The hipster in me isn't all too happy with this. I like cats as a tribe in general, but the a cat commander was way too heavily requested for them to truly feel like a surprise. The commander isn't terribly interesting either, basically being a WG Xenagos for cats only. Also, why Eminence may be narrow since the abilities are all focused on the respective tribes, I'm not fond of the decision to keyword the Oloro ability. There's just something lame about your opponents not being able to interact and you still being rewarded even when you're not casting your commander at all.
That being said, I'm really curious about the secondary commanders for the cat deck.
Which ajani(s) do you think will be put into the deck.
Caller of the pride is the safest bet because of that super.
None - because with the exception of the 5 walkers that can be your commander from 2014 they have never put a walker in a preconstructed Commander deck. I don't expect them to start now.
And before you say "flavor", I'm pretty sure we've seen all the mythics from the dragon deck and we didn't see any Sarkhan or Bolos or Ugin walker cards. I don't see a walker for flavor in 1 deck where I'm sure they could shoe-horn one into each deck.
Yes, they do need help. I have no issue with Cats getting a deck, but Angels need some sort of tribal support beyond "here is a big legendary Angel, go beat face". Card Draw, Mana Ramp/Cost reduction, Angel Lords etc etc.
Yes, they do need help. I have no issue with Cats getting a deck, but Angels need some sort of tribal support beyond "here is a big legendary Angel, go beat face". Card Draw, Mana Ramp/Cost reduction, Angel Lords etc etc.
I'm thinking that being mainly white is the reason that angels don't have lots of card draw and mana ramp rather than Wizards arbitrarily hating on angels in favor of printing lots of amazing cats like, geez I don't know, Jungle Lion?
It's not that they need help, It's that there are a lot of lore gaps that they could/should fill for Angels like they just did for dragons, ie. Serra, BW Innistrad Sister, Feather, etc.
But what I start to take umbrage with is they apparently made up a brand new character when they could have pulled it from flavor texts or Magic lore (unless I'm wrong and Arahbo IS referenced somewhere, I don't know I never cared to look that up).
*gasp* They MADE UP a character? Oh, heavens forbid!
FYI, they make up new characters for Commander all the time. It's part of designing cards specifically for the format. If an existing character doesn't fit what they're trying to do, they make up a new one. The alternative is an awkward box check like Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist. They wanted an awesome lion Avatar for their Cat deck, so an awesome lion Avatar is what we got. We might see Zaliki from Naya, or yes even potentially a pre-spark Ajani. Juryan would be cool, but all signs point to him being monowhite with the rest of Mirrodin's Leonin. Of course, he could be a subcommander like the supposed Wasitora and Taigam cards.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
According to EDHREC, cat decks rank 24th of all popular tribes recorded by the site. Warrior, rat, treefolk all rank higher.
That is far from being popular. It could be because of lack of a quality/colorful general, but I doubt the ranking would go up much by the three selesnya legends included in this deck.
But what I start to take umbrage with is they apparently made up a brand new character when they could have pulled it from flavor texts or Magic lore (unless I'm wrong and Arahbo IS referenced somewhere, I don't know I never cared to look that up).
*gasp* They MADE UP a character? Oh, heavens forbid!
FYI, they make up new characters for Commander all the time. It's part of designing cards specifically for the format. If an existing character doesn't fit what they're trying to do, they make up a new one. The alternative is an awkward box check like Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist. They wanted an awesome lion Avatar for their Cat deck, so an awesome lion Avatar is what we got. We might see Zaliki from Naya, or yes even potentially a pre-spark Ajani. Juryan would be cool, but all signs point to him being monowhite with the rest of Mirrodin's Leonin. Of course, he could be a subcommander like the supposed Wasitora and Taigam cards.
The fact it's a boring unknown character with no back story or flavor at all is a major reason I am skipping out on this one. But I will say this is designed for people who will go "WG Cat legend, yes!" so that's fine. IDK if there ARE legendary cats in need of cards, but would have hit more birds with one stone taking that route first.
If they do Humans I hope Wizards are a major theme. Angels do indeed require substantial tribal support. And deserve it.
