deck chart

Ancestral Animar

Commander / EDH bunbunfriedrice

SCORE: 21 | 5 COMMENTS | 16137 VIEWS | IN 24 FOLDERS

Going deeper into Harvest and Kiri —Oct. 20, 2018

Cutting some of the weaker cards that were mostly there for curving into Animar counters. Many of these cuts were staples in the old 1-v-1 Imperial Animar builds. With the new multiplayer lines, Animar only really needs 2 (for Kiri lines) or 3 (for vanilla Weird Harvest) counters to go for the win. So the cheap bouncers, Hardened Scales, Coiling Oracle, and Sea-Gate Oracle are out. Rattleclaw is more optimal for counters, so she's out. GSZ doesn't really have any primary targets, and Dryad Arbor is already out. Den Protector I never found useful. Also going to try cutting Fabricate/Trinket Mage, since neither are Plan A anymore.

Going in are creature protection (Herald and Serpopard), slightly more expensive but higher ceiling draw/ramp (Priest, Rishkar, Loyal Drake), and two draw engines: Tishana and Consecrated Sphinx. Fauna Shaman is back in--essentially a one-card win, even if she takes a turn. And lastly going to test Bane of Progress, which may end up replacing Ainok in the future.

Out:

  • Shrieking Drake
  • Dream Stalker
  • Hardened Scales
  • Coiling Oracle
  • Sea-Gate Oracle
  • Rattleclaw Mystic
  • Green Sun's Zenith
  • Den Protector
  • Fabricate
  • Trinket Mage

In:

  • Gaea's Herald
  • Prowling Serpopard
  • Priest of Titania
  • Rishkar, Peema Renegade
  • Loyal Drake
  • Runic Armasaur
  • Consecrated Sphinx
  • Tishana, Voice of Thunder
  • Fauna Shaman
  • Bane of Progress

Blkandwhtlion says... #1

Hello, Had one question: Could you explain the Kiri-Onna line? I don't see how it differs from the other etb bouncers like Shrieking Drake

I have been building Animar and just recently took to the web. I found this and it does what I was trying to do but better. I started as a big creature deck but my meta is removal heavy so it was terrible (the removal is why I chose Animar due to pro black and white). I started to realize the "storm" potential when I would cast some mana dorks and then started looking for ways to make Animar kill them in one hit with things like equipment to make him unblockable and give shroud. I think this is a great take on the deck, probably the best.

October 18, 2018 7:57 a.m.

bunbunfriedrice says... #2

Absolutely! Kiri-Onna lines were originally discussed on a couple Reddit threads. Kiri is very different than the other bouncers because she can bounce herself AND a Metamorph copied as her. The lines generally start with Recruiter, get Phyrexian Metamorph and Kiri, then getting Kiri's double-bounce trigger when Metamorph on the battlefield as Kiri and you cast Kiri from hand. You then fold in Peregrine Drake for infinite Animar/mana.

I just updated the primer above with the Kiri line requiring only 3 lands. Take a look!

And yes, this is a competitive build. "Big create Animar" is always tempting but is not the fastest version. The current build has several 1-card (plus Animar) wins: Weird Harvest, Spellseeker (via Weird Harvest), and Recruiter (via Kiri or Spellseeker). All the lines end in Ballista for the kill, and besides Kiri, rely on Ancestral Statue for infinite Animar. Stay tuned for some more changes, too.

October 19, 2018 2:43 p.m.