Don't Kill the Kitty

Modern RBW (Mardu) Theme/Gimmick

Internetjay

Creature (23)

• 2x Athreos, God of Passage
• 4x Black Cat
• 4x Bloodsoaked Champion
• 4x Butcher of the Horde
• 1x Dragonlord Kolaghan
• 3x Grim Haruspex
• 1x Liliana, Heretical Healer  ^Flip
• 1x Mogis, God of Slaughter
• 2x Qarsi Sadist
• 1x Tymaret, the Murder King

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Sorin, Solemn Visitor

Land (23)

• 3x Battlefield Forge
• 3x Caves of Koilos
• 5x Mountain
• 2x Nomad Outpost
• 9x Swamp
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Enchantment (2)

• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 1x Gift of Immortality

Instant (6)

• 2x Collateral Damage
• 2x Crackling Doom
• 2x Kolaghan's Command

Sorcery (5)

• 2x Act of Treason
• 3x Duress

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Sideboard

Creature (8)

• 2x Alesha, Who Smiles at Death
• 1x Archfiend of Depravity
• 4x Mardu Skullhunter
• 1x Tymaret, the Murder King

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Dictate of Erebos
• 2x Tainted Remedy

Instant (2)

• 2x Erase

Sorcery (2)

• 2x Infinite Obliteration

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"The best deck from Theros - Khans standard" - Ernest Hemingway

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Deck Design

This deck was designed with one card in mind: Black Cat . The idea is to set up a bunch of cards that trigger when something dies, play the cat and then dare your opponent to kill it -- or later, if they don't, just sacrifice it. You're trying to present an ultimatum and let your opponent choose how you win. The goal is to get in your opponent's head -- cards like Athreos, God of Passage and Mogis, God of Slaughter leave them constantly unsure of whether they've made the right decisions, which makes for a very interesting and very mean type of control deck. This build's inherently vulnerable to things like exile removal, but it's totally worth it when you catch an opponent off guard by, well, building a deck around Black Cat.

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Mechanics and Card Decisions

Death Trigger Shenanigans

• Black Cat : The one and only. Forces your opponent to discard a card at random when it dies -- OP. Studies have shown that this card's even stronger in foil, so I recommend shelling out $0.35 extra for the upgrade.
• Bloodsoaked Champion: Cheaply returns to the battlefield from the graveyard.
• Athreos, God of Passage: When one of your creatures dies, your opponent chooses to either lose three life or let it go back to your hand.
• Grim Haruspex: When one of your creatures dies, you draw a card.
• Dictate of Erebos: When one of your creatures dies, your opponent sacrifices a creature.
• Liliana, Heretical Healer  : When one of your creatures dies, you get a planeswalker. Her +2 can be abused by discarding Bloodsoaked Champion, her -X can pull back a kitty and her ult wins games -- the perfect card for this deck.

Sack Outlets

• Butcher of the Horde : Instant speed sack engine, badass creature.
• Tymaret, the Murder King : Resilient sack outlet -- providing a sack outlet from the graveyard is awesome. The mana cost on his abilities makes him slow, but he can be a wincon in a grindy match.
• Qarsi Sadist : Lets you sack a creature, burn, gain life and play a creature all for two mana. Plus this thing can sacrifice itself, making it very strong if you have Athreos, God of Passage out.
• Collateral Damage : Given that we want to kill our creatures, this is basically a Lightning Bolt with upside -- pretty sweet deal.

Decisions, Decisions

• Mogis, God of Slaughter: Makes the opponent decide between sacking a creature or taking 2 burn damage every turn. Great for midrange games and vs. control.

The Control Package

• Crackling Doom: Takes out the opponent's most powerful creature and burns for two -- the best way to deal with hexproof threats (I'm looking at you, Dragonlord Ojutai).
• Act of Treason: With this deck's sack outlets, stealing a creature is synonymous with removing a creature. It's removal, it's a huge combat trick and it's a way to trip death triggers, all for three cmc -- if used successfully, the sheer value of it can easily tilt a game in your favor. For that reason, this is a pretty dependable wincon. (Fun fact: if you use it to steal a Dragonlord Silumgar you get back the creature that Silumgar stole.)
• Duress: A staple for a reason. This gives you information about your opponent's hand (and about their deck in the first game) and gets rid of problematic exile removal. Should probably be Thoughtseize but we're already taking enough pain off of the lands as it is, and this deck has plenty of other ways to deal with creatures.

Other

• Kolaghan's Command: Right on theme and super versatile, this card has it all. It can force discard, shock, and return creatures from the graveyard, which are all relevant to this build. The random artifact hate is just gravy.
• Dragonlord Kolaghan: Kolaghan is what you pray for when you're topdecking. Since this build uses both discard and removal, there's a reasonable chance of her ability becoming a problem for opponents. Plus, haste is awesome and she's a 6/5 flyer -- what's not to like?
• Gift of Immortality: Shenanigans with the Kitty. T2 Kitty, T3 Gift, T4 Butcher aaaaand the opponent's hand is empty for the rest of the game. Yes, I have won games with this lockdown. Yes, it's always hilarious. Plus, the flavor of giving the kitty extra lives is a home run.
• Sorin, Solemn Visitor: Provides the extra life and chump blockers this deck sometimes needs to make it into the late game.

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Sideboard

• Alesha, Who Smiles at Death: This card isn't in the mainboard because it has some major flaws: it doesn't do anything when you play it; you have to attack with it before seeing any potential upside; and it's super vulnerable to removal. That said, I love this card. It adds that extra bit of creature recursion to the build and it gets a lot of value out of your 2-cmc creatures, which makes it a good side against control.
• Archfiend of Depravity: Token hate.
• Dictate of Erebos: An extra copy for midrange, creature-heavy matchups.
• Erase: Enchantment hate: relevant in a surprising number of matchups.
• Infinite Obliteration: Can take out engines like Jace, Vryn's Prodigy   and Deathmist Raptor.
• Mardu Skullhunter: Can be swapped for our beloved kitty, or for some of the higher-CMC cards to make the build more aggressive.
• Tainted Remedy: Abzan hate.
• Tymaret, the Murder King : An extra copy for grindy matches.

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Thanks for reading! Hope you like the build. It's been a blast to play and develop over the past year -- thanks to everyone for contributing to it. This was actually my first ever mtg deck, so I think it goes without saying that it's been awesome to see it get such a warm reception. Looking forward to BFZ standard! Meow.

Top Ranked	Achieved #3 position overall 10 years ago
Date added	10 years
Last updated	9 years
Legality	This deck is Modern legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 25 - 9 Rares 2 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 6 Commons
Cards	60
Avg. CMC	2.62
Tokens	Emblem Liliana, Defiant Necromancer, Emblem Sorin, Solemn Visitor, Morph 2/2 C, Vampire 2/2 B, Zombie 2/2 B
Folders	decks to check out, Coolio, standard, good decks, Themes and Gimmicks, cool ideas, Standard, cool decks, white red black, Random Decks