Hello and welcome to Daily Commander!

Today we are going to be talking about Catti-brie of Mithral Hall!

Catti-brie is a two mana 2/2 with first strike, reach, whenever they attack you put a +1/+1 counter on her for each Equipment attached to her and for one mana and remove all +1/+1 counters from Catti-brie you deal X damage to target attacking or blocking creature an opponent controls where X is the number of counters removed this way.

Catti-brie is an Equipment Commander that has a little bit of a +1/+1 counter subtheme in that we can potentially remove a problematic blocker from our path. What the ideal line is that we attack, get some counters, Catti-brie does first strike damage to get rid of their blocker, and then we pay one mana to remove the rest before regular damage goes through to remove another blocker.

Since we are playing an Equipment deck, we are going to be a bit on the slower side, meaning that we will be using midrange cards to help control the battlefield while we set up the Equipment we want to use to get damage through.

The first thing that we need are ways to get Equipment onto Catti-brie in order to start the counter accumulation, as well as ways to get more counters on Catti-brie.

Looking at the first part, there are a few ways we can get Equipment onto Catti-brie at a decent rate, Weapons Vendor being one of them. They draw a card when they enter and at the beginning of combat on our turn we can pay one mana to attach an Equipment onto a creature we control.

This is where Sigarda’s Aid would also be useful, since it allows us to cast Equipment and Aura spells as though they had flash and they automatically Equip themselves onto a creature, but the price has spiked recently so it may or may not be easily available for everyone.

Since we should be having a decent number of artifacts laying around, we can play Puresteel Paladin, which also draws us a card when it enters and once we reach Metalcraft then it gives Equipment we control a zero Equip cost to make attaching Equipment easier.

When looking at the +1/+1 counter package we can use ways to give extra counters like The Earth Crystal which gives double the number of +1/+1 counters, makes our green spells cheaper, and can distribute some additional +1/+1 counters to up to two creatures.

Hardened Scales is the classic way to cheaply get an additional +1/+1 counter, Branching Evolution can add twice the number of +1/+1 counters on a creature we control when they are added, and Hydra’s Growth doubles the number of +1/+1 counters on the enchanted creature on each of our upkeeps.

The next thing we need are the Equipment we want to play, ideally ones that can add +1/+1 counters to better help Catti-brie get bigger to deal more damage through combat or to get rid of bigger creatures.

Ring of Kalonia is a card that I had no idea existed, but it is a pretty decent Equipment that gives the equipped creature trample and at the beginning of our upkeep puts a +1/+1 counter on the equipped creature if it’s green and has an Equip cost of only one mana.

Bone Sabers is a great pick if we just want pure counter value since it can give four +1/+1 counters when the equipped creature attacks, which becomes at minimum five +1/+1 counters with Catti-brie’s ability meaning that if we manage to attach Bone Sabers onto Catti-brie early, we can have her attack as a 7/7 as early as turn 3.

Plate Armor is an Equipment that gives the equipped creature +3/+3 with ward 1 and normally has an Equip cost of 3 but it gets 1 cheaper for each other Equipment we control, which means with three other Equipment in play we can Equip for free, which it’s not hard to get some cheap utility Equipment into play.

Swiftfoot Boots to give a creature hexproof and haste, Celestial Armor to flash in an auto-Equip to give a creature hexproof and indestructible for a turn as well as +2/+0 and flying, and Leyline Axe to potentially have a free four mana Equipment because of the Leyline ability and giving a creature double strike and trample.

While plenty of pricey Equipment can be used, there are plenty of solid budget Equipment if you don’t have access to more expensive options. Armory of Iroas gives a +1/+1 counter to the equipped creature when it attacks, Champion’s Helm gives a creature +2/+2 normally and hexproof if the creature is legendary, and Argentum Armor to give +6/+6 and can destroy a permanent when the equipped creature attacks.

Some of the pricier Equipment are cards like Commander’s Plate, which can Equip to a Commander for cheaper and the equipped creature gains protection form each color not in our Commander’s color identity, the Sword of cycle which gives protection from two colors and two additional abilities when combat damage is dealt, and Hammer of Nazahn which gives the equipped creature +2/+0 and indestructible and also auto-Equips itself and other Equipment we control when they enter.

Again those cards are not necessary for the deck to function, but I won’t lie and say that they aren’t useful. If you have access to them then they are incredibly useful and will help make the deck better, but they also run an expensive price tag because of how good they are.

We are going to be potentially slow rolling this deck as compared to some aggressive decks, especially if Catti-brie gets removed, so some midrange type cards can help us even things out.

Since we are playing a ton of artifacts, having a Swords to Plowshares that doesn’t help an opponent in the form of Dispatch is perfect sine even tapping a creature can have its uses, but if we have Metalcraft then we can exile that creature instead, which for one mana is perfect.

Ram Through is a fun bite spell in that it has one of our creatures deal damage to another target creature, as is normal for a bite spell, but if the creature also happens to have trample then excess damage is dealt to that creature’s controller instead, and since we can play several Equipment that give trample that can be a way to get a bit of extra damage in from Catti-brie.

Krosan Grip can be an instant speed way to destroy an artifact or enchantment with Split Second making it hard to stop, Return to Dust to exile an artifact or enchantment or two if we cast it during our main phase, Inspiring Call to draw us cards for each creature we control with +1/+1 counters and gives those creatures indestructible until end of turn, and Loran’s Escape to give an artifact or creature we control hexproof and indestructible for a turn and to scry 1.

Battlefield Improvisation gives target creature +2/+2 until end of turn and if that creature is attacking then we can attach any number of Equipment we control onto it, and if we play it in response to Catti-brie’s attack trigger, then we can still get +1/+1 counters if she had no Equipment attached prior.

There are also selective board wipes like Slash the Ranks which destroys all creatures and Planeswalkers except for Commanders, Divine Reckoning to have each player choose a creature and destroy the rest, and Single Combat to have each player choose a creature or Planeswalker and sacrifice the rest and prevents players from casting creature or Planeswalker spells until the end of our next turn.

Since we are working on getting a creature bigger, we also have access to power based draw cards like Rishkar’s Expertise which draws cards equal to the greatest power among creatures we control and let’s us cast a a spell of mana value 5 or less for free, Soul’s Majesty to draw cards equal to the power of target creature we control, and Hunter’s Prowess which gives a creature +3/+3 and trample and when it deals combat damage to a player we draw that many cards.

There are also some recursion pieces like Unfinished Business which returns a creature from our graveyard to the battlefield along with two Aura’s and/or Equipment and attaches them to the creature that we had come back, Brilliant Restoration to return all artifacts and enchantments from our graveyard to the battlefield, and Forge Anew to return an Equipment from our graveyard to the battlefield, can Equip at flash speed, and the first Equip cost we activate during each of our turns can cost 0 instead of its normal cost.

Catti-brie is an attrition Commander, due to being an Equipment based Commander we need to make sure we have the pieces we need in play in order for Catti-brie to be at her most effective.

This is why we play some of the midrange cards to help her out, but those won’t always be made available. Even still, we can still have a solid deck that can get some wins if we play smart and not be afraid to apply some pressure to have our opponents be on the back foot.

Thank you for reading, see you tomorrow for the next Daily Commander!

Peace,

From, J.M. Casual