A few months ago, we built a five-color deck with an Ally theme. Karona, False God filled in as our commander, but she wasn’t a perfect fit—she doesn’t help us that much, her ability is kind of meh because we can’t always make sure we have enough creatures or evasion, and she isn’t an Ally. Part of the reason for the deck, though, was preparation for returning to Zendikar, when we knew we had more Allies coming. Enter the commander we’ve been waiting for.

Now that’s what I’m talking about. An Ally who mobilizes new Allies to the battle and pumps her forces with a five-color identity? We really couldn’t have much better for the deck.

The average mana cost has gone up—we’ve cut some of the French vanilla, but cheaper, Allies from the original Zendikar block. So our average is almost 4, which means we want to hit our lands and often won’t do anything until turn four! Forty lands help, and the vast majority of them tap for multiple colors. We have the full suite of tri-lands and Guildgates, of course, plus Temple of Deceit and Temple of Abandon, ’cause scry is good. Command Tower, sure, but we also have Ally Encampment and the much slower Rupture Spire to make all the colors. Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree and Kher Keep both make dudes, which can be useful, especially when we transform them into Allies. Watch the sequencing of lands—we want to look at what we have in our opening hands and make sure we play the one that comes into play untapped on the right turn.

Our previous Ally-based draw was Sea Gate Loremaster, which is still awesome. We didn’t get a ton more, but we have a few new things—Akoum Flameseeker lets us “rummage” (that’s red’s form of looting, where we discard before we draw), and Malakir Soothsayer turns life into cards. We need to make sure we have plenty coming, though, so we’re running a good portion of the previous package. Mulldrifter is straight value, and it does great work on a Mimic Vat, so it’s one of our few non-Ally creatures—same with Disciple of Bolas. Momentous Fall is great when someone tries to Wrath of God, and Rhystic Study keeps the hand full, much to the chagrin of everyone else at the table.

Duneblast is a go-to in any deck that can manage the colors, and Merciless Eviction returns as well because options are great. Reclamation Sage is a good catch-all (like Mulldrifter, it’s great on a Mimic Vat), and it’s reasonably cheap at 3 mana—the price is better than the fat on something like Indrik Stomphowler when we have so many expensive cards already. A number of the Allies—Tuktuk Scrapper, Murasa Pyromancer—will also handle problems when they join the battle.

Synergy is the heart of tribal, of course, and all these new toys make for a whole bunch of it. Rally, the Battle for Zendikar version of the original Ally ability, abounds with creatures like Munda, Ambush Leader and Lantern Scout. We have some powerful new ones—digging for more creatures, indestructibility, and double strike are all really strong, Grovetender Druids generates little Plants, and +2/+2 for everything can get silly in a hurry. Cohort, though, gives us access to other fun abilities. Drana's Chosen makes extra dudes, and we gain extra counters, in addition to the draw effects. Plus, we have some extra dudes designed to work well with a lot of creatures—Angelic Captain and Veteran Warleader work well both in a Limited Ally deck and here. And we have a couple of support creatures—seriously, creatures with the support ability. Relief Captain is good, and Joraga Auxiliary lets us pour extra mana into more power and toughness.

Then, there’s the Maze's End package. Ten Guildgates, Maze's End, Expedition Map, Reap and Sow, Tempt with Discovery, Realm Seekers, Crop Rotation, and Gatecreeper Vine all help, while Grim Discovery and Cartographer both bring lands back from the graveyard—in case some jerk tries to stop us with a Wasteland or whatever.

