"The Aristo-CATS!" Commander Deck | Build-Your-Own Precon For Less Than $45! Magic The Gathering

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

Play War Thunder now with my link, and get a massive, free bonus pack including vehicles, boosters, and more: playwt.link/tolariancommunitycollege

[@snugglyfluffy8203]

Holy shit, you got sponsored by war thunder? I'd like to see how that exchange went down. I've already got like 1700hrs in that game but I never woulda thought they'd make it into this side of youtube.

[@TheDevilRisen5308]

I am saddened. 3k hrs and $1000s into that game and I had to give it up because of the way the company continually mistreated its content creators and community.

[@Emmetlovesredvelvet13]

Hey professor just wanted to put something heartfelt here I wanna thank you for reigniting my passion for mtg

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

My pleasure! That's so great to hear. Cheers!

[@bpchongo-.-]

Yeah Prof has definitely touched the hearts of many sharing his immense passion for mtg and knowledge of lore. ❤ he’s definitely someone I think of when people ask about content creators regarding magic. 🎉

[@bpchongo-.-]

Yeah Prof has definitely touched the hearts of many sharing his immense passion for mtg and knowledge of lore. ❤ he’s definitely someone I think of when people ask about content creators regarding magic. 🎉

[@bpchongo-.-]

Yeah Prof has definitely touched the hearts of many sharing his immense passion for mtg and knowledge of lore. ❤ he’s definitely someone I think of when people ask about content creators regarding magic. 🎉

[@FlashRave]

same. appreciate you prof!

[@Crovax]

as a spanish native speaker, i sincerely (and in good fun) give you a "you tried" award to your rendition of "bartolomé"

[@kgoodfarms]

🤣 and he only said it about 100 times

[@TrevHolland]

That second O is feeling lonely. Not once did he get pronounced. lol

[@ItsOnlyGenjutsu]

​@TrevHolland Thought I was trippin' and maybe you didn't pronounce that one LOL. Would I be correct (at least mostly) in this pronunciation "Bar-toe-low-may" or "Bart-oh-low-main-bro" XD serious on the second one stopping at the "ay" sound in "main". And, is the "ay" more of an "eh" than hard "mayo mayflower"?

[@williamedge5130]

@@jhonathanmondragon7162 he’s not just anglicising it, he’s mispronouncing it - he’s missing out a whole letter which would still be there if this was an English name

[@RaunienTheFirst]

"Bartleby"

[@RronKarahoda]

This looks fun! As more of these come out, I hope we get to see a shuffle up and play that's just your budget precons sometime soon.

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

In the works, but...should we play deck we have built for the series or new designs?

[@thomasfleming8131]

​@@TolarianCommunityCollegeA very good question.

[@J-Sade]

​@@TolarianCommunityCollege one episode if each 😂

[@snocoldman]

@@TolarianCommunityCollegeFrom the series! If we can see it in action it can help us decide whether to build it or not. Or both. Both is also good :))

[@willowthywisp]

@@TolarianCommunityCollege A mixture? Maybe reveal a new deck alongside the game, somewhat akin to your Doctor Who Decklist reveal/EDH game. On a selfish note: Could I recommend making a decklist for either Araumi, Tatsunari or Licia?

[@SS4Inferno]

My favorite way people enjoy War Thunder is leaking military secrets on its forums and servers

[@alexwest2573]

It’s happened at least 15 times iirc 😂

[@TheGrifcannon22]

Somebody check the War Thunder forums, has anyone leaked anything yet?

[@alexandercandicedad1355]

I didn't even realize it was a GAME. I thought it was a forum for leaking classified documents!

[@gkiyo]

You can also get the march of the machine printing of the companions - they've all got the companion errata included, and I personally like the art quite a bit.

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

Thank goodness.

[@LithmusEarth]

I was a little surprised myself when he didn't use the alt-ones from the Mom that have all the correct text, but I get it.

