Beseech the Queen is a decent tutor but also has a CMC of 6 despite being castable for 3.
Tainted Strike and Grafted Exoskeleton work with both of your commanders. Ishai can randomly hit people for 10+ easily and just throwing a Tainted Strike on her is an easy way to win.
For Pain Magnification, Capsize is a guaranteed 3 damage from Vial Smasher and can be bought back. It's also just an excellent card.
Your deck is definitely a little more focused around Pain Magnification than mine (although I do run it in my list) but I think all the cards I mentioned are playable and just so happen to have good synergy with Vial Smasher.
Sarkhan Vol is certainly not that bad. I mean a 4 mana enchantment that said "creatures you control get +1/+1 and haste" is certainly not the worst. Combine it with stealing any creature on board and a pretty achievable ult and he's quite a strong PW. I used to run him as a one-of in a modern Genesis Wave deck as a haste provider with upside.
Also I reckon that any Planeswalker that can actively draw you a card is better than Planeswalkers that don't, exception being the ones that net you multiple kills in card advantage (like Ugin and Elspeth, Sun's Champion).
Comparing every card to a "better" card of equal mana cost seems unfair. Like saying Sorin is bad because he's six mana compared to Consecrated Sphinx or Ad Nauseum is unreasonable. Not every deck wants Ad Nauseum and not every deck that plays Sorin can play Sphinx. Judge cards on their own merits, not because there's a card at the same CMC that's really good.
Also I never see people actively "love" Ashiok in EDH, Ashiok's just a pretty good card in Cubes.
1. The deck is very mana hungry and you need all the ramp you can get. You want to be able to do multiple things in a turn, so being able to play spells and leave up Lin Sivvi activations is vital. Like cutting those two cards leaves you with very few sources of mana acceleration.
2. Expanse/Wilds have become quite handy with Crucible/Emeria Shepherd. Like if you have white fetches then play them instead but all of mine are being used. Also shuffling becomes very relevant in a deck with Scroll Rack/Top. You can shuffle with Lin Sivvi for free but she's not always available and you may want to shuffle at times that activating her is inconvenient.
3. Mobilization is cheaper to activate and that's all there is to it. In the end, the size of the token doesn't matter because you're going to kill them with Mirror Entity. Plus Mirror Entity makes everything a Soldier anyway so you have vigilance during your big swings.
4. The only targets that Lark really hits are rebels and rebels are disposable and reusable anyway. Really the things you want to keep alive are your finishers, which Lark won't hit.
5. Honestly, I'm trying to keep my removal versatile. Swords is only in there because it's too good to not run. Path accelerates an opponent, which may not seem like much but it is a lot more relevant than gaining some life. Also I have a sweet foil signed Swords. Creatures aren't very relevant when you can shut them down with most of your rebels so it's mostly noncreature permanents that are troublesome. So Angelic Purge fit that slot (its been okay in testing but could be an O-Ring to go with Sun Titan/Emeria Shepherd) over Path. I can see arguments for running it though.
6. Warping Wail is probably the best, I've played it in Titania before and it blew people out. Mana Tithe is so situational that it often sits dead in your hand. I could consider Lapse.
7. I have a Helm and I've considered it but I've found still that creatures are very irrelevant to you. I might give it a test run eventually.
8. Zealot is a go-to rebel a lot of the times. He carries equipment like a champ. Draw any equipment and you want him immediately. There's also just little things he does. Killing 1 toughness creatures is occasionally relevant. I remember an opponent thought he locked me out with Aven Mindcensor only to have it die to my on-board Zealot. I've also killed people just by dumping mana into Mirror Entity and continually swinging.
9. Not really. If your planeswalker is sticking around for a couple of turns while your opponents struggle to deal with it and you draw another, then things are still going pretty well. Otherwise, your opponents often spend a lot of resources and time dealing with your Elspeth only to have another slammed on them. There's not a lot of games where I draw multiple of them in a row anyway.
But yeah, Rebels has been one of my favorite decks to pilot. Since there's so many people that are relatively new to the game, they've never seen or even heard of rebels, and blowing them out with some really oddball cards is hilarious. The deck is just so scrappy and resilient that watching three people struggle to kill you is hilarious.
I think you need a way to prevent card drawing. If they have a commander with some form of inherent card advantage (like Azami for instance) then they can just spam draws until you can't cope with them anymore. Notion Thief seems like the perfect answer. Alternatively, Omen Machine seems good. Mill anything relevant from your opponents top deck and you can even mill yourself for some great value.
