[Deck] Aluren

[limbo]

Thanks - much appreciated. I'm surprised you don't have Jitte in the board. Seems really good to me :)

I use the prowlers in that spot. Jittes would improve the burn matchup but against most other creature decks where jittes would be brought in, I don't think you need the help.

[fapsik]

Playing this deck on MTGO:


4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Arctic Merfolk
4 Baleful Strix
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Eternal Witness
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Shardless Agent

4 Aluren

4 Brainstorm
3 Abrupt Decay

1 Bayou
2 Forest
1 Island
3 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Savannah
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volrath's Stronghold

4 Cabal Therapy
2 Thoughtseize
1 Night's Whisper



SB: 1 Containment Priest
SB: 2 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
SB: 2 Faerie Macabre
SB: 2 Carpet of Flowers
SB: 1 Sylvan Library
SB: 1 Abrupt Decay
SB: 2 Diabolic Edict
SB: 1 Garruk Relentless
SB: 1 Thoughtseize
SB: 2 Toxic Deluge


I have quite a good balance with this deck, especially with Miracles and Delver, which is good. I changed my sideboard little bit and it helped me with theese matchups. It is little weaker against extra fast combo (Belcher or Storm) because I don't have FoW, but against many other matchups it is good not to have them. I love Carpet of Flowers now, it has won me many games both against Delvers and Miracles. Night's Whisper is a sweet addition, maybe better than Painful Truths because it can be hit with Shardless - I am considering two of them.

I would love to make a new Primer and a sideboard guide, because I think much has changed since the last one. I played each version of Aluren and I have some notes. Hope it will be appriciated and critically commented when it is out :-)

[Cythare]

I've been playing this deck for a number of months at this point (since July or so), but never got around to posting here. Seems as good a time as any with SCG Worcester coming up. Here's my current deck:

2 Baleful Strix
1 Cavern Harpy
2 Coiling Oracle
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Dream Stalker
1 Eternal Witness
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
2 Shardless Agent

4 Aluren

3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will

4 Cabal Therapy

1 Bayou
2 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Dread of Night
1 Engineered Plague
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Fire Imp
1 Force of Will
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Minister of Pain
1 Null Rod
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze

Up until recently, I held off on including Leovold, Emissary of Trest because I didn't want an untutorable creature in the maindeck, but after testing, realized that I was wrong because he's just that good (surprise). Those two slots used to be another Coiling Oracle and an Edric, Spymaster of Trest. The Dread of Night used to be a second Carpet of Flowers, but I want to be able to have some game in the semi-mirror while also shoring up D&T for next weekend.

On a related note, I've wished that I could find room for the third Coiling Oracle again. With the prevalence of Leovold decks locally, having a "draw" that both ramps and also skirts his draw restriction has been amazing, and I can't recommend the card enough.

[fapsik]

I've been playing this deck for a number of months at this point (since July or so), but never got around to posting here. Seems as good a time as any with SCG Worcester coming up. Here's my current deck:

2 Baleful Strix
1 Cavern Harpy
2 Coiling Oracle
4 Deathrite Shaman
2 Dream Stalker
1 Eternal Witness
4 Imperial Recruiter
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
2 Shardless Agent

4 Aluren

3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
3 Force of Will

4 Cabal Therapy

1 Bayou
2 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island

Sideboard:
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Bloodbraid Elf
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Dread of Night
1 Engineered Plague
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Fire Imp
1 Force of Will
1 Izzet Staticaster
1 Magus of the Moon
1 Minister of Pain
1 Null Rod
1 Pernicious Deed
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze

Up until recently, I held off on including Leovold, Emissary of Trest because I didn't want an untutorable creature in the maindeck, but after testing, realized that I was wrong because he's just that good (surprise). Those two slots used to be another Coiling Oracle and an Edric, Spymaster of Trest. The Dread of Night used to be a second Carpet of Flowers, but I want to be able to have some game in the semi-mirror while also shoring up D&T for next weekend.

On a related note, I've wished that I could find room for the third Coiling Oracle again. With the prevalence of Leovold decks locally, having a "draw" that both ramps and also skirts his draw restriction has been amazing, and I can't recommend the card enough.

Great to hear another active Aluren player :-) how do you feel about number of blue cards, when you are playing FoW maindeck? And two Baleful Strix - why so?

[Cythare]

Great to hear another active Aluren player :-) how do you feel about number of blue cards, when you are playing FoW maindeck? And two Baleful Strix - why so?

I haven't had any issue with the number of blue cards. If I ignore Cavern Harpy and Parasitic Strix (so that I don't turn off the combo), there are still 17 blue cards including the 3 FoW, which is fine. There are times where I have a Force but not another blue card, but not often enough that I'd consider removing them. They're not as proactive as Thoughtseizes, but I like that they can perform double duty to counter problem spells reactively and help push through the combo game 1 if need be.

Regarding Baleful Strix, I have a split between that and Coiling Oracle. Coiling Oracle's ramping has been pretty sweet as an additional way of potentially comboing on t3 if I don't have a Deathrite Shaman active, and even if it doesn't hit a land, it lets me gain card advantage without worrying about Leovold. There isn't enough room for more Strix/Oracle, especially with Leovold in the deck now. I used to run 3 Oracle/2 Strix. I also don't feel bad at all throwing Coiling Oracle to a Cabal Therapy flashback.

