How do you like Tinder Wall and Wild Cantor? When I first built animar I used to run them both, as they're great early game ramp, but found that mid to late game they were kinda blah. Is this deck built for 1v1 or multiplayer?

I'm surprised you're not running Eternal Witness or Den Protector. If your plans get interrupted early they can bring back combo pieces etc

Please check out my deck and tell me what you think. I've been running it for ~4 years and it's def my favorite deck. LINK

I'm still not perfect with the deck myself, but I've been praxticing a lot and playing in a very competitive meta, so here's what I've learned:

it's designed for multiplayer, but the deck is a monster 1-v-1 too. It can be trivially easy to make an infinitely large Animar and KO one opponent, but the deck packs numerous ways to beat a whole table at once, since that's how I usually play.

I've been quite pleased with the little ramp guys, to the point of heavily considering some conventional elves as well. Getting Animar out turn 2 is a huge boost for the deck, so I'll run as many good ways of doing so as i can. as an added benefit, cantor and tinder wall are mana-neutral or positive ways of getting a free Animar counter later on if need be.

E-Wit is definitely on the short list, but so far I've found that the deck is fast and redundant enough to never really need anything back from the GY that badly. I'll usually be able to grab another combo piece fairly easily, or just win before I build up a big enough GY to pull from. for the same reason, I'm not a huge fan of Artisan, but we'll see. So yeah, I love the card and i'm not overlooking it, but it's not a shoe-in yet.

Sol Ring, Strip Mine and Birthing Pod ?

and you can use other combos with Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker

Hey, thanks for the ideas! I've considered these guys in the past, so here are my thoughts:

Sol Ring - doesn't meaningfully accelerate Animar himself, and colorless mana isn't super relevant once Animar is reducing all my creatures' costs. Colored rocks are actually better, so I'm running the moxen, which have the added benefit of allowing me to cast Animar turn 2.

Strip Mine - again, colored mana is at a premium. Also, theres no easy way to access a key land at the right moment beside Crop rotation and Gamble. Mainly though, Acidic Slime is just a more convenient way to access the same effect.

Birthing Pod - Great card! I'm definitely not against it. BUT its expensive to use repeatedly, and requires a sacrifice with a particular CMC, which isn't too bad, but is a little tricky sometimes. Ultimately, I ended up liking Green Sun more, and when Eldritch Evo came out, it sealed the deal.

Kiki and Co. - decent combos. The triple-Red on Kiki himself is a little pricey, but thats not the main thing. The real problem is that including the combos requires 5+ cards with fairly marginal utility besides in those combos themselves. I prefer stuff like Hoverguard, Drake and the smaller bounce guys because they do a lot of work all on their own.

Appreciate all the help you've given me with my Animar. Definitely gonna make mine closer to yours, but a bit less yolo if that makes any sense haha.

Actually I've been thinking and there is a way to make a more midrangey, slower Animar deck with a bit more resilience. the idea is to cut all the super-fast rampers like Tinder Wall, Cantor and the enchants, and replace them with higher CMC but punchier cards like Bane of Progress, Praetors, Dragonlords, Void Winnower, and other big fat fatties. Theres also room for more non-creature spells like counters and wheels, which become a lot better when youre not aiming for specific combos. I ended up neglecting this build bc its ultimately just a slower, less relaible way of getting to the same spot: casting eldrazi titans for free or comboing with Statue. Animar pulls so much hate and relies on so many little cheap, low-value utility guys to work that it ended up being a lot more consistent and powerful just to embrace the deck's strengths and push fast, low-curve combo. Perhaps your results ill be different! If so, i'd love to see what you come up with.

Hi, really enjoyed your list and used some of your combos for inspiration. I've always considered adding force of will to the list but not sure what to cut for it. I only run pact of negation and that saved my board a couple of times. I took at more midrange/reactive approach and it has worked well for me. Would appreciate it if you can take a look at my deck and suggestions would be appreciated!

