Balrog, Prince of Darkness by mtg123

Format: Commander

Commander: The Balrog, Durin's Bane

Bracket: 4

Deck overview

This deck is a Rakdos sacrifice and Treasure midrange deck led by The Balrog, Durin's Bane. You build a board of Treasure makers and sacrifice payoffs, then use those Treasures and disposable bodies to reduce the Balrog's cost and to fuel drain and damage effects. The Balrog, Durin's Bane has haste and can only be blocked by legendary creatures, so it attacks the turn you cast it and pressures life totals immediately. The main plan wins through combat with the Balrog and large dragons like Goldspan Dragon and Ancient Copper Dragon, amplified by Fiery Emancipation or Chandra's Ignition, and through incremental drain from Mirkwood Bats and Mayhem Devil whenever you create or sacrifice tokens. A secondary line uses Ashnod's Altar and Phyrexian Altar with recursion like Lich-Knights' Conquest to loop value and close the game.

Decklist (100 cards)

• 1 Academy Manufactor
• 1 Ancient Copper Dragon
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Arena of Glory
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Big Score
• 1 Black Market Connections
• 1 Blasphemous Edict
• 1 Blazemire Verge
• 1 Blightstep Pathway // Searstep Pathway
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Bojuka Bog
• 1 Bolt Bend
• 1 Bonehoard Dracosaur
• 1 Chandra's Ignition
• 1 Command Beacon
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Crime Novelist
• 1 Deadly Dispute
• 1 Deflecting Swat
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Diabolic Intent
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Faithless Looting
• 1 Feed the Swarm
• 1 Fiery Emancipation
• 1 Flare of Malice
• 1 Gimli of the Glittering Caves
• 1 Gimli's Reckless Might
• 1 Goldlust Triad
• 1 Goldspan Dragon
• 1 Graven Cairns
• 1 Grim Hireling
• 1 High Market
• 1 Impulsive Pilferer
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Juri, Master of the Revue
• 1 Lich-Knights' Conquest
• 1 Liquimetal Torque
• 1 Lively Dirge
• 1 Long-Range Sensor
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Magda, Brazen Outlaw
• 1 Malakir Rebirth // Malakir Mire
• 1 Mayhem Devil
• 1 Mines of Moria
• 1 Mirkwood Bats
• 1 Morbid Opportunist
• 1 Mortuary Mire
• 7 Mountain
• 1 My Precious // Allure of Power
• 1 Obsessive Pursuit
• 1 Ophiomancer
• 1 Phyrexian Altar
• 1 Phyrexian Tower
• 1 Pitiless Plunderer
• 1 Plundering Barbarian
• 1 Professional Face-Breaker
• 1 Prosper, Tome-Bound
• 1 Rain of Riches
• 1 Rakdos Charm
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Rankle and Torbran
• 1 Rocky Tar Pit
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Rose, Cutthroat Raider
• 1 Seize the Spotlight
• 1 Shadowblood Ridge
• 1 Skullport Merchant
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Soul Shatter
• 1 Spiteful Banditry
• 1 Sticky Fingers
• 1 Sudden Spoiling
• 1 Sulfurous Springs
• 1 Supernatural Stamina
• 3 Swamp
• 1 Tainted Peak
• 1 The Balrog, Durin's Bane
• 1 The Black Gate
• 1 Tibalt's Trickery
• 1 Treasure Vault
• 1 Undying Malice
• 1 Unexpected Windfall
• 1 Untimely Malfunction
• 1 Victimize
• 1 Visions of Ruin
• 1 Withering Torment
• 1 Xorn