Rebels - Aggressive Searching
Rebels - Aggressive Searching
Zvi Mowshowitz
Alex Shvartsman gave his view of one rebel strategy recently; this is my view of all the rebel variations taken together. At least now the rebel decks have gone over to models based around Lin Sivvi instead of pumping out a lot of 2/2s, which to me is considerably more tolerable. A deck based around Steadfast Guard is a blunt instrument that beats people over the head, but one based on Lin Sivvi has the potential to be a well constructed toolbox instead. With so many good options, there's something wrong if the deck isn't agonizing over every card choice, and Planeshift is likely to make those choices even harder. More than any other major deck right now, the rebel deck of necessity uses its design to target the other decks in the format. The deck can't be designed without thinking about its opponents.
That doesn't mean that there's nothing to do before splitting up the problem into matchups and subclasses of rebel decks. All the problems boil down to deciding what the rebel engine needs to be able to deal with and what problems have to be solved by spells outside it. Meanwhile, every card in the engine must balance its value to an active engine with the value of the card when drawn normally. The biggest rule is to minimize the number of non-searchers in the deck. The more searchers that can start up the engine, the better the deck is at surviving counters or removal with its engine intact. Unlike the old grizzly bear versions, the new rebel decks depend on the engine to survive most of the time. Next, the decks can be divided on the basis of their supporting color.
Rebel decks that include green or that have no second color plan to blast through with creatures. The support cards are Crusade to strengthen the assault and Parallax Wave to take out opposing creatures. If there is green, its primary purpose is to reduce the number of basic Plains in the deck rather than for amazing green spells. Wax and Wane sometimes comes into play, and sometimes so does Noble Panther, but those are just efficient additions and not fundamental to the deck's operation. Normally there aren't enough green sources for anything green to be that important anyway. The presence of Noble Panther and sometimes for monowhite Chimeric Idol or even Longbow Archer shows the philosophy of the deck. This is where the engine is nice but still not strictly required. This is an attacking creature deck that also has a search engine. Still, it's a radical shift up from the past when Lin Sivvi was an afterthought in these decks. What changed wasn't the options for the deck, which lost nothing important when Invasion came in other than Mother of Runes, but the opposition. Before there were combination decks to be rushed and in general players were going around doing massive things. Now there's a mix of counter decks and decks with big creatures, both of which make the deck focus elsewhere. Still, the idea of these decks is to beat the opponent with a creature rush that's hopefully aided by a search engine.
A minor variant of these decks is to add black. Black's primary problem isn't that it's a bad supporting color. There's no question that the spells in black are far better than those in green. The problem is that black and white are not allied colors. If the deck wants to use dual lands it's reduced to City of Brass or the new gating lands. With everyone else running Rishadan Port in half their decks, this deck has to run Port itself almost out of necessity, and it's impossible to get sufficient white sources for third turn Lin Sivvi and sufficient black to use black spells reliably. The good news is that despite it not being reliable on the black end (which is where the sacrifice will have to be made) some black spells are more than powerful enough to still be worth it. The general consensus is still that the sacrifice needed in reliability isn't worth it even if it gets the deck Vampiric Tutor, Tsabo's Decree, Perish and the ability to hardcast Rebel Informer. The philosophy of the black version of the deck is basically the same as the green one, except that the deck now has an ace in the hole for some matchups in exchange for the reduction in reliability.
The other way to play the deck is with blue, which is known as Counter-rebel. This is also the version with the most variation. Some players run the deck the same way as the green versions. That means they use Power Sink as backup but don't sacrifice the white portion of the deck to do it and retain most of the same basic deck philosophy:
**The Rebel Sink (?!)** designed by Team Rejects **Main Deck** **Sideboard**
Compare this to, for example, the deck Kai Budde won Chicago with:
**Rebels** Kai Budde - PT Chicago 2000 **Main Deck** **Sideboard**
Kai's deck did not include Crusade. This was partially because it expected a lot of opposing rebel decks, but also because of a matchup analysis that made the card seem poor overall. Otherwise the decks are extremely similar. The engines are the same except for Kai's adding Thermal Glider and Ramosian Sky Marshal. This too is basically a combination of metagame decision based on what decks they expected to face and a lack of room in the Rejects' deck. The real difference of opinion is actually the decision to use Reverent Mantra in the Rejects' deck. This is what left so little room for an expanded chain. The sideboards are even basically identical, with the same three basic cards: Wrath of God, Mageta the Lion and Armageddon. The last few cards are there because of the need to add onto or substitute for splash cards.
