Hey guys, i'm playing allies lately and realized that it is a really strong tribal deck, but i really don't see anyone playing it, there is a lot of good card options in all five colors, we have good fighters in white, the Jwari Shapeshifter in blue, Harabaz Druid in green, really good utility cards in black, like Bala Ged Thief or Kalastria Healer, and a really good agressive ally in red, Akoum Battlesinger, i've been testing a lot of color combinations and different allies trying to find the best ally deck for modern, but something that is on my mind is that fact that they are not played very much.
I don't have much experience playing modern, in my city there are not so many players, so i just research about and look at some videos, maybe because of that i don't know very well the modern format as much as someone who plays it weekly.
My questions are:
Have you ever played with or against an ally deck? How was it?
Why you don't see people playing it?
What is the weakness of the deck?
And the strong points?
Taking a look at all ally cards, one of the first things that i thought was about Bala Ged Thief. Maybe if he had an CMC of 3 he could cause a lot of trouble, but i know that was going to be really OP. Having the deck built around the 2-drops and having some 3 drops to help is a really nice strategy, playing an ally like the Akoum Battlesinger early and maybe even get a copy of it with the Jwari Shapeshifter can help you get really agressive starts, you can also run CoCo, and if Bala Ged Thief was a 3-drop, playing him from CoCo could easily make you get the advantage you need, removing your opponent best cards, and them hitting him for a lot at the same turn, maybe even getting life.
Also, if you get a way to run the high cost allies you can make a lot of stuff, using cards like Hagra Diabolist or Murasa Pyromancer in combination with a good turn on drops, or maybe with an Unified Front, can easily clear the board or get the opponent's life to really low points, Resolute Blademaster hitting the battlefield with an Lantern Scout on the field can get you a lot of life and hit for a lot of damage as well, and maybe the Druid can help you get there, easily turning for 2 mana or more.
So, what do you guys think? Am i dreaming too high? Hahahahaha
I really want to know about your guys opinion. Sorry for bad english, i'm from Brazil. If i'm posting that on the wrong place someone please let me know.
ive played against allies a couple of times. i think the strength of the deck is its explosiveness. it can goldfish some pretty fast kills, even through a couple of blockers. its weaknesses are its inconsistency and lack of disruption. so outside of initiating a counter race the opponent can mostly do as they please with no fear of reprisal.
so it doesnt see as much play because its one of many decks that shows up from time to time, but is ultimately mediocre. its also finds difficulty getting foothold in a format with so many aggro options, even ones that play similarly (ie humans), that are objectively better. slivers is the same way.
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Modern: UWGSnow-Bant Control BURGrixis Death's Shadow GWBCoCo Elves WCDeath and Taxes (sold)
The deck is almost literally bad humans. The biggest problem with allies is the lack of disruption. The tribe desperately needed a kitesail freebooter, reclamation sage, fiend hunter or spellskite sprite of some sort.
Humans has amazing disruption on Thalia, mage, and freebooter, and can clock almost as fast as allies with lieutenant and phantasmal image.
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Modern
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
[i]Have you ever played with or against an ally deck? How was it?
Why you don't see people playing it?
What is the weakness of the deck?
And the strong points?
1. Against Allies, never with. Allies can be very explosive and has some very consistent T4-T5 wins even in the face of scattered disruption. It can also play Collected Company for more recovery against removal- and sweeper-heavy decks.
2. Merfolk was a better Allies deck before Humans. Now Humans is a better Merfolk. Both decks trade a little explosivity for significantly better disruption and gameplan flexibility. For instance, the old Merfolk could run Seas, Cursecatcher, Harbinger of the Tides, plus even Pierce/Dismember. Humans is even better with Mage, Thalia, Image, and Freebooter.
3. Allies has terrible disruption. This means it gets crushed by all the linear combo decks that can just race it. It also doesn't have a lot of decision trees, so you can't flexibly pivot into different game plans. For example, if you have a slower start and need to play a controlling game, you just can't switch roles with a bunch of dumb beaters.
4. It's an extremely consistent linear aggro deck that is capable of both T4-T5 wins and recovering from spot removal and sweepers. You get both Vial and Cavern like Humans but also get CoCo and Encampment. On top of that, you have nice anti-aggro game with stuff like Ondu Cleric.
Overall, it's a decent deck but almost definitely worse than Humans right now.
I think that the main problem is really the lack of disruption, as you guys said, when i played against Humans i have a lot of problems cause of Reflector Mage, i think allies need something like that, i really hope that maybe one day they release new allies hahaha.
Thinking about that, it will be really cool to have something like the Freebooter or Reflector Mage, or something like an Utility Ally with Flash, idk, the best option i can see right now is the Bala Ged Thief, but that 4 cmc is too heavy.
Thank you all for your opinions, i'll keep playing them and trying to build the best ally deck for modern.
I play boros allies in modern MTGO casually. I've never really run into a deck that out races it, and on the play I'm usually swinging for lethal on turn 4 (well before most board wipes).
Its not a super interactive deck but you've got longevity and some spot removal available to you, as well as alpha striking all day long and Kazandu Blademaster to protect you. There's some combat tricks available (flashing in 2 ally soldier tokens to give double pro a color with double pump your beaters) and you can play disruptive elements easily (I run 4 main board silence to steal away people's turns on their upkeep if I don't like their play in my paper copy).
It's an explosive deck for sure but I haven't run into any control or disruptive decks so I can't advise you on those match-ups.
