I am really enjoying trying to make a competitive Animist list around Evil Presence.

I have tried pairing with Fire and Earth (no decklists) with the Fire being the more fun of the two (Earth pairing was really rough in games and failed to click for me). Moved into water to see if a more controlled aggression works better than the out and out attack of the Fire pairing (think shatter strikes and Leap Attack striking damage alongside minions).

Played this build last night (27Aug) up against Mono Fire Necro, Fire-Air Deathspeaker, and Fire-Earth Savior. Going 2-1 (losing a close game to Deathspeaker).

Pros: Felt in control against an aggressive Necro deck with a mulligan hitting Mock Court being critical to slowing their start. Was able to see them off with them unable to find a kill spell for Renatus who mopped up the low power aggro minions and negating life loss. An early Evil Presence into 3 cost minions and Mock Court again dealt with Savior who wasn't able to ward effectively.

Cons: Lack of card draw (and maybe my own want to flood a board early?). Was on top against Deathspeaker having dispatched their board with Whirling Blades and Dapheryll. However a late game Morgana and Omphalos with kill spell meant them seeing way more cards and finishing me off late as I was left top decking an answer.

Need to look at some more spell replacement cards and maybe adding in Skeleton Mage/Apprentice Wizards to help cast "nearby minion" impacting spells as Animist likes to stay back rather than get in an opponent Avatars face.