The other way to build counter-rebel is to play a deck similar to the one used by Kamiel Cornelissen, who played the following:
**Counter Rebel** Kamiel Cornelissen - PT Chicago 2000 **Main Deck** **Sideboard**
This exact decklist 'has issues,' but the basic design is correct for the idea. This is a radical departure from the other aggressive versions of the deck - it has no way to be aggressive even if it wants to, without even a single Steadfast Guard. Normally it will kill with Jhovall Queen, Ramosian Sky Marshal and two Defiant Falcons. Unlike the other rebel decks, which see the engine as the deck and the rest as commentary, this deck is a control deck that uses rebels as its way to win; Donald Lim commented that "it's not a rebel deck, it's a control deck." The easiest proof that the rebel engine is largely incidental to the deck is that many modern versions sideboard into Millstone when the matchup calls for it. The rebels are a way to stop an attack, they generate card economy and they kill the opponent, but the deck does not expect them to be enough. Something as simple as a River Boa makes the engine's life difficult, and the deck expects that there will be some spells that have to be countered before they get out of hand. With the new slow approach Armageddon is one of them, and only Rebel Informer makes it possible to stop an opposing rebel rush. Fact or Fiction's presence, which I don't generally agree with, is good evidence that the engine is definitely not expected to be all the deck needs.
There are some modifications that this design has received since then. To better deal with River Boa, many versions have added a second Dominate. The Rout has become a third Wrath of God, which was judged to just be better for this deck. The biggest change is that Fact or Fiction is almost always cut from the deck, since it's completely against what the deck wants to be doing. Casting Fact or Fiction will take cards and mana away from the engine and normally only get more mana and searchers, with maybe one other card. This isn't what the deck needs so much as, for example, Thermal Glider or Ramosian Lieutenant. Normally the design doesn't diverge much more than that, with so many cards vital to the deck that there is little room to maneuver.
With such specific targeting, it all comes down to matchups. The first matchup is Fires. This is probably the matchup that forced the shift away from the earlier grizzly versions of the deck more than any other, since facing down 5/5s with 2/2s is extremely poor unless those 2/2s are Defiant Vanguards. The mission of all the rebel engines will be the same here. Steadfast Guard's biggest asset is the ability to use two of them to block Chimeric Idol, and the Idol's or Panther's biggest asset is that it can block another Idol. That doesn't mean that all rebel decks are created equal against Fires, though. The base of the engines are the same for all practical purposes, with two Vanguards to hit the early attackers and Lin Sivvi to bring them back. The biggest mystery card for the engine in this matchup turns out to be Thermal Glider, which is a great asset in stopping Rith, the Awakener if it's still showing up but also a great help stopping Two-Headed Dragon. It also provides a much better potential for offense if the Fires deck sits on defense, and sticks around right after an Earthquake. Jhovall Queen can also be important later on, as can Ramosian Sky Marshal. The Sky Marshal is especially important if there is no Thermal Glider, as without either one the engine cannot do more than use massive amounts of mana to endlessly chump block. For Fires, one large attack is more effective than the rebel players think
Beyond that, the question is which set of additional spells helps the most. Reverent Mantra stops Earthquake (and other burn) and can buy a turn. Parallax Wave buys more time than that, with its only hole a small problem with Blastoderm. The other problem with Parallax Wave is often underestimated, which is the fact that the strategy of having one large attack is more effective than the rebel players think, especially if backed with an Earthquake. The Wave sometimes ends up forcing that to happen and slows the engine a turn. Disenchant type effects are vital, and trading off for Saproling Burst and Fires of Yavimaya will go a long way. The engine's biggest problem is when it either falls behind or has too much to deal with at once, and this helps with both problems. Counters are great as well, since they can take the place of Disenchant and stop other threats as well. The biggest question is Crusade. In early testing, Crusade was actually one of the Fires deck's worst enemies, but that was because the rebel deck we were testing against was full of 2/2s. Make those 2/2s into 3/3s and suddenly 5/5s are a very easy problem to solve. Keep them as 2/2s and there is no option but to go after Defiant Vanguard. But outside of this type of situation, Crusade doesn't do that much. The battle is basically the same with it on the table as it is when Crusade is off the table. This is the beginning of the conclusion Kai's team came to that Crusade wasn't worth it. The pure Counter-Rebel design is the most scary for Fires with Wraths and the loss of dead weight or pure stalling tactics present in the pure Counter-Rebel design is made up for only by the presence of Islands that enable otherwise useless River Boas.
