Tag: lord-of-the-rings-tales-of-middle-earth

Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Commander...

Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth Commander!  

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, we get a whole bunch of new cards to talk about. This set is very heavy on the legendary theme and adds a ton of new legends eligible to be a commander. I’ve already covered those. Now it’s time to get into to the non-legendary-creature cards introduced in the Commander set. There’s a lot of them but because they’re made specifically for the format I cover, I’m going through all of them! There are 80 non-reprint cards in the precons so I appreciate your continued reading!

Here are my favourites!

1. Cavern-Hoard Dragon

The consensus online is this is the “Dockside Extortionist at home” of the set. Make no mistake, this is definitely not Dockside Extortionist, but it is still pretty freaking sweet. It won’t always come down for two mana unless there’s an artifact deck at the table, but when it does it can do an impression of Dockside come combat step.

That’s right, it’s not an enters the battlefield ability. It’s a combat damage to a player ability that gives you Treasures for each of their artifacts effectively saying that most of the time, you’ll play this, get your mana back and smack a player for six in the process. Do you like double strike? I hope you like money because you’re about to make it rain if you give the dragon two swings.  Use all your mana for extra combat spells! The effectiveness of this relies entirely on a single player having many artifacts and getting through to them. It’s not like Dockside at all, but it is very cool and pretty strong.

2. Field-Tested Frying Pan

This is pretty solid! It’s a life gain payoff that can lead to more life gain if you’ve got a lifelinker for it. Give that sucker double strike and you’ll quickly put yourself out of reach! Even in an aristocrats deck filled with drain effects you can make this work well. I love it with Extort especially. Karlov of the Ghost Council decks get a bit of a turbo boost with the right set up.

I’m surprised at how much I like this card. Evra, Halcyon Witness is another case of Voltron with this, but really this is flexible given how much white has in terms of instant life gain and mass life gain. You can pump before combat, forcing some blocks. You can do it after sneaking past. All while gaining life which in itself is already a good thing!

3. Prize Pig

There’s something about Prize Pig that feels like it can be broken and that’s exciting. The obvious synergy seeded in the preconstructed deck it’s in is that Sam, Loyal Attendant makes food cost one mana to use, so when you sacrifice a Food token, you can untap the Pig and sacrifice another, and so on and so forth.

However, cards like Balefire Liege exist and cards that let you gain “that much life plus one” stack with one another to turn your single life gain into three life. It’s a bit of a puzzle at the moment but Prize Pig feels like an accelerator with sneaky upside in the right deck and that’s super fun.

4. Champions of Minas Tirith

Monarch is one of the most fun mechanics in multiplayer Magic. Getting more and more Monarch cards is a good thing. Having one as strong as this was bound to happen. Champions of Minas Tirith turns your opponents’ hand size into a drawback if they want to come take the crown from you, making them choose between spells or attacking you. Then, if their hands are full, they just can’t attack you or their shields are down if they manage to pay and that’s when you get to play your shenanigans worry-free!

All this for six mana, yes. But five of that mana is colourless and can be reduced! Let’s say… Heliod, the Warped Eclipse? The commander that wants your opponents to have a ton of cards and can play at instant speed? I am so into this!

5. Raise the Palisade

This is going to be short and sweet. I picked it because it’s strong. It’s no Cyclonic Rift and won’t be great in creature type decks around popular types like Humans since lots of creatures incidentally are Human, but in a deck that wants to get through for a ton of damage or get rid of problematic creatures, five mana is a great rate for a creature type mass bounce. I assume Wilhelt, the Rotcleaver will be looking at this serious along with all the Kraken, Leviathan, and Octopus decks out there.

