An old deck, reanimated by the new Kaladesh standard, adding even more synergies to the Allies tribal gameplan.
Old Cards
New Cards
The deck's shell is Orzhov (B/W). From there it can be taken to Abzan (BGW) or Mardu (BRW), depending on how you would like to build the deck. Abzan taking the deck down a more midrange path with more creatures and larger creatures that are hard to deal with. And Mardu, taking the deck down a more aggro path, focusing more on creatures with lower converted mana cost and swinging through for large amounts of damage each turn.
Synergistic - This deck doesn't often have bad opening hands due to the synergies in the deck. This falls off a little more when you add a third color, but they offer different win conditions
Safe - Most of the game you will be above your opponent in life, they will have to swing in for large amounts of damage to kill you, if they make it to mid/late game anyways.
Fast - This deck can go extremely fast if the draws are correct.
Scaling - This deck, even though fast, can scale in to late game extremely well with Smuggler's Copter as a cycle engine to fix your hand, as well as much of the life gain that is fluent in the deck
Proven - This type of deck has been proven to be strong before. In BFZ standard and OGW standard, this deck has been relevant with strong cards to help support it. It lost some cards through rotations, but now that we are in to Kaladesh standard there are 2 FANTASTIC new cards that fit very well in to the deck, although they are not allies
Why you might not want to play this deck.
There are a lot of triggers to go through in this deck, and it is hard to make sure you catch them all. As well as a large board that can fill up your area. These kinds of deck may annoy people, but have not been an issue for me at all. I have changed from B/W Planeswalkers (Control) to this deck (Aggro/Midrange) in the new standard and I couldn't be having more fun.
How we win!
The name of the game is life-gain. Our goal is to swing through early as well as pinging their face the entire game while, in turn, healing ourselves. This deck has a lot of unavoidable damage for the opponent which can be very devastating and scary for anyone to deal with.
Kalastria Healer is the most powerful card in your deck by far. This is the card that is dealing the most damage and changing the game the most. He lifesteals every time an Ally OR HIM enter the battlefield. Most cards in this deck share synergy with Kalastria Healer, INCLUDING ITSELF.
With that being said, here they are:
- This card is a fantastic followup to Kalastria healer because it activates it's ability as well as adding a deterrent to removal on the board.
- Another fantastic followup to Kalastria Healer as well as synergizing well with Drana, Liberator of Malakir. If equipped to Kalastria Healer or another card on board, Captain's Claws not only adds a +1/+0 counter, it also summons a 1/1 ALLY tapped and attacking for a total of 2 added damage as well as summoning an ally for Kalastria Healer's ability. It feels really great equipping it to a creature with Zulaport Cutthroat out as well for the creature death synergy because most of the time, they want to block the 1/1
- Drana doesn't have too much added synergy with Kalastria Healer as other cards. She is an Ally which will activate Kalastria Healer's ability. But she in and of herself is just fantastic to have out with other creatures on board. If Drana can hit face reliably, then it can automatically buff ALL ATTACKING CREATURES BEFORE DAMAGE IS DEALT due to her First Strike
- This card works great in the deck, activating Kalastria Healer's ability, as well as adding on to the game-plan of life-gain. She is also a flyer which helps for added evasion damage to face. She baits removal a lot due to her unconditional ability. Which is great for us, because she is only at a 3 drop and our other creatures help make our game a lot faster
- This card has great synergy with Kalastria Healer and is put in this deck mostly for the Healer alone. It works great with activating extra triggers on Kalastria Healer by bouncing him or any other allies. It can also save your creatures from single target all the way up to board wipe removal at instant speed.
- This card is just fantastic overall for the deck. While Gideon fails at synergizing with the human decks with his +0 loyalty ability, he succeeds here. Due to the fact that he creates a 2/2 white Knight ALLY. This will activate Kalastria Healer's ability. His +1 and -4 are always just absolutely solid in creature decks so it just makes sense to have him here. ADDED NOTE: You can use Ally Encampment's ability to bounce Gideon in his +1 as he is an ALLY while a creature.
