It's interesting to play this deck.

The top of its curve is 4CMC. You do get a lot of things that you can play for that, but they are all equally good.

Of course you can just start throwing them on to the field once you have the mana.

Abzan Falconer would be hilarious with all the counters, but that feels a little too cute to me. Alesha, Who Smiles at Death does very funny things with Drana and can bring back any early-game allies who have died (or been sacrificed) for another rally trigger. Those are the first two that come to mind in that range. Some of the two and three drop allies are good too. Kalastria Healer and Drana's Emissary can put a lot of pressure on an opponent. The healer may be too durdly for this list though.

I've actually tested with all those cards.

I had some nice interactions going on in the early game with them, but ran out of steam in the mid to late game.

I feel like it's something non-creature that is lacking. I may shove Sword of the Animist back in to see how it goes.

Cool deck. But looks very high on the mana curve for 24 lands. Not to mention the SB too

This deck needs to go fast and hard as early as possible, to get lots of Rally going.

So, like Control decks that run 26 lands so that they hit their land drops every turn, this runs slightly more lands than usual.

I've played it with 23 and it just wasn't as effective or consistent.

No, it's that the deck has too few lands for the mana curve. After playtesting it's slower than the usual Ally decks. If a 4th land isn't coming the deck looks like it's done. It also looks like even moderate removal would finish it with no big deal. Mana curve has 11 4CC spells. Expensive ones in SB, too. It's a cool concept but it looks like it's trying to do too much. I'd suggest bring the curve down at least a little bit.

the problem Hairy is that you dont want to get land flooded. every deck building tip or guide ever always points to right around 40% for the best consistency. 40% x 60 cards is 24 cards. you want your land drops but at some point you wanna stop drawing lands and draw something to kill your opponent with

Yeah it more of a rhetorical point with 25 lands. My main point was the mana curve needs to come down if it would be consistent. At least, competitively.

This was a very nice build when I looked at it. I was looking hard on this site for the unorthodox Mardu allies. Actually, I ended up building it online having most of the cards and got the other ones I didn't have. Though I knew the curve was on the high side I went with it. It was too few lands and not enough intensive threat early game.

I didn't even play in the tournament practice but casual format. Played 5 games against 5 very different semi-competitive builds. Went 1-2 best out 3. Lost 0-2 the other 4 games.

This is a cool concept and I really think it has potential. I believe if the mana curve came down and a little more consistency with all that's going on it would be a good competitive deck. :D Keep up the good work!

The thing is, I have absolutely no idea about the choices you've been making when playing this deck, including Mulligans, card priority, attacks vs defense, etc.

If you let me know some of that I might be able to explain to you why this build has not been doing that well for you.

I generally find if I'm giving advice to someone about their deck I'll try to give some ideas for card substitutions. Telling me that it needs a lower mana curve isn't really very helpful.

What would you take out and what would you put in?

OK HairyManBack let's see if this works better for you.

I've taken out all the Citadel Siege and replaced them with Valorous Stance.

That allows for more low cost removal, and protection, if need be.

Just got stomped on by a B/W Devoid Eldrazi deck

He had an answer for every one of my creatures, Stasis Snare, Grip, Silkwrap. My only options were Utter Ends and Stance to remove them but by the time I drew them I could never catch up. Any suggestions? Is there just some match ups that this deck wont fare against?

Look, if you're up against that many "controlly" aspects, this deck will have problems.

Just about any deck would, though.

The biggest issue I am having is that I don't know how people are playing this deck. It needs to be hella aggressive out of the gate.

I rarely use any Creatures to block and just about always use removal on my turn.

I stall until Butcher of the Horde and/or Drana, Liberator of Malakir come out.

You should have had enough answers yourself with this deck.

Tainted Remedy could be replaced with End Hostilities in the Sideboard, but you'd need to use March from the Tomb with it.

I think I'm just going to give up on this build, now. There's no more tricks I can think of to "fix" it.

One last thing.

You should Mulligan this deck until you have at least two lands and at least one Creature you can play by your second turn.

Just did my own match vs BW Devoid Eldrazi.

Basically overran them in the mid to early game.

I'm missing something. Can people take and post a screenshot of the state of battle at the end of play?

Now I am a relatively new player, but I have been having some trouble against a slightly upgraded BFZ Event deck:

http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/bfz-gb-aristocrats-saffron/

I struggle to get the numbers I need before he does quite often and he finds himself able to block if I go aggressive even with the fire mage. I do try and stall until Drana is out or the Butcher, but he usually has an answer for it in terms of removal. By the time I can play a second one, I have the Zulaport chipping away at my life so I can't play as aggressively any more.

What should I be bringing in from the sideboard to help me out here?

Against that deck you would take out Valorous Stance, whose second mode is not doing much, and replace it with Utter End.

Also swap Ruinous Path for March from the Tomb because Planeswalkers are not a worry.

I have a suspicion that people are forgetting to make some plays with this deck:

• You can push damage through with a combo of First Strike and Menace, which makes it so that you don't have to make early trades.

• Don't forget that Mardu Ascendancy makes tokens when attacking, and can be saced to pump up the toughness of your Cretures.

• Butcher of the Horde can be given Haste and/or Lifelink. Sometimes even the Vigilance helps. Use tokens to activate these, where possible.

• I will often let my life total get dangerously low in order to get board advantage ie. the other day I let it go to 2 before I started my finishing attacks.

I got my friend to learn and play that deck against me. Here is the final result (cards have been put above graveyards, Smothering Abomination is the other card in exile):

This looks very well thought out from a spells point of view, however I think your land is a bit off. I looks somewhat difficult to get Drana out when you only have 3 land down. I think you should move away slightly from red mana land and add more black mana land. I think that adding a playset of Bloodstained Mire would really help.

Thanks for the input, Ive been doing very well with this deck, my only 3 losses have come from a Tier 1 G/W Megamorph, a well put together Tutelage Marshmellow (on mana screw) and the aforementioned Eldrazi.

Honestly this is the super fun cheap deck I have been looking for since B/W Warriors got bumped due to rotation.

Any suggestions how I could beef it up with a little more expensive cards?

Sorry, didnt see you said you were done with the deck.

That is no problem ghostdesigns.

I'm glad to hear that FINALLY someone is having success with this deck other than me.

Since the last change it's been slamming through my local meta.

Money isn't really an object for me so there aren't any cards I would put in that aren't already there.

It's had a tonne of revisions so I pretty much think it is as good as it's going to get.

The only thing that could easily be swapped is Tainted Remedy for something that would suit your meta better. Transgress the Mind could be useful.

I'm glad you're having fun with it. I must admit that I get a bit giddy inside when I can see that I'm about to get Haste, First Strike and Menace Rally or when I can play Butcher of the Horde with Haste on Turn 4.

Thanks for the feedback ambushtroll. Not sure if you've actually playtested this deck. It has 13 sources of mana, which is more than half of the mana available.

While Drana, Liberator of Malakir is important to get out ASAP, she is not the only Win Con. Butcher of the Horde and the and Allies are just as important.

I've never been coloured screwed when playing this deck, which is important.

I can go into an extensive explanation of why I've set the mana up this way, if you like.