Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger (Ajani, Nacatl Pariah)

Legendary Creature — Cat Warrior // Legendary Planeswalker — Ajani

Ajani, Nacatl Pariah // Ajani, Nacatl Avenger

Mana value2EDHREC#4,431

Build with Wyrm Build manually Card details

The Commander

When Ajani enters, create a 2/1 white Cat Warrior creature token.

Whenever one or more other Cats you control die, you may exile Ajani, then return him to the battlefield transformed under his owner's control.

+2: Put a +1/+1 counter on each Cat you control.

0: Create a 2/1 white Cat Warrior creature token. When you do, if you control a red permanent other than Ajani, he deals damage equal to the number of creatures you control to any target.

−4: Each opponent chooses an artifact, a creature, an enchantment, and a planeswalker from among the nonland permanents they control, then sacrifices the rest.

Guide

Gameplan

Deploy Ajani turn two as a creature, build a wide Cat board, and flip him into a planeswalker when a Cat dies. Once flipped, his +2 anthems your team while his 0 makes tokens and throws scaling damage at faces or threats. You win by going wide with pumped Cats or burning out opponents with repeated 0 activations.

Strengths

Two-for-one value: enters with a token and flips into a powerful planeswalker for cheap
Cat tribal synergy scales the whole board with +1/+1 counters
Flipped 0 ability is a repeatable Fireball-style damage source that can close games or remove threats
-4 acts as a one-sided board wipe against control and stax decks

Weaknesses

Front side is a fragile 2-mana creature that needs a Cat to die to flip
Heavily reliant on creature density; board wipes set you back hard
Damage and anthem payoffs are slow without an established board
Color identity locks you out of black removal and blue interaction

Key Cards

Skullclamp — Sacrificing 1-toughness Cat tokens draws cards and reliably triggers Ajani's flip.
Leonin Warleader — Floods the board with Cat tokens that fuel anthems and the flipped 0's damage count.
Anointed Procession — Doubles every Cat token, exponentially boosting go-wide and damage output.
Path of Ancestry — Cat typeline lets it ramp and scry while supporting the tribal theme.
Felidar Retreat — Adds Cats or counters on landfall, doubling down on the go-wide counter plan.

Upgrade Path

Lean harder into token doublers (Anointed Procession, Mondrak) and sacrifice outlets (Viscera Seer, Ashnod's Altar) to flip Ajani on demand and refuel. Add efficient anthems and finishers like Cathars' Crusade, Intangible Virtue, and Craterhoof Behemoth, plus fast mana (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet) and protection like Heroic Intervention to guard against wraths.

Core Cards

The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.

Win Conditions

▸Alpha strike with an anthem-pumped wide Cat board
▸Repeated flipped-Ajani 0 activations burning out opponents
▸Overrun-style finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth on a wide board

Archetypes

Cat Tribal — Ajani's anthem, token generation, and flip trigger all key off controlling Cats.
Tokens / Go-Wide — Repeated Cat token creation plus the +2 counter ability overwhelms boards.
Aggro Burn — The flipped 0 ability scales damage with creature count for direct-to-face kills.