T H E D E C K
I love tribal decks and Aether Vial is the card that made me fall in love with modern. I found the ally strategy to be one of the most funny and enjoyable (IMHO) and I play it regularly. The list is built around a bunch of old cards, haters may call them ''outdated'', and nowadays playing aether vial is getting more difficult due to all this maindeckable incidental hate printed. And most importantly this tribe is in dire need of another good 1 drop to pair with Hada Freeblade (aka the better Champion of the Parish ) and good sideboard slot allies.
People played and play a lot of different variations of this tribe like the combo focused one with Halimar Excavator or the one with Hardened Scales, I personally prefer the 5C aggro with its linear and consistent plan with a plan B of a '''''''midrangey'''''' strategy around Harabaz Druid and early 4cmc allies from the sideboard like Tuktuk Scrapper. anyway the aggro plan is the way to go most of the time: Some hands can present lethal as early as turn 3 with a combination of Hada Freeblade / Hada Freeblade / Kazandu Blademaster / Oran-Rief Survivalist / Bojuka Brigand + Akoum Battlesinger / Jwari Shapeshifter and thanks to presence of 8+ copies of the same effects those hands are not uncommon.
But what makes the strong point of the strategy is the good topdeck with all the creatures functioning basically as lords for your board. Hada Freeblade , Kazandu Blademaster , Oran-Rief Survivalist , Bojuka Brigand are the big threats of the decks that can grow really tall during the game. The first two are the strongest but they basically serve the same purpose.
Akoum Battlesinger is the card that allow the fast kills by being an hasty body that can pump your cratures more than one time in a turn, this is an all star and you're always happy to see it in multiple copies.
Harabaz Druid is a strong mana generator that can allow some serious snowballing if not answered but usually its not the central part of the strategy: Multiples can result in some clunky and not keepable hands. I find that its stongest point its baiting removal or more importantly as a valuable piece for sideboard game that allow to cheat 4cmc allies. The deck is weak to Blood Moon effects and if you suspect moon games hands with vial and harabaz druid are good keeps that may let you continue the game.
Kalastria Healer is the card I prefer over Ondu Cleric: The vampire butt resists the assaults of flashed in Orcish Bowmasters and while healing you it also damage the opponent: sometimes this card gave me the reach to finish off an opponent. The cleric is infinitely better in gaining life but is significally worse at dealing damage: Depending on the deck you're usually facing 1 or 2 copies of Ondu Cleric can find their way in the main.
Kabira Evangel Repeatable board protection and evasion attacched to a body: with aether vial on play it become a strong instant protection, ideally by having him out by turn 3 and using other 2 drops to make its trigger happen.
Kor Bladewhirl currently im playing this due to all those little blockers around as a 1of but this spot is quite flexible and i've played in it the fourth Kalastria Healer or Ondu Cleric
Jwari Shapeshifter basically extra copies of other creatures. Akoum Battlesinger and Kalastria Healer are the main targets.
The strongest point of Aether Vial here , other than obviously cheating in creatures, is to make the trigger of all of your creatures able to happen in the opponent turn: Flash board protection with Kabira Evangel or damage based removal evasion with +1 +1 counters, flash life gain or first strike are the main examples.
The manabase is a 5C ''human style'' that allow to play everything quite easily and the package is quite stock: Cavern of Souls and friends all carry out the same purpose while Horizon Canopy is there for the occasional draw during mana flood and/or topdeck mode.
Ally Encampment is the one that stands out by being an occasional protection for your key creatures via bounce or by being another ETB trigger generator for your board.
