Hate Bears

I did a recent heads up cube in which a mate did a cube version of a deck that is apparently played a bit in modern called Hate Bears. It is similar in some ways to a more established cube archetype - GW denial, but was a lot more proactive and played with a very different feel. Essentially it is a green white deck full of as many monsters that disrupt various strategies as possible. We were just throwing a few decks together for some quick games and were not competitively drafting cards due to time constraints so it is a little thrown together and also lacking a few spells I had already chucked into a different deck. I always love a fresh new archetype and rarely if ever do posts on decks done by other people so here is his list.


24 Spells

Mana Tithe
Swords to Plowshares
Avacyn's Pilgrim
Noble Hierarch

Mother of Runes
Sylvan Safekeeper
Dryad Militant

Ethersworn Canonist
Tarmogoyf
Thalia, Guardian of Threben
Grand Abolisher

Qasali Pridemage
Gaddock Teeg
Scavenging Ooze
Selesnya Charm

Aven Mindcensor
Kitchen Finks
Loxodon Smiter
Blade Splicer

Knight of the Reliquary

Linvala, Keeper of Secrets
Restoration Angel
Elspeth, Knight Errant

Sigarda, Host of Herons

16 Lands

Brushlands
Wooded Bastion
Stirring Wildwood
Sunpetal Grove

Wasteland
Temple Garden
Pendlehaven
Savannah

Karakas
Windswept Heath
Flooded Strand
Misty Rainforest

2 Plains
2 Forests





I had stolen the Eternal Witness, the Deathrite Shaman, the Fauna Shaman and the Treetop Village among a few other less relevant cards. We also don't have a copy of Leonin Arbiter which he mentioned he wanted but would need to change the mana base to do. The deck would consistently curve out with reasonably solid monsters while disrupting you in various unexpected ways. Although the disruption effects were typically not relevant on half the cards the sheer number of screwy cards meant that there were always a few thorns in your side making life really hard, all while under pretty decent pressure. The few spells the list played worked really nicely. Swords to Plowshares speaks for itself in this and any deck but being cheap is a real bonus for a spell in a deck like this. Mana Tithe is also lovely disruption in this deck as it hits so many targets, works well with the disruptive dorks and compliments a tempo orientated strategy. The Selesnya Charm was also pretty inspired, adding a bit of extra removal to relatively light compliment, offering pump to a tempo based creature deck and never being dead weight due to the knight token option. All in all a nice cheap card to round out the deck and keep it pure but give it some flexibility. Elspeth is a powerhouse but I would cut it for either the three mana Ajani or a creature based finisher such as Sublime Archangel. This is purely for the anti synergy it has with Gaddock Teeg and to a lesser extent Thalia as otherwise it would be a great card to have in the deck. Keeping the spell count to just three or four and keeping them cheap is good deck design for this archetype.

My mate, who has cropped up before in this blog under the psuedonim "Magnum Force" mentioned he considered playing Thorn of Amethyst and Glowrider but felt they would not be applying enough pressure to fit in with the rest of the rather aggressive list he had concocted. I fully agree with this assessment and think it is the key difference between this archetype and the GW denial archetype. The Mother of Runes combined with the Sylvan Safekeeper was a complete nightmare to deal with, both with removal and combat. They were a really good choice of utility one drops that helped to curve and keep tempo while also allowing late game finishing moves and preserving the lives of the most important disruption effects throughout the game.

Most of the disruptive dorks speak for themselves in this list, typically they have decent bodies for the costs and do some reasonably potent things to ruin the day for a couple of archetypes. A few exist that would have been fine in this deck and fit the theme such as True Believer, Kavu Predator or the afore mentioned Leonin Arbiter but without knowing the meta you are building for it is not easy to say which are right and wrong. I think it is fair to say the the best of the disruption dorks that offer decent tempo have been included in this list. The Grand Abolisher performed the worst of the disruption dorks but that was purely down to the decks I was playing against it rather than the strength of the card. The cards I am less sure about are primarily the ones that do not really disrupt and are just good beaters. That said I think Sigarda is over the top even with a powerful disruption perk, with so many sac lands in the deck and a not vast land or mana critter count getting to 5 mana will not be happening that quickly or reliably. In this role you are vastly better of with either a Tajuru Preserver for the effect or just a card like Sublime Archangel again that acts as a solid and more reliable finisher.


