Cat Scratch Fever - Arahbo EDH

Commander / EDH Aggro Budget Casual Infect Multiplayer Tribal

GoneWithLaw

Creature (25)

• 1x Adorned Pouncer
• 1x Chameleon Colossus
• 1x Drumhunter
• 1x Felidar Sovereign
• 1x Fleecemane Lion
• 1x Karmic Guide
• 1x Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1x Leonin Skyhunter
• 1x Lost Leonin
• 1x Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
• 1x Mirror Entity
• 1x Nacatl War-Pride
• 1x Nylea, God of the Hunt
• 1x Pride Sovereign
• 1x Prowling Serpopard
• 1x Qasali Pridemage
• 1x Regal Caracal
• 1x Reveillark
• 1x Sacred Cat
• 1x Silverblade Paladin
• 1x Skyhunter Prowler
• 1x Skyhunter Skirmisher
• 1x Watchers of the Dead
• 1x Whitemane Lion
• 1x Wily Bandar

Artifact (8)

• 1x Bow of Nylea
• 1x Grafted Exoskeleton
• 1x Lifecrafter's Bestiary
• 1x Selesnya Signet
• 1x Smuggler's Copter
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Swiftfoot Boots
• 1x Talisman of Unity

Land (35)

• 1x Canopy Vista
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Field of Ruin
• 10x Forest
• 1x Fortified Village
• 1x Hashep Oasis
• 1x Homeward Path
• 1x Mana Confluence
• 10x Plains
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scattered Groves
• 1x Scavenger Grounds
• 1x Shefet Dunes
• 1x Sungrass Prairie
• 1x Sunpetal Grove
• 1x Temple of Plenty
• 1x Unclaimed Territory

Instant (9)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Benefactor's Draught
• 1x Berserk
• 1x Dawn Charm
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Hunter's Insight
• 1x Momentous Fall
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Verdant Rebirth

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Ajani, Caller of the Pride
• 1x Elspeth, Sun's Champion

Commander (1)

Sorcery (14)

• 1x Austere Command
• 1x Cultivate
• 1x Farseek
• 1x Harmonize
• 1x Kodama's Reach
• 1x Life's Legacy
• 1x Nature's Lore
• 1x Open the Armory
• 1x Primal Command
• 1x Rishkar's Expertise
• 1x Soul's Majesty
• 1x Traverse the Outlands
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Wrath of God

Enchantment (6)

• 1x Duelist's Heritage
• 1x Gift of Immortality
• 1x Gryff's Boon
• 1x Mirari's Wake
• 1x Rancor
• 1x True Conviction

---

Maybeboard

Instant (4)

• 1x Bind
• 1x Scout's Warning
• 1x Stonewood Invocation
• 1x White Sun's Zenith

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Eldritch Evolution
• 1x Hunter's Prowess

Creature (3)

• 1x Leonin Abunas
• 1x Mirri, Cat Warrior
• 1x Plague Myr

Land (1)

• 1x Buried Ruin

Artifact (1)

• 1x Mind Stone

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Greater Good
• 1x Sigarda's Aid

---

Cat got your tongue?

This deck is designed to take maximum advantage of Arahbo's eminence ability. While getting a Giant Growth on one of my creatures each turn seems relatively underwhelming, it is critical to the success of this build.

There are numerous ways one typically sees Arahbo being built. In 1v1 commander, it's very common to see many 1 and 2 drop cats combined with a multitude of stax effects to ensure they can take initiative with offense while preventing opponents from getting their own strategies going. In multiplayer builds, it's common to see voltron strategies that focus on boosting and protecting a single cat as a target for Arahbo's abilities, or a tokens build that aims to go wide, forcing the opponent to either deal with one large threat or multiple small threats.

Originally, I want this deck to have increased interaction, playing the political game to stay under the radar with an under-powered commander to sneak in wins. I still intend on using existing tools to play my opponents off of each other in unexpected ways, but Ive decided recently to increase the focus of my strategy on one main tactic: infect. GW is hardly the posterchild when it comes to these tactics, but with Lost Leonin effectively being a 5 power infect 2-drop, its hard to overlook when building a serious Arahbo build.

While the deck is built to function just fine without Leonin or the other infect enablers, it will go for the throat given the chance. For aggro, maximizing damage is important, and this is crazy difficult in a multiplayer format. Infect gives this deck a small edge, however, as it means I dont have to do 120 damage to my opponents in a 4 player game, but rather only 30. Still, I do have non-infect strategies in the deck, such as a minor lifelink focus with Felidar Sovereign and general cat-tribal shenanigans.

I'm still very much new to the EDH format, so I'd very much appreciate any tips and pointers to improve this deck!

