On one hand, there are so many decks that I want to build around him. On the other hand, he preorders for $10 apiece.
Hmm...
See you later, landlord! It looks like I'll be living in a cardboard box with my kickass card collection.
greg2367
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(6 votes)
Powerful synergistic abilities, and I think great art, too. Oh, also just wanted to say that his protection from Black/White is kind of thrown in there, but it makes him much more powerful. This means he just totally unblockable against white, black, or Orzhov EDH decks and they have no way of removing him save for board-wipes. Also, he never gets path'd, swords'd, or any black targeted removal.
MasterOfEtherium
★★☆☆☆ (2.9/5.0)(5 votes)
VEGETABLE BEAST, Awesome Art 5/5, merfolk goblin elves
lorendorky
★★★☆☆ (3.2/5.0)(3 votes)
I like how Animar and Riku can essentially be interchanged as your general if you build your deck well. They support each other quite well.
BlackAlbino
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(9 votes)
Gotta love the extra protection
Cyberium
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(4 votes)
Work nicely with creatures like Mystic Snake, makes them cheaper and remain a counter-bear.
Insane. In addition to being a potentially very large creature (that swings for general damage) himself yet costs only 3, he actually has protection. None of the other generals can defend themselves that well. That isn't even getting into the comboness: think morph, people. Think artifact creatures. Hell, think Edgewalker and a bunch of clerics. You will never pay for your creatures again, and I can see this guy becoming a feared combo general for that reason. Plus he himself becomes infinitely large pretty easily.
Still won't see play outside of EDH, though. Haha.
Confound it, I run a Red Green Blue deck, and all the cards that actually use those colors don't fit. Of course, its not a commander deck, so this bothers me less.
warpig527
★★☆☆☆ (2.0/5.0)(3 votes)
BEST COMMANDER EVER!!!
InfernalIncinerator
★★★☆☆ (3.9/5.0)(4 votes)
Out of the entire set, this is the general I wanted most until I saw he came with Riku, then I just about crapped my pants. These 2 generals combo in SO many ways, even though Riku will likely see more action as the general, this can be a prime substitute if you build your deck right. As for him alone and his abilities, I saw the protection and thought AWESOME, he has some means of unblockability for general damage which is just priceless. Then I saw how he grows whenever you play creatures, this makes him a HUGE target whenever you play him, even with his protection, there are ways to get rid of him. Finally on to how he is actually a general position creature, he makes every other creature you could possibly cast cost less for how many creatures you have already played after him, that is the foundation of commanding an army, use their strengths to make the others strong. All in all, I would love to rate this over 5 stars, but I am only limited to 5. And on one final note, use with with artifact creatures or the eldrazi to make them free since they are colorless in the first place.
Splizer
★★☆☆☆ (2.8/5.0)(6 votes)
If you zoom in 200 times, you can glimpse on top of Animar an elf taking a dump in the river on his back.
scorpiolegend
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Now this...THIS is a EDH commander.
darkgnosis
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(2 votes)
Damn, I was so sure that my 5-colour elemental deck was finished. Done. Dusted. Now this comes out and it seems such a perfect fit. Perhaps a better fit than Horde of Notions? Damnit, I don't know!
Nick30075
★★★☆☆ (3.7/5.0)(5 votes)
He irks me, but only because the only Animar player in my area refuses to mark counters on it and I've lost games to his random "invention" of counters.
Leonidus78
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(4 votes)
If I'm not mistaken, Palinchron infinitely combos with both animar and riku. Making him almost a staple in the Mirror Mastery commander deck. Once animar has enough counters you can cast and bounce plainchron back forth as many times as you want. And when you play one with riku, I think you can play it copy it then bounce it before the next comes in and then play him again. So it depends whether you want infinite 4/5 flyers or infinite 4/5 flyers with a infinitely big animar staring them down too. Right now I'm trying to build a deck that can utilize both riku and animar as a commander so when I whip out animar and people start cringing and glaring at me I will whip out riku. (which may still cause some ager as well.)
Character Bio: In the folklore of its plane, the Animar is the ultimate source of all life—the seed from which all creation grows. In the presence of Animar, crops blossom and herds thrive, and the wake of its wanderings determines the course of the seasons.
raptorjesus69
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Cloudstone Curio and Animar is equivalent to defenestrating your opponent. Oh-so abusable cards such as Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre, Indrik Stomphowler, or any other creatures with obnoxious etb effects will give Animar counters while ruining any friendship you might have had with your opponent.
