but your not supposed to talk about fight club.......lol

I, too, have an Animar deck and I've found that x-costing creatures are really strong in it. They allow you to quickly ramp Animar since you can pay any amount of mana for them, yet they get very powerful as Animar grows. Good synergy.

Also, don't know if you're aware, but you can infinite combo Animar with Grinning Ignus... infinite mana, infinite counters on Animar. It's pretty great! So I'd add that little bugger for sure.

I'll add Grinning Ignus to my maybeboard to remind me to acquire one. He could be very useful. Although, he does (with appropriate counters on Animar) cost R to put down and R to scoop up while providing R2. While awesome, that combo does run out when I run out of red mana for it.

He is more efficient than Shrieking Drake though because he'll leave me a lot of colorless mana afterwards. And my deck is more red biased so that's a great call for inclusion!

I did have a Savageborn Hydra in here at one point. But it rarely stuck. It would hit the board and promptly die from a sweeper or targeted removal before he became active. That's very heavy in my meta. Most of the creatures in the deck were chosen to give me some sort of benefit right off the bat as a result of that meta.

If I put more X creatures in I would need to take Maelstrom Wanderer out since they don't combo well. I'd be game for that if he was replaced with something more effective. But, a haste maker with potential buddies is hard to pass up.

Given that feedback do you have any other suggestions?

More bounce : Roaring Primadox , Cloudstone Curio . The ability to cast a few creatures multiple times in a turn can be overwhelming.

Mindclaw Shaman , Nantuko Vigilante (usually comes in free, useful removal) Drumhunter (card draw & mana)

Defense cards that are good with Animar : Nullstone Gargoyle , Archetype of Endurance

Pilgrim's Eye can come in free but mostly it provides you with a flyer if you need a chump blocker.

Animar is always a fun boss.

Cloudstone Curio and Nullstone Gargoyle are most excellent suggestions good sir!

Mindclaw Shaman sounds amusing but it can be a bit risky since I'm depending on opponents' hands.

I had Roaring Primadox in here and his cousin Species Gorger but I found them a little slow. I replaced them with Equilibrium , which I felt was faster, more resilient and more versatile if not a little more mana intensive.

Drumhunter would have a hard time sticking around. "Go after the mana producers" is not an unknown saying in my group. Though we usually stop at targeted land destruction. And access to blue gives me some card draw already. Not that I couldn't use more...

And yeah, Animar is a boss!

Thank you!

Hey man, if I was you I would play Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur , Primordial Sage , and Soul of the Harvest instead of Staff of Nin , Blue Sun's Zenith and Ghor-Clan Rampager .

I've also found that artifact creatures like Wurmcoil Engine , Steel Hellkite and Solemn Simulacrum are pretty awesome with Animar.

Try playing Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker and some Eldrazi, you'll love them =)

Soul of the Harvest is already present and accounted for. I prefer Blue Sun's Zenith over Primordial Sage because I tend to find myself with an empty hand late game. The Zenith will let me gas up in one go from an empty board state. The Sage and the Soul both interact well in ideal conditions but are sub-optimal in an empty board state. Which is why I have the Soul in there.

The rampager is mostly there for the "Surprise! Trample!" aspect. If I'm in a tough spot he becomes a blocker. He's not irreplaceable, but I do like that his sheer presence in the deck keeps my opponents guessing.

Solemn Simulacrum is a good call and I would probably replace the Sylvan Ranger with him. Wurmcoil Engine is crazy good but also crazy out my budget for the moment. I'll make a note though in case a good trade comes up.

Jin-Gitaxias, Core Augur is a possibility but I kind of feel like he's a real jerk of a card. The Eldrazi are off the table for now.

Ah okay, my bad =) I'm used to competitive play, being a jerk is something I rarely consider. You're right though, it is a jerk of a card, lol.

No problem. You are correct. He would kick ass. Maybe a bit too much. I've gone 1 on 3 with this deck a few times before but it's not something I try to force. (I've won a few of those too! The prophet is more or less a win condition.)

