Bumping this thread for some new stuff I'm trying. Nobody's really utilized Kambal, so I cut a few non-human creatures from the must-include white hatebears list and added Caverns to my list. Finding a few humans to fill in.
Two things I noticed while playing a LOT of hatebears: 1) topdeck-mode sucks very much; and 2) it is difficult to be "reactive", much less proactive without any kind of card selection except for 2-3 Recruiter of the Guard, so much of the time either I'm wishing I had one creature and not another, and no way to reliably get it.
Black can solve this with Humans.
Ixalan has a card that I'm very interested in trying, indeed:
Kitesail Freebooter (1B)
"Flying
When Kitesail Freebooter enters the battlefield, target opponent reveals his or her hand. You choose a noncreature, nonland card from it. Exile that card until Kitesail Freebooter leaves the battlefield."
1/2
IMO this is on-par with Tidehollow Sculler in that it's a Human and has some kind of evasion. The P/T arrangement is a little unfortunate, it would be nice to take opposing Jaces and Dacks down a few loyalty points, but this kind of uncounterable effect (with cavern) is in my opinion what is lacking in a lot of hatebears decks, something proactive that, at the very least, can delay broken things from happening until other bears lock them out. (Added bonus that if this actually sucks, there's just Sculler waiting to fill the slot).
In addition to Kambal, Freebooter, and other situationally good hatebears that might come up should they need to (SB Yixlid Jailer, some jank like Royal Assassin), black gives access to Bob, which solves the topdeck mode pretty handily. Bob also "draws" cards underneath a Spirit of the Labyrinth.
My go-to before this was to count on drawing cards as the Monarch with Palace Jailer, but this almost never lead me to victory, someone would attack with a Ramunap Excavator (or any card that has 3 toughness) and I'd have to choose between letting a Canonist die so they can cast all the shite they want, or letting them draw an extra card, sometimes for the rest of the game. Palace Jailer actually very sucks, and a 2/2 for 4 mana that has the capability of giving the opponent an extra card is very, very bad. Without a way to actually stop Elemental tokens, Monk tokens, and fipped Delver (and again, any card with 3 toughness that likes to attack every turn), Jailer is a recipe for disaster. YMMV, but Jailer literally has never done what it needs to for me. It incentivizes attacks from your opponent, which is very stupid for a hatebears deck to want - we're supposed to be the ones going on the offensive. They will find ways to get their creature back -and- become the monarch in the process. There has to be another card other than Jailer and Banisher Priest (which is still preferable), and I think digging deep enough can find us a B Human with a low CMC that can probably do it.
I think the B/W version of the deck should be tested, and I have a list I'll be running very soon, just have to get a few more cards. I had to give up some of the "situational" hate cards like Spirit of the Labyrinth, but adding to the card pool with Black makes adjusting numbers very easy. I'll probably do a writeup if I get any results.
