Greetings fellow Fallout fans! If you're reading this column, you are likely one of the many Commander players who has embraced the Universes Beyond Magic expansion sets and you're excited to start playing EDH with some of these cool new Fallout cards!

I was all set with IP crossovers when the Harlem Globetrotters visited Gilligan's Island way back in 1981, but I also really enjoy brewing up crazy new decks around crazy new Magic cards - whether or not they are from the long and storied lore of Magic.

I am a fan of Fallout, though I haven't played every one of the Fallout games and I'm far from an expert. I just love the atmosphere of those games, and the Ink Spots' 1941 song "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire" has a place in my heart thanks to them. If you now have that song playing in your head, either because of Fallout or thanks to the opening scene of the Season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Picard, you're welcome.

Today's subject may not hail from Dominaria or Innistrad, but he's got an amazing party trick and he's worth checking out.

Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ is a human bard in Boros colors. He's got a 1 power, 5 toughness body, which should help him survive combat. He only has one ability, but it's a doozy. Whenever you attack, you may pay 2 and sacrifice an Aura attached to Three Dog. When you sacrifice an Aura this way, for each other attacking creature you control, create a token that's a copy of that Aura attached to that creature.

It's worth noting that Three Dog does not have to attack, but he will only put token copies of the Aura you sacrifice on your attacking creatures, and this ability will affect all of your attacking creatures. Like a DJ sending out tunes over the radio waves, Three Dog will send out Auras to your attacking creatures.

My biggest quandary is how many auras to run and how many creatures or creature token generators to run. Today's list is just a first draft, so I'm sure it will need to be tweaked to get the balance just right, but this looks to be a really interesting and really fun commander to build around. It might end up being a headache trying to keep track of which creatures have which token auras on them, but that's OK. We've had similar headaches with commanders like Ivy, Gleeful Spellthief.

Three Dog's best games will probably be incredible, explosive affairs where you draw a mess of cards and do some pretty crazy things.

Spread the News

The balance between creatures and auras is pretty important in a deck like Three Dog. If I don't have enough bodies, I won't be able to squeeze as much value out of putting auras on my attacking creatures. If I don't have enough auras, I might find myself with little or nothing of value to put onto my other creatures in the first place.

Let's start with the first part of the problem: how do we put enough creatures on the field to make a difference.

Ajani's Chosen might be one of the most synergistic cards in this deck. This four-mana White Cat Soldier will have me create a 2/2 White Cat creature token whenever an enchantment enters the battlefield under my control. Given how Three Dog can spam out token copies of auras, that could get out of control after even just a few turns. Those token auras can be attached to the token instead of their original target, but that's a "may" ability so I'll only do that if it makes sense.

Less synergistic, but better at creating a huge army, Tilonalli's Summoner is a 1/1 Human Shaman with a fantastic attack trigger. I can pay X and one red mana to create X 1/1 red Elemental creature tokens that are tapped and attacking. Both Summoner's attack trigger and Three Dog's attack trigger are controlled by me, so I get to order them however I like. When I go to attack I would first create my tapped and attacking Elemental creature tokens, and then I would sacrifice an aura and put a copy of that aura on each of my attacking creatures.

My third example might seem underwhelming, but I think it could really break a game wide open. Let's say I have a 10 power Three Dog with Elemental Mastery and All that Glitters attached. I could tap Three Dog to create 10 1/1 Red Elemental creature tokens with haste. Then I could go to attack with those 10 Elementals, sacrifice All that Glitters, which gives +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment I control, and then put a token copy of it on each of my attackers. I would be losing 1 aura and adding 10, so my artifact and enchantment count would go up by 9, and my 1/1 Red Elementals would probably be big enough to easily kill anyone without enough blockers.

If that seems like an incredible scenario, you're right to be skeptical. Decks have to be lucky or have to draw a lot of cards to be able to hit these kinds of "Magical Christmasland" turns. Fortunately, I was able to find a lot of ways to draw cards for this deck. I'm running Mesa Enchantress, Kor Spiritdancer, and Sram, Senior Edificer, but there are even better ways to draw a ton of cards.

Any Red or White aura that draws a card when it enters the battlefield, and which can reasonably be placed onto one of my own creatures was worth considering for this deck. Dragon Mantle might not seem that great, but if I can attack with 5 creatures and draw 5 cards by making token copies of it, I'll be thrilled. Rune of Speed, Rune of Sustenance, Angelic Gift, and Pentarch Ward all made the cut. Unquestioned Authority both draws me a card and gives the enchanted creature protection from creatures. Three Dog doesn't target when his ability gets used, so that shouldn't stop me from putting additional auras on them.

