If we were to say that Animar is tier 2, then I think most of the decks at my LGS range from upgraded preconstructed decks to mid tier 3 decks, with a few well-tuned high tier 3 decks that get pulled out on the odd occasion.

I have decks of various power levels, but my Samut Nayanara was one that I built for my LGS and is my most fair deck. It matches off reasonably against about 70% of the decks that people play at the store.

let's say an opponent removes Walking Ballista from ur library before ure able to go out for a combo. what do u use as a finisher?

Animar beats hard xD, but you can loop a Rishkar with some Kiri-Onna stuff to make infinite counters on your field, then swing as well xD

In theory, you aren't likely to permanently lose the Ballista. Extract is sometimes played in Food Chain combo decks, and opponents may be able to counter the Ballista then exile it from your graveyard before you can get it back with Eternal Witness , but those are pretty much the only instances where you could expect the Ballista to be exiled. If they try to hit it with Swords to Plowshares then you can just fire off all the counters and have the Ballista die in response. That shouldn't matter too much in most cases because if the Ballista has made it to the battlefield then it is generally going to have enough counters to kill all your opponents.

I'm a person who likes having a couple of backup plans though, so I can sympathize with wanting the list to have at least one more win-con that doesn't involve swinging with creatures.

SaberTech two wincons for a fast combo list with tight interaction against the hate that could stop those wincons is prolly enough. IMO obviously, but still.

Just to be clear, I'm not dissing the aim to optimize the deck as much as possible. Streamlining decks as much as you can is the whole point of the competitive meta. I'm just a person who likes having multiple options to work with. I quickly get bored of playing decks that aim to do things the exact same way each game, so I have to take that into consideration when designing decks for myself that I intend to play long-term.

Like saber says, it doesn't happen all that often except against Extract and Prattor's Grasp decks, but losing Ballista isn't the end of the world. My secondary wincon usually involves pumping up animar and wailing on ppl with him, but this is extremely table-dependent obviously. I'd consider Grapeshot, Purph or Fireweaver viable alternative/additional wincons for the deck, and just endlessly Metamorph-looping something like Bond Beetle/Rish to pump up your whole board (as stated above) is solid as well. It's also possible to Swan Song a spell then clone EWitt twice to get them both back and do it again, so we'll have plenty of bodies. Just clear a path with Kiri-bounces/Cratermaker/Caterpillar and swing in ASAP.

More often Ballista gets countered or gets discarded if in hand, or named with a Phyrexian Revoker / Pithing Needle / Sorcerous Spyglass IMO, I haven't ever seen it extracted, almost always Statue gets extracted intead.

I do kind of like Grapeshot as a possible alternative win-con. On its own it can deal with a few annoying creatures like Hushwing Gryff or Hermit Druid and it can clear out some mana dorks that might block Animar from being able to swing through. The fact that Spellseeker can tutor for it is what makes it a possible consideration. However, as a win-con it is vulnerable to Flusterstorm , unlike Purph, and can wind up frequently being a dead draw early in the game depending on your meta.

Purph can kill in conjunction with the Kiri line, can help cut down on the life of Ad Nauseam decks when not comboing, and can be difficult to remove. However, he is surprisingly awkward to tutor for. He just seems to sit outside of a lot of Animar's more conventional lines of play. You often have better things to tutor for so Purph winds up being one of those "nice if I draw into it" types of cards. Considering that he doesn't pop up that often, he generally isn't missed that much when cut from an Animar deck.

I am looking to play this deck in a dual commander event at my lgs. What are good replacements for Gaea's cradle Mystical tutor Mox diamond Chrome mox

thank JMCraig and SaberTech for explaining and give me a plenty of new options!

@Medlin1 Oh! Duel Commander is a different issue altogether. The loss of the moxes lowers the chance of getting Animar out turn 2, so that hurts a bit. You could try replacing one of them with Simian Spirit Guide I guess. I don't think that the loss of Gaea's Cradle or Mystical Tutor is too big of a deal.

I don't know the Duel Commander meta that well, so I can't offer suggestions on what sorts of cards would be better for 1v1, but there are some general card suggestions I can make. For example, in Duel Commander Painter's Servant is legal! Pop that in to replace one of the moxes. Naming black or white means Animar can't be targetted by anything and can't be blocked. I've been hoping that they would unban that for regular commander for a long time now.

