I initially bought Feline Ferocity thinking cat tribal, how silly. This might not work but I’m obsessed with the idea. And after playing it for a while, I discovered that sure the precon can go wide and it can go big, but in my opinion
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
is one of the better Tron commanders out there. “But
Sram, Senior Edificer
draws me cards and is super cheap!”, you say? That’s great. And I’m running Sram in this deck as well. But why draw cards when you can tutor over and over again for the tron pieces you need? Nazahn is a built in search engine with the added bonus of his hammer being basically
Sigarda's Aid
minus giving equipment flash. If you find the
Hammer of Nazahn
upon playing him (which you most likely will the first time), he’s an automatic 7/4 indestructible commander that taps down a creature when he swings. It’s like if
Stoneforge Mystic
and
Sigarda's Aid
had a cat baby, that’s Nazahn. Also out of the other commanders I play and on tappedout, I had never built a Tron deck before.
So the purpose of the deck is pretty straightforward but has a swiss army knife feel of how to get there: deal 21 commander damage or 10 infect damage. That’s the goal. Don’t worry about their actual life total. When you’ve got an unblockable, indestructible, shroud kitty dealing 9-11 damage a swing (more if you can get to the doublestrike), sans a board wipe your opponent won’t last too long. Everything else around the deck is there to support Nazahn, the Bat-Cat. The Cat-arang.
This deck was not built with an 8x8 theory but rather a clear distinction between your early-mid game strategy versus your late game. Early game, you’re gonna want to ramp and set up non-cat equipment support creatures. There’s some cheap cats in the early-mid game that want to be equipped to keep your board presence up and by all means, do that. But once you can cast Nazahn for the 6 mana he needs on turn 6 (maybe 5, hopefully 4), then the strategy pivots. Now all of those early cats aren’t necessary but finding and equipping Nazahn as fast as possible to get the damage in is your priority.
Let’s break it down using an 8x8 to get a feel of the categories:
Search & Recursion
Early:
Stoneforge Mystic
,
Open the Armory
,
Worldly Tutor
,
Steelshaper's Gift
Mid:
Idyllic Tutor
,
Remember the Fallen
,
Buried Ruin
,
Inventors' Fair
,
Nim Deathmantle
,
Daring Archaeologist
,
Taj-Nar Swordsmith
Late:
Stonehewer Giant
,
Open the Vaults
,
Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith
The spread here is pretty even across the board ensuring at any point you’ll probably be able to pull an equipment out of your library/utility belt for whatever situation you might be in. Note the need for artifact recursion in this deck is critical. If your opponent kills the
Hammer of Nazahn
,
Whispersilk Cloak
, or
Grafted Exoskeleton
you’ll need to get them back. Finally,
Open the Vaults
will win you games. Your opponent blows up every artifact thinking it’s the answer to stopping you? Drop
Open the Vaults
, pull every artifact back to the field from your graveyard and stack it so that the hammer hits first and whispersilk hits last. Boom, dust your shoulders off Bat-Cat and keep swinging.
Currently playtesting
Daring Archaeologist
post Dominaria release and so far it’s okay. Not amazing, but okay.
Rocks & Ramp
Early:
Sol Ring
,
Dowsing Dagger
,
Rampant Growth
,
Oreskos Explorer
Mid:
Danitha Capashen, Paragon
,
Cultivate
,
Skyshroud Claim
,
Nissa's Pilgrimage
,
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
Late:
Mirari's Wake
,
Zendikar Resurgent
After a lot of playtesting, I found it wasn’t hard to get both green & white mana. What I struggled with was generating enough mana to equip & unequip equipment if I didn’t have the
Hammer of Nazahn
,
Sigarda's Aid
, or
Puresteel Paladin
. So this deck needed ramp and lots of it!
Also I cannot praise
Dowsing Dagger
more! One of my two favorite cards out of Ixalan. In my opinion, if you’re running an aggro deck, you should be running
Dowsing Dagger
. It’s so easy to flip it and then you’ve got an extra 3 mana of any one color. Luxury.
I’m currently playtesting
Danitha Capashen, Paragon
to try a different ramp direction. My goal is to move the deck out of cat tribal support eventually and into full Tron and this is the first of many steps to take in that direction.
Goreclaw, Terror of Qal Sisma
makes Nazahn cheaper over and pumps him on the swing.
