Extended Aluren deck

Aluren, sometimes called Raisin Bran, is a blue-green-black combo deck heavily built around the card of the same name. The goal is to get Aluren into play with Cavern Harpy, Man-O'-War and Spike Feeder in hand. Playing Spike Feeder and removing one spike counter would gain 2 life. Then play Man-O'-War and bounce the Feeder. Then play Harpy and bounce Man-O'-War using it's Gating ability and then return the Harpy with its second ability losing one life. This would be a total net gain of one life. This could be repeated endlessly for virtual infinite life as the combo could also be restarted at any point in time.

Once at a high amount of life, Wall of Roots would replace the Feeder or Cloud of Faeries would replace Man-O'-War in the loop above, producing infinite mana which would later power a Stroke of Genius forcing the opponent to draw more cards than his deck contains, ending the game.

Vampiric Tutor, Brainstorm</c> and Intuition</c> were used in early versions to access the cards in the deck. However, this was rather secondary compared to Raven Familiar</c> who could combo with Harpy enabling the deck to start its combo before either Man-O'-War or Feeder were even in hand. Wirewood Savage</c> was used in a similar manner to just draw cards until the combo cards were all in hand. When Vampiric left the format, it was replaced by Eladamri's Call</c> and later Living Wish</c>.

Later editions would replace Man-O'War and Spike Feeder by simply using Soul Warden</c> instead which would already give infinite life with the Harpy alone by bouncing the Harpy itself to Gating. Soul Warden in turn was later replaced by Auriok Champion</c> which was harder to kill. In the end a Maggot Carrier</c> would be repeatedly bounced with Harpy and played with Aluren. Meanwhile, the Warden would keep your life total at a steady high point while the opponent's life was draining.

<d title="Raisin Bran - Patrick Chapin"> Lands 4 Bayou 1 Forest 4 Island 1 Mountain Valley 4 Tropical Island 4 Underground Sea 4 Yavimaya Coast

Creatures 4 Cavern Harpy 2 Man-o'-War 4 Raven Familiar 2 Spike Feeder 4 Wall of Roots

Other 4 Aluren 1 Arcane Denial 4 Brainstorm 4 Force of Will 4 Impulse 1 Stroke of Genius 4 Vampiric Tutor </d>

<d title="Aluren - Ryan Cimera - Grand Prix Seattle 2005"> Lands 3 City of Brass 4 Forest 4 Havenwood Battleground 3 Island 4 Polluted Delta 1 Swamp 4 Yavimaya Coast

Creatures 1 Auriok Champion 4 Birds of Paradise 3 Cavern Harpy 1 Cloud of Faeries 1 Eternal Witness 3 Raven Familiar 4 Wall of Blossoms

Other 4 Brainstorm 4 Intuition 4 Cabal Therapy 4 Living Wish 4 Aluren

Sideboard 1 Auriok Champion 1 Cavern Harpy 3 Eternal Witness 1 Genesis 1 Gilded Drake 1 Maggot Carrier 1 Masticore 1 Raven Familiar 1 Stern Proctor 3 Pernicious Deed 1 City of Brass </d>