(Nethroi, Apex of Death | Art by Slawomir Maniak)

We Interrupt This Broadcast to Bring You-

Hey everyone! Kya here, once again! Welcome back to Bringing Magic to Life, the series where I appease my corporate overlords and justify my existence here on EDHREC. Here we're going to turn our gaming table into more then just throwing cardboard down. Here we're going to bring our-

 

Odin: Hello, my name is Odin will you be my friend?

Excuse you, Odin, you can't just interrupt me in the middle of making an article-

Odin: Hello? Do you have Cheez-Its? I hope they have Cheez-Its. Clementine told me that if I got my own article I could get some Cheez-Its.

Clementine put you up to this? Well, I'm sorry to say, I don't think my readers will appreciate it if we make another EDH Cat deck.

 

Odin: Okay, I'll stay here until I get an article, too.

Sigh... fine. I can't work like this. Today we'll focus on getting Odin his own EDH deck, as well. After all, it's only fair that Odin is armed with his own powerhouse of a deck to face off against my other kitties! Did I mention that being alone in this house during the lockdown hasn't affected me at all, yet? Alright, let's get this deck started!

---

Mutating Your Old Decks Into Stronger Ones

Now, to make this interesting, we're not going to make just any Cat deck for Odin. Despite being the best of boys, our little Odin has trouble being bullied by the other cats, despite how much he protests that he's never the threat at the table. I know that a few of you reading this know what that feels like, so we're just going to brew him the most resilient deck to represent our little Cheez-It fiend! A powerful Cat deck can be hard to build, as most are just simple tribal or Voltron decks. We're going to have to arm this kitty to the teeth with powerful spells. What would represent Odin best? It came to me after a long and stressful bath... for Odin:

 

Nailed it. He may not look scary in this picture, but I promise you, after his bath, there were laser-beam glares of death facing my way all night. That's right, we're going to build a Nethroi, Apex of Death deck! What does he do, exactly?

Right off the bat, he's a Nightmare Cat, which fits Odin perfectly, sometimes. Even better, though, he's a 5/5 deathtouch and lifelink creature for just five mana! Still not impressed? With the fairly new Mutate ability, he can grow stronger while bringing back all his friends from the grave! What does Mutate do, you ask? It allows us to merge our commander with other creatures to create super creatures that share abilities!

Still confused? Don't worry, I'll make it easy! It's simply fusion from Dragon Ball Z. Imagine Nethroi, Apex of Death is Vegeta, and Carrion Feeder is Goku. They do a little dance, and bam: you have the world's most frightening-looking Vegeto! It's a 5/5 with deathtouch, lifelink, and the ability to sacrifice creatures to grow stronger!

Sacrificing the creatures will be nice, as you can use another Mutate card from your deck to trigger Nethroi's Mutate ability again later on! What does that mean? Remember when we cast our commander the first time? Let's say we were only able to bring back 5-6 monsters that time. Don't worry! We can now bring plenty more back, including some that likely recently died to our Carrion Feeder ability! That's going to make for some pretty nasty enter-the-battlefield triggers!

Now, I know what you're thinking. This is quickly becoming a graveyard shenanigans deck. You're right! Why? Because Kya is on a budget and can't afford to buy brand-new decks, so we're going to "Mutate" one of my older decklists!

If you've been playing as long as I have, this concept probably isn't new to you. Quite often I find myself mutating older decks into new ones as time goes on. Back in 2014, I had a casual Karador, Ghost Chieftain deck that I enjoyed playing because it wasn't a glass cannon like Jhoira of the Ghitu. Then in 2016, Meren of Clan Nel Toth came out, and I instantly fell in love! I gladly took out the white cards and made a resilient graveyard goodstuff deck! Then... ugh... Muldrotha, the Gravetide graced us with its presence, and I had to make the jump. It was just too good. Meren with Cyclonic Rift? How do you say no!? So the deck went through even more changes. Now it's time to give my deck up to my little Odin and go back to its original Abzan roots! Good thing I don't have a habit of selling off cards I don't use, right? Ha... ha... excuse me while I go cry...

---

The Minions of Odin!

Being the goodest of boys, Odin has a lot of non-Cat friends to play with. Just look at him spending a Saturday with my Warhammer Orks (... yay). So, to stay true our little Nightmare, we're going to forgo making this strictly Cat tribal and stock this deck full of Mutate creatures! Don't worry, though, this is only going to make our deck even more resilient!

