[Deck] Aluren

[swoop]

Don't like it, too situational. But cheap tho. Needs testing.

[kiblast]

You know that Collected Company is an auto include right? Less clunky spells, more creatures, just cast that thing eot, gain value, Witness, sink+repeat.

[Nonex]

Define "clunky spells" and give examples.

Collected Company is not excessively different from Chord of Calling, so it shouldn't be bad at all, but even if it could drop all creatures from your library onto the board, if you don't have an Aluren there, you don't win.

[aex]

I just started playing this as my local legacy event pet deck. This is my current build,

https://deckbox.org/sets/945060

any suggestions for things I can try to shore up the death and taxes match-up?

[lost_ronin_soul]

I just started playing this as my local legacy event pet deck. This is my current build,

https://deckbox.org/sets/945060

any suggestions for things I can try to shore up the death and taxes match-up?

looks sweet. Shardless agent is awesome, even better with living wish

[slayjay]

I need your advice. Am in love with this deck for years and want to reanimate this for me.

Still unsure if I should play the 4 recruiter version or the living wish version with one recruiter.

Now my question: In the version with only one recruiter: I fetch the dreamstalker with the recruiter. If my opponent sees that there is only one recruiter and kills it in response to playing stalker the combo is stopped, isn't it? Am I forgetting something? Make us only one recruiter more weak to spot removal?

[Nonex]

This is one of the several problems about Recruiter. If you don't fetch multiples there's no difference between target and untargeted removal because your opponent just has to kill one creature. I would treat a 4 Living Wish 1 Recruiter configuration as non-Recruiter directly; go for Harpy + cantrip creature of your choice to combo, and only go Wish -> Recruiter when you already have one and need to fetch the other.

[swoop]

So I've been thinking

is it better to go with Aluren shell to board it out G2 in favor of "normal" Shardless shell or?

Move out

4 Aluren
Harpy/Strix
Manowar/Dream
Imperial Recruiters

Thats 10-12 cars out
Put in some meat

Profit?

[Shax]

I think leaving the Aluren combo in and boarding in disruption is a good way to play the game post g1. Switching into Shardless does let you dodge hate but it's one of those if it works it works if it doesn't well theres always g3?

[theBloody]

I don't like it. It will work sometimes, but man, if this combo is not good enough to hold game 2/3, no reason to play it. Why not just play shardless?

[swoop]

It's good enough. Many game I've testex against grixis and uwr, many come down to shardless beatdown

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[AngryTroll]

Question for everyone: If someone forced you to play Aluren tomorrow, in a major event, with no Imperial Recruiters, what would you play?


Notes:
I keep coming up with 75 card Aluren maindecks. On the one hand, I want to run Tarmogoyfs, Vendilion Cliques, and Abrupt Decays as a backup plan in case I can't combo off. On the other hand, I want to run Coiling Oracles, because I'd love to run Oracles, Baleful Strixes, and Shardless Agents all in one deck. What mix of Ponders, Living Wishes, Lim-Dul's Vaults, and Dig Through Times would you run?

I don't own Recruiters, and there's no way I can justify $1000 on them. I know I want to run Shardless Agents. After that, is the next best plan Living Wish for the combo win, or is it a backup plan containing Tarmogoyfs and Cliques to go with the Deathrite Shamans?

If you run Goyfs and 2 Cliques, you use Aluren + Harpy + Shardless or Aluren + Harpy + Strix as a "value combo" to draw cards or cascade until your board presence is overwhelming. This plan has the advantage of being better if your Aluren is countered. On the other hand, if you run Coiling Oracles and a few extra search tools, you win on the spot if you assemble the combo, and your digging and acceleration power are increased.

[lordofthepit]

Question for everyone: If someone forced you to play Aluren tomorrow, in a major event, with no Imperial Recruiters, what would you play?


Notes:
I keep coming up with 75 card Aluren maindecks. On the one hand, I want to run Tarmogoyfs, Vendilion Cliques, and Abrupt Decays as a backup plan in case I can't combo off. On the other hand, I want to run Coiling Oracles, because I'd love to run Oracles, Baleful Strixes, and Shardless Agents all in one deck. What mix of Ponders, Living Wishes, Lim-Dul's Vaults, and Dig Through Times would you run?

I don't own Recruiters, and there's no way I can justify $1000 on them. I know I want to run Shardless Agents. After that, is the next best plan Living Wish for the combo win, or is it a backup plan containing Tarmogoyfs and Cliques to go with the Deathrite Shamans?

If you run Goyfs and 2 Cliques, you use Aluren + Harpy + Shardless or Aluren + Harpy + Strix as a "value combo" to draw cards or cascade until your board presence is overwhelming. This plan has the advantage of being better if your Aluren is countered. On the other hand, if you run Coiling Oracles and a few extra search tools, you win on the spot if you assemble the combo, and your digging and acceleration power are increased.