- This card shares one of the best synergies with the deck in that every instance in which you gain life, you also ping their face for 1 damage. This works with Night Market Lookout, Shambling Vent, Zulaport Cutthroat, Kalastria Healer, Kambal Consul of Allocation, and Drana's Emissary.
- Last, but sure as hell not least, is March from the Tomb. This card shares synergies with most of the cards in this deck, mainly Kalastria Healer. Because if you can March from the Tomb back x4 Kalastria Healers, you lifesteal for 16 because THEY SEE EACH OTHER ENTER THE BATTLEFIELD. Have a Cliffhaven Vampire out on the battlefield? That's 32 damage. 2? 64. I'm sure you get the picture. Decks want to remove your Kalastria Healers early, but there is not much they can do when you flash them all back from your graveyard. This can also get back all of your other allies obviously but the goal is to have Kalastria Healer out or in your graveyard to help out with the initial damage from just casting the spell. Reminder, these cards do not leave the battlefield after, so you get to keep them. HURRAY!
Sideboard mentions: Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - Kalitas works great in this deck, but didn't get a mainboard slot due to not being an ally high up on the curve. But he is added in to the sideboard because of his usual value and because he can actually sacrifice Kalastria Healer, Drana's Emissary, Cliffhaven Vampire, and Drana, Liberator of Malakir for his ability. And these can all be brought back later with March from the Tomb. Bloodbond Vampire - Bloodbond Vampire is mostly a replacement for Cliffhaven Vampire. This card works great with all of the life-gain we have in our deck. Most of the time coming out on turn 4 as a 4/4 due to Kalastria Healer. She is a great large body, but lacks impact in the main, so is put in to the sideboard as a replacement if the Cliffhaven is too slow or the evasion is unnecessary.
We will be talking mostly about the 2 aforementioned cards in this Primer that are new in Kaladesh and added to the deck, but adding discussion to the sideboard.
- At first glance this card doesn't look great. But in fact, it is. This card is a perfect crew target for Smuggler's Copter as well as a great equip body for Captain's Claws. It is also procing our Cliffhaven Vampire. This card fuels our game-plan and has multiple synergies in the deck.
- The big daddy of the new set, Smuggler's Copter of course had to make it in to the deck. The card is fantastic, adding hand cycling to improve synergies for our tribal plan. It gives us a 3/3 flying body that can only be removed at instant speed, if they even want to remove it over our allies. Equipment works great on flying bodies and this is no different, adding 1 more damage in the air and one on the ground while adding an ally to the battlefield is great synergy. MOST OF OUR CREATURES ARE TOO WEAK TO SWING. This is the big kicker that put this card in the deck. A lot of our cards are ones that we want to keep, because they all provide synergies. So, instead, we crew with our weak Kalastria Healer, Zulaport Cutthroat, Night Market Lookout, etc. and swing for more damage in the air while allowing our weaker cards to keep applying synergy to our following draws.
Sideboard Mentions: Authority of the Consuls - This card is great for our deck, adding a nice wall to prevent their larger creatures from blocking ours on the turn they come out as well as giving us life that we always love to have. Fragmentize - We are not weak to too many decks, but I think one match we falter in is the Aetherworks Marvel matchup. With them gaining a lot of life, it's hard for us to kill them with our small numbers. This card easily removes it and many of the other new artifacts in the set that are dangerous to deal with, so it is great sideboard removal for decks based around artifacts or enchantments. Kambal, Consul of Allocation - This card is almost too obvious. It is a great card that counteracts removal and other noncreature spells many people want to cast nowadays. It lifesteals for 2 rather than 1 like most of the rest of our deck adding for some great damage. At a 2/3 body he is not bad at deterring even more removal.
