Have you tried finale of devastation with animar? its a kind of tutor and also a bit of gy recursion comsidering most of our important creats are 3cc below. And also spellseeker-able.

ShaperSavant Thought's on Vivien, Champion of the Wilds or Tamiyo, Collector of Tales ?

Wildcard604 Don't think they're great here, we don't get discouts on them and can get those effects cheaper on creatures. Not worth spending whole turns playing those out.

Why does your guide say that we would tutor Elvish Spirit Guide with Worldly Tutor ? That would just net lose card advantage and break even in mana, for the point of being able to "store" the mana for later.

Also, just wanted to ask about a few cards you're not running that aren't in maybeboard:

Lightning Greaves / Swiftfoot Boots : provides protection, and even if the dude dies to a wipe, the boots stay on the field. Also, haste Animar is kinda nice to swing for infinite unblockable against any deck with white or black creatures.

Somberwald Sage : Just really strong on paper. Lots of dudes in the deck, and they often require colored mana. Seems good.

Glen Elendra Archmage : negate on a stick, AND you can use it twice. Seems weaker than siren stormcaller due to necessary counters on Animar, but worth considering imo.

Fierce Empath : 1 mana tutor to hand for Tishana/consecrated sphinx. Need I say more? Maybe.

Fabricate : ok this one seems to be the most obvious to me. Tutor ancestral statue to hand. Seems like a must go in. Also finds ball, metamorph, and spellskite notably.

Gamble : another obvious one imo. One mana tutor. Idk how often you're dumping your hand, but I like those odds.

Rattleclaw Mystic : Mana good, plus converts colors.

Wall of Blossoms : more useful elvish visionary: has health.

Weaker contestants:

Skullclamp : draw cards. lots of dudes with 1 toughness. One of the stronger cards in the "weaker" section.

Den Protector : recursion on a stick. Seems good. Puts in hand instead of on top like noxious revival. Comperable to eternal witness, doesn't cost double green (ouch).

Shrieking Drake / Dream Stalker / Man-o'-War : good for combos, good for value. Most lists run them. Why not here? I think i might be missing something, although I can also agree that maybe they're not as powerful as the other 100 cards currently in.

Verdurous Gearhulk : it's at WORST a 5/8/8 trample, can be a 2/4/4 that buffs Animar 4, not to mention possible Rishkar or Generous Patron synergy. One of the weaker cards in this list imo.

Ainok Survivalist : morph is fun with Animar, 1G for a naturalize, plus free counter on Animar. I think it's worse than nature's claim or reclamation sage though.

Cloudstone Curio : I know it's not needed to combo, but seems like you could generate a lot of value, or a possible combo.

Purphoros, God of the Forge : one R for an indestructible body for ancestral combo, instead of using ball.

Hardened Scales : Double counters on animar, really good turn one.

Deadeye Navigator : forget the infinite combos associated with him, he's a great value card. Problem is paying the double blue, and then the blue to bounce. Also provides built in protection for himself and another card.

Thanks for looking through this whole message.

Oops, skullclamp was on your maybeboard

Also, for cards of yours I'd consider cutting (since that's always the question when someone suggests cards in my experience), I'd say: elvish spirit guide (seems worst of the mana producers), gaea's hearld (already got serpopard which itself is uncounterable), gilded drake (tech slot, interhchangable), gitaxian probe (2 life and look at a hand, could be useful, doesn't seem good to me), mental misstep (meta dependant. what are you hitting? 1 mana counter spells? mystic remora? dorks? ok maybe this card isn't so bad, but I think it's borderline).

Sorry for all of the comments btw lol, love your deck, which is why I'm basing my current list off of it.

Looking at higher comments, I think I might listen to them and add Trinket Mage to tutor ball, and maybe run Fierce Empath + Brutalizer Exarch

Upon closer inspection, I think bane of progress and pact of negation are cuttable. we have better removal and counterspells for the cost imo.

Metamorph doesn't be necessary under the neoform combo, right?

Can't you just imperial to find spellseeker to find neoform to neoform spellseeker to find statue to infinite statue, then have statue bounce recruiter to find ballista. I guess recrutier costs R and metamorph doesnt

Hi JonnyG21,

Im pretty sure that ShaperSavant can give you a much better explanation why those cards you cited are not into his build, but I'd like to give it a try...

what I can say after a mid term experience within cEDH meta is that you always should keep in mind the importance of speed and, consistency. Thats why we rarely have rooms for high CMC cards, unless they're extremelly good. Another point here is trying to minimize dead draws, which means is nice to think abt sinergies, but it's also necessary to think abt the single value of each card into the deck.

Btw, I agree with you that cards like Gamble , Wall of Blossoms , Skullclamp could see a play in cEDH Animar, but IMO it might be more a meta/budget dependancy, and ofc the personal choice.

Answering your question abt Phyrexian Metamorph , when I first came out to discord with this Neoform combo line using metamorph, at that point the main disscussion was abt how we could do it being the most mana efficient as possible (RUUG + 4 life in this case). Without him u'll need at least 5 mana sources...

All in all, hope I could helped you clarifying some doubts and, feel free to check my version of Animar deck and make questions if you have it.

cheers

Sure, thanks for all the info. Yeah I def think gamble and skullclamp are too good to pass up, especially gamble. Checking out your list rn. Thanks for taking the time to reply, I appreciate it.