How To Play The Tovolar, Dire Overlord Commander Deck In Magic: The Gathering

The eternal struggle between Vampires and Werewolves is just a normal day in Magic: The Gathering’s gothic horror plane of Innistrad. But while there are countless legendary Vampires to lead their armies, there’s only one Werewolf to lead the pack in your Commander deck: Tovolar, Dire Overlord.

Strictly speaking, Ulrich of the Krallenhorde is another potential commander, but only Tovolar unites the old transform mechanic from the original Innistrad block with the Day/Night cycle, bringing all packs together under one banner. As the moon rises, teeth grow long, and your opponents will learn to fear the night.

Sample Decklist

The Commander

Tovolar, Dire Overlord is one of only two legendary Werewolves and is by far the superior one to lead a Werewolf deck. On the front, he’s a 3/3 Human Werewolf that costs one generic, one red and one green mana, and whenever a Werewolf or Wolf that you control deals combat damage to a player, he lets you draw a card.

He also has an ability that changes the game’s time to night, causing all daybound creatures to transform. Werewolves introduced in Midnight Hunt and Crimson Vow use the day/night cycle to transform, but older Werewolves don’t. Tovolar not only makes it easier to trigger night, but he also transforms older Werewolves along with the newer ones.

On the back side, Tovolar becomes a 4/4 Werewolf who keeps his card draw ability, and trades his mass-transformation trigger for one that copies Kessig Wolfrun: For one red, one green, and X generic mana, he can give a Wolf or Werewolf +X/+0 and trample. Since he doesn’t tap in the process, you can reuse this to buff more than one creature.

Since he only costs three mana and gives you cards for every Wolf and Werewolf, Tovolar becomes your best source of draws, and also a way to spend mana without triggering the shift to day. All you need is some mana and some werewolves.

Building The Deck

As a midrange Gruul (red/green) commander, Tovolar, Dire Overlord wants two things: a lot of creatures, and to attack aggressively. The colors lack strong card draw, but Tovolar himself corrects that, allowing you to focus on packing the deck with as many Wolves and Werewolves as you want.

Both the win condition and the majority of the card draw revolve around attacking, so there isn’t any clever strategy here to build towards: you play big-ish creatures, then attack. There are a few options to make those attacks hit harder, but the biggest strategic decisions you’ll need to make are when to skip actions to turn the game to night.

Skipping any spells on your own turn can be problematic since you’ll usually have three opponents, each of whom can cast two spells on their own turn to switch night back into day. Unfortunately, you don’t have any way to force your opponents to skip casting spells unless you slot in Winter Orb, which the deck doesn’t play well around.

If you don’t want to skip playing cards on your turn, there are a few ways to force the game state to switch between day and night or to force a single Werewolf to transform. Eschewing spells also doesn’t mean skipping your whole turn: Tovolar and several other permanents can act as mana dumps, allowing you to spend your hard-earned mana to buff your pack or create new members.

You can also include a few other ways to get your creatures into play without actually casting them. Putting permanents directly into play doesn’t count as casting a spell, so it doesn’t progress the day/night cycle. It can also reduce the cost of your creatures, which is important in a deck that doesn’t have room for extensive ramp.

Unsleeving and flipping a lot of transforming cards can be a nightmare. We find it helpful to keep an extra set of whatever Werewolves you can find another copy of and use those as markers to stack on top of the actual cards.

Ramp

In addition to the standard mana rocks, green has access to an excellent land ramp package and mana dorks. But to stay on theme, this deck skips staples like Llanowar Elves and Birds of Paradise in favor of mana-generating Werewolves.

Scorned Villager is a slightly more expensive Llanowar Elves, since she costs two mana instead of one green, and is still a 1/1 that taps for one green mana. When she transforms, though, she gains vigilance and can tap for two mana, allowing you to attack and still pay for another spell or ability.

Other mana dogs need to attack to make mana, but that’s already part of your game plan. Kessig Naturalist makes one red or green mana, and that mana doesn’t disappear between phases. When it transforms into Lord of the Ulvenwald, it retains that ability but also buffs the rest of the pack.

Conduit of Storms is the only non-Human Werewolf in the deck because Tovolar can’t help non-Human Werewolves transform. That’s okay, though, because Conduit of Storms makes red mana whenever it attacks, and once you have some spare mana, you can transform it into Conduit of Emrakul, which produces two colorless mana for the same action.

The other unique ramp piece to be aware of is The Celestus, a legendary artifact that costs three mana and can tap for any color of mana, just like Commander’s Sphere. It also starts the day/night cycle if it isn’t already running, and rewards you with one life and a card every time it switches between day and night.

More importantly, The Celestus allows you to switch between night and day for three mana at any time. So, as long as it’s in play and untapped, your opponents can cast all the spells they want on their turns, but you can still transform all of your daybound/nightbound Werewolves before you attack.

