The Prodigal Player

Although I was not particularly thrilled with the offerings of the allies that Zendikar offered, I had a hunch along with everyone else that Wizards was going to get around to making them pretty powerful in standard when Worldwake dropped.

With all of Worldwake now spoiled it is clear to see that allies are now Standard material.  The question is, can a tier-1 deck be built?  Assessing the new options, my gut says yes.

The basic principle of the “Ally” mechanic is often compared to Slivers (and often derided as “slivers, but worse”), however I think that allies have always had the potential for being far more powerful than slivers (which is a good thing, because slivers haven’t had more than intermittent constructed success).

The basic difference between sliver mechanics and ally mechanics is that most of the time, when you cast a sliver, you get latent abilities.  In other words, you can cast a sliver, but then you have to have your slivers DO something.  Maybe that “something” is as simple as attacking, and reaping an x/x bonus, or deathtouch, or poison tokens, etc., but the bottom line is that slivers–without prodding–just stand around looking awesome.

And kind of creepy.

Now, the most basic of allies, such as Oran-Rief Survivalist and Hada Freeblade don’t “do” anything on their own, other than grow, and even for that they need a little assistance.  However, the more flashy (and pricey) allies tend to do a lot more, and have a particularly key phrase to take note of:

“when X enters the battlefield…”

In other words,  when you cast Turntimber Ranger, or Bala-Ged Thief, or Murasa Pyromancer, you aren’t just growing your Survivalists and Freeblades; you are also getting a free spell.  Maybe it’s a wolf token.  Maybe you just blasted your opponents Nacatl.  Maybe you Thoughtseized your opponent’s hand.  With an ally, you are getting potentially 3 things:

1.  A creature

2.  A free spell effect

3.  Additional effects from your other allies.

Which, if you were counting carefully, actually are potentially far more than 3 things.  I often wonder if the fundamental lack of interest I perceive in allies is due to legitimate concerns stemming from the high constructed mana curve the allies from Zendikar demand, or if people simply haven’t considered the explosive synergy they are capable of.

Another mechanic to naturally compare allies to is Cascade.

Now, I’m not going to be as obtuse as to say that Allies run as a superior strategy to cascade spells.  Cascade spells retain their own utility, and their own potential for deck design strategies.  However, the main attraction of the cascade mechanic is that it gives you a “free” spell.  As a balancing factor, many of the cascade spells themselves give you only marginal effects (think: demonic dread, violent outburst, ardent plea).  The objectively stronger cascade spells, such as Bloodbraid Elf, Bituminous Blast and Enlisted Wurm were stronger simply on the basis that they themselves were worthy effects.  A hasty 3/2, a shot of 4 damage, a vanilla 5/5.

By comparison to even the strongest of the cascade spells, allies can—with proper ‘allied’ support—produce effects that easily rival that of the stable of cascade cards.  This is a crucial point, because as long as cascade effects remain part of Standard, with Jund holding a monopoly on 2 of the 3 best cascade spells, any other decks hoping to compete with the tempo of Jund decks must have an answer to the inherent card advantage garnered by players running cascade spells.

I have been watching the ally mechanic closely because the virtual card advantage it can generate is a natural corollary to cascade.

The limiting factors thus far, have been:

A:  lack of low CC allies to fill out a proper curve.

B:  lack of depth of allies in any single color.

Wizards has clearly designed the ally mechanic with wide color distribution in mind to encourage “alliances” between the colors, however most everyone recognizes the inherent drawbacks to such a design decision.

With the introduction of Worldwake, I believe that it is now possible to focus in on 2-3 colors for deck design, and to find the proper curve and depth needed to create a competitively oriented allies deck.

The two colors that seem the most likely candidates for this are White and Green.  Between these two colors, it is possible to approach deck design as a traditional WG beatdown strategy, however with far greater synergies than usual.

At our disposal are the following options:

Hada Freeblade

Harabaz Druid

Kazandu Blademaster

Ondu Cleric

Turntimber Ranger

Tajuru Archer

Graypelt Hunter

Oran-Rief Survivalist

Join the Ranks

Now, obviously, there are some allies that are simply too weak to consider here:  Joraga Bard, Makindi Shieldmaster, etc.  Additionally, not all the allies I have listed here will likely make it into the final list, but they all bring some good things to the table.

