The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is Magic: The Gathering's most exciting Universes Beyond product yet, and it includes dozens of iconic legendary creatures for a wide variety of decks -- mostly for casual builds. Alongside all-stars like Sauron, the Dark Lord and the wizard Gandalf, Tales of Middle-earth also introduces a legendary new Treefolk creature that could totally transform how this mediocre tribe functions.
Treefolk are viable thanks to MTG's Lorwyn block, with Doran the Siege Tower bringing the tribe together in Abzan colors. However, Treefolk lacked any special tricks or powerful finishers, making the tribe fairly lackluster on the whole. Now, Tales of Middle-earth introduces Fangorn, Tree Shepherd, who promises to be the new Omnath, Locus of Mana for this second-rate tribe.
Fangorn, Tree Shepherd Ramps Mana Like Omnath
Fangorn, Tree Shepherd is an impressive creature in its own right, even within the confines of the Tales of Middle-earth set, let alone in formats like Commander where it gets far more tribal support. Fangorn, Tree Shepherd is a huge 4/10 Treefolk that grants vigilance to all friendly Treefolk, emphasizing how these creatures are the stalwart, tireless defenders of Middle-earth's forests. Best of all, Fangorn rewards the player for attacking, generating two green mana for each attacking Treefolk.
With Fangorn in play, unspent green mana doesn't disappear as phases and turns end, bypassing the main limitation of adding mana to the mana pool. This creates an entirely new kind of mana ramp, allowing a player to save up far more mana than they would normally have access to in a single turn. This is akin to the famous Omnath, Locus of Mana creature from 2010's Worldwake set, a legendary Elemental with a similar effect. Omnath enabled massive plays with huge amounts of mana, even by green's standards -- and now Fangorn offers this power to tribal Treefolk decks, which urgently needed a new weapon like this.
All Treefolk Tribal Decks Need Fangorn, Tree Shepherd
Existing Treefolk tribal decks, like the moderately popular Doran, the Siege Tower decks on EDHrec.com, are mostly focused on boosting their creatures' toughness and assigning combat damage using their toughness. However, some board states make it difficult for Treefolk to finish off the opponent via combat damage, so the deck needs a solid plan B, especially for situations where a nasty board wipe spell destroys all the player's Treefolk. Fortunately, Fangorn, Tree Shepherd's mana ramp effect provides all-new, much-needed options for this straightforward deck.
A few Treefolk attacks with Fangorn on the board will add a lot of green mana to the player's mana pool, which remains until it's ready to be used. The player can even tap other green mana sources to add more, just in case, then cast a massive X spell to finish off the opponent. In the face of a board wipe, the player must protect Fangorn to keep its effect, then spend all that mana on a spell like Debt to the Deathless or Torment of Hailfire to finish off opponents. If the player's Treefolk are safe, they can boost their board state even further with a titanic Finale of Devastation to push more damage than any deck can handle. Abzan colors have plenty of nasty X spells that scale well, and now they owe everything to Fangorn.