Phyrexia: All Will Be One is almost here! The set releases February 10th, and along with the main set, we’re also getting two brand new commander decks. In this article, I’m going to talk about the new Rebellion Rising deck.
I’ll go over all of the spicy reprints and new cards. I’ll also go over the best ways to upgrade the deck. Without further ado, let’s jump right into it!
The strategy here is really simple and powerful. The Rebellion Rising deck wants create a ton of tokens and use it’s Commander, Neyali, Sun’s Vanguard to give them all double strike. Neyali also gives you access to a bunch of extra cards each turn, as long as you’re attacking with your tokens.
Upgrading such a straight-forward strategy should be simple, right? Not so fast. With today’s commander precons, there’s always multiple paths you can take with your upgrades. Read on for a detailed guide to making the Rebellion Rising deck as good as possible for your specific budget!
Deck Overview / Review
When you sit down at a table with this deck, you have simple goals: Create a you-know-what-load of tokens, get your commander out, swing with the tokens and enjoy the benefits.
Obviously, this deck is on the aggro end of the spectrum, which means you’re going to want to do a lot of damage early on in the game. The beauty of it, however, is that your commander, Neyali Sun’s Vanguard, lets you draw (basically) as many as three extra cards per turn as reward for attacking! This is huge for the deck since it gives you the ammo you need to stay in the game once your giant
Overall, I’m pretty impressed with the Rebellion Rising deck, right out of the box. The deck has loads of potential to be upgraded. Right out of the box, the deck is a little bit unfocused. I would have personally liked to see more token generators included, since the deck relies so heavily on attacking with tokens specifically.
Although the deck is a bit sloppy right out of the gate, there are some great pieces here that give it the potential to be exceedingly powerful once we swap a few cards.
The Commanders
Neyali, Sun’s Vanguard
Neyali, Sun’s Vanguard is the card that comes on the front of the box, and it’s the commander that most people will use the first time they sit down to play. Does it deserve its place at the helm of the operation, though?
My answer to that question is absolutely yes! In my opinion, Neyali is an amazing commander that’s perfect for the deck’s strategy. Not only does she give all of your tokens double strike, but she also gives you access to a bunch of extra cards throughout the game. Any time you attack a player with one or more tokens, you get to exile the top card of your library. Then, you can cast the exiled cards on any turn you’ve attacked with a token.
The ability says “any time you attack a player”, that means if you attack all three of your opponents, you get a whopping three extra cards per turn!
The only downside to Neyali is that she doesn’t produce any tokens herself, meaning she basically does nothing if she’s on the
Still, I think the rewards by far outweigh the downside. After all, very few commander can do it all by themselves.
Alternative Commanders
If you don’t feel like using Neyali for whatever reason, the deck gives you a really powerful alternative in Otharri, Sun’s Glory.
Otharri is the other foil legendary creature in the deck, which means it was designed specifically to function either as a commander or as part of the 99.
Neyali’s one weakness (not being able to make tokens) is exactly where Otharri shines brightest. Every time it attacks you get an experience counter and you get to create a 2/2 Rebel creature token for each experience counter you have. The tokens also come into play tapped and attacking. This caveat is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, it’s basically like they all get haste, which is great for the decks aggro strategy. On the other hand, it would be nice to be able to protect your tokens in order to use them for Otharri’s other ability.
You see, if Otharri is in the graveyard, you can pay four mana and tap a rebel creature you control to bring it back to the battlefield! This ability is an awesome way to avoid paying commander tax and makes the deck insanely grindy when Otharri is at the helm. You just have to hope that some of your rebel tokens can survive their attacks so you’ll be able to tap them later.
Neyali VS Otharri: Which is Better?
Although both potential commanders are great, I think Neyali is the stronger choice. The combination of giving all your attacking tokens double strike, as well as giving you access to extra cards whenever they attack is very good.
Decklist
Okay, so I’ve talked about the commanders, now lets go over the rest of the cards in the deck!
Rebellion Rising
Best New Cards
Commander precons have become a surprisingly strong medium for Wizards of the Coast to inject brand new cards into the format. Here are my picks for the best new cards printed in the Rebellion Rising deck.
Clever Concealment
Clever concealment is an amazing way to protect your
You also get to choose which permanents phase out, which is nice if you just need to protect your creatures, but want to leave your Rhystic Study for example.
Clever concealment is going to be a staple in white creature decks for years to come.
