Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on February 18, 2024

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit | Illustration by Axel Sauerwald

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth (LTR) offered a lot of great new commanders to build around. Because this Universes Beyond installment included an entire set and a Commander supplement it’s also possible to build decks that are largely thematic and use a lot of cards set in the Lord of the Rings universe.

As one of the most important characters in Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins obviously gets a lot of focus in this set, making it possible to create a deck that largely follows his journey across Middle-earth. That’s what I’ve tried to do with this Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit deck. While I did have to include some cards from other Magic sets to round out its strategy, this deck largely follows Frodo’s journey with Sam and Gollum after being separated from the Fellowship.

Apart from being thematic, I found that this deck can be punishing to your opponents. There are several ways to drain life from all of them at the same time, while also gaining you life. This allows you to play a deck that tells a story while also staying competitive in the game.

The Deck

Mithril Coat | Illustration by Igor Krstic

This deck is largely built around the new The Ring Tempts You mechanic, and other effects that drain life from your opponents. One of the strongest synergies with this strategy is between Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and extort mechanics. This will allow you to gain the life you need to activate Frodo, and also drain life from your opponents.

There are also a decent number of ways like Bilbo's Ring and Whispersilk Cloak to give Frodo or another ring-bearer evasion. This makes it easier to benefit from the combat triggers granted by The Ring emblem.

Because you won’t necessarily have the biggest board state in this deck, you also have a good amount of removal spells and attack deterrents like Revenge of Ravens to keep you safe. There are also some generally good cards like Shelob, Dread Weaver that also fit the Lord of the Rings theme.

Given a choice between constructing a deck that included more Lord of the Rings cards and one that was more competitive, I leaned toward the thematic option. I do think it’s occasionally fun to build a deck with more than just winning in mind. Instead, you get to do fun things like use Slip On the Ring on Frodo, or sacrifice Boromir, Warden of the Tower to protect your hobbits. That being said, if you’re looking to optimize the deck, you may want to start by cutting LTR cards like Shelob's Ambush.

The Commander

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit is designed to help you quickly work your way through each level of The Ring emblem and start utilizing its powerful final stage. You have to pair Frodo with some lifegain abilities to make it work, which is why they partner well with Sam, Loyal Attendant.

Luckily, Frodo is in Orzhov () colors which offer plenty of ways to gain life, so you can run Frodo on its own if you want. Frodo is also a good ring-bearer, thanks to having vigilance and low power. This will allow them to attack unblocked most of the time, giving you all the benefits of The Ring emblem.

The Ring Tempts You

This deck wants a good mixture of cards that make the ring tempt you, like Boromir, Warden of the Tower, and ones that give you some sort of payoff from being tempted like Faramir, Field Commander.

You have nine copies of Nazgûl which give you a good chance of consistently being tempted. These cards also work well with one another since their +1/+1 counter ability stacks when there are multiples on the battlefield. Having all nine Nazgûl is also a fun thematic choice, since their pursuit of Frodo is what leads him out of The Shire in the first place.

Samwise the Stouthearted also gives a ring temptation while acting as a way to get back cards that were recently removed or sacrificed. This is another great thematic choice for the deck, as Frodo is rarely without Sam throughout his journey.

Gollum, Patient Plotter is good as a chump blocker or as sacrifice fodder since the ring tempts you when it dies. It’s also easy to get it back to your hand, allowing you a chance to do it again.

Gilraen, Dúnedain Protector gives you the ability to flicker creatures with ETB effects that tempt you for another trigger.

Ringwraiths won’t allow the ring to tempt you, but it does offer you a good payoff when it does. Since this card has a good ETB effect, it’s nice to have a way to get it back from the graveyard and repeat that effect again on a future turn.

Frodo, Sauron's Bane both tempts you and gives you a very good payoff for it. While it might be hard to take out all of your opponents with this alternate win-con, you may be able to pull off at least one elimination with its effect.

