As we move from October into November, I had every intention of leaving spooky, scary, things behind and spending at least a few weeks focusing on looking back at the LoTR set released a few years ago. I'm still going to do that, but I decided that this week I'd pick one of the scarier legendary creatures from that set that doesn't have a name starting with "S". Apologies to Saruman, Sauron, and... Sheoldred, I suppose, but today I'm going to explore a list I recently put together around this fine fellow.

The The Balrog, Durin's Bane is a 7/5 Avatar Demon with haste, a little built-in cost reduction and some neat abilities. Apart from being Durin's Bane, he feels like he could fit into a flavorful Rakdos (BR) deck comfortably without seeming out of place.

His 7-power body means he can easily become a legitimate threat to kill someone by commander damage. Twenty-one points of damage from any commander kills you if you're actually playing Commander. If you're playing without commander damage, well... you're not really playing Commander and I'd suggest you try playing by the rules. It's not that hard, and this extra rule represents an essential counterbalance to lifegain decks designed to send their life total into the stratosphere.

The Balrog costs 1 less to cast for each permanent sacrificed this turn, so I'll be running plenty of things that can be sacrificed. He can't be blocked except by legendary creatures, so I'll be running plenty of targeted removal in the hopes that I can remove a commander and get a free shot at somebody if that was their only legendary creature. His last ability lets me destroy target artifact or creature an opponent controls when he dies, which might come up every now and then, but isn't going to drive today's build.

Digging Too Deep

When Tolkien's Dwarves of Moria dug too deep, they eventually dug their way to the Balrog. In today's build I won't be digging through my deck too hard to find key cards. That might have been a cute way for WotC to have designed The The Balrog, Durin's Bane, but this card has me less focused on digging and more focused on sacrificing permanents. Each one that's sacrificed will cut the cost of my commander by 1 mana.

I don't usually build decks around forced-sacrifice cards like Plaguecrafter, Fleshbag Marauder, and Merciless Executioner, but these cards would be hard to leave out of this build. At a four-player table I can pay three mana for Plaguecrafter, have each player have to sacrifice a creature or planeswalker (or discard a card), and save four mana on The Balrog's casting cost. This both hits my tablemates' boards and helps me. At a five-player table it's going to be particularly good. Seven-mana commanders are hard to play these days, so every little bit helps.

Another thing that works really nicely with The Balrog are treasure tokens. You sacrifice them to make one mana, and that sacrifice counts towards cost reduction on your commander's casting cost. Just four treasures can pay for all 7 mana with one to spare, and if you've got Goldspan Dragon out, you'll only need three. Goldspan Dragon, Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, Ancient Copper Dragon, Mahadi, Emporium Master, Pitiless Plunderer, Blood Money, and Revel in Riches are all in the list and I'd be running Dockside Extortionist as well if it wasn't banned.

Ashnod's Altar is in today's list, and will let me sacrifice a creature to make 2 colorless mana. I'm also running Nim Deathmantle and a few combo pieces, but that's more of a backup option than my main goal. If I draw into Marionette Master I'll be able to attempt a win, but Ashnod's Altar is also just a great way to make a little extra mana to get my commander out or maybe pay for some unexpected commander tax.

Voltron Matters

To try to kill a table with commander damage isn't easy, but The The Balrog, Durin's Bane is able to do that with a little luck and just the right help. In this deck much of that help will come in the form of equipment, though I was tempted to throw in an Eldrazi Conscription. The plan for me will nearly always be to "spread the love" and not just pile onto one player. This is a casual deck at heart, and I hate to knock anyone out early if they're going to be sitting around for a long time.

In a perfect scenario I'll hit each opponent in turn for 7, and then set about swinging for lethal on the next time around the table. That's six turns, so even if it isn't fun getting murdered by a Balrog, they should have time to find an answer or just play out legendary creatures to block.

How I'm able to make that second set of attacks lethal is the biggest trick this deck wants to play, and it depends upon pulling into one of these.

