The 39 Best Cat Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on December 8, 2025

Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

Commanders come in all shapes and sizes. They come with skin, feathers, scales, and fur. And speaking of fur, a few of them may even be prone to fur balls.

That’s right, it’s time to talk cat commanders. Cozy up in a sun beam and come find the purr-fect cat commander for you!

What Are Cat Commanders in MTG?

Prava of the Steel Legion | Illustration by Matt Stewart

At their base, cat commanders are any legendary creatures with the creature type “cat” in their card type line. Thematically, some of them have abilities that play well with other cats, like lifegain and +1/+1 counters, while other legendary cats are off doing their own thing. As they should.

Some legendary creatures mention cats in their rules text without being cats themselves, and I’ve included them here as well.

A note on Mahadi, Emporium Master: While your copies of this Rakdos commander () may read “cat devil” in its type line, its oracle text has been errata’d as of November 2023 to simply “devil” as part of Wizards attempts to align Magic’s and D&D’s Rakshasas with the Hindu mythological creatures that inspired them. I’ve left Mahadi off the list for this reason.

#39. The Lion-Turtle

The Lion-Turtle is an extremely strong being with supernatural powers in the Avatar: The Last Airbender universe. However, in the MTG Universe? It's a very weak commander. It is in green, so it can run a few excellent cats, but it's not a great option to lead your cat deck.

#38. Brimaz, King of Oreskos

So when are we getting an ability doubler that targets blocking triggers? Brimaz, King of Oreskos is a cat soldier commander that wants to be in the thick of things, attacking and blocking. Neat and all, but that means that you need to protect this white commander or risk losing it to deathtouch and well-used combat tricks.

#37. Kaheera, the Orphanguard

You’re playing a specific suite of creatures if you build around Kaheera, the Orphanguard. I’ve got to be honest though, it’s an odd assortment of creature types. Elementals and nightmares together, I get. Tack on beasts, cats, and dinosaurs? Sea creature EDH, this is not.

Kaheera can’t be both your commander and your companion, so don’t even think about it. Non-starter. Back to the drawing board.

#36. Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar

I’m judging this mostly on its potential as a commander, but I have to admit that Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar is attractive in the 99 of other decks. If you have two commanders in that one, so much the better!

Falthis gives your commander(s) deathtouch and menace, including itself if you run it solo or partnered. For a good partner look no further than the lizard familiar from Commander Legends, Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar; they are both uncommons, so they work as Pauper commanders.

If you’re looking for flavor, how about cats and dogs with Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful?

#35. Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith

I wish that Nazahn, Revered Bladesmith let you search your hand as well as your library. Depending on how well you ramp, you very well might have Hammer of Nazahn in hand already when you play this Selesnya commander (). You can tutor a different equipment, but it won’t necessarily be as impactful. But tapping your opponents’ creatures acts as blocker filtering, and you can slot in other legendary cats that care about equipment, I guess.

#34. Kemba, Kha Enduring

Cats and equipment are the way to go here. Kemba, Kha Enduring isn’t better than the original, or at least folks haven’t built around it as much. 

#33. Denry Klin, Editor in Chief

Stop the presses! Or is that too archaic in the digital age?

No hiding biases. I like Denry Klin, Editor in Chief. You can copy the second ability when non-tokens enter the battlefield, but you can’t copy the first ability which chooses the type of counter Denry Klin has when it enters. No matter; white has a bunch of ways to distribute +1/+1 counters, so it shouldn’t be too hard to get Denry Klin to dole out two different counters to your non-tokens.

#32. Qala, Ajani’s Pridemate

Foundations Jumpstart’s Qala, Ajani's Pridemate is a lifegain payoff that gains +1/+1 counters, and its attack trigger shares that power across your board. There’s lots of lifegain and lifelink in mono-white, so there’s something here.

#31. Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt

So this Mardu commander is making me eat my words about elementals, nightmares, beasts, cats, and dinosaurs, huh? Still a strange combo, but whatever.

Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt wants to mutate so it can deal damage and gain you life. Apart from mutate cards to trigger that ability, I guess you could use Stuffy Doll and Brash Taunter, or fill your deck with cards that grant abilities to your commander like backgrounds and the legendary familiars (Kediss, Falthis, et al).

#30. Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary

Jedit Ojanen, Mercenary wants to be a legends-matter deck, but I say make it a legendary cats matter deck. A Bant commander () gives you access to a lot of cats already, so why the heck not?

#29. Runadi, Behemoth Caller

Wow. That’s a lot. Runadi, Behemoth Caller encourages you to run costly creatures, and mono-green’s the right place for that. It’ll also give your costly, buffed creatures the zoomies (haste). Think of it as catnip. Ever see a rhino on catnip? Oh, and it’s a mana dork. Because shaman typing.