Gaining Three Life

In order to use Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit’s attack trigger, you’ll need to have gained three or more life before your combat step. This means you’ll need cards that gain you enough life earlier in the turn.

Extort cards like Basilica Screecher or Basilica Guards are one of the more consistent ways to gain three life at the beginning of each turn. Crypt Ghast is probably your best extort creature because it also produces a lot of extra mana. This will make it easier to pay extra to extort your spells.

Agent of Masks works like an extort ability you don’t have to pay for. You’ll only get one trigger each turn, but that’s good enough to gain the three life you need to activate Frodo.

Another good way to gain three life is through Food tokens. Cards like Bill the Pony can give you some food tokens to use when you need them. You also have Cirith Ungol Patrol and Witch's Oven that allow you to trade creatures for food if you don’t have another way to gain life.

Life Drain

Though your Ring emblem will help with some life drain, you’ll want to be doing more than that each turn to try and win. One nice aspect of this deck is that extort abilities and creatures like Agent of Masks don’t just gain you life, they also take life from your opponents.

Denethor, Ruling Steward is another way to drain life from your opponents. If you’re using this ability on your turn, you’ll create more creatures to sacrifice to the ability, making this card somewhat self-sustaining.

Gollum, Obsessed Stalker is difficult to block, so after three turns you can easily set your opponents up to lose life equal to how much you gain on each of your turns. It might be worth throwing some protective equipment on Gollum to keep it alive.

Revenge of Ravens can be a very effective method of draining life from your opponents, especially against decks that create wide board states. This card might also deter opponents from attacking you, as they may be hurting themselves more than you.

Ring-Bearers

While Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit is a good option for a ring-bearer, you do have other creatures that work well with The Ring emblem. For instance, flying creatures like Basilica Screecher or Kingpin's Pet are going to be harder for your opponents to block, allowing you to safely manage your attack triggers with The Ring.

Witch-king of Angmar also acts as a good ring-bearer as it not only has flying but you can also make it indestructible if you need to. Its ability makes your opponents less likely to want to attack you, meaning it isn’t a big deal if the Witch-king can’t block.

Gollum, Scheming Guide is one of the better ring-bearers because whichever way its effect goes it’s impossible for your opponents to kill Gollum with blockers. That means you’ll be able to safely swing and benefit from The Ring’s attack triggers.

Frodo, Sauron's Bane is another good ring-bearer. The Ring essentially giving it skulk will make it easier to get the combat damage trigger, which can help advance The Ring or possibly even take out a player. Honestly, this version of Frodo isn’t terrible to run as an alternate commander in this deck. One reason you might not want to is that you’re giving away your game plan with this card sitting in your command zone.

Equipment

It can be a bit of a pain if your ring-bearer gets removed and you need to reattach the emblem to a new creature. To avoid this from happening, you have a variety of helpful equipment to protect whatever creature you choose. Lightning Greaves protects your creature from targeted removal, while Bilbo's Ring and Whispersilk Cloak are especially good because they both protect your creature and allow it to attack unblocked, helping you get attack triggers.

Mithril Coat keeps itself and your ring-bearer safe from any destruction effects. It also has the added benefit of being able to be played and attached at instant speed.

The Mana Base

To make sure you have access to both colors you need, this deck includes a good number of dual lands. Godless Shrine and Vault of Champions usually come in untapped, as can Isolated Chapel, though you’ll need some other lands first. You also have Command Tower to access both colors immediately.

Dual lands like Silent Clearing and Caves of Koilos can also tap for colored mana immediately at the cost of some life, but this isn’t a huge deal in a lifegain deck.

Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth is a great bit of mana-fixing in any deck that includes black mana. It also pairs very well with Cabal Coffers since it allows all your lands to count toward its activated ability.

