Budget Deckbuilding: Rebel’s Call

Last time I looked at Magic the Gathering Preconstructed Decks, we just started with another one of the oldest blocks in the game’s history: The Mercadian Masques block. Last week, we had another try of the deckbuilders to make Red-Green a decent strategy with the old cardboard, a challenge that still surprises me as someone how basically started playing with the Ravnican Gruul guild already having settled in the game. Today, we take a rather different approach in two ways: First off, the deck is mono-White. I like myself a mono-colored Preconstructed Deck since it really shows what the deckbuilder can do with a limited cardpool. But the second fact is almost even more important: The deck features Rebels, which excel at tutoring each other. If you have never seen or heard of the Rebel tribal before, strap yourself in because this is going to be a wild ride.

Here is what answered to the “Rebel’s Call”:

Creatures (29):

2x Charm Peddler (W)
3x Ramosian Sergeant (W)
2x Ramosian Lieutenant (1W)
2x Steadfast Guard (WW)
2x Devout Witness (2W)
2x Nightwind Glider (2W)
2x Task Force (2W)
2x Thermal Glider (2W)
2x Ramosian Captain (1WW)
2x Ballista Squad (3W)
2x Pious Warrior (3W)
1x Cho-Manno, Revolutionary (2WW)
2x Ramosian Commander (2WW)
2x Jhovall Rider (4W)
1x Ramosian Sky Marshal (3WW)

Spells (10):

2x Disenchant (1W)
2x Cho-Manno’s Blessing (WW)
1x Afterlife (2W)
2x Arrest (2W)
1x Moonlit Wake (2W)
2x Ramosian Rally (3W)

Lands (21):

1x Fountain of Cho
20x Plains

“Rebel’s Call” starts with a non-Rebel creature in form of “Charm Peddler” who can turn excess cards in hand into damage prevention, and therefore not only works as a decent one-drop but also has merit later in the game when additional lands are not required anymore and can rather be discarded for his effect. But after this Shapeshifter, the deck shows its true strategy, one that is actually quite interesting. See, Rebels from the Mercadian Masques block can fetch other Rebels from the deck; but instead of fetching lower cost creatures like the Soulshift keyword does for Spirits, they can get Rebels up to one mana higher than their own cost but at the cost of stats and basically bringing nothing but the tutoring effect to the table. Here is how it goes: Three copies of the one-drop “Ramosian Sergeant” allow you to fetch Rebels that cost two converted mana cost. This opens the toolbox and either allows you to fetch “Steadfast Guard” for a 2/2 body with Vigilance, or the 1/2 “Ramosian Lieutenant” who in turn can be tapped in order to fetch a three mana Rebel. This opens up its own choices: “Nightwind Glider” and “Thermal Glider” are both 2/1 Flying creatures with Protection from Black or Protection from Red respectively and therefore solid blockers against the right color while poking for damage during your turn. “Task Force” is a 1/3 creature that gains +0/+3 whenever it becomes the target of a spell or ability, which has merit against damage-based removal. And you can also continue building the ladder with “Ramosian Captain“, which is a 2/2 First Strike creature that can be tapped to fetch a Rebel with four or lower converted mana cost right to the field. “Devout Witness” is really just an option against enchantments and/or artifacts, since she is not fetchable due to being a Spellshifter.

Needless to say, the four mana region also has quite a few rebels that might make things work. “Ballista Squad” can get rid of attacking or blocking creatures, provided you have enough mana to pay for the effect, while “Pious Warrior” is a 2/3 creature that heals you for any damage it takes. At four mana, you also have access to your first Rare “Cho-Manno, Revolutionary“, who is immune to damage and can therefore do his part in keeping you alive. And of course, we have another stepstone into higher Rebels with “Ramosian Commander” a 2/4 creature that fetches up to five mana Rebels with its search effect. In terms of “Rebel’s Call”, this is where the ladder ends, with “Jhovall Rider” being a rather underwhelming 3/3 creature with Trample, and the second Rare of the deck in form of “Ramosian Sky Marshal“, a 3/3 Flying creature that could search for six mana or lower Rebel creatures and brings them into play, but obviously needs to be tapped and asks for seven mana to do so.

