The Commander
When The Mouth of Sauron enters, target player mills three cards. Then amass Orcs X, where X is the number of instant and sorcery cards in that player's graveyard. (Put X +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. It's also an Orc. If you don't control an Army, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token first.)
Guide
Gameplan
Mill yourself (or an opponent) to fill a graveyard with instants and sorceries, then build a huge Orc Army token off The Mouth of Sauron's amass trigger. You grind value with spell recursion, flashback, and self-mill while assembling one big threat to swing for lethal, ideally with evasion or a doubler.
Strengths
- Repeatable amass off blink/recursion makes a fast, large Army token
- Self-mill fuels graveyard payoffs, flashback, and reanimation
- Blue-black gives premier card draw, removal, and counterspells
- Single-creature payoff is easy to protect and pump
Weaknesses
- The Army is a single creature vulnerable to spot removal and board wipes
- Filling the graveyard helps opponents' graveyard hate hurt you more
- Voltron-style plan stalls if the Army gets chump-blocked without evasion
- Five-mana commander with no immediate board impact beyond the token
Key Cards
- Rhystic Study — Refills your hand to keep casting the instants and sorceries that grow future amass triggers.
- Ophidian Eye — Turns the Army into a draw engine while pushing through unblockable-style damage with evasion enablers.
- Rooftop Storm style flicker pieces — Repeated blinking of the commander stacks amass counters quickly.
- Doubling Season — Doubles the +1/+1 counters from amass for an explosive Army.
- Whispersilk Cloak — Grants unblockable and protection so the lone Army connects for lethal.
- The Locust God — Pairs with spell-heavy self-mill themes and provides backup threats if the Army dies.
Upgrade Path
Add counter doublers like Doubling Season and Hardened Scales plus reliable blink (Conjurer's Closet, Ghostly Flicker) to spike multiple amass triggers. Layer in evasion and protection (Whispersilk Cloak, swiftfoot/lightning greaves) so your single Army isn't blanked by removal, and lean into a tight instant/sorcery package with flashback and Snapcaster-style recursion to keep the trigger huge each cast.
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
- ▸Swing for lethal with a massive, evasive Orc Army
- ▸Voltron commander/Army damage with equipment and auras
- ▸Recurred instants/sorceries plus card draw into a spell-based finisher
- ▸Reanimate a large threat from the filled graveyard
Archetypes
- Spellslinger — Instant/sorcery count directly scales the amass trigger, rewarding a high spell density.
- Voltron — The Army is a single growing body you can suit up with auras and equipment for commander damage.
- Mill / Self-Mill — The ETB mill seeds graveyards to both grow the Army and enable recursion payoffs.
- Reanimator — Self-mill plus blue-black recursion lets you cheat big threats out of the yard alongside the Army.
Combos
No combos found for this commander on Commander Spellbook.
Related Commanders
Same color identity (BU), by popularity.
