Animar, Swole of Elements

Commander / EDH Infinite Combo Midrange Multiplayer RUG (Temur)

izzik

Creature (48)

• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Ancient Greenwarden
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Avenger of Zendikar
• 1x Azusa, Lost but Seeking
• 1x Beast Whisperer *f-pre*
• 1x Beastcaller Savant *f-pre*
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Hulk
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Deepglow Skate
• 1x Den Protector *f-pre*
• 1x Dryad of the Ilysian Grove
• 1x Duplicant
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Evolution Sage
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Forgotten Ancient
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gaea's Herald
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Llanowar Elves *f-pre*
• 1x Lotus Cobra
• 1x Maelstrom Wanderer
• 1x Mulldrifter
• 1x Omnath, Locus of the Roil
• 1x Painter's Servant
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phylath, World Sculptor
• 1x Ramunap Excavator
• 1x Rattleclaw Mystic
• 1x Reclamation Sage
• 1x Risen Reef
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Stratus Dancer *f-pre*
• 1x Sylvan Safekeeper
• 1x Tajuru Preserver
• 1x Tatyova, Benthic Druid *f-pre*
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1x Voracious Hydra
• 1x Wall of Blossoms
• 1x Wood Elves

Land (32)

• 1x Ancient Ziggurat
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x Cavern of Souls
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 4x Forest
• 4x Island
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Ketria Triome
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Reflecting Pool
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Artifact (3)

• 1x Cloudstone Curio
• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x Mox Amber

Commander (1)

Instant (7)

• 1x Crop Rotation
• 1x Fierce Guardianship
• 1x Flusterstorm
• 1x Heroic Intervention *f-pre*
• 1x Mana Drain
• 1x Mystical Tutor
• 1x Shared Summons

Enchantment (5)

• 1x Exploration
• 1x Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip
• 1x Hardened Scales *f-pre*
• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Sylvan Library

Sorcery (3)

• 1x Gamble
• 1x Glimpse of Nature
• 1x Neoform

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Wrenn and Six

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Weird Harvest

Creature (1)

• 1x Walking Ballista

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Animar, SWOLE of Elements 1.0

Welcome to version 1.0 of my Animar build!

In this mini-primer (my first ever by the way) I'll detail some of the synergies and tool kits present in this take on the elemental legend, as well as explain a few of my personal card choices and exclusions.

*A note before we get started:

While I believe the deck to be capable of holding its own in a competitive environment, this is NOT intended to be a super aggressive, streamlined, 3-4 turn combo deck that wins at all costs. What I love about MTG is the flavor and lore of the cards and their worlds, and I will almost always choose flavor and fun over a more efficient card that doesn't feel thematically appropriate.

But that's just me.

That being said, in this decklist we do have some infinite combo action, some very light elemental tribal themes, a dash of landfall, a pinch of graveyard recursion, and a smattering of answers for our boy Animar's typical adversaries.

Let's get SWOLE.

Wombo-Combos

As you can see, Ancestral Statue & Cloudstone Curio are included to facilitate Animar 's many infinite combos, if need be. The simplest of which of course being the classic Ancestral Animar.

Want to swing for one billion damage? You can do that. Toss a Rancor on the big guy or activate Kessig Wolf Run to give him trample and stomp away. Of course, you already knew that, you're looking at an Animar list, you eat infinite cast and enters-the-battlefield triggers for breakfast. The Ancestral trick is also useful for generating infinite counters on Forgotten Ancient , or infinite card draw with Beast Whisperer and Soul of the Harvest .

Speaking of infinite, an infinite mana combo is present as well with the inclusion of Peregrine Drake . Add a Cloudstone Curio on the board, and another cheap creature in your hand and you have a recipe for ramp. You can then use that mana with Kessig , or send an unfathomably large Voracious Hydra to the board with infinity x 2 power and toughness. Great fun.

OR, if you don't need to Enter the Infinite , simply generate enough mana to bounce Reclamation Sage around for a bit and rid the board of all those pesky artifacts and enchantments.

You may have noticed at this point that a fairly standard Animar combo wincon is missing. Walking Ballista . This is a personal choice, which I will address later, but it is definitely a powerhouse card that simply put: wins. games. So please feel free to include it if you just love that sweet victory.

There are other combo interactions in the deck but we'll keep this short and sweet and move on.

Landfall-ho!

Lands. Can't play without 'em, so why not get some bonus value out of that arrangement.

Up first we've got the notable inclusion of Azusa, Lost but Seeking , because who doesn't want to play 2 extra lands per turn? Some might argue that she becomes redundant pretty quickly, what with all the ramp already present in the deck, and to them I say... you're right. BUT with the right landfall creatures out like Evolution Sage and Tatyova, Benthic Druid , in combination with Ramunap Excavator to pull cracked fetches or lands sac'd from Sylvan Safekeeper from the graveyard, she can generate some nice advantages.

Personally I choose her over cards like Oracle of Mul Daya and Exploration because I'm not a huge fan of revealing my draws, and the 2 extra lands per turn can end up netting me more value by the time the card is inevitably removed from play... AND her legendary status synergizes with Mox Amber .

Now, let's take a second look at the landfall ability of Evolution Sage . Here we get some proliferate triggers, which not only contribute to pumping up our commander's max weight reps at the gym, but they also pad the loyalty stats on our two planeswalkers! While that might not seem terribly exciting on Nissa , whose primary function is for her self explanatory +2 and 0 abilities, Wrenn and Six is a different story, which leads into our next topic...

