Selesnya Cat Gates 

People who know me are aware of my fondness for cats, my partner and I have been adopted by three rescued cats, dogs have owners, cats have staff!

So Sacred Cat is one of my favourite cards and when I saw it being used in Basilisk Gate decks, I was interested to see what could be build.

Main Deck (60)

Creatures (23)

• 4 Sacred Cat
• 3 Gatecreeper Vine
• 3 Qasali Pridemage
• 4 Silhana Ledgewalker
• 1 Heliod’s Pilgrim
• 3 Jewel Thief
• 1 Guardian of the Guildpact
• 2 Malamet Veteran
• 2 Topiary Panther

Spells (17)

• 3 Open the Gates
• 2 Rancor
• 2 Tamiyo’s Safekeeping
• 4 Journey to Nowhere
• 4 Armadillo Cloak
• 2 Prismatic Strands

Lands (20)

• 4 Basilisk Gate
• 4 Citadel Gate
• 3 Forest
• 1 Heap Gate
• 4 Manor Gate
• 2 Plains
• 2 Selesnya Guildgate

Sideboard (15)

• 2 Dawnbringer Cleric
• 2 Nacatl Savage
• 2 Penumbra Spider
• 2 Saruli Gatekeepers
• 3 Relic of Progenitus
• 2 Revoke Existence
• 2 Prismatic Strands

My first attempt at Selesnya gates was a bit of a mess, Saruli Gatekeepers and Sunspire Gatekeepers were not that impressive with the former at least being a sideboard card.

However, Qasali Pridemage really impressed with its flexibility of an Exalted Trigger and to blow up Artifacts and Enchantments.

Gatecreeeper Vine and Open the Gates proved to be awesome at fixing your mana base and keeping the land drops going. Finding them in foil though was very interesting as was still cheaper to buy individually paying more for the postage than the card even when you did find a seller with multiple copies. I enjoy playing the deck so I am on quest to completely foil the deck out. This can be pricey when cards have limited foil printings e.g. Prismatic Strands and until recently Journey to Nowhere but the recent Breaking News reprint sorted one issue.

Armadillo cloak is invaluable for the life gain and trample. It also usually helps you dodge a breath weapon. The trample from Rancor and its recursion makes if a staple.

I sent the cats into battle; they were outgunned by tier decks and win focused grinders. Yes, I enjoyed playing cats but knew the deck needed something more.

I did a gatherer search and surprised myself at how many useful cats have been printed. Jewel Thief is perfect, a 3/3 vigilance Trample is a threat. But do not forget the treasure token, I have lost count of the number of times I have used the treasure to prevent removal from Tamiyo’s Safekeeping.

Where I can play a cat, I like to play a cat, however, in a heavy control removal meta I had to be pragmatic, I have added Silhana Ledgewalker as it dodges removal and has unique evasion. Equipped with an Armadillo cloak. I did give Malamet Brawler and Trained Arynx a run out in this slot but they were a bit lack lustre.

Avenging Hunter and Goliath Paladin have been dropped from the deck, the issue was that protecting the Initiative was fraught with opponent stealing it and me not being able to wrestle it back.

Fortunately Wotc gave us another route to go down as new cats are being printed quite regularly.

Come on down Malamet Veteran and Topiary Panther. Never be afraid to try new cards in decks, sometimes you can be the one who brings a card to the attention of others, also in your deck it could be a perfect fit. Both these creatures hit hard and have trample, this is useful in a fates deck preventing chump blocking. The veteran giving counters is extremely useful before graveyard hate is used and sometimes you need to fix your mana or ramp with the panther. The option to include Late to Dinner and Pulse of Murasa can mitigate early cycling.

The Sideboard probably reflects where I play my Pauper as it is in multiple local stores rather than MTGO. Playing with gates, especially I can splash extra colours for off colur answers likes Blue Elemental and Red Elemental Blast if needed.

My cats’ deck may not be a Pauper challenge level deck but has won Fnm/local store events. For me this deck follows the first principal for playing Magic the Gathering that it is fun to play and to hopefully play against.