Wouldn't Boros Charm fill that slot? It has a more demanding mana cost but it also does a whole lot more. Shield doesn't really help against board wipes, as you only get to keep one creature.

The problem with boros charm is that you have to leave the mana open on their turn 4, if you have the mana. I think being able to completely tap out, then cast the card if you need to could really help.
How do you see boros charm being effectively used?

I saw some lists of this super aggro deck, I have some considerations to do on yours.

There is an ally you can use to fix mana problems, its name is Harabaz Druid. It should be helpful.

You should bring removals amount from 2 to 4, considering not only the Path to Exile, but even the Beast Within. You should be more solid this way.

And that's it, I saw other suggestions talking about the 4x amount of Collected Company and the presence of the Boros Charm. I pretty much agree with that.

To create space for these cards, I would consider to move out the Bojuka Brigands and to reduce the amount of Hardened Scales; I think that your allies become overwhelming even without that card, but maybe I'm just wrong.

I saw that dude from Italy running druid, and I had actually put in druid before that to help cast coco more consistently. The problem I ran into was it being a 0/1, and not getting bigger. For a deck that wants to win turns 3-5, I found that problematic. However, I think having a more tempo feel could be strong too.I can see removals going from 2 to 4. When I made this deck, I based it off of boggles, that at the time tended to run 2 paths in the main and the rest in the side. This has been the list i've been running the past couple of days, and i like the removal number, but I could be wrong.If i took out the brigand, I think my creature number would be too low, along with the amount of creatures that get counters.I say all this now, but I could change my mind as I think about it; this is just off the top of my head.

I get your point, only playtest will show you if it's the case to go ahed with these mods or not.

Speaking about crazy aggro decks, I've just done one, but I need great help. If you have time, here's the link:

Project EatBrains

aubman02 I tried out your deck and was surprised how easy it was to cast all the different colored Allies. Only one time I had a Hardened Scaled sitting in my hand that I couldn't cast because Cavern of Souls is only for creatures.Very interesting deck. Will you run the new Gideon?

thx thx. right now, probably not. I'd be willing to try it though. what do you think?

He seems great for recovering after a board wipe by pumping out Allies or being a 5/5 himself. Collective +1/+1 is also nothing to laugh at. He is a bit costly at 4 though. But not too costly to be playable. He can't be cast off of Cavern of Souls though, which could make the WW requirement harder.Worth testing at the least.

trying spellskite main

I just went 3-1 with this current decklist.

How did the maindeck spellskites work out? Did you play against any control decks? Because I feel the weakness of the deck is the control decks which remove your resources (and sometimes lands, causing you to get color-screwed).

yeah, 3 out 4 was control, with the last one being graveyard aggro. The spellskites worked out really well: It saved my dudes more than one occasion and ppl had to work around it too. I'm starting to feel like its hard running creatures right now in modern with so much removal.

I play against control a lot on Cockatrice and people would always use a removal spell on the Spellskite and then continue to have more removal spells for my Allies. And then I continued to draw Hardened Scales and lands...

What do you usually take out for the certain matchups and do you play around counters/removal? (If so, how?)

I think with counter, on the 2nd or 3rd game, I would try to mulligan to a vial or a cavern; That's the new strategy I haven't tried at least. If you end up having to keep a hand, I've found that if I hold onto a lot of creatures, then flood then board, it really helps. They can only cryptic so many times. Also, if you play coco at the end of their turn, then flood the board, that helps. I also bring in shields and return to the ranks. It really depends on what type of control. Can you give me a more specific example?

I played a lot against UWR control, with Snapcaster/Path/Bolt (with interesting win cons like the Luminarch Ascension or Myth Realized). I also played against Grixis Control and Blue Moon (Blood Moon kills this deck so hard)

I usually try to play as many Allies as I can as fast as I can, and end up running out of gas because the creatures are removed. All with the fear of my Return to the Ranks/Collected Company getting countered (if I have one).But I can only feel it must be difficult to "flood the board" all at once, because I usually have only around 4 mana, which is only enough for about 2 Allies. Do you mean to wait until you have enough mana to play a lot of Allies?