[@AZombieWizard]

The new Surveil land, Shadowy Backstreet, is a nice budget dual land for this deck. With Lurrus that Surveil might as well say "draw a card"

[@PetenarYT]

honestly this is the first TCC commander deck that im absolutely building. Thanks prof!

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

It's probably our most powerful.

[@phobiawitch835]

I came running for Budget Kitties! Let’s see what we got in store! Edit- I’m actually sad there weren’t more Cat cards in the deck, lol! But this seems like it could be fun for a budget friendly deck, especially since I already own a fair few of them! I actually used the Curse deck with Lynde, Cheerful Tormentor that this channel made previously, and have been making tweaks and upgrades to it for about 4 months now, and love how it runs. Hopefully I can do the same with this!

[@TolarianCommunityCollege]

Hope you enjoy it!

[@TheGeth18]

Same boat! But still looks like a really fun deck. Myriad Misfortunes was my second Commander deck and I’ve loved it (and it’s still a force to be reckoned with at my game table). Good luck to you!

[@SS4Inferno]

I thought this would be a great deck to start my wife on, since she loves Cats. Now I gotta find a budget-friendly Arahbo instead

[@emmanuelvargas9691]

Love it! Building this for my buddy, he was super bummed out that he couldn't grab the Cat/Dog secret lair deck!

[@davidyi8559]

I literally just built almost this exact same deck a month ago - I'm so jazzed to see this pop up in my feed! It's an incredibly fun combo of companion and partner

[@nickatwork]

Whoever edits these videos is having a blast

[@that1jamo]

New companion printings are also in March of the Machine. Buy singles.👍

[@ColoringKaria]

The deck is now estimated to cost $89. Did you do this prof?! 😅😅 you might be TOO popular.

[@MagicBlades]

I’m actually really happy to see you do a Build Your Own Precon using a Lurrus companion because I just made a deck for a friends birthday last year doing Elas Il-Kor with Lurrus. Very glad to see this as I can send this to that friend if they wanna tinker with the deck

[@seantaft3853]

So a talent agent is sitting at his desk when a scout comes busting in. "I have one hell of an act for you" says the scout. "Is it another family act?" asks the agent. "This one is different, you're not going to believe this one" the scout answers. The agent then responds "What does this one do?" ....

[@Baex21]

Read that in Gilbert Gottfrieds voice.

[@MeagenImage]

Me: ...and so, by repeatedly sacrificing the tokens, I can drain my opponents down to zero life without ever declaring an attack! A Young Richard Garfield At MIT In The 90s, Looking Vaguely Sick: I see! And, uh, what do you call this, ah, strategy again...?

[@KSE828]

Was looking for this comment!

[@ernie3249]

Been watching you for awhile, and just got back into MtG (after a 15+yr hiatus) playing casual commander. Built this deck with a few of the upgrades and took it to FNM. Now, this deck is/will be ludicrously dangerous in a competent players hands, /i know this because I ended our fist game on turn 6. Ramped a bit early, had Bart out which no one paid attention to, dropped Vizier of Remedies and Elas il-Kor, still no actions. Then dropped Lesser Manitcore, sacced him to Bart...then realized I had an infinite all damage loop on the board( Persist on Lesser Manticore, comes back, gets no counters due to Vizier, Elas does 1 damage to all opponents each time one of my creatures die, sacrifice Manticore ad nauseam). Had to be pointed out to me by another player that I had just won the game. This was not one of the wincons I had managed to figure out, deck is simple enough for a new/casual player, deep enough for a real pro to manipulate. Well done!

[@thetimeformiller]

Please keep this series coming strong!

[@billcurran7210]

This is my favorite series on the channel! Always cool to see the amazing decks you build on a budget.

[@gilgameshvolante]

I built the Thrun smash TCC deck and loved it. I'm gonna build this one too for sure!