I want to make a brief smaller section specifically about this card. This card is fantastic in this deck, but if countered it can be fatal. Planning your game around this card is not always the best option because you won't always draw it for one, and two, it can be countered by many of the noncreature counter spells because it is high up on the curve making it difficult for us to pay the 1/2 mana costs to cancel the counter spells. But if cast with good value is one of the best cards in the deck. It is good to play around it, but don't make that the only thing you are building for your whole game.
We are only going to be talking about a few cards in this section because most of our deck is just that, allies.
- This card is a staple right now in instant removal and I think it is our best choice amongst all of the removal that we have to pick from coming from B/W. We can let creatures attack us no problem because of all of the life we gain. But, it is nice to have a few options for the larger cards in the format that are harder to deal with for our deck.
- This card is not an ally, but it is FANTASTIC for our deck. It can bounce any number of allies we want and keeps them safe from removal until the next end step. Fantastic card, should definitely play it, almost like a smaller March from the Tomb.
- This is a sideboard option for us due to the fact that Emrakul, Ulamog, and the like are trolling around in standard right now. We need something get rid of these cards, and keep them exiled. With G/B Delerium and other decks with fantastic, large permanents, this card is fantastic for permanently ridding the game of that card at the cost of 3 life, which is nothing to us because of our lifegain. There are obviously more targets than just creatures and this works great at removing them.
Green - If you want to add this color, know you will want to change the deck in to more of a midrange shell, capitalizing on Sylvan Advocate and Veteran Warleader or even big green non-allies like Nissa or Verdurous Gearhulk. And even adding in creature lands.
- This is the biggest reason to splash green, this card is FANTASTIC. And many people seem to forget Sylvan Advocate is AN ALLY. So all of the synergies the rest of the deck has been getting will be given to Sylvan Advocate as well.
- Another great reason to add green. This card capitalizes on the amount of creatures we have and can even tap weak allies to give himself 3 different abilities any amount of times in one turn as he wants.
- Arguably the second best creature land, behind Shambling Vent in my opinion. This card is great added in to a green shell. Providing a great deathtouch blocker for anything wanting to attack face. It also gets buffed by Sylvan Advocate!
Red - If you are wanting to add red you are going to want to mostly due away with the lifegain as a win condition because you will want to be adding fast creatures and some burn to the deck to be able to kill the opponent quickly.
- This card is an ally. This card is really fast. This card will kill your opponent. The goal is to get as many creatures out as you can and rush down their fast. Reckless Bushwacker will help you do exactly that. When he comes it to play, he will trigger ally synergies and then give all of your creatures +1/+0 until end of turn and haste if payed for it's surge cost (usually happens).
I don't have too much experience with these colors and will be experimenting more with Mardu and what cards work great with it. I would definitely probably want to go in to more of an equipment/ally deck adding in Reckless Bushwacker for innate amounts of damage. R/W would also probably be another option.
Abzan - No current Deck List
Mardu - No current Deck List
This deck is extremely fun, but don't be fooled. This deck is extremely competitive in the current standard and I believe it can be taken to larger tournaments than just FNM but I haven't experimented outside of friendly testing and FNM to this point. If you do end up taking it farther, please let me know.
I would love to hear all of the input, good and bad, from everyone to see what they think of my new deck. Like I said, it is based heavily on an older deck in an older standard but I believe it has been revived in the new standard with great new cheap cards.
Eerie Interlude exchanged for Anguished Unmaking because we need more removal and Anguished is great for our deck. The life cost is minimal in our deck with the life-gain we get.
Eldrazi Displacer
Live Fast
Panharmonicon
Aether Hub
I'm not a big fan of Drana in this shell as you aren't really trying to win through combat damage, and I wonder if Kabal wouldn't be better for that 3 spot drop even without having synergy with allies.
I see where you are coming from, but if my only game plan is to tick down life I will lose. All they will need to do is kill Kalastria healer and much of my synergy is gone. So I believe Drana is great for being able to create a threat, that is usually instantly removed anyways, to fly over for large amounts of damage, buffing my creatures I would usually not attack with.
