Ancestral Animar

Commander / EDH*

LabManiac_cobblepott

Creature (49)

• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Bond Beetle
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Coiling Oracle
• 1x Den Protector
• 1x Dream Stalker
• 1x Elvish Harbinger
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Faerie Impostor
• 1x Fathom Seer
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Flamekin Harbinger
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Man-o'-War
• 1x Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Primordial Sage
• 1x Prophet of Kruphix
• 1x Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1x Quirion Sentinel
• 1x Rattleclaw Mystic
• 1x Raven Familiar
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Shardless Agent
• 1x Shrieking Drake
• 1x Slithermuse
• 1x Sylvan Ranger
• 1x Tinder Wall
• 1x Trinket Mage
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Wild Cantor
• 1x Wirewood Symbiote
• 1x Wood Elves

Land (31)

• 1x Ancient Ziggurat
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 5x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 5x Island
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Thran Quarry
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Earthcraft
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Growth

Artifact (5)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Skullclamp

Instant (3)

• 1x Brainstorm
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Fabricate
• 1x Glimpse of Nature
• 1x Land Grant
• 1x Shared Discovery
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x Time of Need

Commander (1)

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Maybeboard

Creature (7)

• 1x Orcish Lumberjack
• 1x Quirion Ranger
• 1x Sage of Epityr
• 1x Scryb Ranger
• 1x Simian Spirit Guide
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Temur Sabertooth

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Impact Tremors
• 1x Intruder Alarm

Instant (2)

• 1x Gush
• 1x Noxious Revival

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(Under Construction)

Everyone knows that Imperial Animar reigns supreme as the most consistent, efficient, finely tuned build for 1v1 Animar. Unfortunately, there also seems to be universal consensus that the namesake combo, while fine for 1v1, is too self sacrificing for consistent success in multiplayer (given the increased chance of disruption and your vulnerability after committing and killing one or two opponents).

Enter Ancestral Statue.

Ever since this guy was spoiled, everyone agreed that it was an auto include for any type of Animar build. However, most designers have only considered it as an add-on to their existing builds.

This list is my investigation into an Animar build devoted first to Ancestral Statue as the deck's centerpiece. The shell began as a faithful variant of Imperial Animar, but has diverged slightly to focus support on the Ancestral Statue combo. The spirit of Imperial is still intact and so are the Imperial combo pieces, though only as a back up should the main plan get disrupted or you find your self squaring off only against a single opponent. The shift in focus here is that instead winning by swinging with Animar/Eldrazi, which only maps well to 1 or 2 opponents, your main game plan is to win without needing to attack, killing all opponents simultaneously.

The deck is still in its infancy and I anticipate many modifications ahead, but my tests so far have been very promising. The list still combos out around T3 or T4, with near equivalent consistency to straight Imperial, but also without the life commitment that makes Imperial unsuitable for multiplayer.

Focusing Animar around Ancestral Statue means playing some cards that are normally looked down upon in the established Animar canon...

Purphoros, God of the Forge - The main combo with Ancestral Statue. Purphoros is not included in Imperial because he is not central to the main game plan and you normally have a life deficit if you've executed the namesake combo (so executing a bounce loop with Phyrexian Metamorph against Purphoros is not in your best interests). In Ancestral, however, he's an excellent fit. He can be tutored, only costs R most of the time and is very difficult to remove once on the board. Also, a resolved Cloudstone Curio substitutes pretty well if you don't have easy access to Ancestral Statue.

Intruder Alarm - An experiment to investigate multiple synergies extant in Imperial and Ancestral builds. First, this is easy infinite mana with Ancestral or Cloudstone and the myriad mana elves. Intruder Alarm also couples well with Fauna Shaman, bringing her much closer to Survival of the Fittest. Of course, most everything that couples well with Intruder Alarm also interacts well with Prophet of Kruphix or Earthcraft, so many of these components dovetail pleasingly.

Elvish Harbinger - Imperial already has a strong elf subtheme. This replaces Wirewood Herald as more proactive alternative that also fixes mana. Many times this will find Fauna Shaman or Momir Vig, Simic Visionary who then look up Purphoros and Ancestral.

Momir Vig, Simic Visionary - Actually winds up being better than Survival of the Fittest a lot of the time. Still studying whether the benefit is worth the curve hit. If he does resolve, sequencing your way to a combo is typically effortless.

Fabricate - Added to supplement access to Ancestral, but also looks up Cloudstone if necessary as well. In Imperial, Fabricate is terrible because your only real target is Cloudstone and 6 mana is inconvenient on T3 or T4. In this build, however, Ancestral is generally free, so Fabricate is often 3 mana to win. Also the somewhat increased focus on mana elves makes Fabricate into Cloudstone much more attainable.

Genesis Hydra - With Ancestral Statue or Cloudstone, this card reads: "GG: Search your library for a nonland permanent and put it into play." Very hard not to win immediately afterward. Even without Ancestral or Cloudstone, this guy is usually huge and capable finding a win con on the spot.

Date added	10 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 39 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 28 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.39
Tokens	Morph 2/2 C
Folders	Animar, Soul of Elements, E. fun EDH, edh decks, aEDH, Favorites, EDH Ideas, Animar, Commander, adsf, Other People's Decks