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Who Let The Dogs Out - Dog/Cat Aggro

Standard Aggro BRGW Cats Competitive RGW (Naya) Tokens Tribal

jvitag

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4

Creature (24)

Land (25)

Instant (5)

Planeswalker (2)

Artifact (4)

Sideboard

Instant (8)

Creature (4)

Sorcery (3)

Maybeboard

Creature (4)

Instant (4)

***Decklist has been Edited, skip to bottom for more info. Fun Dog/Cat brew I have been working on. Trying to make something probably not top tier competitive, but somewhat competitive. Once a Pack Leader drops Dogs go on the offensive, Cats become chump blockers or defensive. Once Rin and Siri drop it's time to start recurring Selfless Savior and other 1-2 drops through Lurrus for more chump blocking cats. Necropanther can get back a Lurrus, and if you lose one Lurrus and pull another, you can cast out the Lurrus and Mutate Necropanther over it making the Lurrus no longer Legendary allowing you to bring back your other Lurrus and then you can Lurrus-cast 2 things per turn rather than 1. So don't be afraid to play Lurrus as you would any other creature (offensively or defensively, remember it has Lifelink!), Necropanther can recur a Lurrus or anything else in this deck aside from a Rin and Seri or a Frenzied Arynx. Speaking of Frenzied Arynx, the Riot and Trample give you flexible options, you can either use it as part of a finishing attack (doesn't synergize with Pack Leader but a 3/3 Haste can put you over the top for lethal) or can be held back with a +1/+1 counter as a solid defender next to your chumps, or can help get a proc on Garruk's Uprising if we need fuel later in the game (or on turn 5 if need be). The Sideboard has additional Cats in the form of Feline Soverign to help deal with Cat/Oven matchups, green/white/blue boggles and mirror matches. I started with Scorching Dragonfire to hit Teferi's and pop them for good, or to use them on other superfriends and found myself playing a lot of big creature decks where 3 damage just wasn't cutting it. Then I swapped to Lava Coil and found myself playing superfriends so the Lava Coils were hitting tokens in best of 1. So best of 1 I use Lava Coil because chances are decent that you can overrun superfriends with the early advantage. Kunoros is my favorite dog in the format at present and is as solid a creature as you would want, but interferes with Lurrus/Selfless Savior and Necropanther synergies and as a Legendary we only get 1 for the board, but in the few matches I have used it on MTGA it has helped wreck Rakdos Sac. Because it shuts down a decent part of our own strat I pushed it to the "maybeboard" just to keep it within eyesight. Shared Summons is another maybe. If we stall and need Rin and Seri's ability to remove threats or finish off a weak opponent during a stalemate and we didn't draw it or it got sniped Shared Summons can help break the stalemate, or if we need a couple of pieces like an additional Pack Leader or Sovereign to finish out a game it can help. It seemed as though Shared Summons really shined when I had to mull more than once, and of course you can't know how many times you'll end up mulling until you do. Still a good card, but at what price? What do we take out to fit it in? Maybe pull one of each Nightmare Cat to fit 2 summons? Maybe. All constructive feedback is welcome.

I feel like this is a pretty solid list, looking for tweaks that could make this list more competitive, possibly ladder ready for MTGA.

Edit So after numerous games, I changed the decklist up a bit. The Lurrus/Selfless Savior loop turned out to be as unreliable as I was afraid it was going to be at generating value. Too much of the time the pupper or Lurrus was exiled rather than ending up in the graveyard so that accounted for very little. Garruk's Uprising proved to be underwhelming. It was too situational for this deck to handle. Without a Feline Sovereign to boost the cats and without being able to keep Pack Leader on the table Garruk's Uprising just wasn't cutting the mustard. So I tried out The Great Henge and found it to be just what the doctor ordered in most games it came up. It pumps, it draws, it generates mana, what else can I say? It's a pain when mono-green pulls this out of its ass and it is a pain usually when we pull it out of ours. The next piece was Keeper of Fables. This was a card suggested by Raknulfr and when I first tried it out, it worked better than I expected. People hate blocking dogs that don't take combat damage but they hate letting you draw even less. I found Keeper manipulated my opponents into blocking against their better judgement or scooping when they discovered the card advantage which might be even more powerful/useful than simply drawing a card due to unblocked creature. Combined with Henge it just gets nasty! Finally the last piece. I was finding myself with too few decent plays in the early game, and wanted to add another 1 or 2 drop to the mix. So I went a'looking. I had considered adding in maybe Garrison Cat, but eventually I looked at Regal Leosaur as a good value option. Early game draw gives me the chump I so crave, while mid to late game give draw gives you a not too shabby pump to your board and the ability to cheat the Legendary Rule by mutating over a Rin and Seri allowing you to drop another cat/dog team onto the battlefield! Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Soul Sear ended up making the list because it can hit and kill Indestructibles! Enjoy!

