Ancestral Animar

Commander / EDH Competitive Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer RUG (Temur)

JMCraig

Lands (29)

• 1x Ancient Ziggurat
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Forbidden Orchard
• 1x Forest
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Gemstone Mine
• 1x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Tarnished Citadel
• 1x Thran Quarry
• 1x Tropical Island
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Volcanic Island
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Wincons & Recursion (7)

• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Den Protector
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Barrin, Master Wizard
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph

Ramp (21)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mox Diamond
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bond Beetle
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Utopia Sprawl
• 1x Wild Cantor
• 1x Wild Growth
• 1x Beastcaller Savant
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Wall of Roots
• 1x Wood Elves

Draw (13)

• 1x Glimpse of Nature
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Fblthp, the Lost
• 1x Sylvan Library
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Generous Patron
• 1x Raven Familiar
• 1x Sea Gate Oracle
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Slithermuse
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx

Commander (1)

Interaction (16)

• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Caustic Caterpillar
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Mental Misstep
• 1x Siren Stormtamer
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Veil of Summer
• 1x Destiny Spinner
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Painter's Servant
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Spellskite
• 1x Deflecting Swat
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Prowling Serpopard

Tutors (13)

• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Sylvan Tutor
• 1x Worldly Tutor
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Neoform
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Weird Harvest
• 1x Chord of Calling
• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Shared Summons

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I'm currently trying out Moxfield for deck storage, so this list may be out of date. See the latest version of my Animar list and primer here.

Old Primer

Introduction and Resources

Here I provide an uncompromising, highly-tuned Animar list designed to compete in any meta including full-powered cEDH.

The key factor to bear in mind when reviewing this list is that Animar is not a "big-creatures" deck nor a "big-mana" deck. It's a creature-based storm deck designed with the aim of casting one or more cheap creatures as many times as possible for as little mana as possible, with Animar himself acting as a vastly more powerful Helm of Awakening effect.

For more detailed info and great discussion, you can also have a look at the Discord server.

Strategy

Animar primarily relies on Ancestral Statue to win games, but we actually have access to several other powerful combos worth considering, some of which have a long history with the deck. The list below is ordered roughly by how likely I would be to include them in my build. Note that the "Premium" combos are typically ones that can be accessed starting from a single card like Imperial Recruiter and which don't force the deck to include mediocre cards.

Premium Wincons

• The basic Statue combo: Animar + Ancestral Statue = infinite ETBs and infinite Animar counters. This combo wins games on the spot with Walking Ballista or Beast Whisperer (to dig for Walking Ballista). It's not uncommon to simply draw into either Statue or an outlet then tutor the other piece, but there are several ways to tutor both pieces as part of the same line, making this effectively the "core" combo of the deck.

• The Neoform line, as follows: Imperial Recruiter fetching Phyrexian Metamorph > Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter fetching Spellseeker > Spellseeker fetching Neoform > Neoform the Spellseeker into Ancestral Statue, bouncing itself on ETB > cast Ancestral Statue infinitely, bouncing Phyrexian Metamorph with the last cast > Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter fetching Walking Ballista > cast Walking Ballista to win. This line is extremely mana-efficient and requires no extra inclusions in the deck.

• Weird Harvest or Shared Summons fetching Ancestral Statue and Walking Ballista. Both of the multi-tutors are effectively one-card wins with minimal setup which can also be used for value at any point in the game.

Viable Wincons

• Dockside Extortionist (with 4+ Artifacts or Enchantments in play) + Barrin, Master Wizard = infinite ETBs and infinite Animar counters, often infinite mana. Notably, when the combo generates infinite mana, it can be used to blink any other cards we have on board, making it trivially easy to find Walking Ballista or any other outlet. This combo requires two starting pieces and slightly more mana upfront than that Kiri line below, so it's not strictly better, but I personally prefer it for my build.

