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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, 3Instant, Common
Put two 1/1 white Soldier Ally creature tokens onto the battlefield.
Talus Paladin, 3Creature - 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, 1Creature - 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, 1Creature - 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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12 comments:
Well, I made a UBW based around the loremaster because of his ridiculous drawing power. I had on particular game end on turn 6 and I had 52 life. All my damage was dealt with the blue flyer and the black ogre, gained life with that ondu fellow. But besides that, it can be quite difficult to get enough mana out, so I can see changing one of the colors to green to utilize the ridiculously cheap mega-mana blitz that one would provide.
I'm currently playing w/r/g, and white looks to be the most powerful colour now. There might be enought aliies to switch to plain w/g whit some omnaths in there. Pump w/ harabaz, & attack ftw. Black is looking pretty good too, and b/r/w might be viable too.
Okay, can you use ruin ghost, tideforce elemental, and lotus cobra for unlimited action? Say you have all three out and emeria angel. Use a plains to tap ruin ghost, remove the plains and return it to the battlefield, get token, add an island to your mana pool with lotus cobra when the mana comes into play. Use the island to tap tideforce to untap ruin ghost, rebounce the plains and repeat? Would that work? Just wondering.
Two words: Warp World.
By far one of the most fun things you can do with this deck is play Warp World.
I am really interested in where Allies go, but I honestly thing they will start breaking casual and see competitive. I don't know if they will hit tier 1 or even really get near it but with some allies like Survivalist, Blademaster, and Freeblade, there is no way they wont get annoying.
My current ally deck is 5 color based around most non basic lands and getting Maelstorm Nexus out so i can cascade into other allys.
Gorgeous idea the Maelstorm Nexus, thank you, i am trying to build a five color allied deck too and so far you are the first who gives me any clues, people get stuck on 3 colors beacuse of mana problems but i think allies are ment to be together and they give you far more options in all mana colors
i currently have a 5 colored ally deck and i have yet to lose it is set up to gain life, deplete others deck and when all else fails brute force and once i kill your monsters i will take them out of your grave yard
has anyone though to putting "wild pair" into it......
well i made an ally deck when i first saw them. and it has all but red allies in it. the main method to win is hagra diabolist (whenever hagra or another ally enters the battlefield you may have target opponent lost life equal to the number of allies you control, and you gain that much life) and i just make a bunch of allies. another kill method is to play the card that makes the opponent mill cards equal to the allies you control. and i use my beefed up allies to block, if you have at least 2 of hagra and the mill ally out, you will win the game in a matter of turns from just summoning an ally. and they stack!
a good card i like is alluren it a old green card look it up
IMO, Allies are not viable at all without green mana accel. They are just too slow. However, I made some ally decks that utilize green mana acceleration with Harbaz Druid and Birds of paradise and its straight up nasty. Third turn and I've got 5-7 allies out, including 5 and 6 drops.
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