Also, I'm at a loss as to what to side out when I bring in the sideboard cards like Claims, Shields or Return to the Ranks (Usually I'm like: "Take out Allies? Take out non-creature spells like Vial or Coco...? But they help against counters and stuff... but less Allies would mean less fodder for CoCo and less aggro"). I would appreciate it if you could give a little insight as to what you side out or what your thought process is (against the control deck or Aggro decks like Affinity or Burn).

When siding against urw, I usually dont worry about having the removal, so I bring out the path's. I usually bring out the the shapeshifter also, because of the likelihood of it not having a target. With grixis, you can do the same too. For both I bring in return to the ranks and the shields. If you feel their build is especially crazy, you can bring in brigand. Don't worry as much about your creature count for coco. Just think about protecting the creatures you do have, and being able to catch them at a weak spot. Remember, when you are playing against control, their deck is created to beat creatures, so it will be hard to beat them with any creature deck. Get as much practice as possible so you can feel comfortable getting a good feel for their rhythm and knowing when to play something. Remember, a control deck will not win turn 4, so you don't have to play a creature every turn. Do your best to get a creature above bolt range; having 4-6 mana up, having an aether vial at 2, being able to protect with evangel off of vial, having hardened scales up before you cast, etc.

For affinity, I bring out evangel and Brigand, and bring in ss, nc, and ondu cleric.

Burn I haven't gotten it completely down, but I think either the shapeshifter or bojuka is out because you need a blocker and since they become removal heavy 2nd game. I always bring in the ondu cleric, and would look into bringing in return to the ranks for the win, esp if you have the cleric in your graveyard.

Does that help?

Of course it helps. Now I understand then deck better than before.

Great, glad to help. Have you tried the other builds of allies? How are the playing compared to this one for you?

Yes, I have tried out Naya Allies (recently the list from GP Oklahoma). I have a higher win rate with them than with the 5C Allies, but I haven't played with Naya enough to tell why that is and how to compare them to 5C Allies.I didn't like the Champion of the Parish that was in one of the lists I have tried.

yeah, I'm starting to think naya may be better, or possibly just a different build. the one in oklahoma seemed to be more midrange.

You think so? I didn't notice too much midrangy stuff about his deck.

Also, can you understand why he only ran 3 Cavern of Souls?

Hi! I'm building an Ally deck myself. I have a question for you.

How do you deal with torpor orb and chalice of the void?

I haven't seen a lot of decks running that in their sideboard. If I do, I usually bring Nature's Claim game 3. When someone slams it down, they still have to deal with all of my one ones, and have to deal with the fact that they had to sideboard something out for it, and that they used part or all of their mana to play it. I've won games where they play it and I still overwhelm the board.

I haven't had much of a problem with Chalice; the caverns and aether vial tend to do a good job getting around it. Especially now with CoCo, there is another way to move around it.

Most Affinity decks run Torpor Orb in their sideboard. I personally don't see how you can win with Allies if they have that card on the board. Our 1/1 creatures get blocked by pretty everything if you don't have the Nature's Claim or they have the Welding Jar (which they can run) you can't really do anything.

In the Naya list, I like that it runs Quasali Pridemage and Kataki, War's Wage in the sideboard, which can be CoCo'd and deal with Artifacts.

I actually haven't gone up against affinity and seen them run the orb much. But it makes sense that they would.

My deck can pretty easily run war's wage, pridemage is a little more difficult, and honestly, I think it's a bad choice for sideboards. You can't cast it with cavern, and won't be able to cast it with the allies land. It also doesn't trigger the other allies and cost a total of 3 mana to use. I could be wrong, but those are my thoughts on it.

The problem I think with war's wage is that it is niece for affinity; it doesn't do a lot against urza. It still may be worth a sideboard slot, but I think the sideboard is already crowded. I'm not the greatest with making a good sideboard either.