Animar Stompy

Commander / EDH RUG (Temur) Tempo Zoo

VoodooSpecter

Land (35)

• 1x Ancient Ziggurat
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fire-Lit Thicket
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 3x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 3x Island
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Minamo, School at Water's Edge
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 3x Mountain
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Skarrg, the Rage Pits
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Removal-Creature (9)

• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Gruul Ragebeast
• 1x Hateflayer
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Phyrexian Ingester
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Tempo (23)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Beastcaller Savant
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Rattleclaw Mystic
• 1x Sakura-Tribe Elder
• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Shaman of Forgotten Ways
• 1x Wood Elves
• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sunder
• 1x Regal Behemoth
• 1x Ruric Thar, the Unbowed
• 1x Palinchron
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Removal-Noncreature (10)

• 1x Krosan Grip
• 1x Manglehorn
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Steel Hellkite
• 1x Meteor Golem
• 1x Woodfall Primus
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre

Evasion (8)

• 1x Tempting Licid
• 1x Temur Ascendancy
• 1x Surrak Dragonclaw
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Xenagos, God of Revels
• 1x Archetype of Endurance
• 1x Craterhoof Behemoth
• 1x Stonehoof Chieftain

Commander (1)

Direct Card Advantage (16)

• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Temur Ascendancy
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Bident of Thassa
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1x Garruk's Packleader
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Primordial Sage
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Knollspine Dragon
• 1x Maelstrom Wanderer
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth

Indirect Card Advantage (9)

• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Sneak Attack
• 1x Venser, Shaper Savant
• 1x Ilharg, the Raze-Boar
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Lurking Predators
• 1x Regal Behemoth
• 1x Artisan of Kozilek

Tutors (4)

• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Woodland Bellower

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BIG CHANGES TO THE MAIN DECK! CHECK THEM OUT!

Animar, Soul of Elements is arguably the most efficient and effective Commander printed for the Temur Clan. Animar embodies every aspect of what being Temur means. Speed. Strength. Ferocity. The perfect Alpha.

Pros:

-Animar himself (Herself? Itself?) is immune to all the most mana efficient spot removal in Magic.

-Effectively brings the late game into the mid game by reducing the mana costs of almost every spell in the deck.

-Innate ability to play a control aggro strategy through ETB effects and tempo.

-Gets larger with every creature spell we cast.

-Resilient to blue, due to card advantages and board states.

Cons:

-Susceptible to combo decks.

-More focused on draws than tutors. (This isn’t a bad thing, really.)

You WILL ENJOY this deck if:

-you like playing the fundamentals.

-you enjoy winning the old-fashioned way...by entering the red zone.

-you like big creatures with big ETB effects.

You will NOT ENJOY this deck if:

-you want to play Temur Combo.

-you want to play counter control.

-you want to cast instants and sorceries.

Strategy

Achieving victory with Animar comes mainly in two ways; card advantage and tempo.

Card advantage is defined as any process by which a player obtains effectively more cards than his [or her] opponent.

Tempo is defined as advantages gained when a player can play more or stronger cards in a shorter period due to efficient resource allocation.

Animar lends himself to be a master of tempo, creating resource vacuums for unspent mana to fill the board with monsters. All I had to do then was include every creature I could that generated some variety of card advantage. Whether that advantage is Direct, Indirect, or Removal. Let's venture into that territory now, shall we?

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Stating the Case Let's break down the rules text:

“Protection from white and black.” - This first line eliminates all the most efficient (and most importantly "early") spot removal from the table, giving Animar some time to utilize the next lines of text...

“Whenever you cast a creature spell, put a +1/+1 counter on Animar, Soul of Elements.”

“Creature spells you cast cost 1 less for each +1/+1 counter on Animar.”

Abilities like these are begging for plenty of creatures to feed it. Abusing these lines of text comes naturally when we're committing 56% of our slots to creatures. With each positive move we make in our board position we compress the late game into the mid-game; increasing the tempo in our favor with every attack step. Playing threat after threat that needs answered is just what the doctor ordered for those pesky blue mages lurking in your LGS. Counter our spells? We don't care! Our mana efficiency and card advantages are far greater than theirs!

Even with all Animar’s strengths, we must prepare for a few weaknesses: Over extension will tempt you frequently while piloting this pile. One well timed Wrath effect will ruin your day. Be patient. Let your board state do as much work as possible. White and black spot removal is ineffective on Animar, but Cyclonic Rift or a random Red Elemental Blast / Pyroblast or Blue Elemental Blast / Hydroblast still gets through. Pay attention to opponents who run cards like that and be ready.

Is a rival Planeswalker running Torpor Orb ? Meet your first target. If your meta tends to hose ETB effects, you will want to tweak the list toward something like Sylvok Replica or Ainok Survivalist . Possibly run an extra instant or two like Krosan Grip or Ancient Grudge .

