Flame Animus

 is a unit. It produces one Red, as well as 1 attack.

Strategy
 is a more efficient way to get production than the standard Animus, so you should usually only buy Animus instead if either you need the red immediately or you don't have  to spare. is especially useful in sets where you need a single red per turn and you would not use the second red produced by a normal Animus, such as Tia Thurnax or Antima Comet sets. It can also be used to produce Hellhounds easily, or add the missing red for an Amporilla or a Shadowfang without buying a second Animus.

Like Tarsier, Flame Animus's buildtime can sometimes be taken advantage of to deny your opponent's absorb. For example if you already opened with a Steelsplitter and your opponent responded with a Wall, Flame Animus over Steelsplitter becomes an efficient purchase as an attacker even if you don't particularly want the red, because it will prevent your opponent from getting the full 2 absorb.

Openings
Here is an opening using 's natural synergy with Shadowfang for Player 1:


 * DD
 * DD
 * 1) DDB
 * 2) DD +
 * 3) WAD or SAD (depending on whether any damage is being threatened yet)
 * 4) W + Shadowfang

By turn 6, you can buy Shadowfang + Wall each turn and have a bit of extra gold to spend on Engineers, additional Drones, or whatever.

Player 2 has a similar opening which is slightly faster but ends up with less Drones:


 * DD
 * DB
 * 1) DD +
 * 2) DDA
 * 3) W + Shadowfang

Perforator or Blood Phage allow buying it out. Player 1:
 * DD
 * DB
 * 1) D +
 * 2) DD +
 * 3) TD +
 * 4) x2 Perforator + WE

Steelforge rush for Player 2: Really benefits from better Econ.
 * DD
 * DB
 * 1) DD +
 * 2) Steelforge + D +
 * 3) RTD + click

Change log

 * December 9th, 2015
 * Cost decreased from to.
 * Buildtime increased from to.
 * October 2nd, 2014
 * Cost decreased from to.