2001)

As long as Rebel searchers are available in the Type 2 environment, you can expect Rebels to be a viable deck type. I particularly like Rebels as a choice for a long tournament due to the high level of consistency the Rebel deck provides. All the playable decks in the field perform well when they get the correct draw, but a Rebel deck is one of the best fighters when it gets a sub-optimal draw. As an essentially mono-colored deck that can function on only 3-4 lands, it is one of the best decks at fighting back from early mana-screw, but since it also makes excellent use of any extra mana, it is not often hurt by mana-flood. A Rebel deck also mulligans better than any other deck in the field, as the searching mechanic soon recovers any cards lost to the mulligan. At some point during any large tournament you are going to have to deal with poor draws and mulligans, so these qualities rate very high on my scale for what I look for in a tournament deck.

Naturally, since Rebel decks possess so many qualities that I value highly, they are the first area of decks I began looking into for the Type 2 environment after Planeshift rolls in. What do Rebel decks gain in Planeshift? One very important card: Meddling Mage. Meddling Mage is so important to Rebel decks because of the nature of the Rebels’ enemies. Any Rebel player knows that trying to deal with rebels on a card-for-card basis with removal like Terror, Shock, etc. is a losing battle, since any searcher is capable of producing multiple critters. Therefore, decks looking to thwart the Rebel strategy must turn to single-card, sweeping effects, such as Wrath of God, Flashfires, Earthquake, Tsabo’s Decree, or Wash Out. Since anti-Rebel strategies tend to be rolled up into a specific, very important card, Meddling Mage makes the perfect addition to a Rebel strategy.

So, what does a Rebel deck with Meddling Mage look like? It can take one of several forms, such as White-Weenie Beatdown or Counter-Rebel. The following list is a descendant of the beatdown version I first began working on for States. While I ended up unable to attend States due to other obligations, the deck performed well, going 5-2 in the hands of a player playing in only his second sanctioned tournament, and since then I have taken it to FNM several times, where it has yet to lose a match. Now, with Meddling Mage in the mix, it looks like this:

4:Meddling Mage
4:Ramosian Sergeant
1:Defiant Falcon
2:Ramosian Lieutenant
1:Defiant Vanguard
3:Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero
2:Steadfast Guard
2:Fresh Volunteers
1:Thermal Glider
1:Nightwind Glider

4:Crusade
3:Parallax Wave
2:Seal of Cleansing
2:Enlightened Tutor
4:Wrath of God

2:Dust Bowl
4:Rishadan Port
4:Adarkar Wastes
3:Coastal Tower
11:Plains

The Rebels

The Falcon is included because it is nicer to have a flyer to peck with when the ground stalls, and to have something to team up with a glider to take out Blinding Angel (assuming Crusade is in play). However, there are 2 Lieutenants because the 2-toughness is more important than flying, and 3-toughness with 1 Crusade is particularly important, since it saves the Lieutenants from Shocks/Assaults and lets them block River Boas. Defiant Vanguard is not intended as a searcher, but can serve as one in a pinch. The Nightwind Glider has up until this point been either a 2nd Thermal Glider or a Sky-Marshall, but while crossing the boundaries into untested territory, it will be a Nightwind. If black is once again absent from the metagame, it will return to the 2nd Thermal or a Sky-Marshall.

The ´´Enlightened´´ Collection

Playing 2 Enlightened Tutor and 2 Seal of Cleansing lets this deck cut back a little bit on the enchantment removal, as well as giving it the versatility to draw the correct enchantment when needed: Seal, Parallax Wave, or Crusade. There is not enough variety of enchantments or game-breaking power of enchantments to warrant 4 Enlightened Tutors, but 2 gives the deck just enough selection to occasionally choose the correct enchantment for the situation. Note that this deck is also 1 Parallax Wave light, thanks to the Tutors and the Wraths.

Wrath of God

Ever since I first put Wrath into my Rebel deck, I haven’t considered going without it. If you are winning the race, then I suppose Wrath would be considered a dead card, but you are winning. If you are losing the race, or are locked in a stalemate, there is no better way to seize the tempo than ´´Wrath – Searcher – Go!´´

Meddling Mage

As mentioned above, Meddling Mage is here to protect you from the Rebels’ natural predators: Wrath, Earthquake, Tsabo’s Decree, etc. The fact that it can attack while providing that protection, and is enhanced by Crusade at the same time, guarantees that there is room in your beatdown deck for this little gem. It is true that he can be taken out by simple removal such as Shock or Terror, but so can most other creatures, and they aren’t quite so disruptive when they are around as this little guy is. Even if he only sticks around long enough to give you 1 or 2 extra attack phases before a Decree or a Wrath, that’s more disruption than most other 2-drops can give you. The only thing I urge is that you not get into any automatic card-naming habits, such as ´´I’m playing against U/W Control, so I automatically name Wrath of God.´´ Always carefully consider the current game situation and make your choice carefully.

This is, of course, just one possible build of the Rebel deck after Planeshift becomes legal for Type 2. One of the nice things about Rebel decks is that there is quite a range of strategies that work with them, giving a number of viable Rebel decks that can be built. I’d love to hear about and discuss any Rebel decks you may be working on – just contact me at crazy_monkey1@msn.com.

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