The description below may not completely coincide with the custom categories. This is usually because cards tend to fill more than one role in the deck. I have separated them into categories that they fulfill the most often.

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Aggravated Assault - Send in your squad over and over with this handy enchantment! Wait until the second main phase to drop and activate for maximum surprise!

Beastcaller Savant , Birds of Paradise , Bloom Tender , Llanowar Elves , Rattleclaw Mystic , Sakura-Tribe Elder , Shaman of Forgotten Ways , Solemn Simulacrum , Wood Elves - These creatures give us enough mana richness to really push the throttle! Animar gets a double boost when casting them. They either fetch a land or tap for mana PLUS giving a +1/+1 counter reduces the cost of the next creature! Remember that Shaman of Forgotten Ways can be a late game winner by activating his Formidable Biorhythm ability.

Ancestral Statue - This 3/4 Golem will go infinite with 4 counters on Animar, bouncing itself and then playing again for free. I know I said "no combo" in part of this description...please understand. This card was added after a specific negative experience at the 2018 Eternal Weekend in Pittsburgh. I will only go nuclear when I must (like when I must get home to the family). Players without proper threat assessment, oppressive strategies, or hyper control have also forced this tactic.

Growing Rites of Itlimoc   – Plus one card advantage on cast (odds are you will see at least 2 creatures) will help get us to flip this enchantment into a serious tempo generating Itlimoc, Cradle of the Sun . Having two Gaea's Cradle s is better than one!

Hardened Scales - An early Scales can increase your tempo two-fold, possibly even more considering Animar’s red zone potential.

Palinchron - This 4/5 flying Illusion enables infinite colored mana to cast any card in hand. With a draw effect like Garruk's Packleader in play, we get to draw and cast as many cards from our deck as we want! (Read: Ancestral Statue )

Regal Behemoth - This Lizard "doubles" our land generated mana while it’s in play. Becoming the Monarch gives us an extra draw at the end of each of our turns.

Ruric Thar, the Unbowed – This 6/6 Ogre Warrior plays both sides of the field like former Buckeye Chris Gamble, severely punishing opportunistic mages. Blue mages MUST pay the toll.

Sneak Attack - Blood Moon s suck. They just do. Get around that pesky enchantment with one of your own! Hopefully we have a Woodfall Primus in hand to abuse!

Sunder - With all the mana reductions and dorks running around our side of the field, feel free to rescind our opponents' land ownership. I would NOT suggest casting this unless you have a way to win quickly. People tend to get salty when they can't play the card game they so love. Be prepared to hear players curse your name loudly.

Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger / Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre - Two cards, same dude, same plan. Get that cost reduction from Animar, cast for cheap, eliminate threats, turn sideways.

Card Advantage – Direct and Indirect

Artisan of Kozilek – 10/9 Eldrazi that brings playmates…seems good to me. Especially with Animar’s bargain basement prices!

Beast Whisperer – Drawing a card on cast instead of ETB trigger can be useful at times. Having as many of both as we can is always the best option.

Bident of Thassa – What’s that? Why does this get a slot and Edric, Spymaster of Trest doesn’t? Well, both are excellent at what they do. I chose Bident for two reasons: 1) its harder to kill; and 2) A “reverse Fight mechanic” forcing my opponents to swing into my team can effectively eliminate their board of creatures. My next attack step will then net me cards off the top of my library. Not a bad idea to run both if you want to.

Cloudstone Curio – Play a creature. Bounce another. Repeat.

Consecrated Sphinx - We like drawing cards. Drawing two for each one your opponent draws is just too good to pass up.

Deadeye Navigator - This Spirit gives our amazing creatures very high mileage per gallon by netting positive ability triggers and board state. All without spending cards from our hand.

Garruk's Packleader - A 4/4 Beast for 5 mana that can consistently generate Card Advantage (CA) every time we cast a large creature.

Ilharg, the Raze-Boar – This season’s walk-on starter has tons of potential. Repeatedly playing cards for free is amazing. Ilharg also eats annoying removal spells and comes back quickly! Get gored.

Knollspine Dragon – With all of the damage we’re gonna be dealing out, I thought this big 7/5 Dragon would be perfect to give us some one sided Wheels.

Kozilek, Butcher of Truth - An oppressive Titan with +4 CA is always a good choice. Especially when you’re usually not paying full price for him.

Lurking Predators – Sticking this green enchantment forces your opponents to either deal with it now or pay the consequences (sooner or) later.

Maelstrom Wanderer - A 7/5 creature that gives haste to your board is just the beginning. The +2 CA in addition is just unreal.

