The Commander
Trample, haste
When The Balrog of Moria dies, you may exile it. When you do, for each opponent, exile up to one target creature that player controls.
Cycling 
(, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, create two Treasure tokens.
Guide
Gameplan
Cast a big trampling, hasty threat that immediately pressures the board and, when it dies, takes opposing creatures with it as removal. Early game you use its cycling for fixing and two Treasures, then deploy it as a recurring beater or sacrifice/reanimation engine that snowballs into a finisher.
Strengths
- Built-in board control: its death trigger exiles a creature from each opponent
- Flexible early game—cycle for to draw and make two Treasures when you're flooded or color-screwed
- Trample + haste means immediate damage and hard-to-chump combat
- Great target for reanimation and sacrifice loops since dying is a benefit
- Treasures help ramp into and recast a 7-drop commander
Weaknesses
- Seven mana is steep and it dodges only some removal—exile or bounce sidesteps the death trigger
- No evasion beyond trample; gets gummed up by go-wide blockers
- Color identity lacks reliable card draw and enchantment/artifact removal
- Death trigger only hits one creature per opponent, weak against token swarms or noncreature decks
- Cycling it removes it from play, so you can't have it both ways
Key Cards
- Victimize — Sacrifice the Balrog to trigger its death removal, then reanimate it plus another creature.
- Goblin Bombardment — Free sac outlet to repeatedly kill and reanimate the Balrog for board wipes on a stick.
- Feldon of the Third Path — Makes hasty Balrog copies that die end of turn, triggering the exile-removal each time.
- Reanimate — Cheaply returns the Balrog after it dies, looping its powerful death trigger.
- Dockside Extortionist — Off the Treasures and artifacts in BR, it explodes your mana to recast a seven-drop early.
- Sneak Attack — Cheats the Balrog in for a hasty swing, then it can die for value at end of turn.
Upgrade Path
Lean into the sac-and-reanimate engine with cheap recursion (Reanimate, Animate Dead, Phyrexian Reclamation) and free sac outlets (Goblin Bombardment, Viscera Seer) to abuse the death trigger every turn. Add fast mana and Treasure synergies (Dockside Extortionist, Jeska's Will, rituals) to deploy it well ahead of schedule, and consider Feldon or clone effects to multiply the removal trigger. Tighten removal and a couple of haymakers (Sheoldred, Bolas's Citadel) to convert the value into kills.
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
- ▸Recurring trample beats from a hasty 7/7-style threat
- ▸Grinding the board to dust with repeated death-trigger removal then attacking unopposed
- ▸Aristocrats damage via sacrifice loops with the Balrog and Goblin Bombardment-style outlets
- ▸Reanimation value plays that bury opponents in card and board advantage
Archetypes
- Reanimator — Its death trigger makes it the perfect creature to repeatedly kill and bring back for value.
- Aristocrats — Sacrifice outlets turn the Balrog into recurring targeted removal against the whole table.
- Big Mana/Ramp — Treasures and rituals let you cast and recast a seven-mana trampling threat ahead of curve.
- Voltron — Trample and haste make it a fine equipment/aura carrier that pressures life totals fast.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BR), by popularity.
