https://www.mtgsalvation.com/articles/49777-the-end-of-an-era
It has been my pleasure to get to know a lot of you here, to work with the wonderful staff that we have had over the years, and most importantly, make this site somewhere that people can converge and discuss the greatest of all Magic formats. On behalf of the rest of the Commander staff past and present, thank you to everyone for helping to make this one of the best Commander forums on the internet.
But wait, there's more!
As Feyd mentioned in the article, we are working on a new home for anyone that wishes to follow us on that journey. It is still very much a work in progress, but our goal is to make our new home even more of a community site than what we have now. Beyond that, I can't say much just yet, but as we get closer I'll keep everyone informed in this thread.
If you have any questions or better yet, have any input on things you would like to see then please feel free to post in this thread and we will respond to the best of our abilities.
Looking optimistically forward,
cryogen
- Seravol
- Registered User
-
Member for 10 years, 10 months, and 11 days
Last active Mon, Dec, 23 2019 07:20:30
- 0 Followers
- 94 Total Posts
- 5 Thanks
-
1
Igzex posted a message on What is Draconic Dominance Missing?I'd always run Dragonlord Kolaghan long before Karrthus because the sight of blue makes me cringe when I have Karrthus on the field for a number of reasons.Posted in: Commander (EDH)
That said I did say I am thinking about adding a little bit of blink to my deck...
My dragon tiers would go as following:
Top: Scourge of Valkas, Dragonlord Silumgar, Atarka, World Render, Bladewing the Risen, Utvara Hellkite, Scalelord Reckoner, Dragonlord Dromoka
High: Thundermaw Hellkite, Dragon Broodmother, Dragonlord Kolaghan, Dromoka, the Eternal, Silumgar, the Drifting Death, Glorybringer, Scion of the Ur-Dragon, Hypersonic Dragon, Kokusho, the Evening Star
Mid: Teneb, the Harvester, Dragonlord Ojutai, both Niv-Mizzets, Kolaghan, the Storm's Fury, Thunderbreak Regent, Steel Hellkite, Thunder Dragon, Deathbringer Regent, Wasitora, Nekoru Queen, Stormbreath Dragon, Broodmate Dragon, Hoarding Dragon, Ramos, Dragon Engine (In the context of this deck), Scourge of the Throne, Knollspine Dragon, Dragon Mage, Hellkite Charger
Low: Kilnmouth Dragon, Rith, the Awakener, Balefire Dragon, Skyline Despot, Dragonlord Atarka, Bogardan Hellkite, Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund, Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, Icefall Regent, Boneyard Scourge, Hellkite Tyrant, Hellkite Overlord, Keiga, the Tide Star, Yosei, the Morning Star (Unless you're a jerk and have a lock engine for him in your deck), Ojutai, Soul of Winter, Territorial Hellkite, Tyrant's Familiar
Troll: Dragon Tyrant, Nalathni Dragon, Draco, Tek, the dragon babies, Rorix Bladewing (Eternal Masters printing with that goofy new art), Slumbering Dragon, Vampiric Dragon, Teeka's Dragon (Especially if you run all things to discount dragon casting costs with in the deck)
Bottom: Everything not listed. -
3
gelf posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)Thoughts on Aether RevoltPosted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
Mechanics
Revolt - Conditional ETB effects. Having a permanent leave the battlefield is fairly simple with Animar, given the main combo win-cons involve a lot of bouncing. There may be times where a Revolt card can't be activated, but I think if the effect is good enough it's worth including.
Energy - It's back! This is a build around mechanic and I don't think there is enough synergy with Animar, nor the requisite volume of good cards to build around it in this deck. It could be an interesting deck building challenge, but it's not a particularly 'splashable' resource.
Improvise - Convoke (lite) for artifact matters! If you're playing with a high number of artifacts (likely creatures), adding a few improvise cards might be worthwhile. Not being able to reduce coloured costs is a very real downside compared to convoke, but at the same time being able to reduce the cost of some instant and sorcery spells could be well worthwhile, but only if you've already built around artifacts (the creatures of which do have great synergy with Animar, but anti-synergy with Cloudstone Curio).
Vehicles - Also returning. A creature-like permanent sadly gets no cost reduction benefit from Animar, nor does it put a counter on Animar. Unlikely to ever make the cut, barring an extraordinary effect.
The Expertise Cycle - Baral's Expertise, Kari Zev's Expertise, Rishkar's Expertise: Animar is not fond of expensive non-creature spells because they are usually far more inefficient per mana compared to creatures which are cost-reduced. These cards somewhat get around this mana inefficiency by allowing another spell to be cast for free, which makes them far more interesting despite being types I wouldn't usually review. I discuss the individual cards below.
Blue
Baral's Expertise - Sorcery speed hurts the utility of this card, but it is still good at removing blockers or reusing our own ETB effects, also being able to hit artifacts is a bonus. Bouncing our own creature and replaying it for free is a valid use. I don't know if it's possible to find room for this card, but if you do I think it could do some good work.
Illusionist's Stratagem - 4 mana is probably slightly too much for a trick, but this does draw a card, let us reuse ETB effects at instant speed and can protect against removal. Interesting enough for a mention anyway.
Quicksmith Spy - If you have enough artifact targets, this is pretty similar to "ETB, draw a card" on a creature. It gets better if you have untap effects or expect the game to go longer allowing you to draw more cards, and gets worse if you're relying on artifact creatures as your targets since they may have summoning sickness. In the right build I think this card might be a hidden gem, but I think that build is quite different from mine.
Trophy Mage - CMC 3 artifact tutor lets you find Cloudstone Curio. I think this card is worth a slot for that reason alone, but it also gives you an opportunity to build a CMC 3 artifact (and artifact creature) toolbox. Consider as well, if Animar is at 2 counters, you can cast Trophy Mage for U (Animar goes to 3 counters) and immediately find an artifact creature to cast for free (Animar goes to 4 counters).
Whir of Invention - The premier improvise spell, UUU is a hefty cost even if you're using improvise to reduce the cost further, and that requires a certain amount of build around to be likely. The bonus if you're playing an artifact heavy build is that this spell puts the artifact straight onto the battlefield, which is a powerful effect and well worth considering. Again, Cloudstone Curio would likely be the main target.
Red
Kari Zev's Expertise - The effect is quite powerful for the cost especially if you can use the free cast, but unlike the other two expertise cards in Temur colours, the likelyhood of getting the free cast is quite low, since it covers a much smaller number of cards in the deck and doesn't give you an opportunity to draw into a spell or return one from the battlefield for reuse.
Sadly nothing else really worth mentioning in Red this set, in my opinion.
Green
Heroic Intervention - Animar is weak to sweeper effects and this protects against many of them while also acting as protection from spot removal. Definitely a meta call, but I can see this being a useful addition.
Hidden Herbalists - If you get an infinite loop going, this can create infinite green mana without much difficulty. Certainly worth considering for that reason, and when it is just a bear at least it puts a counter on Animar for a low cost.
Monstrous Onslaught - It is not that difficult to have an enormous Animar, so this could act as a one sided board sweep, but probably only when you're already ahead. In that regard it's possibly a trap rather than a good addition to the deck.
Rishkar, Peema Renegade - Rishkar potentially generates more mana than he costs, which is a very powerful ability. Assuming you have Animar and two other creatures without summoning sickness, Rishkar will allow each of them to tap for G. If you have more creatures out with +1/+1 counters on them, that's even more mana. Furthermore, having the option to give Animar an additional +1/+1 counter never hurts.
Rishkar's Expertise - A 6 mana sorcery is a big investment, but this will probably draw a lot of cards, and give you a free spell cast on top of that. It relies heavily on board state, so there is a risk that it will always simply be win more, but I think it's worth testing.
Silkweaver Elite - She cantrips for the right cost (at least not too high), and once you've got a loop going, she will keep drawing, but if you can't activate her Revolt on the first cast, she's going to be a big disapointment. Possibly include if your whole build is around cantrip creatures, but she would be towards the bottom of the list of options due to the conditional draw.
Multicolour
Rogue Refiner - Another cantrip creature that also gives you energy. Like Silkweaver Elite, unless you have a use for the energy, this would be down the list of cantrip options because it can't have its cost reduced below GU.
Artifacts and Lands
Cogwork Assembler - This has an expensive ability, 7 mana is a lot to pay, but with infinite mana this essentially replicates the Kiki-Jiki combo by itself. It also can create interesting utility options, depending on the artifacts in your build and the mana you have to spare and with CMC 3 it can be searched up with our newest tutor, Trophy Mage. I don't know if it's worth including, but it's worth noting as a pretty powerful effect and may surprise people.
Hope of Ghirapur - Cute little legend! Might be useful to combat a heavy control deck before combo-ing off? Most certainly a meta call and I don't think it will be the best way to deal with problem control decks, but it is a cute card and offers interesting and political choices for a low mana cost (or free).
Inspiring Statuary - I mention this, because it seems like it might work well in an artifact heavy build, but essentially it is a mana rock that taps for 1 to cast non-artifact spells. This is an awkward card as it wants you to play a lot of artifacts but only rewards you by letting you cast non-artifacts more easily. In my opinion, this is not the right card for Animar even if you're playing an artifact heavy build. I think it would fit well in a deck that uses non-artifact spells to generate a lot of artifact tokens (Clues, Thopters, Servos, and so on). Could be intesting in a build that also includes Chief Engineer and Paradox Engine, but I'm getting off topic.
Lifecrafter's Bestiary - Turns every creature into a cantrip for a small additional cost. Combos well with Tangleroot. The additional G cost is actually harder to keep up than it looks. Animar is a very coloured mana hungry deck, but it still might be good inclusion. CMC 3 means tutorable by Trophy Mage. It's hard to evaluate, so probably deserves testing.
Paradox Engine - Combos well with a mana dorks, Earthcraft, convoke and improvise. We already run a storm like deck and with the right board state this goes infinite quickly, but it is build around, and if things aren't going well it may as well say "creatures you control have vigilance".
Planar Bridge - (not to be mistaken for Planar Gate) A very powerful effect for a very high price. I don't expect Animar will be the deck for this effect, but I expect to play against it. Also somewhat ridiculous with Paradox Engine.
Walking Ballista - You can play this for free and get as many +1/+1 counters equal to half the number of counters on Animar. It also acts as a mana sink if you have infinite mana and either way it can ping your opponents to death. This is a great card, as a victory condition, creature removal or simply a body (cast of 0 to put the first counter on Animar), it is useful at any point during the game and easily tutorable.
Spire of Industry - The only land in Aether Revolt, a Mana Confluence when you have an artifact, or a Wastes if you don't. I don't really like Mana Confluence in Animar, since a lot of the mana combos involve the tapping and untapping of lands, and that life cost adds up quickly. Colourless mana often becomes useless once Animar gets rolling, so it's not selling that aspect either. Finally the coloured mana production is too situational unless you're very artifact heavy (even then, it's unlikely to happen on an early turn when you need the flexibility the most).
