Thoughts on Lantern Scout and Sorin?

Actually, come to think of it, Lantern Scout is a pretty good sideboard card against the more aggressive decks, so I'd definitely put it in the sideboard, although in terms of mainboard, I'd rather have Firemantle Mage filling out my 3-drop slot since he's powerful no matter what the matchup.

Sorin could also be a good choice, although for 4 mana, again I'd rather play a card like Gideon, Ally of Zendikar because his options are less narrow, being a 4 mana permanent +1/+1 buff or a 2/2 rally activator for free each turn, whereas Sorin has to -2 to create a 2/2 and, although it does have flying, I'd rather the creature be an Ally and the ability being able to be played every turn unlike Sorin's having to be played inbetween +1'ing him.

Thanks for making some good suggestions though! If I missed anything important then be sure to let me know, and I might reconsider.

Dont forget about Flameshadow Conjuring!

I like the idea of that card, however, since all of my rally triggers involve static abilities (apart from Munda, Ambush Leader but that's only one card), and the reason that the card costs 4 mana to play, it makes me less inclined to include it.

I'm not going to say anything that you haven't already worked out.

I think the four colours are too many. If you are waiting for colours it mucks up a steady flow of Allies. Beastcaller Savant can't fix that on its own.

How would you feel about RGW Allies?

Take out Crackling Doom and Murderous Cut for Celestial Flare and Sheer Drop.

Swap some of the Dranas for Ondu Champion and Tajuru Stalwart.

Worth a try.

Wooded Foothills is the best fetchland for your deck, because it can fetch any of the 4 colors.

Wooded Foothills can only fetch Forests or Moutains.

You might have gotten that mixed up with Evolving Wilds, which is indeed an interesting idea.

No i didnt. Think about the fact that the tango lands are both basic land types. You can grab R/G, g/W, or r/B.

Ah yes, I see what you're saying.

My apologies.

@Argeaux

Thanks for the suggestions! Yes, as you guessed, one of my friends has been telling me that 4-colour Allies is a bit too much and would be better as just Mardu Allies, to which I agree with, but the concept of 4-colour just seems so wacky and fun to me that I'd obviously like to try it out first as a 4 colour deck and see how well is fares at FNM, and if I feel that I consistently get mana screwed in the majority of games, the suggestions you made are cheap and I'll likely easily be able to get them and then have a playset of Dranas to trade towards other stuff!

@micah1

I see what you're saying here, and I had the same thought too when I was building the deck. While it IS true that Wooded Foothills helps to fix my mana, it does just that and doesn't help me for when I want fast access to white and black mana, which makes up the majority of the deck.

I originally had 3x Wooded Foothills for that reason, but after consisten playtesting, I found that it made the deck even slower than it would normally be, and that having 3x Windswept Heath and Bloodstained Mire were better at getting the more common colours of mana on time, since any of the fetches can be used to get a source of green mana turn 1 for a turn 2 Beastcaller Savant, fixing my mana for any other Allies.

My big thing is the dislike of windswept heath because it doesnt help you get anywhere near the mana for a turn 3 drana. Ive been poking around with your base on my deck, and I like it a lot better.

2 other cards you are missing is definitely Unified Front and Kalastria Healer. Kalastria Healer is the most threatening card in the deck. It is terrifying. Unified Front works well with Angelic Captain (which you arent running) and kalastria healer, which ive drained 8 with before. Kalastria healer is definitely WAY too good to pass up. At the very least test with it on untap v2.

I get your point...maybe I should go for 2 of each and 3 Bloodstained Mires?

I like the idea behind Unified Front, especially with the setup with Kalastria Healer (which I honestly had no idea existed so thanks for telling me about it!), although consistently paying 4 colours of mana with it seems difficult even with the land base I'm running. Is it still powerful with paying only 3 colours of mana for it? If so, I'll definitely give it a go!

I'm in love with the Healer now that you mentioned it, but the issue with it is that I don't know what to take out in her place. I'm assuming I'd be taking out the Kor Bladewhirls as their ability isn't that impressive and the mana cost is the same?

Also, I'm not running Angelic Captain because I would rather have the deck consist of smaller creatures and the fact that she does nothing the turn she comes out makes me like her even less.

Thanks for your help!

Yes, it is still powerful with 3 converge. lightning helix, get 3 1/1, trigger rally. With a similar manabase I am consistently doing converge 4, so it still shouldnt be a problem. Angelic Captain is a card I dropped today. I would run 2 of windswept and 2 bloodstained and 3 wooded foothills. Kor bladewhirl is the card to take out. It has a non-bo with drana too, which is why it was the card I dropped.

I would drop all 3 bladewhirls and a dranas emmissary.

Lantern Scout is insane in any matchup. I think that lifelink is one of the most overpowered core abilities for a creature to have. Being able to give all your creatures lifelink can result in gaining something like 10 life. In this deck which could easily find its self in a race against control being able to get permanent value (or at least value that lasts after languish) on turn three is extremely good. I would strongly encourage your to put the dood in as a 2 or maybe even 3 of.

