[Deck] Aluren

Was expecting to see a room full of delver and BUG midrange, which there was, so I played a pretty stock BUG Aluren version at the classic this weekend. Ended up 5-3. Two Fourth Bridge Prowlers and one diabolic edict in the board were impressive.

Losses to burn, grixis delver, and lands. Burn guy drew well, played tight and killed my creatures at appropriate moments. Grixis delver had probe-therapy both games with a clock and I saw zero baleful strix. Against lands I lost game 1 to mulligans and game 3 to T1 sphere, T2 second sphere. Wins against D&T, Wb D&T, Miracles, Burn, and Eldrazi. I haven't played against burn twice in a tournament in a long time. Good weekend. I have a little trouble deciding when to aggressively flood the board without Aluren. I think I could have gotten a game against the better burn player if I had thrown down a parasitic strix for no value and attempted to clock him, but I was too focused on paths for his victory and thought I should hold the strix for a turn or two to hopefully draw a black creature. Because of the matchups I saw, I only used about half my board cards (only brought in grave hate against lands, didn't bring in mindbreaks or CTherapy at all). I played one Kgrip in the board, which I know is not super popular, but it is a favorite of mine and was solid in the matchups I faced. Thanks to the posters on this thread, it is enjoyable.

How important is Leovold to this deck? I'm building this deck right now, but I can't find any copies of Leovold near me.

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Originally Posted by cheerios

How important is Leovold to this deck? I'm building this deck right now, but I can't find any copies of Leovold near me.

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Generally speaking, Leovold is a great card, which can steal many games. IMO when you play recruiter version, Leovold is worse because you can't tutor for it and playing more copies makes your deck more unconsistent. But if you are building Blue Aluren as a kind of value deck, it's great to play two of them.

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Originally Posted by cheerios

How important is Leovold to this deck? I'm building this deck right now, but I can't find any copies of Leovold near me.

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I would add that, non-recruiter version, besides being a generally good card, Leovold is a nice piece for protecting/insulating the win when you attempt to win via combo. If I have Leo and harpy but not parasitic strix, I flash him in first to turn off opponents search and reduce effectiveness of removal then proceed to start digging. With the full combo in hand, you can either, attempt to go off and flash in Leo in response to a brainstorm, or play him first and hope they don't brainstorm in response. I tend to lead with him to maximize my redraw potential should the opponent attempt to interact, others chime in if you think this is wrong. If you can't find any, I would recommend replacing him with vendilion clique, as that is an instant speed disruption spell which can serve similar roles in protecting your plan or disrupting your opponent's.

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Originally Posted by hofzge

Played this list to a 3-0-1 finish at LGS:

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

4x Baleful Strix
4x Cavern Harpy
4x Deathrite Shaman
2x Glint-Nest Crane
2x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1x Parasitic Strix
4x Shardless Agent

3x Abrupt Decay
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Ponder
2x Smuggler's Copter
4x Aluren

Sideboard
1x Abrupt Decay
2x Cabal Therapy
2x Carpet of Flowers
2x Engineered Plague
1x Meekstone
4x Surgical Extraction
2x Thoughtseize
1x Umezawa's Jitte

Won against 12Post (2-0), Aggro Loam (2-0), Storm (2-0)
Drew against Miracles (1-1-1)

I love the change from 2 Parasitic Strix and 1 Glint-Nest Crane to 1 Parasitic Strix and 2 Glint-Nest Cranes. I searched multiple times through the entire library for the Strix to kill.
The change to 2 Copters is also great as they singlehandedly won a game against Miracles (still an enormously grindy matchup). Also they make your dorky CITP dudes into threats as well as filtering towards Aluren.

Most games I won by comboing - especially against uninteractive opponents like 12Post or Aggro Loam the deck is just great; against Miracles I won via Copter beats; against Storm I won with Leovold & double Force and Cabal Therapy & Force and then normal beatdown.

I never boarded in either Meekstone or Engineered Plague and maybe one could also cut a carpet of Flowers, but that card is just so good against any Delver deck.

TL DR: I won some and love the current incarnation of the deck.

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Cool list. But 62 cards?

I played a Cartesian-ish list on my Monday weekly to an undefeated record with this list (notably it was my first time cutting Ponders and the second Parasitic Strix to add a Sakura-Tribe Elder, a Coiling Oracle, and a second Glint-Nest Crane.)

