Hmm, thats a fair point. extra creature removal is always a good idea against that ridiculous deck! I for one love using Revoker in the matchup to buy time; I've definitely had both Negator and Metamorph out before naming Druid and Thras. Grapeshot would be useless against their main line tho.

Still, really solid meta pick. of all the 1-2 CMC removal cards, I'd def want the one thats also a wincon.

Nah, I'd rather Gut Shot, yes it is free, yes, it is tutorable, and in our colors, but no, thats not why.

I just think it is funny.

Ohhh, Thud in the new Core Set is a spicy red 1CMC removal option. You could even use a pumped Animar to KO a player! Im not really too keen on this compared to Grapeshot, but its hilarious.

Red gets some fun spell names. Being able to say, "I finish you off with a gut shot," or, "Thud. You're dead," is sometimes all the reason you need to build some janky deck to include them in.

It's nice to see Reclamation Sage reprinted in an actual set. I consider that card an EDH staple at this point. Exclusion Mage was almost another Man-o'-War option for Animar, but of course they had to design it so that it couldn't bounce itself. It seems to be a trend with bounce abilities now, like with Guardians of Koilos. It makes we wonder if at some point someone on the design team had to play against an Animar deck.

Overall, I think the new set is looking pretty mediocre right now. There are a handful of interesting new cards and reprints for constructed, but nothing yet that would make me want to go buy a booster box. In draft though, I think I would almost always try to go mono-white weenie. The curve that the white creatures in the set offer is nuts, and that is JUST with common cards that you are pretty much guaranteed to see a lot of in every draft game.

I mean, on some level isn't that what you want in a Core Set? Nothing to spicy, but a few solid answers, some mid-value reprints, and maybe a decent new creature for Animar?

I def agree we havent seen that last one yet, but the "free" 3CMC cantrip thopter falls in with Omenspeaker, Champ of Wits and Foul Emissary in the almost-playable-cantrip-guy category. Personally I'd kill for a another 2CMC that draws one card or a 3CMC that has a little selection built in. somehow those are still relatively hard to come by.

More casual Animar decks are probably happy to see that green Colossal Majesty enchantment. It's pretty easy to have a 4 power creature around with an Animar deck. It's a decent budget EDH card for Green in general.

Meteor Golem is another budget EDH card for Black decks to deal with artifacts and enchantments, while Green can use it as creature removal. It can't be used with Cloudstone Curio, but I can still see a low budget Animar build running it.

Yeah, I saw meteor and immediately got excited bc the word "Golem" in EDH is pure animar bait. I think this one is def better than Duplicant most of the time, but youre right, obviously not worht it in the deck.

It does raise the interesting question though, whats the most expensive Statue effect you'd play? I think Statue at 7 CMC is still totally worth it in the deck, even though a few games would be a bit slower. It's a perfect topdeck past turn 5 or so, and you can fetch it with empath. ahh well, i think they've prob used up their big colorless value creature slots in M19 by now, but we'll see what else the set has for us!

Hmm, even in my casual decks I grimace at playing spells that are higher than 6 CMC unless the effect they offer is very synergistic with the deck or I have a way to cheat them out. Considering that an artifact creature like Statue fits both conditions, I guess I would be willing to play a version of Statue that cost a max of 8 mana? At that cost though, it had better offer something more than just a vanilla body considering that the bounce effect is supposed to be an additional cost to use the card, not a benefit. And you are right, at least at that high of a CMC you could tutor it up with Fierce Empath, which would be very beneficial to the deck's lines of play. In fact, if we were to get another Statue type card I would probably take one that had a CMC of 6 over one with a CMC of 5 because of the interactions with the Empath. Although, the CMC of 5 would at least have the benefit of being easier to tutor out with Eldritch Evolution on top of just being the cheaper option of the two.

So here's an idea I've been working on. The deck has a lot of good combos, natural ramp, and solid toolboxy interaction, but what I always want more of is draw. Real storm decks do this way better than we do. I'd love to add 2-3 more cantrip/selection effects to the deck, but im always at a loss for slots.

