(Kataki, War's Wage | Art by Peter Mohrbacher)

Kataki and the Fun Police

Welcome back to Rally the Ancestors! Today's goal: how do we make a hatebear-style deck without making your playgroup hate you? Easier said than done, but we have some new tools that will help us get there. It's hatebear deck for the modern Magic player! In addition, our deck will be built for the modern Commander metagame by focusing on shutting down a specific card type: artifacts. And who better to lead the charge than Kataki, War's Wage?!

Say goodbye to your treasure.

Before we get too far into specifics, let's talk about this deck archetype. The name is definitely not intuitive for new players. You might say, “Hatebears? There's not a single "Bear" in the deck, and I'm nice!” Well, “Bear” simply refers to a 2/2 creature for two mana, or more specifically the original 2/2 for two mana Grizzly Bears. The “hate” part comes from specific “Bears” that make life miserable for opponents by preventing, increasing costs of, or punishing certain actions. In short, these decks run small, efficient creatures and try to disrupt plans where possible. I'd also expand this definition to include creatures that give us incremental advantages when opponents do stuff. And cost-wise in Commander, we're generally looking at creatures between one and four mana that offer these effects, not just two. That's it in a nutshell!

Why Kataki?

It's a fair question. After all, Kataki only has 151 decks on EDHREC at the time of writing this and is quite specific. There are certainly other more popular commanders for the archetype, and ones that aren't so narrow in their scope. So, why? Well, perhaps Kataki isn't so narrowly focused after all. Artifacts are everywhere in Magic these days, specifically artifact tokens. Clue. Blood. Food. Treasure. You name it. These don't do much on their own, but they can accumulate a lot of value over the course of the game. In addition, head over the the deck themes page. What's #1? Artifact themes. Second place? Treasure. Fifth? Equipment. See where I'm going? Everyone is playing artifacts, so as the old saying goes, if you can't join them, beat them. Or something.

Kataki does a great job at this. Putting a “tax” on each artifact seems small, but it can really slow our opponents down if not outright shut down their strategies. Trying to build an atypical Kataki list also gives us a fun deck building challenge: Can we go completely against the flow and run a deck with no artifacts at all, and still be in good shape? I noticed many of Kataki's popular cards actually are artifacts in an attempt to take advantage of artifacts that don't mind dying. It's a cool idea, but realistically you don't need an article to suggest ideas for that deck; EDHREC's Kataki page has you covered if you want to go that way! Let's wage war on artifacts with a hybrid hatebear/white weenie build instead.

One last point: We'll have a few legendary creatures in this deck that can sit as commander if you want to mix things up. Or if your artifact-loving friends demand it. Either way, you'll have options!

Alternative commanders, new and old!

Deck Goals

Let's talk about what we're trying to accomplish..

1. Slow the game down. This style of deck isn't for everyone, but since white is generally less good at drawing cards and mana ramping (especially without artifacts!) we'll need to make getting ahead difficult for our opponents.
2. In a multiplayer game this may put a target on our head, so we'll pack a few ways to dissuade attacks as well. Protection and politics will have to counteract some of the “hate” our hatebears might get.
3. Buff our little creatures up with "anthem" effects to keep the pressure on our opponents. We can't win by sitting back and doing nothing with this style of deck, nor are we relying on a game-ending combo to put us over the top. We'll have to do it the old fashioned way: attacking!

Tips for building and playing Kataki, War's Wage

Tip #1: Don't hate out your own strengths. In earlier versions of this deck, I was running into scenarios with cards that prevented players from playing multiple spells and falling far behind my opponent's bigger threats, since my deck didn't have many instants or cards with flash. So while cards like Archon of Emeria and Eidolon of Rhetoric seem on-theme, they actually hurt more than they helped. I opted for Deafening Silence instead, as it doesn't inhibit our creature-heavy deck as much.

Tip #2: Try not to overcommit to the board too much too soon. It's tempting since so many of our creatures have unique effects and low costs, but some of our cards are bound to draw out board sweepers earlier than what's typical. Keep protection in hand or hold back a few creatures if you suspect a board reset is coming. Once one happens, or when one of yours happens, the deck's low curve should mean you're in good shape to respond with a few creatures. Even better if you have an anthem or two on the board. Patience!

Tip #3: If you're modifying this deck for yourself, remember that you're playing Commander. Sometimes a card with a better body in exchange for a slightly higher mana value might be worth running over the cheaper alternative. For example, let's look at Imposing Sovereign and Kinjalli's Sunwing. In other formats I may be tempted to run the two-mana card, but in Commander's slightly slower environment, paying the extra mana for flying and more toughness is worth it.

Tip #4: This is more of a general deckbuilding tip, but I found myself thinking of it a lot when putting this together because it seemed like such a blank slate: Think of some themes to help narrow down your choices. In this case, I probably could've gotten away with running a few artifacts, including ones that don't mind being sacrificed (Ichor Wellspring is a popular one). Even cards that reference artifacts, like Elesh Norn, might have been solid. But hey when I said no artifacts, I meant it. It's a fun challenge and it makes for a unique deck. While there's nothing wrong with going for pure power, Commander has always been about creativity, at least for me. Play the cards that speak to you!

