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<h1 style="text-align: center;">Rukarumel, Ally Biologist</h1>
<p style="text-align: center;"><div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Rukarumel, Biologist"></div></div></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://archidekt.com/decks/9131656/rukarumel_ally_biologist">Archidekt Link</a></p>
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<p>Welcome to another deck from the Sunday Stream! This week, we're building around <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Rukarumel, Biologist" href="#" target="_blank">Rukarumel, Biologist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, our first five-color commander, and a face commander of the Silvers precon deck from Commander Masters. However, if you're familiar with this series, you probably already know that this is not a Slivers deck.</p>
<p>However, do you know what creature type behaves a bit like slivers and is friendly to kindred-typal decks? Allies. Allies typically have an ability that reads as something to the effect "when (creature) or another Ally enters the battlefield, do (effect) X number of times where X is equal to the number of Allies you control." While not a static effect like we see with Slivers, Allies typically having ETB effects can be very powerful, especially if we're able to trigger them multiple times.</p>
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<h3>Core Allies</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Drana, Liberator of Malakir"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hagra Diabolist"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Harabaz Druid"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kalastria Healer"></div></div>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Kazuul Warlord"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Ondu Cleric"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Sea Gate Loremaster"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Turntimber Ranger"></div></div>
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<p>The first items on the menu are the core Ally creatures that we want to center our deck around. Typically, we like to build our decks around the fun stuff first and take care of the "veggies" later, but given that we're specifically building around an Ally core, it makes sense to solidify those first.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Drana, Liberator of Malakir" href="#" target="_blank">Drana, Liberator of Malakir</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is one of the few creatures in the deck that focus on combat damage-related buffs, but this one has the potential to turn a heavy swing into a full-on lethal strike, adding a +1/+1 counter to all of your attacking creatures after the <em>first strike phase</em>, meaning most of your creatures will get the buff before damage.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hagra Diabolist" href="#" target="_blank">Hagra Diabolist</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> has an ETB that drains an opponent for life equal to the number of Allies you control. It's simple and straightforward, but it is powerful enough to remove a player in one fell swoop.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Harabaz Druid" href="#" target="_blank">Harabaz Druid</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is an any-color mana dork that scales to produce more and more mana as you accumulate a board state.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kalastria Healer" href="#" target="_blank">Kalastria Healer</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is similar to <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zulaport Cutthroat" href="#" target="_blank">Zulaport Cutthroat</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> (which is also in the deck), but generates that ability on ETB and when any other Ally enters, making it far more powerful than Zulaport in our Ally-focused deck.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Kazuul Warlord" href="#" target="_blank">Kazuul Warlord</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> essentially acts as a Cathar's Crusade for Ally creatures. Some people don't like the bookkeeping that can come with effects like this, but they're inarguably powerful.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Ondu Cleric" href="#" target="_blank">Ondu Cleric</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is simple, straightforward life gain in potentially significant quantities.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Sea Gate Loremaster" href="#" target="_blank">Sea Gate Loremaster</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a nice, repeatable draw engine that scales to draw more cards as the game goes on. We can basically recreate the best part of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="The One Ring" href="#" target="_blank">The One Ring</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> without the downside of the damage or the massive price tag.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Turntimber Ranger" href="#" target="_blank">Turntimber Ranger</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is half of a few infinite combo pieces that are built into this deck which eventually produces infinite 2/2 Wolf creature tokens.</p>
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<h3>Slivers</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Manaweft Sliver"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Gemhide Sliver"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Hatchery Sliver"></div></div>
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<p>I know, I know. I said this wasn't a Sliver deck, AND IT STILL ISN'T, but given that our commander has some nice built-in Sliver synergy, it makes sense to at least include a few good utility Slivers that can help us at any point in the game.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Manaweft Sliver" href="#" target="_blank">Manaweft Sliver</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Gemhide Sliver" href="#" target="_blank">Gemhide Sliver</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> both act as scaleable, any-color mana dorks that can pay off big-time later in the game if we have Sliver declared as a creature type on the commander or any of the kindred synergy pieces that I will talk about below.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Hatchery Sliver" href="#" target="_blank">Hatchery Sliver</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> Hatchery Slivers gives all of our Sliver spells (which would be everything if we have Slivers declared as the creature type for our commander), replicate, which essentially is an early version of the newer offspring mechanic from Bloomburrow, giving us copies of our creature spells by paying extra mana.</p>
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<h3>Kindred Synergy (and Turntimber Ranger Combo Pieces)</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Maskwood Nexus"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Conspiracy"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Reflections of Littjara"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Xenograft"></div></div>
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<p>In this deck, all four of these do roughly the same thing, which is to allow us to synergize our Ally and non-Ally creatures when Rukarumel is not on the board, or if she is and we need a different creature type declared. As long as we have any of these effects on the board with Ally declared as the creature type in the case of <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Reflections of Littjara" href="#" target="_blank">Reflections of Littjara</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Conspiracy" href="#" target="_blank">Conspiracy</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, and <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Xenograft" href="#" target="_blank">Xenograft</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span>, Turntimber Ranger will create an infinite number of tokens since each new one results in an Ally entering the battlefield. <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Maskwood Nexus" href="#" target="_blank">Maskwood Nexus</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is obviously a one-stop-shop for any creature type we'll need.</p>
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<h3>Fun Toys</h3>
<div class="edhrecp__cards"><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Zinnia, Valley&#039;s Voice"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Omo, Queen of Vesuva"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Intruder Alarm"></div><div class="edhrecp__card-container" name="Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree"></div></div>
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<p>As mentioned before, replicate and offspring both give us the ability to create token copies of any Ally we cast by just adding a little extra mana, so <span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Zinnia, Valley&#039;s Voice" href="#" target="_blank">Zinnia, Valley&#039;s Voice</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a natural fit in here for us.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Omo, Queen of Vesuva" href="#" target="_blank">Omo, Queen of Vesuva</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a great fit for this deck, because her everything counters can simultaneously color-fix our mana base and give our creatures all creature types.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Intruder Alarm" href="#" target="_blank">Intruder Alarm</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a classic combo piece, and will potentially give us the ability for huge, explosive turns by untapping mana dorks and draw engines whenever a creature enters the battlefield.</p>
<p><span class="edhrecp__link"><a class="edhrecp__link-a" content="Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree" href="#" target="_blank">Realmbreaker, the Invasion Tree</a><span class="edhrecp__link-image"></span></span> is a very underrated artifact that acts as repeatable ramp by stealing lands from our opponents. If we're able to build up enough of a mana base and have Maskwood Nexus or another way to make all of our creatures Praetors, then we could use the big ten-mana ability from Realmbreaker and dump every creature in our deck directly onto the battlefield, which is essentially an auto-win.</p>
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<h3>Closing Summary</h3>
<p>This deck is a really neat foray into five colors and a kindred strategy, both of which are very atypical to the decks we build. The Ally strategy should give us consistent value throughout the game while we accumulate value via all of our different ETB effects. This deck is a higher budget than we typically build, but we prioritized putting together a fun and creative deck over meticulously abiding by our $50 budget. If it's any indicator as to how fun this deck should be, Jason actually bought the deck from himself <em>while we were streaming.</em></p>


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