Welcome back, everyone.   First off I would like to thank everyone for the variety of responses I received last week.  All your comments are being taken into consideration as I carefully watch the next week or so of events before anything definite.  Now onto this week's article we have a lot to discuss including a surprising new deck that not only took first, but second as well.  We have decks from this weeks winner, a tribal innovator, and my mish-mash of my favorite parts from Alara and Zendikar.  Don't forget every week on Saturday at 1:30pm EST will be Tribal Apocalypse, a free to enter PRE sponsored by MTGOTraders.com meet us in /join Tribal.  So without further ado, let's begin...

First off I would love to talk about the new kid on the block.  This tribe powered not just one but two decks into the finals.  Let me take a second to congratulate Tardy4u and Fadew for making it to the finals this week.  The tribe in question though may surprise you.  It wasn't vampires, nor was it the kor or even goblins that took the title.  But rather coincidentally the theme week on the mothership or as you may know them, Allies.  Piloted by Fadew, a (u)(g)(w) build of allies was enough to take on all comers.  He defeated elves, angels and an opposing army of clerics on his way to the top.

Allies

1st Place by Fadew

Creatures 1 Waveskimmer Aven 1 Jhessian Infiltrator 2 Merfolk Looter 1 Clone 1 Skyward Eye Prophets 4 Umara Raptor 4 Ondu Cleric 3 Kabira Evangel 4 Oran-Rief Survivalist 3 Makindi Shieldmate 2 Turntimber Ranger 2 Tajuru Ranger 1 Stonework Puma 1 Sea Gate Loremaster 32 cards Other Spells 2 Adventuring Gear 2 Journey to Nowhere 2 Unsummon 1 Pacifism 1 Crystallization 4 cards

Lands 6 Island 6 Forest 6 Plains 2 Bant Panorama 2 Terramorphic Expanse 22 cards

Using the amazing culminative power of allies, this deck can quickly get out of hand.  With effects from token-producing to lifegain, this deck has game plans for most match-ups.  While it is unknown how this deck would perform against combo...it certainly can hold its own against aggro.  Speaking of holding one's own against aggro, our next deck is built for exactly that.

I'm starting to feel like a show a little favoritism to this guy, but he willingly supplies me with amazing metagamed decklists to use in my articles.  Yes, once again Flippers_Giraffe has presented his deck for consideration.  This is actually a more toolbox approach to tribal.  It contains a large number of enchantments geared to protect against some of the more mono tribes as well as combo.  Story Circle is easily one of the strongest being a straight up mono-colored killer, while Disenchant easily stops the combos that we discussed last week.  Also included is Extinction an amazingly vicious card in the tribal format but one that has somehow avoided being banned.  Calling it a reset button is totally accurate in my mind, especially when playing a tribe with higher mana costs.  I imagine Extinction followed by Desolation Angel would be good game against most decks.

Angel Toolbox

Suggested by Flippers_Giraffe

Creatures 3 Blinding Angel 2 Twilight Shepherd 1 Twilight Shepherd 4 Desolation Angel 2 Angel of Despair 3 Exalted Angel 4 Serra Avenger 2 Pristine Angel 21 cards Other Spells 1 Wrath of God 2 Enlightened Tutor 2 Swords to Plowshares 1 Moat 2 Pearl Medallion 1 Worship 1 Oblivion Ring 1 Extinction 1 Story Circle 3 Wrath of God 1 Disenchant 16 cards

Lands 1 Orzhov Basilica 4 Ancient Tomb 4 Godless Shrine 2 Swamp 2 Bloodstained Mire 8 Plains 2 Scrubland 23 cards

Now then, not to beat a dead horse but I do feel the need to go back to the discussion from last week.  You guys had tons of good responses in the comments and perhaps maybe even a little self-policing in the event last Saturday.  Interestingly enough no combo decks were played,  Well no degenerate ones.  I played Quillspike but then you know it's Quillspike.  Otherwise the meta was 1 elf deck, followed by kors, snakes, golems, and the aforementioned allies and angels.  So if it stays like this I will be hard pressed to ban anything.  Though to keep everyone up to date the current ideas I liked the most were doing nothing, trying extended, or just banning the big combo cards.  By big combo cards I mean the ones that can end the game instantly like HelmLine or Painter's Stone.

Last but not least, I am going to touch on the deck that I mentioned using my two favorite parts from Alara and Zendikar.  Like a lot of casual players I've been bitten by the Ally bug.  For some reason they are so much fun.  The triggers just pile up and you go for it.  My favorite part of Alara was the Naya shard.  i'll be honest I didn't get into Naya till near the end of the block via EDH but I loved it.  Sometimes dumb aggro is also amazing aggro.  Though I love the options in WGR allies.  The red was included mostly only for Kazuul Warlord and then Lightning Bolt since I was already splashing.  Some good non-ally cards I've found are Mirror Entity and (Beastmaster's Ascension).  The changeling not only triggers your allies but can also make the whole team a bunch of 5/5's or 6/6's even the wolves.  The ascension can activate in a mere two or three turns, easily enabling turn 5 or 6 alpha strikes.  Well in order to no longer keep you waiting I present the list

Our Time is Now

Naya Allies by ShardFenix

Creatures 2 Mirror Entity 4 Oran-Rief Survivalist 4 Kazandu Blademaster 4 Kabira Evangel 4 Turntimber Ranger 3 Kazuul Warlord 21 cards Other Spells 4 Lightning Bolt 2 Beastmaster's Ascension 2 Oblivion Ring 4 Harrow 3 Gift of the Gargantuan 13 cards

Lands 4 Jungle Shrine 10 Forest 7 Plains 3 Mountain 24 cards

 Well there it is.  It's yet to be perfected but I have run a few matches with it.  It destroyed goblins which may have been a fluke based on the speed I know goblins have.  All I saw from him was Goblin Matron, Goblin Warchief, and Goblin Sharpshooter.  He burned one or two of my allies but not enough to make a difference.  My other match was elves.  Unfortunately it was mine to win only I decided to burn out the Wren's Run Vanquisher while deciding to completely ignore the Taunting Elf.  After that I totally just got ran over once and died.  It was a shocking result that helped me remember to pay attention. 

Thank you for reading this week.  I hope you got something from the article.  Next week I'll results from the latest Tribal Apocalypse and hopefully some new decks as well as more results for my build.

-ShardFenix on MTGO and mymtgo.com