Magic: The Gathering's latest Universes Beyond product is The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, and the appeal goes beyond the flavorful Tolkien flair. This product also features plenty of valuable cards for collectors and competitive players, starting with the famous The One Ring artifact card. Tales of Middle-earth's four Commander decks are adding even more value.
Tales of Middle-earth features four distinct Commander decks, which, like most pre-con Commander decks, are a mix of powerful reprints and cool new cards. Some Commander decks boast far more value than their price tags would suggest, and as MTG Rocks noted, the Tales of Middle-earth decks are all delivering on that front. Each should be an excellent investment for players who need the most bang for their buck.
Tales Of Middle-Earth's Most Valuable Reprints
The Tales of Middle-earth Commander decks feature some powerful but low-price reprints such as Go For the Throat and Trading Post, while these decks also include remarkable reprints, each worth $5 or more on average, or even $15 or more. The most notable high-value reprint is Toxic Deluge, a notorious board wipe spell that, at the cost of some life, can easily demolish the entire board and even take out indestructible creatures with its -X/-X effect. It sees a lot of play in the Commander format but got only a few reprints before Tales of Middle-earth, hence its impressive $17 price tag. Heroic Intervention, an effective defensive spell in green, is also around $17 and is a major Commander staple.
Red decks can get their hands on hard-hitting reprints like Scourge of the Throne and Combat Celebrant, which enable aggro strategies by giving the player extra combat steps. Scourge of the Throne is a $12 flying beater that brings back the Dethrone effect from the draft-only Conspiracy set, getting stronger when it attacks whoever has the most life points. Combat Celebrant may be weak in combat, but it can be exerted to gain another combat step, which is great for combo decks, hence its $13 price. Treasure Nabber is another valuable red reprint, a Goblin worth around $10 right now.
Tales of Middle-earth's four Commander decks also feature moderately valuable reprints to round things out, including the ever-popular green creature Birds of Paradise, worth around $6. This little Bird has been reprinted many times since the original Alpha set, and it sees such widespread use for its mana ability that it's still worth that much money. Meanwhile, these Commander decks also brought back the powerful equipment card Lightning Greaves, famous for its ability to protect a commander creature and grant it haste, justifying its $8 price tag.
Where To Use Tales Of Middle-Earth's Commander Reprints
The valuable reprints in Tales of Middle-earth's Commander decks cost that much because of their scarcity and how often they are used in many diverse decks in the Commander format. One example is Heroic Intervention, a defensive green instant that grants hexproof and indestructible to all friendly creatures. This card sees play in nearly every green deck, even decks where green is just a splash color, from Galea, Kindler of Hope decks to Vorinclex, Monstrous Raider decks and Wulfgar of Icewind Dale decks. Similarly, Toxic Deluge is widely used in Commander as an effective boardwipe since this format is reliant on boardwipes to keep complex board states under control. Any deck running black can make good use of it.
More specialized reprints in Tales of Middle-earth's Commander decks also see a lot of play, but only in the right builds. Combat Celebrant, for example, is a combo piece that can grant the player several extra combat steps or even infinite combat steps with the right cards on hand. Kiki-Jiki, Mirror Breaker is one such card, sending the token copy into battle and exerting it to get that extra combat step and untap all creatures. That leaves Kiki-Jiki free to tap once again and create another token copy of Combat Celebrant. This combo can win the game if the player has good attackers in play that the other players cannot block.
Scourge of the Throne, meanwhile, is best used in dedicated Dragon tribal decks where it can benefit from cost-reduction effects or tribal synergy, and the extra combat steps and +1/+1 counters from the Dethrone ability are merely bonuses that push strong Dragon decks over the top. Popular Dragon commanders such as Tiamat, The Ur-Dragon, Karrthus, Tyran of Jund, and other Dragons can make excellent use of it. Or, the player might opt for non-Dragon beatdown builds such as Xenagos, God of Revels, and Wulfgar of Icewind Dale.