The Balrog of Moria wants a deck that makes lots of Treasure and turns it into extra mana. It also suits a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life.
Mana cost
Black, Red ()
Power / toughness8 / 8
RarityRare
Trample, haste
When The Balrog of Moria dies, you may exile it. When you do, for each opponent, exile up to one target creature that player controls.
Cycling (, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, create two Treasure tokens.
Picked for what they do in The Balrog of Moria's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit The Balrog of Moria's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how The Balrog of Moria works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast16 Jun 2023
Some cards with cycling have an ability that triggers when you cycle them, and some cards have an ability that triggers whenever you cycle any card. These triggered abilities resolve before you draw from the cycling ability.
Wizards of the Coast16 Jun 2023
Triggered abilities from cycling a card and the cycling ability itself aren't spells. Effects that interact with spells (such as Saruman's Trickery) won't affect them.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryBRPlayers write colors as letters: B for black, R for red.TreasuresTreasure decks make lots of Treasures, small artifact tokens you can trade in for one mana of any color, then spend that mana on big plays. Many of the same cards reward you for having or sacrificing artifacts, so each Treasure does two jobs.Open the Treasures pageTreasure EngineProduces Treasure tokens repeatedly. A Treasure is a small artifact token you sacrifice for one mana of any color. Something that keeps making them is mana acceleration and, at the same time, a steady supply of artifacts to sacrifice for anything that wants them. Smothering Tithe, Dockside Extortionist, Goldspan DragonOpen the Treasure Engine pageTreasureCreates or cares about Treasure tokens: small artifacts you can sacrifice for one mana of any color. Saving them up lets you cast something big early, or feed anything that likes sacrificing artifacts.Open the Treasure pageAristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageDeath TriggerTriggers when a creature dies, whether it is this creature, one of yours or an opponent's. These are the cards that pay you in an Aristocrats deck: something else makes creatures die, and these decide what you get each time. Blood Artist, Solemn SimulacrumOpen the Death Trigger pageToken MakerCreates one or more tokens. Different cards make very different ones: creatures Grave Titan, Treasures Smothering Tithe, Clues Tireless Tracker or Food Gilded Goose. This is one of our largest tags, so pair it with an archetype or theme when you are hunting a specific kind.Open the Token Maker pageRampAn effect that accelerates your mana, giving you a reusable mana source beyond the usual one land per turn. Cultivate Rampant GrowthOpen the Ramp page
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