Back From the Grave

Graveyard recursion!

So, Wrenn and Six has some pretty awesome interactions going on in this deck, and aside from perhaps Animar himself, they're one of the cards I'm most excited about.

First we have +1: Return up to one target land card from your graveyard to your hand.

Cool. It's simple, straightforward land recursion, and sending the cards to your hand instead of the battlefield is important for their ultimate later on. This brings back our fetches, Prismatic Vista , Fiery Islet & Waterlogged Grove , and also recovers any lands sac'd to Sylvan Safekeeper .

Second ability, -1: Wrenn and Six deals 1 damage to any target.

Solid, versatile burn damage. Can hit mana dorks and other small utility creatures, keep other planeswalkers in check, or just a be gentle slap to the face.

Ultimate. -7: You get an emblem with "Instant and sorcery cards in your graveyard have retrace."

Awesome. So now any instant or sorcery card in our graveyard is also effectively sill in our hand forever. Need to save your beloved commander from being shutdown by a Torpor Orb ? Discard a land to retrace Mana Drain , then recover that same land the next turn with Wrenn's +1. Now either hold on to the land to keep Draining indefinitely or get those sweet landfall triggers as you play one of your Azusa enabled 3 lands per turn.

SYNERGY

Like gambling ? Well step right up and deck search to your hearts content, as we've got Eternal Witness and Den Protector backing up Wrenn and the excavator to make sure whatever's sent to an early grave makes it home before dinner. Den Protector also has the added bonus of being a morph creature, meaning she'll be played for free more often than not.

In addition to our universal recursion package, there are also Vengevine and Rancor bringing sexy back all by themselves.

Always Wear Protection

Being able to bring the rest of our 99 back from the graveyard is great, but Animar doesn't get to experience that sweet release of death, so we need to find other ways to keep him on the field.

Lightning Greaves is a staple piece of kit that has been shielding commanders since the format began, but it is currently absent from this list in favor of the more recent Swiftfoot Boots . I flip-flop between the two, but choose to run Swiftfoot because hexproof allows us to take advantage of cards like Rancor and Kessig Wolf Run over the greaves' shroud, and the extra equip cost is negligible with our ramp.

That is of course assuming he makes it out to the board in the first place.

Here to make that happen are Cavern of Souls and Savage Summoning . Both are self explanatory, both prevent Animar from being countered, and Savage has the added bonus of sending Animar to the field with a free counter!

Once buff daddy is in play the aforementioned Sylvan Safekeeper will help keep him there, and Heroic Intervention is included to protect our entire board from any wraths, wipes, mass tucks, or an opposing Cyclonic Rift .

Worst case scenario, if you can't protect him or another important spell or permanent from being the target of some enemy retribution ...

Just Say No

This deck runs a pretty typical suite of countermagic, with a couple creature based options to fit our theme, notably Mystic Snake and Stratus Dancer .

Honestly, Mystic is a little pricey in terms of CMC, but he offsets that with sheer value. If Animar is out with at least 1 counter, you're getting an additional +1/+1 counter, a Counterspell , a 2/2 body, and an enters-the-battlefield trigger for . PLUS it's a creature spell, meaning a healthy portion of counters in the format can't touch it, namely Swan Song , Dispel , and Stubborn Denial .

The downside to our serpentine friend is that the counter only happens when he enters the battlefield. Anything already in play preventing those effects, or cards like Stifle will render him just a really fast bear . So, tradeoffs.

For our other creature based option, Stratus Dancer is another potentially free morph that becomes a stripped down Muddle the Mixture when flipped, which is great. Draining Whelk and Voidmage Husher are two other cards that have seen rotation in my list and are currently benched, but are fun choices nonetheless.

Everything else is as you would expect, minus Pact of Negation and Swan Song which I might swap in at a later date, and which segues into the final chapter of this post:

Cut From the Team

Like I had mentioned at the beginning of this "primer", this deck isn't as streamlined and fast as it can be. If you want to check out a build that's all about winning definitely take a look at Ancestral Animar, which is a killer list, and helped me build parts of mine. It also has a fantastic primer that's linked in the description, if you haven't already read it.

Some of my card choices could definitely be categorized as "pets"; Silvos , for example, is a favorite of mine, but there are much better ways to spend 6 CMC. Other card choices and exclusions are by necessity...

This isn't a budget deck by any means, but I do have a budget. Duals and Gaea's Cradle aren't in here because I can't swing $400 for one piece of cardboard. Yet. Another Animar staple, Survival of the Fittest is absent mostly because I suffer from mild OCD and can't stand having old borders mixed with the new ones, but that's a personal problem and you should definitely include it in your list if that doesn't bother you.

There are a bunch of cards that aren't currently included but are under consideration, like Glen Elendra Archmage and Caustic Caterpillar , and there are others like Walking Ballista that I have chosen to exclude based on the fun factor. I may be thrilled to wipe the table with it, but it doesn't make for a fun game for everyone, and that's just one example of cards that can do this.

Again, like my use of pet cards, this is a personal choice, and one that can impede the efficiency of the deck, but for me Magic has always been about having a great time with others playing a game I love, and sometimes that means winning a little less.

Well, that's all for now, though I will keep updating this as the deck changes. And I'll likely add/make changes to the guide as well. As such, this is still very much a work in progress, so any suggestions are welcome.

Thanks for taking a look!

Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	17 - 0 Mythic Rares 53 - 0 Rares 9 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.81
Tokens	Emblem Wrenn and Six, Morph 2/2 C, Plant 0/1 G