Man-O'-War
Shrieking Drake
Arctic Merfolk
Crop Rotation
Gush
Chord of Calling
Gaea's Cradle
Sylvan Tutor
Worldly Tutor
Utility Creatures
Flamekin Harbinger
Fierce Empath
Elvish Visionary
Hapless Researcher
Imperial Recruiter
Owl Familiar
Primeval Titan
Slithermuse
Sea Gate Oracle
Sylvan Ranger
Fathom Seer
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Trinket Mage
Artisan of Kozilek
Wall of Blossoms
Coiling Oracle
Overview of Primary Combos
Imperial/Vindicate
Imperial Recruiter => Phyrexian Metamorph
Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter for Shrieking Drake
Shrieking Drake returning Phyrexian Metamorph
Phyrexian Metamorph copying Shrieking drake and returning itself looping up to 7/8/9/17 counters
Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter for Fierce Empath
Fierce Empath for some Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Skullclamp T.0
Cloudstone Curio
Earthcraft
Primeval Titan
Survival of the Fittest
Card Choices
Cards excluded
Aluren - four mana is really awkward in this deck. For the most part, Aluren is card disadvantage that sets you back a turn, gives your opponent outs to eldrazi, and doesn't really even put you ahead mana wise.
Food Chain - Creatures are very relevant after being cast. With so many effects utilizing creatures beyond their initial ETB, food chain just doesn't make sense.
Palinchron - The blue mana investment is too substantial to warrant using Palinchron, and fierce empath into Primeval Titan, or an eldrazi, leaves you in a better board position for the most part.
Tidespout Tyrant - Too much blue. Sure he's a decent pseudo cloudstone curio, but for the most part he's a dead card in your opening hand that rarely will see any play, and is comparatively clunky and slow.
Momir Vig - Curve issues.
Regal Force - Curve issues.
Primordial Sage - Curve issues.
Sol Ring - Colorless Mana is largely irrelevant.
Mana Crypt - Colorless Mana is largely irrelevant.
Vodalian Merchant/Merfolk Traders - Notable potential entries that loses out to Owl Familiar / Hapless Researcher purely because they aren't skull clampable.
Solemn Simulacrum - At 4 mana, Solemn strictly losses out to Scarecrone as a segue into Peregrin Drake and Primeval Titan.
Whirlpool Rider - It's a cool effect, but 2CC creatures serve as a segue into critical 3 drop utility creatures. As such, quite frequently whirlpool rider either doesn't curve out, or pitches away critical cards.
Snap - As much as I love snap, it's very conditional. In far too many of the situations in which you'd want to use snap, you're stuck casting it on a filler creature rather than a utility creature strictly because of the 1 mana difference it would take to cast said creature before snap. Being as it takes up a card in your hand, there is a very good chance it will inhibit your ability to curve out ideally.
Duplicant - As a fierce empath target, Duplicant looses out to Primeval Titan or any Eldrazi. In this format, Ulamog, Phantasmal Image, Phyrexian Metamorph and Gilded Drake are all better solutions. Outside of the spot removal case, Duplicant doesn't work with cloudstone curio, and is an auto mulligan.
Atypical Inclusions
Flamekin Harbinger - Perhaps one of my favorite animar gems, as a one drop he contributes to a much better curve, and the ability to top Slithermuse or Mulldrifter generates a tidy card/tempo advantage.
Hapless Researcher - Simply amazing in Animar. Qualified one drops are few and far between, and this guy serves to smooth over the curve as well as act as a cycler. Despite the 32 land count, the deck requires so few lands in action that it's often useful to cycle them, especially with effects like Gush, Fathom Seer, Quirion Ranger and Sylvan ranger to push more lands into the grip. Works nicely with Worldy Tutor, Flamekin Harbinger, Sylvan Tutor.
Owl Familiar - Curves out nicely, cycles lands, and is skull clamp-able. The deck wants to dig, and every digger is appreciated.
Scarecrone - Peregrin Drakes and Primeval Titan's best friend. Scarecrone serves as a much needed freebie counter, and has the added bonus of cycling/skull clamping on demand. Every once in a while, he'll return Phyrexian Metamorph and shoot down an opposing general. Hello mirror match?
Tinder Wall - T2 Animar with a flame kin harbinger to boot? Seems decent. Add in skull clamp or cloudstone curio + Artisan of Kozilek and he really shines.
Gush - Even better than free card draw; after casting you can shamelessly replay Tropical Island.
Eye of Ugin - 7 mana sounds like a lot, but when you're sporting a gaea's cradle or bloom tender it really isn't, and the follow up on-demand Eldrazi is a scary prospect.
Utopia Sprawl - T2 Animar, enough said? Toss in Cloud of Faeries, Earthcraft or Peregrin Drake, and Uptopia Sprawl means business.
Wild Growth - Same as Utopia Sprawl.
