When Innistrad came out, I relished its many horror tropes. It’s remarkable just how much Wizards of the Coast managed to pack into one large set, though it was inevitable that a few tropes would be eluded. The only real surprise (for me, at least) was the lack of black cats. There was no Black Cat, no Curse of the Black Cat, and no Cat creature at all in Innistrad.
I should’ve known Wizards would take care of that creative loose end. They’d thought of it from the start. All I had to do was wait a set to get my Black Cat: a seemingly ordinary domesticated cat so tough, it could tangle with the average Eager Cadet and be the only one to walk away.
I’m a cat fan. I’ll disclaim “cat person” because I also like dogs, but cats do this to me. When I am faced with kittenish cuteness, resistance is futile. If you want to win a match of Magic against me, bring a kitten; I have a particular weakness for calicos. I’d be so distracted, I wouldn’t be able to play Belcher or a burn deck correctly!
There are just over a hundred Cat creature cards in Magic, split between non-sapient and sapient varieties. Both types are well-established in Magic’s history, and while cat-person planeswalkers are the exception rather than the rule, Ajani Goldmane is not alone.
Non-Sapient Cats: The Instinctual Beatdown
One of the modern-day Cats of Magic — non-sapient — saw its first printing all the way back in Alpha, though it wasn’t a Cat at the time.
In keeping with the rest of Alpha, which paid little attention to creature types aside from their flavorful impact, Savannah Lions are Summon Lions as opposed to Summon Cat or Summon Cats. Excluding cards such as the original printing of Cat Warriors (where Summon Cat Warriors likely was interpreted with Cat Warriors as a package deal rather than two separate creature types), the first Cat proper in Magic was Canyon Wildcat from Tempest. Unlike Uktabi Wildcats from Mirage (originally Summon Wildcats), Canyon Wildcat is simply Summon Cat, a clear indication of the change in philosophy.
Tempest was released in October 1997; by October 1998 and Urza’s Saga, it was clear that Summon Cat, and its successor, Creature – Cat [X], were here to stay thanks to cards such as Guma and Pouncing Jaguar. Pouncing Jaguar, of course, has the definitive Cat flavor text: predatory and sly, with the right touch of feline playfulness. Interestingly, while Portal Second Age (June 1998) had the Cat creature type firmly established with Lynx, Portal Three Kingdoms took a step back from lumping all cats together; Zodiac Tiger was printed as Creature – Tiger, though its oracle text makes it a Cat.
The non-sapient Cats of Magic have received plenty of upgrades since then, in alignment with the general power creep of creatures. We’ve come a long way from Apocalypse, when protection from green and an off-color regeneration ability made a rare out of Spectral Lynx. Nowadays, a common Cat, Steppe Lynx, is attacking for four damage on the second turn in Modern, and another Cat, Loam Lion, effectively replicates Kird Ape in white. Loam Lion sees occasional PTQ play (most notably in Kyle Dorsey’s Big Zoo deck).
It is worth remembering that Kird Ape was banned as too good for Extended when the format was created. Back in August 2009, then-Latest Developments columnist Tom LaPille wrote: “It’s quite rare that a creature built only to attack and block causes serious problems, and that is why you no longer find things like Kird Ape or Tarmogoyf on our modern banned lists.”
Fast-forward to December 2011, though, and the Modern-with-a-capital-M format added just such a card to its banned list: a Cat named Wild Nacatl. Ironic.
Sapient Cats: Mind and Claw, or Wild Nacatl and All Her Friends
Compounding said irony: that Wild Nacatl, originating from the jungles of the Naya shard of Alara, should be most at home among the cityscapes of Ravnica. Yet that plane’s Stomping Ground, Sacred Foundry, and Temple Garden were Wild Nacatl’s best friends in Extended and Modern…until the axe fell, that is. As I said at the time (and Valeriy Shunkov cited), quoting Monsters Inc., “Kitty has to go.”
