Feline Ferocity precon upgrade guide

Every creature in this box is a Cat and only one of them is a lord, at seven mana and only while he is equipped, so Arahbo’s doubling has very little to double.

Arahbo does two things. At the start of your combat he gives another Cat +3/+3, and whenever a Cat attacks you can pay {1}{G}{W} to give it trample and +X/+X, where X is its power by then. The second ability is a multiplier, so the useful question about this box is what it has to multiply. All 25 creatures are Cats, Arahbo included. Three cards lift Cats as a group. Mirari's Wake does it at five mana, Jazal Goldmane does it for {3}{W}{W} every time you want it, and Raksha Golden Cub does it at seven, with a bonus that switches on only while he is equipped.

Fourteen swaps fix that and a few smaller problems. They cost $19.99 at the cheapest released printing of each card as of October 2026, and that printing can be a promo. Three Cat lords go in, along with four cards that build a board or draw from one, two cheap answers, two mana rocks and three lands. Eleven cards that did little for Arahbo come out, and three tapped lands go with them.

What are the best Feline Ferocity upgrades?

Ordered by what each one changes about a turn with Arahbo in play, not by price. The three lands are $7.43 of the $19.99.

1. Regal Caracal ($0.37): every other Cat gets +1/+1 and lifelink, and two 1/1 lifelink Cats arrive with it. Arahbo’s payment makes that lifelink worth a great deal.
2. King of the Pride ($0.35) and Feline Sovereign ($1.90): two more lords, +2/+1 and +1/+1, at three mana each.
3. Felidar Retreat ($1.06): a 2/2 Cat for every land that enters, or a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.
4. Armored Skyhunter ($0.50), Leonin Warleader ($5.90) and Keeper of Fables ($0.33): a flier that puts Equipment onto the battlefield, a token maker, and a card whenever your Cats connect.
5. Swords to Plowshares ($0.88) and Path to Exile ($0.64): one white mana each, at instant speed, for any creature at all.
6. Arcane Signet ($0.38) and Selesnya Signet ($0.25): two-mana rocks that make both colours, so Arahbo’s payment arrives sooner.
7. Sunpetal Grove ($0.26), Brushland ($0.46) and Temple Garden ($6.71): untapped duals in place of three lands that always enter tapped.

The fourteen that leave are under the cuts heading.

One big Cat, and the arithmetic of making it big

Take Fleecemane Lion, a 3/3 for two. Arahbo’s eminence makes it 6/6 when combat begins, and paying {1}{G}{W} as it attacks adds its power again, so it swings as a 12/12 with trample. Put King of the Pride out first and the Lion is 5/4, then 8/7 after the eminence and 16/15 after the payment. The lord added two power and the attack turned it into four. Every point of power that exists before the trigger resolves is worth two.

The eminence goes to one Cat and each payment costs three, so a turn with two attackers, both paid, costs six. That is the shape of this deck: one Cat that is already large, one or two payments, and nothing else needed. It is also why lifelink matters. Regal Caracal gives it to every other Cat, so all of the damage a doubled attacker deals, to a blocker or a player, comes back as life.

Leonin Warleader is the one place the pairing breaks. Its two 1/1 lifelink Cats enter tapped and attacking, and a creature that enters attacking was never declared as an attacker, so Arahbo’s trigger doesn’t fire for them. They still count as Cats for every lord. With King of the Pride and Regal Caracal out, each one is a 4/3 lifelinker, and none of it comes out of the Arahbo mana.

More bodies come from three places the box already had. Kemba makes a 2/2 Cat each upkeep for every Equipment attached to her, Jedit Ojanen makes one whenever he attacks or blocks, and White Sun's Zenith makes X. Felidar Retreat adds a fourth, and the box has the lands for it: ten cards in the final list put lands onto the battlefield (Cultivate, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Traverse the Outlands, Sword of the Animist, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Grasslands, Blighted Woodland, Krosan Verge and Myriad Landscape). Each one is another landfall trigger on top of the land drop. Qasali Slingers makes those tokens do a second job, because it may destroy an artifact or enchantment whenever any Cat enters under your control.