Wild Cantor - Aside from the obvious T2 Animar, Wild Cantor combos out insanely with Cloudstone Curio and Artisan of Kozilek, adds a much needed free counter to animar, and enables Peregrin Drake and Cloud of Faeries off of a skull clamp/Gaea's Cradle combo when otherwise not possible.
Slithermuse - Ever played Ancestral Recall? Well, Slithermuse is quite often better. One blue for a new hand will win a lot of games, and he's even tutor-able with Flamekin Harbinger.
Potential Cuts
Potential Additions
Cards I wish were legal
Currently Testing:
Current Decklist
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Flooded Grove
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Stomping Ground
1 Steam Vents
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Windswept Heath
1 Tropical Island
1 Volcanic Island
6 Forest
4 Island
1 Mountain
1 Arid Mesa
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Flooded Strand
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Dream Stalker
1 Wood Elves
1 Trinket Mage
1 Bloom Tender
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Mulldrifter
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Primeval Titan
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Fierce Empath
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Man-o'-War
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Raven Familiar
1 Gilded Drake
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Earthcraft
1 Worldly Tutor
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Skullclamp
1 Chord of Calling
1 Shrieking Drake
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Brainstorm
1 Mox Diamond
1 Arbor Elf
1 Wall of Roots
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Peregrine Drake
1 Wild Cantor
1 Quirion Sentinel
1 Arctic Merfolk
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Tinder Wall
1 Utopia Sprawl
1 Owl Familiar
1 Fathom Seer
1 Glimpse of Nature
1 Spellskite
1 Hapless Researcher
1 Gush
1 Slithermuse
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Wild Growth
1 Sage of Epityr
1 Augury Owl
1 Gitaxian Probe
1 Daze
1 Cursecatcher
1 Wirewood Herald
1 Sylvan Tutor
1 Shared Discovery
1 Copperline Gorge
1 Land Grant
1 Shardless Agent
1 Bond Beetle
1 Faerie Impostor
1 Gatecreeper Vine
Archived List
1 Arid Mesa
1 Bloodstained Mire
1 Breeding Pool
1 Command Tower
1 Eye of Ugin
1 Fire-Lit Thicket
1 Flooded Grove
1 Flooded Strand
1 Gaea's Cradle
1 Misty Rainforest
1 Mountain
1 Polluted Delta
1 Reflecting Pool
1 Scalding Tarn
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Foothills
3 Island
6 Forest
Creatures (50):
1 Dryad Arbor
1 Arbor Elf
1 Flamekin Harbinger
1 Fyndhorn Elves
1 Hapless Researcher
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Orcish Lumberjack
1 Shrieking Drake
1 Quirion Ranger
1 Tinder Wall
1 Wild Cantor
1 Wirewood Symbiote
1 Birds of Paradise
1 Bloom Tender
1 Cloud of Faeries
1 Coiling Oracle
1 Dream Stalker
1 Elvish Visionary
1 Gilded Drake
1 Owl Familiar
1 Lotus Cobra
1 Phantasmal Image
1 Quirion Sentinel
1 Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
1 Spellskite
1 Sylvan Ranger
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Wall of Roots
1 Fathom Seer
1 Fauna Shaman
1 Elvish Spirit Guide
1 Eternal Witness
1 Fierce Empath
1 Imperial Recruiter
1 Man-o'-War
1 Scarecrone
1 Raven Familiar
1 Sea Gate Oracle
1 Trinket Mage
1 Wood Elves
1 Simian Spirit Guide
1 Phyrexian Metamorph
1 Slithermuse
1 Peregrine Drake
1 Primeval Titan
1 Artisan of Kozilek
1 Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
1 Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
Instants (5):
1 Brainstorm
1 Chord of Calling
1 Crop Rotation
1 Gush
1 Worldly Tutor
Sorceries (4):
1 Commune with Nature
1 Sulvan Tutor
1 Sylvan Scrying
1 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Glimpse of Nature
Artifacts (4):
1 Cloudstone Curio
1 Mox Diamond
1 Skullclamp
1 Lotus Petal
Enchantments (4):
1 Utoptia Sprawl
1 Survival of the Fittest
1 Earthcraft
1 Wild Growth
Sample Goldfish Games (8 Consecutive games going for longhand kills). For the most part they were all modest hands, and I got relatively fewer T3 kills than normal. Didn't get as many T2 Animars as I'd have liked.
G1, T4 Imperial Chain
Mulligan Forest, Forest, Chord of Calling, Fauna Shaman into Artisan of Kozilek, Lotus Cobra, Quirion Ranger
T1: Breeding Pool,
T2: Draw Mox Diamond, play Taiga and Lotus Cobra
T3: Draw Coiling Oracle, Play Qurion Ranger, replay Taiga, Cast Animar.