[Fgi_88]

Hi all, it's my first post here on The Source.

I've played this list last sunday in a 44 players tournament


4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Forest
1 Island
1 Swamp
1 Bayou
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Cavern Harpy
2 Parasitic Strix
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Vendilion Clique
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
4 Aluren
1 Sylvan Library
1 Traverse The Ulvenwald
3 Abrupt Decay

Sideboard
1 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Blue Elemental Blast
1 Chill
1 Dread of Night
2 Duress
2 Hymn to Tourach
1 Garruk Relentless
2 Mindbreak Trap
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Pernicious Deed

R1: 4C Loam 2-0
R2: D&T 2-1
R3: Miracles 2-0
R4: Mono Red Prision 2-0
R5: Bonanni on Mentor Miracles 0-2
R6: Burn ID
Top8
Show&Tell 1-2

Was my first tournament with Aluren, i bought the missing cards the day before the event. I felt like the deck was a real thing but i was unlucky in my match against Show&Tell (g1 he went t1 ponder into t2 show&tell deploying Omniscence with cunning wish and Fow In hand... I had the combo in hand but his hand was perfect and countered my key pieces) anyway i won a Plateau.

[Moneymakermich]

What about chill VS blue elemental blast?

[Cythare]

Is anyone else excited about this spoiled card (specifically in the Imperial Recruiter build)? The possibility of a cascadable edict effect that can be bounced by Dream Stalker seems promising to me, although it may ultimately not make the cut.

[Chainer, Dementia Master]

What do folk normally sideboard in/out against the various Delver Match ups?

I've been playing BUG Aluren at my LGS in the past few weeks. Deck has felt pretty good so far. I'm playing 6 basic lands and 2 Sakura tribe elders, otherwise my maindeck is fairly stock. Dodging Wasteland, Price of Progress, and Blood Moon has been pretty good so far, and we haven't lost a game yet to not having correct available mana. I'll be playing again tonight. In testing against delver I'm just south of 50/50.

Overall in the actual tournament matches so far:
2-0 vs Miracles
0-1 vs Elves
1-1 vs R/G Lands
1-0 vs Infect
1-0 vs G/B Stax
2-0 vs Burn
1-0 vs Shardless

[Cythare]

While I'm on a different build, I usually board like this for Delver:

-3 Force of Will

+1 Carpet of Flowers
+1 Fire Imp
+1 Magus of the Moon

If I see Pyromancer, I'll usually take out two Cabal Therapy and a Coiling Oracle and bring in Engineered Plague, Izzet Staticaster and Minister of Pain, and if I see Gurmag Angler, I'll take out a Cabal Therapy and add in Scavenging Ooze. If I see both, I usually take out 2 Cabal Therapy and a Coiling Oracle and make a judgment call on which of the above 4 not to add, but that's not very common these days.

[Chainer, Dementia Master]

Played again last night. Playing the excess amount of basics hit me pretty hard this event (R1 Loss Miracles, R2 Win Grixis Delver, R3 Win Pox, R4 Loss Grixis Delver). My loss to miracles was because I could not find a second green source, drawing too many basic lands which could not cast Aluren. I grinded the first Delver match in dust and killed him with bird aggro. 2nd match against Delver I ended up with Island/Island/Swamp and several green spells in hand, dying with a full grip. I played a match against pox which was fairly comical. After getting hit by triple hymn to tourach, followed by innocent blood on 2 of my deathrite shamans, I managed to make 4 land drops and cast Aluren hellbent. I proceed to get wastelanded, raven's crimed, poxed, and finally liliana ultimated, where my opponent made the piles Aluren and everything else (like 2 lands, a shardless agent, a glint nest crane and a baleful strix). I managed to win on the back of being a complete luck sack, ripping shardless agent, responding to liliana uptick with shardless agent, into baleful strix, into shardless agent, into baleful strix, into deathrite shaman. Game 2 we dismantle him with card advantage and bird aggro.

Going to try the manabase next week with only 1 of each basic, and maybe a BOP in the main.

Overall in the weekly tournament matches so far:
2-1 vs Miracles
0-1 vs Elves
1-1 vs R/G Lands
1-0 vs Infect
1-0 vs G/B Stax
2-0 vs Burn
1-0 vs Shardless
1-1 Grixis Delver
1-0 Pox

[Cythare]

I'd still highly recommend keeping a second basic Forest in the deck just to be able to Wasteland-proof casting Aluren. It especially helps to shore up the Lands matchup. That Pox game sounds awesome, though!

[Ghiwo]

Hey everyone guys!

I'm new to the deck and I'm trying to learn it as fast as possible. Because of that I'd like to ask you if you know about some article/updated primer or some videos/streaming of good players, like Cartesian, playing the deck.
So that I can learn quickly the basics of the deck, how to play the various match ups and how to sideboard.

Thanks a lot!!