Roar of Resistance
Not only is this amazing in the Rebellion Rising deck, it’s also great in any go-wide strategies, especially token ones. The one deck that immediately comes to mind is Krenko Mob Boss. Roar of Resistance is an auto include in that.
This is also going to be a ton of fun in any deck that likes to use politics. Pramikon, Sky Rampart is a good example of a general who would love to have this card.
Otharri, Sun’s Glory
The alternate commander in the deck, Otharri is one of my favorite new cards. My favorite aspect of Otharri, is that you can get around paying commander tax by using her last ability. All you have to do is tap an untapped rebel creature you control and pay four mana, and you can bring Otharri back from you graveyard straight to the battlefield.
I could easily see this ability being a huge headache for your opponents.
Otharri also has flying, lifelink and haste, and makes a whole bunch of 2/2 rebel creatures every time she attacks. I don’t think Otharri is the best commander for the Rebellion Rising deck right out of the box, but that’s only because the deck isn’t really catered around it. In the right build, I could see Otharri being really strong.
Oh, and the art is absolutely stunning too!
Best Reprints
Flawless Maneuver
Each precon usually has an expensive “chase” card, and Flawless Maneuver is definitely the one for this deck. Currently costing just over 20 USD, this is a welcome addition to anybody looking to pick the deck up as a financial investment.
Aside from the finance side, Flawless Maneuver is obviously a great card in the deck. We’re going to spending tons of resources building up an army of tokens. We have to protect them somehow.
Elspeth Tirel
Elspeth is great in this deck. Ideally, you’ll already have a massive
She also gives you the ability to create tokens with her -2 ability if you need to. Over the course of two turns, you can make six tokens, or make three tokens and gain life.
Elspeth is a versatile and powerful planeswalker that I’m glad they reprinted.
Worst Cards
We’ve gone over the best the deck has to offer. Now it’s time to go over the bad. Now the cards I’m going to list here aren’t necessarily horrible. It’s more that they just don’t really fit with the strategy, or that they’re not focused enough to really help us win.
Yo should reference this list anytime you’re looking for cards to cut out of the deck.
Call the Coppercoats
Call the Coppercoats is too conditional. Sure, it can be great if you’re opponents happen to have a lot of creatures, but if they don’t, it’s a dead card. I don’t like cards that have the potential to do nothing. I’d suggest replacing this with something more reliable.
Cut a Deal
This is another card that has the potential to do nothing. I understand that white is desperate for card draw, but still. We can do better than this, especially since our commander has the potential to give us lots of card advantage. Keep this in if your playgroup is casual and you like using fun cards. Otherwise, cut it.
Hate Mirage
This card is high-risk, high-reward. If your opponents have some huge creatures to steal and you have your commander out to give them double strike, it can be a putrid play. A lot of the time, however, it’s going to be four mana that you could have spent better.
Leave it in if you like high-risk cards with explosive potential. Take it out if you’d like to streamline the deck.
Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
This card is okay in the deck considering metalcraft is easy to get in commander and it’s a go-wide payoff. It is, however, too narrow in my opinion. It doesn’t make any tokens, and it does nothing for our
You could consider leaving it in if you wanted to lean into the equipment sub-theme. I wouldn’t recommend it though.
Upgrades
As with any commander deck, there are multiple ways you can upgrade Rebellion Rising. The path you choose will ultimately depend on your play-style and your budget.
The option I’ve chosen to highlight here is a simple one. This upgrade path is basically going to keep the core strategy of the deck exactly the same. We’re going to build up a bunch of tokens and use our commander, Neyali, Sun’s Vanguard to give them all double strike. We’re going to attack early and often, do a lot of damage and exile a bunch of cards from Neyali’s ability to keep the pain-train rolling.
With this in mind, we’re going to cut cards that don’t aid in our game plan and replace them with cards that do. One thing we need to focus on with this upgrade is consistency. Consistency is where the deck lacks straight out of the box, so that’s what we’re going to try to fix. We’re also going to try to add some power. Let’s get right into the cuts and replacements.
Best Low Budget Cards to Add
Starnheim Unleashed: $2.79
Stanrheim Unleashed lets us add a little bit more beef to our token package. Creating 4/4 angels that we can give double-strike to is pretty awesome. If we can use the foretell ability, the card becomes potentially game-ending.
What to cut: Call the Coppercoats
Skrelv’s Hive: $3.67
The Hive gives us a nice way to start creating tokens early in the game. The best part is that it makes a token every single turn unless our opponents can deal with it.