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Raknulfr says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #1

Wow, that seems really solid! Kudos!

I tried over and over to make a Deck using Rin and Seri but I ended up taking in only dogs, because I couldn´t get the right balance between the two critters. I´ll definetly try yours out if you don´t mind :)

July 9, 2020 3:58 a.m.

jvitag says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #2

Raknulfr I hope you enjoy the list! Try pulling the Magmutts and go full playset with Bolt Hound. I haven't updated the list yet, but as much as I have played this this it seems like Bolt Hound has been more crucial than Magmutts.

July 13, 2020 1:38 p.m.

kenvan19 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #3

I went a little more mutate heavy but this was a cool idea and I'd honestly never thought to cheat the legend rule by mutating over! That is a trick I'm keeping in my back pocket! Dreaming of Rin

July 14, 2020 11:41 p.m.

jvitag says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #4

kenvan19 thank you for the mention on your deck! I really appreciate it and I hope you enjoy the list. I was specifically trying to get this to be some amount of competitive in Standard. Maybe I need to throw more mutate in like you did. I have specifically been trying to avoid throwing Snapdax and Cubwarden in, two of my favorite cards from Ikoria, but maybe I really do need to seed them in somewhere. I got the idea for cheating the Legend rule from Sealed deck on MTGA. I pulled 1 Snapdax in my first Sealed Event and got 6 wins with it. I got the idea from there to see if you could end-runaround the Legend rule and tried in a bot match with Snapdax, Lurrus, Regal Leosaur and a bunch of other creatures. To my surprise it worked gangbusters so I have kept that little trick up my sleeve ever since.

July 15, 2020 12:55 p.m.

Raknulfr says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #5

Hey again jvitag. Tried it out on Arena and it has been a blast so far! I switched the Magmutts for Bolt Hounds quite fast as well but i also went on the Uprisings down to 3 and the Arynx down to 3 and added 2 Keeper of Fables to add more value to the uprisings and keep the critters coming, even if just one doggo gets through. (And it is a big fluffy cat and i like him)

July 24, 2020 3:21 a.m.

jvitag says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #6

Thank you for the update Raknulfr! I had originally thrown in the Magmutts mostly to hit Teferis bouncing stuff sideways but decided the punch from Bolt Hound was a bigger benefit. After about 30 or so games I am less impressed with Uprising also. I like your Keeper of Fables modification although what I might try is taking the Uprisings completely out and go all in with the cat. I really like the card art on Arynx which I know is a stupid reason to keep a card in a deck, but since this deck is more of a fun deck rather than a competitive deck (I got nowhere on ladder with it last I tried) then it makes sense to put more cards in that you like rather than more gotcha cards that make a deck more competitive. I don't know, I am not done tuning this deck yet, and I look forward to hearing more suggestions! Glad you liked the overall list!

July 24, 2020 10:18 a.m.

Raknulfr says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #7

"I really like the card art on Arynx which I know is a stupid reason to keep a card in a deck" Nah mate, that`s perfectly fine :D I mean, maybe we are both morons then but what would MTG be if you don´t have fun with your cards and the art on them? (Hmm it probably would be the hardcore competetive scene amirite? XD) I currently try to add Skycat Sovereign to every deck I play containing W/U just because of the art and how EF'ing cute the CatBird Tokens are, haha :D

July 27, 2020 1:11 a.m.

kenvan19 says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #8

Raknulfr Honestly, I agree. Those cat/bird tokens are adorable and in the end this is a game meant for enjoyment. I built an entire black rat deck because the old-school card art on black cards is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool.

