I am light on red mana, I have 6 fetches and one taiga. Why my manabase is structured this way is because if I am hard casting Imperial Recruiter more than once I am probably losing the game. My current build is more set up around resolving the combo, I don’t don’t have the same ability to grind out games like your deck does. By eschewing Shardless Agent and Deathrite Shaman I lose the ability to really get the beatdown on and stretch for that extra damage as well as getting additional card advantage. But what I get by having my deck built this way is consistency in the combo, and a streamlined deck configuration for game 1.
The reason that I am not running a single mountain is because I have no way to fetch it beside Veteran Explorer. I don’t ever really want to see a mountain in my opening hand as it can’t cast anything besides Imperial Recruiter which as a creature to hard cast in legacy is pretty underwhelming.
The Polluted Deltas however don't fetch your taiga, so for the purposes of red mana, you only have 4 fetches. On that note, how essential are the Polluted Deltas for getting your mana to work? Would you still be okay if you were to do something like replace them with Verdant Catacombs (perhaps 1 forest + 2 polluted delta --> 3 verdant catacombs)?
And yeah, I can see why you deprioritized red for your build. I do think it's reasonably important to have access to nonetheless. I know I fairly often end up casting a recruiter (fetching another recruiter) simply to be able to flashback cabal therapy to clear the way.
And that makes sense for what your strategy is. Your build straddles the fence between being this midrange value deck and a combo deck. I get the feel that you’re looking for the incremental value gains first and if the combo comes up or you can stick an Aluren then you can go crazy. If you don’t its not a big deal because you still have this 2-1 as a primary plan.
My build is much more combo focused and Oracle and Explorer overlap a lot while the strix has enough separation between role and function of Explorer. I was going to try a split between Strix and Oracle I am just not sure if it should be 3/2 Oracle or 3/2 Strix, I will probably start with three Oracle but might move to three Strix just to find what feels right. Strix is much better in the Delver matchup though which is pretty prevalent around here.
Yeah, you have a pretty good read on things. I definitely am very comfortable leaning on that 2-for-1 value midrange plan fairly hard. I definitely still jam the Turn3 kill when I have it, but my build is aimed at created a strategic dissonance for opponents where they can combat either the combo or the ground plan, but the answers to one rarely line up against the other (for example: Force of Will is pretty okay verses the combo, but it's really bad verses the rest of the deck).
I can definitely respect going with a heavier weight on Strix in your build. I don't think you're getting the same level of value that I am on the Oracle since you're packing the explorer package, so pumping up the strix number seems pretty reasonable.
That seems really slow, but cool. I think I would just run two Towers with her to facilitate turning her on as birthing pod just seems really cute. I would probabaly have to rework the whole deck though and I don't think it is worth it.
Yeah, I discarded it because it was looking too slow to be worth devoting the slots.
Even without Pod though, she introduces problems. If you look at my list, I used to run one savannah over the second underground sea back when I was splashing white. I could only afford a single copy of her if I were to run her, so that would mean that I needed to tutor for her with recruiter more often than not. This is a blessing and a curse since allowing Recruiter to tutor Aluren is nice, but at the same time, we're spending 7 mana for something that is foiled by countermagic, stifle, discard (because I probably wasn't going to have 7 mana to do it all in one turn), and grave hate (both DRS and RIP). Getting foiled by ALL hate was pretty rough. Worse, it required me to have stable support on BOTH splashes at the same time. I have a pretty stable manabase, but needing to have all 5 colours on as few as 4 lands meant I had very exacting needs that were potentially impossible if I didn't draw the right fetches or enough of them.
I think she might have been worth trying to support before RTR came out, but with both RIP and DRS seeing increased prominence, I don't think she's worth it.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
[quote from="Rampart »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/legacy-type-1-5/developing-legacy/181886-primer-aluren?comment=86"]
The Polluted Deltas however don't fetch your taiga, so for the purposes of red mana, you only have 4 fetches. On that note, how essential are the Polluted Deltas for getting your mana to work? Would you still be okay if you were to do something like replace them with Verdant Catacombs (perhaps 1 forest + 2 polluted delta --> 3 verdant catacombs)?
Oh, there might be some confusion with my manabase. My first post was what I played at the PIQ, but I have a revised list of changes below that not in a deck box thing. I have the following Manabase currently and it has been fine so far.
And yeah, I can see why you deprioritized red for your build. I do think it's reasonably important to have access to nonetheless. I know I fairly often end up casting a recruiter (fetching another recruiter) simply to be able to flashback cabal therapy to clear the way.
I fully expect that I have only one use of the Taiga because its not long for this world. I did recur it with an Eternal Witness at the PIQ which was sweet, because it allowed me to flashback Cabal Therapy on the same turn too.
And that makes sense for what your strategy is. Your build straddles the fence between being this midrange value deck and a combo deck. I get the feel that you’re looking for the incremental value gains first and if the combo comes up or you can stick an Aluren then you can go crazy. If you don’t its not a big deal because you still have this 2-1 as a primary plan.
[quote]Yeah, you have a pretty good read on things. I definitely am very comfortable leaning on that 2-for-1 value midrange plan fairly hard. I definitely still jam the Turn3 kill when I have it, but my build is aimed at created a strategic dissonance for opponents where they can combat either the combo or the ground plan, but the answers to one rarely line up against the other (for example: Force of Will is pretty okay verses the combo, but it's really bad verses the rest of the deck).
For Sure, Just curious but before you came to Aluren did you play other mid-rangy decks in legacy? Also you stated that you had experience with Living Wish. What are you thoughts on those builds?
For Sure, Just curious but before you came to Aluren did you play other mid-rangy decks in legacy? Also you stated that you had experience with Living Wish. What are you thoughts on those builds?
This is the primary midrangy deck that I've played extensively in this format. I'm normally not a fan piloting them. This one has, for whatever reason, resonated with me (I suppose the Wild Pair deck I played in nascent Modern bears some similarities though). For context, my background with this format looks something like this (and I've actually got most all of these still built):
Enchantress (GWr Replenish with heavy prison focus, was my first deck in the format)
Spiral Tide (Mostly stock, but some tinkering and spice)
Spanish Inquisition (Stock list acquired from Bread Connoisseur)
Aluren (I'll elaborate on versions below)
Solidarity (see here)
Lands (both RG and RUGx, but I'm still getting the hang of it)
Greg Hatch's Mono Blue Martyr (because sometimes you just feel like a troll)
I've also got Maverick pseudo-built (I own all the cards, but have it sleeved up with proxies due to card overlap), but it was mostly to be able to loan to a friend. I think I've played all of 6 games with it.)
So to summarize: I've got a lot of previous experience with combo decks and prison decks in Legacy. Not so much on the midrange front.
Now, in Aluren specifically, I've played around with a couple styles, and in general they've been iterative. All had DRS and reasonably similar manabase approaches unless otherwise noted.
1. BUG(wr) Imperial Aluren with Living Wish -- This incorporated a very versatile wishboard. The problem was that wish was always too slow. Normally any answer you wished for would end up costing 5 mana total, so you'd inevitably tempo yourself out. Wish was seriously only good when you hit it with Shardless Agent. This build also really suffered from not running mainboard answers to resolved problem cards. Lastly, the lands and duplicated combo pieces in the sideboard for wish to hit meant that you were inadvertently were less versatile overall because you had fewer SB slots.
2. BUG(wr) Imperial Aluren -- Dropped living wishes from the above, added abrupt decays and then started toying around with numbers. The Savannah was awkward more than I want to admit and it was really a godsend when we got Reclamation Sage. I stuck with the white splash longer than I should have due to Orzhov Pontiff in the SB.
3. BUG(r) Imperial Aluren -- This is where I am now. Dropping white gave me access to the second Underground Sea and my mana overnight became infinitely more stable. I'm still agonizing over whether I actually need the second basic forest or if Edric is the best possible use of that last spot in the main, but I must admit that I'm pretty happy with where I am now.
4. Shardless BUG Hybrid Aluren -- This has been an ongoing thought experiment for me that I've been toying with on Cockatrice rather than building in paper. I'm still not sure if it's any good. The concept is that the midrange game plan is pretty solid and already and that it essentially mirrors the gameplan of Shardless BUG. Accordingly it's possible to just embrace that and simply become Shardless BUG with a deprioritized Aluren parallel gameplan. This reincorporates Living Wish, but it's got tarmogoyfs on the ground to minimize the tempo hit and a full playset of shardless agent which in turn maximizes the chance of free-casting wish. Intended kill is Harpy looping Shardless Agent until it hits living wish and then using wish to grab Parasitic Strix.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I've been toying around with a build attempting to shore up my delver match-ups. The concept is that the key might be to maximize guaranteed 2-for-1s and limit the mana requirements postboard to lessen the mana needs and allow us to run a little tighter on lands (thus reducing the amount of terminal mana flood).
I'm not super happy with it. I've been hitting some bad beats in testing, sure, but it feels like just generally less flexible and versatile.
The sideboard gets a bit wierd, but the concept is to board down to 1 aluren and maybe opposition postboard verses delver. I've been trying boarding out a recruiter as well to lessen the amount that we get hurt by wasteland on a red source.
Opposition has been interesting. It's more vulnerable than Aluren (because of the existence of REB and Pyroblast), but it does some really dirty things. I'm not sure yet that it's worth keeping, but it's been pretty strong when I've drawn it in the mid game.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I played in the monthly CFB 1k yesterday. I chickened out and ran something close to my traditional list instead of the "delver must die" version posted above that I've testing on 'trice. I feel a lot more comfortable with the more versatile traditional list, and it played okay over the weekend.
Meekstone was never relevant at any point. Pernicious Deed and BBE were spectacular all day and I think are a better direction to go for further testing for solving the Delver match-up than the variant I'd posted above.
My notes aren't the best for the reconstruction of matches, so all of this is from memory. If any of my opponents is browsing this and catches a mistake, by all means feel free to pop in and let me know.
R1: BUG delver (0-2)
This one was a heartbreaker. Two very long grindy games with Dark Confidant doing great work for him in both. Even so, in both games, I was a single draw phase away from executing the combo with no remaining resistance, and had been a topdeck away for multiple turns on end despite being dreadfully behind in every metric for evaluating the game state. Interestingly, he was playing Tasigur alongside Bob. This was good and bad for me. On the one hand, my Dream Stalkers were able to demonstrate their fearless prowess in blocking. On the other hand, it was additional card advantage, immune to Decay, difficult to Deed away, and he never flipped them to Bob.
R2: UR Delver (2-1)
I make a stupid punt in G1 and fetch into an obvious Stifle after he led with Scalding Tarn. I think he saw bayou or taiga and maybe DRS from me before I scooped on T3 or 4. This was amusing because I'm pretty sure he put me on Jund. Game 2 he fetched double basic mountain and a basic Island, fearing wasteland. I think I killed him with the combo on Turn 4. Game 3 I spotted a monastery swiftspear in his opener due to the weird way he picked up his hand after the mulligan. He led with Delver, I therapied the swiftspear, killed the delver, and then proceeded to dominate until I combo'd through a swan song in his grip along with a very tense therapy where I needed to guess if he had FoW or Daze and if he had one and I guessed wrong, I'd have been in a rough spot (he had neither ).
R3: UWR Delver with Swiftspears (2-1?)I honestly can't remember what my record was here. I kinda think I must have lost game 1, and if so, this was probably the one where I essentially jammed "must counter" threats for ~5 turns in a row and he happened to topdeck the countermagic to keep up until I died; Aluren was countered something like 3 times. He had Monastery Swiftspears alongside a Monastery Mentor in the main (and an additional Mentor in the side). I won game 2 by bleeding his countermagic with sweet value ***** like Bloodbraid Elf until I resolved Aluren. I peek with therapy on FoW before going for it and see a Stifle. I wait a turn, he plays a land or dude or something irrelevant, and I draw the parasitic strix that I'd left on top. I cast strix, it resolves. I sac it to therapy, take the stifle, and combo off, this time ending with E. Wit to grab strix back to execute the kill. The Deathrites, E.Wit, and Therapies apparently make him decide that he really wants grave hate against me. He boards in multiple RIP and I stick a DRS and nab a brainstorm with therapy, seeing the two RIP. He's mana screwed with a Tundra and Wasteland (that he can't crack because he needs the mana), so I move into "I swear this actually isn't a bad limited deck" mode and beat down with double DRS, Scavenging Ooze, and assorted 1/1s and 2/2s. I was able to contain his threats for the rest of the game.
R4: Aggro Loam (2-1)
In game 1 I think played played chalice at one against my double DRS draw. I don't think I played anything until Turn 4 when I killed him. Yay basic lands. In game 2, he slaughter games'd aluren when he had punish fire going with Liliana (Fires backing up Liliana essentially forces me to need to win by combo). In game 3 I kill his threats with Decay and Pernicious Deed as my BBE snipes Liliana and beats down laughing at the abrupt decay in his hand.
R5: Burn (0-2)
The first time I've lost a match to burn.
I can make excuses here in that I drew kinda rough and wasn't hitting much of the interaction, combo, or lifegain that that I would hope for, but while those may be true, it would be a disservice to attribute the loss to those and not respect the care and quality of play from my opponent. I'd been talking with him previously and he was making sure he understood what openings he did or did not have in the match. He played very well, properly gauged when to kill my stuff and leveraged his deck to the greatest possible shot at victory. It was a good match.
