This is my Decklist for my competitive-multiplayer Damia, Sage of Stone EDH Deck. She is currently being fine-tuned until i reach the point where I need a degree in statistics to figure out if X-card is better than Y-card.
This deck can consistently drop Damia on turns 3-4, and can table kill on turn 5-6 average. I've done it a couple of times on turn 3(extremely hard to do though, not average) with exemplary hands.
Comments, feedback, anything to help is appreciated, and thank you for readin/helping
This Mayael, The Anima EDH Deck has seen significant changes in the past year. Enough that Posting a new decklist would be more efficient than retracing the steps to find exactly what replaced what.
Creatures:
<5: 20
Admonition Angel
Angelic Arbiter
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Avenger of Zendikar
Balefire Dragon
Blazing Archon
Bogardon Hellkite
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Primeval Titan
Regal Force
Scourge of Kher Ridges
Soul of the Harvest
Sun Titan
Terastodon
Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
Windbrisk Raptor
Woodfall Primus
Yosei, The Morning Star
>5: 20
Academy Rector
Argothian Elder
Birds of Paradise
Bloomtender
Duplicant
Elvish Piper
Eternal Witness
Fierce Empath
Imperial Recruiter
Karmic Guide
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror breaker
Knight of the Reliquary
Qasali Pridemage
Restoration Angel
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Sakura Tribe-Elder
Seedbord Muse
Solemn Simulacrum
Urabrask, The Hidden
Weathered Wayfarer
There are 2 large changes that have been made to this deck lately, being
1: More basics/less non-basics
2: More utility creatures (not 5<)
1- My decision to run less and less non-basic lands was reached after months of fine-tuning the mana-base and slowly realizing that with the number of creatures I ran that fixed and ramped my mana, as well as just playing properly, the mana fixing of filterlands/pain lands/Jungle Shrine and City of Brass were all unnecessary to gain the mana diversity that this deck craves.
The increase of basic lands made it viable to test further changes in the mana base, every fetch land that RGW can run is included, as well as the testing of [CARD]Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
[/CARD] in place of Mana Vault . Mana vault is usually a one-use cat, ramping me to 5-6 mana by turn 3-4 and giving Mayael a kick-start, Rofellos serves the same purpose, is garuenteed to land at least 2 on turn 3-4, and steadily gets better the further the game progresses. Untapping with him is also nice. (unlike mana vault *glares*)
2- Utility Creatures
I consider my Mayael The Anima deck a bit of an outlier in the spectrum because of my equivalent "Utility" creature count to "Fat" creature count.
The newest editions are Rofellos and Argothian Elder as previously stated, both early game drops that can easily accelerate into Mayael and up mana, as well as having synergy with other lands/creatures in my library.
The usual problem Mayael has is the percentage of her to whiff, and flush 6 mana and that turns tempo down the drain, of course with my Fat count of 20 that is more likely to happen with a blind rip with my deck, however, the majority of my utility creatures can garuentee a Fatty either through Mayael, or just from my hand, and those that don't take advantage of the ones that are already in play (Kiki-Jiki, Restoration Angel, Seedborn Muse)- ripping off Mayael blindly is almost never an issue.
Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can serve as a win-con if i'm feeling sadistic, but it's usually not a combo I use unless I want the game to end or someone is aggravating me, since i feel that the synergy of using the deck to it's full potential takes more skill than Derping sideways with infinite Angels. (Although any kind of game can be simplified to derp-this derp-that if you want to get technical.)
As always, suggestions are welcome and encouraged, thanks for reading, helping. Have a great day/night/evening/afternoon or what have you !
90% of the problems you are going to encounter with Azami are going to be on the stack not on the ground, and with the drop before gain of card advantage ramping to and after Azami hits the table, Scent of Brine is never going to be better than Mana Leak, or even as good as. Negate seems more effective pre-post Azami.
