SAURON vs BILL THE PONY vs TOM BOMBADIL vs SHADOWFAX MTGxLOTR EDH Commander Gameplay

Deck Strategies

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  Tom Bombadil

  A five-color saga-centric deck that focuses on casting and progressing sagas to generate value, survivability through indestructibility, and life gain to sustain through the game.

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  Sauron, the Dark Lord

  A controlling midrange deck that leverages the commander’s ability to deter removal by forcing opponents to sacrifice legendary creatures, building a strong board presence and pressuring opponents.

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  Shadowfax, Lord of Horses

  A human and horse tribal deck that builds an army of creatures with incremental life gain and +1/+1 counters, focusing on board development and gradual advantage.

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  Bill the Pony

  A blink and food token synergy deck that uses repeated flickering of Bill the Pony to generate food tokens, which are then sacrificed to boost creatures’ toughness for large combat damage.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  Sauron’s ability to force sacrifice of legendary creatures made removal costly and shaped opponents’ blocking and attacking decisions, reinforcing his board presence.

• 2

  Bill the Pony’s repeated blinking via Teleportation Circle generated multiple food tokens, enabling large damage swings by turning toughness into damage, which kept pressure on other players.

• 3

  Tom Bombadil’s use of sagas and indestructibility provided resilience and incremental value, allowing steady life gain and board development despite aggressive plays around him.

• 4

  Shadowfax’s human tribal strategy combined with +1/+1 counters and life gain created a steady stream of threats that synergized well with the army theme, supporting a longer game plan.

• 5

  The interaction between blink effects and food tokens created a unique resource engine that proved pivotal in maintaining tempo and controlling combat phases.

Notable Cards

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  Bill the Pony

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  Shadowfax, Lord of Horses

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  Sauron, the Dark Lord

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  Tom Bombadil

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  Teleportation Circle

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  Herald of the Pantheon

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  Coalition Relic

Summary

The game features a dynamic four-player battle with commanders inspired by Lord of the Rings characters, each bringing unique thematic and mechanical approaches. Early turns involved players setting up their board states with mana sources and synergistic creatures, such as humans and centaurs for Shadowfax and life-gain and saga interactions for Tom Bombadil. Sauron, the Dark Lord, established a strong board presence quickly, leveraging his ability that forces opponents to sacrifice legendary creatures to remove him, effectively making him a resilient threat. Bill the Pony's deck revolved around food token generation and blink effects, repeatedly flickering Bill to produce resources and boost creatures' toughness for damage output. The interaction between blink mechanics and food tokens created incremental advantage and board presence, while other players focused more on incremental counters and life gain.