So, I'm running 4 Ally Encampments along with 4 Cavern of Souls. This worries me because of the need to cast hardened scales on turn 1-3.

Which you rather have? t1 creature or t1 scale? Personally I would rather have a creature on board even without scales. If you think that scales are more important than creatures, drop encampments to 3 and run 1 more fetchland. Maybe that would help.

I haven't gotten to playtest this version yet. If anything, I could run more Reflecting Pools, but this too has problems. I'm trying the Kalastria Healer over Ondu Cleric in the main to see how it does, but I am not sure.

Ondu Cleric is still stronger in terms of the lifegain. I wouldn't consider a substitution because he will help bring you out of bolt/burn range very quickly. Kalastria healer not to much. I personally would run both the synergistic effect, but since I'm sticking to the aggro route, Kalastria may be sidelined and added later if there is space.

Also, at this point I only have 1 Drana, Liberator of Malakir. I'm not sure how effective she will be, so I will leave it for me play testing.

As mentioned, Drana is a win-con by herself. On the turn she attacks, the boost is massive for the next turn. Think of her like desecration demon. If nothing left to check her, the game is pretty much over.

I will throw in the new March from the Tomb to see how it does as a one of in the side. I also went from 4 Colective Companys to 3, due to my play experience of not being able to get to 4 mana consistently. I may be willing to look into going with 22 lands, but it's still up in the air. Let me know your thoughts!

Personally I have no issues hitting 4 mana with 20-21 lands. The only thing is probably the land colours that will have problem. 22 lands is too much and you might see yourself getting flooded with lands. March from the tomb is a great card. But the irony is that if you have trouble hitting 4 mana already, wouldn't 5 mana be almost impossible?

xxDSJJxx Except that Desecration Demon doesn't die to Bolt. About Cleric, I tested the Healer and really, Ondu Cleric does way more in my opinion, as you said. For your CoCo issues, you could try the Harabaz Druid like rothgar13 said.

rothgar13 I never tried playtesting the Druid, because it seemed weak on the outside, but I can get behind the mana ramp and turn 3 CoCo as well as being able to run less lands and more Return to the Ranks seems very appealing. Does Druid allow to run 20 lands though in the new versions of the deck? I think because of Ally Encampment, we want more lands because it gets sacrificed.

Brionac I personally run 2 druids in my list :) I initally think it's redundant without mirror entity, but looking at the new landbase, it does help even to fix colour or give that boost in the mana ramp to do more things.

Okay, if we are going to talk about dying to bolt, then all Allies are useless no? jk. I get your point. What I was trying to bring across is that if Drana was left unchecked, the next turn is almost GG for the opponent. Back to the dying to bolt part, well, that's 1 bolt down and not to your face. You still have other creatures that evaded that bolt.

oh ya, since we have red, consider this card: Firemantle Mage I overlooked this card and I think this gives the pseudo-unblockable or something that makes chump blocking harder.

I personally think the mage is a redundant Kabira Evangel, I wouldn't want both.

against affinity, Kabira becomes redundant. Or, when our luck is out and we need that kind of card to help push through the last bit of damage.

I think Firemantle Mage is probably at its best as a substitute to Kabira Evangel against decks with creatures that have different colors (BGx), or no colors at all (Tron/Affinity). That means it probably should be in the 75 (I like having evasion mechanisms), but it's probably coming in off the sideboard.

Should it be a 4-of if you run 4 Evangel to replace it completely? Or just a 2-of and side other stuff in for the remaining Evangels?

That's an interesting question. On the one hand, stacking instances of menace does nothing, and a 2/2 for is kind of meh. On the other hand, successfully evading blockers is a critical part of aggro strategy, so you need to maximize your odds of actually seeing one of them across the course of the game. I think you run 2 in the side as an initial test along with something else (Lantern Scout gets my vote), and then increase their numbers if necessary.

I think the Firemantle Mage is only useful against tron. Machines will always have plenty of creatures to do the double block. I also am not sure Lantern Scout justifes dropping what's in the current sideboard.

Harabaz Druid + Mirror Entity

Have you considered running Xenograft and Turntimber Ranger?

I've been running this for quite a few months. I don't know if the Oklahoma deck you're referencing is the same as this one but this showed up in a Top 8 list months and months ago.

Allies

The deck is completely solid. It goes toe to toe with nearly every deck in T1.

The combo with Harabaz Druid + Mirror Entity is absolutely devastating, can be activated when you cast the Entity and catches the opponent off guard every time.

Otherwise the deck will get there just through unparalleled beats alone. It puts other aggro decks on the defense when you have a smooth hand.

