Thanks for the compliment! I've been slowly refining my deck for a while.

And yeah, Lotus Cobra can be a beast if you get it and a couple fetch lands early. One game I went 1st turn Birds of Paradise, 2nd turn cast the cobra and dropped a fetch that I used to get a land and cast Animar with the two mana off the cobra and the land. 3rd turn I drew another fetch land and things got crazy from there.

Awesome! yeah i am gonna play test it with the cobra. I admit it and its shameful I stole some of your deck ideas and making them work in mine. Not sure how I can fit Snap and Time Warp though. Still looking. I got rid of squirrel nest I did that because nothing sucks more then being killed by badgers or squirrels I have fallen to both in the past =( I died a little inside after that.

Yeah, dying to a swarm of squirrels is a humbling experience that everyone should suffer at least once. I consider it a rite of passage of being being a magic player.

Achievement unlocked: The Fuzzy Death.

It was rather majestic..

OK, made some more changes.... I'm getting happier and happier with it..

In case you haven't seen the card yet: Ancestral Statue

I'm testing it in my deck so see if it works out as well as I hope. Ancestral Statue can bounce itself back to your hand, so get four counters on Animar and you can cast and bounce the statue infinitely. It works perfectly for pumping Animar right up to 21 power, or drawing as many cards as you want off of Soul of the Harvest, or just kill your opponents with damage off of Purphoros, God of the Forge

I'm pretty sure Ancestral Statue will become a staple for Animar decks, and it is only a common.

Ah very cool what happens if no more lands? What do you think of Clone and Duplicant for Phantasmal Image Thorn Elemental

These would be fun Empress Galina Unstable Shapeshifter and Dominating Licid

I was starting to wonder where you ran off too

If I had to choose two of those first four creatures you mentioned, I would want Duplicant and Phantasmal Image in the deck.

Phantasmal Image + Palinchron can potentially produce infinite mana, even without Animar, so it is a good backup plan to have both in the deck. Duplicant is just good removal.

And yeah, I'm one of those people who are really bad for letting conversations slip into long, awkward silences. I'm frequently online, there are just times where I feel like I have nothing to say. You are always welcome to leave a message on my page if there is something you want to discuss though.

Zoetic Cavern

Ok dude did 10 hours of magic and I did well but my friends merieke ri berit and thousand year elixir and minatao at waters edge just had sex with me. I got more details but I'm going to bed I'll tell you in the morning.

Yeah, I can see how Merieke Ri Berit may be annoying for you to play against. At least she can't steal Animar from you. I have some ideas of what you may be able to include in your deck that would make her a little easier to handle.

Lets deal with artifacts first, since even if you kill Merieke Ri Berit cards like Thousand-Year Elixir and Lightning Greaves/Swiftfoot Boots make her a threat the turn she is recast.

Creature options: Reclamation Sage (cheap, hits both artifacts and enchantments, sticks around so you can bounce it), Ingot Chewer (only hits artifacts but you can Evoke it for just 1 mana and evoke still counts as casting so Animar gets a counter), Sylvok Replica (can potentially be cast for free with Animar, hits artifacts and enchantments, decent blocker).

Non-Creature options: Beast Within (instant, hits anything you want including Merieke but leaves a creature that can block Animar), Krosan Grip (instant and can't be countered), Deconstruct (sorcery but technically a "free" spell to cast, which is valuable in an Animar deck), Gleeful Sabotage (sorcery but can be a potential 2-for-1), Nature's Claim (instant speed and cheap to cast).

As for dealing with Minamo, School at Water's Edge, you already have Acidic Slime in the deck. Other options are Beast Within, Avalanche Riders, Goblin Settler, or Strip Mine.

As for Merieke Ri Berit herself, you have Gilded Drake that can steal her if she is already tapped and can't be untapped right away because if she steals the drake in response to its trigger then you won't get to steal Merieke.

A couple utility creatures to consider are Plaxmanta and Voidmage Husher, which can at least buy you some time against Merieke's ability. You could also just run some creatures that deal damage when they enter the battlefield to gun her down. Something like Ghitu Slinger would work, and you can make it part of an infinite damage combo too. Get infinite mana with Deadeye Navigator and a creature like Palinchron, flicker the navigator and soulbond it to Ghitu Slinger, then use the infinite mana you have racked up to just keep flickering the Slinger until all your opponents are dead. I use Inferno Titan for that combo and it is typically how I win most of my games. Bogardan Hellkite is another option you might want to use instead since it only deals damage when they enter the battlefield and not if an opponent steals and attacks with it like Inferno Titan would, but it is more expensive to cast.

hey bud, Yeah it was a magic the gathering weekend for sure! I think I played to much! stayed up until 330AM on Sunday playing. Animar was dominating most of the games when they weren't all ganging up on me lol. New guy to the meta keeps shouting I need to run Grand Architect and he said to dump all my mana dorks. But I am still iffy on that. Taking out religuency tower and putting in strip mine I picked up a copy this weekend. I had a feeling you would tell me to drop that in =). I was thinking Kamahl, Fist of Krosa to deal with ALL their lands, becuase you were right about the damn board wipes. I did a bone headed move when they wiped the board but i had ascetism out and i DIDN"T regen animar! I only had 2 mana left. grrr....Ok so bogardan hellkite over inferno titan? Should i take out balefire for him? I was thinking of trying to add Cauldron of Souls Skyship Weatherlight Argentum Armor Stone Calendar

Why would that guy tell you to run Grand Architect? The mana it produces is colourless and can only be spend on artifacts, which you only have 3 of. Maybe he thought that the Eldrazi were artifacts because they are colourless?

