I mean, Imperial Recruiter gets Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker which copies it to fetch Deceiver Exarch and wins, yes, it needs like to win, but I'd say any 5 mana instant win with an Animar, Soul of Elements and only one other card is worth it.

Yes! That's the new Recruiter line and its glorious. No need to sac all your life, you can do it without Animar (for tons of mana, but still) and you kill the whole table with it, not just one guy. Rec became the namesake card for the deck a long time ago, and honestly shouldn't be now that Statue exists. But with kiki in the deck he's very much still a one-card win.

I agree with both of you. Rec is for tutoring Kiki jiki, this guy is amazing. It's the best combo you can get without animar and with the recruiter.

While I agree that Imperial Recruiter's primary job now is to help facilitate the Kiki combo, I've still found some uses for the Phyrexian Metamorph line. I don't often use it as a way to get Animar to lethal, but instead I use it as an emergency recovery button.

So lets say that I've cast the recruiter to fetch Kiki. I play Kiki and activate it to copy the recruiter. There are a few decisions that the opponent can make here, but lets say they kill Kiki in response to the activation. If you think you have the time, you can use the recruiter copy to get Eternal Witness to get back Kiki and try again later. But if your opponents are putting on a lot of pressure, you may not have the time to go that route. So this is where the option of pivoting into the metamorph comes in, assuming you have that blue mana that you were going to use for casting Pestermite and one green mana available. You don't need to use the line to max out Animar; you just want to get him up to 9 counters, fetch Fierce Empath by cloning recruiter, and cast it to get an Eldrazi that you can cast for free to either exile the two most pressing cards on the board or to try and draw into more gas. If you don't have that green mana, the line can still grab you Walking Ballista, which can sit around on the board with a handful of counters and threaten to kill off cards like Laboratory Maniac if you think one of your opponents will be looking to combo off that way on their next turn.

All of that is only if one of your opponents is a bit trigger happy though. Usually the best option for them is to either kill the recruiter in response to the Kiki activation or at least wait to see what you tutor up first. However, if they kill the recruiter then you still have a Kiki for combo and value potential. If they wait, it gives you the option of tutoring up Spellseeker and casting it to get Worldly Tutor. Worldly tutor now gives you a bunch of options for how you might combo off next turn, since you can still get Pestermite or you can just go for Ancestral Statue. Kiki on the field can act as protection from removal for the statue by being able to make a copy to bounce the original back to your hand at instant speed.

The metamorph line is one of the faster (non-ancestral statue) ways to get an Eldrazi out if it is already in your hand, and in this situation the metamorph will allow you to either cast the Eldrazi twice or allow you to cast the eldrazi and hold back the metamorph to copy the recruiter again later. An early Ulamog is usually a good way to bait out removal like Swords to Plowshares while also possibly exiling lands to put an opponent off of one of their colors.

So yeah, I like the options that the metamorph offers, but I understand the argument for its exclusion from an efficiency perspective. It's just a quirk of my play style that I enjoy having a couple of versatile cards in my deck that can keep my opponents guessing and possibly give me a way to squirm out of a tight situation.

This is super cool tech, and it's a great example of how minor tweaks to the core list can suit different players' styles. I tend to prefer economy in deck construction (which is why i kept Kiki out for so long) whereas you prefer a bigger toolbox for creative interaction.

I'm 100% certain that you can get substantially more value out of Metamorph than I can because you set yourself up for flexible plays like this while I tend to build and play for redundancy and resiliency. For example, in your first scenario I'd either go straight to EWitt to repeat my combo (redundancy), or just fetch a relevant hate piece to counteract whatever pressure my opponent was exerting (resiliency). Your idea of fetching Metamorph to make a beefy Animar is super creative and powerful, but narrow enough that it doesn't suit my personal style with the deck.

All this goes to show there's no substitute for good tuning! I hope nobody copies one of the decklists shared here 1:1 without taking the time to evaluate some of the less "core" inclusions.