The spell section of “Rebel’s Call” is decent but rather uneventful. “Disenchant” is a good way to deal with enchantments and artifacts that would otherwise cause trouble and a solid option to run for just two mana. “Cho-Manno’s Blessing” is an Aura you can cast at instant speed which gives the enchanted creature protection from a color of your choice, saving important members of your board from removal if necessary, or making them better blockers. “Afterlife” is decent removal if it gets rid of a big creature, even though I am not a fan of giving the opponent something else to work with. “Arrest” is basically “Pacifism” plus, since it not only prevents attacking and blocking but also the usage of activated abilities; but whether that extra bit is worth it depends on the situation. Then there is “Moonlit Wake“, which heals for one life point whenever a creature goes into the graveyard from the battlefield, which is cute but not really necessary since the deck neither has removal to make use of opposing creatures dying in abundance nor has any goal in killing its own creatures to profit from it. And then there is “Ramosian Rally“, a +1/+1 buff to your board that is very much too expensive unless you manage to play it for its alternate casting cost.

I read the articles about this deck from both “Beats and Skies” as well as “Ertai’s Lament” and the key information you want to get when playing this deck is that you rather want to tutor cards from your deck than playing options from your hand. It stands to reason: The library is normally a hard place to get specific resources from, so being able to fetch whatever you want from a certain creature type is massively powerful. Also, keeping cards in hand means that you have more options when push comes to shove and more fuel for the few Spellshapers in the deck. The strategy certainly works, but it pays with two currencies: Lack in power, and lots of mana. Since the search effect always costs one more mana than the maximum converted mana cost of the card you can search, the entire deck needs a lot of time if you are not building it to have some more speed. However, since all of the tutors search Rebel permanent cards rather than creatures, there is some room available to get creative with.

“Lin-Sivvi, Defiant Hero” is an easy choice to make since she not only recycles Rebels from your graveyard to search them out again, but she also has the best searching ability in simply tapping and paying what the target you have in mind costs. The copies of “Arrest” can make space for “Bound in Silence“, which can be searched by the Rebel tutors since it is a tribal enchantment with Rebel affiliation. The Time Spiral block brought many useful Rebels to the mix, with some of my personal favorites in form of “Children of Korlis” and “Knight of the Holy Nimbus” being low-cost cards that can be searched for. And Changelings can be used for some extra options aswell. “Changeling Hero” is not only a way better option to kick and gain life points with than “Pious Warrior“, but if you have the mana open you could even champion a creature that is currently targeted by a removal spell and save it this way. “Mirror Entity” not only costs little but can turn the mana hording of “Rebel’s Call” into a potent weapon by bringing the entire board to size, while “Valiant Changeling” would be a solid option to draw into since stacking Rebels makes this solid beater cheaper. And since the Rebels that search for their kin do not care about color, you could even opt to include cards like “Realmwalker” without having the colored mana to play it; just search and play it out of the deck, or discard it for Shapeshifter if you draw it. I would also opt to play mana-producing artifacts, with “Mind Stone” and “Springleaf Drum” being cheap options that can help speeding up the process of tutoring Rebels straight from the deck.

“Rebel’s Call” is definitely one of more interesting Preconstructed Decks; and I would go as far as saying of all the available decks in existence. The idea of being able to tutor creatures upwards is quite unique, but due to the high amount of mana needed and the fact that most of the creatures doing so or being tutored do not bring that much to the table, the entire strategy is not overpowered. However, buying the Preconstructed Deck is not worth it in my opinion. With starting prices of 40€, you are better off buying the necessary cards as singles and start improving the deck right from the deckbuilding process rather than dealing with the less favorable options. Because while I would say that buying the package is a bad idea, working with the cards is quite a different matter. There are tons of things you could go for with the staircase tutoring to create a versatile deck with lots of options, and it is definitely unique in terms of playstyle.