Draw

The main source of card draw is your commander, Tovolar, who will give you a card each time a Wolf or Werewolf does combat damage to a player. That can draw a lot of cards really fast, so there aren’t many other options in this deck. There are, however, several ways to dig for more cards.

For the Ancestors is a typical example: It allows you to look at the top six cards of your library and put any number of cards from a specific creature type into your hand. With nearly a third of the deck consisting of Werewolves, you’ll usually find at least one, and often more.

Duskwatch Recruiter only looks at the top three cards and only allows you to choose one creature to put into your hand, but it can be any creature type. Plus, it allows you to look for a creature on an opponent’s turn. On top of that, when it transforms into Krallenhorde Howler, it reduces the casting cost of your creatures.

Howlpack Piper has almost the opposite effect: it allows you to put any creature into play for only two mana, and if that creature is a Wolf or Werewolf, it untaps, so you can do it again. Then, when it transforms into Wildsong Howler, it searches your top six cards for a creature.

Werewolf Pack Leader is one of the few options that gives you real card draw aside from the commander. When you attack with it, you get to draw a card as long as you attack with a total power of six or more. Her base power of three means you only need one or two more creatures, but you can pump her up to a 5/3 to make it even easier.

Night And Day

The decklist is pretty evenly split between old-style and daybound Werewolves, with a few Wolves and other oddballs thrown in. When Tovolar is in play he’ll be able to transform all of your Human Werewolves, but without him, you’ll want a couple of other tricks to change at least some of them.

Unnatural Moonrise and Into the Night both switch the game to night, transforming all of your daybound Werewolves. Both also provide a little extra draw, with Into the Night allowing you to discard the cards you don’t need and replace them with fresh ones.

Moonmist is a little tricky. It transforms all of your Humans, so Conduit of Storms is unaffected. It also doesn’t change day into night, so your daybound Werewolves stay Human. But it can catch your older Werewolves up if it’s already night. It’s also an instant with a Fog effect that doesn’t stop your Wolves and Werewolves from biting, so you can ambush your opponents!

Daybound and nightbound override Moonmist. Cards with those abilities can’t be transformed any other way, so you won’t even get a “whenever this creature transforms” trigger.

Once your Werewolves have their claws out, Immerwolf can prevent them from shedding all over your table. As long as it’s in play your non-Human Werewolves can’t transform, so they’ll all be locked into battle mode, even during the day. It also gives all of your Wolves and Werewolves an extra +1/+1, making them an even bigger threat.

Conduit of Storms is a non-Human Werewolf already, so if you control Immerwolf you can’t transform it into Conduit of Emrakul. Make sure you flip it before playing Immerwolf if you want the extra mana.

Pack Tactics

Innistrad’s Werewolves hunt in packs alongside normal Wolves, and several act as lords to each other, buffing the entire pack. Each one that you get into play makes your board more of a threat, and if you can get several out you’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

Mayor of Avabruck works around the clock. On the front side, it gives all Humans +1/+1, and on the bac,k it changes that buff to affect Werewolves and Wolves. Both are useful, but the back side also includes an ability that makes a 2/2 Wolf at the end of each of your turns.

Nightpack Ambusher works a lot like Mayor of Avabruck, in that both give +1/+1 to other Wolves and Werewolves and create 2/2 Wolf tokens. This one only makes them if you didn’t cast any spells, though, helping you to keep up while holding back to transform your Werewolves. But it also has flash, so that you can play it when your opponents attack, buffing your beasties in time to block.

The buff from Avabruck Caretaker sticks around after she dies since she distributes +1/+1 counters. Normally, she only puts those counters on one creature, but at night she turns into Hollowhenge Huntmaster and puts two counters on every creature you control during each of your combats.

With Aggravated Assault in play, you can get multiple Hollowhenge Huntmaster triggers. There are also enough Werewolves that generate mana for it to go infinite!

It’s also important to grow your pack, which you can do without casting any spells, allowing you to flip your old-school Werewolves.

On her front side, Child of the Pack gives you an outlet to spend mana, allowing you to spend two generic, one red, and one green mana to make a 2/2 Wolf at any time. Then, when it turns into night, she becomes a 5/5 bruiser with trample and gives all of your other creatures +1/+0.

Hollowhenge Overlord is going to double the size of your board at the beginning of your upkeep most turns, creating a 2/2 Wolf for every other Wolf or Werewolf you control. This can quickly get out of control if your opponents don’t deal with it.

Mass Hysteria can give all of those Wolves haste, allowing you to overwhelm your opponents immediately. It was not included in the provided deck list, but can be swapped in to make the deck a little more aggressive.

If an opponent casts two spells in a single turn, all of your old-school Werewolves will transform back to their human sides. If it’s their turn, it’ll also turn into day, transforming your nightbound Werewolves. Howling Moon gives you a small consolation prize, providing a 2/2 Wolf whenever an opponent plays their second spell during any turn.