Blind Pick Commander #1

Deck Strategies

• 

  Sauron, the Dark Lord

  Builds armies and uses the Ring’s temptations to generate card advantage by discarding and drawing cards, controlling the board with Orcs and forcing sacrifices.

• 

  Dogmeat, Ever Loyal

  Focuses on milling cards, recurring Auras and Equipment from the graveyard, and producing Junk tokens when enchanted or equipped creatures attack.

• 

  Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit

  Utilizes life gain to trigger the Ring's temptations and draw cards, with vigilance and potential synergy by partnering with Sam to create food tokens and generate incremental advantage.

• 

  Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

  Zombie tribal deck that creates token zombies when other zombies die, with the ability to sacrifice tokens to draw cards, aiming to outvalue opponents through attrition.

Gameplay Insights

• 1

  The random blind deck selection created interesting dynamics with very different strategies, leading to unique interactions especially around the Ring of Power mechanic.

• 2

  Sauron’s deck was slightly tweaked to include multiple copies of key creatures like Nasghoul to maximize synergy and pressure.

• 3

  Dogmeat’s deck leveraged graveyard recursion of Auras and Equipment to maintain board presence and generate tokens, providing a resilient midrange plan.

• 4

  Frodo’s deck relied on incremental life gain triggers to fuel card draw, making it crucial to maintain steady life gain each turn to activate the Ring’s temptations.

• 5

  Wilhelt’s zombie tribal approach rewarded attrition-based gameplay, generating tokens from zombie deaths and card draw from sacrificing them, creating a sustainable engine.

• 6

  The presence of multiple Lord of the Rings-themed decks introduced the possibility of the Ring artifact being stolen or contested, adding a layer of political and strategic tension.

Notable Cards

• 

  Sauron, the Dark Lord

• 

  Dogmeat, Ever Loyal

• 

  Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit

• 

  Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver

Summary

In this blind pick Commander game, each player randomly selected their deck by rolling a D20, resulting in a diverse and thematic group of commanders: Sauron, Dogmeat, Frodo paired potentially with Sam, and Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver. The game began with players exploring their unfamiliar decks, which were mostly precon or slightly tweaked builds with thematic synergies. Sauron’s deck revolved around leveraging armies and the Ring's temptations for card advantage, while Dogmeat’s deck focused on milling and recurring Auras and Equipment, creating junk tokens as a value engine. Frodo’s deck emphasized life gain triggers and card draw through the Ring’s temptations, potentially partnering with Sam to enhance vigilance and token generation. Wilhelt’s deck was a zombie tribal build that generated tokens when other zombies died and rewarded card draw through sacrificing zombies, offering a grindy attrition plan.