I think you can still afford to run the 4fetches in your colors, 31 islands, if you get more then 2 instances where Retrace Image doesn't land because of the Fetch Lands than revert, but as cutthroat a deck as you want this to be any deck thinning is better than none, and your efficiency with Retrace Image (if that's the main reasons it's dropped) will not be lost.
well if you've done as much work on building the perfect deck as you say than it really comes down to style, and your opinion of "better cards" over his. No use arguing over something neither side is going to budge on. I'm sorry i assumed you were "ignorant," clearly you have a lot of experience in the matter. The optimum 99 cards for an Azusa deck and the 99 optimum cards for a green deck with Azusa as the general can be much different, both being of the same caliber. I disagree with your statement that it will "never EVER hang with the big dogs." That's as far as im going to go at it because I don't think anything i say will change anything.
Equilibrium hasnt made the cut, the only thing im worried about in this deck is the colored mana, a double blue costing enchantment that's only real benefit is from mass use, but not immediately helpful only slows you down. Cloudstone Curio is a baller as combo to run with those cards, but Aluren on his own will win me the game, Cloudstone curio becomes redundant. and Tidespout Tyrant and Regal Froce seal the deal much more consistantly than having 11 counters on Animar.
It may be more consistant in the late game, but this deck is built to win before your 5th untap, Cloudstone/Equilibrium is too slow.
Bederndern i hope you mean Meta in the sense of any one who has more than 1 color in their general. the chances of you sitting at a table with 3 other mono color decks is highly unlikely, so youre garuenteed to hit at least 3 lands with his entrance, and if theres another green player there you wont even need to lose a land yourself. 9 forms of mana denial is plenty when you only need 1 to stop someone from doing anything to stop you. 1 Strip Mine, or 1 turn of Rishadon Port, or losing 1 land from Sundering Titan can mean the difference between combo-ing off and passing phases with nothing to do. Slamming the triple color player for 3 lands is a bigger punch than eating annihilator sometimes.
Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Exploration are in everyway completely necessary. Not running any other form of accel because youre general does it is really only a valid statement when talking about cards like Nature's Lore, Skyshroud Claim, and Rampant Growth. Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Exploration all give you turn 2 and 1 Azusa, and when its turn 2 and turn 1 its hard for anyone to stop her from hitting the table. 1/100 times youll have nothing but lands to play, and just sit on your ass because you got unlucky with your draws, the other 99 times youll be playing Recycle turn 2 or Gen Wave for 8 on turn 3, or Tooth and Nail. Azusa is natural card disadvantage so i can understand the thought that getting her on the table faster really just dumps your hand faster and youll have nothing to do. if you've built your deck properly, than that will almost never happen. Dropping Azusa turn 2 can allow for borderline banworthy plays a turn later, instead of on turn 4 or 5 where its a lot easier to control.
Yes it's built for speed, it's one of the fastest decks you can come across after being finely tuned so much. I can tell you from experience how consistantly a pain in the ass this deck can be, it takes more than 1 counterspell to shut down and even with everyone else at the table being at an equal power level, if the Azusa player has an opening hand Mana Crypt... better pray one of you has a force of will because hes going to be blowing down the gate. The acceleration that the 3 cards bring cannot be argued if the deck is consistant with them. Play a game with your deck against his and yours with whatever way you think is better, 99/100 times his deck will outperform or be more consistant, more often than it.
It seems to me your basing most of your opinion of Azusa on the decks you have experienced in your meta. The generals you mentioned are indeed extremely powerful but i'd put a well built Azusa deck like this one above everything you posted in terms of consistancy and power except for Azami and Arcum, and even then it would be an even match there. This is not your average Azusa deck, looking at a list online can't properly show you that.
I don't mean to sound condescending, but many of the statements you made are incredibly ignorant, and only seem to point toward meta experience, nothing more. Through all the metas i've been through i could count on 1 hand the number of decks that can consistantly keep up with this one, and none of them were part of your list. I apologize for the verbose response, but ive seen first hand how explosive this deck is, and seeing a myriad of comments belittling its power level without adequate explanation is aggravating.
Birthing Pod is in need of testing, at first glance i thought it would be too slow as i posted earlier, but on a second look it has potential to do some dirty dirty things. Something with the potential to throw out combo pieces with more efficiency than Survival of the Fittest is definitely worth testing.
Thran Quarry is also interesting, but fixing mana usually isnt an issue, since the purpose of the deck is to wipe the table before any board wipes are thrown down i cant use the argument that its bad when a board wipe happens haha. will be testing.
very few decks can drop Mind over Matter with safety and win with certainty on turn 5... I'd like to remind you that you are an awful person.
