This site normally hosts the work of my co-host John Welter and myself on the Dragon Ball Z CCG, but this seemed a better place to post than my Tumblr, so please enjoy and excuse something completely different.

In undertaking the challenge posed last month by RogueDeckBuilder.com, the first thought that comes to my mind is how much fun it could be; the second is how crazily hard it can be to settle on a deck list. Animar, Soul of Elements may be the most challenging choice possible for tackling the Tiny leaders format. The full competition description can be seen here.

Aside – For those who aren’t already familiar, Tiny Leaders is a new spin on Commander (Nee Elder Dragon Highlander), where decks are cut in half, starting life totals drop to 25, and no card can have a converted mana cost greater than three. Full details can be seen at http://tinyleaders.blogspot.com. Keep in mind the key differences between this format and the nothing-is-out-of-bounds Commander are a focus on competitive one-on-one, best of three matches, and eliminating much of the degeneracy rampant in competitive fields for that format.

So why is Animar such a bugbear of a problem in deck construction? There are some complicated reasons in a meta analysis, but we can break it down to three key points:

Animar strongly encourages combo play via his cost reduction ability, but with less tutors and redundant card options, this is actually harder to support in 50 cards than in 100. Being a three color commander, Animar asks us to strain our mana base, making us particularly vulnerable that form of disruption. Animar can compliment a ridiculous variety of decks! How do you pick just 1?

Realistically, Animar will be intimately friendly with several creature tribes. Animar, Master of Elementals? Of course. Animar, King of the Faeries? You might be surprised. Animar, duly elected sheriff and chief executive officer to the Mayor of Avabruck? I’m on the re-election committee. Stretching beyond the subtype, it also becomes obvious quite quickly that Animar would love to help manufacture a machine army. You don’t need Llanowar Elves to help cast Myr Superion, when his cost gets discounted to zero.

Outside of these linear themes, Animar loves to play with comes into play and leaves play abilities, especially with his obligate sidekick Cloudstone Curio. The two together can lead to many infinite combos, while Curio alone can just play a very effective card d engine.

Even by himself, Animar can notably go into man-mode very quickly. With his natural protection from black and white, a single Sword of Fire and Ice can make him immune to almost all removal, while simultaneously turning him into a board-controlling, card drawing clock against almost any deck.

Keeping these things in mind, take a look at the deck list I’m submitting:

(full view at http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/animarvel-rogue-master-brewer-competition/)

General

Creature (21)

1x Axebane Guardian

1x Birds of Paradise

1x Cloud of Faeries

1x Drift of Phantasms

1x Fauna Shaman

1x Genesis Hydra

1x Hooded Hydra

1x Horned Kavu

1x Lifeblood Hydra

1x Llanowar Elves

1x Loaming Shaman

1x Overgrown Battlement

1x Phantasmal Image

1x Quickling

1x Rattleclaw Mystic

1x Reclamation Sage

1x Scryb Ranger

1x Scuttlemutt

1x Selkie Hedge-Mage

1x Sylvan Caryatid

1x Wall of Blossoms Artifact (2) 1x Bow of Nylea

1x Cloudstone Curio Enchantment (1) 1x Temur Ascendancy Land (18) 1x Breeding Pool

1x Command Tower

1x Dryad Arbor

2x Forest

1x Gruul Turf

1x Island

1x Llanowar Reborn

1x Lonely Sandbar

1x Misty Rainforest

1x Mountain

1x Opal Palace

1x Simic Growth Chamber

1x Taiga

1x Tranquil Thicket

1x Tropical Island

1x Volcanic Island Instant (4) 1x Chord of Calling

1x Force Spike

1x Mental Misstep

1x Spell Burst Sorcery (3) 1x Green Sun’s Zenith

1x Life from the Loam

1x Red Sun’s Zenith Sideboard (10) 1x Blue Elemental Blast

1x Dwarven Blastminer

1x Gaea’s Blessing

1x Hydroblast

1x Krosan Grip

1x Memory’s Journey

1x Savage Summoning

1x Shattering Pulse

1x Sword of War and Peace

1x Vexing Shusher

So we can see this deck has elected not to take a primarily linear route to victory, though there is a small element of such in the defender mana creatures, specifically Axebane Guardian and Overgrown Battlement (and secretly Phantasmal Image). These creatures are reasonable ramp even without stacking the board but can get quickly out of hand and even contribute to combo wins.

You can also see that the deck has avoided the restriction of CMC 3 or less by including several Hydras for their X casting costs, as well as some potent X non-creatures. They are highly scalable cards, allowing us to exceed the normal cap on relative power levels for individual cards. Scalability is a concept I examine in any Tiny Leaders build. Basically, the foundation is that due to inconsistencies and lowered power compared to say, Legacy, Tiny leaders games will usually continue long enough for players to develop complicated board states and heavier mana pools.

