Still Life with a Skull and a Writing Quill by Pieter Claeszoon (1628). Cat Dragon by Cynthia Sheppard,
Over the past few weeks I've done my best to focus on Commander 2017 cards and commanders. This week rather than look at another new ability I'm going to dive into one of the new Commanders. As you may have guessed from the picture above, or by my not-so-subtle title, we'll be looking at Wasitora, Nekoru Queen.
You might think Wasitora would be found in the 2017 Cat tribal pre-con but that deck is actually Selesnya (Green/White). Wasitora might have been in both decks if they had done things a little differently and I doubt anyone would have complained. Four-color cats out of the box would have been super sweet, but our Legendary Cat Dragon is to be found in the 5/color Dragons deck.
For 5 mana (2BRG), Wasitora is a "flample" (flying/trample) legendary Cat Dragon with an interesting ability. When she deals combat damage to a player, that player sacrifices a creature. If they can't, you get a 3/3 BRG Cat Dragon creature token with flying. While that might not sound like a big deal, one look at the artwork for the token will make you want lots and lots of these little guys.
My own copy of Wasitora is currently slated to go in my super sweet 4/c Saskia, Crazy Cat Lady deck but I could easily see wanting to build this deck at some point in time. I'm not going to leave you with a final decklist today but I am going to explore some of the major themes I would try to build around.
I find deckbuilding to be one of my favorite parts of EDH and just giving you a decklist might rob you of the chance to build your own version of Wasitora. Also, for every playgroup and budget there's a wide range of appropriate cards to include so one person's $500 manabase might be right for them but another person's long list of guildgates and lands that enter tapped might (sadly) be perfect for where they're at and who they're playing with.
With all that in mind, let's look at how I would try to build an adorable little kitten dragon army.
Maximizing Combat Damage Triggers
If we get to make a kitten every time Wasitora does combat damage, we really want to do that as much as we can. The first thing that means is that we want to give Wasitora double-strike. With some equipment and some red anthems, we can easily do that.
Fireshrieker is an old standby for Voltron decks and is a reliable way to give one creature double-strike. Atarka, World Render is a great addition as we're going to have lots of dragons and if it's out it will give both Wasitora and her offspring double strike. The fact that Atarka is a 6/6 flying trample with double strike also doesn't hurt. Berserkers' Onslaught and Rage Reflection will give your whole army double-strike, giving Wasitora two combat damage triggers and making your army of 3/3 kittens twice as dangerous.
Extra Tokens
Double-strike will give us twice the combat damage triggers but what else can we do to further this strategy? Let's look at making extra tokens over and above the ones we get from combat damage triggers.
Our cheapest option by CMC is Parallel Lives, which will put twice as many Cat Dragon tokens onto the field. Primal Vigor and Doubling Season will double both your tokens and your counters. Parallel Evolution is a one-shot sorcery with flashback that will also double up your army of Cat Dragons. If you only need those tokens for a turn, the Commander 2017 Vampire deck brings us Kindred Charge. The artwork may hint that this card will do well in a goblin deck like Krenko but it will work just as well on your army of kittens. They'll be exiled at the next end step but that's just fine if we're swinging for lethal on someone. If you're using it with another token doubler on the field your opponents had better hope they have a fog in hand or a decent pillowfort set up, because you're going to have a lot of attackers.
Lots of Removal
If we are looking to amass a huge kitten army we're going to need to find ways to help make sure that at least one opponent has zero creatures. If they have creatures they'll have to sacrifice them but if they don't, we get to make our tokens. That means lots of predictable cards like Fatal Push, Murder, and even Doom Blade should be included. It should go without saying that we'll also want to run boardwipes, or "sweepers" as they are sometimes called.
This may be the category that we'll want to load up on the most. My listing of 5 cards for each category does NOT mean I think this deck should only have 5 of each of those. For most if not all, you'll want more, and for removal you might want 10 spot removal spells and maybe 5 or more sweepers. Parading out the usual suspects is a little boring so while you'll want your basic removal staples in Wasitora's colors, I'm going to try to show you cards that work particularly well for Wasitora.
