Bond Beetle

Creature — Insect

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

Discussion (50)

fmastrome2008 on The Party Animar Has Arrived

1 week ago

Bond Beetle lets you get a 2nd counter on Animar when he comes out. Highly recommend him.

I am in agreement with Last_Laugh. This curve should be well below 4, if not below 3.

Kogarashi on Does Bond Beetle Trigger Phalanx ...

2 months ago

As others have mentioned, Phalanx Leader triggers off of a spell you cast targeting it. This means the object targeting it must be a spell on the stack. It can't be an ability.

Bond Beetle has an ability that triggers when it enters the battlefield, and it's this ability that targets a creature. Since it's an ability and not a spell, it won't trigger Phalanx Leader.

Something that would trigger Phalanx Leader would be an instant like Colossal Heroics, a sorcery like Desperate Stand, or an Aura like Flickering Ward (since Auras always target while they're on the stack).

One way to tell if something is a spell targeting a creature or not for the purposes of the Heroic ability is to look at the wording. Triggered abilities always start with (or contain, in the case of delayed triggered abilities) "When," "Whenever," or "At" (like the Heroic ability on Phalanx Leader and the ETB on Bond Beetle). Triggered abilities will not trigger Heroic. This is also why Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's first ability doesn't work, because it is an ability that triggers on casting; it's not part of a spell resolution.

Boza on Does Bond Beetle Trigger Phalanx ...

2 months ago

The only spells casts with a target are instants and sorceries that have the word "target" on them and auras always target the relevant permanent when cast. There might be exceptions to this general rule, but none I can think of right now.

Even if Bond Beetle's ability were an on cast ability like Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger's ability, it would still be an ability, not a spell, which Phalanx Leader is looking for.

Optimator on Mowu Musings

2 months ago

Fear the mighty Bond Beetle

WaggyTheGeek on Does Bond Beetle Trigger Phalanx ...

2 months ago

If I cast a Bond Beetle while Phalanx Leader is out, and target phalanx leader, would leader's effect trigger? I'm worried about how beetle's ability activates on ETB rather than on cast.

Spell_Slam on He was a kickr boi, she said c u later boi

2 months ago

Great start! You have pretty much all the good kicker cards. I think you could focus a bit more on the secondary theme of Hallar, which is +1/+1 counters. Hallar doesn't care where the counters come from, which means you don't actually need that many Kicker cards to make him deal tons of damage.

Hunger of the Howlpack is a great addition to the deck, being one of the most efficient counter-givers in Pauper.

Elven Rite, New Horizons and Soul's Might are all very efficient ways to get lots of counters on your Commander.

Mutant's Prey and Hunt the Weak are great removal spells for your deck that is chock-full of +1/+1 counters. Feral Contest also isn't bad.

Ivy Lane Denizen is a must have in this deck. You make plenty of tokens, which can either make Hallar massive or simply make your 1/1s into 2/2s, which is an incredible boost.

Longshot Squad gives most of your team reach. Aquastrand Spider also does it for a cost, but can also distribute counters. Spike Colony is a pretty beefy creature that can also give its counters to others. This can make combat very difficult for the opponent on top of all the synergy it gives naturally.

Horned Kavu is extremely useful in this deck, since it can re-buy so many of your ETB triggers for lots of value.

It's so hard to get card advantage in these colours. I would definitely play Entourage of Trest to try to keep up with Blue and Black decks. I also don't leave home without Rolling Thunder and Elven Cache in these colours as cards to catch you up in card advantage. You could also be running up to six cycling lands, namely Tranquil Thicket and Forgotten Cave. In terms of synergy, you could also go for Tishana's Wayfinder and Brazen Buccaneers.

I would also think about adding all the mediocre +1/+1 counter distributers, like Bond Beetle, Kujar Seedsculptor, Ironshell Beetle, Scrounging Bandar, Satyr Grovedancer.

Caerwyn on What counts as a Spell ...

7 months ago

Please remember to link your cards with double brackets:

[[Gargos, Vicious Watcher]]

Gargos, Vicious Watcher

A spell is any card that is on the stack. Gargos cares about spells that specifically target it. So, that’s targeted instants ( Lightning Bolt ), targeted sorceries ( Grapeshot ), and Aura spells, which always target when they are a spell.

For your specific examples:

• Equipment spells do not target. They resolve, then have an equip ability that allows it to attach to a creature. At that point, it is no longer a spell, so does not implicate Gargos.

• Bond Beetle , Sacred Armory , and Scrounging Bandar - It their abilities that target, not a spell.

• Constellation does not necessarily target, it’s an ability word serving as a reminder that some effect will occur regarding enchantments entering the battlefield. Even if the ability targets, it will always be the ability, not a spell.

• Bestow - bestow means you are casting the card as an aura spell. As such, a card cast for its bestow cost would be a targeted spell, and would implicate Gargos.

SaberTech on Animar, Storming Soul

11 months ago

JMCraig was pretty thorough with his suggestions, so I probably don't have much to add.

Just to clarify, judging by the banned list your shop goes by I'm assuming that you play 1v1 duel commander, not 4 person pod games, right? Which format you are playing in is an important bit of info because there are significantly different meta considerations to make between the two formats.

As baseline suggestions for right now, I agree with JMCraig's suggestions that you need to include all of the 1 mana dork elves because they are important for increasing your chances of getting Animar out turn 2, but they are also one of the signature advantages that green has in Duel Commander. In a format where the best artifact ramp has been taken away from other colors, green's natural ability to ramp itself is one of its best assets.

I also agree that if you are running Kiki, you should also include Pestermite to increase the combo's consistency. With the inclusion of the mana elves and Pestermite it may be worth looking at running Priest of Titania as well.

In regards to Bond Beetle , I'm going to copy and paste a comment that I wrote elsewhere:

"In general, the way I find Animar usually plays out is that you want to ramp turn 1, cast Animar turn two, spend turn 3 casting two or three creatures to get counters on Animar but you run out of mana, then on turn 4 you are set up to potentially combo off. The power of Bond Beetle is that if you cast it as your first creature on turn 3 and have both a 3 CMC tutor creature, along with something else you can cast for free like Cloud of Faeries or Phyrexian Revoker, that should leave you with 2 available mana and 4 counters on Animar, which is potentially enough to win on turn 3 instead of turn 4 if you are lucky."

Honestly though, I'm not very knowledgeable about the current state of the duel commander meta. I remember that Red became a lot more viable when the life total was dropped to 20, but since your shop uses 30 life I'm not sure how much Red shows up. Red's burn spells and cheap board sweepers are a real problem for Animar since it gets around Animar's protection from White and Black, which normally keeps it safe from most spot removal in the usual cEDH format. If Red is an issue at your store, it may require some alternative design decisions to help you get the best out of Animar.