White Rebel Motorcycle Club
Commander / EDH
SCORE: 90 | 23 COMMENTS | 33776 VIEWS | IN 48 FOLDERS
Two years of tightening! —Feb. 17, 2019
I haven't update in a while, but here's the results of two years of tightening up!
My goal was to tighten up the win-con to the smallest package possible, add some tax and anti-combo effects, and add combo protection. The deck's ultimate goal is:
- Slow down the game and stop broken plays.
- Put together a win condition that is protected in some way.
- Win.
First, what was added:
The tax package:
+1 Glowrider +1 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben +1 Vryn Wingmare +1 Thorn of Amethyst
The deck now leans more into Thalia effects on hate bears. I've found have a tax effect on the board to slow the game down just enough to let me get to a safe combo position.
The stax bears:
+1 Linvala, Keeper of Silence +1 Sanctum Prelate +1 Thalia, Heretic Cathar
These girls shut down lots of strategies. Big Thalia punishes greedy mana bases and kills Splinter Twin / Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker combos, while Linvala shuts down most creature-based combos and value engines. Sanctum Prelate is normally on 2 - we have very little in the slot and it stops plenty of ramp, draw, removal (sorry Cyclonic Rift, and combo pieces. You can also put on 5+ without it interfering with anything you do. 4 is an option if you're willing to forgo the Aetherflux Reservoir win to stop Wrath effects. Pretty much never put it on 3.
We have new, improved graveyard hate bears:
+1 Remorseful Cleric +1 Samurai of the Pale Curtain
Remorseful Cleric is a great new addition, while the fox is new spice. Samurai shuts down death triggers, which means no Protean Hulk triggers, Animate Dead loops, or Karmic Guide loops. It also makes Meren of Clan Nel Toth and The Gitrog Monster a lot less annoying.
Then the combo protections bears:
+1 Grand Abolisher +1 Tithe Taker
These, combined with Hope of Ghirapur and the other tax effects, really help to protect me the turn I go off. Tithe Taker is also fun with Skullclamp.
New removal:
This card is almost always a better Oblivion Ring in this deck. I cast it for free all the time, and my tax bears can be tapped to cast it, negating their effect on it.
New engines:
+1 Smothering Tithe +1 Smuggler's Copter
With the print of the Smothering Tithe, we have a new mana engine. Our draw isn't great, but now their draw accelerates us. It turns on Metalcraft easily and a few turns of Smothering Tithe can make a lethal non-infinite Mirror Entity.
Smuggler's Copter is a nice way to filter through rebels that end up in hand, or turn lands from Land Tax into something more useful. It also lets you tap your creatures whenever, which means if you go off with Metalworker + Umbral Mantle but don't have a non-summoning sick Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero to get Mirror Entity, you can still pump the team.
I've felt I sometimes just miss winning with Metalworker. Now Weathered Wayfarer can get two artifact lands, which is enough to win with Umbral Mantle.
+1 Wasteland
I love killing lands. The extra Strip Mine effect has been helpful.
Now, what I removed. From my win conditions, I removed:
-1 Serra Ascendant -1 Teferi's Puzzle Box -1 Helm of Obedience
Serra Ascendent is a powerful card, but the best it did was get me to Aetherflux Reservoir life naturally. This doesn't seem like a good goal and I'd rather replace it with a real hate bear.
Teferi's Puzzle Box was a good draw engine with the Land Tax effects and fun with Smothering Tithe, but slow at 4 mana. The lock with Spirit of the Labyrinth was also good and usually did win me the game, but it uses parts completely independent of all my other win conditions. I decided to remove the lock.
Rest in Peace + Helm is a great combo in 1v1, but not as great in 4 player. Also, Helm does very little on it's own. The rebels are already bad enough in my hands, nevermind a 4 mana artifact that does almost nothing to advance my general strategy. I decided to remove this win con (keeping RIP, because RIP is good on it's own).
With the removal of these three, I was able to trim my tutor package:
-1 Ranger of Eos -1 Idyllic Tutor
Ranger of Eas is a weird card. It can grab Walking Ballista when I'm going off or Weathered Wayfarer to tutor combo pieces, but it costs 4 mana to do so. With Serra Ascendent leaving, I'm not sure I want a second Walking Ballista that costs 4 more but can sometimes also do other stuff.
If I'm not trying to win with Spirt of the Labyrinth or Rest in Peace, I'm not willing to pay 3 mana for an Enchantment tutor. It feels bad to tap 6 so that I can kill a permanent.
I then removed two cards that never felt like they did much.
-1 Sword of Feast and Famine -1 Sword of Fire and Ice
While I have a lot of equipment tutors and creatures to hold swords, they cost a lot of mana to play and the pump isn't worth it. Sword of Fire and Ice is a nice draw engine, but I'd always rather grab Skullclamp for that. Sword of Feast and Famine would be great if I planned to have more than 3-4 lands out.
I also removed some of the bad hate bears:
-1 Heap Doll -1 Lightbringer -1 Stonecloaker
I found Heap Doll and Stonecloaker to be outclassed by two other graveyard hatebears, especially now that I removed the Ranger of Eas to tutor for Heap Doll. Lightbringer is good if you have a lot of black in your meta, but I let it go for now in exchange for the new hate bears.
Changes to removal:
-1 Oblivion Ring -1 Parallax Wave -1 Mouth of Ronom -1 Seal of Cleansing
Parallax Wave is slow for what it does, and I don't have Opalescence in the list. Oblivion Ring just got outclassed, and Mouth of Ronom sadly needed to go so that my mana base can support WW and still have enough artifacts for Metalworker, Mox Opal, and Inventors' Fair. Seal of Cleansing got cut because I don't play Idyllic Tutor anymore so the enchantment package isn't quite as important, and with the new tax package spells need to be more impactful.
Then the miscellaneous:
-1 Tragic Poet -1 Jeweled Amulet -1 High Market -1 Gift of Estates
Tragic Poet was always clunky because it taps to activate. Jeweled Amulet is sadly too slow, as much as I love the poor man's Mox. High Market was good when I played Academy Rector, but now it's just there to kill things with Skullclamp and that's not good enough. Gift of Estates is a pet favorite of mine, but without Teferi's Puzzlebox it's less powerful and in the presence of a tax package it's far too clunky.
The deck now feels really tight, and I ever card seems like it could never be removed. If new hatebears come out next set, I might explode trying to fit them in.