As always, looking forward to hearing other people's thoughts and whether I missed anything.
-
1
gelf posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)I had a quick look through cmc 3 artifacts after posting this:Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
- Phyrexian Altar used to be in the deck, and is a good way of using creatures that you don't necessarily want to bounce to produce mana.
- Deal Broker is a looter. Nothing fancy, but also not the worst option.
- Neurok Replica gives you a way to bounce a creature. Admittedly I rate this fairly low compared to other bounce options we have available.
- Scarecrone a way to recur other artifact creatures and draws a card for a low cost.
- Shardless Agent is great value, but forces the deck to really consider it's 1 and 2 drops. Bit of a non-bo with cheap counterspells and some utility morph creatures.
- Shimmer Myr could be really powerful but would push the deck in a more artifact creature heavy direction, ironically making Cloudstone Curio far less useful.
- Sylvok Replica deals with Torpor Orb well. A nice silver bullet.
- Wizard Replica a rattlesnake. Good early game, but easy to play around and loses a lot of value late game, since it isn't a hard counter.
-
1
gelf posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)I agree with Xenphire regarding Aetherflux Reservoir, much like all the storm cards we already could play (Brain Freeze, Grapeshot and others), they rely on us actually already having an infinitely big Animar (thus a win condition sitting on the table already) before we can use them to win and don't do anything (or at least enough) if we haven't already met those conditions. Don't get me wrong, it's a very cool card and I don't blame people for wanting to play it, but realise it's win more if you're using it as a win condition.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
Paradoxical Outcome does seem interesting. It's a way of protecting and gaining card advantage against a board wipe (if you can hold up four mana, which is a pretty big ask), or extending your reach on a turn you're going off but haven't drawn into other card draw engines. It's probably worth playing even if you're only bouncing three creatures, gives you three more ETB effects, if you have the mana and three additional cards, though it will obviously be tempting to wait until you can return a LOT more creatures to your hand, it might not always be the best move to do that. That said, it is difficult to find room for four mana non-creature spells in the deck, and this set is spoiling a few that fit that description (looking at you Panharmonicon!).
Rashmi, Eternities Crafter - sure, I'll take extra cascade! Essentially Maelstrom Nexus for a fraction of the cost! (alright, not quite that good, since it doesn't dig for the spell, it only looks at the top card, but it's still likely to net card advantage, especially if you flash spells in during other players turns).
Verdurous Gearhulk - meh, getting extra +1/+1 counters on Animar is really not that hard, I'd only include this if +1/+1 counters was the theme and I wanted to go wide to benefit from other effects, such as Armorcraft Judge. -
2
doomprevails88 posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)It's been nice to have such a place and such an active group of people willing to discuss animar builds from so many different build perspectives. GELF your animar primer will always contribute to, "what animar is" because any kid who ever searches the internet for help building an animar deck will inevitably be led here. and 60+ pages is practically a book lolPosted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists -
2
Jonas Ukulore posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)Gelf, deepest respect, and gratitude. This thread has been my guiding light in all things Animar for, I really can't recall how long.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
There is only one thing that comes close to what I think at the moment:
"In the folklore of its plane, the Animar is the ultimate source of all life—the seed from which all creation grows. In the presence of Animar, crops blossom and herds thrive, and the wake of its wanderings determines the course of the seasons."
Farewell. -
2
gelf posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)Hi all Animar enthusiasts,Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
I'm writing to let you know that I'm winding down my activity in this primer. There are a number of reasons for this, but primarily it is because I'm not getting the same enjoyment out of playing this deck that I used to and so I'm not playing the deck enough to test the changes that I have been making in recent times.
In the near future I am moving country (after an extended holiday) and during this time Animar will be kept in storage, which will further limit my ability to make changes based on new releases. Initially I had planned on traveling with my Animar deck, but I've decided to take some other decks that are (hopefully) more friendly to pick up play.
It is possible once I am settled in another location and found a new playgroup that Animar will come back, but I suspect this style of deck is more suitable for 1v1 play and so in the future I may change the focus in that direction. Or maybe not? I'm just not sure.
While I feel a bit sad to be leaving the deck behind (and I have invested a lot of time and money into the deck and maintaining this primer) it would feel dishonest to keep advocating a deck for which I no longer felt the passion it deserves.
The thread and OP in it's current condition will remain available as a resource and I will continue to be present on MTGS to offer advice if asked for it (although intermittently while I travel), but of course overtime it will become outdated. Hopefully another Animar player will be able to continue where I left off to ensure up-to-date information is always available on this site.
Thanks again for the great and civil discussion and may you enjoy many infinite ETB loops in the future.
Kind regards,
Gelf -
7
gelf posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists.Glimpse the Soul of Elements...
"There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose,
the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it." - Napoleon Hill
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
History of the deck
Table of Contents
- Why play Animar?
- The Deck
- How to play the deck
- Individual card explanations
- Creatures
- Non-creature
- Lands
- Protecting Animar
- Strategy: Aggro
- Strategy: Combo
- Infinitely large Animar
- Mass card draw
- Infinite Damage
- Destroy/Bounce every permanent
- Infinite Mana
- Infinite Creatures
- Strategy: Control
- More cards to consider
- Change log
- Set reviews
When Animar was first spoiled I knew we had a very special Elemental on our hands. At the time I had but one EDH deck built around Ghost Council of Orzhova. It seemed serendipitous that Animar, Soul of Elements would fill out my colour pie so neatly between just two decks. I set about finding all the infinite combos possible to throw into one deck. I constructed a proxy monster and set about testing the deck via gold fishing while still waiting for the official Animar to be released. I soon realised not only that there was tremendous power and potential from this little elemental that could, but also that having every combo under the sun was completely unnecessary. Storm got dropped to the way side (by the time you’ve got storm, you have an infinitely large General), followed by Earthcraft and Squirrel nest. I kept Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker because he facilitated more than just a million attackers, but my main focus was on winning via Psychosis Crawler after drawing my deck off the back of infinite creature casts in the presence of Primordial Sage and Glimpse of Nature. Something about killing all my opponents at once, while still simply gaining resources made me all warm and gooey inside. When my Commander decks arrived, a quickly put my new baby together and promptly smashed my play group, after which I was public enemy number one and Animar was rarely able to venture from his Command zone for long. The deck as it appears now has been tempered somewhat for multiplayer play. It is still a very synergistic and powerful deck, but I try not to combo out as soon as an infinite loop becomes available and only in the face of absolute destruction after a long game will I Tooth and Nail for Kiki-Jiki and his infinite Zealous Conscripts (now more Zealous than ever!). Perhaps unfortunately it is disgustingly easy to combo off with Animar and I continue to come across loops I haven’t seen before, as such I have to be judicious with how often I pull Animar out and set him free, but I love my little combo enabler and I hope you do too.
Why choose Animar, Soul of Elements?
Animar's abilities, combined with his built in protections, makes him an excellent build around Commander. The cost reduction he facilitates allows for both combo and aggro strategies. Animar himself can become a huge monster in a relatively short amount of time, while protection from white and black prevents some of the most effective spot removal from targeting him.
As a commander he allows access to Red, Blue and Green cards, a combination that provides ready mana, ample card draw, a couple of quick win cards and haste effects to enable aggressive strategies. Animar gains the most benefit from playing a large proportion of creatures. He has particular synergy with artifact, colourless and morph creatures because he is able to reduce their cost to zero mana. Phyrexian mana creatures can benefit from this reduced cost to be cast only at the cost of life (Phyrexian Metamorph the only good choice in my opinion), as will evoked creatures cast for their evoke cost (see Mulldrifter).
Animar also allows the reduction of additional costs including kicker (Mold Shambler or Verdeloth the Ancient are probably the best choices) and X costs (Useful for casting Apocalypse Hydra among others). Basically Animar hates to see colourless mana and works tirelessly to banish it forever, only coloured mana shall be recognised as a cost for creatures!
You will enjoy playing Animar if:
- You want to build around your Commander.
- You love creatures, the fatter the better.
- You love getting discounts.
- You enjoy tempo plays and complicated loops involving multiple triggers from creatures entering the battlefield.
- You enjoy defeating your opponents without having an attack phase, even though you have all the creatures!
You will not enjoy playing Animar if:
- You want a Commander just for its colours.
- You think creatures are dumb and should die as often as possible
- You hate resolving multiple triggers on the stack, per creature.
- You don't like playing with yourself ("I know my turn has taken 20 minutes, but I still have more triggers to resolve...")
- You don't like all future games to become Archenemy
.The Deck
Below I detail my take on Animar, Soul of Elements with explanation. Please note that there are other completely viable strategies to play Animar, and I briefly discuss these in the strategies section of this primer. Also note, this deck is not optimized to win 1 vs. 1. Card choices are made with multiplayer in mind, and some cards which are very good I have chosen to exclude because I don't enjoy playing them (either they let me win too easily or cause the other players to stomp my deck before I can do anything about it). If you're interested in average mana cost and colour break downs, deck statistics can be found here.
If you're looking for a dueling deck, I recommend that you take a look at Jester831's 1 vs. 1 deck that aims to combo out as early as possible. For a completely different take on Animar combo, I suggest you check out JaiK's MANimar deck list (Soul of loneliness).
Every life is an opportunity
How to play the deck:
"... on second thoughts let's just plant Gaea's Cradle."
Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.
- William Penn
Mulligans
You want your opening hand to contain a G mana source, a U mana source and either some ramp or some draw, preferably both. There is quite a high curve on this deck, so it’s worth shuffling away large creatures if you’re using the Partial Paris Mulligans rules. Ramp is very important as this is a mana hungry deck and if Animar is destroyed the first time you cast him it can stall the deck for a long time.
Early game
Often the first spell you will cast is Animar, Soul of Elements. Although there are a number of one and two drops in the deck, creatures are usually worth holding onto until after Animar hits the field. Bloom Tender is the major exeption, if you drop her turn two then turn three you can cast Animar and follow up with another three drop care of Bloom Tender. Obviously any of the enchantments are great to drop before turn three if you can and Birds of Paradise is perfect to get Animar out turn two if you have it in your opening hand. If you require mana fixing to cast Animar turn three and have Sylvan Ranger or Sakura-Tribe Elder in hand, then it is fine to cast them turn two. Once Animar hits the field we accelerate into the mid-game.
Mid game
Now we need to build Animar’s counters up. The first three counters are always the hardest (usually requiring 6 to 8 mana unless Hardened Scales is out early). During this stage of the game you want to find the combo enablers: Cloudstone Curio, Peregrine Drake or Palinchron, Gaea's Cradle, and the draw engines: Glimpse of Nature, Fathom Mage or Soul of the Harvest. (If Animar is killed at this point you still want to find these pieces, as even without Animar you can still combo off in the late game, it just requires a lot more mana, but Palinchron or Peregrine Drake and Temur Sabertooth will generate infinite mana and card draw with one of the engines out.)