Fourteen Equipment, and the two that give way

Fourteen Equipment looks like too many for 24 creature cards, and this is where I overrule the obvious cut. The eminence goes to a single Cat, so the deck is built around one creature being large, and Equipment is how it grows before the payment doubles it. Anything that adds power is doubled. Anything that grants a keyword changes what the doubled number does. Grappling Hook gives double strike, so a 12-power Cat deals 24 if nothing blocks. Quietus Spike gives deathtouch, so a trampling attacker only has to assign 1 damage to each blocker, and the Spike’s trigger takes half of a player’s life when it connects. Loxodon Warhammer is +3 power, trample and lifelink at equip {3}.

Hero's Blade is the first one out. It gives +3/+2 and costs {4} to equip, while Heirloom Blade gives +3/+1 for {1}. Its own trick, attaching itself when a legendary creature enters, needs one of only nine legendary creatures in the box. Heirloom Blade also does something here that it rarely does elsewhere. When the equipped creature dies, it reveals cards until it finds a creature sharing a type, and in a deck where every creature is a Cat that is the next creature card, every time a Cat of yours dies with the Blade on it.

Behemoth Sledge goes because Loxodon Warhammer already does its job. Both give trample and lifelink, Arahbo hands out trample anyway, and the Warhammer’s +3 power becomes six extra damage after the payment where the Sledge’s +2/+2 becomes four.

Armored Skyhunter finds the rest. When it attacks you look at the top six cards and may put an Equipment onto the battlefield and attach it to a creature you control. Twelve of the 99 cards are Equipment once the two leave, so the look hits about half the time from a fresh library. It attaches what it finds for free, which is what makes Argentum Armor realistic. Casting the Armor costs six and equipping it costs six, and whenever the equipped creature attacks it destroys any permanent. Hammer of Nazahn adds a second route, since it attaches any Equipment that enters under your control, Taj-Nar Swordsmith’s pick included.

Thirteen cards search the library, and one of the Cats turns them off

Leonin Arbiter says players can’t search libraries, and lets any player pay {2} to ignore that until end of turn. Thirteen cards in the box search: Nazahn, Oreskos Explorer, Taj-Nar Swordsmith, Cultivate, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Traverse the Outlands, Sword of the Animist, and six lands (Blighted Woodland, Evolving Wilds, Grasslands, Krosan Verge, Myriad Landscape and Terramorphic Expanse). The Arbiter doesn’t lock any of them. It adds two mana to every turn you want one, a single payment that covers every search that turn. Taxing the whole table is a fair thing to want from a card, but this deck pays that tax with 13 of its own 99 cards. I would rather spend the two mana on Arahbo.

Thirteen tapped lands, and thirty-one sources of each colour

Sixteen of the 37 lands always enter tapped. Three go: Selesnya Guildgate, Elfhame Palace and Tranquil Expanse do nothing except arrive tapped and make {G} or {W}. The thirteen that stay each do a second job. Selesnya Sanctuary makes two mana and gives you a land to replay. Path of Ancestry scries when its mana pays for a Cat. Secluded Steppe and Tranquil Thicket cycle, and the two Vivid lands fix. Grasslands, Myriad Landscape and Krosan Verge thin and ramp, and Felidar Retreat counts every land they fetch. Mosswort Bridge hides a card, Stirring Wildwood becomes a 3/4 with reach, and Blossoming Sands and Graypelt Refuge gain a life. Those last two are the next I would cut. Krosan Verge makes only {C} until you pay {2} and sacrifice it, which makes it the closest call among the tapped lands, and the landfall decides it.

Three untapped duals replace the three, two of them with a condition. Brushland is always untapped and costs 1 life for coloured mana. Sunpetal Grove enters untapped whenever a Forest or Plains is already out, and Temple Garden counts as both. Temple Garden costs 2 life to enter untapped.

