Dog Soldiers. A Tovolar, Dire Overlord [Primer]

Commander / EDH Aggro Bracket 3 Humans Innistrad Multiplayer Primer RG (Gruul) Theme/Gimmick Transform Vorthos Werewolf

cheeseychum

Creature (30)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Avabruck Caretaker
• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Burly Breaker
• 1x Duskwatch Recruiter
• 1x Goblin Anarchomancer
• 1x Howlpack Piper
• 1x Huntmaster of the Fells
• 1x Ill-Tempered Loner
• 1x Immerwolf
• 1x Kessig Cagebreakers
• 1x Kessig Naturalist
• 1x Kessig Prowler
• 1x Lambholt Pacifist
• 1x Mayor of Avabruck
• 1x Obsessive Astronomer
• 1x Outland Liberator
• 1x Realmwalker
• 1x Reckless Stormseeker
• 1x Reckless Waif
• 1x Sage of Ancient Lore
• 1x Scorned Villager
• 1x Torgal, A Fine Hound
• 1x Tovolar's Huntmaster
• 1x Ulrich of the Krallenhorde *f-pre*
• 1x Ulvenwald Captive
• 1x Village Messenger
• 1x Werewolf Pack Leader
• 1x Wolfbitten Captive
• 1x Wolfkin Outcast

Land (34)

• 7x Forest
• 6x Forest
• 1x Game Trail
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 5x Mountain
• 6x Mountain
• 1x Rockfall Vale
• 1x Rootbound Crag
• 1x Spire Garden
• 1x Stomping Ground
• 1x Thornspire Verge
• 1x Winding Canyons

Sorcery (9)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Fury of the Horde
• 1x GambleGC
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Horrific Assault
• 1x Into the Night
• 1x Stump Stomp
• 1x Unnatural Moonrise

Artifact (7)

• 1x Chrome MoxGC
• 1x Dolmen Gate
• 1x Herd Heirloom
• 1x Lightning Greaves
• 1x Progenitor's Icon
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The Celestus

Commander (1)

Enchantment (9)

• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1x Cindervines
• 1x Full Moon's Rise
• 1x Howlpack Resurgence
• 1x Mass Hysteria
• 1x Myth Unbound
• 1x Rhythm of the Wild
• 1x Unnatural Growth

Instant (8)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Berserk
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Heroic Intervention
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Moonlight Hunt
• 1x Moonmist
• 1x Return to Nature

Planeswalker (2)

• 1x Arlinn, the Pack's Hope *pp*
• 1x Domri, Anarch of Bolas

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WELCOME TO THE DOG SOLDIERS PRIMER!

Do you like unique tribal mechancis? Are you a connoisseur of aggro/combat based decks? Would people describe your playstyle as a Jack of all Jank? Does the story or theme of a deck REALLY matter to your personal enjoyment? Are you a closeted Furry? Then please join the Dog Soldiers Howlpack!

Introduction

About the deck

This deck is named “Dog Soldiers” after the cult horror movie about a group of Scottish marines being attacked by werewolves. A fun movie! It intended as a midrange/aggro deck that aims to establish a strong board early, refill the hand and pressure life totals quickly. If you have blockers, something is probably wrong.

Thematically this deck is all about Werewolves, I have strived to have the majority of the deck be werewolves as the idea is Tovolar is uniting them all, since we finally have a werewolf tribal commander. The cards are specific printings/treatments because those are the physical cards I have. They do not need equipments because primal animals of tooth and claw don’t require boring magic swords.

I have included werewolves that do something on either transformed form so there is always at least some kind of effect on the board, rather than a cool vanilla creature.

Essentially it is an low-costed Gruul Timmy deck, with extra steps

Deliberately excluded the standard cookie-cutter tribal cards such as Coat of Arms etc because I like my decks being a bit different personally instead of being a pile of cards screenshot from EDHREC...

Why play this deck (PROS)

Werewolves are unique and work around transforming into stronger versions, which is cool and unique. If you like simple aggro decks with access to a bunch of tricks and unique mechanics this is a deck for you. Tovolar provides synergy with said transform mechanic, uniting both pre-Midnight Hunt werewolves and MID/Crimson Vow werewolves to be hairy at the same time.

Why not play this deck (CONS)

Sometimes the transforming mechanic is a pain to flip the creatures to their better side and you have to wait for 3 other players to take their turns and usually cast 2 spells so the werewolves will flip back to their weaker sides pretty frequently. Also, due to the difference in mechanical identity the original innistrad block werewolves are not tied to Day/Night cycles so need tracking differently.

Werewolves also do not deal with flying well so Angels/Demons/Dragons/Assorted flying tribals must be plaYed around carefully.

LOTS of triggers to resolve sometimes.

