Bond Beetle

Creature — Insect

When Bond Beetle enters the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on target creature.

Discussion (50)

beardumbra on Pir and Toothy's Simic Adventure

2 months ago

Klazen: As Foretold is now on my radar for sure. While it does take some time to get going, this represents an interactive instant with, say, just 2 counters, during other players turns, let alone casting free things with more counters. This is probably among the best 3-CMC mana sources for this kind of strategy and might actually be better than Astral Cornucopia.

Give / Take is another card I have looked at but am not totally sold on. Take is the obviously exciting side, which would be used with Toothy most of the time, triggering Toothy with the draws to replace all the counters almost immediately. However, Give (or fusing Give with Take) is a little underwhelming for three extra mana, however, as there are better spells for distributing counters. Crucially, the effect of Take on Toothy can be replicated (for instance with Repudiate / Replicate itself) simply by cloning Toothy. If this were another Simic +1/+1 counters deck, I could justify including Give / Take, but this particular interaction between Toothy and clones means that I would rather have the flexibility of a clone instead of a narrower card such as this.

TheNocholas: Yes! War of the Spark (with proliferate and loyalty counters abound) could be even better for this particular deck than Ravnica Allegiance was. Already I want to play with Merfolk Skydiver , Neoform , Karn's Bastion , and the Landfall -- Proliferate elf, and some other cards, including the planeswalkers, are good candidates as well. Looking forward to seeing what else is announced for this set.

channelfireball12345: I do notice this card whenever I am looking for a cut. Bond Beetle is a good suggestion, and as I was looking into getting one, WAR is already providing a strictly better Ironshell in "Pollenbright Druid" (and the even spicier Merfolk Skydiver at the same CMC). Another alternative is Elvish Visionary or the new Fblthp, the Lost if I'm finding the main purpose of the beetle is to put the counter on Toothy. The reason I included this card is because Ironshell Beetle's original printing was in the first magic deck I ever owned, given to me as a gift, and I happened to collect the card in this deck at a GRN draft. The beetle will definitely be cut for something from WAR once it drops.

channelfireball12345 on Pir and Toothy's Simic Adventure

2 months ago

Bond Beetle is probably better than Ironshell Beetle for what it's worth, though I find them both to be rather weak in EDH.

Jaecen on Animar, Sec

3 months ago

Card Categorization

I've categorized the cards in your deck here: https://deckstats.net/decks/50753/1215572-animar

The following analysis is based on that categorization. Several cards are in more than one category, so I've categorized them based on their primary or common case. E.g. Ancient Animus is both "Removal" and "+1/+1 Counter Interaction", but you're going to cast it to kill something -- the +1/+1 counter is a nice bonus.

Strategy

There's no explicit or stated goals of the deck, so I can't evaluate the cards against that. If you have a goal, let me know.

The core effect of Animar is to play creatures, which grows Animar. As Animar grows, he helps you play more (and more expensive) creatures. Some notable limitations:

• Animar only decreases colorless costs
• Animar only cares about creatures
• Animar only cares about casting creatures

Animar is cheap to cast and protects himself from most removal (due to his protection from Black and White). Because of this, we can assume that we will get him out early and keep him out long enough for him to provide benefit. We'll build the deck assuming Animar is on the battlefield at all times.

Since Animar reduces the colorless component of creature costs, we'll get the biggest benefit from colorless creatures. As with any unlimited cost reduction effect, we should look for ways to break the free case. The obvious one here is to bounce and recast colorless creatures for free.

Since we're playing all of these (hopefully free) creatures, Animar will grow quickly. Giving Animar good evasion will give us to win on commander damage quickly.

To best abuse Animar, we want:

• Many creatures across a range of mid to high colorless costs
• As many of those creatures in our hand as possible
• An many +1/+1 counters on Animar as soon as possible
• A means to make Animar unblockable

The easiest way to break Animar is to create an engine that casts colorless creatures and bounces them to your hand as many times as possible during a turn. We'll want ETB/LTB effects on those creatures and cards that care about creatures entering and leaving the battlefield. Additionally, we'll want cards that care about +1/+1 counters on a creature.

Favor creatures over non-creatures, as you get a discount on creatures. Try to keep colored costs to a minimum - avoid double or more colors in a cost.

Abusable Colorless Creatures:

• Myr Battlesphere creates four Myr tokens
• Precursor Golem creates two 3/3 tokens
• Artisan of Kozilek reanimates a creature
• Duplicant exiles a creature
• Anodet Lurker and Peace Strider gain three life
• Electrostatic Pummeler and Multiform Wonder give three engergy
• Reservoir Walker gains three life and gives three enery
• Grim Poppet gives three -1/-1 counters to put on something
• Meteor Golem destroys something
• Mirror Golem exiles a card from a graveyard
• Pierce Strider drains three life from an opponent
• Skyscanner draws a card
• Mindless Automaton draws a card via a +1/+1 counter interaction
• Solemn Simulacrum tutors a basic land into play
• Thought-Knot Seer can effectively mill and oppenent with ETB and LTB triggers
• Triskelion deals damage via a +1/+1 counter interaction
• Workhorse grants colorless mana via a +1/+1 counter interaction
• Oblivion Sower steals lands from your opponents deck