Kambal is usually what I side in for Drana though so I agree with you there. In matches where I have no hope of getting through with Drana, I switch to Kambal and create more lifesteal synergy.
I considered Displacer but overall Eerie Interlude is better because you can bounce any number of creatures, where displacer only gets one for the 3 mana. And his body isn't an ally so it doesn't help me out too much in terms of board presence.
Live Fast is a great card and I think it would fit in to this deck if my goal wasn't to kill them fast (kind of ironic). I need Smuggler's Copter and Night Market Lookout for early aggression and damage before Delirium gets their big creatures or other aggro decks beat me down. And I believe that is what slots Live Fast would try to take because it would take it down a more controlling route because of it extending the game extra turns.
I REALLY wanted to put Panharmonicon in this deck and I think it would be pretty decent in a ping only shell. But I realized that the only ability Panharmonicon is really doubling is Kalastria Healer's ability, which is just too linear of a path if I want this deck to win competitively. I wanted to put Aether Hub in but I realized that sometimes it was a disadvantage for me over just basics. I only run 2 colors so mana fixing is easy, especially with Ally Encampment. And I have no energy theme in the deck to warrant any other play.
These were just my thoughts on these cards anyways. I recently just hit over 50 games with this deck and it's performing better than I thought it would.
Updated with more paper play, I still really want to run Panharmonicon but I just feel like there aren't any spots that can open up and it doesn't do too much without our deck.
Thoughts on vampire envoy? Ally, big butt, crewing will gain you a life, or equip captain's claws to have a 2/4 flyer that gains you life and creates an ally token when you attack
thalia's lieutenant seems quite strong for a plan B. You also don't lose much by running her, as you mentioned you don't want to be all in on the combo and excluding kambal you have at least 8 other humans already.
drana, liberator of malakir feels incredible weak. She's not punching in until turn 4 and between ishkanah, all of UW flash, and copter she's not going to triggering enough to survive that crucial first combat.
giddeon, ally of zendikar let's you hit kalastria triggers each turn. Importantly though, the equipment is just that much stronger with him.
Something that supports a wide theme seems incredibly important for cutthroat to stand alone if you can't hit the healer. Maybe something along the lines of some of the fabricate guys. angel of invention works pretty well with cutthroat in that if you fabricate for tokens they have to remove cutthroat first before board clearing you. If they remove the angel you are still wide and gumming up the ground. Your 1/1 dudes are pretty much just better devil tokens at that point for this strat. If Kambal is already out it's just all sorts of awkward for the other side of the table lol.
For a sac outlet, hmmm not sure here. I mean bone splinters or vampiric rites feel mediocre. We want something repeatable to respond to combos. Like, eerie interlude in response to something to reset the field and trigger the ETBs and then sacrifice the field to drain them out. With a very anemic board state you could get drains upwards of 10+. Untap and march from the tomb for lethal.
I don't think kalitas, traitor of ghet is a huge deal since you are pretty much only using march as a 2nd or 3rd wincon. flaying tendrils is cheap and wide enough to really slow you down though. It's a very strong card vs this strat if you can't outgrow it with nissa/lieutenant.
Vampire Envoy seemed to want to slide it to the slot that Drana's Emissary was already in and I ended up choosing Drana's Emissary over it because the inevitability of the card over the needed tap on Vampire Envoy. I even removed Drana's Emissary though because the 1 health tick just isn't frequent/strong enough.
Thalia's Lieutenant seems like it wouldn't combo with enough stuff in this deck to be the really influential card you would need it to be to be in the slot.
But I do enjoy the addition of Stoneforge Masterwork because it sounds like it would do something similar to what Thalia's Lieutenant would want to be doing. I will definitely need to try a version of the deck with it in it.
