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Barook
03-19-2015, 05:30 PM
I totally forgot I wanted to brew with that:

Alesha, Who Smiles at Death + Master of Cruelties

It's worth noting that this combo can be set up with Entomb, which can be run for further utility.

Alesha swings, trigger goes on the stack, Entomb in response, fetch Master, let the trigger resolve, bring back Master. Even if Alesha dies, they still have to deal with a swinging Master, which otherwise puts them on a rather uncomfortable 1 life without blocks in a deck that most likely features burn and DRS drains.

Now the question is how the rest of the deck should look like. Red and black are a given with the colors, but what about the support colors? Flashback/utility spells to consider which are fetchable with Entomb:

Life from the Loam
Cabal Therapy
Lingering Souls
Faithless Looting

Depending on the direction of the deck, the removal can include:

Lightning Bolt
Swords to Plowshares
Abrupt Decay
Punishing Fire

As for the creatures, Deathrite Shaman should be a must, since it can accel, hate on Graveyards and kill opponents weakened by Master. Stoneforge Mystic is good on its own and Alesha's first strike goes well with equipment. It can also be brought back with Alesha for the equipment fetching effect. If SFM dies during the attack, it can be recycled later again. Other possible options are Young Pyromancer and Monastery Mentor. Minister of Pain might be an interesting tutor target for Entomb. Same goes for Vengeful Pharaoh, although for different reason. With both Faithless Looting and the likely inclusion of Liliana of the Veil, I could see Pharaoh doing work. All those three cards also work very well with Loam if you decide to run it. A few Tasigur, the Golden Fang might fit in here, too.

There are also other paths like running additional discard and Reanimate to either reanimate a single Griselbrand after Entomb or creatures from your opponent, although that plan costs additional slots and I'm not really sold on it.

Main question is the color splash - either go white for SFM, StP, possibly Lingering Souls, Mentor and Mother of Runes or go deeper into green for better Loam support, PF combo and Abrupt Decay. Hard to say which one is more appealing.

Edit: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth + suprise Filth for the lolz.

Karhumies
03-19-2015, 06:12 PM
Since we are going RB, we could be running

Anger
Gamble
Rituals/Simian Spirit Guide
Blood Moon
Thoughtseize
Lightning Bolt
Necrotic Ooze
Overmaster
Liliana
Tasigur
Hymn to Tourach
Lightning Axe

Alesha can also bring back Triskelion for dealing that one point of damage.

...although I do think that this deck could be better as a Modern (Jund?) deck even though that means going without Entomb.

Memories of the Time
03-19-2015, 07:04 PM
^This one, because in modern we haven't to deal with DRS, that's a huge problem i think

Barook
03-19-2015, 08:03 PM
^This one, because in modern we haven't to deal with DRS, that's a huge problem i think
Modern lacks Entomb aka the main combo setup and since I'm leaning towards a white build, key white cards since it's more resilient to GY hate because Plan B is better.

If you run Bolts, StP and Lilianas, maybe even stuff like Jitte if you run SFM, then DRS should be a solvable problem imho.

Karhumies
03-20-2015, 02:02 AM
Modern lacks Entomb aka the main combo setup
Alesha's ability targets, so you need to cast Entomb before declaring attackers anyway. Might as well use a sorcery (Faithless looting), so might as well go modern IMO.

Barook
03-20-2015, 08:53 AM
Alesha's ability targets, so you need to cast Entomb before declaring attackers anyway. Might as well use a sorcery (Faithless looting), so might as well go modern IMO.
My bad then, I thought it only targeted on resolving, but you're right.

Faithless Looting still lacks the tutor function, though.

MaximumC
03-20-2015, 12:06 PM
My bad then, I thought it only targeted on resolving, but you're right.

Faithless Looting still lacks the tutor function, though.

I think you've got better options in Legacy if you want a 4 mana, two card, conditional win. This is a fun deck to try, but it doesn't attack on any new angle, so I don't think she gets there unless you've got some MAD synergies going on. And, what synergies better with a 2R creature than Trinisphere?

