[Deck] Aluren

[JMT]

Long story short: I don't have any S. Extractions :)

I attended to said tournament (69 players I guess) today.

My list was pretty straight forward:

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

4 Deathrite Shaman
4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
4 Shardless Agent
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
2 Parasitic Strix

4 Brainstorm
2 Ponder
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Hymn to Tourach
4 Force of Will

1 Sylvan Library
3 Aluren

With the addition of Hymn the manabase became a little more centred on having acess to B/BB in the first Turns. I tried the Sylvan Library in the Slot of a third Ponder and it did well for me.

SB:
2 Flusterstorm
2 Tormod's Crypt
1 karakas
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Umezawa's Jitte
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Liliana, the last Hope
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Tarmogoyf (these were a last minute addition since I didn't want to think about my sideboard anymore^^)

A short summary of the games:

Round 1 vs Aluren (1-2)
Game 1: Hymn is quite good :) He discarded a Cadaver Imp and from there on I knew what I was up against. He played an Aluren but just had a Shardless Agent to follow when I had Cavern Harpy and Brainstorm showed me my Parasitic Strix
Game 2: Both of us are trading card for card. In the midgame he managed to stick Cadaver Imp-> return Baleful Strix from the graveyard and has a Cavern Harpy to follow up. I guess that was the moment I struggled to keep up with the card advantage anymore and lost a few turns later.
Game 3: I saw an opener with Dual, Deathrite, Ponder, Brainstorm, 2 B. Strix and somethign else. I was greedy enough to keep it, didn't find a second land in the next *3-4 draws and my opponent is able to make use of the timewalks I granted him.

Round 2 vs Death and Taxes (0-1-1)
Game 1 is over when he chained Thalia into Magus of the Moon leaving me with a Forest and three Mountains^^
Game 2 was probably the longest game I've played on the tournament. I play around Moon by fetching Basics, but he has Rest in Peace+Revoker ruining my day. Leovold and Strix slowly help my to stabilize but he was meanwhile at ~40+ life thanks to a troublesome Batterskull. I'm able to use the ultimate ability of Liliana, the last Hope... unfortunately only after the timeout was called^^. probably I could've won this Game if I scoop Game 1 up a little faster.

Round 3 vs. Redanimator (2-1)
He just stomps me with a typical Redanimator strt involvin Unmask, Chancelor Reveal and an nimated Griselbrand before I even played my first land.
Game 2&3 were solely won by Baleful Strixes who prevented him from attacking and carried me to victory.

Round 4 vs. Food Chain (2-1)
I force his first Manipulate Fate, unfortunately he has a second one and I die to Griffin beats.
In the second game I just had one of those starts involving a Sharless Agent cascading into Hymn to Tourach, resolving an Aluren afterwards and Harpy bring it home.
Game 3 is trading Decays for Deathrites and so on. Another Aluren gets me there.

Round 5 vs. Redanimator (2-0)
I knew what I was up against (again -.-) and just kept a hand with 2 Force of Will+2 blue cards+3 lands. I prevented him from digging anything out for the first two attempts and he dies to a very slow but steady beatdown.
In game 2 he decided to Exhume an Elesh Norn, while my Brainstorm shows me Karakas. Since I've had no clock he was able to recur a Sire of Insanity, but after I took care of the Elesh Norn the Baleful Strixes turned out to be are very hard to beat for him.

Round 6 vs. Grixis Delver/Pyromancer (0-2)
Game 1 is a very short one since he has two lands, two delver (that both flip on turn three), double lightning Bolt, a Daze and a Wasteland between his first ten cards. Couldn't win this game anyway I suppose.
I kept a two lander+Ponder in Game 2 after a Mulligan to 6. He has a Daze (?) for my first play what I didn't expect. When a Ponder of mine reveals Toxic Deluge, Shardless Agent and a cc2 card, I leave those card on top.
He then proceeds to waste me, bolt my Deathrite and I've been sitting there with two dead draws over the next turns while a timely Gurmag Angler is applying pressure. Should have played this Ponder different.

Round 7 vs. White Stompy (2-1)
I win Game 1&3 on the backs of Hymn and Shardless Agent. He wins Game 2 by Chalice followed by Thalia followed by the three Mana Thalia.

All in all I end up 4-3. Nevertheless the deck was pretty solid and I would have finished better if I'd avoided some mistakes as stated above.


My opponent from the first Round turned out to be Cartesian and managed to finish the Event in the Top8. Congratz again ;)

[PuppyWuppy]

Deathrite got the hammer lol

[MongrelChild103]

Ideas on where we go from here. I’m thinking about replacing DRS with Hierach and a sea with a bayou. Also given thought to birds. Thoughts?

[tired_papasmurf]

Ideas on where we go from here. I’m thinking about replacing DRS with Hierach and a sea with a bayou. Also given thought to birds. Thoughts?

Birds is probably better than Hierarch since it can make black mana, and I think that's worth the trade-off with Exalted.

[zhandro]

I've been having lots of fun and a decent amount of success at my LGS's weekly legacy tournaments with BUG Aluren. Moving forward, maybe I
ll try replacing DRS with 2 Veteran Explorers and 2 MB Cabal therapy. Though cascading into veteran explorer doesn't seem great. A late game cascade into DRS wasn't fantastic either, to be fair.

[RecklessReanimator]

From a mana ramp standpoint birds are just as good and potentially better than DRS as its reliable and can't be shut off by a mirror bird in same way. Veteran explorer long term may get worse as the mix of DRS banning and greedy manabases getting worse (+ more wasteland initially) could force more decks to use more basics. Part of the allure of VE was that half the decks have 0 basics currently as I saw it. I think for the more combo focused (4c build) birds are clearly better choice, possibly a more midrange shardless BUG can make hierarch work. Of worth noting no probe means less likely to be hurt by Cabal Therapy and more able to bluff aluren in hand or not.

I think interesting question is does the ban make the 4c combo version better if grinding out long games is less of a good meta call as the mana base technically stays same is switched to birds. If anything I suppose if playing forces in side you're weaker to reanimator is the drawback.

[Threat_Jammer]

This banning was really tough on us. Heirarch and BOP come to mind but both seem bad.

It actually might have made Aluren decks unplayable as we're about to see a resurgence of decks like Reanimator, Storm, and RUG. Shaman was even good against Sneak n Show, giving us early Leovolds and paying for permission spells.

I messaged Cartesian directly and am hoping for his/her feedback soon.


I was previously doing well with the BUG version because it didn't HAVE to use Aluren to win.

Maybe Recruiter builds with a different mana dork are a better choice now, but I'm not wild about Recruiters.

I never liked those builds because you must see - and resolve - both Aluren and Recruiter to win. Relying on just cantrips or Intuition to set that up is tough. Those builds also seem really easy to disrupt and be prone to awkward hands filled with your random one-ofs/multiple Recruiters. The BUG creatures are all good by themselves, whereas the Recruiters and other combo pieces are basically junk without Aluren.


Maybe there's hope for a build that runs Noble Heirarch, Recruiter of the Guard and True Name? ROG could get a TNN and the deck could go aggro if it can't assemble the combo. Kind of like how BUG fell back on the Shardless cards when you didn't draw Aluren.

But I hate to need 4 colors - especially black - without Deathrite. And this deck NEEDS black!

The fact that Noble can't make black is just bad. And the fact that you can't turn 1 fetch to basic swamp and cast him is awkward. I usually don't want a basic forest until later in the game if at all. It's also bad that Noble and BOP are 0/1s. Can't deal with Glistner Elf as easily now.


But while Noble or BOP aren't ideal, we must have at least 4 mana producers and splash black in this deck no matter what

[ashent]

I could be totally wrong and I haven't done my testing yet (I'm focused primarily on ANT and UW Standstill at the moment, the latter of which I feel improved considerably as of this ban announcement) but my initial feeling is that losing DRS hurts a lot but looking for another mana accelerator isn't necessarily correct.

I would prefer to keep the BUG gameplan intact and just out value and grind and replace the DRS slots with more interaction. Obviously Shardless limits our ability to just throw countermagic in the deck, but people have often done fine with the flex spots being Hymns, Ancestrals, Thoughtseizes, Coiling Oracle, Glint-Nest Crane, Liliana the Last Hopes, etc. I'd probably just leave my normal BUG list alone but add another Basic, up the number of Ponders I was playing, and keep on with 3 Abrupt Decay main.

Losing DRS hurts every midrange BUG deck but I don't think it killed Aluren.

[Cartesian]

Deathrite did so much for this deck, and can't be replaced by simply throwing in 4 Birds of Paradise or whatever - the deck will have to be rethinked in a new way, like Miracles had to rethink itself when Top was banned. The metagame is going to shift now in a big way, and no one knows how exactly - the effects of a ban like this are too complex to predict, and it will take some time for the new meta to figure itself out - possibly years. In the meantime I am certainly not giving up on the deck right away, I am going to try new things with BUG, but whether it is possible for a new BUG version to remain competitive, I cannot say at this time.

[Threat_Jammer]

I could be totally wrong and I haven't done my testing yet (I'm focused primarily on ANT and UW Standstill at the moment, the latter of which I feel improved considerably as of this ban announcement) but my initial feeling is that losing DRS hurts a lot but looking for another mana accelerator isn't necessarily correct.

I would prefer to keep the BUG gameplan intact and just out value and grind and replace the DRS slots with more interaction. Obviously Shardless limits our ability to just throw countermagic in the deck, but people have often done fine with the flex spots being Hymns, Ancestrals, Thoughtseizes, Coiling Oracle, Glint-Nest Crane, Liliana the Last Hopes, etc. I'd probably just leave my normal BUG list alone but add another Basic, up the number of Ponders I was playing, and keep on with 3 Abrupt Decay main.

Losing DRS hurts every midrange BUG deck but I don't think it killed Aluren.

Interesting take. The only issue I see there is the mana acceleration DRS gave us allowed us to be fast enough to play early Aluren's, Leovolds, Agents, pay for Dazes etc...without 4 mana dorks I've always struggled due to the higher casting costs in the deck, and noticed that running more than 20 land flooded me too often. Also...there's still the problem that we no longer have a good G1 plan against graveyard decks. DRS was the only reason I had any game at all v reanimator.

[bibs]

This is the list that I put together after ban:

41 - Spells
4 Aluren
1 Sylvan Library

4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay

4 Shardless Agent
4 Baleful Strix
3 Veteran Explorer
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Parasitc Strix

1 Liliana, the last Hope

19 - Lands

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


Unfortunatelly we don't have a meta yet, however I thought I could start from this list and then, making the changes according to my local meta.

[johnnyEDB]

This is the list that I put together after ban:

41 - Spells
4 Aluren
1 Sylvan Library

4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay

4 Shardless Agent
4 Baleful Strix
3 Veteran Explorer
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Parasitc Strix

1 Liliana, the last Hope

19 - Lands

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


Unfortunately we don't have a meta yet, however I thought I could start from this list and then, making the changes according to my local meta.

I like the list but was wondering if 4 basic lands warrant 3 Veteran Explorer. Starting from your list, I was thinking of going up to 21 lands and 1 BoP by cutting 3 veteran explorer and replacing Glint-Crane and Parasitic Strix with 2 Living Wish. The Wishboard could include 1 Cavern Harpy, 1 Parasitic Strix, 1 Ghostquarter (against DarkDepths; Needle naming Wasteland), 1 Rec Sage, 1 Leovold, 1 Scooze, 1 Minister of Pain, 1 Faerie Macabre.

Note that if we combo with Aluren, Harpy and Shardless Agent, Shardless can cascade into wish - finding strix.

[Threat_Jammer]

This is the list that I put together after ban:

41 - Spells
4 Aluren
1 Sylvan Library

4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Cabal Therapy
3 Abrupt Decay

4 Shardless Agent
4 Baleful Strix
3 Veteran Explorer
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Parasitc Strix

1 Liliana, the last Hope

19 - Lands

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


Unfortunatelly we don't have a meta yet, however I thought I could start from this list and then, making the changes according to my local meta.

Good first attempt at a fix. One concern is double forest. We usually only need a minimal amount of green until we're close to comboing off. I used to run 2 forest and felt the deck ran much smoother without it. You may struggle to find double black for the Liliana with a manabase like this as well. The more I think about it the more I'm leaning toward Heirarch or BOP, as bad as those cards seem. When you think about it, There were never any shardless decks that didn't have the mana support of Shaman or Hierarch. Probably because they'd be too slow to cast things that cost 3 or 4. Still wondering if the deck could benefit from True Name and a more different configuration

[bibs]

I like the list but was wondering if 4 basic lands warrant 3 Veteran Explorer. Starting from your list, I was thinking of going up to 21 lands and 1 BoP by cutting 3 veteran explorer and replacing Glint-Crane and Parasitic Strix with 2 Living Wish. The Wishboard could include 1 Cavern Harpy, 1 Parasitic Strix, 1 Ghostquarter (against DarkDepths; Needle naming Wasteland), 1 Rec Sage, 1 Leovold, 1 Scooze, 1 Minister of Pain, 1 Faerie Macabre.

Note that if we combo with Aluren, Harpy and Shardless Agent, Shardless can cascade into wish - finding strix.

I like the idea of Living Wish, but never tried. I can even include Karakas, Guilded Drake etc. But I would like to try the Vererans on the deck. I know that they have some drawback on the cascade, but thats the price of ramping. Did you try the Living Wish package?

[Threat_Jammer]

I like the idea of Living Wish, but never tried. I can even include Karakas, Guilded Drake etc. But I would like to try the Vererans on the deck. I know that they have some drawback on the cascade, but thats the price of ramping. Did you try the Living Wish package?

I never felt like wish was good when I ran it. It's slow and there's no element of surprise. Plus you'd have to clutter up your board with targets when the board needs to be more of a toolbox of spells n artifacts w/ maybe a Liliana in my view

[johnnyEDB]

I like the idea of Living Wish, but never tried. I can even include Karakas, Guilded Drake etc. But I would like to try the Vererans on the deck. I know that they have some drawback on the cascade, but thats the price of ramping. Did you try the Living Wish package?

I have not tried it yet but I thought about GSZ which is a non-bo with Shardless. In 93/94 oldschool, Regrowth is a great card that is played in every green deck (I know, not comparable, slower format, less combo). GSZ sees play in Elves and NicFit. For Aluren, Living Wish may contain the best of both worlds by finding non-green creatures from the sideboard at +1 the cost of GSZ and sideboard space. I used to play the white Recruiter build and without Aluren, I was not particularly happy to draw Recruiter/Man'o'war/Harpy/Strix. Putting the latter two in the sideboard and adding living wish is something I want to try.


I never felt like wish was good when I ran it. It's slow and there's no element of surprise. Plus you'd have to clutter up your board with targets when the board needs to be more of a toolbox of spells n artifacts w/ maybe a Liliana in my view

You may be right. My white Recruiter list ran one-off creatures in the board which I hoped to either draw or recruiter-for in the relevant matchups. These were the ones I mentioned above plus Thalia. Faerie Macabre was a three of. It was not unusual that I stalled against reanimator for a while with DRS, Baleful Strix, TS, Therapy, Faerie Macabre, just to close out the game with a Recruiter'd for Scooze.
In almost every starting hand, I would rather see Living Wish than Cavern Harpy, Glint-Nest or Parasitic Strix.

Analogously, if you have Aluren + Baleful/Shardless, Living wish finds cavern harpy. If you have Aluren + Harpy, it can find Parasitic Strix. I will jam a few games on xmage. Maybe I will end up with your conclusion that living wish is too clunky.

[Threat_Jammer]

I have not tried it yet but I thought about GSZ which is a non-bo with Shardless. In 93/94 oldschool, Regrowth is a great card that is played in every green deck (I know, not comparable, slower format, less combo). GSZ sees play in Elves and NicFit. For Aluren, Living Wish may contain the best of both worlds by finding non-green creatures from the sideboard at +1 the cost of GSZ and sideboard space. I used to play the white Recruiter build and without Aluren, I was not particularly happy to draw Recruiter/Man'o'war/Harpy/Strix. Putting the latter two in the sideboard and adding living wish is something I want to try.



You may be right. My white Recruiter list ran one-off creatures in the board which I hoped to either draw or recruiter-for in the relevant matchups. These were the ones I mentioned above plus Thalia. Faerie Macabre was a three of. It was not unusual that I stalled against reanimator for a while with DRS, Baleful Strix, TS, Therapy, Faerie Macabre, just to close out the game with a Recruiter'd for Scooze.
In almost every starting hand, I would rather see Living Wish than Cavern Harpy, Glint-Nest or Parasitic Strix.

Analogously, if you have Aluren + Baleful/Shardless, Living wish finds cavern harpy. If you have Aluren + Harpy, it can find Parasitic Strix. I will jam a few games on xmage. Maybe I will end up with your conclusion that living wish is too clunky.

Thank you for your feedback. Hope you get good results in testing. The other issue I foresee with Wish is it basically forces you to be on the Recruiter build. And then you are in that predicament of having to see and resolve Aluren to win

[Threat_Jammer]

Deathrite did so much for this deck, and can't be replaced by simply throwing in 4 Birds of Paradise or whatever - the deck will have to be rethinked in a new way, like Miracles had to rethink itself when Top was banned. The metagame is going to shift now in a big way, and no one knows how exactly - the effects of a ban like this are too complex to predict, and it will take some time for the new meta to figure itself out - possibly years. In the meantime I am certainly not giving up on the deck right away, I am going to try new things with BUG, but whether it is possible for a new BUG version to remain competitive, I cannot say at this time.

Good points. Any ideas on substitutes for DRS other than second-best mana dorks as of yet?

---Update as of 2:58 AM, please see my latest post. I think I might be on to something with the Nobles & TNNs

[Moneymakermich]

I've played some time a living wish build but it was too slow. Unless you already have aluren, you basically offer a timewalk to your opponent.

However green sun zenith seems even more appealing to me that it already was. Turn 1 to get dryad arbor. Turn 2 for birds or veteran explorer (played as 1 of). Turn 3 for coiling oracle. Turn 4 leovold. It seems to give many options and has the advantage to directly impact the board.

[Threat_Jammer]

I've played some time a living wish build but it was too slow. Unless you already have aluren, you basically offer a timewalk to your opponent.

However green sun zenith seems even more appealing to me that it already was. Turn 1 to get dryad arbor. Turn 2 for birds or veteran explorer (played as 1 of). Turn 3 for coiling oracle. Turn 4 leovold. It seems to give many options and has the advantage to directly impact the board.

Attention All Architects!!!

After mulling over BOP, Explorer, and Green Sun I don't think those aren't our best plan.

And I've had some midnight oil breakthroughs in testing my idea with Hierarch and TNN as the new mid-range fallback plan if Aluren doesn't happen! It just 2-0d Sneak n Show!

I'm currently using the ROG package with 4 Baleful Strix...But might be able to make the deck even stronger by cutting the ROG plan altogether and adding Shardless Agents and more Harpies w/ Crane.

My plan to give us a control edge in the absence of Shaman's abilities is to go 4 THZ 4 FOW - that combined with LEO and Baleful seems viable at the moment.

I'll post the list when it's optimal.

Stay tuned...

[Threat_Jammer]

Alright...I just beat the crap out of Sneak N Show again after multiple rounds of testing.

The fact that this new version can beat an established tier-1 combo deck is very exciting.

I'm moving away from the ROG strategy and sticking with BUG. BUG is much more consistent being only 3 colors and I'd rather have Shardless Agents than ROGs in my hand any day.

I had to condense the deck in order to make it work, but we have such a good mid-range plan I think we can get away with it.

I took the following out of the main:

-3 Abrupt Decay
-1 Ponder
-1 Shardless Agent
-1 Parasitic Strix
- 4 Deathrite shaman

And added:

4 Noble Hierarch
4 TNN
2 Thoughtseize

Having 4 Thoughtseize and 4 FOW main gives us more control to replace the control edge DRS gave us. I might miss the 3 Decay main, but figured these 8 control spells plus an invincible powerhouse and Baleful Strixes can justify putting those in the side. And if you're up against combo, Decay is just a dead draw where these 8 are good against everything.

In its own way, Hierarch + TNN is an even better way to win without Aluren than we had before. TNN with Exhalted or playing multiple TNNs is a much faster clock than whittling opponents down with DRS and hiding behind Baleful Strixes. And a lot of the time we can't even attack with the little BUG creatures because they'll get blocked and die. Even when we can, they don't deal a lot of damage.

Going the BUG route also means the sideboard can remain a toolbox of mostly powerful black cards.

The current board I have is this, but it's subject to change depending on how the meta evolves:

2 Diabolic Edict
1 Fatal Push
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Dread of Night
1 Pithing Needle
2 Carpet of Flowers (but honestly I never really liked this card much)
3 Surgical Extraction
1 Faerie Macabre

Can do some fun tricks with Macabre if they exhume. Faerie their reanimation creature, get Faerie back on the board, attack with it, Harpy bounce it, have Macabre to nuke their next reanimation attempt. But in general I want to extract all Life From the Loams, Punishing Fires, or key dredge components).

I may end up wanting to cut Carpet for better options but the other cards in here earned their keep in the past. Carpet may be better now that RUG will be the new Grixis.

Other board options I'm considering are: Karakas, Duress, Null Rod, Jitte, second Push, Guilded Drake (but this seemed better versus BR Reanimator than the UB Reanimator deck that will probably become the more popular choice), Liliana, The Last Hope (but since Hierarch can't produce black and TNN costs 1UU I'm not sure a card that requires BB is good anymore)

Hope this helps and gives everyone hope that Aluren can survive the bannings

[Threat_Jammer]

I have not tried it yet but I thought about GSZ which is a non-bo with Shardless. In 93/94 oldschool, Regrowth is a great card that is played in every green deck (I know, not comparable, slower format, less combo). GSZ sees play in Elves and NicFit. For Aluren, Living Wish may contain the best of both worlds by finding non-green creatures from the sideboard at +1 the cost of GSZ and sideboard space. I used to play the white Recruiter build and without Aluren, I was not particularly happy to draw Recruiter/Man'o'war/Harpy/Strix. Putting the latter two in the sideboard and adding living wish is something I want to try.



You may be right. My white Recruiter list ran one-off creatures in the board which I hoped to either draw or recruiter-for in the relevant matchups. These were the ones I mentioned above plus Thalia. Faerie Macabre was a three of. It was not unusual that I stalled against reanimator for a while with DRS, Baleful Strix, TS, Therapy, Faerie Macabre, just to close out the game with a Recruiter'd for Scooze.
In almost every starting hand, I would rather see Living Wish than Cavern Harpy, Glint-Nest or Parasitic Strix.

Analogously, if you have Aluren + Baleful/Shardless, Living wish finds cavern harpy. If you have Aluren + Harpy, it can find Parasitic Strix. I will jam a few games on xmage. Maybe I will end up with your conclusion that living wish is too clunky.

Please see my latest post. I tested Wish again and it was terrible for me just as it was in the past. It always seems good and then just isn't, in my opinion. I'm very happy with my latest development of Hierarch + TNN as the new fallback plan. Will work in BUG or ROG builds, but I much prefer BUG for the reasons I mention in my latest posts. Hope this helps.

[ParkerLewis]

You're basically getting back to classic BUG Aluren lists. The point is that Aluren is and will always be slow, so your best (only ?) bet is to build and treat it as a control deck with a combo finish, which was the essence of the original BUG lists before Recruiters came out. I guess I'm just a bystander telling you that, in my opinion, this is the only way the deck has a chance to not just be a subpar version of something else, and that you are right to do so.

[Threat_Jammer]

You're basically getting back to classic BUG Aluren lists. The point is that Aluren is and will always be slow, so your best (only ?) bet is to build and treat it as a control deck with a combo finish, which was the essence of the original BUG lists before Recruiters came out. I guess I'm just a bystander telling you that, in my opinion, this is the only way the deck has a chance to not just be a subpar version of something else, and that you are right to do so.

Agreed. I am wholly committed to BUG. So far I've tested my version with Hierarch & TNN against RUG, Death n Taxes, Sneak n Show, and UB Reanimator (based on the assumption by many that the UB build will become more popular again without Shamans in the meta - an assumption that may not prove to be true given how fast and effective the BR version is now)

Results (for anyone who cares, feels like this thread is becoming a long conversation with myself LOL)

*Sneak n Show - very strong, I'd say odds in my favor. Post board I get even meaner with 2 Diabolic Edicts and 1 needle.

