It's still fantastic, and easily worth the cash. You can get pretty much all your interaction and ramp, many of your other tutors, and any of your little techy guys. Practically the whole deck except statue and the eldrazi are tutorable, or have a functionally equivalent tutorable option. If budget is an issue, wait for the reprint to bring the price down then scoop one; he's a great card in the deck.

Protection is pretty easy to come by, but you need to tailor it to your meta. Force Pact and Misstep are all necessary catchall counters (never play counterspells that cost mana though), and Glen is a fantastic creature-based option. Skite and Safekeeper are also great, cheap onboard options. After that, the key is finding what works for your playgroup. Mine setup is geared for an open meta, but you can obviously tweak those slots around a bit. Just have a look through my "interaction" section and ask any questions you may have.

As for recasting Animar, the main goal is to keep him alive, obviously. Glen is probably the best card in the deck for this, and the more you play the more you'll find that there are games where she carries you to a win all on her own. Tutoring up an early glen is a very savvy play a lot of the time.

Ok, thanks for the help, I will actually look to pick one up the point you made was more than convincing. As for the interaction piece that makes sense as well I love glen, thanks for all the help.

JMCraig, Thanks for your desklist. It appears you've made some changes to this list but you've not kept a change log. The reason why I'm highlighting this is because i've been slowing aquiring cards to build this deck as a starting point and now with the deck nearly complete there are cards in the decklist which I didn't make a note of, and some cards have been cut.

Keep up the good work.

GLad it's been a rewarding project! My only changes in the last few months have been:

Cut:

• Rishkar
• Earthcraft
• 3 pains
• Forest
• Island

Add:

• GSZ
• Sylvan Safekeeper
• Dryad Arbor
• Grove of the burnwillows
• Tarnished Citadel
• Exotic Orchard
• Thran Quarry

Only 2 nonlands changed, Basically adding back GSZ because it's an effective way to dig for hate in an increasingly powerful cEDH environment. The lands shifted because Earthcraft ended up being a slow, underpowered line, and without it I can shoehorn in more nonbasics. See the comments above for more detailed discussions about these edits with other talented pilots.

Hope it goes well on the build! Maybe the Earthcraft spike will let you swap it for some other value!

Thank you for your reply and updates.

I got the Earthcraft last week >_

Thank you for your reply and updates.

I got the Earthcraft last week, lol. Maybe we can chat further on discord about the deck?

I don't use the discord much, but I'm JMCraig on there. shoot me a DM and I'll keep an eye out.

Just wondering if you've considered Vexing shusher in here and if you have, what your reasoning is for not playing it.

Thanks.

Vexing Shusher seems awesomne, putting that in my Animar, Soul of Combos - Fun Police for sure. Great recommendation.

Vexing is definitely a good option, but its a bit reactive for me. 2 mana to cast then at least one held up on your combo turns can be onerous. Plus it doesn't have the benefit that Glen does of stopping opposing wins; it's almost exclusively defensive. I do run Stormtamer in the same role, so that would be the cut i'd recommend, but i like it more at 1 CMC and it has the ability to protect stuff thats already on board.

Darn. Guardians of Koilos from Dominaria was almost Ancestral Statue #2.

SaberTech, Guardians of Koilos seems like a good addition. It should work with Ancestral Statue?

Guardians of Koilos can't return itself to its owner's hand, it has to be "another" historic card. Ancestral Statue statue can just bounce itself repeatedly, so it doesn't really need another card to go with it. The Guardians are really close to what the deck needs, but it just doesn't quite work. I might have considered it if it could bounce any creature, but since it can only bounce artifact or legendary creatures I don't think that it is worth a slot.

Yeah, that guy almost fooled me in the spoiler. i was really excited for a second. too bad!

sadly its pretty worthless to the deck since it can't bounce itself.

I was curious if you ever figured out if earthcraft was worth running or replacing?