#28. The Non-Typal Token Generators

Rather than take up space talking about these commanders separately, I figured I’d handle them all in a rapid-fire way. While commanders like Drizzt Do'Urden, Gavi, Nest Warden, Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second, Jolrael, Mwonvuli Recluse, and Lord Windgrace give you tokens that are Cats (or Cat Warriors), they’re usually asking you to build around other strategies, not cats as a theme. I suppose you could build Jinnie Fay as a Naya commander around the Naya () cats that pump out Cat tokens.

#27. Wasitora, Nekoru Queen

“Nekoru” is an anglicization of the Japanese for “cat dragon,” so the name certainly fits. Wasitora, Nekoru Queen is probably a dragon commander. It has a combat damage trigger, which means that a Voltron commander build is viable, too. As long as you’re dealing that damage, you’re gaining either forced sacrifices or tokens. And a Jund commander () is in a good color identity for sacrifice effects and sac payoffs.

#26. Vadrok, Apex of Thunder

Recursion when Vadrok, Apex of Thunder mutates is pretty neat, but keep in mind that you can’t recur a mutate creature just to trigger mutate all over again. Buuuuut. You can return your own creatures to your hand and then cast them for their mutate cost if you've got the right recursion effects.

Bonus remark: You can play Kaheera, the Orphanguard in a Vadrok EDH deck, but not the other way around. Go figure.

#25. The Final Fantasy Cats

Final Fantasy brought us several new humanoid cats, and many of them are quite good. Do they immediately stand out as commanders that care about you playing cats? Not particularly, but they are certainly worth mentioning.

G'raha Tia, while slightly expensive mana-wise, will reward you with card draw for throwing your feline friends into battle.

Cait Sith, Fortune Teller will help you dig through your deck to find the cats you need, and it'll give 'em much needed power boosts.

Y'shtola, Night's Blessed is definitely one of the best Esper commanders, period. She could definitely be higher up on this list. However, as mentioned earlier, cat decks tend to play lots of creatures, so it might be hard to capitalize on Y'shtola's triggers.

#24. Arahbo, the First Fang

Arahbo’s Foundations appearance is sure to be a staple of cat decks, at least in support. Arahbo, the First Fang is a typal lord that gives your cats a buff and pumps out tokens when your other (nontoken) cats enter, but you’ve only got access to white cats if you run it as your commander.

#23. Leori, Sparktouched Hunter

If you want to build your deck around planeswalkers, Leori, Sparktouched Hunter offers an interesting, if not fantastic strategy. It rewards you for playing multiple planeswalkers of the same type… perhaps multiple Chandras, Jaces, or Teferis? But you’ll want to save activating their abilities until after your combat phase, which feels a bit slow.

#22. Ajani, Nacatl Pariah / Ajani, Nacatl Avenger

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah is really missing that green in its color identity. Don’t get me wrong: This cat is still a strong Boros commander. Transforming this flipwalker into Ajani, Nacatl Avenger should be trivial if you build this commander around cats, and that backside’s abilities help to buff your board and reset it. The 0-loyalty ability can be a finisher if you’ve already got a wide enough board, which is why I see this Ajani as more of a support piece, personally.

#21. Prava of the Steel Legion

Prava of the Steel Legion’s most popular partner commander is Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper. Abzan colors () let you do all kinds of fun things with this pairing: tokens, +1/+1 counters, lifegain… and you can also focus any of these themes around cats, too! There’s a few cats with removal as part of their enters abilities, and you can use cards like Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines to double those triggers.

#20. Phabine, Boss’s Confidant

I dunno why, but I’m hearing echoes of Pirates of the Caribbean when I read “parley.” (If they do Pirates for Universes Beyond, do you think parley could play a part?)

Phabine, Boss's Confidant is another cat who can do tokens, both by giving them haste and by creating more through its parley. Six toughness makes Phabine less squishy, but I’d toss in other protection to reduce your chances of paying commander tax.

#19. Rigo, Streetwise Mentor

It’s all about the lil folk, the creatures with power 1 or less. Rigo, Streetwise Mentor itself gives you a card, and it’s flexible enough that you can either focus on the attack triggers and saboteur effects (Delney, Streetwise Lookout and Enduring Curiosity, for example), or you can try to overwhelm your opponents with sheer numbers in a token build.

#18. Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist

Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist is the best version of Mirri we’ve gotten so far. With apologies to Mirri, Cat Warrior and Mirri the Cursed, this is the Mirri that I want to equip with a bunch of swords, plates, armors, what have you.

