One of the most fun things to do when new sets come out is to look at your pet decks to see if any of the new cards can make those decks just a little more fun. Sometimes it is just a tweak of the motor, and other times, it is a complete overhaul. I started looking through Ikoria and noted the Cat theme. Well it just so happens that I have a Cat/Rat deck! This seems like a good opportunity to look at the Cats in Ikoria and see if they fit the theme.

"What do you mean?" you ask? You have a cat deck that has a theme? You could say that!

I was lucky enough to preview the Hungry Lynx when it first came out. I had some cool ideas, but the idea of Rite of Replication on a Hungry Lynx just got me started. Six copies of the Hungry Lynx means when I kill one Rat, my Cats would get six +1/+1 counters!

Eventually I came to the conclusion that Hungry Lynx was best in a 60-card deck. This would get me multiple copies of the Hungry Lynx just by having four of them in a game! Then I started looking at how to abuse the Rat idea and things just got a little weird.

Check out the Missing Lynx!

Missing Lynx | Casual | Bruce Richard

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
• 1 Qasali Slingers
• 1 Skyhunter Patrol
• 1 Skyhunter Skirmisher
• 2 Mirror Entity
• 2 Qasali Pridemage
• 3 Nacatl War-Pride
• 4 Hungry Lynx

• Instants (7)
• 1 Krosan Grip
• 3 White Sun's Zenith
• 3 Shields of Velis Vel

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 2 Gaea's Bounty

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Mirari's Wake

• Artifacts (10)
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Hammer of Nazahn
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 2 Hankyu
• 2 Serrated Arrows
• 3 Altar of Dementia

• Lands (24)
• 7 Forest
• 8 Plains
• 1 Sapseep Forest
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Unclaimed Territory
• 2 Temple Garden
• 4 Canopy Vista

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The goal of the deck is to try and kill the Rats you create to make your cats bigger. At least that's one way to make it work. When you can't kill any more of the Rats, you use Shields of Velis Vel to make all of your opponents' creatures into Rats. Your Cats have protection from Rats, so they can swing in unblocked for the kill.

A more interesting way to make the deck run is to play Mirror Entity and use its ability to make all of your own creatures into every creature type, including Rats. Swing with all of your Cat/Rats. After blockers are declared, you use Altar of Dementia and sacrifice the smallest Cat/Rat that was going to die anyway. One of your opponents mills cards equal to that Cat/Rat's power, and all of your other Cats get a +1/+1 counter. Keep doing this for each Cat/Rat that was going to die anyway. Choose the same opponent and mill them again and again for ever increasing numbers, since the Cat/Rats are getting more +1/+1 counters. Once all the Cat/Rats that were going to die are sacrificed, calculate the damage. Your remaining Cats are huge and will do serious damage, and the Altar of Dementia will mill another opponent right out of the game!

How well does the deck work? Once your opponents have seen how it works, you are pretty hard-pressed to pull it off. It is a delicate combo that needs a lot of cards. Let's just say that it is a lot of fun putting Helm of the Host on a Nacatl War-Pride and attacking. Making that many Cat tokens that will all die at the end of the turn, really cranks things up for the Altar of Dementia! The various combos within the deck are all sorts of fun.

So is there anything in Ikoria that fits the bill?

Cubwarden: Cubwarden is interesting. My deck tends to want as many creatures as possible on the battlefield. This would limit the value of mutate since I tend to just want more creatures, not really bigger ones. However, several of the key creatures in the deck can really benefit from this. Mutating with Nacatl War-Pride will produce 3/5 lifelinking versions of itself. That could be a LOT of lifegain for a deck that really doesn't have much. Mirror Entity becomes a 3/5 creature when you aren't activating its ability, so you don't have to keep mana up so much to keep it alive. And all of this ignores the two Cat tokens with lifelink that you are getting.

The downside is that you are only mutating once, so the benefit is really with the power and toughness boost, along with the lifelink. I'm not sure if that is enough to make the cut, but we'll hold judgement to the end.

Ferocious Tigorilla: I'm only looking at cards that may actually make the cut. If I am adding Red to this deck, the creature has to be a perfect fit with what I'm doing. This isn't it.

Kaheera, the Orphanguard: In this time of staying home and isolation, everyone needs a good companion! Say hello to my little friend! Every creature in the deck is already a Cat (or Shapeshifter, but I don't really need to go through the tired old Shapeshifter jokes again right?) so the Companion cost is gone. Kaheera just sits there outside the game, ready to be cast at a moment's notice. First off, it gives all the other creatures +1/+1. That in itself isn't enough to make the cut. However, it also gives all your creatures vigilance. This deck tends to win with all out swings. If things go wrong, you are often left sitting defenseless, hoping you can survive the crackback. Trust me; that is not a place you want to be in.

