The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth Limited Set Review: Artifacts, Lands, and Multicolor Part 1

Hey everyone! The shadows out of Mordor have been growing longer and it is time for us to rise up to destroy the evil forces of Sauron. Well, I guess we could also be playing for the other team as well, but either way we’re heading into Middle Earth for a fabulous adventure.

As a long time lover of Lord of the Rings, I am extremely excited to spend a couple months drafting this set. I am slightly less excited about how much my wife is going to spend on boxes of them, but it makes her happy so it’s all good.

Now let’s start checking out how these cards are going to play out in limited.

Here’s the usual grading scale:

• 5.0: Disgustingly powerful and basically unbeatable. Either answer it the turn it comes down or just pack up your cards. (Tovolar's Huntmaster, The Meathook Massacre, Starnheim Unleashed)
• 4.5: Incredible bomb that still gives your opponent a slim chance. (Adeline, Resplendent Cathar, Alrund's Epiphany, Grand Master of Flowers)
• 4.0: Great rare or the absolute best uncommons and removal. (Froghemoth, Morbid Opportunist, Skullport Merchant)
• 3.5: Great role filler or removal that you never cut. (Magic Missile, Cathartic Pyre, Battle Cry Goblin)
• 3.0: Good playable that I’m basically never cutting. (Usher of the Fallen, Search Party Captain, Dragon Turtle)
• 2.5: Decent playable and the bar I hope nearly every card in my deck to reach. (Mourning Patrol, Steadfast Paladin, Goblin Morningstar)
• 2.0: Mediocre filler that normally is your 20-23rd card(s). (Contact Other Plane, Mindleech Ghoul, Timberland Guide)
• 1.5: Replaceable, overall bad filler. Could also be decent sideboard cards. (Secrets of the Key, Spiked Pit Trap, Village Rites)
• 1.0: Bad filler. Gets cut most of the time. (Secret Door, Mystic Skull, Funeral Longboat)
• 0.5: Very unhappy to main deck this, but maybe it has fringe sideboard applications. (You See a Guard Approach, Bramble Armor, Compelled Duel)
• 0.0: Unplayable in every possible situation. (Mimic, Change of Fortune, Curse of Shaken Faith)

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Artifacts

Anduril, Flame of the West

Rating: 4.5/5

I don’t think it is a coincidence that they made this cost the same amount to play and equip as the Swords of something & something else cycle. It is similar in that it is an amazing equipment that will quickly snowball everything in your favor.

The tokens having flying is so sick and as I’ve said so many times already in this review, it’s pretty easy to come up with a legendary creature to make them come in attacking. For some twisted reason, I want to equip this to Sauron just to see my opponent concede in total disgust.

While there might be some cards with a little more power, this is the card you want to open because it’s colorless and goes in every deck.

Barrow-Blade

Rating: 1.5/5

Short Sword can be decent in some settings and removing abilities can be a relevant ability. It just falls into that category of doesn’t quite do enough in a lot of situations.

Ent-Draught Basin

Rating: 1.0/5

Do you want to spend four mana at sorcery speed for a +1+1 counter? Neither do I. Even in the situation where your deck is stacked with small creatures, this is too slow to matter.

Glamdring

Rating: 2.5/5

A Runechanter's Pike that costs more to equip and needs things to line up right to get anything out of the extra ability. Another problem is that you want a lot of spells to make this good, but that it ends up taking up another noncreature spot.

That said, even if you only have a couple spells in the yard it is going to be +2+0 and first strike. That makes most combat very, very difficult for your opponent.

Horn of Gondor

Rating: 2.5/5

As long as you have plenty of humans, then this can get nuts pretty quickly. If your first activation is making a few tokens, then it is going to snowball the game with a swiftness in your favor.

If you don’t have any other humans, you just shouldn’t play this. It’s definitely a build around because the rate is awful otherwise.

Horn of the Mark

Rating: 2.0/5

You need to have two creatures attacking for this to do anything, but if you’re hyper aggressive you’d rather have removal, a combat trick, or another creature to win now. If you’re more controlling than you aren’t really attacking with two creatures until you have already turned the corner so it’s just a win more.

It is fairly cheap and you can just wait until the turn you can trigger it to drop it and still usually play the creature you find. There are situations this is amazing in, but also ones that it does nothing.

Inherited Envelope

Rating: 1.5/5

I’m grading this based off of it being in a deck that is 3-4 colors or at least splashing something that also wants the temptation. Not playable in a two-color deck.

Lembas

Rating: 2.0/5

That Elven bread is rumored to be delicious even though these look suspiciously like Girl Scout cookies. Getting the scry and drawing the card up front is nice. It does lots of little things to support a lot of different strategies including draw two, scry, sacrifice, etc.

Mirror of Galadriel

Rating: 1.5/5

If you can activate for two, then this is worth it. That’s a pretty large ask and very unlikely to consistently happen. You really don’t want to be spending four or five to draw a card every turn unless it’s really late in the game.

