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The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth took players to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien for the very first time.
These beloved fantasy works have inspired Magic: The Gathering design right from the very beginning. Many cards in Limited Edition Alpha brought in concepts from the stories, particularly Creature types.
This made it a natural fit for a Universes Beyond release, dripping in the high fantasy Magic is best known for.
Let's look back at what made this smash hit one of the biggest releases of all time.
LTR Set Details
The Lord of the Rings set was released on June 23rd, 2023. It was developed under the design codename 'Anvil' and was the first Universes Beyond set to have a proper Draft release.
Until LTR, we'd only seen smaller releases. These included the Warhammer 40,000 Commander decks, Transformers coming alongside The Brothers' War, and a variety of Secret Lair releases.
To make the set that much more exciting for players, the set was designed to be straight-to-Modern legal. That meant many cards were at a higher power level than you'd find in a typical Standard release.
The Vision Design team featured the following people:
- Ben Hayes (lead)
- Chris Mooney
- Ethan Fleischer
- James Wyatt
- Lukas Litzsinger
- Max McCall
- Mark Gottlieb
- Mark Rosewater
- PJ Rivas
- Cameron Williams
The Set Design team included:
- Glenn Jones (lead)
- Mark Gottlieb
- Ari Nieh
- Annie Sardelis
- Matt Smith
- Patrick Sullivan
- Dave Humphreys
- Megan Smith
- Adam Prosak
- Michael Hinderaker
- Michael Majors
- Dan Musser
- Evart "Aspiringspike" Moughon
- Piotr "Kanister" Glogowski
Products
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth featured tons of different products, including a few new ones. Since it was the first Universes Beyond release to get a full set release, Wizards went out of their way to give it the red-carpet treatment.
Draft Booster Boxes
The core way to experience Tales of Middle-earth was with the classic product: Draft Boosters. These packs contained 15 cards: 10 Commons, three Uncommons, a Rare, and a Basic Land. They also would come with a Token and occasionally a Common would be replaced with a foil of any rarity.
Set Booster Boxes
Many players also experienced Tales of Middle-earth through Set Boosters. These packs came with 12 cards, a Token, and an Art Card. Among the 12 cards you'd get a variety of different cards centered around a core theme and one guaranteed foil card. These packs could contain multiple Rares and offered more chances to find special printings.
One in eight Set Boosters replaced the Token in the pack with a card from The List. This set represented cards from across Magic's long history. Each was printed exactly as it was in its original version with a small Planeswalker symbol stamped in the lower left corner to differentiate it.
Collector Booster Boxes
The biggest draw of the set was the Collector Boosters.
These packs are well known for their special versions of cards, which quickly become the most in-demand. Thanks to the huge draw of the franchise and the true one-of-a-kind Serialized copy of The One Ring, demand was sky high.
Some other goodies that you could crack in these packs included Box Toppers or Serialized Sol Rings if you got lucky.
Tales of Middle-earth also continued the Set Jumpstart releases of the time, which only contained one of five colored packs with one corresponding unique Rare. These products were widely disliked and didn't last much longer.
Bundles
LTR also featured two different Bundles. The first was a typical Bundle that had:
- Eight (8) Tales of Middle-earth Set Booster Packs
- 40 Basic Lands
- A Spindown Life Counter
- Four (4) Bundle Promos
- A Themed Deckbox featuring The One Ring falling into the fires of Mount Doom
The second version was the Gift Bundle which had everything that a regular bundle does, along with a Collector Booster Pack. The Gift Box also had special art to differentiate it even more, printed with Gandalf riding an Eagle.
The Bundle Promos are what made these particularly exciting. These four cards made up a Scene Art of the final battle within Mount Doom. Even better, one of the included cards was The One Ring. As this was the most sought-after card in the set, Bundles were hot.
Starter Kit
As The Lord of the Rings was sure to draw in fans who'd never played Magic before, Wizards made sure to roll out a welcome mat with the Starter Kit product, featuring two beginner-friendly decks helmed by either Aragorn and Arwen, Wed or Sauron, the Lidless Eye.
