Tovolar's Dog Soldiers (Gruul Werewolves)

Commander / EDH RG (Gruul) Transform Werewolf

cheeseychum

Werewolves (28)

• 1x Arlinn, the Pack's Hope *pp*  ^Flip
• 1x Avabruck Caretaker  ^Flip
• 1x Child of the Pack  ^Flip
• 1x Conduit of Storms  ^Flip
• 1x Daybreak Ranger  ^Flip
• 1x Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip
• 1x Geier Reach Bandit  ^Flip
• 1x Hound Tamer  ^Flip
• 1x Howlpack Piper  ^Flip
• 1x Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip
• 1x Ill-Tempered Loner  ^Flip
• 1x Kessig Naturalist  ^Flip
• 1x Kessig Prowler  ^Flip
• 1x Kruin Outlaw  ^Flip
• 1x Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip
• 1x Outland Liberator  ^Flip
• 1x Realmwalker
• 1x Reckless Stormseeker  ^Flip
• 1x Reckless Waif  ^Flip
• 1x Sage of Ancient Lore  ^Flip
• 1x Scorned Villager  ^Flip
• 1x Shrill Howler  ^Flip
• 1x Tovolar's Huntmaster  ^Flip
• 1x Ulrich of the Krallenhorde  ^Flip
• 1x Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip
• 1x Village Messenger  ^Flip
• 1x Village Watch  ^Flip
• 1x Wolfkin Outcast  ^Flip

Draw (9)

• 1x Duskwatch Recruiter  ^Flip
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Howlpack Piper  ^Flip
• 1x Into the Night
• 1x Myth Unbound
• 1x Obsessive Astronomer
• 1x Realmwalker
• 1x Sage of Ancient Lore  ^Flip
• 1x Unnatural Moonrise

Transform (5)

• 1x Geier Reach Bandit  ^Flip
• 1x Immerwolf
• 1x Into the Night
• 1x The Celestus
• 1x Unnatural Moonrise

Hate (3)

• 1x Blood Moon
• 1x Chaosphere
• 1x Gravity Well

Protection (3)

• 1x Dolmen Gate
• 1x Full Moon's Rise
• 1x Lightning Greaves

Lands (31)

• 1x Bonders' Enclave
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 2x Forest
• 4x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 1x Forest
• 1x Game Trail
• 1x Ghost Quarter
• 1x Grove of the Burnwillows
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Mountain
• 4x Mountain
• 5x Mountain
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Mountain
• 1x Reliquary Tower
• 1x Rockfall Vale

Removal (12)

• 1x Beast Within
• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chaos Warp
• 1x Daybreak Ranger  ^Flip
• 1x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 1x Lightning Bolt
• 1x Moonlight Hunt
• 1x Outland Liberator  ^Flip
• 1x Return to Nature
• 1x Tovolar's Huntmaster  ^Flip
• 1x Ulrich of the Krallenhorde  ^Flip
• 1x Ulvenwald Tracker

Tokens (8)

• 1x Arlinn Kord  ^Flip
• 1x Arlinn, the Pack's Hope *pp*  ^Flip
• 1x Child of the Pack  ^Flip
• 1x Howling Moon
• 1x Huntmaster of the Fells  ^Flip
• 1x Mayor of Avabruck  ^Flip
• 1x Shrill Howler  ^Flip
• 1x Tovolar's Huntmaster  ^Flip

Haste (4)

• 1x Anger
• 1x Reckless Stormseeker  ^Flip
• 1x Village Watch  ^Flip
• 1x Zariel, Archduke of Avernus

Commander (1)

 ^Flip

Combat (12)

• 1x Avabruck Caretaker  ^Flip
• 1x Beastmaster Ascension
• 1x Berserkers' Onslaught
• 1x Full Moon's Rise
• 1x Howling Moon
• 1x Howlpack Resurgence
• 1x Immerwolf
• 1x Kessig Wolf Run
• 1x Kruin Outlaw  ^Flip
• 1x Savage Beating
• 1x Triumph of the Hordes
• 1x Unnatural Growth

Ramp (11)

• 1x Birds of Paradise
• 1x Conduit of Storms  ^Flip
• 1x Domri, Anarch of Bolas
• 1x Fyndhorn Elves
• 1x Kessig Naturalist  ^Flip
• 1x Llanowar Elves
• 1x Scorned Villager  ^Flip
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The Celestus
• 1x Ulvenwald Captive  ^Flip
• 1x Werebear

Enablers (6)

• 1x Arlinn Kord  ^Flip
• 1x Arlinn, the Pack's Hope *pp*  ^Flip
• 1x Immerwolf
• 1x Myth Unbound
• 1x The Celestus
• 1x Zariel, Archduke of Avernus

Tutors (4)

• 1x Gamble
• 1x Green Sun's Zenith
• 1x Moonsilver Key
• 1x Signal the Clans

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The deck is named “Dog Soldiers” after the cult horror movie about a group of Scottish marines being attacked by werewolves.

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. They do not need equipments other than boots because savage animals of tooth and claw don’t require pretty magic swords.

I have included werewolves that do something on either transformed form so there is at least some kind of effect on the board. Essentially it is an aggressively costed Gruul Timmy deck, with extra steps.