[quote from="RSSR »" url="http://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/the-rumor-mill/774890-commander-2017-announcement-only-4-decks-based-on?comment=1261"]
*gasp* They MADE UP a character? Oh, heavens forbid!
Great, so they go from using a character a small number of people might care about or be interested in, to a character no one cares about.
According to EDHREC, cat decks rank 24th of all popular tribes recorded by the site. Warrior, rat, treefolk all rank higher.
That is far from being popular. It could be because of lack of a quality/colorful general, but I doubt the ranking would go up much by the three selesnya legends included in this deck.
Lacking a decent commander is probably a huge part of that. We've had ten legendary cats, only four of which have an even remotely tribal-oriented ability. All have been mono-colored (in W,B, or G) except for the random over-costed vanilla legend that dipped into U, yet cats have been printed in every color. I would not be surprised at all if there is a sudden upsurge in cat tribal decks after the release of three new WG legends, at least one of which has a tribal-oriented ability.
Add to that the BRG legendary cat dragon spoiled in the dragon deck, and possibly more crossover legends in the other two decks, and there will suddenly be a lot more support. I guarantee that adding support will increase popularity. They could do it with any unsupported tribe, and we would see an immediate difference.
I'm still hoping for angels, though I doubt it will happen at this point. And I would love ninjas, but I understand it is unfeasible with only 10 ninjas in the game. Maybe they will sneak one or two new ninjas in, like they did years ago in the planechase decks. I can hope, right?
Great, so they go from using a character a small number of people might care about or be interested in, to a character no one cares about.
MTGS forum posters like speaking for others, don't they?
I care about this legend, because it's the first ever GW Cat legend and allows Cat fans to finally play the tribe in its two most major colors. They can write a story to go with the character. They did for Kaalia, Shattergang Brothers, Nahiri, Ob Nixilis, Daretti, Karlov, Meren, and Mazirek. And we have two more GW Cat legends following, either of which could be established characters who in turn get story articles. And in so doing, fans will care about the character.
And I got news for you: We have more reason to care about Ojutai and the other Dragonlords than we do Scion of the Ur-Dragon, yet Scion decks are still popular because they let you play WUBRG Dragon goodstuff. We may have more reason to care about Zaliki, Windgrace, Raksha, Kemba, Juryan, whatever Nacatl or Leonin you wish to name, but right now Arahbo, Roar of the World looks to be a GW Cat legend we can build around. It's designed to be a big, splashy Cat legend that does big splashy things for Cats, namely make them hit harder. Consider that your turn 1 Steppe Lynx can swing for 5 turn 2 with the Eminence ability plus the Landfall bonus. And as long as you have mana to spare, you can make your Cats hit even harder. Cat decks are aggro anyway, so it works perfectly. Monstrous Fleecemane Lion will be an utter terror in this deck.
And most likely one of our secondary legends will be a GW Zaliki Cat Shaman who helps draw cards, perhaps both as a reward for casting spells and as a combat damage reward in the vein of Hunter's Insight and Hunter's Prowess.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
Great, so they go from using a character a small number of people might care about or be interested in, to a character no one cares about.
MTGS forum posters like speaking for others, don't they?
I care about this legend, because it's the first ever GW Cat legend and allows Cat fans to finally play the tribe in its two most major colors. They can write a story to go with the character. They did for Kaalia, Shattergang Brothers, Nahiri, Ob Nixilis, Daretti, Karlov, Meren, and Mazirek. And we have two more GW Cat legends following, either of which could be established characters who in turn get story articles. And in so doing, fans will care about the character.
And I got news for you: We have more reason to care about Ojutai and the other Dragonlords than we do Scion of the Ur-Dragon, yet Scion decks are still popular because they let you play WUBRG Dragon goodstuff. We may have more reason to care about Zaliki, Windgrace, Raksha, Kemba, Juryan, whatever Nacatl or Leonin you wish to name, but right now Arahbo, Roar of the World looks to be a GW Cat legend we can build around. It's designed to be a big, splashy Cat legend that does big splashy things for Cats, namely make them hit harder. Consider that your turn 1 Steppe Lynx can swing for 5 turn 2 with the Eminence ability plus the Landfall bonus. And as long as you have mana to spare, you can make your Cats hit even harder. Cat decks are aggro anyway, so it works perfectly. Monstrous Fleecemane Lion will be an utter terror in this deck.