ForestFire0
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
@Wanderer25: Note that Stingscourger limits his bounce ability to a creature one of your opponents controls, so he couldn't be used in this scenario. I've found that Shrieking Drake has been the best card in my Animar deck and the one I most often tutor for.
I wouldn't rate Animar on the same level as Zur, Azami, Momir Vig, or Sharuum. If he is killed early, before he gets big, he loses a lot of his bite. A Wrath of God is particularly devastating for Animar decks. Zur decks keep their enchantments, Azami still will have a handful of cards, Momir Vig will still have the combo pieces in hand, and Sharuum will only be played when it will start the infinite loop. That said, Animar still can explode quickly if he can last a turn on the board late game with a hand of cards.
Studoku
★★★☆☆ (3.5/5.0)(3 votes)
Overpowered for its cost.
Honestly, this would be a strong enough card without the protection from removal since it's cheap enough to replay. It'd be just as combotastic with charge counters instead of +1/+1 counters. Even without making things cheaper, I could see this played as a growing general with very relevant protection abilities.
That card is exactly why I run Shattering Pulse, Shatterstorm, and Shattering Spree in all of my red-based EDH decks. People always find some stupid awesome way to break that card...and then I break it even harder, into their graveyard.
Animar is indeed an amazing general. I wouldn't say best; that's kind of up to the people running it, and the people playing against it. You make a crappy deck with him in it, it's still a crappy deck.
Alluren is definitely a good card to run with him. After you get around 5 counters on him, basically everything is free to cast. His colors also open you into a whole slew of infinite combos; for damage, for creatures, and to feed the other two.
ThrunTheLastTrololol
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He kind of looks like the onslaught symbol. hmmm...
Crackmore
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
He is a perfect comander for mirror mastery but i never used him for that because Riku of Two Reflections whas fun to and i already had animar in my opening hand 90% of the times, which is a little bit stange since it is a highlander format, I'm now gonna use it in my golem deck ( i build verry much golem decks around golem foundry even whitout possesing any Precursor Golem's ) becaus i proliferate really really much ( i use Seedborn Muse for mana to use Viral Drake) and artifact creatures cost only colorless mana most times so the will be free somewhere halway my legion of golems
This guy has to be one of the top three strongest, if not the strongest, of the Commander legends. I can't say he'll be the most fun to play with or against, though... he makes for an extremely versatile deck that can be explosively aggressive but can also win through a combo late in the game.
I honestly expect that this will, unfortunately, be one of those generals that makes you a target through reputation alone, rather like Zur, Azami, Vig, and Sharuum...
@ForestFire - Ah, you're right about Stingscourger. Don't know how I missed that. I'm honestly not so sure about his power level any more, as I've yet to see an Animar deck in my playgroup.
This commander is absolute BS, it already has an OP ability, then they add protection from the 2 best removal colors???
I refuse to play edh against this thing.
kenethare
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This guy is my Commander League general. I originally built him because my casual group was hating my Damia, Sage of Stone deck (for good reason, control decks are annoying). Animar looked like a fun casual deck so I put together a basic one out of the precon and some cards I had that fit. I focused on Primordial Sage and it quickly became clear that with some development he would be a very powerful deck. My casual group ended up stating that Animar was stronger than Damia and I had not put major development into Animar yet. So I started developing Animar into a stronger deck to transfer it to being my league deck and I built a new casual deck.
After a bit of work I got http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/animar-soul-of-elements-edh-2/ which came out really well. I am really liking Animar as a general and the deck itself. It has a lot of exciting lines of play, alot of depth, it requires attention to detail and trigger orientation. Overall it is very interesting and fun deck to play with that can be anything from incredibly casual (I board out some combos and put in a Laboratory Maniac for casual and try to draw my deck) to very competitive.
A note to people looking to play Animar on line with Nick30075's compliant: Make sure to not miss triggers, and if you do miss it then it didn't happen, you don't get to go back and put counters on things later. I fortunately enough had played Soul Sisters in standard for a couple years so I was used to moving dice around every time I played something. It takes a bit of paying attention but it makes for a better play experience for everyone if you do things a bit slower but more accurately.
Funny note: after about turn 7-8 I find it difficult to spend the mana from sol ring on anything....
TherealphatMatt
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
funny. why'd they make the best Elf general they ever printed multicolor?
DarthParallax
★★★★☆ (4.6/5.0)(11 votes)
Planeteers: Earth! Fire! Water! .... ....
Animar: By your powers combined, I am Captain Plant Man!
Gaea: eh, close enough.