#17. Kemba, Kha Regent

Scars of Mirrodin introduced us to Kemba, Kha Regent, while Commander Masters gave us two new pieces of card art. Combine your favorite cat payoffs with whichever equipment fit your budget and maybe some equipment payoffs like Sram, Senior Edificer and you’ve got a quick and easy Commander deck.

#16. Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva

“Bard.” “Mayhem Diva.” Sounds about right.

Kitt Kanto, Mayhem Diva puts you in the right colors to run tokens and should have plenty of creatures to tap. The ability is versatile, in that you can use it for politics to buff a creature an opponent would attack with anyway or use the ability to goad your target. I don’t think Kitt Kanto will be your main source of token generation, but it’s always nice when the citizenry is active and engaged.

#15. Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar

Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar’s deck is pretty much a budget version of Sovereign Okinec Ahau. Do you want a cat commander that draws you cards as a saboteur effect, or do you just want your cat commander’s attack trigger to give you +1/+1 counters?

#14. Kros, Defense Contractor

Kros, Defense Contractor’s take on a goad deck is to ask you to put counters of any kind onto your opponents’ creatures. Kros deals out shield counters (“defense contractor”), but there are other options. Sheltering Ancient’s cumulative upkeep asks you to put +1/+1 counters on your opponents’ creatures. That’s usually a drawback, but in this case, you tap the creature until your opponent’s turn (thanks, Kros), during which it’ll still be goaded and have to attack someone else.

Bant/Brokers is a good color combination for adding counters and playing some politics, regardless of exactly how you do it.

#13. Lurrus of the Dream-Den

The rare Orzhov commander () among cats, Lurrus of the Dream-Den is a companion you don’t mind running in the command zone. It’s Orzhov, so lifegain, aristocrats, and reanimator are the flavor palettes here. You can also run the thematically appropriate Leonin Relic-Warder and Animate Dead combo alongside this nightmare, slotting in death payoffs that give you mana (Pitiless Plunderer) or life drain (Zulaport Cutthroat).

#12. Soul of Windgrace

Soul of Windgrace is such a neat premise. Discard your lands for utility, then swing with your commander to bring a land back from the graveyard. Jund is probably the color identity where you’ll sacrifice lands the most, allowing you to use its ability when it enters, too. Just don’t play it as a land destruction commander unless you plan on losing friends.

#11. Balan, Wandering Knight

Balan, Wandering Knight is an equipment-focused commander, and it’s pretty good at that. It’s casting and activation costs are both reasonably costed. But you know what’s better than Balan’s equipping activated ability? Cards that reduce equip costs to 0. Looking at you, Puresteel Paladin.

You probably want Sram, Senior Edificer around if you’re playing Balan, but which equipment are you going to run? How many swords?

#10. Silvar, Devourer of the Free + Trynn, Champion of Freedom

”Partner with” can be restrictive, but also freeing. It’s not like you can have an anxiety spiral about which partner to pick, right?

Silvar, Devourer of the Free eats humans to grow. And Trynn, Champion of Freedom gives you Human Soldiers at the end of turns during which you attacked. You don’t have access to green token doublers, but you can still use Anointed Procession. Kindred Charge can also be useful, especially since you’re going to exile your token copies anyway. Bastion of Remembrance is a solid way to pay off all those creature deaths, too.

#9. Roxanne, Starfall Savant

Roxanne, Starfall Savant has been fairly popular in the command zone since Outlaws of Thunder Junction. Its attack trigger pumps out Meteorite tokens that deal damage when they enter and tap for mana without going to the graveyard. This Gruul commander ramps you by making all your artifact tokens tap for 1 more mana than they did before, which means that Treasure is a natural fit. There’s enough ramp here that you could maybe even build toward extra combat effects.

#8. Sovereign Okinec Ahau

I really like the flexibility that Sovereign Okinec Ahau offers us. There’s a number of cat typal lords that modify power and toughness, so this cat noble plays well with its own kind. But it plays well in general with +1/+1 counter strategies, equipment strategies, and even hydra decks!

#7. Marisi, Breaker of the Coil

Any card that shuts down your opponents’ ability to cast spells, even temporarily, is really powerful. They can still activate their permanents’ abilities during your combat, but they’re still restricted on what they can do. Want some more disruption? How about Rhythm of the Wild to prevent your creature spells from being countered?

Marisi, Breaker of the Coil adds to the chaos when it goads your opponents’ creatures: This Naya commander is arguably the very best goad commander in all of Magic. It doesn’t point toward any narrow or specific strategy, although the consistent goading forces attacks from the tokens you give opponents with Generous Gift or Beast Within. And of course, you could go the cat route for this commander.

