A few readers got clever with their suggestions for this round of Seven Deadly Commanders. A group of lions is, of course, a “pride” — so cat tribal makes sense, right? Well, I like clever — let’s do it.

Brimaz, King of Oreskos

So our deck today is going to be a pride of cats, certainly — in fact, every creature without exception in the deck is a cat — but it’s also going to be extremely aggressive. We’re going to pay for it, though. We don’t get a bunch of really big spells. We’re not going to run wrath effects or attempt to keep card parity with our opponents. Frankly, we’ll probably just roll over if we can’t correctly assess the threats and knock them out quickly, and we’re going to have a really hard time recovering from someone else’s board wipe. But when we’re going “RAWR” on turn four while everyone else is still playing Hedron Archive, we might just be able to tilt the table in our favor.

This makes our mana simple. We’ve got a few bigger spells and a few ways to use extra mana, so we’re still running the traditional forty lands, but that’s it. No mana rocks — we’re just going to play creatures and attack. Once we get to four mana, we can go a few turns without another, so there’s no need to rush along. We’ve got a couple of effect lands, but we want our lands mostly to come into play untapped (plus we want a bunch of Plains for Strata Scythe) so it’s not much. Rogue's Passage can be clutch, and Encroaching Wastes can stop some jerk who starts with an early Cabal Coffers.

One of the things about aggro play is we need really efficient card draw which doesn’t waste time — we just want our cards to affect the battlefield. That said, we still have at least two or three opponents to kill, and each one of them draws a card a turn, so if we dump our hand on turn three and can’t get any extra cards, we’re very quickly going to get outclassed. What we want to do is get as many extra cards as possible while still adding to the board. A bunch of our equipment will help with this — Rogue's Gloves and Infiltration Lens both encourage us to attack, which we want to be doing anyway, and Skullclamp is a great way to use extra Brimaz tokens. It doesn’t stop there, though — Sword of the Animist and Explorer's Scope both help thin our deck of lands, as does Oreskos Explorer. Finally, we have a great one for mono-colored decks, Illuminated Folio — it’s pricey to get out, but once it is, we’ll almost always be able to activate it, and it’s cheap to use.

We have a few cats which destroy Enchantments when they enter the battlefield. Additionally, we have a small suite of Enchantments which take care of permanents — Oblivion Ring, Banishing Light, Quarantine Field — and Argentum Armor, which is expensive but really effective if the game has drawn on and we’re down to a single creature or something. If a longer game is wanted, one could add a few wrath effects to the deck, but the plan is to end the game before that’s necessary.

Equipment plays an important role — a number of cards care about being equipped, and we have some solid stat-pumping effects from the equipment. Combine Loxodon Warhammer and Quietus Spike or Fireshrieker and Strata Scythe for extra fun. Kemba, Kha Regent is probably the most important creature who likes weapons and armor (we’ve even already built a deck around her), but there are more. Jazal Goldmane can be a solid game winner. His brother, Ajani, makes two appearances with Ajani Steadfast and Ajani, Caller of the Pride. Taj-Nar Swordsmith, of course, can go get us something we need — Skullclamp is a solid early choice. Finally, White Sun's Zenith can make a bunch of kitties to push through for a final attack — win or lose, make it glorious.

Brimaz?s Pride ? EDH | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Brimaz, King of Oreskos

• Creatures (35)
• 1 Ajani's Chosen
• 1 Ajani's Pridemate
• 1 Ajani's Sunstriker
• 1 Blade of the Sixth Pride
• 1 Enlightened Ascetic
• 1 Healer of the Pride
• 1 Jamuraan Lion
• 1 Jazal Goldmane
• 1 Kemba's Legion
• 1 Kemba's Skyguard
• 1 Kemba, Kha Regent
• 1 Leonin Abunas
• 1 Leonin Battlemage
• 1 Leonin Den-Guard
• 1 Leonin Relic-Warder
• 1 Leonin Skyhunter
• 1 Leonin Snarecaster
• 1 Leonin Squire
• 1 Oreskos Explorer
• 1 Oreskos Sun Guide
• 1 Oreskos Swiftclaw
• 1 Raksha Golden Cub
• 1 Sanctuary Cat
• 1 Savannah Lions
• 1 Seht's Tiger
• 1 Skyhunter Cub
• 1 Skyhunter Patrol
• 1 Skyhunter Prowler
• 1 Skyhunter Skirmisher
• 1 Spirit of the Hearth
• 1 Steppe Lynx
• 1 Sunspear Shikari
• 1 Taj-Nar Swordsmith
• 1 Trained Caracal
• 1 Whitemane Lion

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Ajani Steadfast
• 1 Ajani, Caller of the Pride

• Spells (22)
• 1 White Sun's Zenith
• 1 Banishing Light
• 1 Grasp of Fate
• 1 Oblivion Ring
• 1 Quarantine Field
• 1 Stasis Snare
• 1 Argentum Armor
• 1 Dead-Iron Sledge
• 1 Explorer's Scope
• 1 Fireshrieker
• 1 Godsend
• 1 Illuminated Folio
• 1 Infiltration Lens
• 1 Loxodon Warhammer
• 1 Nemesis Mask
• 1 Quietus Spike
• 1 Ring of Thune
• 1 Rogue's Gloves
• 1 Skullclamp
• 1 Stoneforge Masterwork
• 1 Strata Scythe
• 1 Sword of the Animist

• Lands (40)
• 35 Plains
• 1 Encroaching Wastes
• 1 Kabira Crossroads
• 1 New Benalia
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sejiri Steppe

Buy This Deck

This deck desperately wants an Emeria, the Sky Ruin, but it was just out of reach for the budget — it might be better than one of the Planeswalkers. Ajani Goldmane would be good as well, if for no other reason than for theme. Leonin Arbiter and Leonin Shikari are both on-theme and great, as well, and most editions of Path to Exile have wonderful art featuring a cat. Swords to Plowshares is just good. Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots might be good, but it’s probably better to have another cat instead. Door of Destinies could get out of hand, and would be a fair swap for one of the ’walkers to keep it in budget.

One could also make the deck stronger with some quality White cards, but that moves away from the theme — Land Tax, Angelic Arbiter, Elesh Norn, Grand Cenobite — these are good cards and would be great here. Run them if that’s your poison. Puresteel Paladin and other cards which care about equipment might be good. The deck could also lean into auras and Enchantments, making more of Ajani's Chosen and the cats with Heroic — Vanguard of Brimaz could get out of hand with an aura that returns itself to the hand like Flickering Ward. Or one could go with global Enchantments like Crusade and Honor of the Pure.

Another nice thing about this deck is it’s a great place for random pieces of equipment picked up in drafts or in trades. Grabbed a Moonsilver Spear? Drop it in and see what happens. Someone gave you a Sword of Fire and Ice? Jam it!

The key to a deck like this is to have no fear. Do damage or make your opponent spend a card. Overextend, because frankly, we’re going to lose if the game goes too long anyway, so we may as well just apply a ton of pressure and force panic plays. RAWR!

I also liked the idea of Zurgo Helmsmasher for pride — with him as the only creature. That’s just fun. Any other great ideas? Thoughts for what I missed (I always seem to miss something!)?

Done right, this deck is all fangs and fur. Let the claws out!

Total cost: $73.86

Take a look at the previous Seven Deadly Commander Articles:

1. Greed
2. Gluttony
3. Sloth
4. Lust