Lightning Round

• Grey Host Reinforcements – Ward is nice on a graveyard hate piece you might blink. Spirit decks are probably what’ll want this, but otherwise it’s just okay.
• Lossarnach Captain – Introducing my pick for what goes into every single Human and Soldier deck from now on. This is a ludicrous ability to have on a creature that hangs out while you make a ton of little tokens!
• Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit – This is a simple Saga that gives you a few Food tokens and a few Halflings while drawing you a card and bringing in lore counters and +1/+1 counters. It’s okay and will probably stick to theme decks. Tom Bombadil, enjoy!
• Archivist of Gondor – This turns the monarch draw into an extra card for them. Likely to avoid being removed unless you prove you can keep the crown too effectively.
• Corsairs of Umbar – Keep an eye on this card for when we go back to Ixalan. Giving a Pirate unblockable is already good for Admiral Beckett Brass. I’m sure we’ll see more.
• Fealty to the Realm – I love this card. It’s a Control Magic that follows the monarch and goads the creature away from you. It’s like the Vow and Impetus cycle but changes hands with the monarch. It’s so fun and silly!
• Subjugate the Hobbits – Seven mana is a lot. You better hope there’s a lot of tokens or those creatures are engine pieces because usually it’s not going to do too much.
• Trap the Trespassers – This gets worse at the end when it’s just stun counters but if the table can come together, this can nullify an attacker for a few turns.
• Rapacious Guest – I like this card more than most. There are lots of Food being made and we’re going to get more. Sacrificing Food makes this bigger but so does a pump spell. Point is, if you start blinking or reanimating this in and out of the graveyard, you’re going to take chunks out of an opponent and I’ll call that bite size.
• Call for Aid – An Insurrection for one opponent’s board but you can’t sacrifice them or attack their owner. It’s just mainly to alpha strike another player. Saskia the Unyielding decks are the best place for this if you’re going up against a lot of creature decks.
• Orcish Siegemaster – Goblins are usually small so the trample is kind of funny. This is definitely an Amass Orcs card at heart but really not much else in my opinion.
• Rampaging War Mammoth – I guess cycling this gets you a card and destroys an artifact on an ability, so it’s less likely to be countered while putting a beater into your graveyard. It’s just a steep cost on both ends.
• Assemble the Entmoot – Witherbloom decks and Trostani, Selesnya’s Voice decks, go off.
• Feasting Hobbit – A pay off for having a ton of Food with what I’ll assume will most often be pretty much unblockable. Be sure to have something ready to protect the big guy because it’s vulnerable.
• Galadhrim Ambush – Arachnogenesis for Elves is amazing. They realized how good it was at three mana and bumped it up by one which is still great considering how many dorks are Elves.
• Mirkwood Elk – A non-Elf Elf card at six mana is rough. It brings back Elf cards on ETB and attack, but there are so many Regrowth effects. And the upside to the Regrowth making it cost so much is gaining life equal to power. From Elf cards? Notoriously puny Elves? Pass.
• Motivated Pony – Coming down with haste makes this a surprising anthem and pseudo-vigilance if you made a Food, that’s alright. It’s a new Horse which is also cool. Not too impressed, but not upset.
• Travel Through Caradhras – Six mana to ramp four basic lands in classic pod sizes. If you play in bigger pods, consider this. Either option being selected isn’t going to be mind-blowing unless you have a small graveyard and even then, there are better options.
• Windswift Slice – I am really into bite spells as green creature removal. The upside of excess damage at instant speed creating tokens that can be surprise blockers or creature type payoffs is fantastic. I’m way up on this card!
• Banquet Guests – This gets bigger with how many Food tokens you have. Flavour is great. It’s got a way to have indestructible and it has trample. This is a great pay off.
• Forth Eorlingas! – Introduce the monarch with a bang of X 2/2s or by just paying RW and swinging into an open opponent. Nice flexibility.
• In the Darkness Bind Them – This will get your Ring tempted all the way and get you 9/9 worth of Wraiths plus a Threaten for each opponent. This rips real hard, but it’s pretty telegraphed. Remember, if you make an opponent’s creature your Ring-bearer, they stop being your Ring bearer when you lose control of them.
• Lidless Gaze – Excellent set up card. No notes. Prosper, Tome-Bound is pleased.
• Mirkwood Trapper – This card gives you a surprising amount of power. You automatically pump a creature of yours every time you attack and if an opponent dares to come your way, you can blunt the offence on a creature coming your way or toward another opponent. It’s political but you’re making a lot happen.
• Moria Scavenger – This is one of the funkiest blockers in the game. Rummage and get an Army or decide to cash in the Scavenger’s deathtouch on a worthy attacker, still get a rummage out  of it? Solid. Anje Falkenrath reminiscent but very different. Love seeing this design.
• Oath of Eorl – This Saga creatures four Human and gives you an indestructible counter and the monarch. This is juiced for a Human deck out there. Jirina Kudro, let’s party!
• Riders of Rohan – Another juiced Human for Human decks.
• Sail into the West – Instant speed wheel effect in Simic isn’t something I expected! Regrowth for everybody is also solid at that rate. Pretty great card all in all, but it’s pretty meat and potatoes.
• Song of Eärendil – Doesn’t play nice with your Luminous Broodmoth but it can get your whole team in for the kill. The rest of the card is kind of just good stuff on a Saga. Nothing extremely impressive but overall good.
• Summons of Saruman – The only commander I could think of is Kess, Dissident Mage for this card. Maybe Mizzix of the Izmagnus if you’ve got Mizzix’s Mastery not far off. Simply a strange card that’s doing a lot.
• Taunt from the Rampart – A fixed Disrupt Decorum that gets damage through instead of acting like a blocking party.
• Too Greedily, Too Deep – This is my favourite board wipe printed. It makes me want to build a Grixis mill deck. It’s like if Corpse Explosion knew you cared about getting the big creature.
• Wake the Dragon – Populate decks or spellslinger decks strict on the no creatures rule might consider this more than others, but I’m not into it personally.
• Crown of Gondor – An equipment that brings in monarch and is a better Pennon Blade in every way is great for Equipment decks.
• Hithlain Rope – I wish this could be forced around the table instead of at the whim of the player who has it because then it’d be great. Instead, it gets to the player who doesn’t want to keep the party going or who doesn’t run basic lands and then nobody’s stoked. I want to play this in every deck. I think the game should start with one in play. I love this card.
• Lothlorien Blade – This Equipment is great but it’s heavily tilted toward Elves which isn’t where I’d focus Equipment personally? It gets rid of a potential blocker and plows through. It’s a good Blade, but five mana equip for non-Elf? Yikes!
• Model of Unity – Reward your opponents for following your lead in your Tivit, Seller of Secrets decks and other voting environments.
• Relic of Sauron – Dare I call this a better Hedron Archive? Taps for two of any colour for Grixis decks and draws two and discards without sacrifice. This is awesome for reanimator decks but what a disappointment that it’s stuck in three colours minimum.
• The Black Gate – It’s time to go for the throne. Reminiscent of the Zendikar Rising mythic MDFC lands, it can enter untapped for 3 life and tap for one colour. Getting unblockable against the person highest on the throne for ANY creature is wonderful. Political land that’s also a freaking Gate? Why didn’t I pick this in my top 5? Because I had to start writing and I had to make difficult decisions.

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Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Commander...

Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth Commander!  

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, we get a whole bunch of new cards to talk about. This set is very heavy on the legendary theme and adds 36 new legends eligible to be a commander, so I’ll be tackling those in this article and the non-legendary creature cards in another.

I had a hard time narrowing it down so trust me when I say, the top five is real loose!

Without further ado, here are my favourite legendary creature Commander precon exclusive cards from this set.

1. Aragorn, King of Gondor

If there’s ever been an aggro combat commander in these colours, it’s Aragorn, King of Gondor. What an absolute tank. Vigilance and lifelink on a 4/4 for four is great but factor in it ETBs with the monarch and when he attacks, he stops a blocker. If you’re the monarch, NOBODY CAN BLOCK INSTEAD?! With red to grant haste or even just Lightning Greaves to protect and get him in quick, the clock ticks down so fast with Aragorn in play. You just want to play a ton of anthems, every card that gives you the monarch possible, and make a ton of tokens. Just swing, swing, swing. Game over!

2. Lord of the Nazgul

Somebody tell Talrand, Sky Summoner his services are now only required in the 99. Lord of the Nazgul is the perfect commander for a creatureless deck. Play a ton of instants and sorceries and turn your army of 3/3s into 9/9s to take the game. The Lord becomes a 9/9 as well, by the way. Your flying commander becomes a 9/9 when you have enough Wraiths to trigger the instant or sorcery ability on them. This will be one of the most popular commanders and they will frustrate tables far and wide. But I can’t blame them. It must be fun to finally be seen! Enjoy, Dimir spellslingers who’ve always wanted a wincon ready and available.

3. Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant

I love a commander that gives you a little mini game to it. Bilbo wants you to have 111 or more life before he brings all his friends to the party and he helps you get there very, very slowly.

That said, I will want to see this happen at least once. I love the shenanigans this allows for. I have nothing else to say other than it’s a feel good card! I enjoy Bilbo quite a bit.

4. Cirdan the Shipwright

This card is ridiculous. Upon its entrance to the battlefield and when it attacks, you get to trigger a vote wherein you might get cards or get to put a permanent into play free. That’s great, but you also want to prevent an opponent from putting anything in and because it’s secret, everybody’s trying to guess some votes. The rock-paper-scissors-esque strategy to this is fantastic and I can’t wait to see what happens when I play against this – I can’t build this, I don’t know what to do!

5. Lobelia, Defender of Bag End

I like both version of Lobelia and this one takes the cake for me. A payoff for all those Food tokens you can make now. A new Gonti-esque ability that can turn a Treasure into the ramp spell or the cheapest bomb spell. Or, if you didn’t get anything good, you can drain two across the board.

