Banon, the Returners' LeaderBanon, the Returners' Leader | Art by Daniel Landerman

Rebel Rebel, Your Face Is a Mess

From the new Final Fantasy commander decks, Banon, the Returners' LeaderBanon, the Returners' Leader offers a fun puzzle to solve. He can cast one creature per turn from our graveyard, as long as it went there this turn and as long as it didn't die. He can also put creatures into the graveyard himself whenever we attack with anything by discarding what we want to cast and drawing a fresh card. For such a cheap casting cost, this legend is quite the package of interesting, powerful, and doing something that red and white generally don't get to do.

But there's one more line of text that particularly interests me, and which I missed the first time I read Banon. Look at that type line again: Human Cleric Rebel. They don't make too many Rebels, and when they do, they have to be careful, because a handful of Rebels broke the game in 2000, and it could happen again if they lose track of which new cards go to print as Rebels.

Back in Mercadian Masques block, Rebels and Mercenaries were both supported types, and both could search for more of their own kind and put them directly into play. But where Mercenaries like Cateran BruteCateran Brute could only look for creatures smaller than itself, Rebels could look for creatures that cost one more than themselves, meaning that even if you only ever cast a Ramosian SergeantRamosian Sergeant on turn one, you could walk up the chain of Rebels every turn, uncounterably. This deck absolutely dominated a Block Constructed Pro Tour, making up six out of the top eight finishes.

These days, Rebels are less of an existential threat. I have a Rebels Commander deck, and it's fun but not powerful. I believe Banon, the Returners' LeaderBanon, the Returners' Leader can elevate Rebels to become a more powerful deck by adding new cards and a new sub-strategy of self-discard, backed up by the incredible consistency that the Rebels' self-tutoring ability provides.

Key Cards for Banon, the Returners' Leader

Which Card? Discard.

Banon, the Returners' LeaderBanon, the Returners' Leader's abilities point us in the direction of strategizing around discarding cards and casting a lot of cheap spells. In recent years, there have been a lot of cards printed that reward discarding cards, and we get to play the best of the best. Inti, Seneschal of the SunInti, Seneschal of the Sun and Veronica, Dissident ScribeVeronica, Dissident Scribe let us see more cards, giving us card advantage as long as we can fill our deck with cheap spells that can be played right away. Monument to EnduranceMonument to Endurance and Surly BadgersaurSurly Badgersaur combine to give us a ton of options for our payoffs, from removal to ramp to burn.

As for ways to discard our cards, we've got a great one in the command zone, but we can also add cards like Faithless LootingFaithless Looting, Anje's RavagerAnje's Ravager, and Party ThrasherParty Thrasher. All of these cards will help us look through our deck for whatever we might need, and combine to form one of my favorite strategies of the past few years. Getting ahead by discarding cards is so counterintuitive and so fundamentally red that it always makes me smile.

The Rebels Package

There are nine Rebels in our colors that can tutor for other Rebels and put them directly into play at instant speed. This lets us fill out our Rebels package with silver bullets and cards that work well with specific other cards in our deck, since we'll often be able to access whichever ones we need.

Many of the original Masques block Rebels were defensively-oriented, threatening to surprise opponents at instant speed. Shield DancerShield Dancer can enter play and block an opponent's creature, but make it damage itself instead. Cho-Manno, RevolutionaryCho-Manno, Revolutionary can block anything and live. Nightwind GliderNightwind Glider and Thermal GliderThermal Glider can line up really well against specific opposing decks. Time Spiral even introduced Bound in SilenceBound in Silence, which could be tutored up as a removal spell. But none of the original Rebels were very proactive, unless you count cards like Cho-Arrim BruiserCho-Arrim Bruiser that don't stand a chance in today's game.

The trickle of more recent Rebels we've received are more proactive, and also more cohesive. Phyrexia: All Will Be One and its Commander decks featured a few Rebels centered around Equipment. Jor Kadeen, First GoldwardenJor Kadeen, First Goldwarden, Rhuk, Hexgold NabberRhuk, Hexgold Nabber, and Leonin LightbringerLeonin Lightbringer all cared about Equipment, and all of them (even the 3/2 for three) pushed the average Rebel power level up a notch. Equipment with For Mirrodin! created Rebel tokens, which was an elegant way to support the type without making new cards that could be tutored for. And Otharri, Suns' GloryOtharri, Suns' Glory, while also not tutorable, is an incredibly powerful card that works even better in this deck, since we can discard it and then return it to play for cheap.