End game
Once we have our combo engines established, it is simply a matter of choosing a win condition. Purphoros, God of the Forge kills all opponents if you get a creature cast loop going. Craterhoof Behemoth will turn even your smallest creatures into a big threat and can kill usually multiple opponents in a single combat step. Using Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to exile all your opponents’ permanents or Venser, Shaper Savant to bounce them all will usually cause a scoop, and then there is always the option of swinging with a huge Animar for general damage and a large army of various sized creatures for the combat win.
Assuming Animar isn’t destroyed you can reach end game by turn six or seven using this build. The amount of coloured mana available is usually the only limit to the number of creatures you can cast in a turn, so it requires some careful management especially of your green and blue mana, late game red mana is usually as useless as colourless.
Tips
This deck relies heavily on its commander, however it does function (albeit much slower) without him. Animar is weak to cheap red/blue/green targeted removal (burning/bouncing/stealing) and to mass sweepers (undoing the advantage of casting lots of creatures cheaply). If you’re facing a meta where Animar is easily dealt with early, then it’s probably worth holding him back until you’re sure you can protect him and combo off.
Torpor Orb, Humility and Hushwing Gryff are all particularly mean to this build, but luckily they don't tend to be common EDH staples. If any of these cards are part of your meta, then you’ll need to add some tech to deal with them. This build can cast Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger to deal with them. Ainok Survalist can be turned face up to destroy Torpor Orb
.Individual Card explanations
Creatures in my decklist(sorted by mana cost, smallest to largest)Through passion, I gain strength
Through strength, I gain power
Through power, I gain victory
Through victory my chains are broken.
Playing Animar encourages deck building with a higher percentage of creatures compared many commander decks, while simultaneously encouraging the inclusion of high casting cost creatures which benefit the most from his cost reduction ability. Animar provides such a powerful discount that some creatures which are usually considered inefficient in terms of cost for effect, gain enough value to be included. However, it is also important to include cheaper creatures to get those first few counters that facilitate the large discounts in the long run.
Birds of Paradise - If you cast this on turn one, you're almost certain to be able to cast Animar on turn two. Mana fixing and ramp, great early game, less so late game.
Shrieking Drake - This little gem can return itself to your hand, and thus with Animar in play essentially reads "Pay X, put X +1/+1 counters on Animar, Soul of Elements (spend only U mana on X)." It also facilitates the bouncing of other creatures you control to reuse their enter the battlefield effects. (See here for a list of creatures that could play a similar role)
Ainok Survivalist - Morph is important to facilitate several infinite combos. A Naturalize when you need one. Great for dealing with Torpor Orb.
Beastcaller Savant - Haste is a powerful addition to a mana dork. This guy will almost always convert G into what you need on the turn you play him. Combos with a Morph creature and Cloudstone Curio in the infinite cast loop.
Bloom Tender - Great to drop on turn two, cast Animar turn three and then tap for GRU to start adding Animar counters a turn earlier.
Cloud of Faeries - Ends up producing mana when it is cheaper to cast compared to the lands it untaps. Bonus with karoo lands and Gaea's Cradle!
Den Protector - Morph redundancy. Excellent recursion to get whatever we need back from the grave and dodges Torpor Orb.
Dream Stalker - Shrieking Drake number two. This creature bounces a permanent instead of a creature so potentially it can also be used to replay Gaea's Cradle or reuse Birthing Pod.
Elvish Visionary - Not glamorous, but replaces itself, is good for an early counter on Animar and acts as a draw engine once we get a bounce engine going.
Rattleclaw Mystic - Morph redundancy on an early ramp package and an infinite mana enabler (see Combo).
Sakura-Tribe Elder - Chump blocks, ramps and fixes your mana.
Stratus Dancer - Morph redundancy and a counterspell to stop instant and sorcery removal. Best thing since Willbender!
Sylvan Ranger - Turn two play that lets you ensure land drops and a turn three Animar, if that's what you're aiming for.
Willbender - Morph redundancy. This guy protects Animar from targeted removal, but can also redirect spells like Time Warp, Blue Sun's Zenith and Cruel Edict AND can redirect abilities like Mindslaver . Furthermore he acts as a rattlesnake card; if your opponent knows you run Willbender, keep 1U untapped and they will play around any facedown creature you have on the battlefield.
Eternal Witness - Get an important card back from the graveyard to use again. Especially useful with Glimpse of Nature (it is great if you can cast this multiple times in the same turn) or Tooth and Nail.
Farhaven Elf - Basic land ramp.
Fierce Empath - Tutors for a creature (converted mana cost 6 and up) and puts it into your hand. With 14 suitable targets this acts as a toolbox of sorts.
Man-o'-War - Bounce a creature. Can put multiple counters on Animar just like Shrieking Drake, provided Animar has two counters to start with. Usually used as a tempo play against opponents, or to reuse your own enter the battlefield effects.
Raven Familiar - Digs three cards deep and nets a card. (Possibly to be replaced by Sea Gate Oracle to avoid echo cost)
Sage of Fables - Turns excess +1/+1 counters into card draw and creates a counterspell lock combined with Glen Elendra Archmage. Synergy with Animar, Fathom Mage, Prime Speaker Zegana, Draining Whelk, megamorph and hydras.
Wood Elves - Forest ramp. Able to find Stomping Ground or Breeding Pool, and puts the land into play untapped.
Ancestral Statue - Two card combos with Animar to generate infinite +1/+1 counters.
Fathom Mage - Not quite as reliable as Primordial Sage or Soul of the Harvest, but she does draw a fair few cards before Evolve stops working and can be reset with bounce.
Glen Elendra Archmage - Mainly protection from Wrath of God effects, but also protects Animar from targeted removal spells.
Mystic Snake - The original counterspell on a body. Doesn't enjoy much of a discount, but it is an unconditional counterspell and easily bounced for reuse.
Oracle of Mul Daya - Filters your draws and ramps.
Phyrexian Metamorph - Whatever creature or artifact you need it to be!
Purphoros, God of the Forge - A difficult to remove win condition, Purphoros is essentially a Warstorm Surge for this deck able to be cast for a single R! He is also able to pump my whole team if I've got a bunch of weenie utility creatures and a lot of mana to spare. Unlikely to reach devotion because I don't run that many red mana symbols, but it doesn't matter much anyway, the chances are if this god sticks your opponents will be dead in short order.
Solemn Simulacrum - Basic land ramp, and nets a card when it dies.
Temur Sabertooth - This guy is sort of like Deadeye Navigator lite. He lets you reuse enter the battlefield effects, can go infinite with Palinchron or Peregrine Drake and does a better job at protecting versus board wipes (compared to DEN), but surviving most of them himself and letting you put key creatures back into your hand.
Venser, Shaper Savant - Bounces a spell on the stack or any permanent. Powerful tempo play and offers temporary protection from the most powerful spells.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker - Gains advantage from doubling the value of any other non-legendary creature, but also enables an infinite combo with Zealous Conscripts. Awkward RRR cost is bearable due to his unique effect.
Kruphix, God of Horizons - Survives board wipes and lets us store up mana in the event Animar is kept off the board early game. Also lets us keep all the cards we draw. Not particularly synergistic with Animar, but a decent backup plan.
Mulldrifter - Card draw. Can be evoked to build those important first few counters on Animar.
Peregrine Drake - Ends up producing mana when it is cheaper to cast compared to the lands it untaps. Bonus with karoo lands and Gaea's Cradle!
Vesuvan Shapeshifter - Morph redundancy. Whatever creature you need it to be! Much improved with the recent influx of morph creatures from Takir.
Xenagos, God of Revels - A difficult to remove permanent, it gets the benefit of Animar's discount while providing the utility of an enchantment. It grants haste to a single creature, which is less useful than Maelstrom Wanderer or Urabrask, however it survives most board wipes allowing us to haste a creature the turn after the wipe, which is a pretty strong upside. It can also activate Mosswort Bridge with a single 5/5 creature on the board. Devotion is not too hard to reach with green mana symbols, so expect Xenagos to be a hardy blocker a lot of the time too.
Zealous Conscripts - Useful in its own right for breaking stalemates caused by particular permanents and stealing Planeswalkers that are about to go ultimate. Don't underestimate the power of selecting to untap your own permanents! Getting an additional use from Birthing Pod or Gaea's Cradle is sometimes the best way to get ahead. Combos with Kiki-Jiki when he's in the deck.
*All creatures below this line are tutorable by Fierce Empath*
Draining Whelk - With Animar's discount, this is better than the original counterspell! Easily bounced for reuse and often a big evasive beater.
Duplicant - Exile target creature (for free? Thanks Animar!)
Prime Speaker Zegana - With Animar out the chances are you'll be drawing a lot of cards of Zegana. At the very worst she cantrips, but usually expect to refill your hand.
Soul of the Harvest - Primordial Sage 2.0! Draw a card for every non-token creature that enters the battlefield. A powerful draw engine with a bigger body and trample for the same cost as the Sage. You don't get the draw from a countered creature spell, but you do from Chord of Calling and Birthing Pod.
Woodland Bellower - A toolbox tutor which puts the creature directly into play. May not win the game on his own, but will always give you options to get ahead.
Palinchron - The most consistent way to get infinite mana or simply double the effectiveness of your land base for a turn.
Sphinx of Uthuun - Fact or Fiction is one of the best draw spells of all time. I prefer to play it for UU and get a 5/6 flyer as well.
Craterhoof Behemoth - Plenty has been said before about overrun on a hasty body. The behemoth simply crushes your foes for ludicrous amounts of combat damage. It's not quite inifinte, but still trialing in place of Kiki-Jiki.
Maelstrom Wanderer - Three spells for URG with Animar's discount and grants all creatures haste. This guy is amazing value. It is possible to hit bad cascades, but chances are pretty low. I ended up cutting Tidespout Tyrant for this guy, which was a tough cut but frankly the immediate impact and value is much higher.
Artisan of Kozilek - Reanimates one of your creatures when cast (for free? Thanks Animar!). Switches on Mosswort Bridge by himself, and a 10/9 Annihilate 2 creature is a decent beatstick too.
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - Decent card draw engine and a huge creature with Annihilate 4. Did I mention he might be free?
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger - Ulamog 2.0. Two times the Removal, indestructible and huge. For free? Thanks Animar! Combo piece that exiles all your opponents things.
Descriptions of creatures that are no longer in my deck, but have been, and may be worth including in yoursNon-creature spells in my decklist
Acidic Slime - Destroys an artifact, enchantment or land and acts as an excellent chump blocker.
Bloodbraid Elf - Almost always two creatures for RG, but sometimes it will get non-creature combo piece instead. Be wary of 'bad' cascades: (such as Willbender, Chord of Calling and Genesis Hydra).
Chief Engineer - Cheap creature that lets us cheat on the mana cost of Cloudstone Curio and Birthing Pod by tapping creatures instead.
Deadwood Treefolk - Get an important creature back from the graveyard to use again, both when it enters the battlefield and when it leaves. Amazing value when discounted by Animar.
