More bird tribal let's go
A-well-a ev'rybody's heard about the birdOriginally Posted by ashent
B-b-b-bird, b-birdd's a word
does anyone know someone who streams this deck?
He messes around with a lot of decks, but Tyler is nicknamed 'birdman', there's probably a bunch of Aluren in the vods on his twitch.
https://www.twitch.tv/tylerjamesgardner
I think my list is just okay. I haven't been playing much due to college, but I'm fairly confidant in the the majority of the main and most of the board. I did play somewhat poorly, costing me 1 gamebut the deck was able to carry me. I'll play better next time.
I think we need 2 Dream Stalker effects because guaranteeing a combo vs Pile and Miracles is more necessary than it was a couple years ago. I'm not sure how good Dream Stalker is in that slot anymore because it used to just block Goyf and Mirran Crusader forever, but due to D&T becoming less popular and Goyf disappearing I don't think it's good enough anymore. So I tested out the Quickling, but not 2nd in place of Dream Stalker because I didn't have a second foil Japanese offhand (I know how shitty that is, but I am still testing so whatever).
This was also my first tournament with Leo in the deck. I boarded him out almost every match (weird MU's lol), and I'm afraid that he's only good in the matchups we're already good in. I'm probably underestimating him and look forward to more testing. Is he good against Delver? My inclination is no, but I have yet to grind out vs a skilled pilot.
I cut the Library, 1 Shardless, and a land (UGS) from the main to make room for these. The Shardless was due to curve considerations and the fact that Leo should just grind harder than Shardless. In addition, the 2nd Dream Stalker effect means there are more bad hits off of it, but I think they become so good postboard that I felt bad cutting more than 1. The Library was for due to fear of Delver and Leovold decks rendering it so bad vs a large portion of the meta game. I think Library's only really good against combo decks and Miracles now, so I felt a SB slot was better for it. The land is still something I'm not terribly comfortable with; I have felt that I flood out a little too much but hitting the first 3-4 land drops is so critical to this deck that shaving one still feels wrong. Now that people aren't playing Stifle, 20 could be fine thanks to DRS , but I'd be interested in your guys' opinions on 20 vs 21 (obviously if you play Ponder this changes a lot).
The SB is always kind of a pile, but I still think the red splash is better. I'd suggest trying all cards at some point if you haven't except Keranos because I've never actually cast that one. My general SB philosophy hasn't changed; I still board out Strixes or Seizes always, and oftentimes 4-6 cards total in any MU.
I still have no idea why people play Decay over Push. Killing a creature on t1, and our mana-hungry nature results in me always needing it to cost 1. I don't think it being uncounterable is that relevant, and with 12 fetches the Revolt isn't hard to....activate? I don't know what the term should be, but I do know that Push is better.
Kind of a strange list. 4 Abrupt Decays?! I agree with yoshi that Fatal Push is much better in the current meta where Delver, not Counterbalance is the threat to worry about.
I believe that white is still the superior color to play in a "recruiting" version of Aluren against an unknown meta. Cards like Sulfur Elemental warrant play in D&T heavy metas.
Below is the list Andrea Mengucci played (I believe, based on a fuzzy screenshot) in case anyone is interested.
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
2 Cavern Harpy
2 Parasitic Strix
1 Man-O'-War
3 Recruiter of the Guard
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Cabal Therapy
3 Thoughtseize
4 Abrupt Decay
3 Aluren
1 Swamp
1 Island
1 Forest
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Bayou
1 Scrubland
3 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Tundra
2 Containment Priest
4 Force of Will
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Reclamation Sage
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Orzhov Pontiff
2 Veteran Explorer
1 Forest
I play 3 Decay and no Push because the Decays are pre-boarded removal for hate that can screw up our game plan and aren't just for creatures. Like what if we get Cavern Harpy Needled?
I agree with that argument. And altough I agree that fatal push is better to kill delvers or deathrites, I feel more confident with decay because it's far more versatile. Because legacy format is so diverse, my opponent could play a turn1 chalice of the void, I can kill a Leovold withour worrying about revolt trigger, it can kill a trinisphere, etc...
Needle on Harpy postboard doesn't do anything. Yes it can hit noncreatures, but Chalice isn't that good against us, fetching basic forest lets Recruiter beat a Blood Moon, and there aren't any other commonly played cards that I'm concerned with that Decay can hit. The odds that I want to kill a Deathrite on t1 are far larger than the odds I'll want to kill a Chalice in my mind
I'm saying I would 100% rather be able to answer non-creature permanents uncounterably for 1 mana more than have 1 mana removal in my deck. And tbh I don't really care that much about a Deathrite on turn 1. And when I said pre-boarded, I meant it that way. Needle game 1 on Cavern Harpy is annoying. So is game 1 Chalice, Moon, all sorts of other ridiculous rubbish people do in Legacy.