With vigilance, you can swing without expecting to win. As long as your creatures can survive combat, you can still use them to block! That means a lot for this deck. The beautiful part with Kaheera is that you aren't hoping to draw it! Just let it sit next to your deck and play it before you plan your first attack. We don't have to figure out what can come out of the deck to make room, since it is just an extra card. This card is an absolute must for the deck!

Lurrus of the Dream-Den: The Companion requirement for Lurrus is far too onerous to even consider for this deck. Too many cards essential for the deck cost over two, so tailoring the deck to fit Lurrus isn't going to happen.

I included Lurrus since it offers recursion. I said at the start that this deck tends to be fragile. Losing a Hungry Lynx or an Altar of Dementia can derail you for several turns while you try to find a replacement or just make the deck work without them. Lurrus lets us recast that Hungry Lynx when we need it. Lurrus lets us sacrifice the Qasali Pridemage to destroy an artifact or enchantment, only to recast it again! I like the resilience that Lurrus offers the deck and with the hybrid cost, we don't even need to add another color to the mana base!

Frondland Felidar: This kitty has the right colors for the deck and the 3/5 body is nice. I love vigilance in multiplayer games, so that is a nice selling point. The ability to attack, then spend 1 to tap it to tap an opponent's creature before blocks is very handy when your opponents' creatures aren't all Rats. When this really shines is with Kaheera, the Orphanguard! Now all the creatures have vigilance and the ability to shut down our opponent's blockers! With that much vigilance, we can start swinging at opponents much earlier in the game than before, since we aren't relying on trying to kill off all of our opponents with one massive alpha strike. Frondland Felidar is a home run!

With the new additions, the deck looks like this:

Ikoria's Missing Lynx | Casual | Bruce Richard

• Companion (1)
• 1 Kaheera, the Orphanguard

• Creatures (18)
• 1 Qasali Slingers
• 1 Skyhunter Patrol
• 1 Skyhunter Skirmisher
• 2 Frondland Felidar
• 2 Lurris of the Dream-Den
• 2 Mirror Entity
• 2 Qasali Pridemage
• 3 Nacatl War-Pride
• 4 Hungry Lynx

• Instants (6)
• 3 Shields of Velis Vel
• 3 White Sun's Zenith

• Sorceries (3)
• 1 Nature's Lore
• 2 Gaea's Bounty

• Enchantments (1)
• 1 Mirari's Wake

• Artifacts (8)
• 1 Blade of Selves
• 1 Helm of the Host
• 3 Altar of Dementia
• 3 Serrated Arrows

• Lands (24)
• 6 Forest
• 9 Plains
• 1 Sapseep Forest
• 1 Temple of Plenty
• 1 Unclaimed Territory
• 2 Temple Garden
• 4 Canopy Vista

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So the two Hankyu's coming out were no loss at all. They were hopeless in the deck and were basically comic relief at this point. The idea that I was running an equipment that cost four to equip, then demanded the creature tap twice to load an aim counter and fire was frankly comical. Picturing a cat with no thumbs pulling back the drawstring on the bow to get an aim counter, then releasing the bow a full turn later was a truly magnificent effort for any cat, and demonstrated just how terrible a Hankyu bow was. I added another Serrated Arrows to make up for their "loss". With the ability to recur the Pridemage, I think the Krosan Grip becomes redundant. I like the split second, but the volume that the Pridemages and the Qasali Slingers can manage make it redundant.

Nazahn and his Hammer were also part of the losses. While I appreciated Nazahn gave me a way to find the Helm of the Host faster, the Helm just makes things go off in a bigger way. The Hammer also offered a negligible benefit so it was going to go, which mean that if Nazahn stayed, he would only have two equipment to search for. I was looking for more than that, so it is gone too.

All of this freed up four spaces, so two Frondland Felidar and two Lurrus of the Dream-Den will step in, along with the single Kaheera. The Cubwarden looks like fun, but it just doesn't do enough to justify pulling something else out of the deck. Perhaps a deck with more mutate can make it work. For now, we'll watch the new additions to see how the deck performs. I'm expecting to see a significant change in game play.

I'd love to hear what Ikoria is adding to your pet decks. Hit me up with your upgrades in the comments and on Twitter!

Bruce Richard

@manaburned