Tarmogoyf, Blade Splicer and Restoration Angel are the three cards that I felt didn't so much fit the theme of the deck in that they offered little or no disruption. The Angel offers synergy to a few cards but not enough to be at all abusable and it can save a valuable guy from death while not being a terrible threat however as a four mana card it doesn't really excite me as much as I would like a four mana card to do. Tarmogoyf performed pretty well but is just a beater and feels like you could better use the deck space to have more disruption guys. If you are feeling like you need beefier guys you are probably better off packing Rancor or a bit of equipment. The temptation to include the latter is always there with Stoneforge in the offering. The stand out card in the deck was Linvala who was a complete beating every time she hit the deck although a game was won by an Aven Mindcensor flopping out in response to a sac land activation and forcing the wiff followed by the instant concession. With the benefit of both time and hindsight here is a slightly honed list that I would aim for if I were trying to construct this deck in the future.


24 Spells

Mana Tithe
Swords to Plowshares
Deathrite Shaman
Noble Hierarch

Mother of Runes
Sylvan Safekeeper
Dryad Militant
Rancor

Ethersworn Canonist
Thalia, Guardian of Threben
Grand Abolisher
Fauna Shaman


Qasali Pridemage
Gaddock Teeg
Scavenging Ooze
Selesnya Charm

Aven Mindcensor
Kitchen Finks
Loxodon Smiter
Blade Splicer

Flickerwisp

Linvala, Keeper of Secrets
Sublime Archangel
Restoration Angel

16 Lands

Brushlands
Pendlehaven
Stirring Wildwood
Sunpetal Grove

Wasteland
Temple Garden
Treetop Village
Savannah

Karakas
Windswept Heath
Verdant Catacombs
Marsh Flats

Bayou
Scrubland
Plains
Forest


I added the Sublime Archangel to fill in for both Sigarda and Elspeth. I added the Fauna Shaman just to add a bit of reliability on having the appropriate disruption effect for a given matchup. I put in Flickerwisp for some general utility but to also further try and abuse the slight synergies included for Restoration Angel. It also adds to the evasive flying portion of the deck which should help finish things despite a lack of removal. The Avencyn's Pilgrim feels much weaker than Deathrite and so I just swapped those two even though the Shaman is less good for mana it is much more useful in many other regards and fits the theme of the deck well. With Shaman added the Knight of the Reliquary was feeling weaker and although offering some nice utility (Karakas is absurd in this deck with so many legends to protect) the Knight is not really disrupting beyond situational and convoluted applications of Wasteland and offensive Karakas play. Treetop Village replaced the Wooded Bastion mostly because it looks ever weaker with more comes into play tapped lands in the deck. The tempo reduction from Village is well worth the bonus threat in any green agro deck and this one is no exception. The only other tweak to the deck is the addition of Rancor to compensate a little for the removal of some of the beefier threats however I am not sure it is really needed with all the fliers. It may well just be better as another mana critter or disruption dork or even just a persistent threat. The cards that spring to mind are a return of the Pilgrim, Kavu Predator or Strangleroot Geist. As I mentioned earlier the deck is ripe for adding a Stoneforge and something like a Skullclamp and an Umezawa's Jitte however it would require a more serious rejig of the deck and so I would prefer to run it in this form before dabbling in more uncharted territory! It is at least fair to say that in going the equipment rout you would cut the Charm and perhaps even another spell and try to fit in the 17th land and/or another mana critter.