I play boros allies in modern MTGO casually. I've never really run into a deck that out races it, and on the play I'm usually swinging for lethal on turn 4 (well before most board wipes).
Its not a super interactive deck but you've got longevity and some spot removal available to you, as well as alpha striking all day long and Kazandu Blademaster to protect you. There's some combat tricks available (flashing in 2 ally soldier tokens to give double pro a color with double pump your beaters) and you can play disruptive elements easily (I run 4 main board silence to steal away people's turns on their upkeep if I don't like their play in my paper copy).
It's an explosive deck for sure but I haven't run into any control or disruptive decks so I can't advise you on those match-ups.
I will agree that if you're playing more than W/R you're just making a worse humans deck though. I'm fairly sure that allies is faster than humans but otherwise if you're trying to out utility them I'm not sure it's possible.
There's been a few threads for modern allies but they're not super popular. If you're interested I'll sign onto MTGO and pull my exact list but it's something in the ball park of:
4 path
4 lightning bolt
4 Ally Knight Token (should be ally soldier token because soldiers are an instant vs knights are a sorcery)
If you wanted to go more mid range you can put in lightning helix and there's an equipment that makes ally tokens on attack, but it's just slower. If you go slower... Why are you playing allies?
To be honest I'm not really sold on Catapult Squad for any deck. Coordinated Barrage plays a very similar role only it doesn't require you to tap your own creatures down. Yeah, it's not free or repeatable, but since you probably plan to win fast/early or not at all that's fine.
If you're on a budget, also Aven Squire can be used to put some damage in the air, and will buff your t2 attack (and any others if you want). Cenn Tactician will give you some reach when you have nothing else to spend mana on, and blocking multiple creatures with a first striking defender is a good feeling. The more of these you play, the less good Champion of the Parish is, so you may want to consider Expedition Envoy instead if you're playing some allies. The ally-soldiers offer you a lot of options, and have built in synergy with Cenn Tactician (which only cares if a card has a +1/+1 token on it, not where it came from). If you like allies, Join the Ranks offers combat tricks (pump your guys mid-combat to survive trades) or if you're playing planeswalkers Oath of Gideon makes allies (but not soldiers). Oath makes Ajani go off turn 2 (enters with 5, +1 the turn he hits the board). Mosquito Guard can also be good on a budget: if you draw him late you can always use his reinforce to buff someone you already have on the board, and if you draw him early he is a 1/1 first striker.
The pros: Most things will lord your ally-soldiers, and all your ally-soldiers are cost effective. Running Brave the Elements mean you can alpha-strike against a lot of decks, and protect your weenies against damage based sweepers. Silence is a surprisingly good card for helping you get that last bit of damage in (cast it during your opponent's upkeep and they can't cast any creature spells.
Cons: little spot removal/interactivity with the board. Not much protection from sweepers, and with so many low cost guys it's easy to get blown out. Cavern is ludicrously expensive. No draw/filtering. No way to go to the dome to finish them off if they stabilize.
I'm looking to update my old (zendikar/scars standard) Boros allies deck. I haven't played modern in a long time so I'm sure I'm out of date when it comes to what needs to go in the main/sideboard and what kind of things are available. I already have the Arid Mesa, and the shell of the main deck (the white allies and Akoum battlesingers).
As some of you may know, Allies are one of the tribes that doesn't have particular lords, but rather each ally triggers when itself, or another ally enters the board. While Naya /GW allies is very strong for this reason (Collected Company not only allowing the deck to dig but also putting things on the board to recover from board wipes) they eschew what was, to me, the essential component of Boros allies, fast creatures that get big with burn to the dome to finish the clock.
Therefore I threw this deck idea together to maximize how quickly you can kill your opponent.
For the side deck, I was thinking that I will need some Ondu Cleric for burn, and Tuktuk Scrapper for artifact removal. Some kind of creature protection might be a good idea (although brave the elements serves that role in some ways, but that trades off the alpha strike for lethal for protecting my creatures) for decks that will try and stall the deck by removing the creatures that get +1/+1 counters. Luckily the deck can easily pack targeted removal (bolt and path).