I think I actually agree with you on Drana, Liberator of Malakir but only because of the consistency of the large decks in the format like G/B Delirium. I do want it in the sideboard though because it just does so well against the aggro decks in the format right now. I replaced it with 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, took out a March from the Tomb, and added 2 Stoneforge Masterwork.
I was trying Abzan before B/W and it just didn't seem strong enough without Siege Rhino. The creature base is good with Sylvan Advocate but it seemed like Bant and G/B were just out-boarding me with creatures and I didn't really stand a chance.
Mardu equipment allies sounds fantastic and I want to try it out once I get a chance. Sounds like a great budget option for this deck.
We will see how these new additions work out, I'll keep you updated. I really liked the suggestions.
I don't play much Standard, but I ran a similar list for Eldritch Moon Game Day and had fun with it.
Pretty set on the main deck, but the sideboard is more iffy. Am thinking of swapping out Accursed Witch for Sorin, Grim Nemesis. Seems like a good fit for the life-gain / life-drain plan, just not crazy about the 6 CMC...
Cool deck idea. 18 creatures is really light for this sort of strategy, especially when 12 only have 1 toughness. Equipment and anthem cards like always watching need several creatures to utilize them. It looks like you'll never get through a sylvan advocate or an avacyn. I would try adding lone rider as it benefits from the life gain and is great with a drana on the field. Ayli, Eternal Pilgrim is great in this type of strategy and gives you a sac outlet if you wanna mass drain with cutthroats. Since your creatures are so inefficiently costed being 1/1 for 2 and 2/4 for 4, I would say you have to go as full into the drain synergy as possible.
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New Cards
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Why should you play this deck?
Why you might not want to play this deck.
There are a lot of triggers to go through in this deck, and it is hard to make sure you catch them all. As well as a large board that can fill up your area. These kinds of deck may annoy people, but have not been an issue for me at all. I have changed from B/W Planeswalkers (Control) to this deck (Aggro/Midrange) in the new standard and I couldn't be having more fun.
How we win!
The name of the game is life-gain. Our goal is to swing through early as well as pinging their face the entire game while, in turn, healing ourselves. This deck has a lot of unavoidable damage for the opponent which can be very devastating and scary for anyone to deal with.
Early game is for putting out your synergistic allies (Kalastria Healer, Zulaport Cutthroat) and early aggro (Night Market Lookout, Smuggler's Copter, and Captain's Claws). Use these cards to steal the enemy's life and create early pressure on the board, while baiting early removal for Zulaport Cutthroat. Use the Smuggler's copter to either discard allies for March from the Tomb or cards that are no longer necessary (Night Market Lookout and Smuggler's Copter)
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Specifics
With that being said, here they are:
- This card is a fantastic followup to Kalastria healer because it activates it's ability as well as adding a deterrent to removal on the board.
- Another fantastic followup to Kalastria Healer as well as synergizing well with Drana, Liberator of Malakir. If equipped to Kalastria Healer or another card on board, Captain's Claws not only adds a +1/+0 counter, it also summons a 1/1 ALLY tapped and attacking for a total of 2 added damage as well as summoning an ally for Kalastria Healer's ability. It feels really great equipping it to a creature with Zulaport Cutthroat out as well for the creature death synergy because most of the time, they want to block the 1/1
- Drana doesn't have too much added synergy with Kalastria Healer as other cards. She is an Ally which will activate Kalastria Healer's ability. But she in and of herself is just fantastic to have out with other creatures on board. If Drana can hit face reliably, then it can automatically buff ALL ATTACKING CREATURES BEFORE DAMAGE IS DEALT due to her First Strike
- This card works great in the deck, activating Kalastria Healer's ability, as well as adding on to the game-plan of life-gain. She is also a flyer which helps for added evasion damage to face. She baits removal a lot due to her unconditional ability. Which is great for us, because she is only at a 3 drop and our other creatures help make our game a lot faster
- This card has great synergy with Kalastria Healer and is put in this deck mostly for the Healer alone. It works great with activating extra triggers on Kalastria Healer by bouncing him or any other allies. It can also save your creatures from single target all the way up to board wipe removal at instant speed.
