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Degenerate Allies (SOME turn 3 kills listed)

Modern* Aggro Allies Competitive Counters Humans RGW (Naya)

Dorotheus


Sideboard


Maybeboard


People were playing allies before Battle for Zendikar came out, and then it got more support but so did Eldrazi and then no one took a look at it again. So I'm here to thrust allies back in taking a wing from Humans and how well they are doing, but also by making BIGGER HUMANS. Imagine Merfolk decks if everything was a lord creature, and when it left everything kept it's buff? Because that's exactly how allies work. I've been testing for a little while now and I keep changing minor details here and there, but it's all going to come down to how well and how correctly you sideboard.

Potential turn 3 kills:
Turn 1: Expedition Envoy or 2/1 or Hada Freeblade , is a 1/2
Turn 2: Akoum Battlesinger , makes Freeblade a 3/3 or Envoy a 3/1, and itself a 2/1. 5 damage.
Turn 3: Akoum Battlesinger and Hada Freeblade or Expedition Envoy .
This makes Freeblade an 8/5 or Envoy a 6/1, and Battlesingers 5/1s. 18 or 16 damage, plus five previously, 23 or 21.
OR
Turn 1: Hada Freeblade , is a 1/2.
Turn 2: Hardened Scales and a Freeblade or Envoy, Freeblade is a 3/4. And the other is a 2/3 or 2/1. 3 damage.
Turn 3: Akoum Battlesinger and another Freeblade or Envoy.
This makes a 9/8, 8/7 or 4/1, 3/1, and the last one drop that can't attack anyway. 20 or 16, plus 3 previously, 23 or 19 damage.
OR
Turn 1: Champion of the Parish , 1/1.
Turn 2: Hardened Scales and Champion of the Parish , first champion is a 3/3. 3 damage
Turn 3: Champion of the Parish , Expedition Envoy , or Hada Freeblade , and Thalia's Lieutenant .
This makes the first Champion a 9/9, and the second one a 7/7. The other 2 played this turn can't attack. 16 damage plus the previous 3 is 19.
This means with Hardened Scales there are just more lines to get in 19-23 damage by or on turn 3. The reason this can be important is because of board wipes against an aggro deck, if you can kill before turn 4, you can make your matchups to the control decks better.
OR
Turn 1: Aether Vial
Turn 2: Vial goes to 1. Vial in Champion of the Parish , play Hada Freeblade or another Champion, and then another one drop.
Champion is a 3/3, Freeblade is a 2/3.
Turn 3: Vial goes to 2. Akoum Battlesinger , and Thalia's Lieutenant .
Champion is a 8/6, Freeblade is a 6/5 or an 7/5 Champion, and whatever the other one drop was - minimum a 5/2. And the Lieutenant can't attack. 23 damage total.
I'm not going to say it's entirely likely all the time, but the chances to kill before turn 4 do exist.

If you have an issue with the price of the deck the good news is at the moment most of the creatures are extremely affordable, I made a primer list that's more affordable to start with or just having a fun more casual aggro deck that can still trample your friends with: Less Degenerate Allies (made for Budget players)

SIDEBOARDING:
The problem this deck has that it's mono-human counterpart does not have, is sideboarding. We need to try and maintain the same consistency, while our opponent is trying to stop our consistency. So we need to know what to bring in and when, how much of it, and a little bit of luck (we really don't want to mulligan down to 5 or even 6 really post-sideboard).
We need to be able to stay aggressive, which is why so many of our sideboard is creatures. Luckily Aether Vial helps that scenario.

Siding out:
Oran-Rief Survivalist
Hardened Scales
Thalia's Lieutenant
Aether Vial
In this order is the priority of cards to side out in any theoretical situation not given any context. Use your smarts and if any other cards don't seem very good in a situation, just side those out instead. Example being, if you know a deck like Lantern Control has Pithing Needle s and Natural State / Abrupt Decay , you'd side out Vials for Kataki.

