GrixisLegendary Creature — Avatar HorrorSauron, Lord of the Rings
Mana value8Rank#5,301
The Commander
When you cast this spell, amass Orcs 5, mill five cards, then return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Trample
Whenever a commander an opponent controls dies, the Ring tempts you.
Guide
Gameplan
Cast Sauron to immediately mill five, drop an Army token to 5/5, and reanimate the best creature from your bin, generating massive value off one card. From there you grind through graveyard recursion, beat down with a trampling 7/7 and your amassed Army, and pick off opponents' commanders to keep the Ring tempting you for extra evasion and card draw.
Strengths
- One cast gives a body, a 5/5 Army, self-mill fuel, and free reanimation — enormous tempo and card advantage
- Grixis colors offer the best reanimation, tutors, removal, and card draw in the format
- Self-mill synergizes with graveyard payoffs and recursion engines
- Trample plus the Ring's evasive buffs makes Sauron a real beatdown threat
Weaknesses
- Eight mana is steep and the cast trigger only fires once unless you blink or recast from command zone
- Heavily graveyard-dependent — vulnerable to graveyard hate like Rest in Peace or Bojuka Bog
- No built-in protection; gets removed before generating repeat value
- Reanimation off Sauron is random-ish, gated by what you milled
Key Cards
- Animate Dead — Cheap reanimation lets you abuse the fat creatures Sauron mills before ever hard-casting them.
- Buried Alive — Stocks your graveyard with exactly the reanimation targets you want to return.
- Sneak Attack — Cheats Sauron and other huge bodies into play, retriggering value and swinging immediately.
- Victimize — Turns mill chaff into two big reanimated threats, snowballing the graveyard plan.
- Gisa and Geralf — Rewards self-mill by recurring creatures and reinforcing the zombie/army theme.
- The One Ring — Thematic and powerful card-advantage engine with built-in protection in colorless Grixis shells.
Upgrade Path
Add fast mana (Dark Ritual, Jet Medallion, signets) and reanimation enablers like Reanimate, Entomb, and Sneak Attack to deploy threats well before turn eight. Upgrade your reanimation targets to format-warping bombs (Archon of Cruelty, Razaketh, Sheoldred) and add graveyard-hate protection plus card filtering. Lean into a tutor package and a compact combo finish (e.g., Worldgorger Dragon + Animate Dead loops) to convert grindy value into reliable wins.
Core Cards
- Orcish Siegemaster
- Treason of Isengard
- Dragonskull Summit
- Sunken Hollow
- Fiery Inscription
- Scourge of the Throne
- Cavern-Hoard Dragon
- Bitter Downfall
- Subjugate the Hobbits
- Boon of the Wish-Giver
- Worn Powerstone
- Anger
Seeded from a single deck — rates appear once more public decks exist.
Win Conditions
- ▸Beat down with a trampling Sauron plus a snowballing Orc Army
- ▸Reanimate game-ending fatties like Razaketh or Archon of Cruelty to take over
- ▸Aristocrats drain with sacrifice loops and Blood Artist effects
- ▸Combo finishes assembled with Grixis tutors and graveyard recursion
Archetypes
- Reanimator — Sauron's cast trigger mills and reanimates for free, anchoring a self-mill-into-fatties strategy.
- Aristocrats — Reanimating and sacrificing creatures repeatedly drains opponents and refuels the graveyard.
- Amass/Tokens — The Orc Army grows with each Sauron and other amass effects for a go-wide angle.
- Control — Grixis removal and counters protect the gameplan while graveyard recursion outvalues opponents.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BRU), by popularity.
