Hello, folks! Today, I’m doing a very quick The Hosts of Mordor Upgrade Guide, talking just about 3 cards, which you should add to the deck. Nevertheless, the cards I selected should improve the deck by a significant margin.
First, let’s check the decklist, and then we’ll move to the cards.
The Hosts of Mordor Decklist
The new cards might not be in the database yet. To find them, check LotR Commander Decks Guide and MTG LotR spoilers.
Best 3 Cards for The Hosts of Mordor Upgrade
The following upgrades are meant for the version of the deck that uses its Sauron, Lord of the Rings, as the main commander. The reanimation ability, that can bring a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield, can pack a big punch, if we build our deck properly.
Sauron, the Dark Lord
What’s better than one Sauron? Two of them, of course!
The Dark Lord version comes from the main set, and fits surprisingly well into this deck. It’s a great reanimator target for your commander, as it’s just such a powerful card. Besides, it also works well with both the Ring tempts you mechanic, and with amass Orcs.
This is also a great addition for all the players who want to keep the whole deck on-theme, and don’t want to add cards, which are not set in Middle-earth.
On top of that, if you’re ever bored with your main commander, you can simply swap it with this one, so it also gives the deck additional replayability.
Sneak Attack
When you’re playing a reanimator deck, sometimes you end up with costly creatures in your hand. You can use cards like Faithless Looting (included in the precon) to replace them with new cards, and get them into graveyard, from where you’re able to reanimate them.
However, there’s a much more powerful and fun way to get them into the graveyard. That’s by using red enchantment, Sneak Attack.
It allows you to simply put any creature directly into play, for the low cost of a single red mana (plus the initial investment of four). So you’ll get any enters-the-battlefield effects, and an attack (or block) with it, before you have to sacrifice it at the next end step.
However, now the creature is in your graveyard, so you can use Sauron, Lord of the Rings to bring it back.
Lord Xander, the Collector
Getting some additional amazing reanimation targets into your deck seems like a good idea, and there aren’t many better cards for that role in Grixis colors than Lord Xander.
When you bring it into play, in immediately rips apart the hands of an opponent. (Well, not literally, but they do lose half of their cards.)
If you manage to attack with it, half of opponent’s library get demolished. That could be a problem if you’re playing against a deck that gets value from your graveyard, but this can be easily avoided. Just attack a player who doesn’t have many graveyard synergies.
Finally, when Xander dies, you get yet another strong effect. Target player will have to sacrifice half of their nonland permanents. As you can see, there’s a lot of power packed in this 7-mana creature. But when you’re getting it for much cheaper with reanimation, then you’re really going off.
Bonus Pick: Whip of Erebos
I couldn’t quite limit myself to just three picks, so here’s a bonus one. Whip of Erebos is a great tool to get back into the game, as giving lifelink to your creatures is a big deal.
However, its second ability is the one that’s really powerful. For four mana you get to bring a creature back from your graveyard, albeit for only a single turn. Given how powerful some creatures in your deck are, this effect could potentially be backbreaking, and is yet another reanimation effect for the times when you can’t cast Sauron, Lord of the Rings.
Before we wrap up – just a quick reminder. This deck could use a couple of additional lands. So, if you decide to remove the two cards you like least in the deck, and add two basics, you’ve already improved the deck.
Conclusion
That’s it for today. If time permits, I hope I will be able to update The Hosts of Mordor Upgrade Guide, so check back in a week or so. Until then, here are some other articles that might interest you:
Besides, if you have some great ideas about which cards to add to this precon, please do share them with our readers in the comments below.
Until next time, have fun with your upgraded The Hosts of Mordor deck, and enjoy Magic.