Sept 2, 2016 : A great thanks to hoser2 for writing this primer!
Naya Human Army
Naya Humans is an aggressive midrange (or Tempo-Tribal-Combo? I don't even know. You tell me.) deck that wins with synergistic combinations of small creatures, sometimes deployed instantly. The deck is fundamentally built around abusing Hanweir Garrison, but there are so many overlapping synergies that it can win without it. I consider it midrange because three colors of mana is a bit of a cluster and the key card can't attack before turn 4. This is not an established archetype, so try this if:
You like turning creatures sideways
You like exploiting synergistically powerful cards to kill people with explosive bursts of damage from out of nowhere
You have some brewer in you
You don't need to be playing the "best deck" for this particular event
This archetype is by no means solved. Please help us break it. Decklists
Note: 1 Evolving Wilds added to make 60 and improve fixing
Cards
Core cards are bolded
1 Drop Dragonmaster Outcast: Pro - human, powerful in a board stall; Con - slow, fragile. Sideboard option against decks without much removal like Bant Company Expedition Envoy: Pro - nice power for the cost, Ally synergies; Con - dies in a small breeze, how realistic is it to try to exploit Ally synergies in addition to Human synergies?. Kytheon, Hero of Akros: Pro - powerful early play; Con - dies to Liliana, needs two other attackers to flip. Best in aggressive builds that can reliably attack with three creatures on turn 3. Thraben Inspector: Pro - cheap, card advantage, decent flicker target; Con - not impactful in a board stall. Town Gossipmonger: Pro - Human, aggressive power; Con - needs other early creatures for maximal effectiveness. Probably better in more aggressive builds. Worth testing.
2 Drop Abbot of Keral Keep: Pro - conditional card advantage, can get buff from spells; Con - extremely conditional card advantage, dies super easily. Den Protector: Pro - Sometimes a human, card advantage; Con - not good as a CoCo hit, slow. Sideboard option, good against control decks Duskwatch Recruiter: Pro - card advantage, ; Con - expensive card advantage, no human benefits when flipped. Best against control decks for card advantage, but mana savings when flipped can be quite nice. Hamlet Captain: Pro - conditional anthem; Con - doesn't buff self, just a bear without other creatures. Recommendation: This thing doesn't look like much, but it increases damage amazingly. Run 4 Hanweir Militia Captain: Pro - When flipped, it gets huge and spawns creatures that trigger Thalia's Lieutenant; Con - when do we get ahead enough to flip it? conditional. Good in board stalls, recommend at least 2 in 75, but main or side? Knight of the White Orchid: Pro - Conditional ramp, first strike gets better with buffs; Con - hard to cast, doesn't really benefit much else. Lambholt Pacifist: Pro - big, wears a counter really well; Con - sometimes can't attack, no human benefits when flipped. Reckless Bushwhacker: Pro - anthem effect with a body that combines really well with Atarka's Command; Con - not a human, not good without a board and another cheap spell. Strong sideboard option for aggressive builds. Don't forget the leather jackat. Selfless Spirit: Pro - good protection from R-based sweepers; Con - no human synergy, dies to Liliana. Thalia's Lieutenant: Pro - gets huge, buffs other humans; Con - can just die to Liliana +. Run 4
3 Drop Eldrazi Displacer: Pro - able to interact positively against Spell Queller, reset blockers, blow up tokens, knock counters off creatures, get ETB effects on demand; Con - mana-intensive, no human synergies, requires colorless mana, just a cheap hill giant without targets. Hanweir Garrison: Pro - conditionally powerful; Con - forces R (seriously, if you don't value this card, run GW and have much better mana). Run 4 Thalia, Heretic Cathar: Pro - good against multicolor and creature decks; Con - dies easily. run 1-2 in Company versions Tireless Tracker: Pro - card advantage!, can get huge; Con - dies easily, best as a 4-drop. run 3-4 if you are running Company.
4 Drop Heron's Grace Champion: Pro - instant speed anthem can tilt combat math, lifelink can swing races, lifelink body continues to affect races; Con - not a CoCo hit, body is not huge for the cost.
5 Drop Archangel Avacyn: Pro - ; Con - can wrath our own board. Reality Smasher: Pro - a sudden, hard to remove beating; Con - not human, not a CoCo hit, needs colorless, expensive. Sideboard option for slower builds that can support colorless. Sigarda, Heron's Grace: Pro - hard to kill, can prevent discard and burn affects, evasive; Con - expensive.
Gryff's Boon: Pro - cheap evasion that can recur, good for getting in those last few points of damage; Con - expensive revision is prone to being blown out. Rending Volley: Pro - uncounterable cheap removal, good against Spell Quellers, other Spirits and Things; Con - highly conditional. Atarka's Command: efficient anthem, burn, defense against flyers, ramp; amazing package, but is it better than Heron's Grace Champion overall? How many Collected Company misses can you afford? How many noncreature cards can you afford? Declaration in Stone: Pro - can deal with Kalitas and other big creatures efficiently; Con - card disadvantage. I am likely incorrect to not be running it. Recommend at least 1 in the 75. Dromoka's Command: Pro - conditional removal, increased creature size, enchantment removal; Con - removal in response is a blowout, useless without creatures, not good against hexproof, larger or deathtouch creatures. Hallowed Moonlight: Pro - good vs dredge, CoCo, Ishkanah and cantrips; Con - doesn't advance our game plan. Always Watching: Pro - another anthem; Con - not a CoCo hit, Dromoka's Command. Consider for non-CoCo aggressive builds. Eerie Interlude: Pro - potential sweeper protection; Con - expensive, not a CoCo hit, heavily conditional. Stasis Snare: Pro - Removal; Con - bad against Dromoka's Command. Arlinn Kord: Pro - many helpful abilities; Con - slow, non-CoCo, not human. Collected Company: Pro - Efficient for mana and card advantage, instant; Con - requires many (24+) small creatures, being a 4-drop makes it more midrange than aggressive. Remember to start siding these out if your 1-3 mana creature count drops with your sideboard plan. Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Pro - a real beating, often leaves a token even when removed, can be a permanent anthem; Con - hard to protect against Bant Company, not a CoCo hit, not very synergistic, hard to cast. Strong sideboard option against control. Tragic Arrogance: Pro - powerful sweeper gets around Selfless Spirits; Con - runs counter to our game plan.
Hanweir Battlements: Pro - colorless source, giving haste is great, can meld with Hanweir Garrison; Con - doesn't help fixing. 1-2 recommended Westvale Abbey: Pro - colorless source, can make more humans, Ormandahl[/card]; Con - doesn't help fixing, benefits are slow and conditional.
Sideboarding
This is just a list of cards that are recommended (or not) in particular matchups. Without knowing your exact deck, I can't recommend numbers
Dredge: +Hallowed Moonlight, +Thalia, +Champion, +Gideon, +Pacifist, +Declaration, -Dromoka's Command, -Duskwatch. You are the beatdown. Killing their stuff isn't great when it just comes back. Duskwatch is too slow.
The set of removals is particularly good to prevent Emerge on the small creatures. Tireless Tracker is prone to an early game KoRe, but it helps digging for our removals. Also, opponent will probably telegraph you KoRe is about to be played. Check his lands : no red, that's green light for us. If there are, and open lands on turn 3 or 4, you can try to play around. Like : cast Lieutenant before combat to force opponent to cast KoRe before the trigger resolves. You'll lose many creatures, but you'll at least keep the new tokens after you attack with Garrison (otherwise you would have less board presence after KoRe).
No anthem saddens me a lot. But the real thing is that it's more important dealing with Temurge's early creatures.
Declaration in Stone is great dealing with Spider tokens (and opponent gets no Clue), and Emerged Eldrazi.
Videos
August 1 at Geek Fortress: Game 3 win against UW Spirits from 1:36-1:47; Match loss against UR Aggro from 2:10-2:42
August 22 at Geek Fortress: match win against Burn from 1:58-2:20; Match win against Jund Delirium from 2:50-3:23
The concept of this deck is to abuse CoCo with a different view on Humans and Allies, building a token army (Captain and Garrison) to feed the Generals (Lieutenant, Captain and Warleader), and the whole lot pumped by Lieutenant, Champion and Atarka's Command. CoCo is there to accelerate the process, Recruiter to dig the deck for combo pieces (or vomit our hand on the table once flipped ; no other deck can benefit more from this than this one, I think), Mage as a finisher once the board is set, and finally Envoy as not only an early aggressor and to make Lieutenant worthy to cast on T2, but also to support the Warleader and give him trample or first strike (Mage can do the same).