The other issue is opening hands. It's not like modern where you can pick them apart with Thoughtseizes and often weather out the storm, sometimes they just have the card to destroy you in their hand. Myojin of Night's Reach and Cabal Conditioning offer mass discard that hits all of your opponents to get them empty handed, at which point you can control their draws. I've even had success with Mind Twist just to put a control player out of the game.
I'm mostly looking at your actual version and not the budgetless one so sorry for some redundant suggestions.
I'm brewing Ezuri myself and found some sweet tech.
Mycoloth is just an exponential Ezuri dump. Just put Ezuri's trigger onto him, he'll produce tokens equal to your experience counters, which will net you the same amount of experience counters. It gets really out of hand very quickly.
Stubborn Denial and Spell Rupture are both affordable counterspells that abuse your big creatures. Stubborn Denial is just a 1 mana Negate and Spell Rupture is like a super Mana Leak that'll mostly be a hard counter.
Panharmonicon has been pretty nuts. For example, you play Hornet Queen. Hornet Queen makes 8 tokens, which trigger Ezuri twice, netting 18 experience counters off a single card. Deranged Hermit produces the same amount, Whirler Rogue gives you 10 experience counters (and two unblockable activations), the list goes on.
I've been continually impressed by Stratus Dancer. Triggers Ezuri, counters most relevant spells, and then becomes an evasive beater. Willbender can fill a similar role and can lead to some blowouts.
It's minor but Seat of the Synod and Tree of Tales are additional Trinket Mage targets. If for some reason you need one color or the other, the option is there and the downside is often minor to nonexistent.
I think Eldrazi Skyspawner is a little stronger than Nest Invader. Trade a toughness and add an extra mana for an extra power on the token and evasion. Evasion in general just seems very key to Ezuri, and if your opponent is forced to answer a 2/1 flier that already did its thing then you've done well.
Pentavus is a neat little sink. Turns counters into 1/1 fliers which turn into more experience counters.
Triskelion provides some much needed removal in the deck and can even become a wincon if you get enough experience counters.
Deepglow Skate, because it's Deepglow Skate. Can produce infinite mana with Deadeye Navigator + Crystalline Crawler.
Cyclonic Rift, while not having any real synergy in the deck, is just too good to not run.
The general idea behind Ezuri seems to be A) abuse-prone cards (like Mycoloth, Sage of Hours, Gyre Sage, etc) and B) protection/disruption cards (Void Grafter, Stratus Dancer, Willbender, etc. He ends up being a fun toolbox deck but your toolbox creatures end up becoming instant threats. I hate playing Simic but Ezuri has proven to be the most fun.
I've tried the Copter but I've found it worse than Mask of Memory. I think the deck plays enough filtering that adding another source is pretty irrelevant and it doesn't net you card advantage like Mask does, just card quality. Also it can't be tutored for with Stoneforge Mystic.
I've been playing a Planeswalker-heavy version of the deck and it's pretty fun. Basically instead of token generators to close out the game you play Planeswalkers to generate tokens or provide inevitability and grind out your opponents. I've been very impressed with Elspeth Tirel. She's kinda like a Nev's Disk in that she ults the next turn and blows up the board but she sticks around and if she's not doing that she can be gaining you some life or just throwing out tokens.
I might test Inventors' Fair if there's enough artifacts. My deck runs 18 artifacts and you could probably fit in an Ancient Den for another.
Emeria Shepherd has been the MVP of the deck though. Its been so good I've even added Crucible of Worlds to the deck and it has some silly combos with fetchlands and Sword of the Animist. Being able to kill off your own Karn with his minus then bring him back with a land drop is just silly.
I've been looking into Ishai, Ojutai Dragonspeaker and Kraum, Ludevic's Opus. Jeskai is a pretty good color combo but the commanders have been way too specific. These guys just punish your opponents for casting spells. Any spell pumps out Ishai, any two spells draws you a card. Seems pretty neat.
Also, it's not necessarily a tribal deck, but Rebels with Lin Sivvi is a pretty fun, interactive deck that can end up being quite competitive. I've beat a couple of decks that should be way above the tier of a monowhite deck.
