Magic: the Gathering's newest Universes Beyond set, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, is packed with valuable and exciting cards of all kinds, such as The One Ring, which players expected to be pricey and attractive to collectors everywhere. Plenty of other cards also command impressive price tags, including two unexpected cards: Bilbo's Ring and Nazgul.
Those two cards are decently powerful and flavorful in Tales of Middle-earth, but no one expected them to suddenly spike in price and become two of the set's most valuable cards. A combination of factors led to Bilbo's Ring and Nazgul becoming expensive must-haves, some of them based on rarity and outstanding Tolkien novel flair, and not just gameplay utility.
Nazgul & Bilbo's Ring Aren't Easy To Find
Nazgul is an uncommon creature card in Tales of Middle-earth, and normally, uncommons don't go for more than $2 or so. About two weeks ago, Nazgul was indeed $2, but then it quickly climbed to nearly $20, an astonishing feat for an uncommon. As MTG Rocks noted, the Nazgul uncommon is actually tough to find in collector's booster packs, and most of all, for flavor reasons, this card has nine different versions of its illustration to represent the actual Nazgul characters. So, it's that much tougher to find a given version of Nazgul, and players who wish to collect all nine will have to pay top dollar for them. Nazgul, gameplay-wise, is a normal uncommon, but each version is more like a mythic rare.
Bilbo's Ring also saw a surge in value in recent weeks, but not for collectability reasons. Most of all, MTG players want Bilbo's Ring because of its gameplay utility for the multiplayer Commander format. While Mithril Coat is also an excellent equipment card for Commander, it's purely defensive, while Bilbo's Ring makes attacking much easier for the equipped creature, giving it hexproof and making it outright unblockable. This lets players safely deal ample commander damage in a hurry, and best of all, Bilbo's Ring lets the player draw a card whenever the equipped creature attacks alone. That kind of card advantage is excellent for any deck of any color, thus Bilbo's Ring reaching nearly $15 in recent weeks.
Even if that price declines as copies of Bilbo's Ring flood the secondary market, it's still a good sign that this seemingly humble equipment was ever worth so much. Clearly, this card has immense potential for Commander, and its high price tag, temporary or not, proves it. Also, despite its utility in Commander, Bilbo's Ring doesn't actually appear in the Tales of Middle-earth Commander pre-con decks, only the main set. That makes Bilbo's Ring a bit rarer and more challenging for Commander players to find, hence its price.
Bilbo's Ring & Nazgul Prove Tales Of Middle-Earth's Flavor Win
Gameplay utility may help explain the recent price spike for Bilbo's Ring, but even so, these cards, especially Nazgul, help prove what a popular flavor win Tales of Middle-earth really is. Clearly, Wizards of the Coast put a serious effort into this set and counted on it being a big hit, and so far, it seems to be working. Many cards in this Universes Beyond set are commanding impressive price tags for gameplay utility, Tolkien flavor, or both, and it also helps validate the entire concept of Universes Beyond. This project got a lot of pushback early on, such as with The Walking Dead Secret Lair drops, but now players are embracing Universes Beyond as a flavorful and memorable way to play the game, and players will pay top dollar for that experience.
It takes a truly special MTG card for players to shell out serious cash, especially if that card's gameplay utility is relatively modest, but Tolkien's best characters and storytelling moments justify it in players' eyes, with the nine collectible Nazgul leading the way. While not terrible, this black uncommon creature is nothing special in gameplay, as opposed to Bilbo's Ring, and certainly won't impact any formats. Still, it's such a cool idea to collect the nine unique Nazgul card art variants, it's worth $20 each, and that heaps serious praise on Tales of Middle-earth as a product.
It's similar to that One Ring artifact card which, while powerful, isn't quite game-breaking and isn't even that difficult to find. But because it's The One Ring, a classic fantasy object, fans will spend $100 or more to get it. With the right story and characters involved, passionate MTG fans are all on board, and that will sell LotR booster packs more than anything else.