As for the deck itself, why do you run Gauntlet of Might instead of Caged Sun? does the 1 mana it takes make that much more difference? Gauntlet conflicts with Azami's mana cost i would think Caged sun would be superior and disrupt your tempo less.
Everflowing Chalice been a thought? Even just chaining Sol Ring for 1 seems good. mana ramp thats powerful early mid and late game.
PS: the 5 time walk effects that aren't Lighthouse and Mystical Tutor make you an awful person.
Have you thought of replacing Maze of Ith with some other form of disruption? Unless youre running Urborg it will nver give you mana, and it only disrupts the opponent if they decide to attack you. It doesnt seem to do enough, as long as your above 1 life damage doesnt matter that much, would it better suited as a spot for another utility land? or a form of cardadvantage? It seems irrelevent to the tempo of the deck.
Imperial Recruiter is easily in the top 3 most important cards of the deck, the other being Phyrexian Metamorph and Glimpse of Nature. The deck could function without it but it would easily losea turn in it's consistant speed. Yes it is a pain in the ass to pick up, I'm not going to say its totally worth it depending on how dedicated you are to playing, but it's one of the cornerstone combo pieces of the deck.
To correct Technogeek's previous statement he did exaggerate slightly on the speed. The decklist I have which is very slightly edited from the one online soon (still testing small changes) does consistantly combo off and table kill on Turn 4 without disruption. Turn 3 table kill is very possible, but it necessitates either Imperial recruiter or Aluren opening hand or someway for them to hit the table turn 3 with mana to spare. It is uncommon for a table kill turn 3, but single player turn 3 swinging with a 999/999 Animar can happen maybe 20% of the time.
It is also possible to have a turn 2 single player Kill, Animar will have to hit the table turn 1, followed by Aluren turn 2 with a bounce creature (Man O'war, Shriekding Drake, Dream Stalker) It's possible but i've only done it once in the past month or so of testing the deck.
I don't mean to speak down on you in anyway, but there must be something that you are doing that is incorrect. After I saw your comment I loaded the deck and play 4 games just testing hands and was able to win on turn 4 consistantly each game, table kill, and a turn 3 single kill with infinite animar.
Maybe it has something to do with what you're paris'ing, the kind of hands you're keeping, and how you play the deck. I dont believe you just got unlucky for that man test games, so there must be something youre doing with the deck that is less efficient. Turn 4 Table sweep is average if you are playing it exactly right. One mistap of a land can mean the difference in mana color to win, getting triple blue or triple red is the biggest thing you need to be able to do.
Disruption in any deck slows you down, Animar is no exception. Getting Mana Drain'ed on my turn 2 Animar does friggin suck, it doesnt make it a bad deck once Animar has counters in the general zone. After a certain point The disruption doesnt matter, you can push through it since almost every creature you can cast becomes a possible win con with the card advantage it gives you.
Again I dont mean to sound condescending when I say that you might be doing wrong playing the deck, it's a combo deck, it has to be done almost exactly right or it wont work.
I could count on one hand the times i've played Aluren and not won that turn, it's the easiest combo piece of the deck since there are so many creatures with CMC<4 that draw cards or untap permanents. It's never been a dead draw for me.
Autumn: Regal force draws usually at least 4 cards, sometimes up to 7 or 8. Anything more than 3 I believe is worth it since most cards either pay for themselves or replace themselves in mana or draw. 3Colors for 3 cards at least seems pretty good to me.
Lemon: Orcish Lumberjack is kind of rediculous, gaining an additionaly 3 mana of G/R at the cost of a single land is completely worth it.
The Spirit Guides help get Animar online turn 2 or even turn 1, and theyre also creatures, so if the mana is unnecessary casting them is also helpful. Lotus Petal is great because of the turn 1-2 Animar, also Trinket Mage fetches it, making it pretty much pay for itself in mana getting me another color if I need, as well as Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond.
