Animar's Hydras

Commander / EDH* Counters Hydra RUG (Temur)

Areinu

Creature (38)

• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Apocalypse Hydra
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Brinelin, the Moon Kraken
• 1x Capricopian
• 1x Courser of Kruphix
• 1x Dream Stalker
• 1x Feral Hydra
• 1x Gargos, Vicious Watcher
• 1x Genesis Hydra
• 1x Herald of Secret Streams
• 1x Heroes' Bane
• 1x Honored Hydra
• 1x Hooded Hydra
• 1x Hungering Hydra
• 1x Hydra Omnivore
• 1x Hydroid Krasis
• 1x Kalonian Hydra
• 1x Man-o'-War
• 1x Managorger Hydra
• 1x Mistcutter Hydra
• 1x Momir Vig, Simic Visionary
• 1x Nylea, Keen-Eyed
• 1x Nyxbloom Ancient
• 1x Oran-Rief Hydra
• 1x Prime Speaker Zegana
• 1x Shrieking Drake
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Steelbane Hydra
• 1x Stonecoil Serpent
• 1x Stumpsquall Hydra
• 1x Surrak Dragonclaw
• 1x Tishana, Voice of Thunder
• 1x Vastwood Hydra
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1x Voracious Hydra
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Zegana, Utopian Speaker

Land (35)

• 1x Alchemist's Refuge
• 1x Ancient Ziggurat
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Castle Garenbrig
• 1x Cinder Glade
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Evolving Wilds
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 11x Forest
• 1x Frontier Bivouac
• 1x Island
• 1x Karn's Bastion
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Mountain Valley
• 1x Opal Palace
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shivan Reef
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Temple of Abandon
• 1x Temple of Epiphany
• 1x Temple of Mystery
• 1x Yavimaya Coast

Artifact (5)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Oblivion Stone
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The Great Henge

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Vivien, Champion of the Wilds

Commander (1)

Enchantment (11)

• 1x Asceticism
• 1x Doubling Season
• 1x Guardian Project
• 1x Hadana's Climb  ^Flip
• 1x Hardened Scales
• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Simic Ascendancy
• 1x Temur Ascendancy
• 1x Unbound Flourishing
• 1x Zendikar Resurgent

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Explosive Vegetation
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Flood of Tears
• 1x Planewide Celebration

Instant (3)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Shared Summons

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Use Animar to cheat out big clunky hydras cheap. Give them haste or semi-haste, some kind of evasion...

Aaaand SMASH.

That's the general idea.

The idea for the deck came from me wanting to play Hydroid Krasis in EDH. This meant I needed at least Simic colors at the very least for my commander, and Animar seemed to be good choice for expensive creatures, hence we are in Temur. But the deck is mostly green anyway.

Win conditions

Main: Smash with big hydras, which are bigger thanks to Animar

Sub 1: Smash with Animar, especially good against decks heavy on black or white. Remember you need only 21 damage here.

Sub 2: Simic Ascendancy, you usually will be able to fill it in the same round as you played it, so opponents have only 1 round to respond. If you get Leyline of Anticipation, Alchemist's Refuge or Vivien, Champion of the Wilds you can try to do surprise hydra at the end of your opponent turn, so you win almost instantly. Pumping like this with bounce creatures also works.

Combo: Shared Summons allows you to find all combo pieces for the wins: Ancestral Statue + Animar, Soul of Elements + Walking Ballista . Bounce Ancestral Statue for free infinite amount of times. Summon infinite size Walking Ballista and shoot everything and everyone down. If setup properly Shared Summons becomes "5-6 mana, win the game". Use Momir Vig, Simic Visionary as alternate tutor for pieces. Use Man-o'-War etc. to pump Animar if you don't have the Statue.

Card advantage

Repeatable draw(most of those can be abused using bounce creatures): Zendikar Resurgent, Temur Ascendancy, The Great Henge, Soul of the Harvest, Beast Whisperer, Momir Vig, Simic Visionary, Vizier of the Menagerie, Guardian Project

One time card draw: Zegana, Utopian Speaker, Tishana, Voice of Thunder, Prime Speaker Zegana, Hydroid Krasis

Card selection: Vivien, Champion of the Wilds, Nylea, Keen-Eyed, Genesis Hydra, Courser of Kruphix(kind of)

Graveyard recursion: Planewide Celebration, Honored Hydra

Sub-themes

Bouncy goodies: Ancestral Statue, Dream Stalker, Shrieking Drake, Man-o'-War, Brinelin, the Moon Kraken

You can use bounce to grow your Animar, to draw many cards with your draw on ETB/cast, and in worst case scenario you can use one of the blue bouncers to save a creature in need(only if flash subtheme is enabled). If you have Vizier of the Menagerie on board bouncers other than Ancestral Statue become much better, since you can use all mana to recast them.

Brinelin, the Moon Kraken makes every X creature in the deck into man-o'-wars, as long as there's enough counters on Animar. This can often be better than Man-o'war since bouncing XG hydra is easier to pay.

Flashy creatures: Vivien, Champion of the Wilds, Leyline of Anticipation, Alchemist's Refuge

Flash is good in this deck, as it allows you to play your big creatures just before your turn, giving opponents less time to deal with them, and possibly allowing you to swing once. Which often will be enough. It also might allow you to find a moment when opponents are tapped out to do your bounce evildoings free of risk.

+1/+1 counters: Side-effect of using hydras and Animar is you have a lot of counters. This enables Simic Ascendancy alternate win-con. Doubling Season, Hadana's Climb  , Hardened Scales, Rhythm of the Wild, Unbound Flourishing, The Great Henge all reinforce this and make stuff grow even faster. Usually you want to grow Animar. Karn's Bastion and Planewide Celebration give you some ways to proliferate. You also get Herald of Secret Streams as payoff for all those counters, and both Zegana cards will draw you card(s).

Interaction

Artifact removal: Steelbane Hydra

Spot removal: Voracious Hydra, Walking Ballista, Beast Within

Mass removal: Oblivion Stone, Blasphemous Act, Flood of Tears(yes, I would much prefer Cyclonic Rift, but too expensive ATM)

Ramp

Creature based: Animar, Soul of Elements, Nyxbloom Ancient, Gargos, Vicious Watcher

Artifact/enchantment based: Arcane Signet, Sol Ring, Zendikar Resurgent, Nylea, Keen-Eyed

Land based: Cultivate, Explosive Vegetation, Farseek

Evasion

This section lists only cards that grant additional evasion. Many creatures already come with protection of some sort or Trample.

Herald of Secret Streams, Zegana, Utopian Speaker, Surrak Dragonclaw, Rogue's Passage, Hadana's Climb  

Protection

Hydras are brittle, cute, little creatures. For some reason they tend to be prime target for removal, counters and other bad things. Cards below help a bit to avoid some of those dangers.

Lightning Greaves, Rhythm of the Wild, Surrak Dragonclaw, Heroic Intervention, Vivien, Champion of the Wilds(this Reach helps a lot), Asceticism

Hasty boys

Lightning Greaves, Rhythm of the Wild, Temur Ascendancy all give you true haste. Leyline of Anticipation and Vivien, Champion of the Wilds give you "fake haste". All in order to swing with your 40/40 hydra or 21/21 Animar before it gets removed.

Date added	4 years
Last updated	3 years
Key combos	Ancestral Statue + Animar, Soul of Elements + Walking Ballista
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	14 - 0 Mythic Rares 50 - 0 Rares 14 - 0 Uncommons 9 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.68
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Citizen 2/2 WUBRG, Honored Hydra 6/6 W, Morph 2/2 C, Snake 1/1 G