In addition to the two unique cards that helmed the decks, each contained a handful of unique cards. These could be:
- Frodo, Determined Hero
- Gandalf, White Rider
- Knight of the Keep
- Gollum, Scheming Guide
- Witch-King, Bringer of Ruin
- Fires of Mount Doom
- Goblin Assailant
- Galadriel, Gift-Giver
- The Balrog, Flame of Udun
- Bilbo's Ring
Because this product was so catered to newer players, it wasn't as popular.
Booster Tin
Tales of Middle-earth also saw Wizards' first-ever Booster Tin release, exclusive to big box stores like Wal-Mart and Meijer.
Each Tin contained three Set Boosters of Tales of Middle-earth along with two promo cards.
These promos were a Retro Frame Llanowar Elves and a Lathril, Blade of the Elves with a special promotional frame. This frame is commonly used for things like Promo Pack cards or Foil Etched cards.
These two extremely popular Elves perfectly with the setting of The Lord of the Rings.
Mechanics
Another exciting thing about the set were the new mechanics that came with it, as well as the return of some older ones that were a great flavor fit.
The Ring Tempts You
The flagship mechanic of the set was "The Ring Tempts You."
When The Ring Tempts You, it creates an Emblem-style card known as "The Ring." If you didn't control a Ringbearer, you'd select a Creature that becomes Legendary the entire time it's the Ringbearer.
The Ring has four modes and each time it Tempts You, you advance to the next:
- Creatures with greater power can't block the Ringbearer
- When this Creature attacks, you draw a card and discard one
- If another Creatures blocks you, it is sacrificed at the end of turn
- Any time you deal combat damage to a player, they lose three life
This mechanic was considered a bit complicated and lacked the flavor of The Ring being harmful. However, it wouldn't really work with a drawback, so this was the final iteration chosen by designers.
Amass Orcs
The next mechanic was Amass Orcs.
This functioned as a bit of a refresh the original Amass mechanic from War of the Spark. In that set, Amass made Zombie tokens and stocked them up with counters.
To better fit the structure of The Lord of the Rings, this was adapted to create an Orc Army instead.
Food Tokens
Food Tokens also played a heavy mechanical role even though they weren't a specific keyword mechanic.
A big part of the culture in The Shire and among Hobbits is their notorious love of food. As such, Wizards leaned into this, with many cards not only making Food Tokens but other cards that cared about them as well. This could create fun, new synergies or simply gain you plenty of life.
Historic
Lastly is the return of Historic, first seen in Dominaria.
Historic is a batching term for Legendary permanents, Artifacts, and Sagas. It's commonly used to help track things or enable cool abilities.
Here, only three cards use the term:
Only a few cards care about the term, plenty of cards care about each individual aspect of Historic.
For example, Flowering of the White Tree benefits the many Legendary Creatures in the set. Similarly, Tom Bombadil is all about Sagas. Food Tokens - which are Artifacts - count as Historic as well.
Booster Fun Card Treatments
Next let's look at the many variants - or "Booster Fun" treatments - for the set.
Showcase Ring Treatment
First up is the Showcase Ring Treatment.
This took several key Legends of The Lord of the Rings and gave them a fancy new look.
These printings had unique circular illustrations and depicted silhouetted versions of characters influenced by The One Ring. Each character was framed by the iconic Tengwar inscription on its sides.
Borderless Scene Art Cards
Next up are the Borderless Scene Art cards.
Each of these cards represents one piece of a picture and combined with other cards in the scene, their borderless illustrations allow you to see a larger piece of art.