My current shortlist for good cantrips is:

• Whirlpool Warrior
• Foul Emissary
• Slithermuse
• maybe Champ of wits

And I may consider cutting

• Ainok (no cloudstone means we dont need all the morphs we can get)
• Dream stalker + Man-o-War (the bounce is fine, but rarely gamebreaking. we have enough ways to make counter son animar as-is)
• Possible Metamorph, although the free value is hard to pass up

W=hat do you think? we shave a few synergistic but low-power options to speed up our actual winning lines. why make cute value plays when we can dig for statue/tutors? I'd miss some of the fleximility we get from the bouncers especially, but the absolute worst games for us are when we run out of gas.

You guys think there's something worth experimenting with here? I'm at least interested to retest WHirlpool.

I'd keep Phyrexian Metamorph in the deck. Although the Imperial Recruiter + Shrieking Drake + Phyrexian Metamorph combo is more for 1v1, there have been a lot of times where I've used it to pump out a quick eldrazi that was in my hand. Because the Metamorph will get to bounce the eldrazi back to your hand once, that's still drawing 8 cards or exiling 4 permanents. The metamorph has also been really helpful for netting more mana or cards for free while trying to storm off by copying a Mulldrifter or Peregrine Drake. I've used the card for so many different plays that I have a hard time picturing the deck without the versatility it offers.

If Torpor Orb isn't a worry for you then I think it's fine to cut the Ainok Survivalist. I've always considered it a meta pick.

Between Dream Stalker and Man-o'-War, I would be more inclined to cut the Stalker first. For this deck's purposes, its mostly just a slightly worse extra copy of Shrieking Drake. Man-O'-War has extra utility in that it can bounce a blocker, Recover Animar if someone stole it with Gilded Drake, and in my playtesting it is one more way to delay a Hermit Druid deck by a turn by bouncing the druid.

Regarding the card-draw creature options that you listed, It's hard for me to ignore that Whirlpool Warrior and Champion of Wits only let you filter cards. They don't net you any additional cards in hand, they don't even replace themselves as a card in hand. However, I like that the Warrior can mess with opponent's hands. The downside to it in comparison to the Champion is that the Warrior is useless if you already have one combo piece in hand and are trying to dig for another piece.

Slithermuse used to be an Animar staple years ago when the first competitive versions of the deck were floating around. I used to run it, but the fact that it isn't guaranteed to draw you cards and that its triggered ability is when it leaves play were hassles. The double blue mana to keep it on board was awkward, especially since you weren't getting immediate value out of it, and casting it for the Evoke cost meant that it wasn't going to stick around long enough for you to use bounce shenanigans to net a ton of value out of it. The card always seems to hover on that borderline of being playable, and I guess it would be worth it if your meta has a lot of control decks that like to keep their hands stocked with cards.

I was mulling over the pros and cons of Slithermuse vs Sandstone Oracle as replacements for Kozilek in low budget Animar builds last night but I didn't really put in enough thought about it to come to a conclusion.

Foul Emissary comes with the chance that it won't find a creature in the top four cards, but considering how many creatures are in the deck I think that the statistical chance of that happening is low enough that it is worth consideration anyway. If it doesn't hit anything that means that it probably filtered away a bunch of non-essential ramp and land cards, although there's a good chance that tutor spells will also get swept away by it's ability. I'll admit, I'd probably want to smack my head against the table if I was in a pinch and the Emissary filtered away a tutor that was on the top of my deck without netting me a creature.

So of the options you've listed, my priority choices for cards to take out would be:

1) Ainok Survivalist. 2) Dream Stalker. 3) Man-o'-war. 4) Phyrexian Metamorph.

And my priority list for card-draw creatures to put in would be:

1) Slithermuse (meta dependent). 2) Champion of Wits. 3) Whirlpool Warrior. 4) Foul Emissary.

I agree with the ranking and your reasoning for them. I've tested all the draw guys except Champ and arrived at the same conclusions; that none of them were card-advantage neutral or that they could whiff at critical times. the question is, i guess, does the deck need more card selection, and are any of the available options better than some of the weaker slots in the deck? I'm inclined to say no, but i like tinkering so much it's definitely something i'm going to do more research and testing on.