*Death & Taxes - lots of game, at least 50% or greater odds. Even more with TNN and Thoughtseize to pick whatever they get with Stoneforge. D&T always has the potential to lock you down with early Port/Wasteland/Thalia but when they don't do that I seem to win a lot more. Post-board I have a great plan with 3 Decay, 1 Push, 1 Needle, 1 Jitte, and 2 Dread of Night (2 because we have a lot of D&T players in Georgia). When I see at least 1 Dread of Night I almost always win

*RUG - Can be tough main with no Decays. If they don't hit me with early Stifle and Wasteland I can stabilize, especially if they lead with a Nimble or Goyf instead of Delver. Post board I get much stronger. Board out the Alurens, Thoughtseizes, and 2 Harpies and bring in 3 Decay, 1 Push, 2 Diabolic Edict, 1 Carpet of Flowers (which did earn its keep and will stay in the board in the number of 1 for now), 2 Surgical (not 100% sure I like it yet but it helps me nuke their creature force), and 1 Jitte

*UB Reanimator - Some game, but odds in their favor. Much weaker without Shaman game 1 and they can often power through my 4 THZ 4 FOW defenses. Post board things get a lot better of course. I bring in 2 Diabiolic Edict, 3 Surgical Extraction, 1 Faerie Macabre. Macabre has been so good I almost want 2 of it. Can't be countered and prevents them from beating Surgical by having 2 creatures for Exhume


***Would love anyone's feedback on graveyard configuration for the board by the way. Below is what's on my mind:


Current board:

3 Surgical
1 Faerie Macabre

Considering:

A) 2 Surgical, 2 Macabre
B) 1 Surgical, 3 Macabre
C) 2 Surgical, 1 Macabre, 1 Cage

Macabre is so good I might want more than just 1. It beats any counterspell in addition to Chancellor of the Annex. I have even lost games where I have turn 1 Surgical because the BR player Chancellored me! The drawback is that it doesn't completely remove threats from my opponent's deck. Stripping all Punishing Fires or Life from the Loams is very important. Without a TNN in play punishing decks can eat us alive.

On that note...while Surgical is strong v lands/punishing decks, it's not the best card v Chancellor/Daze, counterspells, or Dredge. Dredge has so many cards you want to hit that Surgical can be underwhelming.

I love that Cage completely owns Dredge and Reanimator while in play. The problem is it does absolutely nothing versus Loam or Punishing strategies and loses to Daze and Chancellor of the Annex. It's a nice bonus that Crane can find a Cage.

Thoughts anyone?

[Emrakul503]

Alright...I just beat the crap out of Sneak N Show again after multiple rounds of testing.

The fact that this new version can beat an established tier-1 combo deck is very exciting.

I'm moving away from the ROG strategy and sticking with BUG. BUG is much more consistent being only 3 colors and I'd rather have Shardless Agents than ROGs in my hand any day.

I had to condense the deck in order to make it work, but we have such a good mid-range plan I think we can get away with it.

I took the following out of the main:

-3 Abrupt Decay
-1 Ponder
-1 Shardless Agent
-1 Parasitic Strix
- 4 Deathrite shaman

And added:

4 Noble Hierarch
4 TNN
2 Thoughtseize



I did this tonight and went 3-0 at my local legacy night.

2-1 DnT, Eldrazi and Storm, so 6-3 in games. Felt pretty good, although I did sort of miss the other Ponder a bit. Or possibly the other Shardless. Something was ever so slightly off, but I couldnt quite put my finger on it. I think I'll try a Brutality over 1 TS and maybe Shardless over the 4th TNN. Although beating down with TNNs won me at least 4 games.

I am pleased with these changes overall!

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Threat_Jammer]

I did this tonight and went 3-0 at my local legacy night.

2-1 DnT, Eldrazi and Storm, so 6-3 in games. Felt pretty good, although I did sort of miss the other Ponder a bit. Or possibly the other Shardless. Something was ever so slightly off, but I couldnt quite put my finger on it. I think I'll try a Brutality over 1 TS and maybe Shardless over the 4th TNN. Although beating down with TNNs won me at least 4 games.

I am pleased with these changes overall!

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

Glad to hear it!!! I went back up to 4 Shardless and cut Ponder altogether so I can still have 4 TNN. I don't miss Ponder too much since I still have 1 Sylvan Library and 4 Brainstorm. The thing I don't like about Brutality over THZ is it's not a turn 1 play against fast combo and won't hit things like Batterskull or Emrakul. And with no Deathrites I don't think dealing 2 damage is as important.

What's in your sideboard?

[johnnyEDB]

Living Wish sucks.

This is a sweet stream of Aluren by TruKnightmare: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/283992717?t=34m58s

I like his version with Veteran Explorer and am trying a similar build with 10 fetchs, 1 Bayou, 1 USea, 2 Tropical, and 2 of each BUG basic. I switched one Veteran Explorer for a Ponder.

[Emrakul503]

Glad to hear it!!! I went back up to 4 Shardless and cut Ponder altogether so I can still have 4 TNN. I don't miss Ponder too much since I still have 1 Sylvan Library and 4 Brainstorm. The thing I don't like about Brutality over THZ is it's not a turn 1 play against fast combo and won't hit things like Batterskull or Emrakul. And with no Deathrites I don't think dealing 2 damage is as important.

What's in your sideboard?

I would love to see your full 75 actually. I am going off memory here, since I am not near my cards at the moment, but my list is something like:

20 lands

4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 True-Name Nemesis
2 Leovold

4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
4 Force of Will
3 Ponder
3 Aluren

SB: (so this is pretty atrocious and I threw it together in a bit of a hurry based on what I thought would see - usually DnT, T1 Blood Moon decks, Delver and Miracles)

2 JTMS
1 Engineered Plague
2 BEB
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Jitte
1 Marsh Casualties (I wanted to test it out and it did win me a game vs DnT, but could still probably be Dread of Night or another Engineered Plague)
1 Reclamation Sage
1 something I am forgetting right now

The BEBs were pretty useless, as I played against DnT, Eldrazi and Storm. JTMS also did not feel that great, but the Engineered Plague was awesome vs both DnT and Storm (blanked his Empty that he had in hand). Jitte I wanted to try vs DnT/Stoneblade/RUG Delver, but I did not get a chance to. Decay still felt sort of necessary in a fairly open meta, and I did get to hit Sanctum Prelate and SoFI with it, so I feel good about keeping those in. There was almost no combo or Blood Moon in the room, so the BEB/Flusterstorm slot is still up for debate. I think the Marsh Casualties will stick around for now, too.

What do you think? I do want to find a place for Sylvan Library now that you mention it. Also I could see a Liliana, The Last Hope finding its way in here somewhere. Maybe instead of a JTMS.

[Gerard]

why Noble Hierarch and no paradise birds?
we don't play white card but we play black spells

[Threat_Jammer]

why Noble Hierarch and no paradise birds?
we don't play white card but we play black spells

It doesn't matter that Noble doesn't produce black. I thought it would but lots of testing proved otherwise.

We only need one black in the first few turns, which is easy enough to produce. Even if you fetch to basic forest and cast Noble t1, you'll almost always have the ability to produce U, G, or B by t2. And with fetches you're often able to produce all 3 colors with just basic lands by t2.

Moreover, exalted makes every creature (especially TNN) much more aggressive. This extra damage is a decent substitute for DRS's life loss ability.

I ended up cutting Liliana, The Last Hope from the board because of the BB but don't miss her much. She was a nice bonus to the deck but not essential to its success. I went up to 2 Dread of Night, which is way faster and nukes Death n Taxes

[Threat_Jammer]

I would love to see your full 75 actually. I am going off memory here, since I am not near my cards at the moment, but my list is something like:

20 lands

4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Glint-Nest Crane
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 True-Name Nemesis
2 Leovold

4 Brainstorm
2 Thoughtseize
1 Collective Brutality
4 Force of Will
3 Ponder
3 Aluren

SB: (so this is pretty atrocious and I threw it together in a bit of a hurry based on what I thought would see - usually DnT, T1 Blood Moon decks, Delver and Miracles)

2 JTMS
1 Engineered Plague
2 BEB
3 Surgical Extraction
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Jitte
1 Marsh Casualties (I wanted to test it out and it did win me a game vs DnT, but could still probably be Dread of Night or another Engineered Plague)
1 Reclamation Sage
1 something I am forgetting right now

The BEBs were pretty useless, as I played against DnT, Eldrazi and Storm. JTMS also did not feel that great, but the Engineered Plague was awesome vs both DnT and Storm (blanked his Empty that he had in hand). Jitte I wanted to try vs DnT/Stoneblade/RUG Delver, but I did not get a chance to. Decay still felt sort of necessary in a fairly open meta, and I did get to hit Sanctum Prelate and SoFI with it, so I feel good about keeping those in. There was almost no combo or Blood Moon in the room, so the BEB/Flusterstorm slot is still up for debate. I think the Marsh Casualties will stick around for now, too.

What do you think? I do want to find a place for Sylvan Library now that you mention it. Also I could see a Liliana, The Last Hope finding its way in here somewhere. Maybe instead of a JTMS.

JTMC seems more for control decks like Miracles. As for LLTLH, I would not run any cards that cost more than 1 black in this iteration. I cut mine and went up to 2 Dread of Night, which gives me a very strong board against D&T.

I don't know what BEB stands for.

I don't like running more counterspells than FOW in a deck that cascades. Shardless into FSS instead of THZ seems really bad.

I ended up cutting my Jitte for a second Fatal Push. I love that Crane can get it, but I've lost a lot of games drawing it instead of something like Push or Diabolic Edict.

Your list is almost the same as what I have. I just don't run any Ponders

[fapsik]

I just won MKM trial in Prague (4:0) with this list:


1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Glint-Nest Crane
3 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
2 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
1 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Ponder
4 Cabal Therapy

1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Dread of Night
1 Sylvan Library
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Golgari Charm
1 Hydroblast
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Toxic Deluge


I beat Death and Taxis, Storm, Affinity and BR Reanimator.

Originally I took deck of TrueKnightMare (twitch video up) and changed it little bit. The deck was shining but quite hard to navigate (especially with the lands - keeping hands, fetching and deciding what and when play). Sometimes I had weird combinations of mana. But I love the deck.

[Moneymakermich]

I just won MKM trial in Prague (4:0) with this list:


1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Glint-Nest Crane
3 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
2 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
1 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Ponder
4 Cabal Therapy

1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Dread of Night
1 Sylvan Library
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Golgari Charm
1 Hydroblast
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Toxic Deluge


I beat Death and Taxis, Storm, Affinity and BR Reanimator.

Originally I took deck of TrueKnightMare (twitch video up) and changed it little bit. The deck was shining but quite hard to navigate (especially with the lands - keeping hands, fetching and deciding what and when play). Sometimes I had weird combinations of mana. But I love the deck.

Did you consider phyrexian tower?

[GradStudent]

Not sure if its been discussed, but what about the recent 5-0 list by Otaba on mtgo? Anyone test out punishing fire in aluren?

4 Baleful Strix
1 Cavern Harpy
4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Eternal Witness
3 Imperial Recruiter
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Man-o'-War
1 Parasitic Strix
3 Shardless Agent
2 Ponder
2 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Punishing Fire
4 Aluren
1 Bayou
1 Forest
3 Grove of the Burnwillows
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
1 Taiga
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
1 Volcanic Island


1 Abrupt Decay
2 Cabal Therapy
2 Carpet of Flowers
2 Duress
1 Faerie Macabre
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Scavenging Ooze
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Thorn of Amethyst
1 Toxic Deluge

[RhoxWarMonk]

Not sure if its been discussed, but what about the recent 5-0 list by Otaba on mtgo? Anyone test out punishing fire in aluren?


He 5-0'ed with another list as well - looks like back to back weeks with Aluren, but slightly different take.

Creatures (18)
3 Veteran Explorer
4 Baleful Strix
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Eternal Witness
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Man-o'-War
1 Parasitic Strix
3 Recruiter of the Guard
3 Shardless Agent
Spells (17)
4 Brainstorm
4 Cabal Therapy
3 Ponder
3 Thoughtseize
3 Abrupt Decay
Enchantments (5)
1 Sylvan Library
4 Aluren
Lands (20)
1 Bayou
2 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Phyrexian Tower
3 Polluted Delta
1 Savannah
1 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs
Sideboard (15)
1 Engineered Explosives
1 Carpet of Flowers
1 Duress
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Containment Priest
1 Golgari Charm
1 Reclamation Sage
1 Toxic Deluge
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
4 Force of Will
75 Cards Total

[ashent]

Ran into Cartesian on modo playing like 15 cards I had to read yesterday. Not sold on the Birds of Paradise playset but we'll see. Veteran Explorer seems a little better to me but also awkward.