DeathbyCoffee
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I got out Mindshrieker, Garruk's Horde,Vorinclex, Voice of Hunger, and Joiner Adept once. All of this happened AFTER we had Collective Voyage for pretty much every land in my deck. Garruk's horde let me cast all my creatures from the top of my deck, and when the top card wasn't a creature (or when the top card was Anger) it was milled by Mindshriek. I pretty much played every creature in my deck, and then swung for lethal at 2 other players. It felt pretty radical.
KokoshoForPresident
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(3 votes)
What a ridiculous EDH commander.
j_mindfingerpainter
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
This card is so awesome. I just wish it read "whenever a creature enters the battlefield under your control" so you could play this with Ulasht.
tcollins
★★★★☆ (4.2/5.0)(2 votes)
...Glamerdye to give yourself instant-speed, reusable protection from whatever colour you want. Just don't give it Animar protection from blue (because then he cannot be a legal target for more Glamerdyes)
Trygon_Predator
★★★☆☆ (3.8/5.0)(3 votes)
Another excellent intersection of colors! Wizards outdid themselves with the Wedge commanders. Animar gets +1/+1 counters from , protection from removal from , and spell-cost reduction from . And the wedge exemplifies elementals, chaos, and, well, science!
several EDH decks I've seen with this guy can win as early as turn 2. With turn 4 being the norm.
This could've been slightly balanced if it didn't have the random protection abilities.
Kragash
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
All of you saying he combos with Riku are wrong. Animar checks if you've casted a creature. Casting a spell that puts a token copy of a creature you casted does not result in putting two +1/+1 counters on Animar.
You'll have an easier time upping the counters on Animar with sorceries, creatures, and artifacts that proliferate.
This is a great card! The colors have almost anything that you would need. Blue is counters, red is burn spells to kill creatures, and green you can get good creatures out. I would play this card as a General any day!
Yeah, releasing a commander with protection from twenty percent of the cards in the game isn't too smart, don't ya think?
thisisnotmyname
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
I use him with the Urza "free" creatures, and any creature that draws cards when it comes into play to cast my entire deck. I kill one player with general damage (the black white player,) kill one player with a horde of creatures (the green black red player) and kill one player with a grapeshot (the blue white player.) It's fair because they had six turns to try and stop me.
Amusingly, Animar is the best morph commander around. They become free after three casts, and Animar's colours support morph very well. Also, you get to call the deck "Animorphs".
cardraptor6
★★★★☆ (4.5/5.0)(1 vote)
It's pretty funny that a creature who flavor-wise: "... is the ultimate source of all life—the seed from which all creation grows. In the presence of Animar, crops blossom and herds thrive, and the wake of its wanderings determines the course of the seasons.", yet in his EDH deck I'm finding myself wanting to cram as many hollow, man-made artifact creatures as possible. Lulz.
TheWrathofShane
☆☆☆☆☆ (0.0/5.0)
Very removal resistant, and burn resistant just because people are less likely going to run burn spells in EDH.
It reminds me the Shishigami at the end of the movie Mononoke Hime...
5/5 for this reason alone... I've not played it yet, but it's in my favourite wedge, has my favourite protection (from white... Jeez, I hate white!), with a discount ability that it's always nice... How can't I love it? The only wedge General that I could love more is Riku! Why I didn't buy one of those deck?
Drecon84
★★★★★ (5.0/5.0)(1 vote)
So, what's the score on fastest Emrakul with this one?
Comments (65)
Elvish Visionary
Mulldrifter
Carven Caryatid
Garruk's Packleader
Pygmy Kavu!
On the other hand, he preorders for $10 apiece.
Hmm...
See you later, landlord! It looks like I'll be living in a cardboard box with my kickass card collection.
Oh, also just wanted to say that his protection from Black/White is kind of thrown in there, but it makes him much more powerful. This means he just totally unblockable against white, black, or Orzhov EDH decks and they have no way of removing him save for board-wipes. Also, he never gets path'd, swords'd, or any black targeted removal.
Still won't see play outside of EDH, though. Haha.
These 2 generals combo in SO many ways, even though Riku will likely see more action as the general, this can be a prime substitute if you build your deck right.
As for him alone and his abilities, I saw the protection and thought AWESOME, he has some means of unblockability for general damage which is just priceless.
Then I saw how he grows whenever you play creatures, this makes him a HUGE target whenever you play him, even with his protection, there are ways to get rid of him.
Finally on to how he is actually a general position creature, he makes every other creature you could possibly cast cost less for how many creatures you have already played after him, that is the foundation of commanding an army, use their strengths to make the others strong.