Turn 3 if you untapped with Animar, Erayo is almost garuenteed to flip if it's in your hand. He's on the list of things to cut first though since he is a very solid card to play and can generally give you the win flipping it turn 3 but its slow in the sense where its the only interactive combo, my disruption in this deck is to beat you before you disrupt me. Erayo doesn't kill them, it buys me 2 more turns to set up, which sometimes I need and sometimes don't it goes against the style of the deck which is why its on the list to be cut.
I replaced Sakashima with Clone because the single color mana cost makes it much easier to play, using its bounce ability has been unnecessary to use. Cloning Animar is redundant and doesnt perform any sort of advantage that you don't already have.
I've wanted to test Gamble but it's a risk a i dont like taking with most cards I run. The most solid combo is running someone over with a lethal general dmg Animar, or table killing with Kikijiki Pestermite/Exarch. The chance of randomly losing a key combo piece i dont like the thought of since the only recursion is Eternal Witness or discarding an Eldrazi to Survival, I've wanted to test Noxious Revival for that very reason. Recurring the tutor or bringing back the combo piece I need.
Birthing Pod is too slow, Glen Elendra goes against the style of the deck as I said, my goal is to beat you before you can stop me, not to stop you from stopping me.
Viperion: There are a lot of ways to turn 3 kill 1 person and a couple to turn 3 kill the table. An example could be
Turn 1- any 1 drop, (or holding a Mox, or Spirit Guide)
Turn 2- Animar (Or Bloom Tender since turn 3 starts with 3 mana after casting Animar)
Turn 3-Aluren, Man O' War (infinite Animar) (sometimes with Glimpse to draw your deck and get the mana for a table kill) Glimpse of Nature, Cloud of Faeries with Peregrine Drake, the two creatures that allow the glimpse to keep going, as long as you can hit an Untap engine you can usually cantrip again.
Koloblocin: Tangleroot is an artifact i cant reduce the CMC of, and benefits everyone at the table. I dont want to help you, I want to kill you XP If I play it and can't go off that turn, i'll be helping them catch up to me, which makes it harder to stop them. I will say though it is really interesting, I might try testing it to see if the mana gained is enough to not give a care whether or not they get it sicne they wont see an untap, from the looks of it though I don't think so, could be wrong.
I am running Phyrexian Metamorph, Tidespout Tyrant is on the list to be taken out though since it's not as consistant a kill its my least favorite of the triple colored creatures because its not as efficient. On the fence though. I dont run really any goblins except Kiki-Jiki as well, so Goblin Lord would not be good.
Before anyone else starts commenting, this is designed to be as fast as possible, and as aggressive as possible to be able to kill one person or even the entire table before they've set up enough board position to disrupt me. This is meant for an extremely competitive table, and I would never play this deck against a beginner or a casual player, ragequits and kicks have already happened, but anyway.
Edit: The basic jist of this deck is too cast animar on turn 2 with one of the 14 ways available and kill the opponent before turn 5 with one of the many infinite combos available.
I am looking to take out the following:
TideSpout Tyrant
Wej- Defense of the heart means that i any opponent during YOUR upkeep has 3 or more creatures it cracks, not more than you. That should never happen. all 3 o your opponents will be killing their own creatures and you will have an enchantment that just sits there. Yes it slows them down, but slows you down even more, dropping 4 mana without any gain in the early game does much more dmg than your opponents losing their creatures. It will never go off if your opponents are smart. its that simple, it will get countered, removed, KGripped, or they ust wont play creatures, and it will be a waste of every one's time.
Techno(lol)-you are a **** for this. Yes people will wrath, people will wrath a lot, because they have to. As I said it's not about being able to stop the board wipe, it's about being able to recover for it. With Eladamri's Call, Worldly Tutor, Chord of Calling, Green Sun's Zenith, and Fierce Empath for Tutor spells, fetching EWitness, Sun Titan and Karmic guide wont be difficult at all. Playing against boardwipes you just have to be smart. If I have Admonition Angel in play I won't be exploding my board unless I do have atleast 1 way to trigger landfall, and usually I have around 3.
