Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, I’m taking a look at the Riders of Rohan preconstructed Commander deck from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set. A Human typal deck with a lot of overlap with the Ikoria Jirina Kudro deck.
Let’s take a look at five cards to put in and five cards to take out in this new A Seat at the Table sub-series. If you like this, please let me know and I’ll do the other precons, too!
Let’s begin with the decklists. All the precons can be found here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-lord-of-the-rings-tales-of-middle-earth-commander-decklists
I don’t want to bloat the article too much, but I will say there are some dope reprints in this one: Combat Celebrant, Path to Exile, Swords to Plowshares, Supreme Verdict, Talisman of Progress, Thought Vessel, Herald’s Horn, Door of Destinies, Vanquisher’s Banner, Shared Animosity, Clifftop Retreat, and Glacial Fortress! Look at these reprints!
For this precon, there are two eligible commanders. Which one will we build around? Let’s take a look at them.
The face commander is Eowyn, Shieldmaiden, a legendary 5/4 Human Knight for 2URW and a whole lot of value!
“First Strike
At the beginning of combat on your turn, if another Human entered the battlefield under your control this turn, create two 2/2 red Human Knight creature tokens with trample and haste. Then if you control six or more Humans, draw a card.”
A token swarm with card draw in the command zone and she’s a beater to boot. Who else we got?
Aragorn, King of Gondor is a 4/4 legendary Human Nobel for 1URW with a textbox that says aggro is back on the table!
“Vigilance, lifelink
When Aragorn, King of Gondor enters the battlefield, you become the monarch.
Whenever Aragorn attacks, up to one target creature can’t block this turn. If you’re the monarch, creatures can’t block this turn.”
Unbelievable. No blocking! Monarch! Vigilance and lifelink!
(Here’s what happens when the Ring tempts you: https://scryfall.com/card/tltr/H13/the-ring-the-ring-tempts-you)
This deck is going to be a Jeskai Human typal deck with a monarch subtheme. Let’s make some cuts. There are only 12 monarch cards and I think I’d prefer to lean into the Human theme with Aragorn as a finisher.
Time to pick five cards to put in and five to remove. When it comes to precon deck upgrades, there are quite a few cards you can remove without worrying. I’ll cut five and give brief reasons and then talk about what to add.
Cuts
New Additions
Warning – There are a lot more cards I want to include in this deck and would love to recommend more than just five so here you go!
That does it for this edition of A Seat at the Table. Let me know what you think @mikecarrozza!
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, I’m taking a look at the Elven Council preconstructed Commander deck from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set. It’s chock full of characters you know and love.
Let’s take a look at five cards to put in and five cards to take out in this new A Seat at the Table sub-series. If you like this, please let me know and I’ll do the other precons too!
Let’s begin with the decklists. All the precons can be found here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-lord-of-the-rings-tales-of-middle-earth-commander-decklists
I don’t want to bloat the article too much, but here are some dope reprints in this one: Elvish Piper, Swan Song, Heroic Intervention, Beast Within, Overwhelming Stampede, Lightning Greaves, Whispersilk Cloak, Asceticism, Flooded Grove, Hinterland Harbor, and Rejuvenating Springs! Springs is huge because it’s the Battlebond lands in a precon!
For this precon, there are six eligible commanders for this deck! That’s nuts! Which one will we build around? Radagast, Wizard of Wilds and Gandalf, Westward Voyager both want five or more mana value spells. Cordon the Shipwright is the wildest of the bunch and Elrond of the White Council is right behind it. That said, Galadriel, Elven-Queen is the more Elf focused of the bunch and this precon has a ton of Elves. This deck oddly also has a lot of noncreature spells. It’s such a strange precon! That said, there are multiple instances of voting and that makes Erestor of the Council very enticing.
I think for the sake of five cards in and five out, Galadriel, Elven-Queen is my choice to lead the deck. Let’s see what she can do. For 2GU, Galadriel is a 4/5 Legendary Elf Noble which is a great start. Let’s see that textbox!
“Will of the council – At the beginning of combat on your turn, if another Elf entered the battlefield under your control this turn, starting with you, each player votes for dominion or guidance. If dominion gets more votes, the Ring tempts you, then you put a +1/+1 counter on your Ring-bearer. If guidance gets more votes or the vote is tied, draw a card.”
Let’s face it, you’ll probably be drawing cards more often than not. I doubt your opponents will want you to climb that Ring temptation list.
(Here’s what happens when the Ring tempts you: https://scryfall.com/card/tltr/H13/the-ring-the-ring-tempts-you)
This deck is going to be a Simic Elf typal deck with a voting subtheme. Let’s make some cuts.
