So, boys and girls.

What do you say to this one from SOI: Thalia's Lieutenant

When Thalia's Lieutenant enter the battlefield, put a +1/+1 counter on each other Human you control.

When another Human enters the battlefield under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on Thalia's Lieutenant.

1/1, Human Soldier, 1W

I am thinking about maybe testing a 2 of instead of Oran Rief.

I think it will be a pretty big consideration for a junk version of allies that runs basically all humans. Very good with Hardened Scales

I do believe that Thalia's Lieutenant has some potential, as the greatest drawback of Champion of the Parish was the lack of interaction with the rest of your board on the mid/lategame, but the fact that it will not trigger any ETB effects on the rest of your Allies team is sure to hurt the overall synergy (e. g. color-protected attack, lifelink or menace). But as mentioned by Nef Hardened Scales might tip the balance.

Basically, it just needs to be grinded a lot. The evasion is pretty key for allies. I've had many times where my dudes are huge but it wouldn't matter if I didn't have the evasion. On the other hand, the synnergy is there with Thalia's Lieutenant.

Collected Alliance

Went 3-0 for today's event! I faced off RW Land-D (2-0), Little Kid Abzan (2-0) and Jund Burn (2-1). The meta is a little kinky with a lot of homebrews, but a win is still a win right?

I want some suggestions on my deck, I've put over 600 games through this deck and i feel it does a good job against everything except wipe boards and heavy creature kill type decks. This deck is extremely versatile and has multiple win conditions especially if you have 2 Harabaz Druids out. Please take a look and let me know what your thoughts are and what you feel it is lacking. I look forward to all your comments.

In the description of the deck it has multiple win condition scenarios.

My deck:

Clone Swarm Grow Allies

Modern fryinhades

4 VIEWS

Put away my Gilt-Leaf Elite elf deck and broke out my WurG Vial Allies for the first time in over a month for a challenge match - beating Jund 3-2. It just hadn't been worth playing Allies in the regular modern tourneys against all the things that were showing up to fight the Eldrazi (for example, Shaman of the Pack is huge against Ensnaring Bridge and Turbo-Fog).

So, I'm really looking forward to seeing how the post-Eldrazi winter meta shakes out and hoping the hate gets distributed a little more evenly. I'm also glad that the thopters in Thopter Foundry are blue, in case that combo takes off. At least the Kabira Evangel will be useful against it (For getting attackers through.) I'm guessing I will have to continue to work out a better strategy against affinity.

I'm also hoping the attendance at our Thursday night modern bounces back a bit!

Just went 3-0 with my deck (2-0 technically, the last game we played without sideboard, but I won)

Game 1: UB Faeries. (2-0)Game 2: CoCo Abzan Toolbox (2-1)Game 3: Kiki Exarch (2-1)

Collected Company didn't make much of a appearance today. The real winner today is Akoum Battlesinger! Combined with Firemantle Mage and Kabira Evangel, the evasion is ridiculous. Also, the synergy of Expedition Envoy with Ally Encampment makes the damage really incredible with Akoum Battlesinger.

MTGprojectzer0 - Sweet!

A question. I play an Akoum Battlesinger get 1 trigger from itself, then play another Akoum Battlesinger, making 2 triggers, creating a total of 3 triggers. The second Akoum Battlesinger only get the two triggers, since it didn't see the first trigger, right? Or do those triggers effect all allies, until end of turn, no matter if they were in play or not at the point of the trigger?

So the total calculation before combat is a 4/1 and a 3/1. Or is it two 4/1s.

4/1 and a 3/1

Thanks

Has anyone tried to build around Weapons Trainer and Captain's Claws ? (there is also Stone Haven Outfitter but it seems a bit too conditional)

The equipment angle seems interesting and can probably work in a R/W deck with Boros Charm and maybe Relic Seeker/Steelshaper's Gift.

A couple of people have, though I don't know how successful. Try reading back through the comment section. I'm working on something now, but idk if it will be any good.

That moment when your opponent plays Anger of the Gods thinking you'll both end up with no creatures and they'll have the advantage since your hand is empty... because they've never seen someone Ally Encampment+AEther Vial to trigger Kabira Evangel :-)

Also, finally had a game where Harabaz Druid was out the same time as Mirror Entity -- along with several tokens from Captain's Claws.