Iona is a damn good card, don't get me wrong. And dropping it on a mono color deck is usually insta-win, but you run against more hybrid colors than multi colors and there are 4 colors Magic that can "board Wipe," White/Black/Blue(evacuation lol...)Red, and All is Dust, O-stone, and Nevrinyrals Disk for colorless. That makes Iona really tricky to call a color on if your opponents together have the whole wheel. Also, by the time I would need Iona to stop the *** effect is usually once i've already dumped my hand and the entire table is after me. Locking down 1 color won't stop the board wipe unless theyre all playing the same color which is just a mistake on their part not mine.
Ulamog is fun and all, and no he isn't difficult to land, I just don't think he's necessary. I have been thinking of testing Ulamog again over Garruk's Horde since he is proving to be an overrated card, and Iona is usually still just tucked in the sideboard just in case.
Warstorm Surge has been great as long as I dont draw it early game. I've been on the fence about these kind of cards for awhile as I know you are aware of. Hitting Warstorm Surge with a Genesis Wave however pretty much means "Someone is about to die" since the ruling follows the same way that Rites-kicking a Reaper King does. 5 reapers come in, 30 vindicates, they all explode. Gen wave reveals 6 big fat creatures, Warstorm surge, hit, 6 warstorm triggers now. Dropping it early game is risky since I save my Grim Monolith/Mana Vault for Titans or 6/drops that accelerate the mana curve, so Surge stays in my hand until I can pay for it in just lands, so the tempo loss is a pain, and drawing it turn 2-4 is annoying. Testing it through more and more games, if it starts to fall under par than I'll happily replace it, maybe Ulamog! lol
This is my Decklist for my competitive-multiplayer Damia, Sage of Stone EDH Deck. She is currently being fine-tuned until i reach the point where I need a degree in statistics to figure out if X-card is better than Y-card.
Commander- Damia, Sage of Stone
Decklist-
Artifacts- 5
Lands-39
5 Forest
5 Island
4 Swamp
Creatures- 16
Enchantments- 7
Planeswalkers- 0
None
Sorceries- 19
Instants- 13
This deck can consistently drop Damia on turns 3-4, and can table kill on turn 5-6 average. I've done it a couple of times on turn 3(extremely hard to do though, not average) with exemplary hands.
Comments, feedback, anything to help is appreciated, and thank you for readin/helping
New Decklist:
Commander/General: Mayael the Anima
Artifacts: 7
Lands: 37
5 Forest
4 Mountain
3 Plains
Creatures:
<5: 20
Admonition Angel
Angelic Arbiter
Avacyn, Angel of Hope
Avenger of Zendikar
Balefire Dragon
Blazing Archon
Bogardon Hellkite
Iona, Shield of Emeria
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
Primeval Titan
Regal Force
Scourge of Kher Ridges
Soul of the Harvest
Sun Titan
Terastodon
Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre
Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger
Windbrisk Raptor
Woodfall Primus
Yosei, The Morning Star
>5: 20
Academy Rector
Argothian Elder
Birds of Paradise
Bloomtender
Duplicant
Elvish Piper
Eternal Witness
Fierce Empath
Imperial Recruiter
Karmic Guide
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror breaker
Knight of the Reliquary
Qasali Pridemage
Restoration Angel
Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
Sakura Tribe-Elder
Seedbord Muse
Solemn Simulacrum
Urabrask, The Hidden
Weathered Wayfarer
Sorceries: 5
Instants: 4
Enchantments: 5
Planeswalkers: 1
Garruk, Primal Hunter
There are 2 large changes that have been made to this deck lately, being
1: More basics/less non-basics
2: More utility creatures (not 5<)
1- My decision to run less and less non-basic lands was reached after months of fine-tuning the mana-base and slowly realizing that with the number of creatures I ran that fixed and ramped my mana, as well as just playing properly, the mana fixing of filterlands/pain lands/Jungle Shrine and City of Brass were all unnecessary to gain the mana diversity that this deck craves.
The increase of basic lands made it viable to test further changes in the mana base, every fetch land that RGW can run is included, as well as the testing of [CARD]Rofellos, Llanowar Emissary
[/CARD] in place of Mana Vault . Mana vault is usually a one-use cat, ramping me to 5-6 mana by turn 3-4 and giving Mayael a kick-start, Rofellos serves the same purpose, is garuenteed to land at least 2 on turn 3-4, and steadily gets better the further the game progresses. Untapping with him is also nice. (unlike mana vault *glares*)
2- Utility Creatures
I consider my Mayael The Anima deck a bit of an outlier in the spectrum because of my equivalent "Utility" creature count to "Fat" creature count.
