Bask in the Soul of Elements

Commander / EDH Combo Infinite Combo Multiplayer Primer RUG (Temur)

Enral

Creature (46)

• 1x Acidic Slime
• 1x Ancestral Statue
• 1x Arbor Elf
• 1x Bane of Progress
• 1x Beast Whisperer
• 1x Beastcaller Savant
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Bloom Tender
• 1x Collector Ouphe
• 1x Consecrated Sphinx
• 1x Dockside Extortionist
• 1x Elvish Mystic
• 1x Elvish Visionary
• 1x Eternal Witness
• 1x Fauna Shaman
• 1x Fblthp, the Lost
• 1x Fierce Empath
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Gilded Drake
• 1x Gilded Goose
• 1x Glen Elendra Archmage
• 1x Imperial Recruiter
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Mystic Snake
• 1x Oracle of Mul Daya
• 1x Peregrine Drake
• 1x Phantasmal Image
• 1x Phyrexian Metamorph
• 1x Priest of Titania
• 1x Prowling Serpopard
• 1x Ravager Wurm
• 1x Rishkar, Peema Renegade
• 1x Scavenging Ooze
• 1x Skullwinder
• 1x Soul of the Harvest
• 1x Spellseeker
• 1x Teferi, Mage of Zhalfir
• 1x Temur Sabertooth
• 1x Tidespout Tyrant
• 1x Tishana, Voice of Thunder
• 1x Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
• 1x Vizier of the Menagerie
• 1x Void Winnower
• 1x Voracious Hydra
• 1x Walking Ballista
• 1x Wild Cantor

Land (36)

• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Botanical Sanctum
• 1x Breeding Pool
• 1x City of Brass
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Fabled Passage
• 1x Fiery Islet
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 6x Forest
• 1x Frontier Bivouac
• 1x Gaea's Cradle
• 1x Hinterland Harbor
• 4x Island
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 1x Misty Rainforest
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Scalding Tarn
• 1x Spirebluff Canal
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Waterlogged Grove
• 1x Windswept Heath
• 1x Wooded Foothills

Commander (1)

Instant (8)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Cyclonic Rift
• 1x Delay
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Once Upon a Time
• 1x Stubborn Denial
• 1x Swan Song
• 1x Worldly Tutor

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Rhystic Study
• 1x Survival of the Fittest
• 1x Sylvan Library

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Neoform
• 1x Sylvan Tutor

Artifact (2)

• 1x Lotus Petal
• 1x The Great Henge

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 1x Oko, Thief of Crowns

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Maybeboard

Instant (1)

• 1x Fierce Guardianship

Creature (1)

• 1x Illuna, Apex of Wishes

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The Soul of Elements

This is my multiplayer Imperial Animar, Soul of Elements deck that is tuned for an optimized (75%) meta. This is not a pure cEDH version and if you're looking for one please check out JMCraig or ShaperSavant's list. While Animar, Soul of Elements is central to the strategy of the deck, this deck can adapt into a strict aggro/control gameplan and interact with my opponents' threats if push comes to shove. Against faster combo strategies, this deck is capable of racing them into a pretty consistent turn 5 win on average if I were to go all out uninterrupted. On the flip side, I am able to play a more reactive/conservative game in a slower pod. While challenging to pilot at times, I am always having fun with this deck and hope that you enjoy my decklist. This is the deck for you if:

• You are in a mostly optimized meta (with some splash of cEDH) and want a chance to compete
• You are looking for a deck has some complex line of plays
• You love casting creatures and killing people with commander damage
• You love infinite combos

The Strategy

Operation

The deck revolves around Animar, Soul of Elements and leans heavily in protecting it as much as possible. Since it has protection from two of the most removal heavy colors in regular EDH, it is pretty tough to remove in most instances. Powering out Animar early game is key to success and being cognizant of the commanders and deck strategies in the pod is extremely important to pilot the deck well. An aristocrat/reanimator commander usually signals Grave Pact effects like Fleshbag Marauder, therefore playing a few dorks for protection is extremely important in that situation.

