Depala: Hatebears can Drive! (Primer) V3

Commander / EDH* Aggro Artifact Hatebears RW (Boros) Tribal Vehicle

strembl7

Creature (35)

• 1x Academy Rector
• 1x Angel of Jubilation
• 1x Aurelia, the Warleader
• 1x Avacyn, Angel of Hope
• 1x Aven Mindcensor
• 1x Containment Priest
• 1x Duergar Hedge-Mage
• 1x Dwarven Recruiter
• 1x Eidolon of Rhetoric
• 1x Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite
• 1x Ethersworn Canonist
• 1x Fairgrounds Warden
• 1x Grand Abolisher
• 1x Hokori, Dust Drinker
• 1x Hushwing Gryff
• 1x Iroas, God of Victory
• 1x Linvala, Keeper of Silence
• 1x Loyal Retainers
• 1x Magus of the Moon
• 1x Metalwork Colossus
• 1x Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Phyrexian Revoker
• 1x Recruiter of the Guard
• 1x Renegade Wheelsmith
• 1x Restoration Specialist
• 1x Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant  ^Flip
• 1x Selfless Spirit
• 1x Serra Ascendant
• 1x Spirit of the Labyrinth
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Taurean Mauler
• 1x Thalia, Heretic Cathar
• 1x Thalia's Lancers
• 1x Veteran Motorist

Artifact (18)

• 1x Aethersphere Harvester
• 1x Aradara Express
• 1x Ballista Charger
• 1x Bomat Bazaar Barge
• 1x Cultivator's Caravan
• 1x Daredevil Dragster
• 1x Darksteel Forge
• 1x Fleetwheel Cruiser
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Ovalchase Dragster
• 1x Peacewalker Colossus
• 1x Renegade Freighter
• 1x Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Thought Vessel
• 1x Thran Dynamo
• 1x Untethered Express

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Armageddon
• 1x Fell the Mighty
• 1x Gamble
• 1x Idyllic Tutor
• 1x Start Your Engines
• 1x Wheel of Fortune

Enchantment (4)

• 1x Assemble the Legion
• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x Grasp of Fate
• 1x Possibility Storm

Commander (1)

Land (34)

• 1x Aether Hub
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Battlefield Forge
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Exotic Orchard
• 1x Inspiring Vantage
• 1x Inventors' Fair
• 5x Mountain
• 16x Plains
• 1x Plateau
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Sacred Foundry
• 1x Spinerock Knoll
• 1x Teetering Peaks

Instant (2)

• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Swords to Plowshares

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Sideboard

Land (1)

• 1x Darksteel Citadel

Sorcery (1)

• 1x Faithless Looting

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Maybeboard

Creature (17)

• 1x Aeronaut Admiral
• 1x Bruse Tarl, Boorish Herder
• 1x Chief of the Foundry
• 1x Combustible Gearhulk
• 1x Dwarven Blastminer
• 1x Foundry Inspector
• 1x Fountain Watch
• 1x Gearshift Ace
• 1x Gisela, Blade of Goldnight
• 1x Jor Kadeen, the Prevailer
• 1x Keldon Firebombers
• 1x Silverblade Paladin
• 1x Sin Prodder
• 1x Solemn Simulacrum
• 1x Sun Titan
• 1x Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
• 1x Toolcraft Exemplar

Land (3)

• 1x Buried Ruin
• 1x Madblind Mountain
• 1x Spire of Industry

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Aggravated Assault
• 1x Breath of Fury
• 1x Crescendo of War
• 1x Duelist's Heritage
• 1x Eldrazi Conscription
• 1x Land Tax
• 1x Marshal's Anthem
• 1x Presence of the Master
• 1x Tempered Steel

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Open the Vaults
• 1x Refurbish
• 1x Retribution of the Meek
• 1x Scrap Mastery
• 1x Start Your Engines
• 1x Trash for Treasure
• 1x Vandalblast
• 1x Wrath of God

Artifact (9)

• 1x Consulate Dreadnought
• 1x Demolition Stomper
• 1x Dolmen Gate
• 1x Irontread Crusher
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Mobile Garrison
• 1x Scroll Rack
• 1x Sensei's Divining Top
• 1x Sky Skiff

Instant (6)

• 1x Argivian Find
• 1x Boros Charm
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Frantic Salvage
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Return to Dust

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

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Vehicles EDH fun? It's not competitive per se, but this is about as good as Depala can be without losing her flavor and just being a generic Boros commander. This deck is built for metas that fall just short of being competitive. It won't compete with glass cannon turn 3 combos most of the time. It will, however, fare well against well built commander decks. In fact, much of this deck is useless against truly budget decks. Aven Mindcensor for example, is amazing at the table when everyone is trying to crack fetches and resolve their early Vampiric Tutors. Blood Moon is most valuable against fancy expensive mana bases. If these aren't in your meta, you can swap the hatebears that won't do anything for creatures that help to deal more damage safely instead. Stuff like Selfless Spirit, perhaps.

