Hello awesome folks and happiest of days to you and yours! I hope that you are having an awesome day today! Today we are looking at my final deep dive into the best cards from Tales of Middle-earth (TOME). Each of my weeks we look at the best Top Ten cards and then three Honorable Mentions, and this will be my final week. What are the best from TOME for casual play formats like Commander, multiplayer, Highlander, Cube, Five Color and Type Four? Two weeks ago we knocked out 13 cards and another set last week.

Today we are knocking out 14 cards, not 13, to get to a round Top 40 Overall. Ready?

Honorable Mention #1 (#40 Overall) - Pelargir Survivor

Our first card on today's list is a 1/3 for three in Blue common. It's cheap enough and with a big enough butt to block early stuff that arrives. It taps for any color mana so it's a mana dork. But that mana can only be used for instants and sorceries, pretty common in modern Commander. Then in the late game you can tap this with 6 mana to mill someone of 3 cards. That works in Dimir milling your foes which has lots of spells to make mana for, Sultai's Self-Mill where this is a creature, Izzet or Jeskai Spellslinger, and Azorius Cantrips and many more themes and more. It's a strong common support card! Also note it's a common for Pauper and Peasant formats.

Honorable Mention #2 (#39 Overall) - Many Partings

Back-to-back commons for your Paupering and Peasanting fun! This one cost sorcery searches your library for a basic and puts it into your hand and then makes a Food too. Ever since Lay of the Land was printed a long time ago and was heavily played in kitchen table formats where decks have a few colors like Five Color or Commander, then soon there would be Lay of the Land variants with boosts one of which was so good it was banned in Standard. This will make you a Food, great just incidentally to gain life in any deck later and with 20 life formats. And then it's strong in 40-life formats in Commander with Lifegain (#3 Archetype), Tokens (#20 Archetype), or make your own Food deck around this and legendaries in this set that care about Food. When you draw ramp later in the game it's a loss, but not this since you'll make that Food. Next is another Green sorcery.

Honorable Mention #3 (#38 Overall) - Rise of the Witch-King

But also Black, too! For your four mana, this will have everyone sacrifice a dork, you too, just like Innocent Blood. Then if you sacrificed one, you'll get a free permanent from your graveyard to the battlefield. Strong! Note any permanent not just creatures, so you could get that fetch land, Wasteland, Sword of Fire and Ice, Commander's Sphere, Sylvan Library, Font of Fertility, Karn Liberated, Sakura-Tribe Elder or Ravenous Chupacabra all back! It's like a Zombify that returns anything tied to an Innocent Blood that controls the board too. It's very powerful in most Golgari brews since it adds controlling and recursion to your deck in one spell. It also counts as sacrifices for the Sacrifice archetype (#12 overall) where Golgari is the biggest player with things like Meren of Clan Nel Toth and Mazirek, Kraul Death Priest. This is awesome with Golgari Enchantments, Creatures, Auras, Defense Matters, and Artifacts that self-sac like Glissa, the Traitor. Deep!

Honorable Mention #4 (#37 Overall) - Nazgul

Another uncommon Black card, this time on a three-drop creature of the Wraith and Knight variety. It has four abilities. Deathtouch is first and might keep people from swinging your way early to not trade with a 1/2 with deathtouch. Then, when it ETBs, you get tempted, which is all good stuff and strong. Then when you are tempted by anything, put a +1/+1 counter on all of your Wraiths, so this is a Wraith lord. Permanent pumping!

You can have up to 9 in your deck, even in Highlander and Commander. Nasty quad stuff, and note the Wraith synergy with others in that type. There are 10 other Wraiths. Most are boring Swampwalkers like Bog Wraith in the first set. The rest non-Swampwalkers are in this set or it's Commander set, so that's a strong run in the sun. Nice powerful Ring tempting and Lord. It's fun! Next is our first card in my final Top Ten, and it's also an uncommon, so three in a row! But it's not Black...

#10. (#36 Overall) - Gandalf, Friend of the Shire

Our first legendary dork for Commander Zone purposes is this four-drop 2/4 mono-Blue uncommon Wizard with flash. Then when you control him, your sorceries net flash as well, which is nasty. Then when you are temped, if you choose another Ring-Bearer, draw a card, so free card flow there too. But the flash is where it's at, as giving your sorceries flash as a Commander is great with mono-Blue stuff like flashing out Bribery when you are attacked, Expropriate when you are attacked to steal stuff and take extra turns, Legerdemain to swap stuff, Aminatou's Augury, Blatant Thievery to steal stuff and when attacked, end of turn Acquire or and then untap and attack with the artifact dork you stole. Even casting Ponder and other sorcery speed cantrips will let you dig and draw counters and removal in response to stuff, so that stuff works too. Nicely done, right? Now let's move to rare next, but it's also legendary.