In Duel Commander, Primeval Titan and Prophet of Kruphix are also legal. The Titan used to speed up my old decklist by about one turn, but with JMCraig's current list already being really fast I'm not sure how much benefit the titan would bring. It would need testing. The Prophet, on the other hand, would definitely be worth playing. Although it doesn't give you as huge a benefit as it does in multiplayer games, being able to untap your mana sources and cast cards on your opponent's turns is a huge help in speeding up your game plan, holding back information from the opponent, and playing around counterspells by pressuring control decks to spend mana on their own turns.

I suspect that for duel you might want to try the extra-counters guys like Ironshell Beetle and Scrounging Bandar. they're bigger, less relevant ramp BUT you can use them to power out fatties like Eldrazi (and a monster Animar) that can easily kill a single opponent. at least until you can afford the pricier options, that is.

Another consideration would be that with the extra hate in the format, it helps top have a more diversified package of wincons, esp those that aren't commander-dependent. the Cloudstone and Earthcraft lines work a lot better here, for example, at least according the the guy who had been putting up results on MTGO a while back. I'd honeslty consider Kiki over Kiri for 1V1, though the Kiri package is undeniably better if you can cast and protect Animar himself.

What u guys suggest as a cheap replacement for Gilded Drake ? I had some problems with people trying to get control over animar...

Fevereiro 2, 2019 5:29 p.m.

@tlfernan your best bet might be Sower of Temptation .

Drakes there more to cheaply counter certain commander-centric decks like Vannifar, Selvala or Yisan and secondarily to steal value like Tymna, Bob, etc. Its a fantastic toolbox card to have access to, but hardly an essential piece of the deck, and def cuttable even in a a full-price list depending on the meta. So just run the next best card you have in that slot; don't worry about finding comparable effects bc the rest of them are just plain bad (a case can be made for Phantasal Image, but it only does half the job).

Now, if Animar is being stolen, you'll prob want to use the same resources you'd use if he was being killed. Stuff like Glen, Skite, Safekeeper, Stormtamer etc. You can also use Cratermaker, Caterpillar or an ETB effect like Rec Sage to blow up a lot of on-board control stuff like Shackles etc. The goal here is to run extra copies of more general effects (esp if theyre on cheap creatures) rather than narrow effects like Glammerdyne or Homeward Path. I'd say Ainok Survivalist then Rec Sage would be my next two picks if this were a major issue in my meta.

thanks JMCraig! been spending such a time looking for an add in with similar effects as drake but youre right, they def suck! also homeward path is always a horrible draw...

What are your thoughts regarding top-deck draws with this decklist now that you are up to 23 non-creature spells in the deck? Does Beast Whisperer sputter out more often when you are trying to draw a bunch of cards in one turn? Do you think that the deck has given up a bit of its consistency in exchange for being able to interact with your opponents more?

The deck is def low on creatures, and that's something i'm trying to tune back into it. Whisperer loses a bit of consistency, but that tradeoff isnt all bad bc we're not "dead in the water" to a lot of common wincons in the format. Spellseeker really added a lot of new flexibility to the deck by giving us a 1-creature tutor for a bunch of new effects. He's also relevant as a secondary Statue enabler.

More generally, we gained a few great 1-card wincons (Harvest is especially powerful) and we still only need to cast 3-4 things before Statue comes online, so its way less necessary than it used to be to non-deterministically dig through the deck looking for pieces. I'm having a lot of luck these days with games that go: turn 2 Animar, turn 3 some setup including Seeker, turn 4 Harvest a win. Thats a gameplan that benefits a lot more from tempo-ey conterspells and tutors than it does from extra creature casts.

So going for a more deterministic, 1-card win pushes us away from the creature-storm style of play and into a more tempo-ey style that interacts better with the table. I'm still tuning the balance myself, bc I like the deck's ability to play both roles (creature-spam lets us grind really well) and I'm def still testing a few slots. I'll prob end up cutting either/both of Dispel and Pyroblast just bc they can be a bit narrow for my tastes, and that would put us back on a more tradition creature density, but i'm not done yet. The deck has experienced a big shift under the hood, and I'm really liking the overall feel a lot more. were "in" a lot games we weren't before bc we have more options than just racing, and that's a strong position.

Stay tuned!

Animar was my first commander and yours is my favorite list ive seen on tappedout, im definitely gonna post my list when i get some time. Theyre pretty similar haha.

@JMCraig Have you had a chance to test out Rhythm of the Wild in Animar? I have my reservations regarding the card, but there are people in the Discord that have been giving it good reviews, particularly because it gives mana dorks haste.