Played a 4 round weekly last night with a pretty normal BUG list, I won't post the list as it's standard but it's 19 lands (3 basics) with 3 Leovold, 1 Parasitic Strix and 1 Crane and 3 Aluren. The flex spots were 1x Unearth and 1x Liliana of the Last Hope. Both of these cards performed well for me. The Unearth was untested but I felt like it warranted some play because it's one of my favorite pieces of spice ever and due to Aluren deckbuilding restrictions every creature is hittable. I only took it out for fast prison/combo or Swords decks. Against other midrange it usually just Unearths a Leovold that was Forced or Decayed and puts you ahead, otherwise it just brings back a Strix that already drew 1 card, blocked 1 Gurmag, and then comes back. Pretty nice.
Rd 1 - Moon Stompy
My opponent led on Mountain -> Go, which was really interesting to me and just allowed me to fetch basics and wait to see what happened. His hand was really top-heavy and didn't accelerate very well but had 2 Rabblemasters, a Blood Moon, and a Trinisphere. I could ignore the Moon and a Magus later in the game due to the fetches I led on early and a force for a Rabblemaster and a Decay for a Trinisphere led to him just top decking and me playing Shardless after Shardless and attacking. I won game 1 without landing an Aluren or doing much of anything special. I took out the slower grindier cards and replaced them with Hydroblasts for game 2. Game 2 he mulled to 5 but had a series of Chalice into Trinisphere into Magus that I couldn't handle all at once and I believe I died without a blue source. Game 3 I kept a hand that landed Aluren and won on the spot on turn 4 with a Force, and just ignored a Chalice on 1 and an Ensnaring Bridge.
2-1 win
Rd 2 - Deathblade
Had a good time with my opponent playing lands, fighting over Leovolds and Deathrites, cycling through Ponders and Strixes. He almost buried me with a SFM -> Jitte -> TNN but I raced him down narrowly after Decaying the Jitte after it had racked up 3 kills and beating him in Deathrite count. I never resolved an Aluren but I narrowly got the win through value of Shardless Agents somehow beating SFM. Game 2 on the draw he landed the turn 1 Deathrite which I couldn't contest and then Dazed me out of the game as I struggled to catch up. Game 3 I sadly mulled to 5 and did not have the turn 1 Deathrite which we were talking about the entire time in the games, but I slowly caught up with the card disadvantage I started with and we got to the midgame on nearly even footing, neither of us presenting a win or much pressure. The games were taking so many turns to finish, mainly the first one, that we went to time. He was nowhere close to killing me but I assembled Aluren and all the cards I needed on my turn 4. This was unfortunate because he showed his hand on turn 5 saying he couldn't win, so I showed him the win on next turn and he just shook his head. Draw. Fun anyway.
1-1 Draw
Rd 3 - Bomberman
I knew my opponent was one of the main proponents of Bomberman and works on it constantly and felt the matchup might be problematic, but I was using a suite of killer artifacts in the sideboard to find with Glintnest Crane, in 2x Tormod's Crypt, a Nihil Spellbomb, and a Null Rod. Game 1 he Baubled me over and over for 3 turns but didn't land a threat, just kept spinning his wheels and making land drops, and I slammed a turn 3 Aluren and passed the turn. He took the opportunity to put a Trinket Mage on the stack, so I responded with a Shardless Agent and a Cavern Harpy. I looped these over and over in response to his Imperial Recruiter he also had in hand and should have just been able to immediately put it away, but I had to stop at 2 life and 25 creatures on the table due to never finding Crane or Parasitic Strix. Baleful Strix however got me just enough Forces to survive his next turn and I won over an attack step despite the Aluren basically fizzling. Game 2 I put the artifacts in and hoped to have graveyard hate+force and a quick combo to kill him, settling on a turn 4 hand with a single Force. I died on turn 3 due to Cavern of Souls, Auriok Salvager, LED loop which we can't interact with as Force becomes meaningless. In this case he was prepared to win with Walking Ballista, but it could have easily just been Lodestone Bauble also. Game 3 he assembled basically the same thing by turn 2 uncounterably, but this time with Lodestone Bauble. I tapped out for a blind Shardless Agent hoping to hit Tormod's Crypt, or Null Rod and didn't hit, so he killed me with Bauble the next turn. Notably with Auriok Salvager, no single piece of grave hate was going to be good enough anyway as LED can generate mana fast enough that he can make infinite in response to hosing the graveyard. I needed to hit Null Rod and lost when I didn't. In future I will mull more aggressively against this deck because their combo is faster than ours and is basically uncounterable. My opponent 2-1'd me but decided to go home so he scooped it and gave me the win, putting me at 2-0-1 which was cool.
