Ha, I knew Kor Bladewhirl was good

I've recently remade my list to a 4 color (R/G/U/W) and would like some feedback on it.

Here it is:

R/G/U/W Allies Aggro Playtest

Modern* Dennis14

SCORE: 0 | 6 COMMENTS | 478 VIEWS

Kor Bladewhirl is good, but only as a 1-2 in my opinion. It's niche is in a deck like the ones running scales where creatures grow fast, so aggro has to fight against size with numbers. I tried it against merfolk and zoo and appreciated it over the cleric since it helped me close faster rather than stall out.

The problem with this deck is there's so many things to try!! I've noticed that it comes down to a speed versus size tradeoff, and the wincons can take over if the opponent doesn't remove them asap, but so can your little guys. Love this deck so far.

Curiosity question, bu has anyone tried using one or two Safe Haven? It is a bit slow, but you can get extra ally trigger out of it.

I'd rather use Descendants' Path for similar purposes.

There's a 3 mana card similar to cloudshift, but it blinks the whole line. I forgot the name of it though. It's the same effect you're going for with safe haven, but faster. Anyone know which card I'm talking about?

Ghostway

I really like Safe Haven. It seems that it might have a lot of card value to it. Kingofsouls, I think you may be onto something. Ghostway seems to be pretty good too. Makes me want to brew around them.

My problem with Safe Haven is that it doesn't tap for mana. I think I would much rather just use Ally Encampment for a similar effect. Ghostway, I think is a great sideboard card against wraths. But with Boros Charm, Ready / Willing, and even Legion's Initiative being main board-able, I don't see it as being super viable. You could build around it, sure. But the fact that they return at EoT makes it kind of tricky.

Well the reason why I mentioned it was because I thought the effect he wanted was for everyone to etb at the same time (they all see each other enter at the same time, so it's a trigger per ally on each creature), that's way stronger than indestructible imo. But it's not for every shell, and the cards you mentioned are better otherwise

Legion's Initiative would exile all your creatures and then allow them to enter at the same time. It also has the benefit of being much harder to play around. If people know you are playing Ghost Way, they can force it out of your hand by playing a removal spell on the first main phase and then attack into an empty board. Initiative says lol no to that. Yeah, it can be removed... but I think that if they are siding in enchantment hate against you, you are likely to have a good time.

I still think Ghost Way may have a shell for it to fit into. I like what ehuez did in his RW Allies brew. Legion's Initiative seems to work really well in it. When the new cards come out in MODO, I plan on playing the deck to see how it runs.

True, but if you're not running red that doesn't help :P and if you're running only 1 ghostway, and they play the game anticipating a card you never draw into, that's a win in my book haha.

Anyways, since I play Champ of the Parish, I've tried running two Bobs main deck in an abzan build, and he's pretty sweet. And you get a nice interaction with Liliana Heretical Healer, though I'm not sure if that's optimal or cute at this point. If your hand is empty and you don't have a coco, this deck runs out of gas once you start hitting lands in your draws. Bob is gas in this Abzan build I'm formulating.

Bob in allies sounds pretty interesting.

@Nef: Bob in allies sounds pretty expensive. Good, but expensive.

@aubman02: Thanks. I don't play allies, so to me Safe Haven is Ally Encampment 5 and 6. Unlike the Encampment it lets you save more than one ally before breaking it open. Slow yes, but in Modern reduncancy is key.

@TheDuggernaught: Of the three cads you mentioned, only Legion's Initiative exiles them then returns them to the battlefield which is what we want. Allies really want to see Allies enter the battlefield to trigger any Rallies or other EtB triggers.

Also, haven is a land. The opponent cannot counter it like Ghostway because of its land nature. In addition being able to save our stuff one at a time before wanting to return them is different from Ally Encampment's one time only deal. Encampment is better, but Haven can function as Encampment 5 and 6. I can also see shenanigans with Akoum Battlesinger. Cast it, attack, then exile with the Haven. next turn, crack the haven and Battlesinger again.

Also, RW allies can use Impact Tremors right? I love cards like that. Since we are playing so may dudes having a way to deal free damage for playing them seems alright to me.

Yeah, I got a bit carried away with what most ally decks would use Ghostway for... but to my point, there are lots of cards that do similar things for cheaper or less loss of tempo. Can you build a deck around it? Sure. But it likely would not be your typical ally shell. It would likely have to be some slightly janky mill combo with Halimar Excavator.

But Safe Haven is just way too slow. It may be uncounterable since it is a land, but a land that doesn't tap for mana is pretty bad. Yeah, you could not count it as one of your ~21 lands. But at that point, I would rather just run Momentary Blink or Cloudshift. They are a ton faster and net you more tempo. If they want to counter momentary blink both times, I am fine with that. Just means you win the card advantage game. Safe Haven can also screw you in a meta where there are a lot of Fulminator Mages floating around in side boards.

And you could run Impact Tremors. It is a fun card. But you lose a lot of tempo by running it. It does not provide any immediate advantage or impact the board in any way the turn it comes down. Hardened Scales is okay because it can come down turn 1. But on turn 2, I would much rather actually start establishing a nasty board presence. And going into turn 3 with, at best, a 1/2 is not a fun spot to be in. Unless you were looking to combo with Ghostway. In which case, I would take Purphoros, God of the Forge, or even Hagra Diabolist as they are more likely to win the game off a single Ghostway -- which is what I would likely be looking to do in a deck like that.

Food for thought, in a blue allies build with Halimar Excavator, Collected Company and/or Return to the Ranks, Jace, Vryn's Prodigy  ^Flip works very well.

Holy crap Jace is expensive. Didn't realize he got that pricy

Yeah it was about a week ago that he really shot up. I actually opened one and traded for 1 at 50 bucks ea (So I got 2 in the same day)... only to find out that by the time I got home from my lgs they were up to about 60 ea. Jace since then has even added another 10 bucks to its price tag. I am pretty okay with it. I don't play standard and his value in modern is fairly meh, so I would be cool with unloading mine if you're interested :P

He's a 1-3x in the grixis control/blue jund shells in modern, so that helped bump the price. I got mine while he was $30ish _ I'm glad I didn't hop on the Lilly band wagon lol

Wish Me luck guys! Gonna be at the star city open! I'll be in the tan shirt! Bringing allies!

That's awesome aubman02! Let us know how it goes!

I have a question. If I exile four Ondu Clerics with Legion's Initiative and return them to the battlefield how many lifes do I get? Is this correct 4x4x4=64? Something similar happened to me last game and my opponent didnt believe me I just want to make sure that I was right.

Yup. Should be 64 since they enter play simultaneously.

Bought my first Spellskite today :3