Sauron, the Dark Lord Commander Deck Guide

Last updated on February 18, 2024

Sauron, the Dark Lord | Illustration by Dominik Mayer & Anato Finnstark

Magic’s The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth has introduced a tempting new mechanic, in the form of The One Ring enticing players into bearing its burden in exchange for power. Who better to exploit the all-powerful One Ring than Sauron, the Dark Lord himself? Sauron, as the creator of the Rings of Power, surely deserves the right to wield it.

Come with me and learn how Sauron can be your commander of choice from LOTR!

The Deck

Swan Song | Illustration by Peter Mohrbacher

This Sauron, the Dark Lord Commander deck sits at the midpoint between a Grixis () wheels deck and an Orc Army typal deck, with a little bit of combo splashed on top. You’ll loot through your deck at an insane pace while simultaneously buffing up your Orc Army token. Punish your opponents with Underworld Dreams-type effects and beat them into submission with Sauron, the Dark Lord and your Orc Army.

Should all else fail, you can go nuclear and hit the Demonic Consultation and Thassa's Oracle combo.

The Commander

Let the Lord of the black land come forth! Sauron, the Dark Lord is the main-set Grixis-aligned representation of Sauron, Lord of Mordor, the Deceiver, the Base Master of Treachery, and great Enemy of the people of Middle-earth. The Dark Lord is one of four different printings representing Sauron, and it comes with four line-breaks worth of abilities.

While Sauron, Lord of the Rings' Commander precon is built specifically for Commander, Sauron, the Dark Lord’s abilities are more relevant throughout a typical Commander game versus the Lord of the Ring’s single-cast trigger. In a similar vein, the 5-mana Saurons are limited by color and by their conditionally triggered abilities.

Sauron, the Dark Lord stands out from the other Saurons for a few main reasons; it’s a 7/6 for six mana, and a pain to remove. That highly specific ward requirement means your opponents will trade their commanders for those Path to Exiles, forcing them to commit to a board wipe if they want to remove your commander. Each of the Dark Lord’s abilities lead into the next one, basically playing the game on auto-pilot once you’ve got an Army to swing around.

Its second ability is also exponentially better in a format where you have multiple opponents, making it a fine fit in Commander.

The Armies of Mordor

The new LTR set introduced The Ring tempts you, but it also made some errata to War of the Spark’s amass ability. Now you can amass army tokens of a specific creature type. This deck focuses on the Orc Army tokens created by many of the new LTR cards, including your commander. Sauron, the Dark Lord cranks out Orc Armys at a fast pace; its second ability should trigger three or more times before the turn comes back to you.

While your commander can summon its own army, it also has an endless supply of minions to speed it along. Tons of new LTR cards use the amass orcs mechanic, but there are a few I want to call out specifically.

No doubt you’ve seen the hubbub about Orcish Bowmasters. This 2-mana 1/1 is packed with value before you even consider that it comes with flash. Growing an Orc Army alongside a free ping goes a long way, especially if it can hit the field early.

Next is Saruman, the White Hand. Since you’re focused on building up your one Orc Army token, Saruman’s ward anthem comes in clutch for keeping it around. There are something like 43 noncreature spells in this deck. Not all of them see you netting five +1/+1 counters from Saruman, but a single trigger here and there adds up over time.

Uncivil Unrest seems like an odd choice in a deck that focuses on a token creature, but this enchantment acts as an easier-to-cast Gratuitous Violence for your Orc Army.

Your Orc Army often becomes the target of your Ring’s temptation. This keeps your 1/1 or 2/2 creature token safe to attack in the early stages. After that, it’ll enable your discard triggers and help you dig for more combo pieces or tutors. The third and fourth stages of the temptation cycle are just icing on the cake. Extra removal and a free bolt during each combat won’t mean much when there's a 10/10 Orc Army with deathtouch, menace, and ward 2.

Wheeling

Sauron, the Dark Lord has a built-in four-card wheel that you’re looking to use to trigger your Underworld Dreams and the like, but you shouldn’t rely solely on connecting with your Orc Army to draw.

Windfall is rightfully heralded as one of the best wheels in Commander, and you’re running it alongside other staples like Dark Deal and Reforge the Soul.

Summons of Saruman and Kess, Dissident Mage let you recast those wheels, or flashes them back in case they were discarded before you could use them. You can maintain access to your tutors, and Demonic Consultation should you find yourself discarding a bit too aggressively.

I’ll admit that Dragon Mage is more of a pet card than a powerful choice for a wheel deck, but I love it here just the same. Five power in the air with a wheel trigger is a useful tool to keep in your back pocket in a deck without many evasive attackers. Its prohibitive mana cost means it won’t see play until the late game, but that’s usually when you’ve run out of Wheel of Fates and Windfalls, anyway.

The Burden

Letting your opponents draw cards is usually a net downside for you, but Sauron uses the burden of their full hands against them.

Underworld Dreams needs no introduction, and you’re doubling down on the straight-up damage effects with Ob Nixilis, the Hate-Twisted, Spiteful Visions, and Phyrexian Tyranny. One or more of these on the field followed up by a wheel effect can put 20 damage on the board spread between your opponents.

What would this deck be without the king of wheels himself, Nekusar, the Mindrazer? Even without a Windfall to cast, a 1-damage ping from these permanents each turn wears any opponent down with enough time.

But that’s not where it ends; Alandra, Sky Dreamer feels like it was built for this deck. Sauron, the Dark Lord’s wheel effect has the potential to instantly activate Alandra’s second ability since it should draw you your fifth card in any given turn.