This deck also includes utility lands that aim to help Frodo’s or your ring-bearer’s attack triggers. Access Tunnel and Rogue's Passage allow you to make Frodo unblockable, and Shizo, Death's Storehouse can also provide evasion, though a less comprehensive form. Maze of Ith is also helpful because you can remove Frodo from combat after attacking. This way you get your attack triggers, but don’t have to worry about being killed by blockers. This card can also be used defensively if your opponent has a big threatening creature on the board.

You also have a few mana rocks in this deck like Sol Ring and Arcane Signet. There are also less efficient mana rocks like Inherited Envelope and Phial of Galadriel. These are slightly more expensive, but they synergize well with your strategies of ring temptation and lifegain, and they also just fit the theme of the deck.

The Strategy

The basic strategy for this deck is to slowly drain your opponents’ life over time with extort effects and the abilities of The Ring. In order to get The Ring’s final ability online, you’ll need to tempt yourself with cards like Call of the Ring early on. You can also use lifegain effects to help tempt you and draw cards with the ability on Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit.

You’ll want to try and drain your opponents equally. This will ensure that your extort abilities will still gain you the three life you need to activate Frodo, and it will stop you from making an enemy who will target you too harshly. If your opponents’ board states are starting to get out of control, you can use more specific board wipes like Farewell or Fell the Mighty that allow you to leave your important cards intact while also eliminating opposing threats.

Once you have a ring-bearer and The Ring on its last step, you’ll want to make sure it’s safe to consistently attack with that creature. You can keep it safe with protective equipment like Mithril Coat or utility lands like Rogue's Passage and Maze of Ith.

Combos and Interactions

There aren’t any infinite combos included in this deck. With its theme of both lifegain and life drain, it would be incredibly easy to slot in a Exquisite Blood and Sanguine Bond combo if you wanted to go that route, I’m just personally a little tired of building and playing decks that run this combo and wanted a bit of a variety.

One nice interaction in this deck involves Gollum, Patient Plotter, Witch's Oven and Denethor, Ruling Steward. You can sacrifice Gollum to the Oven, making yourself a Food token. This will tempt you once, and you can be tempted again if you sacrifice the Food before attacking with Frodo. At the end of your turn, Denethor will make a 1/1 white human soldier, which you can sacrifice later to return Gollum to your hand. While this isn’t the most efficient interaction, it does get you two temptations from The Ring, and sets you up to do it again if need be.

Budget Options

One of the most expensive LTR cards in this deck, The One Ring doesn’t really need to be included for this deck’s specific strategy. While it is a good source of card draw, and it works thematically, it might be worth just replacing the card with a cheaper extort card like Blind Obedience and saving yourself about $50.

Both Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers are pretty expensive cards. While more mana is never bad, you don’t have any massive spells in this deck that you need to pump a bunch of mana into. That means you can probably replace these with basic lands or cheaper dual lands and save about $60-$70 in total.

Other Builds

One alternative way to build this is to lean more heavily into the life gain and life drain theme, and move away from the ring temptation aspect. This would mean including lifegain staples like Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose or Syr Konrad, the Grim. You’ll probably also want a big finisher like the Sanguine Bond combo or Torment of Hailfire.

You can rely on your lifegain abilities in this type of deck to trigger Frodo’s ability, meaning you can just get The Ring through its steps with just your commander. That being said, lifegain decks do have better options for commanders than Frodo.

Commanding Conclusion

Gollum, Patient Plotter | Illustration by Lorenzo Mastroianni

If you’re looking for a completely optimized competitive deck, I’ll admit that this isn’t it. However, this is a fun build for anyone looking to have a thematic deck centered around Frodo’s more difficult times as the ring-bearer. My guess would be many of you have friends who are into Lord of the Rings, but not necessarily Magic. If you’re looking to introduce them to the game through this set, this deck would likely compete pretty well with the Tales of Middle-earth Commander precons and would match the theme well.

Would you want to run Frodo on its own, or with Sam? What other Lord of the Rings commanders are you interested in building around? Let me know in the comments or on Draftsim’s Twitter.

Thank you for reading and I look forward to seeing you on the next article!