I would draft for obvious inclusion the following:

Hada Freeblade

Oran-Rief Survivalist

Turntimber Ranger

Harabaz Druid

Join the Ranks.

Kazandu Blademaster

Hada Freeblade and Oran-Rief Survivalist seem essential to any WG allies build, because they create a sturdy low curve, and in order for the ally mechanic to maximize is returns, you need to get some allies onto the battlefield as soon as possible.  They will increase the higher-end spells, and the higher-end spells will in turn increase their formidability.

The non-ally spells that would seem to most naturally compliment the list above would be:

Noble Hierarch

Enlisted Wurm

Bestial Menace

Wolfbriar Elemental

Noble Hierarch:  this is an obvious card to consider for inclusion, as it accelerate and fixes mana, and provides an even harder punch with exalted.

Enlisted Wurm:  The cascade mechanic is actually a natural compliment to the allies mechanic.  What’s better than casting an ally and setting off a chain-reaction of bonus effects?  Cascading into an ally off a 5/5 and setting off a chain-reaction of bonus effects.

Bestial Menace:  While Bestial Menace doesn’t benefit any of the allies you may have, the CC benefit and diversified threat ratio the card represents means that it is like casting a bomb ally without actually doing so.  This card is like the grout filling in the gap where a yet-to-be-designed ally might eventually fit.

Wolfbriar Elemental:  Easily the most threatening green creature in Worldwake, it serves the same function as Bestial Menace, however it also has the potential to be a tremendous finisher.

As it stands, the basic skeleton I am intending to build up from is:

4 Hada Freeblade

4 Harabaz Druid

4 Turntimber Ranger

4 Noble Hierarch

4 Oran-Rief Survivalist

2 Enlisted Wurm

2 Wolfbriar Elemental

24

4 Join the Ranks

4 Bestial Menace

4 Path to Exile

12

4 Sunpetal Grove

4 Oran-Rief the Vastwood

6 Plains

10 Forest

24

The question “who’s the beatdown” is quite obvious here.  The deck that comes to mind most readily when considering this one, surprisingly, is Kithkin.  There are few decks I can think of with a more frightening linear beatdown opening.  The dreaded “Stalwart, Meadowgrain, Cenn, Cenn, Cenn, Cenn, Cenn, Cenn, Cenn” was explosive enough that many players refused to abandon it even after the metagame shifted and 5CC and cascade strategies started to predominate and punch holes in its strategy via overwhelming creature hate and cascade advantage.  I had a friend that even modified his Kithkin deck for an extended PTQ and didn’t die every round.  In fact, I believe he managed to go 4-4-1, which I thought was damn respectable, considering he was playing freaking Kithkin in an extended PTQ.

My initial point in bringing up that deck is that the initial synergistic opening that Kithkin achieved can be mimicked by a WG allies deck, and like Kithkin, it runs cards that are clear analogues to Cloudgoat Ranger and Spectral Procession.  I believe, however, that the potential card-advantage growth from threats like Turntimber Ranger Beastial Menace and Wolfbriar Elemental may in fact be even more devastating.

I settled on this list because of the general balance between card-advantage generating threats and quick mana accelerants.  It is possible that the Harabaz Druid won’t pull its weight, or that 4 druids and 4 Hierarchs prove to be too many “manabugs”.  What I like about this list, in theory, however, is that it can bounce back quickly from getting Wrathed, and the amount of virtual card advantage generation it creates means that it can potentially go toe-to-toe with Jund’s towering card-advantage.

Other cards to consider:

Elspeth or Garruk are natural options for inclusion; they both generate creatures and lots of virtual card advantage, and take the focus off your own life total in some cases.  Alexander Shearer brilliantly highlighted the potential corollary effect of these two planeswalkers (and Nissa Revane too) in a series of articles several months ago, and it could be possible that they end up sitting nicely in the allies deck archetype.

Master of the Wild Hunt should also be considered, for obvious reasons.

Or, it could be that all these cards are simply superfluous and lack synergy with the rest of the allies.

As I amass the cards needed to playtest this deck, and as I just simply cogitate about it further, I will post some updates on my thoughts about allies as a viable archetype, and perhaps even look into the other colors for potential allied inspiration.

Cheers.