Tovolar is a very important part of the deck so is a lightning rod for removal since he turns the deck on.

People also find Day/Night annoying so be prepared to be focused by irrational players.

Strategy

Matchups/Starting Hands

General Outline

You want to keep 2 lands and some low cost creatures, regardless of what they do. Look for 3 mana sources in opening hands to allow you to hit the ground running and get ready to start drawing cards via combat from turn 2-3 when Tovolar comes down.

CONSISTEBT HIGH PERFOMER ALL STAR CARDS TO KEEP IF YOU HAVE THEM:

Werewolf Pack Leader - draw and good early game body

Kessig Naturalist   - ramp or ramp+anthem

Torgal, A Fine Hound - ramp and free stat buffs

Howlpack Piper   - card selection, cheats creatures in to trigger transformations

Huntmaster of the Fells   - likes going back and forth transforming, providing relevant effects on either side. Used to be a format all-star

Full Moon's Rise - Trample, stat buff and protects against boardwipes

Mass Hysteria - Everyone becomes attack happy and usually open for your low cost hordes

Control/Value Decks

Control decks will usually wipe your board if you over extend so manage your boardstate so you dont end up completely empty handed. Main cards to look for/have against these decks are:

Cindervines - usually they play lots of noncreature spells so punish them for it.

Myth Unbound - Tovolar has a habit of being killed a lot when youre trying to refill your hand via combat damage so easing your access to him goes a LONG way. The deck does depend on his abilities to tie werewolves together.

Howling Moon - Incremental value from people playing multiple spells and giving you a free boardstate? Yes please.

Domri, Anarch of Bolas - Domri stops counterspells for your creatures and gives a small damage increase, underrated card.

Avabruck Caretaker   / Hollowhenge Huntmaster   - Beefs your board and very hard to kill - protects your board from spot removal too.

Howlpack Piper   / Wildsong Howler   - Card selection and activated ability gets around counterspells. Insane card.

Combo Decks

You will probably just be doomed vs combo orientated decks as they have higher card quality than a Gruul of occasionally hairy janky humans so keep as much instant speed removal/interaction as you can. KILL ASAP

Main cards to look for/have against these decks are interaction and card draw.

Midrange Decks

Against midrange look for higher card quality to make sure youre playing the best cards you can on each turn. Avoid vanilla low cost creatures or overcommitting to a board. Best things to go for in your opening hand are our best enablers/werewolf synergistic cards.

Gameplay

Basic Outline Guide

ATTACK AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE (DUH)

"You must be actively trying to end the game at all times or you will not win." - Richard Garfield, probably.

tl;dr your strategy is to lower life totals and turn creatures sideways. Attacking when it is Night or your werewolves are hairy and building a board/card advantage when it is Day or your werewolves are human

Early Game

You are aiming to get as many low cost werewolves onto the board as you can, in order to have multiple attackers to start refilling your hand or digging through the deck to keep the momentum going. Since with Tovolar on board relatively early compared to other card draw engines you should be able to get at least 2 extra cards a turn fairly regularly. This is all to help setup for our mid game or recover from board wipes. If there are no blockers, thats a free card so target players appropriately - the deck requires attacking so you go where you can guarantee a hit.

Mid Game

By this point hopefully there are a few werewolves in play that have provided some extra cards, so now we want to back up their stats with some tribal support cards/anthems in order to keep dishing out damage or trampling over whichever blockers have manifested by this point from our opponents. A key way to manage this is by swinging out as much as possible or doing whatever you can to keep tovolar around for his upkeep transform as that allows us to use the best stats of our creatures to deal max damage or kill as fast as we can. Mid game is the most important stage here for target selection/threat assessment, priority targets are life gain and combo decks. If it has lifesteal, it dies.

Late Game

By this poing we should have amassed some resources so now we play the big cards. Aggravated Assault, Berserker's Onslaught, Avabruck Caretaker, Beastmasters Ascension, use them all because you need to close out the game quickly before other players who have been ramping to their late game threats will be playing better creatures than we are. Aggression and targeting are the best deciders in sneaking a win so you must attack with impunity if anyone has no blockers.

Problem Cards/Weaknesses

You need a board to do things with.

Werewolves can't fly, thus anything that flies (notably dragons and angels) needs to be a priority target to kill the player.

Cards such as Ghostly Prison Propaganda or anything that messes with our creatures (forced sacrifice effects) need to be removed as soon as possible or you will be stuck doing nothing but tracking Day/Night until you are finally killed. If it prevents combat it gets removed.

Since we want to draw a lot of cards due to Tovolar's ability, cards such as Underworld Dreams and Nekusar, the Mindrazer will kill you very quickly.

Wincons

BURN - The deck has a couple ways to close out the extra damage namely around -> Ill-Tempered Loner  /Howlpack Avenger   + Blasphemous Act + a board of creatures. This one is a meme wincon but people never see it coming. It is utterly hilarious to have a wide board of creatures, go through combat and reflect blocking damage back at opponents' faces then dropping Blasphemous Act to nuke the board and resulting in multiple instances of 13 damage doming people in the face.

Due to the damage reflection effect that Ill-Tempered Loner  /Howlpack Avenger   provides attacking aggressively discourages blocks for fear of retaliatory damage, which can be used to kill key creatures/burn out opponents who might be at low life total.

COMBAT - Make big life numbers reach 0, if you have creatures they should go sideways. There are plenty effects that make our werewolves stronger with stats/keywords ( Berserkers' Onslaught, Howlpack Resurgence, Full Moon's Rise, Beastmaster Ascension etc ) KILL THE LIFE GAIN OR CONTROL PLAYER FIRST - EVEN IF THEY CRY ABOUT IT

VOLTRON - Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge   can beef himself to assign lethal damage quite nicely so he has the potential to put a clock on people. If you have a life gain opponent then beat them to death with your commander damage as much as possible while targeting the rest of your board elsewhere so you don't waste your time.

Transform

There are three different ways that werewolves in this deck transform

DAY/NIGHT

Day/Night changes in the Untap step, before the active player determines which permanents he or she untaps.

If the previous ACTIVE player cast 2 spells, Night -> Day, Nightbound permanents flip to their front side and will enter on their front side.

If the previous ACTIVE player cast no spells, Day -> Night, Daybound permanents flip to their back side and will enter on their back side.

If the previous ACTIVE player cast 1 spell and it is Night -> Night

If the previous ACTIVE player cast 1 spell and it is Day -> Day

Daybound/Nightbound permanents (for example, Tovolar, Dire Overlord + Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge ) will ONLY transform when Day/Night changes.

Cards that make Daybound/Nightbount permanents transform are:

Tovolar, Dire Overlord   Day to Night

Into the Night Day to Night

Unnatural Moonrise Day to Night

The Celestus Day to Night, Night to Day

NORMAL WEREWOLVES (non-daybound/nightbound)

Normal Werewolves (for example Ulrich of the Krallenhorde + Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha will transform at upkeep based on the number of spells cast by any player.

If a normal werewolf is in play on its front side and at the next upkeep NO spells have been cast by anyone, it WILL transform to the back side.

If a normal werewolf is in play on its back side and at the next upkeep if ANY player has cast 2 or more spells, it WILL transform to its front side.

If a normal werewolf is in play on its back side and at the next upkeep if any single player has NOT cast 2 or more spells it WILL NOT transform.

If a normal werewolf is in play on its front side and at the next upkeep any single player has cast 1 spell or more it WILL NOT transform.

Cards that make regular werewolves transform are:

Tovolar, Dire Overlord   Human to Werewolf

Moonmist Human to Werewolf

NOTE: MOONMIST DOES NOT TRANSFORM DAYBOUND/NIGHTBOUND

OTHER ABILITIES

The remaining werewolves transform from activated abilities, they do not have any interaction with the prior two transform methods. Most do not transform back. The simplest of the bunch they will transform by paying a mana cost, the creatures are:

Werewolf Pack Leader (Temporarily changes stats and creature types)

Kessig Prowler  

Ulvenwald Captive  

Shrill Howler  

TRANSFORMING SYNERGY

Because we want to transform often to use certain effects or to stay in the strongest state a few of the werewolves included will have activated abilities to use or have effects on either side when they transform, allowing us to further our gameplan without wasting a turn.

Howlpack Piper   allows creatures to be put into play, bypassing the cast.

Duskwatch Recruiter   allows us to selectively 'draw' cards to fill hand.

Ill-Tempered Loner   pumps itself for a damage buff.

Kessig Prowler  , Ulvenwald Captive  , Shrill Howler  , Werewolf Pack Leader can pay mana to make themselves stronger at any time.

Outland Liberator   can sacrifice itself to remove an artifact or enchantment.

Wolfbitten Captive   can pump itself for a damage buff.

Immerwolf one of the deck's MVPs. It will hold werewolves on their strongest side so it's an excellent tutor target due to the anthem effect as well as keeping your werewolves on the strongest side. However IMMERWOLF WILL NOT ALLOW ELDRAZI WEREWOLVES TO TRANSFORM

Flip-Flopping

These cards dont mind transforming to and fro

Ulrich of the Krallenhorde   Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha  

Huntmaster of the Fells   Ravager of the Fells  

Howlpack Piper   Wildsong Howler  

Arlinn, the Pack's Hope  

Tutoring Guide

There are 2 tutors in the deck which are mainly intended to fetch key or tech cards depending on what you need at the time. Since a big part of the deck is drawing/card filtering through passive effects I've only included two.