T4: Draw Wild Cantor,
- Cast Coiling Oracle into Wall of Blossoms
-Replay Taiga
-Cast Wild Cantor
-Cast Imperial Recruiter for Phyrexian Metamorph
-Phyrexian Metamorph Imperial Recruiter for Shrieking Drake
-Sac Cantor, cast Shrieking Drake returing Phyrexian Metamorph
-Loop Phyrexian Metamorph copying Shrieking Drake 4 Times
-Cast Artisan of Kozilek returning Wild Cantor
-Loop Phrexian Metamorph copying Shrieking Drake 7 Times
-Phrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter for Fierce Empath
-Sac Cantor, cast Fierce Empath for Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
-Cast Ulamog, doing some spot removal
-Swing for 21
G2 T4: Infinite Ulamog
Mulligan Island, Dryad Arbor, Orcish Lumberjack into Coiling Oracle, Gaea's Cradle
T1: Draw Artisan of Kozilek, play Tropical Island
T2: Draw Polluted Delta, play and sac for Volcanic Island, Worldly Tutor for Cloud of Faeries
T3: Draw Cloud of Faeries, play Island, cast Animar
T4:
-Draw Lotus Petal
-Play Gaea's Cradle
-Play Lotus Petal
-Tap Tropical Island, Glimpse of Nature
-Sacrifice Lotus Petal, Tap Island, Coiling Oracle into Brainstorm and Simian Spirit Guide
-Tap Volcanic Island, Cloud of Faeries into Commune with Nature, respond tap Gaea's Cradle for GGG, untap Cradle and Tropical Island.
-Commune into Prime Time or Flamekin Harbinger, choose Flamekin Harbinger
-Remove Simian Spirit Guide, cast Flamekin into Cloudstone Curio, opting not to tutor
-Brainstorm into Forest, Rofellos, Quirion Sentinel, putting forest and Artisan of Kozilek on top.
-Cradle for 4, cast Curio floating GGG
-Quirion Sentinel into Aritsan of Kozilek, floating blue and returning cloud of faeries.
-Loop cloud of faeries and Quirion Sentinel into Ulamog, loop ulamog and swing with Animar.
G3: Turn 4 Infinite Ulamog
Opening Hand: Forest, Gaea's Cradle, Reflecting Pool, Polluted Delta, Coiling Oracle, Kozilek
Mulligan forest, reflecting pool into Wordly Tutor.
T1: Draw Flamekin Harbinger, Polluted Delta into Taiga, cast Birds of Paradise
T2: Draw Raven Familiar, play Gaea's Cradle, cast Animar
T3:
-Worldly Tutor for Sylvan Ranger,
-Cast Coiling Oracle into Flooded Grove,
-Tap grove floating UG, Ranger for Mountain
-Raven Familiar into Quirion Sentinel
-Play mountain and flamekin Harbinger into Mulldrifter (potentially slither muse),
-Swing for 5
T4:
-Sacrifice Raven Familiar
-Draw Mulldrifter
-Tap Taiga, Quirion Sentinel for Blue
-Cast Mulldrifter into Stomping Ground and Slithermuse
-Play Stomping ground, Tap grove and grounds for UU, Evoking slither muse for 2 cards (probably more) into Elvish Spirit Guide and Island. Responding to the sacrifice with Cradle as well.
-Cast Kozilek into Man-o-war, dryad arbor, chord of calling, forest
-Man-o-war targeting Kozilek, recast kozilek into Sea Gate Oracle, Sylvan Scrying, Wirewood Symbiote, Scarecrone
-Cast Scarecrone, Wirewood Symbiote
-Chord of calling into Trinket Mage for Skullclamp
-Cast clamp, clamp flame kin (tapping mountain, GG floating) into volcanic Island, spells kite
-Cast spellskite
-Clamp Sylvan Ranger into Mox Diamond, Lotus Petal
-Clamp Coiling Oracle into Forest, Green Sun's Zenith
-Cast Lotus Petal, Mox Diamond
-Pop petal and Tap birds, crack scarecrow into flooded strand, tinder wall, fierce empath
-Remove Elvish Spirit Guide, cast Tinder Wall, tap mox diamond and pop Tinder wall for RR into Cloud of Faeries, Commune with Nature
-Bounce Quirion Sentinel, untap Bird of Paradise, replay Quirion Sentinel and play Cloud of Faeries
-Untap Grove and Cradle
-Cradle for 10
-Fierce Empath into Artisan of Kozilek
-Convert Quirion Sentinal for Orcish Lumberjack, Scalding Tarn
-Convert Fierce Empath for Quirion Ranger, Rofellos
-Convert Wirewood Symbiote for Elvish Visionary, Wild Growth
-Cast Elvish Visionary, convert for Forest, Arbor Elf, Imperial Recruiter
-Green Sun's Zenith for Wild Cantor
-Sac Cantor, cast Imperial Recruiter for Phrexian Metamorph
-Cast Quirion Ranger, Arbor Elf
-Return Taiga, untag Birds, Cast Sea Gate Oracle into Phantasmal Image
-Phrexian Metamorph copying Cloud of Faeries, untapping flooded grove and Cradle
-Cradle for 13
-Convert Quirion Ranger for Forest, Lotus Cobra
-Convert Arbor Elf for Ulamog, Green Sun's Zenith
-Convert Imperial Recruiter for Gilded Drake, Wooded Foothills
-Convert Cloud of Faeries for Survival of the fittest, Island
-Cast survival, discard Rofellos for Shrieking Drake
-Artisan returning Cloud of Faeries, respond tap grove (GGGGG UU)
-Drake returning Artisan of Kozilek, responding by tapping cradle for 12
-Loop skull clamp on Drake with Artisan returning drake, drake returning metamorph, metamorph copying drake returning artisan, artisan returning drake, clamp etc.
