Always loved Allies..So my 2 cents : - Hada Freeblade is your best ally. Get the fourth in (replace one of the Oran-Rief Survivalist for exemple)- Kabira Evangel is better and much cheaper than Hero of Goma Fada, as it gives you protection but also evasion.- Stoneforge Masterwork is slow and useless. Better get another ally out than cast or equip this.

Thx for the inputs, didn't know Kabira: Quite a no-brainer :D Stoneforge also replaced.

I'm guessing the lack of Cavern of Souls was a budget cut? Also Ancient Ziggurat will cause you a lot of issues in many games.

Oath of Gideon could also work just as an ally token maker (added power to gideon would just act as added icing)

Your guess was on spot. Playing this Deck in RL, so Cavern of Souls are on the list, but I guess on christmas, birthday or something like that :D Until then I tried to work around Counterspells with the AEther Vial. Was quite a pain to adjust the manabase, but so far I'm quite happy with it now.Saw Oath of Gideon already when a friend of mine unpacked his Oath Diplaybox, but don't think it fits in here.

Thanks to Demarge just ordered 4x Cavern of Souls -.- :D

Maybe Detention Sphere instead of O-Ring? Seems like you could get some more utility out of it for the same CMC, although the blue mana requirement may be an issue.

Well, with Harabaz Druid and Opulent Palace it really could work better than I first thought when I read your suggestion, gonna put it to the maybe's.

And now it's on the mainboard :)

I play dedicated control in modern and the only time allies give me trouble is when they la d a collected company. I think I suggested this for your humans deck too but double threats that will trigger all your etb effects at I start speed can just flip a match up. I would consider cutting Down sphere for them as control isn't where you want to be. You want to keep the paths as they will clear the way and keep the crazy bombs under control but you want to be jamming threats with 3 Mana not trying to control the board

I'll give it a try and switch the spheres for the company

I'd recommend Hagra Diabolist over Sea Gate Loremaster. SGL doesn't survive the bolt test (which is an important test in modern) and doesn't draw you cards right away especially without a haste source, plus since your land count is low and you don't want to go much past 3 on Aether Vial then he doesn't seem that great. Hagra Diabolist though you can ping people for the last few points of damage by the time you get there, especially if you get out fast enough. Better yet, Kalastria Healer might be good against control due to board wipes and because they don't target, unlike HD. CoCo is amazing but you may also consider Chord of Calling to find someone in response to a board wipe. I'd also consider Abrupt Decay as it is very useful. I also suggest that you play fetches with relevant shocklands if those too are within your budget; the ETB tapped lands are not what you want to be doing because that extra turn is much more important than your colors, though you could play Mana Confluence and City of Brass if you were so inclined since you have some amount of life gain and the ability to get out very quickly.

I think definitely all 4 Collected Company and Aether Vial here. Also I'd just go for City of Brass rather than Opulent Palace, just a lot cleaner. Really like the deck though. +1 from me!

City of Brass instead of Opulent Palace / Hagra Diabolist instead of Sea Gate Loremaster. Ty for your inputs guys. Rest of it I don't consider atm due budget reasons :o

halimar excavator is literally a do nothing until you've milled opponent out entirely.

which goes incredibly fast, believe me. Captain's Claws and another ally per turn with 4-5 allies on the board, you do the math. always brought my opponents to rage, especially if 2 of em are on the board. and that's why the deck is flagged combo and not aggro ;)

I agree with al5464, the excavators are a problem because it splits your focus, you are using 3 slots to use excavator when you could be using them to pressure your opponents life, a survivalist and 2 shapeshifters for example

Ask yourself, what will help you win more often, an excavator on turn 2, milling them out on turn 6/7, or a survivalist racing in for a turn 5/6 win

I'm not saying milling with excavator isn't a great plan, but you aren't committed. you're deck is trying to do 2 things and it means it will struggle to do either very well

@TallGreg, first of all, ty for your feedback. But I guess I stick with the current setup. This deck is labeled combo, and that's exactly what it does. Hada Freeblade, Kazandu Blademaster and Oran-Rief Survivalist sure are part of the aggro-path which I follow if there's room for it, but Halimar Excavator, Ondu Cleric and Hagra Diabolist are taking over if a game lasts longer leaving the scaling aggro creatures as useful blockers. And suddenly they all give me the freedom to let a game take longer.

