To say Grand Prix: Columbus didn’t go as I had planned is a pretty big understatement. I tested for this tournament about as much as I tested for Grand Prix: Oakand , if not more. My mind was on Aluren from the get go, due to Scott Bielick piloting the strategy to an eleventh place finish at the StarCityGames.com Legacy Open in St. Louis. Scott is an acquaintance of mine, so I began to pick his brain after the event. For reference, here is the list with which Scott placed eleventh:
Creatures (17)
- 1 Man-o'-War
- 2 Eternal Witness
- 1 Bone Shredder
- 4 Imperial Recruiter
- 4 Wall of Roots
- 1 Raven Familiar
- 1 Cavern Harpy
- 2 Dream Stalker
- 1 Parasitic Strix
Lands (24)
Spells (19)
Ignore the fact that Scott was playing a Stomping Ground and an Overgrown Tomb. Those choices were due to card availability, not because he is a next-level ringer (even though he is, kind of!).
There were a number of things that drew me to Scott’s list:
For starters, Aluren is a two-card combo. Gerry covered this in his recent article, but a big selling point of this deck is that Aluren is a two-card combo that is very hard to disrupt when the ball gets going. For those of you who didn’t read Gerry’s article, and shame on you for skipping it. Here is how the combo works:
Cast Aluren
Cast Imperial Recruiter searching up another Imperial Recruiter.
Cast Imperial Recruiter searching up another Imperial Recruiter.
Cast Imperial Recruiter searching up another Imperial Recruiter.
*pause*
The reason you search up all of the Imperial Recruiters in your deck is to trump spot removal spells. There are situations where you want to leave one Imperial Recruiter in your deck (one being to play around Pyrokensis), but they are few and far between. In most cases, it is correct to search out all four.
*unpause*
Cast Imperial Recruiter searching for Dream Stalker.
Cast Dream Stalker returning one of your Imperial Recruiters.
Replay Imperial Recruiter searching up another Dream Stalker.
*pause*
The reason you need to search up another Dream Stalker is to, once again, trump spot removal (namely Swords to Plowshares). If you do not have a second Dream Stalker, one Swords to Plowshares on your initial Dream Stalker breaks up your combo. A second Dream Stalker forces the opponent to have to spot removal spells (burn spells won’t cut it due to Dream Stalker’s five toughness) in order to stop the show.
*unpause*
Cast the second Dream Stalker returning one of your Imperial Recruiters.
Cast Imperial Recruiter searching for Cavern Harpy.
Cast Cavern Harpy. Use the enters-the-battlefield ability to return a Dream Stalker.
Cast Dream Stalker returning one of your Imperial Recruiters.
Cast Imperial Recruiter searching for Parasitic Strix.
*deep breath*
Kill your opponent!
It looks like a lot of work to kill your opponent, but it really isn’t. All that it takes is an Aluren and an Imperial Recruiter to finish your opponent, and that can happen as early as turn 2 due to Havenwood Battleground and City of Traitors.
The other thing that drew me to Scott’s decklist was that his combo deck was able to play both Force of Will and Cabal Therapy. You are going to be hard-pressed to find someone who likes Cabal Therapy more than me. In practice, Cabal Therapy is one of the best cards in a format, no matter what the format may be. The thing I love most about Cabal Therapy is how much skill it takes to play the card correctly. Sometimes it is obvious what is in your opponent’s hand. Other times it is not. It is those other times that separate the men from the boys.
So, the first thing I did when I began testing was running Scott’s list in a few heads-up queues on Magic Online. I immediately noticed a few things that I didn’t like:
The first major problem was that I felt I didn’t see enough cards per game. Old Aluren lists used to play Wall of Blossoms to sift through their deck, as well as being Cabal Therapy fodder. Scott’s list was lacking a card like that.
The next thing I disliked was Wall of Roots. I never needed more Green mana in my games. I was actually having difficulty casting other spells in my testing. The ability to kill on turn 3 was nice, but I wanted a most consistent manabase.
Last, I really just didn’t like the sideboard. Sideboards change from tournament to tournament, but my bigger issue was my difficulty in beating Zoo in sideboarded games when they had access to Qasali Pridemage and Krosan Grip post-board. I needed a plan!
So, after a lot of work, I ended up splitting a premiere event with John Penick and winning another one with this list:
Creatures (18)
- 4 Birds of Paradise
- 1 Man-o'-War
- 1 Eternal Witness
- 4 Imperial Recruiter
- 1 Cavern Harpy
- 4 Coiling Oracle
- 2 Dream Stalker
- 1 Parasitic Strix
Lands (23)
Spells (19)
Sideboard
So what changed?
First was the addition of Birds of Paradise. Birds of Paradise clearly supplies fixing that Wall of Roots only wishes it could supply, but it also gave the deck a “nut draw” that it didn’t have before:
Turn 1: Birds of Paradise
Turn 2: Intuition for the missing piece (Aluren or Imperial Recruiter)
Turn 3: Winner!
