Careful readers of my column will have noticed I have not yet, in my group of articles about pets, covered dogs. They will have also noticed, however, I have mentioned my dogs several times. I have four.

Roger A. Caras, who died in 2001, was an American writer and photographer as well as an animal welfare activist. He said, somewhat famously, "Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal [humans have] ever made." (The only editing is removing the gendered term for humans.)

Is there anything more true? Whether you like dogs or not, this statement is true. Dogs just... love us. Completely. No matter what. And we are better for it.

I have four very silly ones, three little chihuahuas (one of whom has three legs) and a silky terrier who's the newest and has sort of upset the apple cart. They're all old, most of them are at least somewhat blind, and we're pretty sure one of them is also nearly deaf. They lick too much, they bark too much, and they have a tendency to walk on my hair while I'm asleep (for anyone out there with long hair, you know how much this can hurt!), and they love me, they love my wife, and they love my daughter.

During the pandemic, we said goodbye to my little poodle mix, Louie, who adopted me many years ago. (It's true - I went to meet him and the people told me not to be surprised if he was standoffish - he doesn't like people very much. I walked in and was immediately leapt upon by this fuzzy cream-colored guy who compelled me to sit on the floor. He promptly crawled into my lap, leaned against my chest, and growled at any other dog who dared to approach. The people at the rescue were stunned. He basically stayed like that for the rest of his life.)

And today, I want to honor a very particular dog, one whose love, devotion, and kindness changed my dad's life: Sancho.

My dad's life restarted in 2020 when he moved across the country to a new place as a retired person and, for the first time in a long time, living alone. He'd wanted a dog forever and could finally get one. I counseled a senior dog, and he agreed it was a good idea, and he wound up with Sancho, a sausage-loaf of a chow mix who loved walks, little kids, and a stuffed squeaky hedgehog named Hedgy. When my dad moved permanently to a small town in Mexico at the end of 2023, Sancho went with him.

But a design flaw of dogs is their lives are, most of the time, much shorter than ours, and a couple of months ago, Sancho's time came to an end. My dad is having a beautiful memorial built at his home where he will be remembered. My daughter cried and asks about Sancho all the time. He was the goodest boy, and he is very missed.

What does this have to do with Magic, you ask? Well, this particular dog reminds me of Sancho - not in looks, but in name, because Sancho was certainly ever-faithful.

It seems so fitting for Yoshimaru to have Partner here. Despite the fact we're going to ignore it, there's a flavor win in that particular choice: you are the Partner.

But we're here to play Magic, so let's build a deck, shall we?

We have our 40 Lands, which is a lot for a one-mana Commander, but we still want to hit our Land drops when we can. It's possible over time that number could adjust down slightly, but don't start with less - run 40 Lands. Adjust after several games show you can safely remove one, then just remove one. Cut slowly and carefully.

One cool thing about Yoshimaru is he cares about Legendary Permanents, not Creatures only. So, we can take advantage of that by running as many Legendaries as possible. That means we can run Mox Amber and Mox Opal as mana rocks. They're expensive, so if you don't have them don't worry about it and run Sol Ring and Arcane Signet, but if you've got 'em, this is the place. They can come down on turn one along with Yoshimaru, and already he's a 2/2. To that end, all of our mana rocks are Legendary, including The Celestus, The Immortal Sun (which makes things cheaper), Sceptre of Eternal Glory (which will often tap for ), and Nyx Lotus, which will also often add a bunch. Since we're not ramping to anything in particular, we don't have to try to match a specific mana value. Instead, we'll add mana and counters to Yoshimaru. (Note we are running a number of Legendary Lands - they count for Yoshimaru too! Play out Eiganjo Castle on turn two, and it'll add a counter.)

Draw is traditionally difficult in Mono-White, and it's limited even more when you're trying to run nothing but Legendary permanents. We've got some cute ways to draw cards, though, like Eye of Vecna and The Deck of Many Things. Mangara, the Diplomat will either give us cards or keep people from attacking us or doing things, all of which are good for us. Loran of the Third Path is a nice way to make a friend at the table, as is Teyo, Geometric Tactician. Bilbo's Ring helps stuff get through and can often draw us an extra card, and Mirror of Galadriel will often cost us nothing but a tap to Scry then draw.

We aren't running any Instants or Sorceries, because they can't trigger Yoshimaru, so we're limited in our ways of dealing with threats. We have some, though - Loran is a Disenchant. Mostly we have ways to blow up the world, with cards like The Filigree Sylex, Urza's Sylex, Karn's Sylex, and The Argent Etchings, which is the Saga side of Elesh Norn. Predator, Flagship is a seven-mana Murder, but it works (and is a good use for all that excess mana!). The Moment is a cool little Artifact which lets us carefully create a Wrath. Even Hylda's Crown of Winter can be quite effective; if someone is trying to attack you with their 36/36 Multani, Yavimaya's Avatar, tapping it down will at least keep you alive.