I'm not telling you to that your deck is wrong. You do your own thing and I respect you for incorporating the new allies. I personally believe most of them are garbage as far as non-standard formats go. The old Zendi was simply better. I'll be adding in Ally Encampment and the new Gideon, Ally of Zendikar to my Modern deck and that's probably about it. I've debated putting in Collected Company over Lead the Stampede, but I see benefits and downfalls to both and still believe Stampede is better. (A card to consider btw)

I also believe the 5 color is too far of a stretch. It will slow down your game and make things slightly more difficult for you to hold together at competitive tiers. However I respect what you're doing. Nice deck overall. You made the right decisions as far as what you were going for in my opinion.

Try making room for the Entity though. It will blow your opponent away. Works great when you turn on cards like Mutavault and Inkmoth too.

+1

I have to say that after a lot of testing, I've moved on from Mirror Entity. It's super clunky without Harabaz Druid, and I was only running 2. 4 sounds crazy hard to make work. I have tested Ally Encampment with Harabaz Druid to proc Ally triggers like a fiend, though (bonus points if you use Akoum Battlesinger), and that's been very explosive, while more sound in the "don't have lots of mana" scenario.

What do you mean exactly by clunky? I don't quite see how. Mirror Entity by itself without the Druid is effective. You just use your remaining mana to pump. Even at an X cost of 2 you're going to get value out of it, especially in a deck like mine where all the "Rally" triggers are +1/+1 counter triggers.

It also allows for superior combat tricks.

Imagine this:

You have a couple dudes on the field with anywhere from three to four counters. Lets say a Hada Freeblade at 4 counters and a Kazandu Blademaster at three counters with an AEther Vial at 3 counters, a Harabaz Druid, and an Akoum Battlesinger that you just cast this turn.

Move to beats step.

You swing your Freeblade, Blademaster, and Battlesinger in for a current value of 12. Let's say they're gutsy or defenseless and take it. Regardless of whether they block or not you're going to catch them off guard.

At the end of declare blockers you vial whip out a Mirror Entity. Triggers. You're now at a value of 17. After Entity resolves, activate Entity's ability, tapping your Druid (lets say all your lands are tapped because you've been living off a Cavern of Souls and a Plains this whole time). You add 5 more mana to your pool and put it all into Entity's ability, making all your dudes 5/5 base for turn. That's adding a total power of 13 to your 17.

That's 30 damage my friend, unblocked.

That can happen as fast as TURN 4. And doing my math on it now, the scenario described suggests you'd be completing wasting two potential mana on Turn 3 by not playing your Battlesinger then. So to readjust you're paying X = 7 instead of five as your two lands would be untapped turn 4, meaning your power total would go up by 4. So 34. 34 damage with three creatures on Turn 4.

Not many competitive decks in Modern can say they do that.

And those kind of scenarios in similarity are highly regular and consistent in my brew of Allies.

While I understand you may have had your own downsides to it, I simply can't see where Mirror Entity isn't effective when combined with the Harabaz Druid.

I realize some of my math is off by small numbers but the point is you're getting in there for 15 on turn 3 and more than twice that on Turn 4. Both Hada and Kazandu should have one more counter each actually writing this out.

Before Entity

(Hada at 0/1 + 4/4; Kaza at 1/1 + 3/3; Akou at 1/1) = 9

Entity = Rally Triggers

(Hada at 0/1 + 5/5 + 1/0 Akou; Kaza at 1/1 + 4/4 + 1/0 Akou; Akou at 1/1 + 1/0 Akou) = 14

After Entity 7

(Hada at 7/7 + 5/5 + 1/0 Akou; Kaza at 7/7 + 4/4 + 1/0 Akou; Akou at 7/7 + 1/0 Akou) = 33

There. The math. The value.

Because Mirror Entity's effect is expensive, in a deck that doesn't want to run that many lands (yes, even is a big deal). Furthermore, Mirror Entity without lots of dudes to support it (which you described quite well in your hypothetical scenario) is just a 1/1 guy that can self-pump somewhat inefficiently. Needless to say, most decks in Modern are quite capable of slapping down some 1-for-1 removal to answer your early threats, and then you're stuck with a lone Mirror Entity and wishing it were something else. It certainly has potential (as I have executed some of those 30+ damage blowouts myself), and there's no doubt that it's amazing with Harabaz Druid, but AEther Vial-fueled Allies is fairly explosive to begin with, and in that context Mirror Entity has the dreaded whiff of a win-more card, especially sans Druid. That means it helps slam the door shut once you're ahead (as an aggro deck with 3 creatures in play and no blockers tends to be), but isn't much help when you're behind. I would be open to playing it again (since my deck still has Harabaz Druid), but as no more than a 2-of. It's worth noting that Adaptive Automaton has similar results to the explosive Ally turn you're describing, requires no mana to go off, and is better at helping you rebound from getting 1-for-1'd a lot.