This is a fantastic cat deck. Did you consider Nylea, God of the Hunt? She's more than Rhonas and her ability costs more too, but she is much harder to kill and she always gives trample no matter what. So for the times when you don't have 3 mana open for Rhonas (or 4 for Nylea) you still have trample. Plus, Nylea's ability also grants 2 toughness, which can be relevant. Nylea is harder to remove than Rhonas because swords and path can't target her until she becomes a creature. Although you have a lot of green permanents so she'll probably be a creature a lot in this deck. The extra mana shouldn't be a problem with all the ramp you have.

Hi FadingReality,

Yes I have considered Nylea, God of the Hunt, I thought about having both Rhonas the Indomitable and Nylea, God of the Hunt.

The reason I went just with Rhonas the Indomitable is the Devotion . Since I only have 1 Eminence trigger, I usually only have 1 cat in play (sometimes 2 if they are enabler cats like Leonin Shikari + Lost Leonin. As long as I have ANY cat eg: Sacred Cat + Eminence tigger, Rhonas the Indomitable can attack. I found the 5/5 Deathtouch Indestructible tempo, along with maybe having been hit with a cat a couple times already was better than trample. Because I would rarely hit my devotion ultimately decided Nylea, God of the Hunt was too slow (no aggro/tempo/advantage).

She's great in a slightly different (-Centric) build. I also thought about the Bow of Nylea. Right now I don't have the symbols, I'm more symbols (tried to balance as best as I could).

That's why she didn't make the 99. Excellent suggestion. Thanks.

Would most definitely recommend a Dueling Grounds.

Hi SynergyBuild,

I definitely use that strategy. I have many, many creature tutors, which I use to pull Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist. Because enchantments are harder to tutor for me, and I always tutor Sylvan Library or Duelist's Heritage or Greater Good (unless situation calls for Aura Shards or Rancor), Dueling Grounds wouldn't get tutored. Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist does the same thing (and better, doesn't restrict my attack), so if I have a Rhonas the Indomitable or an enabler like Silverblade Paladin I'm still free to attack with everyone.

I really need Sterling Grove back in for an additional Sylvan Library tutor. I only played 3 cat games this past FNM/Weekend, and didn't find I needed the Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist in any of those. So I think it can be situational. For example, vs. Kess, Dissident Mage or Mizzix of the Izmagus it's actually going to hurt me. There was a Gisela, Blade of Goldnight but was able to take that down with infect/doublestrike before it would get aggressive. If I do (rarely) get some cat tokens going, they wouldn't be effective either.

I'm adding to my maybeboard for now, have to think about it more. Initially I don't need the duplication of Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist ability, whose killing a 6/5 first strike attacking cat. At CMC3 it is quite viable though. Hmm. Great suggestion, under consideration. Still feel more creature tutors is still better as it gives Modularity to pull different solutions/offense (like an Eldritch Evolution or something)

Arahbo, Budget... for Cats EDH just wondering if u could have a look to my more budget version deck copied of yours.

What's your opinion on Leonin Warleader? Will you consider it for your deck?

Hi rofldiekatz,

Leonin Warleader is good, 4 power for CMC4 and Lifelink sub-theme.

Will be putting him in replacing either Temur Sabertooth (most likely) or Eternal Witness to increase my cat count.

How is this list competitive? You are building a slow, clunky aggro deck, with no out to a decent cEDH combo list like flash-hulk or hermit druid.

I really am asking for you to drop the "competitive" tag. I don't want to insult the deck or your deck-building skills, however I find it misleading to claim that this deck is cEDH quality.

On the other hand, I'll toss you a +1 because I like cat tribal and voltron in casual EDH.

Hi SynergyBuild,

Thanks for the feedback.

Basically my goal is, understandably starting with a Selesnya () Tier:4 Commander in Arahbo, Roar of the World

I am not trying to Aggro 40 damage faster than a cEDH can combo, I'll never beat a Kess, Dissident Mage or Teferi, Temporal Archmage as a couple examples.

