The Hosts of Mordor already contains the foundation of a powerful Grixis reanimator deck, and Sauron, Lord of the Rings gives that strategy a spectacular payoff. The stock list splits its attention between Sauron’s massive-creature plan and Saruman, the White Hand‚s spellslinger-Amass strategy, so the cleanest upgrade is to choose one direction and commit to it.
Sauron costs and is a 9/9 with trample. When you cast him, you amass Orcs 5, mill five cards, then return a creature card from your graveyard directly to the battlefield. Whenever a commander an opponent controls dies, the Ring also tempts you.
That cast trigger is the centerpiece of the deck. Sauron does not need to resolve before producing the Army, filling the graveyard and reanimating a creature. The best Hosts of Mordor upgrade therefore focuses on ramping toward eight mana, putting devastating creatures into the graveyard and adding cheap ways to reanimate them before Sauron even arrives.
The Stock Deck Already Has an Excellent Reanimator Core
The precon gives us several pieces that should absolutely stay. Reanimate is one of the most efficient recursion spells ever printed, Living Death can rebuild an entire graveyard while clearing the battlefield, and Extract from Darkness combines mill with reanimation.
Faithless Looting, Forbidden Alchemy, Consider and Fact or Fiction help move cards into the graveyard while finding the resources we need. The deck also already contains excellent creatures worth returning, including Cavern-Hoard Dragon, The Balrog of Moria, Scourge of the Throne, Knollspine Dragon and Inferno Titan.
Most importantly, Sauron’s cast trigger does not require the creature to be one of the five cards he just milled. Any creature already in your graveyard is legal. That means deliberately stocking the graveyard before reaching eight mana makes the commander much more reliable.
Best Hosts of Mordor Upgrades
Animate Dead is an easy first addition. For only two mana, it turns any creature already in a graveyard into another threat, giving the deck redundancy alongside the stock Reanimate.
Victimize is particularly attractive because the deck naturally produces an Orc Army and other expendable bodies. Sacrificing one creature to return two stronger creatures from the graveyard can completely reverse a game for only three mana.
Buried Alive solves one of the biggest problems with reanimator decks: finding the right targets. Instead of hoping that self-mill hits something useful, it puts three creature cards of your choice directly into the graveyard and prepares several future recursion spells at once.
Entomb is the faster version of the same idea. Putting exactly the creature you need into the graveyard at instant speed makes Reanimate, Animate Dead and Sauron’s own cast trigger much more dependable.
Finally, Sauron, the Dark Lord is a natural thematic upgrade from the main Tales of Middle-earth set. Whenever an opponent casts a spell, he amasses Orcs 1, and whenever your Army deals combat damage to a player, the Ring tempts you. Unlike the commander version, this Sauron is the one that can discard your hand and draw four whenever the Ring tempts you, making him a genuine graveyard setup and card-selection engine.
What Should You Cut?
Once we commit to reanimator, the remaining spellslinger package becomes much easier to trim. Saruman, the White Hand is excellent when the deck repeatedly casts noncreature spells, but our upgraded version is shifting more slots toward creatures, graveyard setup and recursion.
Guttersnipe has the same problem. It needs a much larger density of instants and sorceries than this version wants to play. Fiery Inscription similarly rewards a spellslinger plan that no longer represents our primary win condition.
Revenge of Ravens can discourage opponents from attacking, but it does nothing to help us reach Sauron, stock the graveyard or return a threat. That makes it an easy efficiency cut.
Subjugate the Hobbits is flavorful but situational. Seven mana is an enormous investment for an effect whose quality depends heavily on what opponents happen to control.
A clean first round therefore looks like:
Out: Saruman, the White Hand, Guttersnipe, Fiery Inscription, Revenge of Ravens, Subjugate the Hobbits
In: Animate Dead, Victimize, Buried Alive, Entomb, Sauron, the Dark Lord
These changes preserve everything distinctive about Mordor while giving the deck a much clearer game plan.
Sauron’s Trigger Happens When You Cast Him
This is the most important interaction in the entire deck.
Sauron, Lord of the Rings says “When you cast this spell”, not “when Sauron enters the battlefield.” That means the trigger goes onto the stack above Sauron while the commander is still a spell.
You amass Orcs 5, mill five and reanimate a creature when that trigger resolves. Even if an opponent then counters Sauron himself, the cast trigger is already independent of the commander spell and can still resolve.
This also means blinking or reanimating Sauron does not reproduce his main ability. Putting him directly onto the battlefield skips the cast trigger entirely. The deck is therefore much more interested in making enough mana to actually cast Sauron than in finding clever ways to cheat the commander into play.