For myself, I've dusted off the Tundras and am playing ANT and UW Standstill/Miracles instead.

[Fry]

I feel that the slightly different take is because the first list had DRS, and since it got banned, the second list got a new take.

[Threat_Jammer]

I just won MKM trial in Prague (4:0) with this list:


1 Umezawa's Jitte
4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
4 Veteran Explorer
1 Glint-Nest Crane
3 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
2 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will
1 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Polluted Delta
2 Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
3 Verdant Catacombs
2 Ponder
4 Cabal Therapy

1 Pithing Needle
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Ensnaring Bridge
1 Vendilion Clique
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Dread of Night
1 Sylvan Library
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Diabolic Edict
1 Golgari Charm
1 Hydroblast
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Toxic Deluge


I beat Death and Taxis, Storm, Affinity and BR Reanimator.

Originally I took deck of TrueKnightMare (twitch video up) and changed it little bit. The deck was shining but quite hard to navigate (especially with the lands - keeping hands, fetching and deciding what and when play). Sometimes I had weird combinations of mana. But I love the deck.


Did you consider phyrexian tower?

Awesome! I've been seriously considering going down to 3 Aluren too. With all the creature removal in the format today it can be hard to get a 2 creature combo going. I played a tournament last night where I never cast Aluren and saw multiples of it as a dead draw...

Did you like just 3?

My other candidates for the slot are: abrupt decay, Jitte (seems really important to have lifegain with all the true names around), or thoughtseize

Also wondering how you liked Golgari Charm? Seems like it kills too many of our own creatures...

[zhandro]

Otaba 5-0 a legacy constructed league with BUG Aluren! Looks like it's mostly the same, replacing DRS with flip Jace and IoK. Not sure how it would fare against a play like T1 Lackey though. Note that there are no veteran explorers and one of each basic.

4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
2 Hymn to Tourach
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Ponder
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Aluren
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs


1 Abrupt Decay
1 Back to Basics
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Meren of Clan Nel Toth
1 Plague Mare
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Toxic Deluge

[pocari79]

I've been looking to get back into playing Aluren again and I'm interested in Otaba's list with the Veteran Explorers. However, I was wondering if anyone can help me with this question I have about the Man'o War.

Why the Man'o War? I thought the deck used to run Arctic Merfolk so that the opponent can't respond to you returning your creature but with Man'o War, your opponents can now respond right? Is the advantage of being able to bounce opponent's creatures so valued that you're willing to accept the disadvantages?

[zhandro]

Another 5-0, this time from Japanesefisherman. Similar to Otaba's list. Seems like 4 IoK is the DRS replacement, with a flex between flip Jace or Coiling Oracle. One of each basic too.

4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
1 Coiling Oracle
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
2 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Ponder
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Aluren
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs


1 Back to Basics
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Krosan Grip
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Plague Mare
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Toxic Deluge

[troopatroop]

I'd like more opinions on this 5-0 from Japanesefisherman


4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
1 Coiling Oracle
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
2 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Ponder
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Aluren
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs


1 Back to Basics
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Krosan Grip
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Plague Mare
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Toxic Deluge


This deck has some sauce. I may come out of retirement to build this. Is this advisable?

[Spaker]

I'd like more opinions on this 5-0 from Japanesefisherman


4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
1 Coiling Oracle
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent
2 Hymn to Tourach
4 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Ponder
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Aluren
2 Bayou
1 Forest
1 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
1 Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs


1 Back to Basics
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Diabolic Edict
1 Golgari Charm
1 Grafdigger's Cage
1 Krosan Grip
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Plague Mare
2 Surgical Extraction
3 Tarmogoyf
1 Toxic Deluge


This deck has some sauce. I may come out of retirement to build this. Is this advisable?

I'm testing this on MTGO, except for the 3 tarmogoyfs and the BTB in the SB because... I don't have it. Instead I'm playing Sylvan Library and some extra GY hate.
I'll write some feedback if interested.

[walked]

I'm testing this on MTGO, except for the 3 tarmogoyfs and the BTB in the SB because... I don't have it. Instead I'm playing Sylvan Library and some extra GY hate.
I'll write some feedback if interested.

Please do! I'm debating sleeving this up myself because it seems right up my alley!

[zhandro]

I'm testing this on MTGO, except for the 3 tarmogoyfs and the BTB in the SB because... I don't have it. Instead I'm playing Sylvan Library and some extra GY hate.
I'll write some feedback if interested.

Yes please! Why must you tease us?

[GhostXEmpire]

I'm testing this on MTGO, except for the 3 tarmogoyfs and the BTB in the SB because... I don't have it. Instead I'm playing Sylvan Library and some extra GY hate.
I'll write some feedback if interested.
Question: Fairly new with the deck, why do we play IoK > Thoughtseize?

Thanks.

Also is there a SB guide for this deck anywhere? I need to know what to shave in certain match-ups, I know what to bring in (usually).
Where do the Tarmos line up?

[troopatroop]

Question: Fairly new with the deck, why do we play IoK > Thoughtseize?

I've actually never played the deck, but I am willing to guess.

Think of all the Cavern Harpy combos. Shardless Agent, Baleful Strix, Coiling Oracle, each cost 1 life to re-use. You don't really want to Cascade into Thoughtseize, taking two more points of damage. Your life points in a build like that really matter, and you're searching for that one Parasitic Strix. No recruiters to serve as further outs. I can imagine sometimes, you'll be unable to find it, and instead you'll just fire off Cascades into Discard/Removals and pass.

[bibs]

I've actually never played the deck, but I am willing to guess.

Think of all the Cavern Harpy combos. Shardless Agent, Baleful Strix, Coiling Oracle, each cost 1 life to re-use. You don't really want to Cascade into Thoughtseize, taking two more points of damage. Your life points in a build like that really matter, and you're searching for that one Parasitic Strix. No recruiters to serve as further outs. I can imagine sometimes, you'll be unable to find it, and instead you'll just fire off Cascades into Discard/Removals and pass.

Pretty sure that's the case. Playing without recruiters hurts a lot your life points. I'm testing the recruiter/veteran explorer version, with 3 seizes and 4 therapies. What I could say that I'm surprise with this version. You can swipe the op's hand with seizes, tharapies, recap therapy. Get advantage with Library, Shardless and strixes. With so many Big Reds, having 2 forest helps a lot (veterans are amazing)...

[Vervandi]

Here is the list I am going to try next FNM:

Land (21)
2x Bayou
2x Forest
2x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
1x Thespian's Stage
2x Tropical Island
1x Underground Sea
4x Verdant Catacombs

Enchantment (3)
3x Aluren

Creature (15)
4x Baleful Strix
3x Cavern Harpy
1x Coiling Oracle
2x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1x Parasitic Strix
4x Shardless Agent

Instant (10)
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will

Sorcery (11)
3x Cabal Therapy
4x Living Wish
4x Ponder

Sideboard (15)
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cavern Harpy
1x Dark Depths
1x Dread of Night
1x Essence Warden
1x Faerie Macabre
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Mistcaller
1x Parasitic Strix
1x Plague Mare
1x Prowling Serpopard
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
1x Toxic Deluge

It's probably a dumb idea, but WTH. I actually have 2 legacy FNMs coming up soonish so if it doesn't end up working, I'll shave the DD/Stage for the 4th cabal therapy and another Living Wish target in the sideboard.

I really like the idea of cascading into Living Wish, so it's worth a couple of attempts for me (with and without the Coiling Oracle/Stage/Dark Depths thing). Sometimes things seem amazing on paper though and don't work out in practice, so we'll see!

[GhostXEmpire]

How does everyone feel about all the new lists running 2 SFM + a set of Hierarchs?

[Moneymakermich]

Here is the list I am going to try next FNM:

Land (21)
2x Bayou
2x Forest
2x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
2x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
1x Thespian's Stage
2x Tropical Island
1x Underground Sea
4x Verdant Catacombs

Enchantment (3)
3x Aluren

Creature (15)
4x Baleful Strix
3x Cavern Harpy
1x Coiling Oracle
2x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1x Parasitic Strix
4x Shardless Agent

Instant (10)
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will

Sorcery (11)
3x Cabal Therapy
4x Living Wish
4x Ponder

Sideboard (15)
1x Bojuka Bog
1x Cavern Harpy
1x Dark Depths
1x Dread of Night
1x Essence Warden
1x Faerie Macabre
1x Maelstrom Pulse
1x Mistcaller
1x Parasitic Strix
1x Plague Mare
1x Prowling Serpopard
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
1x Sylvan Safekeeper
1x Toxic Deluge

It's probably a dumb idea, but WTH. I actually have 2 legacy FNMs coming up soonish so if it doesn't end up working, I'll shave the DD/Stage for the 4th cabal therapy and another Living Wish target in the sideboard.

I really like the idea of cascading into Living Wish, so it's worth a couple of attempts for me (with and without the Coiling Oracle/Stage/Dark Depths thing). Sometimes things seem amazing on paper though and don't work out in practice, so we'll see!

I think you miss 1 drops. You have ponder, brainstorm and cabal therapy but only ponder is really good on turn 1.

[Vervandi]

I think you miss 1 drops. You have ponder, brainstorm and cabal therapy but only ponder is really good on turn 1.

That's interesting. Since DRS was banned, I've not seen any lists run any one drops besides discard and Veteran Explorer. I really don't want to run Veteran Explorer because it's just plain awful a lot of the time and it feels wrong to run it without some sort of GSZ package. Which one drops would you suggest? I agree with you about Ponder, maybe it'd be better as a 4th cabal therapy. Also, I'm not sure I'm on board with IOK being the discard spell of choice. Cabal therapy, I can name things like JTMS, Force of Will etc and flash it back at the expense of a strix or agent without spending additional resources when I'm ready to combo off.

[iamhedonism]

First time posting here, but since I have taken a lot of knowledge from here, I was hoping to give some back. Here's my run from a Saturday tournament in Queens.


Deck:

4 ponder
4 brainstorm
3 inquisition of koz

4 baleful strix
3 cavern harpy
3 abrupt decay
1 jitte
1 jace, vryn's prodigy

4 shardless agent
2 leovold
2 parasitic strix
1 manowar

3 aluren

4 FoW

4 misty
4 catacombs
4 delta
2 sea
2 trop
2 bayou
1 island
1 forest
1 swamp

SB:
3 tarmogoyf
1 reclamation sage
1 grafdigger's cage
2 surgical extraction
1 liliana, last hope
1 fleshbag marauder
1 plague mare
1 diabolic edict
1 gilded drake
1 back to basics
1 toxic deluge
1 null rod

Read here for individual card choices. Skip down for tournament results.

Ponder vs Preordain. People smarter than me suggest that preordain may offer better card selection. I am unconvinced and believe ponder is both better at finding your combo pieces due to shuffling and making abysmal hands randomly better by shuffling early. I was playing shardless ancestral after the bannings but found ancestral to be so much setup for such mediocre payoff. Please play 4 ponder, you won't regret it.

Inquisition - I spent a lot of time following Cartesian's evolution of the deck, but Otaba deserves credit for the base I started from ( https://www.mtggoldfish.com/archetype/legacy-aluren-54221#paper ). He ran both 4 IoK and 2 hymn. I found hymn rough on the mana, but IoK was surpisingly better than the cabal therapies I was testing earlier (therapy is still good, but loses a lot without probe). IoK whiffs on a lot of cards you'd really like to get (FoW, Jace, verdict, etc), however it does hit a surprisingly good amount of the time. I thought it would work well with otaba's goyf transformation board, however I found that they often aren't in together. It's also not as much of a liability off the top as a thoughseize. The most interesting card I took with it this weekend was a tireless tracker that I had no answer for, and I had wondered if duress was maindeckable again. I'll stick with IoK for now, and likely 3 again as I never wanted to draw more than I did.

1 jitte - You do win a surprising number of games through the red zone, and there are still of lot of creature decks out there. I feel like foW and iok are hedges against the unfair decks, it's good to have a flex slot vs the fair ones

1 jace, VP - jace does 2 very power things for deckbuilding. He makes you effectively have more copies of spells that are good lategame, and he has the biggest target I've ever seen for removal. I've seen him in both ancestrall shardless and aluren, and seems to have good play and good value in both archetypes. He does a lot of work, but he usually doesn't live long enough to flip, but that usually clears the way for more important combo pieces. If not dealt with, he can take over the game.