Eternal Scourge could be very annoying in this deck.

Cool card! I'm sure theres a combo there, but he just looks like a hard-to-remove 3/3. What did you have in mind?

Eternal Scourge is infinite w Food Chain, same with Misthollow Griffin (and Prossh, Skyraider of Kher)

Good point! Ive def seen Prossh use this setup, I was just wondering if there was some Animar-specific combo relying on the cost reduction. I guess you can make infinite ETBs and Creature mana, which is neat. Something to consider for sure, but im not sure it isnt better than just using Palinchron or Drake or something.

Nice decklist! I run a budget version of this deck myself and it performs well, just not quite as consistently as the fully optimized lists - Soul of Bounce

What are you thoughts on Whisperwood Elemental, Whirlpool Rider and Brutalizer Exarch? I've had good results with the Exarch using the flexibility of removal or tutor and I've replaced it with Acidic Slime. The Rider has allowed me to combo off quicker a couple times as well. I haven't tried a game with the Whisperwood yet but it seems like it can do a great job of recovering from board wipes and some added value.

Hey, glad you liked the deck! I just got home from playing, and it's always a good time.

Whisperwood: Not my cup pf tea. 5 CMC for the ability to put your guys face down onto the board? Then flip them up for their CMC? this basically negates the main advantages of playing Animar as a commander, since nothing is ever cast and no costs are reduced. Plus there's no combo there with Buttstone, BC you can't re-cast as a colorless morph. Am i missing some sweet tech?

Whirlpool Rider: I actually just cut his big bro, Whirlpool Warrior. both sweet cards. I defnitely love wheeling, both aggressively to force my opponent to dump their hand, and for value after playing out my own. BUT Whirlpool guys aren't card-advantage-positive draw-7s like a real wheel, which is a bummer, plus, as a combo deck, i found myself always holding at least one card i didn't want to dump. as it turns out, wheels are great in value decks, not in combo, at least for me.

Brutalizer: tough call between this and Acidic. Honestly it may be ideal to run both. I ended up on Acidic bc it leaves behind a great blocker and the3 semi-tutor wasn't good enough to spend up to 6 CMC on. Maybe if it nailed creatures or tutored to hand I'd use it, but to me, 6 mana for one of two mediocre effects wasn't good enough. Slime at least does his thing really well. Worth trying out though.

Hi, nice list.

Just wondering if you had considered elemental bond over glimpse of nature. I think it would work better as if you are drawing a lot of cards in one turn off glimpse of nature then you have probably already won anyway and elemental bond has the ability to stick around for a few turns.

Bond is a neat idea, but more for big stompy green decks than Animar. I seriously doubt i play enough creates with 3+ power to trigger it consistently, when wen i do, they're probably the game winners.

Also, at 3 CMC, its hard to find the right time to cast Bond. Turn one is usually Land+Dork, turn 2 is Animar, turn three is setup, and turn 4 is either setup or win. That leaves very little time for Elemental Bond, which neither gives Animar a counter nor establishes much of a board presence. By contrast, beginning a setup turn with Glimpse is 2CMC cheaper and gives you cards ASAP, on the most critical turn.

Finally, im always wary of draw effects that don't have that "may" on there. Glimpse is the only one in there, and when i was till new to the deck i did almost kill myself a couple times by drawing into a combo and going for it before the damage engine was online. Glimpse ends on its own though, whereas Bond will need to be removed if you plan to win with Palinchron or Ulamog casts or something. Not ideal.

Basically, something has to be really excellent to earn a slot if it costs 3+ CMC, especially if its not a creature, and extra-especially if it comes with the risk of killing me.