Destruction/Removal
Early:
Dromoka's Command
,
Path to Exile
,
Swords to Plowshares
,
Qasali Pridemage
Mid:
Wrath of God
,
Divine Reckoning
,
Hour of Revelation
,
Beast Within
Late::
Rout
,
Terminus
Most of these are pretty standard and versatile. Most of the board wipes are destruction based since my commander is (most of the time) indestructible and doesn’t care.
Protection
Early:
Authority of the Consuls
,
Swiftfoot Boots
,
Lightning Greaves
Mid:
Indomitable Archangel
,
Leonin Abunas
,
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
,
Hammer of Nazahn
,
Whispersilk Cloak
,
Dueling Grounds
,
Conqueror's Flail
,
Shalai, Voice of Plenty
Late:
Archon of Valor's Reach
While the deck is inherently aggro, some protection is always necessary in Commander in my opinion.
Authority of the Consuls
,
Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist
, and
Dueling Grounds
keep your opponents from out aggroing you.
Indomitable Archangel
and
Leonin Abunas
protect your equipment.
Dueling Grounds
is one of the most interesting cards in the deck. Since you'll only be swinging with Nazahn in theory and he has a tap down effect when he swings,
Dueling Grounds
lets Nazahn be unblockable every attack if you can target it properly. Give him vigilance and Dueling Grounds is doing worlds in your favor.
Archon of Valor's Reach
I’m playtesting post Battlebond as a way to shut down either board wipes or instant speed removal.
Draw/Equipment Ramp
Early:
Puresteel Paladin
,
Sram, Senior Edificer
,
Leonin Shikari
,
Sigarda's Aid
,
Sensei's Divining Top
Mid: -
Late:
Hunter's Prowess
,
Soul's Majesty
Sigarda's Aid
is there in case for some unfortunate reason the Hammer gets exiled.
Puresteel Paladin
,
Sram, Senior Edificer
, and
Leonin Shikari
are all apart of early equipment ramp either drawing cards or making equip costs 0. These are the creatures you’ll be searching for usually with
Worldly Tutor
to get your momentum going.
I added
Hunter's Prowess
and
Soul's Majesty
because I found late game I was near the win-con but ran out of gas. Both cards (pending you have a decent sized Tron Cat) will almost refill your hand for you and keep you moving forward.
Win-Con Equipment:
Blackblade Reforged
,
Bloodforged Battle-Axe
,
Grafted Exoskeleton
,
Sword of Vengeance
,
Fleetfeather Sandals
,
Whispersilk Cloak
,
Fireshrieker
,
Hero's Blade
,
Argentum Armor
These are the equipments you’ll be looking for when tutoring to try to win via the 21 commander damage or 10 infect. Any combination of them on Nazahn will work damage wise to get in a kill in 2 or 3 swings but the core you’ll want is
Whispersilk Cloak
and
Hammer of Nazahn
to get Nazahn indestructible, shroud, and unblockable. And you’ll also need
Fireshrieker
if you want to one shot a player. Everything else is just math and numbers.
Outliers:
Basilisk Collar
,
Helm of the Host
,
Masterwork of Ingenuity
,
Regna's Sanction
,
Suspicious Bookcase
Basilisk Collar
is great early game and giving Nazahn lifelink is always useful if your low on life and you’re in a pinch.
Let’s talk about
Helm of the Host
. I personally think this card has the potential to be broken. Making a permanent copy of Nazahn every combat that then tutors for an artifact and has haste is bonkers. Plus with the Hammer you don’t have to pay the 5 equip cost. Just pay the 4, slap it on Nazahn and then move to combat. It’s definitely a tech card as it doesn’t boost him towards the win-con of commander damage but it sure is fun.
Regna's Sanction
is this deck is frankly unfair and I’ve won many times with it once it gets down to you and the last player. Tap all of their creatures but one, then when Nazahn swings he taps down the last one for the final kill. Rude.
Lands:
Mosswort Bridge
,
Reliquary Tower
,
Rogue's Passage
,
Ghost Quarter
Nazahn will get big enough to trigger
Mosswort Bridge
’s Hideaway pretty easily and hopefully you tuck something underneath that’s a big bomb or nice equipment.
Reliquary Tower
is a failsafe in case I’ve drawn/tutored to too much equipment and can’t play it all or want to hold some in case I’m predicting a Vandalblast.
Rogue's Passage
is a failsafe in case someone exiles Whispersilk and I need a way to get Nazahn through safely.
Ghost Quarter
to deal with every powerful land in edh.
Thanks for reading! Upvote, comment, or message me if you’d like!