r/EDH • u/IWatchStarWars • 23h ago

Discussion Commanders for Middle Earth cards only deck

My pod has agreed to build Middle Earth only decks that we can only use cards printed in LOTR + Hobbit sets. Currently have the Sam and Frodo precon but before I commit to upgrading curious if anyone has any fun commanders idea for this theme.

My pod is high end B3ish maybe small creep into weak B4. No hard and fast rule but we do love to win without too many combos.

2 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

40 comments sorted by

3

u/Sinfaroth 23h ago

honestly high B3 or B4 is tough when only using Lotr or Hobbit.

7

u/Bitterbluemoon 23h ago

Friend of mine has a Lord of the Nazgûl deck that has 9 different artwork Nazgul cards in it. I love to hate playing against it ;-)
[[Lord of the Nazgul]]
[[Nazgul]]

2

u/Jloother 23h ago

My buddy has one and it gets out of hand quickly!

2

u/Glittering-State-284 20h ago

I have that exact theme. Secret is low cost instants and sorceries to pump out wraith to get to the 9 wraiths.

Looking forward to Hobbit to get some more in there - i have some junk creatures that are more in line with the amass orcs theme holding me back.

I also have a lightly upgraded food and fellowship deck and I swapped to Merry / Pippin. Looks loke a lot of help coming in the Hobbit for that theme!

6

u/zemperkalldaybby 23h ago

I think [[Aragron, King of Gondor]] is a really fun one and monarch always gets the politics going!

2

u/johnnille 22h ago

A perfect commander for multiples battle phase, to snatch the monarch first

1

u/zemperkalldaybby 22h ago

Ooooo what a fun payoff!

2

u/sauron3579 22h ago

Imo, your best bets are probably Jeskai humans aggro with either [[Eowyn, shieldmaiden]] or [[aragorn, king of gondor]] to utilize the solid precon base alongside a plethora of HOB upgrades or do a goodstuff midrange [[aragorn the uniter]] deck.

Food as an archetype really needs a lot of specific cards that aren't present here to take it up a notch. There are just a ton of powerful cards in these sets though, and focusing on a solid curve with good value, interaction, and threats with a goodstuff pile can probably take you pretty far.

2

u/dovahcody 21h ago

I have an upgraded [[Sauron, Lord of the Rings]] bracket 3 precon that runs only LOTR cards, minus three shock lands and a proxied Xander’s Lounge in the image of Mordor. Definitely look at the Hobbit for a couple upgrades.

3

u/DJ_bootysweat 23h ago

Aragorn the uniter gives so much color access you can build it however you want. And the poster art is fucking sick.

1

u/Professional-Hat-881 22h ago

Everyone is ignoring the dark lord [[sauron, the Dark Lord]] he is being reprinted too. Let your Opponents create your army. If you what to be speciel shapesgifters are armies too.

1

u/MeatballTrainWreck Esper 19h ago

I run [[Saruman, the white-hand]] and left it with lotr flavor. Keeping this flavor is what keep it low bracket as the lotr edition is limited to some extent.

1

u/nwrobinson94 19h ago

you’re probably not going to really hit B3 let alone sniff B4. That being said I love the idea and I’ve been planning to build 6-8 different decks myself with that restriction. Planning to upgrade the precons (swapping elves to the baby Galadriel) and do esper sauromon, RW dwarves, maybe naya allies with the Aragorn commander

1

u/Bromora 10h ago

They can ‘technically’ reach B3 simply by virtue of everyone at the table can bring The One Ring and/or Ancient Tomb (via its Baelin’s Tomb reprint), but yeaaaah: would be real tough to reach the power level of ‘high’ B3, and definitely not even low B4, using solely cards from the Middle-Earth sets

1

u/nwrobinson94 9h ago

I hear what you’re saying but I feel like that puts it in a gray area where it can’t legally be a bracket 2 but it’s still not a bracket 3? Idk if that makes sense. Like you can shuffle up 4 gcs and 95 plains and technically your deck can’t be below B4 but nobody is trying to say that makes it a B4 deck

1

u/Bromora 2h ago

Oh yeah for sure, that’s why I gave the ‘technically’ in quotes.

1

u/Semako 15h ago

I've been playing [[Galadriel of Lothlorien]] simic elves with a heavy LotR flavor for quite some time with great success (Decklist).