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer - Usually two creatures for RU and self bouncing for repeatable cascade, this creature generates a lot of card advantage even when I'm out of cards in hand. Note that it doesn't trigger Cloudstone Curio itself, but the likelihood of cascading into something that will is pretty high. It does use a lot of red and blue mana, so it can be difficult to really abuse but it rarely disappoints.
Fauna Shaman - Cheap creature, excellent with haste and finds the creatures you need when you need them.
Garruk's Horde - The Future Sight for creatures! This replaces Sylvan Primordial after its recent ban. It serves a very different purpose than the primordial, firstly ensuring that my Birthing Pod chain has adequate targets at cmc7 and secondly generating card advantage by casting creatures straight from the deck. This slot may change again in the future if I get my hands on a Sphinx of Uthuun.
Genesis Hydra - Amazing synergy with mana cost reduction and brings a friend along with it. Not so useful early game if Animar isn't aroung, but amazing in a long game.
Hooded Hydra - Morph redundancy. Synergy with mana cost reduction to get a big creature that leaves behind bodies if it dies. Potentially useful against board wipes.
Merfolk Looter - Not glamorous, but improves card quality if it survives a turn (or has haste).
Nantuko Vigilante - Morph redundancy. Essentially Ainok Survivalist with a higher converted mana cost.
Nullstone Gargoyle - Disrupts counter magic and more likely to mess with opponents' game plan than our own. We also have the option to bounce it when we need to cast non-creature spells. (All for free!)
Ondu Giant - Decent defensive body and basic land ramp.
Primordial Sage - Draw a card for every creature you cast. One of the deck's most powerful draw engines. Note that you draw a card even if someone counterspells the creature spell.
Prophet of Kruphix - The love child of Seedborn Muse and Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir, Prophet of Kruphix essentially works like a Lighthouse Chronologist at max level in this deck. If you manage to stick this creature, it becomes difficult to lose due to the tempo advantage and ability to play reactively. Banned 18th January 2016
Psychosis Crawler - Combo piece and can be a huge beater (although easily chump blocked).
Steel Hellkite - A decent beatstick with evasion (for free? Thanks Animar!) with the ability to sweep tokens and destroy non-land permanents for the right price.
Treasonous Ogre - With all this life we start with we may as well spend it to get some mana and speed up our combo.
Urabrask the Hidden - Haste enabler, but also slows down opponent creature swarms.
Voidmage Husher - Can shut down some infinite combos if played at the right time and acts as protection from powerful effects such as Nevinyrral's Disk. Also bounces herself for reuse.
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger - Effectively doubles your mana, while brutally stunting your opponents' mana.
Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Removal, indestructible, huge and Annihilate 4. For free? Thanks Animar! Combo piece that destroys all your opponents things.
(sorted per type by mana cost, smallest to largest)This can bounce anything except artifacts
Because of the emphasis on creatures, the non-creature slots in the deck are very tight. Generally if you have a choice between a non-creature spell and a creature with a similar effect, you choose the creature. However, some effects just simply aren't available on creatures. Below I explain those spells I consider vital to my deck.
Artifacts
Cloudstone Curio - The cornerstone artifact that enables virtually all the Animar combos. This is indispensable. But what does it DO?! I hear you ask. Anytime a non-artifact permanent enters the battlefield, you may return a permanent that shares a type with the entering permanent to your hand. In this deck we mainly use this to return a creature to our hand whenever a creature enters the battlefield. As such we get to reuse our enter the battlefield abilities and put counters on Animar to reduce the cost of further creature spells. This has particular synergy with those creatures whose cost is reduced to 0, but note it doesn't trigger from artifact creatures, which is why this build features several creatures with the morph ability and Eldrazi. With two morph creatures, provided there are sufficient counters on Animar, you can keep casting one to return the other as many times as you like. For more details see the Combo section below.
Birthing Pod - Takes advantage of the excellent curve in the deck and great for finding value creatures and win conditions. For example: Wood Elves -> Solemn Simulacrum -> (draw a card from Sad Robot) Peregrine Drake (untap your mana) -> Deadwood Treefolk (get Drake back) -> (get Sad Robot back from Deadwood leaving the field) Palinchron -> Vorinclex. So much value and lots of choice for a very cheap mana cost!
Enchantments
Hardened Scales - For Animar this doubles the effectiveness of every creature cast and provides discounts twice as fast. It also has synergy with Fathom Mage and pretty much every creature that gets +1/+1 counters. I'm usually not a fan of cards that only put +1/+1 counters on Animar, but the a one off G cost this adds so much speed to the deck.
Earthcraft - This little enchantment grants a lot of reach by extending the mana available. With Animar's discount, often a creature can pay for itself by tapping to untap the land that payed for it.
Evolutionary Leap - For G you can turn any creature that's about to die anyway into a new creature in your hand. Lets you avoid exile effects and creature theft or simply turns an unwanted creature into something else. More comparable to Skullclamp than Survival of the Fittest (despite the similarity in appearance). This is always going to get you creatures, so sometimes you'll be sad to see a non-creature combo piece get put on the bottome of the library, but hey at least after a boardwipe you'll have new creatures to cast!
Sylvan Library - This enchantment is amazing at both setting up your draws or simply trading life for extra cards during your draw step.
Equilibrium - Lets you reuse your own creatures or sets back your opponents creatures for the low cost of 1 per creature cast. In a pinch this can do the job of Cloudstone Curio, but not nearly as efficiently (that is it costs something, rather than nothing).
Instants
Crop Rotation - Next best thing to a Primeval Titan in my opinion. Mainly used to find the powerhouse that is Gaea's Cradle, but instant tricks can blank land destruction.
Chord of Calling - Instant creature tutor, places the creature directly into play and can be cast for free with enough creatures on the battlefield to tap. This is a great card to overcome a stalling creature cast chain; simply tap all the creatures with summoning sickness and pull out the creature you need to continue the chain. Also a great combat trick.
Stubborn Denial - Early game a Force Spike for noncreature spells is probably good enough to save Animar and since Ferocious is pretty easy to achieve in this deck, it will almost always be a hard counter. Very relevant for its mana cost.
Swan Song - Stops most removal and Humility. Giving your opponent a 2/2 bird is well worth the mana cost.
Sorcery
Glimpse of Nature - A combo piece and cheap card draw engine. Once you get going with this and Primordial Sage or Soul of the Harvest, the card advantage is ludicrous!
Descriptions of non-creature spells that I no longer runMana base
Fabricate - Artifact tutor, card into hand. A great way to pick up combo pieces: Cloudstone Curio or Psychosis Crawler respectively. Also a tool box for ramp (Solemn Simulacrum), removal (Duplicant, Steel Hellkite), repeatable card advantage (Etherium-Horm Sorcerer) or a clone (Phyrexian Metamorph).
Time Spiral - Sometimes you just need to turn back the clock. But seriously, this does good things with Psychosis Crawler out.
Words of Wind - Lets you reuse your own creatures while simultaneously forcing all opponents to bounce a permanent. It does cost a draw and 1, but once you've got a card draw engine running you can afford to miss a few draws to bounce all your opponents permanents.
In any Animar deck it is important to limit the number of colourless mana sources. Once he has got going, Animar is very mana hungry and usually the limiting factor in any given turn is the amount of U, R and G mana you can generate. Green is the least problematic to produce, simply because Gaea's Cradle is godly, but blue (especially blue) and red requires careful planning to maximise each turns potential. My land base as presented is limited by the cards I have access too which is why I don't have the original dual lands in here. They are on my wish list, and maybe one day I'll fork out the hundreds of dollars required to get them, but as is the land base is very consistent. There are numerous creatures that put lands directly into play and I rarely find myself colour screwed.
Basics
I like to keep my basic land count quite high because virtually all my ramp only finds basic lands. Red is the least represented colour in the deck, so my Mountain count is low.
5 Forests
7 Islands
1 Mountains
Non-basics (sorted alphabetically)The cradle of combination
Ancient Ziggurat - Pretty much Command Tower two in this creature heavy deck.
Breeding Pool - UG shock land.
Cascade Bluffs - UR filter land.
Cinder Glade - RG tango land, battle land, whatever land. Having two basic land types makes this easy to search up and I think it will enter untapped a decent amount of the time. Not sure if this is worth running if you already have Taiga, or perhaps instead of the check lands? Certainly nice to have plenty of mana fixing lands available to choose from.
Command Tower - The best commander land ever.
Fire-lit Thicket - RG filter land.
Flooded Grove - UG filter land.
Gaea's Cradle - An engine in any creature heavy deck. With Oracle of Mul Daya out, you can use the Cloudstone Curio trigger or a Karoo land to get twice the mana out of the Cradle: Tap it for mana, play a land to return it to your hand, replay and tap it for mana again. Also extremely good with the untap effects from Palinchron, Snap and Time Spiral.
Gruul Turf - RG Karoo land, two lands in one. Useful for resetting Mosswort Bridge and very good to untap with Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake and Palinchron.
Hinterland Harbor - UG check land (check: got an island or forest? yes, untapped I am!)
Izzet Boilerworks - UR Karoo land.
Kessig Wolf Run - Gives Animar trample and acts as a win condition late game with whatever little creature you have on your field.
Llanowar Reborn - Because I don't aim for a turn 2 Animar, I can play this either turn 1 or 2 and then play Animar on turn 3 and start getting discounts immediately!
Misty Rainforest - Can find any of the shock lands or a basic Forest or Island.
Mosswort Bridge - Allows card filtering, and a cheap cast once you set off the condition of 10 power on the board (which is really easy in this deck given Animar's ability). Important to note it is cast, which means you get Eldrazi effects, draw from Glimpse of Nature and Primordial Sage, can trigger Equilibrium and put a counter on Animar.
Reflecting Pool - Essentially Command Tower number three.
Rootbound Crag - RG check land.
Scalding Tarn - Can find any shock land or a basic Island or Mountain.
Simic Growth Chamber - UG Karoo land.
Steam Vents - UR shock land.
Stomping Ground - RG shock land.
Sulfur Falls - UR check land.
Wooded Foothills - Can find any shock land or a basic Mountain or Forest.
Winding Canyons - Flash for creatures, allows for a draw-go reactive play style rather than proactive play style.
Protecting Animar
Because Animar is so central to the smooth functioning of the deck it seems like a good idea to include protection to prevent opponents from killing, tucking or stealing him. Due to the way the deck is constructed there is limited room for defensive cards and unfortunately no protection is going to be absolute; dealing with Animar's death is just part of the game. That said there is a great deal of options for protection and often those options are dependent on the meta you play in. In my meta, spot removal is less of an issue compared to Wrath of God effects. If Animar's death or removal is a major problem you could consider increasing the control element of the deck by including more counterspell effects, by far the most effective solution, however one that changes the feel of the deck significantly.
Animar is fortunate to be naturally protected from the most common and versatile spot removal (Protection from white and from black), however he is weak against theft effects and red burn when he is small (lucky for us this is generally viewed as 'unplayable' in the Commander format). If you're facing a metagame where spot removal or theft is a problem, try some of these gems (listed from most effective to least effective in my opinion):
- Glamerdye - Reusable protection from any colour for Animar seems pretty good especially as it has the advantage of acting as evasion as well as thwarting spot removal. (Careful though, if you give Animar protection from blue you Glamerdye can't target him anymore).