Some other allies I considered:
Reckless Bushwacker is Akoum Battlesinger 5-8 if you can surge it. Not great if you top deck it without gas.
Evasion allies (Ondu Champion for trample or Firemantle Mage for menace)
There are 2 allies for first strike (one in red and one in white) , and one for double strike at 5 mamá I think.
There is a Boros card that let's you rearrange the top few cards of your deck. Munda, Ambush Leader.
In black there are a few good options though they aren't terribly fast. For closing out a game in a stalled board there is (at 5) Hagara Diabolist and for recursion there is Agadeem Occultist.
I also considered main decking phyrexian metamorphto copy whatever I played on turn 2 (hopefully akoum battlesinger), likely over Lantern Scout.
I believe there some ways to defeat counter spells for creature decks now (cavern of souls) but that would be a lot of my budget. There are budget options, I believe but due to the lack of generic mana costs on my creatures I don't think they are usable.
I'm not sure if I'm missing any major archetypes, since I'm a bit rusty and don't know what gets played locally/on mtgo anymore. I believe I'm lacking enchantment removal (but I'm in white so...) and I'm not too sure about the mana base, but considering it's 2 color I believe it's a pretty solid start.
The ideal (nuts) hand/draws for this deck is 2 Hada Freeblade, 2 Akoum Battlesinger, a Brave the Elements or Lightning Bolt, and the lands necessary to play them all (1 white source, 1 red source, and one of either color). The bolt/brave the elements is for if you want to side in Bushwacker to increase the odds of the t3 hit, but with that substitution it's only an 11 damage turn.
Favorite Playstyle (Aggro, Midrange, Control, Combo): Aggro
How Competitive (For Fun, Local Tournament, MTGO, PTQ/GP):MTGO
Favorite Cards/Colors: White>Red>Green>Black>Blue
Budget:$50-$200
Staples Owned:None, I just started MTGO.
I think that's fairly obvious. What people are saying is that the current form of "Control" is actually Aggro<Control>Combo. Which, judging by what people are saying, is an exaggeration. I think that in a healthy meta, you aren't going to win because you are the X in an "X>Y" equation. In fact, what the complaining is telling me (someone who didn't have a strong bias in the situation except that I don't like counter spell) is that people aren't happy that the current meta is boiling down to skill instead of metagaming.
Unless people aren't clarifying their points, that is.
Agreed. In a world where every color can do the same things there would be no point in having different colors at all. It seems like the person you're responding to doesn't want to play Magic, but some other game entirely.
I disagree completely. Right now, every color can win via damage (life loss). Does that mean that they're all the same? No, they all do it in different ways.
I enjoy Magic, otherwise I wouldn't post on a forum dedicated to it. I understand that it is hard to state your problems with an idea without making it personal, but if you expect to be considered credible, it's one of the most basic tenants of a debate.
The example I gave are very rough, but definitely interactive ways for all of the colors to interact with the stack. Sure, they will need to be tuned and balanced, as is inevitable, or even new ideas for cards can be added, but no one can deny losing to a card because (I'm playing X color and not W,Y, or Z) isn't any fun.
I would put forward that perhaps to tune the cards you would have to change their efficiency, or their utility. For example, I could see modular counterspells (for IU, counter target spell. For 2UU exile target creature). I think complexity is important for a dynamic game, and trying to limit abilities for posterity's sake is stupid. In some ways, this idea is the founding principal of artifacts (pay extra because it is not in your color) and no one thinks that artifacts destroy color identity.
I don't like it when people tell me that counterspell is interactive. It isn't. You get to interact with me ( I play a creature and you counter it) but I don't get to interact with you( I play a spell, you counter it, I play a spell that answers your counter). This is the part of counter magic I don't like, not that you trade to 2cmc for a 6cmc.
Ideally, I'd like every color to have an answer for every other color and their answer. Everyone should be able to interact on the stack, not just blue.