R6: Grinding Station (2-1)
He goes for 14 Goblins early in G1 and my DRS couldn't find the food with which to keep up. I had seen this player's previous match and he was packing Pack Rat in the SB ( ). I boarded in Deed to keep me covered verses Rats and goblin tokens in addition to my normal combo board plan. I won via lethargic beats in G2 with double FoW in hand. I tutored for Edric to convert my recruiter in hand to a blue card to be able to pitch, and when he didn't present a need to FoW in his turn, I went for edric. He stalled a turn with chain of vapor, then edric stuck and ran away with the game as he is wont to do. Game 3 saw me therapy him turn 1, whiffing, but seeing Tutor, PiF, Pyroclasm, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal and like ponder. I lead coiling oracle on turn 2, flip a land, play DRS, and therapy the tutor by sac'ing oracle. I FoW the Pyroclasm that he casts of Land + Lotus Petal (probably a bit gutsy to FoW here, but I liked having the onboard hate for PiF). I proceed to flood out, but it's okay since DRS is being a complete beast. I eventually stick baleful strix to speed up my clock (lol) and draw into edric. He helps me by thoughtseizing my hand of all lands. He decides once wasn't enough and follows up with a repeat a couple turns later, this time with Duress. Edric eventually draws me out, but really the entire game was all just DRS and and Therapy. At 4 life, he goes for it, leading with cabal ritual. I eat the ritual in response to PiF (taking him to 2). This is crucial as it forces him to only tendrils me for 10 life. I eat PiF next turn. he draws and casts infernal tutor. I eat tendrils, he scoops.
So I lost to burn, but went 2-1 verses delver decks, so I'm not totally disappointed. Also, I have to admit that 5-0 (and an ID), 5-1 (and an ID), and 4-2 is a fairly reasonable series of showings -- regardless of my wounded pride at not running it back a third time
I also only boarded out the second Forest in two matches, and it was crucial on a couple occasions for playing through hate, so I felt a bit better about it.
The new build I'm testing based on this tournament's experiences looks something like this:
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I think going 14-3 in matches is a pretty good, that's basically over 80% match win percentage which is really high for legacy.
In Round 6: doesn't your opponent die if you deathrite him? you state earlier that he is at 2 life?
I picked up your build two weeks ago and gone 5-1 in my last two weekly events. I think its really tight, I have found that I hate force of will though and have cut it for main deck Thoughtseize and I still prefer the 3rd Strix over the 3rd Oracle, Makes the delver matchup slightly better imho as deathtouch is really good
Do you find that you use Eldric much? Every time he comes down he forces a concession for me, but I always wonder if it was another shardless agent that it would be better.
I think going 14-3 in matches is a pretty good, that's basically over 80% match win percentage which is really high for legacy.
I am kinda fudging there by only including rounds from the swiss
In Round 6: doesn't your opponent die if you deathrite him? you state earlier that he is at 2 life?
That entire sentence was rife with typos (my fault for multitasking while writing it).
The DRS activation took him to two from four when I ate the cabal ritual (this would be the other typo since I originally wrote therapy >.< ). I'll go back and fix it to avoid confusion.
I picked up your build two weeks ago and gone 5-1 in my last two weekly events. I think its really tight, I have found that I hate force of will though and have cut it for main deck Thoughtseize and I still prefer the 3rd Strix over the 3rd Oracle, Makes the delver matchup slightly better imho as deathtouch is really good
My meta is fairly combo-heavy, so I like having access to FoW mainboard. I definitely board them out frequently though. If you're not normally needing to block you opponents from comboing, I could see Thoughtseize/Duress/the 4th Abrupt Decay being better in the main. I'm not sure I'd ever want to cut FoW from the 75. Also, I tend to feel that it's not really ever bad since you'll happily hardcast it or even pitch-cast to stop something like Liliana or Jitte from coming down.
Regarding Strix verses Oracle, I think it's totally reasonable to flip the 2-3 distribution to favour strix. Depending on how much I fear my delver match-up in the coming months before Seattle, I may follow suit.
Do you find that you use Eldric much? Every time he comes down he forces a concession for me, but I always wonder if it was another shardless agent that it would be better.
Edric does some pretty big work in your combo match-ups as a way to lock out the game. Decks like Storm and Omnitell have a strong grinding game, and Edric just closes that door on them before it even opens (once you escape the early turns of the game). He's also fairly good in any other match-up where you can land him and immediately swing (this actually makes his value go up if you increase the strix count). If he just draws 2 cards before eating removal, it was a great exchange for you, and if he sticks for more than a turn cycle you can't lose.
All that being said, if you wanted to cut Edric, he should become either Shardless Agent, Sedraxis Alchemist, or Reclamation Sage, so opting for an Agent there is pretty reasonable and I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with such a change if you try it.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I think going 14-3 in matches is a pretty good, that's basically over 80% match win percentage which is really high for legacy.
I am kinda fudging there by only including rounds from the swiss
Sure, I am aware of that and there is a whole set of other factors that skewer those numbers too. Still doesn't change the fact that winning 3/4 four matches is really good in legacy given that amount of random that you can see.
In Round 6: doesn't your opponent die if you deathrite him? you state earlier that he is at 2 life?
That entire sentence was rife with typos (my fault for multitasking while writing it).
The DRS activation took him to two from four when I ate the cabal ritual (this would be the other typo since I originally wrote therapy >.< ). I'll go back and fix it to avoid confusion.
I figured something like that, it did seem weird to have you exile cabal therapy though, I thought maybe he had a Xantid swarm out or something of the like that would have generated extra storm.
I picked up your build two weeks ago and gone 5-1 in my last two weekly events. I think its really tight, I have found that I hate force of will though and have cut it for main deck Thoughtseize and I still prefer the 3rd Strix over the 3rd Oracle, Makes the delver matchup slightly better imho as deathtouch is really good
My meta is fairly combo-heavy, so I like having access to FoW mainboard. I definitely board them out frequently though. If you're not normally needing to block you opponents from comboing, I could see Thoughtseize/Duress/the 4th Abrupt Decay being better in the main. I'm not sure I'd ever want to cut FoW from the 75. Also, I tend to feel that it's not really ever bad since you'll happily hardcast it or even pitch-cast to stop something like Liliana or Jitte from coming down.
My Meta is too, but FOW has played out to be very lackluster. FOW has to really go right if your going to block your opponent from comboing with this deck. You only have 3 maindeck and the fourth in the board and no other counter support so you have to really hinge on the right configuration of opening hands. You only have brainstorm as a cantrip, so you cant dig to it efficiently as the tempo or combo decks because you lack ponder or probe. The only deck that it played well agaisnt was Storm, and they stripped it 85% of the time anyway, actively passing my Aluren up because it was too slow. Its also just awful in the fair matchups. What I do think I miss thought is forcing through my Aluren to win.
I am not saying FOW is wrong, but I do think there is other options like thoughtseize, which is on curve, proactive, almost always hits, isn't card disadvantage in the fair matchups, and you can cascade into it.
Do you struggle against Jitte or Liliana?
Regarding Strix verses Oracle, I think it's totally reasonable to flip the 2-3 distribution to favour strix. Depending on how much I fear my delver match-up in the coming months before Seattle, I may follow suit.
I think its also a big tell if you drop Oracle, They know your probably on Aluren if the old snake elf druid hits play, that's not true with strix as it could be a bunch of other things
Do you find that you use Eldric much? Every time he comes down he forces a concession for me, but I always wonder if it was another shardless agent that it would be better.
Edric does some pretty big work in your combo match-ups as a way to lock out the game. Decks like Storm and Omnitell have a strong grinding game, and Edric just closes that door on them before it even opens (once you escape the early turns of the game). He's also fairly good in any other match-up where you can land him and immediately swing (this actually makes his value go up if you increase the strix count). If he just draws 2 cards before eating removal, it was a great exchange for you, and if he sticks for more than a turn cycle you can't lose.
All that being said, if you wanted to cut Edric, he should become either Shardless Agent, Sedraxis Alchemist, or Reclamation Sage, so opting for an Agent there is pretty reasonable and I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with such a change if you try it.
Oh, I get how powerful he is, every single time he is cast for me he either dies or I win that turn which I guess is a good thing. I was thinking of trying Glen Elendra Archmage in that spot just because she seems good with recruiter and good against a bunch of the field?
Sure, I am aware of that and there is a whole set of other factors that skewer those numbers too. Still doesn't change the fact that winning 3/4 four matches is really good in legacy given that amount of random that you can see.
I dug back through my logs for the [brief] recaps I'd written for some friends. They should provide a more complete picture of how I've been performing with the deck. I've not re-edited them at all, so hopefully they aren't too atrocious to read.
Went undefeated in the swiss in the CFB 1K today.
2-1 vs Esper Miracles (He amusingly even boarded in Surgical and used it on my Decays because he was tired of me blowing up his *****. When searching through my deck, he mostly just looked super confused)
2-0 vs UWR Ponder Miracles w/ Back to Basics
2-0 (might have been 2-1) vs UWR Stoneblade with multiple Counterspell (he also T8'd)
2-1 vs Food Chain (He was super salty when I just casually Turn 3'd him with FoW back-up in G3 even with him sticking a T2 Meddling Mage on Aluren. – He also T8'd)
2-1 vs Belcher (Lost G1 by taking a line that beat Belcher and Wish for EtW but not natural EtW. Completely wrecked him in G2 and 3. He also T8'd)
ID vs ???? (He also T8'd)
Lost in the quarters to Goblins by mulling to 3 in G1 (bad 1 lander on 7, no lands on 6, bad 1 lander on 5, no lands on 4, 3 lands on 3). Came close to being able to go for the combo, but my third land was nonbasic and he was able to waste me to keep me at 3 mana long enough for him to set up Settler striplock. G2 saw me bricking on action for 3 turns after landing aluren (I waited on casting it due to the danger that Matrons pose, but had I waited a turn longer, he would have been able to establish Settler to keep me off 4 again). The guy mentioned to a spectator that they were two of his best hands all day, so I suppose I can at least take solace in that. He definitely played the deck extremely well regardless.
2-1 vs Dredge in R1
2-0 vs Omnitell
0-2 vs Grixis Delver
2-0 vs Green & Taxes
2-0 vs Doomsday
ID vs UWR Stoneblade
R1:
I mulligan and lose to the nut draw in G1.
G2 on the play I had therapy on LED (hit) followed by turn2 Scavenging Ooze. That was enough to clean up.
G3 I was on the draw and mulligan into a 1-lander. He has T1 careful study pitching troll and bridge. I pitch Faerie Macabre to eat both and then stick Deathrite. Both of us mega-brick for turns on end as he fails to flip a dredger with the chance to hit a draw step, despite multiple faithless looting and colisseum activations. I FoW a Firestorm aimed at my two DRS somewhere in there. I eventually win by casting E-Wit off my one land and two DRS to return my fetch and then combo off the following turn.
R2:
Careful timing on Cabal Therapies made this match look easy.
Even better was my opponent's comments sitting down:
Him: "You're on Aluren, aren't you? I've never played the match-up, but I think it must be pretty good for me"
Me: *shrug* "I sometimes play it. It does pretty well"
Him: [kinda goes off in thought and thinks about what would be in the deck and that Aluren grants flash] "The more I think about it, this is probably an abysmal match-up for me"
Me: "Yep."
G1 was essentially just a fast combo with double therapy and FoW back-up.
G2 was slower but I was able to time the therapies to prevent him from ever having sufficient resources stocked up to win a counter war. I think I eventually just jammed the combo because he was so hamstrung, but I would need to check my notes to be sure. While there was definitely some play to the games, neither was even remotely close.
R3:
Rough match-up. I definitely got greedy with a pernicious deed and opened myself to being tempo'd out by a FoW. Despite awkward draws, I definitely could have played this one better.
R4:
Combo'd him out through a thalia, port, and wasteland on something like turn 4 or 5 in G1. Yeah... that one was kinda sweet. I had to go into Yawgmoth's Bargain mode with Harpy + Coiling Oracle for close something like 12 life, but it was enough to get there.
G2 he goes for a Karakas on Thalia, I respond by casting and shooting with Izzet Staticaster. He Cataclysms the turn before I would have killed him and we both go into a build-up mode again, but with advantage to him (he has a dude on board). I slowly claw my way back in with Fire Imp to trade with his two dudes, followed by Scavenging Ooze and DRS to gain life and try to race. We stall out with him Karakas-blocking with Thalia while racing in the air with Aven Mindcensor as I am running out of creatures in graveyards to eat. He figures my two DRS with infinite lands in grave make porting me bad and on a key turn he forgoes it to develop his board further with stuff like Mom. I swing with Ooze, he bounces thalia, and I have the four mana to go for Aluren. Slam Aluren, cast Recruiter, find an Oracle in the top 4, oracle blind flips Parasitic Strix and we kill him.
R5:
This was the same Doomsday pilot that took 9th at SCG Oakland. He knows what I'm on because I remember seeing his eyes widen upon viewing my gamestate in prior round. I know what he's on because Doomsday isn't exactly common. I combo him out early with disruption in G1. Game 2 is a slog-fest, but the gist is that I hit with all 6 cabal therapies that I cast that game and I have a FoW on a clutch Dark Ritual. I close it out with Edric-backed beats.
Quarterfinals: Against the opponent I ID'd with (UWR Stoneblade)
I win Game 1 because Cabal Therapy is amazing. My opponent kept 5 lands (Tundra, Karakas, 3 Arid Mesa), Brainstorm, JTMS. I blind hit on brainstorm on T1. Hit two JTMS when I flashback on T3. He has no other spells in hand and decides to pack it in.
Game 2 I mis-fetch leaving me with no basic when he slams blood moon. It takes him something like 12 turns to finish me off and I'd have been fine with ANY colour of basic if found in the first ~8 of those turns.