The Deck

Key components of our deck include:

True hatebears

Still strong: Aven Mindcensor, Grand Abolisher, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
New hotness: Boromir, Warden of the Tower, Nils, Discipline Enforcer, Strict Proctor

There are no shortage of options for hatebears, including some excellent newcomers. Strict Proctor is a nice change of pace from “hard” ETB-hate like Hushwing Gryff(which we're still running) and Hushbringer as it does something a little different without harming our deck. What it CAN do, however, is make popular abilities like Landfall and staples like Garruk's Uprising much less good. It does enough in Commander!

Hate enchantments (or battles)

Still strong: Crackdown, Authority of the Consuls, Aura of Silence
New hotness: Invasion of Gobakhan

Ok, this is one area where the classics hold up pretty damn well. And this is one deck where we actually want to avoid one of the most hated white cards, Smothering Tithe! In return, we're running stuff like Crackdown. Sorry, not sorry. I'm also trying out a battle for the first time, as Invasion of Gobakhan seems right up our alley and relatively easy for us to flip.

Protection Bears and Spells

Still strong: Mother of Runes, Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant
New-ish hotness: Giver of Runes, Flawless Maneuver

For brand new cards, Skrelv, Defector Mite fits the bill in this category as well. Still, I think the older and recent-past options are a little better. This seems like one area where Wizards of the Coast might actually have scaled back power levels a bit lately, as spells like Flawless Maneuver and Teferi's Protection remain top tier. Speaking of top tier, Mother of Runes is still the card to beat, creature-wise.

Card Draw

Still strong: Mentor of the Meek
New hotness: Archivist of Oghma, Tocasia's Welcome, Alms Collector

Mentor of the Meek really started a trend. For a while it was debated if this card should even be white (some argued blue), and now we have several cards like Tocasia's Welcome that have similar effects. Archivist of Oghma being one of them. Mono-white seemed very tricky to play in Commander prior, so while these cards are near-ubiquitous in white decks, I think they were necessary to help the color keep pace. I will admit, this deck has a lot more of the “popular” cards than I usually run, but it's hard to argue against the value that some of the newer staples provide.

Making Little Creatures Bigger

Still strong: Honor of the Pure, Ajani Steadfast, Felidar Retreat
New hotness: Flowering of the White Tree, Virtue of Loyalty, Serra Redeemer

Making our team bigger isn't too hard these days; we've come a long way from Glorious Anthem! Newcomer In the Trenches is strictly a better version, and we have a lot of options for adding +1/+1 counters to our whole team too. I also have to mention Flowering of the White Tree because it's probably the best “anthem” effect ever printed. What a card.

Removal

Still strong: Soul Snare, Path to Exile, Austere Command
New hotness: Expel the Interlopers, Stroke of Midnight

White has always had solid spot removal and sweepers, but there are a few new ones from Wilds of Eldraine worth playing. The Battle of Bywaterwas also considered, but I thought I'd try out Expel the Interlopers instead as it's more flexible and I don't care about Food tokens in this deck (no artifacts at all, remember!). It won't always clear the board, but we can play around it so our board ends up ahead in most cases. Soul Snare is a pet card of mine as it's a great political tool and Sun Titan can bring it back. Value! Also, I think Stroke of Midnight might be better than Generous Gift in most cases. Sure, it can't hit lands. But how often were you doing that? I'd rather deal with a 1/1 flier than a 3/3, personally.

Before we get into our list, I should mention that I've included Land Tax among our “find more plains” cards. It has been reprinted and has dropped well below $20 at time of writing this, which is more affordable than it has been for quite some time. Pick it up if you're so inclined! Also, I've included a few cards that might not have a lot of inherent synergy with the rest, but provide some extra power to finish off the game or put us further ahead: Serra Ascendant and Phyrexian Vindicator.

And here's our list.

And here's the Moxfield list, tagged for your convenience.

Correction: The decklist has been updated as of 10-02 because of an error.

How I used EDHREC to build this deck

This was a tricky list to refine! There are no shortage of good cards - and commanders - that fit into the hatebears category. But, I knew I wanted to keep my curve low, so I used the mana value filter to show me cards that cost four or less, at first. I also used the filtering options for card draw, as I was sure there were options out there that I hadn't used before. If you've been reading my stuff, you'll notice this is the first time I've had white in my articles! Not for lack of interest, but in any case I was a bit behind on the new white cards. It was a great way to see some of the options that have popped up in recent years. While I did also look at Kataki's hatebear-themed lists, I expanded my search a little broader to the general hatebears category and used that to drill down into other low-cost commanders. All in all there were plenty of ways to find great cards!

Hope you enjoyed the article. Until next time!

Read more:

• Rally the Ancestors - Eight-leg Discount
• Rally the Ancestors - Enter the Wu Strategist
• Too-Specific Top 10 - Mono-White Pauper Control

Dallas Meidinger

Dallas is a communications professional, writer and nearly life-long Magic player from Canada. Commander is his format of choice. When not playing or writing about Magic, you can find him skiing or biking in the mountains he calls home.