Lightning Round

• Eowyn, Shieldmaiden – Jeskai Humans have no reason to run any other specifically Human themed decks. Eowyn is an absolute tank and fills your board and your hand. Amazing.
• Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit – I don’t see much of a reason to run Frodo alone, but at the head of the precon sure. Frankly, of the two, Sam is much better.
• Galadriel, Elven-Queen – Simic voting is such a fun idea for deck theme. You just need to play Elves with Galadriel here. If you’re into this, you’ll love the precon. Enjoy!
• Sauron, Lord of the Rings – That cast trigger is solid, and 9/9 trampler with additional potential Ring temptation is amazing. It’s eight mana though and… a cast trigger means Sauron needs to be bounced to your hand or sent back to the command zone if you want to get that ability more than once.
• Gandalf, Westward Voyager – This is so fun and so weird. Play a bunch of five plus mana cards with multiple types and you’ll probably get a free cast from your opponents’ decks.
• Sam, Loyal Attendant – Dropping the cost of activating Food to one is amazing and getting a Food at all of your combats is really good in decks that want tokens, artifacts, and life gain. Pair with Frodo for the colours and just eat them Foods.
• Saruman, the White Hand – Noncreature spells means that there’s more flexibility to this build and your Army can be very big. Grixis enchantments, anyone?
• Beregond of the Guard – This can get out of hand really quickly. Humans are easy to make so you’ll have to keep track of all the different Power/Toughness stats for them.
• The Gaffer – This is just really good and clean design. Each end step? A card? For three life? That’s so easy! Let’s go!
• Gilraen, Dunedain Protector – A blink ability with the option to extend to a flicker, with some added benefits. Two mana isn’t bad at all, but a tap ability makes this a little less attractive.
• Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles – Gain life every turn and create a massive crew of little versions of Gwaihir. Simple and straightforward.
• Denethor, Stone Seer – Instant speed monarch ability! Unfortunately, that’s about all I can get behind on this.
• Monstrosity of the Lake – Islandcycling on this makes this pretty solid in reanimator shells. By paying five on ETB, you lock down all your opponents’ creatures. But that’s 10 mana.
• Gollum, Obsessed Stalker – I love that there’s a Stigma Lasher element of tracking who’s been dealt damage by Gollum. It might not hit everybody, but it will definitely give you a delayed Sanguine Bond at least. But there’s a chance it’ll be fore each other opponent, then that’s pretty spicy.
• Shelob, Dread Weaver – I hate facing off against denial of death triggers, but they are extremely powerful. Shelob turns then into card draw or steals your opponents’ creatures from under them for a small fee. All without requiring a tap? Excuse me!
• Gimli of the Glittering Caves – All I really like is that he’s got double strike and can make you two Treasures on combat. Legends matter in red?
• Arwen, Weaver of Hope – Master Biomancer says what?
• Haldir, Lorien Lieutenant – An Elf commander that is going to pump other Elves. This feels straightforward and like it’ll be powerful and it is.
• Legolas Greenleaf – It’s a lot of abilities for a quite underwhelming commander. A saboteur in green that gets bigger and can’t be chumped by smaller creatures? Good but not inspiring to me.
• The Balrog of Moria – This is a bummer to me. Death triggers that require exiling means that you’re cashing it in once or it’s your commander and when it’s in the command zone, you can’t cycle it. Not to mention it’s seven mana without any reduction. It’s a miss for me.
• Boromir, Gondor’s Hope – Entering and attacking find a Human or artifact from the top six is such a great amount of cards too look through for something good. Jeskai Humans is the right spot for this.
• Elrond of the White Council – More often than not, your opponents are going to give your board a pump. You’re going to want abilities that make the most out of +1/+1 counters to give your opponents something to think about.
• Eomer, King of Rohan – This is actually such a tank in Humans decks. If you have five other Humans, Eomer comes in as a 7/7 double striker who can choose a monarch and deal seven damage to any target. Any target! Blink. Flicker. Reanimate. Copy. Eomer is a ticking time bomb.
• Erestor of the Council – I wish – I really really wish – this was in other colours or just blue to put in other decks with voting. Give your opponents more reasons to vote with you. It’s almost like this is a bribery commander like it should have maybe been blue/black instead.
• Faramir, Steward of Gondor – In the 99 of Jeskai Humans or a deck like Jodah, the Unifier – that’s where I think we’ll really see this.
• Farmer Cotton – Very fun! Make a bunch of tokens, double them, have ETB abilities. This is my pick for a mill commander. Don’t ask me to elaborate right now, I’m still trying to figure out how to make it happen.
• Grima, Saruman’s Footman – Dazzling Sphinx in the command zone and it can’t be blocked. I think this rules.
• Pippin, Warden of Isengard and Merry, Warden of Isengard – Merry and Pippin should lead a deck together mostly. Even in the decks I’m thinking of trying them in, they’re both getting tested. Partner with ensures that they work together every time. Pippin is the stronger of the two with his ability, but Merry provides the creatures.
• Radagast, Wizard of Wilds – I don’t know how to say this without being dismissive so I’m just going to lean in. I don’t care about this card at all.
• Treebeard, Gracious Host – Treebeard is amazing in Treefolk decks or as a novel Voltron commander. Solid in the precon for which it was created, probably most at home there.

That does it for the Commander cards that can lead a deck for Lord of the Rings! Stay tuned for the rest of the Commander set!

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Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Enemy Gol...

Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.

Aragorn, the Uniter, Bilbo, Retired Burglar, and Gandalf the Grey are all great cards, but will not make my top 5 because I’ve already covered them in their own articles for A Seat at the Table at The Bag of Loot, but I do have a little blurb to say about them. If you’re interested in reading more, check out those articles.

Without further ado, here are my favourite enemy multicoloured cards!

1. Sméagol, Helpful Guide

Sméagol, Helpful Guide has made me want to revisit Golgari for the first time since Hapatra, Vizier of Poisons. Every Ring temptation is ramp from an opponent’s deck while milling them on the way to it. Not to mention, Sméagol can trigger a Ring temptation on his own if a creature died on your turn.

Sméagol is also part of my favourite infinite combo from this set with some help from the incredible Ratadrabik of Urborg and newcomer Boromir, Warden of the Tower. Mill all your opponents and take their lands along the way. Let’s party!

2. Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

A two mana creature that ramps you for every second spell any play casts per turn. This is going into every deck I can fit Lotho into.

Mana curves are getting lower and lower. Double spell casting on turns and even turns that aren’t a players’ own are more and more common. This means that either opponents will slow roll their plays or they’ll play right into Lotho, giving you a Treasure to work with. Or, they’ll have to spend a removal spell on a 2/1 creature that comes back thanks to Sun Titan, Sevinne’s Reclamation, or Renegade Rallier. One of my favourite cards in the set, easily!

3. Sauron, the Dark Lord

Incredible. I expect Sauron, the Dark Lord to top the list of most popular Grixis commanders in a few months.