-Draw into Cloudstone curio, ouch 8 life.
-Peregrin Drake, cradle for 12
-Cloudstone Curio, loop Ulamog
G4: T5 Infinite Ulamog
Mulling Wood Elves, Slither muse, Qurion Ranger into Owl Familiar, Polluted Delta
T1: Draw RofellosSteam Vents
T2: Draw Ulamog, Tropical and cast Bloom Tender
T3: Draw Eternal Witness, cast Animar
T4:
-Draw Earthcraft
-cast Rofellos
-Cast Owl Familiar drawing Cloud of Faeries, discarding Eternal Witness
-Cast Cloud of Faeries, untapped Steam Vents and Tropical
-Tap Steam vents, evoke mull drifter into worldly tutor and glimpse of nature
-Cast earthcraft
T5:
-Worldly Tutor for wood elves, draw wood elves
-Cast Cloudstone curio floating green
-Wood Elves into Breeding pool returning Cloud of Faeries
-Cloud of Faeries returning Wood Elves
-Wood Elves searching for a forest, responding to curio by earth crafting forest with cloud of faeries
-Glimpse of Nature, Faeries returning Wood elves, looping
-Ulamog looping with Cloud of Faeries
G5: T4 Infinite Ulamog
Mulling owl familiar, gilded drake, gaea's cradle into cloud of faeries, llanowar elves
T1 Island
T2 draw Wall of Roots, cast wall of roots and sylvan tutor for Trinket Mage, Wall of roots on opponents turn
T3
-Draw Trinket Mage
-Cloud of Faeries off of Wall of roots floating 1
-Earthcraft leaving Flooded Grove untapped
-Llanowar and craft into trinket mage tutoring skull clamp, cast skull clamp off of trinket
T4:
Draw Arctic Merfolk
Craft and clamp llanowar drawing sylvan scrying, misty rainforest
Misty rainforest, fetch taiga, craft and tap wall of roots, cast animar
craft faeries and tap island, Arctic menfolk returning cloud of faeries
craft merfok, cast cloud of faeries
respond to the trigger, craft twice and grove for GGU, untap taiga and grove
skull clamp wall of roots into hapless researcher, tropical island
craft animar, cast hapless researcher, craft and convert
draw breeding pool, fathom seer
play a morphed fathom seer, craft and convert cloud of faeries into birds of paradise, dream stalker
infinite dream stalker
birds, craft and convert into tinder wall, forest
tinder wall, craft and convert into shrieking drake, elvish visionary
tap taiga, cast visionary into wall of blossoms
craft and convert off of floating red into rofellos, forest
grove for GG, wall of blossoms into gaea's cradle
craft, shrieking drake bouncing fathom seer
craft drake, convert into lotus cobra, scarecrone
scarecrow, craft, clamp and bust with open blue into simian spirit guide, peregrine drake, forest
fathom seer morphed, craft and peregrine drake
lotus cobra, craft and convert into wild growth, arid mesa
wild growth island, loop stalker for infinite green
sylvan scrying for command tower (doesn't actually matter)
rofellos, convert into chord of calling, survival of the fittest
survival of the fittest, discard simian spirit guide into artisan of kozilek
Artisan of Kozilek reviving Shrieking Drake
Shrieking Drake returning Arctic merfolk
Arctic merfolk returning artisan of Kozilek
Skullclamp Shrieking Drake
Loop for cloudstone curio
curio looping ulamog.
