Revisiting BW Cat Power, not the Singer/Songwriter

Bats never really came together. It was, at best, a support tribe in BLB for birds, and never really had an identity of it's own. Life gain isn't a great strategy, and was done better in vampires than bats, and historically bats has been a support for that as well.

BW it self also struggles to find an identity apart from vampires. Scrolling through cubes, the BW cards that pop up the most are vindicate and tidehallow sculler.

There are a surprising number of cats that are just good cards. Lurrus, Ocelot Pride, Ajani, Lion Sash, and more. Even into red, green and blue. The cats I want to focus on are the ones from Ikoria, with mutate. There are 7 mutate cats, but mutate has the benefit of keeping the base creature type. That means that any creature that mutates onto a cat (or another creature type) keeps the base creature type.

This is definitely an experimental add, but I want to explore the mutate cards and see where it leads. I think it will, if nothing else, be interesting.

Mutating

The first adds will just be the mutate cats, then value cats, then value mutates. Three of the cards fall strictly in BW (Cubwarden, Huntmaster Liger, and Necropanther). I like all three as good value adds that also help other creature types. Nethro is technically WBG, but can be mutated for just BW or GB. Regal Leosaur is RW, but can be mutated for only W or R and acts an anthem if mutated.
Snapdax and Vadrok are last, with Vadrok probably being the closest to not being added. He asks a lot, veers into blue, and by far the hardest to make work.

One thing I'm going to keep in mind as I go through cats and mutates is Kaheera. He's a cat lord that brings vigilance and if you can meet his companion you can guarantee you draw him once per game.

Flipwalker Ajani would be the natural place to start, and he's already in the cube.

Adorned Pouncer works with the secondary part of BW, which is graveyard interaction. Blocks well early, works with other pump creatures, and then can come back later as 4/4.

Angelic Cub is interesting. Because of mice, theres a lot of targeting abilities and triggers already in this cube. It's basically a valiant card before it was keyworded.

Dreadmalkin is not great but has two things going for it: it's a 1 drop menace creature for mutate, and the sac ability works with 9 lives familiar and tokens, tho for 3 mana.

Felidar Guardian lets frogs splash into white I guess.

Theres actually kind of a sick curve of Brimaz -> Leonin Warleader -> Regal Caracal. Unsure how realisitic (or good) that is but creatures that bring creatures are really good.

Looking at some of the other mutate creatures, the only playable ones might be Boneyard Lurker or Sea-dasher octopus? Honestly mutate is over costed in most cases IMO.

Five Color Dreams

Cats mainly exist in WRG, but there are great cat cards in other colors. Displacer Kitten, Skycat Soverign, Pride of the Clouds. Cats a 5 color support tribe that works really well with mutate is something that might be more than a dream. Or might be the ravings of a mad man, who knows the difference.

I want to revist cats in 5 colors more once the list has been cut down some. Being a consistent tribe across all colors could make drafting lands early rewarding. Nishoba Brawler is already in the maybe board as a domain pay off

Cats

I'm not going to lie to you, cats is weak in black and mutate is a risky mechanic in a format with so much removal. I'm interested in seeing how this fits into the cube, and even if its removed I still think its better than bats.