#9. (#35 Overall) - Flowering of the White Tree

This two-drop double W enchantment that's legendary is awesome! Your legendary stuff gets a permanent boost of +2/+1 and ward 1 to help protect them. Nasty! And your nonlegendary stuff will still get +1/+1, which is one cheaper than the Glorious Anthem, so this will replace that in your decks right now, or supplement them in going wide Highlander and Commander decks.

Boros or Selesnya Aggro? Selesnya or Orzhov Tokens? It's also strong in Voltron decks like Bant's Rafiq of the Many that gives himself double strike when he attacks alone and will now be a 6/5 double strike killing in two turns of hitting with Commander damage. See how strong that is with Commanders that are attacking for wins with their Commander? I also like this with an evasive Commander with a combat damage trigger, like Brago, King Eternal or Medomai the Ageless to kill much faster and protect a bit with ward. It's also a powerhouse in any legendary matters brew that includes White. Our next card slot has three legendaries as well!

#8. (#34 Overall) - Elrond, Master of Healing AND Galadriel of Lothlorien AND Arwen Undomiel

Check out these three Simic legendary leaders for Commander. The first costs four, has a 4/4 body so he's on-curve, and then when you scry, put a +1/+1 counter on each of up to X creatures where X was the scry number. Then whenever a creature with a +1/+ counter on it is targeted by a foe's things, you draw a card. Card flow to protect your pumped team, all in one package and very strong.

For the second, When the Ring temps you, scry 3 if someone else was chosen as your Ring-bearer. Then when you scry, reveal the top card of your library and then if it's a land, ramp it tapped. The third is just a cheap two-drop with an on-curve 2/2 body, like a Grizzly Bear. When you scry, put a +1/+1 counter on your dork, just one. You can also spend 6 mana to scry 2, so she's a mana sink. Love all three here as Commanders and support pieces in a new genre.

All are scry matters in Simic, which was previously Azorius with Elminster or mono-Blue with Eligeth, Crossroads Augur. Both are very strong, but adding in Green gives you ramp, creatures for the +1/+1 counters of Elrond, removal like Krosan Grip and Beast Within, and loads more. This combo is tight for scry matters. Next is our first mythic of the list.

#7. (#33 Overall) - Spiteful Banditry

Hitting at our halfway point is our mono-Red enchantment. When it ETBs, you deal X damage to each dork, so this is mass removal. That means you can sculpt it around your stuff that have bigger butts to stay alive. For example, if you control Inferno Titan with its 6/6 body, then you can just put 5 into this to save it, and kill what you care about.

But don't worry if you hit your stuff with this. Whenever your stuff dies, you make a Treasure, also just one for the effect and once per turn. But adding a Treasure maker to your removal section is pretty keen. And people love playing effects that make a Treasure as part of their effect like Seize the Spoils which is in a massive 45,827 decks over at EDHREC.com or Deadly Dispute that sacrifices and makes a Treasure too. See how beloved just making one Treasure from another effect can be? And it stays around and makes more Treasures over time, and it fits into your removal section quite ably. It's very strong. What cycle is making the last spot before the final top 5?

#6. (#32 Overall) - The Rare Land Cycle

This five-set of rares that tap for one color of mana and then arrive tapped unless you have out a legendary dork. Then they have a tap ability with that color to do something, but they can only be done with a certain requirement. Barud-Dur taps to amass Orcs X, but only if a creature died this turn. It's strong in decks with sacrifice like Aristocrats or Sacrifice or in tokens or with +1/+1 counters like Abzan or Golgari +1/+1 counters or Orzhov tokens. Minas Tirith taps with two to draw a card, but only if you attacked with two or more dorks this turn. That's card flow in your lands, nice and harder to answer, but only reliably in decks with a lot of dorks and White, like Aggro, Blink, Hate Bears, Midrange with their Reclamation Sage and Karmic Guide bodies, and tokens. It's strong there.

The Mines of Moria tap with four to make two Treasure Tokens for ramping. But you have to self-exile three cards from your graveyard, which a lot of decks aren't going to like. But in Red with discard to draw effects like Cathartic Reunion, this has fuel for it. It's also great in Treasure-Matters, Artifacts, big stuff, Sacrifice Matters, Spellslinger and more. It's the best in the cycle in my view.

Rivendell taps with two to scry 2, but only if you control a legendary dork. Free scry in your lands for cheap, and pretty easy to get since your Commander will always count, although it's more reliable with more legendary stuff.

Let's finish with The Shire! This Green tapping one taps with two and taps an untapped dork to make a Food token. We've talked about the value of Food above, and getting one in your landbase that only costs two to use and tap an untap dork, so it's the easiest to trigger but getting a Food is the worst ability, so it's fine in the same as our free Food maker on the first turn we already saw. Ready for our top 5? Next is another legendary card but this time it's not a creature.

