Manimar, Soul of Manliness (Short Animar Primer Included at No Extra Charge!)
Built for EDH, be it Normal or French or whatever you want.
Dragons of Tarkir UpdateAncestral Statue is probably the best card ever printed of all time for this deck hands down. 4 colorless, ETB bounce combos by itself with Animar. Turn 3-4 wins are much more consistent.
Your goal here is to power through as much of your deck as possible as quickly as possible and eitherA) swing for lethal general damageB) combo
Quick Notes on Animar's Ability:
Animar's Ability reduces the cost of creature spells, and gives him a +1/+1 each time you cast a creature spell.That's what the card says, but people seem to forget some key things:
Alternate costs, such as Morph and Evoke are payed for by Animar. He will reduce these costs.
And now the hard one:When you play a spell with X in the cost, by the rules you need to state what X is going to be, and then pay for it. The CMC of the card becomes whatever it costs + whatever you stated that X would become while it's on the stack. not how much mana you pump into it as most people think.It's a common misconception and usually doesn't matter, and when it does the answer is fairly obvious (in the case of stuff like
Plasm Capture
you get all the mana spent on the spell, easy).Animar reduces the cost of creature spells you play by 1 colorless mana. So he will reduce colorless X costs (except for things like
Consume Spirit
that state that only a certain type of mana may be spent to pay for X, and I'm pretty sure that Colored X costs don't exist yet).So for example, if Animar has 10 counters on him and you want to cast Primordial Hydra, you can say that X will cost 10 - Primordial Hydra will go on the stack as a 10GG cost creature spell, so Animar will reduce the cost of the Hydra by 10 colorless mana, down to GG. If people haven't played against Animar before, get ready to explain this if you have Hydras in your deck.
Turn by Turn Analysis:
T1 - Is your most open turn, Ideally you want a Forest + Utopial Sprawl/
Tinder Wall
/Birds of Paradise; Dual Forest + Wild Growth/Arbor Elf and shoot for a T2 Animar. However, you can go for a tap land if you have nothing else to do (Llanowar Reborn is my favorite slow T1) Generally your first land will be some kind of green producing land. There are some niche hands where going island -> brainstorm on T1 is worth your time however but this is generally better to do on T2, and only for hands flooded with lands so you can dig out your T2/T3/T4 creatures so you don't miss creature drops. Hardened Scales is really really really good if you can drop it here or on T2 without interfering with your plans.
T2 - Turn 2 is completely dictated by T1, so it's very mechanical. If you're setup for T2 Animar, cast Animar, because that's 99.99% of the time your best option. If you can't cast Animar, you don't really have much to do here. If you can, cast Brainstorm this round. The only other time you should be casting T2 is if you took a really greedy hand with only 2 lands and need to thrown down a 2 CMC mana dork, or had too many taplands and need to thrown down a Birds/Arbor Elf/Tinder Wall Your other option is Signal the Clans instant speed tutor, and with all the recursion in this, you're bound to get exactly what you need.
T3 - CAST ANIMAR. If you got Animar out on T2, T3 is T4 for you, so skip ahead. ********** If you have a bad hand/ are going against a deck that can't really deal with you/ or are going for more of a long term strategy throwing down a Domri Rade is also a valid option. T3 Domri is very hard for most decks to stop from ulting, and the card advantage from his +1 can save your in a rough start. If you feel like you cannot win the game without either his +1 and his emblem, it's sometimes acceptable to throw down Domri in place of animar on T3. ************
T4 - T4 is dictated by what your drew/kept at the start of the game. Generally T4 will either be your win turn or setup for a T5 combo win.If you can't do this you need to start looking for a tempo advantage. Use your cheap cantrip creatures along with Skullclamp to quickly blow through your deck and rack up counters on Animar.People tend to think that Animar is a combo general, and they aren't wrong, but your primary goal is to win through general damage, and combo is a close second.
T5 - T5 is generally where your Crop Rotations -> Kessig Wolf Run and supporting enchantments/artifacts come into play.Druids' Repository will let you survive past T5, generally this deck will run out of lands to play around this time. This card turns all your shitty cantrip creatures into free mana so it will help carry you into lategame and help give you the boost you need to comeback from counterplays/board wipes.Cloudstone Curio is essentially an auto win in this deck. It's risky to play it too early because it's fairly mana intensive for this deck, so generally a T5 Curio will give you enough wiggle room to combo off of that.
