(Sauron, Lord of the Rings | Art by Alex Brock)

The Black Gate Opens

Greetings, friends! The Scrap Trawlers are keeping this precon train rolling with another deck from Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. Today we’re bringing you the primer for Hosts of Mordor. We’ll show you what’s new in the deck, what it does, and how to play it. So let’s venture past the Black Gate, and see what evil lurks in the land of Mordor, starting with its leader, Sauron, Lord of the Rings.

Let the Lord of the Black Land Come Forth!

Sauron is a blue, black, and red Avatar Horror with a massive 9/9 trampling body. When you cast him (he costs eight mana, good luck) you Amass Orcs 5, which means you’ll either make a 5/5 Orc Army, or if you already have an Army you’ll put five +1/+1 counters on it. You’ll also mill five cards and return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield. And whenever a commander an opponent controls dies, the Ring tempts you.

As I already hinted at, having an eight-mana commander is a big task, especially when you don’t have green in your color identity for ramp. So this deck absolutely can’t rely on its commander to be effective. Especially since, as a 9/9 with trample, your opponents will have their sights on Sauron for immediate removal as soon as you get him out. Then you’ll get to pay 10 for him!

If having your commander out for most of the game is important to you, you may want to switch to the backup commander for the deck. Thankfully, Saruman, the White Hand is only half the price of Sauron. Saruman, a 2/5 Avatar Wizard, Amasses X whenever you cast a noncreature spell, where X is that spell’s mana value. He also gives your Orcs and Goblins ward 2!

Here’s the full decklist:

Ever Hatching Plots and Mischief

The deck has two major themes. The first is tokens, mainly focusing on the Amass ability, which we last saw in War of the Spark. In this updated version, rather than getting a Zombie Army, you’ll get an Orc Army instead (although the ability only checks if you have an Army, so if you added some Zombie Amass cards to the deck and made a Zombie Army, you would add the counters to it rather than create a new token). You’re provided a few ways to create the Army tokens, but the most reliable is Saruman. 

The other major theme is the creature types Orcs and Goblins. Obviously the Amass ability makes Orcs, but other cards in the deck care about making your creatures more formidable, such as the new cards Corsairs of Umbar and Orcish Siegemaster. 

There’s also a sub-theme of mill and graveyard recursion. Sauron’s cast trigger returns a creature from the yard, so you’ll want to be sure to have something good in there (shouldn’t be hard by the time you have the mana to cast him).

Tokens That I Was Bidden to Show to Thee

It’s time to talk about the best thing about precons: the new cards! This one gives us a bunch of new legendary creatures, so we’ll start there.

My first thought when looking at Monstrosity of the Lake was “This is gonna be miserable in Atraxa, Praetors’ Voice decks.” And that’s not totally wrong, but I suspect the cost for the triggered ability will turn off most players. Still, if you can pull it off, and then Proliferate every turn, you’re free to do as you like to your opponents’ faces.

Shelob, Dread Weaver isn’t as exciting as Shelob, Child of Ungoliant from the main set, but it definitely made grave lovers cringe. You’re gonna need a lot of mana to grab other players’ creatures, but thankfully black is the second best color at making lots of mana.

Grima, Saruman’s Footman seems more like a Rogue than an Advisor, but I guess this way he could lead a Persistent Petitioners deck. Sadly he doesn’t get rid of the exiled cards forever, but he certainly thins out decks by stealing their instants and sorceries.

If having a bunch of 9/9 flyers sounds like a good time to you, then Lord of the Nazgul is your guy. Keep in mind he pumps himself as well, so if you can get him double strike and just two more power when he’s a 9/9, you’ve got lethal commander damage if this guy is leading your deck (not an option with the precon, sadly).

This deck apparently can’t get enough giant creatures, so The Balrog of Moria is joining the party. The Cycling ability is nice since you get some treasures for it, which helps you cast Sauron, who can then cheat it back out of the grave. Yay synergy!

We’ve got one more new legendary permanent in the list, and this time it’s a land! The Black Gate had Maze’s End players everywhere breathing heavily when it was revealed. And that activated ability is so good, as long as you’re not at the top of life totals, of course.