The scene above is from Bilbo's Birthday Party in The Shire at the start of the novel. Other scenes include:
- The Fellowship's Escape from Moria
- Saruman and the Battle of Isengard
- The Battle for Minas Tirith
- The Scouring of the Shire
- The Parting at the Grey Havens
- Frodo, Samwise, and Gollum's Battle for The One Ring at Mount Doom
Borderless Legendary Lands
Several Legendary Lands received a cool Borderless Art treatment as well. This included one Rare in every color as well as the Mythic Rare Mount Doom. Each of these settings is critical to the story of The Lord of the Rings and helps to further showcase the world of Middle-earth.
Full Art Middle-earth Map Basic Lands
Two cycles of Basic Lands also got a special Full Art treatment that depicted a piece of a map spanning all of Middle-earth.
The visual similarities caused some issues for players being able to identify which Land was which. However, it remained a lovely touch for die-hard series fans.
Extended Art Frames
The traditional Extended Art frames in LTR were exclusive to Collector Boosters and took the illustrations wider past the border of the frame. Typically, most of these did not receive any other variant treatments, except a few Scene Cards.
The cards that could be found with this treatment included:
- Main set Rares and Mythic Rares
- Commander deck Rares and Mythic Rares
- Jumpstart Rares
- Starter Kit Rares and Mythic Rares
Realms and Relics Box Toppers
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth also included something special: a series of Box Toppers, single promo cards that can be found in booster boxes only.
Titled "Realms and Relics," this group of cards included several new Lord of the Rings-themed treatments of classic Lands and Artifacts.
Every Draft Booster Box, Set Booster Box, and Collector Booster Box contained one of these in foil. Non-foils could be found in roughly 31% of Collector Boosters with Surge Foils appearing in 1% of those packs.
Holiday Release
Tales of Middle-earth included a special release on November 3, 2023, in preparation for the holiday season.
The main draw with this release was a special edition version of Collector Boosters. Each booster of this special release contained several new treatments for both the main set and Commander release cards.
The special Showcase Scroll frame made its debut in these packs. This made each card look like an ancient text you'd see in Middle-earth. Foils would come in a special Silver Scroll treatment unique to this release.
Every Mythic Rare from the main set also got a special Borderless Poster Art treatment, modeled after trippy and abstract Fantasy posters. It was widely panned for its difficulty to read the cards, but they've become very collectible.
Several cards also got a new Surge Foil treatment, like
- Full-Art Basic Lands
- Borderless Rare and Mythic Rare Lands
- Extended Art Frame Rares and Mythic Rares
- Showcase Ring Frame Rares and Mythic Rares
- The Realms and Relics Box Toppers
Additionally, a handful of new cards appeared in this release, illustrated by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt, who have done lots of art for Magic: The Gathering, as well as other fantasy properties, including The Lord of the Rings.
Many Magic cards utilized these equally classic Lord of the Rings pieces to provide gorgeous reprints. There were 20 in total, with each also available in the same foiling treatment as the Showcase Scrolls.
A second Jumpstart release for Tales of Middle-earth came shortly after. This included five new cards to give players a slightly different experience.
Those cards were:
The four Scene Boxes had the most mainstream popularity during their run, especially at larger box stores. Each of box held six mechanically unique Borderless Art cards making up a portion of a scene along with three Set Boosters, six art cards, and a display easel.
The four Scene Boxes featured these scenes:
- The Might of Galadriel
- Aragorn at Helm's Deep
- Gandalf in the Pelennor Fields
- Flight of the Witch-King
The Serialized Cards
The two different versions of Collector Boosters also contained a shot at one of several different Serialized cards.
The original version contained various Sol Rings with text in Elvish language. These included a possible 300 Elf-themed Sol Rings, 700 Dwarf-themed ones, or 900 Human-themed ones. Each also came in a non-Serialized version as well, though these cards are also exceptionally rare.
The real prize of the initial run, however, was the 1-of-1 copy of The One Ring.
The card came in a specialty Borderless version with Elvish language text and a unique foiling. Following a mad scramble to find it, Brook Trafton opened that card at Face to Face Games in Toronto, Canada. He eventually got it graded through PSA and sold it to Post Malone for $2,000,000.