G6: T4 Almost Infinite Ulamog
mulling brainstorm, primeval titan, glimpse of nature for stomping ground, cloud of faeries
T1: Draw quirion ranger, stomping ground into fyndhorn elves
T2: Draw Fathom Seer Lotus Cobra, Dryad arbor into quirion ranger
T3: Draw Gilded Drake
Tap grounds for red, replay floating green off of arbor, floating blue off of lotus cobra
Animar floating red
Flamekin for mull drifter
morphed fathom seer
T4: draw mull drifter
replay grounds floating red, lotus for blue
evoke mull drifter into eternal witness, skullclamp
cast clamp with floating red
clamp flamekin harbinger into island, lotus petal
clamp fyndhorn elves into fierce empath, sea gate oracle
fierce empath into primeval titan
cloud of faeries untapping arbor and grounds
primeval titan for island, island
respond to lotus cobra, morph fathom seer into forest, sylvan ranger
float UU off of cobra
clamp cloud of faeries into forest, mox diamond
mox diamond, lotus petal GG into eternal witness targeting cloud of faeries
cloud of faeries untapping stomping ground, dryad arbor
clamp cloud of faeries into scarecrone, wirewood symbiote
wirewood symbiote returning fierce empath, unapping dryad arbor
fierce empath for artisan of kozilek
artisan of kozilek returning cloud of faeries
scarecrone
clamp eternal witness into trinket mage, imperial recruiter
imperial recruiter for phyrexian metamorph
phyrexian metamorph copying primeval titan for gaea's cradle, flooded grove floating UU
skull clamp qurion ranger for wild cantor, earth craft
slull clamp imperial recruiter for crop rotation, misty rainforest
Frown a lot, swing for a lot, add Asuza to the deck.
G7: T3 Almost infinite Ulamog
Mull Forest, Forest, Forest for wild cantor, utopia sprawl
T1: Draw scalding tarn, misty rainforest popping for tropical island, mox diamond discarding command tower, utopia sprawl on tropical island naming blue, bloom tender.
T2:
Draw Imperial Recruiter (o.O)
Cast Animar
Bloom Tender
Cast Wild Cantor
Cast Imperial Recruiter for Shrieking drake
Pop Scaling tarn for Taiga
Cast shrieking drake off of wild cantor
return imperial recruiter
cast imperial recruiter off of taiga for Phrexian Metamorph
T3: Draw gilded Drake
Phyrexian Metamorph copying shrieking drake 12 times
Phrexian Metamorph copying imperial recruiter for Fierce Empath
Fiece Empath for Kozilek
Kozilek into Gush, Wooded Foothills, Slithermuse, Simian Spirit Guide
Foothills for volcanic island
RFG Simian Spirit Guide
Evoke slithermuse drawing peregrine drake, flamekin harbinger
flamekin harbinger for mulldrifter
Peregrine Drake floating G (pool is UUG)
float total of UUUUBB, gush volcanic and tropical into chord of calling, mull drifter
mulldrifter into wordily tutor, forest
chord of calling for trinket mage => skull clamp
cast clamp, clamp shrieking drake, draw artisan of kozilek, birds of paradise
clamp phyrexian metamorph, draw gaea's cradle, sylvan ranger
worldly tutor for primeval titan
clamp flamekin harbinger for primeval titan, fyndhorn elves
primevil titan for polluted delta, wooded foothills
artisan of kozilek returning phyrexian metamorph, copying peregrin drake
pop fetch lands for a forest and an island
clamp imperial recruiter for wall of blossoms, island
clamp fierce empath for commune with nature, verdant catacombs
commune with nature reveal a sad and lonely earthcraft, grabbing arbor elves
swing for a lot, and frown that you didn't loop ulamog because you drew cradle then realize oh, that was T3
G8: T4 Infinite Ulamog, potential for a curio-less infinite
mull eternal witness, sylvan ranger, forest
T1: Draw topical island, tropical island, llanowar elves
T2: Draw Lotus petal, play steam vents, cast Animar
T3: Draw Gilded Drake, play lotus petal
Glimpse of Nature
Play Sylvan ranger drawing reflecting pool, tutor a basic island
Reflecting pool, pop petal, eternal witness drawing shrieking drake
Return Glimpse of Nature
T4: Draw Wood elves
cast glimpse of nature
play a forest, wood elves drawing green sun's zenith, tutoring breeding pool
Green sun's zenith for Wirewood Symbiote
Return wood elves untapping llanowar elves
Wood elves, drawing phyrexian metamorph, tutoring forest
Shrieking drake, drawing skull clamp, returning Wirewood Symbiote
Wirewood Symbiote, drawing coiling oracle
return wood elves, replay wood elves, drawing polluted delta
loop metamorph, copying shrieking drake 10 times, drawing mull drifter, orcish lumberjack, dryad arbor, flame kin harbinger, fyndhorn elves, survival of the fittest, sea gate oracle, spellskite, owl familiar, crop rotation.
Crop rotation, sacrificing forest for gaea's cradle
cast spellskite, drawing wooded foothills
Cradle for 8, cast survival
survival for cloud of faeries
survival for prime time
prime time for flooded grove, eye of ugin
faeries untapping grove, cradle
clamp faeries
survival for phantasmal image
phantsmal peregrine drake
eye of ugin ulamog
survival reset ulamog, tutoring phantasmal
loop phantasmal, ugin, and resets until cloudstone curio is drawn
curio loop ulamog
Play Advice::
Mulligan Technique::
Advance Combos::
Matchups::
Changelog::
I'm not going to be able suggest any cuts, however I would be intrested in the tough matchups.
But Why dont you play Priest of Urabrask or even his terrible brother coal stalker.
Thats all I've got for now, when I have more time I will post my thoughts.
