I definitely swapped in Sunpetal Grove, lol.

I think I have some Rallying Roars, I may try them out. I can never find a way to use Prepare anyway. Or rather, never seem to have a right time/right moment thing.

I've updated the deck for XLN now! For some reason the description is bugging out and won't update but the cards list is fine for now. I will try again tomorrow....

Awesome deck!! I love this. Just one suggestion that helped my deck Energy Module (Rotation Proof) a lot that I was running cast out in, Run Ixalan's Binding instead. It has made a huge difference in my games not allowing them to cast more copies of what ever it is I find it more than makes up for the cycling and the flash. I have wanted to build a cat deck for a while now this is by far the one I like the most I will defiantly be stealing some ideas from you when I make mine ;) Good luck if you do try out Ixalan's let me know I'm curious if it helps.

Ajani Unyielding as a 2 of in main deck would work wonders.

quarteroy - Thanks for the comments and praise, much appreciated! I like Ixalan's Binding and I do have enough to main deck 2 of them... Might be worth the swap! Thanks.

Atroxreaper - I actually have two copies of Ajani, what do you reckon is worth cutting for him? Is he not a little slow at 6 to cast?

His card filtering is legendary, and both of his other abilities are good. Personally I'd pull initiate companion.

Thanks again Atroxreaper.

So I've made a few more tweaks and we're pretty set for post-XLN release now. I am having technical problems with the deck description though - anyone got any idea why it won't update? When i hit "Edit" on this page the description shows correctly but when you save it it doesn't actually change anything on the deck page above.... really weird. I will make a forum post about it.

EDIT: OK, some cache-clearing, some advice from the forums, and the heavy use of incognito mode on Chrome and I seem to have fixed it. Hope it stays fixed!

Heya sagramore! Checking out this deck after looking and commenting on your Catmander deck; and I like this a bunch! I like the fact it's different from mine. A few things I'd like to mention that are pretty decent that I run in my own deck: Field of Ruin. If you ever find yourself in a mana fix problem and/or your opponent has a flip land you don't like BAM! Field of Ruin! Something else to possibly consider: Shefet Dunes. If you're going wide this is invaluable. It's actually won me 2 games that I can remember, hahah. I actually run 2 Scattered Groves myself- the cycling does help. Lifecrafter's Bestiary, Shapers' Sanctuary, and Vanquisher's Banner all do me real good for draw and card filtering. It's not a big ol' Ajani (and trust me, I love Ajani), but he cost a little too much. And by turn 6 I'm looking to win the game/turn the game into my favor, and playing Ajani instead won't do too much for me other than exile a possible creature/search for more cats. I'm not trying to say he's a bad choice, I'm just not taken on what he's doing for the deck at turn 6 when some other cards can do that for less. Also, as much as I hate myself for saying this, Ajani isn't an actual "cat" nor is he a "creature", so he has less synergy. If anything, I'd offer Ajani, Valiant Protector. He does kinda the same thing, and even offers more offensive ability with his counters. His ultimate could also be nice finisher considering how much life-gain this deck has. I don't see anything wrong with Rallying Roar in fact I'm kind of considering it in my deck right now, but I use Blossoming Defense instead for the protection, and possible finishing move.

I almost forgot, sorry, I have 2 Settle the Wreckage on my sideboard. I definitely recommend it. Mono-black vampires are a real danger to this deck. I was beaten twice on MTGO by them. This card would have helped if I had it.

Pickacantaloupe - Thanks for all the details and ideas again! I may try to put some of them in the sideboard: Field of Ruin and Shefet Dunes look like reasonable sideboard cards and so does Settle the Wreckage. I will have to see which I own as my budget for new cards right now is VERY limited.

I like Vanquisher's Banner and it's definitely in the maybeboard for now but I'm not sure if it feels like it's just too slow? I need to do more testing with the deck as it stands because, as you say, this is still my worry about Ajani Unyielding too..

Hi, sagramore! On what Pick was saying, I saw SaffronOlive run a deck that sounds very similar to his and it seemed to work out pretty well with the Lifecrafters, Shapers', and the Banner. Not sure what I'd cut for them, though. I have taken out the Longtusk cub, as without other ways to get energy they seemed to die pretty early on and Metallic Mimic is the same mana cost. I'd love to see the synergy between Mimic and Banner, though.

Jaegur - Thanks for the clarification. My biggest problem is that my local play group play almost exclusively Modern with a bit of EDH on the side so it's really hard for me to get much playtesting done and I rely quite heavily on help from all you guys :)

I definitely see the benefit of the additional draw, especially in such a fast deck.