Sauron requires a legendary sacrifice to target him, builds an Army whenever your opponents cast any spells, has built in Ring temptation when that Army deals combat damage to a player and to top it off, Sauron cycle through your deck by wheeling you to four new cards. All on a 7/6 but only for six mana! Sauron is so strong and we’re going to be seeing a bunch of decks crop up.

4. Eowyn, Fearless Knight

Eowyn, Fearless Knight is interesting in that you actually might build the deck to pump your opponents’ creatures so that you can exile them with Eowyn and charge through for commander damage since she gets protection from their colours. Blink and Flicker shenanigans like Nahiri’s Resolve can get Eowyn to mow down your opponents’ boards until they’re hopeless. Your Human decks have a sure shot hit to add to it.

5. Galadriel of Lothlorien

This is the best of the scry matters commanders in my opinion. A Ring temptation nets you a scry 3 if you’ve got another creature to pick to hang onto the Ring and then, if you can set it up, that’s ramp! Thassa, God of the Sea can just be an extra land every turn. If you flip a Temple of Mystery into play on a scry then you can maybe keep it going. Path of Ancestry, Preordain, Opt, Lifecrafter’s Bestiary, Serum Visions, all of them turn into ramp spells. But the real star is Retreat to Coralheim. What a treat. Simic scrying isn’t messing around!

Lightning Round

• Aragorn, the Uniter – What is already proving to be one of the most popular new commanders in the new set. Multicolour matters like Rienne, Angel of Rebirth couldn’t do it! https://www.thebagofloot.com/a-seat-at-the-table-aragorn-the-uniter/
• Arwen Undomiel – Two mana with a hefty mana sink that supports the scrying theme in the set. Simic +1/+1 counters get an Uncommander.
• Bilbo, Retired Burglar – I wrote all about Bilbo, Retired Burglar already and I’m surprised at how much I like him! https://www.thebagofloot.com/a-seat-at-the-table-bilbo-retired-burglar/
• Denethor, Ruling Steward – Why this couldn’t be a Morbid trigger, I don’t know. Getting a 1/1 token at your end step if a creature dies on your turn keeps the engine running. Plus Denethor has a built in sacrifice outlet for two mana that nudges the game towards its end.
• Elrond, Master of Healing – The scry theme in this set is very well supported. Stapling a Shapers’ Sanctuary onto Elrond is great. Season of Growth is going to be huge in this deck.
• Flame of Anor – You’ll only play this if you’ve got a Wizard, basically. I’d probably play Prismari Command over this unless you’re sure to have a Wizard.
• Frodo, Sauron’s Bane – Frodo gets a Figure of Destiny type treatment. For six mana, you get a 2/3 lifelinker that kills players on combat damage if the Ring is tempted to the max.
• Gandalf the Grey – A spellslinger commander with a lot going for it. Gotta do some blinking though! Check our my breakdown here – https://www.thebagofloot.com/a-seat-at-the-table-gandalf-the-grey/
• Gandalf’s Sanction – This is a really solid card for two birds with one stone. Kill a utility creature and excess smacks face. Sorcery speed hurts it, but I like it enough. You absolutely need to target a creature though and if this is Deflecting Swatted to one you control, you’re taking that damage.
• King of the Oathbreakers – Orzhov Heroic is some new space. Can’t do Auras because those will never stick. The payoff is too small for all this trouble but some people are really into this. Good luck!
• Legolas, Counter of Kills – Infinite with Oracle’s Insight. Have fun!
• Merry, Esquire of Rohan – Boros Equipment Commander #37. Attack with another legend for a card, but if you’re looking at Equipment, better off with Akiri, Nahiri, or Jor Kadeen…
• Old Man Willow – A ramp deck that can get rid of some chump blockers. Better in draft than in Commander but I think the art is pretty sick.
• Rise of the Witch-king – An edict effect that turns into any permanent from your graveyard. I freaking love this card. I almost picked this as one of my top five, but thought Sméagol deserved the Golgari nod.
• Shadow Summoning – Two mana for two flying tokens in Orzhov? That’s not bad at all.
• Shadowfax, Lord of Horses – This card rips. It’s awesome. Sneak in some creatures combat after combat, pile Equipment onto the Horse and ride, ride, ride!
• Shelob, Child of Ungoliant – This is such a fascinating design. Giving Spiders deathtouch means Lure effects or ping effects will get you Food versions of your opponents’ creatures. Don’t run Academy Manufactor in this deck though! It’s a replacement effect!
• Theoden, King of Rohan – Instant speed Human token production will get sneaky double strike, but really, it’s just going to be theme decks around this guy and that’s it honestly.

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Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Allied Go...

Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.

Tom Bombadil and Sauron, the Lidless Eye are both great cards, but will not make my top 5 because I’ve already covered them in their own articles for A Seat at the Table at The Bag of Loot, but I do have a little blurb to say about them. If you’re interested in reading more, check out those articles.

Without further ado, here are my favourite allied multicoloured cards!

1. Doors of Durin

A five mana legendary artifact in colours whose usual game plan involves attacking that rewards you for attacking. What a reward at that!

Scry two to set up your subsequent revelation and sneak in a beater or a creature with a solid ETB. That’s as Gruul as it gets.

What about Jund? Haunted Crossroads your Avenger of Zendikar or Inferno Titan back on top of your library and get them out and attacking again. Henzie “Toolbox” Torre decks and Ziatora, the Incinerator decks are going to test this card for sure, but I think Vaevictis Asmadi, the Dire is where this is going to see the most play.

I love the excitement of the gamble of the top deck, the anticipation around the table as you turn your creature(s) sideways… exquisite. I hope to see this a lot, but it will need to be the only artifact in a deck with 50 creatures.

2. Samwise Gamgee

Two mana is a low, low cost to grant every one of your nontoken creatures into an additional line of text that says “When this enters the battlefield, create a Food token.”

Living Death? You’ve got a whole bunch of Food which can be used to gain life or enable artifact sacrifice strategies. Blink strategies turn into Food generators.

The hot ticket for Kethis, the Hidden Hand and Jodah, the Unifier decks is the sacrifice ability which turns three of your Food tokens into a Regrowth for Historic cards in your graveyard. Unbelievable flexibility! Samwise at the head of his own deck can be a legendary or artifact deck leader in colours that don’t see that so often. I really like how much value is packed in such a small package and cost.

3. Faramir, Prince of Ithilien

Faramir, Prince of Ithilien isn’t raising a ton of eyebrows, but it is getting my attention.

The trigger is delayed and allows you to draw a card or create three tokens, but to predict what you’ll get, you’ll have to be attentive to the rest of the table. Really being able to read your opponents and maybe even make some deals is interesting to me and many other players who are into table politics.