Not so much. The list adheres to the french ban list, but for the most part it prefers standard 40 life games. Even if you do play french, as I do a lot, the majority of the time you're going to have more cards in your hand, and you're going to be able to reduce the life cost substantially. There's also nothing stopping you from stopping at 7-9 counters, and following up with Artisan of Kozilek, Kozilek or Ulamog. Got an extra bounce effect in your hand? By all means end the blood loop early, cast Kozilek, and reassess. There's no shame in putting a T3 Eldrazi in play, and not winning that turn.
I have to wonder, though: is Shrieking Drake really necessary? Can't you accomplish the same thing for the same mana with Man-o'-War? That should free up a slot in the decklist for more utility or whatever, which is huge unless of course I am missing something.
Draft my Mono-Blue Cube!
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Isn't 31 lands far too low? Is running a terribad card like Dryad Arbor just for the GSZ interaction worth it? Dryad Arbor isn't a spell, so when you play Dryad Arbor from your hand, it won't put a counter on Animar. It's just a CiPt forest that dies to sweepers.
Also, your deck seems to be very lacking in wincons if your recruiter gets countered, as casting the Eldrazi in a timely manner really only happens with a goldfish that can't interact. If you can't get the chain off I really don't see how your list gets consistent turn 3/4 wins as you are saying, as your other listed win conditions arn't tutorable at all aside from skull clamp but that's not actually a win condition. You would be much better off running Palinchron instead, because infinite mana and an infinite Animar in this deck really never fails to win upon resolution and it would cut several slots from your deck. It's also a great instant win to tutor for when you can't get recruiter which the Eldrazi are not. How your deck could possibly have the tempo to recover from your t2 Animar getting removed as I don't see you hitting five mana without casting a bunch of dorks which would accell you into an animar and an empty hand. Gush and Fathom Seer seem terrible in a 3 color deck trying to win on turn 3/4.
Just my 2 cents.
LATE EDIT: I just noticed that you have Primeval Titan listed twice....under lands. 0_0
Shrieking drake is significantly better than Man-o'-war for a whole host of reasons: it curves out much better, it's able to be skull clamped, and it doesn't target. With Man-o'-war, you're always at risk of your opponent responding to your targeting by using spot removal and should they use spot removal in response to the trigger, it's beneficial to be able to still return something. It also has the added bonus of being able to return Phantasmal Image. Either way though, both cards are integral pieces of the all of the principal combos both in their ability to recast themselves, and their ability to recast key cards: Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake, etc.
Dropping the land count increased the decks consistency substantially. You have to keep in mind, the deck has just about every piece of supplemental acceleration in the format.
As for Dryad Arbor, aside from Green Sun's Zenith, there're still many other relevant interactions such as: Gaea's Cradle, Primeval Titan, Cloudstone Curio, Wirewood Symbiote, Quirion Ranger, Skull Clamp not to mention all the fetch lands and Wood Elves. Quite frequently, Primeval into Gaea's Cradle and Dryad Arbor with Cloud of Faeries ready will be that extra little push towards pulling off a successful full stack combo.
Well, there certainly are plenty of win conditions, but mainly what makes the deck so strong is it's synergy. There're are so many different ways to combo off in this deck it's not even funny, and in the occurrence of critical counters and sweepers, that ability to bounce back and combo off on the spot makes animar downright scary. The list doesn't depend on any single card, and merely countering something like Recruiter isn't all that big of an issue. Also, despite the low land count, getting 5 mana is not that difficult.
Palinchron is just bad, no ways around it. On paper yea, infinite mana and counters yay, but in reality requiring 4 blue mana to loop and a 5th land to capitalize is far too situational and doesn't fit with the decks land strategy. Far too often, Palinchron is a dead card that bogs down the deck.
As for Fathom Seer / Gush, when you're consistently fetching dual lands and have supplemental land drops off of primeval titan and wood elves, neither of these are hard to use. Outside of it's gush ability, Fathom Seer's ability to played for free is very relavent when casting Peregrine Drake or Primeval Titan, and it goes haywire with Cloudstone Curio. The returned lands generally create a tempo boost rather than the typical tempo loss, and the extra cards smooth things out considerably.
I play tested this deck for a good 3 months before making this primer, and believe me, this probably as least fragile as combos decks come. I didn't really go into all that comprehensive of a late game strategical breakdown, but this is by no means a one shot wonder deck.
Merged Posts -ISB
...except for Animar, who is utterly wrecked by any deck featuring red.
...
YES I'm just butthurt because this is a terrible matchup for Sisay. ;_;
Duel Commander Mega-Thread
How's your build against much more faster and much more tier one decks (other than French)? Your scenarios are ok but i'm much more interested with matchups against better decks...
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
Trinket Mage is one of the best cards in the deck, because it gets skullclamp, which is the best card in the deck.
