Sauron is a top-heavy Grixis reanimator and value deck built around its eight-mana commander. Casting Sauron amasses an Orc Army, mills five and returns the best creature from the graveyard. The list fills its graveyard with big threats through looting, mill and self-discard, then cheats them back with reanimation spells and mass board wipes, while an Orc Army subtheme grows off noncreature spells and amass effects. Instant and sorcery value adds chip damage and spell recursion, and a suite of steal effects takes opponents' creatures and artifacts so their best threats work against them. How it wins: It overwhelms opponents with huge trampling and flying bodies, either reanimated or cast, backed by a large Orc Army, with extra combats, evasion and burn from spellcasting to finish damaged players. Key roles: - Fill the graveyard: Looting, impulse-style card filtering and mill put fatties and flashback spells into the yard, setting up both Sauron's cast trigger and the reanimation spells (Faithless Looting, Forbidden Alchemy, Summons of Saruman). - Reanimation and mass resets: Single-target and global reanimation return the biggest threats, sometimes alongside board wipes that clear blockers before the deck rebuilds first. Sauron's cast trigger is the signature version of this (Living Death, Too Greedily, Too Deep, Extract from Darkness). - Orc Army amass: Noncreature spells, Orc payoffs and amass triggers keep growing a single Army token, which gets ward, trample and unblockability support (Saruman, the White Hand, Orcish Siegemaster, The Mouth of Sauron). - Spellslinger chip damage and recursion: Instant and sorcery casts make Wraith tokens and ping each opponent, while some cards recast spells from the graveyard or an opponent's library (Guttersnipe, Lord of the Nazgûl, Goblin Dark-Dwellers). - Theft and control magic: The deck gains control of opponents' creatures, artifacts and exiled cards, then attacks with them or uses them as its own (Hostage Taker, Subjugate the Hobbits, Shelob, Dread Weaver). - Big hasty finishers: Large trampling and flying bodies close games, helped by extra combat steps and haste enablers (Scourge of the Throne, The Balrog of Moria, Inferno Titan).

The Hosts of Mordor decklist

• Saruman, the White Hand
• Corsairs of Umbar
• Monstrosity of the Lake
• Subjugate the Hobbits
• Shelob, Dread Weaver
• Cavern-Hoard Dragon
• Orcish Siegemaster
• Rampaging War Mammoth
• The Balrog of Moria
• Gríma, Saruman's Footman
• In the Darkness Bind Them
• Lidless Gaze
• Lord of the Nazgûl
• Moria Scavenger
• Summons of Saruman
• Too Greedily, Too Deep
• Wake the Dragon
• Relic of Sauron
• The Black Gate
• Decree of Pain
• Languish
• Living Death
• Reanimate
• Blasphemous Act
• Goblin Dark-Dwellers
• Inferno Titan
• Knollspine Dragon
• Scourge of the Throne
• Siege-Gang Commander
• Treasure Nabber
• Hostage Taker
• Notion Thief
• Choked Estuary
• Desolate Lighthouse
• Dragonskull Summit
• Drowned Catacomb
• Foreboding Ruins
• Frostboil Snarl
• Smoldering Marsh
• Sulfur Falls
• Sulfurous Springs
• Sunken Hollow
• Underground River
• Treason of Isengard
• Bitter Downfall
• Troll of Khazad-dûm
• Voracious Fell Beast
• Fiery Inscription
• Grishnákh, Brash Instigator
• Arcane Denial
• Boon of the Wish-Giver
• Consider
• Deep Analysis
• Fact or Fiction
• Forbidden Alchemy
• Feed the Swarm
• Merciless Executioner
• Revenge of Ravens
• Anger
• Faithless Looting
• The Mouth of Sauron
• Goblin Cratermaker
• Guttersnipe
• Shiny Impetus
• Thrill of Possibility
• Extract from Darkness
• Arcane Signet
• Basalt Monolith
• Commander's Sphere
• Everflowing Chalice
• Mind Stone
• Sol Ring
• Worn Powerstone
• Command Tower
• Crumbling Necropolis
• Evolving Wilds
• Field of Ruin
• Path of Ancestry
• Rogue's Passage
• Terramorphic Expanse
• 3× Island
• 3× Island
• 3× Swamp
• 3× Swamp
• 4× Mountain
• 3× Mountain