What i've tried to construct, so far:

1) Tutor Lost Leonin, I'm tutor/consistency focused, and always looking for more Tutors (Still a work in progress)

2) Eliminate the threat cEDH Commander with Aggro Infect | Lost Leonin (+2) + Eminence (+3) Ajani, Caller of the Pride (+5) or Berserk (+5) or Duelist's Heritage (+5) or Silverblade Paladin (+5) = 10 Infect

3) Hit an Alternate Win-Con: Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder or Triumph of the Hordes or Chord of Calling > Felidar Sovereign

I'm also not really Voltron, I'm not looking to just pump one cat into a 40 damage system, I try and have equipment that can answer some different threat/protection goals, and try and Flash/Instant/ equip cost to utilize.

I started this deck out of the Feline Ferocity C17 Deckboxes, mostly because my spouse likes 2/2 Cat Tribal so it's a way to encourage her to be engaged in playing when 2/2 Zombie (just an example) aren't of any interest. It's been tough, there are quite a few Arahbo, Roar of the World decks builds out there, but so many different strategies, I'm really trying to find/work a winning strategy.

So I guess, playing this deck in cEDH, it's been a developmental process and a learning experience, like the power of Alms Collector vs Grixis () Commanders.

As an experienced cEDH player, do you have any suggestions on how to bring Arahbo, Roar of the World into a cEDH build that you would be comfortable with the #tag?

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated! How does Selesnya () without or ? How can I be faster or as fast with a win-con that has some synergy with a Cat Commander?

Cheers!

Moving this comment that was posted on my Wall to the Arahbo, Roar of the World thread.

More on this thread can be found at: Arahbo Cat Tribal

KimJongman says...

Hi Spirits, I am pretty new to EDH and am starting out with the Feline Ferocity Pre-Con. My card collection is not very large, but I have added a few cards Arahbo Cat Tribal seen here. I am mostly doing 1v1's with a bud of mine who has some pretty good cards and am looking for a few tips to improve my deck to be able to hold my own against him a little better.

I watched a video from "The Command Zone" on youtube on building an EDH deck, and am trying to go by these ratios: Mana Ramp: 10 Card Draw: 10 Single Target Removal: 5 Board Wipes: 5

My question is, with a small budget of around 50 bucks, what kind of improvements should I go for? I am not sure if I need to focus my limited resources on improving the manabase/ramp, getting better utility/removal cards, or go for effective creatures.

The problem I have with most of his decks right now is that he ignore my early damage I throw at him, and then by turn 4-5 he has a massive amount of mana and powerful creatures that synergize with each other well enough to pretty much shut me out for the rest of the game. This is pretty much what happens whether he plays a control, combo or aggro deck. Any tips?

Oh, I take back what I said, forget it, sorry about me white-knighting the competitive tag in the past (not far past, but still) and I love the list!

If you really want to make it competitive, I can't promise I can make Arahbo tier 1, but tier 2-3 I can do, as long as you are willing to drop some of the more fun cats, and are able to build up this deck to become a stax-beatdown hybrid.

Okay, so to start, consistency is key, more tutors should be the goal, think Fauna Shaman and Survival of the Fittest type cards, and you'd really want to slow the deck down, which is the opposite of what most people will say.

Running Vryn Wingmare, Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Glowrider, and Thorn of Amethyst can stop many combo decks in their tracks, and shut off storm decks in general, while not slowing you down nearly as much. Avacyn's Pilgrim, Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Arbor Elf, Elvish Mystic, Fyndhorn Elves, and Boreal Druid are all fast mana ramp that gets you to dropping your commander + Lost Leonin combo (what I believe to be the simplest wincon) faster and also gets unaffected by non-creature hate.

Many decks cannot win through Spirit of the Labyrinth or Alms Collector type cards, running them allows you to obliterate some opponents from combo to control.

Effectively I am arguing for stax, but not just stax, also combo, running the combo you already have is fine, Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder, however it doesn't win the game until your next turn unless you already have a large amount of mana, or an Aetherflux Reservoir type effect.