Okay I tricked you. It's still a Cat tribal deck. The Cat gene is simply too adorable to get rid of, no matter how many times you Mutate! I showed Necropanther to Clementine, and she gave me the tiniest of little roar meows. The cats stay, I say! What's great is that, for just a little bit of mana, you can Mutate these Cats into something scary that's already on the field and get a slight benefit like recurring a creature. Your commander out? We'll double the Mutate goodness and get even more creatures from the graveyard!

---

Helping Out the Little Guy... or Eating Him

Okay, in all seriousness, we do need to add some non-Cats to this deck. I know some of you deckcrafters are already going crazy with ideas on what type of creatures to abuse. Although it pains me to say it, slow down! We have to make sure our deck is full of little helpers so that our deck functions correctly. Let's look at Odin's toy chest to see what he has:

There are a bunch of tiny creatures that'll bring plenty of value to our deck. Either by providing us more mana or by destroying threats on the battlefield. Even greater is that they all have low power, so when our commander does come out, we can bring back multiple friends without worry! Not every cast of our commander needs to end the game; sometimes just ensuring we won't fall behind is good enough!

---

That's One For Me and Also One For Me

It wouldn't be much of a Cat deck if all that we did was play around with graveyard shenanigans. We have an audience to entertain, after all. What better way then to show everyone what an amazing hunter Odin can be... by mistake!

Sometimes Odin has a knack of getting so consumed in playing that he doesn't realize all the damage he's causing. Just running after a lizard can result in several knocked-over glasses and deckboxes before you know it! In honor of our goofy Odin, we're going to add in some accidental pain. While we're busy sacrificing and blocking, we're going to ensure no one else can match our board presence with creatures! Be sure to slot yourself with plenty of sacrifice engine cards like Ashnod's Altar or Viscera Seer to really bring in the pain!

---

Is It Time For Cheez-Its?

Okay Odin! We'll get to your favorite part already! Seeing as this deck is dedicated to Odin, we'll have to add in some Food cards. What are Food cards, you ask? If you only play EDH, I won't blame you for not knowing. They're special little artifact tokens that provide us with three life if sacrificed. I know, not great in a format with 40 life and 4 people. However, we may find some useful cards in the sea of meh:

Oh, it looks like Odin has his own card after all, and it works perfectly in our deck! As we continue to recur creatures from the graveyard, our little Odin Familiar will deal damage all while giving us life! Witches' Oven also provides some much-needed help sacrificing all these creatures we keep bringing to the table!

---

Finding Your Inner Panther

We've had a lot of fun so far, but I think that's enough playing nice, don't you? Let's look at some big creatures to bring to the field and wrap up this game quickly!

Any of these big baddies are known to bring the game to a swift end! What's even better is that now we have plenty of cards to Mutate onto them to make them even scarier! Imagine our commander fused with any of the Praetors! I wouldn't want to be across the table from that! Just like I wouldn't want to be the size of a lizard around my little fluffball murder machine...

---

Ending the Game so You Can Take a Nap

While it was fun, Odin gets tired quickly and often will try and wrap things up so he can take up the entire bed somehow! How does he wrap up the game in just a single swipe of the paw? How does a two-foot cat take up an entire bed? Well, we have the answer to one of those questions, at least...

Since we have Karador colors back, it's time to bring back an old combo! Sacrificing Karmic Guide and Reveillark to cards like Ashnod's Altar will net us unlimited mana! Also, we can bring back a friend each time, as well, so that means our brand-new Cauldron Familiar can join in on the fun! That's right, we wiped out the table with an Odin card! Sure, you can just play Blasting Station, but where's the fun in that?

Okay, that's enough teasing, let's look at our new Odin Cat deck, shall we?

---

Closing Thoughts

Now that our deck list is complete, Odin is ready to compete! This time he'll take Clementine down for sure! I hope everyone enjoyed today's cat takeover! Hopefully that will satiate the fluffy little nightmare until we're able to stock back up on Cheez-Its. More importantly, though, what did everyone think? Do you have other decks that you've "Mutated" over the years? If so, let me know what they are in the comments down below.

At least I can happily say I'm done with these dumb cat articles for a while-

Jynx: Where's my article, hooman?

... You got to be kitten me.

Until next time,

Kya