The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is the newest card set for Magic: the Gathering, all based on J.R.R. Tolkien's famed The Lord of the Rings novel trilogy. This is a Universes Beyond product unlike any other, packed with lore-accurate cards that are also powerful and fun to use in the game.
Tales of Middle-earth features astonishing cards in all colors that will dominate the game in a variety of decks and formats in MTG. Some of these cards will shine in booster draft Limited or casual decks, while others are already must-have powerhouses for the Commander format, a format that can make use of practically any card, Universes Beyond or not.
10 Delighted Halfling
Delighted Halfing is one of Tales of Middle-earth's simplest but also most effective cards in the main set. Delighted Halfling is a cheap mana dork, or a creature that can tap for mana, and it neatly fits the set's "legends matter" theme with its abilities.
Delighted Halfing can tap for one mana of any color to cast a legendary creature spell, and that spell cannot be countered. That's a great way to cast any legendary creature, and for other spells, Delighted Halfing can simply tap for one colorless mana so it's not restricted to casting legendary creatures.
9 Spiteful Banditry
Spiteful Banditry is a mythic rare red enchantment card that doubles as a boardwipe when it enters the battlefield. Spiteful Banditry will deal X damage to all creatures, which can easily wipe the board if the caster has enough mana ramp to pay a lot for this red enchantment.
The player will likely get a Treasure token out of the deal, representing bandits seizing loot after a raid. On all subsequent turns, having opposing creatures die means making more Treasure tokens, which should happen often if the player is running red, the color of burn spells.
8 Mirkwood Bats
Mirkwood Bats is a common black creature card in Tales of Middle-earth that's much stronger than it looks. It's not that good in combat as a 2/3 flier for 3B, but it triggered ability can be devastating in the right deck. Aristocrat decks that make and sacrifice numerous creature tokens, for example, are perfect for Mirkwood Bats.
Mirkwood Bats even works well for decks that aren't necessarily sacrificing all their creatures. Just making tokens such as creatures or Treasure or Food tokens will trigger that ability, so each opponent will lose a lot of life over the course of several turns.
7 Flame Of Anor
Flame of Anor is one of the set's best instant cards, and it works well with the Wizard tribe, which is perfect for blue mana. Flame of Anor is like a "charm" card, letting the player choose from one of three effects to use, and all three modes are impressive.
Best of all, if the caster has a Wizard creature, they can choose two modes, getting even more value from Flame of Anor. That should be easy with casual Tales of Middle-earth decks, which may run Gandalf the Grey and other Wizard creatures.
6 Gandalf The White
Gandalf the White is one of Tales of Middle-earth's best and coolest legendary creatures of all. It's a sizeable 4/5 Avatar Wizard with flash, and Gandalf the White allows the player to cast legendary spells and artifacts with flash as well, which can take the opponent by total surprise.
Gandalf the White provides even more value for legends and artifacts with it second ability. Gandalf the White will double such cards' triggered abilities based on entering or leaving the battlefield, which can generate tremendous advantage in the right decks.
5 Mithril Coat
Mithril Coat is a nifty equipment artifact card, representing the magical armor that some characters wore in Tolkien's novels. In many ways, Mithril Coat is the new Lightning Greaves or Swiftfoot Boots, being cheap equipment that serves mainly to protect a creature.
Mithril Coat has flash to take the opponents by surprise, and it's indestructible, too. The equipped creature will also gain indestructible to survive combat damage and many forms of removal, and as a bonus, Mithril Coat can snap-equip when it enters the battlefield to save mana.
4 Mount Doom
Mount Doom is one of Tales of Middle-earth's most flavorful cards, and one of the strongest, too. It can fix mana with black and red, and it can deal 1 damage to each opponent over time. Most of all, Mount Doom may erupt and wipe out the whole board.
Mount Doom's final ability is a board wipe that will only spare two creatures, leaving the player with two attackers on an otherwise empty board. Best of all, it's much tougher to counter Mount Doom's ability than it is to counter board wipe spells like Damnation or Blasphemous Act.
3 The Balrog, Durin's Bane
The Balrog, Durin's Bane represents a deadly fantasy monster that will dominate any game of booster draft Limited, though it might see the most play in Commander. The Blarog is a huge legendary creature that's surprisingly cheap to cast if enough Treasure tokens are used.
The Balrog can be cheaply cast again and again as a Commander, and it also generates value when it dies. This huge threat also hits hard and is difficult to block, since only legendary creatures can be assigned to block it in combat.
2 The One Ring
The One Ring is a legendary and awe-inspiring magical item that can change the game in MTG. Casting it is like Teferi's Protection, shielding the player from everything until their next turn to represent a Ring wearer turning invisible while wearing it.
The One Ring can tap to put a burden counter on itself, then draw cards equal to how many burden counters it has. Even if this costs life on the player's upkeeps, that's still an incredible ability that draws an astonishing number of cards. Best of all, a deck of any color can use The One Ring to get ahead.
1 Witch-King Of Angmar
Witch-King of Angmar is an incredibly pushed and impressive creature card in Tales of Middle-earth. It's a 5/3 flier for 3BB, which lets it push lots of damage, and the player can discard a card to give Witch-King of Angmar indestructible to protect it from removal and combat damage.
On the defensive, Witch-King of Angmar makes the opponents may dearly for attacking. If the Witch-King's controller takes combat damage, then the opponent must sacrifice one of their creatures that dealt damage to the defending player. Then, as a bonus, the Ring tempts the Witch-King's controller.