The 17 Best Dog Commanders in Magic Ranked

Last updated on March 13, 2026

Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful | Illustration by Ilse Gort

Hello planeswalkers! Who’s a good reader!? You are! I only kid, you aren’t a dog…

… but the MTG commanders I have lined up for you are!

Many of Magic's dogs serve as loyal companions willing to help or save the humans they love, but today we'll rank the goodest girls and boys you can put in your command zone.

What Are Dog Commanders in MTG?

Rin and Seri, Inseparable | Illustration by Leesha Hannigan

The majority of the commanders here will be dogs themselves – that's to say, creatures that are legendary and have the dog creature type. But I’ll also include commanders who can make dog creature tokens as a part of their strategies. These legendary dogs and “owners” can serve as your commander, typal lords, or another piece in your strategy. Dog typal or whatever you can cook up.

The dog creature type was previously called hound, but MTG has determined that both of these creature type words refer to the same thing, so dog has replaced hound. However, coyote, wolf, fox, and jackal refer to different kinds of creature types than dog.

#17. Interceptor, Shadow's Hound

There are a couple of good dogs in black, like Snarling Gorehound… but Magic has less than 20 black dogs all told, so a mono-black commander can lead a really small pack. And Final Fantasy‘s Interceptor, Shadow's Hound really likes the graveyard more than the command zone anyway, so while technically a dog commander, it's probably not the one you want.

#16. Hex, Kellan’s Companion

I’ll include Hex, Kellan's Companion here because it’s legal in MTG Arena‘s Brawl format (even though it’s not Commander-legal). Hex works with adventure spells by perpetually giving +1/+1 counters and moving between exile and the battlefield. This is quite an interesting interaction of protection and pump for this green commander.

#15. Isamaru, Hound of Konda

What’s there to say about Isamaru, Hound of Konda, except that it’s a cheap 2/2 creature? This dog isn’t meant to be a commander because it lacks any strategy or combos. This legendary white creature is best left as a nice 1-drop in a dog-typal or aggro white deck.

#14. Pako, Arcane Retriever

Pako, Arcane Retriever is an ultra-specific commander that works alongside its “partner with” commander, Haldan, Avid Arcanist. The idea of the partners is Pako attacks to exile a card from the top everyone's library and Haldan can cast them with no mana restrictions. Of course, exiled cards have a fetch counter on them to make this cute.

#13. Mowu, Loyal Companion

Mowu, Loyal Companion is a decent green creature for a +1/+1 counter deck. It has the keywords you want in vigilance and trample, and some extra ramp in growing this card with counters. The mana value and lack of supporting other creatures limit its potential as a commander, but I can tell you that it was a fun dog in Limited.

#12. Tesak, Judith’s Hellhound

Tesak, Judith's Hellhound can be an interesting piece for a dog-typal deck. This card gives your dogs unleash (an aggressive keyword) and haste if they have a counter (another aggressive keyword). On top of that, you get mana when you attack to keep your aggression going! The biggest downside here has to be the 4-mana MV, so you’ll need to find a way to get the mana on time for this red creature to be effective.

#11. Rex, Cyber-Hound

Rex, Cyber-Hound is an interesting Azorius commander () that mimics and benefits from your opponents’ bomb creature cards. You can pay energy counters to copy an activated ability from a creature in an opponent’s graveyard. This can be a wonderful way to steal bomb strategies from an opponent, but the power, toughness, and lack of keywords make it a weak attacker. This Azorius card also has very little value against noncreature decks and decks with no activated abilities.

#10. Karvanista, Loyal Lupari

What better theme for a legendary dog than protecting and helping humans? Karvanista, Loyal Lupari can provide a protected early swing for your humans with its adventure, and once on the battlefield boost the ranks of your human creatures. I must say, I feel the MV for the creature is wonderful, but the sorcery speed of the adventure is quite inconvenient.

#9. Sophia, Dogged Detective

Sophia, Dogged Detective is a solid Bant commander () for a dog-typal deck. This card turns artifacts into pumps for your dog creatures and your dog creatures into artifact creators. This kind of synergy can support itself through removal. Plus, who doesn’t love Tiny?

