Saruman turns every noncreature spell into Orc Army counters equal to its mana value, so the deck chains cheap instants, sorceries, artifacts and enchantments to grow a single Army token, which Saruman protects with ward {2} as an Orc. Cost reducers, card selection and flashback or free-cast effects keep the spell count high. A layer of "whenever you cast" payoffs adds direct opponent damage, Wraith tokens and extra cards, so the spell chain kills on more than one axis. How it wins: It grows a huge warded Army, makes it trample, menace or unblockable, and swings it in, or flings it with a power-based damage spell, while spell-cast pings from several payoffs chip every opponent down. Key roles: - Army building: Extra amass sources stack more counters on the Army beyond Saruman's triggers, including cheap amass spells that recast from the graveyard, and The Great Goblin pings an opponent each time counters land (Summons of Saruman, Tidings of War, The Great Goblin) - Spell-cast payoffs: Creatures and enchantments that punish opponents or create bodies every time an instant or sorcery is cast, adding a damage clock that runs alongside the Army (Guttersnipe, Fiery Inscription, Lord of the Nazgûl) - Cost reduction and spell velocity: Discounts and looting keep spells flowing, and Glamdring scales its discount with a big equipped Army, letting the deck dump several spells per turn for repeated Saruman triggers (Glamdring, Foe-hammer, Geist of Saint Thalia, Uncover the Moon-Letters) - Spell recursion and free casts: Effects that recast or tutor instants and sorceries for extra cast triggers and value, including spells stolen off opponents' libraries (Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Gríma, Saruman's Footman, Solve the Equation) - Evasion and finishers: Trample, menace and unblockability push the giant Army through, while power-based damage spells convert its size into a one-sided board wipe that also hits each opponent (Orcish Siegemaster, Great Ugly-Looking Goblin, Chandra's Ignition) - Control and theft: Wipes, counters, removal and steal effects clear blockers or borrow attackers. Bowmasters and Notion Thief punish opponents' extra draws from Windfall and Arcane Denial, and Bowmasters also grows the Army (Orcish Bowmasters, In the Darkness Bind Them, Blasphemous Act)

Saruman, the White Hand decklist

• Arcane Denial
• Arcane Signet
• Blasphemous Act
• Bothersome Noisemaker
• Breach the Multiverse
• Chandra's Ignition
• Choked Estuary
• Command Tower
• Consider
• Corsairs of Umbar
• Crumbling Necropolis
• Curiosity
• Danitha, Spear of Agony
• Desolate Lighthouse
• Dragonskull Summit
• Drowned Catacomb
• Everflowing Chalice
• Evolving Wilds
• Fact or Fiction
• Faithless Looting
• Feed the Swarm
• Fiery Inscription
• Foreboding Ruins
• Gandalf, Goblins' Bane
• Geist of Saint Thalia
• Glamdring, Foe-hammer
• Goblin Dark-Dwellers
• Great Ugly-Looking Goblin
• Grishnákh, Brash Instigator
• Gríma, Saruman's Footman
• Guttersnipe
• HULK SMASH!
• Hidden Lair
• Hydroelectric Specimen
• In the Darkness Bind Them
• 7× Island
• Lash of the Balrog
• Loki's Scepter
• Lord of the Nazgûl
• Lunar Insight
• Mocking Sprite
• Moria Scavenger
• 8× Mountain
• Notion Thief
• Orcish Bowmasters
• Orcish Siegemaster
• Path of Ancestry
• Propaganda
• Rage into the Valley
• Reanimate
• Relic of Sauron
• Riddles in the Dark
• Rogue's Passage
• Samut, Tyrant of Naktamun
• Sink into Stupor
• Slip Out the Back
• Smoldering Marsh
• Sol Ring
• Solve the Equation
• Spider-Sense
• Sulfur Falls
• Summons of Saruman
• Sunken Hollow
• 4× Swamp
• Talisman of Dominance
• Tasha's Hideous Laughter
• The Black Gate
• The Great Goblin
• The Grey Havens
• The Mouth of Sauron
• The Scarlet Witch
• Tidings of War
• Too Greedily, Too Deep
• Toxic Deluge
• Treason of Isengard
• Twinned Vision
• Uncover the Moon-Letters
• Underground River
• Wake the Dragon
• Whispersilk Cloak
• Windfall
• Wizard's Staff
• The Theorist, Jace Beleren