Enganeer For most decks I wouldn't put both of them in, I think the key here is that this is an Evangel and Battlesinger deck more than anything else. The former loves Vial, the later loves Coco. Coco might not get you the T3 kill... but getting it out on T3 can give you an easy T4 kill, and getting it out on T4 can seal the deal then. :::shrugs:::

jguy8675 I've played around with stamped in my Elves deck and keep going back to Coco there. I understand why its great to have a full hand with Vial, I just don't know if I want two more dead cards there. That being said, I'll play around with it goldfishing and see how it feels. Thanks for the suggestion. What matchups do you bring intervention in against, and what do you take out for it?

Hey! Great to see another Modern Allies player kicking around - saw the post on CFB and thought I'd chime in with my experiences :) Before Ixalan, I played Allies in Standard, Modern and EDH, so I have just a little bit of experience with them haha

My first build evolved into almost your build add or subtract a few pieces Miracle Gro - Moist Naya Allies- I found that as much as it synergised well as Naya with a blue splash for the Shapeshifters, it was more of a Midrange deck masquerading as an Aggro deck, and making a pure Aggro deck would be more effective. I thought that given the current meta, a more mid-range deck would be more effective, and play to the strengths of the +1 counter allies, grinding out more easily, and adding disruption against unfair decks. I always thought the Survivalists and Envoys were a little unexciting given some of the other options out there, and for the advantages the Bushwhacker brings, I didn't like the extra steps needed to accomodate it.I eventually decided to drop the blue and red in favour of Black for cards like Fatal Push, Abrupt Decay, Drana, and even a fun-of Athreos (currently considering testing a Rhonas in the Sideboard too): Miracle Gro - Abzan Allies

As of today, I have taken my Abzan build to GP Liverpool Side events, a PPTQ and a Modern Tournament in my city - the current performance has been really positive given some of the matchups I had (currently at about a 65% win-rate), and given that I lack a few key sideboard pieces for the current meta I am really happy with how it's shaping up.

I've been tuning the deck for a while now, so I feel at least slightly authoritative on the subject, and would be interested to hear what you think, given your deck's recent recognition!

Hey! Me again - I thought I'd pick your brain again since I've been brewing a bit. What do you think about the possibility of a five-color manabase like that in the current humans build? The advent of Unclaimed Territory has gotten me thinking about the possibility for allies, so I did a bit of number-tweaking and I came up with this list: The allies taste the rainbow (5-Color Allies)

The obvious problem I see atm is the not being able to play Collected Company. I don't think I was ever able to get more than six or seven hits for a green land to cast it off of, and that's not enough to cast it with any degree of regularity. Harabaz Druid is frequently the first thing to get removal pointed at it so it feels better to just play more allies instead of coco.

However, it does mean that there's slightly more freedom in the allies that can be played - cards like Hagra Diabolist and Tuktuk Scrapper feel less bad for being >3 CMC and are really excellent against some of allies' worst matchups.

What do you think? Is this crazy or is there any kind of possibility with this plan?

Hey WynkenBlynken! Good to see you around these parts again haha

I was actually thinking about this myself, after 5C humans won that SCG open. My initial thoughts, however, is that although both Ally and Human decks are tribal, they are tribal in a different way (hear me out haha).

The creatures played in 5C humans are powerful on their own, and they are externally synergistic i.e. they use their tribal nature in order to facilitate a relatively pain-free manabase (Unclaimed Territory, Cavern, Ziggurat etc.) and therefore use every powerful human there is.

Allies are different however, in that their synergy is internal i.e. they synergise with eachother because they are not powerful on their own. Although some of the allies on the top end are powerful (and who doesn't like destroying your opponent's hand with bala ged thief, or massacring artifact decks with TukTuk Scrapper??), I think we're going to find it too difficult to support a 5C manabase and establish a strong enough board state (without CoCo to help) to make the top-end allies worth anything when they actually drop. I think allies, despite being WUBRG, only really work from more streamlined builds as we've been experimenting with. For example, Naya Aggro, Abzan Midrange, UW Mill, BW Lifedrain or Turntimber combo.

Let me know what you think! It's a really interesting topic and I love theorycrafting around it :)

zezgotpwned - Definitely agree on Survivalists and Envoys being the two unexciting ones. Envoy at least gives you something more to vial out on turn 2 and a way to trigger Bushwhacker if its there. Battlesinger seems like a hard thing to drop and if and Ondu Cleric are there the shapeshifter is huge. I like the idea to get Drana into a deck, and I guess without Coco it isn't so bad that you don't have as many allies in there. 17 lands feels really low. Even elves often runs 18. Has it caused you any trouble?

