Human Alliance

by JRE47 on 24 March 2014

Main Deck (61 cards)

Sideboard (15 cards)

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Deck Description

Just another Ally deck...and a Human deck.

Wait, what?

How to Play

That's right...two tribes in one!

Of the twenty-five Ally creatures in this deck, all but three also happen to be Humans. Which means that while Hada Freeblade is still an awesome one-drop, Champion of the Parish is just as good, giving you eight one-drops that can get absolutely huge.

Of course, most of these creatures can get beefy too: Kazandu Blademaster, Oran-Rief Survivalist, and Talus Paladin all get bigger for every Ally you play, and Adaptive Automaton makes them all even bigger. Then Primal Rage lets them trample over chump blockers and end things quickly.

The rest of the Allies do their own thing. You've got mass lifegain (Talus Paladin), ramp (Harabaz Druid), and flying (Avian Changeling, which counts as an Ally AND a Human to help your one-drops).

Ready keeps them alive, Descendants' Path keeps them cheap (and can frequently enable two Allies to enter play each turn), Cloudshift retriggers them.

And later in the game, when you could otherwise be running out of steam, Garruk and Doubling Chant can quickly restock you with several fresh Allies at once.

The sideboard has some off-the-wall includes, like easy creature kills--even of fatties--with Coordinated Barrage, the flexible Selesnya Charm, artifact control with Creeping Corrosion, artifact/enchantment hate with Devout Chaplain, and tribe/color protection with Kabira Evangel and Riders of Gavony.

I thought about splashing in red, but white and green seemed to offer plenty already. What do you think?

***Updates 3/25***
-2 Ondu Cleric, -1 Turntimber Ranger, -1 Cloudshift, -1 Plains, -1 Forest
+2 Mirror Entity, +1 Garruk, +1 Doubling Chant, +1 Godless Shrine, +1 Overgrown Tomb
**********

If you like Allies and Humans together, check out a much different take on the idea with a "darker" deck: http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/dark-human-alliance

Deck Tags

  • Modern
  • Allies
  • Human
  • Selesnya

Deck at a Glance

Social Stats

28
Likes

This deck has been viewed 3,297 times.

Mana Curve

Mana Symbol Occurrence

3103018

Card Legality

  • Not Legal in Standard
  • Legal in Modern
  • Legal in Vintage
  • Legal in Legacy

Deck discussion for Human Alliance

double the tribal, double the fun.

Mirror entity instead of avian changeling? Same mana cost, gives you a buffing ability, and triggers ally abilities. You lose the flying, but I don't think that'd be a substantial issue.

Also, most of your drops are 2-3. With all the triggered abilities, aether vial would be brutal to double down your creatures/disrupt with abilities during opponent's turn. Not sure which cards to take out and make room for it, though.

Thanks for posting! Looks like a fun deck.

1
Posted 24 March 2014 at 22:29

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I took a long, hard look at Entity when putting this together, especially since the majority of creatures here got loaded up with +1/+1 counters and would keep them when boosted from Entity. I'll take a look again, but I liked having the flying Avian Changeling for an evasive attacker or emergency blocker. I'd love to find room for both somehow....

Hadn't really thought about Vial, but that's not at all a bad idea thanks to essentially giving 2/3 CMC Allies flash. I love when creatures act as combat tricks! I'll playtest it and see if the benefits are worth carving out some room.

Thanks!

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 13:44

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Mutuvault? Combos with Descendant's Path. It's an Ally, even though you won't get any triggers.

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Posted 24 March 2014 at 22:34

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Yep, another one I thought about. The fact that it doesn't enter play as a creature is unfortunately a killer for me. Other than Path (which I hadn't thought of...good one!), it would really only benefit Harabaz Druid and only GET benefits from Automaton (which may be one of my first cuts if I start making room for other cards). Mutavault is awesome, and rarely a bad idea, but this is one of those cases where I think the benefits don't outweigh the big negative of thinning down the colored mana. It would stink to have a Champion or Freeblade in hand with Mutavault and wishing I had a Plains instead. Been in that kind of scenario too often. :-/

But thanks for the review! +1 for the suggestion.

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 13:51

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*like*
For protective reasons I would change from "Cloudshift" to "Ranger's Guile" as Cloudshift will remove all +1/+1 counters that are on the creature. If you want to make use of the EtB effects of your ally's I would suggest using some carddraw, e.g. Harmonize, so that you can always play some spells. This will also put an enormous amount of pressure on your opponent.
Maybe change from "Adaptive Automaton" to "Mayor of Avabruck".

Greetings
Muktol

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 00:13

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Guile is one of my favorite tricks. But Cloudshift is here more for those EtB effects than protection (though it can act as either in a pinch...though not ideal due to the loss of counters, yeah). Ready is my primary protection right now. If playtesting shows I need more, than Guile (and others like Gods Willing) are back in the discussion for sure!

I DO need some card draw. Harmonize is a good one...but what about Garruk, Caller of Beasts? A little slower, but probably much more effective with all the cheap creatures here.

Mayor was another one I looked at...a lot of great minds in these reviews! :-P I liked the interaction with Turntimber Ranger when flipped and obviously most every other Ally when Human (and the handful of Changelings at all times!), but as I reduced the number of Turntimbers, I just didn't see enough good if it got flipped to the Werewolf side and stayed there for a while. Maybe I could trim Automaton for it, especially if I up the number of Changelings as others have suggested. Hmmmm....I'll keep it in mind.

Thanks for all the good thoughts!

