Chris Inglis
I have been collecting Magic: The Gathering kits the past year thanks to the amazing folks at Wizards of the Coast. Each set amazes me at the level of detail in art and design and while I don’t fully understand the game mechanics yet for tabletop sessions (learning every week), I can relate to using them in Magic: The Gathering Arena. Recent collections of cards have seen crossover sets with Baldur’s Gate, Transformers and Warhammer, and now the latest Universes Beyond set comes from one of my favourite fantasy franchises, The Lord of the Rings. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth released physically on June 23, 2023 and I was sent a massive media kit to unbox.
The media kit contained a full bundle kit, starter kit, elven council commander deck, jumpstart pack, some set boosters and some collector boosters. The collector boosters were an exciting prized possession as there is a 001/001 One Ring card out in circulation around the world, only one of its kind, and they are only found in collector boosters. Of course, my packs did not have this card, but I did get two other variations of the one ring as well as a whole heap of incredibly detailed cards that were a lot of fun to unwrap but also reminded me of my time playing the MMORPG The Lord of the Rings Online.
Slowly I unwrapped pack after pack and loved the illustrations of various environments and characters from The Lord of the Rings. I had a few versions of Galadriel as she was the title card of the commander deck, as well as Gandalf. As I got through a number of booster packs, I was starting to find members of the fellowship, though I missed out on getting Pippin, Merry and Boromir. It was still cool to see Frodo and Samwise, and variations of them holding the sword Sting, Strider, Legolas and Gimli. I loved how his character title was ‘counter of kills’. There were also a number of borderless showcase ring cards too such as the ones for Elrond and Galadriel.
One card type I was really excited to get my hands on were the land cards. Ordinarily these aren’t my favourite, but in this The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set, the land cards had some amazing detail showing maps of regions from Middle-earth. Cards I unwrapped showed well-known locations like Gondor, Rohan and Moria, while there were locations I have seen in The Lord of the Rings Online such as Fangorn Forest, Lorien and Mirkwood. There were also some great borderless lands too such as Mount Doom, The Shire and Barad-dur.
I also highly recommend having a look at the starter kit if you are like me and still relatively new to the tabletop version. Inside is a starter kit play guide which is one of the more comprehensive guides for how to set up and play a game of Magic: The Gathering. I used to love the manuals we would get in the old big box PC games in the 90’s and this was great to have a small booklet that I could flick through and will not be ashamed to take it with me the next time I have a tabletop Magic session with my mates.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth for both Magic: The Gathering tabletop is now available as Draft Boosters, Set Boosters, Collector Boosters, Jumpstart Boosters, Commander decks and Bundles, and can be playing within Magic: The Gathering Arena. Thanks very much to Wizards of the Coast for sending us this massive bundle to unbox and you can watch the unboxing video here or below.
For more information on Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, visit the official Magic website.
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Johnny