Since it is W/W edh, the idea is not to blow everyone out of the water but be more flavour than function, which is why I have included the following cards:

Blood Moon: good land hate which I enjoy, plus it is very on theme for a werewolf deck to have something to do with the moon.

Planeswalker choices: by having PWs in the deck with a mixture of abilities it provides enough actions/effects so I don’t need to play spells on my turns to let the WW cards transform without Tovolar

Removal: mostly instant speed so they don’t need to be played on my turn for the above reason.

Eldritch Moon werewolves: these lads are in because I love the concept of eldrazi werewolves, the design and the arts are very cool and their back sides are not too bad.

Deliberately excluded the standard tribal cards such as coat of arms etc because I like my decks being a bit different personally, plus only WWs would be getting anthems since when they flip their abilities in combat should be strong enough anyway.

Wincons: Arlinn Emblem

Zariel Emblem

Combat (primarily!)

Triumph of the Hordes

Tovolar’s activated ability

Tovolar commander damage

Going wide with tokens

Feedback appreciated.

INDIVIDUAL CARD CHOICES THAT ARE NOT INNISTRAD/WEREWOLF RELATED:

Anger - [FUNCTION] Haste enabler + adds to overall theme of savagery.

Beast Within - [FUNCTION] Instant speed removal with a name thats on-brand for the deck.

Berserkers Onslaught - [LORE/FUNCTION] Tovolar's wolf pack are savage fighters in either form. 2x card draw yes please.

Birds of Paradise - [FUNCTION] T2 Tovolar, also birds live in Kessig forests.

Blasphemous Act - [LORE/FUNCTION] Seems counter-intuitive to board wipe but its in here for the synergy with Ill-Tempered Loner/Howlpack Avenger. Killing your entire board in order to wipe out your opponents is truly a blasphemous act, the Mondronen Howlpack uses blood magic so its not off the table.

Blood Moon - [LORE/FUNCTION] This one corresponds to the Red side of Innistrad werewolf nature as the Howling Moon does for the Green side. Great flavourful stax piece which hopefully stops spells being cast.

Chaosphere - [LORE/FUNCTION] We have a Moon enchantment for each colour, so must have each mana's way of removing or dealing with flyers. Chaosphere is a fun one.   Chaos Warp - [FUNCTION] Indestructible removal, the Warp is everywhere...

Dolmen Gate - [LORE/FUNCTION] Werewolves originate in Ossory, which is an ancient place in Ireland so therefore not outside realm of possibility to have some Celtic runes/structures that provide assistance.

Domri, Anarch of Bolas - [LORE/FUNCTION] RG is anarchy/savagery colours which he evokes, but also uncounterable creatures, ramp, removal and combat buff? Yes please.

Llanowar Elves - [FUNCTION] Ramp, turn 2 Tovolar gets this deck rolling. Also cool to have pointy eared tree/nature worshipping hippies.

Fyndhorn Elves - [FUNCTION] T2 Tovolar, tree-huggers

Gamble - [FUNCTION] Maybe tutor for something good

Gravity Well - [FUNCTION] Werewolves can't fly, so tech against flying creatures is perfect.

Green Sun's Zenith - [FUNCTION] Only sun this Night-based deck cares about is a Green one, as it fetches most of the important/good cards for the deck so big staple.

Lightning Bolt - [FUNCTION] Kills blockers, damage in a hurry.

Lightning Greaves - [FUNCTION] Haste enabler and protection.

Myth Unbound - [LORE/FUNCTION] Tovolar is a legendary figure and he also is the lynchpin of the deck so MUST be kept out/brought back as often as possible.

Obsessive Astronomer - [LORE/FUNCTION] Provides card selection in an aggro deck passively, lore wise the bro is going mad trying to figure out the constant Day/Night changing cycle found in gameplay.

Savage Beating - [LORE/FUNCTION] Werewolves are primal creatures and the treatise for their design from the Innistrad design book is that R = savagery and G = humanity, so red cards = damage and kill.

Signal the Clans - [LORE/FUNCTION] There are several Howlpacks on Innistrad; Mondronen, Krallenhorde, Leeraug, Vildin, Dronepack, Direpack. They are the "clans" being signalled. Good tutor card.

Triumph of the Hordes - [LORE/FUNCTION] Every deck I build has some way to poison/infect the opponents. Phyrexia is one of my favourite factions and with the events of March of the Machine totally likely that the Glistening Oil made it to Innistrad and got into its inhabitants.

Werebear - [LORE/FUNCTION] Just as there are werebears in Skyrim, so must there be on Innistrad. Creature based ramp as well as a mini beater.

Zariel - [LORE/FUNCTION] The Pit on Innistrad spews out demons and devils so why not have another haste enabler that could feasibly be on the plane?

Thanks for reading all of the above if you made it this far, let me know what you think in comments I will occasionally update it if needed/powercrept. 23/10/2024

Date added	3 years
Last updated	4 weeks
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 32 - 0 Rares 29 - 0 Uncommons 8 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.96
Tokens	Beast 3/3 G, Day, Devil 1/1 R, Eldrazi Horror 3/2 C, Emblem Arlinn Kord, Emblem Zariel, Archduke of Avernus, Human 2/2 G, Night, Wolf 2/2 G
Folders	Copies