- This card is just fantastic overall for the deck. While Gideon fails at synergizing with the human decks with his +0 loyalty ability, he succeeds here. Due to the fact that he creates a 2/2 white Knight ALLY. This will activate Kalastria Healer's ability. His +1 and -4 are always just absolutely solid in creature decks so it just makes sense to have him here. ADDED NOTE: You can use Ally Encampment's ability to bounce Gideon in his +1 as he is an ALLY while a creature.
- This card shares one of the best synergies with the deck in that every instance in which you gain life, you also ping their face for 1 damage. This works with Night Market Lookout, Shambling Vent, Zulaport Cutthroat, Kalastria Healer, Kambal Consul of Allocation, and Drana's Emissary.
- Last, but sure as hell not least, is March from the Tomb. This card shares synergies with most of the cards in this deck, mainly Kalastria Healer. Because if you can March from the Tomb back x4 Kalastria Healers, you lifesteal for 16 because THEY SEE EACH OTHER ENTER THE BATTLEFIELD. Have a Cliffhaven Vampire out on the battlefield? That's 32 damage. 2? 64. I'm sure you get the picture. Decks want to remove your Kalastria Healers early, but there is not much they can do when you flash them all back from your graveyard. This can also get back all of your other allies obviously but the goal is to have Kalastria Healer out or in your graveyard to help out with the initial damage from just casting the spell. Reminder, these cards do not leave the battlefield after, so you get to keep them. HURRAY!
Sideboard mentions:
Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet - Kalitas works great in this deck, but didn't get a mainboard slot due to not being an ally high up on the curve. But he is added in to the sideboard because of his usual value and because he can actually sacrifice Kalastria Healer, Drana's Emissary, Cliffhaven Vampire, and Drana, Liberator of Malakir for his ability. And these can all be brought back later with March from the Tomb.
Bloodbond Vampire - Bloodbond Vampire is mostly a replacement for Cliffhaven Vampire. This card works great with all of the life-gain we have in our deck. Most of the time coming out on turn 4 as a 4/4 due to Kalastria Healer. She is a great large body, but lacks impact in the main, so is put in to the sideboard as a replacement if the Cliffhaven is too slow or the evasion is unnecessary.
- At first glance this card doesn't look great. But in fact, it is. This card is a perfect crew target for Smuggler's Copter as well as a great equip body for Captain's Claws. It is also procing our Cliffhaven Vampire. This card fuels our game-plan and has multiple synergies in the deck.
- The big daddy of the new set, Smuggler's Copter of course had to make it in to the deck. The card is fantastic, adding hand cycling to improve synergies for our tribal plan. It gives us a 3/3 flying body that can only be removed at instant speed, if they even want to remove it over our allies. Equipment works great on flying bodies and this is no different, adding 1 more damage in the air and one on the ground while adding an ally to the battlefield is great synergy. MOST OF OUR CREATURES ARE TOO WEAK TO SWING. This is the big kicker that put this card in the deck. A lot of our cards are ones that we want to keep, because they all provide synergies. So, instead, we crew with our weak Kalastria Healer, Zulaport Cutthroat, Night Market Lookout, etc. and swing for more damage in the air while allowing our weaker cards to keep applying synergy to our following draws.
Sideboard Mentions:
Authority of the Consuls - This card is great for our deck, adding a nice wall to prevent their larger creatures from blocking ours on the turn they come out as well as giving us life that we always love to have.
Fragmentize - We are not weak to too many decks, but I think one match we falter in is the Aetherworks Marvel matchup. With them gaining a lot of life, it's hard for us to kill them with our small numbers. This card easily removes it and many of the other new artifacts in the set that are dangerous to deal with, so it is great sideboard removal for decks based around artifacts or enchantments.
