Arahbo, Roar of the World EDH Deck Guide: Why Cats Are Surging Again

Arahbo, Roar of the World is the second most-built commander on EDHREC this week, with 2,253 new decks logged in seven days. Every other name near the top of that list is either a Reality Fracture card or the face of a precon that shipped on October 2. Arahbo came out in 2017. So we built a high-power list around him and went looking for what changed.

The past-week leaderboard, as of October 13, runs Jace, Multiverse Architect (4,517 decks), then Arahbo (2,253), Y'shtola, Night's Blessed (2,238), Tam, the Possibility (2,234), and Giada, Font of Hope (2,160). Jace and Tam are brand new. Giada is the face of one of the five Foundations Commander decks that released alongside Reality Fracture. Y'shtola is the most-built commander of the past year.

Arahbo is the only name in the top five with no new printing, no new precon, and no new product behind him. He already had around 11,600 decks on EDHREC before this week, and the weekly number counts decks added, not games played. A spike this size on an old card usually means a lot of people built the same deck for the same reason at the same time. We just had to figure out what the reason was.

We could not find a single announcement that explains it. What we found instead is four things that all point the same direction, and we'll be clear about which are facts and which are our read.

Reality Fracture printed two new Ajanis. Ajani Resolute is a two-mana planeswalker whose −4 makes a 2/2 Cat Soldier token named Ajani's Pridemate, and whose loyalty climbs every time you gain life. Ajani Unrelenting is a six-mana red walker that hands out haste and a team pump. Neither is a Cat creature, but both are Ajani, and Ajani is the planeswalker Cat players already run two of. Ajani Resolute is already showing up in a slice of Arahbo lists on EDHREC's own page for the commander. This one is verifiable.

The Foundations Commander decks brought in new players on October 2. Five mono-color starter precons at $29.99 each is the cheapest on-ramp Wizards has offered in years, and new players look for a second deck fast. Arahbo led Feline Ferocity, the 2017 precon that a generation of players remember as their first Commander deck, and a budget Cat list still costs well under what most tribal decks run. That's our read, not a fact we can prove, but the timing matches.

Cats have been on every Secret Lair for months. The Cats Are the Best Superdrop in June put Garfield and Felix the Cat on Magic cards, and the Cats of Chaos drop gave new feline art to Aura Shards and Sovereign Okinec Ahau, two cards that are in our list. None of that changes a rules text, but it keeps Cat decks on the front page of everything.

The October 12 ban announcement didn't touch Commander. We checked, because a ban or unban is the usual reason an old commander jumps. Every change this round was to Competitive Brawl. Whatever is driving Arahbo, it isn't the banlist.

If you know the actual trigger, a video, a tournament, a creator's list, tell us, and we'll update this post rather than guess.

Arahbo costs for a 5/5 Cat Avatar, but the text that matters works from the command zone. Eminence means that at the beginning of combat on your turn, another Cat you control gets +3/+3 whether Arahbo is on the battlefield or not. Then, whenever another Cat attacks, you can pay to give it trample and +X/+X where X is its power.

The sequencing is the whole deck. A 2/2 becomes a 5/5 at beginning of combat, then attacks as a 10/10 trampler for three mana. You never cast your commander, so there is nothing for the table to remove, no commander tax, and no reason to hold back. Against three opponents that matters more than it does in a duel: the player you point the 10/10 at has to answer it alone, and the other two get to decide whether they'd rather spend removal now or be next.

Two cards in the 99 turn that temporary pump into something permanent. Sovereign Okinec Ahau puts +1/+1 counters on each attacker equal to how far its power is above its base power, and the eminence +3/+3 resolves before attackers are declared, so every attack with Ahau out leaves the Cat three counters bigger. Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar stops opponents from casting spells during your turn and draws you a card when pumped creatures connect. Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist does the defensive half: while she's untapped, only one creature can attack you, which is the single best thing a go-tall aggro deck can have at a four-player table.

Here is the deck as it sits on Nerd Leagues today. The deck page is at our Arahbo build, and the list below is a snapshot of the current build.

The skeleton is 34 lands, 28 Cats, two Ajanis, and a support package that is almost entirely about one of three jobs: making the Cats bigger, keeping them alive, or finding the right one.

The Cat core. Regal Caracal, King of the Pride, and Feline Sovereign are the lords, and with all three out a vanilla 1/1 Cat token attacks as a 5/4 lifelinker before Arahbo touches it. Leonin Warleader makes two attacking lifelink Cats every combat, Pride Sovereign scales with the team and makes more, and Jedit Ojanen of Efrava makes a forestwalk Cat every time it attacks or blocks. Hungry Lynx hands an opponent a deathtouch Rat each turn and grows every Cat whenever a Rat dies, which in a four-player game is often.

Protection. Heroic Intervention, Teferi's Protection, and Akroma's Will are the three answers to a board wipe. Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots keep the one Cat you're going tall with out of removal range, and Prowling Serpopard means none of your creatures can be countered.

Tutors and draw. Eladamri's Call, Worldly Tutor, and Enlightened Tutor find whichever piece the game needs. Guardian Project, Keeper of Fables, Sylvan Library, and The Great Henge keep the hand full, and Alms Collector punishes the player across from you who thought a wheel was safe.

The Game Changers. Six cards in this list are on the current Game Changers list: Aura Shards, Enlightened Tutor, Farewell, Smothering Tithe, Teferi's Protection, and Worldly Tutor. That count alone pushes a deck up the bracket scale, so if you build from this list and trim a few, run it through the bracket calculator before you tell your pod where it lands.

The honest plan is combat. Pump one Cat, trample over a blocker, repeat until one player is dead and the other two are scared. But there are three lines worth knowing before you sit down.

Doubling Season plus either Ajani. Doubling Season doubles the loyalty counters a planeswalker enters with. Ajani, Caller of the Pride enters with eight instead of four, and his −8 makes a number of 2/2 Cats equal to your life total, the same turn he lands. Ajani, Adversary of Tyrants enters with eight and can ultimate immediately for an emblem that makes three lifelink Cats at each of your end steps. Both are fair in the sense that they cost real mana, and both end games.

Felidar Sovereign. Felidar Sovereign wins the game at your upkeep if you have 40 or more life. With Regal Caracal and Leonin Warleader giving the whole team lifelink, 40 is a number this deck reaches by accident.

Mirri plus a big board. Mirri's attack trigger means each opponent can block with only one creature, and her untapped clause means only one creature can attack you. Attack with five Cats, give one trample, and the table has no good blocks and no good counterattack.

This deck has zero recorded games. We built it to answer the question in the title, not because it's been winning our Thursday pod, and we're not going to pretend otherwise. We'll record it the way we record everything else and come back when there's a real win rate to report. If you've been playing Arahbo this month, the fastest way to settle whether the hype is earned is to log your games and let the ELO say so.

For the rest of this week's leaderboard, we've already written Jace, Multiverse Architect three ways, and the full card pool that produced him is on the Reality Fracture set page.