I'm green, casting a creature-> you counter me -> if I have mana up, I protect my spell from counter.
I'm white, casting a creature -> you counter me -> if I have mana up, I counter your counter.
I'm black, casting a creature -> you counter me -> if I have mama up, I can pay life to protect my spell.
I'm red, casting a creature -> you counter me -> if I have mana up, I burn you for 4.
Etc. For all the colors and card types, as fitting the color personality. It is no fun to either be forced to play another color to answer a threat, or have no answer at all. All answers should have answers, the fact that only blue answers counter in a reactive sense is my issue.
Yes I know there are "cannot be countered" proactive cards, or those who just cant be countered. Those cards then need to be answerable to other answers that blue can pack.
TL:DR Everyone should be able to answer everything, if they choose to put it in their deck. This allows for greater interactivity and more unique game states, creating a dynamic play field. Limiting answers to one color (ex white/green for enchantments, blue for spells) is ultimately harmful to the game. Answers should always be as efficient than threats, thus forcing the decision: Do I play threats or answers? threat.deck vs answer.deck will be luck, everything in between will require skilled play.
The impression given by the article (merely by the existence of Wanton) is that no matter what you do, the change will still happen. And when you do, they will be a violent, killing machine. And if you want to, you can act like that as a human (in fact, there is a werewolf mentioned by name who never reverts, and one who acts like a werewolf when he does revert, hanging around with werewolves when in their canine forms) but at no point is it even implied that you can "Come to terms" with the beast and stop it from being a killing machine. It is rather heavily implied that it isn't possible because of the economics of the change, turning makes you so outrageously hungry, and strips "you" of your willpower you need to feed RIGHT NOW!
Having three generals seems clunky and obnoxious. Plus, which could you cast? Sometimes this is going to hurt flavor more than it supports.
Defensive bonuses would be interesting from a game play perspective, though it would definitely need tweaking. An idea I had would be leaving a "guardian" or "artifact" of some kind that you would have in play at the start of the game, but there is a catch, you can't use that card in your deck for any other area. You would probably need other rules, like if it is a creature, it has defender, or it can't activate its activated abilities until you would have been able to cast it. An even better idea would be to use it as a second.general, sharing tax with your regular one. Possibly you'd have to restrict it to a legendary permanent, but maybe not. You'd have to see it in action to see for sure.
I wouldn't worry so much about alliances, because EDh is supposed to be political. It would be interesting to call in a friend to aid you, but that might turn games into unofficial (or official) two headed giant games.
Another factor to take into account is location, and if it had any bearing on the game. Maybe create a map and make it so players could summon allies (other players) who would be limited to a 60 card.deck (highlander or non) and less life, like a planeswalker, so less powerful immediately, but a boon none the less. Maybe after, say 5 turns they could be "summoned" for a mana cost, and take their first turn that turn.
There are a lot of interesting ideas that would affect a campaign like this, but it could be fun with friends.
Basically, this card is best used in decks where you want a perfect opener, and can afford to wait 5 turns to get it. Insane in a Rafiq deck too, assuming you hit it on turn five.
This card loves big mana, and loves decks that curve well. Even if you only have 5 mana, using this card to generate card advantage and board position seems like a solid play in decks that can afford it. Azusa seems like she would love it too, come to think of it.
I'm just so tired as to how dominant they seem to be for new sets. I mean standard is just rife with 'em.
Conceptually, I also hate to think that I, as a planeswalker, have no more powerful option than to "phone a friend." Also, why are they so much more consistent than I am with their spells?
What do you mean "rife with 'em"? I only see two half-way decent planeswalkers in their color (Lillian and Gideon) and one that is good in its niche (Koth). Is your meta significantly different than mine?
In terms of guarding against the skies, there are two main ways to beat them, Longbow Archer which has reach, and Catapult squad which lets you tap your (hopefully) vigilant soldiers. That being said, Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademaster are amazing one and two drops. Mobilization is the best card that cares about soldiers, and it makes them vigilant, which lets you tap them (after declaring attackers, preferably when your opponent declares blockers) to kill blockers. You won't swing through for damage, but you won't get killed either. You can also use it to spot remove utility creatures.