After this point every turn is essentially the same: find a way to either combo out or smash their faces down with damage ASAP. Animar does not fair bad in lategame situations, but he is much easier for other decks to deal with when they have a decent mana base and some board state up and running.
Strongest and Most Flashy T3 Win:Utopia Sprawl, Tropical Island/Taiga, Forest/Island, Cloud of Faeries, Shrieking Drake, Imperial RecruiterT1 - Tropical Island/Taiga -> Utopia Sprawl enchanting itself, producing whatever you need to T2 AnimarT2 - Forest/Island/Mountain -> AnimarT3 - Tap both lands for Cloud of Faeries -> Float 1 blue -> Untap Lands -> Spend floating blue for Shrieking Drake targeting Faeries -> Cast Faeries Floating 1 Red and 1 Green by tapping the Utopia Land and another one -> Do Imperial-Ulamog Combo (see below)
in the end this will cost you 10 life, and leave you with your lands untapped, Animar, Soul of Elements at 13/13 (+12/+12), Fierce Empath, Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Cloud of Faeries, Imperial Recruiter, Imperial Recruiter(Phyrexian Metamorph)if you can, you can also spend another 16 life, for a total of 26 to get Animar to 21 counters by Metamorphing the Drake another 8 Times before going to find Empath/Ulamog**UPDATE**Alternatively, you can search for Ancestral Statue with Recruiter and win the game through damage on Animar.Note that if they have a blocker you need to have an additional Red mana, and on the final case of Statue bounce Recruiter, and then recast him for the Red and fish out Empath/Ulamog to kill off their blocker
NOTABLE CARDS / THOUGHTS:
Devoted Druid: Can bring itself into Skullclamp range and net you +1 mana for that turn by doing it
Maelstrom Wanderer: A big boost for those times you run out of gas, generally is enough to get the ball rolling again. Also nothing feels better than cascading into those pesky expensive non-creature spells
Prophet of Kruphix: Kinda like Wanderer, just use it when you run out of steam "extra turns" are nice, and yolo attacks aren't as scary when they have no repercussions
Hardened Scales: Either drop this on T1, T2, or on/after T5. The investment is good, but early on you generally need every point of mana you have and won't have the time to cast it on T3/4
Trinket Mage: The sole purpose is to get Skullclamp. Do it, Skullclamp is a good card. Too bad he can't clamp himself...
Crop Rotation: The more you look at this card, the better it becomes. Or the more you realize that Urza Block was the best block ever printed (THIS IS A COMMON?!? WHAAAATTTT) Generally this will be used to get Kessig Wolf Run for that sweet sweet trample.
Gush/
Fathom Seer
: You run on such a small budget that lands don't mean as much as they should for other decks. Your goal is to blow through as much of your deck as possible, and these help you do them with free resources (Did I mention that the morph cast is reduced by Animar?)
Birthing Pod: Honestly, it's not that great in this deck. However, the card is so gamebreakingly powerful that it needs to be here. Most of your creatures are useless once they hit the field and do their effect, so might as well get some worth out of the ones that can't be Skullclamp'd.
Slithermuse
: Ancestral Recall is a slightly good card. You blow through your hand fast enough that this will net you on average 3-4 cards. (Did I mention that evoke is a creature spell so it is reduced by and adds a +1/+1 counter to Animar?)
Sun Quan, Lord of Wu: Animar becomes unblockable. The only horsemanship card that I consistently see is Xiahou Dun, the One-Eyed, and he's black so Animar rides right past.
NEWShaman of Forgotten Ways: Took out Somberwald Sage to test how good this bad boy is. Not sure if I'm completely sold on it. Going down to 2 mana from 3 really doesn't make a whole big difference on average, and the threat of biorhythm is nice, and fairly easy to do if Ancestrall Statue/Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre get stopped or something.Right now I'd say for a tigher curve like this deck, Somberwald Sage is much stronger, however for a more lategame oriented Animar, or a deck with palincron/Deadeye Navigator this beats out the sage by a wide margin
NOTABLE COMBOS:
Cloudstone Curio - This card is the king of combo for this deck, but it requires a little bit of investment/luck to use. Basically Curio + anything will either super value this deck or it will go some kind of infinite.Curio + Any 2 colorless creatures: Infinite Animar counters/ ETB triggers.Curio + Peregrine Drake + another creature: Drake untaps your lands, WHY CAN'T I HOLD ALL THIS MANA.Notable cards that are supported by Curio:Soul of the Harvest (Step aside
Enter the Infinite
), Inferno TitanKessig Wolf RunProphet of Kruphix (FINE I guess I'll just have to wait until your turn to win...)Maelstrom WandererUse your imagination, generally if the card gets F$%NG destroyed into uselessness by Torpor Orb or Hushwing Gryff it's probably F%&GN amazing with Curio. (Note those cards will not stop Animar from bashing skulls and getting swole, they'll just make the game a little more binary and fair for the other guy).