WynkenBlynken - If you don't have the lands, and want to get out the bigger guys, then ditching coco seems like a plan. I want to know how Scrapper works for you when you get it out, and to hear how it does in tournament play! I hope to have a build that a local guy one one of our tournaments submitted to mtgtop8 later tonight (the competition was pretty good as a bunch of players usually day 2 GPs and SCG tourneys). It should appear there in a day or two.

Have you ever considered Reflector Mage?

@Salad_Thunder - I've been considering and testing Thalia's Lieutenant over Oran-Rief Survivalist. My build is all humans except 3 Goblin Bushwhacker which is just usually used as a final push of damage anyways. I don't run Metallic Mimic or Ondu Cleric mainboard so it is probably not the best idea for your deck but what are your ideas of Lieutenant in general. It can have immediate impact on the board unlike survivalist and it grows like survivalist (albeit 1 counter slower).

Nef - I think the point is to make sure that each creature entering the battlefield will trigger our Allies. Thalia's Lieutenant does something powerful, but not what youre trying to accomplish with this deck. Top decking Lieutenant to spread counters will never be as satisfying as any random Ally (even Expedition Envoy) that can trigger Rally on Battlesinger or Evangil, our main win conditions.

Im not certain, however, if it is indeed Survivalist that we want in that spot. Two ideas:

1) Halimar Excavator is an alternate win condition. If you draw it before Battlesinger, start cloning it with Shapeshifter. You can technically win by turn 3 with this trick (T1 Vial, T2 Druid + Freeblade from Vial, T3 Excavator + Shapeshifter from Vial + CoCo from Druid to get any Ally + another Excavator or Shapeshifter = mill 47 cards ; considering Fetchlands and draw spells, opponent probably has no more library).

2) Descendants' Path : playing 3 will reduce our Allies to 30. Still enough for reliable CoCo and Vial, and a free Ally every other turn (and the other one youre scrying away the top deck if its not an Ally). This may slow us down a little bit, but we should not run out of gas with this. Plus, getting rid of Vial on the top deck starting round 4 is something we all want, no?

I'm reading this at 3 a.m. So I will respond when I wake up haha. Don't want you to think I'm ignoring. But it doesn't really hurt battle singer unless you have multiple since it gives everything a counter anyway. It would most certainly hurt a Kabir Evangel tho. I'm still toying around with the slot as of right now. As for descendants path I fear tucking away a CoCo (I guess I'm responding tonight whoops, I'll look more when I wake up). It's also a 3 mana zero immediate impact card

''As for descendants path I fear tucking away a CoCo (I guess I'm responding tonight whoops, I'll look more when I wake up). It's also a 3 mana zero immediate impact card.''

For every CoCo you'll scry away, you'll remove from the top deck 6 lands/Vials and draw 7.5 extra cards (Allies) that you cast for free. We dont need more lands once we have 3, and top decking Vial on turn 4+ is just useless. While its certainly frustrating tucking a CoCo at the bottom of your library, you'll still be right with Descendants' Path most of the time (odds of a likely outcome are 13.5 to 1). Also, you are more likely to get to the next CoCo faster with Descendants' Path than without it (by removing non-CoCo cards from the top deck and digging deeper in the deck).

While taking a pause to cast Descendants' Path is certainly not optimal, it's no worse than other decks taking a pause to get card advantage. But it has a real snowball potential, and is harder to remove than Survivalist...

Against Control, Descendants' Path will provide one extra card each other turn to cast for free and burn away their removals and counterspells. You can flood the battlefield with just what you get from the enchantment, and save the rest of your hand to make a come back after a sweeper wipes the board (or to trigger Rally with Vial when it matters). Supreme Verdict or Anger of the Gods? Tap Druid to add mana to your mana pool, let verdict resolve, and use this mana to cast CoCo when opponent passes priority. Let the snowball continue next turn for another trigger of the enchantment.

Against Shadow decks and Aggro, I guess it will not hurt having more bodies to chump block when they're trying to go lethal, until we can go lethal ourself.

Because speed is our solution against Combo (we can't disrupt their play), taking a turn off to cast Descendants' Path may be too much, I admit. But it can do the opposite starting next turn, and I'm ready to test it and live with the fact that I'll have very easy side boarding job in these matchups.

But all this is theorycrafting and the card should be tested in real conditions before drawing conclusions. I may well be totally wrong... ;)

I just have trouble imagining room for it to be honest. Going down on creatures is rough. I feel the deck should be pushing damage every turn and that card does not do that. But yes you are right it needs testing and as you said about yourself; I could totally be wrong.

I've posted a full Primer of a slightly different version of this deck here : http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/the-game/modern/deck-creation-modern/788320-the-royal-flush-gang-4c-ally

Feel free to join in and comment. :)