The Wraths are where pure Counter-Rebel makes the transition from rebel deck to control deck, which also hints that after sideboarding rebel decks often become control decks. They indicate the deck is willing to destroy the entire engine on a regular basis if the matchup calls for it and play cards specifically for that purpose. They also provide a permanent solution for creatures that doesn't involve the rebels themselves.
After sideboarding, all the rebel decks will become more control-oriented here. The engine can contain the Fires deck in the long run, but in the short run if both players tap their mana every turn the Fires deck can easily get too far ahead and win, or just cast an Earthquake. The rebel decks all plan to bring in Mageta the Lion and Wrath of God. The flip side is the need to defend against Flashfires and Earthquake, although the basic 'wipe the board' plan helps a lot against Earthquake. All the decks have already integrated some sort of Flashfires defense. At this point, all the rebel decks start to look a lot more controlling. A key rebel to have is Ramosian Lieutenant, because it is immune to Simoon even though it is vulnerable to Earthquake. Simoon is extremely popular right now. If there's one mystery card to add to the engine here it would be Lawbringer, which takes out Rith, Two-Headed Dragon and sometimes Ancient Hydra before they do major damage. From the opposite point of view, the card definitely worries me and I liked it in preliminary testing, even if those who have tested it before don't like it.
The next matchup is the mirror, and the mirror is basically a battle of lands and trump cards. On the first level, whoever is searching while the other is not obviously has an immense advantage and if this continues he will win easily. If both players are searching, the battle comes down to which player can use Rebel Informer to trap the other. Control of Lin Sivvi is helpful, but only really comes into play if neither player has Rebel Informer. Otherwise it doesn't change the equation. A player with Rebel Informer needs three mana to stop every rebel; the first one stopped after an opposing Informer will probably be Lin. If the other player is using Ramosian Sergeants to search, searching also costs him three mana. To get more impactful threats requires four mana to use Defiant Falcons to get the Informer or Lin. If a player can use Informer to set up a situation where the opponent can no longer search then which player has more lands doesn't matter, but until he pulls that off whichever player has more lands has the edge. This is one of the main reasons why rebel decks try and put in as much land as possible. It's not just this matchup - once the rebels start searching the deck can pretty much use an unlimited land supply until all rebels in the deck are on the table, and at that point the game should be over.
Rebel Informer control is the first level of trump. The second level is Mageta the Lion. Once Mageta is on the table, it will dominate the game completely and only an insanely lucky sequence of draws can run its controller out of cards to pitch if the situation is played properly. Parallax Wave can help delay the Lion or allow it to be replaced by a Lion on the other side, and Wrath of God resets the trump level back to zero again. The game will come down to a battle of these heavyweights, and this makes counters and sideboard cards vital to the mirror. The alternative is to try and use Armageddon to invalidate these trumps. Mageta doesn't do anything if it can't be cast. The problem is that Armageddon will be useless a good portion of the time since the matchup is symmetrical, but if it isn't then Armageddon can become vital. It's the best way for a cheaper version of the rebel deck like Kai's can take out a more expensive and controlling one.
What portion of the engine still needs to be in the deck after sideboarding? There's no longer a need for a toolbox thanks to Rebel Informer. If the Informer comes out that will be enough to dominate the game, and if Mageta arrives to stop it then no set of rebels is going to save the day. The only concerns are having enough searchers and being able to take advantage of a tempo edge. Cheap searchers are definitely all worth keeping in, but bigger ones can easily be sacrificed since they're not efficient. Once that's taken care of, the other question is whether to keep in cards like Steadfast Guard and Chimeric Idol. Isolated creatures probably end up going for better cards most of the time, but stay if the mission is to exploit a tempo advantage on a more controlling version.
