Dogmeat, Ever Loyal – Fallout
Date Reviewed: March 25, 2024
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.13
Casual: 4.50
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.50
Commander [EDH]: 4.13
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
There are few games that really nailed the animal companion component of RPGs – or, y’know, life. But fortunately, we’ve come a long way since Baldur’s Gate II players habitually cast Find Familiar and then did nothing with the creature, thanks to BioWare not giving the creatures enough to do; and Dogmeat is a character who’s made a big impression on a lot of people, for good reason.
In Magic card form, he suggests a Commander deck based on a fairly new ability for his colors, and an interesting one at that. The mill-then-redraw ability has been pretty good in the form of spells like Seed of Hope, and a repeatable version for card types that the colors like to use has a lot of potential. I can’t help but feel tempted to try and take advantage of the graveyard-filling element at the same time, though that might be a little much. I suspect the Junk tokens will be the secondary ability in many decks – more because the advantage won’t always feel as noticeable. It’ll still make a difference some of the time, though.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4
doggy
Man’s best friend in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, Dogmeat is actually a recurring character of sorts in Fallout, usually your first companion as you start the game. And he’s certainly interesting enough as a piece to a deck.
Dogmeat, Loyal Companion is, at worst, a three-mana set-up spell. You mill cards and then get to effectively draw an Aura or Equipment, even if it’s not one you milled. He’s a more mana-restrictive recovery spell than usually is available, but he makes up for it with flexibility. And he pays off the permanents getting used by making junk tokens; junk is a token that’s deceptively useful, an impulse draw that can be cashed in when you feel the time is right. This does stack with multiple creatures that meet the criteria, so you can set up a big swing for even the turn after he drops.
I do think Dogmeat is a fringe Legacy playable; he’s not great, thanks to a tight mana cost, but a recursion spell for equipment can be powerful if you get back the right card. His stats aren’t great, but he has the ability to jump-start the enterprising scrounger’s board building, and that can definitely be a payoff that gives you a big swing.
Constructed: 2.25
Casual: 5 (doggy)
Limited: N/A
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.25
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