This series of events didn’t come up that much for me, but it sure is nice to know what your deck is capable of doing.
The next change was the addition of Coiling Oracle. I tried Wall of Blossoms out first, to see if kicking it old school was the way to go. Trust me when I say this: it was not! Coiling Oracle has benefits that Wall of Blossoms simply does not have:
It’s a Blue card to remove for Force of Will.
It can be mana acceleration or simply replace itself.
It allows you to draw cards equal to your life total with Cavern Harpy when Aluren is on the battlefield.
And, like Blossoms, it sacrifices to Cabal Therapy after it has replaced itself (we call this card advantage!)
Coiling Oracle is subtle. It’s a fairly underwhelming card that doesn’t look like it does a lot, but for me, it was the glue that held the deck together.
The next big change was the addition of Havenwood Battleground. I came to this addition by looking at Aluren lists from years ago. Havenwood Battleground is a Forest with a ton of upside. Sure, it can be killed by Wasteland, but it can also accelerate you to a turn 3 kill. That is a tradeoff I was willing to make.
The last big change was the addition of the Natural Order package. This was a package I was wary of early on, as I thought I would be able to fight through the Aluren hate. After having my Aluren Krosan Gripped one too many times, I decided it was time to find an alternative.
Enter Natural Order plus Progenitus.
A lot of decks have tried to make this work, but I believe Aluren does it the best. For starters, boarding in the package of four Natural Order, one Progenitus, and one Dryad Arbor is a very natural swap. All it takes is sideboarding out four Aluren, one Parasitic Strix, and one land to bring in “the package.”
You will also notice that the fetchland count in this deck is very high. Eight, to be exact, and all of them search out Green lands.
Last, you should notice how many Green creatures this deck plays that you are willing to sacrifice to Natural Order. What would you rather have? A Birds of Paradise, a Coiling Oracle, or a 10/10 who has protection from me, you, and everyone you know?
These changes led me to a lot of wins, and I was very proud of the work I was getting done. The next step was to inform my buddies so they could help me perfect the list. Michael Jacob got to work quite quickly, and suggested some nice changes in the form of Lim-Dul’s Vault and Ghitu Slinger. Gerry Thompson brought City of Traitors to the forefront and Thoughtseize to the party. After a ton of games and discussion leading up to the Grand Prix, I was sold on the deck, and I convinced many others on its worthiness.
The only hard part was going to be finding four Imperial Recruiters. They cost $2 on Magic Online. They cost $200 in real life! Ridiculous!
Fortunately, I have some very awesome friends, and I was able to find some. (Thanks, E!)
So, what happened to me at the Grand Prix? After all of the testing, grinding, and discussion, I did not win a single match.
Not a one!
Round 4 I got paired against my friend Jeff Blyden, who was playing Combo Elves. Combo Elves, while not the best of decks in my opinion, is a combo deck that Aluren really cannot beat. Combo Elves is a full turn faster, really enjoys when Aluren is in play, and has access to Krosan Grip. I lost in two pretty uneventful games where he Jeff was going to die next turn, but he simply killed me before I got to untap.
Round 5, I got paired against a Threshold/Counterbalance deck. Game 1, I finished him off at one life. Game 2, I sideboarded in “the package.” I had exhausted my opponent’s board to a lone Vendilion Clique that was staring at a Bone Shredder, a naked Counterbalance, and one card in hand. I played a Brainstorm to make sure the coast was clear. His top card was a Sword to Plowshares, so I simply fetched up Dryad Arbor and played Natural Order.
“This is awkward. Daze it.”
Uuuuuuuuuuuuugh!
I thought this was a misplay for a while, but it is so hard for Aluren to beat Counterbalance plus Top. My opponent could have had Spell Pierce or Force of Will. But getting Dazed just never feels good.
Game 3, I took a trip to mulligan town and was overrun by Tarmogoyfs quite quickly.
Round 6, I took a comical beating from Doomsday where my opponent took eleven minutes for a single turn. I called a judge for slow play, and the judge simply sat there looking at me while I burned a hole through him with my eyes.
I wish I was over-exaggerating even a little bit. Eleven freaking minutes! If they judge isn’t going to call slow play in my situation, I’m convinced no one will ever be awarded a slow play warning. It was that ridiculous.
After the third loss, I took a deep breath and prepared to move on. My friends were smashing with the deck, so it felt good that the work I did wasn’t wasted. Clearly, I wanted to do well myself, but sometimes things don’t always go as planned.
I can’t really be too upset. I put in a ton of work, and built a pretty good deck (I think), but things just didn’t go my way. Dem da breaks!
Let this be a lesson to everyone. Sometimes, folks, you just do not win. It sucks, but it’s true.
Sorry if things were a little short this week. At the time of writing, I’m at GenCon getting my game on. With any luck, next week you will be able to call me the winner of the Midwest Master Series.
Cross your fingers!
See everyone next time!