The newest editions are Rofellos and Argothian Elder as previously stated, both early game drops that can easily accelerate into Mayael and up mana, as well as having synergy with other lands/creatures in my library.
The usual problem Mayael has is the percentage of her to whiff, and flush 6 mana and that turns tempo down the drain, of course with my Fat count of 20 that is more likely to happen with a blind rip with my deck, however, the majority of my utility creatures can garuentee a Fatty either through Mayael, or just from my hand, and those that don't take advantage of the ones that are already in play (Kiki-Jiki, Restoration Angel, Seedborn Muse)- ripping off Mayael blindly is almost never an issue.
Restoration Angel and Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker can serve as a win-con if i'm feeling sadistic, but it's usually not a combo I use unless I want the game to end or someone is aggravating me, since i feel that the synergy of using the deck to it's full potential takes more skill than Derping sideways with infinite Angels. (Although any kind of game can be simplified to derp-this derp-that if you want to get technical.)
As always, suggestions are welcome and encouraged, thanks for reading, helping. Have a great day/night/evening/afternoon or what have you !
I think you can still afford to run the 4fetches in your colors, 31 islands, if you get more then 2 instances where Retrace Image doesn't land because of the Fetch Lands than revert, but as cutthroat a deck as you want this to be any deck thinning is better than none, and your efficiency with Retrace Image (if that's the main reasons it's dropped) will not be lost.
PS: Sphinx's Herald + Trinket Mage... so troll.
It may be more consistant in the late game, but this deck is built to win before your 5th untap, Cloudstone/Equilibrium is too slow.
Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Exploration are in everyway completely necessary. Not running any other form of accel because youre general does it is really only a valid statement when talking about cards like Nature's Lore, Skyshroud Claim, and Rampant Growth. Sol Ring, Mana Crypt, and Exploration all give you turn 2 and 1 Azusa, and when its turn 2 and turn 1 its hard for anyone to stop her from hitting the table. 1/100 times youll have nothing but lands to play, and just sit on your ass because you got unlucky with your draws, the other 99 times youll be playing Recycle turn 2 or Gen Wave for 8 on turn 3, or Tooth and Nail. Azusa is natural card disadvantage so i can understand the thought that getting her on the table faster really just dumps your hand faster and youll have nothing to do. if you've built your deck properly, than that will almost never happen. Dropping Azusa turn 2 can allow for borderline banworthy plays a turn later, instead of on turn 4 or 5 where its a lot easier to control.
Yes it's built for speed, it's one of the fastest decks you can come across after being finely tuned so much. I can tell you from experience how consistantly a pain in the ass this deck can be, it takes more than 1 counterspell to shut down and even with everyone else at the table being at an equal power level, if the Azusa player has an opening hand Mana Crypt... better pray one of you has a force of will because hes going to be blowing down the gate. The acceleration that the 3 cards bring cannot be argued if the deck is consistant with them. Play a game with your deck against his and yours with whatever way you think is better, 99/100 times his deck will outperform or be more consistant, more often than it.
It seems to me your basing most of your opinion of Azusa on the decks you have experienced in your meta. The generals you mentioned are indeed extremely powerful but i'd put a well built Azusa deck like this one above everything you posted in terms of consistancy and power except for Azami and Arcum, and even then it would be an even match there. This is not your average Azusa deck, looking at a list online can't properly show you that.
I don't mean to sound condescending, but many of the statements you made are incredibly ignorant, and only seem to point toward meta experience, nothing more. Through all the metas i've been through i could count on 1 hand the number of decks that can consistantly keep up with this one, and none of them were part of your list. I apologize for the verbose response, but ive seen first hand how explosive this deck is, and seeing a myriad of comments belittling its power level without adequate explanation is aggravating.
Thran Quarry is also interesting, but fixing mana usually isnt an issue, since the purpose of the deck is to wipe the table before any board wipes are thrown down i cant use the argument that its bad when a board wipe happens haha. will be testing.
