Much Abrew: Cats (Standard)
Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of Much Abrew About Nothing! One of my favorite parts of Foundations is all the random tribal support—everything from Elves to Merfolk to Zombies got a buff. So today, we're heading to our new Standard format to play one of Magic's most beloved tribes: Cats! Cats got a ton of love in Foundations, in both reprints (like Regal Caracal, perhaps the best Cat, and even Savannah Lions) and new cards (including another Cat lord in Arahbo, the First Fang along with powerful two-drops Skyknight Squire and Helpful Hunter). Is this enough to make Cats into a real deck in Standard? Let's get to the video and find out on today's Much Abrew!
Much Abrew: Cats
Discussion
- Record-wise, Cats felt surprisingly solid. We went 6-2 with the deck for a 75% match-win percentage, albeit in a relatively small sample size.
- So, why plays Cats in Standard? The biggest reasons are the two lords from Foundations. We already know that Regal Caracal is good—it saw a lot of play back in Amonkhet Standard a few years ago, even as a standalone card in non-Cat decks. Adding three bodies to the battlefield is great against midrange and control, and giving all Cats lifelink is absurd against aggro. In fact, if you look at our matches, we crushed red aggro multiple times, in large part thanks to the absurd amount of lifegain Regal Caracal offers. Backing up Caracal is Arahbo, the First Fang, which is sort of a mini–Regal Caracal. While it doesn't gain us life, it does pump all of our cards and add at least two bodies to the battlefield thanks to the token it makes. And it can make even more Cat tokens if it sticks around for a while. Together, these cards are more than enough of a reward for loading up a deck with Cats.
- We also got two very strong Cat two-drops in Foundations. Skyknight Squire might be the best Cat of all time. Even though it starts as a 1/1, it quickly grows as more creatures enter the battlefield (which synergizes incredibly well with Cats like Arahbo, Caracal, and Prideful Parent that add multiple bodies to the battlefield), eventually ending up a massive flier. Meanwhile, Helpful Hunter doesn't look like much, but if you look at the greatest tribal decks of all time, they pretty much all have a two-drop that cantrips when it enters the battlefield, like Silvergill Adept in Merfolk or Elvish Visionary in Elves.
- The rest of our cards are mostly curve filler. Leonin Vanguard and Savannah Lions give us decent one-drops, while Prideful Parent adds multiple Cat bodies to the battlefield, basically making it a Arahbo, the First Fang but without the lord ability.
- The most important part of Cats actually working in Standard. though, might be the non-Cat cards. Current Standard is pretty grindy—there's a lot of removal and card advantage—and Cats need a way to keep up. For this, we turn to Enduring Innocence and Tocasia's Welcome, either of which should draw us a card every turn that we play a Cat. This lets us grind with the midrange decks in the format, rebuild our board after sweepers against control, and help ensure we have enough Cats to eventually get our opponent's life total to zero.
- The one thing I regret about the deck is playing four copies of Cavern of Souls. While I think it is technically optimal since it's basically a free roll, we didn't play against counterspell decks at all. The problem with Cavern of Souls is that a playset is almost $140, which means if we simply switched Cavern for some more Plains, Cats would basically be a Budget Magic deck. If you decide to give Cats a try, don't feel any pressure to buy a playset of Cavern. While it is technically correct, I'm not sure it's all that important in the current meta. I'm also interested in trying a couple of copies of Soulstone Sanctuary, which seems like a decent creatureland option for the deck since it's technically a Cat, so it will benefit from our various lords.
- Perhaps the most impressive part of Cats was the matchups. We crushed red aggro decks three times in a row. Are Cats the solution to Mono-Red? I'm tempted to play some best-of-one to find out, where Mono-Red is the most popular deck. While our sample size wasn't huge, it seems like our ability to flood the board with bodies and gain huge chunks of life might make it a great matchup. We even played against Screaming Nemesis multiple times, and it didn't matter. Even better, we also played against an Orzhov Demon Control deck that played tons of removal and, in one game, resolved at least four wraths, and we simply outdrew them and eventually ran them over. Being able to out-lifegain aggro and out–card draw control seems like a pretty good place to be in Foundations Standard.
- So, should you play Cats in Foundations Standard? Surprisingly, it seems like the answer might be yes. The deck actually felt very solid, as strange as that sounds. It seems like the new Foundations Cats give the deck game against both aggro and midrange / control, which just might mean Cats are a real deck in Standard. If you're looking for something different to try and like Cats or other tribal decks, give them a shot. Just don't feel like you have to run out and spend $140 on Cavern of Souls to make it work!
Conclusion
Anyway, that's all for today. As always, leave your thoughts, ideas, opinions, and suggestions in the comments, and you can reach me on Twitter @SaffronOlive or at SaffronOlive@MTGGoldfish.com.
