[Deck] Aluren

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Originally Posted by 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!

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

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Originally Posted by Moneymakermich

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

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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.

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/archetyp...en-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.

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.

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Originally Posted by pocari79

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.

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Play 1 academy rector :)

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Originally Posted by pocari79

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.

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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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by 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

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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?

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

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

https://discord.gg/estFcXj

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?

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Originally Posted by 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?

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Nope, cascade reads:

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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.

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So you're actually just casting cards from exile.

oki

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Originally Posted by 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?

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

New material: assassin's trophy?

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

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Originally Posted by Moneymakermich

New material: assassin's trophy?

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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.