Planned Updates

• Local meta description
• Combo descriptions
• Replays and screenshots
• Updated visuals (to reflect changes to deck)

Adorned Pouncer and Skyhunter Skirmisher: Double strike is the simplest way to maximize the boost from Arahbo. Adorned Pouncer can hit the board very early and be able to swing for 8, while Skirmisher costs a bit more in exchange for built-in evasion. With Triumph of the Hordes, these can knock out players single-handedly.

Chameleon Colossus and Mirror Entity: Yes, they count as cats! They both serve as mana sinks to reach sky-high power. Protection from black is relevant on Colossus, where Mirror Entity also enables my non-cat creatures to use Arahbo's boost. Both can knock players out with enough mana behind them.

Felidar Sovereign: A secondary win condition in this deck. It can be flashed in, but the deck would need a great life gain focus for me to devote me resources to that game plan.

Fleecemane Lion: Once thing is monstrous, it becomes nigh impossible for most decks to remove. 3 power as early as turn 2 is above the curve, too.

Leonin Relic-Warder: Basic artifact/enchantment hate. If I can squeeze in some other combo pieces, this card could become a win condition by generating infinite mana with my mana rocks.

Leonin Skyhunter and Skyhunter Prowler: Low CMC Flying Cats. Very vanilla, largely running due to the GORGEOUS artwork on the foil.

Lost Leonin: The main win-con of the deck, a card I consider equally as important as Arahbo. By themselves, this card is a two turn clock for any single player. With any pumps or Double strike added on, it can take only one swing to knock a player out!

Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist: Mirri's asymmetrical combat lock down provides defense for us, and encourages our opponents to use their other free attacks against other players. I utilize several similar cards to go along with this method of protecting myself.

Nacatl War-Pride: By itself, this card can potentially be a one-sided wipe against a player, if I can enable deathtouch on all of the tokens. Getting trample and an anthem active for the tokens can make this card a solid finisher. If only this card worked with Blade of Selves!

Oreskos Explorer: On theme, and has a greater impact in multiplayer. I truly call this ramp, as I still have to play the lands properly, but less Plains in my deck means being more likely to draw into my playmakers.

Pride Sovereign: An admittedly slow token producer, the tokens have lifelink which make them valuable for chump blocking, and left unchecked it can quickly become a large threat on its own.

Prowling Serpopard: Invaluable protection against blue. Creatures are the lifeblood of this deck, and this guarantees they at least hit the battlefield.

Qasali Pridemage: Solid removal that also assist with my aggro strategy. While exalted only works with lone attackers, Arahbo can only target one cat anyways. Most valuable when I'm swinging with one cat and leaving my others up for blocking.

Regal Caracal: Cat lord that creatures extra bodies AND grants lifelink to keep me in the game. 5CMC is slightly steep, but the benefits are too good to pass up.

Sacred Cat: Much better in 1v1, but a 4 power 1-drop is not the worst thing in the world. Being able to cheaply recur itself is appreciated, especially when this deck runs a lower number of creatures than other Arahbo decks. A contender for the chopping block, however.

Watchers of the Dead: On theme graveyard hate. Instant speed is great, and it can even come down off of a T1 Sol Ring.

Wily Bandar: Another slightly underwhelming 1-drop, but the fact it can grant itself indestructible gives it valued staying power. A contender for the chopping block as well.

Whitemane Lion: Replacing Felidar Guardian for instant speed protection of any of my cats, while still being a viable target of Arahbos boosts.

Drumhunter: Ramp and Card draw in one convenient package. Since the draw occurs at the beginning of my end step, any boosted cat of mine with base 2 power or higher can be used alongside this card.

Karmic Guide and Reveillark: Flying, and powerful sources recursion for Lost Leonin, or whatever other creature the situation requires

Nylea, God of the Hunt: An alternative enabler of Trample to Arahbo, I can use this as a mana sink to not just pump my own creatures, but pump my opponents' creatures as they attack each other.

Silverblade Paladin: Double strike enabler that plays on curve with Lost Leonin for to knock out a player as early as Turn 3.

Duelist's Heritage: Another 3-drop Double strike enabler for Lost Leonin. Can also be used on my opponents' creatures (so long as they aren't attacking me!)

Gift of Immortality: Staying power for my cats. Great for reusing ETB effects or forcing my opponents' to effectively double up on their answers.

Gryff's Boon and Rancor: Small pumps that provide evasion, but are mostly valued for the self-recursion. These enable my threats throughout the game barring exile.

Mirari's Wake: Ramp and an anthem effect in one package... what's not to love?

True Conviction: This card supports both Lost Leonin and Felidar Sovreign in one great package. Its steep on the CMC, but if Im dropping this I should be going for the kill, or least keeping myself in the game.

Bow of Nylea: How can we have a Goddess without her trusted weapon? Enabling deathtouch is a beautiful play with War-Pride, and the sheer utility it offers can be overwhelming. A Swiss army knife of a card if I've ever seen one.

