Sauron, Lord of the Rings
Legendary Creature — Avatar Horror
When you cast this spell, amass Orcs 5, mill five cards, then return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Trample
Whenever a commander an opponent controls dies, the Ring tempts you.
- CMC
- 8
- Mana cost
- Color identity
- BRU
- Rarity
- mythic
- Set
- Tales of Middle-earth Commander
- Price
- $12.03
- EDHREC rank
- #5291
Sauron, Lord of the Rings hits the board as a 7/7 trample, indestructible threat that forces your opponents to discard and amasses an Army every time they do — the pressure is immediate and recursive. The cost is nine mana and a Grixis color identity, which means he lives in big-mana strategies and rarely shows up outside dedicated builds; Sauron, the Dark Lord decks are his primary home for a reason.
Best Commanders
Commanders with the highest synergy
Sauron, the Dark Lord
Sauron, the Dark Lord turns every spell your opponents cast into an amass trigger, and Sauron, Lord of the Rings feeds that engine by forcing discards — each discarded card can chain into further triggers, letting the Army token snowball while the nine-drop himself sits as a nearly unkillable finisher.
Saruman, the White Hand
Saruman, the White Hand rewards copying spells, and Sauron, Lord of the Rings provides a steady discard engine that keeps opponents off resources while the Army amasses in the background — the two cards pursue the same gameplan of grinding opponents out through attrition.
Format Analysis
Where it lives, where it can’t
| Format | Verdict |
|---|---|
| commander | legal |
| legacy | legal |
| modern | not legal |
| pioneer | not legal |
| standard | not legal |
| vintage | legal |
| pauper | not legal |
| oathbreaker | legal |
Commander is the only format where Sauron, Lord of the Rings does what it's built to do — at nine mana you need the slower clock of a 100-card singleton game, and the multiplayer table means three opponents each discarding and triggering amass simultaneously. In Legacy and Vintage, nine mana is simply not a realistic investment when those formats end on turns one through three; the card is legal but irrelevant. Oathbreaker is theoretically playable but the faster pace and smaller life totals make the payoff too slow to matter.
Key Combos
Combo lines featuring this card
Budget Alternatives
Cheaper options that do most of the same work
Eldrazilike threats at this mana value are plentiful — Razaketh, the Foulblooded and Toxrill, the Corrosive offer comparable board presence for similar or lower prices and slot into attrition strategies reasonably well, though neither replicates the forced-discard loop. If the appeal is specifically the amass payoff, Sauron, Lord of the Rings is effectively irreplaceable at his function; budget deckbuilders are better served shoring up the ramp and reanimation that puts him into play cheaply rather than swapping him out.
Price Context
Current price
$12.03 mid tier
At $12.03, Sauron, Lord of the Rings sits at the high end of mid-tier singles — expensive enough to feel like a commitment, but not the $30-plus ceiling of format staples. Demand is tied almost entirely to the Sauron, the Dark Lord commander deck, so the price is stable as long as that archetype stays popular, but it won't climb without a reprint or a breakout new commander to spike inclusion.
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Sources
Updated . Data from Scryfall, EDHREC, and Commander Spellbook.