My main concern with Kambal is that the deck works so much to prevent noncreature spells that he feels redundant. Like when you're already playing Thalia/Vryn Wingmare/Glowrider/Sphere of Resistance/Lodestone Golem alongside Gaddock Teeg and Sanctum Prelate, your opponent casting noncreature spells is such a liability. The lifegain can be important though as this deck eats a lot of life and is a target a lot of the time but I think there's better ways of doing it.
Personally, I've been playing Brisela in my deck. It's pretty sweet with Survival of the Fittest. Pitch a creature, tutor Gisela, pitch Gisela, tutor Bruna. Next turn, cast Bruna, reanimate Gisela, and you have Brisela easily. They're both solid creatures on their own too and Bruna is like a bigger Karmic Guide that gets around Torpor Orb.
I've been playing a similar list to great success, and I've had a lot of success with some Eldritch Moon cards.
It's a little deep but Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light are pretty strong. I used to run Baneslayer Angel as a filler card and found it to be a really solid finisher, and Gisela is pretty similar. Bruna animates most things in the deck, since you're mostly humans or angels, and you don't have to worry about Torpor Orb. Getting them both out makes a very strong hatebear and game finisher.
Eldritch Evolution is a creature tutor you can cast under Gaddock Teeg. Can't say the same for Chord, GSZ, Natural Order, Pod, etc. Normally I like all those cards better but I'm running this purely for being usable with Gaddock Teeg on the field.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar seems like an autoinclude. Having a soft Kismet on a cost effect creature is really nice. Stops Kiki combos outright and generally slows down your opponents.
Also I like Tireless Tracker for card advantage in a deck that's pretty hard pressed for it. You'll get clues even under Torpor Orb/Hushwing Gryff and it gets around Spirit of the Labyrinth when you just crack a clue on every person's turn. Also if you want, you can generate a ton of clues, then slam Kataki and not pay their upkeep cost. Tireless Tracker gets +1/+1 counters when they all get sacced and now you have a decent beater on your hands.
I run Exhume in my deck too for the same reasons as Living Death. Having a 1B "reanimate any creature" spell with no downside is pretty sweet.
Why run Tajuru Preserver over Sigarda, Host of Herons? They essentially have the same effect except one is a 5/5 flier with hexproof. She's more expensive, sure, but she's just a better card. If your opponent is planning on making you sac things anyway they'll just point removal at the Preserver. They can't do that with Sigarda.
No Gideons? They all become humans when they become creatures and they're all decent. I've been playing Kytheon myself and he's quite good. Flipping him is easy and he's never threatening enough to become a target but he offers a lot of value. You can +2 as a sort of removal, +1 protects Sigarda or any other creature and untapping it makes combat much more profitable, and just getting a 4/4 hexproof, indestrucitble, prevent-all-damage beater for 1 mana is pretty good too. Gideon Jura is good if you need to control, Champion of Justice demands an answer or it can win the game, and Ally of Zendikar is a good token producer/anthem effect.
Glare of Subdual is pretty great too. I think it's a little better than Court Street Denizen. Last game I played it kept two Ulamogs off me for a while and bought me valuable time.
Den Protector is a redundancy for Eternal Witness. Not as good but it is a bigger body (3/2 with some evasion) and hey, you might even have a "gotcha" moment when they target removal at your Morph and it flips into a hexproof human.
My deck is more of a hatebears deck so understandably they play differently but sometimes you need to pivot to a control position and I think these cards help.
So my meta has been shifting towards a ton of exile effects. What are your suggestions?
I've put in Ashnod's Altar to save my Rebels from targeted exile and it also helps save mana on recovering post-boardwipe since you can apply to the 2 mana towards Lin Sivvi's tuck ability. It also lets you use Changeling Hero as a much more reliable "save any creature" card, just saccing it to the Altar and not just using it to protect against board wipes. You can also use it as a battery by tutoring random Rebels every turn and turning them into mana.
Just as a side note, I love this deck and it's one of my favorite decks to pilot. I stick to her as a the strongest monowhite general and while my friends have laughed at the deck or hate it, it routinely wins the game.
I've basically been playing it as Miracles. Entreat the Angels hits very hard (the miracle cost applies to the regular CMC, so if you cast it for it's miracle cost at, for example, X = 5, the total CMC of the spell is actually 13). But outside of that you have Temporal Mastery, Banishing Stroke, Devastation Tide, Reforge the Soul, and Thunderous Wrath. I'm also running Vampiric Tutor, Mystical Tutor, and Personal Tutor to tutor for miracles along with Scroll Rack and Sensei's Divining Top to set them up.