My biggest card draw spell might be Sage's Reverie. When it enters the battlefield, I'll draw a card for each Aura I control that's attached to a creature. It also gives +1/+1 for each Aura I control that's attached to a creature. That makes it a fantastic enchantment to sacrifice to Three Dog's ability. I just need to be careful that I don't draw myself out, as all of those token copies will come in and have me draw even more cards!

Deep Cuts

One of the more interesting ways to try to take advantage of what Three Dog brings to the party is to play some pretty janky cards. Back in Theros block theyintroduced enchantment creatures with the ability to be cast as a creature or as an aura. The keyword for this ability was "bestow" and if you cast the spell for its bestow cost it would enter the battlefield attached to target creature as an aura. If the creature left the battlefield the aura would fall off and become a creature.

The thing to remember about a card with bestow is that it only enters the battlefield as an aura if it was cast for its bestow cost. That means that if you were to attack with 10 creatures and had Everflame Eidolon enchanting Three Dog, you could sacrifice it and create 10 token copies of Everflame Eidolon. Those token copies would enter as creatures because they were not cast for their bestow costs!

That means you can essentially double the size of your army, or at least create a number of new creatures equal to the number of attacking creature you control - just by using Three Dog with bestowed enchantment creatures. Those new creatures aren't always great, but some of them are pretty decent. Everflame Eidolon only had firebreathing, but Ghostblade Eidolon has double strike. Follow that up on your next turn with Ethereal Armor, which gives first strike and +1/+1 for each enchantment you control, and you'll have a serious threat on your field.

Eidolon of Countless Battles is amazing when used with Three Dog. As an aura it gives +1/+1 for each enchantment you control and +1/+1 for each creature you control. If you make just five of them, they'll each get +10/+10 from the fact that they are enchantment creatures. You'll likely have other enchantments and creatures lying around to make them even bigger.

I could see a build of Three Dog that runs all thirteen of the White and Red cards that have bestow, but the bestow ability is very mana intensive. That doesn't mean it couldn't work, but it doesn't feel like a good plan to me.

Mantle of the Ancients is an interesting aura in this deck. When it enters the battlefield I'll return any number of target aura and/or equipment cards from my graveyard to the battlefield attached to enchanted creature. That means any aura I've sacrificed can come back again, both when Mantle is originally played, and when I put token copies of it onto the battlefield. The auras I recur will have to be attached to creatures that are being enchanted by Mantle of the Ancients, but that's still a pretty nice bit of extra value I'll be getting.

While it isn't an aura, Hallowed Haunting can both help me put more bodies on the field and it might even give my creatures flying and vigilance. Those bodies aren't just little tokens. I'll be making White Spirit Cleric creature tokens with a power and toughness equal to the number of Spirits I control. It triggers on casting enchantments, so it won't give me Spirits when Three Dog creates token auras, but it should be easy for me to get seven or more enchantments under my control. Flying and vigilance are great keywords and getting them as an anthem effect could easily set up a game winning turn.

This deck is not lacking in ways to make my creatures big, but Boon of the Spirit Realm was something of a surprise find. This enchantment will get a blessing counter whenever it or another enchantment enters the battlefield under my control. Creatures I control will get +1/+1 for each of those blessing counters, making for a pretty nice anthem effect if things go well.

Can't Stop the Signal

Whenever I brew up a new deck I have a hard time not imagining best case scenarios. In my head I'm always attacking with 10 creatures and creating tokens that draw me cards or make my creatures an incredible, game ending threat. The reality is of course that sometimes that happens, but even a deck's average turn can be full of synergy and value even if it isn't completely insane.

My gut is telling me that I might want a few more creatures in this list, and I might want a little more ramp and a couple more lands, but I would be comfortable playing this deck. If you are of a mindset where you think 40 lands is the bare minimum or you can't imagine a Boros deck without at least a dozen mana rocks, by all means tweak this list to your heart's content. This is a starting point - no more, no less. If you like what I'm brewing you should take it and you should bend it and shape it and make it your own.

Three Dog Fallout | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ

• Creatures (22)
• 1 Ajani's Chosen
• 1 Archivist of Oghma
• 1 Armored Skyhunter
• 1 Celestial Archon
• 1 Danitha Capashen, Paragon
• 1 Eidolon of Countless Battles
• 1 Esper Sentinel
• 1 Everflame Eidolon
• 1 Ghostblade Eidolon
• 1 Goldspan Dragon
• 1 Heliod's Pilgrim
• 1 Kazuul, Tyrant of the Cliffs
• 1 Kor Spiritdancer
• 1 Leonin Warleader
• 1 Mesa Enchantress
• 1 Ondu Spiritdancer
• 1 Otharri, Suns' Glory
• 1 Slumbering Keepguard
• 1 Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1 Sun Titan
• 1 Tilonalli's Summoner
• 1 Umbra Mystic

