Dear Azami: Gods And Dragons

In case you missed it, there’s a new set coming out soon, and last Friday, they dropped the full spoiler. Spoiler Alert: It is full of dragons. Dragons of Tarkir is the darkest timeline, and while it’s cool that cards like Meandering Towershell are now Wandering Tombshell, I still feel for the turtle. Or Anafenza, Kin-Tree Spirit. Or Zurgo Bellstriker. Even Sidisi, Undead Vizier is worse off!

Of course, of all of the legends in Dragons of Tarkir, dragonlords included, Sidisi, Undead Vizier is the most dangerous for Commander. Up until this point, the closest thing to Demonic Tutor you could be rocking in your command zone was Maralen of the Mornsong, and she had a pretty vicious drawback. New-disi has a requirement, and it’s one that’s fairly easy to meet. This means we might have a new mono-black Storm commander, and I’m not thrilled at the prospect.

This week we’re going to focus on a different Storm enabler: Animar, Soul of Elements. I’m not interested in storming off, mind you, I just think it makes for fun Timmy type of commander. Luckily, this week’s submitter and his kin agree.

I chose this deck because I was in the mood for dragons, and Animar, Soul of Elements has the potential to be a great tribal dragons commander. Plus, Erik
was describing a friend who was new to magic and wanted to be doing big things. They don’t make too many things bigger than dragons, and since their main
drawback is usually their mana cost, Animar could put the player in a position to be casting bigger things sooner than their opponents.

First though, I had to figure out the land situation. When I broke the deck further down, I saw that it was running 31 noncreature spells and 53 creatures,
for a grand total of 84 nonland cards in the deck. I wanted that to come down to 62, since in a deck with a ramp commander 37 should be an acceptable
number of lands. This meant cutting a bare minimum of 22 cards from the deck, plus however many else I wanted to replace. So going into the build, my goal
was to find the bones of the deck, gut the rest, and fill in something that a newer player might find entertaining.

Ground Control

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Going into this manabase, you should understand its context. I had a vision for the rest of the deck that proved pricier than normal, and I was very tight
around the cap of $70 (his $50 plus the $20 store credit available to any submitter whose deck gets selected; email us at DearAzami at gmail dot com). As
such, I needed to keep the manabase cheap. I’m only a fan of the fetch manabases when they can fetch out dual lands, or when you have a graveyard theme
that rewards you for binned lands (i.e. Life from the Loam). Had you more budget, I would advise you to get a set of Return to Ravnica block shocklands; as
you don’t, it’s probably easier to just keep up your basic land count to keep your ramp spells live later in the game.

For the most part, my changes should be clear. I completed the cycle of original Ravnica bouncelands, and I added in a Terramorphic Expanse to help your
color fixing. Down the line, it’s definitely worth investing in a Command Tower for a deck like this, but that card’s $2.50 now, and the budget couldn’t
handle it.

Beating Down

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I had to get the slots for the manabase somewhere, and this is the first of those areas. Generally, I’m not a fan of low-power beaters whose sole role is
keeping on the pressure. That’s why I cut Bloodfire Enforcers, Frontier Mastodon, and Hewed Stone Retainers. They may be strong cards in Limited, but few
games of Commander are won on the backs of cards like those three. Plus, Bloodfire Enforcers requires a high density of spells, and with a
creature-specific commander like Animar, that’s not the type of deck you want to be playing.

Meandering Toweshell is neat, and I feel for the card, but its primary use is giving you generic enters-the-battlefield triggers, and this deck isn’t doing
that. Animar requires you cast the card to get the benefit. I considered keeping Pardic Dragon in the deck for reasons which should soon be clear, but I
find its suspend cost to be a trap in Commander. There’s never going to be a turn cycle in which none of your opponents cast spells, and if you’re not
suspending it, you should be running Shivan Dragon instead.

Finally, there’s Temur Sabertooth. I would like to stress that I think this is a good card for Commander in certain instances, but those are mostly focused
on recycling Mulldrifter effects. Your deck wasn’t doing much of that before I started cutting, and it’s doing less of it after. Right card, wrong deck.