Its not a super interactive deck but you've got longevity and some spot removal available to you, as well as alpha striking all day long and Kazandu Blademaster to protect you. There's some combat tricks available (flashing in 2 ally soldier tokens to give double pro a color with double pump your beaters) and you can play disruptive elements easily (I run 4 main board silence to steal away people's turns on their upkeep if I don't like their play in my paper copy).
It's an explosive deck for sure but I haven't run into any control or disruptive decks so I can't advise you on those match-ups.
I will agree that if you're playing more than W/R you're just making a worse humans deck though. I'm fairly sure that allies is faster than humans but otherwise if you're trying to out utility them I'm not sure it's possible.
There's been a few threads for modern allies but they're not super popular. If you're interested I'll sign onto MTGO and pull my exact list but it's something in the ball park of:
4 path
4 lightning bolt
4 Ally Knight Token (should be ally soldier token because soldiers are an instant vs knights are a sorcery)
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Akoum Battlesinger
4 protection ally (forget the name atm)
3 Munda
3 Menace Ally
Lands
Allied Encampment
PLAINS
MOUNTAINS
If you wanted to go more mid range you can put in lightning helix and there's an equipment that makes ally tokens on attack, but it's just slower. If you go slower... Why are you playing allies?
If you're on a budget, also Aven Squire can be used to put some damage in the air, and will buff your t2 attack (and any others if you want). Cenn Tactician will give you some reach when you have nothing else to spend mana on, and blocking multiple creatures with a first striking defender is a good feeling. The more of these you play, the less good Champion of the Parish is, so you may want to consider Expedition Envoy instead if you're playing some allies. The ally-soldiers offer you a lot of options, and have built in synergy with Cenn Tactician (which only cares if a card has a +1/+1 token on it, not where it came from). If you like allies, Join the Ranks offers combat tricks (pump your guys mid-combat to survive trades) or if you're playing planeswalkers Oath of Gideon makes allies (but not soldiers). Oath makes Ajani go off turn 2 (enters with 5, +1 the turn he hits the board). Mosquito Guard can also be good on a budget: if you draw him late you can always use his reinforce to buff someone you already have on the board, and if you draw him early he is a 1/1 first striker.
The pros: Most things will lord your ally-soldiers, and all your ally-soldiers are cost effective. Running Brave the Elements mean you can alpha-strike against a lot of decks, and protect your weenies against damage based sweepers. Silence is a surprisingly good card for helping you get that last bit of damage in (cast it during your opponent's upkeep and they can't cast any creature spells.
Cons: little spot removal/interactivity with the board. Not much protection from sweepers, and with so many low cost guys it's easy to get blown out. Cavern is ludicrously expensive. No draw/filtering. No way to go to the dome to finish them off if they stabilize.
Creatures: 23
Hada Freebalde x4
Kazandu Blademaster x4
Champion of the Parish x4
Field Marshall x4
Preeminent Captain x4
Captain of the Watch x3
Enchantments: 4
Honor of the Purex4
Instants: 10
Path to Exile x3
Brave the Elements x4
Silence x3
Lands: 23
Plains x19
Cavern of Souls x4
I'm looking to update my old (zendikar/scars standard) Boros allies deck. I haven't played modern in a long time so I'm sure I'm out of date when it comes to what needs to go in the main/sideboard and what kind of things are available. I already have the Arid Mesa, and the shell of the main deck (the white allies and Akoum battlesingers).
As some of you may know, Allies are one of the tribes that doesn't have particular lords, but rather each ally triggers when itself, or another ally enters the board. While Naya /GW allies is very strong for this reason (Collected Company not only allowing the deck to dig but also putting things on the board to recover from board wipes) they eschew what was, to me, the essential component of Boros allies, fast creatures that get big with burn to the dome to finish the clock.
Therefore I threw this deck idea together to maximize how quickly you can kill your opponent.
