by Johnny Cycles, September 11, 2026

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Before Ocelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, there was Savannah Lions. This 1-mana 2/1 was on the short list for best Aggro creature for a long time. Want to see it in action today? Welcome to Keeping Modern Janky and Cat Tribal!

I originally play Cat Tribal at the end of 2024. I built two Selesnya decks, one more janky than the other. So when jordanleebc19 sent me his Boros Cat Tribal list, I was immediately interested. And while it took me awhile to play the deck, the time is now and I can’t wait!

Here’s the list:

Decklist – Boros Cat Tribal

by jordanleebc19
Format: Modern

Creatures (26)

4 Guide of Souls
4 Ocelot Pride
4 Savannah Lions
4 Ajani, Nacatl Pariah
4 Regal Leosaur
2 Voice of Victory
2 Arahbo, the First Fang
2 Haliya, Guided by Light

Enchantments (2)

2 Goblin Bombardment

Spells (10)

4 Galvanic Discharge
2 March of Otherworldly Light
2 Orim’s Chant
2 Thraben Charm

Lands (22)

4 Arid Mesa
2 Elegant Parlor
2 Flooded Strand
1 Mountain
3 Plains
2 Sacred Foundry
4 Sunbaked Canyon
4 Sunbillow Verge

Sideboard (15)

2 Vexing Bauble
2 Rest in Peace
1 Wrath of the Skies
2 Blood Moon
2 Clarion Conqueror
2 Wear // Tear
2 Flare of Fortitude
2 Obsidian Charmaw

Deck Tech

Primary Game Plan

This deck is Aggro with reach. Our first plan is to flood the board with Cats, make them big, and swing in until our opponent is dead. Our secondary plan of attack is…

If this looks familiar from Boros Energy, you’re not wrong. Being a Cat Tribal deck doesn’t always mean we play only Cats… The truth is Guide of Souls in conjunction with Ocelot Pride and Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, both of which ARE Cats, is too powerful to pass up. Goblin Bombardment plays well with both of these Cats, as well. Voice of Victory could be another Cat, I suppose, but it’s really, really good and hard to pass up if you want to compete in today’s Modern.

Regal Leosaur is some fun tech. As a 2/2 2-drop, it fills out our curve with another Cat, while its mutate can help us punch through that last bit of damage.

Our other non-Cat is Haliya, Guided by Light. Having another way to gain life, as well as a payoff for that lifegain is a powerful addition to the deck.

Supporting our aggressive strategy is a group of interactive spells to answer our opponent’s permanents or stop them from winning themselves. Orim’s Chant seemed like an odd choice in a creature deck, but I see why it’s here. Not only can it stop opponents from doing unfair things with their combo decks for a turn, but it can also stop players from stabilizing the turn before we win.

Sideboard

I love my Dragons! Getting to play not one, but two different Dragons (Clarion Conqueror) in the sideboard of a Cat Tribal deck checks some happiness and jank boxes for me. Both also happen to be good against a lot of decks.

We’re playing a lot of 2-ofs to help against what is a pretty wide meta right now. I really like how jordanlee built the sideboard. I tend to play a lot of 3- and 4-ofs of the cards I want to bring in. My thought process is always, if you want to see them, play at least 3 copies. I don’t think this is correct all the time, and playing this deck has helped show me that.

Shout out to Flare of Fortitude! This card is bonkers in this deck. Protecting our team is great, for obvious reasons, but protecting our life total is sneaky good against a host of unfair decks looking to combo off against us. From Belcher to Amulet Titan to Cosmogoyf to Neoform, buying ourselves a single turn with this card will often be enough to win. I love that we get some combo protection in our Aggro deck.

Full Game Play

Overall Record: 3-3-1

My Boros opponent had to go after game 1, but I imagine the match could’ve gone either way… Otherwise, we beat a couple of lower tier, janky decks in an unique Mill build and Enchantress, while my Amulet Titan opponent scooped after we chatted a bit. I thought I was dead to rights due to Scapeshift and Valakut, but that’s not how most Titan decks win without help. Instead, he would’ve used his graveyard to return all lands via Aftermath Analyst and I had a Thraben Charm to disrupt that. Sooo, I’ll take the win, even if I was ready to scoop. It was my last match of a long morning, so I’ll blame brain fatigue…

Thanks to mitjinxter and good luck in your RC!

I lost to Eldrazi, Fight Rigging, and Cosmogoyf–Necrodominance.

Overall Impressions

The deck felt really good. Despite our so-so record, we have the tools to compete against the field…but the big mana Eldrazi decks feel like a really bad match-up.

Otherwise, the Boros Energy package is just as powerful in our deck as it is in the industry-standard Energy build. Guide of Souls, Ocelot Pride, Ajani, Nacatl Pariah, Voice of Victory, and Goblin Bombardment can win games by themselves, and we did get several wins on the back of this tier 1 group of cards.

However, our cat Tribal side of things also showed its worth, specifically Savannah Lions and Arahbo, the First Fang. The former provided early pressure, as well as a cheap threat to cast late with our other pieces out. Arahbo, meanwhile, was awesome! It really functions as a finisher for our deck, pumping our team and bringing a token with it is often all we need.

Regal Leosaur is our other Cat, but, over the course of seven matches, I don’t think I cast it a single time. Variance is weird sometimes. I DO think it’s a great card that offers the deck some additional reach.

I was really impressed with the main-deck removal jordanlee included, as well as the sideboard. The choices of Thraben Charm, March of Otherworldly Light, and Orim’s Chant give the deck a lot of interaction with the kinds of cards and decks that can give an Aggro deck trouble.

Meanwhile, the sideboard is full of ways to shore up our bad match-ups. I never brought in Blood Moon, but I think I should have. My logic against Eldrazi was that a turn 3 Blood Moon was too slow. I don’t think that’s the case, though, in hindsight. It certainly can be, but I think we need that additional way to fight the big mana decks.

Other Directions

I really think Belladonna Took is a powerful option for a deck like this. With all the tokens we can generate, it shouldn’t be too difficult to gain 1 life and draw a card. The buff is also certainly within reach. The temptation is to cut Regal Leosaur since I never really saw it in action. Furthermore, the +1/+1 counters is a nice replacement for the mutate of the Dinosaur Cat. However, I don’t want to water down our Cat count too much, so perhaps Haliya, Guided by Light would go.

Conclusion

Thank you again to jordanlee for another fun and powerful deck! I love Cat Tribal and this build is probably the more competitive of what I’ve played in the past. I still think Selesnya and Collected Company bring a powerful angle to the strategy, but the deck may need to borrow some of the Energy cards like Voice of Victory to help it. And, without Goblin Bombardment, Selesnya lacks the reach Boros has.

I highly recommend this deck to anyone looking to throw a curve ball into their meta with what can seem like an Energy deck, but that has a more aggressive top end and the potential to overrun an opponent with its lord and pump effects.

Thanks for reading and watching!