Something I wish I could afford is Imperial Recruiter to find hatebears. It's an auto-include if you have one or your group allows proxies. The card should only be like $20, much like Recruiter of the Guard but it's Portal: Three Kingdoms. So... instead it's $300.

Note: I have not yet optimized the mana base. It's just stuff that was in my binder right now. Recommendations on that front are greatly appreciated. Just remember to consider Blood Moon . So, anything that's non-basic has to go toward the red mana count. As such, I am pretty limited in terms of how many colorless/utility lands I can run.

Hatebear Value

This deck has a lot more synergy than it might appear at first. When I first put the deck together it was just to use up all the KLD and AER bulk I had laying around, and it seemed to really build itself. But then I had all these dwarves and "pilots" in here who were doing nothing but crewing vehicles. So, I thought, why not use creatures with passive abilities in their place. Things I don't swing with for fear of their death. Things like Grand Abolisher, Containment Priest, and Spirit of the Labyrinth . With vehicles, they bring a ton more value because now they can drive! The downside, of course, is that they do not get +1/+1 from Depala. However, I am more than willing to trade one point of damage (or crew power) in order to get a potentially crippling passive ability.

As such, you should adjust your compliment of hatebears to your meta. The first stage of any game is building a board with whatever you've got. Then, when you get your first tutor or two (or during your mulligan), you want to choose the right hatebear.

1) I run Grand Abolisher to stop all manner of counterspells, so that Blood Moon can potentially resolve. In my meta, that's the end of the game. Everyone has their fancy mana bases and no basics.

2) I run Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon because they absolutely cripple about 65% of the relevant decks out there. Most competitive decks run a 3-color commander, most have few or no basic lands, and nearly all happen to not run red.

3) Spirit of the Labyrinth stops so much stuff. Jace, the Mind Sculptor is useless. Consecrated Sphinx is crippled. Rhystic Study is slowed. But, more importantly, it turns Wheel of Fortune into a devastating group discard effect. If that resolves, you most likely win. Depala refills your hand to some extent, and without the ability to draw more than one card, your opponents cannot easily re-stabilize their hands.

4) Containment Priest ALWAYS finds a target. Someone will try to Reanimate something. Or Bribery something. It also shuts down flicker shenanigans at instant speed - which are really popular right now because of Panharmonicon. If nothing else, it's worth running just to deal with Brago, King Eternal and Derevi, Empyrial Tactician board locks. Surprise! Your board is exiled.

5) I never really understood Angel of Jubilation until I played it. The body and anthem are awesome on their own when your deck actually swings with stuff. However, it is her second ability that is of most interest here. If opponents cannot sacrifice creatures or pay life to do stuff, many combos simply don't work. Necropotence does not work. Boonweaver Giant Karmic Guide loops do not work. Basically all Meren of Clan Nel Toth decks don't work.

6) In a meta as competitive as mine, Aven Mindcensor is pretty much the bane of everyone's existence. No fetchlands for you! No creature removal in hand? Guess you won't be dealing with my Mindcensor anytime soon. Plus, as an added bonus, with the upcoming reprint in Amonkhet, this is a now a budget hatebear.

7) The rest of the hatebears are somewhat meta-specific. If your friends like to go to Valuetown for dinner, you are likely to find that Hushwing Gryff and/or Vryn Wingmare can really mess with their plans. Torpor Orb is probably better because of its CMC, however if your meta is so competitive that you can't wait for a 2-drop of 3-drop, Depala is not the commander for you. You will not win.

Same goes for Linvala, Keeper of Silence who is suddenly affordable now thanks to MM17. She simply stops most commander-based combos. It also has value you can never really predict. Even common cards like Sakura-Tribe Elder cannot work with her down.

Michiko Konda, Truth Seeker is also a good option depending on your meta.

8) I do not run Iona, Shield of Emeria in my deck even though she is basically the queen of all hatebears. She is just too expensive. There is only room for a few late-game cards in this deck and they need to win the game when they resolve. She does not do this. While not usually the case, in this deck, she is a win-more card in my opinion. Maybe worth an include if you meta is heavy on mono-colored decks (in favor of Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon).