Mithril Coat

Rating: 2.0/5

I’ve hated this type of card since the days of Darksteel Plate because it’s expensive for something that mostly serves to be more annoying than good.

It doesn’t even protect against the best common burn spell because Smite the Deathless removes indestructible. You also can’t use the instant speed equip on a non-legendary creature.

The One Ring

Rating: 1.0/5

This is actually a pretty disappointing card in limited. The fog everything for a turn doesn’t really do much unless you are so far behind that it’s just delaying the inevitable.

When looking at the tap ability, remember that the card draw only happens when you tap it, but the life loss will keep hitting you every single turn without providing anything else. That means you are four mana into drawing one card that will cause you to lose a life every turn. How about four mana to draw three and lose two life EVERY turn.

Not a card you should be playing in limited.

Palantir of Orthanc

Rating: 3.0/5

This is a card that looks bad on the surface, but I think it will end up pretty good. I know that the first response is “but they will just always pick for you not to draw the card”. Well, you just scryed so if they want to take three to five damage every turn, they are more than welcome to do so. I know it’s not great to give your opponent agency over what happens, but they are making their decision in the dark and this can add up fast.

It’s a one time investment of three mana that does something every turn. You might even have some cards that give you a benefit every time you scry like Arwen Undomiel.

Phial of Galadriel

Rating: 3.0/5

This is an excellent midrange card. It’ll be rough in aggro because you don’t want to be playing an early mana rock. Control will be a little leerier of going Hellbent (empty handed for non-boomers). I’m not saying you wouldn’t play it in some of those decks, just that it is optimal in a midrange strategy.

A personal Howling Mine that doesn’t require any additional investment is always a welcome addition to a deck and the mana ramp even helps you dump your hand quicker. The annoying thing is when you draw two lands and don’t get to draw an extra card the next turn.

The life gain isn’t just flavor text either with all the food tokens running around.

Shire Scarecrow

Rating: 1.0/5

There is better mana fixing available, but it does technically do something if you are really desperate. Outside of that, the only thing this really does is block cheap ring bearers.  

Sting, the Glinting Dagger

Rating: 2.0/5

An expensive Short Sword that gives haste and pseudo-vigilance isn’t a card I would be interested in. I guess it does first strike orcs or goblins, but that doesn’t change the valuation too much.

The thing that I want to do with this is put it on something with an activated ability that requires tapping.  That lets you get up to three activations per turn cycle (Precombat on your turn, untaps in combat to use again, and untaps on their combat). That would be insanely annoying on something like Pippin, Guard of the Citadel.

Stone of Erech

Rating: 1.0/5

Sideboard card that shouldn’t actually ever be brought in unless your opponent is somehow playing a graveyard-based deck.

Wizard’s Rockets

Rating: 1.5/5

I’d probably run this if I’m playing a crazy number of colors. I’d be much more into it if I didn’t have to wait a turn when I just want to cycle it.

While you do draw the card if this dies, there aren’t many ways to sacrifice artifacts outside of Improvised Club.

Lands

Barad-Dur

Rating: 3.5/5

This cycle is great because it’s such a low cost to play them considering that you can either play it tapped turn one or that it will come into play untapped most of the time. That cost is even lower when you consider that there isn’t a cycle of tapped dual lands that could give you too many tap lands. It’s basically getting to play a twenty fourth spell in you deck without having to cut a land.

I do need to add that these are legendary so you don’t want to take a second copy. The opportunity cost sky rockets when you Strip Mine yourself.

While you do need a creature to die to use this, that tends to happen in black decks with all of the sacrifice running around. Making the creature you is kind of pricy, but being a repeatable effect on what is very close to a swamp is huge.

Great Hall of the Citadel

Rating: 2.5/5

Obviously, this is very deck dependent as you will want four in some decks and none in others. There are tons of random two color busted legendary card that you can cast off of this. You can even play these and Aragorn, the Uniter in a two-color deck. I’m very interested in ending up with a few of these and going full shenanigans.

The Grey Havens

Rating: 1.5/5

This was looking a lot better until I saw the word graveyard on that last line. Your ring bearers also aren’t legendary once they hit the graveyard so it is going to be harder to get anything out of that part of the card.

The scry certainly matters, but I am looking at this as a legendary Zhalfirin Void. In other words, I’ll run one in a two color deck as long as my mana is good.

Minas Tirith

Rating: 3.0/5

I don’t need to repeat everything I’ve already said about this cycle. It is very, very good.

Needing two attacking creatures means that this isn’t a guarantee to be useable, but its very close to a Plains that might draw you some cards.

Mines of Moria

Rating: 2.0/5

Not on the same level as the rest of the cycle, but if you have ways to use the treasures it can do something. Still fine as being a “card 24” in your deck as long as you pick it up late. I would pick this a little higher if you have some Mirkwood Bats in your deck.