The main hangup is that since we're fundamentally limited as a combo deck (most of our fastest plays are animar-based, or need us to cast a 5-drop), its probably better to stay flexible rather than try to race something like Druid/Hulk. I guess i'm just itching for new cards for the deck!

I definitely understand that need to tinker. It's fun to see if you can make something more efficient or if you can find a new way to apply it.

If you are currently considering Ainok Survivalist and Dream Stalker as flexible slots, I suppose that it could be a decent time to test out Phantasmal Image if you haven't already. From my experience:

Cons: Like any clone spell, its viability and power vary with whatever is on the battlefield. The Image is also a poor clone to use if you are looking to clone something that you expect to want to interact with. It has negative synergy with Cloudstone Curio.

Pros: It's cheap to cast, can double as a card-draw creature if you already have one out, is even better as an extra copy of a tutor creature, and has on multiple occasions allowed me to keep the storm train going by copying Peregrine Drake. Another thing worth noting is that the ETB triggers of Shrieking Drake, Dream Stalker, and Ancestral Statue don't target so you can actually use them to return the Image to your hand if you need to.

I'll admit that I miss the days when Legendary permanents destroyed each other when there were two of the same Legendary on the battlefield. Back then the Image could count as a kill spell for commanders and the Metamorph could destroy Umezawa's Jitte. Oh well, those are days long past.

My rough (and situational) priority list for Image targets is:

1) Tutor creatures.

2) Bloom Tender and Peregrine Drake

3) "Enchantress" creatures like Primordial Sage

4) Card-draw creatures.

5) An opponent's hate bear creature like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben if there are fast combo decks that I want to hamper more.

I'm not hard-set on that priority listing though. I'll generally go with whichever of those categories happen to be on the board at the time. I'm not against just cloning a mana dork if it means putting a counter on Animar and putting my ramp for the next turn that much further ahead.

I agree with Saber's post, aside from Ainok. I Still have to play around Torpor Orb.

As for a draw package. You have hit all the good ones. I have hit the same conclusions with slithermuse. Just too much variance and with my meta I'm lucky to net anything.

sounds about right. I spent some time on Scryfall and perusing other decklists this weekend and didn't find any new secret tech. I think we've explored the pool of 2-3 CM draw creatures about as fully as possible. too bad. here's hoping Core 2019 has some good stuff!

https://twitter.com/TrickMTG/status/1008719971654893569

Holy shit this guy is worth testing. the mana cost to reveal is apain, but when you combo with a topdeck tutor, or just need to dig for a creature to cast, it's not bad at all. will be scooping one of these for sure.

I just saw the spoiler for that card. I don't think that it is exactly what we are looking for, but it has the potential for netting a few cards in exchange for sacrificing some unnecessary creatures. My initial impression is to rate it similar to Champion of Wits in terms of overall usability in Animar. It can gain long-term value but the mana requirement for its ability would really slow early-game plays down.

However, the card should find a nice home in the casual Sek'Kuar, Deathkeeper deck that I've been intending to build for a while now. I like sacrifice and graveyard shenanigans.

i see it a lot like Skullclamp. you play out your hand, and instead of the game slowing down while you are out of gas, this guy just begins mulching your spent ETB creatures and digging for gas. Clamp is a fantastic way to turn the game around, and while the amount of sheer card advantage you get here isnt nearly the same you definitely have the ability to dig really deep at the cost of a resource you prob have way too much of. Any hey, at least your sac fodder doesnt have to be X/1!

That's true. The downside is that you only have that one turn to cast the card that is exiled instead of it going to your hand, plus the potential to whiff after already spending mana and resources. But you are right about how well it works with "top of library" tutors though.

We can keep hoping for a better option, but yeah, it's worth testing.

I see it being useful mainly when you are looking for a specific thing anyway, much like clamp. Digging down to a Statue or a top-of-library tutor into statue seems like the primary use. I mean, clamp is one of our best card advantage engines, and having a (recruit-able!!) creature version is a very real benefit to the deck. It won't be as explosive as the real thing, but if I can look at an extra couple cards every turn, or just 4-5 on one really explosive turn, that'd be great!

I've been playing this deck at about 80% and really enjoy it. I will say I'm not the most savvy at building competitive decks but I'd like to throw my thoughts in to contribute in some fashion to this excellent build.

