A boy and his dog: an adventure (Rograkh & Yoshimaru)

[Gentle Giant]

The adventure of a boy and his loyal friend

Premise
Themes
Decklist
Further additions/thoughts

Premise

I'd been meaning to make something with Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh since his release, initially thinking about a Pokemon-esque 'gotta catch them all' with all the familiars as his partners. However, rules-wise that's obviously impossible, and hard to rule zero for (my playgroups don't really do this) so I'd abandoned the idea. With the release of Yoshimaru, the extremely cute shiba, the idea came back with a twist: what if there was just one companion, with the deck focusing on their growth and adventures together? (note that I'm not that familiar with Adventure Times, but I can see people making the analogy in a heartbeat)
Note: this is a theme/ludonarrative-focused deck. To some it might give insane snowflake/cringe-vibes, as it deviates from a lot of what commander has become over the last decade (card-choice is based on completely different axes). I hope you can step past that and see the design intent behind the deck.

Themes

Working out themes, there's a lot to draw from: the classic friendship-focused manga/anime like pokemon, JRPGs, the hero's journey, good boy/dog-and-child tropes. With all that buzzing in my head as a moodboard I went through my collection and the following themes emerged:

Companions

These cards focus on strengthening both Rograkh and Yoshimaru, either by making them stronger (which most do for Yoshimaru by virtue of being Legendary too) or by sheltering them from harm. Think small helpers/pokemon/critters/animals.

Bond between the two

Although harder to find, these pieces focus on flavourfully conveying the relationship between Rograkh and Yoshimaru: they're a team with the goal of becoming the best/strongest out there! Although some additional fight cards would be nice here, red really lacks the flavour-wise fitting fight cards. I'd hoped Baldur's gate would've given us a red Minsc & Boo flavoured one, but alas.

Getting stronger/mentoring

A big chunk of the deck is about the journey of becoming stronger and finding the people to train with: think mangas/anime like Pokemon, but also Avatar: the Last Airbender. The mentor-mechanic is awesome and super flavourful, with Tajic being an amazing stand-in for the 'old 'n wise mentor' trope. An important criterium for these cards is that they don't take away the spotlight of Rograkh and Yoshimaru too much: it's their story after all!

Going on adventures!

Although still somewhat lacking, these cards represent challenges for our two young heroes. The D&D "You come across something" cards also give a nice sense of adventurism, but are not so much quests. At the moment, attacking represents going on adventures, although I could see other activities (tapping for something, i.e. representing Daily Regimen-esque vibes). Suggestions are welcome!

Benevolent entities

An area that could use some more cards, but these represent beings/gods that bestow blessings upon our daring duo. Ideally, this goes beyond the realm of mere mortals and represent things higher than companions (if you've played any Zelda game, think of something like the three goddesses of Ocarina of Time, or the three dragons in Breath of the Wild). Perhaps other Kamigawa dragons could be interesting here (as death represents a dramatic moment in their adventures!).

Heroism

A more-or-less bucket of less defined 'heroic' cards depicting heroic moments/deeds. Rograkh is a Gerrard-fanboy, and thus glorifies heroic purity and the ideals Gerrard represents (imagine heroic defiance's art hanging in his bedroom as a poster for example). This section isn't as clear cut in terms of what fits, but it has to feel adjacent/fitting with all the other themes.

Decklist

Decklist

DecklistCMCManaPricesChartsDraw 7

Protagonists

1 Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh

1 Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful

Companions

1 Parish-blade trainee

1 Kediss, Emberclaw Familiar

1 Keleth, Sunmane Familiar

1 Fey Steed

1 Tentative connection

1 Befriending the moths

1 Bloodsworn steward

Bond between the two

1 Together Forever

1 Unbounded Potential

1 Spontaneous flight

1 When we were Young

1 Bond of Passion

Getting Stronger/Mentoring

1 Duelcraft Trainer

1 Bruenor battlehammer

1 Djeru, with eyes open

1 Cliffside Rescuer

1 Tajic, Legion's Edge

1 Mavinda, Students' Advocate

1 Elspeth, Sun's Nemesis

1 Basri Ket

1 Keensight Mentor

1 Frillscare Mentor

1 Dueling Coach

1 Blade Instructor

Going on Adventures!

