Welcome, to my Animar, Soul of Artifact Creatures and Eldrazi EDH Deck
If it has no coloured mana, is a creature and does something freaky; It's welcome here.
Casting big things for free (or really cheap) is pretty much the whole point of this deck.It runs 5 draw engines to help get all the cards you need/want. And a way of finding 3 of them. Bident of Thassa will be the main draw engine, second to Elemental Bond, Temur Ascendency and Zendikar Resurgent and finally
Rhystic Study
. Use these four cards to draw your whole deck (or just enough to find Primal Surge), and play the cards with Animar, and draw more cards, and play more cards, and play more cards, and... Well, you get the idea.
The deck plays better the longer you leave it. The main problem is keeping Animar alive for the first few turns she's out. Her protection from white and black keeps her from most of the kill spells you'll see early game, but red, red is not your friend. To get around burn pump her up quickly using cards like Shimmer Myr and your low cost spells (Ornithopter and Memnite). Blue is also not your friend, one bounce and she's back to hand. Her low cost can help with this, its the command zone you don't want her. Hopefully, by the time the bounce gets her, or the red burns her you'll have enough of your little artifacts out to play a Mycosynth Golem or
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
, one to restock your hand and the other to give everything Affinity for (you guessed it) Artifacts!
The Golem will be your late game Animar. With either one you can play more than half your deck for free and if the get rid of Animar, the Golem pumps her back up quicker than you can say Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made this Card to Have the Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental. All the while you'll be drawing the rest of your deck.
The Cards and their uses
Almost every card in this deck will feed Animar. That's a given, but some cards do a little bit more.
Let's start with the cards that don't help our Affinimander.
Bident of Thassa - This all-powerful spear is one of the 4 draw engines in the deck. With cards like Shimmering Myr it becomes a powerful surprise draw spell if your opponent doesn't block. It also allows you to leave your bigger creatures to block your opponents 1 or 2 creatures and then restock your hand the next turn. As I always say, "when it comes to the Bident, as long as your opponents have life, you've got yourself some cards"
Next up we have Elemental Bond, Temur Ascendency and Zendikar Resurgent. These are your other 3 draws. Around 80% of the creatures in this deck are going to trigger Elemental Bond, then 60% will trigger Temur Ascendency, plus it has the added bonus of giving them all haste. Finally, as a late-game win more Zendikar Resurgent will double your mana, for those pesky noncreature spells you can't pay for, and it will also draw you cards whenever you get a creature.
But, I hear you cry, what if I keep hitting lands. Now, no need to fret, I gotcha fam. Thats where the last little gem comes in. Abundance. This card lets you cycle through your deck until you get what you need. Early game if your stuck on 3 green sources and a Urza's Mine, Abundance can find you your blue and red source. Late game you can just stick all that land on the bottom waiting for a
Zendikar resurgence
and a Primal Surge. Don't worry, with all the creatures you draw you'll see it again real soon.
Speaking of, Primal Surge is a pretty good win con in here. If the game has started to stall out it'll help you win. Not only will it get you the big Eldrazi it'll also find you some nifty Plansewalkers, a couple of your big artifacts and well, everything else in the deck. Thats right. Primal Surge is the only non-permanent in here. Tee hee.
Moving on. Lets see the planeswalkers you get in here.
1 Saheeli Rai, this ones from the new Kaladesh set, she'll net you some Scry's early if you can't pick up a draw engine or Abundance, she can copy almost all of your creatures for the turn, gotta get that sweet Pilgrim's Eye etb again. Then if you're lucky she can also fetch a few of your artifacts and whack them straight on the battlefield.
The other Planeswalker is Xenagos, the Reveler, luckily you'll only be using him for his +1 ability. That should help net you the mana you need to get your entire hand on the field, if you haven't already. I mean, if you really need the extra damage you can 0 him. But the -6 is a sweet, tasty treat in this deck, sadly though you don't cast the things you find, but it ramps you mana and nets you some (usually) big creatures... (I'm looking at you Ornithopter).
That's non-artifact, non-creature cards done. Let's look at some of the creatures shall we.Where to start, so many to choose from. Ah, this'll do.
Metalworker - Metalworker is a little old card from Urza's legacy. He's a 3 cost Artifact Creature which can tap to add squizillions of colourless mana to your mana pool. Hopefully you'll want to throw this down turn three, followed by Animar and the rest of your hand turn four. Bonus points if you also squeeze in an Elemental Bond you played with that extra green source you have.
Onto some more recent cards, Conduit of Ruin. What's that, your on turn 5 and have Animar out with a couple counters on her. Why not throw down your 5/5 Conduit of Ruin, stick a Ulamog or a Kozilek on the top of your library then draw it with your Elemental Bond, so now you can play Kozi and draw another 4... Value.
There's a segue if I ever did see one. The titans. The deck runs
Kozilek, Butcher of Truth
and Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre. These two will net you a pretty big body, a bit of annihilator (to feed It That Betrays) and some sweet on cast effects. Pitting the two against one another I feel Kozilek is probably the better card here as it pulls you a minimum of four potential creatures on cast, which is pretty nifty.
