Commander?s Greatest Pets Unleashed!

Posted on March 12, 2024

Hello all! I hope that you are having a super awesome day today. Ever since Tolsimir Wolfblood was released back in the first Ravnica set, I have been in love with Commanders that bring their own Pet to the part or represent it in card form. I thought that having a Five Color deck around pets and their makers would be ideal in a Five Color build since many are outside of a smaller color concept.

Here are my rules for being a Pet:

It has to have animal level intel. We might have some exceptions...

It has to be legendary.

It has to be a token like Voja from Tolsimir or a card that used to be a pet like the recent Voja card from Murders.

Ready?

Here's my Commander!

This five-color three-drop mono-White 2/2 can search out legendary stuff with a cost less than her power, and then her size rises with the number of other legendary stuff you control. Seems like a great leader, and since Sisay assembled the Weatherlight crew, the Pets makes sense too!

Mana, Ramp, Lands

Let's start with fun mana rocks! Not normally done in Green decks, but 5C ones like this led me down that path since they are more reliable. The Manalith costs three, taps for any color, and then lets you tap legendary stuff for mana of any color as well. The Mox drops on the first turn, but cannot make mana until your legendary stuff arrives, and then that color of mana. We have some first-turn legendary dorks like Isamaru, Hound of Konda.

Now let's turn to mana dorks. Since Sisay costs three, I tossed in a few one-drops here and three to drop her turn 2. Like the Classic Birds of Paradise that counts as any or many colors of mana. Delighted Halfling enables an uncounterable second-turn commander. Faeburrow Elder dork has size equal to your colors on your stuff. Then it has vigilance to swing and tap in your second mana phase. It taps for mana equal to the color count as well. I am also running Bloom Tender in that genre.

Leyline of the Guildpact costs four, but which four can vary and has all five colors in its identity with hybrid mana all Green. It's free on your opening hand. You nonland stuff is all colors for things like Bloom Tender and your lands are every basic land type so that's ideal for making that mana! Chromatic Lantern costs three, taps for any color like a Manalith and then your lands can tap for any color of mana, so it serves a doubly mana fixing role here. Love this pair loads!

Now let's turn to lands! I tossed in tons of legendary lands for you to tutor with her ability since they'll always be fetchable. The Green tapper doesn't ETB tapped, can be discarded for not more than two mana to destroy a target and give them a free land to ramp. The colorless tapper taps with two to prevent all combat damage, and since we don't have many flyers or reachers, that was key. I think it'll be one of the first you Tutor for. I also tossed in Maze of Ith.

The World Tree ETBs tapped, and if you have at least six lands, your lands will tap for all of the colors. Nasty mana fixing! Diamond City ETBs with a shield counter which you can hop to a dork if two or more dorks entered on your side of the battlefield this turn. It just requires humble tapping. Love this ability to save your key stuff like Sisay.

Cool Pets

Now let's turn to fun pets! Voja I mentioned earlier. This Naya colored five-drop 5/5 with vigilance, trample and ward 3 to protect a bit. Vigilance and trample are a great combo since you can swing past chump blocks and stay back for blocking. Then Voja has an attack trigger so you'll want to swing at the open player. You'll pump your team permanently in size based on your Elf count. Given our three Tolsimirs and I am sure a few here and there count too. Then you'll draw equal to your Wolf count, at least one for him, and we have another I can think of that counts as a Wolf too, plus the other Vojas from Tolsimir.

Then the beloved Dog Cat team are next! They are also Naya colored, cost four, drop with 4/4, and have two triggered abilities to turn casts of Cats/Dogs into the other type as a free creature token of 1/1 size. I can think of a few Dogs we have here and there and one Cat off my head. Then you can tap this with three mana to shoot a dork equal to Dog count, so this is removal of opposing dorks. And you'll gain life equal to your Cat count too. Lovely group!

Jhoira's Familiar is here for the ability to reduce your historic spells like legendaries and other artifacts by 1 each. Nasty! Minsc, Beloved Ranger costs three for a 3/3 Ranger that arrives to the battlefield with a 1/1 red Hamster named Boo with a 1/1 trample and haste ability. Then you can spend X mana to grow a dork into size X/X with a Giant type at sorcery speed to kill fast, ideally on a trampler or flyer. That's a mana sink and game winner.