[Fry]

I'm new to the deck and I'm trying to learn it as fast as possible. Because of that I'd like to ask you if you know about some article/updated primer or some videos/streaming of good players, like Cartesian, playing the deck.
So that I can learn quickly the basics of the deck, how to play the various match ups and how to sideboard.

A lot of this first needs answered in are you going with BUG, Imperial Recruiter, or Recruiter of the Guard. All three versions play a bit differently from each other.

[MrFrowny_]

Hey guys, I've always been an active observer of TheSource but I haven't made an account until today. Anyways, I've been playing BUG Aluren for a few months now and this is the list I'm running. What do you think?

Creatures
4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
4 Shardless Agent
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Glint-nest Crane
2 Parasitic Strix
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Coiling Oracle

Spells
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Ponder

Enchantments
4 Aluren

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

Sideboard
1 Glissa, the Traitor
1 Minister of Pain
1 Carpet of Flowers
2 Cabal Therapy
1 Meekstone
1 Pithing Needle
2 Surgical Extraction
1 Krosan Grip
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Mindbreak Trap
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Fatal Push

[TTX]

I like it. I'm not a huge fan of Recruiterless Aluren decks, but I always recommend 1 Volraths Stronghold


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ghiwo]

A lot of this first needs answered in are you going with BUG, Imperial Recruiter, or Recruiter of the Guard. All three versions play a bit differently from each other.

You're definitely right, my bad.

I'm going first for the BUG version, which seems to me to be the most straightforward, have the best manabase and the best at being able of playing a real game of magic. Am I wrong?

I'm going to start trying Cartesian lists, I even saw i made 5-1 at the Legacy Challenge without even playing the combo.

Also, my first question to this community is: I think we struggle a lot vs Show & Tell decks, don't we? So, what are the consensus best card in the sideboard to fight it, aside from the obvious Leovold and Vendilion Clique I saw in Cartesian's latest list?

Thanks a lot for your help!

[MrFrowny_]

I like it. I'm not a huge fan of Recruiterless Aluren decks, but I always recommend 1 Volraths Stronghold


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, I fully intended to build a recruiter version of the deck from the beginning, but I began with the BUG version, for budget reasons, and pick up the recruiters after. But I like the straight BUG version more than the combo version for a few reasons. For one, you can win easier without getting your combo, so if for some reason they surgical your alurens, parasitic strix, or cavern harpys, you can use the shardless grind and amass a large board that your opponent won't be able to deal with. Another thing I like about the BUG version is that if they find a way to interrupt you mid-combo, you can just find another one of your duplicate combo pieces.

Also about the Volrath's Stronghold, from my experiences, the deck is very color demanding and having a colorless land in the deck could really screw you over sometimes. But I haven't tested with it at all so I could be wrong. Just my two cents.

[TTX]

Yeah, I fully intended to build a recruiter version of the deck from the beginning, but I began with the BUG version, for budget reasons, and pick up the recruiters after. But I like the straight BUG version more than the combo version for a few reasons. For one, you can win easier without getting your combo, so if for some reason they surgical your alurens, parasitic strix, or cavern harpys, you can use the shardless grind and amass a large board that your opponent won't be able to deal with. Another thing I like about the BUG version is that if they find a way to interrupt you mid-combo, you can just find another one of your duplicate combo pieces.

Also about the Volrath's Stronghold, from my experiences, the deck is very color demanding and having a colorless land in the deck could really screw you over sometimes. But I haven't tested with it at all so I could be wrong. Just my two cents.

Recruiter of the Guard is pretty budget. The 2-card combo is fairly difficult to disrupt (if you sequence it correctly). I've never lost once getting Recruiter + Aluren. Canonist or Krosan Grip can slow you down, but they are not silver bullets. The Recruiter versions also can play Shardless Agent if they wish, I prefer Leovolds however.
Also, the Recruiter versions of the deck are much better against Sneak and Show decks since you can just wait for them to Show and Tell your Aluren into play, wait for them to pass priority with some haymaker on the stack and win in response. The Recruiter versions are also better against Miracles since you can more easily win at instant speed off fewer cards. Though I agree the deck is color hungry, playing 1 Savannah instead of an Underground Sea or Fetchland does not really have any drawbacks, Volrath's Stronghold on rare occasions has been an issue. It however tends to be a Wasteland magnet which is nice, and looping Baleful Strixs, Leovolds or Recruiters is quite good in the late game. Because the deck is inherently good at grinding with surprise combo finish, I think the deck is very well positioned in the current meta as more midrange control decks begin to take over. Simply watch out for fast combo in the sideboard and the rest of the metagame is taken care of in the main, whichever version of Aluren you intend to play.

Cheers.

[Cythare]

I think that both the Recruiterless and Recruiter versions have decent ways of grinding out the opponent if the combo is interrupted - BUG has more redundancy in additional combo pieces, but Eternal Witness is pretty big game as well, and the flexibility afforded by a Recruiter allows you to play some pretty rough silver bullets to help you out of matchups even if you're unable to combo. If I have a Recruiter but haven't seen an Aluren, depending on the matchup, I'll often just run the Recruiter out to find a sideboard card I've brought in. Game 1, this is not necessarily as strong, but you can still amass a pretty sizeable force with any version.