Topping

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In many ways, beef is what you get when you take a beater and make it bigger. Beef, at least how I use it when I am thinking about Commander, describes a
type of finisher that either has few attributes other than size, or who is otherwise off theme. In the old Baneslayer versus Mulldrifter parlance,
Baneslayers would be beef. Sure, she’s got a ton of abilities that help her win the game, but outside of a tribal angel deck, she’s not good at much else.

Hamletback Goliath is a good example of beef. In the right deck this card can be monstrous, but in this deck it’s just a huge threat. Sure, it can be nice
to threaten one-shotting an opponent, but it lacks trample, evasion, or any ability other than growth. Same goes for Heroes’ Bane. It doesn’t matter how
huge you are if you can never make it through their lines.

Even if you can make it through though, you have to balance that against the other elements of your gameplan. Terra Stomper makes for a nice threat that is
going to swing through, but it doesn’t represent card advantage. It doesn’t trigger any incidental themes you might run in a deck like this, and on top of
that the triple green in its casting cost means you’ll never get more than a three-mana discount casting it. Tidal Force is in a similar position; because
it’s usually going to be harder to put together triple color than it is to hit seven mana, it doesn’t represent much of a discount or even work well with
the underlying theme.

Snake of the Golden Grove is, in its most likely iteration, an Obstinate Baloth for one more mana. It’s not close to being as good as Thragtusk. Even if
it’s a 7/7 for a single mana, that’s not a particularly good use of a slot. Simic Sky Swallower used to be a true bomb, but given the inflation in creature
size over the last ten years, it’s now outclassed. A 6/6 in the air is no longer unbeatable, and the shroud hoses you just as much as your opponent. Same
goes for Inkwell Leviathan, although that’s at least pretty solid on defense.

Rampaging Baloths is at its best in a ramp deck or in a tokens deck, and I’m not a huge fan in either. While it gives reasonably large tokens, it does it
slowly, and usually that means it gets handled before you can get more than one or two tokens from it. Pearl Lake Ancient rewards you for casting
noncreature spells, which is not what your deck wants to do. Kraken of the Straits is a hitter that doesn’t even have reliable evasion in a deck like this,
and a 6/6 is underwhelming for that type of situational card.

But it’s Colossus of Akros that I cut with the most extreme prejudice. On the one hand, I get it. When that thing goes monstrous it becomes a 20/20
indestructible trampler, and that will end a game fast. But you can’t cheat on that cost. Even if you drop Colossus of Akros for free, it’s still a ten
mana investment to get that heroic trigger. That doesn’t seem like a lot of fun to me.

Playing at Instant Speed

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In general, I’m not a huge fan of playing at instant speed in a deck that’s at its best when it’s casting creatures. Holding back mana to play a
counterspell, or to threaten to use Aetherize, or even to play out a sweet combat trick… all of that is effort you could have spent developing your board.
I mean that generally but also in this specific instance. Spore Frog, Mystic Snake, and Man-o’-War are all better versions of these effects, only they have
the added benefit of pumping your commander.

Incidentally, I added none of those cards. I’m not a huge fan of counterspells in Commander, although I recognize their purpose and will use them in the
right context. Fogs are bad in Commander, particularly when they’re only situationally good. And while Man-o’-War can pump Animar to ridiculous heights,
that combo generally draws a lot of aggro, and it wasn’t on theme.

Things That Are Not Themes

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I should be clear, that heading is not entirely accurate. Many of these things, particularly the +1/+1 counter theme I’ve touched on previously, are
certainly reasonable themes. But they didn’t feel right for a new player who wanted to be doing big things for cheap.

Death’s Presence is at its best when you’re controlling the death of your creatures, which this deck was not set up to do. Incremental Growth is generally
mediocre in Commander but can be decent in a Doubling Season deck. Renegade Krasis is usually one of the more borderline cards in a counters deck because
it can be such a pain to trigger its conditions. But at least these all are on a single theme.

Wonder is bad because of your manabase and because your theme isn’t “ground creatures who would win combat in the sky.” Amulet of Vigor is reasonable in
ramp decks and prison decks, but it is rarely worth playing outside those archetypes. Murkfiend Liege is solid when it’s a good lord, in Simic decks that
are going wide, or when it’s giving you more untap triggers for cards like Archivist and Arcanis the Omnipotent. As those are not traditional foci for an
Animar deck, they seemed like simple cuts as well.

