[Deck] Aluren

I saw this list from a relatively recent event on DeckCheck: http://www.deckcheck.net/deck.php?id=35019

And this is the list, in case the link doesn't work:

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

4 Cavern Harpy
4 Coiling Oracle
1 Parasitic Strix
4 Raven Familiar
3 Selkie Hedge-Mage
4 Vendilion Clique

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
4 Intuition
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Aluren

At first I thought it was just ok, but after trying it a little I like it more and more. What I like the most is that being all creatures blue, Cavern Harpy is no longer a dead card without Aluren, so you can run 4 without fear, hardcast them, and don't necessarily need tutors to find one. Also, Vendilion Clique somehow fills the same role as both Tarmogoyf and Cabal Therapy, since it can function as an alternate win condition, is always welcome disruption (Cabal Therapy is bad in aggro matchups, for instance), and works under Aluren with Cavern Harpy. Selkie Hedge-Mage is a house against aggro, it gives us 3 turns (they must recast the bounced creature, get chumpblocked by Selkie, then take the life gained), it also gives infinite life, so it's like playing with 3 Spike Feeder.

In fact, I would only change the mana base adding 2-3 more basics.

I like the build but I have one problem with it.

Its slow, you can not go off before t4, no way in hell. MAAYBE t3 if you put a land in
it via Coiling Oracle, but still, its slow.

How did you go against aggro and such?

I will test the build this weekend, with few changes - because I don't own some cards.

2 intuition 2 impulse
and I'll be adding abit more basics, because of the whole "wasteland" full metagame.

Maybe stifle in MD, but it doesn't go well with the "sinergy" of the deck.

@ Nonex.

I also saw that list (which formed the basis of my suggestion on the last page). How were the coiling oracles? They seemed weak to me, but with set up via brainstorm and Lim-Dul's I did wonder whether they actually provided efficient acceleration (and an alternative combo-ish part)? I also didn't like the selkies too much, but that was pre-banning mystical tutor and therefore in a metagame which is likely to have had more combo (where the selkie looks weak). I can see their merit when you're facing down zoo. In your tesdting how consistently were you going off, and on what turns?

If you own enough of duals (old or new) selkies are powerful, I'll be testing that build, or a similar
one at a tourney 2morrow probably so I can write a mini report.

I wonder if it would be good to put 2 living wish in instead of 2 intuitions for some SB utility (bojuka bog or combo pieces)

Anyway I'd replace any copies of Raven Familiar with Sea Gate Oracle. Those seem to be way better as you can drop them as blockers and you don't have to pay echo for them.

Raven Familiar digs deeper. Only Court Hussar could actually compete with it.

@ swopp & Cacks: I need some more time to test against most decks. So far I won against a CounterTop + Tarmogoyf + Jace Mind Sculptor deck by Force of Will --> Counterbalance, Selkie --> Tarmogoyf and some Cavern Harpy + Vendilion Clique + Lim-Dûl's Vault insistence to bait his counters. Aluren eventually came and I went off with Harpy + Coiling Oracle + Raven Familiar.

I have a question concerning your list Nonex. Whats it do about Goblins? I personally predict that goblins will go back on the rise now that we are in July. And the fact that your list runs all blue creatures.... goblins would eat you alive. All it would take is one goblin piledriver and a bunch of other dudes. You can't force of will all of their goblins.

Hi guys, yesterday at 18m tourney I ran an Aluren deck, similar list to the one up, just I didn't have
selkies, so I had to "manuever". I finished 2nd after splitting the final table with a friend.

1 Bayou
2 Forest
2 Island
4 Misty Rainforest
4 Tropical Island
1 Underground Sea
2 Windswept heath
2 WU fetch (forgot the name)


4 Cavern Harpy
4 Coiling Oracle
2 Parasitic Strix
4 Raven Familiar
3 Man'o'war
1 Auriok Champion
2 Vendilion Clique

4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
2 Intuition
4 Lim-Dul's Vault
4 Aluren
2 Impulse

Game 1. Affinity

First game I ignore him and win on t3 after oracle put a land on t2 in.
Game two I counter turn2 that artifact guy, Ethersworn Canonist, get some beating on t3
and go off on t4, after I topdecked on 2 life with harpy on battlefield parasitic strix and killed the poor player ;)

2:0
Game 2.BGW Junk (Horizon stuff without blue, with black for deed, therapy, maelstorm puls, and stuff like that)

First game I win after hard casting manowar to bounce tarmogoyf and setting the combo in hand via Lim'dul.

