Frodo, Dayne of Middle-Earth

Commander / EDH* Equip Protection Unblockable WB (Orzhov)

Andramalech

Land (33)

• 1x Access Tunnel
• 1x Ancient Tomb
• 1x Arid Mesa
• 1x Bloodstained Mire
• 1x Command Tower
• 1x Desolate Mire
• 1x Escape Tunnel
• 1x Flooded Strand
• 1x Godless Shrine
• 1x Isolated Chapel
• 1x Marsh Flats
• 1x Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress
• 4x Plains
• 1x Polluted Delta
• 1x Prismatic Vista
• 1x Rogue's Passage
• 1x Scrubland
• 1x Shadowy Backstreet
• 1x Shizo, Death's Storehouse
• 1x Silent Clearing
• 6x Swamp
• 1x The Black Gate
• 1x Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth
• 1x Verdant Catacombs
• 1x Windswept Heath

Enchantment (7)

• 1x Black Market Connections
• 1x Call of the Ring
• 1x Forge Anew
• 1x One Ring to Rule Them All
• 1x Sigarda's Aid
• 1x Smuggler's Share
• 1x Tocasia's Welcome

Creature (28)

• 1x Archivist of Oghma
• 1x Bastion Protector
• 1x Boromir, Warden of the Tower
• 1x Dark Confidant
• 1x Delney, Streetwise Lookout
• 1x Eowyn, Lady of Rohan
• 1x Esper Sentinel
• 1x Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit
• 1x Gollum, Patient Plotter
• 1x Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff
• 1x Mother of Runes
• 9x Nazgul
• 1x Orcish Bowmasters
• 1x Puresteel Paladin
• 1x Samwise the Stouthearted
• 1x Sram, Senior Edificer
• 1x Stoneforge Mystic
• 1x Took Reaper
• 1x Uruk-hai Berserker
• 1x Witch-king of Angmar

Instant (11)

• 1x Deadly Rollick
• 1x Enlightened Tutor
• 1x Get Lost
• 1x Gollum's Bite
• 1x Path to Exile
• 1x Return to Action
• 1x Righteousness
• 1x Shelter
• 1x Slip On the Ring
• 1x Swords to Plowshares
• 1x Vampiric Tutor

Commander (1)

Artifact (14)

• 1x Arcane Signet
• 1x Bilbo's Ring
• 1x Colossus Hammer
• 1x Inherited Envelope
• 1x Lavaspur Boots
• 1x Leather Armor
• 1x Mana Crypt
• 1x Mithril Coat
• 1x Shadowspear
• 1x Silver Shroud Costume
• 1x Sol Ring
• 1x Sword of Wealth and Power
• 1x The One Ring
• 1x Trailblazer's Boots

Sorcery (6)

• 1x Claim the Precious
• 1x Demonic Tutor
• 1x Reanimate
• 1x Sam's Desperate Rescue
• 1x Steelshaper's Gift
• 1x The Black Breath

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Maybeboard

Sorcery (2)

• 1x Imperial Seal
• 1x Infernal Tutor

Creature (1)

• 1x Selfless Savior

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This deck is a White and Black ({W}{B}) build centered around Frodo, Sauron's Bane and aims to be victorious the way all the warriors of the world know how, through "..The One Ring to rule them all..".

The most unlikely of swordsman, Frodo strikes true and exposes the wicked for who they are.

I'm off for an Adventure!

We're leaving the shire in favor of a path that is bittersweet, scattered with both glimmers of Hope and Dark Truths. We'll focus on Frodo obviously, how his teammates and friends are throwing themselves into perilous positions to keep him alive, and how he feels about those sacrifices and how we navigate ahead following the losses. Ultimately I think this build will end up at about a {6}/{10} on the power scale.

Theme

Number Seven : White / Black

This is the seventh deck in our series, the one where we're building 32 individual decks to represent each shard of the color identities. This is the second dual-colored shard, represented by the Guilds of Ravnica in Orzhov colors. This deck has the intention of focusing into alternative win-cons in order to pull out some very fringe-like wins.