@Ninjadude51

I get your point, although I would have thought Firemantle Mage would be a better turn 3 play, since nobody wins through lifegain, and control doesn't seem to bother if you're on a huge life total if they're ending the game with an Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger or another huge Eldrazi.

My first thought with Lantern Scout was 'sideboard against aggro' since menace doesn't really matter if they're going to be tapping out all their creatures to beat you in the race to 20 damage. If it is as good as you say, I'll definitely give it a go, although I have no clue what to take out for it!

My overall judgement on the card is that I think giving menace would be better at getting closer to the win than lifegain and that menace would be better in a wider variety of situations. Plus, I have Kalastria Healer for some small lifegain which also hurts my opponent and combos off of Unified Front.

Obviously let me know if you disagree and maybe I'll come to like your opinion more and change parts of my deck for Lantern Scout, but thanks for checking my deck out anyway!

I disagree strongly with Lantern Scout in the Mainboard. Perfect for Sideboard, though.

You are on the right track, I think. Early Menace will finish games faster. Life gain stalls them. You don't really want a long game with Allies. It just gives the Opponent more chance to start eating them with Bane of Bala Ged.

I've sped my Allies deck up a lot and it's more efficient, as a result.

Kor Bladewhirl mirrors Drana, Liberator of Malakir and this is bad thing ... why? I just see it as extra chances to make sure First Strike comes into play. Also, Drana, Liberator of Malakir does not actually give Allies First Strike. Combing this with its ability makes it better.

Be careful about taking out Drana's Emissary, too. You don't want to leave yourself without a way to defend against Flying attacks from Opponents. You could offset this by throwing Plummet in the Sideboard.

If you happen to end up with Kalastria Healer and Drana's Emissary in your Mainboard, as I have, you will have more than enough incidental life gain. The difference is you will also have Flyimg and Opponent life loss,

I've gone with different colours, but you can check out my motley crew to see what I came up with, if you like.

Triple A (BFZ Allies) Playtest

Standard* Argeaux

SCORE: 11 | 49 COMMENTS | 2468 VIEWS

Mine is also still a WIP.

I've found Aligned Hedron Network essential for fighting Eldrazi decks.

@Argeaux

Thanks for the card breakdown, and yeah, I think Lantern Scout is going to be strictly sideboard-only unless Ninjadude51 has a major reason for it to be mainboarded. Since this deck is 4-colour, I can't just chuck in most allies with rally and hope for the best, which is why I chose to take out Kor Bladewhirl because I needed room for the card that's usually always better, Kalastria Healer. However, if it were a Mardu allies deck, I could have quite easily ran it in addition to the Healer.

I had a look at your deck and I have to say, well done! It looks pretty streamlined (unlike mine which is undergoing that process) and I notice you run Gideon, Ally of Zendikar which I realise is a powerful card but in this 4-colour deck, getting double white is hard and makes an on-curve Gideon almost impossible.

Oh and yes, definitely! I'll definitely be putting 2-3 of those in the side board, since it's just so good like you say! I still don't have my sideboard sorted out yet but that's mainly because I'm trying to get the mainboard sorted out first, what with getting the right land base and mana fixing, as well as trialling cards like Kolaghan's Command.

I actually just put Gideon, Ally of Zendikar back in my deck, mostly because I want to -4 him and get +1/+1 for everyone right away. I might end up using him to make a Knight, in an emergency.

Thanks for being nice about my deck.

If you're thinking about Kolaghan's Command you might also want to look at Gravepurge. For the same cost you can draw all your dead Creatures again.

Yeah, that's a pretty solid option for a straight-up +1/+1 anthem for the rest of the game for only 4 mana!

Also, thanks for the suggestion of including Gravepurge but I'm mostly including the 1-of Kolaghan's Command for more versatility in the deck, not just as a way to get dead creatures back (although that is the most used mode on it).

I'll add some more to the side, but at the moment, March from the Tomb is an additional way for me to get my dead stuff back, and in both this and Kolaghan's Command, they go to my hand or battlefield, not just the top of my deck, meaning I can still get some new cards and the dead stuff I just brought back is available to me sooner than a few turns in.

Don't forget that Gravepurge also lets you draw a card, so one Creature returns straight to hand.

I understand, though. I've used Kolaghan's Command in decks and it's great.

I know, I'm just in love with it after testing with it in one of my modern decks an gpot amazing play testing results back from it :D

Also, on a slightly not related note, why has Drana, Liberator of Malakir's price increased SO much since yesterday/2 days ago? I'm just wondering because I got 3/4 of mine in a preorder yesterday at about 10 pounds each ($12-$15?) which was good, but it must be played in another deck emerging from the new set to have gone up that much!