By the way Sabre, have you tried the new Gilded Drake? I've been dicking around with Zur a lot in the last few weeks and haven't had as much time to evaluate it as I need to make a final decision. I'd say it's been useful prob 2/3 of the time i use it, but it's absolute crap in Kiki games, for example. As a Commander-Matters card, i find its less obviously powerful than Mox Amber, which at least is always free and works with a few other creatures (our other wincon, in particular). I really want more draw for the deck so im leaning towards swapping it in, but i may be too optimistic. Curious to hear if anyone on here has had some experience with it.

If you mean Loyal Drake, then no, I haven't sat down and tested it yet. Honestly, my initial evaluation of the card rated it as pretty mediocre. I've also been fishing around for other people's opinions on it, because I would be more than happy to be proven wrong and find out it actually is good in Animar. I just see it as too slow, and in terms of draw power I keep evaluating it against Brainstorm. Playing brainstorm and then cracking a fetch land to shuffle strikes me as about the same amount of card draw power that I might get out of the drake, but I would get it all in one turn instead of spread out over several. Brainstorm isn't straight up additional cards in hand like the Drake can provide, but they should be comparable in terms of how much of your deck they let you see.

And yeah, one of things that I really enjoy about commander is seeing the unique card inclusions that people make in their decks. MtG is an excuse for me to be social, and I like getting to know a bit about people through their card choices.

In my mind, having opportunities to be a little hard to predict is a benefit to decks that are fairly linear like Animar, like when you change your attack mix-ups in a fighting game so that the opponent doesn't necessarily know what the best sequence to use to block is. If I see a quick and clear kill I'll take it, predictable or not, but having some flexibility to fall back on is something I appreciate. At the very least, having options means you can force opponents to try and guess if they need to leave mana up for a Vapor Snag, Swords to Plowshares, or Nature's Claim to deal with what you are going to try next. Them guessing wrong is as good as having a free counterspell in hand.

I mainly play 1v1 with my deck (which is very similar to you list) in paper. The two main decks I play against are Jhora artifact storm and U/B Taigam control. both are very counter heavy and I like having the free win off of drawing into a Rec so that is my reasoning for running the metamorph. I was a little hesitant on running Kiki as a wincon, but i think i will try it now after reading through the coments.

Yeah, I think you'll like it a lot! I was skeptical at first too because it felts like adding a 2-card combo that cost 3 deck slots would be less efficient than just using Curio or Earthcraft. As it turns out, there were a lot of hidden costs to running the latter two, like needing to play too many bad morphs and basic lands. Further, since neither of those cards can be tutored, and they both require a couple other pieces to really work optimally, Kiki ended up being a lot more usable in the deck. And once I was able to shave some mediocre support cards, the deck slot inefficiency pretty much disappeared.

Goblin Cratermaker is extremely playable; I expect to find a slot for him in the deck!

https://img.scryfall.com/articles/introducing-goblin-cratermaker/cratermaker.png

A cheap body that can also act as removal for Hushwing Gryff, Hermit Druid, Laboratory Maniac, Torpor Orb, Isochron Scepter, and Paradox Engine? Yes please.

That card looks like it was custom printed for mono-red in Modern. Its second option hits Karn, Ugin, various eldrazi, and artifacts in Affinity or KCI.

Also, seeing Assassin's Trophy on the spoiler list makes me happy that Animar has protection from black. I can see it becoming a cEDH format staple in any deck that supports its colors. It's always nice to see a card that is so good it pretty much demands a card slot but just so happens to do nothing to our commander.

Yes to all three points! I know I'll be scooping one of these for Animar and a Trophy for my Storm deck.

Honestly, the sheer breadth of things this guy can kill is amazing. it blasts pretty much all relevant bears and most of the best wincons in cEDH. If only it could kill enchants, it'd be pretty much a one-man toolbox for the deck.

between this and dark-dweller oracle, Animar Goblin Tribal is shaping up really well!