Time to pick five cards to put in and five to remove. When it comes to precon deck upgrades, there are quite a few cards you can remove without worrying. I’ll cut five and give brief reasons, then talk about what to add.
Cuts
Bonus: Lord of the Rings cards to include!
I won’t get into them individually, but these are some solid inclusions from the deck that are in the LOTR main set to check out.
That does it for this edition of A Seat at the Table. Let me know what you think @mikecarrozza!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, I’m taking a look at The Hosts of Mordor preconstructed Commander deck from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set. It’s helmed by the big bad villain of the story, Sauron, Lord of the Rings.
Let’s take a look at five cards to put in and five cards to take out of the deck in this new A Seat at the Table sub-series. If you like this, please let me know and I’ll do the other precons, too!
Let’s begin with the decklists. All the precons can be found here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-lord-of-the-rings-tales-of-middle-earth-commander-decklists
I don’t want to bloat the article too much so I won’t copy it here but I will say here are some dope reprints in this one: Treasure Nabber, Anger, Scourge of the Throne, Consider, Reanimate, Living Death, Blasphemous Act, Dragonskull Summit, Drowned Catacomb, and Underground River.
For this precon, we have two potential commanders: Sauron, Lord of the Rings and Saruman, the White Hand. Let’s see what they do and determine which is going to be our commander for this quick precon upgrade.
Sauron is a Legendary Avatar Horror 9/9 for a whopping 5UBR with a truly nutty textbox:
“When you cast this spell, amass Orcs 5, mill five cards, then return a creature card from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Trample
Whenever a commander an opponent controls dies, the Ring tempts you.”
Saruman, the White Hand costs much less at 1UBR for a Legendary Avatar Wizard 2/5 with:
“Whenever you cast a noncreature spell, amass Orcs X, where X is that spell’s mana value. (Put X +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. It’s also an Orc. If you don’t control an Army, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token first.)
Goblins and Orcs you control have ward 2.”
With the deck favouring noncreature spells in both quantity and construction (like Lord of the Nazgul, Fiery Inscription, Goblin Dark-Dwellers, and Guttersnipe), I think Saruman, the White Hand might be better to include, unless we chop a bunch of noncreature spells for creature spells. I think to make that better, we’d need to take ten cards out and put ten in, which I’m not going to be doing today.
This deck is pulled in two different directions and that makes it really difficult to overhaul in one little article. There are reanimation spells and Sauron reanimates on cast, there are big creatures that get themselves into your graveyard, but there are also a bunch of noncreature spell focused stuff that I think is more interesting.
Let’s pick five cards to put in and five to remove. When it comes to precon deck upgrades, there are quite a few cards you can remove without worrying. I’ll cut five and give brief reasons and then talk about what to add.
Cuts
New Additions
You’re playing a lot of instants and sorceries in this deck, and so why not get a double dip. Past in Flames allows you to replay a few spells from your graveyard and if you’ve got Dark Ritual and Seething Song type of cards, they’ll get you a beefy Orc Army and then some. Mizzix’s Mastery lets you cast all of the instants and sorceries from your graveyard if you overload it. I think getting to double dip is important in this deck. Run these with Mesmeric Orb and self-mill cards to let you cruise through your deck.
So important in fact that Kess, Dissident Mage is a solid include in this deck. A flying 3/4 that lets you cast an instant or sorcery from your graveyard on each of your turns – there’s a reason this was one of the breakout star commanders from Commander 2017 precon decks.
I mentioned rituals when talking about Past in Flames. I think they’re important to run in a deck like this. Mana Geyser and Jeska’s Will are top notch rituals that supercharge a turn. Dockside Extortionist is the only one I can think of besides these two that I think could rival the ceiling on these.
Who needs Shiny Impetus when Bothersome Quasit cares about noncreature spells and helps push through an attack? Quasit goads whenever you case a noncreature and goaded creatures can’t block. Turn your Disrupt Decorum into an unblockable swing and decimate some life totals with a cute little guy.
These are high mana value cards that you never cast for their mana cost, really. Get an 8/8 for drawing three cards. Get a 8/8 for choosing the best two from the top seven. Continue with this trend and Saruman will keep making bigger and bigger Army tokens. Vial Smasher the Fierce would be proud.
That does it for this edition of A Seat at the Table. Let me know what you think @mikecarrozza!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
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Hello and welcome to A Seat at the Table, the column where I pick a commander and talk about what I’d include in the 99. This week, I’m taking a look at the Food and Fellowship preconstructed Commander deck from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth set. It’s helmed by two beloved heroes of the series and it’s an Abzan good time. Let’s take a look at five cards to put in and five cards to take out in this new A Seat at the Table experiment. If you like this, please let me know and I’ll do the other precons, too!
