Smaug the Impenetrable Commander Deck Guide

Smaug the Impenetrable | Illustration by Marta Nael

Universes Beyond isn’t shy about printing multiple versions of key characters from their adapted media, often with the legendary type given their central role in the narrative.

It doesn’t get much more iconic in fantasy than dragons, and Smaug is king in Tolkien’s Middle-earth. The Hobbit has printed plenty of Smaug variants with potential in the command zone, but none are quite as devastating as Smaug the Impenetrable, an immense Treasure commander that facilitates a ton of infinite combos.

The Deck

Smaug the Magnificent | Illustration by John Tedrick

This is a Bracket 4 deck built around infinite combos enabled by the commander, Smaug the Impenetrable. The goal is straightforward: Power out Smaug with fast mana, slam a combo, and watch your opponents crumble like ash in the breeze.

The Commander: Smaug the Impenetrable

Smaug the Impenetrable primarily serves as a combo engine. I’ll break the combos down later, but suffice to say that a consistent source of damage paired with Smaug’s trigger often creates infinite Treasure and sometimes infinite mana. That’s more than enough to fuel a win and very easy to pull off with Smaug practically always available to you.

Tutors

Vampiric Tutor and Demonic Tutor are simply best in class, with Imperial Seal not far behind.

Gamble is riskier but you can’t beat 1 mana to (probably) assemble a combo.

The deck has a handful of random creatures to sacrifice to Diabolic Intent once they’ve served their purpose.

The transmute abilities on Shred Memory and Dimir House Guard are rather costly, but they have their benefits. Shred Memory finds most combo cards and win conditions, and it’s a difficult to interact with an activated ability on the stack compared to a spell.

Card Draw

Necropotence is very close to Commander’s best draw spell since you have so much life to invest into it. Necrodominance drops the power a few tiers with the hand size reduction, but I still find it worthwhile.

Smaug, Wicked Worm might be too cute for high power levels, but Bracket 4 allows forsome fun stuff. You get a surge of mana and card draw to find a more permanent win. It’s also useful if the commander makes a bunch of mana but doesn’t quite close the game.

There’s a bunch of 2-mana draw spells for quick access to card advantage; Deadly Dispute is the most notable since it makes Treasure and effectively costs 1.

Stinging Study is a great reward for putting an expensive card in the command zone. Peer into the Abyss draws so many cards that it’s basically a tutor; it’ll be most useful for draws that have a combo but no outlet.

Interaction

Tibalt's Trickery is extremely important as a rare red counterspell. Pyroblast and Red Elemental Blast pitch in here, but these are arguably closer to protection than countermagic.

Speaking of protection, Hexing Squelcher, Bolt Bend, and Deflecting Swat keep your combos safe from your opponents.

Rakdos () isn’t great at interacting on the stack, but it handles the board just fine. Fire Covenant is an amazing card to remove multiple threats without damaging your board, Snuff Out and Deadly Rollick handle creatures without costing mana.

Confidentially, lots of the combo cards in this deck work as removal because they deal damage.

Combo Pieces

I break down the combos in detail later, but these are the cards that go infinite with Smaug, and the cards that turn those into a win.

Combo Pieces

• Blazing Sunsteel
• Chain Lightning
• Havoc Jester
• Mayhem Devil
• Pestilence
• Pyrohemia

Combo Outlets

• Disciple of the Vault
• Marionette Apprentice
• Reckless Fireweaver
• Torment of Hailfire

I chose these outlets because of how Smaug’s combos work and to get around different flavors of interaction. You always make infinite Treasure, and often infinite mana. Cracking the Treasure triggers Disciple of the Vault and Marionette Apprentice. Should you be unable to crack them, Reckless Fireweaver wins with artifactfall (and the life drain from the others gets around “can’t be damaged”). Should all the creatures fail, Torment of Hailfire provides an outlet for the infinite mana.

The Mana Base

Many Game Changers pop up in the mana base, from fast mana like Ancient Tomb and Chrome Mox to Jeska's Will, which splits the difference between card draw and ramp.

One of the more notable ramp spells is Treasonous Ogre, which turbos out combos faster than any other card in the deck as long as you have a little black mana for Smaug.

Looking at the lands, it’s mostly mana fixing with a few utility lands like Takenuma, Abandoned Mire and Cavern of Souls.

The Strategy

Be very critical of your mulligans; because high-powered games go so quickly, your hand needs a clear path; you must look at it and see a game plan. You can’t sit on some ramp and wait to draw into something like in a more casual game.

Watch your combo lines. Most of your combos require Smaug with one more card, so consider what that other card should be. Do you have Treasure lying around? Mayhem Devil’s probably a good choice. If you need to clean up the board, reach for Pestilence; even if it doesn’t win, it’s a sweeper.

Remember to be proactive and look for ramp. You want to land Smaug quickly; this is pretty close to a turbo deck, so don’t try and sit around removing threats. That’s hard in high-powered EDH, especially without access to countermagic. And make your opponents have countermagic! Don’t let them delay your game plan without investing mana and cards.

