Hanni
11-03-2006, 05:41 AM
As some of you may know, I came back to Magic some time ago and began with a WW/u Counter Rebel deck. Rebels have always been my favorite creature type. I eventually wound up with a UWb Fish deck but I've recently been toying around with some different Rebel builds. I've toyed around with an Angel Stompy approach, a WW/b approach, and a WW/u Life Combo approach. This time, I decided to try a Goblins approach. I'll explain more after the decklsit:
Vial Rebels (Mono White)
Lands (21)
4 Flooded Strand
11 Plains
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Gaea's Cradle
Creatures (28)
4 Children of Korlis
4 Ramosian Sergeant
4 Amrou Scout
4 Ramosian Lieutenant
4 Whipcorder
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
2 Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
2 Thermal Glider
Spells (11)
4 Shared Triumph
3 Reverent Mantra
4 Aether Vial
Sideboard (15)
4 Disenchant
1 Defiant Vangaurd
4 Glowrider
4 Rule of Law
2 Pithing Needle
So basically, the deck wants to constantly pump out rebels. The deck differs from Goblins quite a bit... the deck doesn't necessarily want to go into the red zone every turn unless the opponent has no blockers or their blockers cannot kill the Rebels. The intentions are to build up a huge horde of Rebels and swing for lethal in one big turn, thus the inclusion of the Reverent Mantra's. I have considered Parallax Wave as a kill condition but ultimately decided on Reverent Mantra because it is easier to cast and also provides protection for my creatures. Parallax Wave is still debatable.
Instead of Fanatic, the deck runs Children of Korlis. Instead of Incinerator, the deck runs Whipcorder. The deck is a bit more defensive than Goblins, but my playtesting has shown that it is far more explosive. It starts out a bit slow but after the deck draws into either Gaea's Cradle or Aether Vial, it can start pumping out 2+ threats a turn (with Cradle, I've had turns where I put 4 Rebels into play). Aether Vial makes the deck extremely explosive, as I usually set it to 2.
Crusades were a recent choice. I thought about adding them to the sideboard to avoid splash hate of Engineered Plague that people board for Goblins. Then I realized how crazy it was maindeck. The deck puts a ton of 1/x and 2/x creatures into play... backed by Crusade, the deck can easily gain 8+ points of damage per Crusade, quickening the clock considerably. It buffs the creatures up so that they can attack without dying, avoid Lightning Bolts and Pyroclasms, negate Engineered Plague, etc. I have yet to playtest the Angel Stompy matchup, where Crusade would probably be a bad play, but it seems pretty good right now.
I originally had something like 32 Rebels but it eventually got cut down to 28. With the built in recruiting mechanism on half of my creature base, I haven't really had a problem with a lack of threat density. The deck is extremely consistent, requiring mulligans very rarely. I haven't drawn into any terrible draws yet, since the majority of the deck is creatures, with half of them recruiting for more. I haven't done alot of testing yet, but so far, the deck seems really solid.
As far as the land base goes, I put in 4 fetchlands to try and thin the deck out of lands since the recruiting thins the deck out of creatures... and I want to draw into creatures consistently if I have Vial out. I didn't add more than 4 because the deck is still a little mana hungry, aside from the games where it draws into Gaea's Cradle, and the life loss of fetchlands + Ancient Tomb can sometimes be a problem. So far, 15 white sources has been sufficient.
Instead of trying to go with a RDW-style land setup of Wasteland and Rishadan Port (like Goblins), I decided that replacing the nonbasic colorless land portion with acceleration lands was a better idea. This deck doesn't have Lackey to give it the mana tempo it needs, nor can it rely solely on the back of Vial to pump threats into play. A major reason this deck can go crazy nuts explosive is because it can abuse Ancient Tomb's early game and Gaea's Cradle mid-late. Goblins can't really abuse Gaea's Cradle, because it cannot pump out threats with tons of colorless mana. However, Rebels can. I'm actually considering going up to a 4th Cradle.
I didn't add Swords to Plowshares because I didn't really feel as though the deck needed to remove any creatures. The deck has enough defensive mechanisms to hold out until it swings for lethal. They may be viable either MD or SB but I really didn't want to dilute the deck with something that I didn't feel was important enough. Reverent Mantra would be the only spots available, as far as I can tell, to fit StP... and Reverent Mantra is a kill card (and/or protection for my threats).
I didn't really feel that Umezawa's Jitte was necessary in this deck. The mana investment for Jitte sidetracks from investing into more creature threats, which is the basic goal of the deck. Jitte is slower and more controlling, whereas this deck wants to build up enough creatures so that it can swing for lethal ASAP.
The 2 Thermal Gliders maindeck help out the Goblins matchup considerably (blocking Piledrivers like champs).
The lone Defiant Vangaurd in the sideboard helps answer untargetable threats like Troll Ascetic and Nimble Mongoose.
The sideboard is just a rough draft at this point... I figured that it needed anti-combo hate so I devoted 8 spots to the combo matchups. Disenchant removes problematic cards like Umezawa's Jitte, Engineered Plague, Dystopia, etc. Pithing Needle helps answer randomness like Pernicious Deeds and Maze of Ith. As I said, the sideboard was just something I tossed together and I'm sure it could use some more developing.
So far, the deck has been performing very well for me. I've only playtested a handful of matchups on MWS so far, but it has royally stomped face in the few matches I tested it. It seems like the deck would do pretty well against Goblins, very well against Threshold, and have a solid matchup against Solidarity post board. I'm not quite sure yet, but I'll do some more testing with it. This deck is really really fun.