But if you’re looking for card draw every time? It’s stax time. If you want tokens? Forced combat and incentivizing your opponents to attack you are a new way to go. THIS last description is what I’m hoping to brew. Make an interesting deck with a little weirdo commander.

4. Shagrat, Loot Bearer

Shagrat, Loot Bearer is the only Rakdos commander to ever mention Equipment in its textbox. Think on that for a second. This is entirely new space being explored here.

Shagrat can attach Equipment you control or your opponents control. Play this with a Collector Ouphe type of effect so your opponents can’t re-equip their own equipment. Multiple extra combats make Shaggy a new option for Voltron that also leaves behind a block that keeps coming back or getting bigger. These are exciting times for Equipment fans who’ve always wanted a Rakdos deck.

5. Pippin, Guard of the Citadel

Pippin, Guard of the Citadel is the first creature with an activated ability that grants protection from a card type. All other cards like Serra’s Emissary are static effects that grant card type protection. Pippin being able to protect a creature you control from card types means that you’ve essentially got a Mother of Runes in the command zone or on theme for your legends matter decks. Not to mention he’s also got vigilance and ward and could effectively give himself unblockable – Pippin is a low to the ground protection piece or battering ram. His design stands out to me and I think we’ll be seeing him creep up more and more.

Lightning Round

• Tom Bombadil – Tom is the de facto Sagas commander. Period. I wrote about him here – https://www.thebagofloot.com/a-seat-at-the-table-tom-bombadil/
• Sauron, the Lidless Eye – First Rakdos ETB Act of Treason in the command zone with extra upside. Read about him here – https://www.thebagofloot.com/a-seat-at-the-table-sauron-the-lidless-eye/
• Aragorn, Company Leader – You don’t need to go all in on tempt to want this in your ability counter deck, Kathril, Aspect Warper!
• Aragorn and Arwen, Wed – If you like big armies of creatures, +1/+1 counters, and attacking, but want a sort of Cathars’ Crusade in the command zone, go nuts.
• Arwen, Mortal Queen – A protection piece for Selesnya decks with blink implications. Kathril, have some more fun!
• The Balrog, Durin’s Bane – Dargo, Shipwrecker players need a change of pace? Here’s a new tank of a creature that takes out artifacts and creatures on the way out. This is so fun!
• The Balrog, Flame of Udun – This on the other hand… Bad! Bad! Bad! Don’t!
• Butterbur, Bree Innkeeper – Why is this gated behind not having Food!? Come on!
• Friendly Rivalry – I love a good bite spell and this Rabid Bite can add another creature to the power. Gruul creature destruction’s most fun yet.
• Frodo Baggins – ETB and legendary creatures ETB trigger a Ring temptation is pretty cool to ensure that you’ve got a Ring-bearer. Adding a Lure effect to Frodo when he’s the Ring-bearer is fine until you realize that he only has to be blocked by a single creature and that creature needs to be same power or lower. Meh? For THE Frodo?
• Gimli, Mournful Avenger – Gimli, Mournful Avenger gets massive and steamrolls and if that isn’t just the Gruul plan through and through, I don’t know what is. Pack some tokens and a sacrifice outlet! It’s time to fight!
• Gwaihir the Windlord – Bird commander for your Bird deck! Or just a Bird for the Bird deck. It’s fine!
• Mauhur, Uruk-hai Captain – An Amass Orcs X support piece at best.
• The Mouth of Sauron – Such an underwhelming card for truly some of the most bad ass looking art in the set.
• Prince Imrahil the Fair – If you’re going to draw a lot of cards like in Heliod, the Radiant Dawn // Heliod, the Warped Eclipse decks, build yourself a little army of guys who will stave off some attacks.
• Ringsight – A restricted tutor with a Ring temptation. Make sure your commander is the colours  you need and not just in its colour identity (ie. don’t run this in Kenrith, Returned King).
• Saruman of Many Colors – I’ve read this card so many times and I still don’t quite understand what it wants. Play small spell then big spell and get another big spell.
• Sauron’s Ransom – A fun Fact or Fiction variant for three many that offers a Ring temptation. Pretty sweet!
• Sharkey, Tyrant of the Shire – Shut down your opponent’s fetch lands and Kessig Wolf Runs! And then you get those abilities! It’s not as bad as people online are panicking about, in my opinion. It doesn’t shut down mana abilities so everybody calm down.
• Strider, Ranger of the North – Only going to be played by budget players or people who like the character. There are so many cool Landfall commanders out there, picking this feels a little silly.
• Ugluk of the White Hand – Go tall by going wide and then sacrificing the entire team. If this was like Juri, Master of the Revue, I’d be paying more attention.

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Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Artifact/...

Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.

Without further ado, here are my favourite Artifact/Land cards!

1. Palantir of Orthanc

I really love cards that add mini-games to games of Commander.

Being able to scry two and set up the top of your deck before turning to an opponent and offering them a choice puts you in a little more control than you think.

Over the course of the game, you get to know your opponent. Who is going to risk the mill life loss equal to total mana value? You’ll either be paying three to draw a card every end step with a little selection or you’ll be cracking at an opponent. Either way, it’s progress!

I live for this in a self-mill strategy. Either you’re drawing a card or you’re playing into your strategy while probably crushing an opponent’s life total. Excellent card. So strange. So fun. Powerful, but entertaining.

2. Horn of the Mark

I’ll keep this one short and sweet:

Run this in a token deck. Send two creatures to each opponent and for each of them, you look at five cards and keep a creature card. That’s right. You get to dig 15 cards deep and keep three creatures. That’s SO MUCH for two mana. Even if this were just to trigger once instead of per opponent you’re attacking, it’s a solid amount of value for a two mana artifact.

3. Sting, the Glinting Dagger

Untapping every single combat means that the equipped creature gets pseudo-vigilance, but it also means if you’ve got extra combat steps going on, you can keep a creature with an activated tap ability behind to generate value.

Krenko, Mob Boss is the first one to come to mind. But Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker with a Combat Celebrant is almost assuredly game over time. Equip this to Arcanis the Omnipotent and you’ll be up 12 cards a turn cycle! Giver of Runes and Mother of Runes deserve to keep caring for their fellow creatures! Get Goblin Welder to dance artifacts in and out of the graveyard. There’s a lot to be done with untapping a creature. Yes, a lot of it is mana production, but there are lots of things to be done with mana at instant speed!

4. Minas Tirith

I love cards that feel like they’re free inclusions in your deck. In most white decks, you’ll be doing some amount of attacking with two or more creatures. Being able to repeatedly draw a card for essentially three mana with the condition of doing something you’re probably already doing is something white gets to do now. Requiring this means that you cannot hold up your mana and draw on your opponents’ turns but this makes sure you’re ready to commit.