July 27, 2020 10:20 a.m.

VampDemigod says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #9

I think you should add the hound in your maybeboard into your side or main board. Escape cards are in the majority of standard decks right now, and on their own, these warrant the addition.

August 19, 2020 5:34 p.m.

jvitag says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #10

VampDemigod this is a comment I have gotten a couple of times and while Kunoros, Hound of Athreos is probably my favorite dog card in MTG, in order to include it I would have to rework the mana. Not a huge deal necessarily because I could drop 4 triomes into the mana base probably for the chance to get Kunoros, but he has some weak links. Kunoros is easy to deal with, when you draw more than 1 you can't recycle him somehow to get additional value with this deck (could include FLING I guess to get some added value) and this deck relies heavily on getting your victory quickly. If you are bogged down to the point where Kunoros is necessary he's probably not going to be saving your bacon. I am still looking for an excuse to include him, and maybe Zendikar will bring one. For now, this deck almost needs to be as fast as RDW or Temur Adventures and other stuff like that will run all over you.

September 6, 2020 2:18 p.m.

ghughe says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #11

Been looking for a dog/cat deck since the m21 spoilers but have been to lazy to make one. Thanks for doing the work! ;)

June 30, 2020 12:35 a.m.

jvitag says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #12

Hey ghughe no problem! Enjoy the list and tell me how it goes! I saw AbsurdHeroine's list and TheNewDrSpilikin's lists on YouTube and said to myself, "there's room for improvement." I wish I could have fit Feline Sovereign into the main, but it seemed like I lost too much including it in best of 1 on MTGA.

June 30, 2020 7:09 a.m.

ghughe says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #13

Yeah I agree, I put this deck into MTGA and I think that the mainboard is fine the way it is. Great job!

June 30, 2020 11:21 a.m.

Phostration says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #14

Have you looked into Cubwarden instead of Arynx? Since mutate is still casting you get a dog and 2 cats with Rin and Seri out. Huntmaster Liger is also good if you want to boost your creatures.

July 7, 2020 6:37 p.m.

Phostration says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #15

Also, it doesn't look like Garruk's uprising procs very often for the creature with 4 power or greater

July 7, 2020 6:39 p.m.

jvitag says... Edit Remove Edit Delete #16

Thank you! I tried other lists that included Cubwarden and Huntmaster. Cubwarden is one of my favorite cards from Ikoria, and while it does create a lot of chumps when it mutates, this isn't a mutate heavy deck. Are the Cubwarden mutate gains greater than the Lurrus/Selfless savior gains? I'm not sure, and it would be hard to fit in the extra cats without affecting the aggro of the dogs. It seems to me, Wizards wanted the dogs roaming about taking new territory while the cats sit back and defend otherwise the cat synergies would be more aggressive. You might be surprised how often Garruk's Uprising proc, especially if you have Pack Leader on the table. Without Pack Leader you are right, it will proc on 2 creatures: Rin and Seri and Arynx if you choose the +1/+1 counter, but with a couple of Pack Leaders on the table you get a proc off of every cat cast when the dog token drops. This deck suffers from early removal resulting in a stall the likes of which you see with bad Monored decks. I would rather have a more reliable card draw engine to keep the accelerator down, but with the colors I'm stuck using I'm not sure there is a better option.

July 8, 2020 7:12 a.m.

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73% Casual

27% Competitive

Revision 2 See all

(4 years ago)

-1 Frenzied Arynx main
-4 Garruk's Uprising main
+2 Keeper of Fables main
-4 Lava Coil main
+2 Lukka, Coppercoat Outcast main
-4 Lurrus of the Dream-Den main
-3 Necropanther main
+3 Regal Leosaur main
+1 Shared Summons main
+4 Soul Sear main
+4 The Great Henge main