- Whim of Volrath - As Glamerdye. Resistant to graveyard hate, but effect lasts only until end of turn.
- Plaxmanta - Bonus because it's on a creature, but effectively acts as an instant spell. Shrouds your whole team as a one off effect for U. Likely to die immediately as cost reduction prevents us paying the G.
- Asceticism - Expensive enchantment, but hexproofs your entire team and offers regen. Not much synergy with Animar but general goodstuff.
- Archetype of Endurance - Bonus because it's a creature, although base cmc is very high. Hexproofs your team and acts as tech against Sigarda, Host of Herons (and other hexproof commanders).
- Elgaud Shieldmate - Bonus because it's on a creature, grants hexproof! Removal in response to soulbond trigger is still possible.
- Lightning Greaves - Shroud is good and haste is useful to a lot of creatures, but equipment is common and easily disrupted. Free equip cost is a bonus. Doesn't prevent 'removal in response to equip.'
- Swiftfoot Boots - Hexproof is better than shroud, otherwise this is very similar to Lightning Greaves, although the equip cost of 1 needs to be considered if you're moving this around for the haste bonus.
- Vanishing - Doubles as pseudo-removal, and can protect Animar from everything, while letting him keep his counters. Activation cost is a downside, as is the potential card disadvantage as an aura.
- Vodalian Illusionist - Similar to Vanishing, phasing is tech! It requires an upkeep or haste to be effective immediately. Bonus points for being on a creature and can save Animar from a board wipe as well as spot removal, but it can't protect itself at the same time it protects Animar and the activation cost is another downside.
- Diplomatic Immunity - Shroud is solid but risks card disadvantage when 'removal in response to attach' happens.
- Plaxcaster Frogling - Advantage that it is on a creature, and graft has some synergy with Animar, but the activation cost is a big downside.
- Ring of Evos Isle - The activation cost is a problem especially in multiplayer. The +1/+1 counter effect isn't completely irrelevant.
- Blind Seer - Bonus because it's a creature. If you don't want to use Whim of Volrath or Glamerdye to alter Animar's protections, alter the colour of the threats instead! ("It would be a shame if your lightning bolt was a black spell...") Unfortunately doesn't protect itself.
Protecting against wraths and sweepers is somewhat more difficult. I've included options that prevent Animar being destroyed, but also some that make playing a sweep effect less appealing:
- Darksteel Plate - Saves Animar from most wrath effects (indestructible), and somewhat resistant to removal itself. The 3 equip cost is undesirable in the early game (when Animar is most vulnerable).
- Eldrazi Monument - Requires an upkeep sacrifice but buffs the whole team with +1/+1, flying and indestructible. Supports an aggro game plan while also protecting from most wraths.
- Spearbreaker Behemoth - Only protects Animar once he gets 4 or more counters on him (barring other buffs), however also protects other large creatures in the deck. Has an activation cost.
- Kamahl, Fist of Krosa - As long as you keep green mana available, you can threaten to turn an opponents' land base into creatures in response to a board wipe. Also acts as an aggro finisher.
- Stalking Vengeance - Once your board is sufficiently developed, this guy threatens your opponents' with a lot of damage if they try to clear the board. Can be a win condition with a sacrifice engine.
- Fecundity - Lets you replace your board with a card draw after a sweep, but also benefits your opponents. Relatively cheap to cast, but situational depending on your meta and the board state.
- Vicious Shadows - An expensive enchantment, but like Stalking Vengeance it turns a board wipe into a crap load of damage.
Other protections:
- Tajuru Preserver - Stops forced sacrifice cold. If your meta sees a lot of edict effects, Grave Pact, annhilator or All is Dust this card could be worth running.
- Homeward Path - Thievery ain't a problem when your creatures know the way home.
When all else fails...
Having an army after the rest of the board is swept away is another way of dealing with the Wrath of God. Chasm Skulker and Hooded Hydra are examples of creatures that can leave behind a lot of bodies and perhaps swoop in for a win, even if Animar and the rest of the field bites the dust.
.Strategies
Aggro
Animar facilitates the ability to drop a lot of creatures quickly and to drop BIG creatures early, so it is entirely possible to win simply by turning your creatures sideways. Animar himself will usually become a huge creature in a short amount of time which works towards this win condition. Note that it is very important to have haste if you're using this strategy as creatures won't always live until your next turn, especially in multiplayer. If this was the main focus of your deck, I would increase the number of haste enablers to 4 or 5.
If you're playing enough creatures with power 3 or greater Garruk's Packleader is effectively another Soul of the Harvest/Primordial Sage.
You can find a good example of an Aggro Animar list here by Volango.
The best defense is a strong offense.
Combo
Animar's cost reduction ability facilitates numerous combinations involving creatures. I've outlined several of the interactions that enable combo wins, most centering around Cloudstone Curio.A tough lesson in life that one has to learn is that not
everybody wishes you well. - Dan Rather
1) Infinitely large Animar:
The simplest loop: Ancestral Statue + Animar, Soul of Elements = infinitely large Animar
Dragons of Takir gave us Ancestral Statue, who on his own is a bounce engine with a cost that can be reduced to 0. If Animar has no counters and you only have Ancestral Statue in hand you need 10 mana to go infinite.
A simple loop: Cloudstone Curio + Animar, Soul of Elements (3+ counters) + 2 morph creatures = infinitely large Animar.
Animar reduces the Morph creature's cost to 0. When you cast the creature, Animar gains a +1/+1 counter. When it enters the battlefield it triggers Cloudstone Curio, allowing you to return the other Morph creature to your hand. Cast the second Morph creature, giving Animar a counter and returning the first. Repeat as often as you like :). Beastcaller Savant can replace a morph creature in this loop.
A slightly different loop: Shrieking Drake + Animar, Soul of Elements (no counters required) + Earthcraft + Island = infinitely large Animar.
Cast Shrieking Drake, Animar gets a +1/+1 counter, then target Shrieking Drake with his own enter the battlefield ability. In response to this ability, tap Shrieking Drake to untap a basic Island. Resolve the enter the battlefield ability returning Shrieking Drake to your hand. Repeat until your hands get tired. In this loop Shrieking Drake can be replaced with Dream Stalker or Man-o'-War provided Animar has one or two counters already.
Note: Other loops are possible involving Cloud of Faeries, Peregrine Drake and/or Palinchron (who loops himself) and these also generate infinite mana as well as an infinitely large Animar. Equilibrium can be used in the place of Cloudstone Curio, but it's effect is limited by your mana (see 4) below).
A non-infinite loop that makes Animar big enough: Shrieking Drake + Animar, Soul of Elements (3 counters ideal) + Phyrexian Metamorph = 21/21 Animar (at the cheap cost 36 life)
Here we have Animar and Shrieking Drake already on the field, and then cast Phyrexian Metamorph for 2 life, copying Shrieking Drake to bounce the Metamorph back into hand. You may not want to get Animar all the way to 21 power, but instead just put enough counters on to play a free Eldrazi. Note that this is part of the Imperial Recruiter combo, but without having Imperial Recruiter we don't get to finish up with an Ulamog.
2) Mass card draw:
Glimpse of Nature/Primordial Sage/Soul of the Harvest turn every creature spell you cast into a cantrip (or better) and Animar's cost reduction to creature spells allows you to cast many creatures in a turn. Incorporating any of the creature casting loops above with Glimpse of Nature/Primordial Sage/Soul of the Harvest active will draw you as many cards as you desire (until your library runs dry).
Glimpse of Nature and/or Primordial Sage and/or Soul of the Harvest + Animar, Soul of Elements + chain creature casts = huge Animar AND draw most of your deck.
Fun fact: You can cast Glimpse of Nature multiple times in a turn (via Eternal Witness recursion) to draw multiple cards per creature cast!
Incorporating the Cloudstone Curio loop and Kozilek has the same mass card draw effect:
Cloudstone Curio + Animar, Soul of Elements (10+ counters) + Kozilek, Butcher of Truth + 1 morph creature = huge Animar AND draw your entire deck.
As with "a simple loop" (see 1) above) Animar reduces costs to 0. Kozilek's cast trigger draws four cards, and then you can repeat the loop as often as you need to (until you run out of cards in your library).
Having additional mana support from Palinchron and friends to keep casting (see 4) below) lets you use Fathom Mage, Mulldrifter and Prime Speaker Zegana to assist with card draw and avoid running out of creatures. In previous builds I included Whirlpool Drake and Time Spiral to recycle my library and reset my hand if it filled with lands.
2a) Creatures ETB = Infinite Damage:
Any of the creature loops combined with Purphoros, God of the Forge generate infinite damage to each opponent. If you are seeking this victory condition you might also like to use Pandemonium, Warstorm Surge or Impact Tremors for the same effect. The main advantage Purphoros has that he benefits from Animar's cost reduction when you cast him, can be easily tutored as a creature and he's indestructible.
Another way to cause massive damage (well, life loss) is using mass card draw while Psychosis Crawler is on the field. By chain casting and card drawing the 1 life loss to all opponents adds up until they are all dead (provided they have not gained large amounts of life). Psychosis Crawler requires more set up than Purphoros and if you run out of cards to draw before your opponents are dead, then you will have to rely on another win condition (Laboratory Maniac anyone?)
3) Destroy every permanent controlled by opponents:
Cloudstone Curio + Animar, Soul of Elements (11+ counters) + Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre + 1 morph creature = huge Animar AND all opponents permanents destroyed.
As with the "a simple loop" (see 1) above) Animar reduces costs to 0. In this case Ulamog's cast trigger allows you to destroy target permanent, and you can do this as many times as you like.
3a) Exile every permanent controlled by opponents:
Cloudstone Curio + Animar, Soul of Elements (10+ counters) + Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger + 1 morph creature = huge Animar AND all opponents permanents exiled.
As above but Ulamog's cast trigger allows you to exile two target permanents, and you can do this as many times as you like.
3b) Bounce every permanent controlled by opponents:
One method to bounce everything:
Words of Wind + Glimpse of Nature + Cloud of Faeries + Earthcraft (or Animar with 1+ counter) = all opponents permanents bounced (and huge Animar)
Here when you draw the card from Cloud of Faeries cast, you then replace the draw and return Cloud of Faeries to your hand. Your opponents also must return a permanent to their hand. Before you return Cloud of Faeries, you can tap it to untap an island if you haven't got Animar in play. So Cloud of Faeries costs 1U, use an additional 1 to replace the draw, tap Cloud of Faeries to untap a basic land and untap another two lands with Cloud of Faeries enter the battlefield effect. Net mana = zero, and your opponents keep returning permanents to their hands.
Another way to bounce everything: Tidespout Tyrant added to any of the infinite loops allows you to bounce away everything you can target.