Game 3 demostrates the awkwardness of the match-up. You're favoured as long as they don't stick a run-away TNN. He does, I make a game out of it and miss on a key Cabal Therapy to lose:
He has 4 lands untapped, 2 lands tapped, TNN, and Meddling Mage (on Abrupt Decay) in play). I sac my dude to flashback cabal therapy. He has three cards in hand, has Forced and Counterspelled once each so far. I know two of his three cards (Pyroclasm and Supreme Verdict) and he has not cantripped since my last look at his hand. I decide to go for Supreme Verdict as FoW is uncastable if I nail the verdict. I hit verdict, his unknown is Counterspell, and I can't resolve my Pernicious Deed to stabilize and live. >.<
I hate TNN
Summarizing all that up: we can see the following snapshot of matches aggregated across my last three 1Ks.
2-1 vs Esper Miracles
2-0 vs UWR Ponder Miracles w/ Back to Basics
2-0 vs UWR Stoneblade
2-1 vs Food Chain
2-1 vs Belcher
---
2-1 vs Dredge
2-0 vs Omnitell
0-2 vs Grixis Delver
2-0 vs Green & Taxes
2-0 vs Doomsday
---
0-2 vs BUG Delver
2-1 vs UR Delver
2-1 vs UWR Delver
2-1 vs Aggro Loam
0-2 vs Burn
2-1 vs Grinding Station (Storm)
Top 8 Matches:
0-2 vs Goblins
1-2 vs UWR Stoneblade
I picked up your build two weeks ago and gone 5-1 in my last two weekly events. I think its really tight, I have found that I hate force of will though and have cut it for main deck Thoughtseize and I still prefer the 3rd Strix over the 3rd Oracle, Makes the delver matchup slightly better imho as deathtouch is really good
My meta is fairly combo-heavy, so I like having access to FoW mainboard. I definitely board them out frequently though. If you're not normally needing to block you opponents from comboing, I could see Thoughtseize/Duress/the 4th Abrupt Decay being better in the main. I'm not sure I'd ever want to cut FoW from the 75. Also, I tend to feel that it's not really ever bad since you'll happily hardcast it or even pitch-cast to stop something like Liliana or Jitte from coming down.
My Meta is too, but FOW has played out to be very lackluster. FOW has to really go right if your going to block your opponent from comboing with this deck. You only have 3 maindeck and the fourth in the board and no other counter support so you have to really hinge on the right configuration of opening hands. You only have brainstorm as a cantrip, so you cant dig to it efficiently as the tempo or combo decks because you lack ponder or probe. The only deck that it played well agaisnt was Storm, and they stripped it 85% of the time anyway, actively passing my Aluren up because it was too slow. Its also just awful in the fair matchups. What I do think I miss thought is forcing through my Aluren to win.
I am not saying FOW is wrong, but I do think there is other options like thoughtseize, which is on curve, proactive, almost always hits, isn't card disadvantage in the fair matchups, and you can cascade into it.
The 3 main is a concession to you not wanting to see multiples in fair match-ups. I don't think that number there actually is a case against it. And drawing a copy is actually fairly beneficial even in match-ups where you hypothetically don't want it, due to the ability to interact on so many different axes with the opponent (stack, hand, field, and grave when you add FoW, Therapy, Decay, and DRS), thus leaving them feeling like no area is safe.
Also I think you are discounting the purpose of FoW. Force makes opponents slow down. Any storm player worth their salt can beat a FoW. But they are often slowing down to turn 3 or 4 to do so. By that point you should also have a therapy or DRS or (or both) complicating their plans further. Yes, they should strip your hand of FoW, but if they need to be digging into discard to interact with you, they're playing your game. If they can probe you, see blanks, and combo, that's a very different game. It's also relevant that seeing a FoW once means that they need to keep it in mind whenever your hand is unknown.
I know a lot of Aluren players go with thoughtseize, but I'm not really thrilled with it both due to going tempo negative (which is very rough for us due to our already dubious tempo) and because I generally feel like we use our life as a resource a lot already. The problem that defending an Aluren with thoughtseize costs 5 mana (6 vs daze) compared to 4 (5 vs Daze) with FoW is pretty relevant to me too. I do need to concede that Thoughtseize synergizes very well with therapy though, essentially letting the seize see the way for therapy to clean up.
Do you struggle against Jitte or Liliana?
Liliana is more of a problem due to the cards she comes with. She's normally accompanied by Punishing Fire or a defending goyf, and we need multiple dudes to connect to take her out. Admittedly, she's easier to deal with than JTMS due to Abrupt Decay.
Jitte is an absolute nightmare if it starts accumulating counters. With 4 or more counters, it even becomes impossible to combo. Null Rod, more decays, and Deed help postboard though. Sometimes you can also keep it from connecting with harpy blocks.
I think its also a big tell if you drop Oracle, They know your probably on Aluren if the old snake elf druid hits play, that's not true with strix as it could be a bunch of other things
This is a relevant bit that is very true (if your opponent is familiar with the fringe decks of the format, at least). I don't know that I can quantify how much it realistically impacts games though.
I can easily see a build redesign to focus as much as possible on pretending to be something fair like Waterfalls or Shardless BUG (to the point that I have a running thought experiment list that is essentially shardless bug with 2 Aluren to offer a fallback combo kill).
Oh, I get how powerful he is, every single time he is cast for me he either dies or I win that turn which I guess is a good thing. I was thinking of trying Glen Elendra Archmage in that spot just because she seems good with recruiter and good against a bunch of the field?
This is overly reductionist of course, but if a 3mana card is "Kill/Counter this or you lose", what does a replacement need to do to match that impact?
Realistically, I do agree with you that he's kinda the flex spot in the list. I really like what he does for me, but I think it is very reasonable to try other things in his spot.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I don’t think FOW is bad, or unplayable, but it is a card used for either tempo, a panic button, or to push a win. To me it’s a lot like when shardless BUG hit the scene and people couldn’t figure out how many FOW to play, if the play FOW, or the split between sideboard or main deck. I think what ended there was personal preference.
I prefer my cards in my deck to reinforce each other, and there is some tension between Cabal Therapy and Force of Will in how the cards actually play out. I prefer Thoughtseize because of this, I think if I was to play force of will I would probably cut the Shardless Agents, the Cabal Therapies and Run Eldric’s and Daze’s in their place.
I try to show that I am BUG for as long as possible in play. I finally cut Oracle from my list last week and went 3-1 in my weekly torment losing to Grixis Control. I love Baleful Strix, that card is so sweet if definitely shores up your Delver matchups.
Now I have to finalize my sideboard for this weekend at the SCG tournament.
I think you are undervaluing the power of having your interruption coming from multiple angles.
I really came to appreciate this when I was playing Solidarity verses BUG Delver. The power of having countermagic AND discard (and DRS) means that you are playing disruption with different weaknesses that also punish people for the "correct" plays used to defeat the other measures. Countermagic asks that you build up a grip to overwhelm it. Discard asks that you play off the top or play to the board to dodge it. DRS prevents you from building up the third resource area.
If you only present one form of disruption, you let them off of the catch-22 into which we had locked them. Yes, Thoughtseize synergizes with the therapies, but it has the dissynergy in that it homogenizes your hate and gives them room to maneuver away into the hate's blindspot.
Obviously you should play what's working for you (and perhaps more importantly: be comfortable trying whatever you identify as an alternate approach), but I wanted to at least give a full analysis of the gains presented by what might initially appear to be somewhat schizophrenic hate.
Best of luck at the Open! I look forward to hearing how it goes
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
R1: 2-0 vs Goblins with some budget substitutions (ghost quarters in place of wastelands)
R2: 0-2 vs RG Lands
R3: 0-2 vs UG Infect
R4: 2-1 vs Reanimator
R5: N/A vs Solidarity (friend scooped me in to T8)
Quarterfinals: 2-0 vs RG Lands (same player as R2)
Semifinals: 0-2 vs Infect (same player as R3)
I was kinda out of it in this tournament, so my memory of the matches isn't great (this is also the reason I didn't initially attempt to write a report).
The two Lands matches were perfect examples of as good and as bad as that match-up can go. Neither match was remotely close. I also took a wierd line in G2 of the swiss match against Lands - I went to colour-screw him by killing all his moxen with Reclamation Sage, and the turn after I killed his final coloured source, he topdecked the coloured land >.<
Infect is continuing to be a problem. I barely ever get to face it, so there may be a bit of an experience gradient in play there (although, that's likely unfair to my opponent, since he definitely had never seen Aluren before). It's on the upswing in the broader meta, and even with specifically tweaking my SB to be better vs Infect for that tournament, it's still rough. I was hitting on the vast majority of my therapies (even blind), seeming to be ahead on the grind, and then just losing. I think that I need to reevaluate sideboard options and probably my strategic gameplan in this match-up. I have kinda been liking the thought of perhaps trying Plaguebearer since I've seen it in the SB of another Aluren player's list.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
thanks for the updates guys. still learning the deck, as it's my 1st legacy deck, and especially with the cabal therapies there's definitely a learning curve.
Event 1: 8-man, single elim R1: Dredge (2-1)
Opponent had an awful habit of stacking his graveyard up repeatedly. This made me need to ask to see his graveyard somewhat frequently. In addition to being very annoying, I also ended up with a better knowledge of his own game state that he did.
I lost game 1 to neither of our decks having any action in the top 30 cards. Won games two and three because Aluren appears to just naturally beat dredge. G3 especially was a slaughter since my opener included DRS AND the natural faerie macabre.
R2: Elves (2-0)
I spike a win off elves. I think I combo'd him in g1? G2 I land a plaguebearer that runs away with the game. Sniping Dryad Arbors and 1-drops is pretty insane. It was not close.
R3: Dredge (2-0)
Despite playing next to him in my previous match, I manage to talk my way into getting him to believe I'm some random BUG deck. Then I kill him. G2 I get the most busted of hands again (DRS + Macabre), and don't draw the combo, but I eventually establish a perfect lock with Scavenging Ooze.
Event 2: Scheduled event, 5 rounds (payout by record) R1: Sylvan Plug (2-1)
He keeps a 6-card hand with Savannah, Mox Diamond, and hateful things. He plays around wasteland, refusing to drop the savannah. This means that my therapy on mox diamond puts him many many turns away from doing anything. He scoops to Shardless beats. He takes G2 with a great opener, but I'm a topdeck away from killing him the entire game (I needed an abrupt decay for trinisphere). So far he still has no idea that I'm combo. He's boarded under the assumption that I'm some BUG value brew with maybe some red. I combo him out on turn 4 or 5 in G3.
R2: BURG (or potentially Grixis) Delver (2-0)
I beat his double delver nut draw in G1 through some sweet value plays with baleful strix and eternal witness. DRS claws me back out of burn range and then I steal the game. Game 2 I get him to FoW stuff like plaguebearer and then combo him out. Opponent had been next to me the previous round and still had no idea I was combo until Aluren resolved against him.
R3: BUG Delver (1-2)
I mull to 6, keep a 1-lander (Volcanic Island + Brainstorm). I brainstorm protected against daze. He wastes me. I make land drops for the next couple turns, he wastes each of my first three land drops. I am almost in it, but he topdecks the 4 wasteland naturally (only one cantrip cast all game, and it was a ponder that he shuffled on) and that throws me out enough for him to close out the game. I kill him easily in G2. G3 I'm able to kill him for turns on end if I just hit a topdeck. I miss, he wins. Kinda felt robbed on this one, but them's the breaks.
R4: Burn (0-2)
He played well, and even though I was able to trick him into missing some eidolon triggers with Aluren responses, he still took game 1 with ample room to spare. Game 2 I saw pyrostatic pillar added to the mix, and I suspect he was packing the set. Regardless, my clunky draw ain't beating a pillar.
R5: Merfolk (2-1)
He was splashing white for a stoneforge package. I also saw chalice in later games. I was able to maneuver the board into a couple misplays from him, causing him to play a longer game and allowing me to combo off with a healthy cushion of 7-8 life. Surprisingly again, the guy had played next to me before and didn't realize I was combo until Aluren dropped against him.
While I obviously would have liked to do better in the second event, it was a pretty nightmare line-up of matches, and the 6-2 overall record is at least reasonable. I only saw two miracles players across both tournaments combined -- the scarcity of the deck surprised me and I sadly dodged both of them.
thanks for the updates guys. still learning the deck, as it's my 1st legacy deck, and especially with the cabal therapies there's definitely a learning curve.
Yeah, the therapies take some practice (and immersion in the format).
I've also noticed that there's a lot of subtlety to sequencing with this deck in match-ups like miracles.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
I played Aluren for the first time last night, taking it to our weekly without even goldfishing it after getting the last piece in the mail that afternoon. I played:
Both main and board were kind of thrown together based on what I was expecting (mostly Shardless, tempo, and some fringe stuff, light on combo) and I couldn't find any Faerie Macabre around for the board. Matches went as follows. Games and boarding are all from memory, so there are almost certainly mistakes somewhere.
Round 1: Shardless BUG
Game 1: Discard and a couple early creatures make him think I'm on some kind of Shardless version. Tried to go off when I knew 2/4 cards in his hand, neither of which were blue or relevant. Unknowns were Force+BS, Aluren is countered, and I get ground out.
-1 Edric, +1 Decay
Game 2: Shardless did what Shardless does. Discard shreds my hand and I get beat down by 2 6/7 Goyfs.
0-1
Round 2: Junk Nic Fit
Game 1: Combo out T4. He has 1 StP, which isn't enough.
-1 Edric, +1 Plaguebearer
Game 2: Super grindy. He discards or destroys all 4 Alurens over the course of the game. He has early Teeg, which eventually eats removal. We both end up hellbent shortly after that. I'm grinding pretty well with Strix+Shardless, he wipes me with Deed and sticks Canonist. Meren of Clan Nel Toth does a great job recurring Pridemage before I can get a pair of DRS online and shut her down. Plaguebearer eats a couple little guys, and DRS activations along with two kinds of Strix eventually get there over a Thragtusk. I ended the game with something like 10 lands despite him siding out Vets and 10 cards left in the library.