Note that Thalia's Lieutenant and Heron's Grace Champion both cheat in this deck : Whenever one or the other ETB, they're not granting the usual a +1/+1 to everything, but in fact +2/+2 to all the Generals (Lieutenant, flipped Captain, Warleader). Both can be done at instant speed to screw opponent's math (Champion has Flash and Thalia's Lieutenant can be hit with by CoCo).
Here's the best play :
T1 Expedition Envoy
T2 Thalia's Lieutenant, attack for 3 with Envoy
T3 Hanweir Garrison, attack for 5 with Envoy and Lieutenant
T4 Attack with everything (tokens boosting the Lieutenant), cast Heron's Grace Champion to support the cause (again boosting the lieutenant, and +1/+1 lifelink to the 5 creatures on the board), deal 17 damage and gain 17 Life. That's 25 damage total, and should close the deal).
Here's a slower but very impressive play :
T1 Expedition Envoy
T2 Hanweir Militia Captain, attack for 2
T3 Veteran Warleader
T4 Pass the turn, cast CoCo and get Hanweir Garrison and Thalia's Lieutenant (seeing one another, both will get a +1/+1 counter, as well as the 3 Humans already there)
T5 Flip Captain, cast Firemantle Mage (triggers Lieutenant and itself), attack with everything (with the 2 tokens feeding the 3 Generals) and support with Atarka's Command : Envoy is 4/3, flipped Captain and Warleader are both 10/10, Lieutenant is 4/4, Garrison is 4/5, the two tokens are 2/2 and all have Menace (and Warleader can get trample or first strike by tapping the Mage). Total of 36 damage and a lot of evasion.
Another interesting play, a variation of above, against Control'or Midrange. The goal is to look innocent and avoid getting sweeped on T4...
With only Duskwatch Recruiter and Veteran Warleader in play (both 2/2 bears, non-threatening), pass the turn on T4. Opponent might get greedy, expecting CoCo, and wait one more turn to cast Languish or Radiant Flames (and instead Read the Bones, or something like that). Let's not disappoint him and cast CoCo, getting both Hanweir heroes (Garrison and Militia Captain). On our turn, Flip Captain (Recruiter is already flipped), and cast Thalia's Lieutenant (for 1) and Expedition Envoy.
The non-sick board will look like this :
3/3 flipped Recruiter (wolf form unaffected by Lieutenant)
9/9 flipped Captain
9/9 Warleader
3/4 Garrison
1/1 token
1/1 token
(Total of 26/27)
And the fresh creatures are :
4/4 Lieutenant
2/1 Envoy
=== Attack for 26.
This should be enough to kill opponent (Envoy can be tapped to grant Trample on Warleader). Don't get greedy yourself, and save your Heron's Grace Champion (cost reduced to 3, if you land dropped on T5) or Attarka's Command (if you missed T5 land drop) for later, in case your attack fails (one 9/9 gets blocked, or worst : destroyed and output is reduced to 16). If so, cast one or the other, after opponent does something (Command : burn 3 + 21 damage ; or Champion : 22 damage).
Don't do so if you can't win right now, however. Instead, save Champion or Command for opponent's turn to save your Army from Languish or Radiant Flames.
End of turn you add a 1/1 Human token, and trigger Lieutenant (5/5). Unless you have Atarka's Command, take no chance and cast the Champion for 3 during opponent's upkeep before Recruiter reverts to his Human form. Some creatures will survive even Languish : 4/5 Garrison and 6/6 Lieutenant (or 7/7 with Champion instead of Command) will survive, thus saving Warleader and/or flipped Captain in the process (even if one of them died previous turn, the survivor should still be a 5/5 at worst with Command). Then you win next turn!
So pass the turn (T4) with 4/4 on the Battlefield, and win next turn with opponent at 20 Life, or the other turn even if the worst happens!
I want to play CoCo while it's still Standard legal, in my own brewed deck (no way I'm playing Bant and copy the work of others).
The Werewolf deck feels more resilient, but slower and less aggressive than the Human Army deck. I tend to prefer resiliency, to ensure all matchups are good matchups. But the aggressivity of the Human Army deck, and the synergy there, is very appealing to me (as well as the little reminder of the good old days with Allies).
Please comment and help me take a decision... thanks!
Note that opponent's best play would probably be to destroy Hanweir Garrison before it attacks, and not the flipped Captain or Warleader. In that case, you'll attack for 15 with 3 creatures, but still win if unblocked with Atarka's Command (burn 3 + 3 x +1/+1). If you don't have the Command, and instead the Champion, wait for next turn. The Captain's Human token will trigger the Lieutenant at the end step (now 3/3), but the Champion will bring him to 5/5 so he can survive Languish. The Warleader and flipped Captain will survive too (3 creatures, one +1/+1 counter each, and +1/+1 bonus to all Humans until end of turn) so you can attack for 12 and win next turn (3 x 4/4, even if you play no other cards).
Please don't quadruple post. If you made a mistake on a prior post, you can use the edit button on the bottom right. -- Lugger
That said, I'm not clear about how to contribute to this thread.
What do you want? I see the following possibilities:
Help deciding between the human ally and the werewolf decks
build a community around the human ally variant
Get feedback for your human ally deck
...
What I want is a thread that tries to build a community around Naya CoCo builds. If we find that we have too many people going in too many directions (first world problems!) we can always schism later. There are many ways to go: Humans, Allies, Hamlet Captain, Thraben Inspector ... My thought is that we define what we think are the Core cards (for me: CoCo, Garrison, Thalia's Lieutenant) then let testing determine the rest of the deck.
I have been playing Bant Humans extensively lately, so I could give you feedback based on that experience in the old meta. I could also share my current vision for a Naya Human Company deck. What do you want?
Let's focus this thread on the Naya Human Army deck. If you have ideas on how to improve it, etc.
I'm still looking for advices however on which deck to chose, but this discussion doesn't belong (and not anywhere else, according to the Moderator). You can PM if you have an opinion about the two decks. Thanks.
What do you want? I see the following possibilities:
Help deciding between the human ally and the werewolf decks
build a community around the human ally variant
Get feedback for your human ally deck
...
What I want is a thread that tries to build a community around Naya CoCo builds. If we find that we have too many people going in too many directions (first world problems!) we can always schism later. There are many ways to go: Humans, Allies, Hamlet Captain, Thraben Inspector ... My thought is that we define what we think are the Core cards (for me: CoCo, Garrison, Thalia's Lieutenant) then let testing determine the rest of the deck.
I have overlooked Hamlet Captain. This guy may take the place of Duskwatch Recruiter, and get a nice bonus on our Humans (and multiples stack!). Hit this guy with CoCo on attack or defense, and you should never be disappointed.
So, yes, let's build a community around the Human Ally variant!
I'm still looking for advices however on which deck to chose, but this discussion doesn't belong (and not anywhere else, according to the Moderator). You can PM if you have an opinion about the two decks. Thanks.
At the risk of outing myself as a total suck-up to the admins, I would like to point you toward the "I need help deciding what to play" thread in the Standard section. It's awkward. There are all these random ways things are done around here, but newer people may not have run across them ...
Speaking of being a total suck-up to the admins, adding red reminders to posts has got to be the most boring thing imaginable. Please pardon me for suggesting that we edit our posts unless there is an intervening post or at least a day has passed since our previous post.
While I am not convinced about the Ally subtheme, I am not sure it's not brilliant. I am just skeptical, pending further testing . If you do use an ally subtheme, I would consider Lantern Scout for the sideboard.
what happened to [PRIMER] Rabzan Ally - 1st at SSS GP Toronto ?
Thanks for asking. I have played the deck again a few times at FNM, with average results. I think I got lazy playing it, like on auto-pilot. Certainly not as focused as I was during the Super Series at GP Toronto (I clearly was in a higher state of mind and concentration back then), and often made a lot of mistake because I just didn't calculated my moves and played on instinct (which is bad). And failed too many times killing my opponent and going for the final attack but short of 1-2 damage (should have waited one more turn, or whatever, because I had the right cards but played stupid). Bottom Line : I need a new challenge!
Is it possible to cut the manabase to 18-20 lands in naya?
Sure. If you eliminate all your 4 and higher drops, while limiting the number of three drops. Also probably stay away from double color spells like Always Watching. While some of us are thinking about Collected Company, I suppose you could do a thing with Thalia's Lieutenant and then Hanweir Garrison at the top of your curve.
If I were doing a deck like that, I would probably cut the G and make a Boros deck. You could get rid of a bunch of tapped lands, mana issues and maybe even bring back Always Watching.
Is it possible to cut the manabase to 18-20 lands in naya?
I don't think it would be reasonable. It's one thing playing 18 Plains in a mono White deck that plays with 1-2 cmc creatures. It's another thing when there's 3 Colors to cover, and the need to get to 4 lands in 4 turns for CoCo is there.