5. The One Ring

Tapping and untapping The One Ring means you’re probably going to get into a big chunk of your deck. Getting protection from everything for a whole turn cycle is great on cast, but the big ability is drawing your cards and having to pay the price. Luckily, The One Ring only takes your lift away at your upkeep. Clock of Omens and Unwinding Clock will get you tons of cards, but make sure to pad your life total. We’re no strangers to trading life for resources with Sylvan Library and Black Market Connections. This is going to require some building around.

Honorable Mentions:

• Anduril, Flame of the West – Sometimes I think this being equipped to a nonlegendary creature might be better to keep some blockers up, but otherwise, this is such solid value through and through.
• Barad-dur – Basically, this second ability is Morbid and costs you so much for Amass Orcs X. I don’t see this being a hit. Disappointing!
• Barrow-Blade – I kind of like this with a Lure effect. Very interesting card and the implications make me excited.
• Bilbo’s Ring – Unblockable and hexproof on your turn is Whispersilk Cloak. Tack on a card draw when you attack alone and it’s just fine. But that four mana equip cost is ridiculous.
• Glamdring – A buffed up Runechanter’s Pike that lets you cast an instant or sorcery for free on combat damage to a player. Great card, but narrow. Spellslinger but also aggro?
• Great Hall of the Citadel – This is excellent fixing in your Partner decks, in your two to five colour decks that want to play their commanders. Bonus if you’ve got legendary spells, fix those easy.
• Horn of Gondor – Human creature themed decks get an incredible piece to slot into the 99.
• Lembas – This is a great little artifact. Scry 1 and draw in any colour that goes back into your deck? Sign me up.
• Mines of Moria – I cheated and named this one in the best Red cards in the set and that’s saying something. It is not amazing. It’s fine but unfortunately it’s just alright.
• Mithril Coat – Darksteel Plate gets a big upgrade. Flash and instant equip? Holy hell, sign me up!
• Mount Doom – The threat of activating the Mount Doom board wipe is something your opponents will keep an eye on. If your commander is an artifact creature, you’ll have no problem threatening this wipe.
• Phial of Galadriel – People have been talking about this online like it’s going to give you double cards when you play a wheel effect, but that’s not how it works. You’ll only draw a single extra card. It’s still a mana rock. If you’ve got a deck that hellbends you often like an Anje Falkenrath, maybe it’s worth it. Blood Scrivener on a rock. That life gain part is rarely going to matter because if you’re at five life, you’re probably dying.
• Rivendell – This is cheaper than Castle Vantress which I guess is something it has going for it!
• Stone of Erech – Don’t deny me my death triggers, please! This is solid hate tech against your pod’s sacrifice deck.
• The Grey Havens – ETB scry 1 is the cherry on top of a land that will fix your colours for any deck running enough legends that hit the yard.
• The Shire – This is an easy way to create Food tokens and there are more and more decks that are themed around them so this is going to find its way into those decks.
• Wizard’s Rockets – One time fixing that draws you a card when you cash it in. For one mana! That’s not the worst!

That’s it for Artifacts/Lands. Gold cards are next! Then I’ve got the whole Commander set to talk about.

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Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Green!

Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.

Without further ado, here are my favourite Green cards!

1. Last March of the Ents

It feels like a bit of a cop out to pick the bombiest bomb of the bombs in the set as my top card but I mean, look at it.

First of all, your investment is protected because Last March can’t be countered. The fail case is that your biggest creature gets removed and you draw cards equal to the next biggest creature. Even if you have no creatures, if you’ve got a grip full of creatures, you’ll be putting them all into play for “free”. With you being in green, you won’t have trouble getting to eight mana in no time. Prep some pump spells and then smack this on the stack. Have fun Treefolk decks, Spider decks, and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper decks.

2. Elven Chorus

This feels like one of those cards I can’t believe is real. A sort of Vizier of the Menagerie on an enchantment paired with Cryptolith Rite.

Turn your creatures into Birds of Paradise which can be achieved for two mana with Rite, but that extra bit of hand extension can get really silly when you’re mostly creatures. Pair this with Season of Growth to manipulate the top deck so you don’t get stopped and can keep the creatures coming. A token deck of creatures that enter with little friends is the perfect spot for this. This is a card that seems like it’ll enable so, so much. Test this in every green deck and see how it runs!

3. Delighted Halfling

A one mana mana dork that taps for colourless can be useful when you’re running Eldrazi Displacer, but what’s even more important and useful is Delighted Halfling’s second ability which is Cavern of Souls for legendary spells.

The Ozolith? Uncounterable. Your commander? Uncounterable. Yawgmoth’s Vile Offering? Uncounterable.

This is all on a body that’s better than a Llanowar Elves and serves similar purpose with a little more protection. This is massive for decks whose pod keeps countering their commander.

4. Peregrin Took

Peregrin Took is a token creation replacement effect that gives you a Food whenever you create a token. How this works with Academy Manufactor or other replacement effects is that they only trigger once each so it won’t chain together constantly, but you will get a decent amount of tokens. Let’s say you play Strike it Rich into Manufactor and Peregrin Took, you can choose to prioritize Manufactor then PT and get a Treasure, a Clue, and two Food tokens. But if you go the other way around, PT then Manufactor, you get a Treasure and Food which becomes two Treasures, two Foods, and two Clues. Just be sure to figure it all out.

That said, you’ve seen how easy it is to make tokens and, in a deck that makes a ton of tokens like my Will the Wise and Mike, the Dungeon Master deck, Peregrin Took is about to draw an absolute monster truck load of cards.

5. Entish Restoration

So this isn’t an instance of total and direct power creep of Harrow. Remember Roiling Regrowth? It’s Harrow but the lands enter tapped instead of untapped. The other big difference is that sacrificing the land is part of the spell resolving and not an additional cost. This means that if Harrow is copied, you sacrifice one land and get four. If you copy Roiling Regrowth, you sacrifice two lands and get four.

Entish Restoration is just great in decks that don’t care about copying the spell and have a creature with power four or greater to beef this up to three lands. Roiling Regrowth has been power crept for sure.

The Gitrog Monster is where this will be played most but basically any deck running Harrow right now that might have a four power creature out often will prefer this to Harrow.