I don't board anything.

Second game I manage to go around Krosan grip via Clique (really nice) but I lose my steam after dropping aluren, because he kept in hand a wasteland for a while, then when I could go off, killed my 4th land.

Game three mulligan to five, then wastelands+knights demolish me.

With some better luck I could have won this (4 clique) and sb 3 therapy could do fun.

1-1-0

g3: Combo elves.

First game he goes turn 2, takes a wrong elf via summoning pact, then casts another pact and dies due to not having mana to pay them. I also countered t2 glimpse of nature.

Game two I counter t2 glimpse, he doesn't do anything on his t3, then I combo off the next turn.

2-1-0

g4: Landstill (without moat)

First game I have a force and kombo, he draws a nice hand with 5 lands, counterspell + force, but not another blue spell.
I managed to counter the CS, but he didn't have anything to do with his FoW in hand, so I combo off.
1-0
Next game I keep a hand with 2 fow, board cabal therapy and carpet of flowers, he takes out my carpet of flowers with a duress, over FoW/LDV, I play EoT clique and see Jace and 3x Daze, while I had 4 mana, I removed Jace. So I wait a bit, bounce clique with harpy hardcast, then wait for 2 more lands, and go off when he tried to counter my aluren via 3x daze, 2 were payed, one got FoWed and landstill died with screams of hatred.
2-0

So I finished 4th on tiebrakers with 3-1-0, and was paired with a friend of mine who ran some version of ANT and had 4-0.

We decided to split, but played nontheless, first game I keep a hand with 4 FoW, a blue spell, a land and aluren.
After a while he decided to try and go off, when his burning wish got countered. Then next turn I countered Ad Nauseam, and
the turn after that some other spell, and managed to combo off. Quite strange hand I kept, but proven good against such a deck. I board in therapies.

second game he comboed off because I lost some steam, and he raped me abit with duress.
He decided to concede since tourney was over and we finished 1-2.

I think I should run 2 selkies MD and 1-2 Man'o'war, he's Just too good for the deck.

I know this report is kinda crappy, but still.. I'm not used to writing them anyways :)

Oh and yes, I absolutely love [card]vendillion clique[/card]. Against affinity in g1 I used it on myself to kick out some unnecessary land from my hand and draw an extra card, luckily, it was Cavern Harpy.

I would play 4 of those, and after some tought 4 of intuition. MAAYBEE 3. Impulse is funny, but not good enough.

Against Landstill I did an intuition EOT for 3x Force, which in order with one in my hand, had proven too difficult for him to counter.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by swoop

Oh and yes, I absolutely love [card]vendillion clique[/card]. Against affinity in g1 I used it on myself to kick out some unnecessary land from my hand and draw an extra card, luckily, it was Cavern Harpy.

I would play 4 of those, and after some tought 4 of intuition. MAAYBEE 3. Impulse is funny, but not good enough.

Against Landstill I did an intuition EOT for 3x Force, which in order with one in my hand, had proven too difficult for him to counter.

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huh?

you can't cycle lands.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by johanessen

huh?

you can't cycle lands.

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People who target themselves often get in the habit of not showing the card to their opponent (they have to). Then it becomes easy to start throwing back lands on accident. I noticed my friend did the same thing vs. me.

Oh sorry, I must have thought of another play, I did cycle some card tho.

But thanks for noticing that, also 'till I've put 2 cliques on board, I had no idea they were legends :p
I kinda don't care for new cards till they spank me a few times.

I played this during our yearly Mirkwood Cup tournament. The deck was awesome, though I was still learning it and was operating on a 4am bedtime from that party the day before...I made some play mistakes that cost me some games, including the critical one in game 3 of the final round, that would of put me in top 8, where I would of had very good matchups to win the Black Lotus first prize.