Using hypergeometry (http://stattrek.com/m/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx), you can see that the odds of hitting at least 4 lands in 4 turns while on the play (10 cards) are 63% with 24 lands, and only 34-44% with 18-20 lands. Even at 24 lands, you're likely to get mana short one game out of 3. It's still a lot, but considering that the odds are 79% of getting 3 lands in 3 turns (where is the action in this deck), I'm comfortable having to wait to turn 5-6 once in a while.
And frankly, even 24 lands, it's a headache getting the right lands composition to get high probabilities of the right color at the right time (White on turn 1, Green on turn 2 and Red on turn 3, all untapped in due time).
Conclusion : Absolutely no. Even going down to 23 lands would make me nervous (of being color screwed or mana short).
While I am not convinced about the Ally subtheme, I am not sure it's not brilliant. I am just skeptical, pending further testing . If you do use an ally subtheme, I would consider Lantern Scout for the sideboard.
Yes. Against certain decks (burn will make a come back), Lantern Scout is a serious Sideboard option.
I have thought about Lambholt Pacifist, but decided to cut him from the deck. He's just a 3/3 bodyguard that adds nothing to the overall strategy. Certainly fat, but not synergistic (compared to Hamlet Captain, for example). He may give us time needed to get things working but Hamlet Captain just reduces the time it takes to get the end result. The same reasoning is true for Duskwatch Recruiter (now that Hamlet Captain became a better option).
About Tireless Tracker : She's good, and can stand on her own. But she thrives on more than 24 lands. See above post for odds of landing a 4th land on T4. Card slots are better used with synergistic cards with the main strategy, to avoid losing time and mana to dig your deck to get the 5th land. To bring her in with effectiveness, the land count would have to go up to 26. Yuk.
I prefer the concept of auto feeding the strategy with the free tokens from Hanweir Militia Captain (get him with CoCo end of opponent's turn and he'll almost always insta-flip on your upkeep), who'll receive a nice boost from the token, while also boosting the power of Veteran Warleader and Thalia's Lieutenant. Free tokens + */* creatures or Lieutenant is the magical synergy I was looking for. But by all means, if you're looking for something else and it works for you, go for it!
Speaking of */*... There's Kolaghan Forerunners I've been looking at that would fit nicely in the sidedeck against Control. Haste for extra and faster damage, bounce the card in hand for some protection, while also repeatedly triggering Thalia's Lieutenant.
Finally, Firemantle Mage is aggressively supporting everything by cutting the number of blockers in half, ROUNDED DOWN. With tokens everywhere, there will come a time (T5-6) where opponent has no choice but losing 2 creatures blocking your big fat */*s. Inevitability comes next...
So, yes, I strongly beleive Human Allies should have a place in this deck. And thus why I prefer the aggressive Expedition Envoy over Thraben Inspector.
I'm eager to test the deck and will post the results here.
So do you want this to be a Naya Human Army thread or a Naya Human Ally thread? It's your thread. Your call. I apologize if I misunderstood.
I am at 26 competitive matches with Bant Humans. I have run the Militia Captain both main and side. He has not been a consistent or instant auto-flip for me. He seems to be strictly sideboard material in my experience. That is also why I am leery of the Ally subtheme. I am looking to use a minimum of cards that depend on synergy beyond the humans. You already have the Lieutenant, the Garrison, the Militia Captain, the Hamlet Captain and others that are not Allies. I fear that the few times you can assemble Ally synergies, it will be either win-more or your opponents will remove key pieces. Thraben Inspector always provides value. Expedition Envoy seems conditionally okay pending testing.
Just my two cents. But the key question is what you want. Is this an Ally thread for your deck or a Naya Human Army thread for multiple people working on overlapping concepts? Just let me know. I can easily stop bothering you.
So do you want this to be a Naya Human Army thread or a Naya Human Ally thread? It's your thread. Your call. I apologize if I misunderstood.
I am at 26 competitive matches with Bant Humans. I have run the Militia Captain both main and side. He has not been a consistent or instant auto-flip for me. He seems to be strictly sideboard material in my experience. That is also why I am leery of the Ally subtheme. I am looking to use a minimum of cards that depend on synergy beyond the humans. You already have the Lieutenant, the Garrison, the Militia Captain, the Hamlet Captain and others that are not Allies. I fear that the few times you can assemble Ally synergies, it will be either win-more or your opponents will remove key pieces. Thraben Inspector always provides value. Expedition Envoy seems conditionally okay pending testing.
Just my two cents. But the key question is what you want. Is this an Ally thread for your deck or a Naya Human Army thread for multiple people working on overlapping concepts? Just let me know. I can easily stop bothering you.
No, you're not bothering me. And you are right, this thread is about Naya Human Army, not Ally. I just think that there is a nice synergy to exploit for those few Allies that are also Humans. About the Firemantle Mage : I don't need the trigger more than once (the turn where I win). The Veteran Warleader would appreciate the presence of another Ally to Trample, but he's not as picky as the Lantern Scout who absolutely wants to see a new friend to trigger. The Warleader will use the new friend, but will continue benefiting from an Ally already on the Battlefield (he's the only one that re-uses Allies). So with 9 other Ally in the deck, it should be possible just having another one within 5-6 turns.
Your experience with Bant Humans is invaluable for this thread, and I take seriously your opinion about Hanweir Militia Captain. He looks good on paper, but if you've tested him with CoCo and he's not good, that's a serious set back to the strategy I had in mind.
Do you think Tireless Tracker can perform on 24 lands?
Edit : Could the Militia Captain be easier to trigger with the Garrison? And a Flash Human? Maybe he's better in this environnent than he was in Bant...
In the G creature mirror, she ends up being the only card that matters. She is so efficient and the stream of card draw she generates, which can be cashed at instant speed, is overwhelming.
A deck with Tracker and Inspector may not need as much land as one without
If Tireless Tracker still turns out to be good, it may be worth running 25 lands to support her
What we know
I know very little, and much of that is wrong. I am reluctant to argue strongly about this new meta without testing
I think people will run the old decks until or unless they are proven inferior. So we will see GW Tokens, Bant Humans, Bant CoCo, W/r Humans at the start of the meta, at least.
We all love our x-for-1s, so BW Control, BG Seasons Past, Jund and Grixis will all be present.
Ramp and Mono-U prison will also be around
Early word is that Tamiyo is very good. I expect to see her with and without Company and Spell Queller.
In the old meta, I don't like him against BW, BG or really any of the attrition decks. If they can keep our creature count down, then he is just a bear. Languish and Radiant Flames will eventually take care of him.
In the Bant CoCo mirror, I like him. Those games often devolve into board stalls. He can generate value without mana investment. Are we going to be able to generate those board stalls aginst Bant CoCo, or is Reflector Mage going to consistently tempo us out?
On the current meta
The play pattern of the Bant Humans deck is to get a two drop down (preferably a Pacifist), then Reflector Mage, opponent inaction, Thalia's lieutenant, Dromoka's Command allows attacks for at least 4 starting on turn 3. The play pattern of the GW Tokens deck is to clog the board with Advocates, Inspectors, Pacifists and Hangarbacks then slam down a Planeswalker and start generating value. We don't have Reflector mage to bounce a 4-5 power Pacifist/Butcher, Hangarback or clear out a token to get to a planeswalker. Will we need to run Roast? Would it even help? Radiant Flames is clearly not an answer for us. How far can we get with a flash Heron's Grace Champion and Atarka's Command?
W/r Humans is the current aggro deck. We are building around Garrison, which is not a defensive card. Reflector Mage allows Bant Humans to stay in the game against this deck. What have we got? They will be trying Garrison out also. How do we beat a Hanweir Garrison with an Always Watching out? What about if they slap a Gryff's Boon on a Garrison? We can't count on being the aggressor with our midrangy CoCo builds.
Edit: On further Reflection, we could try to build sround Militia Captain and Heron's Grace Champion, which is truer to your initial concept. Unfortunately, I don't see where allies helps us particularly, in this case. I can see a deck that wants to be slightly more aggressive than Bant Humans. In this deck, Duskwatch Recruiter and Tireless Tracker are too slow. The question becomes: how do we generate extra bodies for Hanweir Militia Captain?
Scion Summoner is interesting because of being a CoCo hit and generating mana but lacks Human synergies. Scion Summoner is potentially a decent sacrifice for Decimator of the Provinces, but I am inclined to think that we are not a Decimator deck.
Sigarda, Heron's Grace ? Maybe one of in the main deck and 2-3 more in the side deck against control? If shape happens to stay on the Battlefield for more than a turn, she should spawn 2-3 Human tokens at instant speed... She's very slow, however, but with 24-25 lands, there's something there to explore (and it may be easier to get GW for her than WW for Avacyn ; plus Sigarda has good synergy and won't wipe us out).