#6. Nethroi, Apex of Death

I read that mutate trigger and all I think is “splat.”

That’s a lot of graveyard recursion. Build your deck right and every creature in your ‘yard is coming back. Nethroi, Apex of Death is not a misnomer. Green and black are good for self-mill. Necropanther can give you a similar, early game mutate trigger, while Boneyard Lurker returns any permanent type, albeit to your hand.

#5. Rin and Seri, Inseparable

“They get along like cats and dogs,” huh? Well, these two and their friends get along quite well, thank you. Cast a dog, get a Cat token. Cast a cat, get a Dog token.

Rin and Seri, Inseparable’s color typing is perfect for these creatures, and the combination of burn and lifegain on its last ability is beautiful. I want one. You probably want one. No wonder it’s a $20 card.

#4. Arahbo, Roar of the World

If you’re building around Arahbo, Roar of the World, you’re doing cat typal. It’s the cat avatar, come on! Its eminence buffs one of your cats from the command zone, and you get more perks if it’s on the battlefield. +3/+3 for your smaller creatures, and a power-doubling ability for your bigger ones. I love it.

#3. Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos

Oh, compleat tragedy. This is probably the only commander deck in which I’ll finally use all those Incubator tokens I accumulated after March of the Machine came out. Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos fronts its own Phyrexian themed deck. Once you have the poison engine going, Brimaz effectively turns all your Phyrexians into rattlesnakes, since using even just one to chump-block means that you get to proliferate at the next end step.

#2. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels

The more creatures you have, the better. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels is in perfect colors to produce a bunch of tokens, and it isn’t too expensive to bring this demon commander back with commander tax. Jetmir's amazing anthem effects don't care about creature types or whether they’re tokens, only that you control them. That's a lot of stacking “oomph.”

While token decks are the obvious way to go with Jetmir, Nexus of Revels, Naya colors also let you put together a nasty stax deck. For the more casual player, Jetmir good stuff isn’t the worst idea either.

#1. Ygra, Eater of All

This is so good. Ygra, Eater of All is unquestionably a good food commander, and I love how it turns all creatures into food. Now your creature sacrifices give you Treasure from a Nuka-Cola Vending Machine and from Pitiless Plunderer, which means there’s all kinds of busted combo potential. Plus, this cat's a Golgari commander that can thematically run a Cauldron Familiar / Witch's Oven combo, so that’s neat.

Best Cat Commander Payoffs

Some of these commanders like Arahbo, Roar of the World encourage you to build around cats, so it’s good to find other cards that help. King of the Pride and Feline Sovereign passively buff your feline friends, while Arahbo, the First Fang adds tokens to the package. Regal Caracal goes a step further with lifelink.

Speaking of tokens, Prava of the Steel Legion can create some for you. Phabine, Boss's Confidant is a haste enabler for your tokens, and Jedit Ojanen of Efrava creates tokens as an attack/block trigger. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels gives you stacking advantages based on the number of creatures you have. And if you really want some Cat tokens, pump up the on your White Sun's Zenith.

Leonin Abunas is a cat that gives your artifacts hexproof, which includes equipment. Some of the white cat commanders have abilities that center on equipment, too. Kemba, Kha Regent and Balan, Wandering Knight want them all for themselves, while Kemba, Kha Enduring wants to give equipment to all your other cats that ETB.

The Apex cats (Nethroi, Apex of Death, Vadrok, Apex of Thunder, and Snapdax, Apex of the Hunt) all have mutate, but they can’t be played together unless they’re in a deck lead by another commander. However, lots of mutate creatures can work in more than one of the Apex decks, depending on the mutate trigger you’re looking for.

Attended Healer is a lifegain payoff that gives you Cat tokens, and Cat Collector is effectively identical. Felidar Retreat gives you Cat Beasts as a landfall trigger. Ocelot Pride is the most powerful version of this, but it’s also far more expensive if you don’t pull it yourself from Modern Horizons 3 boosters.

Claws Out is a combat trick that can give all of your creatures a buff, and it gets cheaper the more cats you control.

Many cats enable a lifegain strategy, and Felidar Sovereign is a cat…. Naturally, this alternate win condition fits in with kitties.

Commanding Conclusion

Silvar, Devourer of the Free | Illustration by Jesper Ejsing

Cats have long been our companions, but it’s still debatable which species domesticated which. Tony the Tiger may not have a Magic card yet, but there are plenty of other cool cats who can command your deck. As you’d expect, many of them remain vigilant and let their presence be known on the battlefield.

Which commander is the cat’s meow? Which do you hate seeing on the other side of the table? Let me know in the comments below, and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter!

Time for me to whisk away! Whisker? I hardly know ‘er!