Grafted Exoskeleton: Remember how I mentioned Lost Leonin was a two turn clock? This thrown on any of my cats is another two turn clock with Arahbo's eminence. An alternate wincon for the deck.

Lifecrafter's Bestiary: Card selection and card draw in green. GW is not the best color combo for draw, but thankfully not the worst (looking at you, RW!)

Selesnya Signet, Sol Ring. and Talisman of Unity: Mana rocks. Standard fare. While the self-ping works against cards like Felidar Sovereign, not enough people run the Talismans in allied colors for the benefits they provide!

Smuggler's Copter: Comes down early, and gets me some solid card filtering. With a lack of great card draw compared to Blue and Black decks, this is greatly appreciated.

Swiftfoot Boots: To address a glaring issue, you've read this list correctly, Lightning Greaves is not in here while this card is. This is subject to change, as both are great haste enablers, but Greaves had shroud, which prevents me from targeting my cats with Arahbo's abilities!

Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Farseek and Nature's Lore: Standard ramp options, practically auto-include in multicolor green decks.

card:Austere Comand, and Wrath of God: My main board wipe options. Austere allows me to destroy any large blockers while still leaving Lost Leonin on the board to be boosted later, and its modal nature is appreciated. Wrath is wrath!

Harmonize: Condition-less card draw, rare in these colors.

Life's Legacy, Rishkar's Expertise, Soul's Majesty: Card draw with a catch, but that catch synergizes incredibly well with Arahbo's boost. Given how rare good card draw is in these colors, I'll gladly take what I can get, especially if these are drawing 3 cards minimum thanks to eminence.

Open the Armory: Can tutor for one of my win-cons, or otherwise other auras for general utility. Im considering running cards like Song of the Dryads to increase the versatility of this card.

Primal Command: Another modal spell that generally supports this decks main win-cons while providing solid disruption. Its a sham it isnt instant speed or lower CMC, but Ill take what I can get!

Traverse the Outlands: An additional ramp option that scales with Arahbo's boosts. 5+ basics for 5 mana straight to the battlefield means I can easily swing for game once they untap.

Triumph of the Hordes: Turns any cat with double strike into an OHKO. Id like to increase the token focus in order to take full advantage of this, but otherwise this card can, in general, lead to some surprise kills or finish the job when Lost Leonin cant.

Heroic Intervention: Newer card that provides valued protection. Intervention works across the board, non-bo-ing with Wrath of God and co. Bonus points for on-theme artwork!

Beast Within and Swords to Plowshares: Some of the best spot removal in the format. While it's a shame that an extra blocker or extra life works against the primary strategies of this deck, if I'm using these, it's because I'd rather have my opponent have some extra life or a vanilla 3/3 than have the win.

Benefactor's Draught: Look at this card. Look at Nacatl War-Pride. Look at this card again. If that's not card draw, I don't know what is! Far from the only use - this can be used on my opponents' attackers as well.

Berserk: This deck could not ask for a better support spell. It's remova and it's game-winning pump in one package. Well worth the inclusion for the sheer versatility.

Dawn Charm: Another favorite of mine, each one of its modes provide valued protection for either myself or after my opponent has wasted their removal on one of my cats. Highly underused, in my opinion.

Hunter's Insight and Momentous Fall: More power-based card draw for the deck. Insight should be netting me four cards minimum if the creature goes unblocked, while Fall is a good response to removal that also helps me stay alive.

Verdant Rebirth: A cantrip that allows me to recast a creature down the line. I usually be saving this for Lost Leonin if at all possible.

Ajani, Caller of the Pride: Another 3 mana double strike enabler to use with Lost Leonin. Maximum flavor to be had here with the cat tokens it can produce if I protect him long enough.

Elspeth, Sun's Champion: All the chump blockers, and a wipe on a stick. I may replace this with another Elspeth card, however the 6 CMC is the main downer here!

10 Forests and 10 Plains: These should probably be in any given GW deck! An even number works nicely in this deck given the roughly even mana cost split, but I may bump up the forest count in order to get my ramp going more consistently. That, and I actually only have 10 each of the Amonkhet full art lands, so Im effectively just using what I got!

Canopy Vista and Scattered Groves: Duals to fetch with Nature's Lore. Some day I'll get Savannah!

Command Tower and Mana Confluence: It's commander, and I'm not running a mono-color deck. In they go! Confluence does work a tad against Felidar Sovereign however, so I may drop it if I increase the support for him.

Field of Ruin: While it can ramp up opponents in a multiplayer game, it's land removal that doesn't cause me to fall back on my own curve.

Fortified Village, Sungrass Prairie, Sunpetal Grove, Temple of Plenty: More lands that tap for both G and W. I'm not the biggest fan of Temple of Plenty coming in tapped, but it provides an appreciated scry.