20 Lands

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

23 Creatures

4 Deathrite Shaman
1 Sakura-Tribe Elder
1 Coiling Oracle
4 Baleful Stix
4 Cavern Harpy
3 Shardless Agent
2 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1 Parasitic Strix

13 Instants

2 Ponder
4 Brainstorm
3 Abrupt Decay
4 Force of Will

4 Enchantments

4 Alluren

Sideboard

1 Karakas
2 Carpet of Flowers
2 Dread of Night
1 Leovold, Emissary of Trest
2 Faerie Macabre
2 Fatal Push
1 Abrupt Decay
2 Hydroblast
2 Cabal Therapy

The second Crane felt great. So did the Coiling Oracle. I never got to cast a Sakura-Tribe Elder but he seems great as a way to combat both Blood Moon and Wasteland and also accelerate into a turn 3 Aluren where possible. I played against Miracles and Maverick and True-Name BUG, the last being the most difficult match of the night. My Miracles match-up feels great.

Has anyone been trying trophy mage in the place of glint nest crane?

It can find shardless agent or strix at a much higher accuracy. Think i will be playing one copy at my lgs to see how she performs.

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Originally Posted by mike1987

Has anyone been trying trophy mage in the place of glint nest crane?

It can find shardless agent or strix at a much higher accuracy. Think i will be playing one copy at my lgs to see how she performs.

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I think she is ok, but the difference between 2 and 3 mana is quite big and having more 3 drops cannot be that helpful, except if you play things like Ensnaring bridge, Crucible, Trinisphere and Vedalken Shackles.

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Originally Posted by hofzge

How is Shardless BUG a better BUG deck if this deck has Aluren.
If you want to play Recruiter why not play:
1x Bayou
1x Forest
1x Island
4x Misty Rainforest
3x Polluted Delta
1x Swamp
2x Tropical Island
1x Tundra
2x Underground Sea
4x Verdant Catacombs

2x Arctic Merfolk
4x Baleful Strix
1x Cavern Harpy
4x Deathrite Shaman
0-1 Eternal Witness
0-1 Reclamation Sage
2-3x Leovold, Emissary of Trest
1x Parasitic Strix
4x Recruiter of the Guard

4x Ponder
4x Aluren
3x Abrupt Decay
4x Brainstorm
4x Force of Will
2x Intuition

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This actually looks pretty cool. I'll give this a try as I've been unhappy with Shardless Agent lately.

Hey, I'm planning on bringing Aluren to a win-a-dual this weekend. The maindeck that I'm running will probably be http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14753&d=288796&f=LE although I'm planning on switching up the SB for the expected meta down there. It's been a year or two since I last sleeved up Aluren- is the straight BUG version where I want to be? I own Imperial Recruiters, and had a lot of luck with the red splash giving me access to a few spicy SB cards (BBE vs Miracles, Staticaster, etc), but the secondary gameplan of the straight bug lists look much stronger, and I know the red splash will have some difficulty against a field with multiple RG lands players.

The ability to run FoW definitely makes me excited for this list- previous versions I've run have only run 1/each of the combo pieces (kind of a bummer- now I have to find two other matching foil japanese cavern harpies?) and forced us to run a more proactive discard suite rather than the countermagic. How does this alter our gameplan against the format's other combo decks? I know I'll be less able to rely on spicy 1-ofs out of the board, but are there any other hints/tips/tricks you'd suggest for someone transitioning to the newer BUG version?

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Originally Posted by Moneymakermich

I'm curious why you seem to dislike academy rector that much. My experience with it is ok, better than without. If you cast it with therapy in graveyard you can get alluren that turn, it even cannot be targetted by swords in that case. When it is into play, will the opponent attack with his tarmo/thalia/...? Or even emrakul, since you'll get the aluren into play before taking the damage 'thanks' to annihilator...

Please tell me more than 'it costs 4 so it's too slow'

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First you need to get her in the grave, then you need to actually keep her in the grave until her trigger resolves.

This means that you need a reliable sac outlet (and I personally think that 4 cabal therapy are too few) and that your opponent doesn't use grave hate against you, because if Rector is removed from the grave before her triggers you don't get to fetch.

I have played quite a bit with Rector in a list with 4 Therapies and Phyrexian Tower and Veteran Explorer. I decided to cut because it doesn't help against decks you struggle against. It's pretty much a cute win more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by TTX

I have played quite a bit with Rector in a list with 4 Therapies and Phyrexian Tower and Veteran Explorer. I decided to cut because it doesn't help against decks you struggle against. It's pretty much a cute win more.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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On this note: what are the decks Aluren struggle against? I've got little experience with the deck

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Originally Posted by kingtk3

On this note: what are the decks Aluren struggle against? I've got little experience with the deck

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Fast combo and mana denial

So been playing Aluren for the past 2 weeks... with the BUG build circa http://mtgtop8.com/event?e=14644&d=287952&f=LE I have a few variances in the main...I love the deck. I'm gonna try the new list that Cartesian put up... cause it seems to post good results.... My issues come with the sideboard plan... I feel like the deck needs grafdiggers cage in the board for reanimator and elves... does anyone else know the strategy against eldazi cause it just feels unwinable... I had no idea what to sideboard.... currently 4-2 with the deck with losses to eldrazi and elves... beat DNT 2x, BR reanimator, and grixis delver.