As for the mana dorks, they are pretty much the bread and butter of an Animar deck. Without them as early drops Animar loses a lot of its explosive ramping power. For people who haven't played with Animar much having the mana dorks can feel counter-intuitive, but I can still remember what my deck played like back before I included them and there is no way I would take them out.

Kamahl, Fist of Krosa might work if wraths are as bad as you say they are. Another card worth considering is Inspiring Call, which at the very least can save Animar and cantrip you into another card. If you manage to get counters onto other creatures the deal just gets better. If you do add Inspiring Call, you may also want to include Hunting Moa since it can throw +1/+1 counters around onto your creatures or it can just be a really quick way of getting 3 counters onto Animar.

As for the artifacts, I don't think they will help the deck out much. Cauldron of Souls won't be able to save Animar because the -1/-1 counter from Persist will kill him again when he comes back. The other three are way too expensive for what they do.

EXACTLY!! exactly what I said. He said that he used to run animar as well. My eyes went huge when he wanted me to cut Bloom tender! He's stomping his feet with the whole grand architect. Board wipes aren't to big of a thing yet anyways but its 110% there. I am however stuck on what to remove. For the dragon or inferno titan. Which would you suggest removing?

Also he yanked out Hinterland Harbor and said go with just a basic or a fetch.

Has Xenagos, God of Revels helped you much? Off-hand that is the one I would cut first.

I would favour a fetch land over any land that might come into play tapped, but to be honest the lands like Hinterland Harbor are rarely an issue in my deck. I hit my duel lands often enough that it is pretty rare for those land to have to come into play tapped unless they are the first land I play. I think that I would take out Sulfur Falls before I took out Hinterland Harbor though. Having the U/G is a better colour combination for you to start with than U/R.

I cut Oracle of Mul Daya for Burgeoning

Xenagos i haven't gotten to play him in a game yet TBH I was thinking of cutting him but he gives haste he was on the block and Keranos, God of Storms was gonna go in for that garanteed lightning bolt to the face or critter.

Actually, you might not need the Inferno Titan. If you have infinite mana anyway, you can use Apocalypse Hydra as your finisher. You can search it up with Imperial Recruiter and if you cast it large enough with your infinite mana you can just gun everyone down. The hydra would actually live up to its name.

Warstorm Surge might be better then Keranos, God of Storms too. But having multiple ways of dealing with troublesome critters.

Thing is as soon as I was dropping creatures he was taking control of them with merie ri ki so as soon as apoc hydra comes down he steals it and exiles it or uses it against me.

If he let you get infinite mana before casting Apocalypse Hydra then it doesn't matter because you can just use the hydra's ability in response to kill everyone.

If Merieke Ri Berit will be a regular deck you play against then yes, I would exchange Xenagos, God of Revels for Keranos, God of Storms.

Has Rhystic Study worked out for you? When I tried it I found that all it did was slow my opponents down a little since they would almost never let me draw cards off it.

Rhystic Study was VERY helpful. The marathon that we did part of the night it was 6 player battle royal then it went to 4 and stayed at 4 for most of the night. It did infact slow them down in the early mid game and was basically useless end game except for the card draw mechanic which is always nice.

Merieke Ri Berit is here to stay =(... its been his pride and joy deck he has been working on for over 6 months it will never ever go away. We are friendly rivals lol. Even when on the same team we try to kill each other off. OK, so Keranos, God of Storms will be added. I do want this to be versatile outside of my play group. Who knows I might get stationed somewhere in Canada and square off with a deck like yours and don't want to be made a fool of =). Do you think you could revisit the land structure so that I can get a solid land. I'll go ahead and purchase those tonight after work.

went to 6 then down to 4

After the games you have played, you would probably have a better idea about the lands than I would. If you don't feel like you are frequently short on a particular colour then I think that your mana base should be alright. The only card I don't particularly like is Thran Quarry, which I would replace with a fetch land or a Tropical Island if you get your hands on one.

Have you considered running Stratus Dancer in the deck? It's useful for fending off board wipes and counterspells. If you have Vesuvan Shapeshifter out then you can have it turn itself face down every turn and flip up as Stratus Dancer, allowing you to counter multiple spells throughout the game.

I have tropical island on the to buy list. Still shopping around for it. Might take a me a couple months to be able to afford it. But I'll get it. The times I have played Thran Quarry it has never let me down. BUT I will revisit that land and see what I can do to replace it. I wish I could remember the name of that card. I swear its the cousin/sister of glen, elendra. Very cool if you get bored try a google search I am kinda limited with work what sites I can go to lol. I love vesuvan shapeshifter he works for me. He's already on the buy list as well. I don't want to have to go to ebay to find these cards I have heard some horrid stories of people getting scammed.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that the legacy dual lands are prime targets for counterfeiters and scammers. If you are going for dual lands its best to get them from a site whose reputation and business actually depends on them providing you the right product.