Consider Priest of Titania/Elvish Archdruid/Wirewood Channeler + Umbral Mantle/Sword of the Paruns/Staff of Domination as a powerful combo with cards that are individually useful. Emptying all of that infinite mana into a Genesis Wave or Walking Ballista can easily win games.

Okay, for the 50 bucks thing, Armageddon, Ramunap Excavator, Glowrider, Vryn Wingmare, Aven Mindcensor, Norn's Annex, Ghostly Prison, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Birds of Paradise, Llanowar Elves, Fyndhorn Elves, Arbor Elf, Elvish Mystic, Yisan, the Wanderer Bard, Boreal Druid, Avacyn's Pilgrim, Nature's Claim, Dryad Militant, Rest in Peace, Path to Exile, Suppression Field, Aura of Silence, Beast Within, Manglehorn, Mother of Runes, and Return to Dust add up to $49.95 on TCGplayer not including tax or shipping costs, and make up a core stax build, with other reasonably cheap cards that could help being Root Maze, Natural State.

Hi SynergyBuild,

Thanks for the suggestions, will take me a bit to go through it. Here's some additional followup questions.

Survival of the Fittest makes sense to me CMC3 to tutor a creature (if I have a creature).

Because I don't have haste, Fauna Shaman is less effective, but perhaps still required (just to get more consistency).

Instead of creatures, like Avacyn's Pilgrim because I don't have haste, I tried to go more low-cost spell based mana ramp. As well as having no real way to Counterspell mass removal, they are susceptible. Here is some examples:

Three Visits - playing a Savannah = Net ramp cost

Nature's Lore - playing a Savannah = Net ramp cost

Green Sun's Zenith - playing a Dryad Arbor = Net ramp cost . Also a modular tutor if I don't need the ramp.

Nissa, Vastwood Seer  ^Flip - in hand Forest (or if no other land drop that turn) = Net ramp cost or best case (Special note: I was testing to see if the slowness/poorness of the ramp, was offset her +1 Draw/Ramp once flipped. So far I haven't had her flip, so she hasn't worked yet.

Plus the standard: Chrome Mox, Mana Crypt, Sol Ring.

Is this strategy better than the 1/1 Elf route? To make Arahbo, Roar of the World work, I'll also need a concentration of 2/2 Cat otherwise better to choose an 1/1 Elf Commander?

I think the overall I get is, I don't have enough ramp? I'm thinking these would be good?

Tithe, Birds of Paradise, Harrow, Crop Rotation + Gaea's Cradle (I don't have this card yet though :/), Mox Diamond, Ancient Tomb.

What about less exciting options like: Cultivate or Kodama's Reach? Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip? Mirari's Wake?

Or is it better to go 1/1 Elf, to get the Priest of Titania + Staff of Domination route? Will I be able to get enough 1/1 Elf into the deck without losing the 2/2 Cat Commander? My spouse will not play 1/1 Elf.

I should put Sterling Grove in to Tutor Sylvan Library, right?

I use/tutor Alms Collector all the time, Spirit of the Labyrinth worries me because it shuts down my draw Sylvan Library, Puresteel Paladin, Sword of Fire and Ice, Skullclamp, Hunter's Insight, etc. But I understand that Selsnya () isn't the same draw level as other commanders, so perhaps, slowing everyone including myself down would be ok.

Archangel of Thune and Spike Feeder can win the game on the same turn, even if both do not have haste. Remember that Archangel of Thune gives a +1 to each creature (not just the Spike Feeder), so any creature becomes "Weaponized", and with the Trample/Evasion built in, can usually strike 1 or more players. Also, usually I Chord of Calling in the Archangel of Thune to try and protect her and allow her to avoid summoning sickness, and attack on my turn. Yes, I can win next turn with a Felidar Sovereign or Chord of Calling > Felidar Sovereign. Once she resolves unless they can stop Activated or Triggered abilities, I get the Infinite Life.