Synergies and Win Conditions

K-9, Mark 1 gives your other legendary stuff ward 1 when untapped. Then you can tap it with two mana to keep a legendary dork from being blocked this turn. K-9 was the Doctor's pet, so I count it. Yoshimaru has one ability - when other legendary stuff (anything even lands) ETBs on your side of the board, you'll give this a +1/+1 counter to grow fast. And's a Dog too. Love these cheap first-turn plays if you don't have Sol Ring or a mana dork. I love Yoshi first prior to a mana dork so a third-turn Sisay will grow him. You won't be able to use Sisay to tutor until minimum turn 5, and that's with acceleration and getting all mana.

Alright, now let's turn to something you might not like. The Ashaya Question. This Elemental is made in a Nissa planeswalker, also here. Does Ashaya count as a Pet? I think so, although it's stretching a bit. We'll want this Elemental here since it's a huge win con five-drop equal to your land count and your nontoken stuff counts as Forests to grow its size and tap for that mana! Nasty! I also have Awakening of Vitu-Ghazi as a trick which you might appreciate. The artifact costs two and is legendary for Sisay's purposes. Then you can spend any mana for any color's needed for your activated abilities of your dorks, so your Sisay will now be any five mana you have or Rin and Seri don't need Naya to tap. Then your dorks with +1/+1 counters get the abilities of things you've exiled. You can tap this and exile a card from any graveyard (graveyard abuse removal) and if you pulled a dork, toss a +1/+1 on a dork you control. Like Voja above and a few below, we have a few ways to add in +1/+1 counters on stuff, but don't exile your legendary stuff.

Now let's turn to this Elf and Dog pair! The Dog costs three Naya mana for a 3/3 size and ETBs to mill five and then return an Aura or Equipment to your hand from your graveyard. I have no Auras, but I do have some equipment here and there. Then when you attack with something enchanted or equipped, you'll make a Junk token to try and cast from your library, but that might not work well here, since you might not be able to cast what you exiled even without spending the mana to sac it since you might not have that color of mana, so wait until you have all of your colors with Bloom Tender or Chromatic Lantern. The Elf costs five for a 3/2 lifelink that ETBS with a 5/5 Wolf trampler legendary named Voja for the card flow and growing your team. When your Wolves attack, if Tolsimir attacked too, you can keep something from blocking so together they have evasion past one dork defenses.

Drizzt Do'Urden has a 3/3 body with double strike, nasty. When it ETBs, you'll make a free Cat (Rin and Seri) 4/1 Green token, legendary, named Guenhwyvar with trample. Then when something of your dies, if it's power was greater, you'll toss a+1/+1 counter here to grow permanently! Tatsunari, Toad Rider says when you cast an enchantment spell, you can make a free Keimi legendary 3/3 Frog dork with a cast enchantment trigger to drain life from your foes. And you can spend two mana to make both unblockable for the turn save by flying or reachers. I don't have that many, sorry. Nasty 3/3 pair that are all colors but Red!

Tesak, Judith's Hellhound has unleash, so you can give it a +1/+1 counter to grow it in size but you cannot block if you do. Your Dogs gain unleash, and we've seen how many we randomly have! Then our dorks with counters have haste, so if you unleashed a Dog, now it's hasted too! And then when this attacks, you'll make mana equal to your attacking dorks in Red form! Mowu, Loyal Companion has vigilance and trample, which we already discussed how awesome that combo is! And it's a Dog for Tesak to grow and give haste too. And then when a +1/+1 counter is tossed here, add another, so now he'll be a 5/5. He is made by Jiangg (also here in planeswalker form).

Now let's turn to more legendary stuff! The legendary Equipment costs three to drop, and equips for two. The equipped dork gets a strong boost in size of +3/+1. Then when it swings, you'll make two tapped 1/1 Spirit flyers of the White variety. Then when you attack with an equipped legendary dork, you'll make those attacking instead. Then the creature costs two for a 1/1 body. When your Commander deals combat damage, you'll deal that damage to all of your foes, so that's a backup wincon, but since it won't count as Commander Damage kill to the others, it'll still be slower. Sisay can grow in size as more legendary stuff is on the battlefield, so you can grow her fast! Then I am running all of the other uncommon partner legendary Familiars here like the Wolf (Anara), and the Cat (Falthis) that help your Commander do stuff!