9) I do not run Leonin Arbiter, though as I write this, I realize that I really probably should be. My reasoning as of right now is that I want Depala to keep her flavor. Every hatebear means one less Dwarf or vehicle, and reduces your ability to refill your hand. However, I think this might be good enough to even consider ditching a different hatebear. This is a meta-specific choice. Stopping fetches is incredibly good in my meta.

Building a Win Condition

While you are slowing your opponents' win conditions and baiting all the removal with your hatebears, you should be filling your board with vehicles, and anything you can find to pilot them. But, that's only half the battle. They need to actually connect with your opponents' face, and they need to be big enough to hurt. On that note:

Connecting Safely

1) Iroas, God of Victory does both of these things: He helps you to connect, and he swings hard. No further questions. We have tutors for him. It's worth it.

2) Dolmen Gate is so, so, so good. It's a baby Iroas. I still can't believe it's only a 2-drop.

3) Crackdown is awesome. Meekstone can work too, but it hurts your angels. Depends on your meta whether you want one or the other or both. Crackdown might seem expensive at 3 mana, until you play with it. Crackdown's purpose is to ensure that once your opponents have creatures big enough to make you think twice about swinging, that those creatures either don't swing back. This might be an attempt to stop the onslaught by simply killing you, a common anti-Depala strategy (lol). More importantly, you can cast it AFTER your opponents' first big swing when they are already tapped. This is always entertaining. Don't be shy to pop it in off of an Academy Rector trigger either.

4) Darksteel Forge is pretty self-explanatory. Try to discard it of you ever have the chance. Then let Trash for Treasure or Daretti do the heavy lifting.

5) "I'm bigger than you" is always the best way to connect. So, read the next section on buffs and anthems.

Dealing Damage (Anthems)

Once you have a board, you need to swing hard enough to end the game. In commander that means doing 120+ damage (assuming you don't like infect). There are a few ways to accomplish this. One is build a board fast and then Armageddon (or Hokori, Dust Drinker!) and win while everyone recovers. I do not like this playstyle for a Depala deck. She is not a competitive commander, so she might as well be fun to play/play against. I am also not convinced that you can build up a big enough board quickly enough for this to be viable in combination with a hatebear strategy.

So, instead, I'm running big fat anthems:

0) Mirror Entity is the best Dwarf ever printed. Period. It is also the best anthem in this deck, and a lot easier to find than the others because Depala can dig for it. Also, Dwarven Recruiter and Recruiter of the Guard find it.

1) Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, and Aurelia, the Warleader are amazing and one-sided.

2) Avacyn, Angel of Hope is a little slower but definitely good enough.

3) Some other options are out there can end the game, but are curiously riskier. Crescendo of War is badass if your opponents are not running many creatures. This will be meta-specific. My meta involves too many creature-based decks for me to want to do this. If you want to make it work, you can swap some of your hatebear suite for Ghostly Prison (pillowfort) effects such as Windborn Muse to help break the symmetry. The third part of Crescendo of War already helps to make it less symmetrical, but you need to leave creatures up to take advantage, which is not Depala's style. In any case, what I have described is a whole different strategy, in my opinion.

4) Cathars' Crusade is really good, but remember that vehicles are not creatures when they come in. I have not yet playtested this option, so it may be better than I'm giving it credit for. I suppose it depends on the creature count of your build. Mine is admittedly a little low.

I would love some recommendations in this department. I am considering switching to lower CMC anthems like Nobilis of War , Duelist's Heritage, and maybe even Selfless Spirit(?) to make the win condition a little faster. This is probably a matter of preference and meta. How do you do it?

Other Notes and Synergies

If you are not going to run Blood Moon and Magus of the Moon, then ditch some of the crappier lands for Hanweir Battlements , Buried Ruin , Cavern of Souls and the like. Interestingly, you'll usually want to name Human for Cavern, not Dwarf. No one is countering your dwarves. They suck.

Note also that Cavern of Souls (if you add it) protects your Changelings, most importantly Mirror Entity regardless of what creature type you choose for it.

Academy Rector will usually be grabbing Eldrazi Conscription. That's why it's there.

Date added	7 years
Last updated	3 years
Legality	This deck is not Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	13 - 0 Mythic Rares 42 - 0 Rares 20 - 1 Uncommons 4 - 1 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.44
Tokens	Energy Reserve, Soldier 1/1 RW
Based on	Depala, Vehicles and Pilots Schegoggs EDH