Creatures - 19
1 Bone Shredder
1 Cavern Harpy
1 Dream Stalker
2 Eternal Witness
4 Imperial Recruiter
1 Man-o'-War
1 Raven Familiar
4 Wall of Roots
1 Parasitic Strix
2 Vendilion Clique
1 Selkie Hedge-Mage



Enchantments - 4
4 Aluren

Instants - 14
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Intuition
2 Lim Dul's Vault
1 Chain Of Vapor

Sorceries - 3
3 Cabal Therapy

Lands -20
2 Forest
2 Island
2 Swamp
2 Bayou
4 Misty Rainforest
3 Tropical Island
1 Taiga
4 Verdant Catacombs


Sideboard:
2 Engineered Explosives
3 Pithing Needle
2 Pernicious Deed
1 Harmonic Sliver
4 Leyline of the Void
3 Krosan Grip


Not gonna give the full low down of every round......the quick version, I lost to merfolk round 1, as I am an idiot and didn't counter lord of atlantis.....he was dead the next turn too. Round 2 I beat Dragon Stompy....Round 3 I beat up on Counter Thopter, Round 4 I maul goblins......round 5 I beat CounterBant, but games were very close. Round 6 I lose to Aggro Loam.....if I Boneshredder his Tarmogoyf, I win, but I didn't.....and I don't draw a land to go off the second time. Pure play mistake on my part. The deck played great.

The main deck.....The selkie never factored in, honestly wish it was just another harpy so I could pitch my other to FOW if needed. The cliques were pretty good......but not great. Lim-Dul's Vault was umm, good but I dunno how great it was.

I dunno on the SB, as I am really bad at sideboarding. I often don't know what to take out. Maybe one day I will just make myself a little cheat sheet to remember! I am also thinking so just straight creature removal and more discard (duress, thoughtseize, 4th therapy)

All in all, I love the deck and will be playing it tonight at our weekly legacy tournament.

Later EddieO

Two pieces of tech I believe are indispensable in modern Aluren lists:

1) Sensei's Divining Top
SDT has proven itself in ANT and DDFT decks as an anti-control and anti-discard measure. While the former is not such a problem for Aluren, the latter definitely is.
It is also non-blue deck manipulation, making it very useful during going off (provided you play with Wall of Roots) and against LD/colour-denial.
Last but not least it makes CoV even better. Not only is it an extra permanent you can use to continue the chain, you can also put the draw ability on the stack to draw a card for free.

2) Ancient Tomb
Speeds up the most important set-up pieces (Intuition, Familiar) and Aluren itself.

I thought about Top.....went with LDV instead, as it gave me another card to pitch to FOW if needed.....plus it just lets me win.

As for tomb, colorless mana is a bit dangerous. I've been looking at some lists online from MTGO and Cedric Phillips has been playing the deck and often. He has employed Havenwood Battleground from Fallen Empires....comes into play tapped, but taps for green and can sac for two, plus not damage. His deck is a bit different though, as it has birds and oracles to ramp up mana and/or card draw. I dunno if I like his build better or not.

Played the deck again last night, went 2-1 in eight person, losing again to aggro loam on mana screw....beat dredge and scepter chant/Natural order deck....I laughed at all his counterspells, chant, swords and krosan grips.

Later EddieO

I've always been facinated with this deck. It is also the 1st combo deck I've encounter and I like the creature interaction as it reminds me of my pauper pet deck (Parlor Tricks).

One of the things that made me stay away on dedicating on the deck is Imperial Recruiter. I would rather purchase a dual-land before the Recruiters and I myself cannot afford dual lands (I would rather build a deck with Fetchlands on my mana-base).

I noticed that recently, the list has removed Imperial Recruiter. Is it because of its price or is it because having to splash red for it isn't as effective as everyone percieved it to be. Given that color splashing is not an issue in Legacy but financially challenged players such as myself have little budget to invest on dual lands.

Anyways, I have noticed swoop's list and its pretty budget-friendly. Given that I already have most of the cards in that deck (I am only missing Aluren, Intuition and Vault - yes, I have FoWs)

With that list, Would Ponders and SDT a good alternative on Intuition and Vaults?

Also, would a couple of Fauna Shaman be good in finding needed creatures (kinda like a budget/on-color alternative for Imperial Recruiter)?