[@TargetPermanent]

Love to see it. I am actually working on a Bartolome deck now. It is for a new player and follows some of the staple design philosophies of pre-con decks. A couple of complimentary strategies, several swappable commanders to play those starts in different ways, and accessible win conditions. It seems like it will be a ton of fun to play as a beginner but has a competent power-level of 5-6.

[@PoVisko]

I no longer play magic, but I just love these series on EDH deckbuilding. Always watch it. Thank you, professor.

[@SleepyLestatSF]

ohhh this is exciting! I have been trying to figure out how to build a deck like this recently - your timing is perfect!!

[@bradcox8754]

Honestly love this budget builds. My LGS runs Pauper EDH and for 28$+shipping I have a new Zada Hedron Grinder edh. Super fun and can hang with regular edhs no problem. People really need to understand that budget doesn't mean low power. Thanks for all you do Prof.

[@oweneaston3121]

This is the perfect medium between what I tend to build and the precons of wotc, thank you for the awesome and fair strength builds!

[@nickatwork]

I've been itching for another BYO Precon vid! Never disappoints

[@Syncopiia]

This is a really good deck for teaching new players how to play combo and protect their board. They never have to worry about not being able to play a spell so they can focus on the interactions more.

[@morrius0757]

Glad you're continuing this series!

[@HelloWacko]

Just got into MTG and I built my self a werewolf deck and I so love it

[@kerj8580]

That “Damn”. I felt that.

[@gabeleclaire8797]

It’s so awesome that when I first say Bart I thought of this pairing but I couldn’t think of a good build for it prof coming in clutch

[@Amadeus_Phoenix]

I've never played any kind of MTG in my life and yet I still find myself eagerly waiting for every video. They're always so entertaining.

[@ScopeSF]

I like the list, but I do want to add here -- if you're going to be building ANY persist combo deck, Thran Vigil is a necessary inclusion, and it only costs like $0.05. It also works with Lurrus, since it's a 2CMC card that can be brought back with Lurrus, so it doesn't mess up the Companion aspect of this deck in any way.

[@Morphling92]

All the companions were reprinted correctly in MOM as an FYI. You are correct, the strange pioneer deck it was in (even though Lurrus is now banned in said format) was the only companion for a long time printed with updated text and the only original art one with correct text.

[@noobclips1570]

the discord you guys run is by far the best discord for magic. Thank you.

[@michaelpatalano9884]

I freaking love this series so much, please make it bi-weekly!!!

[@thefinoll1535]

Thanks Professor. I've started playing War Thunder and now I can't stop! Also - I like your Commander deck.

[@BlazinTre]

Hey Prof, I won my first game with this deck last night with a different play group and a different LGS!

[@JasonOshinko]

I've been wanting a Cleric/aristocrat deck with Elas, Bart, and Lurrus, and this is a perfect shell to build upon! It's a bummer you can't use Edgewalker with Lurrus as companion though.

[@sharktenko267]

i will point out, if you make lurrus the commander rather than the companion you do not have to follow his restriction

[@silentj0y]

​@sharktenko267 but then your sac outlet isn't in the command zone, and you can put 3+ mana cards in the deck, and at that point, why not run Ratadrabik as the commander with Nazguls, Samwise the Stouthearted, Boromir, Gollum patient plotter, woe strider, etc. Moving Lurrus out of the companion slot completely changes the deck tbh

[@sharktenko267]

@@silentj0y not really, lurrus is still an aristocrat commander It just makes him allot safer Also running into sac outlets isn't that hard especially since you can run self mill stuff to try and get to your pieces that way

[@coldpizza9028]

Hello Professor! Just wanted to thank you for guiding my way through MTG and helping myself along with the entire community for giving us great advice and insight on this game we all love! I’m fairly new and found your channel the day I found MTG. Hope to play a game with you 1 day! Hope all is well for you and yours!