The recently spoiled Firion, Wild Rose WarriorFirion, Wild Rose Warrior is enough to solidly cement this deck in an Equipment theme. Now Rebels are a cohesive, aggressive strategy, drawing cards and getting bigger with Equipment, while retaining the tricky, long-term advantage that they have always had with older cards. And some of the old cards work great with Equipment. Amrou SeekersAmrou Seekers is unblockable against most decks, making it a good way to get any attacking or combat damage triggers, Rappelling ScoutsRappelling Scouts can give itself protection from other players' boards while keeping all of its Equipment, and the duo of Thermal GliderThermal Glider and Nightwind GliderNightwind Glider are super evasive attackers.

Tying it Together

So now this deck has three themes: Rebels, Equipment, and Discard. Even if one of those themes has the ability to search up the right card for the right scenario, that runs the risk of pulling in too many directions. To solve this, we'll try to connect as many dots as we can with the Equipment we're running.

Most of our Equipment payoffs reward us for having multiple pieces attached to multiple of our creatures, so we want to include efficient Equipment over more expensive, powerful pieces. Mask of MemoryMask of Memory, Pip-Boy 3000Pip-Boy 3000, and Zephyr BootsZephyr Boots are all cheap Equipment that allow us to discard, letting us dig to find the right synergistic pieces and furthering our self-discard plan as well. A little up the curve, The Spear of LeonidasThe Spear of Leonidas and Arm-Mounted AnchorArm-Mounted Anchor give us even more looting velocity. And Stoneforge MasterworkStoneforge Masterwork is a payoff for having a ton of Rebels in play.

This deck is also mana-hungry, both because of the high costs on our Rebels' tutoring abilities and cards like Inti, Seneschal of the SunInti, Seneschal of the Sun and our commander that let us play extra cards within a limited time. Equipment like Sword of the AnimistSword of the Animist and Sword of Feast and FamineSword of Feast and Famine give us more mana to keep the momentum up. We also have a lot of activated abilities in the deck, from our multitude of Rebels to Equipment themselves. To answer these twin demands, we can add Zirda, the DawnwakerZirda, the Dawnwaker and Cryptic TrilobiteCryptic Trilobite.

Winning the Game With Banon, the Returners' Leader

This deck usually seeks to win the game the old-fashioned way: by attacking with big creatures and dealing damage. We have some specific cards that make that strategy easier. I've already mentioned Otharri, Suns' GloryOtharri, Suns' Glory which is not only fast and scalable, but also resilient. We can bring it back to play super easily, and the experience counters stick around. In the late game, Mirror EntityMirror Entity can act as an OverrunOverrun, pumping all of our mana into making our board huge. It's especially nice since it counts as a Rebel in our library, so we can search it up with any of our Rebel tutors. And Taurean MaulerTaurean Mauler, another Changeling, can get very big very fast, as can Bloodline PretenderBloodline Pretender.

But given that this deck has nine repeatable tutors and a toolbox style, why not include a combo for us to find sometimes? Crackdown ConstructCrackdown Construct can't be found with our Rebels, but its best friend Outrider en-KorOutrider en-Kor sure can be! If we have a Rebel that searches in play, we can make any Crackdown ConstructCrackdown Construct we draw infinitely large by activating Outrider en-KorOutrider en-Kor's ability repeatedly.

There's even a version of this combo that uses two Rebels! Task ForceTask Force also gets arbitrarily large when we repeatedly activate Outrider en-KorOutrider en-Kor... but unfortunately it only buffs its toughness. It's still good enough to add to the deck, because having a 1/1,000,000 and another creature that can't be dealt damage is a great defense, but it won't win the game on its own. We can also play ShukoShuko to give us some redundancy of infinitely repeatable abilities while also supporting our cheap Equipment plan.

Banon, the Returners' Leader Commander Deck List

This deck combines three very fun strategies into one crazy experience. I find the fact that it's pulling in so many directions to be a strength rather than a weakness, especially since Rebels' ability to tutor repeatedly can lead to playing the same game over and over. Self-discard decks also try to churn through as many cards as possible to find the perfect payoffs, and have reached enough redundancy that sometimes they can get stale. But whipping everything up together with a fried egg makes for a lot more variation in gameplay.

Sometimes this deck plays like an aggressive Equipment deck, swinging with a Defiant FalconDefiant Falcon and an Ivora, Insatiable HeirIvora, Insatiable Heir with five pieces of Equipment. Sometimes it plays out defensively, hiding behind Shield DancerShield Dancer and getting steady advantage with Veronica, Dissident ScribeVeronica, Dissident Scribe. It strikes a great balance of playing the cards we're dealt and finding exactly what we need for the situation. We get to combine cards from two decades ago with cards from right now, and can get it done the Boros way: scrappy, low to the ground, and using every part of every card.

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