1-1
Round 3: ANT
Game 1: I don't really do much. Discard something, Edric comes down in the hopes that I can draw some more disruption, and he has a ritual chain into AN into dead.
-3 Decay, -1 Stalker, +2 FoW, +1 FS, +1 SP
Game 2: I shouldn't have won this one. He misplayed pretty badly (missed land drop, counted mana wrong when going off) and could only get up to 7 Tendrils. Followed up with Aluren into Baleful Strix and Harpy with DRS down and he scooped with no cards in hand.
Game 3: Therapy takes one ritual, flashback takes two more rituals, and Aluren comes down T4 for the combo.
2-1
Round 4: Angel Stompy
Game 1: I know what he's on and blind Therapy away a 3sphere. There's some posturing back and forth where he lands Chalice on 3, but I eventually hit a Decay and combo off.
-2 Shardless, -1 Stalker, +1 Decay, +1 Grip, +1 Rec Sage
Game 2: Another super grindy one. He Geddons when I have 3 lands (Aluren/Recruiter in hand) and it left with 3sphere and a Chalice on 1, but I'm at least able to remove a Suppression Field in response and follow with a fetch. I get back to three lands and remove the 3sphere before he Geddons again. I try to grind him out with a pair of Strix but he eventually finds a Windborn Muse then a couple more threats and runs them over.
Game 3: He opens on Leyline of Sanctity and 3sphere a turn later. I can Decay the 3sphere, then land Aluren and combo off, with Rec Sage eating Leyline.
3-1
Ended 2/11 for the night, which is respectable for going in without ever having shuffled the deck before. Maindeck felt pretty good, though I think Edric and Rec Sage are swapping. He's a little bit of a pet card, but I never really wanted him and the local meta is pretty good at stopping creature swings. Sideboard had a number of things I never touched, but a lot of that were matchups. I know at least two of the regulars are on Pyromancer decks and there's frequently a couple Miracles or Miracles-similar lists around, so I don't want to make any drastic changes yet. I'm obviously new to the deck despite a good first outing, so comments are very welcome.
Private Mod Note
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Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
[Pr]Jaya | Estrid | A rotating cast of decks built out of my box.
As always, it's worth noting that the plethora of singletons is far less random than it looks. Not only are all the creatures (except BBE) tutorable, but there also is a healthy amount of triangulation of function going on. For example: Engineered Plague, Izzet Staticaster, and Minister of Pain combine to provide three variants of the same effect each stronger under certain circumstances. It is pretty common for two of those three to be applicable while one is left out. In the same vein, Scavenging Ooze and Faerie Macabre combine to cover different kinds of gravehate needs (ongoing verses immediate) and together give the deck the tools to address what it needs to face. Also, most of the non-creature hate is cascadable from Shardless, thus slightly increasing your likelihood of hitting them.
ATTACHMENTS
Aluren_20160711
Notes: For the more visually-minded, I've attached a current photo
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
A friend asked me to walk him through my sideboard, so I decided I might as well type it up and post here as well:
1 Force of Will
1 Abrupt Decay
These are present as 3-ofs in the maindeck and are commonly wanted as 4-ofs in different match-ups.
1 Pernicious Deed
This acts as a catch-all for what can't be hit by decay or for what otherwise would take too much to try to engage with. Some overlap as well with the creature removal that we'll address later. Overall, this is just a very reliable catch-all, if a bit mana-intensive.
1 Engineered Plague
1 Minister of Pain
1 Izzet Staticaster
This is a trio of overlapping effects. Each has small benefits over the others, so you often bring in 2 of the 3. If you need to answer TNN, bring in the two black ones. Young Pyromancer? Maybe the two creatures but not the plague. Etc. I've much preferred this triangulation approach of mostly-redundant effects over simply running multiples of a single card, since you reach the same coverage but have fewer blind spots. Worth noting is that Minister of Pain has a real downside that has never yet come up for me in Legacy gameplay: A savvy opponent can use a removal spell to stop the effect.
1 Carpet of Flowers
This card is absurd. Verses blue decks, if you're rocketing up your mana at double the rate, you quickly shed any semblance of clunk from your curve. Don't be afraid that you might need to deed it away later. If you get 3-5 turns of this, you are super heavily favoured.
1 Null Rod
General catch-all. Cascadable with Shardless, beats on miracles (not that you don't already), crushes D&T, great against storm, etc. I cannot see cutting this. Don't be afraid to board it in against something like Lands where all it does is wipe out their Mox Diamonds.
1 Tsabo's Web
Cascadable with Shardless; great against Lands, D&T, manlands, etc. I've been super happy with this, and it's also funny that it's an extra option to bounce for profit with Dream Stalker.
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Scavenging Ooze
I like the anti-grave package of 4 DRS, macabre, and Ooze. Macabre lets Recruiter immediately hit their yard and can't be countered. Ooze and DRS do a good job at extended coverage. If you have a ton more grave stuff locally, you can add more, but I've not seen it as necessary. I also bring in Ooze a lot when I just need to have the larger man on board.
1 Fire Imp Fire Imp is in close competition with Bone Shredder, and I've run them side-by-side in the past. Fire Imp's biggest upside is that it kills opposing Deathrite Shamans. This is a big deal because we don't have great pressure as you would need to render them irrelevant. Fire Imp is also easier to reload on with Dream Stalker and has been far better against stompy decks since it kills Magus of the Moon without regard for your manabase (and recruiter can find it that way too!). Bone Shredder's upside is verses Eldrazi, Tarmogoyf, and Elesh Norn (and small benefit in that it can be recurred by Harpy directly). Don't be afraid to add Shredder to your SB if these are what you're having trouble with. Wasteland Strangler has been suggested before, but I think its benefit over Fire Imp is marginal at best and the restriction (of needing exiled fodder) represents yet another way for your removal to go awry, and that's just not something you want (although I do dream of processing the imprint off a chrome mox).
1 Reclamation Sage
This printing (in conjunction with that of Minister of Pain) is what allowed us to cut white. Our manabase rejoices at its presence. Great catch-all for things like Miracles, D&T, and everything else. Great answer to most things that people would use to try to stop our combo. Never ever ever cut this. If I were to drop Edric from my maindeck, this would be on the short list of the 4-5 cards that might replace him.
1 Bloodbraid Elf
You need a way to pressure planeswalkers, and your horde of misfit toys isn't normally great at that. BBE kept JTMS under control in Standard and she does it again here (in addition to being another good answer to Liliana). Make Cascade Great Again!
Regarding Edric, since I mentioned it above:
I run Edric as trump card verses combo. Sometimes you get him on a favourable board in other match-ups and just end the game on the spot (or you have dorks but no Aluren, so you tutor for Edric as a roundabout way of finding the Aluren), but his real strength is giving you absurd reloads on disruption. It's pretty easy to keep Force of Will and Cabal Therapy flowing when you're drawing 4-5 cards a turn. Also, weighing in at a 2/2, he competes for the title of "best beatstick in the MainBoard". Your combo match-ups normally start with a quick spar of therapies or Force of Will to force them to rebuild resources, you tutor for Edric, you swing once, and then the game is never in reach for them again.
If combo isn't a thing where you are or if you don't like Edric, I consider the following cards as reasonable replacements: Tier 1: Great options that I would probably choose Reclamation Sage - Solid and there's a subtle omnipresence of targets for it in the format. Sedraxis Alchemist - It's funny that this is closer to making my maindeck than sideboard, but this is a great all-around answer. It's consistently somewhere around the 76th-78th card in consideration for my 75. I was sad to cut it and I keep looking to add this powerful effect back in. Shardless Agent #3 - this is what Edric originally replaced, and while I call it the "default" item to slot back in for him, it is really in tight competition with the other two. Tier 2: Reasonable options Baleful Strix #3 - It's pretty standard bread-and-butter. Great with more infect in the meta, decent verses eldrazi. Small danger of going too high on low-impact cantrip dudes. Scavenging Ooze - I haven't really found this guy to be necessary maindeck, but it is a way to outgrow tarmogoyf and to stay out of burn range, so I suppose it's not terrible.
Just got to say, you've definitely earned distinction as an MTGS hero
Quote from Stardust »
Because he's the hero MTGS deserves, and the one it needs right now. So we'll global him. Because he can take it. Because he's not just our hero. He's a silent guardian, a watchful protector. An expired rascal.
Quote from LuckNorris »
ExpiredRascals you sir are a god-like hero.
Quote from Lanxal »
ER is a masterful god who cannot be beaten in any endeavour.
Played Aluren for the first time yesterday at a local $1k event - ended up coming in second, and have to say that the deck was a blast. I had been talking with ER about this deck and finally got together my set of Recruiters on Friday, so jumped to this from Lands. Here's the 75 I went with:
Keep in mind that this is mostly by memory because my notes are pretty atrocious, so I don't promise that anything except what I sideboarded is completely accurate.
R1: Tezzerator/Lantern Control
Game 1: Can't find an Aluren, but he doesn't get off the ground either - he tries to establish a lock with Codex Shredder, Top, and Lantern, but I had been sandbagging two Decays from my opening hand and beat him down with small guys.
-1 Cabal Therapy, -1 Eternal Witness, -1 Force of Will +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Null Rod, +1 Reclamation Sage
Game 2: More of the same - he starts off with a RIP/Energy Field, and I decay the Energy Field so I can plink away. He ends up tutoring for Helm of Obedience at one point, but he's one mana short and I Brainstorm into an Aluren in his end step and kill him next turn.
1-0
R2: Shardless BUG
Game 1: We trade small guys for a few turns until I'm able to land an Aluren through a Force by Forcing back.
I didn't write down SB notes for this match.
Game 2: He leads with a Thoughtseize, takes an Aluren, and then Surgical Extractions my Alurens. I put up a decent fight but am ultimately unable to keep up with his creatures.
Game 3: He mulls down to 5, and I'm able to stop him from wrecking my hand by sacrificing a Baleful Strix to get rid of Hymn to Tourach from a Cabal Therapy flashback (I had the combo in hand). I untap on t3 and kill him.
2-0
R3: Death and Taxes
Game 1: He manages to develop a creature board state for a few turns, but I hold him off from killing me and am able to combo kill him.
-1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Force of Will +1 Minister of Pain, +1 Null Rod, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Tsabo's Web
Game 2: He casts 3 Phyrexian Revokers in quick succession, all naming Cavern Harpy, and then lands a Batterskull, which I'm unable to answer in time.
Game 3: I land a T2 Null Rod after he plays a t1 Aether Vial, and I'm able to develop my board pretty unfettered and combo out on t4 while he just has the Vial, some lands, and the new Thalia. He told me he was expecting to have an extra turn due to Thalia making my nonbasics enter tapped, but I'd sandbagged a basic Swamp in my hand. It also turned out that his t2 play was to cast Jitte, which got blown out by the Null Rod.
3-0
R4: Lands / R5: Miracles
We IDed as there were only 4x 3-0, and we were all guaranteed T8. I ended up 4th seed, and the Top 8 decided to split the credit for $127.50 each, with the winner of the event getting a Wyrmwood deck box (Wyrmwood sponsored the event).
3-0-2
The top 8 was:
1 Tezzerator (My R1 opponent)
2 BUG Delver
3 ??? I never found out what this player was on
4 Aluren (that's me!)
5 Lands
6 Miracles
7 BUG Food Chain
8 Death and Taxes (my R3 opponent)
Quarterfinals: Lands
Due to standings, I'm on the play.
Game 1: I lose this game to a quick Marit Lage, I think? Tbh, I knew this guy pretty well, so I wasn't keeping as much track of the games.
-1 Abrupt Decay, -1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Force of Will +1 Anathemancer, +1 Faerie Macabre, +1 Scavenging Ooze, +1 Yixlid Jailer
Game 2: I almost lose here. I am at 19 life and have an Aluren out when my opponent attacks me with Marit Lage, but I'm able to flash Parasitic Strix in to gain 2 life, then untap and draw Recruiter to combo kill him.
Game 3: I lost this game pretty handily, keeping a bad 5 versus his strong 6, but he decided to scoop because we'd already split cash and he wanted to go home.
Semifinals: Death and Taxes
I'm on the play again!
Game 1: He mulligans down to 5, I play a T2 Cabal Therapy naming Phyrexian Revoker, and he scoops immediately. He informs me that he had 2 in his hand but doesn't show me the rest.
-1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Force of Will +1 Minister of Pain, +1 Pernicious Deed, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Tsabo's Web
Game 2: I don't actually remember what happened here, but forgetting to bring in Null Rod was a mistake that I fix for Game 3.
-1 Cabal Therapy +1 Null Rod
Game 3: He lands an early Phyrexian Revoker naming Cavern Harpy, and equips a SoFaI to it, but I have a decent board state at this point including a Tsabo's Web (so he only has two plains available and can't do too much more), so I only get domed once (and Edric gets killed for it). I have an Aluren and Recruiter in hand, but don't really want to Recruiter for Rec Sage, so I wait an extra turn, losing a DRS to block and am rewarded by drawing Pernicious Deed, which I promptly cast (but don't blow up, because I don't want him to untap). In his end step, I deed for 2 to clear the Revoker (and, admittedly, most of my board), then untap and combo kill him.
Finals: Miracles
I'm onthe play yet again, but it's against a very accomplished player.
Game 1: He Counterbalances the only Aluren I see by leaving a Jace on top after a Ponder (with no mana available), then casts Jace and I am unable to recover.
-1 Aluren, -1 Baleful Strix, -2 Cabal Therapy -1 Eternal Witness -2 Force of Will +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Bloodbraid Elf, +1 Izzet Staticaster, +1 Minister of Pain, +1 Null Rod, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Thunderscape Battlemage
Game 2: I play a couple dorks, then he Blood Moons me on t3. I untap and use the Blood Moon and my basic forest to cast Bloodbraid Elf, which cascades into Abrupt Decay to destroy his Blood Moon. I end up getting him down to 2 with attacks over a few turns, and then on the last turn I Cabal Therapy to check for Force and cast Parasitic Strix to kill him.
