Famous Fallout companion taps into MTG Commander set as legendary dog

In similar fashion to previous Universes Beyond products, Wizards of the Coast announced their newest collaboration today: Fallout.

Universes Beyond are special sets that bring diverse IPs to the world of Magic in collaboration with different studios. The new set, Fallout, is based on the acclaimed Bethesda Studios video game.

The beloved companion Dogmeat has been revealed as the leader of the pack for the new Fallout Commander deck Scrappy Survivors. The deck focuses heavily on Enchantment and Equipments by bringing them back from the graveyard. This is a rather unusual and unique theme for a Naya-colored (Green, White, and Red) Commander deck. However, it’s a complete flavor win from the game designers.

Man’s Best Friend

• Mana Cost: RGW
• Type: Legendary Creature – Dog
• Rarity: Mythic Rare
• Ability: When Dogmeat enters the battlefield, mill five cards, then return an Aura or Equipment card from your graveyard to your hand. Whenever a creature you control that’s enchanted or equipped attacks, create a Junk token.

For those unfamiliar with Dogmeat from the Fallout franchise, he is a dog that has miraculously survived the brutal post-apocalyptic landscape of a nuclear fallout. He quickly becomes the player’s best friend and most precious ally throughout Fallout 4. This furry companion has several duties as the player’s sidekick, such as helping out in combat and retrieving items found in surrounding areas. Dogmeat, Ever Loyal, does just that in his all-new MTG card.

Dogmeat’s enter the battlefield ability lets the player mill five cards and then return an Aura or Equipment card back to the hand. The doggo essentially enables his own ability to dig through the junk and find valuable objects by first putting the top five cards of the player’s library straight into their graveyard. The player then fishes out the best Aura or Equipment.

Digging Through the Junk

• Mana Cost: –
• Type: Token Artifact – Junk
• Rarity: Common
• Ability: TAP, Sacrifice this artifact: Exile the top card of your library. You may play that card this turn. Activate only as a sorcery.

Our four-legged friend’s second ability introduces a completely new item with a new mechanic. Once the player attacks with a creature that has been enchanted or equipped, they then create a Junk Token. Junk Tokens are artifact tokens the player can sacrifice to exile the top card of the library. The player may then play that card this turn.

This new mechanic is quite good. Firstly, it taps for free; no mana cost is needed to tap it. Secondly, since it’s an artifact, players can activate it on the same turn it came out, like during their post-combat phase, for example. Thirdly, it serves as a pseudo card-draw, which we’ve mostly seen in Red cards thus far. Its only drawback is its sorcery-speed limitation.

Dogmeat, Ever Loyal is one of only four Commander products scheduled to be released in February 2024. More Fallout information and spoilers are expected to roll out in the months prior.