I had a great discussion with the guy who keeps putting up results with Animar in MODO EDH, and what we concluded was that in multi, Statue is usually more than enough, but in 1v1 you have a lot more spot removal to deal with, so having backups like Earthcraft can be more relevant. So as always, the list above is what I'd bring to a wide-open cEDH meta for multi.

Earthcraft is still a viable card to slot in if your meta calls for it, but i haven't needed or wanted it for a while, and have found that the cost of playing too many basics does not outweigh the benefit of having a largely un-tutorable tertiary wincon.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense, thanks for the quick response as always. Was really just wondering how the playtesting went if any happened at all.

Im really happy with the current list! The Safekeeperhas been oveperforming, and I think GSZ is a good addition.

There was quite a bit of discussion on the cedh reddit about how to counter animar. I really do not think animar is as weak as many believe him to be and many think he lacks interaction. I feel like the deck has a wide range of toolbox effects and counter magic. Do you have any thoughts on this topic? I am happy to see that GSZ is doing well I personally think that card is great in this deck and I now want to try out safekeeper as well. I think he serves the role we are looking for similarly to sort of gitrog. I do not think its exactly the same but protecting animar seems like the most vital role of the deck for it to function well.

I was in that thread too, but i'll say what I always say: a well build Animar deck is a lot more resilient and consisten than people say. Furthermore, a lot of pilots who havi difficulty with the deck arent taking the necessary steps to protect themselves like tutoring Glen, Skit etc when they need too. Inexperienced pilots playing recklessly can given the impression that Animar is much more of a fragile, linear deck than it is.

I also think Gitrog is a fair comparison. It's an equally off-axis, commander-centric combo deck that requires specific hate to beat. It's definitely faster than animar but animar has better toolboxy reactive effects and can come back from hater better, in my experience.

So as usual, we're not a tier-one deck and never will be, and a skilled oponent with the right tools will definitely keep us in a corner, but the deck is still very much a viable cEDH option, and i'd say we're a cut above the "experimental brews" and meme-decks we get lumped in with, like Dino Food Chain, Godo-helm and Sram Cheerios.

One final note, definitely cut your Lotus Cobra if you still run him. Mine's just keeping the slot warm for Mox Amber.

Huh wonder why lotus cobra though. I have liked it but I could see replacing it as well. Land density is rather low and i guess on turn 2 we should be casting animar if we are trying to combo off or not we are looking for protection so we can cast or protect him safely. Any reason its lotus cobra and not another mana dork though? Is it because its 2 mana and conditional with the lands clause?

He had been in there bc if you cast him before your land drop, he was effectively a "free" creature that wound end up netting mana in the long run, a bit like Beastcaller or Wood Elves. The more streamlined the deck became though, the less I needed extra mana and the more efficient my landbase became.

I've been shaving a lot of the weaker post-animar ramp lately bc having something with no real impact on the game other than making mana/counters (Skirk Prospector, Spirit Guides) is weak compared to casting a tutor or cheap protection piece that nets counters as a side effect. Cobra was decent ramp but never a good draw, protection or interaction piece, so it was first to go. Wood Elves and Beastcaller are now the only post-animar ramp pieces in the deck (not counting Amber, which is castable on the same turn) So theyre plausible cuts going forward. Wood elves is prob the weakest slot in the list, and I'll be cutting it if i need another slot.

Ya I see your point. Are you currently looking to replace those cards and if you were what are you the closest to replacing them with?

No, not really. My top picks for the deck would mostly be meta-calls with notable downsides:

• Vexing Shusher (mana intensive, usually unnecessary)
• Serpopard (mana intensive, usually unnecessary)
• Manglehorn (doesnt hit torp, doesnt stop fast ramp)
• Ulvenwald tracker (no need to kill creatures, usually)
• Riverwsie Augur (4 CMC)

Most of these are a bit overcosted and narrow for the deck, but could be added for meta/budget reasons.

My general thoughts have been unless you are playing against a heavy cs density they just feel less useful than a 1 cmc counterspell. I actually like running red elemental blast, pyroblast, or swan song if im having issue with decks like that. Like always thanks for answering all of my questions!