I noticed that guy too! def a playable outlet for our Statue combo. the downside is that it doesn't provide much value outside the combo, considering that there's no way to go up in card advantage. In that respect, our two six-CMC "Enchantress" creatures (Soul of the Harvest, Primordial Sage) are clearly better outlets, and Sphinx is better as a high-CMC card advantage/combo-digging engine in every situation where we're not actively combo-ing out.

I currently play Beast Whisperer as my only ETB-draw card just bc 4CMC is about as high as i'm willing to go in CMC without some truly incredible draw power (ie, just Sphinx, basically). Strictly as an outlet, the new Merfolk is competing with stuff like Purph and Reckless Fireweaver, which makes it seem pretty viabl, IMO.

So basically, this guy feels like the best alternative outlet we have access to as long as Ballista is still an option. Thats a pretty narrow niche tho, since usually we need the alternative wincon specifically BECAUSE Ballista is unavailable (and the new 1CMC Omenspeaker Saber mentions above is a very viable option in that case). Personally I can't see a maindeck slot for this guy in the current build, but it may be a meta call if you want to add a bit of speed.

I'm curious why you run Con Sphinx over Soul of the Harvest ? I personally didn't like the Sphinx here because he requires you to pass turn to get value whereas SotH (and the rest of the deck) doesn't.

I used to think the same thing, but after testing Sphinx, it feels great. The main diff is that the Enchantresses, esp at 6 CMC once youve likely cast a bunch of stuff already, only work when you have a few casts to follow up. they effectively can't refill your hand or dig to the combo if youre already out of gas. the effect is still very playable, but at 6CMC, relatively lackluster compared to the alternatives.

Sphinx is great after you play out all your creatures and can single-handedly dig you to a win, plus it can soft-hate certain combos out. it generates AT LEAST 6 cards going around the table, likely more, without needing anything else in your hand.

I think that an argument could be made for including Soul of the Harvest or Primordial Sage in terms of improving the chance of naturally drawing into an enchantress effect. (Sage is better by the way, because it draws on the cast not on ETB so you get a card even if the spell is countered.) There is also the point that their card draw trigger is a "may" ability, unlike Glimpse of Nature or Beast Whisperer , which can be relevant in some situations.

That being said, they have lost a lot of utility as cards like Shrieking Drake and Dream Stalker have been phased out of the deck. You could keep bouncing those cards back to hand throughout the game, meaning that you always had what would count as multiple creatures available for repeat triggers on your later-game Soul or Sage. The deck also used to run Fierce Empath back when it still had the eldrazi package, but now that the eldrazi are gone and you can't really justify running the Empath it is harder to tutor for Soul or Sage. You also have to keep in mind that Spellseeker being able to tutor for the Glimpse kind of makes it count as a third enchantress that the deck already runs. The loss of later-game utility, on top of them being awkward draws in your opening hand, has made it more of a hassle to get value out of Soul and Sage overall.

So Soul or Sage could be run if you think that drawing into an enchantress effect more consistently is important, such as if you are working with a budget list and you don't have an Imperial Recruiter for setting up tutor lines. Beyond that though, Consecrated Sphinx is better at restocking an empty hand on its own, while Soul and Sage require you to keep casting creatures to get value out of them.

Are there any updates for Eldraine?

Gilded Goose

Rosethorn Acolyte

Overwhelmed Apprentice

Grumgully, the Generous

Once Upon a Time

Kenrith's Transformation

Arcane Signet

Is it around here that we might enter the deck?

Sadly, nothing from ELD looks very good for Animar. This is a solid roundup of the contenders, but there's nothing here that really deserves a maindeck slot.

• Gilded Goose: One-shot ramp without haste. effectively a worse Wild Cantor.
• Rosethorn Acolyte: 3-CMC ramp is too slow, unless it effectively replaces itself or has a placwe in our Kiri loops (see Wood Elves) and the sorcery half is pretty useless to us.
• Overwhelmed Apprentice: best card for us in the set actually. as Sabre mentions above, you can loop this with Kiri to effectivey win on the spot without needing Ballista or Swan Song loops. could be good if your meta sees a lot of Praetor's Grasp, but so far I havent needed it. I'll def be picking up a copy so i can slot it in as-needed. treat this as a meta-dependent "maybe-board" card.
• Grumgully, the Generous: hard "no" from me. we def dont want to be casting this before animar, and when we cast it after, its a 2-mana do-nothing.
• Once Upon a Time: i'd rather use Foul Emissary if i wanted a topdeck-filter card than can miss. as-is, i prefer Raven and Sea Gate Oracle since they always hit the better of the top 2-3 cards.
• Kenrith's Transformation: love this for a lot of decks (my casual enchantress is getting a copy!!) but not here. we have plenty of creature-based options all of which we can tutor for a LOT more easily. If i see a scary creature, i want an answer i can get ASAP with Worldly/Recruiter/Survival/even Seeker, not one I have to draw into.
• Arcane Signet: we don't play 1CMC rocks, and we barely even play 0CMC rocks, so we sure as heck dont want a 2CMC rock! great card tho, and again, I have other decks that will def want a copy.
• Sage of the falls: added to your watchlist bc hes effectively a new Enchantress-lite effect. having a recruitable, blue outlet is at least novel for the deck, but not exactly necessary for any reason. Again, I'll be grabbing a copy for my "maybe" folder.

