Sauron, The Dark Lord by Nrswanson

Format: Commander

Commander: Sauron, the Dark Lord

Bracket: 4

DeckCheck Threat Index: 37

Deck overview

This deck is a resilient Grixis reanimator and midrange control strategy spearheaded by Sauron, the Dark Lord. It operates by pairing early ramp and graveyard seeding with an oppressive commander that punishes opposing spell casts by amassing Orc Armies. Sauron's ability to discard hands and draw four cards whenever an Army deals combat damage functions as a self-refilling card engine, binning massive creatures like Ancient Brass Dragon, Balefire Dragon, and Razaketh, the Foulblooded while digging into reanimation spells. The deck maintains table control through flexible counterspells, targeted removal, and asymmetric draw punishes via Orcish Bowmasters and Notion Thief. It closes games by chaining large combat steps, utilizing Living Death or Rise of the Dark Realms to overwhelm all three opponents in short order.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Afterlife from the Loam
• 1 Ancient Brass Dragon
• 1 Anger
• 1 Animate Dead
• 1 Arcane Denial
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Archaeomancer
• 1 Balefire Dragon
• 1 Barad-dûr
• 1 Bilbo, Retired Burglar
• 1 Black Sun's Zenith
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Buried Alive
• 1 Call of the Ring
• 1 Cavern-Hoard Dragon
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Choked Estuary
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Counterspell
• 1 Crumbling Necropolis
• 1 Cursed Mirror
• 1 Dark Ritual
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Devastating Onslaught
• 1 Diabolic Intent
• 1 Displacer Kitten
• 1 Dissipate
• 1 Dragon's Desire
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Dread Return
• 1 Drowned Catacomb
• 1 Evolving Wilds
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Field of Ruin
• 1 Foreboding Ruins
• 1 Frostboil Snarl
• 1 Glorious Gale
• 1 Hostage Taker
• 5 Island
• 1 Languish
• 1 Liquimetal Torque
• 1 Living Death
• 1 Lord of the Nazgûl
• 1 Mount Doom
• 4 Mountain
• 1 My Precious // Allure of Power
• 1 Notion Thief
• 1 Orcish Bowmasters
• 1 Palantír of Orthanc
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Razaketh, the Foulblooded
• 1 Reanimate
• 1 Relic of Sauron
• 1 Riddles in the Dark
• 1 Rise of the Dark Realms
• 1 Ruthless Technomancer
• 1 Saruman, the White Hand
• 1 Sauron, the Dark Lord
• 1 Sheoldred, Whispering One
• 1 Sheoldred, the Apocalypse
• 1 Smaug, Wicked Worm
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Solve the Equation
• 1 Soothing of Sméagol
• 1 Starwinder
• 1 Sulfur Falls
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Sunken Hollow
• 5 Swamp
• 1 Syncopate
• 1 Terramorphic Expanse
• 1 The Balrog of Moria
• 1 The Black Gate
• 1 The One Ring
• 1 Thought Vessel
• 1 Treasure Nabber
• 1 Underground River
• 1 Unearth
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1 Victimize
• 1 Warren Soultrader
• 1 Watery Grave
• 1 Windfall
• 1 Witch-king of Angmar
• 1 Withering Torment