Comments on: Deck of the Week – Jeskai Allies

By: Tobi

Tobi — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 22:56:41 +0000

Hey,

im playing Allies competitively since 2.5 years and at the moment that’s my opinion:
When CoCo was spoiled i thought: wow, now Allies is tier 2 quality. Then i tried it and now i think if you want to play CoCo+Vial you should play slivers because allies is missing the mana guy that can also be aggressive. Before BFZ i liked CoCo in the Sideboard to board it against attrition matchups like junds. (4x vial leaves the deck, 1-2 ghostquarters and 2-3 CoCo come in) Now we have Cavern and Camp which leaves us with only 12 sources of noncreature colour mana of which 2 should probably be plains. For my taste thats not consistent enough in my eyes for green noncreature spells. I like All-In Allies with 18-19 lands and 5 colors. You can play all the 2cc +1/+1 bears (even the black one, just listen to the flavour text!) and some shapeshifters. At the moment i replaced Champion of the Parish with the Envoy and im trying out the red menace guy which seems good as a 1- or 2-of. 🙂

By: Darcy Hartwick

Darcy Hartwick — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 00:58:54 +0000

Yeah I’m not seeing jiwari shapeshifter and phyrexian metamorph being better than collected company and oran rief survivalist. If you’re going into blue it should at least be to gain access to some more interaction whether remand, mana leak, or unified will. He isn’t even sideboarding counterspells.

Kor bladewhirl? Not sure if serious. Allies generally laughs at blockers between evangel providing pseudo-unblockable and the other allies just plain getting big fast. I could see wanting trample (oh wait – that’s on 4-drops…) but first strike? This cannot matter very often.

Expedition envoy maybe but I remain skeptical. I think this deck is at its best when its playing body after body that grows out of control and punching through blockers with evangel triggers. It’s possible envoy pulls its weight but I’m otherwise still feeling champion of the parish as a better 1 drop.

By: Jake Sanders

Jake Sanders — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 22:04:12 +0000

Hi Sheridan! Great article, always love your Ally analysis. It seems that Naya has some very explosive games due to Company, but what about Hardened Scales? It seems to me that that would only make the deck more explosive by making every ally help the +1/+1 counter guys by a lot more, especially with a Company or even Dromoka Command. All the lists I’ve seen recently, though, have used Vial instead.

What are your thoughts on Vial vs Hardened Scales now? Have they changed since last time? Is Scales still viable?

By: Roland F. Rivera Santiago

Roland F. Rivera Santiago — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 20:11:27 +0000

Excellent take on this list, Sheridan. I agree with most of your concern (no Bolt + no Company = bad), and that’s why I’ll be sticking with Naya. That said… are we sure Kor Bladewhirl is all that good? If so, why wasn’t Highland Berserker a thing with Allies previously? He does the same thing, with a slightly inferior body (and with first strike up, that doesn’t even matter). It may be worth a sideboard slot, but otherwise I remain unconvinced.

Expedition Envoy intrigues me, though it might be a bit too vanilla for Modern. Speaking of intriguing Allies, what do you all think of Firemantle Mage as an alternative evasion mechanism against decks with colorless blockers (like Tron or Affinity)?

By: Jordan Boisvert

Jordan Boisvert — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 18:26:33 +0000

Knew this list wouldn’t get past you!