----------------
Alesha Stompy - Proposed
----------------

Mana
2x Mountain
4x Bloodstained Mire
3x Badlands
3x Swamp
4x City of Traitors
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Chrome Mox
4x Simian Spirit Guide

Hate
4x Blood Moon
4x Magus of the Moon
4x Chalice of the Void
3x Trinisphere

Wincon
4x Alesha, who Smiles at Death
4x Hanweir Watchkeep
1x Master of Cruelties
4x Entomb

Other
3x Sudden Demise
2x Thoughtseize

Obviously the mana is a bit shaky, but the concept here is to use Alesha to speed up the kill in a Dragon-stompy style list. As a 3/2 first striker, she's going to be doing a fine impersonation of a littlish finisher for this kind of deck anyway. Hanweir sees modest play in Werewolf Stompy, and he can be returned as another attacking with Alesha based on his Day side. Master can be a combo finish if you have the B open at the end of any turn. Thoughtseize gives you another black source to pitch to Chome Mox if you need to, gives gives you an angle of attack that Stompy lists typically dont, and lets you get Master out of your hand if you are unlucky enough to draw him. If you're about to win with him, it also lets you check if the coast is clear. Demise clears out chump blockers so you can connect.

The only other way I see this working is in more of a white disruptive aggro list. I've tried stuff like this before, it's fun.

----------------
Alesha Sligh
----------------

Mana
2x Mountain
4x Arid Mesa
3x Plateau
3x Plains
4x City of Traitors
4x Ancient Tomb
4x Chrome Mox
4x Simian Spirit Guide

Hate
2x Blood Moon
4x Magus of the Moon

Burn
4x Lightning Bolt
4x Chain Lightning
3x Swords to Plowshares

Dorks
3x Alesha, who Smiles at Death
2x Containment Priest
4x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
1x Prohpetic Flamespeaker
3x Mother of Runes
1x Master of Cruelties
2x Gamble

The concept here is to eshew the lock mentality in favor of a disruptive sligh approach. Gamble replaces Entomb as a way to get Master into the yard on an empty hand.

Mystical_Jackass
03-20-2015, 02:23 PM
I also see some good synergy with Faithless Looting, Imperial Recruiter, Dark Confidant and Unearth. Maybe even Mogg War Marshal... just keep swinging and recurring creatures back and slamming opponents face. I feel like the Master of Cruelties could just be more incorporated into the win, tutor him with Recruiter if you have the win in sight, or maybe go for Magus of the Moon to lock them out, etc.

EDIT: Oh yeah, one other good option to get with Alesha or Recruiter: Mirror Entity.

Karhumies
03-20-2015, 06:29 PM
Whilst talking about a red deck or red stompy shell, let's not forget about
Goblin Rabblemaster
Painter's Servant + Grindstone + red blasts
Goblin Welder
Crucible of Worlds + Wasteland for an additional angle on land-locking the opponent

Landing down a fast Rabblemaster into an empty table typically goldfishes the opponent down faster than a Tarmogoyf, and it's difficult for the opponent to get a 1:1 trade with it without Terminus, Pyroclasm or similar. Personally, I would be very happy to see Rabblemaster utilized in a stompy shell.

The Etched Champion
03-23-2015, 04:48 PM
why not put this combo in an existing zombardment shell? sorry I have a deck list just don't know how to make it pretty :P

MaximumC
03-23-2015, 05:01 PM
why not put this combo in an existing zombardment shell? sorry I have a deck list just don't know how to make it pretty :P

Because I don't think Alesha actually plays very well with Zombardment. She's doing something that deck does, but fundamentally Zombardment is not about jamming all the reanimation you can. It's about fielding quick threats that recur on 1 or 2 mana. All the stuff you'd recur in that deck with Alesha is already run because it recurs itself with no help from other cards.