This is my version of a tournament deck I read about. I forget if it was in Type 1.5 or Extended, though if it's Extended it would no longer be legal there since
Aluren was never reprinted and Tempest was rotated out of Extended some time ago.
Anyway, the deck uses all kinds of low-cost creatures that do things when they come into play.
Spike Feeder is an exception in that he comes loaded with counters that can be removed to do something. I could use
Venerable Monk instead, but then I would need some white in the deck so I could play him before Aluren hits play. This deck is already three colors and I'm unsure about the mana base, so I don't want to add white. And Spike Feeder does the job just fine.
The deck is designed to go infinite when Aluren hits play.
Cavern Harpy and
Man-o'-War are also necessary, because between the two of them they allow me to bounce any creature I have back to my hand and recast it, although I need the Spike Feeder to keep me from running out of life.
In addition to comboing with Cavern Harpy, Man-o'-War provides defense by allowing me to bounce opponents' creatures back to their hand and delay their attacking me. Spike Feeder of course provides me a little bit of life when I need it, and allows me to gain infinite life once the combo gets going.
Wall of Blossoms will help me find other cards for the combo, and once the combo hits play it lets me draw into my win card,
Merrow Witsniper. The advantage of using the Witsniper over some black creatures that makes the opponent lose life (I'm sure there is one that's cheap enough to come in free with Aluren, I just can't think of a name right now), is that this allows me to circumvent other potential infinite life combos. Plus it lets me keep the amount of black in the deck to a minimum.
Although I don't really need it once the combo hits,
Wall of Roots gives me infinite green mana once the combo is going. In the meantime it gives me a small mana boost, and Man-o'-War might let me reuse it if necessary. It also happens to be my best blocker, which isn't saying much.
Cloud of Faeries isn't that good, but the ability to untap some lands can be situationally useful, and if nothing else I can cycle it. It would be one of the easier things to get rid of if I could get some more cards that I want for this deck.
Ideally, I would like to have 4x
Raven Familiar in the deck, but I don't own any, nor does anybody I know. So without those to help me search through my deck, I decided to add
Commune with Nature, which is one of my favorite green cards from the entire Kamigawa block, as well as
Crop Rotation to pull the pain lands, and
Impulse to help me dig through the deck.
Diabolic Tutor is a new addition to the deck, which I decided to put in after the last time I played this deck. I realized that I was helpless until Aluren hit play, and if I hadn't been lucky enough to draw it I would definitely have lost. I would prefer
Demonic Tutor of course, but I only own one of those and it's not leaving my discard deck.
Equilibrium is an interesting card that I've been looking for a way to use. The tournament version of this deck doesn't run it, but I think it will work well in here. I haven't drawn it yet, and I would like to have more than one copy, but I can see this allowing me to combo with Man-o'-War and another creature to get some very nice defense going before my actual combo hits play, as well as allowing me a limited form of the combo even without a Man-o'-War.
Disturbed Burial is in there to retrieve anything that hits the graveyard, and because it used to be one of my favorite cards. I also have
Reaping the Graves, which I can Storm up pretty quickly in this deck. I'm not sure how necessary or useful those cards are, but for now they get my deck up to 60 cards if nothing else.
Anyway, that's the deck. Any comments, criticisms, or suggestions are more than welcome, as always.
