Arahbo, Roar of the World
Eminence was the design conceit built to solve a specific commander problem: a tribal payoff that works before the commander ever hits the battlefield. Most tribal leaders demand you cast them, protect them, and rebuild after every removal spell. This one radiates its buff from the command zone, so the +3/+3 fires at the beginning of combat on your turn regardless of whether the Cat Avatar is on the field or waiting to be cast. That structural shift is what makes the card the anchor of green-white Cats: the engine cannot be answered by killing the general, only by killing the deck around it. The second ability is the payoff for actually resolving the body, a mana-hungry, per-attack pump that doubles a creature's power and grants trample, turning any evasive or oversized Cat into a lethal threat in a single swing. Stack the eminence bonus first, then pay the pump on the enlarged creature, and the numbers compound quickly because X is measured after the +3/+3 lands. The design tension is between those two halves: the command-zone buff is reliable but modest, while the battlefield ability is explosive but taxes your mana every combat. Leave the general in the command zone and you get consistency; play it out and you trade that insulation for the explosive finisher while risking removal and commander tax. It is a rare tribal lord whose optimal line depends on where it is sitting.



