Today’s episode of Weekly MTG gave us the first look at The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, covering previews, products, boxtoppers, special treatments, the first one-of-one printing of a card available in a pack, and more.
Before we jump into the preview cards, take note of the upcoming important dates for the set.
- MagicCon: Minneapolis: May 5–7
- The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Debut and Previews Begin: May 30
- Card Previews: May 30–June 9
- Commander Previews and Decklists: June 8
- Complete Card Image Galleries: June 9
- In-Store Prerelease Events: June 16–22
- MTG Arena Digital Release: June 20
- Global Tabletop Release: June 23
- Launch Party Events: June 23–25
- Bundle: Gift Edition Release: July 7
- The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth In-Store Celebration Events: July 7–9
- Commander Parties: July 21–23
- MagicCon: Barcelona featuring The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth: July 28–30
- Store Championships: August 5–13
- Holiday Release: November 3
We can expect some previews at MagicCon: Minneapolis before the official launch of preview season on May 30.
Previews
While we got to see a couple cards yesterday from IGN, Weekly MTG showed off iconic characters, locations, and moments from the story in MTG form. Check out Frodo, Samwise, Gollum, Tom Bombadil, The Shire, Mount Doom, and more.
You can see the full borderless scene when you combine the four cards from above. This is one of seven scenes that will be collectible in the set.
We saw half of the full-art lands yesterday, but the set will have 10 that depict parts of the map of Middle-earth.
Commander Decks
Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth will also feature four Commander Decks. Take a look at the packaging and color-alignment of the four decks: Elven Council, Food and Fellowship, Riders of Rohan, and The Hosts of Mordor.
The stream gave a couple glimpses of cards coming in the Commander Decks. Sam, Loyal Attendant is part of the Food and Fellowship deck, and he partners with Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit.
Radagast, Wizard of Wilds will be in the Elven Council deck.
While not part of the Commander Decks, the box toppers are technically part of the Commander set. Each box of Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth will come with one box topper promo. Feast your eyes on the first three box toppers that gives Universes Beyond treatment to already existing cards. These box toppers are called Realms and Relics.
Lorien Brooch, a version of Trailblazer’s Boots will be the Buy-A-Box promo card.
Products
The full product lineup can be seen below and features: Draft Boosters, Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, Prerelease packs, Start Kit, Bundle, Gift Edition Bundle, Jumpstart Boosters, and Commander Decks.
The two cards shown on the front of the Starter Kit are Aragorn and Arwen, Wed and Sauron, the Lidless Eye.
Rings To Rule Them All
Serialized chase versions of cards are returning with this set, showing up on iconic rings. The One Ring will live up to its name with a 1/1 version that can only be found in a single English-language The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Collector Booster. The incredibly rare version of the card is a traditional foil card printed in the Black Speech of Sauron using Tengwar letterforms.
But that isn’t the only serialized card in the set. Check out these Sol Rings representing the rings of power.
These versions of Sol Ring are available in all languages of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Collector Boosters. They feature the language of the High Elves, Quenya, in Tengwar letterforms. The total number of these that will exist can be seen below:
- 300 Serialized double rainbow foil Sol Ring (Elven)
- 700 Serialized double rainbow foil Sol Ring (Dwarven)
- 900 Serialized double rainbow foil Sol Ring (Human)
- 3,000 Non-foil Sol Ring (Elven)
- 7,000 Non-foil Sol Ring (Dwarven)
- 9,000 Non-foil Sol Ring (Human)
For those looking to get their hands on a copy of The One Ring, use this handy chart to track down the packs to crack.
Other notable tidbits we learned about the set include:
- There will be multiple versions of characters, depicting them at different points in the story
- The set will not have any planeswalkers
- No fetchlands are being reprinted in the set
- The full set will be on MTG Arena and be legal in Historic and Alchemy
For more details on The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, check out the official article from Wizards of the Coast.