#8. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal

The Junk artifact tokens aren’t overly powerful, but with Dogmeat, Ever Loyal they can serve a valuable service. In aura and equipment decks, you want to develop strong creatures without getting out-advantaged in other aspects. The Junk tokens you can create with Dogmeat should help you to impulse-draw some advantage while swinging hard with well-equipped creatures.

#7. Kroxa and Kunoros

Take the three great keywords of Kunoros, Hound of Athreos and the escape mechanic of Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger and you get a solid Mardu Commander () in Kroxa and Kunoros. This elder giant dog commander allows you to use your graveyard as a resource to reanimate your most powerful creatures like Valgavoth, Terror Eater.

#6. Kunoros, Hound of Athreos

Three heads and three keywords to go along with them. Kunoros, Hound of Athreos is a solid Orzhov commander () with great keywords and graveyard hate. This dog stops reanimation and flashback decks while providing decent attack abilities. Stopping some major strategies can be a surefire way to ensure your strategy can be realized.

#5. Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd is a cheap blink-style commander. There shouldn’t be any deception with the flash keyword when this card is visible in your command zone, but rather the flash is used so that you can attack on the following turn. When this dog commander attacks, you can blink a nonland permanent and give Phelia +1/+1 counters. Include great ETB and blink cards like Flickerwisp and Beza, the Bounding Spring in your build.

#4. K-9, Mark I

K-9, Mark I is the ultimate good boy for your Commander decks. It has two different abilities to protect and enhance your legendary creatures. More importantly, this dog robot‘s doctor's companion ability allows it to share the command zone as long as the other is a time lord doctor. Having two commanders can be a huge advantage for your color identity and play style.

The possibilities are almost as endless as the Doctor Who adventures. There are 17 time lord doctors to choose from in many color combinations, except for black. They’re mostly blue and have many different abilities and play styles. Choose wisely or make a ton of different combinations. No wrong answer.

#3. Jinnie Fay, Jetmir’s Second

Jinnie Fay, Jetmir's Second is a cat and dog creature token-creating engine. Similarly to Rin and Seri, Inseparable, this Naya commander () is all about creating an army of cats and dogs. This card has some quite fun interactions of turning any old token into a dog or cat token. With cards like Rabble Rousing, you can create a ton of cat and dog tokens and dominate the board advantage.

#2. Rin and Seri, Inseparable

If you’re a cat or dog lover in MTG, you’ve probably seen Rin and Seri, Inseparable before. This card is a cat and dog creature token-creating engine that can take advantage of the number of cats and dogs you have to deal damage and gain life. In a Rin and Seri, Inseparable EDH deck, surround it with cats like Feline Sovereign and King of the Pride, plus dogs like Pack Leader and Selfless Savior.

#1. Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

Partner is such a strong mechanic for Commander because of all the color and strategy combinations possible. Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful is at its best leading a legends-matter strategy. This card gains counters whenever a legendary permanent ETBs and at a low MV can be on the battlefield for most of a match. Some great partners to consider with Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful are Reyhan, Last of the Abzan, Falthis, Shadowcat Familiar, and Keleth, Sunmane Familiar.

Who’s a Good Boy?

This may be the most subjective (and best) question we can ask. All of these dog commanders are good boys, but let me try to propose who I believe to be the goodest boy.

With words like faithful and loyal, it’s hard not to say Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful, Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, and Mowu, Loyal Companion don’t make the top of the list of good boys.

For the good boys that do their duties, look no further than Kunoros, Hound of Athreos and Tesak, Judith's Hellhound.

And as far as cuteness goes, with Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd… I mean come on!

My pick for the goodest boy is Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful for his devotion to the Wanderer, representing the real-life Hachiko waiting outside Shibuya station in Tokyo.

Commanding Conclusion

Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful | Illustration by Fiona Hsieh

I hope you’ve enjoyed this Magic dog show as much as I have! If you’re here you have a love for MTG or at least an interest, and I assume most of you love dogs. It’s a wonderful thing when we can combine those loves. These dog commanders won’t be world-beaters, but they warm our hearts and can make for fun dog-typal decks.

Thank you for reading this article and I’d love to hear from you below, especially for your picks of who’s a good boy. If you want even more content and conversations check out all the other great articles on Draftsim.com, follow us on X, and join the official Discord channel.

Until next time, stay safe!