1 Ordeal of Purphoros

1 Ordeal of Heliod

1 You come to the gnoll camp

1 You see a pair of goblins

1 You find some prisoners

1 Explosive Entry

1 Destructive Tampering

1 Semester's End

1 World at war

1 Reckless Endeavor

1 Dowsing Dagger

1 Path of Mettle

Benevolent Entities

1 The wanderer

1 Towashi Guide-Bot

1 Thundering Raiju

1 Patron of the Valiant

Heroism

1 Vow of Duty

1 Vow of Lightning

1 Heroic Defiance

1 Hero's Resolve

1 Act of heroism

1 Search for Glory

1 Scars of the Veteran

1 Swift response

1 Fighter class

1 Unleash Fury

1 Unquenchable Fury

1 Onward // Victory

1 Slash the Ranks

Trinkets

1 Merchant of the Vale

1 Talisman of Conviction

1 Marble Diamond

1 Fire Diamond

1 Hero's Blade

1 Basilisk Collar

1 Komainu Battle Armor

Lands

13 Mountain | AFR

13 Plains | AFR

1 command tower

1 Opal palace

1 smoldering spires

1 boros garrison

1 sejiri steppe

1 evolving wilds

1 secluded steppe

1 Forgotten cave

1 myriad landscape

1 Terramorphic expanse

1 Sandstone Bridge

1 Stone Quarry

Approximate Total Cost:

Further additions/thoughts

Writing down all my thoughts, my mind went beyond the cards I own and some potential fun additions could be:

- Banding! If there's ever a place for this mechanic, this deck is it. I'd love to have Cathedral of Serra and Mountain Stronghold in here as actual flavourful and mechanically useful cards!
- Legendary lands from OG kamigawa. The idea of having all of the lands represent places they've visited (and subsequently had adventures) would be awesome.
- Would love it if there were cards that give 'mentor' or 'training' to a creature, but alas.
- The deck is very light on removal, which often happens with theme decks, but it would be nice to have some more flavourful fight/bite cards in here. Flavourful enchantment/artifact removal is also still very sparse. Suggestions are welcome

[Vertierer]

I don't know if they are on theme but have you looked at the Backgrounds from the recent D&D set for the 98? They are legendary (for the dog) and playing with twice the commanders gives you twice the triggers.

[void_nothing]

I don't know if they are on theme but have you looked at the Backgrounds from the recent D&D set for the 98? They are legendary (for the dog) and playing with twice the commanders gives you twice the triggers.

Indeed, I would recommend Tavern Brawler. While the flavor is suspect - a child and his pet getting drunk and starting punch-ups? - it would be one of the most effective things with two cheap commanders and particularly with Rograkh.

[TheGildedGoose]

I don't know if they are on theme but have you looked at the Backgrounds from the recent D&D set for the 98? They are legendary (for the dog) and playing with twice the commanders gives you twice the triggers.

Indeed, I would recommend Tavern Brawler. While the flavor is suspect - a child and his pet getting drunk and starting punch-ups? - it would be one of the most effective things with two cheap commanders and particularly with Rograkh.

Not to beat a dead horse with my obsession for this card, but I really like Noble Heritage here.

a) They're both literal royalty, so it fits flavor-wise.
b) The deck already has a major +1/+1 counter mechanical theme between Yoshimaru, Ever Faithful himself and the Mentor cards.
c) Rograkh, Son of Rohgahh wants them counters to lay down the beats.
d) Who in their right mind wants to attack a boy and his dog?

[Gentle Giant]

Yeah, I'd been eyeballing those as well. Agreed with TheGildedGoose, Noble Heritage is a slam dunk for a lot of the themes here! (And somewhat hilarious as especially Rograkh doesn't really feel all that royal).
Folk Hero also sounds fun, purely as having that background flavour/story-wise. EDIT: although gameplay-wise it's a very poor fit, with the lack of cobolds in the deck

[RxPhantom]

I don't have any suggestions or anything. I just wanted to say that this deck looks really cool.

[Gentle Giant]

Noticed I was missing a card (count came at 99), I'd missed Forgotten Cave.

Also thought of sagas as another nice representation of story (adventure cards might also work?). Haven't gone through all of them, but here's one change:
Angelfire Ignition → Befriending the Moths // Imperial Moth

Befriending the moths is a perfect 'companion'- and 'going on an adventure'-card at the same time, and mechanically helps our heroes get through. Angelfire Ignition is a bit too 'holy' for the theme.