Mount Doom

Rating: 1.5/5

I haven’t been a fan of pain lands in limited and always having to pay a life makes this a lot worse. Bad enough that I wouldn’t run this in most Rakdos decks. If you have multiple legendary artifacts, it suddenly becomes much more appealing because of the potential for the almost game ending last ability.

Rivendell

Rating: 3.5/5

Needing to have a legendary creature is a very low ask in this set. This ability was good on Castle Vantress and that cost four to use so I will happily be taking a trip to Rivendell when the opportunity arises.  

The Shire

Rating: 3.5/5

The easiest one of these to get going since all you need is a creature to be able to make an extra game piece every turn. It comes as no surprise that the Shire ends up pumping out food.

Shire Terrace

Rating: 2.0/5

An interesting new take on Evolving Wilds with the upside of being able to tap for colorless when you really need it. The downside of needing to pay one and sacrifice it outweighs the potential upside though.

Multicolor Part 1

Aragorn, Company Leader

Rating: 3.5/5

You really need to be playing temptation cards to get this to blow up, but there are plenty of them to go around. As you can imagine giving this (and something else) the combo of first strike and deathtouch is a major problem. You’ll probably be tossing lifelink on soon afterwards as your opponent questions where everything went wrong.

The reason it’s not higher is that it needs ring temptations and another creature out to do anything. In other situations, it is a hard to cast Centaur Courser.

Aragorn, the Uniter

Rating: 3.0/5

There is enough fixing running around that playing this isn’t too far out of the range of possibility especially with Great Hall of the Citadel. You do get multiple triggers off of this if you play a multicolor card so it can end up doing some crazy things.

It can be very good in the right deck, but it’s not worth having a bad mana base for.

Arwen, Mortal Queen

Rating: 4.0/5

Careful about dropping this early against red as they can play Smite the Deathless to leave you with nothing (Gollum's Bite is something else to look out for if you are tapping out for Arwen).

Outside of that, this is one of those obviously great cards. All you have to do is hold up one mana and this can protect any creature while making both that and herself bigger creatures with lifelink.

Arwen Undomiel

Rating: 3.5/5

There are a ton of ways to scry in these colors giving this huge potential to just go off. Your opponents have to watch out because Grey Havens Navigator or Hithlain Knots are suddenly combat tricks.

While the activated ability is really expensive, it’s just a nice bonus that is there if you need it.  

The Balrog, Durin’s Bane

Rating: 3.0/5

Plays best with treasures since they count for two mana, but there is no easy way at common to make a bunch of them. It’s insane if you play Lobelia Sackville-Baggins on turn three to get a couple treasures then sac them to play the Balrog the next turn. Who would have thought that two of the greatest evils (Sauron is up there, but has he ever stolen a family members spoons? That’s low Lobelia.) on Middle Earth would terrorize a game of limited.

While you don’t really want to play this for full retail cost, it’s not the end of the world if you have to. It’s still a massive haste creature that’s hard to block and kills a creature if they deal with it.

Bilbo, Retired Burglar

Rating: 3.0/5

Not as good as Frodo Baggins because it costs three instead of two, but the same concept of a difficult to block ring bearer who gets the party started himself. The treasures are also a nice way to pull ahead quickly.

Butterbur, Bree Innkeeper

Rating: 2.0/5

The Selesnya food decks have an aggressive lean so it’s not great to play a Hill Giant even if it does give you a potential food every turn. You need to have some of the food sacrifice abilities such as Mushroom Watchdogs to really get this to payoff.

Early on, getting another food isn’t worth hampering your board development by spending the two mana to sacrifice the one you have. Just play your cards and worry about the food later.

Denethor, Ruling Steward

Rating: 3.5/5

The body helps to clog up the ground a bit while you durdle around to make more tokens. Since it doesn’t require a nontoken to trigger, you can just sacrifice the new human token every turn for the drain to slowly win a board stall. It also puts a serious clock on them from you being able to sacrifice out four or five creatures to kill them.

Doors of Durin

Rating: 3.5/5

This can be awful when you are on defense, but even then, it’s not completely a dead card as long as you can attack with even one creature. You can play this and attack right away, paying you back a portion of the mana you spent.

Sometimes you can miss, but even if there isn’t a creature in the top two, you can put them on the bottom to roll the die on that third card. There is the concern of the creature getting eaten by something bigger, but it’s not like you are actually down a card there. You’re also playing Gruul which has a healthy surplus of large critters.

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Wrap Up

It’s always difficult writing a wrap up for the artifacts, lands, and multicolored cards. They are mostly filling in spaces or even defining archetypes, but without a consistent theme to discuss. Most of the multicolored cards seem really good and there is enough fixing that they could end up in a lot of decks.

Thanks for reading! I’ll be back tomorrow with Prerelease and Sealed Guide for Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth. Until then, stay classy people!

Fine…I guess I will add that I’ll see you LTR! I’m pretty ashamed of that one, but I have a brand to uphold here.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

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