Card/Deck Hatebears


So, I'm a pretty big fan of disruptive two drops, but I've found it kind of difficult to find a good suite of them for cube. In constructed we have more cards like gaddok teeg and arbiter, but I'm not sure they translate to limited.
 
I'm not sure, really. Maybe if you have a very high density of fetchlands or other tutor effects? It does seem very swingy between 2/2 vanilla and 2/2 opponent can't play Magic.

Some other options (a lot of which are already cube staples but hey)
 

Eric Chan

Hyalopterous Lemure
Staff member
I tried for a really long time to support G/W Hatebears as an archetype in my list, before concluding that many of the best constructed cards of this ilk aren't really suited towards cube. Most hatebears are narrow hosers, meant to stifle pure combo decks - library and graveyard shenanigans, or spell-based combos like storm - which don't exist in cube. At best, there are typically synergy decks, but those tend to be a far cry from something like Scapeshift or reanimator.

That said, there are still some great green bears that provide incidental hate!

 

Jason Waddell

Administrator
Staff member
Big problem with Leonin Arbiter is that it affects you too, especially if your white decks are planning on rumbling in with Steppe Lynxes. I have considered it, but it's kind of encouraging players to go in a direction that I don't want them to go in with their deckbuilding.
 
Scavenging Ooze is frightening good at destroying graveyard decks, so I ended up cutting it. If you are running the more degenerate GY stuff versus tamer versions (like self mill/dredge/value reanimator) he's probably totally fine. But he was too punishing over here.

Since removing most of the power artifacts/enchantments, disenchant effects have dropped in value significantly and I've been able to purge a lot of the weaker ones. That said, Qasali Pridemage is still very good because of the Exalted trigger.

Thalia, Guardian of Thraben is a strong card to be sure but doesn't work all that well in my meta because virtually every deck plays a decent number of non-creature spells (so Thalia on T2 usually slows you down too). As a result, I like Lodestone Golem better in this role because it's the more natural curve topper. But I'm curious how others feel about this. Our group just may not be using Thalia right.
 
I love Thalia and her horse, they've been pretty sweet in a few W/B weenie builds just stalling out a wrath that was stranded in hand. I got got by Thalia into Horse and couldn't play out my wrath. My Lone Missionary didn't stand a chance against a board with multiple 2 power dudes.
 
I've had good luck with Eidolon of Rhetoric. Not a bear, but it can serve control decks quite well, especially if you're running a good number of instants you can spread between the other player's turns.
 
Top