Imperial-Ulamog:Minimum/Optimal Setup: Animar with at least 2 counters on him, 1 red and 1 green mana openImperial Recruiter, Shrieking Drake on the Field1-Tap red: Imperial Recruiter, searching for Phyrexian Metamorph, Animar at 3-Cast Metamorph for 2 life, copy Drake, bounce itself, Animar +1--Repeat until Animar is at least 9 counters-Cast Metamorph copying Recruiter, getting Fierce Empath; Animar at 10-Tap Green: Cast Empath, getting Ulamog, The Infinite Gyre; Animar at 11-Cast Ulamog
NEWAncestral Statue:Minimum/Optimal Setup: Animar with 4 counters-Cast Ancestral Statue, bounce itself, Animar +1, repeat until you decide to stop.
NOMBOS:
Nombos are combos that aren't infinite or necessarily game enders, they're just good synergies that help gain an advantage.
Peregrine Drake + Venser, Shaper Savant/Shrieking Drake/etc.: Untap those lands.
Fauna Shaman + Genesis: VALUE IS VALUE BABY
SIDEBOARD:
Nantuko Vigilante
- Side this in if they're running Torpor Orb. Acidic Slime is your bnb removal for disruption, and Torpor orb makes him a sad slime
Heartwood Storyteller
- Side this in for 1v1/French/2v2. All of the card advantage. Keep it in for Multiplayer FFA if you're a generally nice guy though.
REJECTED CARDS:
Palinchron: Palincron is really good. Like really really extremely good, however this deck wants to win by T4/T5 and Pally is too cost restrictive to help with that.If you're building on a budget and can't go for a super fast game, picking up a
Great Whale
can be a good alternative to a Pally.
Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker: RRR is a no go. If Palincron is too mana intensive at 2BB, there's no way Kiki is making it in.
Deadeye Navigator: Good for slower decks with animar. Once again though, Deadeye is just too mana intensive for the tight curve, and generally each turn ends with lands tapped out, so there isn't any of those fancy dodge shenanigans open as an option.
Primeval Titan/
Sylvan Primordial
: These two are only legal in French, and since my LGS/Playgroup play both French and Normal EDH, I wanted to keep my deck legal for both formats.That being said PrimeTime >>>>>>>> Sylvan. Prime Time lets the deck catch up on lands, due to the short land count. Sylvan is generally outclassed by Ulamog, but as always recursion is a nice thing.
Purphoros, God of the Forge: Too lazy to get my hands on one. Seriously run this card, it's good.
Genesis Wave: This card wins the game instantly in Animar decks ... on like turn 7/8. Too mana intensive and requires infinite mana combos a la Deadeye/Palincron/Great Whale/Peregrine Drake.
Ascetisism: Once again, the 5 mana is just too much to pay for at a reasonable time. Even in slower Animar decks, this card is just a little too mana intensive for my tastes. If your meta is nothing but destroy board wipes, go ahead an pick one up, but if you live in the land of Toxic Deluge's and Grave Pact's find better options.
Primordial Sage: Run this over Soul of the Harvest for faster decks, Soul for more ETB combo decks. I misplaced mine somewhere so when I find it I'll update the list.
Kruphix, God of Horizons: Why. You literally care ONLY about colored mana. He does nothing for you.
Xenagos, Got of Revels: He's good, run him if you like him. Just not my style.
Etherium-Horn Sorcerer: Maelstrom Wanderer on a budget. Easier to cast, and self recurring. Slower or budget decks run this guy, he's well worth it.
Vorniclex, Voice of Hunger: I know colorless isn't usually an issue, but getting the +6/+6 on Animar on a turn before you combo out or just straight up win through general damage is pretty hard. Generally if you can cast this guy, you don't because you can just Wolf Run or Combo out to end the game. Grab one up if you play nothing but Multiplayer though, and you don't mind being hated on (which you probably will be already cuz Animar is pretty damn scary).
Nullstone Gargoyle: This guy too just comes out a little too late and at too high of an opportunity cost to make worth your time. B+ card.