A card I haven't seen discussed or mentioned in the budget builds is Genesis Hydra. It may be too slow and reliant on Animar, but it can dig through your deck to find the Statue, or find one of your tutors to get the Statue. Not sure if it's something to consider for the 100% build as it runs into the same problems as things like Foul Emissary (nothing worse than filtering your tutors away) but there have been plays where it can produce that game-winning piece, or at least keep the engine going:

• Animar has infinite counters with Statue in hand but no Purphoros? Play the Hydra for infinite X, slap Purphoros on the field and combo out.
• Animar has a couple counters but no combo piece in hand/play? Play the Hydra, slap down a bounce creature on reveal/from hand, bounce then replay the Hydra to dig more. Or better yet, play a creature tutor on reveal.
• The Hydra cheating in nonland permanents at least opens up less-optimal cards, like Impact Tremors and Cloudstone without the use of tutors for those specific cards.

As far as the card draw you have recently been discussing, some options for Elvish Visionary-like cantrips include Hapless Researcher, Merfolk Traders, Council of Advisors and Vodalian Merchant. One I would consider is Bonded Fetch as it gives you card draw immediately but also some extra value if it stays on the field. You can always use non-creatures like Faithless Looting and Abundant Growth, but I would imagine the creature-based options are the better selection.

Another commentator suggested Signal the Clans and I have to say it's a great instant-speed tutor that, if you're lucky, can put the Statue in your hand right then and there. But at worse, you're getting one of your creature tutors in your hand and putting the Statue back in the deck to be found next turn.

One thing I have noticed is the lack of creature removal can absolutely destroy Animar's tempo. An Aven Mindcensor turned a turn 4 win into a 20 turn game where I couldn't do anything. I've played around with using Equilibrium as a way to remove hatebearers like Mindcensor or a Hushwing but found it way too inconsistent to keep in. I like the idea of Grapeshot but it doesn't sound like a much better option with it not being tutorable outside of Spellseeker. Perhaps I'm not thinking of the right plays shrug

Anyway love the consistent discussion for this deck as I've found it to be a blast to play!

Hey, glad you're liking the deck!

Hydra is an intresting card. It has seen play in Animar historically, but has a few drawbacks.

• It requires a big animar to be useful either as a wincon or card advantage
• the card selection is random (whey not use Cord in the "high cost card advantage" slot then?)
• it's incompatible with our noncreatures (minor)
• It doesn't activate your "cast" triggers (minor)

So while you can just win if you have an infinitely big animar by finding kiki+untapper or Ballista+statue, its pretty tricky to use elsewhere. Ballista fills this role better, as do the two enchantresses and even Purph. not sure we need any more options past that.

I've defnitely eviewed the 2 CMC looters (draw 1 then discard 1) and the 3 CMC unconditional draw 1 cards, but both categories are just plain worse than our current options. for 2 CMC i want to blind-draw one card (ie, elvish vis, wall of roots) and for 3CMC I want a bit of selection with my draw. Nothing i've found meets/exceeds those criteria but isnt in the list. its frustrating! but that new clamp-goblin seems like a great way to dig deep.

Signal the clans is a bit too random for me. we don't really have enough angles on our main lines to make it work consistently. The best "pile" can think of is Statue, Spellseeker (ends up getting worldly) and Brutalizer, but thats a 2-turn play 2/3 of the time. it gets a lot easier if we need an outlet, and the kiki line starts to seem more plausible with some 2-turn recruiter tricks, but it's always seemed a little risky. maybe just for getting answers? i'd be interested to hear from some of the other good pilots. This card seems to come up pretty often here.

Creature removal is def an area for you to tailor the deck to your meat. it hasnt been much of an issue for me but i could see running Kavu or Grim lavaman or something in addition to gilded drake. you dont have too many great options here, but i know we've discussed it relatively recently, so feel free to check the comments here and get other pilots' takes.

So, who likes Signal the Clans? i may want to test that out!

I run Signal the Clans in my deck, but only because I don't own copies of Sylvan Tutor or Gamble.