The third matchup is control, and again the problem shifts to another part of the deck. The keys now are having as many searchers as possible and having Armageddon, which can be considered the 'fear of God' here, especially against U/W. Against Nether-Go the matchup is simple. The engine wins the game if it gets to Lin Sivvi, unless Tsabo's Decree wipes it out. Given the Decree problem, this is actually a control matchup where the speed of the kill is important. Remember, there's no other way Nether-Go can stop the engine once it starts short of multiple Massacres, so use Rishadan Port and Dust Bowl accordingly. Counter-Rebel has an even bigger edge once the engine is in place, because it may be a little slower to kill but backing up Tsabo's Decree in time is next to impossible. On the flip side, W/U control needs to beat the rebels with Wrath of God. There will often be a game of exhaustion involved. The U/W control deck has four or five Wraths and eight to twelve Counters plus card drawing, but no other cards to stop the engine more than temporarily and it takes a card to stop every searcher if they're played one at a time. That's a game the W/U deck can barely win eventually if nothing else gets in the way, even with Armageddon, so to keep this matchup as good as it is requires the threat of retaliation. That retaliation can take the form of Armageddon or more searchers. If Armageddon resolves and there's more land after that, the game is normally over, but this requires a lot of lands.
Otherwise, the key is just to play enough new searchers to exhaust the opponent's supply of untapped mana and force one onto the table, at which point they need another Wrath and fast. Most games the W/U deck will need at least two of them early on. If the engine goes straight for the Guards as it should, there won't be enough time to play the first Wrath with any kind of protection. Counter-Rebel has the additional advantage of forcing the control deck to fight its removal through counters, which is a fight the control deck can eventually win, but gives the rebel deck a better chance to win quickly. Counter-Rebel's real ace in the hole here is the ability to go to the Millstone plan. In order to put up a respectable fight against the rebel engine, W/U has to have a lot of dedicated anti-creature cards in the deck, and if most of the engine simply isn't there anymore and is replaced by thirteen controlling cards including four Millstones then it's going to be a very long day - sneaking the Millstone out under Counterspell often makes it next to impossible to stop under the W/U deck's current configuration. Then game three becomes a guessing game, with W/U about even if it guesses right and is built well and very burnt toast otherwise. In practice, all these matchups heavily favor the rebel deck.
Rebel killer?
The other important matchup right now seems to be Skies. Against Skies the keys are quick damage, flyers and the ability to replay cards in the face of Wash Out. This is the one place where Crusade is extremely valuable, since it's a very efficient way to pile up the damage on the ground. Except in the case of Parallax Wave, there's no getting around the Skies deck being more mana efficient than the rebels, especially now that the deck has moved to the more expensive models. That means the key is to survive long enough for the card economy that naturally comes from the rebel engine to win the game but not to take so long that Skies can win by drawing Wash Outs. Chimeric Idol is actually at its best here simply because it isn't white and Wash Out will miss it.
How good is this matchup? That depends on who you ask, but after having my face smashed repeatedly from the Skies side of the table I have to conclude that the rebel deck can certainly hold its own; the version I was playing was purposefully less than ideal, but so was the rebel deck and it would take a long way before the Skies deck could gain an advantage. Wash Out is great but it's the only really good weapon Skies has. Multiple Wash Outs are next to impossible to beat, but otherwise the rebels generally have an easy time. If this position on the matchup is accepted, it becomes a lot less important to prepare for it. Having as many Defiant Falcons as possible is a big asset, letting them trade for Rishadan Airships and other smaller flyers. Thermal Glider helps assemble enough power to take out bigger threats, as does Ramosian Sky Marshal later on. If there's a problem in the matchup, more flyers will fix it quickly in a big way. Rappelling Scouts doesn't do much else worthwhile, but it does a great job holding off a Skies deck. A second Thermal Glider (or a Nightwind and a Thermal) provides a much easier solution to Troublesome Spirit or Air Elemental and they're both incidentally helpful elsewhere as well. Skies decks seem to be getting popular enough to consider these kinds of uses of sideboard space, but they don't yet seem worthy of maindeck consideration except to solidify the need for the first Glider.
Which approach is the best? A lot of players view Counter-Rebel as the format's best deck. At this point, other rebel decks are at least partially sitting ducks for Tsabo's Decree and other hateful cards and lack the same flexibility that counters can provide. It's still one of my least favorite strategies, but the format is doomed to live with the rebellion until they rotate out. If they must be used then this is at least a better way as well as being what I would consider a better deck. Is the control version better, or should the blue just be splashed? Both decks appear to be strong, and while I would prefer to run the control version I can see it both ways.