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 14:09

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What about "Lightning Greave" or "Swiftfoot Boots" as protection? The advantage is that they stay on the field, and can protect key creatures like "Mirror Entity" for a long time.
Garruk as carddraw, depends on how many non creature cards you will have in the final version of the deck. If you have enough creatures it will be OK, but it will hurt if you have to shuffle a e.g. "Doubling Chant" on the bottom of your library. "Hunter's Insight" or "Infiltration Lens" could be interesting options. Insight for is very good for aggressive decks, the Lens can make a blocking a really difficult decision (e.g. Infiltrations Lens + Warren Instigator on Goblin Decks)
No lord but "Champion of Lambholt" could also be an alternative to "Adaptive Automaton" as he profits from all creature drops (even those 2/2 wolfs from (the already removed) "Turntimber Ranger" would activate it's ability) and makes all your creatures rather hard to block.

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 17:02

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I might suggest adding some black mana...you never know, Willing could at some point be relevant and a real blowout. Murmuring Bosk maybe? Or just some good old fashion shocks. That would also give you access to a sideboard (or mainboard) kill spell suite, and possibly some of the better black allies (can't be specific as I don't know much about the tribe). Anyways, looks like a cool deck!
+1 from me.

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 01:07

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You know, I actually meant to toss in an Overgrown Tomb and Godless Shrine just in case you were able to use both halves of Ready // Willing and plum forgot. (I have a Standard Selesnya deck that does the same thing and been very happy when I'm able to pull it off.) I'll fix that.

The black Allies are okay (and most ARE Human), but the majority don't work particularly well with this deck's overall strategy, and I'm reluctant to go into a third color and water down my mana too much. (That's why I ended up trimming red in the end, even though they have allies like Akoum Battlesinger and Highland Berserker that would be quite good here.)

I DID release a black/red Ally deck along with this one if you're interested in checking that out, appropriately called the "Dark Human Alliance". (http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/decks/dark-human-alliance) Same Ally/Human tribal idea, but quite a different take. Again, if interested, let me know what you think.

Thanks for the review! +1 from me back to you. :-)

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 14:15

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That's a nice deck. I think it's pretty complete as it is now. I wonder why you got 61 cards in this deck but anyway it gets a like

maybe you could help me out with my Ally deck. It's currently being tested but I welcome every help: http://www.mtgvault.com/troopa/decks/the-rearguard/

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 08:09

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Lots of people have asked me about that. No real rhyme or reason, I just like 61 cards. *shrug* It's kind of my "thing", I guess. Throws people off when they realize it at FNM or tourneys. Makes them think I got some big trick up my sleave. :-D

When I was a new player, I had a lot of trouble trimming the fat out of decks, and found myself having a really hard time getting down to 60. So I compromised at 61 for my first couple decks. I've never regretted it and haven't seen it to be a problem, so I've just stuck with it all these years. Yeah, I'm a little crazy, but aren't we all who play this game? ;-)

Anyway, thanks for the kind words. I'll check your deck out once I get through all these generous reviews! Love me some Allies. :-)

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 14:20

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Better make a Modern Human Tribal Weenie. With the new humans the decks are kicking ass, and also you can break combos, with will make it a tournament deck

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 13:14

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I LOVED Human tribal in Innistrad Standard. SO much fun. Such a great block for tribal lovers like me in general.

I've built a number of Human decks (and have tons of tribal in general if you check my history (http://www.mtgvault.com/jre47/tribal). But I really do need to sit down and work on a dedicated Human tribal deck in Modern. I haven't really done that yet, and need to. I own all the Human staples from Innistrad block already, and those are probably the key. I'll get around to it, probably sooner rather than later.

Thanks!

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 14:24

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Thank you all for the unexpected flood of reviews! +1 rep points to you all for your ideas and support.

Here's what I've done and what I'm still thinking about....

I bit the bullet and made room for a pair of Mirror Entities by dropping Ondu Cleric. I think you can make up for the loss of the lifegain once Paladin comes online, or with Willing in a pinch. Speaking of which, I dropped a Plains for a Godless Shrine and a Forest for an Overgrown Tomb, so you can trigger both halves of Ready // Willing as needed.

I also reluctantly dropped Turntimber Ranger and added in Garruk, Caller of Beasts in his slot. I like Turntimber a lot, but he probably doesn't do enough work here for the cost. Garruk, Caller of Allies (heheh) does a lot more and can really break the opponent's back even with just one application of his +1 ability. If you're able to get to his ultimate, that's just gravy. :-D

One add that wasn't suggested is a single Doubling Chant. Just read it, look at the number of creatures with multiple copies (several with four-ofs) here, and you'll see why. EtB fun and games galore!

Things I'm still considering:

Aether Vial: Another good suggestion by eljefe, but I'm wondering about how much work it might really do unless I add more card draw.

Mayor of Avabruck: His Human side is sweet, and even his Wolf side still works with the Changelings, and there's nothing at all wrong with spawning a bunch of non-Ally 2/2s. (That's the main reason I liked Turntimber Ranger, after all.) But does he do enough to drop, say, Adaptive Automaton for him?

More card draw: Not sure if it's needed, but another Caller of Beasts and/or Harmonize are what I'm thinking about the most. The addition of Doubling Chant may make this irrelevant, but I'm not sure.

Any further thoughts or comments?

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Posted 25 March 2014 at 15:02

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fiend hunter is a great card with cloud shift or o rings u can get the 2 for 1 combo

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Posted 21 April 2014 at 03:01

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Yes, but doesn't fit in great with Allies. Miss that combo in Standard, though!

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Posted 21 April 2014 at 19:41

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so true when you had oring and fiend hunter and the cloud shifts you didn't have to worry about big problems like titans. i think it would fit with the humans. esp with champ. restoration angle would be good too. those two card would make this del nuts and give more counters just keep bouncing ur dudes with resto and bigger and bigger. if you wouldn't mind checking out my decks and give me some feedback id really appreciate.

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Posted 25 April 2014 at 23:24

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