Game 3: He gets there with Mentors, but there was an interesting turn where he Cliqued me and ended up bottoming Thunderscape Battlemage after reading it, saying "It's a four-for-one!" I never get an Aluren and he has Countertop that isn't answered (I had to burn my only Decay that I saw to kill his first Mentor).
Final Result: Second place! It did come because of a concession from a friend in the quarterfinals, but it felt like an amazing run for a first time running the deck.
It's pretty much the same as my above list, but I swapped Edric and Rec Sage because I'm more likely to run into problematic artifacts and enchantments than creature light combo decks locally. In the board, Carpet came out for Faerie Macabre which is again mostly a meta call. I kind of want to find room for a second EWit somewhere, but I'm not sure that's actually necessary. I still like having the extra discard main over the countermagic, mostly because I'm a lot more likely to see nonblue decks around here.
I took it to another 3-1 finish at our last weekly. Lost to Pox 1-2, beat a homebrew mono-U wizards full of looting and countermagic 2-0, Elves 2-1, and DnT 2-0. I would talk boarding, but I'm honestly not positive of how I boarded and most of the opposing decks call for pretty obvious choices. Notable plays were getting absolutely destroyed by Pox on a risky keep on 5 where I opened up with fetch, land, DRS and he opened with Dark Rit into Pithing Needle and Sinkhole, a great win on a full stack against Elves (see spoiler), and dropping Tsabo's Web T3 against DnT after he tapped down a Wasteland where the opponent and two spectators all asked to read the card. The majority of my wins came from either combo or endless value off Aluren.
Now people can play aluren with 8 copies of recruiter. Maybe it helps? It surely makes the mana more difficult, but playing Deathrite and some white duals might be enough.
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I don't think the deck wants 8 Recruiters or to splash all 5 colors if it doesn't have to, but it does give the option for an alternate build that runs white instead of red. I'm sure ExpiredRascals and/or I will post in here with some thoughts down the road, but a different build altogether may be warranted.
I agree that 8 Recruiters seems like a poor choice. The manabase is already pretty rough with 4 colors. I really don't want to push out to 5. I've also never really had a problem finding Recruiter when I need it. Aluren comes down pretty late and I've got BS and Baleful Strix to dig.
There's definitely some potential for a UBGw build, though. The only thing you're really losing is Dream Stalker main and a few SB options. Arctic Merfolk and Whitemane Lion both make reasonable replacements for Stalker, and the SB options you pick up going white are equal to or better than red. It also opens up Academy Rector as a Recruiter-able Aluren, which is probably way too cute. I don't think 5C/8 Recruiter is going to be a very good build but I'm fully expecting to see some white builds pop up, if for no other reason than the barrier to entry is much, much lower. I know I'll be picking up a set and will try out white Aluren at some point despite having the deck and loving the red version.
edit: Coral Merfolk is pretty much useless here, unlike Arctic Merfolk.
Good point. Arctic Merfolk is the better replacement either way, especially if you're running FoW. Bouncing as a cost is a non-negligible improvement as well, as is 2 power when you're trying to go midrange. The only real downsides to Merfolk over Stalker are some loss of flexibility (bouncing a land is sometimes the right play) and losing a wall against some decks.
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And yeah, I can see why you deprioritized red for your build. I do think it's reasonably important to have access to nonetheless. I know I fairly often end up casting a recruiter (fetching another recruiter) simply to be able to flashback cabal therapy to clear the way.
Yeah, you have a pretty good read on things. I definitely am very comfortable leaning on that 2-for-1 value midrange plan fairly hard. I definitely still jam the Turn3 kill when I have it, but my build is aimed at created a strategic dissonance for opponents where they can combat either the combo or the ground plan, but the answers to one rarely line up against the other (for example: Force of Will is pretty okay verses the combo, but it's really bad verses the rest of the deck).
I can definitely respect going with a heavier weight on Strix in your build. I don't think you're getting the same level of value that I am on the Oracle since you're packing the explorer package, so pumping up the strix number seems pretty reasonable.
Yeah, I discarded it because it was looking too slow to be worth devoting the slots.
Even without Pod though, she introduces problems. If you look at my list, I used to run one savannah over the second underground sea back when I was splashing white. I could only afford a single copy of her if I were to run her, so that would mean that I needed to tutor for her with recruiter more often than not. This is a blessing and a curse since allowing Recruiter to tutor Aluren is nice, but at the same time, we're spending 7 mana for something that is foiled by countermagic, stifle, discard (because I probably wasn't going to have 7 mana to do it all in one turn), and grave hate (both DRS and RIP). Getting foiled by ALL hate was pretty rough. Worse, it required me to have stable support on BOTH splashes at the same time. I have a pretty stable manabase, but needing to have all 5 colours on as few as 4 lands meant I had very exacting needs that were potentially impossible if I didn't draw the right fetches or enough of them.
I think she might have been worth trying to support before RTR came out, but with both RIP and DRS seeing increased prominence, I don't think she's worth it.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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Oh, there might be some confusion with my manabase. My first post was what I played at the PIQ, but I have a revised list of changes below that not in a deck box thing. I have the following Manabase currently and it has been fine so far.
2 Polluted Delta
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
1 Taiga
1 Bayou
3 Forest
2 Island
2 Swamp
1 Phyrexian Tower
I fully expect that I have only one use of the Taiga because its not long for this world. I did recur it with an Eternal Witness at the PIQ which was sweet, because it allowed me to flashback Cabal Therapy on the same turn too.
For Sure, Just curious but before you came to Aluren did you play other mid-rangy decks in legacy? Also you stated that you had experience with Living Wish. What are you thoughts on those builds?
Enchantress (GWr Replenish with heavy prison focus, was my first deck in the format)
Spiral Tide (Mostly stock, but some tinkering and spice)
Spanish Inquisition (Stock list acquired from Bread Connoisseur)
Aluren (I'll elaborate on versions below)
Solidarity (see here)
Lands (both RG and RUGx, but I'm still getting the hang of it)
Greg Hatch's Mono Blue Martyr (because sometimes you just feel like a troll)
I've also got Maverick pseudo-built (I own all the cards, but have it sleeved up with proxies due to card overlap), but it was mostly to be able to loan to a friend. I think I've played all of 6 games with it.)
So to summarize: I've got a lot of previous experience with combo decks and prison decks in Legacy. Not so much on the midrange front.
Now, in Aluren specifically, I've played around with a couple styles, and in general they've been iterative. All had DRS and reasonably similar manabase approaches unless otherwise noted.
1. BUG(wr) Imperial Aluren with Living Wish -- This incorporated a very versatile wishboard. The problem was that wish was always too slow. Normally any answer you wished for would end up costing 5 mana total, so you'd inevitably tempo yourself out. Wish was seriously only good when you hit it with Shardless Agent. This build also really suffered from not running mainboard answers to resolved problem cards. Lastly, the lands and duplicated combo pieces in the sideboard for wish to hit meant that you were inadvertently were less versatile overall because you had fewer SB slots.
2. BUG(wr) Imperial Aluren -- Dropped living wishes from the above, added abrupt decays and then started toying around with numbers. The Savannah was awkward more than I want to admit and it was really a godsend when we got Reclamation Sage. I stuck with the white splash longer than I should have due to Orzhov Pontiff in the SB.
3. BUG(r) Imperial Aluren -- This is where I am now. Dropping white gave me access to the second Underground Sea and my mana overnight became infinitely more stable. I'm still agonizing over whether I actually need the second basic forest or if Edric is the best possible use of that last spot in the main, but I must admit that I'm pretty happy with where I am now.
4. Shardless BUG Hybrid Aluren -- This has been an ongoing thought experiment for me that I've been toying with on Cockatrice rather than building in paper. I'm still not sure if it's any good. The concept is that the midrange game plan is pretty solid and already and that it essentially mirrors the gameplan of Shardless BUG. Accordingly it's possible to just embrace that and simply become Shardless BUG with a deprioritized Aluren parallel gameplan. This reincorporates Living Wish, but it's got tarmogoyfs on the ground to minimize the tempo hit and a full playset of shardless agent which in turn maximizes the chance of free-casting wish. Intended kill is Harpy looping Shardless Agent until it hits living wish and then using wish to grab Parasitic Strix.
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I'm not super happy with it. I've been hitting some bad beats in testing, sure, but it feels like just generally less flexible and versatile.
The gist is this for the main:
Edric --> Shardless Agent
Forest (the second basic forest) --> Baleful Strix
The sideboard gets a bit wierd, but the concept is to board down to 1 aluren and maybe opposition postboard verses delver. I've been trying boarding out a recruiter as well to lessen the amount that we get hurt by wasteland on a red source.
Opposition has been interesting. It's more vulnerable than Aluren (because of the existence of REB and Pyroblast), but it does some really dirty things. I'm not sure yet that it's worth keeping, but it's been pretty strong when I've drawn it in the mid game.
3 Coiling Oracle
3 Baleful Strix
3 Shardless Agent
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Dream Stalker
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Eternal Witness
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Force of Will
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
1 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Null Rod
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Force of Will
1 Fire Imp
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Minister of Pain
1 Engineered Plague
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Baleful Strix
1 Opposition
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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3 Coiling Oracle
2 Baleful Strix
2 Shardless Agent
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Dream Stalker
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Eternal Witness
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
4 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Force of Will
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Null Rod
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Force of Will
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Sedraxis Alchemist
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Fire Imp
1 Minister of Pain
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Meekstone
Meekstone was never relevant at any point. Pernicious Deed and BBE were spectacular all day and I think are a better direction to go for further testing for solving the Delver match-up than the variant I'd posted above.
My notes aren't the best for the reconstruction of matches, so all of this is from memory. If any of my opponents is browsing this and catches a mistake, by all means feel free to pop in and let me know.
R1: BUG delver (0-2)
This one was a heartbreaker. Two very long grindy games with Dark Confidant doing great work for him in both. Even so, in both games, I was a single draw phase away from executing the combo with no remaining resistance, and had been a topdeck away for multiple turns on end despite being dreadfully behind in every metric for evaluating the game state. Interestingly, he was playing Tasigur alongside Bob. This was good and bad for me. On the one hand, my Dream Stalkers were able to demonstrate their fearless prowess in blocking. On the other hand, it was additional card advantage, immune to Decay, difficult to Deed away, and he never flipped them to Bob.
R2: UR Delver (2-1)
I make a stupid punt in G1 and fetch into an obvious Stifle after he led with Scalding Tarn. I think he saw bayou or taiga and maybe DRS from me before I scooped on T3 or 4. This was amusing because I'm pretty sure he put me on Jund. Game 2 he fetched double basic mountain and a basic Island, fearing wasteland. I think I killed him with the combo on Turn 4. Game 3 I spotted a monastery swiftspear in his opener due to the weird way he picked up his hand after the mulligan. He led with Delver, I therapied the swiftspear, killed the delver, and then proceeded to dominate until I combo'd through a swan song in his grip along with a very tense therapy where I needed to guess if he had FoW or Daze and if he had one and I guessed wrong, I'd have been in a rough spot (he had neither ).
R3: UWR Delver with Swiftspears (2-1?)I honestly can't remember what my record was here. I kinda think I must have lost game 1, and if so, this was probably the one where I essentially jammed "must counter" threats for ~5 turns in a row and he happened to topdeck the countermagic to keep up until I died; Aluren was countered something like 3 times. He had Monastery Swiftspears alongside a Monastery Mentor in the main (and an additional Mentor in the side). I won game 2 by bleeding his countermagic with sweet value ***** like Bloodbraid Elf until I resolved Aluren. I peek with therapy on FoW before going for it and see a Stifle. I wait a turn, he plays a land or dude or something irrelevant, and I draw the parasitic strix that I'd left on top. I cast strix, it resolves. I sac it to therapy, take the stifle, and combo off, this time ending with E. Wit to grab strix back to execute the kill. The Deathrites, E.Wit, and Therapies apparently make him decide that he really wants grave hate against me. He boards in multiple RIP and I stick a DRS and nab a brainstorm with therapy, seeing the two RIP. He's mana screwed with a Tundra and Wasteland (that he can't crack because he needs the mana), so I move into "I swear this actually isn't a bad limited deck" mode and beat down with double DRS, Scavenging Ooze, and assorted 1/1s and 2/2s. I was able to contain his threats for the rest of the game.
R4: Aggro Loam (2-1)
In game 1 I think played played chalice at one against my double DRS draw. I don't think I played anything until Turn 4 when I killed him. Yay basic lands. In game 2, he slaughter games'd aluren when he had punish fire going with Liliana (Fires backing up Liliana essentially forces me to need to win by combo). In game 3 I kill his threats with Decay and Pernicious Deed as my BBE snipes Liliana and beats down laughing at the abrupt decay in his hand.
R5: Burn (0-2)
The first time I've lost a match to burn.
I can make excuses here in that I drew kinda rough and wasn't hitting much of the interaction, combo, or lifegain that that I would hope for, but while those may be true, it would be a disservice to attribute the loss to those and not respect the care and quality of play from my opponent. I'd been talking with him previously and he was making sure he understood what openings he did or did not have in the match. He played very well, properly gauged when to kill my stuff and leveraged his deck to the greatest possible shot at victory. It was a good match.