Kambal, Consul of Allocation - This card is almost too obvious. It is a great card that counteracts removal and other noncreature spells many people want to cast nowadays. It lifesteals for 2 rather than 1 like most of the rest of our deck adding for some great damage. At a 2/3 body he is not bad at deterring even more removal.
- This card is a staple right now in instant removal and I think it is our best choice amongst all of the removal that we have to pick from coming from B/W. We can let creatures attack us no problem because of all of the life we gain. But, it is nice to have a few options for the larger cards in the format that are harder to deal with for our deck.
- This card is not an ally, but it is FANTASTIC for our deck. It can bounce any number of allies we want and keeps them safe from removal until the next end step. Fantastic card, should definitely play it, almost like a smaller March from the Tomb.
- This is a sideboard option for us due to the fact that Emrakul, Ulamog, and the like are trolling around in standard right now. We need something get rid of these cards, and keep them exiled. With G/B Delerium and other decks with fantastic, large permanents, this card is fantastic for permanently ridding the game of that card at the cost of 3 life, which is nothing to us because of our lifegain. There are obviously more targets than just creatures and this works great at removing them.
Red - If you are wanting to add red you are going to want to mostly due away with the lifegain as a win condition because you will want to be adding fast creatures and some burn to the deck to be able to kill the opponent quickly.
Extras
4 Ally Encampment
4 Concealed Courtyard
5 Plains
4 Shambling Vent
6 Swamp
1 Blighted Fen
Creatures (20)
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Kalastria Healer
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
3 Drana, Liberator of Malakir
3 Cliffhaven Vampire
4 Smuggler's Copter
3 Captain's Claws
Removal (4)
2 Immolating Glare
2 Anguished Unmaking
Spells (5)
2 Always Watching
3 March from the Tomb
Planeswalkers (2)
2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
3 Authority of the Consuls
4 Fragmentize
2 Kambal, Consul of Allocation
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
2 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghet
3 Bloodbond Vampire
Abzan - No current Deck List
Mardu - No current Deck List
I would love to hear all of the input, good and bad, from everyone to see what they think of my new deck. Like I said, it is based heavily on an older deck in an older standard but I believe it has been revived in the new standard with great new cheap cards.
Changelog:
Eldrazi Displacer
Live Fast
Panharmonicon
Aether Hub
I'm not a big fan of Drana in this shell as you aren't really trying to win through combat damage, and I wonder if Kabal wouldn't be better for that 3 spot drop even without having synergy with allies.
Kambal is usually what I side in for Drana though so I agree with you there. In matches where I have no hope of getting through with Drana, I switch to Kambal and create more lifesteal synergy.
I considered Displacer but overall Eerie Interlude is better because you can bounce any number of creatures, where displacer only gets one for the 3 mana. And his body isn't an ally so it doesn't help me out too much in terms of board presence.
Live Fast is a great card and I think it would fit in to this deck if my goal wasn't to kill them fast (kind of ironic). I need Smuggler's Copter and Night Market Lookout for early aggression and damage before Delirium gets their big creatures or other aggro decks beat me down. And I believe that is what slots Live Fast would try to take because it would take it down a more controlling route because of it extending the game extra turns.
I REALLY wanted to put Panharmonicon in this deck and I think it would be pretty decent in a ping only shell. But I realized that the only ability Panharmonicon is really doubling is Kalastria Healer's ability, which is just too linear of a path if I want this deck to win competitively. I wanted to put Aether Hub in but I realized that sometimes it was a disadvantage for me over just basics. I only run 2 colors so mana fixing is easy, especially with Ally Encampment. And I have no energy theme in the deck to warrant any other play.
These were just my thoughts on these cards anyways. I recently just hit over 50 games with this deck and it's performing better than I thought it would.
drana, liberator of malakir feels incredible weak. She's not punching in until turn 4 and between ishkanah, all of UW flash, and copter she's not going to triggering enough to survive that crucial first combat.
