[Casual] Blink-Ally

[Hireax]

Hi! I love synergetic budget decks and since Allies obviously have a lot of synergy between them I felt like making myself a deck out of them. Now, I am not sold on three colors in a low budget deck, but nonetheless I think that with Allies I'd rather not settle for less than three colors, due to the lack of availabilty of creatures in the type.

For blink effects I am looking to U/W and feel that every colors warrants some nice features to splash into.
Black gives me Hagra Diabolist as an option to blink away someone's lives.
Red gives me the obvious burn effects to keep the board clear Murasa Pyromancer does this nicely and gives Kazuul Warlord to provide a massive army
Green has the mana portion and the 'kill-flyers' type of effect, which I am not particularly looking for.

With that in mind I'm thinking of splicing into red for the above mentioned creatures.

Without further ado:

U/W/r Blink-Ally

Creatures: 19
3 Jwari Shapeshifter
4 Halimar Excavator
3 Ondu Cleric
1 Kabira Evangel
3 Kazuul Warlord
2 Murasa Pyromancer
3 Hada Freeblade

Lands: 25
8 Plains
8 Island
3 Mountain
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
2 Sacred Foundry

Other: 16
4 Momentary Blink
4 Cloudshift
3 Join the Ranks

2 Electrolyze
3 Think Twice


So apart from the 6 Shockduals I intended to make this deck as cheap as possible. I am aware that Ghostway would be an awesome addition and I might look to get me some of those.

Any budget tips are greatly appreciated :)

Cheers,
Kevin

[TsumiBand]

Hi! I love synergetic budget decks and since Allies obviously have a lot of synergy between them I felt like making myself a deck out of them. Now, I am not sold on three colors in a low budget deck, but nonetheless I think that with Allies I'd rather not settle for less than three colors, due to the lack of availabilty of creatures in the type.

For blink effects I am looking to U/W and feel that every colors warrants some nice features to splash into.
Black gives me Hagra Diabolist as an option to blink away someone's lives.
Red gives me the obvious burn effects to keep the board clear Murasa Pyromancer does this nicely and gives Kazuul Warlord to provide a massive army
Green has the mana portion and the 'kill-flyers' type of effect, which I am not particularly looking for.

With that in mind I'm thinking of splicing into red for the above mentioned creatures.

Without further ado:

U/W/r Blink-Ally

Creatures: 19
3 Jwari Shapeshifter
4 Halimar Excavator
3 Ondu Cleric
1 Kabira Evangel
3 Kazuul Warlord
2 Murasa Pyromancer
3 Hada Freeblade

Lands: 25
8 Plains
8 Island
3 Mountain
2 Hallowed Fountain
2 Steam Vents
2 Sacred Foundry

Other: 16
4 Momentary Blink
4 Cloudshift
3 Join the Ranks

2 Electrolyze
3 Think Twice


So apart from the 6 Shockduals I intended to make this deck as cheap as possible. I am aware that Ghostway would be an awesome addition and I might look to get me some of those.

Any budget tips are greatly appreciated :)

Cheers,
Kevin

Isn't Kazandu Blademaster one of the best two-drop Allies? ETB as a 2/2 with the first-strike and vigilance 'combo', can only get bigger from there. Seems like a really solid beater in a deck like this.

[Hireax]

Isn't Kazandu Blademaster one of the best two-drop Allies? ETB as a 2/2 with the first-strike and vigilance 'combo', can only get bigger from there. Seems like a really solid beater in a deck like this.

Yeah, you're right! I should try to fit him in, but WW might be a bit harsh given the 'budget' manabase

[TsumiBand]

Yeah, you're right! I should try to fit him in, but WW might be a bit harsh given the 'budget' manabase

You might need to tweak your mana base a *little* bit, but honestly I think you want to favor White over the rest anyway. Your one-drop Ally is White; your cards that are setup to abuse ETB effects are primarily White (there's some Blue flashback in there, but meh). White looks to be the backbone of the deck at this point.

Personally I could do without the Blue milling Ally or the Red "X damage to target creature" Ally, but I see that you're trying to capitalize on variety of effects - plus it's casual, so variety over focus is fine too. Really though, how much do you expect to be regularly milling for with Halimar Excavator? I get the feeling that he won't be really hitting for a lot of cards. Compared against Murasa Pyromancer for example, 3 damage to target creature is probably much more playable than 3 cards in the bin, especially when those abilities can be replayed via Cloudshift and co.