#5. (#31 Overall) - Phial of Galadriel

This is our 5th highest card in today's list! This three-drop artifact will tap for one mana in every color; it's a Manalith. Nice! Then when you would draw a card and have no cards in hand you draw two. That's great late game when you are just topdecking. Then if you would gain life when you have 5 or less, gain twice that amount.

Manaliths are great rocks when you have a five-cost Commander. Also, Manaliths are usually better than Commander's Sphere since they'll tap for all of the colors. If you gain control of a White-activated Weathered Wayfarer in your Dimir deck, how can you activate it with Commander's Sphere?

Well, you can with the Phial and Friends. I also love that card since you can reliably draw two a turn if you drop a land and then cast what you drew. It's also very powerful in Rakdos hellbent with cards like Cursed Scroll or Null Brooch, as well as with Burning Bridge decks that cast a bunch of burn, drop their hand, and they cannot be attacked with Ensnaring Bridge out, and then draw with Grafted Skullcap cards. Don't sleep on the power and synergy of this card! What is the last White card to make the list?

#4. (#30 Overall) - The Battle of Bywater

This three cost mono-White sorcery is our second-hitting mass removal spell in today's list. This will sweep all stuff with a power of 3 or more, which is strong in some builds since you'll kill more stuff and harder in others since more of your stuff will die.

Then you make a Food for each dork you control, and this is after the removal, so only those things that survive. This is much more "build-aroundable" than the Red one. You just run only stuff with 2 or fewer power. Simple. I call this archetype "Sweep and Keep" and it began in Alpha era in Black and White decks that combined Pestilence damaged based sweepers with protection from stuff like White Knight. Other early ways to build around this core concept was running only flyers in a Red deck with Earthquake. Later versions of this archetype include Mass Calcify in a mono-White deck or any deck with Plague Wind or In Garruk's Wake.

This is very strong, and getting a three-cost sweeper you can easily build around with things like Meekstone and Crackdown. It's obviously strong in a few places - tokens with 1/1 or 2/2 base bodies, aggro with low powers, Hate Bears with a bunch of cards like Esper Sentinel and Aven Mindcensor. Also, my own personal real life "Bear Beats" Abzan deck that runs Meekstone and Crackdown and all small 2 power stuff to make evasive with Sidar Kondo of Jamuraa which is midrange with things like Gravedigger, Karmic Guide and Eternal Witness.

#3. (#29 Overall) - Radagast the Brown

Our final Green card, legendary for the Command Zone and first of three mythics is this four-drop 2/5 Avatar Wizard, a bit small. When it or another dork that's not a token ETBs, you dig X where X was its mana value. Then you can reveal a creature card that doesn't share a type with one you control and draw it. They added a few brakes to it - it has to be a nontoken and you can only draw a creature that you don't control. But still, even with those brakes this is pretty strong.

It's card flow and you choose which creature you get. You can do it multiple times a turn. As long as you don't have repeating types there's only the nontoken restriction. Since it happens when he ETBs, even if he is answered at instant speed, he replaced himself. So, you cannot run Avatars or Wizards here, or other things, but in a creature dense mono-Green brew with Radagast as the leader, that seems pretty doable. This was our third-highest scoring card on my third list. Very symmetrical. Awesome possum! Our next card is another mythic! But which one?

#2. (#28 Overall) - Storm of Saruman

Expensive but with ward 3 to protect it a bit? Check! Did you cast a second spell on any turn? Check! Copy it! It's not legendary though. Strong! Sure, it costs a bit, but there are no mana or other brakes like instants or sorceries only. It'll copy anything! Permanents like enchantments or planeswalkers, creatures or artifact and instants and sorceries here as well. It all gets copied! Now the 6-cost drops it to my third overall list, but it's got all of the power. All of it! This thing works!! Just one card left in my final Top Ten, and we know it a legendary mythic non-creature. But what?

#1. (#27 Overall) - The One Ring

This four-drop colorless legendary artifact! When you cast this and it ETBs, you gain protection from everything for a full round of turns, great in multiplayer since all of your foes are likely to attack elsewhere since you cannot be damaged. At the beginning of your upkeep you lose a life equal to the burden counters on it. Then you can tap it to toss a burden counter on it and draw a card for each one, so it's card flow in colorless form. Nice! But it comes with life loss, just like Black. Good stuff.

But I wonder why it doesn't play into "The Ring Tempts You" territory, although they have a different but flavorful way of doing it. It's very strong in Commander with 40 life, and I hope that people embrace it. I don't know if you'll recall, but I was very high on Eye of Vecna and it was on my second chart as a colorless artifact that draws cards for life and it's cheaper by two but has an upkeep cost of 2 mana to use, and it is synergetic with blink and recursion, but it's only in 14716 decks, not bad, but not Top Twenty levels of play. So, I missed on that legendary artifact, will I miss this too at the 27-spot? We'll find out together!