4) Infinite Mana:
Easy way(s):
Palinchron + Animar, Soul of Elements (5+ counters) = infinitely large Animar AND infinite mana (requires UUUU mana to achieve)
Palinchron + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger + 12 lands (no Animar cost reduction) = infinite mana (requires UUUU mana to achieve)
These easy methods rely on Palinchron's self bounce ability. With Animar's cost reduction it requires UU to cast Palinchron and 2UU to bounce him. With 7 lands in play, you always net 1 mana as you repeat the loop. Vorinclex and Zhur-Taa Ancient double the mana output of your lands. So you need to tap 4 lands to play Palinchron, another 2 lands to bounce him and he untaps 7, gaining 3 mana per loop.
Peregrine Drake + Animar, Soul of Elements (3+ counters) + Temur Sabertooth = infinitely large Animar AND infinite mana
This easy method is essentially the same as the Palinchron tricks, only here we use Temur Sabertooth to grant the bounce ability.
Adding Cloudstone Curio to the mix can further reduce the cost of bouncing Palinchron, gaining more mana per loop (and possibly decreasing the U mana required per loop). Cloudstone Curio also allows Cloud of Fairies and Peregrine Drake to generate infinite mana either with Animar's cost reduction ability, or lands that tap for more than 1 mana (Karoos, Gaea's Cradle or care of Vorinclex).
For example: Cloudstone Curio + Animar, Soul of Elements (5+ counters) + Peregrine Drake + 1 morph creature = infinitely large Animar AND infinite mana.
Another easy way with Palinchron:
Palinchron + Deadeye Navigator = infinite mana.
Note that Peregrine Drake can replace Palinchron in the above combination.
And yet another easy way:
Ancestral Statue + Animar, Soul of Elements (4+ counters) + Earthcraft + Basic land
Self bouncing Ancestral Statue can untap a land using Earthcraft before returning to your hand. As long as you have a Mountain, Forest and/or Island you can generate infinite mana of a variety of colours!
Slightly more complicated way(s):
Cloudstone Curio + Animar, Soul of Elements (4+ counters) + Zealous Conscripts + Earthcraft + Mountain + Gaea's Cradle (taps for GG or more) or Karoo land + 1 morph creature = infinitely large Animar AND infinite mana.
Seven card combo for infinite mana! Tap Zealous Conscripts using Earthcraft to uptap the Mountain and use Zealous Conscripts untap ability to gain control of your own Gaea's Cradle. Use Cloudstone Curio and the Morph to loop Zealous Conscripts into play.
Cloudstone Curio + Peregrine Drake + Cloud of Faeries + Gaea's Cradle (taps for GG or more) or Karoo land = infinite mana
Shrieking Drake + Earthcraft + Island + Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger = infinite U mana
Thehardimpossible way:
The hard way relied on bouncing and recasting Oracle of Mul Daya or Azusa, Lost but Seeking to generate multiple new permissions of "You may play an additional land" and bouncing lands with Cloudstone Curio. But then M14 came out and changed the rules, so now it doesn't work at all.
4a) Infinite Mana + Enter the battlefield effects:"Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker
what he thinks into it." - Ernest Holmes
YOINK!
Once you have infinite mana you can pretty much do whatever you feel like:
Infinite Mana + Equilibrium or Cloudstone Curio and:
- Mulldrifter = draw your entire deck.
- Man-o'-War = bounce all opponents' creatures.
- Venser, Shaper Savant = bounce all opponents' permanents.
- Farhaven Elf = ramp out all basic lands.
- Solumn Simulacrum = ramp out all basic lands some more.
- Wood Elves = ramp out all the forests.
- Maelstrom Wanderer = Cascade, cascade, cascade, cascade, cascade, cascade, cascade, attack with hasty army.
- Fierce Empath = search up all your big creatures.
- Zealous Conscripts = gain control of all you opponents' permanents (until end of turn).
5) Infinite Creatures:
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Zealous Conscripts.
To facilitate this combo, tap Kiki-Jiki to create a copy of Zealous Conscripts. When the Zealous Conscripts token enters the battlefield target Kiki-Jiki with it's ability: "Gain control of target permanent until end of turn. Untap that permanent." The gain control part of the ability is irrelevant, but untapping Kiki-Jiki lets you use his ability to create another copy of Zealous Conscripts. Repeat until you're satisfied you have enough conscripts to wipe the floor with your enemies.
This combo is tutorable using Tooth and Nail allowing that one spell to effectively end the game. Personally I steer away from this combo, although it is possibly the best outcome in a situation where Animar himself is unable to stay on the board, or other combo pieces have been exiled from the game.
Zealous Consripts can be replaced with several other creatures for redundancy if you choose to pursue this combo more diligently:
- Pestermite - Has the advantage of being able to tap or untap permanents and flash.
- Deceiver Exarch - Can tap a permanent controlled by an opponent or untap one of your permanents. Again flash!
- Bounding Krasis - Can be searched up with Woodland Bellower and other green-creature-only tutors. Flash!
- Intruder Alarm - Lets you use any creature as your Kiki-Jiki target (reminding us of the enter the battlefield possibilities of 4a) above).
Likewise Kiki-Jiki can be replaced with Splinter Twin for extra redundancy.
The final combo I will mention was ultimately not included in my build but did make the initial list:
Earthcraft + Squirrel Nest.
Enchant a basic land with your Squirrel Nest. At the end of your opponent's turn, tap the land to create a Squirrel, then tap the Squirrel using Earthcraft to untap the land. Repeat until you are satisfied with your Squirrel army. You have to make the Squirrels at the end of your opponents turn, so they untap and are no longer effected by summoning sickness during your turn. In the end I excluded this combo because there isn't much synergy with enchantments or tokens in my build.
And really how many ways of going infinite do you need in a single deck?
Control
Finally, it is entirely possible to gain control of the game through recursion, card advantage and tempo advantages gained from Animar's cost reduction ability. Flash enablers allow the deck to be much more reactive and responsive by allowing a draw-go style of play, while numerous creatures can act as counterspells. You could focus on permanent destruction to gain control (although that is less effective in multiplayer with the creatures available). Perhaps a land destruction or Stax build would be possible?
At the present time I have moved away from this strategy, because it requires quite a different style of play compared to the tap out style of the current deck. The suggestions I make below focus almost entirely on creatures to take advantage on Animar's abilities, however there is nothing stopping you from playing a less creature heavy build with Animar at the helm (except, you know, you're probably better off playing Intet, the Dreamer or Riku of Twin Reflections if that is the direction you want to take the deck).
DENIED
^ Seedborn Muse doesn't grant flash, but ensures you have mana every turn.
* A lock is created with both Brine Elemental and Vesuvan Shapeshifter on the field.
** It that Betrays could make an excellent finisher for an Animar land destruction deck, especially with Keldon Firebombers.
It would be an interesting exercise to play Animar as a control deck, although in doing so you lose out on a lot of the synergy that lends itself so well to combo and aggro, both which proactively make use of Animar's strengths. However through the use of Cloudstone Curio or Tidespout Tyrant and EtB creatures it is possible to disrupt and prevent multiple opponents affecting the board. Tidespout Tyrant especially permits formidable tempo advantages because of it's ability to return opponents lands to their hands. The card draw engines listed in the combo section will win games through pure card advantage. Further more additional card advantage is generated from almost every creature cast due to the heavy contingent of EtB effects.
.Why aren't you playing this card?
Why not include storm? - During the initial construction phase of the deck, I did include some storm cards (Grapeshot and Brain freeze) intending to create an infinite storm count facilitated by the Cloudstone Curio loop detailed in the Combo section of this primer. Preliminary testing revealed this to be 'win more' scenario, because once you have Animar and Cloudstone Curio in play, either you're able to use EtB effects to gain control of the game or produce an infinitely large Animar to attack for the win. Considering the same combo that enables infinite storm also makes Animar infinitely large, it simply seemed unnecessary to dedicate card slots to spells that would really only be effective after you've already created other win conditions.
Why not include cards that put extra counters on Animar? - In many Animar lists I see cards such as Increasing Savagery, Forgotten Ancient, Bond Beetle, Hunting Moa and Predatory Hunger included, and given the upside of having +1/+1 counters on Animar I can see the temptation to include cards that have this effect, so why don't I use any these cards in my list? Quite simply the hardest counters to get on Animar are the first 3 or 4, after which the cost reduction effect makes casting creatures so efficient that in no time you have more counters than you really need to track. Simply including creatures in the list fulfills this role, so a card that only adds counters isn't worth a slot in my opinion. If you're finding yourself in situations where you can't cast most of the creatures in your hand without the discount effect from Animar, I would suggest increasing the number of low casting cost creatures in the deck before considering adding cards that only add counters to Animar. Cards that add counters as part of another effect or as a modal choice (Graft and Reinforce abilities spring to mind) may find room in some Animar decks, as long as they serve a purpose beyond adding +1/+1 counters to Animar.
Why don't you play with proliferate? - By and large proliferate in this deck is another effect that only puts +1/+1 counters on Animar, and much less efficiently than simply casting more creatures. If you were building around a theme of counters on permanents and/or poison kills, then it might be worth including proliferate effects. Plaguemaw Beast may be worthy of consideration as we usually have spare creatures to turn into a proliferate effect.
Why don't you use planeswalkers? - The biggest problem with Planeswalkers in this deck is the limit of one use per turn. Once this deck gets going you can do a lot during your turn, by extending your mana through untap effects, getting extra uses out of enter the battlefield effects and drawing cards by getting creatures onto the field. When effects are once per turn or require your opponents to have their turns (such as Consecrated Sphinx, Lurking Predators, Erratic Portal) they really end up being sub par compared to things that can be used many times per turn. Once we consider Animar's cost reduction ability too, we often have a situation where there is a choice between casting a six casting cost enchant or planeswalker for six, or multiple six cost creatures for one or two each. In that case the powerful enchant/planeswalker will probably just sit in your hand. The planeswalkers with the most synergy are those ones that untap lands or permanents to essentially reduce their own cost (untapping Gaea's cradle is a powerful play) but you still won't get true value until the next turn, which I consider too slow.
A brief evaluation of relevent planeswalkers you may consider:
Chandra Ablaze - Chandra would require running a lot of red cards to use the +1 ability, and limits to instant and sorcery spells if you want to ultimate her (complete anti-synergy with Animar). The -2 ability is decent for hand disruption/draw but not worth six mana.What's the score?- 1/5 Not playable due to anti-synergy with Animar. Basically to make the walker useful, means you’re not supporting Animar.
- 2/5 Has at least one useful or synergistic ability. Niche, requiring a very specific build, which maybe playable with Animar.
- 3/5 Has more than one useful ability and/or a very powerful ability that could support an unusual Animar build.
- 4/5 Excellent synergy with Animar, if you don’t mind the limitations of one activation a turn.
- 5/5 Must include in the deck! One activation is all you need!
Score: 1
Chandra Nalaar - Not very exciting abilities and doesn’t have any synergy with Animar.