There is enough redundancy in the deck that StC is pretty good at grabbing you something useful, with some cards being easier to tutor for than others. It's also nice that it is a tutor that puts the card in your hand as opposed to the top of your library. With the selection of tutor creatures like Recruiter that the deck runs, what I've found is that StC is better for finding the auxiliary win-con parts of our combos but has a rougher time with the core combo cards like Statue and Kiki. Like I've said before, those 4-5 CMC creature slots are kind of awkward to tutor up.

Ballista is easy to tutor up since you can pick it, Imperial Recruiter, and Trinket Mage as your choices. If either the recruiter or mage is already on the field then you can substitute the slot for Purphoros or Shrieking Drake.

Pestermite, Deceiver Exarch, and Recruiter will snag you something to combo with Kiki.

Looking for a 6 CMC creature like an "Enchantress" creature or Eldrazi? Pick the one you want + Recruiter and Fierce Empath.

So in those cases, how lucky you are equates to how much colored mana you will end up spending to get the card you want. That's not necessarily a bad thing though because sometimes you want those tutor creatures on the board and extra counters on Animar for whatever play you are going for.

You are right about the Spellshaper + Ancestral Statue + Brutalizer Exarch package being the best option for just snagging the Statue. And yes, you will probably have to wait a turn to get the Statue if it isn't the one selected, but you would have also had to wait a turn if you had drawn a Worldly Tutor instead of StC anyway.

If you aren't concerned about hiding your primary combos, then depending on what is in your hand you could pick Statue + Kiki + either Recruiter (aiming for Kiki combo) or Spellshaper (aiming for Statue) or Brutalizer (to keep your options open). That selection is definitely a telegraph to your opponents regarding what you are up to though.

Your card options if you need some creature removal are a little limited. You tend to have to rely on Ballista as a tutor option. Recruiter, Mon-O'-War, Gilded Drake, Ballista, Trinket Mage (for Ballista), and Empath (for Ulamog) are your options to choose from.

Dealing with artifacts or enchantments is a little easier. Recruiter, Ainok, Caterpillar, Reclamation Sage, Brutalizer, and Empath (for Brutalizer or Ulamog) are your options.

The removal of Cloudstone Curio and Earthcraft from this list cuts a little bit into the versatility that StC could offer because having either of those already on the board would open up the creature options that would be worth selecting with StC. You would have been able to pick pieces from multiple combo lines and could just go with whichever line you got the support card card for.

So my overall opinion on the card is that I think it's usable, but not quite as good as the tutors that are already in the deck. Although, I suppose a Pros/Con argument could be made regarding Gamble VS StC, because both of them are situational in different ways. At the very least, StC doesn't annoy me as much as Chord of Calling does.

Good food for thought here; mostly lines up with what i've been thinking up.

The points about Cloudstone/Earthcraft are also eerily similar to why i ended up cutting these cards; they're reasonably playable once they're on the field, but otherwise hard to work with.

I think the comparison to Gamble/Chord is def the most apt. As you've discovered, chord is just plain obnoxious. never liked that card, and it was such an easy swap when Evo came out. Gamble though is a bit better, in my opinion. By controlling when you play it you can manipulate the odds of getting your card, unlike Signal. 1/3 is an easy number to beat, especially with another of our draw engines online. plus,saving G on the CMC is a huge plus.

The odds on StC isn't really 1/3. It's less, "will I get this card?" and more, "Am I going to get the card I want or am I going to have to spend one more colored mana because I'll have to play a tutor creature first?" The 1/3 thing is less of an issue than one would think most of the time.

Chord of Calling is definitely obnoxious, but the worst part about it is that sometimes it is exactly what you need. There have been numerous times where I've considered not running it at all and going down the one tutor card, but when I start thinking that it somehow pulls through and manages to net me a win. It's annoying, but the fact that I would rather have one more tutor in the deck and I don't currently have a better one to replace it with is the tipping point for my decision to keep it in.

It is instant speed and can potentially be cast for free in a deck that spams creatures. Its cost isn't ideal, but the main framework of the deck is strong enough that it can support an odd card like Chord if it needs to. The card frustrates me, but it is still better than swapping it out for some of the other options I have available to me at the moment.

JMCraig have you thought about updating the Wincon section with the new cards and removing the stuff you removed?