The event was pretty viral, drawing a significant number of eyes to Magic.
The Holiday Release included a few new Serialized options when it released later.
All copies of the special Borderless Poster cards received a Serialized foil treatment in these packs. Similarly, every card among the Realms and Relics Box Toppers received a special Serialized foil version. In both cases, each card was numbered out of 100.
Limited Archetypes
Now let's have a look at the Limited archetypes. Tales of Middle-earth had ten of them, with a wide range in strategies between them.
These are the archetypes for each color pairing:
- White-Blue
: Draw a Second Card - Blue-Black
: Amass Control - Black-Red
: Amass Aggro - Red-Green
: Power Matters Ramp - Green-White : Hobbit Food Aggro
- White-Black : Legends Matter
- Blue-Red : Spellslinging
- Black-Green : Sacrifice/Regrowth
- Red-White : Go-Wide Human Aggro
- Green-Blue : Elf Typal/Scrying
Draw-a-Second-Card
The White-Blue archetype is all about drawing additional cards. Several key cards for this archetype have an ability that triggers when you draw your second card in a turn. This plays great with effects ranging from simple Cantrips to the second mode of "The Ring Tempts You."
Amass Control
The Blue-Black archetype took the Amass Orcs mechanic and put it on a bunch of spell cards. Many of these are used to slow the game down while you build up your board to eventually overwhelm your opponent with a mighty Orc Army.
Amass Aggro
Alternatively, you could simply take a blunter approach and beat your opponents to death while building your Army. That was the gameplan for the Black-Red archetype and was very effective at doing so. Many considered this the best deck in the format for its time.
Power Matters Ramp
For Red-Green, the strategy was to make your Creatures as big as possible to fuel powerful effects. The bigger your Creature, the bigger the payoff. This worked especially well with the various Amass Orcs cards you have access to in Red.
Hobbit Food Aggro
Green-White was all about the Hobbits of The Shire. They're known for being a peaceful folk with a good love for food, so why not make that into a theme of the set? The Hobbits both make Food Tokens and find effective ways to utilize them to fight and save their home.
Legends Matter
The White-Black archetype takes inspiration from Dominaria by caring about Legends and Legendary permanents. Admittedly, the cards that care about this at lower rarities do so pretty loosely. However, if you treat it as a simple White-Black Aggro or Midrange strategy, it works quite effectively
Spellslinging
Spellslinging is a very common Blue-Red Limited archetype in a number of sets. This is true of Tales of Middle-earth as well. This archetype cares all about casting lots of Instants and Sorceries and gaining value for doing so. This style of deck can be rather hit or miss in many formats, but here it was one of the better archetypes you could play.
Sacrifice/Regrowth
Sacrificing things is also a very common way Black decks are played in Limited as well. Here, players can combine that aspect with things like Token generation and Regrowth effects in Green. With the right payoffs, like Old Man Willow, you can grind down your opponents into dust.
Go-Wide Human Aggro
Red-White loves its Aggro decks and here it really leans into it with a Go-Wide gameplan. Make lots of Tokens and small Creatures, then use a variety of effects to pump them up. If you play your cards right, you can decimate your opponents in short order.
Elf Typal/Scrying
The Lord of the Rings took an unusual direction with Elves by adding Blue. Rather than going all-in on the usual Elf-Ball synergies, they made this work by making them care about Scrying. This was seen as the worst Limited archetype in the set and was considered unplayable by many.
Major Cards
Next, let's have a look at a handful of critical cards from this set. Some of these ended up being pretty strong because of their straight-to-Modern design.
The One Ring
The One Ring wasn't simply an epic marketing stunt, it was the most powerful card printed in 2023.
This was because The One Ring grants you Protection from Everything before you slowly draw huge amounts of cards. Once you get too many counters on it, you simply cast a second copy and do it all over again.
This led to the card being banned in Modern and being rebalanced on MTG Arena for Alchemy and Historic. Many players have wanted it banned in Legacy due to its impact, showing just how powerful of an engine it can be.
