Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant
Legendary Creature — Human Soldier
When Gothmog enters, amass Orcs 1. (Put a +1/+1 counter 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.)
Creature tokens you control have deathtouch.
- CMC
- 4
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- B
- Rarity
- uncommon
- Set
- The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
- Price
- $0.26
- EDHREC rank
- #4396
Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant floods the board with 2/2 Orc tokens whenever a non-token creature you control dies — a death-trigger engine that turns every removal spell aimed at your side into fuel. The cost is that you need a critical mass of non-token creatures to keep the engine running, which means Gothmog rewards dense creature builds and punishes anything sparse.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sauron, the Dark Lord
Sauron, the Dark Lord's amass mechanic and Orc-tribal payoffs make Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant a natural fit — every non-token creature that dies while Sauron is on board replaces itself with a 2/2, keeping your Orc army wide and feeding Sauron's damage-based card draw.
Saruman, the White Hand
Saruman, the White Hand rewards casting spells you don't own, generating amass triggers and board presence, and Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant backs that up by replacing any creature casualties with fresh Orc tokens so the board never stays thin after a wipe.
Lord of the Nazgûl
Lord of the Nazgûl churns out Wraith tokens whenever you cast a spell with Ring-bearer synergy, and Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant stitches into that loop by ensuring non-token creatures that die leave behind 2/2 Orcs — keeping creature count high enough to keep triggering Ring-tempt effects.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is where Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant does its best work — 100-card singleton games go long enough for a recursive token engine to compound, and Orc-tribal or aristocrats shells in Grixis colors give it a natural home. In Legacy and Vintage, the four-mana cost puts it out of range for any competitive application; those formats don't have time for a value creature that needs other creatures to die first. Oathbreaker is a reasonable secondary home if the spellbook supports a sacrifice or amass shell, but the format's faster pace narrows the window.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Price Context
Current price
$0.26 bulk tier
At $0.26, Gothmog, Morgul Lieutenant is firmly bulk — easy to pick up as a four-of or trade-fodder staple without any budget concern. Bulk rares tied to a single licensed IP set tend to stay in this range unless a breakout Commander deck pushes demand, so pick it up now if you need it and don't overthink the price.
Explore
Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.