Do not worry - your regular Flash/Arrow/Agents of Shield review will be up on Thursday...but what I am doing now is something different. As some of you may remember, when I put up the poll a few weeks back one of the concepts I discussed doing was a MtG Deck Tech type series - possibly leading to me attending FNMs, playing the decks out and reviewing and going over my performance on the Saturday.
Of course, this is all donation dependant...so feel free to click the button and donate if you like but for now I'm going to discuss an idea.
First I will recommend a very handy site - www.shoeboxmtg.com. Now I know cataloging collections is tedious and tiresome but the advantage of doing so is that once it's done it's minimal effort to do again. Furthermore, Shoebox MtG also has a function where you can search decks, going back the past month or two, pulling up decks from the Top 8, 16, 32 etc from sanctioned MtG events and it compares your collection, letting you know what you need to spend to finish a deck or how many cards you are shy of a deck. This is of course great for deckbuilding and brewing as it lets you find a frame you are close to and with a bit of tinkering or splashing you can add to it and substitute what you have for what is missing, or add new things altogether.
And that is just what I chose to do with the deck we are discussing today.
The 'shell' is Kenneth Durant's B/W Allies from the SCG Standard - Rhode Island that took place over a month ago. Tweaking some numbers, splashing a bit more red and substituting what is lacking and we end up with a deck that looks something like.... this.
To break it down here...
3x Ally Encampment 2x Altar's Reap 2x Bloodstained Mire 1x Chasm Guide 1x Crackling Doom 4x Drana's Emissary 2x Drana, Liberator of Malakir 3x Evolving Wilds 3x Expedition Envoy 2x Firemantle Mage 3x Kalastria Healer 2x Kor Bladewhirl 2x Lantern Scout 2x Makindi Patrol 1x March from the Tomb 2x Mountain 5x Plains 1x Resolute Blademaster 2x Retreat to Emeria 3x Serene Steward 2x Smoldering Marsh 2x Stasis Snare 5x Swamp 2x Valorous Stance 3x Zulaport Cutthroat Sideboard 1x Aligned Hedron Network 2x Angelic Captain 2x Blighted Steppe 2x Despise 1x Felidar Sovereign 1x Harsh Sustenance 1x Quarantine Field 1x Smite the Monstrous 2x Stasis Snare 2x Transgress the Mind
What we have is a deck of several small creatures and a glut of 1, 2 and 3 CMCs throughout. For most decks this is probably a bad idea...but not so for Allies. You want to be able to drop multiple things a turn to trigger the myriad rally effects but you also want to make sure you can always get something down. It is a very, very straightforward aggro deck that relies on a cascade of effects to quickly overrun and swamp the opponent.
Much like the Abzan Warrior decks of Tarkir it's all about synergy. In this case it's Creature type that's super important and best of all? It's cheap. I tweaked the Shell a bit to include some fetch lands and splash a bit more red it as well as a few different allies for different effects. The sideboard is very much an adaptive sideboard...
Which also can turn the deck into a Lifegain deck. Now let me tell you, even without the sideboard elements of the Blighted Steppe, Sustenance and the Sovereign as a win-con this deck gains life fast. Triggering lifelink, the Emissary's proc each turn, the Healer and Cutthroat procs...it swings life fast and with the life swinging it ramps up just as fast.
I feel this could be fun at a local FNM, possibly this Friday should any donations come through - certainly a different pace from my attempts at Temur or Grixis Eldrazi. Much quicker, which is ultimately something needed.
Even better, this is a cheap deck - probably easily set up on MTGO as well. The real cost in actual money is the fetches but take those out and it's a $50 deck. 30 tix on MTGO.
As always comments are welcome, as are donations and suggestions for anything else you'd like me to see or do.
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