I need a suggestion versus Eldrazi Unbound

[aliciaofthevast]

Hiiiiiii. I'm gifting a friend of mine on Magic Online the Eldrazi Unbound pre-built deck for their birthday. I want to brew something that has reasonable counterplay versus this, but not that hard counters it. I'd say I'm "probably" a stronger player competitively than them (I'm trying to sound modest here, not ego RIP) so I'd like to have something that will create a good back-and-forth game with this box deck, not just go over the top or get trampled underneath. But Eldrazi are tricky! So here I come here for suggestions! We're playing on Monday, so I need to be brewed by then

[Ruiner]

I'd just treat it as any other deck that is artifact heavy. Run your usual Vandalblast, Shattering Spree, Reclamation Sage or whatever kind of cards you like depending on your colors available. At it's core, that deck is really heavily reliant upon artifacts, so killing/crippling mana production helps stave off some of the larger threats from landing quickly. Cards like Stifle, Trickbind or Disallow can potentially be useful for the various triggers you may see.

If you are wanting to be particularly rough, you could run harsher stuff like Null Rod, Stony Silence, and Collector Ouphe, as those cards are both really strong against artifacts and hard for a colorless deck to remove in a timely manner, but I'm thinking you probably don't want to go this angle (all great options for the future though if they upgrade the deck to have more removal/interaction).

[darrenhabib]

I think maybe one of the better ways to counteract and balance when opponent has annihilator and big threats coming at you is to have token based stuff to sacrifice (to annihilator) and chump block. Otherwise you have to hard counter all the big threats and your friend won't feel like they are able to play the deck as it was meant to be.

I looked at some precons and the ones I think would suite are Tinker Time and Rebellion Rising.

[aliciaofthevast]

Ohhh, hey thanks guys! I had just bought Rebellion Rising, and then all the MMQ rebels to go into it (and a Zirda, cause that seems good with rebels and equipment)! I think the meanest I'll try is dwarven miner as a punish for those powerful nonbasics while I hope my rebels get the job done! But if that doesn't work, I've still got the base list saved so I can use that too. Looks pretty fun outta the box!

[aliciaofthevast]

Ohmygosh you guys. Like, Otharri rebels struggled to barely apply pressure into a win. It was mostly irrelevant but the Phoenix builds it's own army and dodges command tax. And then I switched to the stock list with Neyali, Suns' Vanguard.

That one wasn't even close, stock eldrazi got blown clear away by my double punching tokens lol. Not exactly a fun scenario for me or them. So maybe I go into the rebels I have, but use Lin Sivvi and keep to mono w. I bet that'll be an interesting challenge!

[CommanderMaster999]

Not only I'm a eldrazi person I play a colorless deck so I know ever thing there is to know about the weakness of High cmc/Eldrazi decks

1. You want stuff to take down the mana rocks that are artifacts, take down the ramp they won't be able to cast the big spells for the double cascade like Vandalblast

2. You want wraths for the big eldrazi armies when they arrive since recursion is quite small in colorless

3. You could do Collector Ouphe effects to turn off the ramp

4. You could do Vexing Bauble or Void Mirror to prevent the double cascade from working on Zhulodok.

5. Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, Sigarda, Heron's Grace, Tajuru Preserver, Sacred Ground, and several constant token makers are some of the keys to protect yourself from Annihilator eldrazi

6. You want odd cmc wraths and removal incase a upgrade is Void Winnower

[aliciaofthevast]

Not only I'm a eldrazi person I play a colorless deck so I know ever thing there is to know about the weakness of High cmc/Eldrazi decks

1. You want stuff to take down the mana rocks that are artifacts, take down the ramp they won't be able to cast the big spells for the double cascade like Vandalblast

2. You want wraths for the big eldrazi armies when they arrive since recursion is quite small in colorless

3. You could do Collector Ouphe effects to turn off the ramp

4. You could do Vexing Bauble or Void Mirror to prevent the double cascade from working on Zhulodok.

5. Tamiyo, Collector of Tales, Sigarda, Heron's Grace, Tajuru Preserver, Sacred Ground, and several constant token makers are some of the keys to protect yourself from Annihilator eldrazi

6. You want odd cmc wraths and removal incase a upgrade is Void Winnower

Hiiiiiii. I'm not looking to hard counter the deck. It's colorless, that's not too difficult a prospect. I want to create good, even counter play. With stock Rebellion Rising, this proved a bit to strong as c doesn't have enough plentiful removal (especially low cost) to stop the swarm from growing too wide.

I don't want to pull my punches though, that'd be dishonest as a player. Hence, I think going into one color will help level the table, and playing Lin Sivvi with those rebels I have gives me enough road to optimize and play hard, but not deny the eldrazi the chance to shine as well. 🥰

[pokken]

I think Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero's recurring tutoring would be problematic in low powered games. The deck can be very strong but just tutoring for your best rebel is strong on its own

[DirkGently]

I think Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero's recurring tutoring would be problematic in low powered games. The deck can be very strong but just tutoring for your best rebel is strong on its own

I dunno about that - mono-white rebels is not a strong talent pool...it's basically Mirror Entity and a bunch of draft chaff. Wizards must still harbor a grudge from her ruining masques standard - Lin sivvi hasn't gotten an interesting addition since 2007 =/

[pokken]

Literally always having mirror entity is a fairly strong proposition for precon level :D

[DirkGently]

Literally always having mirror entity is a fairly strong proposition for precon level :D

I think you're underestimating precons, I win with them all the time against "real" decks. They build 'em pretty strong these days. Mirror entity is hardly an overpowering card in a precon environment, especially since rebels aren't amazing at going wide.

Lin sivvi felt agonizingly fair when I played her in ~2014, and she's gotten zero tools since then while the rest of the format has accelerated massively.

edit: jesus, it was 2012 when I played her. I'm old.

[Serenade]

Was there a reason behind Kaladesh characters being rebels but not Rebels?

[aliciaofthevast]

I think Lin Sivvi, Defiant Hero's recurring tutoring would be problematic in low powered games. The deck can be very strong but just tutoring for your best rebel is strong on its own

You'd think that, but when you're tutoring for...Cho-Arrim Bruiser and Jhovall Queen, it changes the equation I think 🙈. Though you can still do fun stuff like make Stoneforge Mystic an honorary rebel. Within the confines of mono w, oh idk, I think that's a pretty fair but not broken thing. More fair than making your tokens punch twice at least!