Main appeal of this deck was to focus on what Frodo's relationship with The One Ring looks like, both from a thematic place and how that mechanic functions within the world of magic. I had previously theorized that a deck like this could work if Frodo was given support from the Nazgul.

In a lot of ways this deck is still driven by a Timmy mentality because we're building up Frodo to go swing and bonk the enemy to death, even if the situation is that Frodo can't be all that big, but he can be prevented from being blocked or dying outright.

Construction

The Ring Tempts You

The ring is both a card within Magic now and a mechanically separate venture that functions in an entirely different way. It makes things wild in terms of how to function and operate with your creatures, and also provides us with an alternative win-condition that is unironically one of the main focuses for this build.

• The Nazgul have a deadly way of promoting the ring and how it can tempt you right into pieces, especially if i manage to stack several at one time.

• Boromir, Warden of the Tower also provides a one-turn protection blanket that is also accompanied by a temptation from the ring.

• Samwise the Stouthearted also provides us with another instance of triggering the ring, and the fact we only need four instances in order to set ourselves up for success is seemingly more bonkers by the minute.

• Took Reaper is a great card in my honest opinion because I can Reanimate this creature, blink it with the likes of Ephemerate, just simply do so much to have it generate another trigger and provide me with more value.

• Sam's Desperate Rescue is another great card in my opinion because being able to reliably temp ourselves with the ring is the fastest path to victory, especially if we can prevent Frodo from being blocked.

• Call of the Ring is a great example of effectively using the ring for our own benefit, without giving up too much resource or advantage in draws; at the very least the curve and functionality of the card is to provide us with another opportunity to draw.

Removal

When a duelist crafts a list with Orzhov ({W}{B}) colors, it seems pertinent that one would fill the list with as much removal as you could possibly muster. The colors provide you with so many of the strongest removal spells, that it would seem foolish not to include at least a few of them. Our list is no exception, and below I detailed the few that we manage to keep in the list.

• Get Lost is effective at only {2} total cost to blow something up. It's just a matter of what you're blowing up.

• Gollum's Bite is effective because it allows us to spot remove things like Drannith Magistrate while also giving us another instance of a card that says 'the ring tempts you'.

• Path to Exile is a stapled piece and sees play here for the same reasons.

• Claim the Precious is a bad spot inclusion, considering that we have it here purely for the additional benefit of saying 'the ring tempts you'.

Draw

Because this deck has access to Black, it's imperative that we don't waste that kind of talent; we have filled the list with a few tutors that should make it easier to fetch the pieces that will further push our prospects, but also we have detailed below the few draw spells that make the most sense for our color shard.

• things like Corrupted Conviction absolutely need to be present because we have to be able to refill the hand we dumped down; when Frodo comes out he'll need all the help he can get to stick around long enough for a win.

• Black Market Connections will give us enough resources to do the thing as much as we need to, no matter the requisite to effectively use that resource (admittedly there is a part of my brain that wants Skullclamp to be here.).

• Dark Confidant may or may not stick to the list, but I know at the least that Esper Sentinel can stick around just for the draw capabilities we see there.

Discussion

I would like to say that overall this list seemed to come together very easily, and could easily be a bit better if we leaned into either the synergy of 'TRTY' triggers, or the meta-driven stapled pieces that provide us enough stax to win the game when enough time goes by. I think either one of those options is a just a bit too boring for me to consider revisiting this anytime soon. We won't come back not because this deck isn't worth playing, but rather because I simply don't see anything getting printed soon that will impact how it functions or how fast it could possibly win. Regardless, this one was still pretty fun and I might dabble further whenever we receive further LoTR releases.

Date added	2 months
Last updated	1 month
Legality	This deck is Commander / EDH legal.
Rarity (main - side)	8 - 0 Mythic Rares 45 - 0 Rares 24 - 0 Uncommons 13 - 0 Commons
Cards	100
Avg. CMC	2.19
Tokens	Map, Orc Army, Shapeshifter 3/2 C, The Ring, The Ring Tempts You, Treasure