“The world was my litter box…”
While the Wild Nacatl is arguably the strongest Cat in terms of Constructed play, outmuscling other esteemed cards such as Qasali Pridemage, she is a latecomer and small relative to the famous named Cats of Magic. Jedit Ojanen made his bow in LegendsThough he is expensive for what he brings to a fight (seven mana with a two-color requirement for a plain 5/5 creature), if Jedit Ojanen fights a Wild Nacatl at full power, he still wins unless the Wild Nacatl gets some outside assistance (a Giant Growth would do).
The male Jedit Ojanen was the first legendary Cat of Magic, but until the end of the Weatherlight storyline, the most prominent feline legends were female: Purraj of Urborg and Mirri, Cat Warrior. Both of them in regular-card form (I’m leaving Vanguard Mirri out of the discussion) are 2/3 base creatures, smaller than Jedit Ojanen but at five and three mana, respectively, far more efficient with vastly better abilities. Purraj came first, in Mirage, while Mirri was a presence in Tempest and the other two sets of the block.
Though Purraj of Urborg was not revisited in Time Spiral block, Jedit Ojanen and Mirri received new forms, twisting around their original stories. Jedit Ojanen got some peace and loyalty to his home, while Mirri went from “pining for charismatic, inaccessible human love” to “getting smacked with an angel’s nasty curse.” Melodrama!
“I’ll take ‘double standard’ for $200.”
With Mirri dead and the non-Weatherlight Cat-folk largely out of the picture (with a notable panther-planeswalker exception, to be discussed later), the sapient Cat-folk lay fallow until Onslaught when Jareth, Leonine Titan saw print. Jareth was a one-off and, as a Cat Giant, a definite freak among Magic’s Cats. Jareth did, however, presage the arrival of two new dominant types of Cat-folk: the Leonin and Nacatl.
The exact relationship between the Leonin of Mirrodin and the Nacatl of Naya/Alara is unclear, but the physical similarities are unmistakable. Since the Leonin of Mirrodin had to come from somewhere (the plane being an artificial metal creation at the start, and lifeless), the Alara shard Naya is as good a guess as any. Doug Beyer’s use of the term “Nacatl Leonin” in “Ajani: Faces of a Planeswalker” suggests strong kinship between the groups, as well. Speaking of Ajani, while the Leonin of Mirrodin have two legendary leaders, Raksha Golden Cub and Kemba, Kha Regent, the Nacatl of Naya have something even better: a planeswalker.
Super Cats: The Planeswalkers
Ajani Goldmane, and later in set-release terms Ajani Vengeant, was the only non-human planeswalker in the first set of new or card-playable planeswalkers, and he maintained that status until Elf Nissa Revane and Vampire Sorin Markov made their debuts in Zendikar. He is the only Cat-person planeswalker most current players are familiar with, but he does have an antecedent from the “planeswalkers can do almost anything” days: Lord Windgrace, a black-coated panther planeswalker from Urborg.
Ever wonder who this guy was? Now you know.
He makes only a few appearances in the main storyline, but he was important to Urza’s plans against Phyrexia and fought beside him as one of Urza’s Nine Titans, a superteam of incredibly powerful planeswalkers. He survived the great battle against Phyrexia and returned to Urborg as leader of the Cat-people there. The Time Spiral novels clear Lord Windgrace from the storyline (his physical form is wiped out while he is patching up a time rift), but he does get a last comment in a card’s flavor text: Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth. It’s one of only two quotes Lord Windgrace gets across all Magic cards.
See above.
Ajani Goldmane, of course, has had a far more prominent place in the card storyline, thanks to the different attitudes of this more recent era of planeswalker design and branding. He has his Mantra and his Pridemate, as well as quotes on eight more cards and depictions on several more, such as Soul’s Fire. Their powers may be as different as black and white, but Lord Windgrace and Ajani have a bond as the only Cat planeswalkers of their respective eras.
Said bond seemingly extends to their fashion sense.
Catnap
That’s a brief look at Cat, Magic-style. I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at the underappreciated but powerful creature type and the planeswalkers who came from it. If you’re a cat fan like me, pick up your Duel Decks: Ajani vs. Nicol Bolas if you haven’t already, and keep an eye out for Magic’s future felines.
As always, thanks for reading.
— JDB
@jdbeety on Twitter