Orcish Bowmasters
Orcish Bowmasters is another card from LTR that has had a lasting impact on the game.
This powerful Creature acts as a foil to opponents who like to draw lots of cards. The more they draw, the more damage the Bowmasters dish out and the bigger the Orc Army it can create. Even if you can't catch your opponents drawing lots of cards, casting it to kill a small 1/1 and put two small Creatures into play is strong enough.
This has made the card a staple in formats like Modern, Legacy, and Commander. Some players have even suggested it should also be banned, though shifts in formats have proven it can be managed.
The Five Landcyclers
Landcyclers have been a printed at Common since the Onslaught block, with more showing up in other sets like Conflux. Since Tales of Middle-earth was a set designed with Modern in mind, the Landcyclers were pushed harder than normal.
Unlike most Landcyclers, these didn't limit you to cycling for basics. This meant you could tutor for Dual Lands or Lands with a specific type. For example, Cycling a Generous Ent will allow you to search for a copy of Gingerbread Cabin, because its Land type is Forest.
Most importantly, though, they only cost a single Generic Mana to Cycle. They're cheap plays at any point in the game but can become a huge threat later.
Because of this, all five cards have made Competitive appearances. Each one is a staple in Pauper and the rest - sans Eagles of the North - have made substantial appearances in Modern, Legacy, and even Vintage. Troll of Khazad-Dum was so potent in Legacy Reanimator that it was banned in March 2025.
Delighted Halfling
When a new mana dork that only costs one mana appears, people take notice.
Delighted Halfling quickly became a favorite of Commander decks everywhere thanks to the fact that it could make your Commander uncounterable. Not only that, but it also makes any other Legendary permanent uncounterable, which includes Planeswalkers, Artifacts, and Enchantments.
This has made Delighted Halfling a great card in Casual and Competitive settings. Modern uses it for decks like Yawgmoth, Broodscale Combo, and once upon a time Nadu, showing it can perform at a high level.
Samwise Gamgee
Samwise Gamgee looked like a fun little Legend centered around Food Tokens. That is until the Modern players get their hands on him.
It turns out that there are plenty of ways to combo with Samwise. For example, if you use him with Cauldron Familiar and a Creature sacrifice outlet, you can loop the Cat for infinite damage.
This has turned the beloved Hobbit into a minor player in the Modern format as a result. While it's rare to see the deck in the top tables, every so often it'll pop up as a foil to the current metagame.
Modern Role-Players
Both Reprieve and Stern Scolding already had close analogs in Modern when they showed up.
Reprieve is simply a color-shifted version of Remand. Stern Scolding, on the other hand, is similar in function to Spell Snare.
Additionally, the Red spell Fear, Fire, Foes! has made many appearances, primarily as a sideboard card against decks with lots of small Creatures.
Pauper Role-Players
Pauper took advantage of the many high-quality Common cards of the set.
Lembas was picked up by many players due to it being analogous to Ichor Wellspring, a staple already.
Rally at the Hornburg has even come to define a top deck of the format: Mono-Red Rally. When you combine the card with other small Red Creatures, you can deal massive damage easily.
Cast into the Fire has also become a mainstay in just about any deck that can run it. A defining feature of the format has become the Indestructible Artifact Dual Lands: the Bridges. Cast into the Fire allows you to exile these pesky Lands while also letting you pick off small Creatures if you face something like Elves.
Forth Eorlingas!
As is often the case, many cards from the Tales of Middle-earth Commander decks have become fan favorites. One card stands out among the rest, though: Forth Eorlingas!
Unlike most of the cards in the set, this one's impact was far less in Commander compared to Legacy and Cube. In both settings, Forth Eorlingas! became a monster of a card due to its ability to swing games in short order. Even now, it remains an extremely high pick in Vintage Cubes - a testament to its power.