I'll do a more indepth review later. I'll also share some of your $50 suggestions on KimJongman deck later as well.

Cheers!

Sterling Grove is a powerful card, but not just for Sylvan Library, if that is your best option, don't run it.

I understand Spike Feeder and Archangel of Thune combo perfectky well, simply in a competitive environment, either one will be countered, or they will be removed with something like Chain of Vaporing the Archangel, in response to the first activation of Spike Feeder. That is a blowout like a Time Walk since you can't activate it again without killing the Spike Weaver. Felidar Sovereign with Chord of Calling is your best actual wincon, but I mean... 9 mana/creatures? What turn are you on? If this deck consistently puts out creatures and mana like that by turn 3, since you need to win by turn 4 at the latest for this to be a combo/aggro cEDH deck, then run it, I just don't think that is plausible.

2/2 Cats aren't a real strategy on their own. They don't make mana, and so don't combo out and win, simply put, I could get into Commander theory and the 'Aggro Problem', but I will just copy and paste the work I already did for something else:

Okay, so now you see the problem with aggro, and why 2/2 cats in essence aren't a wincon, Archangel of Thune can be removed in response to the first Spike Weaver activation, and so aren't as instant win as you thought, and even so, unless you have enough creatures to kill each other player, it isn't going to win the game, as they will simply win on their turn, in a cEDH meta. Since Felidar Guardian combo is too slow generally, and you only run 4 tutors for the Thune-Weaver Combo, it isn't a fast combo deck.

That isn't to say it isn't competitive, you could make it stax, run the fast elf-ramp, and Armageddon until you win, but that still requires a different gameplan.

Again, all of this is meaningless if you don't want to make it stax or fast combo, but without blue, your card draw isn't their for permission control, and that means you aren't able to consistently make this cEDH competitive, but I won't claim it is bad or anything, it is simply a high-powered mid-level EDH deck, and I think that is fine.

You were very right on one of your points on that many other commanders would be better, I would suggest Selvala, Explorer Returned and do something like Explorey-Os! Selvala Combo/Stax.

On ramp, most of the options you mentioned were sub-par, Tithe, Cultivate, Kodama's Reach, Growing Rites of Itlimoc  ^Flip, Mirari's Wake all are either too expensive or not impactful enough, 1 mana ramp is where you want to be, the fast rocks, Ancient Tomb/Gaea's Cradle/Gemstone Caverns, elves, etc.

Good luck!

Hi Spirits, did you ever consider Glittering Lynx? It's quite difficult to remove and can really slow your opponent down.

Hi rofldiekatz, he's definitely difficult to remove, until he's important enough that you wouldn't want him removed, then he gets removed for .

He's also just aggro (no infect/ramp/draw), so he is aggro (or blocking). I just think he won't be able to be counted on when it really matters, and in exchange hes just giving you aggro.

I would read SynergyBuild comment above, the link The Aggro Problem (and why combo is good), very interesting stuff in there that kind of explains why.

Thanks for the suggestion about him, If he didn't have that secondary ability he would be amazing. Keep them coming, really trying to mold hit Arahbo, Roar of the World into a consistent cEDH performer.

I've got two more suggestions. Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers and Hashep Oasis. Maybe you could switch them in for Ash Barrens and Tree of Tales/Ancient Den. When I tried Ash Barrens in my budget version of your deck it most of the time just tended to slow me down. Of course it can help getting you the missing landtype but most of the time it didn't do anything. Tree of Tales and Ancient Den just serve for the purpose of acitvating Puresteel Paladins second ability. They are prone to removal and even if they make Metalcraft happen it doesn't seem to matter that much because you only you only got 8 equipments included anyway and are not likely to draw them for time Puresteel Paladin is on the field. Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers on the other hand does have 8 different targets and is harder to remove. Hashep Oasis is just a more consistant version of Centaur Garden that doesn't force you to pay life for mana and doesn't need 7 cards in your graveyard to be sacrificed (even though the activating cost is higher).