• The Kiri line, as follows: Imperial Recruiter fetching Phyrexian Metamorph > Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter fetching Kiri-Onna > Kiri-Onna bouncing Phyrexian Metamorph > Phyrexian Metamorph copying Kiri-Onna and bouncing the original > Kiri-Onna bouncing itself and Phyrexian Metamorph > Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter fetching Dockside Extortionist > Dockside Extortionist enters, generating at least 4 Treasures, at which point it becomes possible to infinitely clone Dockside Extortionist with Kiri-Onna and Phyrexian Metamorph without spending any further mana or life > end the line by searching up Walking Ballista. This line allows us to win without Walking Ballista by looping recursion spells to infinitely cast whatever we want. This combo requires less mana upfront than the Dockside Extortionist one, but it's slightly more demanding on our landbase, and also requires Animar to be in play. Whether you play Kiri, Dockside or neither is largely a matter of preference.

Nonviable Wincons

• Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker + Pestermite / Deceiver Exarch = infinite copies of the chosen untapper. I currently consider this a viable alternate wincon for the deck when Animar is the frequent target of removal, but the fact that it takes up 3+ slots in the deck, can be expensive to cast and forces our manabase into more Red than is desirable makes it a suboptimal choice. The introduction of the Dockside and Kiri lines in particular leave Kiki largely outdated.

• Animar + Cloudstone Curio + any two nonartifact colorless or Morph creatures = infinite ETBs and infinite Animar counters. This combo will win games with many of the same outlets as the Statue line, but has a few drawbacks. Cloudstone itself is difficult to tutor and expensive to cast, and having two colorless creatures available is often more work than simply tutoring Ancestral Statue.

• Earthcraft + Man-o'-War / Dream Stalker / Shrieking Drake + a basic Island = infinite ETBs. This combo can actually win a game without Animar on board as long as you use the Drake and any outlet other than Walking Ballista. It suffers from the same drawbacks as the Cloudstone combo, however, in that Earthcraft itself is inaccessible to most of our tutors, and the combo requires 3+ pieces not counting an outlet.

• Aluren + Man-o'-War / Dream Stalker / Shrieking Drake = infinite ETBs. This combo works without Animar as well, but can also be used to make infinite Animar counters and win by combat. As with so many Animar wincons though, Aluren itself doesn't work well with the deck's suite of tutors, and at 4CMC, can be awkward to cast.

• Animar + Palinchron = infinite ETBs and sometimes infinite mana. Once Animar reaches 4 counters Palinchron has the ability to bounce and recast himself, winning the game with most of the same outlets as the Statue combo. Problematically, this combo requires at least 6 lands on board for Palinchon to be mana-neutral, or 7 to generate infinite mana. The deck plays as few lands as possible, however, making this line only viable late in the game.

Conclusion

Animar is a great deck to play. As with any good cEDH deck, it consistently rewards research, practice, tight play and a little creativity.

Please use this space to discuss all aspects the deck. I always learn a lot by chatting with other talented pilots on here!

Budget Versions

Here are some rough sketches of budget builds at two different price points. I haven't playtested these too much, but they should be a solid starting point for someone interested in testing the deck out at a less inflated price. If you're curious about how to optimize the deck for your personal budget and card pool, feel free to drop a comment and we'll figure something out!

• Ancestral Animar: Low-Budget (~$500)
• Ancestral Animar: Mid-Budget (~$1000)

Updated April 2020 for Ikoria & Commander 2020.

Top Ranked	Achieved #19 position overall 7 years ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH RUG (Temur) 5 years ago
Date added	8 years
Last updated	4 years
Exclude colors	WB
Splash colors	R
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	10 - 0 Mythic Rares 61 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 16 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	1.96
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Morph 2/2 C, Spirit 1/1 C, Treasure
Folders	Interesting Brews, Others' Commanders, best of edh, cutthroat canon, Animar EDH, Animar, Soul of Elements, Animar EDH, T1 Competitive, JMCraig's Decks, cEDH