Sadly I think that's all there is to say about ELD. No amazing new tech this time. Guess I'll have to console myself with some of the great tools we got in the last few sets!

I see. Thank you very much for your kindness. I will refer to it.

I've looked through the updates as best I can but can't find why you included Generous Patron from Battlebond (your update title is BattleBorn just an fyi). Is it because you can draw up to two cards off of it by putting the counters on other people's creatures?

@Chandelier - It's a dedicated combo inclusion. At that point you don't care about your opponents getting 2 +1+1 counters but that draw 2 for typically just is nice.

Hey, sorry for the confusion. Patron came in during the big update when all the Discord folks brainstormed some new lines. i'd been seeping on her prior to that. Typically, since we don't need to place counters on our own things very often, she's a Green version of Mulldrifter for us; draw 2 for G, and leave a body on the board for clones/Neoform/Cradle. thats a fantastic rate, especially when you consider how little it actually matters to throw a counter on an opponent's Birds of Paradise or something. Any other synergies with counters (animar himself, Wall of Roots, Glen, Ballista, Riskar in some builds) are useful occasionally, but totally secondary to just drawing cards, which i do 90% of the time.

I've been super happy to have her in the deck!

Regarding the Eldraine includes, what are your thoughts on Oakhame Adversary ?

People have been calling him Green's Bob (I personally call him Tymna Jr.)

Adversary is a neat source of repeated card advantage, and will likely cost us a single G most of the time thanks to animar or his own effect. That said, he's pretty ineffectual the turn he enters, and can only generate one draw every turn thereafter. We get a much better rate from a lot of good cards. Patron is an example, but I also prefer the ETB: draw 1 guys like Wall and Fblthp, plus the versions like Raven that come with selection. Over three+ turns Oakhame is prob better (and Loyal Drake is better than he is), but we need those draws ASAP.

Overwhelmed Apprentice from Eldraine is a better choice even without real draw, both as a cheap card selection piece but also for the possible wincon by looping it with Kiri.

Basically, we don't want creatures that can't generate draws on ETB bc they kill our momentum when storming off. The few we do include have other major upsides like being an outlet (Beast Whisper) or just generating massive value (Sphinx).

I have been following this Primer by more than two years, and I find very interesting deck choices and card and tech discussions. I would like to have your opinion about Mox Diamond . I play it basically in any edh deck but inside Animar, Soul of Elements it never seems to shine for me... Our deck does not have a very high density of lands which leads to having the combination of mox+enought land to safely discard very rare. And even in that case, I'll probably lack of gas. Late game is better only when you are already winning. Does this reasoning sound that strange for you?

I get where you are coming from. I'm personally not a fan of the moxes because of the extra resources they require and I find that Animar tends to use up in resources quickly at the best of times, so it can hurt to use up two cards from hand just to accelerate by one mana.

That being said, increasing your deck's chances to get Animar out turn 2, or possibly even turn 1, means potentially being able to combo off on turn 3 or 4 on a more regular basis. I've found that Animar can combo off on turn 5 at least 85% of the time if not interrupted, but being able to push the average to turn 4 is a significant improvement in a format where Animar has to compete against the speed of Flash Hulk combos. Animar has a lot of consistency but its means of interacting with opponents is limited so speed becomes more important, which makes the potential ramp from the moxes that much more relevant. Animar is competing in speed against decks that are faster than it and have more control options so it hedges its bets on its consistency, the fact that Animar has protection from a lot of prominent spot removal, and that running creature-based combos dodges a number of counterspells that are commonly used. There are reasons why you might want to take your time casting Animar and not go as quickly as you can, but any extra speed you can utilize is valuable.

Another benefit is that if you are drawing a bunch of cards thanks to Beast Whisperer the moxes are basically free extra mana you can draw into to let you cast more spells. So even if you use up all your available mana to cast creatures and draw cards there is the potentially to draw a mox and cast another spell. I've often found myself in situations where I had multiple Beast Whisperers thanks to clone spells, and drawing into something like Lotus Petal let me cast a Peregrine Drake or Dockside Extortionist to free up a bunch of mana and keep casting spells, eventually digging me into what I needed to combo off.

