First Look at Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-Earth Spoilers

We recently got our very first look at some of the brand new cards coming in the upcoming Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth set! This set will feature a ton of iconic characters, locations, moments, and more from the epic fantasy world created by J.R.R. Tolkien himself. Interestingly, this set won't be Standard legal, but it will be legal in Modern and beyond. While this set seems perfect for casual Commander play, is there a chance we could see someone like Peregrin Took take over the Modern metagame?

A large scale Lord of the Rings and Magic the Gathering crossover has always been something of a fantasy for myself personally, so let's start checking out some of the new cards!

Starting off strong with the new spoilers we've got the One Ring itself, along with Gandalf the Grey and his alternate showcase art! This looks like it will be the showcase border we'll be seeing alongside new cards in this set, and the elvish language around the art looks fantastic! 

Coming up next we've got a bunch of well renowned Legendary Creatures! From just these few Legends alone we can clearly tell these cards are dripping with flavor. We still don't know what "the ring tempts you" mechanic will do yet, but if it's anything like the source material, it may have a pretty hefty impact on the game when it comes up. 

One nice feature it looks like we'll be seeing is characters receiving multiple cards each! As we can see here, Sam has different cards depicting different parts of his journey across Middle-Earth with Frodo. Looking at Sam, Loyal Attendant's Partner with keyword we can get a hint at a new version of Frodo too! We know we'll be getting a Gandalf the White, but what other versions of these characters could we potentially see? I personally hope we could see Uncommon, Rare, and Mythic Rare versions of some of the more influential characters like Sarumon or Elrond! 

Of course, it wouldn't be Middle-Earth without the iconic Mount Doom or The Shire. Both of these Lands feel directly inspired by the events of the story, and they seem pretty fun to play with too! Will these lands be a cycle of five two-colored and five mono-colored lands? There are still a ton of locations we could depicted in other Lands, so there's a chance we could see many more! 

Speaking of Lands, we've also got a beautiful cycle of full art Basics on the way! These cards are designed after the map of Middle-Earth we see throughout the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. 

We've got a few more Uncommons that were spoiled along with everything else we've seen. While most of these spoilers have been more on the spectacle side, printing a Modern legal White version of Remand could actually have some pretty interesting impacts on the format. It could, of course, do nothing, but it definitely has some potential to find a home in some White tempo decks! 

Now we're on to some of the hot stuff. Similarly to the Godzilla cards of Ikoria, it looks like we'll be getting some very cool alternate arts, but this time in the form of reprints! The Great Henge, Wasteland, and Ensnaring Bridge are all pretty well known cards, so seeing them get alternate Lord of the Rings themed reprints here is great! I definitely can't wait to see what other alternate art reprints we'll get later on. 

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die

These Collector Booster exclusive Sol Rings look absolutely incredible. What's more, they're also extremely rare, seeing only 300 foil serialized printings for the rings of the Elven-Kings, 700 foil serialized printings for the rings of the Dwarf-lords, and 900 foil serialized printings for the Mortal Men. We will be getting a few more of the non-foil, non-serialized versions of these cards, but only 3000, 7000, and 9000, respectfully. These cards will be ridiculously rare, and honestly just seeing one in person would be a treat for any of us Mortal Men. 

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

001/001. Found only in one lucky Collector Booster pack, this is the true One Ring. There will only be one singular copy of this specific card printed. Since these spoilers were revealed this has definitely been the thing on everyone's mind. Who will be the lucky person to become the one true Lord of the Rings? Will it be a seasoned veteran, or a newcomer to the game? Or maybe it'll be unceremoniously destroyed in a mortifying game of Flip it or Rip it. We can only wait and see until the set officially releases on June 23rd later this year! Make sure to check back with Flipside Gaming for preorders for the set when they become available!