R6: Grinding Station (2-1)
He goes for 14 Goblins early in G1 and my DRS couldn't find the food with which to keep up. I had seen this player's previous match and he was packing Pack Rat in the SB ( ). I boarded in Deed to keep me covered verses Rats and goblin tokens in addition to my normal combo board plan. I won via lethargic beats in G2 with double FoW in hand. I tutored for Edric to convert my recruiter in hand to a blue card to be able to pitch, and when he didn't present a need to FoW in his turn, I went for edric. He stalled a turn with chain of vapor, then edric stuck and ran away with the game as he is wont to do. Game 3 saw me therapy him turn 1, whiffing, but seeing Tutor, PiF, Pyroclasm, Cabal Ritual, Lotus Petal and like ponder. I lead coiling oracle on turn 2, flip a land, play DRS, and therapy the tutor by sac'ing oracle. I FoW the Pyroclasm that he casts of Land + Lotus Petal (probably a bit gutsy to FoW here, but I liked having the onboard hate for PiF). I proceed to flood out, but it's okay since DRS is being a complete beast. I eventually stick baleful strix to speed up my clock (lol) and draw into edric. He helps me by thoughtseizing my hand of all lands. He decides once wasn't enough and follows up with a repeat a couple turns later, this time with Duress. Edric eventually draws me out, but really the entire game was all just DRS and and Therapy. At 4 life, he goes for it, leading with cabal ritual. I eat the ritual in response to PiF (taking him to 2). This is crucial as it forces him to only tendrils me for 10 life. I eat PiF next turn. he draws and casts infernal tutor. I eat tendrils, he scoops.
So I lost to burn, but went 2-1 verses delver decks, so I'm not totally disappointed. Also, I have to admit that 5-0 (and an ID), 5-1 (and an ID), and 4-2 is a fairly reasonable series of showings -- regardless of my wounded pride at not running it back a third time
I also only boarded out the second Forest in two matches, and it was crucial on a couple occasions for playing through hate, so I felt a bit better about it.
The new build I'm testing based on this tournament's experiences looks something like this:
3 Coiling Oracle
2 Baleful Strix
2 Shardless Agent
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Dream Stalker
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Eternal Witness
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
4 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Force of Will
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Volcanic Island
1 Taiga
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
3 Pernicious Deed
1 Null Rod
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Force of Will
2 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Fire Imp
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Scavenging Ooze
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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In Round 6: doesn't your opponent die if you deathrite him? you state earlier that he is at 2 life?
I picked up your build two weeks ago and gone 5-1 in my last two weekly events. I think its really tight, I have found that I hate force of will though and have cut it for main deck Thoughtseize and I still prefer the 3rd Strix over the 3rd Oracle, Makes the delver matchup slightly better imho as deathtouch is really good
Do you find that you use Eldric much? Every time he comes down he forces a concession for me, but I always wonder if it was another shardless agent that it would be better.
That entire sentence was rife with typos (my fault for multitasking while writing it).
The DRS activation took him to two from four when I ate the cabal ritual (this would be the other typo since I originally wrote therapy >.< ). I'll go back and fix it to avoid confusion.
My meta is fairly combo-heavy, so I like having access to FoW mainboard. I definitely board them out frequently though. If you're not normally needing to block you opponents from comboing, I could see Thoughtseize/Duress/the 4th Abrupt Decay being better in the main. I'm not sure I'd ever want to cut FoW from the 75. Also, I tend to feel that it's not really ever bad since you'll happily hardcast it or even pitch-cast to stop something like Liliana or Jitte from coming down.
Regarding Strix verses Oracle, I think it's totally reasonable to flip the 2-3 distribution to favour strix. Depending on how much I fear my delver match-up in the coming months before Seattle, I may follow suit.
Edric does some pretty big work in your combo match-ups as a way to lock out the game. Decks like Storm and Omnitell have a strong grinding game, and Edric just closes that door on them before it even opens (once you escape the early turns of the game). He's also fairly good in any other match-up where you can land him and immediately swing (this actually makes his value go up if you increase the strix count). If he just draws 2 cards before eating removal, it was a great exchange for you, and if he sticks for more than a turn cycle you can't lose.
All that being said, if you wanted to cut Edric, he should become either Shardless Agent, Sedraxis Alchemist, or Reclamation Sage, so opting for an Agent there is pretty reasonable and I'd be interested in hearing your experiences with such a change if you try it.
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Sure, I am aware of that and there is a whole set of other factors that skewer those numbers too. Still doesn't change the fact that winning 3/4 four matches is really good in legacy given that amount of random that you can see.
I figured something like that, it did seem weird to have you exile cabal therapy though, I thought maybe he had a Xantid swarm out or something of the like that would have generated extra storm.
My Meta is too, but FOW has played out to be very lackluster. FOW has to really go right if your going to block your opponent from comboing with this deck. You only have 3 maindeck and the fourth in the board and no other counter support so you have to really hinge on the right configuration of opening hands. You only have brainstorm as a cantrip, so you cant dig to it efficiently as the tempo or combo decks because you lack ponder or probe. The only deck that it played well agaisnt was Storm, and they stripped it 85% of the time anyway, actively passing my Aluren up because it was too slow. Its also just awful in the fair matchups. What I do think I miss thought is forcing through my Aluren to win.
I am not saying FOW is wrong, but I do think there is other options like thoughtseize, which is on curve, proactive, almost always hits, isn't card disadvantage in the fair matchups, and you can cascade into it.
Do you struggle against Jitte or Liliana?
I think its also a big tell if you drop Oracle, They know your probably on Aluren if the old snake elf druid hits play, that's not true with strix as it could be a bunch of other things
Oh, I get how powerful he is, every single time he is cast for me he either dies or I win that turn which I guess is a good thing. I was thinking of trying Glen Elendra Archmage in that spot just because she seems good with recruiter and good against a bunch of the field?
I dug back through my logs for the [brief] recaps I'd written for some friends. They should provide a more complete picture of how I've been performing with the deck. I've not re-edited them at all, so hopefully they aren't too atrocious to read.
2-1 vs Esper Miracles (He amusingly even boarded in Surgical and used it on my Decays because he was tired of me blowing up his *****. When searching through my deck, he mostly just looked super confused)
2-0 vs UWR Ponder Miracles w/ Back to Basics
2-0 (might have been 2-1) vs UWR Stoneblade with multiple Counterspell (he also T8'd)
2-1 vs Food Chain (He was super salty when I just casually Turn 3'd him with FoW back-up in G3 even with him sticking a T2 Meddling Mage on Aluren. – He also T8'd)
2-1 vs Belcher (Lost G1 by taking a line that beat Belcher and Wish for EtW but not natural EtW. Completely wrecked him in G2 and 3. He also T8'd)
ID vs ???? (He also T8'd)
Lost in the quarters to Goblins by mulling to 3 in G1 (bad 1 lander on 7, no lands on 6, bad 1 lander on 5, no lands on 4, 3 lands on 3). Came close to being able to go for the combo, but my third land was nonbasic and he was able to waste me to keep me at 3 mana long enough for him to set up Settler striplock. G2 saw me bricking on action for 3 turns after landing aluren (I waited on casting it due to the danger that Matrons pose, but had I waited a turn longer, he would have been able to establish Settler to keep me off 4 again). The guy mentioned to a spectator that they were two of his best hands all day, so I suppose I can at least take solace in that. He definitely played the deck extremely well regardless.
2-0 vs Omnitell
0-2 vs Grixis Delver
2-0 vs Green & Taxes
2-0 vs Doomsday
ID vs UWR Stoneblade
R1:
I mulligan and lose to the nut draw in G1.
G2 on the play I had therapy on LED (hit) followed by turn2 Scavenging Ooze. That was enough to clean up.
G3 I was on the draw and mulligan into a 1-lander. He has T1 careful study pitching troll and bridge. I pitch Faerie Macabre to eat both and then stick Deathrite. Both of us mega-brick for turns on end as he fails to flip a dredger with the chance to hit a draw step, despite multiple faithless looting and colisseum activations. I FoW a Firestorm aimed at my two DRS somewhere in there. I eventually win by casting E-Wit off my one land and two DRS to return my fetch and then combo off the following turn.
R2:
Careful timing on Cabal Therapies made this match look easy.
Even better was my opponent's comments sitting down:
Him: "You're on Aluren, aren't you? I've never played the match-up, but I think it must be pretty good for me"
Me: *shrug* "I sometimes play it. It does pretty well"
Him: [kinda goes off in thought and thinks about what would be in the deck and that Aluren grants flash] "The more I think about it, this is probably an abysmal match-up for me"
Me: "Yep."
G1 was essentially just a fast combo with double therapy and FoW back-up.
G2 was slower but I was able to time the therapies to prevent him from ever having sufficient resources stocked up to win a counter war. I think I eventually just jammed the combo because he was so hamstrung, but I would need to check my notes to be sure. While there was definitely some play to the games, neither was even remotely close.
R3:
Rough match-up. I definitely got greedy with a pernicious deed and opened myself to being tempo'd out by a FoW. Despite awkward draws, I definitely could have played this one better.
R4:
Combo'd him out through a thalia, port, and wasteland on something like turn 4 or 5 in G1. Yeah... that one was kinda sweet. I had to go into Yawgmoth's Bargain mode with Harpy + Coiling Oracle for close something like 12 life, but it was enough to get there.
G2 he goes for a Karakas on Thalia, I respond by casting and shooting with Izzet Staticaster. He Cataclysms the turn before I would have killed him and we both go into a build-up mode again, but with advantage to him (he has a dude on board). I slowly claw my way back in with Fire Imp to trade with his two dudes, followed by Scavenging Ooze and DRS to gain life and try to race. We stall out with him Karakas-blocking with Thalia while racing in the air with Aven Mindcensor as I am running out of creatures in graveyards to eat. He figures my two DRS with infinite lands in grave make porting me bad and on a key turn he forgoes it to develop his board further with stuff like Mom. I swing with Ooze, he bounces thalia, and I have the four mana to go for Aluren. Slam Aluren, cast Recruiter, find an Oracle in the top 4, oracle blind flips Parasitic Strix and we kill him.
R5:
This was the same Doomsday pilot that took 9th at SCG Oakland. He knows what I'm on because I remember seeing his eyes widen upon viewing my gamestate in prior round. I know what he's on because Doomsday isn't exactly common. I combo him out early with disruption in G1. Game 2 is a slog-fest, but the gist is that I hit with all 6 cabal therapies that I cast that game and I have a FoW on a clutch Dark Ritual. I close it out with Edric-backed beats.
Quarterfinals: Against the opponent I ID'd with (UWR Stoneblade)
I win Game 1 because Cabal Therapy is amazing. My opponent kept 5 lands (Tundra, Karakas, 3 Arid Mesa), Brainstorm, JTMS. I blind hit on brainstorm on T1. Hit two JTMS when I flashback on T3. He has no other spells in hand and decides to pack it in.
Game 2 I mis-fetch leaving me with no basic when he slams blood moon. It takes him something like 12 turns to finish me off and I'd have been fine with ANY colour of basic if found in the first ~8 of those turns.
Game 3 demostrates the awkwardness of the match-up. You're favoured as long as they don't stick a run-away TNN. He does, I make a game out of it and miss on a key Cabal Therapy to lose:
He has 4 lands untapped, 2 lands tapped, TNN, and Meddling Mage (on Abrupt Decay) in play). I sac my dude to flashback cabal therapy. He has three cards in hand, has Forced and Counterspelled once each so far. I know two of his three cards (Pyroclasm and Supreme Verdict) and he has not cantripped since my last look at his hand. I decide to go for Supreme Verdict as FoW is uncastable if I nail the verdict. I hit verdict, his unknown is Counterspell, and I can't resolve my Pernicious Deed to stabilize and live. >.<
I hate TNN
2-1 vs Esper Miracles
2-0 vs UWR Ponder Miracles w/ Back to Basics
2-0 vs UWR Stoneblade
2-1 vs Food Chain
2-1 vs Belcher
---
2-1 vs Dredge
2-0 vs Omnitell
0-2 vs Grixis Delver
2-0 vs Green & Taxes
2-0 vs Doomsday
---
0-2 vs BUG Delver
2-1 vs UR Delver
2-1 vs UWR Delver
2-1 vs Aggro Loam
0-2 vs Burn
2-1 vs Grinding Station (Storm)
Top 8 Matches:
0-2 vs Goblins
1-2 vs UWR Stoneblade
The 3 main is a concession to you not wanting to see multiples in fair match-ups. I don't think that number there actually is a case against it. And drawing a copy is actually fairly beneficial even in match-ups where you hypothetically don't want it, due to the ability to interact on so many different axes with the opponent (stack, hand, field, and grave when you add FoW, Therapy, Decay, and DRS), thus leaving them feeling like no area is safe.
Also I think you are discounting the purpose of FoW. Force makes opponents slow down. Any storm player worth their salt can beat a FoW. But they are often slowing down to turn 3 or 4 to do so. By that point you should also have a therapy or DRS or (or both) complicating their plans further. Yes, they should strip your hand of FoW, but if they need to be digging into discard to interact with you, they're playing your game. If they can probe you, see blanks, and combo, that's a very different game. It's also relevant that seeing a FoW once means that they need to keep it in mind whenever your hand is unknown.
I know a lot of Aluren players go with thoughtseize, but I'm not really thrilled with it both due to going tempo negative (which is very rough for us due to our already dubious tempo) and because I generally feel like we use our life as a resource a lot already. The problem that defending an Aluren with thoughtseize costs 5 mana (6 vs daze) compared to 4 (5 vs Daze) with FoW is pretty relevant to me too. I do need to concede that Thoughtseize synergizes very well with therapy though, essentially letting the seize see the way for therapy to clean up. Liliana is more of a problem due to the cards she comes with. She's normally accompanied by Punishing Fire or a defending goyf, and we need multiple dudes to connect to take her out. Admittedly, she's easier to deal with than JTMS due to Abrupt Decay.