Scalability insures your spells can continue to be relevant. In the case of Spell Burst, enough mana security can actually result in completely locking down the game. This spell can counter any opposing spell without its own X, and sometimes those too, then return to your hand, for 7 mana or less. Our creature base should allow that to happen. The particular Hydras chosen have also been included due to their synergy with other parts of the deck. While Apocalypse Hydra or Primordial Hydra might have greater raw power, the Hydras here generate card advantage with when entering or dying effects. Genesis Hydra can serve as a quasi-tutor for combo elements. Hooded Hydra makes replacements at death, but also plays as a colorless face down creature, quickly becoming free with Animar, and potentially leading to infinite counters for the man himself when the curio is active.

While the main deck features only a pair of morphs, the deck as a whole features many of these small high-synergy packages. Temur Ascendancy + Horned Kavu equals draw a card for RG. Life from the Loam + Cycling lands is another draw engine that many players will be more familiar with. Cloud of Faeries, Cloudstone Curio, and several other creatures will make infinite life, infinite card draw, or infinite mana via Karoo lands, even without Animar.

There are some cards that stand out in this deck, as not being especially combo-ish, but fill specific roles quite well. Drift of Phantasms is an effective defender (blocks Geist’s Angel), and can contribute to that mana making team, but also tutors for Curio, Temur Ascendancy and several other cards. Selkie Hedge-Mage gives you some life against burn decks and steals some tempo back from an aggressive deck via bounce, and can be part of a large package to gain infinite life. Loaming Shaman is a solid zenith active creature to give you an out against mill. Bow of Nylea supplements all these, as well as being a +1/+1 counter producer for Animar and hydras.

Two of my favorite cards in the deck, Scryb Ranger and Scuttlemutt, are little known. But the Mutt can come down for free, add value to “protection from” abilities, and is an all flavors mana dork himself. Ranger scares off a certain gang of popular fae, while also allowing reuse of multi-mana walls and uninterruptible protection of Dryad Arbor.

This article could go on about all the synergies available, but I’ll leave it to you to explore those. Let’s start wrapping things up and talk strategic play tips.

Executing the Premise

Make mana, make huge things. This shouldn’t be complicated, but there will be a lot of subtlety in making the optimal move. Use Quickling and Scryb Ranger+Curio to save your team. Try not to tap out all the time; they can’t always assume you don’t have a counter spell. Let your opponent believe Temur Ascendancy is bad. Go for basics when you don’t absolutely need duals; that, as well as mana dorks and Life from the Loam will reduce the effect of that mana disruption I mentioned before. Past turn 3, the deck will give you lots of opportunities to make interesting decisions.

The Mulligan: It is dreadful when it goes wrong, but executing it just right will win games. The Partial Paris used in Tiny leaders lets you look for sets of cards, if you aren’t too picky. In this deck, you should prioritize 2 to 3 land, at least one of which is green. Afterwards, you want mana makers, with Sylvan Caryatid being your Gold Standard. Always throw back Dryad Arbor. Keep your tempo counterspells and cloudstone curio unless you have to toss them digging for the mana.

Sideboard options here are focused on what are likely to be the most common and problematic decks to face. Public enemies number one and number two are burn and blue control. Mill is less common and we’re better suited to tackle it main deck, but it’s still worth dedicating some slots. Black board wipes are unfortunately something you just have to be prepared to live with and play around them; just hope they aren’t playing Nature’s Ruin.

You have 2 copies of the best Counterspell/Vindicate in the game against burn decks, lose the Scryb Ranger and and Rec Sage. Sword of War and Peace also helps turn tempo in your favor while making a key man unkillable. Don’t worry about going infinite and lose the hoody.

Counterspells can be disregarded by making your Summons Savage or Vexing. Here your first cuts are likely to be Quickling and a mana wall. You have to keep an eye out for Hibernation too, so don’t be afraid to keep morphs face down, and bring in Blastminer, even if they aren’t too greedy on the non-basic front. Don’t forget that Animar and Scryb Ranger have protection from Geist of Saint Traft.

Against Mill, bring in Gaea’s Blessing and Memory’s Journey. Cut anything but land, Bow of Nylea, or Loaming Shaman, and the match becomes almost un-lose-able. They will be sad. Offer to buy them a drink. Unless they are playing Tetsuo with Bitter Ordeal, then you be fast and ready to beat their butt like you’re their daddy and they broke into the liquor cabinet before they can use it on all your protection, or just hold it in hand until that spell has been resolved and be ready to play what will still be a slobber-knocker of a close game.

Final Thoughts

Animar has so many options that the winner of the contest is going to come down mainly to preference. He’s the kind of guy with whom you can always find something new and interesting to do. Post Dragons of Tarkir, an entirely new, highly viable deck type becomes available to him with the surplus of exciting morph creatures in that set (Bonus deck list, inelligible for competition: Animorphin’ Time!). I hope you’ll consider giving this particular take a go. Let me know what you think, and wish me luck in the Rogue Master Brewer contest!