General Tazri ? Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (0)

• Creatures (40)
• 1 Agadeem Occultist
• 1 Akoum Battlesinger
• 1 Akoum Flameseeker
• 1 Angelic Captain
• 1 Bala Ged Thief
• 1 Cartographer
• 1 Chasm Guide
• 1 Disciple of Bolas
• 1 Drana's Chosen
• 1 Firemantle Mage
• 1 Gatecreeper Vine
• 1 Grovetender Druids
• 1 Hagra Diabolist
• 1 Harabaz Druid
• 1 Hero of Goma Fada
• 1 Highland Berserker
• 1 Joraga Auxiliary
• 1 Kalastria Healer
• 1 Kazuul Warlord
• 1 Kor Bladewhirl
• 1 Lantern Scout
• 1 Malakir Soothsayer
• 1 Mulldrifter
• 1 Munda's Vanguard
• 1 Murasa Pyromancer
• 1 Ondu Champion
• 1 Realm Seekers
• 1 Reclamation Sage
• 1 Relief Captain
• 1 Resolute Blademaster
• 1 Sea Gate Loremaster
• 1 Seascape Aerialist
• 1 Tajuru Warcaller
• 1 Talus Paladin
• 1 Tuktuk Scrapper
• 1 Turntimber Ranger
• 1 Veteran Warleader
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Mina and Denn, Wildborn
• 1 Munda, Ambush Leader

• Spells (19)
• 1 Crop Rotation
• 1 Join the Ranks
• 1 Momentous Fall
• 1 Duneblast
• 1 Grim Discovery
• 1 March from the Tomb
• 1 Merciless Eviction
• 1 Reap and Sow
• 1 Rite of Replication
• 1 Tempt with Discovery
• 1 Unified Front
• 1 Conspiracy
• 1 Retreat to Emeria
• 1 Rhystic Study
• 1 Xenograft
• 1 Captain's Claws
• 1 Expedition Map
• 1 Mimic Vat
• 1 Bident of Thassa

• Lands (40)
• 2 Island
• 2 Mountain
• 2 Swamp
• 3 Plains
• 4 Forest
• 1 Ally Encampment
• 1 Arcane Sanctum
• 1 Azorius Guildgate
• 1 Boros Guildgate
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Dimir Guildgate
• 1 Frontier Bivouac
• 1 Golgari Guildgate
• 1 Gruul Guildgate
• 1 Izzet Guildgate
• 1 Jungle Shrine
• 1 Maze's End
• 1 Mystic Monastery
• 1 Nomad Outpost
• 1 Orzhov Guildgate
• 1 Rakdos Guildgate
• 1 Rupture Spire
• 1 Sandsteppe Citadel
• 1 Savage Lands
• 1 Seaside Citadel
• 1 Selesnya Guildgate
• 1 Simic Guildgate
• 1 Temple of Abandon
• 1 Temple of Deceit
• 1 Vitu-Ghazi, the City-Tree
• 1 Kher Keep

Buy This Deck

There are a couple of other new cards that would help make this deck sing but that were just too pricey for a $75 budget. A deck like this could really use a fetch-and-shock mana base like in Modern because it gives so much flexibility—one fetch can find pretty much any color. Scapeshift would be very strong—that’s a way to play a card and win the game before the table is focused on the Maze's End threat. Drana, Liberator of Malakir would be excellent here. And, of course, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar would be a quality addition. There’s an argument for swapping out Munda, Ambush Leader for Crystal Ball if you worry about putting non-Ally cards to the bottom of the deck.

Is Maze's End worth it here? Or should we just go all-in on the Allies and see what happens? Please tell me in the comments!

I should note I play the original Karona, False God version of this deck in real life at Commander night with some regularity. It’s slow but very fun, mostly because the interactions with all the Allies are great to watch come together. I’ve yet to pull off the Maze's End combo, but I’ve also never been able to really hide it, and once you start going for it in a five-color deck, your opponents will do everything they can to stop you—someone is always running Ghost Quarter. That said, the Battle for Zendikar block brought us enough new Allies—and Ally abilities—to make a sweeping change just to make the deck more fun, and with all the attention on the Maze's End combo, our Allies can really get there. One thing that is really neat is no one can figure out why you just played Xenograft when almost every creature you’ve played is already an Ally. Then, you play Turntimber Ranger and are impressed, or maybe depressed, when they discover you’ve just killed them with it.

Have fun with this one. I don’t, however, recommend yelling, “For Zendikar!” every time you play a new Ally. You might get kicked out of your shop.

Total cost: $72.40