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!

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94% Casual

Competitive

Date added 6 years
Last updated 4 years
Exclude colors UBR
Legality

This deck is Commander / EDH legal.

Rarity (main - side)

4 - 0 Mythic Rares

40 - 0 Rares

28 - 0 Uncommons

11 - 0 Commons

Cards 100
Avg. CMC 3.08
Tokens Beast 3/3 G, Copy Clone, Plant 0/2 G
Folders Retired Commanders
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