Thing with ajani is he doesn't give you three creature cards. It gives you 3 non land permanent cards. So you also get any cast outs Ixalan bindings anointed procession etc aswell and 3 cards is big. The exile works great against scarab god because blue black does do much mass removal.

A valid point, Atroxreaper. I just wish I had more standard played in my area! :)

I've got a buddy that went 4-0 with ajani and cats and my girlfriend is running it aswell.

sagramore surprisingly enough when banner comes out it usually means the game is over. (Either you have no plays or your creatures just got buffed into the win.) It's won me several games, and I always find my opponent trying to remove it from my hand or play, so it's a great target instead of your cats or other better lower cost plays. It's funny how often it gets focused but I still end up winning.

I have yet to test Ajani, but I kinda want to from what I've been hearing and seeing- I love planeswalkers.

Btw, try using Forge, sagramore, here's a link: https://www.slightlymagic.net/wiki/Forge. This is a great way to test decks for free.

Pickacantaloupe - Thanks for the tip about Forge. I use Cockatrice but I hadn't come across that before for testing against AI.

Hello fellow Cat lover, may I interest you in my take on the Cats ? http://tappedout.net/mtg-decks/09-04-17-McM-cats/

I strongly suggest getting some Blossoming Defense and Shapers' Sanctuary

Little update from what was actually my first FNM.

Small pod, only 11 participants. One thing to note is that about half of the guys at my FNM are pretty "serious" about Magic and they were grinding games with their decks ready for the PPTQs the next day. Two are in a semi-pro team as well. So, enough with the excuses.... :)

Cut to the chase, the deck went 2-2 including 1 bye (4th round).

Match 1: 2-1 to the cats. The opponent was playing a janky home-brewed R/G "big things + pump" deck. I got mana screwed on game 2, which I lost, and he had a turn 2 Rhonas's Last Stand into mega pump. In the other games I absolutely wiped him though.

Match 2: 0-2 against Temur Energy. This guy ended up winning the night and he pretty much stomped me. In my defence I was totally mana flooded in both games, but he didn't really have much worry the whole match. He also stole my Ixalan's Binding and used it on my stompy Pride Sovereign and I did not draw any removal.

Match 3: 1-2 against Temur Energy again. This was another guy grinding for PPTQ. Game 1 I was flooded and he stomped me. Game 2 I got a much better draw. A lovely combination of some early Longtusk Cub into on-turn Pride Sovereign exerted and then Rallying Roar, big swing, then 2x Regal Caracal on T5 and T6 and he scooped. Game 3 I started really well, similar to game 2, got him to 5 with me still on 20, thought I had it sealed. Then... Hostage Taker took my Pride Sovereign and it was a slow slog to death as he used more and more of my own cats against me.

Match 4: A bye.

I never saw a single Ixalan's Binding or Ajani. A couple of Heroic Interventions helped out a bit.

All in all I thought the deck went well. I need to learn more about the local meta and the sideboard needs perhaps some more removal or something similar.

I think Longtusk Cub has nothing to do with this deck, since you aren't working with energy. Also, Gideon's Intervention should be on side board. And your deck is lacking "draw power". Maybe Lifecrafter's Bestiary or Key to the City or Rishkar's Expertise or Feral Prowler or Ghirapur Orrery...

Verdant Rebirth might be interesting too... and Shapers' Sanctuary is a "must have" for your deck

Hope I could help!

PS: I don't like cats, but I'll upvote your deck!

Hello! How is Rivals shaping up for you? Any new additions for this deck?

Radiant Destiny seems like a no brainer here.

Kizmetto & Atroxreaper - Hey. I need to study the spoilers a little more - I have already identified a few possible changes before RIX release so I think there may be a number of switches or rearrangements when RIX does drop. I think br_dude is right about the deck lacking draw so this is something I hope to address in the same set of changes.

While I disagree that Longtusk Cub has "nothing to do" with this deck (all of my games playing it, they have generated their own energy and become powerhouses themselves without external energy required) - I think it might be worth swapping some (all?) of them for another good 2-drop like Feral Prowler in order to bring in more card draw. I just want to be careful about hurting the "aggro" nature of the deck, as its strength lies in hitting hard and fast.

Also yes, Radiant Destiny looks great :) I wanted something like Vanquisher's Banner but without it being 5-drop slow.

Watch this space!

What do you think about Huatli, Radiant Champion ?

On paper it looks brilliant - the deck goes "wide" so there should be lots of bodies for the +1 and the -1 and having the emblem for card draw is also great. While I know I have one in this deck already I'm always just a little wary of planeswalkers in fast aggro decks, I'm never sure if there's time to really use them or not....