Colour sources go from 29 to 31 for each colour, with the six lands that search for a land counting for both, and both of the added ones are the Signets. Selesnya Signet makes {G}{W} in one go, the coloured half of Arahbo’s payment, though it needs {1} to run. The chance of {W}{W} by turn three goes from 80.4% to 83.9%, and {G}{G} by turn four from 85.3% to 88.3%. The calculator wants 36 and 33 sources for 90% on those tests, and no precon swap list gets there. White is the heavier side, with 13 spells that ask for {W}{W} against 7 for {G}{G}.

Dreamstone Hedron makes {C}{C}{C} for six mana, and the payment needs {G} and {W}, so it leaves with the lands. Sol Ring, Hedron Archive, Sword of the Animist, Cultivate and Nissa's Pilgrimage stay, with the two Signets beside them. Temple Garden is the one expensive land at $6.71 and it is in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so the price may fall. The other two duals cost $0.72 between them and the list works without it.

Nothing here answers a creature that isn’t attacking

Condemn needs an attacking creature. Wing Shards makes a player sacrifice an attacking creature of their choice, and Stalking Leonin exiles only a creature that is attacking you from the opponent it picked. Divine Reckoning and Rout sweep your own board too, and Crushing Vines hits only fliers and artifacts. Argentum Armor is the one other answer, and it takes twelve mana to carry into combat, unless you count the one point of damage Staff of Nin pings for. A creature that sits behind a blocker doing something every turn has no answer in the box.

Swords to Plowshares exiles any creature and gives its controller life equal to its power. Path to Exile exiles any creature and lets its controller fetch a basic land tapped. So Swords goes on the small creature and Path on the large one. Both cost {W} and both are instants, so they still fit on a turn where Arahbo’s payment has taken the rest of the mana.

Fourteen leave, and Argentum Armor stays

Curse of Vitality and Curse of Bounty are Auras on a player, and each rewards everyone who attacks that player. Vitality gains you 2 life when they are attacked, and gives the same 2 to each other opponent who attacks them. Bounty untaps all your nonland permanents, and theirs. Bounty does untap Sol Ring after you have spent it, which is why it was the closer call.

Hungry Lynx hands the opponent you pick a 1/1 deathtouch Rat at the end of each of your turns. Cats have protection from Rats, so those Rats can’t block or damage one, and each Rat that dies puts a +1/+1 counter on every Cat. Rats rarely die unless their owner puts them in the way, though. What happens in practice is that someone at the table collects a free body every turn, and I would rather not feed them one. Alms Collector is a 3/4 flash Cat whose text matters only when an opponent would draw two or more cards at once, and Relic Crush is a five-mana instant in a box with four other cards that remove artifacts or enchantments. Three of those four are Cats that do something else as well.

Jareth is a six-mana creature that needs {W}{W}{W}. He gets +7/+7 only when he blocks, and Arahbo’s deck is attacking. His protection ability is a real evasion trick, which makes him a closer call than the rest, and the six-mana Cats that stay (Nazahn, Spirit of the Hearth and Jedit Ojanen) each help an attack: one taps a blocker, one flies, one makes a Cat. Staff of Nin takes six mana to start drawing an extra card a turn and pings for 1, and neither changes a combat much.

The cards that look weakest and stay are the ones that matter most to this commander. Hunter's Prowess and Soul's Majesty are five-mana sorceries that need one creature to point at, and with Arahbo they are the draw engine. Hunter's Prowess gives +3/+3 and trample and draws a card for every point of combat damage that reaches a player, so it scales with the same number the trigger does. Soul's Majesty cast in your second main phase reads the power the Cat still has until end of turn. Kindred Summons costs seven, but it is an instant that reveals until it finds as many creature cards as you control Cats, and in this deck every creature card is a Cat. Raksha Golden Cub is the only lord the box shipped. Argentum Armor stays for the reasons above.