As for the deck itself, why do you run Gauntlet of Might instead of Caged Sun? does the 1 mana it takes make that much more difference? Gauntlet conflicts with Azami's mana cost i would think Caged sun would be superior and disrupt your tempo less.
Everflowing Chalice been a thought? Even just chaining Sol Ring for 1 seems good. mana ramp thats powerful early mid and late game.
PS: the 5 time walk effects that aren't Lighthouse and Mystical Tutor make you an awful person.
PS: Is Tooth & Nailing for Avenger Regal fun?
To correct Technogeek's previous statement he did exaggerate slightly on the speed. The decklist I have which is very slightly edited from the one online soon (still testing small changes) does consistantly combo off and table kill on Turn 4 without disruption. Turn 3 table kill is very possible, but it necessitates either Imperial recruiter or Aluren opening hand or someway for them to hit the table turn 3 with mana to spare. It is uncommon for a table kill turn 3, but single player turn 3 swinging with a 999/999 Animar can happen maybe 20% of the time.
It is also possible to have a turn 2 single player Kill, Animar will have to hit the table turn 1, followed by Aluren turn 2 with a bounce creature (Man O'war, Shriekding Drake, Dream Stalker) It's possible but i've only done it once in the past month or so of testing the deck.
Maybe it has something to do with what you're paris'ing, the kind of hands you're keeping, and how you play the deck. I dont believe you just got unlucky for that man test games, so there must be something youre doing with the deck that is less efficient. Turn 4 Table sweep is average if you are playing it exactly right. One mistap of a land can mean the difference in mana color to win, getting triple blue or triple red is the biggest thing you need to be able to do.
Disruption in any deck slows you down, Animar is no exception. Getting Mana Drain'ed on my turn 2 Animar does friggin suck, it doesnt make it a bad deck once Animar has counters in the general zone. After a certain point The disruption doesnt matter, you can push through it since almost every creature you can cast becomes a possible win con with the card advantage it gives you.
Again I dont mean to sound condescending when I say that you might be doing wrong playing the deck, it's a combo deck, it has to be done almost exactly right or it wont work.
I could count on one hand the times i've played Aluren and not won that turn, it's the easiest combo piece of the deck since there are so many creatures with CMC<4 that draw cards or untap permanents. It's never been a dead draw for me.
Lemon: Orcish Lumberjack is kind of rediculous, gaining an additionaly 3 mana of G/R at the cost of a single land is completely worth it.
The Spirit Guides help get Animar online turn 2 or even turn 1, and theyre also creatures, so if the mana is unnecessary casting them is also helpful.
Lotus Petal is great because of the turn 1-2 Animar, also Trinket Mage fetches it, making it pretty much pay for itself in mana getting me another color if I need, as well as Chrome Mox and Mox Diamond.
Turn 3 if you untapped with Animar, Erayo is almost garuenteed to flip if it's in your hand. He's on the list of things to cut first though since he is a very solid card to play and can generally give you the win flipping it turn 3 but its slow in the sense where its the only interactive combo, my disruption in this deck is to beat you before you disrupt me. Erayo doesn't kill them, it buys me 2 more turns to set up, which sometimes I need and sometimes don't it goes against the style of the deck which is why its on the list to be cut.
I replaced Sakashima with Clone because the single color mana cost makes it much easier to play, using its bounce ability has been unnecessary to use. Cloning Animar is redundant and doesnt perform any sort of advantage that you don't already have.
I've wanted to test Gamble but it's a risk a i dont like taking with most cards I run. The most solid combo is running someone over with a lethal general dmg Animar, or table killing with Kikijiki Pestermite/Exarch. The chance of randomly losing a key combo piece i dont like the thought of since the only recursion is Eternal Witness or discarding an Eldrazi to Survival, I've wanted to test Noxious Revival for that very reason. Recurring the tutor or bringing back the combo piece I need.
Birthing Pod is too slow, Glen Elendra goes against the style of the deck as I said, my goal is to beat you before you can stop me, not to stop you from stopping me.