Trinket Mage is already in the list. Grafdigger's Cage however probably screws up Evergreens deck pretty bad, but it's not adding in tech solely for that matchup, especially when Skull Clamp is already a target. Edric, Spymaster of Trest isn't really all that interesting. Other than Animar, most of your creatures aren't going to be attacking in, and the UG cost will end up ending the combo too frequently.
As far as match ups go, I tested quite a bit against hermit druid, and it was a relatively fair matchup. We were both capable of T3 kills, however Animar was more consistent, and before I helped rebuild his deck to run the Sun Titan variant with more disruption it was slightly in my favor largely because he needed too many mana sources.
Against Ad Nauseam, especially the Maralen of the Mornsong builds, if they ever cast their general, I'd easily win off of the tutor, or at the very least phantasmal Maralen, making them rely more on tutors to get Ad Nauseam. Generally, this made it more difficult for them to go off T3, and Animar's consistency would prevail.
A quick breakdown of matchups:
Ruhan, of the Fomori - probably the hardest matchup solely because of a combination burn, bounce and counters to slow down animar while still managing considerable pressure. If you can manage adding several counters to animar the same turn it's cast you can frequently avoid being burnt out. Otherwise, focus on drawing out counters and getting prime time in play.
Edric - the bounce aspect can throw off animar, but for the most part they just cast Edric, and you untap and win. A lot of the times, this is an eldrazi matchup, in which annihilator will break their chump blockers if you're unable to manage spot removal on their only blocker (freshly cast Edric) or an infinite ulamog loop.
Zur - despite it's counters, Zur lacks the efficiency and pressure to fend off animar. It's far too easy to punish them for casting zur, and they end up relying Jace, the Mind Sculptor and possibly Jitte for making the match win able. Phantasmal Image eats an un-targetable/protected Zur. Aside from the easy picking game steals if they do any play mistakes, this is a matchup where prime time/ Eye of Ugin really stands out.
Azusa - the lack of ways to deal with Animar makes the matchup pretty easy.
Any requests for matchup analysis?
I'm surprised that you get to beat out Zur and Edric... Those are my terrible matchups especially when dealing those 3 mention in this posts.
What are your thoughts in Opposition in your current build? It's useful for me against aggro matchups and it's an ideal target for the annoying counters...
What about Flametongue Kavu?
I assume your Primevil Titan is actually Inferno Titan...
Trygon Predator?
Sylvan Library?
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
Opposition is certainly an interesting card, but the issue remains that more often than not you'll have it, it'll be a dead card, and you'll suffer a dramatic tempo loss.
Flametongue Kavu is largely unnecessary. Man-o'-War, Gilded Drake, Ulamog, Phyrexian Metamorph and Phantasmal Image are generally adequate, and FTK fails to go infinite, decreases the tempo, and has no secondary purpose.
Primeval Titan is in fact Primeval Titan. There's even a section dedicated to him. Gaea's Cradle paired with Eye of Ugin is just that good, especially in an Animar-less game. He also sets up an infinite loop with Survival Of The Fittest utilizing Eye of Ugin Eldrazi resets.
Trygon Predator is somewhat slow. For the most part, Phyrexian Metamorph is the decks sick Umezawa's Jitte tech.
Sylvan Library is certainly interesting, but in practice you really don't want to play it T2, and the life loss is substancial when you're already paying life for metamorph counters.
Also, its not actually all that easy for people to deal with Animar. His pro black/pro white status really nullifies the majority of removal in this format, and while burn is certainly a concern, it's not really all that prevalent in the meta. You can play around bounce, and around burn, or even play through it.
Survival of the Fittest, Cloudstone Curio, Earthcraft, Skull Clamp and Primeval Titan all are more than impressive in an Animar-less game.
Why even bother conforming to the French list if you're not going to actually play by their rules? Also I think 31 mana is a bit short to have cards like the Eldrazi in the list. They don't some castable without cradle/animar which you aren't always going to have. It also seems like you have literally 0 protection in the deck so you're just planning on always being faster? What happens if you don't get a fast Animar and are on the draw and they play Edric, smash and then proceed to counter all of your relevant spells for the rest of the game? I feel like playing no protection is incorrect for a combo deck like this especially since every single combo piece is vulnerable to removal in addition to just being straight up countered.
The reason for suggesting is against tempo... I've played against blockers which in my case annoying since Animar doesn't have trample. After seeing Elrdic plays which much more control/aggro combination, I included which is almost the without a second thought. I used it, and it's awesome.
Well, it's ok I guess. I like having bolt and and some removal.
I know it's Primeval Titan... but you have 2 of them? Albeit misspelled.
1 Primevil Titan
That's where you're wrong. Life doesn't matter if you have FTK. I've played players who used the Library down to 2 and managed to flew right through me... in both 1v1, Multi and French in different competitive green decks.
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
If an opponent drops a T3 Edric, then they aren't leaving mana open for counters, and it's easy to punish them for that.