Creeperhulk is interesting, but for many of the creatures you want to be playing it represents a step backwards in their personal evolutions. Perhaps it
would be worth a slot if you could use it offensively, but you can’t, so it’s not. Mob Rule is an interesting card, a moderately less certain Insurrection,
but it’s a spell finisher in a deck that wants creature finishers. Same goes for See the Unwritten, which neither gives nor receives a bonus from Animar.

Gods and Dragons

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That brings us to what I chose to be the main theme of the deck: gods and dragons. I was initially taken by the inclusion of all of the two-color gods from
Theros block, or at least all the ones who fit the wedge. They seemed like they were all good fits for the style you were describing. Kruphix, God of
Horizons gave you ramp and an unlimted hand; Keranos, God of Storms gives you draw and removal; and Xenagos, God of Revels gives haste and a giant combat
boost. Best off, they’re all enchantments that give Animar a boost when you cast them, usually for a mere two mana! That seemed strong, so I made sure to
complete the cycle. While Thassa, God of the Sea was already in the deck (and is super strong), Purphoros, God of the Forge and Nylea, God of the Hunt
hadn’t been included, so I rectified that. Not only does it complete the cycle, but Purphoros gives mass-Firebreathing, which is useful, and Nylea gives
your team trample as a static effect.

Which is good, because your dragons are going to need the support of their god allies. Atarka, World Render (basically) gives your team double strike,
which works well with each one of the mono-colored gods. Belltoll Dragon, Herdchaser Dragon, and Stormwing Dragon all have instant speed morph abilities
that pump your team, and a neat thing about Animar, Soul of Elements is that you usually get to play morphs for free. Thunderbreak Regent is better in
Standard than in Commander, but it’s still a powerful card that gives all your dragons a static protection effect. And Utvara Hellkite doubles your team
every time you swing in. Pretty cool stuff!

And speaking of cool, this is the perfect deck to try out the Hellkite Charger/Savage Ventmaw combo I’ve been looking forward to ever since they spoiled
that uncommon bomb. While it’s not infinite, it does let you swing in for a number of combat steps equal to the amount of mana you can produce. It will
probably end every game it goes off unless your opponent has some way of blocking and killing either of the two key dragons. As such it’s powerful, but not
inevitable, and that’s the type of combo I can get behind.

Freebies

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Since there are few things more gratifying than casting a big monster for free, I added in these two mechanical monstrosities. Each one of them can be cast
for free off an Animar with sufficient counters, and each one of them has an additional ability worth including (which is why cards like Scion of Ugin
didn’t make the cut). Clockwork Dragon gives you a mana sink if you’ve got Prophet of Kruphix online or are just out of uses for the rest of your mana.
Moltensteel Dragon lets you use your life as a Firebreathing resource, and that can be powerful when you’re trying to trade up against your opponents.

Manifest Destiny

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Do you know what I look for when I’m evaluating the ramp in a deck? Resilient, reliable card advantage. Judging by those standards, I cut the majority of
the ramp in your deck and substituted a few replacements.

See, Druids’ Repository, Into the Wilds, and Unexpected Results are all unreliable cards. When they work they can be awesome, but if they fail to do their
effect properly, they’re basically dead weight. There are going to be plenty of times you’re going to be on a stalled out boardstate, unable to generate
Druids’ Repository mana. Or when Into the Wilds bricks every turn, it will leave you without a single extra land. As for Unexpected Results, well… the
answer’s in the name, isn’t it?

Explore and Map the Wastes are a bit more borderline, but I still don’t love them for similar reasons. Each one has a card advantage drawback, replacing
themselves with a card in hand on the field but not putting you ahead a card for having cast the spell. They’ve also got reliability issues since there are
times you’ll Explore looking for your first land and fail to find it, and Map the Wastes is an overcosted Rampant Growth without another creature on the
battlefield.

Seek the Horizon is good card advantage, but it’s not really a ramp spell in the same way. It doesn’t get you ahead on board, and thus I am skeptical of
its value in a deck like this. Simic Signet is a good jump to four mana and should definitely help fix in a deck like this, but I’d want to play the whole
set if I played that one, and I don’t think this deck has room for two more artifact ramp pieces.