In a usual game I'm able to deal dmg within the first 2-3 turns with the fast paced allies. As soon my opponent reached head to head I can lay back and let the triggers of the allies do the work. As soon Kabira Evangel appears, game is over anyway most of the times.

I did a ton of playtesting with this one and it works constant and reliable, so I see no benefit to go fulltard on aggro which would make me vulnerable in other spots ;)

tschiller It's obviously your deck, but I can tell you the reason a long game is seen as an inevitable conclusion is because you lack the threat density to win the game with your aggro.

I have no problem with Hagra Diabolist and Kabira Evangel as finishers, but they simply do not synergize well with Halimar Excavator. There is a reason you never see a mill deck with an aggro package or a creature deck with a mill package.

If you ACTUALLY want combo, Xenograft and Turntimber Ranger is what you're looking for. It gives you infinite creatures, infinite power creatures and with diabolist infinite life loss

Let's agree to disagree, my winrate just tells me a different story, physical and on mtgo :) But thx for your last advice, this combo seems interesting! If I fiddle around with the deck next time, I'll consider these 2 cards, so took em to the maybe's.

I would be interested in playing against you on MODO. My username there and here is MadKat. It would be cool to see your deck in action.

You neeeed Return to the Ranks and 4 Halimar Excavator. You can go off and mill an amazing amount of cards with Return to the Ranks, excavator, and company. i would bump up these combo pieces to 4 each and cut some of the "meh" allies like the Oran-Rief Survivalist, Diabolist (5 mana?). Also, the shapeshifter should be at 4 because it is practically any ally you have which is amazing and it basically gives you multiple copies of the combo piece Halimar Excavator.

There's a few suggestions I can make based off the 4-color Ally deck I use that is very similar to this.

Since you can produce all five colors, I really recommend Unified Front and Bring to Light. Bring to Light can tutor for any of the nonland, nonartifact cards in this deck and play them for free. Unified Front can get you 4 Ally ETB triggers. The Cavern of Souls and Ally Encampments won't give you colored mana for them though, which may limit their usability.

I'm thinking about using Descendants' Path in my Ally deck, but haven't gotten around to adding them yet. It's a great Turn 3 drop that can help you ramp your boardstate and get more triggers.

I'm really surprised you don't have Eerie Interlude. It provides your Allies with instant-speed evasion while also giving you a solid win-con for 3 Mana if you have the right Allies on the field (Excavators, Diabolists, etc.) Since they all see each other, they'll all trigger each other on re-entry. For example, if you flicker two Excavators, a Druid, a Freeblade, and a Diabolist, you can mill for a total of 50 cards, bleed someone for 25 life, and get 5 +1/+1 counters on your Freeblade.

Panharmonicon is another card that will do you a lot of good. 4 mana seems like a lot in a tribal deck like this, but the ability to double all your ETB triggers is far better than playing one more Ally.

Rite of Replication can also tilt the scales in your favor (and can be tutored with Bring to Light if you have 5 colors). Kicking it on an Excavator or Diabolist usually means the game is over.

With how aggressive and destructive Modern is, I'd really recommend you have some recursion. March from the Tomb is nice, but so is Rally the Ancestors. Imagine milling half your library with an Excavator, only to cast Rally the Ancestors for 4, putting all the milled 2- and 1-drop Allies on the field, effectively ending the game.

Do you get use out of the Kabira Evangel? I always thought the ability was nice, but a little limited since its effect is only temporary.

Since you only have 18 lands, consider adding a fourth Druid to help you 'get there' with mana.

Some good sideboard options for you would be Beast Within for general removal and Rest in Peace to stop grave power/Bow of Nylea/old Eldrazi titans from stopping your mill cold.

Here is the deck I use that is really similar to this one: Turn 4, Mill 600 Cards Please...

Thank you for not listening about the excavator, that card is epic, bar none the best mill creature around. He's a great card that fits with all of the ally decks