This card does exactly what Ally decks have been
needing to do. It puts Allies into play at
instant speed, and it puts more than one out at
once. In Zendikar the Ally deck was just, "untap,
play my Ally for the turn, swing, go". No
surprise factor. Incredibly susceptible to board
sweepers and even to spot removal. This card
fixes that, and pretty definitively assures that
any successful Ally deck must play white.
This is one of those cards that constructed
players love to see in tribal keywords: decent
without its tribe, potentially devastating with
it. Allies are not considered viable in
competitive constructed right now, but no-one
knows what else will come with Worldwake, and a
card that gives you Raise the Alarm and Redeem
the Lost (with Kabira Evangel) in one package
may put them over the top. You'll also be seeing
a lot of this card in limited, as if Murasa
Pyromancer and Kazuul Warlord needed any more
help.
Magic The Gathering Card of the Day: Join The
Ranks
Welcome back readers our card of the day today
is Join the Ranks from Worldwake, a card that
can activate ally abilities at instant speed and
may not see much play. Triggering two ally
abilities at instant speed would be nice but
currently allies are not seeing any competitive
play regardless of format outside of use in
limited. Ally’s as the name suggests build off
of each other which fundamentally breaks a rule
with your creatures, don’t over commit to the
board. Allies to be most effective need to
constantly drop threats and flood the board to
get the most power out of their abilities. Join
the ranks token’s trigger two ally abilities
which can be devastating with card such as Hagra
Diabolist and Murasa Pyromancer. As of now in
all competitive formats allies are not seeing a
lot of love and unless their abilities
significantly change I don’t predict much out of
competitive ally decks. The plus side it
generates two creature tokens at instant speed
and they are a relevant type for possibly
solider decks. In casual and multiplayer allies
are much better they are practically as scary as
slivers as they don’t have to attack to get most
of their lethal abilities and allow the player
playing them to dominate the board. Another use
would be in solider decks as instant speed
threats. As with any creatures don’t over commit
to the board and Allies and soldiers are
powerful. In limited if you grab enough ally
support you can make a fearsome deck utilizing
synergy over raw card power in some cases.
Today's card of the day is a simple one to
review as it basically Dragon Fodder, but White
Soldier Ally tokens instead of Goblins.
The extra two mana cost is purely from the Ally
type as it allows for any of the Ally effects in
this block to trigger twice from a single card.
This is exactly the kind of addition the theme
needed and I expect it to become a mainstay in
Ally decks, but not seen too often in token
decks as the cost is a bit high for vanilla (in
non-ally decks) creatures.
For Constructed, Casual, and Multiplayer this is
a solid addition to any Ally deck, but not
particularly noteworthy in any other builds.
If you are running White and Allies this should
be run as a full set, otherwise other options
exist that can generate more field presence.
For Limited tokens generally equal card
advantage and with Allies in set this is a good
choice at the common level to run multiples of.
Allies can be quite powerful and if you can
draft a solid enough number a few of these go a
long way. Even without Ally creatures two
tokens are hardly a disadvantage, especially as
a topdeck in any kind of standoff where each
creature played can tip the scales of the game.
For Sealed there is no reason not to play this
if running White in your deck while in Booster
it should be drafted earlier on especially if
going for an Ally theme. Taking this as a
second pick after an Ally is not a bad play and
can lead to a fairly dominant design, but try to
gauge if anyone else is planning a similar
strategy.
Constructed: 2 1/1 for 4 mana at
Instant speed is a solid card for a common. But
it helps Allies. Allies have not seen a good
solid deck for constructed. This should help a
little but we will have to see what else comes
out.
Casual & Multiplayer:
Costs a little to much to throw on a Isochron
Scepter, it could still be used with the good
old Panoptic Mirror.
Limited: This card can really
make drafting Allies a good thing. Being a
common make it really good. Sealed deck I will
have to see how many boosters are used, like
will it be half Zendikar and Worldwake or
something totally different.
