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Extended Allies!
Extended Allies:
Well, it rewards "bad play"... The thing about allies is that they are like slivers, except with the "come into the battlefield" clause. With the amount of allies so far, it doesn't work so much. So what can we do? Let's first take a look at the people of the day (sorted by mana cost and colour): Highland Berserker A 2/1 for 2 is essential in any aggressive deck. In red, this card really feels like a strong mainstay if there is an allies deck: early offense coupled with a relevant ability can allow you to push through damage just by playing a dude. First strike is excellent for setting up bad blocks, after all. Kazuul Warlord A 4/4 for 5 that comes into play, giving your guys counters is very strong. The only issue I can see is that he has a relatively prohibitive cost at 5, and would end up at the top of a curve. Tuktuk Grunts 3/3 haste for 5 pales in comparison to the warlord above. Don't consider it. Murasa Pyromancer This guy's expensive for what he does. 3/2 for 6 that deals damage to creatures? Not bad, but at the same time the 6 mana cost makes him prohibitively costly, and is best suited for mid-range decks. Allies are unfortunately not very good at that, since you need lots of them around for the ability to be effective. If your format is slow, run him and he will dominate. Kazandu Blademaster Efficient on his own, better with other allies. It IS the strongest uncommon ally right now, and likely the strongest ally currently out. A turn 2 with him is never wrong. Ondu Cleric Well he's a 1/1 for 2, so that's not very good. Overall, the life gain can be significant. Against hyper-aggressive decks, this may be your only way to survive in the early game outside of bad blocks. The one important issue that I want to go through here is this: life gain is only as good as how many times you can use it, and how good your end game is. The better your end game is against your opponent, the better life gain is. With that said, an aggressive allies deck should never run him. Kabira Evangel Strongest rare ally. Hands down. It's like a pseudo-overrun whenever you play a creature. That is powerful. Makindi Shieldmate If you're running a defensive allies deck with ondu cleric, run him too. If not, skip him. Oran-Rief Survivalist Cheap and efficient. Run him if you run green. Tajuru Archer The problem with this guy is that the ability is narrow. So against non-fliers you have a 1/2 for 3, which is very weak. I don't recommend running him at all. Joraga Bard This is another one of those weak cards in green. 1/4 that gives vigilance just isn't that good. Turntimber Ranger If there was another contender for best ally, this is the guy. 5 power for 5 mana is good. the ability to generate 3 power per ally is excellent. Conspiracy, call allies. ;) Stonework Puma Filler. Run changelings. Umara Raptor Sea Gate Loremaster Seascape Aerialist Raptor is efficient flier. The other two are pretty weak overall. The tap for draw ability means that this guy won't survive a turn. If you untap, you should be able to generate so much card advantage that you would need no help closing the game. The aerialist just can't do enough to justify the 5 mana cost. Bala Ged Thief Nimana Sell-Sword Hagra Diabolist All of them cost 4 or more, so at best black is a support colour. Overall, the thief is a bit weak for the cost. The sell-sword has some potential as a support card. Diabolist wins you the game with a kicked rite of replication. Unfortunately, that's about it for these guys. They aren't that good as a base colour. Changelings: These guys are your bread and butter allies support. For each changeling, aggressive decks should look into low mana cost guys like fire-belly changeling. Defensive decks should run the usual suite. Sample decklist: 4 Kazandu Blademaster 4 Oran-Rief Survivalist 4 Woodland changeling 4 Kabira Evangel 4 Umara Raptor 4 Turntimber Ranger 4 Momentary Blink 2 Bant Charm 4 Cauldron Haze or Ghostway 2 Cancel Lands: 24 4 Seaside Citadel 6 Forest 10 Plains 4 Island Basically the idea is to dump a bunch of dudes early, then use your shinanigans to mess around with big finishes. Ghostway and cauldron haze play different roles: cauldron haze makes blocking with a majority of your allies good (they might even get bigger!). If you're feeling adventurous for rares: Cauldron of Souls makes all of your allies basically unkillable. Ghostway doesn't give you the blocking option outside of a fog block, but it does let you beam EVERYONE out and then back in for massive bonuses (When allies come into play together, they count for each other one that come into play, so 3 survivalists would each be 4/4). The bonus of all of these cards are that they are wrath protections. All of them. Wrath is your worst nightmare. Wrath will not hurt you anymore. Momentary blink combos with every ally: blinking basically anything gives you the effect of playing an ally at instant speed. Yes, now you can block and blink to kill their stuff while your stuff stays alive because of your evangel. The fact that you can blink multiple times means that you'll unlikely run out. This is basically the only reason why you should play blink: with evangel it is better than just a combat trick. Bant charm and cancel are your catch-all spells. It's there to deal mainly with difficult threats that you otherwise can't deal with. Likely this is end-game, so packing a few should be enough. lmk if you guys think this is alright. XD |
Turn To Mist has its advantages over Momentary Blink here.
Momentary Blink's advantages: -Flashback -It immediately returns the monster Turn To Mist's advantages: -White or blue mana can be spent to pay it -It can target opponent's creatures It's honestly your choice. I personally prefer TTM because it can work against opponent Allies as well, sapping them of all their precious +1/+1 counters. (It'd get them back, but if you're killing other Allies, they won't be on the board to support them to get their counters) I also find Woodland Changeling to be a bit weak IMO. Sure, he's a built-in Ally, but he doesn't do anything. Try any of the following: Avian Changeling - Low-cost flier. Chameleon Collossus - DUH! With Vampires running all over the place, a pro-black Changeling can really do some damage, and that's without looking at his kickass ability. Changeling Hero - Championing creatures will eventually return them to play, triggering Ally abilities again. Changeling Titan - Same thing, pretty much. Better P/T though. Crib Swap - This is a long shot, but if your opponent tries to remove an Ally you control, you can respond with this. Hope I helped. :) |
Momentary blink is at least 15 times stronger than turn to mist. The "convenience" factor of turn to mist in terms of mana does not outweight the fact that blink has flashback. TTM's ability to target opponent's creatures have a much more limited application. Even if your opponent's creature is huge with +1/+1 counters, you can still gang block and blink evangel to kill it. The difference was enough to make momentary blink actually a tournament-played card when it was in standard, but not turn to mist. Flashback is much bigger than you think. :3
I considered woodland changeling vs. avian changeling. The only issue with avian is that it costs more than I want it to cost. I'd rather use the 2-slot for a non-significant changeling. Colossus was left out for obvious reasons: it's a 10 dollar rare against the deck's full 2 playset of rares that would cost like 10 bucks. It would be an obvious choice instead of the changeling, though. lol Hero/Titan: I never really liked them whenever I played any tribal, but I can see the appeal. :3 Crib swap: Momentary Blink way better for that purpose. The only reason why anyone should play crib swap is for removal. :3 Always like feedback. :) |
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