Archfiend of Ifnir takes the place of a typical creature-based board wipe in this deck. While it’s a heavier investment to stick a 5-mana creature to the field and then activate a wheel effect, you can’t argue with the results. -1/-1 counters are one of the only ways to get around indestructible creatures, something we’re seeing more and more of these days.

Notion Thief is another ridiculous card to run in a wheel deck. Imagine a Reforge the Soul on the stack while your Notion Thief is on the battlefield. Each opponent discards their hand as that wheel resolves, and then you’ll draw seven cards, plus seven for each other player.

Tell me there’s a better way to draw 28 cards, I dare you. I don’t know how to help you if you can’t find your combo pieces after that.

The Mana Base

I’m always preaching about how decks that lack green need to run more ramp and more lands on average to keep pace in an EDH environment, especially when their commander costs five or more mana.

This Sauron, the Dark Lord deck runs 36 lands and a whopping 10 mana rocks (Plus one cost-reducer, Nightscape Familiar).

These rocks include both cycles of the 2-color Signets and 2-color Talismans in your color identity, plus Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, and Commander's Sphere.

Really the only way this deck differs is with the new Relic of Sauron card, a ramp rock with a loot ability built-in.

The Strategy

Your gameplan with this deck is to ramp up to Sauron, the Dark Lord while controlling the board and amassing your Orc Army as large as you can. Once Sauron’s on the field, you can start throwing that Army’s combat damage around the board while simultaneously dealing noncombat damage and disrupting your opponents’ hands with your wheels. If it starts to look like you’re locked out of a damage-based victory, you can tutor up your Thassa's Oracle combo and mill yourself out.

It’s very hard to start the game without a plan to get to six mana, so keeping an opening hand with two or more mana rocks is usually best. You’ll be wheeling and looting the whole game anyways, so you can always pitch any extras you draw once you’re up on mana.

Your best early-game plays are cards like Orcish Bowmasters and Mauhúr, Uruk-hai Captain since they generate a lot of value over the course of the game without being great targets for removal.

It’s tempting (ha!) to play Sauron, the Dark Lord as soon as possible, but it’s best saved for when you already have an Orc Army ready to connect with an opponent that turn. Starting down the temptation path as soon as possible means more triggers of Sauron’s final ability, letting you dig deeper for more punishing discard effects.

Keeping that single Orc Army is paramount to victory, so you’ll want to save counterspells for anything that’ll get around Saruman, the White Hand’s ward anthem.

Some of the best “outs” in this game are really just Commander staples. Making the Orc Army unblockable with Whispersilk Cloak and Rogue's Passage is usually enough to finish off a player that’s been beaten down by Underworld Dreams all game. Don’t forget that Sauron, the Dark Lord is a 7/6 body that you can throw around alongside the Army.

If you’re locked out by that Stonehorn Dignitary loop or a stax player with too many Propaganda effects in play, it’s time to use those tutors and loots to dig for Demonic Consultation and Thassa's Oracle. This two-card combo instantly exiles your library and wins you the game when the Oracle enters the battlefield.

Combos and Interactions

There’s one nasty combo in this Commander deck: Demonic Consultation is one of the oldest ways to exile your entire library, and can instantly win you the game when combined with either Thassa's Oracle or Laboratory Maniac.

You cast Demonic Consultation and name any card that you know isn't in your library (for this deck, might I recommend “Forest”?) Then, when your entire library is exiled, just play Thoracle from your hand and bada-bing, you win!

Rule 0 Violations Check

I remember the first time a friend pulled the ol’ Demonic Consultation/Thassa's Oracle combo on me, and it drove me nuts. The combo can come out of nowhere when your opponents don’t know your deck, so maybe it’s worth mentioning you’re running it in the pre-game discussion.

Just be sure to protest that the other players aren’t running enough interaction when someone decides that combo creates a “feels-bad” moment.

Budget Options

It’s hard to predict just how expensive the singles for this Sauron, the Dark Lord deck will be. The cards aren’t available for individual purchase at the time of writing, so their price may significantly fluctuate in the future. That said, there are some easy budget modifications to make should you find yourself looking to spend a little less.

You can instantly save $30 by cutting Thassa's Oracle and Demonic Consultation. The combo is one of the best win conditions in the deck, but it’s not an absolute include and can be replaced with a few cheaper wheel spells and some more The Ring tempts you enablers.

If you’re dead-set on running that combo, Laboratory Maniac and Tainted Pact are a cheaper pair that work similarly.

Other Builds

While this Sauron, the Dark Lord deck tries to split the difference between an Orc Army typal deck and a wheels deck, it could be built with a tighter focus on either of those effects. You could even broaden your deck to be just “Army” typal, letting you include the War of the Spark Zombie Armys.

One thing I love about blue and black typal decks is the option to run Conspiracy and Arcane Adaptation. Declaring “Army” as the creature type of your choice for either of these cards seems ridiculous, but I’m dying to know the edge-cases where this could be a viable build.

Commanding Conclusion

Uncivil Unrest | Illustration by Lorenzo Mastroianni

Sauron, the Dark Lord might not have been designed specifically for Commander, but it’s still a powerhouse when built around. It’s the Nekusar, the Mindrazer for the Timmy player, and the Army typal commander for the Johnny Combos.

How does Sauron, the Dark Lord compare to the other Sauron cards from Tales of Middle-earth? Does it capture the essence of the series’ Lord of evil, or did it miss the mark? Let me know in the comments below, or over on Draftsim's Twitter.

Thanks for reading, and remember: while I can’t carry the deck for you, I can carry you!