Hi rofldiekatz,

Hashep Oasis is a perfect land, I'll work that one in, probably replacing Centaur Garden, it's been on the eval/cut-list for a while.

I like Ash Barrens, if I don't need to mana-fix (for ), I can still play it untapped an utilize that turn. On the other hand, If i have Forest,Forest,Ash Barrens I can fix into a Plains. Also, if the game is going on, I can pay the to filter out another land from my deck. So it never really hurts me (only helps sometimes).

Because I don't have many Equipments/Artifacts, Tree of Tales/Ancient Den are even more valuable to me. I often tutor for equipment (multiple creatures do this, sorcery, etc). I need to attack / connect / infect so often I will need to pull a protection sword, or a Grafted Exoskeleton and have high Equip costs. Because I'm not highly combo, being able to connect faster is critical. PS: I need more combos in this deck, still searching for them if you have any ideas!

Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers never hurts though either, it's a with no penalty so have to work that in as well somewhere.

Any thought about including a Metallic Mimic? Good deck +1

Hi Ixthinon,

Metallic Mimic is excellent, because I am playing Infect / Combo strategy, not a Stax / Token, or Aggro style, I wasn't finding the +1 counters to be enough of an impact. Usually if I have 1 sometimes 2 Cat in play, I'll only play enablers like Silverblade Paladin or Stonehewer Giant, Rhonas the Indomitable. In different strategies would be very invaluable.

My goal is to tutor the Infect fast enough to kill a T1 or T1.5 before combo, and then power into a mid-range and enable another kill. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn't. Still working on the consistency in the deck. Need more opportunity to play him.

Thanks for the up-vote and the suggestion, very much appreciated!

Applying the formula in the Superior Numbers - Land Counts Article by Nate Burgess.

Number of lands = 31 + amount of colors in commander’s color identity + commander CMC, with 0-CMC mana rocks counting as lands.

31 + 2 () + 5 () = 38 lands

Mana producing lands 35 + Chrome Mox + Mana Crypt = 37 lands. Definitely need a Mox Diamond .

Hi, love your cat deck. With the release of war of the spark and modern horizons (soon), do you have any planned update?

Hi Foxfire_Celest

King of the Pride seems like an inclusion. Finale of Devastation I need to get my hands on.

I'll try and get some further updates to the list with the new sets in the next month or so! I'll tag you once I've done my review.

I'm still trying to find a good "Cat" combo, there must be something with Felidar Guardian but haven't found the right combo yet.

Spirits Do you want a cat-only combo, or a general cat combo.

Felidar Guardian + Restoration Angel + Healer of the Pride is infinite life, but it requires an angel, albeit a good angel, but still an angel.

Hi SynergyBuild,

Thanks, that's what I'm going for, kind of. Right now though I have Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder which does a similar task with only 2 cards (no cats SpikeFeeder + Sunbond could do it too). I'm trying to find a combo that wins (with "some" cat components similar to what you mentioned), but having infinite life in commander often doesn't matter. Need an enabler like an Aetherflux Reservoir or Felidar Sovereign though to make it useful. Or some way to spend life for mana?

Felidar Guardian + Restoration Angel + Aura Shards is also nice though.

Something like Cryptolith Rite + Leonin Battlemage + Oketra's Monument + Whitemane Lion | Infinite 1/1 Warrior Tokens (without haste yuck!). Something that can win but much less janky and not so many pieces. Some way to output a win directly.

The Archangel of Thune + Spike Feeder makes the Archangel of Thune or any other creature I control as big as I want with +1 counters.

Hello again Spirits I still love your deck and I'm running a variant (lower budget without any of those amazing ramp or best tutor's).

What are your thoughts and opinion on the following cards being either added or sideboard/maybeboard :

• The Great Henge ...all that value!

• Crop Rotation to fetch inkmoth

• Rest in Peace gotta have that amazing graveyard hate

• Winds of Abandon ...It does the same job of cyclonic rift, but exiles!