Edit: Ulvenwald Mysteries? It's slow, I admit, but it has great synergy with Tireless Tracker and Thraben Inspector. Against Control or Midrange, just save the Clues for later, and after you get sweeped, come back with card advantage and lots of token at instant speed. Maybe in the Sideboard?
I am struggling to see this as the deck that will dethrone Bant Company and GW Tokens, so I am now aiming to maximize fun. My previous build was kind of a cut and paste from my Bant Humans. I have decided to embrace the Hanweir Militia Captain and focus on full-time humans. The following is what I have proxied up and will try to get some practice games in at a standard event tonight. Feedback welcomed!
You didn't add him for his Prowess potential right? Because if so, Veteran Warleader had more chance of seeing another Ally in my deck than for you to cast an instant!
You didn't add him for his Prowess potential right? Because if so, Veteran Warleader had more chance of seeing another Ally in my deck than for you to cast an instant!
Have fun, and give us some news!!!
Yeah, not for prowess, but value. On turn three, he can cough up a land as long as I remember not to play one first. As the value of his body goes down through the game, his ability gets better. I tried hard to convince myself that Honored Hierarch would fit, but I failed.
I was only able to get one game in against Jund. I did live the dream of attacking with Hanweir Garrison with Thalia's Lieutenant in play. But then Radiant Flames made me sad.
I'm still not happy with the mana. I really want to be able to have Canopy Vista or Cinder Glade enter untapped on turns 3 and 4, but I want another W source at least, and many more R sources to threaten to activate the meld. Maybe trade three Forests for a Battlefield Forge and a pair of Mountains.
I should be able to get more games in around the prereleases.
Maybe Thraben Inspector could give you the same "value" (card advantage) as Abbot of Keral Keep, but with more flexibility ? You get to decide when to sac the Clue and you can save that extra card for later if *now* isn't the best moment (you may have something better to play in hand when you reveal something with Abbot). Also, there is a synergy with the Tracker that shouldn't be ignored. And mostly, if you cut Red from your T2 requirements, you can focus your mana base on getting the White or Green mana you really need for that turn for the Lieutenant or the two Captains. Finally, without a T1 Human, you're basically making Thalia's Lieutenant a T3 because you normally don't want to cast it on an empty board, no?
Given the Colors requirements for this deck, I don't think Hanweir Battlements is a good addition, unless you go up to 25-26 lands. It was never my intent to even try to Meld with the Garrison. Playing the Battlements effectively cuts Colors out of the mana base, and tells you on top of that to play even more red (40%+, instead of 33%+). All that trouble for probably just a win-more that destroys one of your land, dies to Languish, Grasp of Darkness, Roast, Exquisite Firecraft, etc. (all things Ormendahl was immuned to).
Probably Ulvenwald Mysteries is a kid's dream too good to be true, but when I realised what multiples could do, that got me really excited. It may be unplayable because it's too slow in all cases, but... It's another Human tokens ressource that really benefits from the Tracker and Inspector, it's instant speed, it lets you trade with your non-token creatures while basically telling you "when one dies, pay 2 whenever you want (now or later) to draw a card and put a 1/1". With multiples, the maths are getting scary, and I don't know why this mechanic hasn't been used thus far :
With 2 Mysteries: One non-token dies, you get 2 Clues and 4 Human tokens 1/1 when you sac them.
With 3 : 3 Clues, 3 tokens per Clue. Total 9...
It's exponential!!! And with the Clues for Tracker or Inspector, you don't have to wait for one creature to die to get the machine rolling.
Edit : using Hypergeometric Calculator (http://stattrek.com/m/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx)...
- 9 Red mana sources in the deck : 79.4% chance of having a Red mana source on T3 if you're on the play (to play Garrison).
- 13 Red mana sources are required in the deck to get similar chances (80.1%) of having RR by turn 6 to activate the Meld (on the play).
So removing 2 colored lands from the deck while having to add 4 more Red sources is next to impossible while trying to maintain reasonable odds of having untapped W or G by T2 for your more important cards.
I haven't fixed the manabase yet, as I was waiting to know what exactly would be the requirements (which cards this deck would play). I'll do so soon, as I think we will soon be fixed.
The issue for me was that I started on the friendly colored lands for fixing. This drives using Evolving Wilds and lots of basics to try to have an untapped land on T3 (Garrison) and T4 (Company or Champion). Needing basics then means that the Shadow lands are not helpful. Since we are not primarily W or centered on W like Bant, this means Inspector can rarely be a T1 play. I am not terribly excited by a T2 Inspector. This is a question that I don't have a strong opinion on. I want to see the results of testing.
- 13 Red mana sources are required in the deck to get similar chances (80.1%) of having RR by turn 6 to activate the Meld (on the play).
So removing 2 colored lands from the deck while having to add 4 more Red sources is next to impossible while trying to maintain reasonable odds of having untapped W or G by T2 for your more important cards.
I appreciate your work with the Hypergeometric Calculator. I've basically memorized key numbers from Frank Karsten's work on Channelfireball.
However, you lost me when you then went to "next to impossible." The deck I proxied yesterday had 11 R sources. The changes I outlined move me up to 14 R sources, more than you suggest is necessary. What is "next to impossible" about the following manabase?
There are some additional considerations with Battlements:
If opponents play around it, they may give us more opportunities to set up
If opponents don't play around it, we can just kill them with it.
Even if removed, the 3/2 Horrors stick around
With 6 land in play, we may have land to spare
On a board where the opponent has no blockers, topdecking Garrison and giving it haste with Battlements is a lot of damage from nowhere.
Topdecking Champion and giving it haste is a decent life swing.
Playing CoCo is a gamble. At six mana and needing to win this turn, we could main phase CoCo and give something haste for the win.
Basically, I think it gives us a lot of play in addition to the fun factor.
As for the manabase, I also want to try using the enemy colored lands (Battlefield Forge, Needle Spires) and see how it works out. It may just be better.
Beyond that, if we can get to a 3 + colorless manabase with Evolving Wilds + a Wastes, that opens us to things like Reality Smasher in the sideboard. It may be worth considering.
Edit: As for Ulvenwald Mysteries, it seems slow and risky in a Dromoka's Command world, but wonderful if you can pull it off. By all means test it out!
Edit 2: Some goldfishing later, I think I want another land and more colored sources. I am going with a solution that drives the purists mad. I will do the Yuuki Ichikawa, but not the full Ben Rubin. I also think we need some early interaction and 2 drop beef. The following is what I will be testing on the side at prereleases:
Odds of having two or more basic lands by the end of turn 2 to play an untapped Battle Land on turn 3 (a critical turn for this deck) :
- 34%, only counting the 9 basic lands.
- 56%, with Evolving Wilds on T1 or T2.
- 28% (unsure about that one, old concept of union or intersection), with Evolving Wilds on T1 (40%) followed by a basic land on T2 (70%).
Of course, there are other ways of landing an untapped land on T3 or T4, but my guess is that the odds of doing that and also playing an untapped land of the right color on T2 or T3 are not that great.
To be honest, I don't know how the mana should be fixed. But my goal was to play T2 with untapped land and a source of W or G (for Lieutenant, Militia Captain or Hamlet Captain), an untapped R on turn 3 (for Garrison or Mage), and any other untapped land on T4. Just a guess :
4 Canopy Vista
4 Fortified Village
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
1 Plains
5 Mountains
I'll do the maths later, but odds of each color being on time are around 90%. Only the 2 Evolving Wilds always ETB tapped. The Fortified Village can look at 9 other Forest/Plains to ETB untapped, and the Canopy Vista can rely on 10 true basic lands to ETB untapped. Odds even are 47% of getting a Plains or Battlefield Forge on T1 + odds of revealing a Forest or Plains on a T1 Fortified Village are 70% (for Thraben Inspector). This mana base, however, requires that you have no need for R on T2 (Abbot), and certainly not RR on T6 (Battlement).
By all means, if it works for you, fine with me. But the odds just don't look good enough for me (to have a reliable T2-3-4).
I'm very tempted to replace Allies (Expedition Envoy, Veteran Warleader, Firemantle Mage) with Clue-Cards (Thraben Inspector, Tireless Tracker and Ulvenwald Mysteries). I'll have to test both before I decide. It feels one deck (Ally) is more aggressive (Warleader on CoCo is normally better than Tracker), with more synergy potential with the tokens (*/*) and some evasion (with Trample or Menace), while the other is more for the long game (with the Clues) and potential to get back on line after a Sweeper disconnects our Humans.
