Master of Shadows by BigMcLargeHuge

Format: Commander

Commander: Sauron, the Dark Lord

Bracket: 4

Deck overview

Helmed by Sauron, the Dark Lord, this Grixis deck is a "Ring tempts" midrange engine that wins through combat inevitability. Sauron grows a single Orc Army every time an opponent casts a spell, and when that Army connects, the Ring tempts you - Sauron then recycles your entire hand into four fresh cards. Around this core, the deck stacks three payoffs: a huge evasive Army (Wonder, My Precious, Rogue's Passage, The Reaver Cleaver), a Wraith swarm that escalates toward 9/9s via Lord of the Nazgul and eight Nazgul, and a reanimation suite (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Necromancy, Living Death, Incarnation Technique) that turns the graveyard into a second hand. A discard-matters layer - Bone Miser, Monument to Endurance, Relic of Sauron - extracts extra value from Sauron's wheel, while Devastating Onslaught and In the Darkness Bind Them supply burst finishes. It is a controlling value deck that closes the game in the late midgame.

Decklist (100 cards)

  • 1 Ancient Tomb
  • 1 Anger
  • 1 Animate Dead
  • 1 Arcane Denial
  • 1 Arcane Signet
  • 1 Blasphemous Act
  • 1 Blood Crypt
  • 1 Bloodstained Mire
  • 1 Bojuka Bog
  • 1 Bone Miser
  • 1 Call of the Ring
  • 1 Chaos Warp
  • 1 Command Tower
  • 1 Corsairs of Umbar
  • 1 Dance of the Dead
  • 1 Dark Ritual
  • 1 Devastating Onslaught
  • 1 Fell the Profane // Fell Mire
  • 1 Fierce Guardianship
  • 1 Glorious Gale
  • 1 Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant
  • 1 Great Goblin, Foul-Hearted
  • 1 Great Ugly-Looking Goblin // Clap! Snap!
  • 1 Grishnákh, Brash Instigator
  • 1 In the Darkness Bind Them
  • 1 Incarnation Technique
  • 1 Island
  • 1 Jeska's Will
  • 1 Living Death
  • 1 Lord of the Nazgûl
  • 1 Luxury Suite
  • 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
  • 1 Mana Confluence
  • 1 Mana Drain
  • 1 March from the Black Gate
  • 1 Mauhúr, Uruk-hai Captain
  • 1 Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress
  • 1 Monument to Endurance
  • 1 Morgul-Knife
  • 1 Moria Scavenger
  • 1 Morphic Pool
  • 1 Mount Doom
  • 2 Mountain
  • 1 My Precious // Allure of Power
  • 8 Nazgûl
  • 1 Necromancy
  • 1 Nightscape Familiar
  • 1 Orcish Bowmasters
  • 1 Orcish Medicine
  • 1 Orcish Siegemaster
  • 1 Otawara, Soaring City
  • 1 Pinnacle Monk // Mystic Peak
  • 1 Plaza of Heroes
  • 1 Polluted Delta
  • 1 Prismatic Vista
  • 1 Reanimate
  • 1 Relic of Sauron
  • 1 Riddles in the Dark
  • 1 Rogue's Passage
  • 1 Saruman, the White Hand
  • 1 Sauron, the Dark Lord
  • 1 Scalding Tarn
  • 1 Shivan Reef
  • 1 Sink into Stupor // Soporific Springs
  • 1 Sol Ring
  • 1 Soothing of Sméagol
  • 1 Starting Town
  • 1 Steam Vents
  • 1 Sulfurous Springs
  • 3 Swamp
  • 1 Takenuma, Abandoned Mire
  • 1 Talisman of Dominance
  • 1 Talisman of Indulgence
  • 1 The Black Gate
  • 1 The Great Goblin
  • 1 The One Ring
  • 1 The Reaver Cleaver
  • 1 The Soul Stone
  • 1 Toxic Deluge
  • 1 Training Center
  • 1 Undercity Sewers
  • 1 Underground River
  • 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
  • 1 Vandalblast
  • 1 Warg Rider
  • 1 Watery Grave
  • 1 Wayfarer's Bauble
  • 1 Witch-king of Angmar
  • 1 Wonder
  • 1 Xander's Lounge