Viperion: There are a lot of ways to turn 3 kill 1 person and a couple to turn 3 kill the table. An example could be
Turn 1- any 1 drop, (or holding a Mox, or Spirit Guide)
Turn 2- Animar (Or Bloom Tender since turn 3 starts with 3 mana after casting Animar)
Turn 3-Aluren, Man O' War (infinite Animar) (sometimes with Glimpse to draw your deck and get the mana for a table kill)
Glimpse of Nature, Cloud of Faeries with Peregrine Drake, the two creatures that allow the glimpse to keep going, as long as you can hit an Untap engine you can usually cantrip again.
Aluren, Glimpse of Nature, Imperial Recruiter, and Survival of the Fittest are the major game lockers in the deck, the ones that most consistantly say "If I draw this card... im probably going to win"
Koloblocin: Tangleroot is an artifact i cant reduce the CMC of, and benefits everyone at the table. I dont want to help you, I want to kill you XP If I play it and can't go off that turn, i'll be helping them catch up to me, which makes it harder to stop them. I will say though it is really interesting, I might try testing it to see if the mana gained is enough to not give a care whether or not they get it sicne they wont see an untap, from the looks of it though I don't think so, could be wrong.
I am running Phyrexian Metamorph, Tidespout Tyrant is on the list to be taken out though since it's not as consistant a kill its my least favorite of the triple colored creatures because its not as efficient. On the fence though. I dont run really any goblins except Kiki-Jiki as well, so Goblin Lord would not be good.
Single Player? Hokori. built right any deck can be competitive, Elesh Norn is the best in my opinion.
General: Animar, Soul of the Elements
CMC 1:
CMC 2:
CMC 3:
CMC 4:
CMC 5:
CMC 6 and up:
Sorceries:
Instants:
Artifacts:
Enchantments:
Lands:
4 Mountain
5 Forest
4 Island
Edit: The basic jist of this deck is too cast animar on turn 2 with one of the 14 ways available and kill the opponent before turn 5 with one of the many infinite combos available.
I am looking to take out the following:
TideSpout Tyrant
Cards I am testing:
Techno(lol)-you are a **** for this. Yes people will wrath, people will wrath a lot, because they have to. As I said it's not about being able to stop the board wipe, it's about being able to recover for it. With Eladamri's Call, Worldly Tutor, Chord of Calling, Green Sun's Zenith, and Fierce Empath for Tutor spells, fetching EWitness, Sun Titan and Karmic guide wont be difficult at all. Playing against boardwipes you just have to be smart. If I have Admonition Angel in play I won't be exploding my board unless I do have atleast 1 way to trigger landfall, and usually I have around 3.
Iona is a damn good card, don't get me wrong. And dropping it on a mono color deck is usually insta-win, but you run against more hybrid colors than multi colors and there are 4 colors Magic that can "board Wipe," White/Black/Blue(evacuation lol...)Red, and All is Dust, O-stone, and Nevrinyrals Disk for colorless. That makes Iona really tricky to call a color on if your opponents together have the whole wheel. Also, by the time I would need Iona to stop the *** effect is usually once i've already dumped my hand and the entire table is after me. Locking down 1 color won't stop the board wipe unless theyre all playing the same color which is just a mistake on their part not mine.
Ulamog is fun and all, and no he isn't difficult to land, I just don't think he's necessary. I have been thinking of testing Ulamog again over Garruk's Horde since he is proving to be an overrated card, and Iona is usually still just tucked in the sideboard just in case.
Warstorm Surge has been great as long as I dont draw it early game. I've been on the fence about these kind of cards for awhile as I know you are aware of. Hitting Warstorm Surge with a Genesis Wave however pretty much means "Someone is about to die" since the ruling follows the same way that Rites-kicking a Reaper King does. 5 reapers come in, 30 vindicates, they all explode. Gen wave reveals 6 big fat creatures, Warstorm surge, hit, 6 warstorm triggers now. Dropping it early game is risky since I save my Grim Monolith/Mana Vault for Titans or 6/drops that accelerate the mana curve, so Surge stays in my hand until I can pay for it in just lands, so the tempo loss is a pain, and drawing it turn 2-4 is annoying. Testing it through more and more games, if it starts to fall under par than I'll happily replace it, maybe Ulamog! lol