Animar Wins, the table groans.

Commander / EDH Counters Protection RUG (Temur) Soulbond

robsta109

Creature (32)

• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Cloud of Faeries
• 1x Deadeye Navigator
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Spirit Guide
• 1x Endless One
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Kira, Great Glass-Spinner
• 1x Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
• 1x Laboratory Maniac
• 1x Lightning Mauler
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Phyrexian Ingester
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Pir, Imaginative Rascal
• 1x Prowling Serpopard
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Rattleclaw Mystic
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Roalesk, Apex Hybrid
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x True-Name Nemesis
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Walking Ballista

Land (33)

• 1x Boseiju, Who Endures
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cascade Bluffs
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Flooded Grove
• 2x Forest
• 1x Frostboil Snarl
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 2x Island
• 1x Karplusan Forest
• 1x Lavaglide Pathway  ^Flip
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 2x Mountain
• 1x Rejuvenating Springs
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Strip Mine
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Taiga
• 1x Training Center
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Instant (8)

• 1x Brutal Expulsion
• 1x Counterspell
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Force of Will
• 1x Once Upon a Time
• 1x Pact of Negation
• 1x Shared Summons
• 1x Veil of Summer

Commander (1)

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Aluren
• 1x Carpet of Flowers
• 1x Equilibrium
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Mystic Remora
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Simic Ascendancy
• 1x Temur Ascendancy

Artifact (8)

• 1x Chrome Mox
• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Hammer of Purphoros
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The Ozolith
• 1x Thran Dynamo

Sorcery (7)

• 1x Anger of the Gods
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Neoform
• 1x Show and Tell
• 1x Threats Undetected
• 1x Weird Harvest

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Introduction

There are two main win conditions for this deck. Draw out with Laboratory Maniac on the board, or get Walking Ballista out with tons of counters to damage enemies to death. There are several paths to victory but I will lay out a few paths as an example for easy record keeping.

Win Cons

Most basic win con with damage 1. Have Animar in command zone with Ancestral Statue and Walking Ballista in hand. 2. If you have access to 13 mana, congratulations you've won. Animar costs 3 to play, Ancestral statue costs 4, then 3, then 2, then 1. That equals 13. 3. Cast Ancestral Statue for 0 several times until you can cast Walking Ballista for enough to remove counters from it and ping everyone to death.

The way this works is once you play Ancestral Statue you use the trigger it has as its ability to return itself to your hand. Each time you cast it the cost is reduced by 1 thanks to Animar's ability and casting Ancestral Statue allows you to build counters on Animar endlessly. Once Animar has enough counters, Walking Ballista can be cast with tons of counters for free allowing you to win. If you have Rhythm of the Wild out to make creature spells uncounterable, or Kira, Great Glass-Spinner out to make your things hard to target you can get away with this easier. The counterspells obviously help as well. Pact of Negation will have no downside if you kill your opponents this turn.

Most basic win con with lab maniac 1. Have Animar in command zone, Greater Good in hand, Laboratory Maniac in hand, and Ancestral Statue in hand. 2. This one requires 18 mana as you need to be able to cast Greater Good as well a reduced cost Laboratory Maniac. Use the Ancestral Statue combo to get Animar to as many counters as you like. Cast Laboratory Maniac for the reduced cost. Cast Greater Good. 3. Sacrifice Animar to Greater Good to overdraw and win.

The way this works is that Laboratory Maniac says "If you would draw a card while your library has no cards in it, you win the game instead." Since Greater Good has you draw cards equal to the sacrificed creature's power, and Animar has a lot of power thanks to its counters, you will draw more cards than your library contains.

Complicated Walking Ballista Win

I will assume you understand the basic concepts of this deck and therefore this explanation will be lazier. This can be done with 12 mana as well but only requires you to have Imperial Recruiter in hand.

1. Cast Animar for blue red green.
2. Cast Imperial Recruiter for 2 and Red fetching Phyrexian Metamorph. Animar is at 1 counter.
3. Cast Phyrexian Metamorph for 2 mana and 2 life as Imperial Recruiter fetching Spellseeker. Animar is at 2 counters.
4. Cast Spellseeker for 1 blue mana fetching Neoform. Animar is at 3 counters.
5. Cast Neoform for green blue to sacrifice Spellseeker and fetch Ancestral Statue. Bounce Ancestral Statue with its own effect.
6. Cast Ancestral Statue for 1 and bounce it to make tons of Animar Counters. Animar is now at X counters.
7. Cast Ancestral Statue for free and bounce Phyrexian Metamorph.
8. Cast Phyrexian Metamorph as Imperial Recruiter for 2 life and fetch Walking Ballista.
9. Cast Walking Ballista with tons of counters for free and ping away.

Again having protection or uncounterable creatures is beneficial here. Counterspells are great as well especially the free ones.

Complicated Laboratory Maniac Win

This is not going to be even less thorough on instructions but should be understandable if you understand the concepts of the deck.

1. Animar.
2. Greater Good.
3. Have any other creature out.
4. Get Animar to as much power as you have cards in the library, exactly the right amount no more no less.
5. Draw your whole library and discard 3 cards that aren't Laboratory Maniac, Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, and one other blue card.
6. Exile blue card to casting Chrome Mox, play Mana Crypt, play Laboratory Maniac.
7. Sac the random creature you had out before to draw at least one card.

This can be accomplished by doing the same Ancestral Statue combo as before and can be done with other creature fetching. It can cost the most if you're not prepared so you may have already cast mana crypt and chrome mox to get there. In that cast just take it slow or don't blow your load till you're ready.

Conclusion

Once you understand the concepts you can see the ways to win outright. There are other cards in this deck that allow for other shenanigans like Peregrine Drake and Deadeye Navigator, casting big eldrazi for free, killing with commander damage when your opponents are white and/or black heavy. The possibilities are not endless, but are limited by imagination. Thanks for reading.

Date added	2 years
Last updated	1 year
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 59 - 0 Rares 15 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.07
Tokens	Enchantment Golem 3/3 C, Morph 2/2 C