Honorable Mentions:

• Dunedain Rangers – Landfall Ring temptation as long as you don’t have a Ring-bearer.
• Elanor Gardner – Turn your Food into delayed Rampant Growth with Elanor. I really like her especially in decks that Deadly Dispute or find other ways to incidentally sacrifice artifacts.
• Fall of Gil-galad – This is pretty solid for two mana. Scrying is fine, pumping a creature is good, but drawing two cards and removing a creature via fighting? Neyith is excited.
• Fangorn, Tree Shepherd – Grand Warlord Radha goes mono green Treefolk theme. This is pretty cool and likely will lead many a deck despite Treefolk being centred in Abzan.
• Galadriel, Gift-Giver – I really love this card. ETB and attack modal versatility. That’s blinking or multiple combat! You can choose the same one over and over. You can pump a creature, get a Food, or a Treasure. Just lovely.
• Legolas, Master Archer – You have to talk about Legolas if you’re doing Lord of the Ring. Is there an Aura deck in here somewhere?
• Long List of the Ents – Six chapters on a Saga and they’re all the same. That’s hilarious. I hate this card though.
• Many Partings – Lay of the Land gets another power crept version with a set mechanic or theme. Sure!
• Meriadoc Brandybuck – There are only 44 Halflings (https://scryfall.com/search? as=grid&order=name&q=type%3Ahalfling+%28game%3Apaper%29) and a handful of Changelings. So many of them are from this set. I hope we get ourselves a creature type errata to enable more.
• Quickbeam, Upstart Ent – Treefolk Overrun legend. Cool. Good, not great.
• Radagast the Brown – The trend that I guess started with Volo, Guide to Monsters where you want a bunch of different types of creatures isn’t for me at all, but I can appreciate the deck restriction being fun to build around for some. But man, I don’t care for it at all.
• Shortcut to Mushrooms – If you have synergy with putting counters on creatures, this triggers at your end step for two mana and only requires a permanent you control to leave play. Not difficult to make happen!
• The Ring Goes South – This is a Ring temptation right away so you’ll have at least one legendary creature to flip lands for. This is best for Partner creatures. Jodah, the Unifier is great and this will work for those decks big time.

That does it for Green! Stay tuned for Artifacts and Lands.

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Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Red!

Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.

Without further ado, here are my favourite Red cards! I’m going to be very honest and say that Red this time around is extremely disappointing. There are so many restrictions and limits on cards that would otherwise be fun and cool. Let’s start.

1. Mines of Moria

That’s right, I had to pick the legendary land in this colour for top card here. That’s how frustrated I am with this set’s Red selection.

That’s not to say that Mines of Moria is weak, it’s just a little boring. It comes in untapped if you’ve got a legendary creature but it only taps for red. Sure it triggers your Field of the Dead but you can’t fetch it out.

What you can do is hold up mana in a reactive deck like an Izzet counter spell deck and exile three cards from your yard, pay four, and tap Mines for two treasures.

The three cards is steeper than I want it to be considering. It’s already essentially five mana, but to be able to stockpile that kind of value is solid and definitely worth considering in your Tormod, the Desecrator and red partner decks.

2. There and Back Again

This is not a good Saga besides its last chapter, but that chapter is so funny I need to hope that I’ll get to it. There’s so much proliferate out there that I have faith you’ll get there before your opponents remove it.

Chapter One – Target creature can’t block and you get tempted by the Ring. Whatever.

Chapter Two – Fetch a Mountain to play. This can be a Triome!

Chapter Three – Make the funniest creature in the set.

With the Smaug token, you’re going to want to clone and populate it. Jaxis, the Troublemaker decks are about to go off if they can protect their Saga. To get 14 Treasures off the death of a single creature? Divine!

3. Spiteful Banditry

Anybody you hear comparing this to The Meathook Massacre needs to be smacked across the face to wake them up because they’re dreaming.

Meatball Massacre is a drain and gain effect that happens every time a creature of yours or your opponents dies, that happens to have a board wipe stapled to it, thus making it extremely powerful.

Spiteful Banditry costs 15 mana to do what Blasphemous Act can do and then it gives you a measly Treasure. Then it gives you a Treasure when an opponent’s creature dies… but only once per turn. Not once per turn per player, but just once per turn. Meaning that you can get, yes, four Treasures a turn cycle, but you have to have enough to make it happen.

That said, it makes my list because creatures die all the time in commander. Playing this for two mana or three mana can still be a pretty decent deal that pays for itself over time. It’s once I’m hoping to try out in my Sevinne, the Chronoclasm Brash Taunters list.

4. Erkenbrand, Lord of Westfold

If you have a Humans deck with red in it (Jirina Kudro) I highly recommend finding a slot for Erkenbrand. There are so many ways to make a ton of Human tokens and each one of those becomes a power anthem for the turn. There are ways to make Humans at instant speed, there are ways to copy Humans, Humans that enter with other Humans – Humans are probably the  deepest creature type in Magic. If you’ve got a deck for them, you’ve got to make room for the Lord of Westfold.

5. Cast into the Fire

This made my top five because it’s a two mana model spell at instant speed that can exile a powerful and oft protected permanent type or ping two creatures. Put this in your Enrage themed Dinosaur decks or in your deck with Liquimetal Torque and get rid of those pesky “artifacts”. Isochron Scepter this with the Torque and start going for lands… one… by… one.

I think it’s cool and it’s always nice to see a common that you can consider for Commander.

Honorable Mentions:

• Display of Power – This could have been in my top 5 but it’s just so generically powerful. You can use it to counter a Counterspell and double your own spell, you can use it to copy the stack of copies you’ve made. It’s a Storm doubler that can’t be copied. It’s really good!
• Eomer, Marshal of Rohan – It hurts that this triggers only once because how often are you going to have enough legendary creatures to sacrifice for infinite combat?
• Erebor Flamesmith – A Guttersnipe variant.
• Fall of Cair Andros – This is hilarious with Blasphemous Act. Make sure you don’t Greater Good that Army though.
• Fear, Fire, Foes! – At one mana, you can target a 1/1 Soldier token and spare its life while absolutely annihilating the rest of the Soldiers in the same brigade.
• Fiery Inscription – Guttersnipe on an enchantment that tempts.
• Fires of Mount Doom – It’s an iconic part of the story but it’s just so lacklustre. You can’t cast cards exiled with it until NEXT turn, it’s only this turn thus taxing the card by three. Plus then you only get to ping if you cast it and you hit yourself when you do. It’s so frustratingly bad. I hate it and I’m sad it’s so bad.
• Gimli, Counter of Kills – If you play this against me, I am targeting you with everything. I kid, but this would wreck me entirely. It also is for opponents, so I might be trying this in a couple of decks myself!
• Gloin, Dwarf Emissary – DID THIS REALLY HAVE TO BE CAPPED AT ONCE A TURN??? It says goad on it so we know it’s for Commander, so why do we need to have it capped at once a turn when artifacts, legends, and Sagas aren’t necessarily regularly cast during opponents’ turns?
• Hew the Entwood – If you wanna Gamble this hard, might I recommend a Barren Glory deck.
• Improvised Club – Hilarious name, great flavour.
• Moria Marauder – Fantastic Goblin card but can absolutely screw you over if you’re not careful. I prefer Grenzo, Havoc Raiser so you get rid of your opponents’ cards.
• Rally at the Hornburg – Great way to make Human tokens and surprise! It’s Haste time!
• Ranger’s Firebrand – Sorcery speed Shock with a Ring temptation.
• Rising of the Day – Fervor has been outclassed by an uncommon!
• Rohirrim Lancer – I like seeing death triggers because it makes blocking creatures interesting. And sacrificing them too.
• Smite the Deathless – Amazing removal if you’ve got an indestructible menace in your playgroup.
• Swarming of Moria – I like that this can be copied and if you’ve got some sort of spell doubler, this could be amazing. You get a bigger and bigger creature that you can just Fling, plus you make your money mana back.
• Warbeast of Gorgoroth – This goes infinite if you have a way to raise base power to two. If the amassed Army is a base 2/0 then it’ll be a 4/2. Sacrifice for infinite. Interesting idea!

