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Magic: The Gathering's upcoming Universes Beyond expansion set, Tales of Middle-earth, promises to bring Tolkien's epic fantasy saga The Lord of the Rings to life with fun and flavorful MTG cards. It's the biggest Universes Beyond set to date, and it launches with Commander Decks, Boosters, Bundles and more. Unlike other Universes Beyond releases, Tales of Middle-earth will be legal in MTG's highly competitive Modern format, as well as in Commander and MTG's Eternal formats.
Tales of Middle-earth is exciting for MTG fans, Tolkien fans and fantasy fans alike. The set features so many iconic characters, scenes and settings as interesting and powerful MTG cards, like Frodo, Gandalf and the Balrog, some of which have surprisingly effective abilities. Tales of Middle-earth launches on Jun. 23, 2023. Players can also head to game stores for the Tales of Middle-earth pre-release event a week beforehand, starting from Jun. 16, 2023.
All Tales of Middle-earth Cards Revealed on May 30
Preview season for Tales of Middle-earth is here, and Wizards of the Coast revealed a whole host of exciting new cards on May 30. All the most iconic LotR characters are featured as cards, some of which have multiple prints with different stats, abilities and mana costs. Among them are the entire Fellowship, formidable villains like Sauron and Saruman, beloved heroes like Gandalf, Aragorn, Galadriel, and many more.
It's fascinating to see Wizards of the Coast introducing its own portrayals of these classic characters alongside others never featured in any Lord of the Rings media before. All the standard prints revealed so far are shown below, and Tales of Middle-earth's special artwork cards are further down the page.
LotR: Tales of Middle-earth's Nine Unique Nazgûl Cards
Among the new reveals are nine unique versions of Tales of Middle-earth's Nazgûl card. All the Nazgûl have the same ability; Nazgûl are 1/2 Wraith Knights for two colorless and 1 black mana. They have Deathtouch, and whenever a Nazgûl enters the battlefield, the Ring tempts you. Additionally, whenever the Ring tempts you, each Wraith under the player's control gets a +1/+1 counter.
It's an interesting effect that synergizes well with other "Ring tempts you" cards, but the most unique thing about Nazgûl is that players can have up to nine cards named Nazgûl in their deck. This means players can collect and use all nine different variants of the Nazgûl card to create a deck unlike anything seen before in Magic: The Gathering. The Nazgûl's abilities work well with each other, so this might end up being a powerful strategy.
Tales of Middle-earth Special Art & Ring Border Cards
Tales of Middle-earth is packed with stunning artwork featuring Wizards of the Coast's distinctive portrayals of LotR characters. There are dozens of alternate art prints in the mix, including striking "Ring border" cards featuring unique artwork and a circular border clearly inspired by The One Ring.
The expansion also includes borderless art cards that combine into beautiful pieces of artwork. Bilbo's birthday party is portrayed across six vibrant borderless cards, Frodo and Sam's iconic showdown with Gollum at Mount Doom is shown across four, and the legendary Battle of Pelennor Fields is shown across an astonishing 18 full-art borderless cards.
LotR: Tales of Middle-earth Tolkien-style Map Land Cards
Tales of Middle-earth includes 10 land basic cards with artwork based on Tolkein's renowned hand-drawn cartography from the Lord of the Rings books. Each land card features an iconic region from Middle-earth: The Shire and Rohan are plains, Mirkwood is a forest, and The Dead Marshes and Gorgoroth are of course swamps.
The cards feature an incredible amount of detail and are packed with iconic locations, like Moria, Mount Doom, Helms Deep and Isengard. Fans should check out the images below to see which locations they recognize. These land cards will be a fantastic addition to any LotR fan's MTG deck, and they'll be a great thing to look at between turns -- as long as players don't get too distracted.
How Tales of Middle-earth's One Ring Tempts You
Numerous cards in Tales of Middle-earth have abilities that involve MTG's "Ring tempts you" effect. Whenever one of these cards enters the battlefield, players put The Ring emblem into play and assign a creature to be their Ring-bearer. The emblem's front face describes the four stages of the One Ring's influence -- every time the Ring tempts you, the next effect activates until all four are in play. Additionally, whenever the Ring tempts you, players can choose to assign a different creature as their Ring-bearer, if they wish.
The Ring emblem's abilities are powerful and offer generous value that make "Ring tempts you" cards viable contenders in multiple powerful decks. It's an interesting effect that's certain to shake up Modern and Commander, but many players are critical of The Ring emblem's flavor, as it has no downsides at all. It would make more sense for such a terrifying fantasy artifact to have negative effects as well as positive, showing the true impact of the Dark Lord Sauron's corrupting influence. Fans are already calling the Ring tempts you mechanic a flavor fail, but hopefully it will redeem itself by being fun to play.
LotR: Tales of Middle-earth Boosters, Bundles & Deals
Four types of MTG Booster will be available for Tales of Middle-earth: Set, Jumpstart, Draft and Collector Boosters. Set Boosters are the standard offering, containing 12 cards from Tales of Middle-earth with at least one being rare or higher. Jumpstart Boosters offer a unique, fun and fast game mode where players shuffle two packs together and play, and Draft Boosters are intended for playing MTG's Limited drafting formats, where players build decks using Boosters at the start of the game.
Collector Boosters are the premium option, with 5 to 7 cards guaranteed to be Rare or higher, 8 to 10 cards guaranteed to be Traditional Foil, and a less than one-in-three million chance of containing the serialized One Ring card. Collector Boosters are a great source of cards with unique visual styles, but in general, most MTG players are better off getting Set, Jumpstart or Draft boosters.
Tales of Middle-earth Commanders & Commander Decks
Tales of Middle-earth includes four Commander decks that include both entirely new cards and reprints of old cards using new LotR-themed artwork. On top of this, Wizards of the Coast confirmed that each Commander deck includes 20 never-before-seen cards exclusively for the Commander format.
Among the Commander decks are the white, red and blue Riders of Rohan, featuring Eowyn, Shieldmaiden; the green, black and white Food and Fellowship, featuring Frodo and Samwise; the blue and green Elven Council, featuring Galadriel; and the red, black and blue Hosts of Mordor, featuring Sauron.
How to Pre-order LotR: Tales of Middle-earth
Fans can pre-order Tales of Middle-earth on Amazon or at a local tabletop games store, and expect to pay around $20 for the Starter Kit, $60 for a Commander deck and $60 for a Bundle. Boosters range in price, with a box of 30 Set Boosters, containing 350 Tales of Middle-earth cards in total, retailing for around $200.
For die-hard collectors, a box of 12 Collector Boosters will cost around $460, or they retail alone for about $40 each. Every Collector Booster has a chance to contain the Serialized One Ring card. MTG Arena players will be able to pre-order the set ahead of its launch on Jun. 20, 2023. Tales of Middle-earth's MTG Arena release will include cosmetic items like avatars and pets, a new battlefield, and a dedicated battle pass offering a free track and a premium track, with the premium track costing around $20 of in-game currency.
Magic The Gathering The Lord of The Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth Starter Kit - Learn to Play with 2 Ready-to-Play Decks + 2 Codes to Play Online (2-Player Card Game)
Two starter MTG decks featuring cards from the LotR Tales of Middle-earth crossover set.