Allies rule!

3-0ed my Event today!!

• Boggles (2-0)

Opponent didn't have a good hand in both games. I'm just using Kabira Evangel and Firemantle Mage to keep the evasion going.

• RW Eldrazi (2-0)

Opponent tried to play attrition, but was eventually overrun by my ally creatures. Collected Company + 2x Akoum Battlesinger is extremely deadly to end games.

• Lantern Control (2-0)

This game is interesting. G1, the opponent didn't manage to draw Ensnaring Bridge and got overwhelmed by my army. G2 he had the bridge and Spellskite but I had an Ancient Grudge on top of the library. Basically he played a small mistake by not reshuffling my library, but with that played out, he scooped after being unable to remove the grudge from top of my library.

Bonus (Outside the event pairings, without sideboard)

• Sultai Zombies (2-1)
• BW Eldrazi (4-6)

Anyone else pilot their Allies in States this year?

Went 3-3 (for 18th out of 46) in the South Carolina SCG Modern States with WurG Vial Allies.

Won the first three rounds against two Naya decks (one early drop, and one 20th place 3-3) and Hatebears (12th place 4-2). But I didn't do well against Jund (0-2 against the #5 seed in top 8) that's usually an ok match-up; went 1-2 against Scapeshift (#7 seed in top 8) where I had two bad plays in game 2 and a mulligan error that didn't help in game 3 (counted to seven, looked at them, and then realized it was supposed to be 6; not sure I would have kept that one-lander, but ended up going to 5 for sure); and went 1-2 vs Jund-Loam (finished 9th).

All in all not spectacular, but held my own.

For the sideboard, bringing in 3 Ondu Cleric for 3 Oran-Rief Survivalist was huge as usual - that card is a sideboard all-star. Tried out Mark of Asylum and Worship for the first time. The former was strong in a game or two, Worship got blown up or countered. Brought in Eerie Interlude once or twice, but it never saw play. I was borrowing the Mark of Asylum and might pick up two of my own.

Mark of Asylum seems conditional. Against what decks do you board it in?

MTGprojectzer0, we were predicting lots of red at the tournament and trying to figure out how to protect my board state early on (before my guys got enough +1/+1 tokens, or before the Kabira/Vial was standing by). Iirc correctly I put it in against 1 or 2 of the Naya decks, Scapeshift, and Jund-Loam, and saw it in 2 of the games. [I think there's a typo in my post and my 4th game was Junk, not Jund].

On mtgtop8 for the past two weeks, 47.5% of decks main deck Bolt averaging 3.9 of them, with Kolaghan's Command, Lightning Helix, and Girm Lavamancer being in the ballpark of 2 each in 10% of decks. Anger of the Gods (13.9%, 1.5), Pyroclasm (10.8%, 2.0), and Lightning Helix (9.5%, 2.4) are pretty common board cards. Deck-wise, according to MTGTop8, the obvious decks that use 5 or more make up a good chunk of the meta: Red Deck Wins (9% meta, 11), Jund (8% meta, 7 used), Zoo (8% of meta, 5), Valukut/Scapeshift (6% of meta, 6).

It's probably not useful in all metas, but I was just thinking about how much effort we put in to preparing for affinity (6%) and infect (5%), and it didn't seem totally disproportionate.

Salad_Thunder Makes sense that way. Seems it works well for your meta. I'm getting wrecked by Jund and Abzan MUs so looking to see what possible SB I can put in that also works against other decks.

MTGprojectzer0: This is your Collected Alliance?

What are you boarding in now, and what of theirs is really hurting? It's not one of my bad match-ups (winning record vs. both so far), but we have quite a few differences that might be helping me in this one and hurting me in others.

From the comments, are you taking out the Vials for things - that would make Evangel/Encampment shenanigans less useful? Are the Leylines gone from your board - would they help against the hand nuking and Lili? Are you bringing in Rest in Peace against Goyf, and bringing in Ondu Cleric for life gain? Would a Mirror Entity or two (combined with either all your mana or your Druid, and your evasion) be something to help you over-run them? Would gut-shot be silly to make sure Lili only happens once?