I will agree that if you're playing more than W/R you're just making a worse humans deck though. I'm fairly sure that allies is faster than humans but otherwise if you're trying to out utility them I'm not sure it's possible.
There's been a few threads for modern allies but they're not super popular. If you're interested I'll sign onto MTGO and pull my exact list but it's something in the ball park of:
4 path
4 lightning bolt
4 Ally Knight Token (should be ally soldier token because soldiers are an instant vs knights are a sorcery)
If you wanted to go more mid range you can put in lightning helix and there's an equipment that makes ally tokens on attack, but it's just slower. If you go slower... Why are you playing allies?
I don't have much experience playing modern, in my city there are not so many players, so i just research about and look at some videos, maybe because of that i don't know very well the modern format as much as someone who plays it weekly.
My questions are:
Have you ever played with or against an ally deck? How was it?
Why you don't see people playing it?
What is the weakness of the deck?
And the strong points?
Taking a look at all ally cards, one of the first things that i thought was about Bala Ged Thief. Maybe if he had an CMC of 3 he could cause a lot of trouble, but i know that was going to be really OP. Having the deck built around the 2-drops and having some 3 drops to help is a really nice strategy, playing an ally like the Akoum Battlesinger early and maybe even get a copy of it with the Jwari Shapeshifter can help you get really agressive starts, you can also run CoCo, and if Bala Ged Thief was a 3-drop, playing him from CoCo could easily make you get the advantage you need, removing your opponent best cards, and them hitting him for a lot at the same turn, maybe even getting life.
Also, if you get a way to run the high cost allies you can make a lot of stuff, using cards like Hagra Diabolist or Murasa Pyromancer in combination with a good turn on drops, or maybe with an Unified Front, can easily clear the board or get the opponent's life to really low points, Resolute Blademaster hitting the battlefield with an Lantern Scout on the field can get you a lot of life and hit for a lot of damage as well, and maybe the Druid can help you get there, easily turning for 2 mana or more.
So, what do you guys think? Am i dreaming too high? Hahahahaha
I really want to know about your guys opinion. Sorry for bad english, i'm from Brazil. If i'm posting that on the wrong place someone please let me know.
so it doesnt see as much play because its one of many decks that shows up from time to time, but is ultimately mediocre. its also finds difficulty getting foothold in a format with so many aggro options, even ones that play similarly (ie humans), that are objectively better. slivers is the same way.
UWGSnow-Bant Control
BURGrixis Death's Shadow
GWBCoCo Elves
WCDeath and Taxes(sold)Humans has amazing disruption on Thalia, mage, and freebooter, and can clock almost as fast as allies with lieutenant and phantasmal image.
* Esper Draw-Go
* Tezzeret Whir
* Blue Tron
1. Against Allies, never with. Allies can be very explosive and has some very consistent T4-T5 wins even in the face of scattered disruption. It can also play Collected Company for more recovery against removal- and sweeper-heavy decks.
2. Merfolk was a better Allies deck before Humans. Now Humans is a better Merfolk. Both decks trade a little explosivity for significantly better disruption and gameplan flexibility. For instance, the old Merfolk could run Seas, Cursecatcher, Harbinger of the Tides, plus even Pierce/Dismember. Humans is even better with Mage, Thalia, Image, and Freebooter.
3. Allies has terrible disruption. This means it gets crushed by all the linear combo decks that can just race it. It also doesn't have a lot of decision trees, so you can't flexibly pivot into different game plans. For example, if you have a slower start and need to play a controlling game, you just can't switch roles with a bunch of dumb beaters.
4. It's an extremely consistent linear aggro deck that is capable of both T4-T5 wins and recovering from spot removal and sweepers. You get both Vial and Cavern like Humans but also get CoCo and Encampment. On top of that, you have nice anti-aggro game with stuff like Ondu Cleric.
Overall, it's a decent deck but almost definitely worse than Humans right now.
Thinking about that, it will be really cool to have something like the Freebooter or Reflector Mage, or something like an Utility Ally with Flash, idk, the best option i can see right now is the Bala Ged Thief, but that 4 cmc is too heavy.
Thank you all for your opinions, i'll keep playing them and trying to build the best ally deck for modern.
Its not a super interactive deck but you've got longevity and some spot removal available to you, as well as alpha striking all day long and Kazandu Blademaster to protect you. There's some combat tricks available (flashing in 2 ally soldier tokens to give double pro a color with double pump your beaters) and you can play disruptive elements easily (I run 4 main board silence to steal away people's turns on their upkeep if I don't like their play in my paper copy).
It's an explosive deck for sure but I haven't run into any control or disruptive decks so I can't advise you on those match-ups.
I will agree that if you're playing more than W/R you're just making a worse humans deck though. I'm fairly sure that allies is faster than humans but otherwise if you're trying to out utility them I'm not sure it's possible.
There's been a few threads for modern allies but they're not super popular. If you're interested I'll sign onto MTGO and pull my exact list but it's something in the ball park of:
4 path
4 lightning bolt
4 Ally Knight Token (should be ally soldier token because soldiers are an instant vs knights are a sorcery)
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Akoum Battlesinger
4 protection ally (forget the name atm)
3 Munda
3 Menace Ally
Lands
Allied Encampment
PLAINS
MOUNTAINS
If you wanted to go more mid range you can put in lightning helix and there's an equipment that makes ally tokens on attack, but it's just slower. If you go slower... Why are you playing allies?