What to cut: Assemble the Legionl
Commander Liara Portyr: $0.20
Commander Liara Portyr gives us some nice redundancy since it basically doubles Neyali’s card advantage ability, plus it makes all of our exiled spells cost less to cast. This is an awesome card in this deck!
What to cut: Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
Geist-Honored Monk: $0.20
Geist-Honored Monk is a bomb in this deck. It makes tokens as soon as it enters and it has the potential to be huge if you already have a big
What to cut: Phantom General
Eltural Survivors: $0.26
Eltural Survivors probably doesn’t seem good at first glance, especially if you don’t know what the myriad ability does. Myriad means that every time it attacks you get to create a token that’s a copy of it for each opponent you control oher than the player you originally attacked.
So the strategy here is simple. Attack the player with the most lands so that Eltural Survivors is huge. Then make a bunch of token copies and use our commander to give those tokens double strike. In conjunction with Neyali, this card can end the game in a single turn.
It’s also super affordable, costing less less than 50 cents.
What to cut: Adriana, Captain of the Guard
Chaos Warp: $1.00
Chaos Warp costs just one dollar and can remove any permanent our opponents may have. The downside of your opponent getting to replace it with the top card of their library is small when you consider the importance of being able to remove our opponent’s scariest threat.
Chaos Warp is a must have in a deck that is already lacking versatile answers.
What to cut: Hate Mirage
Best Medium Budget Cards to Add
Okay, so we’ve gone over some nice low-budget options. Now let’s go over some mid-budget additions. These cards cost a bit more, but they’ll really push the deck over the edge.
Divine Visitation: $5.90
Divine visitation is one of my favorite cards, and it’s absolutely bonkers in this deck. I’m sure you can imagine how this card can quickly get out of hand. This is one of the more expensive cards on this list, coming in at about 6 dollars, but boy is it worth it.
What to cut: Maul of the Skyclaves
Moraug, Fury of Akoum: $9.85
If you can build up even a decent
What to cut: Vulshok Factory
Hero of Bladehold: $14.07
Hero of Bladehold is both a potent token generator, and a potent go-wide payoff all in one card. This is the kind of consistency that the deck is lacking out of the box. This card is never a bad draw. The 13 USD price tag is the only downside. If you can afford it, however, it adds a lot to the deck.
What to cut: Mace of the Valliant
Professional Face Breaker: $3.98
Professional Face-Breaker is an awesome bit of ramp and card advantage all wrapped into one card. This goes perfectly with our commander. Neyali wants us to swing at as many different opponents as possible so we can exile the max amount of cards per turn. Face-Breaker also wants us to swing at multiple opponents so we get multiple treasure tokens. Win-Win.
This card currently costs about 5 USD, which isn’t bad considering it’s potential impact.
What to cut: Cut a Deal
Best High Budget Cards to Add
If you’re looking to spend a bit extra and really make the deck as good as possible, you’ll want to add a few, or all of the cards from this list below. (Note: I won’t be adding any pure EDH staples onto this list, only cards that go well with our specific strategy.)
Bennie, Bracks Zoologist: $10.27
Bennie gives us a lot of card-advantage, which our deck really likes. We can also cast him for free or for very cheap most of the time thanks to his convoke cost. If you can afford him, he really makes the deck better.
What to cut: Mask of Memory
Tempt with Vengeance: $17.10
Tempt with Vengeance is a bomb in this deck. This is especially true if we can pair it with Divine Visitation or the next card on our list. The chances of our opponents taking the offer and creating tokens of their own is small considering we’ll be able to take advantage of ours so much better than they will theirs.
This card is expensive, sitting at just under 20 USD. If you’re on a low or medium budget, I would definitely skip this card, since it’s not the most essential. If you have a little extra money you want to throw around, however, you’ll be sure to have some fun with this card.
What to cut: Prava of the Steel Legion
Anointed Procession: $38.77
Anointed Procession is a beast of a card. Any time an effect of yours creates a token, it creates twice that many instead! It’s not hard to imagine how this can quickly get out of hand in our deck.
This card costs around 40 USD, which is a lot for a single card. If you can afford it, or if you happen to have it lying around, however, it’s really awesome in our list.
What to cut: Staff of the Storyteller
End Step
There you have it! I hope you’ve found this guide to upgrading your Rebellion Rising commander deck useful. One of the best parts about Magic: the Gathering is customizing your deck to your own preferences. That’s why you shouldn’t follow any of the advice I’ve given to a tee. Feel free to make your own changes and use your own pet-cards.
Whatever you do, I wish you the best of luck. Have fun!