Let’s begin with the decklists. All the precons can be found here: https://magic.wizards.com/en/news/announcements/the-lord-of-the-rings-tales-of-middle-earth-commander-decklists
I don’t want to bloat the article too much so I won’t copy it here but I will say here are some dope reprints in this one: Birds of Paradise, Essence Warden, Path to Exile, Toxic Deluge, Farseek, Anguished Unmaking, Chromatic Lantern, Sanguine Bond, Isolated Chapel, Sunpetal Grove, and Woodland Cemetery.
For this precon, I’ll be focusing on the face commanders – Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant. These two partner with each other to make an Abzan dream team.
Frodo is a 1/3 Halfling Scout for WB with Vigilance and the following textbox:
“Whenever Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit attacks, if you gained 3 or more life this turn, the Ring tempts you. Then if Frodo is your Ring-bearer and the Ring has tempted you two or more times this game, draw a card.”
Here’s what happens when the Ring tempts you: https://scryfall.com/card/tltr/H13/the-ring-the-ring-tempts-you
Sam, Loyal Attendant is a 2/4 Halfling Peasant for 1GW that says:
“At the beginning of combat on your turn, create a Food token. (It’s an artifact with 2, T, sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life.)
Activated abilities of Foods you control cost 1 less to activate.”
So as a combo, with both of the boys in play, you go to combat, Sam makes a Food, you can pay 1 to sacrifice the Food to gain three life. Then when you attack with Frodo, you will have gained three life so you get tempted by the Ring and make Frodo your Ring-bearer. Note that this only triggers when Frodo attacks and the second part only triggers if he’s your Ring-bearer and you’ve been tempted twice.
Sam on the other hand just always makes a Food at combat and reduces abilities by one.
Let’s pick five cards to put in and five to remove. When it comes to precon deck upgrades, there are quite a few cards you can remove without worrying. I’ll cut five and give brief reasons and then talk about what to add.
I’ve always disliked this one in the Offering cycle. There’s one real payoff card that cares about Treefolk and it’s probably better on its own and Farmer Cotton gives you better more relevant tokens than Elves.
Jump effects are fine in low powered decks but this is five mana and requires you to attack with two creatures per player to get a flying bonus. It’s not great. It’s really not for me.
You’ll be making a ton of Food in this deck and then Butterbur is just a Hill Giant. Next!
You’re in green, you don’t need this. You can ramp better than this.
5. Harmonize
You’re in black (and honestly, white has come a long way). You’ve got more options available to you.
Let’s be real, any deck that wants to make mass amounts of Treasures, Clues, or Foods will find utility in the rest of the tokens created by Manufactor. Making a Food, a Treasure and a Clue every combat with Sam is reason enough for this. But you have plenty of cards to include in this deck that put one of these tokens into play already. It’s incredible.
For four mana, you have another sacrifice outlet for your Food tokens that will protect your creatures or get blockers out of the way. He also makes Foods for nontoken creatures entering under your control. Killer inclusion.
Jaheira is like a Cryptolith Rite for your tokens. She’s so strong and a highly overlooked creature from the fantastic but maligned Battle for Baldur’s Gate set. She turns all our tokens into Moss Diamonds. Creature tokens and artifact tokens. Your Food tokens can tap to pay to sacrifice another one. Overall, wicked inclusion in the deck.
Yes, six mana is steep cost for a 1/3 creature but this is an all-star in Prosper, Tome-Bound for a reason. ETBs with three +1/+1 counters and nugs an opponent equal to its power every time an artifact you control hits the graveyard. All your Food tokens qualify. Six mana doesn’t seem like a lot for a finisher anymore, does it?
Your commanders and a solid amount of your utility creatures cost three or less mana. If you upgrade your mana base, you can rebuy fetch lands from your graveyard. Commander’s Sphere is also a fantastic card to bring back every turn if you’ve got nothing else in your yard to threaten your opponents with.
Krark-Clan Ironworks is a pricey card, but pop that sucker into your deck as an artifact Ashnod’s Altar. Sacrifice a Food to pay for another Food or a Clue. All of these will make Rapacious Guest huge and threaten to crush an opponent on attack on when a board wipe hits.
This set has a lot of great cards that fit Prosper, Tome-Bound into this deck, so if you were hoping to keep the deck on theme?
Altogether, this is the precon I’m most excited by.
Let me know what you think @mikecarrozza!
Get all your board game news from The Bag of Loot! www.thebagofloot.com
Get all your board game needs from Three Kings Loot! www.threekingsloot.com