Green Sun's Zenith - The best tutor in the deck, 1 green extra and you get any creature you want to board depending on mana.

EARLY GAME- look for cheap bodies or ramp Birds of Paradise, Kessig Naturalist   etc

MID GAME - look for synergistic strong cards Howlpack Piper  , Huntmaster of the Fells   etc

LATE GAME - look to end the game with strong buffs or big creatures Avabruck Caretaker  , Burly Breaker  , Sage of Ancient Lore  ,

GambleGC - Gamble gets you anything from your deck for 1 red and a prayer. If youre tutoring with this card do so with caution because of the possibility to discard. I mostly use it when i have a grip of cards and need one special thing in particular eg part of a combo.

Refer to the custom categories if you want to know what each potential target can be used for

Extra Details for the Enthusiastic

Single Card Discussion

Check out the custom categories tab for further categories

Creatures

Anger - Free haste enabler that is hard to remove is excellent. We draw or loot a lot so getting it into the grave is great

Birds of Paradise - Early game ramp, solo flying blocker lol

Obsessive Astronomer - Excellent card selection/looting with changing Day/Night status

Torgal, A Fine Hound - Buffs our creatures as the majority of the deck are human creatures when cast based on number of wolves, taps for any colour and turns on Tovolar's abilities.

Lands

Ghost Quarter - removal for Maze of Ith or Glacial Chasm

Kessig Wolf Run - flavour and pump damage

Winding Canyons - Being able to play our dogs on other peoples turns is incredible

Instants

Moonmist - This fog has killed people before. Excellent for use both aggressively and defensively

Sorceries

Blasphemous Act - Sometimes you need a panic button. Synergizes with Ill-Tempered Loner   / Howlpack Avenger  

Into the Night - Transform, card filtering.

Unnatural Moonrise - Cheap transform, trample and additional draw on combat dmg

Planeswalker

Arlinn, the Pack's Hope   / Arlinn, the Moon's Fury   - Does so much for one card in this deck, very synergistic

Domri, Anarch of Bolas - Ramp, protection, removal

Enchantments

Beastmaster Ascension - Rewards aggression, flavourful big stat buff

Mass Hysteria - We are usually the aggressor so 1 mana haste is goated

Full Moon's Rise - MVP of the deck, trample, stat buff and regenerating a board has given me the game several times

Myth Unbound - We need access to Tovolar as much as possible, Myth Unbound replaces him on death and reduces cost significantly if he keeps eating removal spells

Rhythm of the Wild - Haste or stat buffs

Artifacts

Dolmen Gate - protects aggressive attacks to help land trample without fear of deathtouch or lethal blocks

Progenitor's Icon - Ramp and being able to cast a werewolf outside our turn is fantastic to trigger transform effects

The Celestus - Ramp, card filtering, incremental life gain, forcing a transform from day/night night/day to give us access to either side of daybound/nightbound werewolves

To Conclude

Werewolves got me into EDH in the first place with my first commander being Kresh, the Bloodbraided and running every werewolf printed at the time (pre-Shadows over Innistrad/Eldritch Moon block), including the crap black ones from Homelands.

This deck is intended as a love letter to a younger me's intentions to build a unique and fun deck around an unusual and unique creature type with a cool play mechanic, if you have found it on the internet somewhere and read/playtested/been inspired by/intrigued by its contents then I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

I would call this deck a solid 6-7 on a 1-10 power scale in EDH, with brackets its most likely a 2 or 3 but in the right hands can win a decent amount if you know how to utilize its pieces. With the way I have crafted this decklist and resulting Primer I hope you can get a strong woods/wilds of Kessig, Innistrad feel or theme from its gameplay art and featured creatures.

If youre visiting and have read down this far please leave a comment, upvote or card recommendation, this is probably my most favourite deck I've ever built and I love playing it <3

Thanks for reading all of the above if you made it this far, let me know what you think in comments I will periodically update it when I feel the need to with cuts/adds. cheeseychum

Top Ranked	Achieved #10 position overall 10 months ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Bracket 1 10 months ago Achieved #1 position in Commander / EDH Theme/Gimmick 10 months ago
Date added	4 years
Last updated	2 weeks
Key combos	Tovolar, Dire Overlord + Tovolar, the Midnight Scourge Ulrich of the Krallenhorde + Ulrich, Uncontested Alpha
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	6 - 0 Mythic Rares 38 - 0 Rares 25 - 0 Uncommons 7 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.79
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Day, Night, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	Copies, werewolves reference decks, Winna, Fun, Keep an Eye - Commander, The fun decks, Werewolves, Multi, In Progress, >>Possible EDH<<