Win Condition

The main win condition of the deck is to assemble an infinite mana loop into an inordinately large Walking Ballista. If Walking Ballista is exiled, the backup combo is to assemble an infinite creature cast loop via Ancestral Statue. Payout includes lethal Animar damage and exiling everything with Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger + Temur Sabertooth. With infinite recursion, we can also create infinite swans by casting any instant/sorcery and countering it with Swan Song (get both spells back via Eternal Witness. Push come to shove, a regular midrange beatdown plan is just as effective to win the game.

Combo Chain Walkthrough

Neoform Chain

This is a new innovation credited to ShaperSavant/JMCraig (and others I might have missed). This chain is enabled by Neoform through Spellseeker (to ultimately get Ancestral Statue) and requires + 4 life + 2 Animar counters:

• Cast Imperial Recruiter finding Phyrexian Metamorph
• Cast Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter to find Spellseeker
• Cast Spellseeker finding Neoform
• Cast Neoform (sacrificing Spellseeker) to find Ancestral Statue
• Ancestral Statue returns itself to hand (which you can now loop cast and bounce for infinite counters/etb)
• Ancestral Statue returns Phyrexian Metamorph
• Cast Phyrexian Metamorph copying Imperial Recruiter to find Walking Ballista

Weird Harvest Chain (retired)

I'm giving all due credit for this chain to ShaperSavant/JMCraig (and others I might have missed). This new innovation of Weird Harvest chain is a one-card wincon with Animar and is fetchable through Spellseeker. The basic line for X = costs a total of with Animar at 3 counters. Cast Weird Harvest and tutor for Ancestral Statue + Walking Ballista (x = ). Cast Ancestral Statue infinite times for infinite counters and use the final bounce to pick up and replay an inordinately large Walking Ballista to win. This chain is only to be attempted when the coast is absolutely clear as we're giving our opponents unrestricted access to any creatures in their library.

Imperial Kiri Chain (retired)

After numerous playtesting, with other new innovations already included in the deck, I find no more uses for this loop. This recruiter chain uses Kiri-Onna. When I first started playing Animar, everyone was almost exclusively using the Hoverguard Sweepers line which is both complicated and mana intensive. I've then adopted the Kiri-Onna chain innovated together with a couple of other Animar enthusiasts. The key to making this combo work is Kiri's second triggered ability: "Whenever you cast a Spirit or Arcane spell, you may return Kiri-Onna to its owner's hand." Needs at least , 4 life, and 2 counters on Animar to work:

• Cast Imperial Recruiter to get Phyrexian Metamorph ()
• Cast Phyrexian Metamorph as Imperial Recruiter getting Kiri-Onna ( + 2 life)
• Cast Kiri-Onna bouncing Phyrexian Metamorph ( + 2 life)
• Cast Phyrexian Metamorph as Kiri-Onna bouncing Kiri-Onna (due to ETB effect) ( + 4 life)
• Cast Kiri-Onna bouncing Phyrexian Metamorph to hand (due to second part of textbox) and bouncing Imperial Recruiter (due to ETB) ( + 4 life)
• Cast Imperial Recruiter to get Peregrine Drake ( + 4 life)
• Cast Peregrine Drake to untap 5 lands ( + 4 life)

This will result in infinite (or any other colors depending if they are duals or not) and infinitely big Animar by repeating loops A through C below. You can also tutor all power 2 or less creatures from library by replacing Peregrine Drake with Imperial Recruiter in the loop once you've demonstrated that you have infinite mana. The fastest win after that is just to grab Walking Ballista to ping everyone to death.

Miscellaneous Combos

• Animar (4 counters) + Ancestral Statue = Infinite ETBs & Animar counters
• Animar (4 counters) + Peregrine Drake + Temur Sabertooth = Infinite ETBs, mana, & Animar counters
• Animar (3 counters) + Tidespout Tyrant + any colorless/morph creature = Infinite ETBs & Animar counters (infinite mana with Peregrine Drake)

Please upvote if you like the deck!

Top Ranked	Achieved #19 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	4 years
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	11 - 0 Mythic Rares 55 - 0 Rares 11 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.09
Tokens	Bird 2/2 U, Elk 3/3 G, Food, Treasure
Folders	My EDH Brews, Cool decks, 4. EDH Non-Budget Decks, CEDH, to be reviewed, Yeet EDH