Sauron, Aragorn, and Tom Bombadil
Thanks to the high number of Legendary Creatures in the set, Tales of Middle-earth was a treasure trove for Commander players. Three of them have proven so popular, they rank in the top 100 on EDHREC.
Sauron, the Dark Lord is the most impressive, sitting at number 10 at time of writing. Players love being an evil mastermind and Sauron is a great way to do it. The more actions your foes take, you get a bigger Orc Army. When it deals damage, you get to utilize The Ring Tempts You and take full advantage of its effects.
Aragorn, the Uniter is the next one, coming in at number 15. This is due to his four-color Identity and abilities that care about each of those colors. The more things you play with each of those colors, the more benefits you earn, providing great incentive to play a very fun Commander.
Last is Tom Bombadil, who hangs closer to the middle at 59. As more Sagas enter Magic, Tom continues to be the best Commander for them. Some fans have even taken to making Tom Bombadil decks entirely themed around Universes Beyond, just for the added bit of silliness.
Mirkwood Bats
Mirkwood Bats is an excellent example of how an innocuous little Common can make such a big splash.
It's a card tailor made for Token decks everywhere, causing your opponents to lose tons of life the more you both make and sacrifice. This can be extremely easy to pull off and not only counts your Creature Tokens but also things like Artifact Tokens or Roles.
This led to it not only getting a lot of attention right out of the gate but, thanks to this rather unique ability, Mirkwood Bats swiftly rose among the ranks of Commander favorites from the set. It sits in third place after The One Ring and Delighted Halfling.
Nazgul
One of the more fun collectible aspects of the set was the card Nazgul. Unlike most cards, this one was available in nine different versions. Each one represented a different member of the nine Nazgul, or Ringwraiths.
What made these cards more unique is that each design featured the same cost, features, and stats, but different art. They represented the same slot so the individual versions were rarer than your average "Rare" card.
This, combined with the card's ability to have all nine in a deck, led to just about every version commanding a significant price for the most die-hard collectors.
Commander Precons
There were four Commander decks released alongside The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.
Riders of Rohan
The Riders of Rohan Commander deck is one that cares about Humans. As the race of Man is the primary force standing against the forces of Mordor, this represents their efforts to band together to save Middle-earth.
In addition to the Aggro strategy featured on the main Commander, Eowyn, Shieldmaiden, there is a secondary theme: Many cards in the deck feature the Monarch mechanic, which plays into the themes of royalty among the main cast. The backup Commander - Aragorn, King of Gondor - is a great flavor fit for this reason.
Food and Fellowship
The second deck is Food and Fellowship. This deck features Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant as Partners to helm the deck.
While the two friends are best known for their journeys across Middle-earth, the deck focuses more on their lives within The Shire. The deck is packed with plenty of Hobbits (or Halflings) and Food cards for them to synergize with.
Elven Council
Next is the Elven Council precon. This deck is unusual: a Green-Blue Elves deck. These often come as Mono-Green or Black-Green, so it's a pleasant mix-up.
Most of the deck features the usual Elf Kindred trappings. This includes reprints of excellent cards like Elvish Archdruid, Elvish Warmaster, Arbor Elf, and more. If you're a fan of Elves and maybe not so much a fan of the Scrying Elves in the main set, this might be an excellent deck to try.
The Hosts of Mordor
Finally, is The Hosts of Mordor, a deck focused on building up the armies of Mordor.
Helmed by Sauron, Lord of the Rings, you can generate absurd amounts of value once you can cast him. This includes Amassing lots of Orcs and then letting The Ring Tempt You over and over. It's a great way to play as the bad guy.
Tournament Decks of the Era
Rakdos Evoke
Known more widely as Rakdos Scam, Rakdos Evoke was a deck that took down Pro Tour Lord of the Rings in the hands of Jake Beardsley.