And most likely one of our secondary legends will be a GW Zaliki Cat Shaman who helps draw cards, perhaps both as a reward for casting spells and as a combat damage reward in the vein of Hunter's Insight and Hunter's Prowess.
You're right, my bad, let's do this. Where can I pick up my Arahbo comic books!
But what I start to take umbrage with is they apparently made up a brand new character when they could have pulled it from flavor texts or Magic lore (unless I'm wrong and Arahbo IS referenced somewhere, I don't know I never cared to look that up).
*gasp* They MADE UP a character? Oh, heavens forbid!
FYI, they make up new characters for Commander all the time. It's part of designing cards specifically for the format. If an existing character doesn't fit what they're trying to do, they make up a new one. The alternative is an awkward box check like Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist. They wanted an awesome lion Avatar for their Cat deck, so an awesome lion Avatar is what we got. We might see Zaliki from Naya, or yes even potentially a pre-spark Ajani. Juryan would be cool, but all signs point to him being monowhite with the rest of Mirrodin's Leonin. Of course, he could be a subcommander like the supposed Wasitora and Taigam cards.
The fact it's a boring unknown character with no back story or flavor at all is a major reason I am skipping out on this one.
Maybe too early to guess but if they all are avatars they might interact with each other in the story in someway like sharing the same plane or all being born as the collective of their kinds and as a result maybe all the new face commander will be new characters, like they did (mostly) last year.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
“There are no weak Jews. I am descended from those who wrestle angels and kill giants. We were chosen by God. You were chosen by a pathetic little man who can't seem to grow a full mustache"
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
You're right, my bad, let's do this. Where can I pick up my Arahbo comic books!
Put in a request for some and you might see them in a few years.
Anyway, I suspect we won't see too many of the Equipment-matters Cats in this deck as that's a mostly white theme. +1/+1 counters and tokens, definitely. Lifegain, possibly. Land ramp tends to be the most underrepresented tool in the green Cats' box, which means we might see green ramp like Exploration, Burgeoning, and of course the usual ramp spells like Cultivate and Harrow.
MTGS Wikia Article about "New World Order"
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
PSA to everyone who keeps forgetting about the Reserved List:
You're on a website dedicated to talking about MtG. You're only a few keystrokes away from finding out what cards are on the Reserved List. You're also only a few keystrokes away from finding out why some cards on the Reserved List got foil printings in FtV, as Judge promos, or whatnot, as well as why that won't happen again. Stop doing this.
if there is no zombies (my favorite tribe) im getting cats, i think i dont own a leonin titan not sure though, yes the commander is kind of boring, but hey,it's there https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sP4NMoJcFd4
Turn 1: Forest, Concordant Crossroads Turn 2: Plains, Lost Leonin, swing for 5 infect (Opponent 5:10 Infect) Turn 3: Swing for 5 infect again (Opponent is dead)
Even the slightly slower clock utilizing Lost Leonin would be a turn 4 kill if you need to tutor up the Lost Leonin. Its the Serra Ascendant for the cat deck, except its basically a reliable two-turn clock OR one-turn clock if you have the new legend out and spend 1GW to buff the Lost Leonin into a 10/9 infect with trample.
You're right, my bad, let's do this. Where can I pick up my Arahbo comic books!
Put in a request for some and you might see them in a few years.
Anyway, I suspect we won't see too many of the Equipment-matters Cats in this deck as that's a mostly white theme. +1/+1 counters and tokens, definitely. Lifegain, possibly. Land ramp tends to be the most underrepresented tool in the green Cats' box, which means we might see green ramp like Exploration, Burgeoning, and of course the usual ramp spells like Cultivate and Harrow.
I'm seriously hoping that the other legends in that deck have more than the cat subtype. I hate to be that guy, but this is not looking too good right now as far as what people are getting on their wishlists for tribal commanders. It sounds like a lot of people were hoping for more classic tribals and Cats is almost a joke in many ways even if it does make sense due to the inclusion of a cat lord in Amonkhet. We've got two more tribal decks to get revealed, so keeping the chin up that they wont be disappointing.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!