[@williambrown5934]

I saw the Thumb Nail and thought we were going to see a card with that cat image on it- actually with the deck’s title, I in fact thought it would be the commander’s image, a cat creature commander, with both the coolest, most precious and absolute CUTEST image possible! I was left disappointed 😔 honestly. But I gave it a ‘like’ cause it’s a Prof video I clicked on 😁

[@m1gr3nA]

i would suggest to build exactly what you described instead, that is cats deck with lurrus in the command zone. despite what professor says this deck will have serious problems. I already have similar deck (karlov+lurrus, budgetless) and if someone removes you lurrus or resolves permanent graveyard hate (if you add voidwalker as expected you should also expect others to play their own voidwalkers) your whole engine stops working. bartholome needs resources to be put into him to be a threat and without recursion through lurrus you cannot do this. you don't have any reasonably large creatures except bartholome so you wont be able to push damage and all your creatures are no more than chumpblockers with some additional value attached. you wont win through them. apart from commander damage the only other way to win is most likely through combo but most your combo pieces don't really do a lot on their own and they eat up slots in the deck. tl;dr if you like cats and want a cat deck with lurrus i would suggest to do exactly that and not be constrained by companion limitation. you can still include most of the combos (eg animate dead + leonin relic warder + blood artist variant, metallic minic + ...) since those already use cats and fill rest of the deck with tribal cards to pack more punch and more cat flavor.

[@keganbancroft3617]

my Fiance has a similar deck with Elis il Kor as the Commander this deck can be super frustating to play against as nothing really stays dead

[@mechadryad4194]

This is one of my favourite series, I’d love to see some in 3 colours as I actually use these as a template when I’m building decks

[@aaronsomers6123]

I accidentally have all this in tyam, luminous enigma, no lurrus as companion, althoygh everything is 3 CMC or less. This deck looks fun for orzhov, thanks for the content

[@alanturnbull9163]

I was halfway through building this deck, so this gave me some great new tech to add!

[@maxschwitzer9390]

Who here remembers this movie? Always one of my favorite childhood- what? A magic the gathering deck with an unrelated pun? Ah. My bad. It will still be interesting!

[@actual_koi]

I've had great success with your thrun precon and I ended up putting my own spin on it with my upgrades which made it even for successful. I'm known for that deck now at my lgs. All that being said this deck seems really crazy and I can't wait to do the same thing I did with thrun to this deck.

[@CreateShare]

Essence Harvest would be a fun include in this to utilize Bart's counters and catch opponents off guard

[@joelpikora7261]

I love this series! It would be awesome if Card Kingdom could offer them in their Commander Collection or as Prof's Picks.

[@IxWxSxProud]

I'm so happy you made an aristocrats deck. This looks incredible! Great work as always prof!

[@homidahroun8486]

17:13 I like how we cut 10 cards and add 9. What would the final card be? You know what? I'll just take that slot as {Insert your favorite pet card here}. Perfect add, Prof (or is it Jesse?)! Thanks!

[@splatter_proto]

this looks absolutely *vicious* great job, Professor!

[@dhalden93]

Throwing Jessie under the bus there, but it was too late, (I was already on Jessie's side) because I had already realized partway through that Jessie was likely responsible for building the deck in the first place. Cause Prof always states on Shuffle up and Play that he had someone else make his deck for him (usually Jessie).

[@kawaiiwasabi644]

I am so happy to see Prof almost at 1 million subs

[@jcblacksmith]

Also Aristocats is a great movie with classic animation, 10/10

[@obsidiansiriusblackheart]

This channel got me into MtG when VOW came out :)

[@777CrimsonChaos]

Ooh, I like the looks of this one. I’ve never done a deck with a companion before, but this seems pretty solid, especially at a budget

[@metalliholic]

Dope, I built a Bart deck as well and it was very similar to this deck but I noticed it was very reliant on Bart being on the field. So I pivot and added more sac outlets. Seems to work great even when Bart is in the command zone and even better when he’s on the field.