It's not easy to cast, but the best recursion spell here is Primevals' Glorious Rebirth Then all your legendary permanents return to your battlefield from your graveyard, from lands to dorks! I am also running Regrowth variant Bala Ged Rebirth to give me one thing and Vollrath's Stronghold to reload dead dorks. Captain Sisay costs four, Selesnya colors, a smaller 2/2, but then you can tap her to search your library for any legendary card, not just dorks, and toss it into your hand, so she's a recursive Demonic Tutor for what you want to cast, and then she costs no mana, so you can get something big and then cast it that turn. (Or drop it if a land).

Card Flow

Now let's turn to legendary matters card flow! The Red one-drop was named called in Kari Zev (who is here too). This 2/1 Red dork has a combat damage trigger, easy to get early, to make a Treasure for ramping and cast the top card that is now exiled of your foe's library. Nasty and since we are five colors, we should have the right colors for it! Our other Familiar is here, a six cost Spirit that name calls another with a small 1/5 body that turns card draws into digging three and grabbing the top card instead. Note that this replaces card draw, like Abundance, broken with Sylvan Library (also here) since you replace all cards drawn, and then you don't need to put cards back.

Now let's turn to more legendary stuff! Sophia, Dogged Detective arrives to the battlefield with a 2/2 named Tiny typed as Dog Detective with trample (Rin, Tesak), with a legendary body. Then you can spend a mana to sacrifice an artifact for tossing a +1/+1 counter on all of your Dogs, and two on Mowu. Junk counts here too. Then when your Dogs deal combat damage you'll make a Food for life and Clues for card draw, and then note this is worded to work each time. The One Ring also costs four and when it ETBs, if you cast it, you get protection from everything for a round of turns! Then you lose life in your upkeep equal to the burden counters here, and can tap it with no mana to put a burden counter here and draw that many cards.

Let's finish our card flow with Honden of Seeing Winds! The Shrine will draw you a card each upkeep for your Shrine count, minimum one. That minimum is what I have here, no others are here. Tamiyo's Journal will make you a Clue in your upkeep for sacrificing to Sophia or drawing cards. Or you can sac three Clues and tap this to Demonic Tutor, quite useful with the Clue making in mass of the aforementioned Sophia.

Answers

Let's finish with answers! I'll start with answers to answers, like Heroic Intervention or this instant in White that costs three to phase out all of your stuff not just dorks until your next turn to save your entire group of stuff. I also tossed in modal spell land Sejiri Shelter to save one thing instead! Then I tossed in the two equipment with flash to save your stuff. The legendary one has indestructible, costs three, equips for three, when it ETBs, you can equip a legendary dork and it gains indestructible to stop stuff. The non-legendary one costs two, equips for three, and the free equip dork on ETB gains shroud for the turn to shut down targeted removal and cannot be blocked to kill out of nowhere too.

Now let's turn to removal of things in this non-Blue duet. Minsc & Boo, Timeless Heroes ETBs with 3 loyalty and a 1/1 red Hamster named Boo with trample and haste to block attack or swing. If he blocks or dies, you get another in your upkeep. Then you can +1 him to toss a trio of +1/+1 counters onto something with trample (Mowu) or haste like Boo and swing with 4 when this duo ETBs. Then you can -2 them once with their loyalty to sac a dork to shoot a target for X damage equal to the sacrificed dork's power, like a Fling, to finish off a player, a planeswalker or a dork. If you sacced a Hamster like your two Boos, you also draw that many cards too.

Then I tossed in some instant removal of most or all things like Generous Gift or Beast Within, as well as Utter End, which will exile one (nonland) permanent for the game and gets past indestructible. I am also running one emergency mass removal spell with a modal spell land in my White section that hits everything but lands called Ondu Inversion.

Now let's finish with emergency counters. I am only running this pair since Blue is not a common color in my stuff and I don't want to run Counterspell that costs two Blue unreliably. I am running the splashable common above that costs two, counters anything, and then your foe will draw two and you one so it's a bit a cantrip. Then the rare costs a splashable three, it's a Negate, and if I control my Commander, likely early, it'll be free to cast! It'll be free to cast pretty reliably with a three-drop Commander you can drop on turn two reliably.

And there we go! I hope you enjoyed this fun take on all things Pet in the Five Color Space! Ready for my decklist?