Troll of Khazad-dum

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Legality

Format Legality
1v1 Commander Legal
Arena Legal
Block Constructed Legal
Canadian Highlander Legal
Casual Legal
Commander / EDH Legal
Commander: Rule 0 Legal
Custom Legal
Duel Commander Legal
Gladiator Legal
Highlander Legal
Historic Legal
Legacy Legal
Leviathan Legal
Limited Legal
Modern Legal
Oathbreaker Legal
Pauper Legal
Pauper EDH Legal
Quest Magic Legal
Vintage Legal

Troll of Khazad-dum

Creature — Troll

Troll of Khazad-dûm can't be blocked except by three or more creatures.

Swampcycling (, Discard this card: Search your library for a Swamp card, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle your library.)

capwner on turn 1 Iona, sheild of …

3 months ago

since you're using entomb and buried alive to tutor your big creatures, I would run just 1 iona not 4. same with any big creatures, you never really want her in hand, and having 1 of each bomb makes entomb really good because you can find the best creature for your situation. also note that the legacy version of this deck plays Troll of Khazad-dum and Grief, both very strong targets for reanimate.

jonjonhholt on Dead Metal II: Rage

3 months ago

Oliphaunt or Troll of Khazad-dum could be a nice way to help fix your mana(probably alongside a single copy of the duals such as Geothermal Bog) but also you can go turn one: cycle into turn two:Exhume without needing to find faithless or study. Foil is also funny imo for reanimator strategies as you can pitch your big creature as the 2nd card. Finally, you may be purposefully avoiding him but Ulamog's Crusher is probably the best reanimation target in pauper and with its ability to destroy lands can lock opponents out of the game if you can get it in the first couple turns of the game.

Icbrgr on Eriette of the Charmed Apple

3 months ago

to make room for more lands id cut Brilliant Restoration; super high mana cost and you are already running Retether. Next id cut Cruel Reality; also a high mana cost... and they will probably just sacrfice things that you have enchanted anyway. Id also cut Eagles of the North/Troll of Khazad-dum... well i guess instead of paying mana for a lans you could probably just play land?

wallisface on

4 months ago

Some thoughts:

  • don’t include either of those sideboard cards into your deck, they’re bad.

  • Profane Tutor is much better than both Grim Tutor and Diabolic Tutor. I’d just run the Profane Tutor and ditch both of these other tutors entirely in favour of more early game interaction (killspells).

  • your land count of 28 seems good, especially as Cabal Coffers ”isn’t a land” and won’t be helping you at-all until you have 3 other lands in play anyway. However, you could replace some swamps with Troll of Khazad-dum, as they can act both as land-fetches early game, and large creatures late game.

  • if you’re planning on making big mana, Tainted Adversary is going to be a lot more useful than Gifted Aetherborn.

  • you never want to be paying more than 2 mana for a killspell. In that vein i’d recommend either Infernal Grasp, Bloodchief's Thirst, or Sheoldred's Edict instead of Murder.

  • I don’t think Hypnotic Specter is very useful - a lot of decks will already be empty handed by their own play-patterns before this thing swings. I’d swap it for one of the before-mentioned killspells (or Damnation),… if you really want a creature, maybe something like Tourach, Dread Cantor.

I think the biggest hurdle to this deck is that while you’re probably going to be able to play a land every turn, that’s still pretty slow ramp-wise, so you should be investing a lot more resources into ensuring you can slow the game down in those early turns (by killing your opponents threats) so that you can reliably do stuff with your big spells in the late game.

jonjonhholt on death by 1000 papercuts

4 months ago

Dang K4nkato thank you for such a detailed and clearly very thought out analysis! I totally agree that the deck lacks a solid clock/game finishing option(s). Id be curious if you had any recommendations for a bomb that can be how this deck could look to close out games. I totally agree Troll of Khazad-dum should be in the list thats one of my favorite cards in the format and my buddy actually has an alternate version of the list that runs troll and its a great card in the list. Cuombajj Witches seems amazing for the list, i think i have a mono-b version of this list somewhere on here with it in but wasnt sure if this deck could consistently hit it on turn two, but with the extra fixing from Troll of Khazad-dum on turn 1 that feels a lot more realistic. Ichor Drinker has definitely felt a little underwhelming in plenty of games especially with the extra cost for the incubate(though i do like its instant speed nature), Nested Shambler might be solid it just bums me out we cant buff him up ever. Finally, i get your point abiut the deck lacking sustained card advantage and a card my buddy runs in his version that always has me ripping my hair out and could potentially help is Guildsworn Prowler. Again thank you so much for the incredibly thorough comment and i cant wait to update this deck with some of those ideas when i have time!

K4nkato on death by 1000 papercuts

4 months ago

Some thoughts:

1) Troll of Khazad-dum should be in some of your land slots to fix your mana. He should be fetching Geothermal Bog

2) The deck doesn't have a timely win condition. I ran some test games with your list against Goblin Combo, Grixis Affinity and Mono Blue Faeries. If a creature deck plays out a creature every turn then your removal absolutely runs them over at first, but there comes a point around turn 7 or 8 where you simply run out of cards. There's no draw cards in this list. It can wipe every card drawing Ninja, Faerie and Myr that hits the table but those decks will draw an addition 2, 3, even 5 cards over the game. Faeries wins out by holding all their Ninjas until the middle game, casting Of One Mind for full price to pull ahead, then casting a single Ninja and attacking into an empty board. Goblins wins by doing nothing until they have the whole combo in their hand / graveyard then they just win on the spot. Affinity draws cards until they can play two/four Myr Retrievers in one turn and defend them with Metallic Rebuke.

Fang Dragon costing seven mana puts him too far into the future to cast as a timely threat. By the time this deck reaches seven lands your opponent will have a removal spell, counter spell or other answer waiting for him. Gurmag Angler is big but most top decks can answer him. Thorn of the Black Rose refills your hand if you can watch the throne, but attacking for 1 isn't a reasonable clock.

I think Ichor Drinker is a good choice for the deck. It gives you a reasonable early turn play & some recursion post-board wipe, but I wonder if something like Nested Shambler, Persistent Specimen or Putrid Goblin would be a stronger choice for a threat. They naturally replace themselves on their own.

3) You aren't running enough support for You Are Already Dead in my opinion. I'd love to brew a deck built around these removal spells but they need a lot of support going for them. Someone else has recommended Crypt Rats but if you're looking for an interesting card with a lot of potential, have you considered Cuombajj Witches? One damage to any target, then you immediately pick it off. Fits the deck, provides a win condition, etc.

nuperokaso on steal/sac

5 months ago
  1. Your deck should play more win conditions. If your opponent doesn't play creatures, you effectively have only Urabrask's Forge to win, and 5 of your creatures.
  2. You should play more creatures on your own. After flipping Tarrian's Journal  Flip, you can play creature cards from your graveyard, which is powerfull... but there are nearly none in your deck! Same problem with Dross Skullbomb.
  3. Your deck is almost Standard legal. Replace Improvised Club and Grima Wormtongue with some combination of Callous Sell-Sword, Dreg Recycler, Acolyte of Aclazotz or Ayara, Widow of the Realm  Flip and it will be!
  4. Alternatively, if you don't care about Standard legality and are ok with playing Lord of the Rings cards, replace 2 Evolving Wilds and 3 Crystal Grotto with 2 Troll of Khazad-dum, 2 Oliphaunt and 1 Geothermal Bog. That way you'll have 4 more creatures to win. In your early turns, just cycle them to get lands, and in your late game you can play them with The Tomb of Aclazotz  Flip.