I love animar. He can be built to almost teir 1 power, or be a janky big shit monstrosity. He can be ultra expensive to build, or ultra cheap.

Put [[cultivate]] and a couple other ramp spells. You want to still be able to play if animar (rightfully) gets killed.

Put in all the card draw you can reasonably put in. [[rishkar’s expertise]], [[tishana, voice of thunder]], [[Garruk’s packleader]], [[prime speaker zegana]], [[greater good]], [[edric, spymaster of trest]], etc. my biggest issue with animar was having a hand, because everything after turn 6 was basically free and I’d dump my hand constantly.

Have counters! You need to control the board at least a little to keep animar alive. [[pongify]] and [[beast within]] are fantastic as well to control the board. [[rhythm of the wild]] is great to keep your shit from getting countered and gives your stuff haste which is huge for an animar deck.

Grave recursion is also something I like to pack in my decks. My shit dies a lot, and I want it back. [[regrowth]] and [[creeping renaissance]] are really good options, as well as [[eternal witness]] if you want to upgrade later on.

And a last bit of stuff that is super fun and can just win games is [[sunbird’s invocation]] and [[lurking predators]].

In conclusion: animar is disgusting. He HAS to be answered or you can just win. especially when you put some more money into the deck and balance out the mana base and have some of the eldrazi, which you can cast for free after a couple turns of animar being out.

NonCombo deck here

Competitive deck here