Commander

Sauron, the Dark Lord

Global commander stats

All Grixis commanders

2361 Wins

7315 Losses

Playtest a community deck

Overview

Summary

Sauron, the Dark Lord is a Magic: The Gathering commander tracked across 9,703 recorded Playgroup games, winning 24% of them (2361–7315) at an Elo of 1,539, ranking #1254 globally.

Wins average 10 turns, with 5 damage dealt and 0.57 player kills per game on average.

Last full refresh 1 Aug 2026

Sources Scryfall · EDHREC · JSON API

Frequently Asked

What is Sauron, the Dark Lord's win rate?

Sauron, the Dark Lord has a 24% win rate across 9703 recorded Playgroup games (2361 wins, 7315 losses).

How long do winning games with Sauron, the Dark Lord take?

Wins with Sauron, the Dark Lord take on average 10 turns. Total tracked play time: 5 months.

How many decks use Sauron, the Dark Lord?

3,128 decks list Sauron, the Dark Lord as their commander on Playgroup, of which 1,738 have played at least one recorded game.

Sauron, the Dark Lord Magic: The Gathering commander card art

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Global rank

1254

Wins by turn (avg.)

Elo rating

1539

Trend

Global Elo trend

Trend

Commander popularity trend

Averages

Misc. stats

Average damage per game 5

Average commander damage per game 7

Average poison counters given per game 4

Average kills per game 0.57

Average turn length 2 minutes

No. decks for this commander 3128

No. decks with at least one game for this commander 1738

No. games played with this commander 9703

Total hours played 5 months

Community

Top 5 public decks

Rank	Elo	User	Games	Wins	Winrate
1	1682	Randy008	35	16	46 %
2	1669	Nitros	57	19	33 %
3	1606	Kyle_Spaghetti	18	8	44 %
4	1597	dweller	9	5	56 %
5	1595	Luke S	3	3	100 %

Outcomes

How does this commander win?

When Sauron, the Dark Lord wins, 71.19% of wins come via combat across tracked games with a recorded win condition.

Combat

71.19%

Non Combat Damage

13.99%

Commander Damage

6.79%

Alternative

3.74%

Combo

3.12%

Mill

0.83%

Poison

0.35%

Avg win turn 9.6 based on 2410 wins with recorded turn counts

Measured

Staples that win games for Sauron, the Dark Lord

Cards that raise this deck's measured win rate the most, compared with Sauron, the Dark Lord decks that leave them out.

+4.9 pp

Top card: Teferi's Ageless Insight

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
1	Teferi's Ageless Insight 114 games	+4.9 pp	114
2	Talisman of Indulgence 546 games	+4.5 pp	546
3	Talisman of Creativity 413 games	+4.2 pp	413
4	Talisman of Dominance 558 games	+4.2 pp	558
5	Kess, Dissident Mage Signature build 53 games · Signature build	+4.1 pp	53
6	Shipwreck Marsh 230 games	+3.4 pp	230
7	Jeska's Will 97 games	+3.4 pp	97
8	Cascade Bluffs 59 games	+3.2 pp	59
9	Frantic Search 173 games	+3.2 pp	173
10	Blazemire Verge 129 games	+3.2 pp	129

Show 5 more (ranks 11-15)

#	Card	Lift Win-rate lift	Games
11	Haunted Ridge 190 games	+3.0 pp	190
12	Negate 275 games	+2.3 pp	275
13	Reanimate 644 games	+2.2 pp	644
14	Monument to Endurance 122 games	+2.2 pp	122
15	Izzet Signet 316 games	+2.2 pp	316

Measured win-rate lift against decks on the same commander without the card, ranked by the 95% lower bound. How this is measured

Table position

Does seating order matter?

Sauron, the Dark Lord wins 29.5% of games from position 1 and 7.69% from position 6 across tracked games.

Seat 1

29.5% n=2814

Seat 2

26.33% n=2848

Seat 3

19.26% n=2191

Seat 4

17.94% n=1366

Seat 5

17.03% n=229

Seat 6

7.69% n=26

Opening hands

Do mulligans hurt this commander?

Across tracked games, Sauron, the Dark Lord wins 24.34% after 0 mulligans and 0.0% after 6 mulligans.

0 mulligans

24.34% n=4520

1 mulligan

24.87% n=1397

2 mulligans

20.92% n=478

3 mulligans

16.89% n=148

4 mulligans

14.81% n=27

5 mulligans

0.0% n=7

6 mulligans

0.0% n=1

Player reports

How do players rate games with this commander?

Pilot rating

Pilots rate their own games with Sauron, the Dark Lord 3.66/5 on average, across 6661 self-reports.

3.66 / 5

🧂

Opponent salt

When Sauron, the Dark Lord wins, opponents flag the game as salty 65.9% of the time across 2408 tracked wins.

65.9 \%

Head to head

Best and worst matchups

Opposing commanders with at least ten tracked games against Sauron, the Dark Lord. Pairs with fewer than 25 games are shown in italics; treat those as suggestive, not statistical.