Combos and Interactions

The most straightforward combo requires Smaug, Mayhem Devil or Havoc Jester, and a Treasure. Sacrifice your Treasure to add mana, getting a ping; hit Smaug; make another Treasure. Infinite Treasures and mana are at your disposal. Oh, and if you control both, one pings Smaug while the other burns your opponents out of the game. They can also be outlets for the following combos.

Smaug and Chain Lightning requires additional setup because you need available to cast and copy Chain Lightning the first time. But after you pay for the initial copy, Smaug makes three Treasure, and you can use two of those to pay for subsequent copies.

Blazing Sunsteel is the most mana-intensive option since you need to cast and equip it, and you need an additional source of damage. Once you get the first Sunsteel trigger, point the damage at Smaug to make Treasure and trigger Sunsteel again. The deck runs Pain for All; if that also ends up on Smaug, you win. Alternatively, Sunsteel makes any of the other combos into a win condition because you can burn Smaug with, say, Chain Lightning and your opponents at the same time. That flexibility warrants its inclusion, despite the costs.

These next two combos aren’t technically infinite, but they often do enough to matter.

First up, Smaug with Pestilence or Pyrohemia is pretty similar to the Mayhem Devil combo in simplicity: Pay or to ping Smaug, and make a Treasure to activate the ability again. But you also take damage, so it doesn’t go infinite. If you have the highest life total (or protection from everything thanks to The One Ring), you can kill the table with this, but don’t be surprised if this just creates the mana to play a more explosive threat.

Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought also doesn’t go infinite, but as long as you can attack and it has enough charge counters to get its attack trigger, you make 100 Treasure, which should be enough to make any win condition lethal.

While Smaug enables most of the combos, it doesn’t play a role in every combo because I dislike relying on the commander that heavily. The alternate combos rely on Barbed Servitor and Brash Taunter.

Blazing Sunsteel makes those cards win, and the combo basically functions the same as with Smaug, except that instead of getting a trigger to make Treasure, an opponent loses life. These also work with Dawnsire to blast a player from orbit.

They also work well with the Pestilence/Pyrohemia combo by dealing additional damage. Since one player takes 2 damage to your 1, these let you kill players with a higher life total.

The very last combo is Orcish Bowmasters and Peer into the Abyss, which politely asks one player to stop taking game actions until the next round.

Rule 0 Violations Check

As long as you’re straightforward about this being a Bracket 4 deck, you shouldn’t fall into any trouble with a Rule 0 conversation.

Budget Options

High-powered Magic is possible on a budget; you just need to make some choices that unfortunately slow the deck down. Always, always start with the mana base and cull those dual lands and fetch lands for budget duals and basics.

Fast mana is generally expensive, so trim that in favor of more standard mana rocks like Fire Diamond and Mind Stone.

The Game Changer-level card draw like Necropotence and The One Ring costs too much, so replace it with cheaper effects like Sign in Blood and Embrace the Unknown. You’ll also need extra card draw to make up for losing tutors like Vampiric Tutor and Imperial Seal.

The free interaction needs to go, like Deadly Rollick. You could go for more traditional removal like Terminate or try to pack in extra ramp and card draw for more explosive turns to make up for the low budget with explosive starts.

Luckily, most of the combo cards are pretty cheap. You’ll want to cut Torment of Hailfire as an outlet, but the other combos rely on commons and uncommons with plenty of prints, so you can preserve power in your win conditions.

Other Builds

Smaug will always be a treasure commander; the question is what power level you want to play it at.

To tune the deck down, cut all the combos—since they’re two cards with your commander, they’re too much for Bracket 3. Replace them with additional Treasure payoffs, like Smaug the Magnificent, Rain of Riches, maybe Revel in Riches. Focus on taking more game actions than your opponents because you make more mana and get rewarded for spending it. Also, run more creature removal like Flame Slash to account for more creatures (and hit Smaug more).

The cEDH version cuts the frills; some of these cards, like Smaug, Wicked Worm and the Dawnsire, Sunstar Dreadnought/Brash Taunter stuff, aren’t worth running at that level. Pack even more interaction like Opposition Agent, plus backup combos like Dualcaster Mage + Twinflame so the deck wins faster and doesn’t rely so heavily on Smaug. You could also consider cutting the Pestilence/Pyrohemia combo line and reworking the mana curve a bit to support Ad Nauseam.

Commanding Conclusion

Desolation of Smaug | Illustration by Dibujante Nocturno

Smaug the Impenetrable is certainly the most imposing commander from The Hobbit, with few competitors—even the glory of other Smaugs falls short compared to its potential. Whether you go big and fast like this deck or take a more casual route, your opponents will understand why nobody dared plunder the Lonely Mountain for so long.

How would you build Smaug the Impenetrable? What’s your favorite printing of Smaug? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! For more The Hobbit coverage, check out Draftsim’s YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!