Chromatic Lantern, on the other hand, will fit that slot well and make your Animar, Soul of Elements math a heck of a lot easier. Instead of having to
worry about how you’re tapping your lands, Chromatic Lantern just turns it into a math game. Personally, I find that frees up a lot of mental energy to
make better decisions while you’re playing the game.

The other three ramp spells are all examples of the resilient, reliable card advantage I so love. Both Kodama’s Reach and Cultivate put you ahead both in
hand and on the board, and they can just be a ramp-two-lands spell if you’ve missed your land drop that turn. Explosive Growth, which is being reprinted in
Dragons of Tarkir (and I’m jazzed about it), just ramps you ahead two lands. These spells don’t die to a Wrath of God effect like Whisperer of the Wilds
does, and they’re all two-for-ones. That’s the type of ramp you need to do really well in Commander.

Cards in Hand

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Of course, to keep doing stuff, your friend is going to need more cards in their hand. The options in the list you submitted were all good but only in the
right context. Bred for the Hunt is usually outclassed by Coastal Piracy, Bident of Thassa, or Edric, Spymaster of Trest, but in a dedicated counters deck
it can be pretty solid. Curiosity goes well in Voltron, Dictate of Kruphix is a staple for Group Hugs or Force Feeding decks, and Brainstorm is great when
the top card of your deck matters. Divination is even a defensible card in a spells deck. The problem is, you’re none of those decks, even before I twisted
the theme a little bit. You’re a monsters deck, subtype dragons.

And dragons can do their own draw work. Dragon Mage lets you Wheel of Fortune when it hits an opponent, and you’ll often have a player who needs that
effect badly enough to let your creature through. Spellbound Dragon doesn’t put you ahead on card advantage, but it’s still a powerful loot effect on a
relatively cheap dragon. I considered the two Niv-Mizzets, but they’re both really color-specific, and thus seemed like a poor fit for an Animar deck. But
if you find yourself short on draw, consider both them and Edric. I kinda doubt you will be because you’re also running Soul of the Harvest and Primordial
Sage, and those are beastly cards in a deck like this.

Killing Stuff, Dragon-Style

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One of the reasons a tribal dragons deck can forgo any counter suite is that dragons are crazy good at killing things. Tyrant of Discord is not that good
at killing, and it has a random effect that varies from useless to feel bad, plus it has a triple-color casting cost. Arbor Colossus matches a triple-color
requirement with a monstrous trigger, and while Polis Crusher is slightly easier to cast, it also requires a significant investment of mana to get the
requisite effect. Colossal Whale is particularly weak to Wrath of God effects since your opponents get their creatures back, Scourge of Fleets is at its
weakest in a deck with more than two colors, and Avalance Tusker is slow and not particularly steady. Crater’s Claws is the most defensible inclusion, but
it’s a spell, and Animar feeds on creatures.

But look at this diversity of answers! If you need to kill something with damage, you can either use Bogardan Hellkite to do it at instant speed (and for
two mana if things are going well), or you can shoot it with Preyseizer Dragon when you attack, or you can use Scourge of Kher Ridges to burn away
everything on the ground or in the air. That’s on top of Shivan Hellkite’s free-range mana sink that can ping anything for a mere one-and-a-red. Dragon
Tempest and Scourge of Valkas both do damage whenever a dragon enters the battlefield, and each one has the added benefit of being a firebreathing dragon
or giving your dragons haste. Ryusei can wipe the ground, Keiga can steal something powerful, and Icefall Regent taps things down. Finally, there’s
Foe-Razer Regent, which comes into play and then fights something to show that it’s tough.

Even if you want to kill something other than a creature, a dragon has you covered. Steel Hellkite offers the potential for a free creature if Animar has
enough counters, but it’s also really good at removing noncreature permanents. And Hoard-Smelter Dragon eats artifacts like they were Pop Rocks. That’s a
pretty sweet ability, particularly when it’s also interacting with your “dragons matter” themes.