Score: 1
Chandra, Pyromaster - Can clear away a blocker to allow Animar through and lets you 'draw' cards. The ultimate requires instant and sorcery spells (anti-synergy!). In blue and green we don’t need to stoop to the level of red ‘card draw’ but she is the best of the Chandras.
Score: 2
Chandra, the Firebrand - More anti-synergy and weak burn. At least the ultimate does something, but it’s not enough.You are a Planeswalker.
You know of the countless worlds beyond your own.
You have laid eyes upon the Blind Eternities.
You are iconoclast and sorcerer.
Test your limits to forge your destiny!
Score: 1
Dack Fayden - His first ability would be the reason to play him. His -2 is situational ("Why yes, I will have your Blighsteel Collossus! Thank you") and anti-synergy with the ultimate.
Score: 2
Daretti, Scrap Savant - He could do some decent work in an Animar Artifacts build, letting you draw cards and recur from your graveyard. It would require a specific build to work, but in that build Daretti might be useful enough to include. Otherwise his +2 ability is almost as good as Dack Fayden's ability, even if you haven’t built around him.
Score: 3
Domri Rade - Decent synergy. Half the time his +1 will draw us a card. His -2 acts as creature removal and his emblem turns every creature into a massive threat. We probably don’t need him, but he really is the best fit for the usual creature heavy Animar deck. He requires the least help to be good in the normal build.
Score: 4
Freyalise, Llanowar’s Fury - She's not terrible, but nor is she very exciting. Her -2 gives her decent utility and her ultimate should draw us some cards, but it’s slow for card draw.
Score: 2
Garruk Wildspeaker - Garruk has decent synergy, as he untaps Gaea's cradle and can offer an overrun if you need it. Unlikely to need the -1 beast generation.
Score: 3
Garruk, Caller of Beasts - His +1 ability should draw us 2 to 3 creatures each turn. We’re unlikely to use the -3 as Animar already discounts creature casts and this is limited to green creatures. His emblem could quickly have all the creatures in the deck on the battlefield (but only ready to attack in Maelstrom Wanderer is around). For six mana he is good, but for that mana cost he has to be amazing, so not quite there? Still one of the most synergistic planeswalkers with an usual Animar build.
Score: 4
Garruk, Primal Hunter - The token generation doesn’t really lend itself to Animar deck, so this will almost always be a 5 mana 'sorcery' to draw cards (-3 loyalty and he leaves you). With the right set up, this could net a lot of cards, but heavy on the green mana cost and frankly I think there are better draw engines that are more repeatable.
Score: 3
Jace Beleren - He has an affordable mana cost and lets you draw extra cards. Not particularly unique, but card draw is king! His ultimate is bad in EDH, so it’s his other abilities and his low mana cost that are keeping him playable.
Score: 3
Jace, Architect of Thought - Maybe useful if you face a lot of token decks that don’t run anthems? Only the -2 ability okay and you’re unlikely to get to use it twice.
Score: 2
Jace, Memory Adept - Is it worth investing five mana to draw one extra card each turn? Not when you could pay three mana instead. The 0 ability is bad in EDH (amazing in limited!) and the ultimate is ok, but I feel there are better ways to draw 20 cards.
Score: 2
Jace, the Living Guildpact - Anyone else sick of seeing Jace? By far the worst Jace as he doesn’t even draw you cards. I like his ultimate, but hate to use his +1 ability for 3 turns to get there. There are more efficient ways to bounce permanents. Fail Jace.
Score: 1
Jace, the Mind Sculptor - Thank god it’s the last one! No one denies the power of this planeswalker. He offers cheap bounce, card selection and library manipulation, plus an ultimate that likely wins the game, but he’s not the best walker in an Animar deck. Domri Rade and Garruk, Caller of Beasts are better in my opinion.
Score: 3
Karn Liberated - If you’re desperate for targeted exile, Karn provides. I struggle to imagine a situation where he is the silver bullet you’re looking for, but if you're really keen on Animar Planeswalkers, he deals with a lot of problem permanents and he might just restart the world for you while he's at it.
Score: 2
Kiora, the Crashing Wave - Her +1 ability is useful against voltron strategies. She can reach her ultimate quickly and while it isn’t particularly synergistic, it does give a lot of sweet Kraken beef turn after turn. The real winner is her -1 Explore ability.
Score: 3
Koth of the Hammer - If you were running a Red Deck Wins version of Animar, Koth gets pretty interesting. You have to skew the land base heavily towards Mountains to make this work. Very very niche.
Score: 1
Nissa Revane - Animar Elf tribal! Not a lot of synergy with Animar. If only Animar were an Elf! … but even then, she has no real synergy with anything my deck is trying to do and we probably don't want situational life gain.
Score: 1
Nissa, Worldwaker - Slightly more interesting for the “Untap four Forests” ability. Not being able to untap Gaea’s Cradle however is a serious downside.
Score: 2
Ral Zarek - He can untap Gaea's Cradle or Birthing Pod and it’s his +1 ability. For -2 Lightning Bolt is a decent removal spell. His ultimate would probably win the game if you got two additional turns. All three abilities are surprisingly useful in EDH, but maybe not specifically for Animar.
Score: 3
Sarkhan Unbroken - The most colourful of planeswalkers, having dabbled with everything except white mana. He draws cards which is good, but his other abilities don’t do much for us, he suffers from ‘tribal synergy’ much like Nissa Revane.
Score: 2
Sarkhan Vol - His +1 ability is a good Aggro enabler, granting haste and an anthem to your creatures. The -2 ability might also be useful. His ultimate has no real synergy with Animar.
Score: 3
Sarkhan, the Dragonspeaker - He would have more synergy if he were just a legendary 4/4 red Dragon creature with flying, indestructible, and haste. We don’t really need 4/4 attackers for five mana. His -3 ability is Flametongue Kavu, which hits and kills a lot of relevant creatures, but I’d prefer just to have the Kavu if I wanted the effect. The ultimate does provide card draw, but not being able to keep cards in hand means it’s rarely worth it. There is so many better options for draw even among planeswalkers. Mono red planeswalkers were not destined to walk with Animar it seems.
Score: 1
Tamiyo, the Moon Sage - Her second ability is a winner that could draw you a lot of cards straight away, as Animar is happy to have a large number of tapped creatures from attacking or just doing Earthcraft. While not particularly synergistic, her ultimate and +1 abilities are also solid and likely to aid any game plan.
Score: 3
Teferi, Temporal Archmage - Card draw with a bit of selection for a +1 ability and can untap four permanents (essentially reducing his cost to UU or less if you control Gaea’s Cradle). His ultimate is unlikely to ever benefit us (maybe if you’re playing Animar Planeswalkers for some bizarre reason).
Score: 3
Tezzeret the Seeker - If you’re playing an Animar Artifact deck this could have some serious impact. The ultimate is unlikely to be used, but being able to untap Birthing Pod and tutor artifacts directly to the field. Niche but Animar has synergy with artifact creatures which boosts his useability.
Score: 3
Tibalt, the Fiend-Blooded - I had completely forgotten this guy existed. Would it have been too powerful if he drew a card and then you discarded a card on your choice?Or if you discarded at random first and then drew a card to reward keeping your hand empty? His ‘ultimates’ are strong if not that useful for us, but that random discard to get there? No thanks.
Score: 1
Ugin, the Spirit Dragon - Because his -X ability is likely to exile things we would prefer to keep, essentially we would only use him for his +2 Lightning bolt ability and his ultimate. Is that worth 8 mana? Probably not in my opinion. Maybe more playable if you focus on colourless creatures, but to reliably use him as a sweeper warps the deck considerably.
Score: 2
Xenagos, the Reveler - He has a decent synergy, acting as a Gaea’s Cradle substitute of sorts and his ultimate is powerful card advantage given that 88% of my deck is creatures and lands. A hasty 2/2 can sometimes win games if it is otherwise hard to keep creatures on the board.
Score: 3
Going Infinite with planeswalkers
Cloudstone Curio is interesting in that it can bounce any nonartifact permanent, so with two planeswalkers and sufficient mana you can have multiple planeswalker activations in the same turn.
Here is how it works:
You have a battlefield with Garruk Wildspeaker, 4 creatures, Gaea’s cradle, a mountain and Cloudstone Curio. You have Xenagos, the Reveler in your hand (yes this is a nine card combo! BEWARE!). Let’s say we’ve already used Garruk Wildspeaker this turn to generate a 3/3 beast.
- Tap Gaea's Cradle and the mountain for mana: pool = RGGGG (+ any left overs).
- Play Xenagos, the Reveler, triggering Cloudstone Curio to return Garruk to your hand: pool = G
- Activate Xenagos’ +1 to gain four mana: lets say pool = RRGG + G left over from before.
- Cast Garruk, triggering Cloudstone Curio to return Xenagos to your hand: pool = R
- Use Garruk’s +1 ability to untap Gaea's Cradle and the mountain; return to step one with R in your pool. Repeat until you have infinite mana!
- Now you have infinite mana, instead of using Xenagos to generate mana, use his 0 ability to produce a 2/2 hasty token. Repeat loop until you have infinite 2/2 hasty tokens.
- Win the game through combat.
If you’re aiming for this rather novel win condition, may I suggest playing Riku of two Reflections, Maelstrom Wanderer or Intet, the Dreamer, each of which offers a different style of play compared to Animar and can probably benefit more from planeswalker companions compared to Animar.
Why not play more mana dorks? - The main reason to include mana dorks (Birds of Paradise, Arbor Elf and co.) is to push for a turn two Animar. If you are able to cast Animar on turn two, you will often combo to victory on turn four before your opponents are able to set up their defenses or respond with removal. For the fastest victories, mana dorks or similar fast mana starts are essential (for example using Exploration or Lotus Petal). However dedicating enough slots to ensure a turn two Animar makes the deck less versatile if the early combo victory does not work out. In my opinion fast combo becomes less reliable the more opponents you're likely to be facing, as you're more likely to be disrupted by savvy opponents. Mana dorks are especially prone to removal in a deck which is already weak to board wipes. A well timed removal spell will set back the fast mana plan and also slows future turns. If your fast mana does work and you win by turn four, the game may also feel like an anticlimax. Personally I prefer a longer game and so I forgo the potential of a turn two Animar in favour of a more versatile deck that promotes (slightly) longer games.
Why don't you play [insert good card here]? (sorted alphabetically)
- Aluren - I tested Aluren during initial construction, but ended up cutting it because it effectively did the same thing as Animar + Cloudstone Curio, only worse. While it does allow infinite loops (with Man-o'-War and Aether Adept) it doesn't have synergy with larger creatures and it also allows opponents to cast their cheap creatures for free and with flash which didn't sit well with me.
- Avenger of Zendikar - Clutters up the field with plants, which have the potential to grow (aww, how cute). I try to avoid cards that are simply 'beatsticks' and that is what I feel this is. Animar doesn't really interact well with tokens and I don't run any Overrun effects so I have given this elemental a miss.