Maybe, just maybe, a transformational sideboard? To change from Allies to Clue-Cards, or vice-versa? On the play, Allies to get tempo and aggression. On the draw, Clue-Cards for the longer game. Opinions?
That seems like a good manabase. On the face of it, there are 9 lands that potentially get you to untapped W on turn 1. But there are only 9 ways for Fortified Village to enter untapped, which makes it less likely. Mostly I hate the Shadowlands because they will always be tapped when they are the last land. Your manabase seems really close to allowing WW, which opens up some powerful sideboard options.
In my version, a common play (since I have no 1 drops) is a Battleland on T1, which gives me two colors on T2. I think we need plays T2, T3 and T4. I can do that with tapped land, untapped land into two drop, tapped land into second two-drop or untapped land into three-drop, then three or four -drop. So far, it's been pretty reliable in goldfishing to have plays. The bigger problem has been having plays that affect the board by themselves, things that can trade with a Rabble or punch through a Knight Ally.
Seriously, though. I like your deck ideas and your approach to manabase development seems pretty good. I am interested in seeing what you decide to start testing with and how it evolves, so I can borrow and hopefully contribute.
Naya Humans is an aggressive midrange (or Tempo-Tribal-Combo? I don't even know. You tell me.) deck that wins with synergistic combinations of small creatures, sometimes deployed instantly. The deck is fundamentally built around abusing Hanweir Garrison, but there are so many overlapping synergies that it can win without it. I consider it midrange because three colors of mana is a bit of a cluster and the key card can't attack before turn 4. This is not an established archetype, so try this if:
Decklists
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Hamlet Captain
2 Hanweir Militia Captain
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
2 Eldrazi Displacer
4 Hanweir Garrison
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Tireless Tracker
2 Heron's Grace Champion
2 Archangel Avacyn
4 Collected Company
3 Dromoka's Command
Lands 16W13G13R11C
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Forest
2 Hanweir Battlements
1 Mountain
4 Plains
1 Wastes
1 Dragonmaster Outcast
1 Rending Volley
1 Dromoka's Command
2 Hallowed Moonlight
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Arlinn Kord
2 Heron's Grace Champion
1 Archangel Avacyn
2 Reality Smasher
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
2 Thraben Inspector
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Hanweir Militia Captain
3 Hamlet Captain
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
3 Tireless Tracker
3 Hanweir Garrison
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
Creatures 4-5 cmc (3)
1 Heron's Grace Champion
1 Archangel Avacyn
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
Planeswalkers (1)
1 Arlinn Kord
4 Collected Company
2 Dromoka's Command
2 Atarka's Command
Lands 16W-14G-13R (25)
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Fortified Village
2 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Battlefield Forge
5 Plains
3 Forest
1 Mountain
3 Lambholt Pacifist
2 Gryff's Boon
2 Declaration in Stone
2 Dromoka's Command
2 Atarka's Command
3 Heron's Grace Champion
1 Eldrazi Displacer
1 Arlinn Kord
1 Hanweir Militia Captain
1 Hanweir Garrison
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
1 Hamlet Captain
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Forest
1 Hanweir Battlements
3 Mountain
1 Needle Spires
6 Plains
Creature (25)
2x Dragonmaster Outcast
2x Duskwatch Recruiter
4x Hanweir Garrison
3x Hanweir Militia Captain
3x Knight of the White Orchid
4x Lambholt Pacifist
3x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4x Thalia's Lieutenant
2x Atarka's Command
4x Collected Company
2x Dromoka's Command
Enchantment (2)
2x Always Watching
2x Archangel Avacyn
1x Chandra, Flamecaller
2x Declaration in Stone
2x Dromoka's Command
2x Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2x Nissa, Vastwood Seer
2x Planar Outburst
2x Heron's Grace Champion
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Thraben inspector
2 Kytheon, Hero of Akros
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Knight of the White Orchid
4 Hamlet Captain
4 Hanweir Garrison
2 Heron's Grace Champion
3 Gryff's Boon
2 Always Watching
Spells
2 Atarka's Command
2 Declaration in Stone
Lands
4 Canopy Vista
3 Fortified Village
4 Battlefield Forge
3 Evolving Wilds
2 Hanweir Battlements
2 Game Trail
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Forest
1 Mountain
2 Plains
Note: 1 Evolving Wilds added to make 60 and improve fixing
Cards
Core cards are bolded
1 Drop
Dragonmaster Outcast: Pro - human, powerful in a board stall; Con - slow, fragile. Sideboard option against decks without much removal like Bant Company
Expedition Envoy: Pro - nice power for the cost, Ally synergies; Con - dies in a small breeze, how realistic is it to try to exploit Ally synergies in addition to Human synergies?.
Kytheon, Hero of Akros: Pro - powerful early play; Con - dies to Liliana, needs two other attackers to flip. Best in aggressive builds that can reliably attack with three creatures on turn 3.
Thraben Inspector: Pro - cheap, card advantage, decent flicker target; Con - not impactful in a board stall.
Town Gossipmonger: Pro - Human, aggressive power; Con - needs other early creatures for maximal effectiveness. Probably better in more aggressive builds. Worth testing.
2 Drop
Abbot of Keral Keep: Pro - conditional card advantage, can get buff from spells; Con - extremely conditional card advantage, dies super easily.
Den Protector: Pro - Sometimes a human, card advantage; Con - not good as a CoCo hit, slow. Sideboard option, good against control decks
Duskwatch Recruiter: Pro - card advantage, ; Con - expensive card advantage, no human benefits when flipped. Best against control decks for card advantage, but mana savings when flipped can be quite nice.
Hamlet Captain: Pro - conditional anthem; Con - doesn't buff self, just a bear without other creatures. Recommendation: This thing doesn't look like much, but it increases damage amazingly. Run 4
Hanweir Militia Captain: Pro - When flipped, it gets huge and spawns creatures that trigger Thalia's Lieutenant; Con - when do we get ahead enough to flip it? conditional. Good in board stalls, recommend at least 2 in 75, but main or side?
Knight of the White Orchid: Pro - Conditional ramp, first strike gets better with buffs; Con - hard to cast, doesn't really benefit much else.
Lambholt Pacifist: Pro - big, wears a counter really well; Con - sometimes can't attack, no human benefits when flipped.
Reckless Bushwhacker: Pro - anthem effect with a body that combines really well with Atarka's Command; Con - not a human, not good without a board and another cheap spell. Strong sideboard option for aggressive builds. Don't forget the leather jackat.
Selfless Spirit: Pro - good protection from R-based sweepers; Con - no human synergy, dies to Liliana.
Thalia's Lieutenant: Pro - gets huge, buffs other humans; Con - can just die to Liliana +. Run 4
3 Drop
Eldrazi Displacer: Pro - able to interact positively against Spell Queller, reset blockers, blow up tokens, knock counters off creatures, get ETB effects on demand; Con - mana-intensive, no human synergies, requires colorless mana, just a cheap hill giant without targets.
Hanweir Garrison: Pro - conditionally powerful; Con - forces R (seriously, if you don't value this card, run GW and have much better mana). Run 4
Thalia, Heretic Cathar: Pro - good against multicolor and creature decks; Con - dies easily. run 1-2 in Company versions
Tireless Tracker: Pro - card advantage!, can get huge; Con - dies easily, best as a 4-drop. run 3-4 if you are running Company.
4 Drop
Heron's Grace Champion: Pro - instant speed anthem can tilt combat math, lifelink can swing races, lifelink body continues to affect races; Con - not a CoCo hit, body is not huge for the cost.
5 Drop
Archangel Avacyn: Pro - ; Con - can wrath our own board.
Reality Smasher: Pro - a sudden, hard to remove beating; Con - not human, not a CoCo hit, needs colorless, expensive. Sideboard option for slower builds that can support colorless.
Sigarda, Heron's Grace: Pro - hard to kill, can prevent discard and burn affects, evasive; Con - expensive.
Gryff's Boon: Pro - cheap evasion that can recur, good for getting in those last few points of damage; Con - expensive revision is prone to being blown out.
Rending Volley: Pro - uncounterable cheap removal, good against Spell Quellers, other Spirits and Things; Con - highly conditional.
Atarka's Command: efficient anthem, burn, defense against flyers, ramp; amazing package, but is it better than Heron's Grace Champion overall? How many Collected Company misses can you afford? How many noncreature cards can you afford?
Declaration in Stone: Pro - can deal with Kalitas and other big creatures efficiently; Con - card disadvantage. I am likely incorrect to not be running it. Recommend at least 1 in the 75.
Dromoka's Command: Pro - conditional removal, increased creature size, enchantment removal; Con - removal in response is a blowout, useless without creatures, not good against hexproof, larger or deathtouch creatures.
