“All your lives, you have chased your own destruction. At long last, I am here.”
Art:Sauron, the Dark Lord
by Kieran Yanner
Table of Contents
Todays Featured Commander Is:
Sauron, The Dark Lord is an absolute bomb of a commander who is not only very hard to remove and in the context of some games almost impossible! Our deck is entirely focused on comboing off as quickly as possible in all of the expected CEDH ways but with Sauron if we are against a stax heavy table or need to go long we have a huge advantage! Being able to recycle your hand in this lightning fast deck can be a really strong way to assemble combos! Without further adieu lets get it!
The Deck:
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Sauron, The Dark Lord Naus Spellpile!
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Why Sauron, The Dark Lord?
Sauron, The Dark Lord is a card that while a little expensive does everything that we want for a CEDH commander. Sauron has ways to make creatures in case of games going long, a strong way to cycle through cards and is very hard to remove. Combine this with spell and artifact ramp and we have a commander that is really tough to stop and only makes our combo gameplan better. While we usually go off before casting Sauron being able to have him as a contingency plan / backup is an invaluable ability!
Deck Overview:
This section contains information about cards in the deck and how they function within the deck! As well as highlighting some of my favorite cards in the deck! The infinite combos and loops in the deck are listed below in the “Main Win Conditions” Section.
Creatures:
We are pretty light on creatures but all of them are quite impactful, Simian Spirit Guide
can be a really strong way to get that extra mana we need! Orcish Bowmasters
is not only a counter against some strategies but is also a combo piece for us, and on top of all that it synergizes very well with Sauron! Gilded Drake
and Opposition Agent
are both really great ways to break parity with opponents and take control of some there permanents! Imperial Recruiter
and Spellseeker
are both 3 mana tutors that are very strong and are most-often used to grab some combo pieces!
Instants:
Dark Ritual
and Cabal Ritual
are really strong ways to get some mana ramp and cast some big permanents or spells early! Culling the Weak
is a really cool way to sacrifice an unimportant creature and turn it into some mana! We have an absolute ton of counterspells but my top three in the deck are Mental Misstep
, Flusterstorm
and Mindbreak Trap
which are all super cheap and super effective! Dismember
and Lightning Bolt
are both strong cards that both pretty much only cost 1 mana and can be great ways to deal with commanders or creatures cheaply!
Sorceries:
We have a bunch of sorcery speed tutors like Demonic Tutor
, Imperial Seal
and Gamble
which are all strong cheap and efficient ways to get the cards we need in a pretty much “on-demand” way! Beseech the Mirror
is such a strong card to get a key permanent into a play or cast Peer into the Abyss
for free! Wheel of Fortune
and Timetwister
are both super strong wheels and are both amazing combo pieces! If someone or something has taken away one of our key combo pieces that are common we can use Praetor's Grasp
to steal our opponents!
Artifacts:
CEDH is all about speed so of course we have a ton of fast mana like Lotus Petal
, Jeweled Lotus
and Mana Crypt
and Mana Vault
are all really strong examples of this and there are a bunch more! Wishclaw Talisman
is a great way to tutor out the last card for a combo! The One Ring
is not only a great piece of protection but is also an amazing card draw outlet, how has this card not been banned yet!
Enchantments:
We have a bunch of enchantments that are pretty much staples in CEDH, Underworld Breach
, Rhystic Study
, Mystic Remora
and Necropotence
. All of these cards are super common in CEDH and I don’t need to explain why all of these absolute bombs are so good! Call of the Ring
is an enchantment that is really only played in this deck, being able to cycle our hand at our upkeep and get some extra cards as well!
Land Base:
Our land base is very reminiscent of many CEDH land bases, there really isnt much room for improvement here outside of ways to produce as fast as mana as possible as well as all of our colors! Badlands
, Underground Sea
and Volcanic Island
are the OG duals for a reason and they are lightning fast! Beyond that we have fast lands like the shocks and the opponents lands as well as a bunch of fetches!
Strengths of the Deck:
- Very early wins
- Decent amount of interaction / counterspells
- Sauron can be very hard to remove
Weaknesses of the Deck:
- Sauron can be hard to cast
- Weak to some turn 1-2 decks
- Weak to other Naus decks with more counters / draw as we are a little slower
Deck Stats:
Sample Hands:
Main Win Conditions:
This is CEDH so of course we have some combos which are pretty much our main way to end games! While we can go wide in the long game from Sauron’s Army but we typically win through these combos which are explained below:
Demonic Consultation
+ Thassa's Oracle
Requires:
All cards in hand. UUB available.
Steps:
- Cast Demonic Consultation by paying B, naming Thassa’s Oracle and thus exiling your library due to you not having a card named Thassa’s Oracle in your library.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield, causing you to win the game.
Results:
Win the game. Exile your library.
Tainted Pact
+ Thassa's Oracle
Requires:
All cards in hand. No two cards in library share a name. 1UUB available.
Steps:
- Cast Tainted Pact by paying 1B, exiling your library.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield, causing you to win the game.
Results:
Win the game.
Requires:
Doomsday and Thassa’s Oracle in hand. Your life total is at least 2. You have at least three devotion to blue. UUBBB available.
Steps:
- Cast Doomsday by paying BBB, searching your library and graveyard for any five other cards, exiling all other cards from your graveyard and library, and then placing the remaining cards on top of your library and losing half your life, rounded up.