I will again make a rough copy of the deck and hopefully my budget alternatives work out.

Any other advices are welcome, especially the budget type of advices ;)

I advocate moving the list away from Recruiters. Recruiters stream-line the combo, and are great when aluren hits the table. But they encourage bad manabases and are dead draws pre-aluren.

For a more budget friendly ver, here is a list that I am working on (with a friends help, we've both been playing the deck for a few years). You could make changes based on it to make it cheaper:

3 Cavern Harpy
4 Raven Familiar
1 Parasitic Strix
2 Eternal Witness
2 Man-O-War
3 Wall of Blossoms
3 Wall of Roots
18 dudes
4 Aluren
4 Brainstorm
4 Force of Will
3 Maelstrom Pulse
3 Cabal Therapy
2 Intuition
20 spells
3 Tropical Island
2 Underground Sea
1 Bayou
3 Misty Rainforest
2 Verdant Catacombs
2 Polluted Delta
5 Forest
3 Island
1 Swamp
22 lands

sideboard
3 perniscous deed
3 krosan grip
2 duress
1 cabal therapy
4 leyline of the void
2 flexspots

The manabase runs more basics because it makes it more resilient to non-basic hate. You need to have at least a few duels to support a 3 color manabase. You could avoid sea's all together and run 3 bayous if you prefer.

I personally like force of wills, but you could cut these infavor of more hand disruption. In that case you might need to reconfigure the manabase since you would need 5 instead of 4 mana to go off (1 for the obligitory thoughtsieze / duress)

It doesn't run goyf's. Though they have been used in the past. It doesn't need them. Blossoms adds more draw and roots adds more mana to speed up a turn 3 aluren.

I don't see how recruiter makes the mana base unstable.....I play one taiga. I pretty much NEVER have to hard cast recruiter. I did once in the tourney to fetch wall of blossums to ramp up my mana for daze and use cabal therapy....

The mana base you posted plays the same amount of duals, and you play 1 less fetch and 2 additional lands.....doesn't look really any more stable to me.

The ONLY reason to not play the recruiter version is cost.....in MTGO where recruiter is .25 cents.....everyone plays it in aluren. It's an auto win if it hits the table with aluren out and is not disrupted (plowed, bolted, etc)......without it, you need to have two of the combo creatures in hand to start the chain....

Later EddieO

You said it, it's an auto win if it hits the table with aluren out and is not disrupted, something that forces you to run at least two Dream Stalkers or such so the opponent needs at least two removal spells, and Dream Stalker sucks. The main point against Recruiter is not the mana base being more unstable, it's the combo being more fragile. I can see it taking the role of Chord of Calling, that is, you usually go off with Harpy + Raven, you have one of them and Recruiter gets the other. But if the combo has to be based on Recruiter, things get ugly.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EddieO

I don't see how recruiter makes the mana base unstable.....I play one taiga. I pretty much NEVER have to hard cast recruiter. I did once in the tourney to fetch wall of blossums to ramp up my mana for daze and use cabal therapy....

The mana base you posted plays the same amount of duals, and you play 1 less fetch and 2 additional lands.....doesn't look really any more stable to me.

The ONLY reason to not play the recruiter version is cost.....in MTGO where recruiter is .25 cents.....everyone plays it in aluren. It's an auto win if it hits the table with aluren out and is not disrupted (plowed, bolted, etc)......without it, you need to have two of the combo creatures in hand to start the chain....

Later EddieO

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What about the simple fact that Recruiter is basically a dead draw before Aluren hits the table. Nothing else in the deck is a dead draw.

With Harpy you can bounce a familiar or man o war to play it again, and have a flyer that is essentially immune to targeted hate.
Familiar helps dig for aluren or answers pre-aluren.
All of the other cards have obvious benefits.
Pre-Aluren recruiter is a bad 1/1 that requires red to hardcast, that does not help you draw aluren to go off. The recruiter ver. may look sexy, but it is no better than the non-recruiter ver. I don't need several MTGO players to understand this, I have the 1 year of playing Aluren with recruiter's back when they were $25 a piece to back me up. They were eventually cut because while they made the combo cool, they did not help me at all pre-aluren.