At eight mana, that makes ramp critical.
Reanimate Before Sauron Whenever You Can
It can be tempting to think of Sauron as the deck’s primary reanimation spell, but waiting until eight mana wastes one of Grixis’s biggest advantages.
If Faithless Looting puts Cavern-Hoard Dragon into the graveyard early and Reanimate is available, there is usually no reason to wait. Bring the threat back now and force opponents to deal with it.
Animate Dead, Victimize and the stock Extract from Darkness give the deck multiple ways to operate before the commander appears. Then, if opponents destroy those creatures, Sauron can bring one of them back yet again when he is eventually cast.
This produces a much healthier curve than an eight-mana deck that spends the first seven turns merely surviving.
The Orc Army Is More Than a Bonus Token
Sauron’s cast trigger also gives you amass Orcs 5. If you do not already control an Army, amass creates a 0/0 black Orc Army token and then puts five +1/+1 counters on it. If an Army already exists, those counters go onto an Army you choose instead.
The stock deck contains several cards capable of growing that same Army. The Mouth of Sauron, Summons of Saruman and Treason of Isengard all interact with Amass, while The Black Gate can eventually make a large attacker much more difficult to block.
But I would resist turning the upgraded deck into pure Amass tribal. The Army works best as a useful secondary threat and sacrifice resource while the reanimation engine provides the truly dangerous creatures.
This is another reason Victimize fits so well: sometimes one Orc token is worth much more as two creatures from the graveyard.
Sauron, the Dark Lord Fixes the Old Article’s Missing Engine
The original version of this guide described our commander as though attacking with a Ring-bearer caused you to discard your hand and draw four.
It does not.
That ability belongs to Sauron, the Dark Lord. He amasses whenever opponents cast spells, the Ring tempts you when your Army connects with a player, and whenever the Ring tempts you, you may discard your hand to draw four cards.
Putting him into the 99 actually gives us the engine the old strategy wanted. Cards you would rather reanimate can be discarded, while weak or nearly empty hands can become four fresh cards.
He also fits the Amass package extremely well. Current Sauron, the Dark Lord decks heavily favor cards such as Saruman, the White Hand, Barad-dûr, Call of the Ring and The Black Gate, confirming how naturally the Ring and Army engines overlap.
The Mana Base Has One Job: Reach Eight Mana
The Hosts of Mordor already contains Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Mind Stone, Everflowing Chalice, Worn Powerstone, Basalt Monolith, Commander’s Sphere and Relic of Sauron. That heavy ramp package is intentional: your commander costs eight mana.
I would therefore be cautious about cutting mana rocks simply because they look less exciting than another reanimation target. The commander is powerful precisely because casting him represents several effects at once, and reaching eight mana consistently is part of the strategy.
The lands can be improved gradually, especially the slower tapped fixing, but there is no need to rebuild everything immediately. Prioritize reliable access to and enough total mana sources to cast Sauron without relying on a perfect draw.
How the Upgraded Hosts of Mordor Deck Wins
The early game should focus on mana and graveyard setup. Faithless Looting, Entomb or Buried Alive put useful creatures into the graveyard while mana rocks move you toward the commander.
Then start cheating those creatures back. Reanimate, Animate Dead and Victimize allow the deck to establish enormous threats long before eight mana.
When Sauron, Lord of the Rings is finally cast, he adds a 5/5 Army, mills five more cards and returns another creature from the graveyard. If Sauron himself resolves afterward, you also receive a 9/9 trampler.
That is an enormous amount of battlefield development from one commander cast.
The stock Living Death provides the final layer of resilience. After several creatures have been discarded, milled, destroyed and reused, it can turn a stocked graveyard into an entire battlefield while simultaneously disrupting creature-heavy opponents.
PreconForge Verdict
The Hosts of Mordor does not need a complete rebuild. It already gives Sauron, Lord of the Rings excellent reanimation cards, large creatures, graveyard setup and more ramp than most precons.
The main improvement is removing the tension between Saruman, the White Hand‚s noncreature-spell plan and Sauron’s graveyard plan. Entomb and Buried Alive make the graveyard deliberate rather than random, while Animate Dead and Victimize ensure you do not have to wait until turn eight to start cheating creatures into play.
And Sauron, the Dark Lord provides the discard-and-draw engine that the old version of this guide mistakenly attributed to the commander.
The resulting strategy is much cleaner:
Fill the graveyard. Reanimate the first monster. Cast Sauron. Reanimate another one.
By the time the Dark Lord himself resolves, Mordor should already be marching.