- Cast Thassa’s Oracle by paying UU.
- Thassa’s Oracle enters the battlefield, winning the game.
Results:
Win the game.
Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond
+ Brain Freeze
Requires:
Brain Freeze in your graveyard. All permanents on the battlefield. You have at least six other cards in hand and/or graveyard.
Steps:
- Activate Lion’s Eye Diamond by discarding your hand and sacrificing it, adding UUU.
- Cast Lion’s Eye Diamond from your graveyard for its escape cost by exiling three cards besides Brain Freeze from your graveyard.
- Cast Brain Freeze from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 1U and exiling three cards from your graveyard.
- Brain Freeze’s storm ability triggers, creating at least one copy of Brain Freeze targeting yourself, and any remaining copies targeting an opponent.
- Resolve each Brain Freeze, causing yourself to mill six cards and, if applicable, an opponent to mill three cards for each Brain Freeze remaining.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite self-mill. Near-infinite colored mana. Near-infinite storm count. Near-infinite magecraft triggers. Near-infinite mill.
Underworld Breach + Lion's Eye Diamond + Wheel of Fortune
Requires:
Wheel of Fortune in your graveyard. All permanents on the battlefield. You have at least six other cards in hand and/or graveyard.
Steps:
- Activate Lion’s Eye Diamond by discarding your hand and sacrificing it, adding RRR.
- Cast Wheel of Fortune from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling 3 cards from your graveyard.
- Resolve Wheel of Fortune, causing each player to discard their hand and draw seven cards.
- Cast Lion’s Eye Diamond from your graveyard for its escape cost by exiling 3 cards from your graveyard.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite looting. Infinite draw triggers. Infinite looting for opponents. Near-infinite storm count.
Underworld Breach + Jeska's Will
+ Wheel of Fortune
Requires:
Underworld Breach on the battlefield. All other cards in your graveyard. You have at least six additional cards in your graveyard, plus an additional six cards between your hand and/or graveyard. An opponent has at least six cards in hand. 2R available.
Steps:
- Cast Jeska’s Will from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling three other cards from your graveyard, adding at least six R.
- Cast Wheel of Fortune from your graveyard for its escape cost by paying 2R and exiling three other cards from your graveyard, causing each player to discard their hand and draw seven cards.
- Repeat.
Results:
Infinite looting for all players. Infinite draw triggers for all players. Near-infinite storm count. Near-infinite magecraft triggers.
Orcish Bowmasters + Peer into the Abyss
Requires:
Peer into the Abyss in hand. Orcish Bowmasters on the battlefield. An opponent has a library size which is larger than or equal to their life total. 4BBB available.
Steps:
- Cast Peer into the Abyss by paying 4BBB, targeting an opponent whose library size is larger than or equal to their life total.
- Resolve Peer into the Abyss, causing that opponent to draw cards equal to half their library size and causing them to lose half their life total, rounded up.
- Orcish Bowmasters triggers for each card drawn, dealing 1 damage to the opponent for each card drawn this way and putting that many +1/+1 counters on an Army you control.
- The opponent loses the game due to having zero or less life.
Results:
Target opponent loses the game. Near-infinite damage. Near-infinite +1/+1 counters on target Army you control. Near-infinite card draw for target opponent. Near-infinite draw triggers for target opponent.
Requires:
Both cards in hand. At least one creature on the battlefield. 2RRR available.
Steps:
- Cast Twinflame by paying 1R.
- Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR.
- Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Twinflame.
- Resolve the Twinflame copy, creating a token copy of Dualcaster Mage.
- Repeat from step 3.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens with haste. Infinite ETB. Infinite magecraft triggers.
Requires:
All cards in hand. 3BRR available. There is at least one creature on the battlefield.
Steps:
- Cast Saw in Half by paying 2B, targeting any creature.
- Holding priority, cast Dualcaster Mage by paying 1RR.
- Dualcaster Mage enters the battlefield, copying Saw in Half targeting Dualcaster Mage.
- Resolve the copy of Saw in Half, destroying Dualcaster Mage and creating two token copies of it with base power equal to half the destroyed creature’s power and base toughness equal to half the destroyed creature’s toughness, rounding up each time.
- Both Dualcaster Mage tokens enter the battlefield, triggering themselves.
- Resolve the first Dualcaster Mage trigger, copying Saw in Half targeting a Dualcaster Mage token.
- Repeat from step 4.
- Once you have a large amount of Dualcaster Mage triggers on the stack, you may resolve those triggers, copying Saw in Half targeting any creature you control to create infinite token copies of the creature(s).
- You may also resolve the Dualcaster Mage triggers, copying any other instant and/or sorcery spells on the stack.
Results:
Infinite creature tokens. Infinite ETB. Infinite LTB. Infinite death triggers. Infinite magecraft triggers. Infinite copies of any instant and/or sorcery spells on the stack.
Conclusion:
Sauron, The Dark Lord is an absolutely busted commander who is not only strong and resilient when we need to go later in the game but is near impossible to remove and can be a great way for us to protect against the Winota’s and Yisan’s of the world! This deck is as Grixis and Naus / Spellpile as they come and adds a fun spin to the format! Try this one out at your table! Thanks for reading to the end and thanks for all of your support!