2 leovold - leovold is still an absurd magic card and worth running in just about every shell that can swing the mana. However, as noted with the hymns earlier, the mana is just not the same without DRS. 12 fetches are very good for getting out your basics in a hurry if need be and I definitely cast him off of 3 basics multiple times

2 parasitic strix - 2 power fliers are very relevant in a format with a ton of delvers. I was very low on life from harpy bouncing digging for the combo on several occasions. 2 seems correct

1 manowar - this guy does SO much work. SO MUCH WORK! I've pitched him to FoW, bounced a merit leige token, won a damage race by bouncing a germ token, won a damage rave vs delver, sent SO many zombie fish back with no yard, AND sleeved him up with a jitte.

The board was based on a few earlier iterations. I have yet to cast a back to basics since the ban but it also seems necessary. I want to fit a flusterstorm in there. Plague Mare has a lot of value vs true name nemesis, elves, DnT.

The goyfs punish the people who brought in a ton to stop your combo. I never boarded the whole combo out, but vs mana denial decks, I always drop it to 2. Vs fair decks swapping your counters and discard for removal and goyfs often catches your opponents who gameplan vs the combo look silly.

The Geekery HQ, Astoria, NY
thegeekeryhq.com
25 person legcy for a Taiga

Chad Rnd 1, Maverick. Game 1, I get an IoK off of a Shardless and pass on a Swords for a Tireless Tracker as I had just traded a couple abrupt decays for creatures and left him with a Sword of FnI and nothing to sleeve up. Eventually I draw into a harpy and strix until I go off.

+ 3 goyf
+ 1 reclamation sage
+ 1 diabolic edict
+ 1 fleshbag
+ 1 lily
+ 1 cage
+ 1 deluge
+ 1 plague mare

- 4 FoW
- 3 inquis
- 1 jace
- 1 parasitic strix
- 1 aluren

Game 2 he has loam and wasteland. I go down an aluren and a strix as a result. Jace doesn't mix it up in combat and is therefore a liability. I get graffdiggers cage on turn 1 to slow him down. He draws all of his swords and has a turn 1 mom that gums the ground out quite a bit. I jitte up a b strix and attack and he makes a merit leige token. I use the counters to kill heirarch and mom and then manowar back the token. His next threat gets fleshbagged and he gets run over by a goyf, an agent and a manowar with a jitte on it.

1-0

Match 2 Jordan UB reanimator

Game 1 - We both dig early and he tries to ram a reanimation spell and I FoW. I keep some strix and agent pressue on. He gets more reanimation, I force and he dazes. He eventually gets a tidespout to get the strix out of the way and finishes me off.

+ 1 cage
+ 2 surgical
+ 1 edict
+ 1 fleshbag
+ 1 edict
+ 1 gilded drake

- 3 decay
- 1 jitte
- 2 leovold

Game 2 - He show and tells in an ashen rider and i have a guilded drake. That does not work the way I had hoped. I manowar back one of his fatties and fleshbag the other. Eventually I edict and start swinging back.

Game 3 - I add in the goyfs but forget what I swapped. He show and telled in a fatty and I had a fleshbag. I got a surgical off later and just overrun him with multiple shardless agents.

2-0


Round 3 Sam Grixis control

Game 1 - I get hymned a couple times after a snapcaster. Het sticks a gurmag and I stall with strix. Damage was already done and he burns me out.

Take out counters and discard for threats. It's very rare in this matchup that they will be holding things you can pluck with discard. It's better to be able to win the topdeck wars with threats and removal.

Game 2 - I fight against gurmags with fleshbag and lily. He gets a few good K commands off and gets back into it. I had p strix and harpy in my hand from the jump and had been playing towards the combo even though goyfs had gotten there earlier. I cast aluren and go off after he had flooded the board.

Game 3 - I ponder and stick a couple goyfs early. He holds them off at 4/5 with a gurmag angler. I hit his snapcaster with a decay and edict him. he plays another but it gets manowared.


3-0

ID rounds 4 and 5, though I did play against Virgil in round 4 for fun. He's on RWU delver. He wins game 1, but the goyf plan out of the board is too much for him. Decays are better than average here.

Top 8

Roland Grixis Delver

Game 1 grixis delver does grixis delver things. Long live the king

Game 2 He has to spend a lot of effort digging to find answers to tarmogoyfs. I think this was the game the Plague mare got a TNN. He eventually runs out of resources and I start digging to the combo

Game 3 - I win at 3 life. You could see how backbreaking so many of my spells were in this matchup. I believe he FoW'ed a b strix and then I went shardless into strix and harpy, shardless into goyf. He digs at the end ofr a bolt but can't find it. GGs

4-0-2

Top 4 bff Joe on loam

He crushes me both games. This is a very tough matchup for us. Knight of the reliquary is very good and even when I searched up my basics, he got a ghost quarter off. I may have misplayed it, but I'm not sure getting a dual that he could draw a wasteland to kill rather than using a search seems worth it.


Overall the deck played extremely well. Both the combo and the value plans have legitimate paths to victory and your opponent may not know which one you are leaning towards for the matchup, or which one your hand is leaning you towards. I don't think I comboed off before turn 6 in any of the games I played.

The IoKs could be thoughtseize, but I can't see playing more than 2. Your life total will get low in certain matchups and the 2 life may be the two harpy activations you needed to go off. I may try a second Jace if I decide to make that swap. I'm going to continue to run the IoK for now. The rest of the maindeck was outstanding and I wouldn't change a thing.


The Gilded drake should probably be a flusterstorm, thoughtseize or collective brutality, leaning towards flusterstorm. I could also see trying to fit in a pithing needle or a maelstrom pulse.
I liked my board otherwise.

Happy Hunting.

[pocari79]

I played Otaba's 5-0 list with the Veteran Explorers this past weekend for the first time and went 2-3. It was pretty fun playing the deck but I ran into this situation multiple times throughout the tournament and wasn't quite sure what i should do.

I would be playing against a midrange deck and early on, I would have a Recruiter in hand and no Aluren in sight and no other creature worth playing so I would be forced to cast the Recruiter but then I wouldn't know what to tutor for. I tried getting Arctic Merfolk so I can bounce the Recruiter to try to get a better hand but that was at the expense of not developing a board. I tried getting Shardless Agents so I could try to go wide but that feels kind of mediocre as the cascade is random that I'm not sure if it's worth spending all that time to end up getting a 1/1 and a 2/2 in play. I thought of getting Baleful Strix with it but that seems kind of the same as getting a Shardless Agent?

I'm just curious as to what the most optimal play would be since none of these plays really progress you into getting Aluren in play.

[Moneymakermich]

I'm just curious as to what the most optimal play would be since none of these plays really progress you into getting Aluren in play.

Play 1 academy rector :)

[Nonex]

I'm just curious as to what the most optimal play would be since none of these plays really progress you into getting Aluren in play.

Which is one of the reasons Recruiters aren't as hot as people think.

That said, if you want to keep them, I agree that Academy Rector is probably the best choice.

[Nastaboi]

I would have just got another Recruiter. But I prefer straight UBG as most. Have yet to decide whether to run Explorer, Hierarch or no mana dorks. Will test IOK version next.

[limbo]

I am really enjoying this version (11-4 on MTGO):
1 bayou
3 forest
1 island
4 misty rainforest
4 polluted delta
1 swamp
2 tropical island
2 underground sea
2 verdant catacombs

4 brainstorm
4 ponder
4 cabal therapy
3 thoughtseize
4 veteran explorer
1 glint-nest crane
1 diabolic intent
4 baleful strix
3 cavern harpy
3 abrupt decay
1 parasitic strix
4 shardless agen
1 leovold, emissary of trest
3 aluren

Sideboard:
1 hydroblast
1 parasitic strix
1 mindbreak trap
4 force of will
1 fourth bridge prowler
1 diabolic edict
1 minister of pain
2 carpet of flowers
1 grafdigger's cage
2 surgical extraction

[Moneymakermich]

Here is the deck I play since the ban of deathrite shaman:

4 force of will
4 ponder
2 veteran explorer
3 cabal therapy
4 brainstorm
1 umezawa's jitte
1 arctic merfolk
2 abrupt decay
2 cavern harpy
1 coiling oracle
4 baleful strix
1 manowar
1 Leovold, emissary of Trest
1 parasitic strix
3 recruiter of the guard
1 green sun zenith
3 aluren
1 academy rector


21 lands:

2 verdant catacombs
4 misty rainforest
4 polluted delta
2 forest
1 swamp
1 island
1 bayou
1 savannah
2 tropical island
1 tundra
1 underground sea
1 phyrexian tower

My experience is that veteran explorer is really amazing.
I really want to play +1 veteran (=3) and +1 cabal therapy (=4).
It allows some crazy plays: I've made a turn 2 aluren just by chump blocking with a turn 1 explorer; I've made a turn 2 cabal theray + flashback + recruiter get faerie macabre against reanimator; etc...
The manowar is also very good in many situations as a pseudo-removal.
Academy rector is a good plan in a build with cabal therapies and recruiters.
Coiling oracle was totally useless and will be removed : I thought that I might need it as a target for green sun zenith.
Green sun zenith is a bit weak and/or slow, I prefer to add a veteran explorer in that slot.
I should probably remove a land to get 20... and add a basic… so maybe -2 fetches +1 island ? or maybe -phyrexian tower because of the greedy manabase ? I'm not yet sure about this.

[GhostEmpire]

Just picked up the deck a few weeks ago and I'm having a blast: I had one question though.
In what match-ups do we want Bitterblossom?

I'm having decent success with the deck (I netdecked a build online), but I've never boarded in the singleton copy, never wanted to use it, or had a real use for it.
At this point, I am considering replacing it with another card.

[Qweerios]

I am really enjoying this version (11-4 on MTGO):
1 bayou
3 forest
1 island
4 misty rainforest
4 polluted delta
1 swamp
2 tropical island
2 underground sea
2 verdant catacombs

4 brainstorm
4 ponder
4 cabal therapy
3 thoughtseize
4 veteran explorer
1 glint-nest crane
1 diabolic intent
4 baleful strix
3 cavern harpy
3 abrupt decay
1 parasitic strix
4 shardless agen
1 leovold, emissary of trest
3 aluren

Sideboard:
1 hydroblast
1 parasitic strix
1 mindbreak trap
4 force of will
1 fourth bridge prowler
1 diabolic edict
1 minister of pain
2 carpet of flowers
1 grafdigger's cage
2 surgical extraction

I really like your version! I think this is the natural evolution of Nic Fit. Why not Force mainboard and Seize SB? It seems like it would be stronger this way. Intent looks savage in that list.

I've also always wondered why people play ParaStrix over the 2 mana one that can be cascaded into?

[JMT]

Just picked up the deck a few weeks ago and I'm having a blast: I had one question though.
In what match-ups do we want Bitterblossom?

I'm having decent success with the deck (I netdecked a build online), but I've never boarded in the singleton copy, never wanted to use it, or had a real use for it.
At this point, I am considering replacing it with another card.

Well, it's hard to say something about a single card without a decklist to refer to.
It's a card to bring in against grindier Matchups and Delver. Against a lot of blue based decks I tend to cut a few copies of Aluren, bc the loss of speed would be to great if it gets countered. So Delver, Blade and probably Death and Taxes would be the matchups I'd like to bring a card like Bitterblossom.

However at the moment I don't see a lot of Delver and against Blade and Death n Taxes I prefer Liliana, the last Hope coming in from the side (either killing their Strixes/Snapcasters/Mothers/Thalias or recycling your own Baleful Strixes is usually realy nice).


Is there still a Discord for this deck? If so I'd like to have a link/invitation, thanks in advance.

[FFreak]

Here u are :)
Good to get aluren great again :P
We need more activity in our discord:

https://discord.gg/estFcXj

[ashent]

Just want to mention to whoever is running Cage in the sideboard, that's quite a bad non-bo with Shardless Agent, isn't it?

[CptHaddock]

Just want to mention to whoever is running Cage in the sideboard, that's quite a bad non-bo with Shardless Agent, isn't it?

Nope, cascade reads:



When you cast this spell, exile cards from the top of your library until you exile a nonland card that costs less. You may cast it without paying its mana cost. Put the exiled cards on the bottom of your library in a random order.


So you're actually just casting cards from exile.