Hey thanks for stopping by! I agree with both of Saber's points. Mox is both an extra shot at T1 animar and a solid free accelerant when we have a big hand. I've played lots of games where one free mana means the difference between fizzling and winning. And more to the point, this deck is so reliant on getting animar down early and following it up with creature casts that we're not in a position to cut free mana, even if it can be awkward sometimes. Worst case scenerio, it's a 0CMC dead card; best case, its a game changer.

That said, with the price of the card these days, Diamond is a super ez budget cut. Its impact on the decks performance is definitely noticeable, but a lot less so than other pricey cards like Survival or Recruiter. It sounds like you already have the card, in which case i strongly recommend playing it, but for anyone else considering picking one up just for animar, the money should def go towards other upgrades first. almost any other $50+ card in the deck is more essential to our play patterns, so don't worry about Diamond.

Now, an open question: how's everyone liking Barrin? had a chance to test him out with Dockside? Ive been pretty pleased with the new tech, and he feels way better to actually use than Kiri, who was always a little finicky, at least for me. If you haven't tried him out, give it a shot!

I've been meaning to try him out. I rarely win with the Kiri line because I've found other lines that don't require the same blue mana requirements easier to put together, so even if the Barrin line requires 6 mana instead of the 4 for Kiri I think that I would probably get more out of Barrin's repeat utility than I currently do out of Kiri.

Yeah, the upfront cost is higher, but Dockside has been such a house at making mana that it feels a lot less restrictive than having the right lands for Kiri. might be meta dependent, or just my playstyle, but Barrin seems like a good fit.

Holy shit guys, how about that Thassa's Oracle?? This seems like the backup outlet ppl have been asking for, but without adding a dead card to the list. I'm really excited about this one!

And I was thinking, "possibile they're ignoring this creature? I think this is insane...why there is comment on this tread??!!" Really good piece even if it doesn't let you draw

totally. I'd been super resistant to adding an alt wincon just bc I hate dead cards in a list with such tense mulligans already, but I'd be happy to draw and cast this guy at any point in a game. The fact that it perfectly covers all of Ballista's weaknesses as a wincon is just an amazing upside.

I think most people are shaking their heads at Flash Hulk getting yet another tutorable win-con, and that it might prompt people to run more Torpor Orb effects.

The talk on the Discord is still discussing Thassa's Oracle. If your meta doesn't run a lot of ways of shutting down Ballista with cards like Null Rod or Extract then the Oracle isn't really needed. It would also require either Glimpse of Nature or Beast Whisperer + Ancestral Statue , which could still just as easily get you Ballista and are lines that are a little harder to put together.

However, the Oracle line can be achieved using just creatures, which goes back to one of Animar's strengths of having combo lines that dodge all the counterspells that say "non-creature" on them, which is a strength that has been slipping as Neoform and Weird Harvest have become more central to Animar's main combo lines. That same line could be used to potentially win with the help of Ballista and Painter's Servant though, which are already in the deck. And there is the (admittedly very minimal) risk of the line not working out if your win-cons are too close to the bottom of your deck, but with free mana from cards like the moxes and Elvish Spirit Guide to cast Sylvan and Worldly Tutors when you draw them the risk should be near non-existent.

Yeah, currently I see Oracle as a strictly second-choice wincon after Ballista (when it's exiled, Revoked, Stax'd etc). The Ballista lines are still generally easier than the Oracle ones for sure. That said, I've been seeing more Ouphe near me lately, so I like the redundancy, especially since the opportunity cost to adding this guy is so low. He's not so difficult to set up that it'd be a total pain, unlike some other potential backup wincons.

On a more meta-game level, Torp/Gryff have been a real issue for the deck all along, and I think any build without access to a few pieces of removal specifically for that situation are at a disadvantage. I run Cratermaker and Caterpillar over Rec and Manglehorn specifically bc they can nuke Torp and a few other key hate cards, and if there's an upswing in ETB hate in the meta, I'll add some more interaction like Ainok. A meta shift like that would def hurt Oracle's viability in our deck, but we're already about as weak to that effect as we could possibly be, so i don't see it as a reason not to run Oracle. Oracle still covers Ballista's weaknesses to Artifact/activated ability hate really well, and that's good enough for me to test it.

I look forward to seeing how the meta shapes up and hearing other ppl's testing results!

The new "Destiny Weaver" looks solid too. Potential Gaea's Herald Replacement?

Bigger body for the same CMC and a non-symmetrical effect that also protects our few enchantments (better for people who also run Mystic Remora and Carpet of Flowers ) at the cost of being vulnerable to a wider range of removal due to its dual typing. Considering how hesitant I am at playing the Herald at all unless I plan on comboing off on the same turn, I'm willing to trade it out for as strictly better, if a little more fragile, effect.

Yeah, I'd hate for my Herald to be used to protect an opponent's Thassa's Oracle. Plus, covering our Survival is always a nice fringe bonus. Straight in it goes.