That does it for Red (good riddance, unfortunately) and we’re on to Green!

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Best of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth – Black!

Hello! Welcome to my set review of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth, where I will pick five cards of each colour and discuss my favourite cards from them.

Given that the set also comes out with a set of preconstructed Commander decks, I’ll also be  covering my favourite new cards from there in another article.

Without further ado, here are my favourite Black cards!

1. Mirkwood Bats

My favourite card of the bunch for Black is Mirkwood Bats, which should come as no surprise for anybody who’s read my stuff before because I am an aristocrats player through and through. Mirkwood Bats says tokens hurt your opponents on the way in and when sacrificed – that should be alarm bells for all of us!

The format is overrun by Treasures everywhere! Two damage per Treasure with these Bats out! Clue tokens and Food tokens, same!

If you make a board of Zombie tokens, they’ll do damage when created and then again when you take them to your Altar of Dementia.

This card shakes the sand of an hourglass like an earthquake in the right deck and I am HERE! FOR! IT!

2. Orcish Bowmasters

This card has had cEDH rumblings and been causing quite a stir. People have been calling for it to be banned and usually that’s such an eye roll moment… but maybe this time they’re right? Two mana at instant speed for two bodies plus a ping for anything is pretty sweet already, but add to it that one of the bodies grows or returns over time and you can continue to ping away at anything at the low low cost of your… opponents drawing cards anytime other than their draw step?

This card absolutely is bananas. There’s no doubt about it.

3. Call of the Ring

Call of the Ring isn’t crazy, but it is useful. If you’ve got a repeatable way to make a creature a Ring-bearer like with Call of the Ring, you can focus on creating an engine or a combo with this ability. I’ve covered Ratadrabik of Urborg with Boromir, Warden of the Tower and being able to tack on draw for two life to dig for the final piece of the puzzle isn’t a bad rate.

Once the Ring is powered up to its fullest form, it stays there, so being able to pick a new Ring-bearer every turn to keep the Ring around, or even just to draw a card, is pretty sweet. It’s solid but doesn’t make me scream with excitement.

4. Gollum, Scheming Guide

Such a wild and weird little guy that captures the flavour of riddles and duality without sacrificing power. Gollum, Scheming Guide is begging to be at the helm of your deck as a really, really strange Voltron commander. Load the deck up with some Equipment and signature black spells like Hatred and go ham. Having your opponent guess is such a fun mini game. The kicker is that it doesn’t even need to be the opponent you’re attacking who needs to guess, so you can have another player try their hand and flub the guess especially if you’ve got some information to share, like having just activated Haunted Crossroads.

I love that Gollum either gets through with unblockable or gets removed from combat altogether, entirely mitigating the danger of combat altogether.

Time to find some weird black cards that say “when you attack” to fully take advantage of this…

5. Lobelia Sackville-Baggins

My last pick has been called a little underwhelming to some and to them I say okay whatever! I think she’s way stronger than she looks. The big goal for me is killing a Consuming Aberration and then turning it into Treasure with Lobelia. There are so many kill spells and incidental deaths in Magic that Lobelia is likely to basically cost less than three no matter when you cast her with the Treasures paying you back.

As someone who plays graveyard shenanigans, I hate this because anybody can have this. If I see her in play with a flicker effect somewhere, I am weary! Eldrazi Displacer and Emiel the Blessed, stay back!

Graveyard hate and ramp on a weird lil creature that comes back with Sun Titan and other white recursion restrictions, there’s a lot to like here.

Honorable Mentions:

• Claim the Precious – Sorcery speed Murder with a Ring temptation. It’s not amazing but this set is definitely going to have its flavour fans.
• Gollum, Patient Plotter – An aristocrat or blink way to get the Ring to tempt. A solid blocker who comes back. Sorcery speed so you can’t just pay and sacrifice multiple creatures with its ability.
• Gollum’s Bite – A quick little Dead Weight effect that you can turn into a four mana tempt effect.
• Gorbag of Minas Morgul – I think this guy is sneaky good! Rakdos Goblins get a ton more utility. I wish he was more colours because I would probably try this out!
• Grima Wormtongue – Your opponents can’t gain life plus some drain and token creation can be fun, but this is a little weak.
• Isildur’s Fateful Strike – Too weak for so many hoops. I don’t get why they think this was the move. I guess somebody has someone in their playgroup that gets greedy with Reliquary Tower.
• Mordor Trebuchet – I love the story here. It’s so silly.
• Morgul-Knife Wound – Ghen, Arcanum Weaver gets a solid little taxing Aura that your opponents will dread more than you think.
• Nasty End – A Deadly Dispute without the Treasure that rewards you for sacking a legend.
• Nazgul – If you can have any number of copies of cards in a deck, they’re worth hanging onto. If you open Nazgûls, start a pile and thank me later.
• Oath of the Grey Host – This is a Saga that feels innocuous and takes too long for not much of a pay off. There are tokens at every step so many Thalisse, Reverent Medium can take advantage of it, but otherwise, eh.
• One Ring to Rule Them All – CONSUMING ABERRATION AND LORD OF EXTINCTION, YOUR TIME IS NOW!
• Ringwraiths – Removal on a body that comes back to hand when tempted. At six mana, less spicy, but still tight.
• Sauron, the Necromancer – A really cool mono black commander who deserves a fair shake despite me being averse to exiling my own creatures from my graveyard.
• Shadow of the Enemy – Okay so I said I’m averse to exiling creatures from my graveyard, but this lets me do that so I can cast them again. That said, I’d rather reanimate what’s mine and cast what belongs to my opponents. Excellent top end for a mill deck that has tons of mana.
• Uruk-hai Berserker – ETB Ring temptation.
• Voracious Fell Beast – An edict effect in the air on a good body that gives you Food for each one sacrificed this way. Lots of bang for your buck, but that buck is high when you get the removal for half that in Fleshbag Marauder.
• Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin – This only hits the opponent you’re already attacking. It’s just not amazing. I expected more.
• Witch-king of Angmar – The templating on this is strange but it takes into account Two-Headed Giant format which allows a team to attack together. It’s No Mercy lite on a body that also gives you a Ring temptation. With the ability to pitch a card to give it indestructible and not being a bad target for reanimation, I expect to see this come up in those shells.

That does it for Black, keep an eye out for Red!

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