Otherwise, delve is your best friend. Treasure Cruise and Dig Through Time are great in almost any blue deck but Logic Knot has also been quite good.
Beseech the Queen is a decent tutor but also has a CMC of 6 despite being castable for 3.
Tainted Strike and Grafted Exoskeleton work with both of your commanders. Ishai can randomly hit people for 10+ easily and just throwing a Tainted Strike on her is an easy way to win.
For Pain Magnification, Capsize is a guaranteed 3 damage from Vial Smasher and can be bought back. It's also just an excellent card.
The four Undaunted cards, Coastal Breach, Sublime Exhalation, and Curtains' Call are pretty good, the red one not so much.
Your deck is definitely a little more focused around Pain Magnification than mine (although I do run it in my list) but I think all the cards I mentioned are playable and just so happen to have good synergy with Vial Smasher.
Also I reckon that any Planeswalker that can actively draw you a card is better than Planeswalkers that don't, exception being the ones that net you multiple kills in card advantage (like Ugin and Elspeth, Sun's Champion).
Comparing every card to a "better" card of equal mana cost seems unfair. Like saying Sorin is bad because he's six mana compared to Consecrated Sphinx or Ad Nauseum is unreasonable. Not every deck wants Ad Nauseum and not every deck that plays Sorin can play Sphinx. Judge cards on their own merits, not because there's a card at the same CMC that's really good.
Also I never see people actively "love" Ashiok in EDH, Ashiok's just a pretty good card in Cubes.
Also Scroll Rack/Sensei's Divining Top go a long way. The deck unfortunately got worse with no more Partial Paris.
2. Expanse/Wilds have become quite handy with Crucible/Emeria Shepherd. Like if you have white fetches then play them instead but all of mine are being used. Also shuffling becomes very relevant in a deck with Scroll Rack/Top. You can shuffle with Lin Sivvi for free but she's not always available and you may want to shuffle at times that activating her is inconvenient.
3. Mobilization is cheaper to activate and that's all there is to it. In the end, the size of the token doesn't matter because you're going to kill them with Mirror Entity. Plus Mirror Entity makes everything a Soldier anyway so you have vigilance during your big swings.
4. The only targets that Lark really hits are rebels and rebels are disposable and reusable anyway. Really the things you want to keep alive are your finishers, which Lark won't hit.
5. Honestly, I'm trying to keep my removal versatile. Swords is only in there because it's too good to not run. Path accelerates an opponent, which may not seem like much but it is a lot more relevant than gaining some life. Also I have a sweet foil signed Swords. Creatures aren't very relevant when you can shut them down with most of your rebels so it's mostly noncreature permanents that are troublesome. So Angelic Purge fit that slot (its been okay in testing but could be an O-Ring to go with Sun Titan/Emeria Shepherd) over Path. I can see arguments for running it though.
6. Warping Wail is probably the best, I've played it in Titania before and it blew people out. Mana Tithe is so situational that it often sits dead in your hand. I could consider Lapse.
7. I have a Helm and I've considered it but I've found still that creatures are very irrelevant to you. I might give it a test run eventually.
8. Zealot is a go-to rebel a lot of the times. He carries equipment like a champ. Draw any equipment and you want him immediately. There's also just little things he does. Killing 1 toughness creatures is occasionally relevant. I remember an opponent thought he locked me out with Aven Mindcensor only to have it die to my on-board Zealot. I've also killed people just by dumping mana into Mirror Entity and continually swinging.
9. Not really. If your planeswalker is sticking around for a couple of turns while your opponents struggle to deal with it and you draw another, then things are still going pretty well. Otherwise, your opponents often spend a lot of resources and time dealing with your Elspeth only to have another slammed on them. There's not a lot of games where I draw multiple of them in a row anyway.
But yeah, Rebels has been one of my favorite decks to pilot. Since there's so many people that are relatively new to the game, they've never seen or even heard of rebels, and blowing them out with some really oddball cards is hilarious. The deck is just so scrappy and resilient that watching three people struggle to kill you is hilarious.
The other issue is opening hands. It's not like modern where you can pick them apart with Thoughtseizes and often weather out the storm, sometimes they just have the card to destroy you in their hand. Myojin of Night's Reach and Cabal Conditioning offer mass discard that hits all of your opponents to get them empty handed, at which point you can control their draws. I've even had success with Mind Twist just to put a control player out of the game.
