Disclaimer: This is a reminder that deck editing never ends, decks are never 100% complete, we do recognize our decks might lack certain traits, cards or strategies for various reasons like lack of knowledge, forgetfulness or one of our people might not have all the cards in that deck. We always have schedules for deck edits and we will try to keep you all updated on update schedules and notes.
Looking for a fun Animar deck to build? Want to make your friends cower in terror? Love decks with great synergy?This might be the deck for you, however it's not a cheap one to make, so bear in mind you'll have to be patient piecing it together unless you have money or credit to spend. So let's begin.
Let's start with your mana base, and yes we will go over rocks as well. There's 34 lands in total, 8 of each basic will be plenty. 4 non basic lands will help make Animar more efficient, Llanowar Reborn, Forge of Heroes, Guildmages' Forum, and Opal Palace, each of these will place a counter on Animar upon entering the battlefield and if you can get 2 of these lands to kick, Animar can go off really fast. Evolving Wilds and Field of Ruin can go fetch the lands you need (well the basics anyway), Command Tower and Reliquary Tower are always a staple, but the really noteworthy non basics here are Thespian's Stage and Dark Depths. If you don't know this combo, the stage copies depths with no counters on it and before merit lage triggers from that the legend rule triggers and by the end both lands go to grave and you get a 20/20 indestructible flying creature.
Now before we move on let's talk about other cards that help with your mana base and interacts with your lands. Darksteel Ingot, Sol Ring, Palladium Myr, and Rattleclaw Mystic are all rocks that add to your base, in fact Rattleclaw can help you pull Animar turn 3 no matter your mana base. Cryptolith Rite also turns your creatures into rocks, Arixmethes counts as a land producing blue and green, and Oblivion Sower pulls your opponents lands. Finally, three awesome artifacts, Crucible of worlds helps you reuse your fetchs and the Depths combo if somehow you lose Merit Lage, Walking Atlas helps you cheese out more lands, and Expedition Map can fetch ANY land, and no there's not many like it. Speaking of cheesing let's move on to free casts.
So Jhoira's Familiar has become a staple in EDH, as Historic spells cover a fairly wide range and Herald of Kozilek also helps with colorless spells and artifacts. Conduit of Ruin is amazing for not just reducing the cost of the first spell you cast each turn, but pull a powerful eldrazi to the top of your library. Now you can either cast that eldrazi, or you can use this combo to cheese it out for free, Proteus Staff and Genesis Chamber. Now Chamber can backfire but the point is you can poof a myr token, place a creature free from the library and then spawn a new myr to do it again instead of having to use one of your main creatures. A couple of other noteworthy cards are also As Foretold and of course Leyline Of Anticipation. Finally the two main cards that help animar go infinite, Ancestral recall which bounces itself until it can be cast for free, and cloudstone curio which is a little more complex but also has other uses. As a side note Vanquisher's Banner and Zendikar Resurgent allow you to draw out your deck with either but ancestral statue specifically, if you do this, make sure you do something like place elixir of immortality on the field and make sure you can kick it on your opponents turn so you don't get milled out and make sure to discard your hand of what you don't need, this can also trick up your opponents if theyre paying more attention to the few cards left in your library then the elixir on field.
Draw power is very present in this deck, in addition to the infinite draw above. Ponder, Opt, Gitaxian Probe, and Preordain are all staples for any deck that runs blue, Rites of Flourishing helps with draw and land drop and with every extra drop of land you get a extra life and draw from tatyova. Zemeck Guildmage takes advantage of the counters placed on your creatures by things like Loyal Guardian, Kraum takes advantage of your opponents second spells, and Keranos either draws or bolts and yes it has been errated to bolt planeswalkers.
The rest of the deck is fairly self explainatory, big eldrazi's (and a Lorthos), the best counters you can throw in (split second is fairly despised in my play group) and one final noteworthy card Rhythym of the Wild, which also helps animar or you can swing with that fresh Ceaseless Hunger that hit the field that turn.