[ashent]

oki

[Qweerios]

Just want to mention to whoever is running Cage in the sideboard, that's quite a bad non-bo with Shardless Agent, isn't it?

You can't flashback Therapy though. In a matchup like Srorm where you would want Cage to prevent PiF you could feel some tension.

[Moneymakermich]

New material: assassin's trophy?

[FFreak]

For shure :)
Cascading into it is much better than into AD.
You always find a target !

[ashent]

New material: assassin's trophy?

Like every Aluren / BUG control player, I'm pretty hyped on this spoiler.

What I've been thinking recently (in the past day or so since) is that I might want to be further trimming Alurens and Harpies and playing BUG Control with an Aluren package included. For the duration of the BUG Aluren period where we played value creatures and eventually won with an Aluren, people have mostly conceded that the deck can play a fair blue Baleful Strix sort of game, win the battle of attrition, and then win at instant speed later, instead of trying for the all-in. Can we go a bit further into just midrange with a combo finish? I love Aluren dearly but when you fizzle it feels bad, when you have a hand full of Harpies it feels bad, etc. I'd love to play more of a Shardless game with a couple of slots devoted at the end to Aluren once you've stabilized.

Does Trophy help us do that? More midrange Shardless value? I think so. But I don't know quite what my list will look like yet.

[troopatroop]

I'm not sold on Assassin's Trophy. Sure, Abrupt Decay can be a dead cascade sometimes. Yes, the new card can sometimes kill a land, and your opponent won't have a basic to fetch. But it seems to me, like the good majority of the time in that situation, Assassin's Trophy will be a dead cascade all the same as Abrupt Decay. It's complicated, I don't think the card is strictly better, and I tend to think Abrupt Decay is more valuable.

[FFreak]

Maby a good split could be the best idea .
Or lets say if u know the meta you could tend to play one or the other more.

Lets hope for other toys to get aluren great again :P

[DireLemming]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dm_4hCHXgAEnJlQ.png
Looks like a straight upgrade of Rec Sage for W builds.

[swoop]

https://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/avatars/thumbnails/271/90/200/283/636728860950396257.png

Alt kill w/ any bounce creature

[Nonex]

https://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/avatars/thumbnails/271/90/200/283/636728860950396257.png

Alt kill w/ any bounce creature

Nothing Brain Freeze, Merrow Witsniper or Drowner of Secrets already do. You can even see how fitting the last one's name is compared to the new card.

[fapsik]

https://media-dominaria.cursecdn.com/avatars/thumbnails/271/90/200/283/636728860950396257.png

Alt kill w/ any bounce creature

One of the main problem of milling-kill in this deck is that you cannot win responding to a lethal attack or final bolt or something like this. And the thing that it is an enchantment is also quite a big downside. But it is always good to bring new cards to Aluren pool to think about :-)

[tired_papasmurf]

Alt kill w/ any bounce creature

Other than the ability to pitch to Force, isnt Alter of the Brood just better since it's a mana cheaper?

[troopatroop]

4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Jace, Vryn's Prodigy
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix
1 Coiling Oracle
4 Shardless Agent
2 Hymn to Tourach
3 Inquisition of Kozilek
4 Ponder
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Aluren
3 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
3 Tropical Island
3 Underground Sea
4 Verdant Catacombs


Am I a fool if I just ditch the basics lands? I feel like the deck runs better without them.

[iamhedonism]

[cards]


Am I a fool if I just ditch the basics lands? I feel like the deck runs better without them.

(As nicely as possible) Yes.

`Lands, Aggro Loam and sometimes BUG control and Jund out of the board, can all Loam/Wasteland lock you.
`Various flavors of Delver can deliver especially punishing opens by wastelanding you after sticking a threat.
`Price of Progress is still in Burn and UR delver.
`Wasteland after Heirach/Vial opening from Taxes/Maverick are brutal and make Thalia even harder.
`Blood Moon is still a thing.
`Miracles and some versions of UW Blade now boast Back to Basics (and you give yourself access to the card with basics)

Yes, I really feel like you should be running basics. The deckbuilding concession I most notably made was not including Hymn. While I do not discount that there are some number of free wins by hitting Hymn on turn 2 or off of a Shardless, I still think some of the plays below illustrate why I think the loss of Hymn s worth the basics. You could still board Hymns vs combo or control decks with no threats to your mana.

I also would have considered playing a 3rd Leovold, but the basics can sometimes make him hard to cast.

I played the same 75 as from a previous tournament at a 20 person (I think) Legacy tournament:

Deck:

4 ponder
4 brainstorm
3 inquisition of koz

4 baleful strix
3 cavern harpy
3 abrupt decay
1 jitte
1 jace, vryn's prodigy

4 shardless agent
2 leovold
2 parasitic strix
1 manowar

3 aluren

4 FoW

4 misty
4 catacombs
4 delta
2 sea
2 trop
2 bayou
1 island
1 forest
1 swamp

SB:
3 tarmogoyf
1 reclamation sage
1 grafdigger's cage
2 surgical extraction
1 liliana, last hope
1 fleshbag marauder
1 plague mare
1 diabolic edict
1 gilded drake
1 back to basics
1 toxic deluge
1 null rod


I went 3-1 with wins vs Lands, Painter, and Storm and a loss to UR Delver in a very close 3 game match.

Lands exploded out of the gate G1 with double exploration and a wasteland. I fetched a basic swamp that let me Inquisition him and steal his Gamble that was his last card in hand. Had I not had a basic to fetch, I may have been locked out of the game. Instead he stalled and I won.

Painter had some moments where because I had fetched basics and was still able to deploy all of my non Aluren threats, I didn't need to use discard on Blood Moons. I also could hold my Abrupt Decay for combo pieces, and have the flexibility to hit the Blood Moon if I thought I could go off.

Against UR Delver I could have stopped playing duals after I had 1 in play to cast Aluren, but I thought I would need to cast multiple spells in either a counter battle or to make up for his tempo early. The damage from Price of Progress could have been mild, but was game breaking.

Vs Storm the basics weren't relevant.

Stick to the basics. You'll be happy you did.

[GradStudent]

anyone still play this deck regularly?

[fapsik]

anyone still play this deck regularly?

I do - both modo and paper. But discussing mainly on discord. Are you there as well?

https://discord.gg/3wJxfJ


Today I am trying Aluren Blade version, so I will see.

What do you play? Or just starting?

[compacta_d]

I do - both modo and paper. But discussing mainly on discord. Are you there as well?

https://discord.gg/3wJxfJ


Today I am trying Aluren Blade version, so I will see.

What do you play? Or just starting?

discord invalid? can i get in?

[GradStudent]

yeah discord invite didnt work. try again?
I played aluren for a bit with DRS the bug version. haven't played it since the ban

[compacta_d]

Says expired

[fapsik]

Says expired

sorry guys, it is the discord settings...this could work: https://discord.gg/3hjqHU2

[tescrin]

I'm trying a funky list on the White-Recruiter version; but I found a neat piece of tech in a 1-of Living Wish I wanted to share. Not only can it protect from your combo pieces being surgical'd; but you can also Shardless into Living Wish to fetch your Recruiter #4; meaning that if you're trying to finish your combo with Shardless/Harpy, it allows you to just cascade into your win-con directly, rather than trying to find it with Glint-nest. This allows the recruiter version to effectively do the same thing as the Glint-nest win-con (harpy->glint-spam to find strix.)

May not be good enough; but I'm still playing with it. I'm back down to 2 Harpy 1 PStrix and thinking I may get greedy with the Wish and go down to a singleton Harpy. The rest of the experiment is largely irrelevant other than I'm tying the list together with Aluren#3 being, instead, an Enlightened Tutor. Early testing I kept getting annoyed at having Aluren in hand all the time and figured I may as well make it a little more versatile.

Again, deep in brewing mode here; just thought I'd mention some odd tech I'm working on.

[Emrakul503]

Have you had a chance to try it yet? I am interested in the results. I've had some solid luck with the BUG version, but recently acquired a Savannah, and want to try out the recruiter version.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[Emrakul503]

I tested it out, 1-3x, and 1x was the right call. More than that got too magical xmas land, and often got couped up in your hand. The line I found the most often was playing it on T2, grabbing Leovold, then jamming Leovold to either stick or get a counterspell out of their hand on T3. I can see some application for sure, but you don't want to use up too many precious SB slots with wish targets.

Sent from my SM-G892A using Tapatalk

[GradStudent]

I do - both modo and paper. But discussing mainly on discord. Are you there as well?

https://discord.gg/3wJxfJ


Today I am trying Aluren Blade version, so I will see.

What do you play? Or just starting?

thoughts on this list? http://www.tcdecks.net/deck.php?id=30411&iddeck=257691

[ChristoferV]

I picked up the deck after a short Aluren hiatus to try some new cards out!

I went 4-0 against these matchups:
2-1 vs The Antiquities War
2-1 vs UW Blade
2-0 vs Infect
2-1 vs Maverick

Here is my list!

Creatures:20
4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
1 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Ice-Fang Coatl
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
2 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent

Spells:20
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy
3 Aluren
4 Force of Will

Lands:20
1 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:15
2 Plague Engineer
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Mindbreak Trap

As I told my friend when Ice-Fang Coatl got spoiled:
”Give a man a fish and he will play 8 strixes in Aluren”

[Wakkz]

I picked up the deck after a short Aluren hiatus to try some new cards out!

I went 4-0 against these matchups:
2-1 vs The Antiquities War
2-1 vs UW Blade
2-0 vs Infect
2-1 vs Maverick

Here is my list!

Creatures:20
4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
1 Glint-Nest Crane
4 Ice-Fang Coatl
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
2 Parasitic Strix
4 Shardless Agent

Spells:20
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
2 Thoughtseize
2 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy
3 Aluren
4 Force of Will

Lands:20
1 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Swamp
2 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:15
2 Plague Engineer
1 Vendilion Clique
1 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Nihil Spellbomb
1 Surgical Extraction
1 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy
1 Sylvan Library
1 Umezawa's Jitte
1 Liliana, the Last Hope
1 Toxic Deluge
2 Mindbreak Trap

As I told my friend when Ice-Fang Coatl got spoiled:
”Give a man a fish and he will play 8 strixes in Aluren”

Looks great! Have you got any chance to try it against Miracles or any combo?

[ChristoferV]

Looks great! Have you got any chance to try it against Miracles or any combo?

I haven’t tried any of those MUs yet but I think that Miracles won’t be that big of a problem. I used to enjoy playing against Miracles with Aluren and having more annoying attackers for them to deal with sounds like a game of putting the right amount of new threats on the table every time they answer a wave of 2-3 creatures. Ice-Fang Coatl is a perfect candidate for this job!
Fast combo however might get hard. I’m not sure if Glint-Nest Crane should be in the list, it could be another Thoughtseize to make combo MUs better. That might also give one incentive to go a little bit easier on the artifact SB, maybe cutting Umezawa’s Jitte for another anti-combo card. For a start I really enjoyed this 75!

[Rook1e]

Has anyone tried playing around with Neoform in Aluren? The last few weeks I have been playing a BUG Neoform Nic Fit deck and the card has been really impressive. Could this be the 'tutor' for BUG lists? - though this will probably mean no Shardless.

EDIT: Added a list below to have a starting point for discussion:

Creature (19)
4x Baleful Strix
4x Birds of Paradise
1x Cavern Harpy
1x Eternal Witness
1x Fblthp, the Lost
1x Glen Elendra Archmage
2x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1x Man-o'-War
1x Parasitic Strix
1x Plague Engineer
1x Snapcaster Mage
1x Spellseeker

Sorcery (7)
3x Neoform
4x Thoughtseize

Instant (10)
2x Abrupt Decay
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will

Enchantment (3)
3x Aluren

Land (21)
2x Bayou
1x Forest
1x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
1x Nurturing Peatland
1x Swamp
3x Tropical Island
2x Underground Sea
4x Verdant Catacombs
1x Volrath's Stronghold
1x Waterlogged Grove

Sideboard (15)
1x Assassin's Trophy
2x Carpet of Flowers
1x Collector Ouphe
1x Fatal Push
1x Flusterstorm
1x Gaddock Teeg
1x Hydroblast
1x Plague Engineer
1x Reclamation Sage
1x Scavenging Ooze
2x Surgical Extraction
2x Veil of Summer

[fapsik]

BANT Aluren

This is not a primer, these are my starting thoughts about revitalization of an old version of Aluren.