I'm running a healthy number of artifacts and a lot of ways to make Treasure tokens, so Nettlecyst, Cranial Ram, and Cranial Plating are all great fits. Nettlecyst gives +1/+1 for each artifact and/or enchantment I control. Cranial Ram and Cranial Plating pump the equipped creature equal to the number of artifacts I control. The former will create a 0/0 Black Phyrexian Germ token and will equip to the Germ when it enters play. The latter has an activated ability that costs two Black mana and will allow me to equip it at instant speed to target creature I control. It's the kind of combat trick that can catch an opponent off guard, though more often than not I'll just want it equipped to The Balrog.

If I'm able to make 7 mana, there's a reasonable chance that I can get Demonspine Whip equipped to my commander and eventually pay 7 mana into it. It will let me pay X mana to pump equipped creature's power for X. Costing just two mana with a one mana equip cost, this card is pretty good in a Rakdos build. If I've got Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth and Cabal Coffers out and I'm able to make tons of mana, I might just be able to pump for 14 and swing for lethal without any previous commander damage having been done.

Two-Handed Axe can also represent lethal damage in one card if I've got enough mana available. I can cast it for one and a Red as Sweeping Cleave, an instant that gives target creature double strike until end of turn. Then I can cast it for two and a red as an artifact and equip it for another one and a red. My 7-power commander would get double strike and would attack as a 14/7, dealing 28 commander damage if unblocked.

My favorite equipment in this deck might just be Assault Suit. It costs four and equips for three, but once equipped it gives +2/+2, haste and keeps the equipped creature from attacking me or planeswalkers I control. Also, the equipped creature can't be sacrificed. That matters a lot because at the beginning of each opponent's upkeep I may have that player gain control of equipped creature until end of turn. If I do, the equipped creature untaps, but it's up to that player whether they attack with him or not.

Bane of Durin

This deck has a surprise up its proverbial sleeves. I'm running Elbrus, the Binding Blade, a 7-mana equipment that can flip into Withengar Unbound, a Legendary 13/13 Demon with flying, intimidate and trample. Whenever a player loses the game it gets 13 +1/+1 counters. I haven't yet won a game on the back of this bad boy, but I'm hoping to eventually turn that trick.

The biggest strength of this deck is probably that it has a healthy focus on removal and some of that focus is on removing legendary creatures. Hero's Demise and Price of Fame are both great for that. Chaos Warp, Terminate, Blasphemous Act, Chain Reaction and Mob Rule all have a chance at opening the way for my commander to swing in unblocked. The Balrog can only be blocked by legendary creatures, so the number of potential blockers I need to remove will likely be fewer than for most other voltron commanders.

The Balrog EDH | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 The Balrog, Durin's Bane

• Creatures (26)
• 1 Ancient Brass Dragon
• 1 Ancient Copper Dragon
• 1 Beetleback Chief
• 1 Bonehoard Dracosaur
• 1 Burnished Hart
• 1 Demon's Disciple
• 1 Fleshbag Marauder
• 1 Gadrak, the Crown-Scourge
• 1 Goldspan Dragon
• 1 Hellkite Tyrant
• 1 Mahadi, Emporium Master
• 1 Marionette Master
• 1 Merciless Executioner
• 1 Mogg War Marshal
• 1 Noxious Gearhulk
• 1 Pilgrim's Eye
• 1 Pitiless Plunderer
• 1 Plaguecrafter
• 1 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
• 1 Sandstone Oracle
• 1 Siege-Gang Commander
• 1 Skittering Surveyor
• 1 Sling-Gang Lieutenant
• 1 Solemn Simulacrum
• 1 Undercity Scrounger
• 1 Viscera Seer

• Instants (6)
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Deflecting Swat
• 1 Hero's Demise
• 1 Price of Fame
• 1 Terminate
• 1 Vampiric Tutor

• Sorceries (8)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Blood Money
• 1 Chain Reaction
• 1 Demonic Tutor
• 1 Grim Tutor
• 1 Jeska's Will
• 1 Mob Rule
• 1 Trash for Treasure

• Enchantments (3)
• 1 Black Market
• 1 Black Market Connections
• 1 Revel in Riches