Pack's Disdain may not be much in the early game but once you've got a decent cat army it can help get rid of those pesky indestructible creatures that still die when they are hit by enough -1/-1 effects. Some creatures will be too big for Pack's Disdain, but if you're looking for a neat tribal removal spell, it's at least worth a look.
I left Grappling Hook out of the double-strike category but it actually doubles as removal so I figured it was worth mentioning somewhere. Throw it on a creature and you can remove one oppponent's creature when you attack. The cost is huge and ideally you want to use your removal before attacking so you know your opponent won't have creatures to sacrifice but you're also in green so maybe the mana cost of Grappling Hook isn't as much of an issue.
For sweepers, while boardwipes that affect everyone are sometimes a necessity, what we really want is to remove our opponents' creatures so we can swing and make tokens. Crux of Fate is particularly good for Wasitora if we keep with our Dragon theme. Mob Rule will often leave one opponent without any creatures so we can swing on them to get our combat damage triggers. Earthquake is actually in the Commander 2017 deck and is perfect for what we're trying to do. It will affect our creatures and our opponents' creatures equally but if ours are all flyers we're pretty safe from its effects.
Pumping Our Kittens
This isn't a Krenko deck. We probably aren't ever going to be telling stories of the time we had over 500 Cat Dragon tokens when we swung for lethal. That means that we need to find ways to make them scarier. We've already looked at some double-strike anthems. Let's look at other ways to make the most out of our adorable little army. Pathbreaker Ibex is a creature that will pump your creatures +X/+X where X is the greatest power among creatures you control. The Paragon series will give creatures that share a color with the Paragon +1/+1. Elder of Laurels will also give you some crazy pump action, but not every deckbuilder likes to add non-tribal creatures to a tribal deck. Whether or not you want to keep to a strict cat (or dragon) tribal theme, here are some non-creature pump spells to consider.
Gaea's Anthem is relatively cheap and will make our kittens 4/4 instead of 3/3 but the big deal is that it's an enchantment so it won't go easily away and it's a minor effect so it won't be a huge removal target. If you're looking for more pump you may have to do with a sorcery speed anthem like Overrun or Overwhelming Stampede. The gold standard for this kind of effect is Beastmaster Ascension but you need to have attacked with 7 or more creatures to have it give your team +5/+5. You'd be surprised how often this can get ignored by your opponents until it's too late.
Of course, if you just want to win the game on easy mode, hit your team with Triumph of the Hordes and you now only need to hit 10 damage because it will be infect. The EDH league I run uses 13 and some groups may use a higher count but any decent sized army can close out a game with Triumph of the Hordes, a little evasion and as always, a little luck. It's a sorcery so unless you're running recursion it's pretty much a one shot deal. If they fog you'll have to find some other way to get the job done.
Protection
Our stated goal today is to explore how to maximize the number of Cat Dragon tokens we can churn out with Wasitora. If you don't remember why, just scroll back up to the top of this blog post and look at the adorable little furball they put on the token. Honestly, if there are less than 4 token cards that come with the precon deck I'll be disappointed.
That means Wasitora will have to survive long enough to do her thing. She doesn't have haste, so unless we run haste enablers (never a bad idea) she'll have to make it one turn around the table before we can start the fun. The vast majority of removal involves targeting spells so we'll want some form of hexproof or shroud.
Two of the biggest staples for voltron decks are Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots. Both are excellent additions for Wasitora. Mask of Avacyn may not give haste but hexproof is such a good form of protection that it's well worth including. Ring of Evos Isle will require us to keep 2 mana up so we can respond to removal by giving her hexproof until end of turn, but the +1/+1 counters we'll be getting might add up if she sticks around for very long.
Our last card in this category does break out of the Cat tribe, but if we're willing to do that, Archetype of Endurance is a strong addition that gives us a big body on the field and removes hexproof from our opponents. That means any opponents trying to run a voltron strategy, especially if they're running commanders with native hexproof like Narset or Lazav, will now be as vulnerable as everyone else (but you) to spells that target creatures.
