Break it down

I cut nearly 1/3 of this deck-19 cards- right off the bat. 

Because this was a Cataclysm deck, at the end of the day. But times have changed a LOT. What good are Battlemages or Volvers when you can cast Uro, Titan of Nature's Wrath?

Cataclysm means I need to be able to wreck someone after I cast that, but creature spells have become so cheap and so powerful Cataclysm doesn't have the impact it did in Weapon of Choice.

Options: Trostani, Three Whispers, Shakedown Heavy, Prowling Serpopard, the Adversary cycle from Midnight Hunt, Anafenza the Foremost, Garruk's Harbinger, Scrapshooter, and Laughing Jasper Flint. 

And these are all really interesting cards, but I have to admit that I'm definitely mired in the stylings of a very old deck. 

Yes, I know there are combo finishers in certain versions of Aluren; Acererak the Archlich is a one card finisher and using Cavern Harpy + Parasitic Strix can do it too. But I never really liked those. 

The latter because it represents an easy way out. I'm not saying I shouldn't have the combo in there as one-ofs. Sometimes you just need to win. But I don't like it, because it doesn't feel like any real setup was done, no work. Aluren is out: Do you have the combo? Then the game is over. 

I realize it's ego, but winning that way doesn't feel worthy of my efforts. 

Acererak is even worse: I hate what dungeons did to Magic and don't like this method either. 

So why even run the deck at all, right? 

Because fuck it, that's why. 

Fortunately, there are some good choices for me that I hadn't thought of--and I found those by doing some research at Moxfield.