Hallowed Moonlight: Pro - good vs dredge, CoCo, Ishkanah and cantrips; Con - doesn't advance our game plan.
Always Watching: Pro - another anthem; Con - not a CoCo hit, Dromoka's Command. Consider for non-CoCo aggressive builds.
Eerie Interlude: Pro - potential sweeper protection; Con - expensive, not a CoCo hit, heavily conditional.
Stasis Snare: Pro - Removal; Con - bad against Dromoka's Command.
Arlinn Kord: Pro - many helpful abilities; Con - slow, non-CoCo, not human.
Collected Company: Pro - Efficient for mana and card advantage, instant; Con - requires many (24+) small creatures, being a 4-drop makes it more midrange than aggressive. Remember to start siding these out if your 1-3 mana creature count drops with your sideboard plan.
Gideon, Ally of Zendikar: Pro - a real beating, often leaves a token even when removed, can be a permanent anthem; Con - hard to protect against Bant Company, not a CoCo hit, not very synergistic, hard to cast. Strong sideboard option against control.
Tragic Arrogance: Pro - powerful sweeper gets around Selfless Spirits; Con - runs counter to our game plan.
Hanweir Battlements: Pro - colorless source, giving haste is great, can meld with Hanweir Garrison; Con - doesn't help fixing. 1-2 recommended
Westvale Abbey: Pro - colorless source, can make more humans, Ormandahl[/card]; Con - doesn't help fixing, benefits are slow and conditional.
Sideboarding
This is just a list of cards that are recommended (or not) in particular matchups. Without knowing your exact deck, I can't recommend numbers
2 Thraben Inspector
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Hamlet Captain
4 Lambholt Pacifist
4 Hanweir Garrison
2 Tireless Tracker
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Archangel Avacyn
2 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
Instants (10)
4 Dromoka's Command
4 Incendiary Flow
2 Declaration in Stone
Lands 16W-14G-13R (25)
1 Westvale Abbey
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Fortified Village
2 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Battlefield Forge
5 Plains
3 Forest
1 Mountain
The set of removals is particularly good to prevent Emerge on the small creatures. Tireless Tracker is prone to an early game KoRe, but it helps digging for our removals. Also, opponent will probably telegraph you KoRe is about to be played. Check his lands : no red, that's green light for us. If there are, and open lands on turn 3 or 4, you can try to play around. Like : cast Lieutenant before combat to force opponent to cast KoRe before the trigger resolves. You'll lose many creatures, but you'll at least keep the new tokens after you attack with Garrison (otherwise you would have less board presence after KoRe).
No anthem saddens me a lot. But the real thing is that it's more important dealing with Temurge's early creatures.
Declaration in Stone is great dealing with Spider tokens (and opponent gets no Clue), and Emerged Eldrazi.
Videos
--------------------
Here's the original first post that started all this:
I don't know if this belongs here, or under [Proven] W/x Humans. Someone let me know if I should move it there (but it's so different!).
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Hanweir Militia Captain
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Duskwatch Recruiter
4 Veteran Warleader
4 Hanweir Garrison
2 Firemantle Mage
4 Heron's Grace Champion
Instants (6)
4 Collected Company
2 Atarka's Command
Lands (24)
4 Canopy Vista
4 Fortified Village
4 Game Trail
4 Cinder Glade
4 Battlefield Forge
4 Plains
The concept of this deck is to abuse CoCo with a different view on Humans and Allies, building a token army (Captain and Garrison) to feed the Generals (Lieutenant, Captain and Warleader), and the whole lot pumped by Lieutenant, Champion and Atarka's Command. CoCo is there to accelerate the process, Recruiter to dig the deck for combo pieces (or vomit our hand on the table once flipped ; no other deck can benefit more from this than this one, I think), Mage as a finisher once the board is set, and finally Envoy as not only an early aggressor and to make Lieutenant worthy to cast on T2, but also to support the Warleader and give him trample or first strike (Mage can do the same).
Note that Thalia's Lieutenant and Heron's Grace Champion both cheat in this deck : Whenever one or the other ETB, they're not granting the usual a +1/+1 to everything, but in fact +2/+2 to all the Generals (Lieutenant, flipped Captain, Warleader). Both can be done at instant speed to screw opponent's math (Champion has Flash and Thalia's Lieutenant can be hit with by CoCo).
Here's the best play :
T1 Expedition Envoy
T2 Thalia's Lieutenant, attack for 3 with Envoy
T3 Hanweir Garrison, attack for 5 with Envoy and Lieutenant
T4 Attack with everything (tokens boosting the Lieutenant), cast Heron's Grace Champion to support the cause (again boosting the lieutenant, and +1/+1 lifelink to the 5 creatures on the board), deal 17 damage and gain 17 Life. That's 25 damage total, and should close the deal).
Here's a slower but very impressive play :
T1 Expedition Envoy
T2 Hanweir Militia Captain, attack for 2
T3 Veteran Warleader
T4 Pass the turn, cast CoCo and get Hanweir Garrison and Thalia's Lieutenant (seeing one another, both will get a +1/+1 counter, as well as the 3 Humans already there)
T5 Flip Captain, cast Firemantle Mage (triggers Lieutenant and itself), attack with everything (with the 2 tokens feeding the 3 Generals) and support with Atarka's Command : Envoy is 4/3, flipped Captain and Warleader are both 10/10, Lieutenant is 4/4, Garrison is 4/5, the two tokens are 2/2 and all have Menace (and Warleader can get trample or first strike by tapping the Mage). Total of 36 damage and a lot of evasion.
So... What do you think? Any suggestion?
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
With only Duskwatch Recruiter and Veteran Warleader in play (both 2/2 bears, non-threatening), pass the turn on T4. Opponent might get greedy, expecting CoCo, and wait one more turn to cast Languish or Radiant Flames (and instead Read the Bones, or something like that). Let's not disappoint him and cast CoCo, getting both Hanweir heroes (Garrison and Militia Captain). On our turn, Flip Captain (Recruiter is already flipped), and cast Thalia's Lieutenant (for 1) and Expedition Envoy.
The non-sick board will look like this :
3/3 flipped Recruiter (wolf form unaffected by Lieutenant)
9/9 flipped Captain
9/9 Warleader
3/4 Garrison
1/1 token
1/1 token
(Total of 26/27)
And the fresh creatures are :
4/4 Lieutenant
2/1 Envoy
=== Attack for 26.
This should be enough to kill opponent (Envoy can be tapped to grant Trample on Warleader). Don't get greedy yourself, and save your Heron's Grace Champion (cost reduced to 3, if you land dropped on T5) or Attarka's Command (if you missed T5 land drop) for later, in case your attack fails (one 9/9 gets blocked, or worst : destroyed and output is reduced to 16). If so, cast one or the other, after opponent does something (Command : burn 3 + 21 damage ; or Champion : 22 damage).
Don't do so if you can't win right now, however. Instead, save Champion or Command for opponent's turn to save your Army from Languish or Radiant Flames.
End of turn you add a 1/1 Human token, and trigger Lieutenant (5/5). Unless you have Atarka's Command, take no chance and cast the Champion for 3 during opponent's upkeep before Recruiter reverts to his Human form. Some creatures will survive even Languish : 4/5 Garrison and 6/6 Lieutenant (or 7/7 with Champion instead of Command) will survive, thus saving Warleader and/or flipped Captain in the process (even if one of them died previous turn, the survivor should still be a 5/5 at worst with Command). Then you win next turn!
So pass the turn (T4) with 4/4 on the Battlefield, and win next turn with opponent at 20 Life, or the other turn even if the worst happens!
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Which deck do you think is the best between this one and my Naya Werewolves: http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/standard-type-2/deck-creation-standard/711722-naya-werewolves?page=2.
I want to play CoCo while it's still Standard legal, in my own brewed deck (no way I'm playing Bant and copy the work of others).
The Werewolf deck feels more resilient, but slower and less aggressive than the Human Army deck. I tend to prefer resiliency, to ensure all matchups are good matchups. But the aggressivity of the Human Army deck, and the synergy there, is very appealing to me (as well as the little reminder of the good old days with Allies).
Please comment and help me take a decision... thanks!
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Note that opponent's best play would probably be to destroy Hanweir Garrison before it attacks, and not the flipped Captain or Warleader. In that case, you'll attack for 15 with 3 creatures, but still win if unblocked with Atarka's Command (burn 3 + 3 x +1/+1). If you don't have the Command, and instead the Champion, wait for next turn. The Captain's Human token will trigger the Lieutenant at the end step (now 3/3), but the Champion will bring him to 5/5 so he can survive Languish. The Warleader and flipped Captain will survive too (3 creatures, one +1/+1 counter each, and +1/+1 bonus to all Humans until end of turn) so you can attack for 12 and win next turn (3 x 4/4, even if you play no other cards).