@swampy5

oh, also it just kills you sometimes, which is really bad. Prime Sage/Soul are better bc they have the "May" attached to the draw

with Statue that is

You make some really good points, I might try something else in my build and see how it goes

Thoughts on the new card Paradox Engine?

it's 5 CMC and requires you to have a fair number of dorks on hand to make it work at all, plus, to get the most out of it, you need some kind of Earthcraft/haste setup. Sure, it adds another Fabricate target, but there's still to much work that goes into winning a game with this. for 5CMC i'd rather be dumping a couple creatures or tutoring/drawing into a more reliable win. Kinda similar situation to Reservoir and Panharmonicon. The payoff is definitely there, but its a little too pricey/unreliable, and doesn't readily energize with the rest of the deck.

Now, Paradoxical Outcome is the KLD card i'm really interested in. The parallel between Animar and Storm decks is pretty obvious, and Paradoxical Storm is doing really cool stuff in Vintage. I think, ultimately, Animar and his dorks make the card a little too slow compared to a Vintage deck full of Moxen, but it still seems really fun.

Basically im just not a huge fan of pricey stuff in Animar. Anything over 3CMC better be a nuke, not something that needs its own setup and maintenance to go off.

Artisan of Kozilek is a great way to recur a combo piece or valuable creature that was removed, for cheap or for free.

Why no Maelstrom Wanderer? If it isn't interrupting setting up combos for you, there's just so much value he gives you.

Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre doesn't exile compared to the version you currently have in the decklist, but his annihilator is just crushing. Great to run aside your Kozilek.

Thanks for having a look at the deck!

Artisan - This guy was in an early build of the deck for the xact reason you mentioned, but the fact that he costs 9 mana without help from Animar is a real pain. In general, i like my "bail-out" crads to be as efficient and unconditional as possible, since theyre most relevant when my deck isn't running optimally. Eternal Witness ended up taking Artisan's slot bc while she doesnt have a hug body and Annihilator, she does what she does very efficiently, whic is exactly what I want when an opponent is hammering me with removal. Notably, this is the same reason she out-competed Den Protector for the slot, even though Morph/Buttstone shenanigans can be pretty spicy. If i were to add a little more recursion, and I may, if i find space, Den Pro would get the nod over Artisan; basically cheaper=better almost every time!

Wanderer - this guy is a beast. I also used him for a long time, but ended up making the tough decision to cut him when I realized that randomized "value" wasnt all that valuable when the deck thrives on individually-inconsequential creatures that can add up to a combo win. Ultimately, very few random combinations of 2 creatures ended up being worth the opportunity cost of running a huge creature that costs URG at best. Again, small and efficient beats big and splashy.

Original Ulamog - again, a fantastic card I ran for a while before axing. In my experience, having a base of cheap tutors and carefully-chosen targets is much more effective than running the second-best versions of a lot of cards. Sure Annihilator is decent, but I get that from Kozy, and both of my Eldrazi provide big beats if i ever need them (rarely). New Ulamog made the cut bc he is a combo piece in some Recruiter chains and a much better source of removal than his older brother.

I ultimately ended up shaving each of these cards off my curve when I made the important realization that despite first impressions, Animar fundamentally isnt a big creature stompy deck. Sure you run a few for specific reasons, but ultimately, you win by fetching Recruiter or Statue and windmill slamming a combo. Animar himself gets big, and sometimes you will attack, but dropping cheap Eldrazi and stuff like Garruk's Packleader ended up not being the focus of my deck. I've seen a lot of people moving towards a more midrange-y build lately, and they can definitely profit from controlling the board more than I do, but I'm a die-hard combo guy, so i ended up slimming down and aiming to be as fast and resilient as possible.

Hello! what are your thoughts on Trophy Mage ?

Trophy is agood card, but not here. It gets buttstone, but that is rarely the main line you want to go for, and even if you tutor it up you still need a few other pieces to get the most value out of it. Trinket works well bc you can get Ballista for a win or clamp for value or a rock for ramp, essentially making it free. Trophy just does the one thing, and it isnt even the optimal thing to do most of the time, so i wouldnt add it to the deck.