Rakdos Evoke | Modern | Jake Beardsley, 1st Place Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings
- Creatures (21)
- 1 Kroxa, Titan of Death's Hunger
- 4 Dauthi Voidwalker
- 4 Fury
- 4 Grief
- 4 Orcish Bowmasters
- 4 Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer
- Instants (10)
- 2 Fatal Push
- 2 Terminate
- 3 Feign Death
- 3 Undying Malice
- Sorceries (4)
- 4 Thoughtseize
- Enchantments (5)
- 1 Blood Moon
- 4 Fable of the Mirror-Breaker
The power of the deck comes from the ability to Evoke a copy of Grief or Fury. With the sacrifice trigger on the stack, you can use cards like Feign Death and Undying Malice to return them to the battlefield. Thanks to the Evoke costs being free, you could do this as early as turn one.
The deck also made great use of the newly printed Orcish Bowmasters. This helped fight against decks that drew lots of cards or else was simply another cheap and effective threat to help win the game fast.
Mono-Green Tron
The runner-up was Mono-Green Tron piloted by Christian Calcano.
Mono-Green Tron | Modern | Christian Calcano, 2nd Place Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings
- Commander (1)
- 1 Jegantha, the Wellspring
- Creatures (4)
- 2 Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
- 2 Wurmcoil Engine
- Planeswalkers (7)
- 1 Ugin, the Spirit Dragon
- 2 Karn Liberated
- 4 Karn, the Great Creator
- Instants (2)
- 2 Warping Wail
- Sorceries (8)
- 4 Ancient Stirrings
- 4 Sylvan Scrying
- Artifacts (21)
- 3 Oblivion Ring
- 3 Relic of Progenitus
- 3 The One Ring
- 4 Chromatic Sphere
- 4 Chromatic Star
- 4 Expedition Map
- Lands (18)
- 3 Forest
- 1 Gemstone Caverns
- 2 Boseiju, Who Endures
- 4 Urza's Mine
- 4 Urza's Power Plant
- 4 Urza's Tower
This deck uses the classic combination of Urza's Mine, Urza's Power Plant, and Urza's Tower to generate huge amounts of mana. With that mana, you can slam huge threats like Wurmcoil Engine and Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger.
Alternatively, you can use Karn, the Great Creator as a toolbox to find surgical options to help you achieve victory.
This deck was one of many that took advantage of The One Ring. With the heavy amount of mana the deck generates, casting the card early was a no-brainer.
Living End
Finally, let's go a little lower into the Modern standings for the event and look at Living End from Keisuke Naitou.
Living End is a deck that various Creatures with some form of Cycling to fill your graveyard. Once it's full enough, you use something like Violent Outburst or Shardless Agent to cast Living End.
This returns all your Creatures back from the graveyard and overwhelms your opponent.
Even though this deck didn't place, it's one of the only times that LTR's land cycling cards saw significant play in Modern, running copies of both Generous Ent and Oliphaunt.
Weird Facts
Last but not least, let's take a look at a few interesting elements that surrounded the set and its legacy.
Elijah Wood Marketing
As part of the marketing efforts for Tales of Middle-earth, Wizards brought on actor Elijah Wood. Elijah famously played Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
He made appearances in the Set Debut and multiple other smaller videos across social media. In doing so, he helped showcase and reveal a wide variety of cards from the set.
More surprisingly, Wizards also brought him on to DJ at select MagicCon parties over the year that followed the set's release. He was joined by his friend Zach Cowie as they put on performances as their eclectic music duo, Wooden Wisdom.
Conclusion
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth was a tremendous milestone for Magic. Not only was it Universes Beyond's first full set release, but it was the best-selling set of all time until Final Fantasy eclipsed it.
As a result of the set's success, Universes Beyond would gain a much greater presence in the game. Now we see these sets make up roughly half of the releases for Magic every year. The power of this set and its impact on various formats arguably led to Wizards making every one of them Standard-legal going forward.
This shift, along with the popularity of Tales of Middle-earth, has brought us back to another one of Tolkien's works with The Hobbit. It's a testament to the continued popularity of the world, and to its influence on Magic as a whole.
Paige Smith
Check out my streams: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl
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