All in all, I would love to rate this over 5 stars, but I am only limited to 5. And on one final note, use with with artifact creatures or the eldrazi to make them free since they are colorless in the first place.
OH MY GOD.
In the folklore of its plane, the Animar is the ultimate source of all life—the seed from which all creation grows. In the presence of Animar, crops blossom and herds thrive, and the wake of its wanderings determines the course of the seasons.
I wouldn't rate Animar on the same level as Zur, Azami, Momir Vig, or Sharuum. If he is killed early, before he gets big, he loses a lot of his bite. A Wrath of God is particularly devastating for Animar decks. Zur decks keep their enchantments, Azami still will have a handful of cards, Momir Vig will still have the combo pieces in hand, and Sharuum will only be played when it will start the infinite loop. That said, Animar still can explode quickly if he can last a turn on the board late game with a hand of cards.
Honestly, this would be a strong enough card without the protection from removal since it's cheap enough to replay. It'd be just as combotastic with charge counters instead of +1/+1 counters. Even without making things cheaper, I could see this played as a growing general with very relevant protection abilities.
That card is exactly why I run Shattering Pulse, Shatterstorm, and Shattering Spree in all of my red-based EDH decks. People always find some stupid awesome way to break that card...and then I break it even harder, into their graveyard.
Animar is indeed an amazing general. I wouldn't say best; that's kind of up to the people running it, and the people playing against it. You make a crappy deck with him in it, it's still a crappy deck.
Alluren is definitely a good card to run with him. After you get around 5 counters on him, basically everything is free to cast. His colors also open you into a whole slew of infinite combos;
becaus i proliferate really really much ( i use Seedborn Muse for mana to use Viral Drake) and artifact creatures cost only colorless mana most times so the will be free somewhere halway my legion of golems
Aluren + Man-o'-War + Stingscourger can make him infinitely large... and if you have Tidespout Tyrant out, it will bounce all of your opponents permanents as well. Or just kill everyone right then with Furious Assault.
This guy has to be one of the top three strongest, if not the strongest, of the Commander legends. I can't say he'll be the most fun to play with or against, though... he makes for an extremely versatile deck that can be explosively aggressive but can also win through a combo late in the game.
I honestly expect that this will, unfortunately, be one of those generals that makes you a target through reputation alone, rather like Zur, Azami, Vig, and Sharuum...
@ForestFire - Ah, you're right about Stingscourger. Don't know how I missed that. I'm honestly not so sure about his power level any more, as I've yet to see an Animar deck in my playgroup.
I refuse to play edh against this thing.
After a bit of work I got http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/animar-soul-of-elements-edh-2/ which came out really well. I am really liking Animar as a general and the deck itself. It has a lot of exciting lines of play, alot of depth, it requires attention to detail and trigger orientation. Overall it is very interesting and fun deck to play with that can be anything from incredibly casual (I board out some combos and put in a Laboratory Maniac for casual and try to draw my deck) to very competitive.
A note to people looking to play Animar on line with Nick30075's compliant: Make sure to not miss triggers, and if you do miss it then it didn't happen, you don't get to go back and put counters on things later. I fortunately enough had played Soul Sisters in standard for a couple years so I was used to moving dice around every time I played something. It takes a bit of paying attention but it makes for a better play experience for everyone if you do things a bit slower but more accurately.
Funny note: after about turn 7-8 I find it difficult to spend the mana from sol ring on anything....
Animar: By your powers combined, I am Captain Plant Man!
Gaea: eh, close enough.
Garruk's horde let me cast all my creatures from the top of my deck, and when the top card wasn't a creature (or when the top card was Anger) it was milled by Mindshriek. I pretty much played every creature in my deck, and then swung for lethal at 2 other players.
It felt pretty radical.
This could've been slightly balanced if it didn't have the random protection abilities.
You'll have an easier time upping the counters on Animar with sorceries, creatures, and artifacts that proliferate.
Step 1) Have Vigor; make him indestructible.
Step 2) Have Animar, Soul of Elements.
Step 3) Cast Blasphemous Act; this will place 13 +1/+1 counters on Animar.
Step 4) Cast any fatty Eldrazi (Emrakul, the Aeons Torn if you don't care about EDH legality; Ulamog, the Infinite Gyre or It That Betrays if you do) for free.
Step 5) Win, presumably.
5/5 for this reason alone... I've not played it yet, but it's in my favourite wedge, has my favourite protection (from white... Jeez, I hate white!), with a discount ability that it's always nice... How can't I love it? The only wedge General that I could love more is Riku! Why I didn't buy one of those deck?
The two protections just push this over the top. I'm really not sure why they were necessary.