Just a clarification on the Grinning Ignus combo: it becomes an infinite combo if you can fix non-colored mana. You can do this with Paradise Mantle + Gemstone Array . Don't know if you want to go down this route, but it could be useful given that Animar runs three colors anyway.

As for further suggestions, it looks like you're interested in quickly ramping Animar. I recommend some creatures with a return-to-hand mechanic built in for free. This includes Glitterfang and Phantom Whelp .

I have also found the evolve mechanic to have good synergy with Animar, so I've thrown Experiment One and Cloudfin Raptor into my deck. Just some more ideas!

If I'm looking for a second Shrieking Drake , I think my first choice would be Man-o'-War . The bounce effect can be self targeting. But he's not a dead card if Animar is already super sized.

But, I tend to win by dropping an ever increasing horror show of fatties and less often with Animar himself. And I find myself wanting to just have a threat in hand than a pump mechanic.

The trouble with evolve creatures is that they rarely stick around long enough to get pumped up. Also, cards like Cloudfin Raptor are rarely useful late game when I'm staring down Skittles with a diminished hand.

Have you thought about Increasing Savagery or Hunger of the Howlpack? Targeting your commander results in everything being super cheap. also some protection (Alexi's Cloak, Swiftfoot Boots?). Surrak Dragonclaw is just goodstuff.

Surrak Dragonclaw looks like a solid fit here. I do need some trample enablement.

As for the hexproof protection, Animar rocks pro-white and pro-black native abilities so he dodge most of the targetted removal. It's been pretty effective on it's own, so much so that I don't even bother with boots or hexproof. Sure my other dudes could use it, but I'm not typically concerned about that. So much of the deck is creatures and card draw that they'll run out of removal before they make much of a dent.

Board wipes however, are bit more problematic. Not over extending is a very important lesson to keep in mind with this deck.

As for the +1/+1 cards, I'm not actually finding that a problem. Primeval Bounty helps a bit. Shrieking Drake and Cloudstone Curio are also major enablers. But mostly just casting creatures normally does so much of the work already. I have more creatures than lands in this deck!

For boardwipe protection use Darksteel Plate and/or Asceticism. Sorry to be useless!

Oh, you aren't useless jandrobard! Far from it. I appreciate the help!

Asceticism is a fantastic suggestion. I'll see if I can secure another one for my collection and this deck. I prefer it over Darksteel Plate because it helps all my creatures out at once.

Asceticism is great for the Hexproof it provides but against the best board wipes it doesn't help. Wrath of God, Rout, Damnation, and Merciless Eviction all get around regeneration and those are arguably the most played. There are a host of others that do the same. I'm not arguing against Asceticism, just saying include it for the right reasons. If you are looking for more boardwipe protection I like to include Spearbreaker Behemoth. Most of your creatures have power 5 anyway and Animar himself quickly can get there.

Hexproof on Animar is a little underwhelming as you say but a Sword of Fire and Ice on the other hand is not. Pro red and blue gives him almost all the colors and dodges even more removal. It can also make him quasi-unblockable which is awfully nice and acts as a card draw engine. If you have one I'd suggest it, if not it can be a rather pricy addition. Sword of Body and Mind is a less costly alternative although it doesn't generate as much card draw and dodging red removal is more relevant than green.

I'd also suggest running Prime Speaker Zegana over Interpret the Signs. Scrying is nice but relying on the top of your deck to draw cards just isn't as reliable as relying on your field. Zegana also becomes a bit cheaper with Animar on the field so she can wind up being less mana intensive.

Most excellent suggestions!

Spearbreaker Behemoth will be going in. When I get a Prime Speaker Zegana, she'll also go in. Aside from the better reliability she'll also drop a +1/+1 on Animar.

I'm torn on the swords. I drop a lot of creatures with this deck, I'd find probably better defensibility with a global hexproof buffer like Asceticism