Please don't quadruple post. If you made a mistake on a prior post, you can use the edit button on the bottom right. -- Lugger
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
I just want to CoCo into Hanweir Garrison and Thalia's Lieutenant, then swing, maybe using Atarka's Command.
That said, I'm not clear about how to contribute to this thread.
What do you want? I see the following possibilities:
What I want is a thread that tries to build a community around Naya CoCo builds. If we find that we have too many people going in too many directions (first world problems!) we can always schism later. There are many ways to go: Humans, Allies, Hamlet Captain, Thraben Inspector ... My thought is that we define what we think are the Core cards (for me: CoCo, Garrison, Thalia's Lieutenant) then let testing determine the rest of the deck.
I have been playing Bant Humans extensively lately, so I could give you feedback based on that experience in the old meta. I could also share my current vision for a Naya Human Company deck. What do you want?
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I'm still looking for advices however on which deck to chose, but this discussion doesn't belong (and not anywhere else, according to the Moderator). You can PM if you have an opinion about the two decks. Thanks.
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
I have overlooked Hamlet Captain. This guy may take the place of Duskwatch Recruiter, and get a nice bonus on our Humans (and multiples stack!). Hit this guy with CoCo on attack or defense, and you should never be disappointed.
So, yes, let's build a community around the Human Ally variant!
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
C Long Live Eldrazi C
At the risk of outing myself as a total suck-up to the admins, I would like to point you toward the "I need help deciding what to play" thread in the Standard section. It's awkward. There are all these random ways things are done around here, but newer people may not have run across them ...
Speaking of being a total suck-up to the admins, adding red reminders to posts has got to be the most boring thing imaginable. Please pardon me for suggesting that we edit our posts unless there is an intervening post or at least a day has passed since our previous post.
Cool. Let's do this!
Here's what I was thinking (the numbers and sideboard are arbitrary at this point):
4 Thraben Inspector
4 Lambholt Pacifist
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
3 Duskwatch Recruiter
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Hanweir Garrison
2 Hamlet Captain
Creatures 4cmc/Flash (2)
2 Heron's Grace Champion
Instants (8)
4 Collected Company
2 Atarka's Command
2 Dromoka's Command
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Forest
1 Fortified Village
1 Game Trail
1 Hanweir Battlements
3 Mountain
3 Plains
1 Westvale Abbey
1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
1 Hanweir Militia Captain
1 Reckless Bushwhacker
1 Hallowed Moonlight
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
1 Declaration in stone
1 Dromoka's Command
1 Atarka's Command
1 Angelic Purge
1 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
While I am not convinced about the Ally subtheme, I am not sure it's not brilliant. I am just skeptical, pending further testing . If you do use an ally subtheme, I would consider Lantern Scout for the sideboard.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Thanks for asking. I have played the deck again a few times at FNM, with average results. I think I got lazy playing it, like on auto-pilot. Certainly not as focused as I was during the Super Series at GP Toronto (I clearly was in a higher state of mind and concentration back then), and often made a lot of mistake because I just didn't calculated my moves and played on instinct (which is bad). And failed too many times killing my opponent and going for the final attack but short of 1-2 damage (should have waited one more turn, or whatever, because I had the right cards but played stupid). Bottom Line : I need a new challenge!
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
If I were doing a deck like that, I would probably cut the G and make a Boros deck. You could get rid of a bunch of tapped lands, mana issues and maybe even bring back Always Watching.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
I don't think it would be reasonable. It's one thing playing 18 Plains in a mono White deck that plays with 1-2 cmc creatures. It's another thing when there's 3 Colors to cover, and the need to get to 4 lands in 4 turns for CoCo is there.
Using hypergeometry (http://stattrek.com/m/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx), you can see that the odds of hitting at least 4 lands in 4 turns while on the play (10 cards) are 63% with 24 lands, and only 34-44% with 18-20 lands. Even at 24 lands, you're likely to get mana short one game out of 3. It's still a lot, but considering that the odds are 79% of getting 3 lands in 3 turns (where is the action in this deck), I'm comfortable having to wait to turn 5-6 once in a while.
And frankly, even 24 lands, it's a headache getting the right lands composition to get high probabilities of the right color at the right time (White on turn 1, Green on turn 2 and Red on turn 3, all untapped in due time).
Conclusion : Absolutely no. Even going down to 23 lands would make me nervous (of being color screwed or mana short).
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Yes. Against certain decks (burn will make a come back), Lantern Scout is a serious Sideboard option.
I have thought about Lambholt Pacifist, but decided to cut him from the deck. He's just a 3/3 bodyguard that adds nothing to the overall strategy. Certainly fat, but not synergistic (compared to Hamlet Captain, for example). He may give us time needed to get things working but Hamlet Captain just reduces the time it takes to get the end result. The same reasoning is true for Duskwatch Recruiter (now that Hamlet Captain became a better option).
About Tireless Tracker : She's good, and can stand on her own. But she thrives on more than 24 lands. See above post for odds of landing a 4th land on T4. Card slots are better used with synergistic cards with the main strategy, to avoid losing time and mana to dig your deck to get the 5th land. To bring her in with effectiveness, the land count would have to go up to 26. Yuk.
I prefer the concept of auto feeding the strategy with the free tokens from Hanweir Militia Captain (get him with CoCo end of opponent's turn and he'll almost always insta-flip on your upkeep), who'll receive a nice boost from the token, while also boosting the power of Veteran Warleader and Thalia's Lieutenant. Free tokens + */* creatures or Lieutenant is the magical synergy I was looking for. But by all means, if you're looking for something else and it works for you, go for it!
Speaking of */*... There's Kolaghan Forerunners I've been looking at that would fit nicely in the sidedeck against Control. Haste for extra and faster damage, bounce the card in hand for some protection, while also repeatedly triggering Thalia's Lieutenant.
Finally, Firemantle Mage is aggressively supporting everything by cutting the number of blockers in half, ROUNDED DOWN. With tokens everywhere, there will come a time (T5-6) where opponent has no choice but losing 2 creatures blocking your big fat */*s. Inevitability comes next...
So, yes, I strongly beleive Human Allies should have a place in this deck. And thus why I prefer the aggressive Expedition Envoy over Thraben Inspector.
I'm eager to test the deck and will post the results here.
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
I am at 26 competitive matches with Bant Humans. I have run the Militia Captain both main and side. He has not been a consistent or instant auto-flip for me. He seems to be strictly sideboard material in my experience. That is also why I am leery of the Ally subtheme. I am looking to use a minimum of cards that depend on synergy beyond the humans. You already have the Lieutenant, the Garrison, the Militia Captain, the Hamlet Captain and others that are not Allies. I fear that the few times you can assemble Ally synergies, it will be either win-more or your opponents will remove key pieces. Thraben Inspector always provides value. Expedition Envoy seems conditionally okay pending testing.
Just my two cents. But the key question is what you want. Is this an Ally thread for your deck or a Naya Human Army thread for multiple people working on overlapping concepts? Just let me know. I can easily stop bothering you.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
No, you're not bothering me. And you are right, this thread is about Naya Human Army, not Ally. I just think that there is a nice synergy to exploit for those few Allies that are also Humans. About the Firemantle Mage : I don't need the trigger more than once (the turn where I win). The Veteran Warleader would appreciate the presence of another Ally to Trample, but he's not as picky as the Lantern Scout who absolutely wants to see a new friend to trigger. The Warleader will use the new friend, but will continue benefiting from an Ally already on the Battlefield (he's the only one that re-uses Allies). So with 9 other Ally in the deck, it should be possible just having another one within 5-6 turns.
Your experience with Bant Humans is invaluable for this thread, and I take seriously your opinion about Hanweir Militia Captain. He looks good on paper, but if you've tested him with CoCo and he's not good, that's a serious set back to the strategy I had in mind.
Do you think Tireless Tracker can perform on 24 lands?
Edit : Could the Militia Captain be easier to trigger with the Garrison? And a Flash Human? Maybe he's better in this environnent than he was in Bant...
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
On Tireless Tracker
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Edit: Ulvenwald Mysteries? It's slow, I admit, but it has great synergy with Tireless Tracker and Thraben Inspector. Against Control or Midrange, just save the Clues for later, and after you get sweeped, come back with card advantage and lots of token at instant speed. Maybe in the Sideboard?
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
4 Hamlet Captain
4 Hanweir Militia Captain
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Tireless Tracker
4 Hanweir Garrison
Creatures 4cmc/Flash (4)
4 Heron's Grace Champion
4 Collected Company
2 Atarka's Command
Lands (24)
4 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
2 Hanweir Battlements
3 Mountain
3 Plains
2 Arlinn Kord
3 Eerie Interlude
4 Hallowed Moonlight
4 Dromoka's Command
2 Sigarda, Heron's Grace
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
You didn't add him for his Prowess potential right? Because if so, Veteran Warleader had more chance of seeing another Ally in my deck than for you to cast an instant!