As I see it, the major cons of the card are that A) As an enchantment the deck has no way to tutor for it. B) At 3-CMC it wants to be played on turn 2, the same as Animar. And C) It benefits Animar if cast first, but if cast after Animar its play value for its cost goes down significantly.

That being said, if you cast Rhythm on turn 2, then Animar turn 3, there is still a chance of comboing off turn 4 if you have a few mana dorks in hand. Cards like Llanowar Elves are basically free spells if they get haste. And honestly, in a counterspell heavy meta it may be worth waiting until turn 3 to cast Animar if it also gets to be uncounterable.

I think some people have been playing it in Gaea's Herald 's slot, and it is nice that Rhythm only makes your creatures uncounterable, but I wonder if that is better than having the Herald as a possible target with Weird Harvest to help protect the other cards you tutor for? The one green mana in the Herald's cost is much easier to accommodate than the two green mana for Prowling Serpopard .

I keep mentally comparing the Rhythm to Cloudstone Curio . It is at least possible to tutor for the Curio with tutor cards like Fabricate , and even then it's a card that doesn't show up often. Is it worth giving a 3-CMC non-creature card a slot in the deck if you are only ever going to see it if you draw into it, as opposed to a creature that can be a viable tutor target?

I pretty much rejected it out-of-hand. It's comparable to something like Cryptolith rite/Earthcraft for speeding up mana generation/chain casting dorks, but at a higher CMC. Those cards def have their own drawbacks, and this comes w the added bonus of covering your creature casts, but it's still hard for me to justify any noncreature spell over 1 CMC. basically, the deck doesnt NEED to chain cast dorks any better than it already can; we're limited on drak not mana.

Your point about it not being Harvestable like Serp/Herald is very relevant too; one or the other of those is usually in my Harvest pile, and I love the flexibiliy of having access to both. I think its prob the right slot, but I like the creature options more. Rish is another comparable effect bc he turns some stuff into dorks, but at least hes a creature and the extra G goes towards Harvest really easily.

So ultimately I see the crad as an answer to a question the deck doesnt ask. If we were having trouble generating G from our dorks fast enough i'd consider it, but i can pretty much always hit 3+ counters and plenty of Mana by turn 4 already. this seems like it'd get in the way more than anything.

I'd be interested to hear some opinions on the card after the hype dies down and some experience pilots get a chance to evaluate it against the existing options. I'm not sold, but I've still got plenty of testing to do myself!

Hi,JMCraig! i have some questions if u could help me plz ...

1) Mox Diamond is out of my budget and ive seen u run Mox Amber in cheaper versions. i see them differente since Mox Diamond helps u to come out earlier with animar, but also helps u to deal with removals. dont you see any better options? ( Sol Ring , Orcish Lumberjack , etc)

2) youre the only one who runs gamble... wold like to know if is realy worth it?

3) last but not least, dont u see any potencial slot for Rhystic Study in this deck?

Cheers!

Hey!

I really like Amber for the ability to make mana right after casting Animar, but that's a little niche. More to the point, with all the new noncreatures we're running, it's a slot i needed to dedicate to a guy. I'd suggest skipping a functional replacement to Diamond and slotting in your next best cheap creature. Maybe something like Tinder wall for speed, or a good meta-relevant guy (I'm on Mangelhorn atm bc theres a STAX deck in my meta that races for Trinispher againt me. FUUUUUCK that card!)

I still love gamble, but i'm also a sucker for extra tutors. it may need to be replaced with a creature as i find slots for a few more of them, but its a good card nonetheless. just not our best tutor at all. With new additions like Seeker and Harvest, it can see it being phased out for sure. bit of a pet card tbh, so id suggest playing another cheap creature in this slot unless theres a good tutor your missing for this slot (Sylvan is a ripoff at $50+)

Rhystic is one of those really strong cards that can't find a home in the deck BC theyre 2+ CMC and not creatures. For example, if you had to chose to cast this on turn two or Animar, the choice isnt hard. Now, some options like Library and Survival are cheaper and stornger enough to be legitimate t2-3 plays, but Rhystic isnt that good. And fwiw, remora on t1 slows you down way too much to consider either. If you like the effect tho, look into Runic Armasaur. he's a surprisingly solid card.

hi Craig

been playing in meta with lots of board wipes and stax artifacts, which usually have big fatties as finishers. this has made the deck lose much of its consistency... thought abt add in some other combos that do not depends exclusively on animar. what do you think would be a better choice, Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker or Aluren ? maybe both?

big thanks in advance! cheers