Pointed Discussion

eh, not that good

could be better, but considering it is a haste ally, tribal combos out the wazzu

one of a number of redundant allies in all colors except black

5 mana for a 2/2 Haste red version of a white first strike vigilance 1/1 ally that cost 2 mana? WTF?
For the same 5 mana you could have the minotaur that give +1/+1 coutner to ALL your allies and that is a 3/3 base.

Nobody seems to have mentioned this yet, but this card's potential can be unlocked when you can kick Rite of Replication. If you do this, you'll suddenly have the existing one at 8/8 and then you'll have five 7/7's enter the battlefield with haste. That will ruin someone's day.

Interesting since he is both a goblin and an ally. In a deck that made use of both, he could get scary quickly.

Still though, for 5 CC he is probably overpriced. I'd say 2.5/5

I would pay 4 for that max.

Oh, so, DrKenneth, you are proposing that Wizards bring back Banding for allies? I think not. Lol.

You know what would have been an interesting mechanic for allies? "Teamwork: Whenever damage would be dealt to a creature with teamwork, you may divide that damage as you choose among any number of creatures you control with Teamwork." Then, your big toughness allies are your paladins and knights; front line fighters that will keep the damage off the supporting "back-row" party members. Though long reminder text and rules headaches are the killers here. A man can dream, though.

But, anyway, allies turned out okay, for the most part. Probably not worth going five colour with it, and this guy probably shouldn't be your five-drop.

Edit: Argylpuff: Curses, you've seen through my cleverly disguised keyword. Yeah, banding that works against Lightning Bolts and no single chump blocking all your team, but essentially, yes. I guess I'm just a fan of weird and absurdly complex keywords.

well, white and blue have the best allies, everyone else has to scrape by. 5cmc for a 3/3 haste (he gets a counter when entering the battlefield) is not shabby, and goblin is a dangerous creature type to have. 3 stars.

If it gave haste to all allies that came after it, it would be worth the mana. But I don't even run Kazuul Warlord in my red/green allies deck because it's too slow.

@IronSavior; No one mentioned Rite of Replication because every other ally combos better with that card. I mean hell, look at Turntimber Ranger. 30 2/2 Wolf tokens, one 9/9 and five 8/8s. Kazuul Warlord would give all of your allies at least 30 +1/+1 counters, 60 if they already get them, Hagra Diabolist would cause your opponent to lose 30 life (assuming no other allies were present), etc, etc.

@UPLAYER; You need to read up on Allies. Black, green and red all have plenty of amazing allies, even aside from the ones I cited here. I'll admit white's probably the best, but believe me, the rest aren't just "scraping by".

@darkfury; Bojuka Brigand, Nimana Sellsword. Everyone's got a couple. None of 'em are terrible, it's just whether or not there are better choices.

Speaking of Kazuul Warlord, use him to fill this guy's slot every time. Same exact mana cost, bigger body, and much better ability.

When Tuktuk is on the toilet, Tuktuk Grunts.

@Aburaishi: A kicked rite would cause 180 life loss with Hagra Diabolist, not 30.

This card always gave me trouble.

A 3/3 haste for 4 is actually like, super good in limited. Like, REALLY good. So it only stands to say a 3/3 for 5 isn't bad. It's not good, but it isn't the worst pull you could get.

But he gets bigger. Because he's an ally, the creature type that is precariously balanced and barely so. Allies were like, a few mana costs away from being broken. It could've been all you saw through all of Zendikar block very easily.

So let's look at what you can do with him.

GR Allies (Run Birds for ramp since Allies have only 1 T1 drop)
T1 Birds of Paradise
T2 Harabaz Druid
T3 Kazuul Warlord

At this point, we're all set up to start going nuts with allies since we'll be generating 7 mana next turn and still have 4 cards in hand.

Note - We're going to assume all 4 land drops hit.

T4 Tuktuk Grunts and Akuom Battlesinger swing for 17, Lightning Bolt to finish.

Let's face it, Allies suck at anything other than aggro. They literally can't control because they can't stop things from hitting play and once things are in play, they don't have many ways of removing them, Tajuru Archer if it flies, Murasa Pyromancer but he won't come out til at least T4 even in the best of circumstances. So giving an Ally haste is actually a huge deal. Hell, even the Akuom Battlesinger, whose effect fades, has a T4 if they aren't contested.

The point is, if he only cost 4, then on T4 with a decent pull, you could drop two of them easily and have a 3/3 and a 4/4 swinging in there. 7 damage turn 4 is like, the highest you're going to get in standard, and there's no way you can qualify putting that into a common. 5 mana was ultimately the correct choice.

@Krypnyt: Ha! Pretty much sums up my stance on this card.

It may be over-costed, but you should be getting value from triggering your other allies as well.