Rin and Seri, Inseparable Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on March 29, 2025

Rin and Seri, Inseparable | Illustration by Leesha Hannigan

Some commanders catch your attention because they’re super powerful or potentially because they utilize a strategy that you’re a big fan of. However, sometimes a commander comes along that stands out just because you love the artwork. That was the case with me and Rin and Seri, Inseparable, a card so cute I just knew I had to make a deck around it.

As a big fan of both cats and dogs, Rin and Seri was the perfect choice for a themed deck as opposed to one that is strictly about gameplay. I admit that this deck leans a little heavy on cats, but mostly because there really aren’t as many great dog cards in Magic.

This deck started as a fun-themed deck that I initially put together as a wedding gift for a friend, so I also made it powerful. This deck can generate a lot of tokens and has powerful interactions that show the dogs are loyal and the kitties certainly have claws.

The Deck

Feline Sovereign | Illustration by Dan Scott

This deck has a ton of cats and dogs in it, meaning each of your creatures provides additional benefits thanks to your commander. The creatures that aren’t cats or dogs, like Mondrak, Glory Dominus, are here to help with this deck’s strategy in other ways, so it doesn’t matter that they aren’t on theme for the dual typal deck theme.

This deck also has a good amount of support for the tokens you’re making, with cards like Anointed Procession increasing your token output and cards like Cryptolith Rite that help take advantage of having a large board state.

The Commander: Rin and Seri, Inseparable

Rin and Seri, Inseparable is a great commander because it can both build value and then act as its own payoff. With the right build, you can get multiple creatures every turn thanks to this commander. Rin and Seri’s activated ability can deal a good amount of damage once you’ve generated a lot of tokens, and gaining extra life can help keep you in the game longer. You could also build a deck that focuses more on lifegain, though that isn’t necessarily the route I took with this deck.

Cats

When choosing cat cards for this deck, there were a few different things I looked for. One of the qualities I looked for were effects that benefited other cats like Feline Sovereign, King of the Pride, or Arahbo, the First Fang. Kaheera, the Orphanguard is one of the better cat support cards in this deck since it acts as an anthem and gives your cats a good keyword ability.

I also looked for cats that had abilities that helped with this deck’s strategy for going wide. Mirri, Weatherlight Duelist is great for decks with a lot of creatures, because you can swing out and deal a lot of damage knowing only one creature will be blocked. You also won’t have to worry about getting attacked back by too many creatures even if you swing out.

I also included cats with artifact and enchantment removal like Qasali Slingers or Qasali Pridemage.

Dogs

While there are only about half as many dogs as cats in Magic, there are still good ones to choose from for this deck. Loyal Warhound for example is a good way to make sure you don’t get too far behind on lands.

Pack Leader works as an anthem for your dogs and allows you to attack with them knowing they most likely won’t die in combat. While not as extensive as protection, Selfless Savior and Ainok Strike Leader can also help keep your creatures safe.

Token Support

Because a big part of this deck’s strategy is to create tokens, cards that help with token production or are a payoff for tokens deserve praise.

Token doublers like Anointed Procession or Parallel Lives are your best bits of token support. Enduring Courage is a great support piece since it speeds up your ability to deal damage.

A few of the cats help create more creature tokens and count for their type as well. Arahbo, the First Fang, Ocelot Pride, Cryptolith Rite each generate a bigger clowder.

Cryptolith Rite is a great way to make use of your many creature tokens outside of just attacking with them. Beastmaster Ascension is another great payoff for creating a lot of creatures, and it also gives them a huge buff if it sticks around.

The Mana Base

Most of the lands in this deck are just focused around getting all the colors you need to cast spells. Fetch lands like Windswept Heath can help you find dual lands like Temple Garden or the Naya triome, Jetmir's Garden.

Cards like Secluded Courtyard and Unclaimed Territory can also help with mana fixing for either your cats or dogs. With the mana-adjacent cost reducer in Herald's Horn you have multiple cards that ask you to choose a creature type, so you can split your mana fixing and benefits for dogs and cats.