Animar, Soul of Elements

Jess Stirba

Test deck on 03-17-2015

Commander

Creatures (50)

• 1 Shivan Hellkite
• 1 Ryusei, the Falling Star
• 1 Keiga, the Tide Star
• 1 Silklash Spider
• 1 Dragon Mage
• 1 Clockwork Dragon
• 1 Primordial Sage
• 1 Bogardan Hellkite
• 1 Intet, the Dreamer
• 1 Scourge of Kher Ridges
• 1 Spellbound Dragon
• 1 Hellkite Charger
• 1 Terastodon
• 1 Steel Hellkite
• 1 Hoard-Smelter Dragon
• 1 Moltensteel Dragon
• 1 Animar, Soul of Elements
• 1 Riku of Two Reflections
• 1 Champion of Lambholt
• 1 Soul of the Harvest
• 1 Preyseizer Dragon
• 1 Hypersonic Dragon
• 1 Utvara Hellkite
• 1 Master Biomancer
• 1 Scourge of Valkas
• 1 Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1 Thassa, God of the Sea
• 1 Purphoros, God of the Forge
• 1 Prophet of Kruphix
• 1 Forgestoker Dragon
• 1 Xenagos, God of Revels
• 1 Keranos, God of Storms
• 1 Spawn of Thraxes
• 1 Kruphix, God of Horizons
• 1 Soul of New Phyrexia
• 1 Rattleclaw Mystic
• 1 Clever Impersonator
• 1 Surrak Dragonclaw
• 1 Yasova Dragonclaw
• 1 Shaman of the Great Hunt
• 1 Sandsteppe Mastodon
• 1 Destructor Dragon
• 1 Atarka, World Render
• 1 Foe-Razer Regent
• 1 Thunderbreak Regent
• 1 Stormwing Dragon
• 1 Savage Ventmaw
• 1 Herdchaser Dragon
• 1 Icefall Regent
• 1 Belltoll Dragon

Lands (37)

• 6 Forest
• 1 Wooded Foothills
• 8 Mountain
• 6 Island
• 1 Temple of the False God
• 1 Gruul Turf
• 1 Izzet Boilerworks
• 1 Simic Growth Chamber
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 Rootbound Crag
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Hinterland Harbor
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Izzet Guildgate
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Thornwood Falls
• 1 Swiftwater Cliffs
• 1 Rugged Highlands

Spells (12)

• 1 Kodama's Reach
• 1 Explosive Vegetation
• 1 Cultivate
• 1 Chromatic Lantern
• 1 Temur Ascendancy
• 1 Hardened Scales
• 1 Temur Banner
• 1 Shamanic Revelation
• 1 Outpost Siege
• 1 Frontier Siege
• 1 Monastery Siege
• 1 Dragon Tempest

With 50 creatures, your friend is going to be casting a lot of big things, Erik. That’s going to be fun for him, I hope, since dragons are the Timmy-est of
cards. I say this as a positive, of course. Timmys are a lot of fun to play with.

Costliness

As I mentioned earlier, I was unable to keep this deck strictly to the budget. The two gods I wanted to include were vaguely expensive, and Chromatic
Lantern and some of the dragons have crept up in price over the years. Luckily, Erik will be receiving a $20 store credit for his submission (email us at
DearAzami at gmail dot com), and the store credit brings this below $50 out of pocket. I think the extra $20 is worth it, and I hope you’ll agree.

As you can see, that’s a tight bit of pricing. Dragons of Tarkir looks like it’s
going to be a fun set for Commander players, and this is the perfect type of deck to highlight that. I hope you agree, Erik. And I hope the rest of you
have enjoyed this week’s installment of Dear Azami!

Tune in next week for more Commander content. And send us your decklists! The address is DearAzami at gmail dot com. You know you want to submit!

Want to submit a deck for consideration to Dear Azami? We’re always accepting deck submissions to consider for use in a future article. Only one deck submission will be chosen per article, but being selected for the next edition of Dear Azami includes not just deck advice but also a $20 coupon to StarCityGames.com!

Like what you’ve seen? Feel free to explore more of Dear Azami here, in the Article Archives! And feel free to check Jess’s own Command of Etiquette column on Hipsters of the Coast, for more Commander and casual content. Now on Thursdays!