Making Sacrifices
No, we won't be making sacrifices. In an effort to make sure we have at least one opponent with no creatures we are going to be running spells to force our opponents to make sacrifices. I was initially going to trot out Grave Pact, Dictate of Erebos and Butcher of Malakir, but they usually involve you sacrificing your own creatures to force your opponents to also sacrifice creatures. Fleshbag Marauder and Sheoldred are also great options but they're going to take us away from our cat or dragon tribal theme, if you care about such things. Let's take a look at options that don't involve us losing our own creatures.
Clip Wings is a card I've never seriously considered for a deck but in Wasitora it fits right in. We want to get our flying Cat Dragon commander through to do damage. If they have a single flying blocker it will solve that problem nicely. Perilous Predicament fits into the category of cards that make our opponents sacrifice more than one creature though it's far from perfect. For the same cost Archfiend of Depravity won't ever result in an opponent having no creatures but it will help to keep them under control while we work on whoever has the fewest.
Malfegor isn't for players who hate discarding, but if you're willing to go that far - or if you have lots of card draw and ways to pull stuff back out of the graveyard, he'll do a wonderful job of making your opponents sacrifice creatures.
The last card I've got for you is a bit of a hidden gem. Din of the Fireherd will give you a 5/5 black and red elemental creature token. I don't know why the art has three of them, but the real fun will come if you have a decent board of Cat Dragon tokens and your commander. You get to force an opponent to sacrifice a creature for each black creature you control AND A LAND for each red creature you control. You read that right. If you've got 5 kitties and Wasitora, that's 6 creatures and 6 lands. One of your opponents is probably going to be in a really bad spot if Din of the Fireherd resolves. If you're running cards like Fork and Reiterate, this would be a sweet place to use them, if you haven't burned through them already dealing with those pesky blue players and their counterspells.
Draconic Domination
I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to make absolutely clear that there are lots of cards I haven't mentioned that would also further the cause of clearing out an opponent's board so you can swing and make 3/3 dragon kitten tokens. Looking through my own Commander 2017 Dragons deck reminded me of this and at the last minute I decided to add five more cards worth considering from that list. Some are reprints but all will help you in some way or another.
The first two - Dragonlord's Servant and Dragonspeaker Shaman will help you get Wasitora out early. That is key to our game plan, as many midrange tables will have some poor soul with no boardstate sitting there mumblling to themselves that they should have mulliganed. Even if everyone has creatures, someone likely won't have a flyer if we get going fast enough. We want to take advantage of that.
I listed a bunch of anthems earlier but left out Crucible of Fire, a fantastic anthem that affects only dragons. I'm happy to correct that oversight here.
The Commander 2017 Dragons deck had lots of cards that would go well in Wasitora and lots of removal worth considering. Steel Hellkite and Tyrant's Familiar both seem worth a look for a possible Wasitora deck. If your goal is to ONLY have Wasitora and her brood, then lots of my suggestions won't be good ones, but if you're willing to reach outside her family for some help clearing the way, these two should probably be near the top of your list.
Final Thoughts
You may notice that I didn't touch upon ramp and card draw. You'll want to build in the usual 8-10 cards that will cover these essential aspects of deckbuilding. As I stated at the outset, I'm not trying to build you a deck - my goal today is to explore the many parts of a Wasitora build and hopefully give you enough inspiration for you to go build your own list.
I certainly don't expect Wasitora to ever be a super strong commander but if you want to have fun and build the most adorable army you'll ever find in Magic the Gathering, you can do a lot worse.
This week's writing was mostly written up last week and I'm applying final touches and posting it while on vacation. As such, I'm well aware that I might have a great than average chance of having missed obvious things or screwed something up terribly. If that turns out to be the case I'll do my best to fix the issues when I get home Sunday night. Usually I try to address problems immediately but today is a day where that simply can't happen. Hopefully I'm good and there won't be any glaring errors anywhere above. I do try my best to write well, write with candor and not screw up any of the rules and mechanics of the game.
As I finish this up I have to admit that I'm seriously thinking about tearing apart my Ghave deck and instead of building Marath this Fall, taking a crack at actually building Wasitora. I think it could be a lot of fun and might even be pretty strong for a midrange deck.
Thanks for reading & see you next week!