I'm mostly looking at your actual version and not the budgetless one so sorry for some redundant suggestions.
Over here.
Mycoloth is just an exponential Ezuri dump. Just put Ezuri's trigger onto him, he'll produce tokens equal to your experience counters, which will net you the same amount of experience counters. It gets really out of hand very quickly.
Stubborn Denial and Spell Rupture are both affordable counterspells that abuse your big creatures. Stubborn Denial is just a 1 mana Negate and Spell Rupture is like a super Mana Leak that'll mostly be a hard counter.
Panharmonicon has been pretty nuts. For example, you play Hornet Queen. Hornet Queen makes 8 tokens, which trigger Ezuri twice, netting 18 experience counters off a single card. Deranged Hermit produces the same amount, Whirler Rogue gives you 10 experience counters (and two unblockable activations), the list goes on.
I've been continually impressed by Stratus Dancer. Triggers Ezuri, counters most relevant spells, and then becomes an evasive beater. Willbender can fill a similar role and can lead to some blowouts.
It's minor but Seat of the Synod and Tree of Tales are additional Trinket Mage targets. If for some reason you need one color or the other, the option is there and the downside is often minor to nonexistent.
Devoted Druid lets you get a turn 3 Ezuri and can become a huge mana producer with Ezuri's counters. She's generally weaker than Gyre Sage but she's almost a redundant copy. In the same area of Ezuri mana ramp tech, Selvala, Heart of the Wilds, Viridian Joiner, and Crystalline Crawler work similarly.
If you're in the full combo area, Deadeye Navigator is unfortunately a must. Combine with Peregrine Drake/Cloud of Faeries for infinite experience counters (and infinite mana with the Drake), then you can often win with infinite Acidic Slime or Riftwing Cloudskate or Venser, Shaper Savant. The Navigator also just creates pretty tough locks with Mystic Snake, Draining Whelk, and the aforementioned Venser.
I think Eldrazi Skyspawner is a little stronger than Nest Invader. Trade a toughness and add an extra mana for an extra power on the token and evasion. Evasion in general just seems very key to Ezuri, and if your opponent is forced to answer a 2/1 flier that already did its thing then you've done well.
Pentavus is a neat little sink. Turns counters into 1/1 fliers which turn into more experience counters.
Triskelion provides some much needed removal in the deck and can even become a wincon if you get enough experience counters.
Deepglow Skate, because it's Deepglow Skate. Can produce infinite mana with Deadeye Navigator + Crystalline Crawler.
Cyclonic Rift, while not having any real synergy in the deck, is just too good to not run.
The general idea behind Ezuri seems to be A) abuse-prone cards (like Mycoloth, Sage of Hours, Gyre Sage, etc) and B) protection/disruption cards (Void Grafter, Stratus Dancer, Willbender, etc. He ends up being a fun toolbox deck but your toolbox creatures end up becoming instant threats. I hate playing Simic but Ezuri has proven to be the most fun.
I've been playing a Planeswalker-heavy version of the deck and it's pretty fun. Basically instead of token generators to close out the game you play Planeswalkers to generate tokens or provide inevitability and grind out your opponents. I've been very impressed with Elspeth Tirel. She's kinda like a Nev's Disk in that she ults the next turn and blows up the board but she sticks around and if she's not doing that she can be gaining you some life or just throwing out tokens.
I might test Inventors' Fair if there's enough artifacts. My deck runs 18 artifacts and you could probably fit in an Ancient Den for another.
Emeria Shepherd has been the MVP of the deck though. Its been so good I've even added Crucible of Worlds to the deck and it has some silly combos with fetchlands and Sword of the Animist. Being able to kill off your own Karn with his minus then bring him back with a land drop is just silly.
To go really off the deep end, the deck could run ways to force your opponents to cast multiple spells, like Possibility Storm, Knowledge Pool, and Eye of the Storm (this one isn't mandatory but who can resist the value?). Then you can even play Hive Mind (doesn't trigger Kraum or Ishai though) and some wincons/locks like Enduring Ideal, Eternal Dominion, and Djinn Illuminatus + Pact of the Titan.
Also, it's not necessarily a tribal deck, but Rebels with Lin Sivvi is a pretty fun, interactive deck that can end up being quite competitive. I've beat a couple of decks that should be way above the tier of a monowhite deck.
