Unlocking the Vault #77: Smells like Human Spirit

I’ve been working on hatebears decks, and Human tribal variants thereof, for a few months, and featured them more than once in articles/videos here over that span. So I definitely have a few thoughts about building them, inclusions to make, etc.

Because of all the Delver decks running around, I don’t think Teeg is that great right now. There is an upside that he now also stops those KTK delve spells, so maybe that pushes him back into relevance in that matchup, but I’m skeptical. I want him when Jace and Gush-Tendrils are popular.

Completely agree about using Cavern over Vial, obviously, most of my recent brews in all formats have revolved around Cavern of Souls. Vial is just such an awful topdeck, and an awful play anytime past turn 2, whereas a late Cavern can surprise an opponent with an uncounterable threat and gain a ton of tempo if your opponent was sitting on Mana Drain that turn.

I agree Humans are the deepest tribe, though as I’ve shown in a couple of video series, I think the Spirit tribal idea has some merit, as it lets you play a hybrid of Hatebears and Fish with your own countermagic.

Spirit of the Labyrinth is great right now, not only does it shut down a lot of what the blue decks are doing, it blocks Lodestone Golem so it’s not just dead weight in the Shops match.

I think Voice of Resurgence is okay in a deck with a SFM package. It trades favorably with BUG Delver’s removal, it’s just a matter of making the body relevant by having the equipment there to punch through — and the choice of Jitte and SOFAI is perfect for punching through Young Pyromancer tokens. I would possibly keep a couple in the board for BUG mostly, it’s just another way to win incremental card advantage, presuming you have the equipment and creature total to make the back-end of Voice actually worth a card.

Here’s the thing about Batterskull — it makes any hand with Turn 1 SFM absolutely killer against Shops, almost regardless of whatever else is in your hand. In my videos a month back playing Sean O’Briens Dega Hatebears deck, I won game 1 against Shops just by resolving SFM and fetching Batterskull. Batterskull also works through the Null Rods that a Terra Nova Shops player might be using, and allows you to play your own Stony Silences if you choose. I would have it somewhere in the 75 for sure. Mayor is also great against Shops, but you’ve cut him, so I think that matchup needs some help.

Now there are a few things that I suppose are just personal deckbuilding style choices where we differ, though you didn’t discuss them so I’m curious if there were a particular reason in mind. First is that you don’t run your own Mental Missteps, whereas I usually do in this kind of deck, because they are far better early interaction than Thoughtseize when you’re on the draw. I do agree with running Thoughtseize for the reasons you state, you need a disruptive Turn 1 play if you don’t have a Mox or ESG. But on the draw, Misstep at least gives you something against those opponents who “just have it”. I also would tend to play Vamp Tutor and/or Demonic Tutor in this kind of deck. That package adds a lot of consistency to these decks, at only a slightly higher mana premium than playing GSZ would, and it doesn’t bother your Teeg at all. If you are losing because you don’t have the right hatebears in the right matchup, some kind of tutoring needs to be in the discussion.

Sorry to have such a long reply, but this is a topic I have put a lot of time into thinking about, so I was excited to discuss it with you. Good article, would love to see some videos from you with these, to see how our play style differs.