[@troybrodeyr]

Love this series! Still need a gameplay video of only your budget decks facing off!

[@aaronreed1890]

Just wanted to say this precon really is the Cats Meow

[@joancotilla]

Just opened a foil Bartolomé in the sample pack from Explorers of the Deep the same day I see this video. I'll take it as a sign and get this deck.

[@BronzeChin]

I would love more of these. I need more flavor in my decks and this would help alot

[@fredwedvaldes2720]

Oh my God, professor, I've been wanting to make my own magic, the gathering deck, because I have 7 upgraded pre cons and I don't have a non precon and this was pretty easy to build and really cool.

[@juliancantalupo4195]

I’m in the same boat as you with ten upgraded precons. I really want to build this and if you have the vampire percon that is a huge start

[@BrooksBoyd426]

I just remixed this as a Historic deck for Arena, which also works quite well!

[@polyommata]

id love to see a shuffle up and play where everyone plays TCC build your own precon commander decks!

[@chrisdixon7377]

Id love to see a gameplay video of these build your own precons

[@conker3425]

Thank you for sharing this Brian, I really appreciate it. I wouldn’t be apart of this amazing game if it weren’t for my best friend and yourself. Cheers

[@jonothanthrace1530]

Being someone who only plays Commander, I had been under the impression that Companion was a Commander-only mechanic.

[@Xreaperification]

If you want to buy all of these cards in Australia it will cost you more than any other precon available... I priced it at $140 AUD buying only singles locally where possible and everything else from Cardkingdom in the USA. Food and fellowship is more fun and cheaper. Necron Dynasties is more powerful and cheaper.

[@XGamer409]

Great deck build for aristocats. It would be nice to see the price breakdown with everything elevated to minimum 25 cents as that's usually what you'll find any card for at an LGS minimum.

[@littlekinginc124]

Your vids have started me on my new cardboard crack addiction!

[@catoticneutral]

8:29 Personally I'm a fan of Dauntless Bodyguard mainly because I already own it. That's the only reason, the savanna lion stats don't do much work in commander especially when you want to avoid playing it on turn one, it's just a less flexible version of these for the most part.

[@Powershade117]

Great deck and looks like a lot of fun. But I do have a suggestion. Instead of one of your one off recursion cards for Lurrus, instead go with Omen of the Dead. It is an enchantment that only costs one black mana to caste and it gets you any creature from your graveyard back to your hand. You can also sacrifice it with its own effect to scry and do some card filter. From there, since it is a low cost permanent in your graveyeard, you can get this card back with Lurrus as well.

[@PizzaCraftExtras]

This deck seems so interesting and fun! Definitely will try building a version of this on arena.

[@TiltedSquare]

Prof always out here crushing it with these deck techs.

[@ewanporteous2232]

Abiding Grace would be great at returning all them 1 mana creatures. Great video as per normal!

[@quindevil]

Prof out here making a great tiny leaders precon without even knowing it

[@CyberBuster93]

Appreciate this series of videos Prof! You're the best! 😊

[@TheZegz]

This deck really has me wanting to try it, gotta see how much of this I can find at my local store!

[@tsakowich]

I have quite a few of these cards in my collection already. awesome!

[@AkitaAttribute]

Love seeing the deck cost double. That means your video was very popular. Good all around.

[@fsfreturns5242]

That deck looks like a tons of fun ! But I want to note that in the list of cards for the upgrades in the video, there are 10 cards that are cut, but 9 cards to be added in. Is there an additional card to put in that was forgotten ?

[@seniorsamalaka7239]

currently running frodso saurons bane with lurrus so i have many cards of this deck to try it out. def giving it a shot!

[@GODBRUTACO]

Hello profesor,just wanted to thank you for being a guide for people like me and my friends on mtg!!!!

[@zehmyan]

To offer a criticism that Prof himself might offer: Based on the title... needs more cats.

