The Commander
: Rin and Seri deals damage to any target equal to the number of Guide
Gameplan
Flood the board with Dogs and Cats by casting cheap typal creatures, doubling up with Rin and Seri's token triggers, then convert that wide board into damage or overwhelming attacks. You ramp early, deploy lords and payoffs, and either go wide for combat or fire off the activated ability to burn out a player. Games close fast once you have an anthem and a few token generators online.
Strengths
- Generates two-for-one value every creature cast, building a board faster than most go-wide decks
- Built-in win condition via the activated ability that scales with your Dog count
- Naabru/Jeskai-adjacent token synergy supports both combat and aristocrats lines
- Naturally resilient to single-target removal since the board is wide and the commander rebuilds it
Weaknesses
- Extremely vulnerable to board wipes and sweepers like Blasphemous Act
- Token strategy can stall against fogs, heavy blockers, and lifegain-punishing decks
- Relies on Rin and Seri staying on the battlefield for token doubling, inviting removal
- Color-intensive activated ability (
) needs solid fixing
Key Cards
- Pir, Imaginative Rascal — Doubles token creation, turning every Dog/Cat trigger into two tokens for explosive board states.
- Doubling Season — Doubles every token Rin and Seri makes, immediately doubling your board presence and combat threat.
- Cathars' Crusade — Each token entering pumps your whole team, snowballing a wide board into lethal attackers quickly.
- Pack Leader — A cheap Dog lord that buffs and protects your growing pack while you cast more typal spells.
- Impact Tremors — Punishes opponents for free as each Dog and Cat token enters, providing a non-combat damage clock.
- Skullclamp — Turns your endless 1/1 tokens into a relentless card-draw engine to refuel.
Upgrade Path
Add token doublers (Doubling Season, Parallel Lives, Anointed Procession, Pir) and a Craterhoof Behemoth or Triumph of the Hordes to convert your board into instant kills. Improve mana with ramp like Cultivate, Smothering Tithe, and dual lands so you can cast multiple typal spells per turn and reliably fire the commander's ability. Layer in protection (Heroic Intervention, Boros Charm, Eerie Interlude) to survive the board wipes that prey on go-wide strategies.
Core Cards
- Showdown of the Skalds
- Komainu Battle Armor
- Basilisk Collar
- Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second
- Return of the Wildspeaker
- Cursed Mirror
- Animal Sanctuary
- Masked Vandal
- Brimaz, King of Oreskos
- Stalking Leonin
- Farseek
- Cinder Glade
Seeded from a single deck — rates appear once more public decks exist.
Win Conditions
- ▸Wide alpha strike backed by anthems and lords like Cathars' Crusade
- ▸Rin and Seri's activated ability burning out opponents based on Dog count
- ▸Aristocrats/ETB drain via Impact Tremors, Blood Artist, and Purphoros, God of the Forge
- ▸Overrun-style finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth or Pathbreaker Ibex
Archetypes
- Tokens — Every creature cast spawns extra tokens, and the commander natively floods the board with Dogs and Cats.
- Typal/Go-Wide — Dog and Cat lords plus anthems turn the army into a lethal alpha strike.
- Aristocrats — A constant stream of expendable tokens fuels sacrifice payoffs like Impact Tremors and Blood Artist effects.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (GRW), by popularity.