Then we get to go crazy with the fun Legendary stuff. We have all kinds of Legendary Equipment to attach to whatever Creature we want - can be Yoshimaru, but can be other stuff, too. Mithril Coat makes our Legendaries Indestructible. Tarrian's Soulcleaver adds counters to whatever it's attached to. Excalibur, Sword of Eden gives a HUGE power boost. The list goes on.

Additionally, we can do some other stuff; Patriar's Seal, for example, is a mana rock but it also can untap one of our Creatures. Bessie, the Doctor's Roadster can help sneak whatever champion we've chosen through. Flowering of the White Tree is a nifty bonus for all our Creatures, and Keleth, Sunmane Familiar encourages Yoshimaru to attack. (There is an argument to Partner them, because you'd always have a 2-drop to trigger Yoshimaru, but it didn't feel right flavor-wise for me. You do you.)

I did want a couple of Creatures which make an impact when they land, so we have Zetalpa, Primal Dawn here. Eight mana, sure, but it's a powerful and large Creature which can do a lot of damage, and you strap a Blackblade Reforged or Excalibur to it and it gets really scary, really fast. The Capitoline Triad is also big and expensive, though it has a different effect, and in the late game can make all the difference. We have a few ways of generating random tokens, but imagine if we've created the Triad's Emblem and are dumping out 9/9s with Legion's Landing?

Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful | Commander | Mark Wischkaemper

• Commander (1)
• 1 Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

• Creatures (15)
• 1 Aradesh, the Founder
• 1 Basri, Tomorrow's Champion
• 1 Eight-and-a-Half-Tails
• 1 Elesh Norn // The Argent Etchings
• 1 Hope of Ghirapur
• 1 Isamaru, Hound of Konda
• 1 Keleth, Sunmane Familiar
• 1 Kytheon, Hero of Akros // Gideon, Battle-Forged
• 1 Loran of the Third Path
• 1 Mangara, the Diplomat
• 1 Mikaeus, the Lunarch
• 1 Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd
• 1 The Capitoline Triad
• 1 The Wandering Rescuer
• 1 Zetalpa, Primal Dawn

• Planeswalkers (2)
• 1 Gideon Blackblade
• 1 Teyo, Geometric Tactician

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Flowering of the White Tree
• 1 Legion's Landing // Adanto, the First Fort

• Artifacts (40)
• 1 Ace's Baseball Bat
• 1 Agatha's Soul Cauldron
• 1 Anduril, Narsil Reforged
• 1 Bessie, the Doctor's Roadster
• 1 Bilbo's Ring
• 1 Blackblade Reforged
• 1 Crown of Gondor
• 1 Eater of Virtue
• 1 Excalibur, Sword of Eden
• 1 Eye of Vecna
• 1 Gerrard's Hourglass Pendant
• 1 Godsend
• 1 Hylda's Crown of Winter
• 1 Kaldra Compleat
• 1 Karn's Sylex
• 1 Lost Jitte
• 1 Luxior, Giada's Gift
• 1 Mirror of Galadriel
• 1 Mithril Coat
• 1 Mox Amber
• 1 Mox Opal
• 1 Nyx Lotus
• 1 Patriar's Seal
• 1 Phial of Galadriel
• 1 Predator, Flagship
• 1 Sceptre of Eternal Glory
• 1 Shadowspear
• 1 Spear of Heliod
• 1 Stone of Erech
• 1 Tarrian's Soulcleaver
• 1 The Celestus
• 1 The Deck of Many Things
• 1 The Filigree Sylex
• 1 The Immortal Sun
• 1 The Millennium Calendar
• 1 The Moment
• 1 The One Ring
• 1 The Ozolith
• 1 Throne of Eldraine
• 1 Urza's Sylex

• Lands (40)
• 31 Plains
• 1 Abstergo Entertainment
• 1 Eiganjo Castle
• 1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
• 1 Flagstones of Trokair
• 1 Gods' Eye, Gate to the Reikai
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Kor Haven
• 1 Minas Tirith
• 1 The Grey Havens

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A few more things to note. I'm running all the Legendary Dogs we can, because dogs should have doggy friends in addition to human ones. The Millenium Calendar is a fun cheap Legendary Artifact which serves as a funny alternate win condition; remember that Equipment doesn't tap when the Equipped Creature does, but we have a lot of Artifacts that tap for some reason. That can add up pretty quickly.

Finally, this deck is a little scattered, but because it runs nothing but Legendary permanents, it was almost certainly always going to be. It's kind of Voltron but kind of not, because we're not requiring Yoshimaru to do all the work - there are other Creatures, and some of them may be superior attackers. But Yoshimaru can also get quite large and become an impressive threat. The important thing is to keep your mind open and let the cards and board state guide your choices.

And if you have a dog in your life, go give them some extra love today. Play fetch. Go for a walk. Give some extra scratches. Because remember - you got the better end of the deal.

Thanks for reading.