Siding In:
-- Rest in Peace and/or Remorseful Cleric - another one of those meta dependent calls, but since dredge is around a lot right now a 2/2 split of these could be called for instead of experimental SB cards like Shali or Preserver, Rest in Peace just gets rid of all the graveyard things you don't want to deal with, and Cleric is just an attacking Tormod's Crypt the downside that most don't think of, is that Cleric is a lot easier to remove and people can trick you into activating it and then they can go back on their graveyard plans.
-- Apostle's Blessing - against decks with some to a lot of spot removal, if you can tempo an opponent just enough to keep an attacker around for 1 more turn, that might be enough sometimes.
-- Kataki, War's Wage - simple, artifact decks, cuz and dry. Allies has trouble against Lantern Control and Chalice of the Void decks. To affinity and Lantern, this can be as strong as a Blood Moon but recently reduced the amount of it because Knight of Autumn got printed.
-- Knight of Autumn - this card has immediately become a staple SB card for GW base decks, Coco decks, and Vial decks and since we're all the above, AND we get a bonus synergy with Hardened Scales (if we need that mode) Autumn has become a staple.
-- Lantern Scout - aggro mirrors is mainly what this is used for, it can single handedly undo a Burn deck, and give other aggro decks reason to believe they will get overwhelmed. This was also replaced by Knight of Autumn but it's still a good card, if your meta is heavier on aggro you can split the difference, and Lantern Scout is even more budget friendly.
-- Path to Exile - Eldrazi, but more any deck that has creatures that an aggro deck might not want or be able to deal with, creature combo decks with Griselbrand , Infect creatures, Kiln Fiend , Thing in the Ice  , etc. Use your noodle.
-- Selfless Spirit - Destroy and Damage board wipes. Anger of the Gods , Damnation , Supreme Verdict , Blasphemous Act . This does not stop sacrifice, mass -1/-1 counters, or exile like Settle the Wreckage .
-- Tajuru Preserver - Selfless Spirit 's older brother; This is a decent SB against Liliana of the Veil decks, it's more for All Is Dust so if you find yourself seeing more decks that run these cards you might increase the amount of this.
-- Shalai, Voice of Plenty - I'm testing her, I like the idea of having a late game card that protects everything else from spot removal, while also having some synergy with Hardened Scales and just being a flying attacker.

Honorable Mentions:
Here are some other SB cards you can use or consider depending on your meta (Pro Tour, Grand Prix, Local Game Store) whatever it is. Right now the 2 decks that Allies has some trouble against that I don't have SB for are Bogles, and Dredge or Living End to a lesser extent. Here are some cards I'd either suggest or have considered before.
-- Leyline of the Void - Anti-Graveyard.
-- Relic of Progenitus - Anti-Graveyard, plus draws a card.
-- Devout Chaplain - anti-artifact and enchantment removal, just too slow compared to Kataki, War's Wage but does answer artifacts.
-- Kessig Malcontents - Does damage... it's basically haste, just doesn't really help allies, more of a final blow.
-- Reckless Bushwhacker - The is one of the 2 controversial cards I am not playing that people tell me to. Of the very, very playable allies, this one has potential to be a very dead card in hand, and I cannot accept that. Needing to get Surge active is not hard, but when you can't do it, it's detrimental. A 3 mana 2/1 is the card at it's worst. We have 4 one mana 2/1s, and the only reason it's played is because it enables everything else. In this build, Bushwhacker is also not a Human, does not put counters on anything, and using Vial with it does not work very well at all either. At least Drana, Liberator of Malakir is much better statted and works with everything except Human etbs effects but still pumps board when she attacks. I've seen a RW Ally list use Bushwhacker fairly well, at least.
-- Harabaz Druid - The is the other controversial card. But it's simple. Aether Vial does a better job and is less dependent on board-state, if you can't get Vials, I suggest running these in place of those for budget purposes, that might be ok, but otherwise Vial really just ends up being better on mana. Personally, before I got my own Vials I still ran neither, and I did perfectly fine, just brought back in the 4th Unclaimed Territory .
-- Beastcaller Savant - The last card I want to mention. It's a fun card, cute, even. It can give you 2 ally triggers in a turn, but what you're sacrificing is similar to Wreckless Bushwhacker it's a 1/1 for 2, at it's worst, also not a Human. I would possibly say it's slightly more playable than Bushwhacker just because it does tick off more boxes.

Well, thanks for reading and stopping by, if you build this deck or copy it please give me some credit, I've put some time into it. If you decide to use some of the honorable mentions in your own builds I hope you have a good a time as I have with mine.
Peace.

Updates Add

MH1 has brought back Jund decks into popularity however there are cards for even an ally deck to look at with Changeling being a returning keyword in the set. For our purposes there are only a few to really look at Changeling Outcast, Universal Automaton, Valiant Changeling, and Unsettled Mariner.

All of these are both Allies and Humans, all of our 5c lands make them easy to cast, Vial and Coco bring in at least 3 of them. But do they make dealing 20 damage faster or more efficient? None of them get counters, and only put counters on our other things from their own effects.Outcast and Automaton don't have the one extra power Envoy has, even if Outcast is unblockable

Unsettled Mariner is undoubtedly a strong card and probably deserves to be in the 75, but I don't think it's a mainboard card, yet. Having a couple in the SB seems correct.

Comments

Casual

95% Competitive

Top Ranked
  • Achieved #6 position overall 6 years ago
Date added 9 years
Last updated 5 years
Legality

This deck is Modern legal.

Rarity (main - side)

0 - 1 Mythic Rares

35 - 11 Rares

17 - 3 Uncommons

6 - 0 Commons

Cards 60
Avg. CMC 1.85
Folders Dorotheus's Modern, Digs, Could be fun?, 5c Land Vial Base Tribal, Interesting Modern Decks, Modern, MODERN, Like decks, new, Cool Decks
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