Do you actually have any suggestions for protection? Don't get me wrong, I'm not necessarily opposed to adding in combo protection cards, it's just for the most part I've focused on resiliency and consistency as a substitue for protection.
Ah, in the lands... that was a typo.
If sylvan could just start in play, yes I would run that so quickly. The problem is though that it can't, and it's downright awkward to pitch a critical turn to play Sylvan. You're barely ever going to do it T2 over Animar, and it's completely useless within any combo chain.
I think you need to take a little time, and really try out pulling off a long hand combo. When you start pulling off 40 card chains relatively consistently, it dramatically changes your perspective on the deck, and on card selection. Hit me up on cockatrice sometime if you want some pointers.
i.e. I've experienced a not so godly hands and have to mulligan down to nothing... which happens too often to any players online or in real life.
I know that Animar is a hidden gem and the only weakness is players playing blue counters like Edric, Wyden, Clique, and others.
and also your primer "seemed" to state that Animar is one of the top tier decks especially with your decklist. I find it cheaper and much more consistent in paper however I feel that it lacks something... something that we've missed. Until then, I'll try and help you make it better.
For now, Inferno Titan is good in replacing your 2nd Primeval Titan and Grafdigger's Cage. Cage is good against regular 1v1 especially Hermit decks...
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
They can still leave up their free counters of which they play a bunch and not to mention they don't have to cast Edric, they can just hold up counter magic. I just don't see this deck doing well against any of the blue Tempo/Aggro-control decks which make up the vast majority of the top tier decks. As for protection I'd probably thing about playing FoW and Pact of Negation so you can potentially fight to resolve one of your key pieces. There is also REB and Pyroblast which are both cheap answers to counterspells but they will be dead in some matchups.
1x Animar, Soul of Elements
CREATURES:40
1x Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1x Cloud of Faeries
1x Birds of Paradise
1x Llanowar Elves
1x Fyndhorn Elves
1x Arbor Elf
1x Lotus Cobra
1x Fauna Shaman
1x Phantasmal Image
1x Man-o'-War
1x Eternal Witness
1x Imperial Recruiter
1x Deceiver Exarch
1x Phyrexian Metamorph
1x Flametongue Kavu
1x Master of the Wild Hunt
1x Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker
1x Acidic Slime
1x Primeval Titan
1x Inferno Titan
1x Wurmcoil Engine
1x Vendilion Clique
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
1x Mystic Snake
1x Trinket Mage
1x Bloom Tender
1x Fierce Empath
1x Gilded Drake
1x Mulldrifter
1x Trygon Predator
1x Terastodon
1x Elvish Visionary
1x Grim Lavamancer
1x Phyrexian Revoker
1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
1x Bloodbraid Elf
1x Palinchron
1x Vexing Shusher
1x Kira, Great Glass Spinner
1x Spellskite
1x Relic of Progenitus
1x Umezawa's Jitte
1x Worldly Tutor
1x Green Sun's Zenith
1x Sylvan Tutor
1x Winter Orb
1x Survival of the Fittest
1x Sword of Fire and Ice
1x Tangle Wire
1x Lightning Bolt
1x Crystal Shard
1x Krosan Grip
1x Skullclamp
1x Jace, the Mind Sculptor
1x Lightning Greaves
1x Sylvan Library
1x Natural Order
1x Beast Within
1x Mana Drain
1x Cloudstone Curio
LANDS:39
1x Breeding Pool
1x Steam Vents
1x Stomping Ground
1x Fire-Lit Thicket
1x Cascade Bluffs
1x Flooded Grove
4x Snow-Covered Forest
3x Snow-Covered Island
3x Snow-Covered Mountain
1x Rishadan Port
1x Maze of Ith
1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
1x Pendelhaven
1x Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
1x Shinka, the Bloodsoaked Keep
1x Gaea's Cradle
1x Academy Ruins
1x Command Tower
1x Arid Mesa
1x Verdant Catacombs
1x Flooded Strand
1x Polluted Delta
1x Wooded Foothills
1x Bloodstained Mire
1x Misty Rainforest
1x Scalding Tarn
1x Windswept Heath
1x Wasteland
1x Taiga
1x Volcanic Island
1x Tropical Island
1x Copperline Gorge
I wanted to see an Animar deck in any French tournaments (locals and nationals) but sadly we can't... we only see top winners such as Edric, Geist and friends... Based on the tier list in this thread... Animar is not an A or S.
My design is mostly base on an Edric deck + Cam's design...
Duel Commander
URG [Primer] Maelstrom Wanderer [Primer] URG
Duel Commander Current Projects:
RGWMarath, Will of the WildRGW
BRXMogis, God of SlaughterBRX
RWxIoras, God of VictoryRWx
WBxAthreos, God of PassageWBx
Created By: DarkNightCavalier
I'm aware of CamWallin's design, and it's notable to mention that within the time span of that particular tournament, his working development deck changed greatly. The newer version of his deck incorporates a lot of elements from my list.