Hosts of Isengard

Commander / EDH Amass Flashback Orc UBR (Grixis)

dewboy

Land (38)

• 1x Choked Estuary
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Crumbling Necropolis
• 1x Desolate Lighthouse
• 1x Dimir Aqueduct
• 1x Dragonskull Summit
• 1x Drowned Catacomb
• 1x Foreboding Ruins
• 1x Frostboil Snarl
• 1x Grixis Panorama
• 4x Island
• 1x Izzet Boilerworks
• 1x Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress
• 6x Mountain
• 1x Rakdos Carnarium
• 1x Raucous Theater
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Shadowblood Ridge
• 1x Smoldering Marsh
• 1x Steam Vents
• 1x Sulfur Falls
• 1x Sulfurous Springs
• 1x Sunken Hollow
• 3x Swamp
• 1x Terramorphic Expanse
• 1x The Black Gate
• 1x Underground River
• 1x Watery Grave

Artifact (7)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Glamdring
• 1x Inherited Envelope
• 1x Palantir of Orthanc
• 1x Relic of Sauron
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x The One Ring

Sorcery (21)

• 1x Blasphemous Act
• 1x Chandra's Ignition
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Essence Harvest
• 1x Extract from Darkness
• 1x Faithless Looting
• 1x Fear, Fire, Foes!
• 1x Feed the Swarm
• 1x Gandalf's Sanction
• 1x Invade the City
• 1x Lidless Gaze
• 1x Living Death
• 1x Mana Geyser
• 1x Mizzix's Mastery
• 1x Nuclear Fallout
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Ringsight
• 1x Subjugate the Hobbits
• 1x Summons of Saruman
• 1x Taigam's Scheming
• 1x Too Greedily, Too Deep

Instant (10)

• 1x Arcane Denial
• 1x Consider
• 1x Dark Ritual
• 1x Increasing Vengeance
• 1x Lim-Dul's Vault
• 1x Maestros Charm
• 1x Seething Song
• 1x Smite the Deathless
• 1x Soul's Fire
• 1x Unwind

Planeswalker (1)

• 1x Jaya Ballard

Commander (1)

Creature (19)

• 1x Curious Homunculus  ^Flip
• 1x Gandalf, Friend of the Shire
• 1x Goblin Dark-Dwellers
• 1x Goblin Electromancer
• 1x Grima, Saruman's Footman
• 1x Guttersnipe
• 1x Hostage Taker
• 1x Kess, Dissident Mage
• 1x Lord of the Nazgul
• 1x Moria Scavenger
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Orcish Siegemaster
• 1x Rampaging War Mammoth
• 1x Sauron, Lord of the Rings
• 1x Sauron, the Dark Lord
• 1x Shelob, Dread Weaver
• 1x The Balrog of Moria
• 1x The Mouth of Sauron
• 1x Vohar, Vodalian Desecrator

Enchantment (3)

• 1x Fiery Inscription
• 1x In the Darkness Bind Them
• 1x Mystic Remora

---

My first deck, built off of the Hosts of Mordor precon, elements of which have been slowly stripped away as I move towards having an actually functional deck over heavy LOTR themes. I think it is almost in its final form, so lets go over how it works.

Saruman, the White Hand is not the strongest commander, he's not even the best amass commander. What he does do it let me build a terrifyingly large single token while still feeling like a wizard, which is what this deck is all about. That's why there are 42 cards in the deck to proc his triggered ability, plus Sauron, the Dark Lord and Orcish Bowmasters to help him out. The deck can kill by proxying that armies damage onto opponents with cards like Chandra's Ignition, Essence Harvest and the the normally garbage Soul's Fire, but there are ways to get that big ol' token into others players faces through utility lands rouge's passage and minias morgul, dark fortress as well as giving trample through Orcish Siegemaster. I've considered an Embercleave and a Dragon Throne of Tarkir, but ultimately decided against it and include more spells, perhaps I'll change my mind.

I've also found that I like playing the graveyard, so I've built a gameplan around playing and milling instants and sorceries to get them into the graveyard, where they can be played again via flashbacks, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, Kess, Dissident Mage, etc. and set up potential for a Mizzix's Mastery combo. It feels good when my orc army is a 15/15 and I cast Essence Harvest for a 30 point lifetotal swing. Oh look I'm going to do it again. Lots of instants and sorcery cards in the graveyard is also the payoff for cards like Glamdring, Invade the City, The Mouth of Sauron and Gandalf's Sanction. Casting lots of these is nice for Lord of the Nazgul and Fiery Inscription

Some creature graveyard recursion is kept, I considered whether Reanimate still had a home in this deck but ultimately I'm glad I've kept it, I find it fun to cheat big LOTR that got caught in my self-mill creatures on the battlefield.

I don't really want to play for combo win conditions, but a fat graveyard and a Mizzix's Mastery can build an absurd orc army very quickly, and is especially potent if the top of the resulting stack includes Chandra's Ignition. It's a shame Mizzix's Mastery doesn't play nice with Increasing Vengeance at all, but the latter is kept because tripling Essence Harvest and Soul's Fire is fun.

Date added	4 months
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 40 - 0 Rares 18 - 0 Uncommons 21 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	3.47
Tokens	Emblem Jaya Ballard, Orc Army, Radiation, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Treasure, Wraith 3/3 B, Zombie Army 0/0 B
Folders	EDH Deck Ideas