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Expedition Envoy
4 Akoum Battlesinger
4 Metallic Mimic
4 Kabira Evangelina
4 Lantern Scout
4 Lightning Bolt
4 Boros Charm
4 Brave the Elements
4 Path to Exile
6 Plain
6 Mountain
4 Arid Mesa
4 Allied Encampment
For the side deck, I was thinking that I will need some Ondu Cleric for burn, and Tuktuk Scrapper for artifact removal. Some kind of creature protection might be a good idea (although brave the elements serves that role in some ways, but that trades off the alpha strike for lethal for protecting my creatures) for decks that will try and stall the deck by removing the creatures that get +1/+1 counters. Luckily the deck can easily pack targeted removal (bolt and path).
Some other allies I considered:
Reckless Bushwacker is Akoum Battlesinger 5-8 if you can surge it. Not great if you top deck it without gas.
Evasion allies (Ondu Champion for trample or Firemantle Mage for menace)
There are 2 allies for first strike (one in red and one in white) , and one for double strike at 5 mamá I think.
There is a Boros card that let's you rearrange the top few cards of your deck. Munda, Ambush Leader.
In black there are a few good options though they aren't terribly fast. For closing out a game in a stalled board there is (at 5) Hagara Diabolist and for recursion there is Agadeem Occultist.
I also considered main decking phyrexian metamorphto copy whatever I played on turn 2 (hopefully akoum battlesinger), likely over Lantern Scout.
I believe there some ways to defeat counter spells for creature decks now (cavern of souls) but that would be a lot of my budget. There are budget options, I believe but due to the lack of generic mana costs on my creatures I don't think they are usable.
I'm not sure if I'm missing any major archetypes, since I'm a bit rusty and don't know what gets played locally/on mtgo anymore. I believe I'm lacking enchantment removal (but I'm in white so...) and I'm not too sure about the mana base, but considering it's 2 color I believe it's a pretty solid start.
The ideal (nuts) hand/draws for this deck is 2 Hada Freeblade, 2 Akoum Battlesinger, a Brave the Elements or Lightning Bolt, and the lands necessary to play them all (1 white source, 1 red source, and one of either color). The bolt/brave the elements is for if you want to side in Bushwacker to increase the odds of the t3 hit, but with that substitution it's only an 11 damage turn.
In magical Christmas land you can goldfish:
Turn 1 Plain, Hada Freeblade
Turn 2 Mountain, Akoum Battlesinger, swing for 5.
Turn 3 Plain, Akoum Battlesinger, Hada Freblade swing for 18.
How Competitive (For Fun, Local Tournament, MTGO, PTQ/GP):MTGO
Favorite Cards/Colors: White>Red>Green>Black>Blue
Budget:$50-$200
Staples Owned:None, I just started MTGO.
So, in short, Aggro>Control>Combo>Aggro?
I think that's fairly obvious. What people are saying is that the current form of "Control" is actually Aggro<Control>Combo. Which, judging by what people are saying, is an exaggeration. I think that in a healthy meta, you aren't going to win because you are the X in an "X>Y" equation. In fact, what the complaining is telling me (someone who didn't have a strong bias in the situation except that I don't like counter spell) is that people aren't happy that the current meta is boiling down to skill instead of metagaming.
Unless people aren't clarifying their points, that is.
I disagree completely. Right now, every color can win via damage (life loss). Does that mean that they're all the same? No, they all do it in different ways.
I enjoy Magic, otherwise I wouldn't post on a forum dedicated to it. I understand that it is hard to state your problems with an idea without making it personal, but if you expect to be considered credible, it's one of the most basic tenants of a debate.
The example I gave are very rough, but definitely interactive ways for all of the colors to interact with the stack. Sure, they will need to be tuned and balanced, as is inevitable, or even new ideas for cards can be added, but no one can deny losing to a card because (I'm playing X color and not W,Y, or Z) isn't any fun.