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That being said, I'm really curious about the secondary commanders for the cat deck.
Its arguably better. Even though you have to pay for it you can use it multiple times a turn and it gives trample.
Yea but R or B is missing from this cat tribal
19 red cats and as for black they missed a chance to put in black cat
Even by MTGS standards that seems like a ridiculously petty objection.
And Daretti in Breya's deck. It doesn't happen often though.
Yes, they do need help. I have no issue with Cats getting a deck, but Angels need some sort of tribal support beyond "here is a big legendary Angel, go beat face". Card Draw, Mana Ramp/Cost reduction, Angel Lords etc etc.
RB Olivia Voldaren RB
GB Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons GB
BWR Queen Marchesa BWR
RW Anya, Merciless Angel RW
UW Bruna, Light of Alabaster UW
UB Wydwen, The Biting Gale UB
GU Momir Vig, simic visionary GU
WG Karametra, God of Harvests WG
WUBSydri, Galvanic GeniusWUB
UBRKess, Dissident MageUBR - Controlling Dissidents
GRhonas the IndomitableG - Indomitable Four Drops
WUBOloro, Ageless AsceticWUB - Loot & Renanimate
I'm thinking that being mainly white is the reason that angels don't have lots of card draw and mana ramp rather than Wizards arbitrarily hating on angels in favor of printing lots of amazing cats like, geez I don't know, Jungle Lion?
*gasp* They MADE UP a character? Oh, heavens forbid!
FYI, they make up new characters for Commander all the time. It's part of designing cards specifically for the format. If an existing character doesn't fit what they're trying to do, they make up a new one. The alternative is an awkward box check like Ludevic, Necro-Alchemist. They wanted an awesome lion Avatar for their Cat deck, so an awesome lion Avatar is what we got. We might see Zaliki from Naya, or yes even potentially a pre-spark Ajani. Juryan would be cool, but all signs point to him being monowhite with the rest of Mirrodin's Leonin. Of course, he could be a subcommander like the supposed Wasitora and Taigam cards.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
That is far from being popular. It could be because of lack of a quality/colorful general, but I doubt the ranking would go up much by the three selesnya legends included in this deck.
Shu Yun, the Silent Tempest WUR Voltron Control
Temmet, Vizier of Naktamun WU Unblockable Mirror Trickery
Ra's al Ghul (Sidar Kondo) and Face-Down Ninjas
Brudiclad, Token Engineer
Vaevictis (VV2) the Dire Lantern
Rona, Disciple of Gix
Tiana the Auror
Hallar
Ulrich the Politician
Zur the Rebel
Scorpion, Locust, Scarab, Egyptian Gods
O-Kagachi, Mathas, Mairsil
"Non-Tribal" Tribal Generals, Eggs
If they do Humans I hope Wizards are a major theme. Angels do indeed require substantial tribal support. And deserve it.
|| UW Jace, Vyn's Prodigy UW || UG Kenessos, Priest of Thassa (feat. Arixmethes) UG ||
Cards I still want to see created:
|| Olantin, Lost City || Pavios and Thanasis || Choryu ||
Great, so they go from using a character a small number of people might care about or be interested in, to a character no one cares about.
Add to that the BRG legendary cat dragon spoiled in the dragon deck, and possibly more crossover legends in the other two decks, and there will suddenly be a lot more support. I guarantee that adding support will increase popularity. They could do it with any unsupported tribe, and we would see an immediate difference.
I'm still hoping for angels, though I doubt it will happen at this point. And I would love ninjas, but I understand it is unfeasible with only 10 ninjas in the game. Maybe they will sneak one or two new ninjas in, like they did years ago in the planechase decks. I can hope, right?
2023 Average Peasant Cube|and Discussion
Because I have more decks than fit in a signature
Useful Resources:
MTGSalvation tags
EDHREC
ManabaseCrafter
MTGS forum posters like speaking for others, don't they?
I care about this legend, because it's the first ever GW Cat legend and allows Cat fans to finally play the tribe in its two most major colors. They can write a story to go with the character. They did for Kaalia, Shattergang Brothers, Nahiri, Ob Nixilis, Daretti, Karlov, Meren, and Mazirek. And we have two more GW Cat legends following, either of which could be established characters who in turn get story articles. And in so doing, fans will care about the character.
