I've began working on an ally deck all based around Halimar Excavator. Basically its a w/u milling deck. Your opinion?60 CardsCreatures (32)4X Halimar Excavator4X Kazandu Blademaster4X Makindi Shieldmate4X Hada Freeblade4X Ondu Cleric4X Jwari Shapshifter4X umara Raptor4X CloneOther Spells (14)4X Join the Ranks4X Rite of Replication4X Archive Trap2X Path to ExileLand (14)2X Kabira Crossroads2X Halimar Depths6X Plains4X IslandSideboard4X Dispel4X Talus Palidin4X Sea Gate Loremaster3X Safe Passage
Fourteen is a small mana base. I would up it to twenty just so you can draw the cards.
Hedron Crab( mill 3 cards when a land drops on your field) Archive Trap (combo with Path to Exile, mill 13 cards for no cost) Umara Raptor
It looks nice, and pretty focused. If I were you, I would probably try to find space for the last two Path to Exile... Probably by moving out two of the Kazandu Blademasters, which your mana base isn't really set up to support anyway. I would probably also increase the land count to at least 20 (as this is the absolute minimum in my experience for reliably getting to 3 land by turn 3), and include Sejiri Refuge, Celestial Collonade, and Glacial Fortress in there in some appropriate mix. In fact, if you cut two of the Clones (which you're never going to be able to cast reliably with this mana base), the Freeblades, and the Blademasters, and replace them with lands and the last two Path, I think this deck will function like a well-oiled milling machine. Of course, I think the days of mill in this standard are numbered... It's too easy to put one legendary Eldrazi (Emrakul, for instance) in the sideboard and just reshuffle when it mills. And woe is you if someone actually builds a competitive Eldrazi deck.
14 land is nowhere near enough. Anything less than 20 is pretty much suicide due to lack of mana to play anything. With 14, on average, you won't draw the 4th mana to play Join the Ranks/Clone/Rite/Talus until your 17th card, a full 10 turns in assuming you don't have to mulligan for more mana (which you'll only have a little under a 50/50 shot of having even 2 land in your first 7-card draw). Also, the Kabira and Halimar aren't worth the slowdown in mana supply. 8 Plains, 8 Islands, and 4 Glacial Fortresses would be ideal, if you want to keep your mana supply to a minimum. I strongly disagree with the first responder's suggestion to remove Kazandu Blademasters. They are a top 5 Ally, and one of only three god enoguh to consider playing outside an Ally deck (the other two being Turntimber Ranger in an Elf deck and Hada Freeblade, who is only good because of Kazandu in a Soldier/White Weenie deck). Among the soldiers, Clone and Makindi Shieldmate are the two least necessary. I'd start by getting rid of those completely to make room for the added lands and 2 more Path to Exile. I'd also turn down the Archive Traps and Rites of Replication down to at least 3 each, due to getting 2 of either in your starting hand being problematic. I'd toss in Kabira Evangels in those slots, since they allow you to attack freely most of the time whenever you play an Ally, and counterspell anything targetting your people when you pop a Join the Ranks.
