Salad_Thunder says... #2
Good luck at states! I like the build and always love to see Captain's Claws in there!
For the mainboard, I was kind of surprised to see only 3 Battlesingers. Is it just not as good in the Hardened Scales build (as opposed to being in Coco-Vial/no-scales)? I even run 3 Jwari Shapeshifters to get a better chance of hitting two off of co-co.
How has Mimic done for you? I've tried lots of goldfishing with it in other spots, and I almost wonder if Thalia's Lieutenant isn't better (in spite of not triggering Battlesinger, Firemantle Mage, or Ondu Cleric). Needing to have Metallic Mimic out in advance (so it's nothing off of a coco) seems painful. How does goldfishing change your turn 1-3 if you take them out for some Mirror Entity or more Oran-Rief survivalist. Does it make a difference a lot?
Do you actually need Lantern Scout in addition to the 3 Ondu Cleric? I ran 2 Relic of Progenitus and 1 Rest in Peace this past weekend... and being able to slap down Relic on turn 1 felt huge against Delver, Grixis Control, and Goryo's Vengeance. If the game goes long then it feels worse that RiP, but I'm considering just going three of those. It also means I don't need to worry about the colors as much (which is hard, since I have 4 Cavern + 3 Encampment).
We had quite a bit of Jund running around recently, so I was running 3 Leyline of Sanctity in the board too. I run Suppression Field mainboard in Bogles against Lili and to slow down other random stuff -- but Lili shouldn't be that big of a problem in allies. Is that there mostly for affinity? What do you picture needing the 4th path against?
We had a bunch of Grixis running around locally, do you have anyone you can borrow some Caverns from?
March 1, 2017 11:17 p.m. Edited.
Salad_Thunder thanks for the feedback. I did some testing last night and will be going up to 4 Battlesingers. Lantern Scout is probably going to come out of the sideboard. There is an Ad Nazeom deck and a few other combo decks that can only do so much damage, so it was there to try and push my life total over their threshold. I'll see if I can get a few Relic's. They do seem good.
The fourth path is for Infect. I'm not sure it's the right answer, but it's the one I've been running.
I did learn in my testing that Blood Moon is very challenging. So I think I'm going to shift the mana base around to put a few more basics in.
March 2, 2017 9:23 a.m.
Salad_Thunder says... #4
Path for Infect makes sense. I've always tried to have some Spellskite in the side-board since it works against infect and Bogles -- but I think Allies should be faster than Bogles so that isn't a great argument for using it.
I've been glad to not see too many blood moon lately -- I'm down to just two basics, so I'll have to rejigger things if the meta changes! (Or if everyone who doesn't pack them already gets them from MM3).
March 2, 2017 9:35 a.m.
I'm working with a bit of a budget, so things I don't have that are expensive won't really be an option. I was running Blessed Alliance but that was the only match up it was useful in so I'm trying a few other things.
March 2, 2017 9:39 a.m.
Salad_Thunder says... #6
I borrowed all the expensive cards for months, so I can completely understand budget issues!
I've never used Return to the Ranks in an actual game -- but keep being tempted. What do you bring it in against, and how does it seem to perform?
March 2, 2017 10:58 a.m.
I'll be honest I haven't tried it much yet. Basically Jund or something with heavy removal. I've been playing a GW Allies deck so there are a lot of cards here that I'm only starting to experiment with now.
That is what I was playing with. I did some more research and saw a lot recommendations for Return to the Ranks and Akoum Battlesinger. I watched some of the live streams over the weekend and saw a lot of colorless cards so Firemantle Mage seemed like an important alternative to Kabira Evangel.
Thus I end up with trying out a build the week of the tournament.
March 2, 2017 11:17 a.m.
The list above is what I played this weekend. It didn't go well, but most of that was to bad playing on my part. I know there are some changes I would make and will update this list later.
I'm pretty sure it needs Cavern of Souls and Aether Vial to be really competitive, but I'll have to make due for now.
Talus21 says... #1
JLenzen Would you mind taking a look at this? I'm considering this for Modern States this weekend.
March 1, 2017 10:26 a.m.