Which match ups do you bring Gideon in for? I've been tempted to play Tuktuk scrapper whenever there are several affinity players around, how has that been for you?

My deck here

Made a couple of changes since the last post regarding my deck. I generally take out 4 vials in game 2 if I win G1 because i will be 1 turn slower on the clock. I'll side out vial for removals to compensate the turn. So far siding out Vials won't hurt the evangel-ally encampment shenanigans. Especially for decks running K.command, that is an easy 2-for-1 if vial is still in there in G2.

I'm currently not running mirror entity anymore because of the clutter it makes. It's good to cast it on turns 4 and beyond with druid on board. Without driud it's a sitting duck waiting to be killed, effectively rendering it quite useless.

Against Jund, I'll board in 2x Ondu Cleric, RIP, return to the ranks and 2x Gideon. (chameleon colossus is a recent addition. not available at that time, but that will be another to be boarded in) However, just my luck that i could not draw the lifegain cards in time and my allies died to their 15 pieces of removals. If you are on MTGSalvation, you'll see my analysis of the MU is that I just need the lifegain. Once I manage to get that, I may have a chance to win.

For that match, it was 1-1. I was stuck on 3 lands for 3 turns with 1 CoCo and 1 gideon on hand. By then time I drew the 4th land, it's too late to resolve either to save the game. If I drew the 4th land on turn 4, I would have easily won the jund player as I alr brought his life down to a fair bit above 10 life.

Tuktuk is a silverbullet against thopter and ensnaring bridge decks like tezzerator, lantern control, etc. I haven't actually played it even though I boarded it in many times. Just didn't draw into him.

Now against attrition decks, I'm putting in 2 boros charm to test. If the entire decks feels like too many support spells, I'll just drop either vial or boros charm and leave the other a 3-4 off.

1-2 for today's event. By far the unluckiest event day. I have many occasions that I could not draw into the cards I need. That has easily cost me games which I should have won.

G1: Merfolk (2-1)

I have a feeling that this MU is getting me complacent. I made a lot of mistakes here and it's thankfully a top-deck Kabira Evangel that I won the third game. I should be more careful, but guess I'm really tired today. Nevertheless, I cannot be complacent.

G2: Grishoalbrand (1-2)

I was expecting this MU to be an auto-lose like RG Tron. Then I made it to the third game, even after mulling to 4 cards. I mulled to 4 cards as well on the third game, but I didn't draw a Path to Exile in time. Path actually saved me in game 2. Rest in Peace also didn't make an appearance. I boarded in Wear / Tear thinking he would bring in Torpor orb. Nonetheless, it was a dead draw. This game really showed the second sign unluckiness as I couldn't draw ally cards consistently. I won the 2nd game via 4 damage from Boros Charm

G3: UW control (0-2)

This MU is SUPPOSED TO BE A CAKEWALK! I have 4 Aether vials, 4 cavern of souls to hate out control decks on mainboard... I just didn't draw into any of them. None. Even in game 2. My opponent drew her playset of paths, while I didn't draw any of the 8 hates. When I eventually drew the card, the board situation is too late to be saved.

I can't comment much for this week's events because of the horrible draws I get in most of the games. All I can summarise is that Boros charm is a good finisher against problematic MUs, giving the extra reach. The only thing is that the mana base may change a little for colour-fixing. But in most cases, I think it is a solid 2-off inclusion that gives other utility and protection.

The most underwhelming card among the 75 so far is Gideon, Ally of Zendikar. Most MUs don't need him, and the MUs that require him will mash him up with my other sideboard pieces. I noticed the lack of combo hate, so I've decided to drop 1 Gideon for 1 Suppression Field to hate out the major combo decks seeing play. In general, my Mainboard is strong enough to take down most games. The sideboard may be re-tuned to hate out certain MUs to give a more comprehensive winning consistency.

Hit 2nd place last Wednesday, in 18 man casual tourney. Lost to RG Tron in the finals - I have lost to this guy every time we meet, even when I have great hands - any ideas for sideboard hate against this deck or Tron in general? Right now I board in 2xNatural State and 1xAncient Grudge.

Stony Silence, Beast Within