Jitte is an absolute nightmare if it starts accumulating counters. With 4 or more counters, it even becomes impossible to combo. Null Rod, more decays, and Deed help postboard though. Sometimes you can also keep it from connecting with harpy blocks.
This is a relevant bit that is very true (if your opponent is familiar with the fringe decks of the format, at least). I don't know that I can quantify how much it realistically impacts games though.
I can easily see a build redesign to focus as much as possible on pretending to be something fair like Waterfalls or Shardless BUG (to the point that I have a running thought experiment list that is essentially shardless bug with 2 Aluren to offer a fallback combo kill).
This is overly reductionist of course, but if a 3mana card is "Kill/Counter this or you lose", what does a replacement need to do to match that impact?
Realistically, I do agree with you that he's kinda the flex spot in the list. I really like what he does for me, but I think it is very reasonable to try other things in his spot.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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I prefer my cards in my deck to reinforce each other, and there is some tension between Cabal Therapy and Force of Will in how the cards actually play out. I prefer Thoughtseize because of this, I think if I was to play force of will I would probably cut the Shardless Agents, the Cabal Therapies and Run Eldric’s and Daze’s in their place.
I try to show that I am BUG for as long as possible in play. I finally cut Oracle from my list last week and went 3-1 in my weekly torment losing to Grixis Control. I love Baleful Strix, that card is so sweet if definitely shores up your Delver matchups.
Now I have to finalize my sideboard for this weekend at the SCG tournament.
I really came to appreciate this when I was playing Solidarity verses BUG Delver. The power of having countermagic AND discard (and DRS) means that you are playing disruption with different weaknesses that also punish people for the "correct" plays used to defeat the other measures. Countermagic asks that you build up a grip to overwhelm it. Discard asks that you play off the top or play to the board to dodge it. DRS prevents you from building up the third resource area.
If you only present one form of disruption, you let them off of the catch-22 into which we had locked them. Yes, Thoughtseize synergizes with the therapies, but it has the dissynergy in that it homogenizes your hate and gives them room to maneuver away into the hate's blindspot.
Obviously you should play what's working for you (and perhaps more importantly: be comfortable trying whatever you identify as an alternate approach), but I wanted to at least give a full analysis of the gains presented by what might initially appear to be somewhat schizophrenic hate.
Best of luck at the Open! I look forward to hearing how it goes
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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I ran Aluren in a local Legacy GPT. Five rounds with a cut to T8.
Same mainboard as I've been on for awhile. Sideboard was tweaked in advance based on scouting.
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Null Rod
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Sudden Shock
1 Engineered Plague
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Minister of Pain
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Fire Imp
R1: 2-0 vs Goblins with some budget substitutions (ghost quarters in place of wastelands)
R2: 0-2 vs RG Lands
R3: 0-2 vs UG Infect
R4: 2-1 vs Reanimator
R5: N/A vs Solidarity (friend scooped me in to T8)
Quarterfinals: 2-0 vs RG Lands (same player as R2)
Semifinals: 0-2 vs Infect (same player as R3)
I was kinda out of it in this tournament, so my memory of the matches isn't great (this is also the reason I didn't initially attempt to write a report).
The two Lands matches were perfect examples of as good and as bad as that match-up can go. Neither match was remotely close. I also took a wierd line in G2 of the swiss match against Lands - I went to colour-screw him by killing all his moxen with Reclamation Sage, and the turn after I killed his final coloured source, he topdecked the coloured land >.<
Infect is continuing to be a problem. I barely ever get to face it, so there may be a bit of an experience gradient in play there (although, that's likely unfair to my opponent, since he definitely had never seen Aluren before). It's on the upswing in the broader meta, and even with specifically tweaking my SB to be better vs Infect for that tournament, it's still rough. I was hitting on the vast majority of my therapies (even blind), seeming to be ahead on the grind, and then just losing. I think that I need to reevaluate sideboard options and probably my strategic gameplan in this match-up. I have kinda been liking the thought of perhaps trying Plaguebearer since I've seen it in the SB of another Aluren player's list.
On that note...
We've overlooked some recent finishes (all from the same pilot):
2nd SCG IQ on 7/10/2015
2nd SCG IQ on 7/31/2015
Top8 SCG IQ on 8/7/2015
Here's the most recent:
4 Baleful Strix
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
1 Cavern Harpy
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Dream Stalker
1 Eternal Witness
4 Imperial Recruiter
Spells (19)
4 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
1 Dig Through Time
2 Force of Will
4 Cabal Therapy
1 Diabolic Intent
3 Thoughtseize
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Izzet Staticaster
2 Plaguebearer
2 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
4 Abrupt Decay
2 Force of Will
1 Massacre
How did the tournament go? I saw that an Aluren pilot was in the Day2 field.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
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Same mainboard as always, the sideboard looked like this:
1 Plaguebearer
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Minister of Pain
1 Fire Imp
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Null Rod
1 Engineered Plague
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Maelstrom Pulse
1 Force of Will
Event 1: 8-man, single elim
R1: Dredge (2-1)
Opponent had an awful habit of stacking his graveyard up repeatedly. This made me need to ask to see his graveyard somewhat frequently. In addition to being very annoying, I also ended up with a better knowledge of his own game state that he did.
I lost game 1 to neither of our decks having any action in the top 30 cards. Won games two and three because Aluren appears to just naturally beat dredge. G3 especially was a slaughter since my opener included DRS AND the natural faerie macabre.
R2: Elves (2-0)
I spike a win off elves. I think I combo'd him in g1? G2 I land a plaguebearer that runs away with the game. Sniping Dryad Arbors and 1-drops is pretty insane. It was not close.
R3: Dredge (2-0)
Despite playing next to him in my previous match, I manage to talk my way into getting him to believe I'm some random BUG deck. Then I kill him. G2 I get the most busted of hands again (DRS + Macabre), and don't draw the combo, but I eventually establish a perfect lock with Scavenging Ooze.
Event 2: Scheduled event, 5 rounds (payout by record)
R1: Sylvan Plug (2-1)
He keeps a 6-card hand with Savannah, Mox Diamond, and hateful things. He plays around wasteland, refusing to drop the savannah. This means that my therapy on mox diamond puts him many many turns away from doing anything. He scoops to Shardless beats. He takes G2 with a great opener, but I'm a topdeck away from killing him the entire game (I needed an abrupt decay for trinisphere). So far he still has no idea that I'm combo. He's boarded under the assumption that I'm some BUG value brew with maybe some red. I combo him out on turn 4 or 5 in G3.
R2: BURG (or potentially Grixis) Delver (2-0)
I beat his double delver nut draw in G1 through some sweet value plays with baleful strix and eternal witness. DRS claws me back out of burn range and then I steal the game. Game 2 I get him to FoW stuff like plaguebearer and then combo him out. Opponent had been next to me the previous round and still had no idea I was combo until Aluren resolved against him.
R3: BUG Delver (1-2)
I mull to 6, keep a 1-lander (Volcanic Island + Brainstorm). I brainstorm protected against daze. He wastes me. I make land drops for the next couple turns, he wastes each of my first three land drops. I am almost in it, but he topdecks the 4 wasteland naturally (only one cantrip cast all game, and it was a ponder that he shuffled on) and that throws me out enough for him to close out the game. I kill him easily in G2. G3 I'm able to kill him for turns on end if I just hit a topdeck. I miss, he wins. Kinda felt robbed on this one, but them's the breaks.
R4: Burn (0-2)
He played well, and even though I was able to trick him into missing some eidolon triggers with Aluren responses, he still took game 1 with ample room to spare. Game 2 I saw pyrostatic pillar added to the mix, and I suspect he was packing the set. Regardless, my clunky draw ain't beating a pillar.
R5: Merfolk (2-1)
He was splashing white for a stoneforge package. I also saw chalice in later games. I was able to maneuver the board into a couple misplays from him, causing him to play a longer game and allowing me to combo off with a healthy cushion of 7-8 life. Surprisingly again, the guy had played next to me before and didn't realize I was combo until Aluren dropped against him.
While I obviously would have liked to do better in the second event, it was a pretty nightmare line-up of matches, and the 6-2 overall record is at least reasonable. I only saw two miracles players across both tournaments combined -- the scarcity of the deck surprised me and I sadly dodged both of them.
Yeah, the therapies take some practice (and immersion in the format).
I've also noticed that there's a lot of subtlety to sequencing with this deck in match-ups like miracles.
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4 Baleful Strix
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Shardless Agent
2 Dream Stalker
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Eternal Witness
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Thoughtseize
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Force of Will
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Flusterstorm
1 Krosan Grip
1 Spell Pierce
1 Null Rod
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Minister of Pain
1 Plaguebearer
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
Both main and board were kind of thrown together based on what I was expecting (mostly Shardless, tempo, and some fringe stuff, light on combo) and I couldn't find any Faerie Macabre around for the board. Matches went as follows. Games and boarding are all from memory, so there are almost certainly mistakes somewhere.
Round 1: Shardless BUG
Game 1: Discard and a couple early creatures make him think I'm on some kind of Shardless version. Tried to go off when I knew 2/4 cards in his hand, neither of which were blue or relevant. Unknowns were Force+BS, Aluren is countered, and I get ground out.
-1 Edric, +1 Decay
Game 2: Shardless did what Shardless does. Discard shreds my hand and I get beat down by 2 6/7 Goyfs.
0-1
Round 2: Junk Nic Fit
Game 1: Combo out T4. He has 1 StP, which isn't enough.
-1 Edric, +1 Plaguebearer
Game 2: Super grindy. He discards or destroys all 4 Alurens over the course of the game. He has early Teeg, which eventually eats removal. We both end up hellbent shortly after that. I'm grinding pretty well with Strix+Shardless, he wipes me with Deed and sticks Canonist. Meren of Clan Nel Toth does a great job recurring Pridemage before I can get a pair of DRS online and shut her down. Plaguebearer eats a couple little guys, and DRS activations along with two kinds of Strix eventually get there over a Thragtusk. I ended the game with something like 10 lands despite him siding out Vets and 10 cards left in the library.
1-1
Round 3: ANT
Game 1: I don't really do much. Discard something, Edric comes down in the hopes that I can draw some more disruption, and he has a ritual chain into AN into dead.
-3 Decay, -1 Stalker, +2 FoW, +1 FS, +1 SP
Game 2: I shouldn't have won this one. He misplayed pretty badly (missed land drop, counted mana wrong when going off) and could only get up to 7 Tendrils. Followed up with Aluren into Baleful Strix and Harpy with DRS down and he scooped with no cards in hand.
Game 3: Therapy takes one ritual, flashback takes two more rituals, and Aluren comes down T4 for the combo.
2-1
Round 4: Angel Stompy
Game 1: I know what he's on and blind Therapy away a 3sphere. There's some posturing back and forth where he lands Chalice on 3, but I eventually hit a Decay and combo off.
-2 Shardless, -1 Stalker, +1 Decay, +1 Grip, +1 Rec Sage
Game 2: Another super grindy one. He Geddons when I have 3 lands (Aluren/Recruiter in hand) and it left with 3sphere and a Chalice on 1, but I'm at least able to remove a Suppression Field in response and follow with a fetch. I get back to three lands and remove the 3sphere before he Geddons again. I try to grind him out with a pair of Strix but he eventually finds a Windborn Muse then a couple more threats and runs them over.
Game 3: He opens on Leyline of Sanctity and 3sphere a turn later. I can Decay the 3sphere, then land Aluren and combo off, with Rec Sage eating Leyline.
3-1
Ended 2/11 for the night, which is respectable for going in without ever having shuffled the deck before. Maindeck felt pretty good, though I think Edric and Rec Sage are swapping. He's a little bit of a pet card, but I never really wanted him and the local meta is pretty good at stopping creature swings. Sideboard had a number of things I never touched, but a lot of that were matchups. I know at least two of the regulars are on Pyromancer decks and there's frequently a couple Miracles or Miracles-similar lists around, so I don't want to make any drastic changes yet. I'm obviously new to the deck despite a good first outing, so comments are very welcome.
http://sales.starcitygames.com//deckdatabase/displaydeck.php?DeckID=97572
If wizards would print a green, black and white version of Hydroblast and Blue Elemental Blast Painter could be done in every color.
RRImperial PainterRR
UUUUMonoOmniTellUUUU
BGURWDredgeWRUGB
4 Deathrite Shaman
3 Coiling Oracle
2 Baleful Strix
2 Shardless Agent
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Dream Stalker
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Eternal Witness
Enchantment: 4
4 Aluren
Spells: 14
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
3 Force of Will
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
1 Taiga
1 Volcanic Island
2 Forest
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Force of Will
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Engineered Plague
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Null Rod
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Minister of Pain
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Fire Imp
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Ophiomancer
1 Bloodbraid Elf
As always, it's worth noting that the plethora of singletons is far less random than it looks. Not only are all the creatures (except BBE) tutorable, but there also is a healthy amount of triangulation of function going on. For example: Engineered Plague, Izzet Staticaster, and Minister of Pain combine to provide three variants of the same effect each stronger under certain circumstances. It is pretty common for two of those three to be applicable while one is left out. In the same vein, Scavenging Ooze and Faerie Macabre combine to cover different kinds of gravehate needs (ongoing verses immediate) and together give the deck the tools to address what it needs to face. Also, most of the non-creature hate is cascadable from Shardless, thus slightly increasing your likelihood of hitting them.
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1 Force of Will
1 Abrupt Decay
These are present as 3-ofs in the maindeck and are commonly wanted as 4-ofs in different match-ups.
1 Pernicious Deed
This acts as a catch-all for what can't be hit by decay or for what otherwise would take too much to try to engage with. Some overlap as well with the creature removal that we'll address later. Overall, this is just a very reliable catch-all, if a bit mana-intensive.