Next up we'll go into Shimmer Myr, this little beauty does exactly what it says on the tin. "Half of your deck has flash". This is good for getting Animar out of those tight early turns when coupled with stuff like Ornithopter and Memnite and is great for flashing in a Junk Diver just before a board wipe for shoving Animar or Platinum Angel back into your hand.
Ahh, so Platinum Angel has piqued your interest. I see. She made a spot in the deck as she helps a lot against drawing yourself to death or in a Duel Commander matchup against a quicker deck since she's able to jump in around turn 5 if you're lucky enough. Once she's out, if your opponent(s) can't deal with her quickly it'll be game over for them...
Hmmm, what next. Let's go with Kuldotha Forgemaster, Kuldotha is a reasonably costed mid-game play that can help turn the game in your favour, you can sac your Ornithopter, Solemn Simulacrum and other mini-inventions to search up your Mycosynth Golem, or get out Platinum Angel in a pinch. Sadly, Kuldotha can't fetch up the Eldrazi but you can still get some value out of her. Early game, she can also find your Bident of Thassa if you're without a draw engine.
The next card we'll cover breaks the one rule of this deck unfortunately, but I felt it needed a spot. Sharding Sphinx. This nifty little 4/4 Flier with net you a bunch (and I mean loads) of little Thopters, which can get more Thopters and so on and so on. Neato. Couple this one with the Pointy Spear of Card Draw and I guarantee your hand won't ever be empty.
The other exception to the rule is technically not a creature, but it still breaks the no coloured mana code and it pains me. Purphoros, God of the Forge. Now I know it says Legendary Enchantment Creature but I assure you, there is no way this can get enough devotion to become alive. (Actually, no-one tell Animar, she still nets you the decreased mana cost. She still has hope for the little guy.) Purphoros is in here as an alternate win-con. Maybe your opponent has more creatures than you do (even after the Annihilator), or maybe your board is wiped free of all its creatures by a Wrath of God. I don't know, it could happen. Purphoros will be sitting there pinging your enemies for two apiece for each creature that plonks its way back onto the battlefield. This card has won me the last four games I've run this deck. (Mainly by accident... Shhh... Don't tell my playgroup).
Moving on. We're almost done. I promise. We'll finish with this combo and then onto some honorable mentions.the combo comes from Animar and her interaction with Ancestral Statue. Play Statue, etb, bounce stature... Rince and repeat, tada, you now have an infinitely large Animar turn, idk, probably six or something. Its an infinite combo. But the best part. Not only does it grow animar, with any of your draw enchantments out it'll net you a card or two to play, then once you've finished making Animar infinite (or you draw yourself out, whichever comes first) you can get double etb effects off your titans, Kuldotha, or even Purphoros.
Finally, let's do some honorable mentions.
- Shoutout to Ornithopter and Memnite. I would be running
Phyrexian Walker
but its a real pain to find and it'd take up a slot I don't have atm.
- Blightsteel Colossus makes an appearance as an alternate wincon if they have a Lich's mirror out. Plus it'll help you stop yourself milling due to its second effect.
- It That Betrays. Sadly, this one doesn't get a spot up top but that's mainly since it's pretty self explanatory, whack it down for cheaps and use it as enchantment removal or something.
- Next mention goes to Myr Superion, Oh No! Spend only mana made by mana dorks. I don't have any of those. But lo! What is this. I can cast this 5/6 for 0 mana after only two other creatures with Animar. By god! It's brilliant. It also triggers all the draw engines (minus the fake one that I'll get to next)
-
Rhystic Study
, this is the one draw engine that I don't consider a draw engine. It's mainly in the deck for those people who like to play a lot of spells, the more you play, the more I get. It works great in multiplayer EDH games though which is why it gets its own little spot in the coloureds section. Well, would you look at that. I made it this far without making a racist joke. Hehe. Anyway...
- Steel Hellkite, do you ever get those creatures that just sit there for their abilities and don't actually attack or block?, is your opponent playing a token deck? does your playgroup have a lot of 2 mana bears? If you answered yes to an of these questions, just take this Hellkite, hit 'em for at least 5 and then pay the appropriate amount of mana to screw with your enemies. (Side Note: Hellkite will probably get some damage through if you also swing with a couple Eldrazi and a Blightsteel Colossus)
- The deck runs a Spellskite and a Wurmcoil Engine as format staples, plus the former will protect your Affinimar from any spot removal early game.
- As mentioned earlier the deck also runs a Mycosynth Golem, this doesn't get a main entry either because, like It That Betrays it's pretty self explanatory
And the final mention goes to:
Endless One
and
hangerback walker
, both of these X spells become amazingly big creatures with Animar and Mycosynth Golem. Plus Hangerback gives you the added benefit of more Thopters. These two were musts for the deck.
Anyway, that's pretty much my Affinimar deck. I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading. If anyone can suggest a card I may have missed or forgotten to include in the decklist please let me know. I'm always looking to improve.
