The Commander
Ward—Sacrifice a legendary artifact or legendary creature.
Whenever an opponent casts a spell, amass Orcs 1.
Whenever an Army you control deals combat damage to a player, the Ring tempts you.
Whenever the Ring tempts you, you may discard your hand. If you do, draw four cards.
Guide
Gameplan
Sauron sits in the command zone as a Grixis value engine: build an Army token with amass, swing to trigger the Ring, then rummage your hand into four fresh cards every combat. You leverage the Ring-bearer and looping draw to fuel reanimation, big spells, and incremental advantage until you grind opponents out or assemble a finisher.
Strengths
- Repeatable four-card draw refuel makes him one of the best card-advantage engines in the format
- Amass triggers off opponents' spells, so the board builds itself passively
- Ward forces opponents to sacrifice a legendary permanent to remove him, making him sticky
- Synergizes with discard/graveyard themes since you can dump fatties to reanimate
Weaknesses
- Six mana and three colors strains the mana base and slows early development
- Discarding your whole hand is risky if you can't refill or have key cards stranded
- The Army is a single creature easily killed or chump-blocked, stalling Ring temptations
- No built-in evasion means he relies on support to actually connect for the Ring
- Vulnerable to graveyard hate that shuts down a reanimation backbone
Key Cards
Upgrade Path
Add evasion and protection like Rogue's Passage, Whispersilk Cloak, or Lightning Greaves so the Army reliably connects and Sauron survives. Lean into discard payoffs with reanimation targets (Archon of Cruelty, Sheoldred) plus enablers like Faithless Looting effects, and tighten the mana with fast rocks and dual lands. Powerful card-advantage abuse via Underworld Breach, Past in Flames, or big mana payoffs turns the four-card draw into explosive combo turns.auheoldred.
Core Cards
The most-played cards for this commander, built from aggregated deck data (the Mythic Graph). Build public decks to seed it.
Win Conditions
Win conditions appear once Wyrm has covered this commander.
Archetypes
- Reanimator — Discarding your hand to draw four pitches fat threats you can return cheaply with reanimation spells.
- The Ring / Orcs Tribal — He natively tempts the Ring and amasses Orcs, supporting an Army and Ring-bearer subtheme.
- Control — Endless card draw and a stax-resistant ward make him a strong value-engine control finisher.
- Spellslinger — His draw refuels a hand of instants and sorceries while you grind incremental advantage.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BRU), by popularity.
