The 5 Best Dog Lords in Magic Ranked

Pack Leader | Illustration by Ilse Gort

Did we ever figure out who it was that let the dogs out? No, still a mystery? Okay then.

Dogs are somewhat popular in Magic, though when it comes to the old cats vs. dogs debate, cats definitely win out in the MTG universe. Counting lords alone, cats outrank dogs almost 2:1. But dog decks still exist, and new dogs are printed all the time, so there are still plenty of homes for the stray dog lords of MTG, as few as there may be.

What Are Dog Lords in MTG?

Tesak, Judith's Hellhound | Illustration by Anna Podedworna

A dog lord is simply a creature that directly benefits other dogs you play. “Lords” are commonly associated with a standard +1/+1 pump to your creature type of choice, but the lord title can also be applied to permanents that provide other kinds of benefits, like adding combat keywords or reducing the costs of your other cards.

Simply put, dog lords pay you off for filling your deck full of other dog creatures, though with roughly 150 dogs in Magic, only five really come close to reaching true lordship.

Unranked: Ruff, Underdog Champ

We can’t really put Ruff, Underdog Champ in the same pack as the rest of the dogs since it’s a playtest card, and therefore it isn’t technically legal to play anywhere. But our list is short and Ruff fits the description, so a brief mention feels appropriate. Obviously designing cards that only work in best-of-three environments is interesting but narrow, though it feels like this “card” only exists for the sake of making an “underdog” pun.

#5. Spider-Ham, Peter Porker

I’m just going to assume “dog” is somewhere in the long list of creature types on Spider-Ham, Peter Porker. The Food token you create on ETB gives this direct synergy with Sophia, Dogged Detective, but that’s still not enough to use up a deck slot on a card that’s not actually a dog itself.

#4. Rin and Seri, Inseparable

Rin and Seri, Inseparable stretches the definition of a lord, but it’s close. It makes all your dogs come in with a token cat friend (and vice versa), so it does technically make your dogs better to play. It’s just that it doesn’t directly benefit your dogs once they’re in play; it’s more of a means to build up a board to charge up Rin and Seri’s activated ability.

#3. Pack Leader

Sweet and simple, Pack Leader even looks like a lord amongst dogs. It buffs your pups and lets them attack into any sort of board unscathed, which makes it an aggressive auto-include for any deck focused on the creature type.

#2. Sophia, Dogged Detective

Sophia, Dogged Detective is juggling a lot of hats. It creates Tiny, Magic’s resident Scooby-Doo impersonator until Universes Beyond gets ahold of actual Scooby-Doo. It then rewards you with Clues and Food when your dogs connect in combat. Then it’s also an artifact sac outlet that grows all your dog creatures. Bant () isn’t an ideal color trio for a dog commander, but I suppose K-9, Mark I, Floodhound, and Codecracker Hound aren’t the worst additions here.

#1. Tesak, Judith’s Hellhound

First off, the “unleash” pun for dogs is top-notch. That aside, granting unleash to all your dogs lets them each enter with a +1/+1 counter, and Tesak, Judith's Hound then gives those unleashed hounds haste. The mana-making ability’s a bit weird, since Tesak doesn’t offer any way to use the mana mid-combat, and it doesn’t float into the next phase, but whatever, you’re here for the buffs.

Casual reminder that unleash makes it so that your creatures with +1/+1 counters can’t block period, regardless of whether that counter came from unleash or another source entirely.

Wrap Up

Sophia, Dogged Detective | Illustration by Campbell White

And that’s all there is folks. Anything beyond these five dogs is a bit too much of a stretch to include here, and the shortness of this list really highlights the fact that a creature type can be quite popular but still under-supported. Especially when you compare dogs directly to cats. You’d assume the numbers would be fairly even, but cats have significantly more support than dogs right now. But hey, at least it makes the dogwalking easier.

If you’ve got a dog in this race, how do you make your dog decks work? Changelings? Hybrid dog/cat decks with Rin and Seri, Inseparable? Play a bunch of wolves and Rule 0 them into dogs? Let me know in the comments below or over in the Draftsim Discord.

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