I love Allies and I love Aether Vial. This is my latest in a number of different ally brews, and this time we're trying out the mana base that made 5-color humans such a tour de force in Modern. One thing of note is that I decided to forego Collected Company, even though it's been a mainstay in ally decks for a long time. I decided it was best to have some extra wiggle room, especially at the top end, and removing it conveniently provides space/renmoves the CMC restriction for another wincon in Hagra Diabolist and sideboard artifact hate for the usually horrendous Lantern Control matchup in Tuktuk Scrapper.
The game plan is pretty much the same as most every other ally deck - kill the opponent and kill them fast. Ally synergy means you get a ton of triggered abilities every time an ally comes into play - good practice for remembering triggers! :P Hada Freeblade and Kazandu Blademaster get bigger every time an ally comes into play, Akoum Battlesinger buffs your whole team and all can quickly grow out of hand with Harabaz Druid and Aether Vial giving you more mana worth of creatures than you should probably have access to on turn 3. Kabira Evangel's protection means you don't usually have to worry about blockers. Kalastria Healer, Ondu Cleric, and Hagra Diabolist are the life drain plan and serve as a fantastic way to win when you have to deal with Ensnaring Bridge - usually a nightmare card and practically unbeatable for allies.
Jwari Shapeshifter is extra copies of every creature in the deck. Most commonly I use it to copy battlesingers and give everything +2/+0 for every ally that comes in, but it's also really nice to have a 2 mana Hagra Diabolist that will pretty much seal the deal right away. Double Diabolist triggers with a bunch of allies out is probably game on the spot.
A note about Aether Vial usage: I play Death and Taxes type decks a lot and those decks work best when you save vial for tricky instant-speed tech to catch opponents off guard, but this deck is about the aggro plan. Use vial aggressively on your turn to play extra creatures and buff your team before or during combat.
BUDGET FRIENDLY OPTIONS: Unfortunately there's no good replacemeent for Aether Vial and it's quite critical to the deck. The only other card I would run in place of it is Collected Company and our mana and creature base is not ideal for Coco, though it can be changed to support it better if you so desire. You can however replace the 2 Horizon Canopy with a basic plains and a basic forest or 2 G/W duals of your choice, and replace the 4 Cavern of Souls with Ancient Ziggurat or Reflecting Pool. All work just fine as 5-color lands.
This description is still a work in progress. I'm still tweaking creature numbers etc but this is a rough outline of how the deck should work. I'm really excited about this and I think there's some promise here. More to come as I keep playing! Upvotes and suggestions are always greatly appreciated.