• Instants (8)
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Generous Gift
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Settle the Wreckage
• 1 Swords to Plowshares
• 1 Teferi's Protection

• Sorceries (4)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Fumigate
• 1 Vanquish the Horde
• 1 Winds of Rath

• Enchantments (22)
• 1 All That Glitters
• 1 Angelic Gift
• 1 Anointed Procession
• 1 Boon of the Spirit Realm
• 1 Darksteel Mutation
• 1 Dragon Mantle
• 1 Elemental Mastery
• 1 Ethereal Armor
• 1 Hallowed Haunting
• 1 Holy Mantle
• 1 Land Tax
• 1 Mantle of the Ancients
• 1 Pentarch Ward
• 1 Rune of Speed
• 1 Rune of Sustenance
• 1 Sage's Reverie
• 1 Sphere of Safety
• 1 Spirit Mantle
• 1 Unquenchable Fury
• 1 Unquestioned Authority
• 1 Vow of Duty
• 1 Vow of Lightning

• Artifacts (6)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Helm of the Gods
• 1 Nettlecyst
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Conviction

• Lands (37)
• 10 Mountain
• 20 Plains
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Sundown Pass

Buy This Deck Export text

If you wanted to power this list up, you could do the usual and add fast mana. A copy of Serra's Sanctum would set you back a few hundred bucks, but it's an obvious include if you can get your hands on one. That land taps to make one White mana for each enchantment you control. If you wanted you could throw in Eldrazi Conscription, but I don't love the idea of setting myself up to swing a dozen creatures, each with Annihilator 2. In sufficient quantities, Annihilator is indistinguishable from mass land destruction, and I'd rather win my games in ways that my opponents don't hate.

To tune this list down you could drop out a few of the pricier cards like Dockside Extortionist, Anointed Procession, Teferi's Protection and Esper Sentinel. They're great cards, but aside from Anointed Procession, they aren't central to this deck's game plan. You might argue that doubling your tokens isn't really necessary either, but I find it hard to pass up.

Early Results

I was able to play this list in a game, after swapping a Dockside Extortionist out of an early draft for Settle the Wreckage. When you want to attack a lot, but sometimes you know you're going to lose a lot of bodies by doing so, Settle the Wreckage can become a card that can both serve to protect you, or to ramp you by using it on your own attackers.

The table was a mid-powered one and it's possible I was a bit too high powered for the game. I'm often optimistic about my new decks, but I've also seen plenty of decks that I thought were good just fall on their faces in their first game. I was up against two Vannifar, Evolved Enigma decks and a Kardur deck.

I got a ton of value out of a turn four Ajani's Chosen, spitting out cat tokens like crazy. I had a few Knight tokens from a Hunted Dragon played by the Kardur player, and once I had managed to get a Spirit Mantle on Three Dog and then sacrificed it to put token copies on five or six of my creatures, making five or six Cat tokens, I had some pretty good momentum. I was able to use a Boros Charm and then Blasphemous Act to clear the way so I could close out the game. Having two players with their decks just not behaving (mana screwed / mana flooded) helped a lot, but it was still a solid first showing and it was nice to see the deck live up to its potential.

The Vannifar decks had a weird game, in that one of them was really mana-screwed, and the other was mana flooded. At the end, when one of them had 3 lands and the other had close to a dozen, it was clear that it would be hard to draw solid conclusions about the power level of this deck when half the table really didn't have the chance to play a real game. It happens, of course, but I did feel sorry for their bad luck.

At one point I was in a position where I could have played Sage's Reverie and then could have drawn myself out by creating seven token copies of it. I checked the table temperature to see if they'd appreciate me doing that so they could finish things off amongst themselves, but they declined the offer. I don't blame them, but it was still strangely tempting. Normally I wouldn't even offer something like that, but it was clearly an unbalanced game and not a lot of fun for some of my tablemates.

Today's list could probably benefit from having a few cards swapped out for Swiftfoot Boots and maybe Mask of Avacyn to protect Three Dog. Late in the game I did see my commander get hit with a Beast Within but it was already too late for everyone but the Kardur player. Kardur is a goad deck, so when there are only two players left it can be very hard to close out the game, since goad only really works if I've got someone else to attack.

Final Thoughts

My biggest takeaway is that Three Dog, Galaxy News DJ is a really exciting and potentially explosive new commander that plays in a new space for Boros. I don't usually think of Red / White decks as playing that much with Auras.

I am now very seriously thinking about building this in paper after playing just one online game. I've got a Zirda, the Dawnwaker deck that I finally got a Grim Monolith for, but I could see eventually taking that apart to build this crazy list in paper. I might just have to cue up some Ink Spots on my phone to play at the start of each game, or maybe to cap off a Three Dog win!

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!