Bond Beetle

Creature — Insect

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

Discussion (50)

Jaecen on Animar Sec

4 days 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

5 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

7 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

7 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

7 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

7 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.

galaxyman7 on Rainbow Roids (5 color +1/+1 counters)

7 months ago

Game 5: Turbo lands

Record: 2-1 Game 1 we got a bunch of cheap stuff out with a hardened scales, played a ballista, and mowed down all their creatures right away. Game 2 we got stuck on 1 land and they had a super fast hand, hitting both Azusa, Lost but Seeking and Ramunap Excavator with 1 Collected Company on turn 3. Game 3 was a close game, with us getting a very large bloodhall ooze and paladin of atonement, and barely eeking out the win with a tricky volt charge post blocks.

Hollow one

Record 1-0 Game 1 they got out a few hollow ones, a flameblade adept, and a bloodghast pretty quick. We came back with a big paladin and a few other big guys, and they conceded the match. They said they wanted to play only tier 1 and 2 decks.. hahaha.

Lessons learned:

There were a few games where we had just a few too many 2 and 3 drops, and not enough 1 drops to fill in. As a result, we lost some games by being a little bit too slow. I have a few options to fix this:

1. Ramp - noble hierarch or avacyn's pilgrim for the budget - advantage is that we can do bigger stuff fast, but it also isn't a threat itself.

2. More servant of the scales - a more resilient threat, but doesn't do much against an empty board

3. Animation Module - has some sweet synergy with Nissa, walking ballista, etc, and gets us extra guys. Works well on turn 1, but probably won't do much until mid-game. It also doesn't do much by itself.

4. Skarrgan Pit-Skulk - A possibly evasive threat that can be pretty quick and is a good target for anafenza. Not great on turn 1, but if it gets buffed later it could be sweet. Might be too swingy.

5. Bond Beetle - combos nicely with ballista and hangarback, and still comes in as a 2/3 with a hardened scales. Still not great on turn 1.

6. Cenn's Tactician - not super fast, but it fits our theme of being a standalone threat with hardened scales. Plus it combos with anafenza and servant of the scale, and makes combat harder for aggressive decks.

7. Simic Initiate - Gets lots of value with hardened scales, providing 4 +1/+1 counters for 1 mana. Works very well with ballista, hangarback, and anafenza, and is another target for mirrorweave. However, its not a great without the hardened scales or snake.

If you have any other suggestions I would love to hear them! Otherwise I am leaning towards cenn's tactician or simic initiate

We also had a few games where mirrorweave was a dead card on game 1, for instance against control or burn. So I decided to move it to the sideboard, and get rid of stubborn denial, which was iffy anyways because our creatures need time to heat up. It's disappointing because mirrorweave can be such a huge blowout against a lot of decks, but I want game 1 to be the most aggressive deck possible.

TheHex2020 on Garruk Beast

8 months ago

If i go the +1/+1 counter theme that means i could use Primeval Bounty. Some cards I found are Bond Beetle, Dragonscale Boon, Travel Preparations, and Timberland Guide