2-0 Win
Rd 4 - BUG Control
Our first game was a back and forth BUG grind where we fought over DRS and Leovold and I watched carefully to see if he ever played a red source and he did not. I think the game swung in my favor over the turn 3/4 interaction of my slamming a Leovold into a Force, Forcing back, and then drawing a card over him Decaying the Leo. I then untapped and Unearthed the Leovold and he proved a big problem for my opponent as he did mostly nothing for the next few turns while I played value creatures and I decided his hand was cantrips and he drew more until he conceded. Game 2 I kept a pretty risky 1 lander with a DRS and he turn 1 Fatal Pushed it and then I got stuck on 2 lands with no blue sources for long enough to have to go to discard and just conceded. I got punished for keeping a really good hand that just required the DRS to survive and I realize now that it wasn't worth it, even being a game up and being on the draw for a few more lands. Maybe if the one land wasn't a basic Swamp. Still though I got good info because I found he was playing Life From the Loam and I was going to get buried just off him repeatedly playing Polluted Deltas anyway. Game 3 on the play I kept a strong grindy hand and we went back to game 1, trading resources to keep DRS and Leos on the board, but I pulled ahead with an early Carpet of Flowers and never had mana issues because of it. Notably you know you have to be careful with Carpet vs opposing Leovolds, but I did have enough copies of Decay to keep him off them. We went to topdeck back and forth without me finding an Aluren in any of the games so far and just playing blind Shardless Agents and Strixes until I found a Liliana and she wrapped it up.
2-1 Win
This was 3-0-1 which was fine by me and I got some store credit and used it on random crap I don't need. GG.
What is the best version of the deck at the moment?
I'm trying the bug version that seems very solid but I miss the white or red colour for tutoring mono copy cards to get out of various disadvantageous situations in the first game.
Maybe it depends on the fact that I have always played pure combo decks or pure controll decks, so a hybrid like the bug version it enables me to not take full advantage of its potential.
I think there is no black or white position on this question. It's more a question of personal preference. You should try both to make yourself an idea.
I've been running the BUG Aluren list without tutors lately, focusing more on value/midrange with an incidental combo and I've been having lots of fun and seem to be doing rather well with it at the LGS weekly legacy event. A turn 2 or 3 Leovold is almost a free win against storm game 1. I run a MB Last Hope which is a bit aggressive, but it does wonders against the myriad of delver decks and miracles I run into. A MB Sylvan library, while might be a bit greedy, has been quite good.
I was not sure how people felt about the discard suite for the deck. I've seen the two Duresses main, but after playing with them, there are quite a few times I want to hit creatures as well. Perhaps I should swap them for 2 Cabal Therapies or 2 Hymns? The Cabals a rather nice as I can always sac one of the Shardless Agents if they can't get through for damage effectively or even the Strixes if I am up against combo to flash it back. I don't think I want to run Thoughtseizes in the 75. I have 2 other Duresses in the SB, which I'm leaning towards keeping especially if I swap the 2 MB ones for Therapies or Hymns. Thoughts?
I've used an Imperial Recruiter list for several years and use 4 Cabal Therapy supplemented by 2 Duress main board (2 more Duress in the board) and am very happy with it, especially when I can Duress followed by Therapy, it's such a crazy happy feeling. I've tried Thoughtseize in the past and the life lost cost me a few games and most of the time when I'm playing discard I'm looking for the counter spells to clear the way for Aluren. I also really like Sylvan Library and it's crazy good whenever you don't have a Leovold across from you on the table. I've never tried a strict BUG list before so I can't add to much for that version of the deck, but Cabal Therapy is an amazing card, and in my personal opinion it's very difficult to play properly (same is said about Brainstorm).
Cockatrice: EMFry
https://magic.wizards.com/en/article...nge-2018-05-14
Cartesian's list this time around with 2 Grim Flayers and 2 Hymns in the "flex" spots. It's also interesting he found this much space but still got to keep 3 Leo's, 2 Parasitic Strix, and 3 Decay in the main. He did this by having 0 Ponders and cutting a Harpy down to 3. The most interesting thing here is definitely the Grim Flayers, which I guess makes the deck go into the attack step more often than I personally care for, but it's pretty cool.
3 ponders main board on the link you posted
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I haven't touched this deck since they banned top. Back then when Leo just came out the deck was a value deck engine. Is the deck now just a bug control deck with a combo finish?
Went 3-0-1 at fnm. Playing bug value aluren. Beat u/w stoneblade. Sneak and show and u/w control. Draw was against u/w rip helm control. (just realised i played all three of the u/w decks in the room) Thinking i need more than 2 abrupts main, but i dont want to make my early value cascades worse especially against control.
The main thing i noticed is people still dont know how or when to interact with the basic combo and overeact sometimes even scooping prematurely. This might just be my meta though.
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