Mulldrifter - Draw two early! Draw two later! Pay as little as U for two cards?! YAUS!

Oracle of Mul Daya - If you are reliably generating green mana in any deck you run, you should seriously consider slotting this in. One of the best Card Advantage/Tempo cards ever printed in Magic.

Prime Speaker Zegana - Zegana can be a 5/5 for 4 CMC with a +5 CA with just 2 counters on Animar. That is serious efficiency!

Primordial Sage – A second Beast Whisperer with better P/T for two more mana. Let’s be real though…we aren’t paying full price for anything.

Soul of the Harvest - A 6/6…with Trample FOR NO REASON...that enables +1 CA for each creature that ETB. Easy to abuse with Deadeye Navigator .

Temur Ascendancy - The fact you can draw a card with at least 28 of our creatures puts it in the CA section. Giving Haste to all our creatures could place this in the Evasion section.

Vizier of the Menagerie - With 52% of total slots committed to creatures, this Naga Cleric usually turns the top card of our library into an 8th card in hand. Not to mention mana fixing or working around painful enchantments like Blood Moon .

Evasion

Archetype of Endurance – This 6/5 Boar is expensive. It also will protect your field at the cost of removing your opponents’ shroud effects. Get gored.

Craterhoof Behemoth - This MASSIVE Beast gives the team the push needed to overrun our enemies.

Stonehoof Chieftain - This Centaur Warrior is a newer addition to the team. He is seriously annoying for our opponents, lending Indestructible and Trample during the attack step to the rest of our squad.

Surrak Dragonclaw - Always dropping in unexpectedly to rowdy up the crew, this mana efficient 6/6 also loathes blue mages. Counter magic doesn't exist around this dragon slayer!

Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir – Teferi can be a serious jerk. Control when your opponents can play? Check. Allow us to play our creatures whenever we want? Check.

Tempting Licid - This little dude is unassuming at first. Once the other side of the table is staring down a large percentage loss of their health in damage and can't block anything except one dork...they'll understand why this is in our list. (This will be replaced by Fauna Shaman when I locate it in my collection)

Xenagos, God of Revels - Giving haste and +X/+X until end of turn to an already hard-hitting creature that you just cast for cheap is part of the definition of Tempo. MUST HAVE.

Control – Removal and other Utility

Acidic Slime - This 2/2 Deathtouch hits the board with powerful removal options to get rid of troublesome tech. Best case scenario a 2 for 1!

Bane of Progress - DESTROY ALL THE THINGS! GETS ALL THE COUNTERS! SWINGS FOR ALL THE DAMAMGE!

Duplicant - This artifact creature is super-efficient! Exile a nasty critter and gain +1 CA!

Glen Elendra Archmage – Counter those pesky control or combo spells with this 2/2 Faerie from Eventide.

Gruul Ragebeast - This Beast allows us to turn every creature we play into direct removal. Very strong indeed!

Hateflayer - Often overlooked, this Elemental from Eventide is an excellent addition to the Temur Clan. Swinging in with a 5/5 body, this Cloudthresher opposite removes blockers and makes the red zone more difficult to manage.

Manglehorn - This 2/2 Beast is just rude. Stomps one artifact, then kicks all the others as they come into play. Our opponents must chase them down for a turn to use them. Major brakes on early game rocks.

Phyrexian Ingester - This guy is fun. It will eat ANY giant opposition and the swing for X+3/Y+3 on the turn. Bye bye, Ulamog.

Reclamation Sage - Cheap removal with a 2/1 body. Usually walking throughout the forests alongside a Woodland Bellower .

Ulvenwald Tracker - The Fighting mechanic is a key within these ninety-nine. Tracker makes it easy with a low cost to boot!

Venser, Shaper Savant – This Wizard is super versatile. He can do just about everything from buying time to putting tables into a soft lock. Instant include.

Woodfall Primus - This 6/6 green staple will nuke any noncreature, trample all over little guys, die, then come back to do it again.

Tutors

Fierce Empath - This Elf fetches us whatever late game bomb we may need to win the game. Sometimes seen taking a Woodland Bellower for a walk.

Survival of the Fittest - Landing this enchantment at any point in the game will break backs. Arguably the most powerful (and possibly ban worthy) tutor effect in all of Magic. Use this quickly, as our opponents will set out to stop you immediately. The third, and last, noncreature spell in the deck.

Woodland Bellower - Looking for a Reclamation Sage or Manglehorn to take care of a pesky artifact or enchantment? Want to reduce your pod’s life totals with Shaman of Forgotten Ways ? This Beast can accomplish that, plus swing in with a 6/5 body. Get gored.

Date added	9 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	20 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 12 - 0 Uncommons 5 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	4.92
Tokens	Morph 2/2 C, Monarch Emblem