Comments/Suggestions/etc are welcome. Could this stand on the same pedestal as Goblins?
Vial Rebels (Mono White)
Lands (21)
4 Flooded Strand
11 Plains
3 Ancient Tomb
3 Gaea's Cradle
Creatures (28)
4 Children of Korlis
4 Ramosian Sergeant
4 Amrou Scout
4 Ramosian Lieutenant
4 Whipcorder
4 Knight of the Holy Nimbus
2 Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
2 Thermal Glider
Spells (11)
4 Shared Triumph
3 Reverent Mantra
4 Aether Vial
Sideboard (15)
4 Disenchant
1 Defiant Vangaurd
4 Glowrider
4 Rule of Law
2 Pithing Needle
So basically, the deck wants to constantly pump out rebels. The deck differs from Goblins quite a bit... the deck doesn't necessarily want to go into the red zone every turn unless the opponent has no blockers or their blockers cannot kill the Rebels. The intentions are to build up a huge horde of Rebels and swing for lethal in one big turn, thus the inclusion of the Reverent Mantra's. I have considered Parallax Wave as a kill condition but ultimately decided on Reverent Mantra because it is easier to cast and also provides protection for my creatures. Parallax Wave is still debatable.
Instead of Fanatic, the deck runs Children of Korlis. Instead of Incinerator, the deck runs Whipcorder. The deck is a bit more defensive than Goblins, but my playtesting has shown that it is far more explosive. It starts out a bit slow but after the deck draws into either Gaea's Cradle or Aether Vial, it can start pumping out 2+ threats a turn (with Cradle, I've had turns where I put 4 Rebels into play). Aether Vial makes the deck extremely explosive, as I usually set it to 2.
Crusades were a recent choice. I thought about adding them to the sideboard to avoid splash hate of Engineered Plague that people board for Goblins. Then I realized how crazy it was maindeck. The deck puts a ton of 1/x and 2/x creatures into play... backed by Crusade, the deck can easily gain 8+ points of damage per Crusade, quickening the clock considerably. It buffs the creatures up so that they can attack without dying, avoid Lightning Bolts and Pyroclasms, negate Engineered Plague, etc. I have yet to playtest the Angel Stompy matchup, where Crusade would probably be a bad play, but it seems pretty good right now.
I originally had something like 32 Rebels but it eventually got cut down to 28. With the built in recruiting mechanism on half of my creature base, I haven't really had a problem with a lack of threat density. The deck is extremely consistent, requiring mulligans very rarely. I haven't drawn into any terrible draws yet, since the majority of the deck is creatures, with half of them recruiting for more. I haven't done alot of testing yet, but so far, the deck seems really solid.
As far as the land base goes, I put in 4 fetchlands to try and thin the deck out of lands since the recruiting thins the deck out of creatures... and I want to draw into creatures consistently if I have Vial out. I didn't add more than 4 because the deck is still a little mana hungry, aside from the games where it draws into Gaea's Cradle, and the life loss of fetchlands + Ancient Tomb can sometimes be a problem. So far, 15 white sources has been sufficient.
Instead of trying to go with a RDW-style land setup of Wasteland and Rishadan Port (like Goblins), I decided that replacing the nonbasic colorless land portion with acceleration lands was a better idea. This deck doesn't have Lackey to give it the mana tempo it needs, nor can it rely solely on the back of Vial to pump threats into play. A major reason this deck can go crazy nuts explosive is because it can abuse Ancient Tomb's early game and Gaea's Cradle mid-late. Goblins can't really abuse Gaea's Cradle, because it cannot pump out threats with tons of colorless mana. However, Rebels can. I'm actually considering going up to a 4th Cradle.
I didn't add Swords to Plowshares because I didn't really feel as though the deck needed to remove any creatures. The deck has enough defensive mechanisms to hold out until it swings for lethal. They may be viable either MD or SB but I really didn't want to dilute the deck with something that I didn't feel was important enough. Reverent Mantra would be the only spots available, as far as I can tell, to fit StP... and Reverent Mantra is a kill card (and/or protection for my threats).
I didn't really feel that Umezawa's Jitte was necessary in this deck. The mana investment for Jitte sidetracks from investing into more creature threats, which is the basic goal of the deck. Jitte is slower and more controlling, whereas this deck wants to build up enough creatures so that it can swing for lethal ASAP.
The 2 Thermal Gliders maindeck help out the Goblins matchup considerably (blocking Piledrivers like champs).
The lone Defiant Vangaurd in the sideboard helps answer untargetable threats like Troll Ascetic and Nimble Mongoose.
The sideboard is just a rough draft at this point... I figured that it needed anti-combo hate so I devoted 8 spots to the combo matchups. Disenchant removes problematic cards like Umezawa's Jitte, Engineered Plague, Dystopia, etc. Pithing Needle helps answer randomness like Pernicious Deeds and Maze of Ith. As I said, the sideboard was just something I tossed together and I'm sure it could use some more developing.
So far, the deck has been performing very well for me. I've only playtested a handful of matchups on MWS so far, but it has royally stomped face in the few matches I tested it. It seems like the deck would do pretty well against Goblins, very well against Threshold, and have a solid matchup against Solidarity post board. I'm not quite sure yet, but I'll do some more testing with it. This deck is really really fun.
Comments/Suggestions/etc are welcome. Could this stand on the same pedestal as Goblins?