- Consecrated Sphinx - This is a great card advantage engine and also gets bonus points because it's a creature, but I don't include it because once the deck gets going any opponents may not get another draw step. In this deck it fails to draw many cards at all and since it doesn't facilitate the combo it loses it's place in my version of the deck.
- Deadeye Navigator - I haven't had a chance to play around with him yet. I can see the potential he has to gain huge advantage from enter the battlefield effects, to protect creatures from spot removal (although not Animar, because he doesn't want to lose all his counters) and generate infinite mana combined with Palinchron (or other 'free' creatures) but I think at this stage he wouldn't facilitate anything the deck can't already do.
- Defense of the Heart - As Tooth and Nail number two this is a good way to consistently win via Kiki-Jiki, mirror breaker + Zealous Conscripts. Again this deserves a place in a cutthroat meta, but I choose not to run it.
- Erayo, Soratami Ascendant - Banned 12th Sept 2014.
Easily flipped into Erayo's Essence severely disrupting my opponents' ability to cast spells. - Future Sight - I lack enchantment tutors and enchantments lack synergy with Animar. It also has a difficult casting cost. I did trial Magus of the Future (had an awkward UUU cost) and Garruk's Horde (has been replaced with more card draw) neither of which excited me that much.
- Grinning Ignus - Grinning Ignus plus a Mountain and Earthcraft can generate a self-bouncing creature loop. If you have Animar out it also generates infinite colourless mana. The problem is that colourless mana doesn't do anything for this deck once Animar is out and loaded. Man-o'-War does the same thing with Animar and Earthcraft, while also giving options for interacting with other creatures both you and opponents control. There are many options for self bouncing creatures, and the deck already has several ways to do it infinitely, at some stage you have to look at which ones bring the most utility and I don't think Grinning Ignus meets the grade, which is why it is not in my deck.
- Lurking Predators and Wild Pair - Expensive enchantments that cheat creatures into play for free. Given our heavy creature count these would provide consistent value, although putting creatures directly into play doesn't have synergy with Animar. It could be a worthwhile backup for when Animar is unable to stay on the battlefield.
- Mirri's Guile and Sensei's Divining Top - Replacements or redundancy with Sylvan Library (which is better). The Divining Top gets better if you're playing Trinket Mage.
- Niv-Mizzet the Firemind - I like Niv-Mizzet and he plays well with Psychosis Crawler, but his colour heavy mana cost doesn't play well with Animar. He does draw a card though...
- Primeval Titan - Banned 19th of September 2012. Lest we forget.
- Recycle - An expensive enchantment that nerfs your hand size and essentially does the same as Primordial Sage and Soul of the Harvest in this deck. The difficulty is that you want to cast this the turn you go off (to avoid discarding down to two), but it's simply too expensive to do that most of the time.
- Sages of the Anima - A powerful card advantage engine, but replaces draw and thus does not combo with Psychosis Crawler. Perhaps someday I'll replace the Crawler with these Sages.
- Skullclamp - It is possible to build around Skullclamp in an Animar deck and acts as an efficient cheap card draw engine with enough fodder to clamp. I have chosen creature based card draw engines instead.
- Sneak Attack - I think this enchantment requires a change in focus for the deck, but it could potentially be a powerful tool in the right build. Find further discussion here.
- Survival of the Fittest - Perhaps I should get around to testing this tutor, although it seems a bit too easy to get all the combo pieces in hand using this. In a completely cutthroat metagame this deserves a place in the deck, but at this time I choose not to run it.
- Tidespout Tyrant - A long time member of my deck list, it acted as Cloudstone Curio number two. Had to make a cut to fit in Maelstrom Wanderer, and the Tyrant was the unlucky one...
- Tooth and Nail - The one card combo that pulls out Kiki-Jiki and Zealous Conscripts. Also an excellent tutor for other combo enabling gems such as Palinchron, Vorinclex, Eternal Witness or simply a pair of Eldrazi titans. I ran this card for a long time, but in the end I felt it was a bit anti-climatic.
- Warstorm Surge, Pandemonium, Impact Tremors - These cards have the potential to combine with the Cloudstone Curio loops to deal infinite damage to opponents. The fact that two of these are expensive enchantments makes them difficult to include, when for the same cost I could cast several creatures. Impact Tremors is cheap enough and a possible back up for Purphoros, God of the Forge, but feels unnecessary at the time being.
- Weird Harvest - Can cheaply search up Ancestral Statue and Purphoros, God of the Forge to end the game on Turn 5. Not running it for the same reason I don't run Tooth and Nail.
Are there any cards you're considering adding to the deck? - I have a few cards that I like to keep a note of just to remind myself to try them out sometime. You might want to test them for me and let me know how they work out! This is my list of cards I'm considering but haven't yet made room for (sorted alphabetically).
- Apocalypse Hydra - Gains a lot of +1/+1 counters and can act as removal or burn with enough red mana.
- Azusa, Lost but seeking - Extra land drops are helpful when drawing lots of cards.
- Kederekt Leviathan - While global bounce might seem strange (resets Animar), there will be times that I will be able to recover faster than my opponents while undoing all of their permanents and protections.
- Legion Loyalist - When Battalion activates grants first strike, trample and 'can't be blocked by tokens.' A pretty effective way of pushing through damage.
- Novijen Sages, Sage of Fables (in deck testing) and Zameck Guildmage - Turns excess counters on Animar into card draw.
- Phantasmal Image - The cheapest of the clone variants. Since the change in the Legendary rule with M14, this loses it's 'Legend Doomblade' versatility, but it still gains a lot of value when you can copy any creature for 1U even without Animar to provide a discount.
- Phyrexian Ingester - Duplicant number two (and bigger for U).
- Primal Surge - Requires reshaping the deck a little, but potentially acts as an "I win" spell. Combine with Laboratory Maniac or Epic Struggle just in case.
- Slithermuse - Can be cast for cheap thanks to evoke, and will almost always draw several cards because there is always someone in mulitplayer with a massive draw engine. Note also 'when it leaves play.' This and bounce can refill your hand several times in a turn.
- Verdant Eidolon - Nets one mana on the turn you cast it, is recurred by casting my general, and converts green mana to other colours... could be very good!
- Worldly Tutor and Signal the Clans - Creature tutors with various pros and cons.
Wish List! - These are cards I'm hoping to get some day. The only limitation is $$$:
- Gilded Drake - Just so efficient at stealing people's creatures.
- Imperial Recruiter - I don't own one and at this time cannot afford to buy one, otherwise it would be in!
- Taiga - The original Mountain Forest. Simply the best.
- Tropical Island - The original Forest Island. Better than all the rest.
- Volcanic Island - The original Island Mountain. Better than anyone I've ever met.
Work in progress. Feedback and suggestions appreciated.
Edit: Deck lists and card descriptions are up to date as of 31/01/2016. Thanks for your support and patience
-
2
Volango posted a message on [[Primer]] Animar, Soul of Elements (combo)I used Myojin of Life's Web in my Animar list and I liked it a lot. It's just a very nice ensurance policy against wraths. Cast it for GGG when Animar is out, beat down with an indestructible 8/8 and if someone wipes the board just put your hand into play eot and continue.Posted in: Multiplayer Commander Decklists
In an all out combo list however it probably isn't worth it though, but if you like to win in the red zone I very much recommend it - To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
1
Maybe the Scuttlemutt as a mana dork and to force an opponent's creature to be black or white.
Crystal Shard could rebounce our own creatures with ETB effects.
There's also Chromatic Lantern for a little bit of mana fixing, if needed.
1
I really can't count the number of good advices that I've found in this thread (and my deck can actually prove it ).
My best wishes for your real life... and also for EDH, which (in my huble opinion) is becoming too... competitive? Serious?
I really hope that it may become again a fun format, in which a deck like the one in this primer may be played without being seen as "inadequate".
1
That's the result:
3 Yasova Dragonclaw
Creature (13)
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Scorched Rusalka
1 Sidisi's Faithful
2 Bazaar Trader
2 Heir of the Wilds
2 Rattleclaw Mystic
2 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Sylvan Ranger
3 Nulltread Gargantuan
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Savage Knuckleblade
3 Trygon Predator
Instant (6)
1 Brainstorm
1 Collateral Damage
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Cyclonic Rift
1 Stubborn Denial
2x Comet Storm
Sorcery (6)
2 Life's Legacy
2 Mizzium Mortars
3 Act of Treason
3 Harness by Force
3 Mark of Mutiny
3 Traitorous Blood
2 Evolutionary Leap
2 Goblin Bombardment
Planeswalker (1)
1 Domri Rade
Artifact (2)
2 Hero's Blade
3 Bow of Nylea
Land (19)
1 Breeding Pool
1 City of Brass
1 Command Tower
1 Frontier Bivouac
1 Hinterland Harbor
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Mountain Valley
1 Pendelhaven
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Shivan Reef
1 Steam Vents
1 Stomping Ground
1 Taiga
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Yavimaya Coast
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Mountain
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyrobast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Hydrobast
1 Blood Moon
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Gaea's Herald
1 Hull Breach
1 Pyroclasm
3 Yasova Dragonclaw
Creature (17)
1 Elvish Mystic
1 Experiment One
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Scorched Rusalka
1 Sidisi's Faithful
1 Starved Rusalka
2 Bazaar Trader
2 Burning-Tree Emissary
2 Frost Walker
2 Heir of the Wilds
2 Sylvan Caryatid
2 Sylvan Ranger
3 Barrin, Master Wizard
3 Nulltread Gargantuan
3 Reclamation Sage
3 Savage Knuckleblade
3 Trygon Predator
Artifact (2)
2 Hero's Blade
3 Bow of Nylea
Enchantment (1)
2 Goblin Bombardment
1 Brainstorm
1 Collateral Damage
1 Lightning Bolt
2 Cyclonic Rift
2 Manamorphose
2x Comet Storm
Sorcery (3)
1 Ponder
2 Life's Legacy
2 Mizzium Mortars
Planeswalker (1)
1 Domri Rade
Land (19)
1 Evolving Wilds
1 Karplusan Forest
1 Mountain Valley
1 Pendelhaven
1 Rootbound Crag
1 Izzet Guildgate
1 Simic Guildgate
1 Taiga
1 Wooded Foothills
4 Forest
4 Island
2 Mountain
1 Red Elemental Blast
1 Pyrobast
1 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Hydrobast
1 Blood Moon
1 Tormod's Crypt
1 Relic of Progenitus
1 Gaea's Herald
1 Hull Breach
1 Pyroclasm
Main concept:
Barrin, Master Wizard)gain life (Starved Rusalka)Any idea to improve this deck is well accepted.
I know that I should fix my mana base, but I'm working on it.
1
you're talking about using Imperial Recruiter or not.
I like Animar because there are many ways to build a good deck with that commander.
And everyone has his own "taste" on the cards that he prefers to play... and the ones he prefers to exclude from the deck.
1
2GUR
Flash
Surrak Dragonclaw can’t be countered.
Creature spells you control can’t be countered.
Other creatures you control have trample.
6/6
Gentlemen, do we have a staple?
(edit: fixed img link)