Animar So Sexy Now.

The ongoing revision article saga continues.

In my Better Deckbuilding article, I actually had wanted to venture a little further into some of the cool things this deck does with creatures that normally seem fairly irrelevant in other decks. 

The first card that's been super-sick in this deck is Etherium Horn-Sorcerer. I talked about how cool he is when Animar's out and has counters. But what makes him great is that the deck can get him out in most games. Fierce Empath and a freshly added Treasure Mage allow me to get the 6-cost Artifact Minotaur Wizard into my hand and in play a lot.

I can also protect him from Wraths, which has been one of the huge weaknesses for this deck. So much that I'm considering an Eldrazi Monument.

One of the other unlikely unsung heroes has been Garruk's Horde. This card is bananas in this deck- especially with Oracle of Mul Day out at the same time. I can sift through the top of my library and and power up Animar, which I recently discovered is one of the biggest meta-threats in my playgroup because apparently everyone either plays black, white, or both at any given time.

Garruk's Horde on his own is a pretty sizeable dude and definitely value with Animar. I pretty much don't play him unless he costs 1GG or less. 

He honestly makes me wish Magus of the Future weren't triple U. In a deck of 53 dudes, It's not uncommon to see him power out 4 guys in a turn to get Animar to swing for a bunch. 

As far as Animar protection, now I don't have a lot for he/she/it, but the one thing I do have is pretty nifty tech- Elgaud Shieldmate.

This little blue creature is the cat's pajamas of hot tech. It's essentially a soulbonding Diplomatic Immunity, but better. Cause hexproof. It's pretty devastating when people can't Beast Within or Bolt Animar.

Honestly, I think that any blue deck trying to make get the most out of their dudes and counterspells should be finding a slot for the Shield Wench. She's really really good in Animar, and would probably be a lot better everywhere else.




There's a lot of goofy ramp dudes in this deck, but often I've found only two of them have been really relevant.

The first one is Birds of Paradise. If I get a Myr out before I cast Animar, one of the best ways to protect him is to start throwing counters on him. As Birds is the only 1-drop I felt was going to be any good in this deck, getting him out immediately after Animar has saved me from opponents who forget about their Staff of Nin for a second too long.

Even better though is Bloom Tender. This card is three extra mana on Turn 3, AFTER I cast Animar, which usually means I'm getting 1 or 2 more guys out if I'm lucky.

One of the big surprises has been Hunting Moa. The funny part is I had him as part of a goofy Skullbriar deck I built from my Dark Ages of Deckbuilding. However, this guy is pure, unadulterated Animar tech. In the span of two turns, the Bird Beast (his creature type was errated for MORE awesome tribal fun) nets Animar three counters, which is super sweet in most situations, whether you're getting in the red zone or looking for a topdeck answer. He's great to have in the late after you've cast Animar and a bunch of dead dudes are in the bin. I can't talk enough about how funny and cool this card is in the deck.

Speaking of funny and cool- Llanowar Reborn. I finally got a chance to slam this land down last night, and people were like, "WTF is that?!?!?"

Believe me, so was I when I found it in my nonbasic binder last week. Cause I'm not quite sure where I got it from. Perhaps it was also old Skullbriar tech. That's the only reasonable explanation.

Anyway, this card is another pretty thrifty way to slam more counters on Animar, working best before he's cast or in the rebuild process. It's a uniquely optimal situation for the ridiculous flavor this land seems to have, but I like to be rewarded for playing lands in a deck where I'm supposed to be rewarded for playing creatures. That seems really good.

The last sweet card I'm going to talk about is Instigator Gang.

I was looking for something single red, and I'd actually forgotten I'd thrown this in on a recent order because Andy was pretty up on this card over at CommanderCast.

But I wanted to see for myself just exactly how thug this card was.

I wasn't really impressed in sample draws here at home. I figured that the only way it was gonna flip in my deck was if an opponent decided not to tap out. Cause I have to play guys every turn.

The Gang is one of those cards that you don't really recognize its value until it's in the game. In this deck with so many dudes, it's a killing blow. I even copied the gang with Metamorph to get an extra bonus.

Though definitely a downhill card, this card is pretty solid. I was considering taking it out of my deck, but I've since changed my position completely, since I don't have a whole of Overrunning going on, and I refuse to put other noncreature spells in here. This is the next-next best thing.

Alright, well, this article turned out to be a lot more than I thought. In the meantime I'm going to continue to make cuts and tune this deck a little bit more.

Next time, we'll talk about the cards I'm cutting and why. I think you'll probably be surprised.

Til then, Be Excellent To Each Other,

And Party On Dudes!

-UL