So my local meta is Death N Taxes (at least 4 players), miracles (2-3 players), storm(1-2 players), elves (2-3 players), shardless bug (Reid duke version) (3 players) , grixis delver (2 players), ur delver (1 player), eldrazi (1 player), RUG delver (2 players), lands (2 players) , BR reanimator(3 players), dredge (1 player) and burn (1 player)... advise on sideboard plans with this in mind... I know my local meta is pretty diverse and large.. we get around 12-16 players for FNM legacy.. and they starting give EE points for Legacy events on Saturdays which is cool...Thx in advance to everyone.

Actually my list looks like this now.. apparently main is pretty standard (I don't like tribe elder and would like leovold back to the main and play the 20th land but I'm gonna try next week for now)
4 deathrite shaman
4 shardless agent
4 cavern harpy
4 baleful strix
2 Sakura tribe elder
2 glint nest crane
2 parasitic strix
4 force of will
4 brainstorm
4 aluren
3 abrupt decay
3 ponder
1 sensei's diving top
4 polluted delta
3 misty rainforest
2 verdent catacombs
2 underground sea
2 island
2 swamp
2 forest
1 bayou
1 tropical island

Sideboard
1 abrupt decay
2 dread of night
1 faerie macabre
2 fatal push
1 grafdiggers cage
1 hydroblast
2 leovold,emissary of treat
2 mindbreak trap
2 pernicious deed
1 tormod's crypt

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Originally Posted by bodea1981

Actually my list looks like this now.. apparently main is pretty standard (I don't like tribe elder and would like leovold back to the main and play the 20th land but I'm gonna try next week for now)
4 deathrite shaman
4 shardless agent
4 cavern harpy
4 baleful strix
2 Sakura tribe elder
2 glint nest crane
2 parasitic strix
4 force of will
4 brainstorm
4 aluren
3 abrupt decay
3 ponder
1 sensei's diving top
4 polluted delta
3 misty rainforest
2 verdent catacombs
2 underground sea
2 island
2 swamp
2 forest
1 bayou
1 tropical island

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Originally Posted by bodea1981

So my local meta is Death N Taxes (at least 4 players), miracles (2-3 players), storm(1-2 players), elves (2-3 players), shardless bug (Reid duke version) (3 players) , grixis delver (2 players), ur delver (1 player), eldrazi (1 player), RUG delver (2 players), lands (2 players) , BR reanimator(3 players), dredge (1 player) and burn (1 player)...

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Don't you want to play Leovolds main? If you have them I think they would rock against your expected meta: They are great against Storm, Miracles and Elves, good against Grixis Delver, UR Delver, ok against Lands, D&T, Burn and BUG and just bad aginst Eldrazi and Dredge.

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Originally Posted by bodea1981

Sideboard
1 abrupt decay
2 dread of night
1 faerie macabre
2 fatal push
1 grafdiggers cage
1 hydroblast
2 leovold,emissary of treat
2 mindbreak trap
2 pernicious deed
1 tormod's crypt

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I am not a big fan of Faerie Macabre in this deck - For Tormod's Crypt / Grafdigger's you have Tutors in Glint-Nest and Surgical would extract all creatures. If you struggle against Eldrazi, play 1-2 Toxic Deluges instead of some dread of Night and Fatal Push.

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Originally Posted by hofzge

Don't you want to play Leovolds main? If you have them I think they would rock against your expected meta: They are great against Storm, Miracles and Elves, good against Grixis Delver, UR Delver, ok against Lands, D&T, Burn and BUG and just bad aginst Eldrazi and Dredge.



I am not a big fan of Faerie Macabre in this deck - For Tormod's Crypt / Grafdigger's you have Tutors in Glint-Nest and Surgical would extract all creatures. If you struggle against Eldrazi, play 1-2 Toxic Deluges instead of some dread of Night and Fatal Push.

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Ok I will make the switch back... that will give more flexibility in board but I have to add 20th land so that means I have to cut a harpy or a ponder.

I agree I am not a fan of macabre either but it is every sideboard of the good performing aluren decks

Thanks for the advise!

A quick report and some lessons learned. I played a 6 rounds tournament using my previous build using 4 recruiters, 4 therapies, no FOW, no shardless, 1 academy rector, 3 green sun zenith and 1 veteran explorer.

Manaless dredge : won. Deathrite shaman is hard for them to play around and after sideboarding it's even worse... the matchup is quite easy, they have only some cabal therapies to stop us otherwise it's a race.