This next creature can’t be a commander, but it certainly got the community talking. Cavern-Hoard Dragon is quite possibly the best follow-up to someone casting Dockside Extortionist (unless they sacrifice all their ill-gotten gains before you attack), and is also here to give Urza, Lord High Artificer players second thoughts about their life choices. Treasure makers have basically been the biggest thing in Commander since Smothering Tithe, and that movement doesn’t appear to be slowing down (the lack of popularity for Bootleggers’ Stash was certainly surprising, though).

Corsairs of Umbar and Orcish Siegemaster are all about getting damage through with your Mordor armies, but I think we’ll see Corsairs getting the most love in Pirate decks. And Moria Scavenger gives you the ability to dig through your deck, while filling your grave with creatures for Sauron to reanimate.

For artifacts and enchantments, we’ve got one of each. Relic of Sauron is a Grixis lover’s delight, and certain to find a home with Kess, Dissident Mage and similar commanders. And In the Darkness Bind Them is a Saga that gives us Wraiths, but sadly can’t be played in a Lord of the Nazgul deck. Then it takes your opponents’ best creatures for a turn to slap them around with their own toys.

No new instants in the deck, but we’ve got a bevy of cool sorceries. 

Subjugate the Hobbits is a bit pricey, but can certainly swing a game if you’ve got opponents with a lot of small creatures. Lidless Gaze loves to play other people’s stuff, and will probably be popular in Prosper, Tome-Bound decks. 

Summons of Saruman and Wake the Dragon will both make you big tokens and have that sweet Flashback ability that Grixis decks love. And the artifact stealing from the Dragon might be crucial for getting Sauron on the field.

Lastly, Too Greedily, Too Deep, a card name that had people snickering all over Twitter, is a reanimator and board wipe rolled into one. Creatures with deathtouch are great targets.

All the Doors of the Morannon Swung Back Wide

So how does the deck play? As you can probably guess, a bit slow. The deck’s average mana value is 4.16, so clearly Sauron’s not the only high-MV card in the deck. The problem with this is that we’re not in green, which is the best color for ramp. Black and red can both do a decent job, especially if you run ritual cards like Dark Ritual and Seething Song, but these are sadly missing from the deck. Instead we’re relying on mana rocks and treasures. Unfortunately, the deck doesn’t compensate by giving us extra land or more cheap mana rocks. 

Expect to mulligan multiple times each game. It’s hard to find a good starting hand that both covers all of your colors in the lands and provides cheap ramp that you can cast in the first two or three turns.

As you’d expect, Sauron isn’t coming out every game. With the deck's insufficient mana package, by the time we’re able to cast him, it’s likely there’ll be more important things to do, like removing other players’ threats. Sauron’s great once you get him out, but without a Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots in the deck, he’s an easy removal target. So don’t get your hopes up about ending games with him.

You’re actually much better off putting Saruman in the lead. He’s way cheaper, so he gets things going a lot faster. The deck wants you to get those giant Orc tokens swinging, and Saruman is just so much more efficient at that. But the drawback with him is that he triggers off of noncreature spells, and only a third of the deck is noncreature, nonland cards. So he’ll Amass, but not as often as you hope. However, it should be noted that several of the instants and sorceries have Flashback, meaning they can be considered as two noncreature spells.

Conclusion

I think we can do better.

Verdict: Skip it

If you’re a new player who loves the idea of dropping Sauron on the battlefield and smiting your enemies with him, I urge you to consider carefully. This Sauron isn’t going to hit the field every game, and your opponents probably won’t let him stay long. It will make you sad, and I don’t want that.

If you’re a seasoned player, just buy the singles. There’s a few really solid value reprints in the deck, like Reanimate, Scourge of the Throne, and Treasure Nabber, but they’re not worth the price of the deck. The only thing that could really make this deck a purchase value is if Cavern-Hoard Dragon keeps going up in price. It’s possible we could see a repeat of last year’s Party Time deck, with Black Market Connections making that deck worth the cost. Time will tell.

Now if you do happen to find yourself buying this deck, never fear! Because coming up next is our Upgrade Guide. We’re gonna do everything we can to make this deck leaner and faster, without spending too much coin. We’ll even give some suggestions for you big spenders too.

Until next time, take care. And remember to budget…before you buy it.