This doesn't answer your hypothetical question, but why not just play Food Chain Combo instead? It's another deck with a combo possibility but has a solid midrange value plan, and if I had to choose between two similar decks in that respect (Aluren and Food Chain), except that I'd be hampered by budget constraints for one choice, it's an easy decision for me.

[AngryTroll]

This doesn't answer your hypothetical question, but why not just play Food Chain Combo instead? It's another deck with a combo possibility but has a solid midrange value plan, and if I had to choose between two similar decks in that respect (Aluren and Food Chain), except that I'd be hampered by budget constraints for one choice, it's an easy decision for me.

I had this exact question about the decks! I normally play Shardless BUG, so I have the dual lands for either, and wondered this exact question. For me, it came down to needing either Shardless Agents (~$55) or Food Chains (~$50). I decided to go with Agents, because I can build Shardless BUG when I get tired of playing a Tier 2 combo deck.

I'm a big fan of Aluren, but I can't decide how to build the deck.

[Nonex]

From my experience, symmetrical cards like Aluren or Veteran Explorer kind of "demand" that you run a combo of sorts on top of them to make sure your opponent doesn't beat you through your own cards. It's the only way to ensure that what you do is better than what they do. A enchantment that both doesn't win on the spot and lets my opponent put a surprise Delver of Secrets and Tarmogoyf at my end step isn't worth it.

What I mean with this is, yes, it's important for the deck to do useful things without Aluren, and it's important to cut all the fancy cards that need Aluren to have any sort of impact, but Aluren is still a card that needs the deck to be built around it, because of its mana cost, what it does, and the fact that it's symmetrical.

Your choice of creatures should be based largely on (1) What they do without Aluren, and (2) What they do with Aluren:

Thinking too much about 1 and forgetting about 2 strips the enchantment of its purpose.

Focusing mostly on 2 leaves the deck full of useless crap, unable to win without the enchantment.

The majority of creatures in your deck should be relevant in both cases, and if they only fulfill one, they should be cut to a bare minimum and their presence should be strongly justified.

An example of a creature that's only relevant without Aluren is Tarmogoyf; a reason for running it could be, for example, a metagame choice ("many Goyfs in my area and many people pack Surgical Extractions in their sideboards").

An example of a creature that's only relevant with Aluren is Parasitic Strix; Spike Feeder is better, but it requires Wall of Roots and Man-o'-War to combo while Strix doesn't, so Strix allows more freedom in your deck's construction.

An example of a creature that's relevant in both cases is Selkie Hedge-Mage; by itself, it gains some life and temporarily removes a creature from the battlefield (or permanently, if you throw Cabal Therapy into the mix), and with Aluren, it gains infinite life when paired with Cavern Harpy.

The noncreature tools are used mainly to arrange everything smoothly, so I think personal tastes make a big play there.

[theBloody]

Well said, Nonex.

[Rampart]

So I just got back from SCG: Balt and played Aluren on a whim. I have been looking to finally pick up my last couple recruiters and which occurred this morning. I played a Veteran Explorer build to 6-2 (20th place) and had a one of the most fun (for me) tournaments I have ever had. My deck was horribly mis-built but that's to be expected with it just being slung together the night before just in case. The big issue I ran into is the sideboard, It was undisciplined and unfocused. My questions is there a standard structure for these sideboards? every sideboard that I have seen seems all over the place.

Thanks

[AngryTroll]

Is this deck terrible?

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Coiling Oracle
4 Shardless Agent

4 Cavern Harpy
1 Veteran Explorer
1 Xantid Swarm
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Selkie Hedge-Mage
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Aluren

4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Green Sun's Zenith
1 Lim-Dul's Vault

3 Duress
4 Cabal Therapy

3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
2 Bayou
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Verdant Catacombs
3 Polluted Delta
1 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Dryad Arbor

It has 7 1cc accelerants (4 DRS, 3 GSZ), 7 1cc disruption spells, 3 2cc disruption spells (3 GSZ for Xantid Swarm), 4 Brainstorm, 3 Ponder, and a LDV to dig, and 4 Aluren, 4 Harpy, and then 4 Coiling Oracle + 4 Shardless Agent + 1 Selkie Hedge Mage.

If you combo, eventually you can ramp enough lands with Coiling Oracle to GSZ for Selkie Hedge Mage and go to infinite life (or you can draw the Selkie or the Strix with Coiling Oracle instead of GSZ), then you draw the whole deck and win with Parasitic Strix. This is still 64 cards, and I wouldn't mind running Abrupt Decays to hit things like Phyrexian Revoker, but this is at least a starting point.

[swoop]

Cut 2 harpies, Gsz, xantid, arbor...

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[swoop]

wish it were usable