Allies seems like a fun deck, might be something I spin up at work to play with the crew.

[Hireax]

Yeah you're right about white being the core of the structure. The white one-drop, however, is there because of the lack of 1-drops in the colors which are also allies. I do see why I should loose one focus when possible, because now the deck tries to capitalize on various effects. I might just ditch those five cards and put in 3 Kazundu Blademaster.
That would leave open two more slots which might actually be filled with some burn/bounce to keep a little more board control. Something along the lines of Fire/Ice would be alright, heck even Invoke the Firemind would be super fun to play in this deck :P

[CallMeLiam]

I actually have an Ally-Blink deck of my own that I've been playing since August last year. It's fun to play and was cheap to put together, and not too unfun to play against while still winning most of the time. I'll share my list and a few notes. I haven't card tagged cards you already listed.


4 x Hada Freeblade
4 x Kazandu Blademaster
2 x Talus Paladin

Your beaters. 12 might seem a little low, but when you're recycling and protecting them as well as this deck it's enough.

4 x Join The Ranks

It's a combat trick, it's more creatures, it's good enough that I'd like to play more.

4 x Kabira Evangel

This is probably the card that makes the deck win. It protects, it pushes blockers through and like every other creature in the deck it pumps up your beaters.

2 x Reveillark
Sometimes a 4 power flyer is what you want, but often it's leaving play to grab a pair of ally triggers and do good stuff. 5 Mana is high on the curve, but it's not like you want to win too fast and annoy your buddies too badly

4 x Cloudshift
4 x Momentary Blink
This is the blinking package, I'd love a third card that does this well but Ghostly Flicker isn't as good as it looks and Mistmeadow Witch returns AEOT which is only good for dodging removal really.

2 x Crystal Shard
3 x Peel from Reality
4 x Oblivion Ring

The first two double as recycling for your allies and a way to remove blockers. The Rings are a nice catch all for any troubling enchantments, artifacts, and walkers.

4 x Glacial Fortress
Island and Plains

Budgety. I'd probably run 4 x Hallowed Fountain if I had them, but so far the deck is fine without them.

Cards I tried:
Ondu Cleric is fun for getting your life total up, but ultimately you'd rather be making a dent in your opponent's face than pumping up your own total.
Mana Leak helped the early game, but like Cleric it doesn't push you closer to winning.
Jwari Shapeshifter is a dead draw early and has been underwhelming for me personally. I've had more luck with it in my other ally deck which tries to mill with Halimar Excavator but here it didn't quite click.
The two red guys are a bit costly and can affect your ability to hit :w::w: on turn 2 which you want for 4 x Kazandu Blademaster.

The deck is a blast to play, and while it'll get you badly beaten at a Modern FNM it's well worth building for the $15 or so it'll cost you. The 4 rare lands cost as much as the rest of the deck put together and can easily be skipped.

[FTW]

Here's my take on Blink Allies, giving you some utility, protection, stalemate breakers, and a combo-kill. Instead of the straight up beatdown with +1/+1 counters (which would want Talus Paladin and red splash for Akoum Battlesinger="GG Beatdownbringer" and Kazuul), UW gives you some cool tricks.


//Allies: 24
4 Hada Freeblade
4 Kazandu Blademaster
4 Halimar Excavator
4 Ondu Cleric
4 Kabira Evangel
2 Umara Raptor
2 Mirror Entity

//Spells: 15
4 Cloudshift
2 Momentary Blink
3 Ghostway
4 Path to Exile
2 Oblivion Ring

//Lands: 22
4 Seachrome Coast
4 Glacial Fortress
8 Plains
6 Island


Ghostway + Excavator or Cleric is a nutty lategame "i win" button to break stalemates.

Say you have 2 Excavators + 1 Cleric + 2 other allies midgame. Opponent Wraths you. In response, you Ghostway to save your team. When your team returns, each Excavator triggers 5 times for x=5 and the Cleric triggers 5 times for x=5. On top of saving your team, you gain 25 life and mill 50 cards...

You can also do things like blink Kabira to prevent damage or make your team unblockable, or just pump your guys like mad with Mirror Entity.