1 Engineered Plague
1 Minister of Pain
1 Izzet Staticaster
This is a trio of overlapping effects. Each has small benefits over the others, so you often bring in 2 of the 3. If you need to answer TNN, bring in the two black ones. Young Pyromancer? Maybe the two creatures but not the plague. Etc. I've much preferred this triangulation approach of mostly-redundant effects over simply running multiples of a single card, since you reach the same coverage but have fewer blind spots. Worth noting is that Minister of Pain has a real downside that has never yet come up for me in Legacy gameplay: A savvy opponent can use a removal spell to stop the effect.
1 Carpet of Flowers
This card is absurd. Verses blue decks, if you're rocketing up your mana at double the rate, you quickly shed any semblance of clunk from your curve. Don't be afraid that you might need to deed it away later. If you get 3-5 turns of this, you are super heavily favoured.
1 Null Rod
General catch-all. Cascadable with Shardless, beats on miracles (not that you don't already), crushes D&T, great against storm, etc. I cannot see cutting this. Don't be afraid to board it in against something like Lands where all it does is wipe out their Mox Diamonds.
1 Tsabo's Web
Cascadable with Shardless; great against Lands, D&T, manlands, etc. I've been super happy with this, and it's also funny that it's an extra option to bounce for profit with Dream Stalker.
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Scavenging Ooze
I like the anti-grave package of 4 DRS, macabre, and Ooze. Macabre lets Recruiter immediately hit their yard and can't be countered. Ooze and DRS do a good job at extended coverage. If you have a ton more grave stuff locally, you can add more, but I've not seen it as necessary. I also bring in Ooze a lot when I just need to have the larger man on board.
1 Fire Imp
Fire Imp is in close competition with Bone Shredder, and I've run them side-by-side in the past. Fire Imp's biggest upside is that it kills opposing Deathrite Shamans. This is a big deal because we don't have great pressure as you would need to render them irrelevant. Fire Imp is also easier to reload on with Dream Stalker and has been far better against stompy decks since it kills Magus of the Moon without regard for your manabase (and recruiter can find it that way too!). Bone Shredder's upside is verses Eldrazi, Tarmogoyf, and Elesh Norn (and small benefit in that it can be recurred by Harpy directly). Don't be afraid to add Shredder to your SB if these are what you're having trouble with. Wasteland Strangler has been suggested before, but I think its benefit over Fire Imp is marginal at best and the restriction (of needing exiled fodder) represents yet another way for your removal to go awry, and that's just not something you want (although I do dream of processing the imprint off a chrome mox).
1 Reclamation Sage
This printing (in conjunction with that of Minister of Pain) is what allowed us to cut white. Our manabase rejoices at its presence. Great catch-all for things like Miracles, D&T, and everything else. Great answer to most things that people would use to try to stop our combo. Never ever ever cut this. If I were to drop Edric from my maindeck, this would be on the short list of the 4-5 cards that might replace him.
1 Ophiomancer
I'm trying this as an answer to Eldrazi. It's been pretty sweet so far. Small non-bo with Coiling Oracle. Sweet combo with Cabal Therapy.
1 Bloodbraid Elf
You need a way to pressure planeswalkers, and your horde of misfit toys isn't normally great at that. BBE kept JTMS under control in Standard and she does it again here (in addition to being another good answer to Liliana). Make Cascade Great Again!
Regarding Edric, since I mentioned it above:
I run Edric as trump card verses combo. Sometimes you get him on a favourable board in other match-ups and just end the game on the spot (or you have dorks but no Aluren, so you tutor for Edric as a roundabout way of finding the Aluren), but his real strength is giving you absurd reloads on disruption. It's pretty easy to keep Force of Will and Cabal Therapy flowing when you're drawing 4-5 cards a turn. Also, weighing in at a 2/2, he competes for the title of "best beatstick in the MainBoard". Your combo match-ups normally start with a quick spar of therapies or Force of Will to force them to rebuild resources, you tutor for Edric, you swing once, and then the game is never in reach for them again.
If combo isn't a thing where you are or if you don't like Edric, I consider the following cards as reasonable replacements:
Tier 1: Great options that I would probably choose
Reclamation Sage - Solid and there's a subtle omnipresence of targets for it in the format.
Sedraxis Alchemist - It's funny that this is closer to making my maindeck than sideboard, but this is a great all-around answer. It's consistently somewhere around the 76th-78th card in consideration for my 75. I was sad to cut it and I keep looking to add this powerful effect back in.
Shardless Agent #3 - this is what Edric originally replaced, and while I call it the "default" item to slot back in for him, it is really in tight competition with the other two.
Tier 2: Reasonable options
Baleful Strix #3 - It's pretty standard bread-and-butter. Great with more infect in the meta, decent verses eldrazi. Small danger of going too high on low-impact cantrip dudes.
Scavenging Ooze - I haven't really found this guy to be necessary maindeck, but it is a way to outgrow tarmogoyf and to stay out of burn range, so I suppose it's not terrible.
Body Count: GRRRUUUUUUUUUUU
إن سرقت إسرق جمل
Level 1 Judge
My Cube for use with 6th ed. Rules
2 Baleful Strix
1 Cavern Harpy
3 Coiling Oracle
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Dream Stalker
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Eternal Witness
4 Imperial Recruiter
1 Parasitic Strix
2 Shardless Agent
Spells
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Force of Will
1 Bayou
1 Bloodstained Mire
2 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island
1 Wooded Foothills
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Anathemancer
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Fire Imp
1 Force of Will
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Minister of Pain
1 Null Rod
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Thunderscape Battlemage
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Yixlid Jailer
Keep in mind that this is mostly by memory because my notes are pretty atrocious, so I don't promise that anything except what I sideboarded is completely accurate.
R1: Tezzerator/Lantern Control
Game 1: Can't find an Aluren, but he doesn't get off the ground either - he tries to establish a lock with Codex Shredder, Top, and Lantern, but I had been sandbagging two Decays from my opening hand and beat him down with small guys.
-1 Cabal Therapy, -1 Eternal Witness, -1 Force of Will +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Null Rod, +1 Reclamation Sage
Game 2: More of the same - he starts off with a RIP/Energy Field, and I decay the Energy Field so I can plink away. He ends up tutoring for Helm of Obedience at one point, but he's one mana short and I Brainstorm into an Aluren in his end step and kill him next turn.
1-0
R2: Shardless BUG
Game 1: We trade small guys for a few turns until I'm able to land an Aluren through a Force by Forcing back.
I didn't write down SB notes for this match.
Game 2: He leads with a Thoughtseize, takes an Aluren, and then Surgical Extractions my Alurens. I put up a decent fight but am ultimately unable to keep up with his creatures.
Game 3: He mulls down to 5, and I'm able to stop him from wrecking my hand by sacrificing a Baleful Strix to get rid of Hymn to Tourach from a Cabal Therapy flashback (I had the combo in hand). I untap on t3 and kill him.
2-0
R3: Death and Taxes
Game 1: He manages to develop a creature board state for a few turns, but I hold him off from killing me and am able to combo kill him.
-1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Force of Will +1 Minister of Pain, +1 Null Rod, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Tsabo's Web
Game 2: He casts 3 Phyrexian Revokers in quick succession, all naming Cavern Harpy, and then lands a Batterskull, which I'm unable to answer in time.
Game 3: I land a T2 Null Rod after he plays a t1 Aether Vial, and I'm able to develop my board pretty unfettered and combo out on t4 while he just has the Vial, some lands, and the new Thalia. He told me he was expecting to have an extra turn due to Thalia making my nonbasics enter tapped, but I'd sandbagged a basic Swamp in my hand. It also turned out that his t2 play was to cast Jitte, which got blown out by the Null Rod.
3-0
R4: Lands / R5: Miracles
We IDed as there were only 4x 3-0, and we were all guaranteed T8. I ended up 4th seed, and the Top 8 decided to split the credit for $127.50 each, with the winner of the event getting a Wyrmwood deck box (Wyrmwood sponsored the event).
3-0-2
The top 8 was:
1 Tezzerator (My R1 opponent)
2 BUG Delver
3 ??? I never found out what this player was on
4 Aluren (that's me!)
5 Lands
6 Miracles
7 BUG Food Chain
8 Death and Taxes (my R3 opponent)
Quarterfinals: Lands
Due to standings, I'm on the play.
Game 1: I lose this game to a quick Marit Lage, I think? Tbh, I knew this guy pretty well, so I wasn't keeping as much track of the games.
-1 Abrupt Decay, -1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Force of Will +1 Anathemancer, +1 Faerie Macabre, +1 Scavenging Ooze, +1 Yixlid Jailer
Game 2: I almost lose here. I am at 19 life and have an Aluren out when my opponent attacks me with Marit Lage, but I'm able to flash Parasitic Strix in to gain 2 life, then untap and draw Recruiter to combo kill him.
Game 3: I lost this game pretty handily, keeping a bad 5 versus his strong 6, but he decided to scoop because we'd already split cash and he wanted to go home.
Semifinals: Death and Taxes
I'm on the play again!
Game 1: He mulligans down to 5, I play a T2 Cabal Therapy naming Phyrexian Revoker, and he scoops immediately. He informs me that he had 2 in his hand but doesn't show me the rest.
-1 Cabal Therapy, -3 Force of Will +1 Minister of Pain, +1 Pernicious Deed, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Tsabo's Web
Game 2: I don't actually remember what happened here, but forgetting to bring in Null Rod was a mistake that I fix for Game 3.
-1 Cabal Therapy +1 Null Rod
Game 3: He lands an early Phyrexian Revoker naming Cavern Harpy, and equips a SoFaI to it, but I have a decent board state at this point including a Tsabo's Web (so he only has two plains available and can't do too much more), so I only get domed once (and Edric gets killed for it). I have an Aluren and Recruiter in hand, but don't really want to Recruiter for Rec Sage, so I wait an extra turn, losing a DRS to block and am rewarded by drawing Pernicious Deed, which I promptly cast (but don't blow up, because I don't want him to untap). In his end step, I deed for 2 to clear the Revoker (and, admittedly, most of my board), then untap and combo kill him.
Finals: Miracles
I'm onthe play yet again, but it's against a very accomplished player.
Game 1: He Counterbalances the only Aluren I see by leaving a Jace on top after a Ponder (with no mana available), then casts Jace and I am unable to recover.
-1 Aluren, -1 Baleful Strix, -2 Cabal Therapy -1 Eternal Witness -2 Force of Will +1 Abrupt Decay, +1 Bloodbraid Elf, +1 Izzet Staticaster, +1 Minister of Pain, +1 Null Rod, +1 Reclamation Sage, +1 Thunderscape Battlemage
Game 2: I play a couple dorks, then he Blood Moons me on t3. I untap and use the Blood Moon and my basic forest to cast Bloodbraid Elf, which cascades into Abrupt Decay to destroy his Blood Moon. I end up getting him down to 2 with attacks over a few turns, and then on the last turn I Cabal Therapy to check for Force and cast Parasitic Strix to kill him.
Game 3: He gets there with Mentors, but there was an interesting turn where he Cliqued me and ended up bottoming Thunderscape Battlemage after reading it, saying "It's a four-for-one!" I never get an Aluren and he has Countertop that isn't answered (I had to burn my only Decay that I saw to kill his first Mentor).
Final Result: Second place! It did come because of a concession from a friend in the quarterfinals, but it felt like an amazing run for a first time running the deck.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
4 Baleful Strix
4 Imperial Recruiter
4 Shardless Agent
2 Dream Stalker
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Eternal Witness
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Reclamation Sage
4 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay
2 Thoughtseize
4 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
2 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
1 Underground Sea
1 Volcanic Island
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
2 Force of Will
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Flusterstorm
1 Krosan Grip
1 Spell Pierce
1 Null Rod
1 Tsabo's Web
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Edric, Spymaster of Trest
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Minister of Pain
1 Plaguebearer
1 Scavenging Ooze
I took it to another 3-1 finish at our last weekly. Lost to Pox 1-2, beat a homebrew mono-U wizards full of looting and countermagic 2-0, Elves 2-1, and DnT 2-0. I would talk boarding, but I'm honestly not positive of how I boarded and most of the opposing decks call for pretty obvious choices. Notable plays were getting absolutely destroyed by Pox on a risky keep on 5 where I opened up with fetch, land, DRS and he opened with Dark Rit into Pithing Needle and Sinkhole, a great win on a full stack against Elves (see spoiler), and dropping Tsabo's Web T3 against DnT after he tapped down a Wasteland where the opponent and two spectators all asked to read the card. The majority of my wins came from either combo or endless value off Aluren.
Now people can play aluren with 8 copies of recruiter. Maybe it helps? It surely makes the mana more difficult, but playing Deathrite and some white duals might be enough.
Read my other stories as well (some ongoing):
Reaper King (a horror story), Kaalia of the Vast (an origin story), Sequels for Innistrad (Alternative sequels for Inn), Grey Areas (Odric's fanfic), Royal Succession (goblins),The Tracker's Message (eldrazi on Innistrad) and Ugin and his Eye (the end of OGW).
Definitely testing it either way, though.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)
There's definitely some potential for a UBGw build, though. The only thing you're really losing is Dream Stalker main and a few SB options. Arctic Merfolk and Whitemane Lion both make reasonable replacements for Stalker, and the SB options you pick up going white are equal to or better than red. It also opens up Academy Rector as a Recruiter-able Aluren, which is probably way too cute. I don't think 5C/8 Recruiter is going to be a very good build but I'm fully expecting to see some white builds pop up, if for no other reason than the barrier to entry is much, much lower. I know I'll be picking up a set and will try out white Aluren at some point despite having the deck and loving the red version.
edit: Coral Merfolk is pretty much useless here, unlike Arctic Merfolk.
Draft my cube! (630 cards)