• Artifacts (16)
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Ashnod's Altar
• 1 Assault Suit
• 1 Commander's Sphere
• 1 Cranial Plating
• 1 Cranial Ram
• 1 Cursed Mirror
• 1 Demonspine Whip
• 1 Elbrus, the Binding Blade
• 1 Idol of Oblivion
• 1 Nettlecyst
• 1 Nim Deathmantle
• 1 Rakdos Signet
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Two-Handed Axe
• 1 Whip of Erebos

• Lands (40)
• 13 Mountain
• 13 Swamp
• 1 Blood Crypt
• 1 Buried Ruin
• 1 Cabal Coffers
• 1 Cabal Stronghold
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dragonskull Summit
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Foreboding Ruins
• 1 Haunted Ridge
• 1 Inventors' Fair
• 1 Luxury Suite
• 1 Raucous Theater
• 1 Smoldering Marsh
• 1 Urborg, Tomb of Yawgmoth

Buy This Deck Export text

For the first time in ages, I'm running 40 lands. I really wanted to make sure I'd be hitting my land drops and casting The Balrog as early as possible. If you're a regular reader you know my decks usually come in around 37 or 38 lands, but they also usually don't have a seven mana commander to try to cast.

If I was trying to tune this list up, I'd probably be looking for other commanders, but adding in some better mana rocks and more removal might be a good place to start. I'm hoping this deck will be able to compete above mid power EDH, but I'm not sure if it's really got what it takes to compete in high power. It definitely isn't cEDH - not by a long shot.

To tune this list down you might want to pull out the tutors and the Nim Deathmantle combo pieces, and maybe even drop your equipment down a notch. Replacing Nettlecyst with Hero's Blade, Two-Handed Axe with Loxodon Warhammer, and so on, would go a long way towards making this deck a little less dangerous, if you felt that was needed to fit The Balrog into your playgroup.

Early Results

I was able to play this list in a few games and was impressed with how it did. I might have just gotten lucky with players not having removal when they needed it, but it still felt like the deck did what it wanted to do, even winning one of the games.

The plan to spread damage around the table not only helped me get everyone to 7 commander damage, but also helped keep me from looking too threatening. It's scary when someone gets murdered early, and it's easy for everyone else to gang up on you as the big threat. When you spread the love you sometimes buy yourself a little space to keep building up your board.

The win I got came with the help of both Cranial Ram and Assault Suit.

I ended up equipping Cranial Ram to The Balrog first but I didn't have the extra mana that turn to use it. On my next turn I was able to equip Assault Suit and start passing my commander around the table. If I recall correctly, nobody could resist the temptation to swing with him. The most threatening player other than me got killed off first. I was able to kill someone else on my turn, and then a turn later I finished off the table.

I am pretty sure I did have to recast The Balrog at one point, but he has haste so that didn't really slow me down much.

Final Thoughts

If you're wondering why I'm spending time looking at The Lord of the Rings cards in 2024, my answer is simple. The Marvel set feels like a huge flavor fail because my vision of Magic has something of a medieval fantasy feel.

The joke (which has endless variations) about Magic eventually devolving into a game where you hand Excalibur to Captain America, use him to crew Thomas the Tank Engine and send him into battle against a tablemate's army of Oompa Loompas led by Ash from The Evil Dead franchise is one more step closer to becoming a depressing reality.

For me, Magic isn't just a game of numbers. It's a game with compelling characters and stories that make our cards and decks feel a certain way based upon the artwork and the lore behind the cardboard. If you're excited about having Negan from the Walking Dead be able to swing in alongside Black Panther and Gandalf, good for you I guess? I've always found Universes Beyond a little off-putting.

I am not here to yuck your yum, and lots of players really do just look at the numbers, keywords, and mechanics and don't worry about the art or the characters. If that's how you approach Magic, more power to you, and I'll have to admit I'm a little jealous. It would be nice to not have these wacky new sets not feel like square pegs trying to fit into round holes.

We have lots of new cards popping up both in Foundations and Foundations Jumpstart later this month, so I'll more than likely pivot to that either next week or the week after.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!