Hashep Oasis and Shefet Dunes: Deserts that provide colored mana, don't enter tapped, and can situationally pump my creatures. Worth paying a few life for the versatility.

Homeward Path: Generic utility land, great against Treason effects.

Rogue's Passage: Simple, beautiful evasion.

Scavenger Grounds: More graveyard hate that works well with Oasis and Dunes.

Unclaimed Territory : Weaker Cavern of Souls. Running this over Path of Ancestry since I want to minimize the number of lands that enter in tapped! I may slide Ancestry back in the deck if I end up bumping the land count to 36, however.

Lands and Ramp

Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx, Temple Garden, and Windswept Heath: Mana base updates that will greatly assist with fixing. I don't plan to run off-color fetches in this deck. I know they technically don't break color identity, but I can't help but consider something like Arid Mesa a red card! That's less important for a two color deck like mine, anyways. Oh, and fun fact, the token copies that Nacatl War-Pride creatures add to my devotion... looking at you, Nykthos!

Inkmoth Nexus and Mutavault: Manlands that tap for mana and can support either cat tribal or infect strategies in a pinch.

Dryad Arbor: Green Suns Zenith also serves as general tutor, but its noteworthy to point out that alongside this card it works as cheap early ramp.

Birds of Paradise and Plague Myr: Mana dorks with extra utility Birds can chump fliers, while Plague helps out as an additional source of infect if needed.

Tutors and Card Advantage

Sylvan Library: This is to replace Life's Legacy eventually. I'd rather take the selection each turn over a one-time draw effect. Amazing draw in these colors.

Enlightened Tutor, Steelshaper's Gift: Non-Creature tutors. Steelshapers Gift is slightly more restrictive, but with Grafted Exoskeleton being an incredibly solid back-up to Lost Leonin I dont mind running an equipment specific tutor with such a lower number of equipments. If I end up increasing the number of equipments in the deck, Ill probably return to running Nazahn, his Hammer, and maybe even Stoneforge Mystic in order to have Grafted Exoskeleton a more viable win-con.

Green Sun's Zenith, Chord of Calling, Worldly Tutor, Eladamri's Call: Creature tutors. Green Suns Zenith can serve as ramp with Dryad Arbor, while the others help me dig out Lost Leonin more quickly.

Eldritch Evolution, Altar of Bone: Additional creature tutors that require sacrifices. I will be more inclined to include once I get better token generators.

Felidar Sovereign Win-Con Support

Ajani Steadfast: A powerful, on-theme source of lifelink. This also supports my general cat beatdown strategies.

Serra Ascendant: Another powerful early drop. Putting this on the board Turn 1 makes me a bit of a target, but its one of the best lifelinkers in the format.

Scout's Warning, Vedalken Orrery: These allow me to flash in Felidar Sovereign for a surprise win, and in general can allow me to safely sneak my creatures in, protecting them from a set of turns around the board.

Lost Leonin Win-Con Support

Stonewood Invocation, Beastmaster Ascension: Gets the magic +5/+5 that gets Leonin to 10 infect damage (after Arahbos boost).

Fireshrieker, Battle Mastery: Additional sources of Double Strike to enable Lost Leonin's OHKO.

General Utility, Redundancy, and Upgrades

Bind: A cantrip the counters in green? Sure, Id take the Stifle effect! Just no room in the deck at the moment for this.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos: Comes down early, provides excellent cat blockers, and has vigilance. What's not to love about this card aside from the price tag?

Elspeth, Knight-Errant: Repeatable source of flying, unlike Ajani, Caller of the Pride. Also a token generator.

Noxious Revival: "Free" recursion that can also serve to disrupt opponent's graveyard strategies. Would like to include, but difficult to slot in.

Rhonas the Indomitable: Redundancy with Nylea, God of the Hunt.

The EDH Subreddit over at reddit for all the help and support. Check out their Discord server!

MTG Art for most of the high quality artwork.

CommandCast for tips and pointers I used to shape the ratio of spells and resources in this deck. Be sure to check out their videos at the Command Zone!

Guerte for the inspiration for the formatting of this profile. Check out his retired Daretti deck!

Feel free to upvote and share! +1

Top Ranked	Achieved #17 position overall 7 years ago
Date added	7 years
Last updated	6 years
Exclude colors	UBR
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 36 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 12 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.12
Tokens	Adorned Pouncer 4/4 B, Beast 3/3 G, Cat 1/1 W w/ Lifelink, Cat 2/2 W, Copy Clone, Emblem Elspeth, Sun's Champion, Sacred Cat 1/1 W, Soldier 1/1 W
Folders	Arahbo, Roar of the World, EDH, budget, Possible Decks, Cats, Commander, Interesting Commander Decks, Interests, Want?, Damn