In Commander, there is no shortage of themes and Commanders to build a deck around. While each new MTG set delivered plenty of these, few offer as much as Mystery Booster: Commander Edition. This hugely anticipated set might have had a worryingly fast sale, but there’s no denying it contains plenty of gems.
Beyond all of the new Rulebreaker cards and utterly busted legends, for instance, you have cards like Olag and Miau, New Friends. By mashing two beloved typal archetypes together, this Commander creates a very interesting brew. While this might be an unlikely pairing, when all goes to plan, it can pack a real punch, too.
MTG Olag and Miau, New Friends
At its core, Olag and Miau, New Friends is a fairly simple card. When you play a Zombie, you buff a Cat, and when you play a Cat, you buff a Zombie. Considering you only dish out one +1/+1 counter here at a time, it can be rather slow going; however, Olag and Miau’s final ability flips the script.
By dealing damage based on the number of tapped Cats and Zombies you control, Olag and Miau can pack a serious punch. The only real downside of this is that you need your Cats and Zombies to be tapped, but that’s a very solvable problem. Using something like Cryptolith Rite, for instance, you can use them to generate a bunch of mana, and Seedborn Muse can untap them after.
With these two Commander staples in tow, you can focus on building as wide of a board as possible. Thankfully, both Cats and Zombies make this very easy to do. For Cats, Arahbo, the First Fang, Felidar Retreat
Felidar RetreatLandfall — Whenever a land you control enters, choose one —
• Create a 2/2 white Cat Beast creature token.
• Put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Those creatures gain vigilance until end of turn., and Leonin Warleader all make this rather trivial. Meanwhile, Zombies have Cryptbreaker, Eternal Ranks of the Dead, and God-Eternal Oketra to churn out tokens.
Thanks to being in Abzan, Olag and Miau also have access to all the best token doublers like Doubling Season and Anointed Procession. You can also run Ocelot Pride
Ocelot PrideFirst strike, lifelink
Ascend (If you control ten or more permanents, you get the city's blessing for the rest of the game.)
At the beginning of your end step, if you gained life this turn, create a 1/1 white Cat creature token. Then if you have the city's blessing, for each token you control that entered this turn, create a token that's a copy of it., which is fantastically powerful when you’re making so many tokens. In a similar go-wide vein, cards like Bast, Panther Goddess and even Corpse Knight can work wonders.
On top of these, since you’re creating relevant creature types, it’s easy to lean on +1/+1 Counter synergies like Kutzil, Malamet Exemplar. With Hancock, Ghoulish Mayor and Sovereign Okinec Ahau pushing this even further, you can make a remarkably deadly board.
Stacking Synergies
As if this wasn’t enough already, being a Typal deck, you have tons of synergies there to exploit. Cards like Regal Caracal, Death Baron, and Ratadrabik of Urborg make your entire board hit that much harder. Notably, with Maskwood Nexus
Maskwood NexusCreatures you control are every creature type. The same is true for creature spells you control and creature cards you own that aren't on the battlefield.
{3}, {T}: Create a 2/2 blue Shapeshifter creature token with changeling. (It is every creature type.) in play, you’ll never miss out on these synergies since your Cats will be Zombies and vice versa.
With all of this combined, Olag and Miau, New Friends is more than capable of holding its own in Commander. If you want to kick things up a notch, however, you can include Phyrexian Altar to unlock an infinite combo with Gravecrawler. Since sacrificing this Zombie to the Altar will pay for its recast, this gives you infinite enters triggers for endless +1/+1 Counters with Olag and Miau.
Notably, due to the speed of this combo, including it in the 99 will push your deck immediately into bracket four. Here, it’s unclear if Olag and Miau, New Friends will have what it takes to survive, as typal strategies can struggle against Commander’s stronger strategies. As such, you won’t find Phyrexian Altar in our list, but you could cut Liliana, Dreadhorde General for it if you wanted.
Even without any other combos for immediate game-ending potential, Olag and Miau is no slouch in bracket three. Thanks to their final ability, any moderately sized board becomes a ticking clock for each opponent. You can even accelerate this further by running Throne of the God-Pharaoh and Roaming Throne to double triggers.
Patiently Awaiting Prices
Rolling all this together, Olag and Miau, New Friends looks like an all-around slam dunk. Right now, the only thing that might hold it back is the demand for a fused Typal pair like this one. Well, that and the price of Olag and Miau, which is currently unknown, but early signs don’t look good.
Thanks to the Festival in a Box sale of Mystery Booster: Commander Edition selling out so quickly, early prices will likely be exceptionally high. Right now, it’s unclear just how much the new legends will cost; however, it shouldn’t be long before deliveries start happening. Thankfully, after that, prices should slowly fall throughout 2027 as more supply of Mystery Booster: Commander Edition is released.
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