Stoneforge masterwork is quite strong with captain's claws in this shell.
giddeon, ally of zendikar let's you hit kalastria triggers each turn. Importantly though, the equipment is just that much stronger with him.
Something that supports a wide theme seems incredibly important for cutthroat to stand alone if you can't hit the healer. Maybe something along the lines of some of the fabricate guys. angel of invention works pretty well with cutthroat in that if you fabricate for tokens they have to remove cutthroat first before board clearing you. If they remove the angel you are still wide and gumming up the ground. Your 1/1 dudes are pretty much just better devil tokens at that point for this strat. If Kambal is already out it's just all sorts of awkward for the other side of the table lol.
For a sac outlet, hmmm not sure here. I mean bone splinters or vampiric rites feel mediocre. We want something repeatable to respond to combos. Like, eerie interlude in response to something to reset the field and trigger the ETBs and then sacrifice the field to drain them out. With a very anemic board state you could get drains upwards of 10+. Untap and march from the tomb for lethal.
I don't think kalitas, traitor of ghet is a huge deal since you are pretty much only using march as a 2nd or 3rd wincon. flaying tendrils is cheap and wide enough to really slow you down though. It's a very strong card vs this strat if you can't outgrow it with nissa/lieutenant.
I ran a list before SOI hit that was an Abzan drain build with beastcaller savant, sylvan advocate, siege rhino and coco with your same core. I think I even had shaman of the pack in there so coco and rally were just brutal gobs of life drain. It was a fun deck but conventional rally was just better. woodland wanderer is still an amazing card with beastcaller savant.
If you go mardu the I think the equipment subtheme is too strong to ignore. weapons trainer seems particularly juiced with lieutenant.
But I do enjoy the addition of Stoneforge Masterwork because it sounds like it would do something similar to what Thalia's Lieutenant would want to be doing. I will definitely need to try a version of the deck with it in it.
I think I actually agree with you on Drana, Liberator of Malakir but only because of the consistency of the large decks in the format like G/B Delirium. I do want it in the sideboard though because it just does so well against the aggro decks in the format right now. I replaced it with 2 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar, took out a March from the Tomb, and added 2 Stoneforge Masterwork.
I also ended up taking Always Watching out and added 2 Angel of Invention.
I was trying Abzan before B/W and it just didn't seem strong enough without Siege Rhino. The creature base is good with Sylvan Advocate but it seemed like Bant and G/B were just out-boarding me with creatures and I didn't really stand a chance.
Mardu equipment allies sounds fantastic and I want to try it out once I get a chance. Sounds like a great budget option for this deck.
We will see how these new additions work out, I'll keep you updated. I really liked the suggestions.
3 Expedition Envoy
4 Kalastria Healer
3 Kor Bladewhirl
4 Zulaport Cutthroat
4 Drana's Emissary
2 Lantern Scout
2 Vampire Envoy
2 Cliffhaven Vampire
Spells (14)
2 Always Watching
2 Immolating Glare
2 Grasp of Darkness
2 Captain's Claws
3 Anguished Unmaking
2 Eerie Interlude
1 Gideon, Ally of Zendikar
4 Ally Encampment
4 Concealed Courtyard
5 Plains
3 Shambling Vent
6 Swamp
2 Harsh Scrutiny
2 Transgress the Mind
2 Fragmentize
2 Blessed Alliance
2 Statis Snare
2 Visions of Brutality
2 Accursed Witch
1 Kalitas, Traitor of Ghent
I don't play much Standard, but I ran a similar list for Eldritch Moon Game Day and had fun with it.
Pretty set on the main deck, but the sideboard is more iffy. Am thinking of swapping out Accursed Witch for Sorin, Grim Nemesis. Seems like a good fit for the life-gain / life-drain plan, just not crazy about the 6 CMC...