Path of Ancestry is especially helpful in this deck because your commander is both a cat and a dog. This means that Path’s ability triggers from most of your creatures in this deck.

The Strategy

The main strategy for this deck is to use Rin and Seri, Inseparable’s triggered abilities to build up a large token army. Apart from the inherent benefits of having a lot of creatures, you can deal damage with Impact Tremors or Rin and Seri’s activated ability as well.

You have a good number of protection spells like Flawless Maneuver and Heroic Intervention that you use to maintain your large board state. While I wouldn’t use it to just save a few creatures, don’t be too stingy with them because you don’t want to get caught rebuilding over and over.

Once you have a bigger board state, use your creature tutors to find one of your finishers like Craterhoof Behemoth or Moonshaker Cavalry. This allows you to swing out with your buffed-up tokens and hopefully take out all your opponents. Jetmir, Nexus of Revels is also very helpful in finishing out a game once you have nine or more creatures.

Combos and Interactions

There are no infinite combos in this deck, but there is an interaction that I think is worth paying attention to, and that’s when one of your cards grants infect to Rin and Seri, Inseparable.

Infect doesn’t care if the damage you deal is combat damage or not, this means it works with Rin and Seri, Inseparable’s activated ability. If you equip your commander with Grafted Exoskeleton or you’ve cast Triumph of the Hordes, as long as you have more than 10 dogs on the field, you can eliminate one of your opponents.

Rule 0 Violations Check

One thing to keep in mind with this deck is that not all players enjoy when you use infect to win games of Commander. This is because some players feel the mechanic was specifically balanced for a 20-life format, and being able to do only a fourth of a players’ starting life but still kill them is too powerful. It is worth a check in with your playgroup if they’re okay with you having some infect cards in this deck. There are so few that it would be easy for you to swap them out, even if you just plug in a few basic lands.

Budget Options

The unfortunate truth about this deck is that it is pretty expensive, and there aren’t just one or two cards to blame that you could easily take out. Instead, there’s a higher proportion of cards in the $5-$40 range, meaning there aren’t necessarily obvious cuts you can make to cut down on price.

One option you have to cut down on price in this deck is to take out some of the fetch lands. I’ll admit this build might be a little heavy on them and you could easily take some out. Arid Mesa and Marsh Flats are two of the more expensive ones, so you could easily swap them for cheaper alternatives like Wooded Ridgeline or Sacred Peaks.

Token doublers, while pretty helpful for your strategy, are also some of the more expensive cards in this deck. Anointed Procession is the most expensive, so you could always take it out and still have the others. While this cuts down on consistency, it can be a good way to make the deck more affordable.

With Magic R&D consistently working on future great cats and dogs, you can save bug chunks of money by replacing the expensive tutors with good creatures, this isn't a tool box EDH deck afterall.

Other Builds

If you want to take this deck in a different direction, you can load up on lifegain effects instead of doing damage. Rin and Seri, Inseparable does a good job of gaining chunks of life. Build in payoffs for lifegain and you open up new win conditions. Since you create a good number of creatures, Soul Sister cards like Soul's Attendant, Soul Warden and Essence Warden can help you gain a lot of life too.

You can use cards like Aetherflux Reservoir as a way to spend your extra life. You’ll also want payoffs like Heliod, Sun-Crowned that give you good benefits each time you gain life. A card like Exemplar of Light or Well of Lost Dreams can also give you a good source of card draw, is a bit lacking among Naya cards.

Commanding Conclusion

King of the Pride | Illustration by Jonathan Kuo

Rin and Seri makes for a very cute thematic build, but one that can also hold its own. I like the flexibility you have with building around this commander because you have a lot of cats and dogs to choose from, and you can decide if you want to focus on lifegain, damage, or tokens. While this is more casual than competitive build out there, I think it is good enough to compete in Commander bracket 3 and it’s cute enough to make up for its relative lack of power.

What bracket would you place this in? Would you build this deck more focused on cats or dogs? Want some tips on building for Commander? What commanders do you like more from the art than the card itself? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter/X.

Thank you for reading, and tell your dog or cat I said “Hi!”