Intro-Decklist

Maindeck
1 Cauldron Familiar
4 Noble Hierarch
1 Arctic Merfolk
1 Cavern Harpy
4 Ice-Fang Coatls
1 Quickling
1 Brazen Borrower
1 Ethernal Witness
1 Knight of Autumn
4 Recruiter of the Guard

4 Brainstorm
3 Ponder
3 Swords to Plowshares
1 Sylvan Library
1 Narset, Parter of Veils
2 Oko, Thief of Crowns
3 Aluren
4 Force of Will

1 Bayou
2 Flooded Strand
4 Místy Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
1 Savannah
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Convered Island
2 Tropical Island
2 Tundra
3 Windswept Heath

Sideboard
1 Collector Ouphe
2 Carpet of Flowers
3 Deafening Silence
3 Veil of Summer
2 Teferi, Time Raveler
4 Leyline of the Void

General Ideas
Excluding BUG Aluren, all other versions were strugling with usage of fourth colour, either white or red depending on used Recruiters. But recent prints of certain cards opened up some opportunities to deal with this problem. I am talking about these cards:

- Ice-Fang Coatl
- Oko, Thief of Crowns
- Veil of Summer
- Deafening Silence

What have these cards in common? Green! This made me think if it is possible to actually make Aluren effectively both with Recruiters and „three-coloured“. So I tried it. When I was thinking about the build I figured out that black splash is not necessary anymore. The new prints filled its space.

Original BANT version was operating with Stoneforge Mystic pack, but it made the combo package little bit weak so I get rid of it entirely. It was there mainly foro longer and slower games, but some new cards (Oko) made those even more playable.

Maindeck Inclusions
1CCM
- Noble Hierarch – the best mana-dork we can include, both accelerate and pressures opponent
- Cauldron Familiar – this card could be Parasitic Strix in BANT but as it combos nicely with Oko and it plays around Veil of Summer and Leyline of Sanctity, I am just on it
- Brainstorm
- Ponder
- Swords to Plowshares – best creature removal of all time, sadly not as versatile as Abrupt Decay

2CCM
- Ice-Fang Coatl – green Strix enables to play BANT, flash is very useful as well
- Arctic Merfolk/Quickling – neverending debate about what and how many bouncers should we have (I chose these)
- Cavern Harpy
- Sylvan Library

3CCM
- Recruiter of the Guard
- Brazen Borrower – tutorable tempo card and answer to weird stuff
- Knight of Autumn – classic and more powerful substitute for Reclamation Sage
- Ethernal Witness
- Oko, Thief of Crowns – one best addons in recent times helps to grind longer games and deals with opponent’s board
- Narset, Parter of Veils – it is sort „Leovold“ that can help find some action, even though it cannot take creatures

4CCM
- Aluren

5CCM
- Force of Will

Mana-Base

Very simple, because it is basicaly 3-color deck. The only issue is necessity of one black source which makes you include either Bayou or Underground Sea so some of your fetchlands cannot grab some of duals.

Sideboard

- 1 Collector Ouphe – great tutorable answer to weird artefact decks, ANT and Stoneforge Mystic decks
- 2 Carpet of Flowers – acceleration for Delver/Miracles matchup
- 3 Deafening Silence – the best white anti-storm card which (unlike Ethersworn Cannonist) does not stop our plan
- 3 Veil of Summer – superb versatile card for both protecting our combo and us from combo
- 2 Teferi, Time Raveler – nice card against slow control decks that have counterspells as their protection, can also sometimes deal with some strange unexpected permanents on battlefield
- 4 Leyline of the Void – straight and easy answer to all GY-based decks, imposible to část though (could be 3 Surgical and Faerie Macabre or so)


BANT decks were usually poor against fast combo due to absence of discard, but those days are gone. My constructed sideboard has two main blocks of cards:
- anti-combo: these cards are specifically designed to beat combo faster than us and without usage of traditional black spells (Leyline of the Void, Deafening Silence, Veil of Summer, Collector Ouphe)

- grinding cards: our deck can grind longer games on its own, but these cards can power up this kind of gameplan (Teferi, Time Raveler, Carpet of Flowers, Veil of Summer, Collector Ouphe)

There are of course other cards, that can be used as well. I am thinking of Flusterstorm or Force of Negation fight some nasty enemies, Surgical Extraction or Faerie Macabre to take another angle different from Leylines and Palace Jailer, Jace the Mind Sculptor or Garruk to fight control decks. Force of Vigor, Peacekeeper, Karakas or Ensnaring Bridge are worth mentioning too. It depends on current metagame, but the main blocks stay.

Bant’s Biggest Loses
I am not saying that the exclusion of black cards came without price. Of course, there are very powerful cards that cannot be played in my version. Namely:

- Baleful Strix
- Leovold, Emisary of Trest
- Abrupt Decay
- Plague Engineer
- Thoughtseize

Only time will tell if the green/white substitutions are powerful enought to battle in Legacy.



Thanks for reading and commenting.

[ChristoferV]

Was planning on doing this directly after the GP but I got ran over by university when I got back from Bologna.

Short tournament report from GP Bologna!
I decided to play Aluren because it is one of my favorite decks in legacy and I'm almost always having a fun time when playing it, regardless of the result!

https://my.cfbevents.com/deck/view/ed7b6a50-b692-4b13-b66e-eb5af004afb1

When I arrived at the GP I had time to play one trial. Here are the results:
2-1 vs Bant Miracles
2-0 vs Bant Miracles
2-0 vs Slow Depths
2-1 vs Bant Miracles

I dodged matchups that I find tricky while also getting paired against opponents (miracles) that I find myself favorable against so hoorah, 2 byes.

Main event, day 1:
2-0 vs Grixis delver (3-0)
0-2 vs LED Dredge (3-1)
2-1 vs Turbo Depths (4-1)
1-1-1 vs Canadian Threshold (4-1-1)
2-1 vs UR Delver (5-1-1)
2-0 vs Slow Depths (6-1-1) Cut off: Making it to day 2!
1-2 vs Bant Miracles (6-2-1)

Day 2:
2-1 vs Death and Taxes (7-2-1)
0-2 vs Elves! (7-3-1)
2-1 vs BUG Snow Control (8-3-1)
0-2 vs Slow Depths (8-4-1)
2-1 vs BUG Hogaak (9-4-1)
2-1 vs RUG Lands (10-4-1)

Final placement: 93 out of 1596 players!
Had a lot of fun and the deck was really smooth thanks to the cat!

Sorry for being brief but I just wanted to share my list and experience quickly before diving back into university life!

[HardBrain]

Hej!

Im playing aluren 5weeks on mtgo and Real. In mtgo i have couple of 5;0 record but maaaany 4:1 and loss by time. Sometimes opponents wants to see how we loss by clicking all triggers ;-( but in Real my last performance are:

Big tournament Bayou Reward:
2:0 vs 4c Astrolabe
2:0 vs UR delver
2:0 vs Bant Miracle
2x technical 0:0
3:0:2 reach Top
1:2 loss UB Deathshadow by 16labd draw xD sick haha

FNM (we have weekly FNM with all tier1 decks)
2:0 vs turboDepths
2:1 vs bomberman
2:0 vs UR delver
2:0 vs death taxes

FNM 4;0
2:1 vs UR delver
2:0 death and taxes
2:0 vs bomberman
2:0 cs RB Goblins

My decklist

2 Oko, Thief of Crowns
1 Baleful Strix/1Uro Giant from newest set since last friday
1 Cauldron Familiar
3 Cavern Harpy
1 Fourth Bridge Prowler
4 Gilded Goose
4 Ice-Fang Coatl
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
4 Shardless Agent
4 Ponder
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Aluren
1 Sylvan Library
1 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Polluted Delta
2 Snow-Covered Forest
2 Snow-Covered Island
2 Snow-Covered Swamp
1 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
2 Verdant Catacombs

Sideboard:
1 Ashiok, Dream Render
1 Back to Basics
2 Carpet of Flowers
1 Collector Ouphe
2 Faerie Macabre
1 Force of Vigor
2 Grafdigger's Cage
2 Plague Engineer
1 Scavenging Ooze
2 Veil of Summer

Im playing this main and sideboard with no changes hmm like 3weeks. It works very well. This week i will play fnm obv and sunday i will compete in Big legacy event so keep finger crossed.

Any thoughts about list?

//funFact
I Need add that all my deck id Japaniese so its fun to see stunned face on opposite side of table ,,da fook is going on”

[Malfeischylde]

Thought everyone would be interested to know that there's a format called premodern, like old type 1.5x, and aluren can be played in it:

Deck: Premodern Aluren 4-6-20.dec

Counts : 60 main / 15 sideboard

Creatures:23
4 Birds of Paradise
4 Veteran Explorer
3 Cavern Harpy
2 Cloud of Faeries
3 Mesmeric Fiend
1 Wall of Blossoms
1 Man-o'-War
3 Raven Familiar
2 Wirewood Savage

Sorceries:11
4 Cabal Therapy
4 Sleight of Hand
3 Living Wish

Instants:2
1 Intuition
1 Stroke of Genius

Enchantments:6
2 Survival of the Fittest
4 Aluren

Lands:18
3 City of Brass
4 Forest
3 Island
2 Llanowar Wastes
2 Swamp
4 Yavimaya Coast

Sideboard:15
1 Maggot Carrier
1 Soul Warden
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Monk Realist
1 Raven Familiar
2 Uktabi Orangutan
1 Wirewood Savage
1 Academy Rector
1 Nostalgic Dreams
1 Krosan Reclamation
1 Rushing River
2 Pernicious Deed
1 City of Brass

My list.


I've found it's super competitive and can be run almost as consistently without survival by running 4 living wishes and 1 other enabler sources or discard spell.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[FTW]

After watching a recent Bosh N Roll video, this deck looks interesting again because there are enough combo pieces that are also just BUG good stuff, and it can SB into a fair deck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg9vkKZQY9M&t=5787s

The donated deck uses 4 Risen Reef as tech to draw 2 per 1 life off Cavern Harpy (once you have 2 copies of Reef in play), but I think that Reef is bad enough outside the combo that the deck could improve by playing more interaction. It's a bad Coiling Oracle unless you have 2. The 4th Uro, Baleful Strix, or even Shardless Agent all draw cards with Harpy but are probably better outside the combo.



//Lands: 20
4 Misty Rainforest
2 Prismatic Vista
1 Verdant Catacombs
1 Polluted Delta
1 Bayou
2 Underground Sea
2 Tropical Island
3 Snow-Covered Forest
3 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Swamp

//Spells: 17
4 Force of Will
4 Brainstorm
4 Ponder
1 Abundant Harvest
3 Abrupt Decay
1 Assassin's Trophy

//Creatures: 20
3 Noble Hierarch
1 Birds of Paradise
4 Ice-Fang Coatl
4 Baleful Strix
3 Cavern Harpy
4 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath
1 Ukkima, Stalking Shadow

//Enchantments: 3
3 Aluren

//Sideboard: 15
3 Endurance
2 Plague Engineer
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
2 Force of Vigor
2 Carpet of Flowers
3 Veil of Summer
1 Flusterstorm
1 Surgical Extraction


Transformational SB:
-3 Aluren, -3 Harpy, -1 Ukkima
+7 fair cards

1-of Cazur, Ruthless Stalker doesn't even seem that terrible to play in a deck with a bunch of flying 1/1 Coatls.

I added Trophy because it looked like the deck was often taxed on things to kill with Decay. Trophy also handles other issues like Karakas and Karn, while giving the opponent a land doesn't seem like a huge deal for this strategy.
I added the 3rd Endurance because Endurance works as T0 grave hate but is also insane in popular fair matchups like UR Delver and Bant control, so it just bolsters the fair SB plan.

Edit: Why is this under DTB instead of Established? Was this ever a DTB?