And I got news for you: We have more reason to care about Ojutai and the other Dragonlords than we do Scion of the Ur-Dragon, yet Scion decks are still popular because they let you play WUBRG Dragon goodstuff. We may have more reason to care about Zaliki, Windgrace, Raksha, Kemba, Juryan, whatever Nacatl or Leonin you wish to name, but right now Arahbo, Roar of the World looks to be a GW Cat legend we can build around. It's designed to be a big, splashy Cat legend that does big splashy things for Cats, namely make them hit harder. Consider that your turn 1 Steppe Lynx can swing for 5 turn 2 with the Eminence ability plus the Landfall bonus. And as long as you have mana to spare, you can make your Cats hit even harder. Cat decks are aggro anyway, so it works perfectly. Monstrous Fleecemane Lion will be an utter terror in this deck.
And most likely one of our secondary legends will be a GW Zaliki Cat Shaman who helps draw cards, perhaps both as a reward for casting spells and as a combat damage reward in the vein of Hunter's Insight and Hunter's Prowess.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
You're right, my bad, let's do this. Where can I pick up my Arahbo comic books!
Maybe too early to guess but if they all are avatars they might interact with each other in the story in someway like sharing the same plane or all being born as the collective of their kinds and as a result maybe all the new face commander will be new characters, like they did (mostly) last year.
"You can tell how dumb someone is by how they use Mary Sue"
Put in a request for some and you might see them in a few years.
Anyway, I suspect we won't see too many of the Equipment-matters Cats in this deck as that's a mostly white theme. +1/+1 counters and tokens, definitely. Lifegain, possibly. Land ramp tends to be the most underrepresented tool in the green Cats' box, which means we might see green ramp like Exploration, Burgeoning, and of course the usual ramp spells like Cultivate and Harrow.
If they do want to push an Equipment theme, then I would love to see Adventuring Gear, Explorer's Scope, and Sword of the Animist as Landfall-Equipment overlaps. Basilisk Collar would be a sweet reprint for the lifegain interaction not to mention the interaction between deathtouch and trample. And of course we could expect to see Behemoth Sledge and Loxodon Warhammer. Being a tribal deck, Stoneforge Masterwork would fit in. Blade of Selves could be used to copy useful ETB effects, should there be any.
Parallel Lives would be a good reprint for the token theme.
Every time I read a comment about "Well if this card had card draw/trample/haste/indestructible/hexproof/life gain...", I think "You're missing the point." They're armchair developer comments that fail to take into account the card's role in the greater Limited and Standard environment. No, it may not be as good as whatever card you're comparing it to. There's a reason for that. Not every burn spell is Lightning Bolt, nor does it need to be or should be.
Dragons of Legend, Lead by Scion of the UR-Dragon
The Gitrog Monster
Gonti, Lord of Luxury
Shogun Saskia
Hive World
Atraxa hates fun
Abzan
Δε φοβάμαι τίποτα...
Είμαι Άνεργος.
Grimstringer on Cockatrice, add me if you wanna
Turn 1: Forest, Concordant Crossroads
Turn 2: Plains, Lost Leonin, swing for 5 infect (Opponent 5:10 Infect)
Turn 3: Swing for 5 infect again (Opponent is dead)
Even the slightly slower clock utilizing Lost Leonin would be a turn 4 kill if you need to tutor up the Lost Leonin. Its the Serra Ascendant for the cat deck, except its basically a reliable two-turn clock OR one-turn clock if you have the new legend out and spend 1GW to buff the Lost Leonin into a 10/9 infect with trample.
Thanks to DarkNightCavalier from Heroes of the Plane Studios for this sick Signature.
I hope you know I was being facetiously sarcastic.
1. (Ravnica Allegiance): You can't keep a good esper control deck down... Or Wilderness Reclamation... or Gates...
2. (War of the Spark): Guys, I know what we need! We need a cycle of really idiotic flavor text victory cards! Jace's Triumph...
3. (War of the Spark): Lets make the format with control have even more control!