[@Hateneken]

I was just double sleeving my AristoRATS Rakdos deck while this video drops, happy coincidence 🤣

[@6slade]

turns out keeping cmc costs really low in a deck really amps up the consistency and strength of a strategy (like aristocats), it's like those competitive guys were on to something

[@darkdestiny9106]

For upgrades, I'll actually suggest Vault of Champions (battlebond land) over the Godless Shrine (shock land), since we're likely not running fetches so having the land type doesn't matter as much, and Godless Shrine is much more expensive compared to Vault of Champions

[@MikeSpohnTheSEJ]

I loved your Thrun precon (it's currently my 2nd favorite deck, with a couple adjustments), and I'm super tempted to make this next, with some similar adjustments from my initial Teysa Karlov deck.

[@UNIVERSESBEYOND]

Every day, as soon as I see the Prof has released a video, it makes my day!

[@DevStarkiller]

Great *little* deck! You get it? You get it?! Aw, you get it. Seriously though, looks like a great list in the greatest color combo.

[@jdgarrison9913]

I remember playing Ikoria Standard on Arena. The queue was nothing but Lurrus and Winota for a bit there, I swear, with some Lutri every now and then to break it up. It was awful.

[@ChicknNugts]

Genuinely impressed with the power of this deck for the price!

[@mrkeemanton9617]

It would be great to see one Shuffle Up and Play with yours precons!!

[@samouflage99]

Since I didn't see it here, Snowfield Sinkhole is another fetchable dual you can use for cheap in this deck

[@Griz255]

Another useful combo is scourge of the skyclaves and warlock class, takes a bit of work because you need to get warlock class to level 3 but it is a combo that will close out the game no matter life totals

[@James-yk3hk]

Here are some other cards worth considering for the deck: Ruin-Lurker Bat (W) 1/1 Bat Flying, Lifelink Whenever you descend (something goes to your graveyard) you scry 1 in your end step. - You will sacrifice pretty much every turn so why not scry as you do so. Thran Vigil (1B) Enchantment Whenever one or more artifact or creature cards leaves your graveyard during your turn put a +1/+1 counter on target creature you control - Pumps up your board for just playing your engine Gixian Infiltrator (1B) 2/1 Phyrexian Human Whenever you sacrifice a permanent put a +1/+1 counter on Gixian Infiltrator - Pumps up at the same speed Bartolome does giving you another big threat on board Tithing Blade/Consuming Sepulcher (1B) Artifact When Tithing Blade enters the battlefield each opponent sacrifices a creature Craft with Creature (4B) to flip it to Consuming Sepulcher At the beginning of your upkeep each opponent loses 1 life and you gain 1 life - This card is repeatable removal that'll hurt anything except super wide tokens decks and if you are in a pinch you can craft it and have some more passive lifegain Ghoulish Procession (1B) Enchantment Whenever one or more nontoken creatures die, create a 2/2 Black Zombie creature token with Decayed. This ability triggers only once each turn. - Potential to make a 2/2 on each player turn is huge, I find this card comes in really valuable in a lot of my games. Plus they can either swing for 2 damage as people don't like blocking decayed creatures or they provide free sacrifice fodder for Bartolome and your other tools Vampiric Rites (B) Enchantment (1B) Sacrifice a creature: Gain 1 life and draw a card - I just prefer consistent ways to draw cards than one off draws like village rites Dockside Chef (B) 1/2 Human Citizen (1B) Sacrifice a creature or artifact: Draw a card - Same as vampiric rites

[@deanjones3163]

An ABSOLUTELY great piece of tech for this that is budget is Retribution of the Ancients. Being able to use the +1/+1 counters that our commander accumulates as removal is *chef's kiss* 😘🤌 all for 1 black mana and 1 black to activate.

[@lucienanbu]

Thanks for the great videos all the time Prof

[@Nienna_Asyare]

I literally added that movie to my watchlist the other day lol