[malekith]

This decklist was 2nd in the Legacy Pit Open (paper tournament with 326 players):


https://mtgdecks.net/Legacy/aluren-decklist-by-david-tardif-1206168

18 CREATURES
1 Arctic Merfolk
4 Birds of Paradise
1 Cavern Harpy
4 Ice-Fang Coatl
1 Noble Hierarch
3 Recruiter of the Guard
1 Ukkima, Stalking Shadow
3 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

33 SPELLS
4 Brainstorm
1 Force of Negation
4 Force of Will
4 Living Wish
4 Ponder
4 Prismatic Ending
4 Swords to Plowshares
4 Abundant Growth
4 Aluren

4PWS
4 Teferi, Time Raveler

25 LANDS
1 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
1 Polluted Delta
4 Prismatic Vista
1 Savannah
3 Snow-Covered Forest
3 Snow-Covered Island
1 Snow-Covered Plains
2 Tropical Island
1 Tundra
4 Windswept Heath

SB
1 Yorion, Sky Nomad
1 Acererak the Archlich
4 Carpet of Flowers
1 Collector Ouphe
1 Endurance
2 Force of Negation
1 Karakas
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Meddling Mage
1 Plague Engineer
1 Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath

[Disciple of Vess]

I just got the last pieces I needed to build this deck and have been really enjoying it.

This is the current list that I'm running and the first impression I have is that it feels really strong.

Creatures: 18
Cavern Harpy x2
Parasitic Strix x1
Baleful Strix x4
Ice Fang Coatl x4
Recruiter of the Guard x3
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath x2
Endurance x2

Instants/ Sorceries: 18
Brainstorm x4
Ponder x4
Force of Will x4
Living Wish x3
Abrupt Decay x3

Enchantments: 4
Aluren x4

Lands: 20
Bayou x1
Tropical Island x1
Underground Sea x1
Tundra x1
Snow-Covered Island x2
Snow Covered Forest x2
Snow-Covered Swamp x1
Snow-Covered Plains x1
Misty Rainforest x4
Polluted Delta x2
Verdant Catacombs x1
Prismatic Vista x3

Sideboard: 15
Acererak, the Archlich x1
Reclamation Sage x1
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath x1
Endurance x1
Plague Engineer x2
Brazen Borrower x1
Leovold, Emissary of Trest x1
Meddling Mage x1
Collector Ouphe x1
Karakas x1
Carpet of Flowers x2
Force of Negation x2

Let me know what you guys think of the list! :smile:

Also, does anyone know of any Aluren Discords or Facebook groups?

Thanks!

[FTW]

What's the reason to run Cavern Harpy and Parasitic Strix/Ukkima MD over 3 copies of Acererak (or 2 Acererak + 4th Living Wish)?

Doesn't the Strix combo lose to even more hate (Veil of Summer, on top of Torpor Orb and friends)? If so, would it be better to have the plan B in the Wishboard and make it easier to find Acererak main?

Edit: If you stick with the Strix plan, cutting Arctic Merfolk seems bad. It bounces Recruiter but Cavern Harpy doesn't. Arctic Merfolk makes Recruiter into a 1-card combo.
Recruiter-> Merfolk (bounce Recruiter)
Recruiter-> Cavern Harpy (bounce Merfolk) -> Merfolk (bounce Recruiter)
Recruiter -> Parasitic Strix/Ukkima -> Cavern Harpy (bounce Strix/Ukkima) -> Go infinite

Without the Arctic Merfolk, Recruiter is just a 1-time tutor.

[» Arcanis «]

What's the reason to run Cavern Harpy and Parasitic Strix/Ukkima, Stalking Shadow MD over 3 copies of Acererak the Archlich (or 2 Acererak the Archlich + 4th Living Wish)?
Aluren is very capable of playing the fair game. I see it as a Midrange Deck with a combo finish (the Food Chain Archetype has similarities).
Sure, you could adjust the deck to provide better availability of the card Acererak the Archlich to enable a more convenient combo, but then you rely more on the card Aluren itself, that you have to find for the win.
In addition, Acererak the Archlich can be stopped by a single instant removal.


Doesn't the Strix combo lose to even more hate (Veil of Summer, on top of Torpor Orb and friends)?
Let's have a look at the hate card you mentioned and at some cards that weren't on your radar:
- anything that kills Acererak the Archlich, often found in the main deck: Swords to Plowshares, Abrupt Decay, Unholy Heat ... One removal doesn't stop the Strix combo! (see below)
- player hexproof/shroud: Veil of Summer doesn't stop the combo at all. You can still draw your deck thanks to the interaction between Cavern Harpy and Baleful Strix, Ice-Fang Coatl or Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath. That conveniently provides access to single Acererak the Archlich or - thanks to Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath's supply of untapped lands - you can wish for the Acererak the Archlich in the sideboard.
- anything that prevents etb triggers (Torpor Orb) : This is a nightmare for the whole deck, Teferi, Time Raveler and Prismatic Ending have to save the day


Edit: If you stick with the Strix plan, cutting Arctic Merfolk seems bad. It bounces Recruiter but Cavern Harpy doesn't. Arctic Merfolk makes Recruiter into a 1-card combo.
Yep! Even better: With the addition of Quickling you're safe even if the opponent has a removal spell! Explanation: https://www.reddit.com/r/MTGLegacy/comments/7arsq4/interrupting_bugw_aluren_combo_with_one_stp/
Sidenote: In the past, I preferred two Dream Stalker in conjunction with Imperial Recruiter over Arctic Merfolk and Quickling, but :w: is clearly superior to :r: these days thanks to the availability of Yorion, Sky Nomad, Prismatic Ending and Teferi, Time Raveler


If so, would it be better to have the plan B in the Wishboard and make it easier to find Acererak main?
Let's compare both routes to victory by looking possible interaction that stops the plan: Cavern Harpy vs Acererak the Archlich
Can you identify weaknesses of one plan that the other can withstand?

Let's look at the slots in the main deck and the 'cost' to play cards that have the chance to sit in your hand like a brick:

Only Aluren + #card:

Imperial Recruiter or Recruiter of the Guard: One-card-combo, even against one removal spell (if combined with two "return to hand" creatures in the deck)
Baleful Strix or Ice-Fang Coatl: Replace themselves with the chance to draw something for free while providing a useful blocker (with deathtouch)
Quickling, Dream Stalker or Arctic Merfolk: A brick in your hand without any creatures on the board, otherwise they "copy" the best trigger among own creatures for free
Cavern Harpy: A brick in your hand similar to the last item, but it turns the previous classification "synergizes well" into "combotime!" with many other cards in the deck (especially with other bricks)
Ukkima, Stalking Shadow or Parasitic Strix: A brick in your hand. Don't expose them to removal spells unless neccessary!
Acererak the Archlich: One-card-combo, vulnerable to instant speed removal
Living Wish: Requires :1::g: during or shortly before Aluren, is a clear signal for the opponent if you have to pass the turn. Wishboard is full of useful stuff!


Just #card (without Aluren) :

Imperial Recruiter or Recruiter of the Guard: Buys some time :)
Baleful Strix or Ice-Fang Coatl: Replace themselves with the chance to draw something while providing a useful blocker (with deathtouch) for some mana
Quickling, Dream Stalker or Arctic Merfolk: A brick in your hand without any creatures on the board, otherwise they "copy" the best trigger among own creatures for some mana
Cavern Harpy: A brick in your hand similar to the last item, but a value engine with any blue/black creature that draws/searches
Ukkima, Stalking Shadow or Parasitic Strix: A brick in your hand. Don't expose them to removal spells unless neccessary!
Acererak the Archlich: I can't imagine this card being relevant at all without Aluren on the board...
Living Wish: Requires:1::g: and the choice reveals some level of hidden information to the opponent, but is a universal solution to almost any boardstate (given the right amount of time and/or mana)


I'd rather have some utility blockers with small value in my midrange deck than Acererak the Archlich that is only good with Aluren.
Especially with Yorion, Sky Nomad these small creatures threaten a boost in card advantage that might offer more protection (read: countermagic) even against combo decks

[» Arcanis «]

Creatures: 18
Cavern Harpy x2
Parasitic Strix x1
Baleful Strix x4
Ice Fang Coatl x4
Recruiter of the Guard x3
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath x2
Endurance x2

Instants/ Sorceries: 18
Brainstorm x4
Ponder x4
Force of Will x4
Living Wish x3
Abrupt Decay x3

Enchantments: 4
Aluren x4

Lands: 20
Bayou x1
Tropical Island x1
Underground Sea x1
Tundra x1
Snow-Covered Island x2
Snow Covered Forest x2
Snow-Covered Swamp x1
Snow-Covered Plains x1
Misty Rainforest x4
Polluted Delta x2
Verdant Catacombs x1
Prismatic Vista x3

Sideboard: 15
Acererak, the Archlich x1
Reclamation Sage x1
Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath x1
Endurance x1
Plague Engineer x2
Brazen Borrower x1
Leovold, Emissary of Trest x1
Meddling Mage x1
Collector Ouphe x1
Karakas x1
Carpet of Flowers x2
Force of Negation x2

Let me know what you guys think of the list! :smile:

Manabase looks reasonable
Uro in the Wishboard is interesting
Second Plague Enginner in the Wishboad/Sideboard looks odd, but I can see situations, where access to one in the maindeck (after boarding) is reasonable
I rarely found a situation, where Leovold, Emissary of Trest is the card I want to be wishing for
I recommend to try out Grist, the Hunger Tide in the sideboard
I ran Abrupt Decay for a long time and I didn't like three things:

The casting cost includes :b: that is not always available (especially under pressure)
With the opponent knowing about Abrupt Decay, they can feel safe about threads that our deck can't answer (mana value > 3)
Two mana is expensive these days

Eight 1/1 deathtouch cantrip creatures in a 60-card-deck felt like too much "air" during testing. Less :b: in the maindeck might be a reason to reduce the number of Baleful Strix



Also, does anyone know of any Aluren Discords or Facebook groups?
Thanks!
I just joined this Discord channel: https://discord.gg/VAT43QZ

[Weapon X]

I’m going to be revisiting the deck for our next league, but my only question right now is living wish, is it worth it? I’m going to go BUG but I’m on the fence right now for do I need living wish or is it something I’m just trying to force. Hoping to get some discussion going, will most likely post a list soon.

[FTW]

In the newer builds, Living Wish lets you put your otherwise unplayable finisher (Acererak the Archlich) in the SB. Then you avoid dead draws pre-combo, while still having access when you need it. Wish can also find answers. It's like Burning Wish in storm. A variance-reducing modal slot:
-get narrow combo wincon (Acererak, Tendrils)
-get backup wincon (Uro/Grist, Empty)
-get answers to hate

Imho Living Wish is less important if you're not on the Acererak plan or need a lot of SB space.

For your next league, I would avoid sleeving up some old stock Aluren list. Make sure to build around the current meta: Orcish Bowmasters.

A deck of X/1 cantrippers turns enemy Bowmasters into Goblin Sharpshooter. Coatl/Strix are at their all-time worst. Aluren lets opponent cast Bowmasters for free. The maindeck and fair plan need to warp around beating Bowmasters.

Luckily Aluren does not let opponent cast Solitude, Grief, Fury, or Yorion, Sky Nomad. But they could play Charming Prince to scam their Grief/Solitude or Recruiter of the Guard->Skyclave Apparition to exile Aluren. The current meta has more disruptive creatures that can abuse Aluren's symmetry.

The meta also has Dress Down, which interrupts the combo better than any single removal could.

UWx control now leans on Leyline Binding (instant & hits 4cmc) instead of Prismatic Ending (sorcery & often misses 4cmc). BGx plays more Assassin's Trophy than Abrupt Decay. Green decks play Force of Vigor/Boseiju. Opponents can remove Aluren more easily than in the past.

Teferi, Time Raveler seems important to protect against all these tricks. Green also has City of Solitude (Teferi #5) if you're rich. Be prepared that Boseiju, Who Endures will get through Teferi and kill Aluren. Otawara, Soaring City can remove Aluren or remove Teferi (allowing Solitude, Leyline Binding, StP, Trophy, Dress Down, etc.).

[Weapon X]

Am I missing something with acererack as a win con? I’ve seen it pop up but feel like I’m missing why it’s even included.

Having played a few flavours of aluren over the years, I kind of want to play wirewood savage again. It’s also what for me thinking about wish in the first place.

[FTW]

Am I missing something with acererack as a win con? I’ve seen it pop up but feel like I’m missing why it’s even included.

In paper it's a fast 1-card wincon.

Play it, it bounces itself and advances through a dungeon. Pick Lost Mine and you can do it infinite times. With infinite dungeons you can draw your deck and drain opponent to death. This is very slow online but you can shortcut in paper. It's a more compact wincon that doesn't need multiple moving pieces and can be shortcut faster, but it's more vulnerable.

[Weapon X]

I’m now aware I can’t read the card. Just realized I would read the dungeon it asks about and assumed that’s the dungeon you take. It makes much more sense now thanks.