Repeatable Bounce:

• Ancestral Statue
• Equilibrium
• Guardians of Koilos
• Cloudstone Curio
• Temur Sabertooth

Synergies:

• Panharmonicon !!!
• Cream of the Crop
• Decoction Module
• Impact Tremors
• Leyline of Vitality
• Hardened Scales
• Simic Ascendancy
• Path of Discovery
• Warstorm Surge
• Wild Pair

Unblockable Enablers:

• Herald of Secret Streams
• Thassa, God of the Sea
• Whispersilk Cloak
• Protective Bubble
• Aqueous Form
• Keeper of Keys
• Key to the City
• Passwall Adept
• Rogue's Passage
• Aether Tunnel
• Cloak of Mists
• Suspicious Bookcase
• Marchesa's Smuggler
• Tricks of the Trade

We'll want to get as many creatures down as quickly as we can. Card draw and other card advantage effects are valuable.

Draw/Card Advantage:

• Vizier of the Menagerie
• Sunbird's Invocation
• Stolen Strategy
• Rashmi, Eternities Crafter
• Garruk's Horde
• Descendants' Path
• Elvish Visionary
• Mulldrifter
• Fierce Empath
• Wall of Blossoms

Changes to the Existing Cards

I would consider cutting way down on the amount of ramp. Mana dorks get the deck running early, but they don't have any synergy with the core effects. I suspect that's what was leaving you feeling like you had a dead hand.

Cards that seem particularly problematic:

• Wild Cantor . Requires a sac for effect. Doesn't get cost reduction. A dork that taps for mana would be better.
• Tinder Wall . Same as Wild Cantor sans the cost reduction bit.
• Vivid Creek and Vivid Crag . These both ETB tapped, don't have basic land types, and only provide off-color mana twice. If would strongly consider running Amonkhet cycling duals over these.
• Ancient Ziggurat . Be careful, as this mana can only be used for casting creature spells. I don't like this land in most decks.
• Bond Beetle . I have no idea why this is in here. It works once and has very little synergy with the deck. Verdurous Gearhulk would be better, but still not great.
• Green Sun's Zenith . I think a cheaper card that tutored to hand and then let you cast the card would be better, as you'd get the cost reduction effect and other synergies. No cards come to mind, but there are lots that look at the top X cards and tutor to hand ( Gift of the Gargantuan , etc.).

SaberTech on Ancestral Animar

8 months ago

Yeah, that one mana makes a big difference. I get why they would choose to go with Ironshell Beetle though, a bear that can boost something else later in the game is a bit more useful overall than the Bond Beetle version.

SynergyBuild on Ancestral Animar

11 months ago

I play with more stax/control then combo, so I may have a scewed veiw on this, but I only mentioned cards you sounded like you wanted, not ones I specifically thought were strictly better than ones in the deck.

To be entirely honest, If they do print a few more cards like Mulldrifter, Bond Beetle, and Birds of Paradise. You know, like 2-3 of each, then this deck could be a sweet storm build, going off faster than many Grixis Storm lists.

SaberTech on Ancestral Animar

11 months ago

@JMCraig When you say that the Oracle nets you 3-4 cards the turn it enters, is that just cards being filtered off the top of your library or is that the count of cards that you are also casting from exile that turn?

@SynergyBuild I think that, for me, it's a tough call between a new Bond Beetle or a new Mulldrifter (assuming the new Mulldrifter could also be cast for 3-4 mana without Animar's reduction). But considering that we have just been given Dark-Dweller Oracle for more draw power, I think that I lean more towards another Bond Beetle to help increase the chances of more explosive turn 3 plays.

SynergyBuild on Ancestral Animar

11 months ago

Clamp is better on the field, Oracle in the deck, the fact I can't easily tutor Skullclamp (You have to go through Trinket Mage) and I think that it why I like Oracle more.

Unrelated question, would you rather a good colorless card, something like a new Spellskite or Phyrexian Revoker, a new Bond Beetle, a new Birds of Paradise, or a new Mulldrifter type card?

SaberTech on Ancestral Animar

11 months ago

Well, Hardened Scales gives you the effect for just 1 mana right off the bat. Pir, Imaginative Rascal requires you to jump a couple hoops to get the same effect for the same cost, but comes with the benefits for being a creature you can tutor up and putting a counter on Animar when you cast it.

I guess a big question to address is if the effect is one worth using a tutor on to begin with? Pir doesn't have the early game speed and mana efficiency that Hardened Scales does, but I think that it might be a little better later in the game if the board has been wiped and you are in recovery mode.

That being said, I personally don't run Hardened Scales. It has its moments where it shines, but in the early game I find it doesn't offer that much more speed for its mana invenstment than if it had just been a 1 CMC creature, particularly a mana dork, instead. If WotC would print another 1 CMC version of Bond Beetle I would take that over a Hardened Scales type effect any day.