Worldwake Allies

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Good Day folks,
We are now sitting at around 143 of 145 cards spoiled or previewed. Most likely within a few hours of this post, we will have the entire Worldwake set in our hands.

We will be doing what we always do when we have a new Magic the Gathering set on the table - build a casual deck. We will of course be revisiting our Vampire build but today we will explore the new Allies we have . . . Just remember that some of these cards are not yet officially spoiled so accordingly not yet set in stone.

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We have about a 11 new Ally creatures and also an Ally Spell. Let's go quickly through them and get some thoughts out after.

Hada Freeblade,
Creature - Human Soldier Ally, Uncommon
Whenever Hada Freeblade or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Hada Freeblade.
0/1

Join the Ranks, 3
Instant, Common
Put two 1/1 white Soldier Ally creature tokens onto the battlefield.

Talus Paladin, 3
Creature - Human Knight Ally, Rare
Whenever Talus Paladin or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Allies you control gain lifelink until end of turn and you may put a +1/+1 counter on Talus Paladin.
2/3

Halimar Excavator, 1
Creature - Human Wizard Ally, Common
Whenever Halimar Excavator or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, target player puts the top X cards of his or her library into his or her graveyard, where X is the number of Allies you control.
1/3


Jwari Shapeshifter, 1
Creature - Shapeshifter Ally Rare
You may have Jwari Shapeshifter enter the battlefield as a copy of any Ally creature on the battlefield.
0/0

Agadeem Occultist, 2
Creature - Human Shaman Ally, Rare
{T}: Put target creature card from an opponent's graveyard onto the battlefield under your control if its converted mana cost is less than or equal to the number of Allies you control.
0/2

Bojuka Brigand, 1
Creature - Human Warrior Ally, Common
Bojuka Brigand can't block.
Whenever Bojuka Brigand or another Ally creature enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Bojuka Brigand.
1/1

Akoum Battlesinger, 1
Creature - Human Berserker Ally, Common
Haste
Whenever Akoum Battlesinger or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may have Ally creatures you control get +1/+0 until end of turn.
1/1

Tuktuk Scrapper, 3
Creature - Goblin Artificer Ally, Uncommon
Whenever Tuktuk Scrapper or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may destroy target artifact. If that artifact is put into a graveyard this way, Tuktuk Scrapper deals damage equal to the number of Allies you control to that artifact's controller.
2/2

Graypelt Hunter, 3
Creature - Human Warrior Ally, Common
Trample
Whenever Graypelt Hunter or another Ally enters the battlefield under your control, you may put a +1/+1 counter on Graypelt Hunter.
2/2

Harabaz Druid, 1
Creature - Human Druid Ally Rare
{T}: Add X mana of any one color to your mana pool, where X is the number of Allies you control.
0/1

Vastwood Animist, 2
Creature - Elf Shaman Ally, Uncommon
: Target land becomes a X/X Elemental creature until end of turn, where X is the number of Allies you control. It's still a land.
1/1

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After reviewing our new Allies, it appears that the cards that stand out are Join the Ranks, Agadeem Occultist, Harabaz Druid, and Vastwood Animist.

With the instant spell, Join the Ranks one is able to strategically play this when the most benefits are available - example - when you need to gain life (Talus Paladin), gain protection (Kabira Evangel), beff up your Allies (Kazuul Warlord), or timmy at fatty (Murasa Pyromancer). Agadeem Occultist appears to also provide some very decent recursion from your opponent's graveyard and Vastwood Animist looks very versatile in animating a temporary man-land for fun shenanigans.

One basic issue with Allies in Zendikar was being able to produce the correct mana as this quasi tribe is all over the colour pie. Harabaz Druid now appears to provide some relief with that.

The challenge is now being able to take the best Ally cards from Zendikar and Worldwake to construct that fun casual deck we have all be thinking about for the last few months. Following is a visual summary of the previous Allies now in our tool belt.

Whereever your Ally deck takes your casual game, we are fairly certain you will have fun. Drop a comment and tell us how you would build the next new Ally deck.

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