Merfolk : lost. Both games I was mana screwed, and he countered my few useful spells, and all his creatures were unblockable (true name nemesis and/or island walk).

Lands : won. First game I controlled his graveyard long enough with deathrite shaman. Second game his 20/20 could not pass my ensnaring bridge, which was a great sideboard for this match.

UW stoneforge mystic-snapcaster-counters : draw unfinished. I hate to play against any sort of UW decks because it goes so often to time... It was very long since we both played value decks. Elspeth knight errant was a pain. Since then I've bought 2 carpet of flowers, which would have helped a lot I guess.

UR delver burn : won. Burn is always very close. When I've had enough early removal against his creatures, it allowed me to buy enough time. Removal was key in this matchup.

BW stoneforge mystic-thalia-discard : lost. I consider this deck as a fair one so I thought it would be an easy one but between the thalia's and the land destruction, I've lost both games with the combo in hand but being each turn 1 mana too short.

My lessons learned:
- next time I want to try the blue version mostly for ponder (stabilization) and FOW. But I currently cannot imagine the deck without the recruiters, so my list looks +/- like a classical BUG with: -2crane -2harpy +4recruiters
- academy rector was not that great and even if I like the card, I think I will cut it. I agree with TTX : it helps only in matchups that are already favorable.
- the green sun zenith package was a pleasure to play but I feel it is too fair / not competitive enough. I won't play it anymore.
- cabal therapy can be very powerful, but is really hard to play. Sometimes it's too much luck oriented, I should feel better with FOW instead.

Sooo ^^ I was on a torunament last sunday :)

Was quit awsome I played a BUG list kinda simmilar to the list posted here.
Had some bad luck and missed top 8 but thats not the thing.
I just wanted to talk a bit about some cards.

So I just thought about our combo . Just think about going to 3 harpy ; instead of parasitic strix --> Kalastria Healer .
I rly love Glint Nest Crane, BUT on that tournament I fizzled about 70% finding nothing with it (I played 2).

And mainly I just it to find the parasitic and finfish. And against DnT , the crane got realy nice stats.

Parasitic is an awsome beater indeed, but I played it as a one off and therefore playing it was always a hard desition, because it it get removed I couldn comobo off.

with Kalastria Healer we could cut the creanes going all in on shardless and therfore play some other beater to have a goot plan B.

What u think :)

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Originally Posted by Moneymakermich

A quick report and some lessons learned. I played a 6 rounds tournament using my previous build using 4 recruiters, 4 therapies, no FOW, no shardless, 1 academy rector, 3 green sun zenith and 1 veteran explorer.

Manaless dredge : won. Deathrite shaman is hard for them to play around and after sideboarding it's even worse... the matchup is quite easy, they have only some cabal therapies to stop us otherwise it's a race.

Merfolk : lost. Both games I was mana screwed, and he countered my few useful spells, and all his creatures were unblockable (true name nemesis and/or island walk).

Lands : won. First game I controlled his graveyard long enough with deathrite shaman. Second game his 20/20 could not pass my ensnaring bridge, which was a great sideboard for this match.

UW stoneforge mystic-snapcaster-counters : draw unfinished. I hate to play against any sort of UW decks because it goes so often to time... It was very long since we both played value decks. Elspeth knight errant was a pain. Since then I've bought 2 carpet of flowers, which would have helped a lot I guess.

UR delver burn : won. Burn is always very close. When I've had enough early removal against his creatures, it allowed me to buy enough time. Removal was key in this matchup.

BW stoneforge mystic-thalia-discard : lost. I consider this deck as a fair one so I thought it would be an easy one but between the thalia's and the land destruction, I've lost both games with the combo in hand but being each turn 1 mana too short.

My lessons learned:
- next time I want to try the blue version mostly for ponder (stabilization) and FOW. But I currently cannot imagine the deck without the recruiters, so my list looks +/- like a classical BUG with: -2crane -2harpy +4recruiters
- academy rector was not that great and even if I like the card, I think I will cut it. I agree with TTX : it helps only in matchups that are already favorable.
- the green sun zenith package was a pleasure to play but I feel it is too fair / not competitive enough. I won't play it anymore.
- cabal therapy can be very powerful, but is really hard to play. Sometimes it's too much luck oriented, I should feel better with FOW instead.

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What does this list look like, and wouldn't you also need a Dream Stalker (or likewise Quickling, Arctic Merfolk) in order to enable the "1-card combo" of Imperial Recruiter/Recruiter of the Guard off Aluren?

You also really gotta look at the blue card count here with a Recruiter version incorporating FoW.

Also, looks like a bad impostor Brad Nelson posted below.