Catti-brie of Mithral Hall – Adventures in the Forgotten Realms Commander
Date Reviewed: July 30, 2021
Ratings:
Constructed: 3.00
Casual: 4.25
Multiplayer: 3.13
Commander [EDH]: 3.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
David
Fanany
Player
since
1995
Apparently I was wrong about just how many of Drizzt’s friends were getting cards this time around. And I’m not even disappointed, because I now feel that doesn’t impact on whether or not we’ll get another Forgotten Realms set as much as I thought!
Catti-brie’s incarnation in Magic has a surprisingly large amount of text for what’s ostensibly an aggro creature, but she makes up for it by being useful in all different kinds of matchups. Paying two mana for a 2/2 with both first strike and reach is pretty much constructed-niche-tier by itself, because creatures like Delver of Secrets and Dark Confidant are going to have a bad time when facing her down. And although her second ability draws you towards playing equipment, her third ability doesn’t care how the counters got on her. There will be decks that play her in the default sequence, and others that make use of abilities like outlast and reinforce to shoot things down at will. Fittingly for a legend of the Forgotten Realms, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of her in casual Magic.
Constructed: 3/5
Casual: 4/5
Multiplayer: 3/5
Commander: 4/5 (green might not be one of the first colors you think of when someone mentions equipment decks, but maybe it should be now! And I really want to see somebody use Steelshaper’s Gift to get Wolfrider’s Saddle, just to switch things up)
As part of the Commander subset, I’m going to be omitting Limited scores for Catti-brie, and my Constructed score is for her prospects in Legacy.
Catti-brie is actually pretty interesting in spite of how seemingly simple she is at first: she’s an effective blocker against a lot of smaller creatures, thanks to first strike and reach, and she can even use any +1/+1 counters she has to help shoot something down in combat. If you load her up with counters, she can be quite a force, and she does have a way to get counters in attacking with shiny things. This does usually hinder her blocking abilities, but when you consider that a single counter is enough to pretty much blow out a X/3 or smaller, it’s not so bad. I think she’s not great in Legacy, since the format is less about smaller creatures, but she’s not useless as a “rogue” option, and her interesting skillset makes her quite menacing if you can keep her quiver full.
Constructed: 3 (this is probably high, but she’s quite a formidable blocker and deterrent to creatures, and priced to move)
Casual: 4.5
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander: 3.5
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