Wizards of the Coast is feeding the Commander format yet another powerful preconstructed deck straight from the Secret Lair. At time of writing, Secret Lair: Raining Cats and Dogs has already sold out stateside, the limited print run preventing many players from acquiring the deck outright. However, our market still has you covered (though you may want to wait until prices settle a bit more):

As you might expect, priced initially at $150 and coming straight from the source, this deck is good. Commander precons are often good right out-of-the-box, but the Secret Lair decks take it to another level. This list can comfortably hang with a standard 7/10 power level pod, and can only get better with upgrades. That's why we're here, though you may want to consider the best way to build a typal cat deck before we go any deeper. I've got you covered there too:

With all this in mind, I'll be recommending 15 cards to upgrade this list with from the start, including noting which cards I'd cut to make room for them. I'll also be recommending a bonus 16th card (which will be very obvious in a moment), but first let's look at the options that the deck has to run in the command zone.

Commanding Pets

The face card of the deck, and one that features alternative art, is Rin and Seri, Inseparable. Being perfectly frank, I will not be recommending changing your commander away from this: it does what the deck wants (clearly designed around them), and maintains the good fuzzy feelings that you should be getting while playing all these cute creatures.

The second alternative art in the deck, Jetmir, Nexus of Revels is the only thing remotely resembling competition for the command slot. A brutal Overrun variant just sitting in your command zone is awesome, but I'd want to lean even heavier into a token theme to really power up Jetmir. He's great in the 99 for Rin and Seri, so he stays there!

The third piece of new art and another option for Commander, but altogether the one I'm least impressed with. In fact, I will actually be offering a nearly blasphemous recommendation considering how beautiful the art is: cut Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second from the deck entirely. Why? Spoilers, but Kaheera, the Orphanguard is a thing, and I believe they offer more to the list overall than Jinnie does.

Kitt is a good time, but I would never go so far as to call her all that powerful. With that in mind, unsurprisingly, I can't really recommend her as your commander. She works fine in a token-heavy build in the 99, so she'll be good enough to keep in the deck, but I wouldn't recommend placing her in the command zone.

Marisi, Breaker of the Coil is a good bit more interesting, and the forced goad is something that you can potentailly build around. Preventing instant speed shenanigans during combat is also something you can potentially capitalize on. If you wanted to try something different, this is something I would consider to lead a deck, just not this one.

Similarly, Phabine, Boss's Confidant is a unique and potentially politically charged commander. Getting a combination of bodies and a miniature Overrun each turn is very cool, though with the "downside" of feeding the table cards. Also notable, six mana to start is a bit much and she can quickly become too expensive to play out from the command zone, so I'd still keep her out of it. No, we're sticking to the face commander here!

The Kaheera Clause

So, I have a truly sad thing to note right up front. As much as I love them in the real world, in the game of Magic: The Gathering there is a truth you're just going to have to accept up front:

Dog's suck. (Editor's note: Dogs do not suck).

I know, depressing. The good news is that there is at least a very real payoff for building a deck that cuts all the bad good boys: Kaheera, the Orphanguard. Kaheera adds a "free" 101st card to our deck, all we have to be willing to do is cut the dogs from the list (all… five of them. Yeah, Wizards know they aren't good either) and the lone other non-cat, Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second. Adding Kaheera at least makes the cuts easier for the deck!

The Pick of the Litter

The Raining Cats and Dogs decklist is more than solid from jump, but that doesn't mean it cannot be improved. Arguably most notably, as I've already said, the dogs in the list are… well, okay at best. The value you gain from cutting them for Kaheera, the Orphanguard gives us a great starting point, but let's look at the base list to start:

If you read my upgrade guides with any consistency, you may already be able to guess where some of the other cuts are going to be coming from. We snip out all of the dogs, Jinnie, a pair of lands (you definitely don't need more than 36 for the curve here), and we can also excise some underperformers and some inefficient cards. Here are my cuts:

  • Loyal Warhound
  • Pack Leader
  • Spirited Companion
  • Bloodline Pretender
  • Komainu Battle Armor
  • Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second
  • Seht's Tiger
  • Nacatl War-Pride
  • Greater Tanuki
  • Warp World
  • Cast Out
  • Showdown of the Skalds
  • Cursed Mirror
  • Plains
  • Plains

Basically every cut is pretty clear, with only the loss of Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second really stinging. Notably, Seht's Tiger is a bit awkward to actually play (holding up that mana here rarely feels great) and Warp World can do some spooky things with all our tokens but I'm not about that chaotic lifestyle. Generally speaking, you'll find the deck plays better without these. Now onto the upgrades!

Build a Wide Pride

The first thing this deck wants is even more token support. Pride Sovereign is a favorite that can become a big threat on its own but also helps fill the board. Prava of the Steel Legion is a massive buff to your pride and a mana sink if you need it, and Leonin Warleader is another very solid way to expand your board.

Legendary Kitties

There are quite a few cats that are just generically good, with some of the best of them being assorted Selesnya felines. Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar gives you breathing room on your turn and will often help draw you a healthy fistfull of cards. Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist lets you control the tempo of combat, and Arahbo, Roar of the World throws around some serious buffs.

Protect Your Pets

One of the only real weaknesses present in the base decklist is a lack of defense. Your board can go wide and get notably frightening, but you're a bad boardwipe away from having to build back up from nothing. Heroic Intervention and Teferi's Protection can both help counteract this, and Akroma's Will does the same with the added bonus of potentially being a finisher in its own right.

Raining Removal

The base decklist is also a little light on removal, especially mass removal. Reliant on a wide board, you ideally are avoiding a Wrath of God outright, but sometimes you need to stop an opponent from building too scary a board. We run Generous Gift as a solid catch-all, Blasphemous Act as an emergency reset button, and Everything Comes to Dust as a potentially one-sided wipe that can set up your own lethal plays.

Feline Finishers

The base deck has only one other inconsistency: finishing the game. It can create a wide board and potentially leverage that to win, but we want more ways to reliably get the W. Divine Visitation proves that all dogs go to heaven (at least the token ones do anyway), Eldrazi Monument makes our board nearly unstoppable for the low-low price of some sacrificial pets, and Titanic Ultimatum is one of the strongest Overrun options around.

The Reigning Decklist

With just a handful of changes, you'll find that the deck is much more reliable and infinitely better at actually closing out a game. It feels bad to cut out literally half of the deck's theme (though I would hardly call five dogs all that much of a theme), but our final cat-filled brew is more likely to rain doom on your opponents: