Released in the first wave of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:official Commander pre-cons, Animar, Soul of Elements made an early name for itself as a powerhouse of 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Magic: The Gathering's Commander format. Times have changed, and Animar is now just one of countless powerful legendary creatures all vying to be your commander.
This elemental brings with it two t♑ypes of protection and an open-ended set of abilities, which lends itself to a wide variety of archetypes. Animar only asks that you play creatures and leaves the rest to your imagination. This commander makes an impact on games in a huge way, regardless of which of the many viable directions you take it.
10 Beat Down With C🃏lassic Stompy Animar
The most basic way to build around An𓆉imar is to include high mana value creatures with game-warping abilities, coupled with a few cheap utility creatures to get the +1/+1 counter ball rolling. Your early plays pump up Animar, paving the way for low cost haymakers that make quick work of your opponents.
Maelstrom Wanderer and Craterhoof Behemoth are top-end titans that can close out games in a hurry, while Archetype of Endurance and Dawnglade Regent make it harder to interact with your board. It's a tried and true stompy deck that allows plenty of room for customization, depending on the types of finishers you prefer to play.
9 ꦍ Spring A Trap With Morph Creatures
Morph creatures play exceptionally well with Animar, working together to form a deck affectionately known as 'Animorphs.' Three counters on your commander is all it takes to deploy as many face-down morphs as you want free of charge. Blue morph creatures like Stratus Dancer, Kheru Spellsnatcher, and Kadena's Silencer provide stack interaction in a deck that's usually very creature-heavy, while Nantuko Vigilante and Ainok Survivalist give you outs to problematic permanents.
Red doesn't add too many top-tier morph creatures to the list, but it's the perfect deck for Akroma, Angel of Fury, and Jeering Instigator will often catch players off guard.
8 Take 🌠Control Of ⛦The Element(al)s
Animar has a well-supported creature type and the perfect colors to include 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:all the best elementals in one deck. Risen Reef and Omnath, Locus of the Roil are at the top of that list, and an elemental-themed deck gives you the perfect home for Lorwyn elemental all-stars like Smokebraider, Incandescent Soulstoꦆke and Flamekin Harbinger.
This version also unlocks generic support like Herald's Horn to further discount your creatures, or Kindred Discovery to draw cards and start chaining creatures together. It's also an ideal home for evoke elementals, ranging from simple ones like Foundation Breaker and Mulldrifter to some of the heavy-hitters like Endurance or Fury.
7 ꩲ Build Your Own Monster With Mutate
Mutate lets you take a Frankenstein's monster approach to Animar. It's already a potent standalone threat, but mutating different creatures onto Animar allows you to add different forms of evasion and removal to your commander. Illuna, Apex of Wishes overlaps colors perfectly, and digs towards more action with every mutate, as does Auspicious Starrix in a slightly different way.
Pouncing Shoreshark and Gemrazer add various forms of interaction to your mutate pile, while Dreamtail Heron and Migratory Greathorn give you a classic card advantage with each new mutate. This version has more of an 'eggs in one basket' approach than most, and demands more protection. Bring your Deflecting Swats and Heroic Interventions to keep your commander intact.
6 ⛦ Take The One-Hit Appr✨oach With +1/+1 Counters
Using +1/🍸+1 counters is a straightforward build for Animar. Your commander passively picဣks up its own counters, so the focus should be on payoffs and synergy pieces over enablers. You can take a Hardened Scales route to stack up counters faster, or focus on modified payoffs like Kodama of the West Tree and Akki Battle Squad.
Commander damage is the primary gameplan here, which puts a premium on ways to make Animar evasive. Two native forms of protection already go a long way towards pushing Animar through in combat, but a few trample enablers or unblockable-granting effects can solidify a victory. Something as simple as Rogue's Passage can be all you need to win.
5 🌜 𓆉 Combo Off With Ancestral Statue
Ancestral Statue is Animar's best friend. With four or more counters on your commander, Ancestral Statue's free to cast, after which it can bounce itself and repeat ad nauseam. This infinite loop turns Impact Tremors into a win-con, and makes Animar infinitely large in the process.
Search effects like Worldly Tutor and Fabricate add a layer of consistency to this two-card combo. Most Animar decks feature Ancestral Statue in their 99, even if the combo's not the focal point of the deck. Note that some playgroups aren't fond of two-card infinite combos, so this strategy might warrant a Rule 0 conversation with your opponents.
4 🧔 Get A Huge Discount On Eldrazi Horrors
Colorless creatures have an advantage in Animar decks, since they become virtually free to cast once Animar hits a certain number of +1/+1 counters. Most creatures have a colored component to their costs, but not the Eldrazi. If you've ever spent ten mana to cast an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger, you can probably imagine how it feels to cast it for free.
You're not restricted to colorless creatures only, but 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:an emphasis on colorless cards helps punctuate the synergistic potential of the deck. Colorless accelerants like Ornithopter of Paradise and Hedron Crawler not only grow Animar, but also benefit from the commander's cost reduction.
3 🅘 Take The Multi-Headed Approach Wꦚith Hydras
Hydras already have a ready-made commander with Gargos, Vicious Watcher, but the mono-green restriction pushes out red hydras and limits your choices for interaction. Animar can helm a hydra deck that's friendly towards Shivan Devastator and Savageborn Hydra, to name a few, and the addition of blue lets you access counterspells and better disruption.
Of course, the main appeal is reducing the X-cost that's often associated with hydras. In fact, Animar often provides a better discount than Gargos, allowing your hydras 🥃to come down as huge, inexpensive threats.
2 ꦺ Give In To Your Ravenous Appetite
Not unlike hydras, ravenous creatures from 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the Warhammer🍃 40K Tyrannid Swarm precon are creatures that thrive off ramp and cost reduction. There's a threshold that needs to be met before these creatures cantrip on ETB, but Animar makes that much more achievable.
If Animar ever has five or more +1/+1 counters on it, you're only responsible for the colored mana pips on your ravenous creatures to guarantee your card draw. Tyrant Guard is the most important of the bunch, since it provides built-in protection for Animar and your other ravenous creatures. Mawloc and Zoanthrope are other stand-outs that let you filter your mana into creatur💮es that double up as removal spells.
1 Build An Army Of Cantrip Creatures 🍎
This version of Animar focuses on creatures that draw a card on ETB, or "cantrip" creatures as they're often referred to. The goal is similar to most Animar decks, but the payoff is different. Once Animar has just a few +1/+1 counters on it, you can chain together cheap cantrip creatures like Fierce Empath, Imperial Recruiter, and Mulldrifter for just one mana per card. These theoretically draw more creatures, which keeps the cycle going.
Popul🎶ar cards like Beast Whisperer and Soul of the Harvest facilitate this plan further, and cheap cantrip creatures like Fblthp, the Lost and Wall of Blossoms ℱget your engine online early.