Four cards I left out on price, none a Game Changer. Parallel Lives is $28.37 and doubles the tokens that Regal Caracal, Leonin Warleader, Felidar Retreat, Kemba and White Sun's Zenith make, and it is the first card I would add after these fourteen. Anointed Procession is the same effect in white at $63.93. Doubling Season is $30.00 and doubles the counters from Felidar Retreat’s second mode too. Stoneforge Mystic is $29.10 and tutors an Equipment on arrival, then puts one onto the battlefield for {1}{W}, but it isn’t a Cat, so the eminence can’t reach it. Pride Sovereign ($4.75) and Skyhunter Strike Force ($2.97) were the last two slots I weighed. I took Keeper of Fables and Armored Skyhunter over them because the deck needed card flow and Equipment more than it needed another body.

What the fourteen swaps moved

Creatures go from 25 to 27, counting Arahbo, and every one is still a Cat. Cat lords go from one conditional lord (Raksha) to four. Always-tapped lands go from 16 to 13 and colour sources from 29 to 31 each. Average mana value across the nonland cards falls from 3.68 to 3.56, and the six-drops go from seven to four. Bracket 1 is the floor both ways, and none of the fourteen is a Game Changer.

The upgraded decklist

The hundred cards as they stand after the fourteen swaps. Hover any name for the card.

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FAQ

Do the tokens from Leonin Warleader trigger Arahbo?

No. Leonin Warleader puts its two Cats onto the battlefield tapped and attacking, and a creature that enters attacking was never declared as an attacker, so Arahbo's second ability doesn't see it. The tokens are still Cats, so King of the Pride, Feline Sovereign and Regal Caracal all pump them, and Keeper of Fables draws when they connect.

Can I pay for Arahbo's attack trigger twice on the same Cat?

No. Each Cat that attacks gives you one trigger, and each trigger lets you pay {1}{G}{W} once. Two Cats attacking is two triggers and six mana, and you decide on each one whether to pay. The +3/+3 at the start of combat is free and goes to one Cat, so it is the payments that limit how many Cats get doubled.

What do I name for Kindred Summons and Herald's Horn?

Cat, and nothing is left out by it. Every creature card in the hundred is a Cat, so Kindred Summons reveals until it finds as many creature cards as you control Cats, and Herald's Horn takes a mana off every creature spell you cast and checks your top card for a creature. The one creature in the box that isn't a Cat is Stirring Wildwood, which is a land until you pay for it.

Does Leonin Arbiter really switch off my own fetch lands?

Yes, until you pay {2}. The Arbiter says players can't search libraries, and any player may pay {2} to ignore it until end of turn. Thirteen cards in the box search, from Cultivate to Evolving Wilds, so every turn you want one of them you are paying two extra mana. Once you have paid, you can search as many times as you like that turn.

How much do the fourteen Feline Ferocity swaps cost?

$19.99 for all fourteen at the cheapest released printing of each card, as of October 2026, and a cheapest printing can be a promo or a reprint-set copy. Temple Garden is $6.71 of that and Leonin Warleader is $5.90, so the other twelve cards come to $7.38. Temple Garden is in Star Trek on 13 November 2026, so its price may move.

What would I buy after these fourteen?

Parallel Lives, at $28.37. Regal Caracal, Leonin Warleader, Felidar Retreat, Kemba and White Sun's Zenith all make Cats, and a doubler turns every one of those into two. Anointed Procession does the same job in white for $63.93, and Doubling Season ($30.00) adds a doubled +1/+1 counter from Felidar Retreat's second mode. None of the three is a Game Changer.

How many times does Felidar Retreat trigger in a turn?

Once for every land that enters under your control, however it gets there. Beyond the land drop, ten cards in this list put lands onto the battlefield: Cultivate, Nissa's Pilgrimage, Traverse the Outlands, Sword of the Animist, Evolving Wilds, Terramorphic Expanse, Grasslands, Blighted Woodland, Krosan Verge and Myriad Landscape. A turn with a drop and a Cultivate is two Cats, or two rounds of +1/+1 counters.