Opinions on Beast Whisperer? Having a Glimpse of Nature on a creature sounds amazing, tutorable by Recruiter/GSZ, decent stats...but is the 2GG too much?

YESSSSS. I'm now thinking of swapping both 6CMC enchantresses for this guy and new goblin craterboi.

Hahaha you got first. I wanted to posted it as soon as possible. This new soul of harvest is nuts!!! Officially Animar's got a new toy to play with

It might be worth leaving in one of the 6CMC enchantresses so that you can find it with Fierce Empath while Imperial Recruiter can grab Beast Whisperer and Spellseeker can find Glimpse of Nature. I think that would maximize the deck's chances of being able to get an enchantress effect when it needs it.

While thats true, I dont really see a scenerio when id want an enchantress over just getting Brutalizer and tutoring the win. he already bridges Empath into whatever else we'd need from the deck; even if its Beast WHisperer. A little less direct, but we prob have the mana, and its a niche enough circumstance that i don't feel the need to run such a bulky card to make it work.

You would want Brutalizer Exarch if you didn't already have Ancestral Statue in hand, but if you did have the Statue already then it may be preferable to grab Primordial Sage instead since it potentially lets you dig into Walking Ballista all in one turn. I like having the option of being able to grab either one depending on the situation. As much as I like the Brutalizer, it makes me a bit twitchy when I telegraph what my current line of play is and give the table a full round to see if they can find an answer.

Dream Stalker is high on the list of cards to potentially be replaced, isn't it? How about switching it and Soul of the Harvest for Beast Whisperer and Goblin Cratermaker?

Very solid reasoning. Yeah, Stalker is the next best cut, barring meta-calls. I may end up going that route as well. and FWIW, by the time im on 5 counters to cast Brutalizer, i often have a way to draw the card i put on top right away. still, youre right, the telegraph can be suboptimal.

Beast Whisperer-this card thank you wizards if you haven't had the chance I would check this card out seems at least okay as long as I read it right

Oh totally, that card is pure gas. It'll be replacing at least one of the 6CMC enchantresses.

I am looking at cutting Soul of the Harvest for this card(I value the cast than EtB). This has been an exciting spoiler season so far!

Yeah, since we aren't running any blink effects in Animar it is better to get the draw trigger when you cast the spell instead of ETB. It lets you draw cards even if a Torpor Orb effect is active and it helps soften the blow if a creature gets countered.

It's great to see some really solid additions for the deck in this set. And since both Gruul and Simic guilds should be in the following set, we might be able to look forward to a few more synergistic additions in that set too. I've been hoping for a Simic style creature that can selectively "eat" +1/+1 counters off of creatures you control when it enters the battlefield and lets you draw cards for each counter it eats.

That would be nice to see. I still wanna see 1U/G ETB draw a card, or a better dork than Tinder Wall.

To note I am really surprised with Cratermaker. A much needed interaction piece, now we aren't as reliant on the table.

I still like Tinder Wall. It's a ritual that is able to help get Animar out turn 2, and getting access to that immediate two red mana allows you to be able to threaten to cast Kiki-Jiki when opponents may not be expecting it.

Turn 1) Green source + mana elf. Turn 2) Blue source. Flash in Pestermite before the start of your next turn. Turn 3) Red source, cast Tinder Wall and sac it to cast Kiki.

I know the red mana becomes less helpful as the game goes on, but the deck's package of red cards has been steadily increasing so the mana isn't quite as dead as it used to be.

That simic design would be a fantastic card. another on-board drawn engine like Clamp or Oracle would go a long was to speeding up the deck and improving consistency.

Tinder, on the other hand, is still definitely playable. being double-mana-positive is a big boon to cheating out early Statues and other beefy stuff like Kozi/Ulamog to takc control of the game is a very real possibility. and like saber said, fixing into Red is kinda nice with Kiki (and more good red cards like Crater and Oracle incoming).

If we already got two fantastic new cards in this set, I can't wait to see what the Gruul+Simic set has coming!