Have fun, and give us some news!!!
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
Yeah, not for prowess, but value. On turn three, he can cough up a land as long as I remember not to play one first. As the value of his body goes down through the game, his ability gets better. I tried hard to convince myself that Honored Hierarch would fit, but I failed.
I was only able to get one game in against Jund. I did live the dream of attacking with Hanweir Garrison with Thalia's Lieutenant in play. But then Radiant Flames made me sad.
I'm still not happy with the mana. I really want to be able to have Canopy Vista or Cinder Glade enter untapped on turns 3 and 4, but I want another W source at least, and many more R sources to threaten to activate the meld. Maybe trade three Forests for a Battlefield Forge and a pair of Mountains.
I should be able to get more games in around the prereleases.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
Given the Colors requirements for this deck, I don't think Hanweir Battlements is a good addition, unless you go up to 25-26 lands. It was never my intent to even try to Meld with the Garrison. Playing the Battlements effectively cuts Colors out of the mana base, and tells you on top of that to play even more red (40%+, instead of 33%+). All that trouble for probably just a win-more that destroys one of your land, dies to Languish, Grasp of Darkness, Roast, Exquisite Firecraft, etc. (all things Ormendahl was immuned to).
Probably Ulvenwald Mysteries is a kid's dream too good to be true, but when I realised what multiples could do, that got me really excited. It may be unplayable because it's too slow in all cases, but... It's another Human tokens ressource that really benefits from the Tracker and Inspector, it's instant speed, it lets you trade with your non-token creatures while basically telling you "when one dies, pay 2 whenever you want (now or later) to draw a card and put a 1/1". With multiples, the maths are getting scary, and I don't know why this mechanic hasn't been used thus far :
With 2 Mysteries: One non-token dies, you get 2 Clues and 4 Human tokens 1/1 when you sac them.
With 3 : 3 Clues, 3 tokens per Clue. Total 9...
It's exponential!!! And with the Clues for Tracker or Inspector, you don't have to wait for one creature to die to get the machine rolling.
Edit : using Hypergeometric Calculator (http://stattrek.com/m/online-calculator/hypergeometric.aspx)...
- 9 Red mana sources in the deck : 79.4% chance of having a Red mana source on T3 if you're on the play (to play Garrison).
- 13 Red mana sources are required in the deck to get similar chances (80.1%) of having RR by turn 6 to activate the Meld (on the play).
So removing 2 colored lands from the deck while having to add 4 more Red sources is next to impossible while trying to maintain reasonable odds of having untapped W or G by T2 for your more important cards.
I haven't fixed the manabase yet, as I was waiting to know what exactly would be the requirements (which cards this deck would play). I'll do so soon, as I think we will soon be fixed.
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
I appreciate your work with the Hypergeometric Calculator. I've basically memorized key numbers from Frank Karsten's work on Channelfireball.
However, you lost me when you then went to "next to impossible." The deck I proxied yesterday had 11 R sources. The changes I outlined move me up to 14 R sources, more than you suggest is necessary. What is "next to impossible" about the following manabase?
1 Battlefield Forge
4 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
1 Forest
2 Hanweir Battlements
5 Mountain
3 Plains
There are some additional considerations with Battlements:
As for the manabase, I also want to try using the enemy colored lands (Battlefield Forge, Needle Spires) and see how it works out. It may just be better.
Beyond that, if we can get to a 3 + colorless manabase with Evolving Wilds + a Wastes, that opens us to things like Reality Smasher in the sideboard. It may be worth considering.
Edit: As for Ulvenwald Mysteries, it seems slow and risky in a Dromoka's Command world, but wonderful if you can pull it off. By all means test it out!
Edit 2: Some goldfishing later, I think I want another land and more colored sources. I am going with a solution that drives the purists mad. I will do the Yuuki Ichikawa, but not the full Ben Rubin. I also think we need some early interaction and 2 drop beef. The following is what I will be testing on the side at prereleases:
4 Abbot of Keral Keep
1 Duskwatch Recruiter
2 Hamlet Captain
4 Hanweir Militia Captain
1 Lambholt Pacifist
4 Thalia's Lieutenant
4 Hanweir Garrison
2 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
4 Tireless Tracker
Creatures 4cmc/Flash (4)
4 Heron's Grace Champion
4 Collected Company
2 Dromoka's Command
Lands (25 13W 14G 14R)
2 Battlefield Forge
4 Canopy Vista
4 Cinder Glade
4 Evolving Wilds
2 Forest
2 Hanweir Battlements
4 Mountain
3 Plains
2 Dromoka's Command (W/r Humans, Mono-U Prison?, Company, GW Tokens)
1 Duskwatch Recruiter (W/r Humans, Control)
1 Lambholt Pacifist (W/r Humans, Company, GW Tokens)
3 Hallowed Moonlight (Company)
3 Eerie Interlude (Control)
1 Savage Alliance (Spirits, W/r Humans on the draw?, GW Tokens?)
2 Arlinn Kord (Control)
2 Sigarda, Heron's Grace (Control, Company)
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.
- 34%, only counting the 9 basic lands.
- 56%, with Evolving Wilds on T1 or T2.
- 28% (unsure about that one, old concept of union or intersection), with Evolving Wilds on T1 (40%) followed by a basic land on T2 (70%).
Of course, there are other ways of landing an untapped land on T3 or T4, but my guess is that the odds of doing that and also playing an untapped land of the right color on T2 or T3 are not that great.
To be honest, I don't know how the mana should be fixed. But my goal was to play T2 with untapped land and a source of W or G (for Lieutenant, Militia Captain or Hamlet Captain), an untapped R on turn 3 (for Garrison or Mage), and any other untapped land on T4. Just a guess :
4 Canopy Vista
4 Fortified Village
4 Battlefield Forge
2 Evolving Wilds
4 Forest
1 Plains
5 Mountains
I'll do the maths later, but odds of each color being on time are around 90%. Only the 2 Evolving Wilds always ETB tapped. The Fortified Village can look at 9 other Forest/Plains to ETB untapped, and the Canopy Vista can rely on 10 true basic lands to ETB untapped. Odds even are 47% of getting a Plains or Battlefield Forge on T1 + odds of revealing a Forest or Plains on a T1 Fortified Village are 70% (for Thraben Inspector). This mana base, however, requires that you have no need for R on T2 (Abbot), and certainly not RR on T6 (Battlement).
By all means, if it works for you, fine with me. But the odds just don't look good enough for me (to have a reliable T2-3-4).
I'm very tempted to replace Allies (Expedition Envoy, Veteran Warleader, Firemantle Mage) with Clue-Cards (Thraben Inspector, Tireless Tracker and Ulvenwald Mysteries). I'll have to test both before I decide. It feels one deck (Ally) is more aggressive (Warleader on CoCo is normally better than Tracker), with more synergy potential with the tokens (*/*) and some evasion (with Trample or Menace), while the other is more for the long game (with the Clues) and potential to get back on line after a Sweeper disconnects our Humans.
Maybe, just maybe, a transformational sideboard? To change from Allies to Clue-Cards, or vice-versa? On the play, Allies to get tempo and aggression. On the draw, Clue-Cards for the longer game. Opinions?
1st, GP Toronto Sunday Super Series 2016 : Ally Company RWBG
Top 8, PPTQ Shadows over Innistrad : Boros Humans WR.
Use a hypergeometric calculator for your deckbuilding maths,
and use TopDecked to manage your decks and collection on your Apple or Android device.
In my version, a common play (since I have no 1 drops) is a Battleland on T1, which gives me two colors on T2. I think we need plays T2, T3 and T4. I can do that with tapped land, untapped land into two drop, tapped land into second two-drop or untapped land into three-drop, then three or four -drop. So far, it's been pretty reliable in goldfishing to have plays. The bigger problem has been having plays that affect the board by themselves, things that can trade with a Rabble or punch through a Knight Ally.
Seriously, though. I like your deck ideas and your approach to manabase development seems pretty good. I am interested in seeing what you decide to start testing with and how it evolves, so I can borrow and hopefully contribute.
RNA Standard: Grixis Midrange, Jund Deathwhirler, Sultai Vannifar
GRN Standard: Red Midrange, Mono-Blue Tempo, Wr Aggro, Gruul Experimental Dinosaurs, Sultai Midrange, Jeskai Midrange
Modern: Bant Spirits
Forcing a single archetype in all formats: too many colors, bad mana.