Allies between the Worlds

Modern* Tribal

Gwfr3ak

Creature (27)

• 4x Hada Freeblade
• 3x Jwari Shapeshifter
• 4x Kabira Evangel
• 4x Kazandu Blademaster
• 4x Mausoleum Wanderer
• 4x Ondu Cleric
• 4x Spell Queller

Land (22)

• 4x Glacial Fortress
• 2x Hallowed Fountain
• 5x Island
• 2x Moorland Haunt
• 9x Plains

Artifact (2)

• 2x Captain's Claws

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Leyline of Anticipation
• 2x Spirit Bonds

Instant (6)

• 2x Cloudshift
• 4x Essence Flux

Sorcery (4)

• 4x Tezzeret's Gambit

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Sideboard

Instant (8)

• 2x Cloudshift
• 2x Eerie Interlude
• 4x Spell Pierce

Creature (1)

• 1x Jwari Shapeshifter

Enchantment (2)

• 2x Spirit Bonds

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This is a modern deck that I developed over a couple of years in my local playgroup. Even though i built this in , it is a pretty aggressive deck with a low mana curve that focuses on midgame victories.

It uses the Ally-Flickering synergy in aggressive and defensive ways and incorporates a ghost-token subtheme for additional protection agains removal and flyers.

I wanted this deck to be able to win 1on1 matchups with most kinds of casual to modern decks while sustaining its ability to succeed in multiplayer matchups in my playgroup and, most importantly, to be fun to play!

How does it work?

Flickering has turned out to be one of the best ways for me to evade any kind of removal. This deck started early as a simple Ally tribal and abusing the ridiculous synergy between flickering and etb-effects, I kept this theme.

Kabira Evangel is the main win condition, because triggering, casting and/or Cloudshifting/ Essence Fluxing him usually opens up (at least one) opponent for a free attack with all of my allies. Also, since this deck has no removal spells, keeping my allies alive and protected while attacking is the key to success.

Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademaster are the main attack units of this deck, while Ondu Cleric keeps my lifepoints up. Jwari Shapeshifter just adds more consistency and also doubles as my win condition.

Captain's Claws and Leyline of Anticipation work as catalyst for the ally- and ghost-synergy.

The spirit subtheme (namely Spirit Bonds and Moorland Haunt ) ensures reliable token reinforcement. It is based on the flickering spells and entering allies also triggering Spirit Bonds, providing me with ghosts whenever I need them. The ghosts can then be used to block flyers or can be sacrificed to Spirit Bonds, to make the allies indestructible. Moorland Haunt is here as an emergency mana sink and to utilize the graveyard somehow, since this deck runs no recursion. It might not be totally necessary, but that one ghost has saved me and my allies a couple of times.

Mausoleum Wanderer is the newest addition to this deck and my way to answer targeted removal or combat tricks on their side. It is predictable of course and would just stall out the use of their sorceries or instants one more turn, but there is an awesome combat-trick here. If i use Essence Flux to flicker it in and out, or flicker anything that then triggers Spirit Bonds, the opponent has to pay more to cast his spell. This is pretty much unpredictable and another way I can abuse the flickering effect in this deck.

Mulldrifter played for his evoke-cost and then instantaneously flickered in and out, will stay on the battlefield as a 2/2 flying creature and lets me draw 4 cards, for just 4 mana. A value beast in this deck. Tezzeret's Gambit is one of my favourite draw-spells and could take Mulldifter's spot from time to time. It doesn't have a 2/2 flying body, but helps with mana fixing as I have enough lifegain to make up for its phyrexian cost. Also the Proliferate trigger is awesome for the Ally synergy and could possibly add another counter on the Mausoleum Wanderer , which would make him a 3/3, boosting his sac effect to the level of Mana Leak.

The Manabase

I went with Glacial Fortress es, because I wanted nontapped lands without stretching the budget too much and since 16 of the 22 lands are Islands and Plains (or both), they should come in untapped almost every time. They also don't end up as dead draws in the mid- to lategame like 'check-' or 'fastlands', which is especially important in multiplayer. Hallowed Fountains are a little more expensive, but adding 2 of them doesn't seem too degenerate and they enable the Fortresses while entering untapped themselves, which is awesome.

22 Lands ensure a good probability of having 3 mana for Kabira Evangel on turn 3. In case of Mulligan you have a good chance to get the draw engine going by turn 4, even if you end up with only 5 cards in hand.

15 white mana sources pretty much guarantee a turn 1 Hada Freeblade , even when you go down to 5 cards and also ensure a turn 2 Kazandu Blademaster if everything goes by plan.

11 blue mana sources provide the resources for a turn 2 Essence Flux/Jwari Shapeshifter, a guaranteed turn 4 Mulldrifter plus flicker and, unless you Mulligan below 6, a turn 1 Mausoleum Wanderer .

Of course these are only assumptions based on calculated probabilities > 1, but in the end it stays a card game, doesn't it?

The Sideboard

Eerie Interlude is the better (and cheaper) version of Ghostway for this deck and provides protection against certain mass removal that one cant cover by making stuff indestructible or giving color-protection. Thanks to the benefit of being able to chose the order in which allies return to the battlefield, my army might also end up with more +1/+1 counters, while my life total will definitively be higher than before.

Path to Exile and Detention Sphere are quite obvious and one might include them in the mainboard. Yet I prefer pogressive gameplay, meaning that I want to play my game, instead of disturbing theirs. I keep them close of course, in case I really need to get my fingers dirty. Since I see bigger threats in broken enchantments or artifacts than creatures, only the Sphere made it to the sideboard. To abuse Detention Sphere's ETB-Trigger for its maximum value, I am considering Retraction Helix as a new Sideboard option.

The two copies of Cloudshift and Spirit Bonds are just here to fix consistency and help with heavily airborne decks. Jwari Shapeshifter is here for the lack of a better idea and because I already owned another copy. Maybe Supreme Verdict? I don't know,.. seems very situational in such a creature heavy deck.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

1. Fun to play (If you like creature-heavy decks)
2. Protection and Flicker usually gets around any kind of removal
3. The low mana-curve makes the deck pretty fast compared to other UW-decks.
4. Pretty unique playstyle and awesome mindgames
5. This deck can become a massive lifegain-train, which ends up in hillarious situations (talking 80+ life).

Cons:

1. No mainboard removal. So I am pretty helpless against combodecks or stuff that locks the game down. Combodecks are not really a thing in my meta, because everyone here hates them. Getting around gamebreaking stuff could be helpful though.
2. Weak to stuff that lets me sacrifice creatures. Gatekeeper of Malakir is one of this decks biggest fears, because I can't stop it with my Mausoleum Wanderer .
3. No answer to mass-removal, since flickering and color-protection only help against targeted removal and I will unlikely have enough ghosts to sac to Spirit Bonds, to make everything indestructible.

All issues are addressed in the Sideboard! Detention Sphere gets rid of all the creatures Mausoleum Wanderer can't handle and also stops token madness. Eerie Interlude saves my whole army and keeps it stored away safely until end of turn, which gets around any kind of mass removal and sac effects. Spell Pierce replaces Mausoleum Wanderer whenever I end up against enchantments and artifacts. The rest of the cards just complete playsets, in case I want more consistency.

Feel free to add any suggestions, ideas, or improvements and have fun playing this deck! - Chris

Top Ranked	Achieved #66 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	9 years
Last updated	7 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	28 - 5 Rares 16 - 0 Uncommons 6 - 6 Commons
Cards	64
Avg. CMC	2.10
Tokens	Kor Ally 1/1 W, Spirit 1/1 W