I would put forward that perhaps to tune the cards you would have to change their efficiency, or their utility. For example, I could see modular counterspells (for IU, counter target spell. For 2UU exile target creature). I think complexity is important for a dynamic game, and trying to limit abilities for posterity's sake is stupid. In some ways, this idea is the founding principal of artifacts (pay extra because it is not in your color) and no one thinks that artifacts destroy color identity.
Ideally, I'd like every color to have an answer for every other color and their answer. Everyone should be able to interact on the stack, not just blue.
I'm green, casting a creature-> you counter me -> if I have mana up, I protect my spell from counter.
I'm white, casting a creature -> you counter me -> if I have mana up, I counter your counter.
I'm black, casting a creature -> you counter me -> if I have mama up, I can pay life to protect my spell.
I'm red, casting a creature -> you counter me -> if I have mana up, I burn you for 4.
Etc. For all the colors and card types, as fitting the color personality. It is no fun to either be forced to play another color to answer a threat, or have no answer at all. All answers should have answers, the fact that only blue answers counter in a reactive sense is my issue.
Yes I know there are "cannot be countered" proactive cards, or those who just cant be countered. Those cards then need to be answerable to other answers that blue can pack.
TL:DR Everyone should be able to answer everything, if they choose to put it in their deck. This allows for greater interactivity and more unique game states, creating a dynamic play field. Limiting answers to one color (ex white/green for enchantments, blue for spells) is ultimately harmful to the game. Answers should always be as efficient than threats, thus forcing the decision: Do I play threats or answers? threat.deck vs answer.deck will be luck, everything in between will require skilled play.
Does nothing. Indestructible creatures with toughness of 0 still go to the graveyard.
The impression given by the article (merely by the existence of Wanton) is that no matter what you do, the change will still happen. And when you do, they will be a violent, killing machine. And if you want to, you can act like that as a human (in fact, there is a werewolf mentioned by name who never reverts, and one who acts like a werewolf when he does revert, hanging around with werewolves when in their canine forms) but at no point is it even implied that you can "Come to terms" with the beast and stop it from being a killing machine. It is rather heavily implied that it isn't possible because of the economics of the change, turning makes you so outrageously hungry, and strips "you" of your willpower you need to feed RIGHT NOW!
Defensive bonuses would be interesting from a game play perspective, though it would definitely need tweaking. An idea I had would be leaving a "guardian" or "artifact" of some kind that you would have in play at the start of the game, but there is a catch, you can't use that card in your deck for any other area. You would probably need other rules, like if it is a creature, it has defender, or it can't activate its activated abilities until you would have been able to cast it. An even better idea would be to use it as a second.general, sharing tax with your regular one. Possibly you'd have to restrict it to a legendary permanent, but maybe not. You'd have to see it in action to see for sure.
I wouldn't worry so much about alliances, because EDh is supposed to be political. It would be interesting to call in a friend to aid you, but that might turn games into unofficial (or official) two headed giant games.
Another factor to take into account is location, and if it had any bearing on the game. Maybe create a map and make it so players could summon allies (other players) who would be limited to a 60 card.deck (highlander or non) and less life, like a planeswalker, so less powerful immediately, but a boon none the less. Maybe after, say 5 turns they could be "summoned" for a mana cost, and take their first turn that turn.
There are a lot of interesting ideas that would affect a campaign like this, but it could be fun with friends.
edit: reading is tech.
turn 6 (1) Mother of Runes, Noble Heirarch
turn 7 (2) Bloom Tender, Qasali Pridemage, Stoneforge Mystic
turn 8 (3) Eternal Witness Knight Exemplar
Turn 9 (4) Stoic Angel cold-eyed selkie
etc.
This card loves big mana, and loves decks that curve well. Even if you only have 5 mana, using this card to generate card advantage and board position seems like a solid play in decks that can afford it. Azusa seems like she would love it too, come to think of it.
What do you mean "rife with 'em"? I only see two half-way decent planeswalkers in their color (Lillian and Gideon) and one that is good in its niche (Koth). Is your meta significantly different than mine?
We have a soldier primer here at MTGShttp://forums.mtgsalvation.com/showthread.php?t=344672. Read it.