The Balrog of Moria
The Balrog of Moria: Legendary Creature - Avatar Demon, Tales of Middle-earth Commander. Printings, market prices, rulings, and format legality on Mana Grove.
- Mana cost
- {4}{B}{B}{R}
- Mana value
- 7
- Type
- Legendary Creature - Avatar Demon
- Colour identity
- Black and red (BR)
- Power / toughness
- 8/8
- Rarity
- Rare
- Set
- Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC)
- Released
- 2023-06-23
- Collector number
- 46
- Artist
- Rudy Siswanto
- Commander rank
- 4,727 (by how often it appears in Commander decks)
- Keywords
- Treasure, Haste, Trample, Cycling
- Commander
- Can be your commander
Build around this card with Grover
About The Balrog of Moria
The Balrog of Moria is a Magic: The Gathering card, a rare black and red legendary creature from Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC), a Commander product released in June 2023. It is collector number 46 in that set, with art by Rudy Siswanto. It costs {4}{B}{B}{R} (four generic, two black and one red mana) to cast, for a mana value of 7. It is a 8/8 creature. Its colour identity is black and red. It is legal in Legacy, Vintage, Commander, Duel Commander and Oathbreaker. Tales of Middle-earth Commander is its only printing so far. It can be your commander. The latest aggregated market price for this printing is $1.18 (normal finish, as of 2026-11-03).
Card text
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 {3}{R} ({3}{R}, Discard this card: Draw a card.)
When you cycle this card, create two Treasure tokens.
Market price
Latest aggregated market price for the normal finish of this printing: $1.18 (as of 2026-11-03).
The figure covers this printing only; other printings carry their own price on their own page.
Format legality
Legality of The Balrog of Moria by format. Formats in which it is not legal are not listed.
| Legacy | Legal |
|---|---|
| Vintage | Legal |
| Commander | Legal |
| Duel Commander | Legal |
| Oathbreaker | Legal |
Other printings of The Balrog of Moria
The other printings are listed newest first, with the rarity and release year of each.
| Printing | Rarity | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC) #449 | Rare | 2023 |
| Tales of Middle-earth Commander (LTC) #129 | Rare | 2023 |
Official rulings
Two official rulings apply to The Balrog of Moria, newest first.
- 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.
- 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.
Similar cards
Other creature cards with a black and red colour identity, ranked by how often they appear in Commander decks.
In these precons
The Balrog of Moria is in the decklist of these preconstructed Commander decks.