Sauron, Lord of the Rings

$0.57

Sauron's main trigger happens on cast, not on entry. When you cast him, you amass Orcs 5, mill five cards, then return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield. A counterspell on Sauron still leaves you with the army and the reanimated creature. He is a 9/9 trampler on his own, and whenever an opponent's commander dies, the Ring tempts you. The deck fills its graveyard with strong creatures, ramps toward eight mana, and plays extra reanimation so Sauron's cast is the start of the plan rather than the whole plan.

In the recorded games, the usual line was fast mana like Ancient Tomb and Black Market Connections into an early Sauron, which put a large trampler, an Orc army and a reanimated threat on board at once. Reanimate and Rise of the Dark Realms added more recursion, and Orcish Bowmasters helped grow the army. Blasphemous Act cleared the board on key turns. The deck was strong at coming back from sweepers. It was weak to mana trouble and early interaction, and Imprisoned in the Moon on Sauron shut one game down. When the graveyard wasn't stocked yet, the payoff was smaller.