RakdosLegendary Creature — Avatar HorrorSauron, the Lidless Eye
Mana value5Rank#10,890
The Commander
When Sauron enters, gain control of target creature an opponent controls until end of turn. Untap it. It gains haste until end of turn.
: Creatures you control get +2/+0 until end of turn. Each opponent loses 2 life.
Guide
Gameplan
Sauron, the Lidless Eye is an aggressive Rakdos beatdown commander that wants a wide board and a big mana sink. Cast Sauron, steal an opponent's best creature for an alpha strike (or sacrifice fodder), then repeatedly pump to overrun the table while draining everyone's life. You win by attacking with buffed creatures and chipping in incremental damage every turn the ability fires.
Strengths
- Built-in repeatable mana sink that both pumps your team and drains all opponents, giving inevitability
- ETB threaten effect is huge in aggressive decks — alpha strike or feed it to a sacrifice outlet
- Cheap five-mana body in fast Rakdos colors with strong removal and reanimation support
- Pump ability scales with token swarms and go-wide strategies for explosive damage
Weaknesses
- Pump ability is mana-hungry; without ramp you only fire it once or twice per turn
- Relies on having creatures on board — sweepers leave you with a vanilla 5-drop
- Steal effect only lasts until end of turn, so it's a tempo play, not card advantage
- Rakdos lacks reliable card draw and can run out of gas in long games
Key Cards
- Goblin Bombardment — Lets you sacrifice the creature stolen by Sauron's ETB for guaranteed value before you lose it.
- Krenko, Mob Boss — Floods the board with tokens that turn each activation into a massive, lethal swing.
- Impact Tremors — Punishes opponents for your token-heavy go-wide plan with passive incremental drain.
- Dictate of the Twins — Cheap red ramp that lets you fire the pump-and-drain ability multiple times in a turn.
- Sneak Attack — Cheats Sauron and big bombs in early to start stealing and pumping ahead of schedule.
- Phyrexian Altar — Converts the stolen creature into mana and ramp, feeding more activations of the ability.
Upgrade Path
Add ramp like Dockside Extortionist, Treasure tokens, and rituals so you can activate the pump-and-drain ability several times per turn, which is where the deck snowballs. Tighten the aristocrats package (Mayhem Devil, Zulaport Cutthroat, Goblin Bombardment) to permanently capitalize on stolen creatures, and improve card flow with Phyrexian Arena, Bolas's Citadel, or treasure-fueled draw to avoid running dry.
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
- ▸Alpha strike with a wide, pumped board after multiple activations
- ▸Incremental life loss from repeated drain plus aristocrats payoffs like Blood Artist and Impact Tremors
- ▸Stealing an opponent's biggest threat for a lethal swing or to feed a sacrifice combo
- ▸Burning out the table by combining drain with classic Rakdos reach spells
Archetypes
- Aristocrats — The ETB steal pairs perfectly with sacrifice outlets to permanently consume opponents' creatures for value.
- Go-Wide Tokens — The pump multiplies across a board of tokens for explosive, repeatable damage.
- Aggro / Burn — Sauron's drain ability plus aggressive creatures races the table while pinging every opponent.
- Reanimator — Rakdos can cheat large threats into play, and Sauron's steal/sacrifice loops reward big bodies.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BR), by popularity.