Personally, I've been playing Brisela in my deck. It's pretty sweet with Survival of the Fittest. Pitch a creature, tutor Gisela, pitch Gisela, tutor Bruna. Next turn, cast Bruna, reanimate Gisela, and you have Brisela easily. They're both solid creatures on their own too and Bruna is like a bigger Karmic Guide that gets around Torpor Orb.
It's a little deep but Gisela, the Broken Blade and Bruna, the Fading Light are pretty strong. I used to run Baneslayer Angel as a filler card and found it to be a really solid finisher, and Gisela is pretty similar. Bruna animates most things in the deck, since you're mostly humans or angels, and you don't have to worry about Torpor Orb. Getting them both out makes a very strong hatebear and game finisher.
Eldritch Evolution is a creature tutor you can cast under Gaddock Teeg. Can't say the same for Chord, GSZ, Natural Order, Pod, etc. Normally I like all those cards better but I'm running this purely for being usable with Gaddock Teeg on the field.
Thalia, Heretic Cathar seems like an autoinclude. Having a soft Kismet on a cost effect creature is really nice. Stops Kiki combos outright and generally slows down your opponents.
Also I like Tireless Tracker for card advantage in a deck that's pretty hard pressed for it. You'll get clues even under Torpor Orb/Hushwing Gryff and it gets around Spirit of the Labyrinth when you just crack a clue on every person's turn. Also if you want, you can generate a ton of clues, then slam Kataki and not pay their upkeep cost. Tireless Tracker gets +1/+1 counters when they all get sacced and now you have a decent beater on your hands.
I run Exhume in my deck too for the same reasons as Living Death. Having a 1B "reanimate any creature" spell with no downside is pretty sweet.
I think Saffi Eriksdotter is definitely worth considering in the deck, she's just a great card in general and she combos with a ton of things (Sun Titan, Angel of Glory's Rise, Reveillark, even Timely Hordemate). If you don't want to go the combo route she's still a good value creature.
Why run Tajuru Preserver over Sigarda, Host of Herons? They essentially have the same effect except one is a 5/5 flier with hexproof. She's more expensive, sure, but she's just a better card. If your opponent is planning on making you sac things anyway they'll just point removal at the Preserver. They can't do that with Sigarda.
No Gideons? They all become humans when they become creatures and they're all decent. I've been playing Kytheon myself and he's quite good. Flipping him is easy and he's never threatening enough to become a target but he offers a lot of value. You can +2 as a sort of removal, +1 protects Sigarda or any other creature and untapping it makes combat much more profitable, and just getting a 4/4 hexproof, indestrucitble, prevent-all-damage beater for 1 mana is pretty good too. Gideon Jura is good if you need to control, Champion of Justice demands an answer or it can win the game, and Ally of Zendikar is a good token producer/anthem effect.
Birthing Pod is excellent if you have a chain.
Banisher Priest? Fiend Hunter? They're both removal and with hexproof they're a lot less fragile.
Glare of Subdual is pretty great too. I think it's a little better than Court Street Denizen. Last game I played it kept two Ulamogs off me for a while and bought me valuable time.
Den Protector is a redundancy for Eternal Witness. Not as good but it is a bigger body (3/2 with some evasion) and hey, you might even have a "gotcha" moment when they target removal at your Morph and it flips into a hexproof human.
Ranger of Eos is bonkers. It draws two live cards. Targets in my deck include Champion of the Parish, Kytheon, Ulvenwald Tracker, and Mother of Runes. You could also run Planar Guide, Nova Cleric, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Signal Pest, Children of Korlis, Devoted Caretaker, Dryad Militant, the list goes on.
My deck is more of a hatebears deck so understandably they play differently but sometimes you need to pivot to a control position and I think these cards help.
I've put in Ashnod's Altar to save my Rebels from targeted exile and it also helps save mana on recovering post-boardwipe since you can apply to the 2 mana towards Lin Sivvi's tuck ability. It also lets you use Changeling Hero as a much more reliable "save any creature" card, just saccing it to the Altar and not just using it to protect against board wipes. You can also use it as a battery by tutoring random Rebels every turn and turning them into mana.
Just as a side note, I love this deck and it's one of my favorite decks to pilot. I stick to her as a the strongest monowhite general and while my friends have laughed at the deck or hate it, it routinely wins the game.