I made this deck because I absolutely love the terrible old rebels from Masks and the other old border sets. It’s one of magic’s first attempt at fixing the white card advantage problem. They have the unique ability to tutor out other rebels from your deck, and because of that flexibility all rebels had to be terrible. Even by old Magic standards.

This deck has been through a couple of forms and is still changing dramatically, but I feel like this is a good representative for a Bracket 1 deck. It’s definitely more a theme than a strategy. My first attempt just jammed a bunch of rebels and hoped for the best, but now I’m seeing the real strategy. Less rebels and more interaction.

When playing this deck I found that my least favorite place for a rebel was in my hand. I wanted them in my deck, in my graveyard, or on the battlefield only. My hand should be exclusively for cards that help me stay in the game, and my tutors should be used to answer threats that my rebels could deal with. Instead of trying to build a big board rebels are all tools that I can pull up when needed, discarded, and then refreshed into the deck as the board state demands.

It’s still not good by any stretch of the imagination, that’s why it’s bracket 1, but it’s incredibly flexible and resilient in its own rights. It’s also incredibly mana hungry so I popped in every mana doubler I could afford.

What do you think? Are there any cards you’d recommend for this archetype? Did you even know half of these cards existed?