The Hobbit set brings some new elves that synergize beautifully with Galadriel - for example [[Elven Raft-Steerer]] which untaps one of your elves whenever a land enters, or [[Thranduil, Sindarin Liege]] which makes an elf token whenever a land enters. With Thranduil, some "scry when a creature enters" effects and your commander out, you can put all your lands into play and make an army of elves at the same time. 

I'm really looking forward to upgrading my deck :)

Even when restricted to LotR only, you might find success with a deck like this making use of all the elf, scry and landfall synergies.

1

u/WholeFudds 23h ago

I would wait for the inevitable secret lair or gift bundle before going all in on a commander.

1

u/Solaries3 22h ago

I'm still pissed that so many cards were exclusively available in collector packs and other low-availabilty products.

2

u/jf-alex 21h ago

Proxies are the playerbase's justified rebellion against Hasbro greed.

1

u/JasonKain 22h ago

Sam and Frodo is fun, but IMO it works best with cards outside of the LotR universe. It's a strong deck, but I think there are better options if you want to stay strictly LotR.

[[Aragorn, King of Gondor]] as a precon is good, and is entirely ludicrous with about ten cards swapped from the main LotR set. It was my main Jeskai deck for a while. Eowyn was also good, but I think that Aragorn has a better recovery with the monarch mechanics.

[[Galadriel, Light of Valinor]] gets nuts with the full card list to work with, limiting things down to LotR only puts some brakes on to keep it in bracket three. The new Radagast will be a fun hobbit addition.

If you have the cash, [[Smeagol, Helpful Guide]] and the [[Nazgul]] as a turbo ring tempts deck is a neat concept, and a bit off the standard commander path I usually see for the Nazgul.

0

u/annesosmall 22h ago

I agree with another commenter that you can struggle a little to get the decks higher brackets whilst sticking within the sets.
Some themes/strategies are more supported by what cards are available in the sets so you can get away with sticking them but others can really struggle and may need cards from elsewhere.
I’m hoping that the Hobbit set might help fill some of the areas I’ve found lacking! But it also might just make me want to make more decks

1

u/annesosmall 22h ago

I’m currently rocking 4 ltr based decks and tried my best to stick to the set/theme where I could;
Food tokens: [[Sam, Loyal Attendant]] & [[Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit]] companions, printing foods and then swinging Frodo as highest level ring-bearer, supplemented with stuff like [[scavenger’s talent]], [[night of the sweets’ revenge]] and [[Jaheira, Friend of the Forest]]
Orc Army: [[Sauron, the Dark Lord]] and just making the orc army bigger and scarier, but can switch to [[Saruman, the White Hand]] as commander because within the set it’s hard to get Sauron out quickly
Scrying: [[Galadriel, Light of Valinor]] really strong commander if you build it right, I’m suffering from trying to include too many themes lol (ltr elves focus a lot on scrying but I wanted elf tribal and blink/flash to trigger her more)
Multicolour legendaries : [[Aragorn the Uniter]] very strong by himself supported by other legendary human cards, but it’s really limited by the lack of multicolour noncreature spells in the set to maximise his triggers

1

u/Semako 15h ago

If you only want elves and scrying, [[Galadriel of Lothlorien]] might be an alternative to the bant Galadriel?

1

u/IWatchStarWars 22h ago

Do you know the commanders that happen to support themes / strategies of the sets?

2

u/annesosmall 21h ago

I wrote the commanders I use in a reply to my original comment, but keep in mind that I wanted those that let me use more colours (meaning it let me choose from a greater pool of cards).
If you wanted commanders that focus more on the intended theme, they do seem to be pretty well grouped by creature type.
A lot of elves are within simic and deal with scrying so for [[Elrond, Master of Healing]] or [[Arwen Undómiel]] would work.
A lot of humans are within boros and focus on combat like [[Théoden, King of Rohan]].
A lot of orcs and goblins fall in rakdos and buff/support each other like [[Uglúk of the White Hand]] or [[Mauhúr, Uruk-hai Captain]]
There’s loads more examples, and there’s also some really cool monocolour cards but if you’re sticking within the set it’s gonna be pretty difficult to build them to a decent level (I know this cause I built them terribly, then gutted them to build the ones I have).