The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth brings Tolkien’s stories to Magic: The Gathering

Magic: The Gathering, one of the most popular trading card games in the world, has just launched its latest set today (23 June 2023), The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth. It sees some of the most famous and well loved characters from The Lord of the Rings books such as Aragorn, Saruman and Gandalf reimagined in card form for Magic: The Gathering as part of its Universes Beyond series that combines Magic with other popular franchises such as Warhammer and The Walking Dead.

Wizards of the Coast, the people behind Magic, positions the new set as a perfect entry point to Magic: The Gathering for new players, as it will have their favourite characters guiding them along their journey into the game. In particular, there’s a themed Starter Kit pack for new players, which will come with two ready-to-play decks for the Modern format, along with basic learning materials and tokens.

There will also be your regular assortment of draft boosters, set boosters, gift bundles and collector boosters too, along with jumpstart boosters, commander decks and prerelease kits. Some cards even get special borderless scene art, where you can place them next to each other to recreate iconic scenes from the books, while others get a special showcase ring treatment. The five basic lands are available with full art too, depicting key locations from Middle Earth.

Perhaps the biggest thing to come from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth though is the special, one-of-one printing of The One Ring. It’s a special version of the card The One Ring, and features a custom raised gold foil treatment over the card with a 001/001 numbering on it, with the text on it replaced with Elvish script. Only available in English-language collector boosters, many players are already bidding for it on the secondhand market, with some already offering whoever opens The One Ring a whopping USD2,000,000.

In conjunction with the new set’s release, Wizards of the Coast is organising a Magic: The Gathering Welcome Party to help introduce people to the game. If you’re a huge Lord of the Rings fan for instance and would like to play with your favourite characters from the books, the MTG Welcome Party will be happening on the 1st and 2nd of July 2023 at the Event Hall in Paradigm Mall, Petaling Jaya from 10am to 9pm.

There, both new and old players can pick up and play Magic with free mini games to teach gameplay basics. The MTG Welcome Party will also have photo opportunities with prizes to be won, as well as exclusive MTGxLOTR merchandise during the event. If you’re down for a longer game of Magic, there will be games of Commander too where you and three other players can have a multiplayer battle with the new Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Commander decks.

If you’re interested in the Welcome Party, you can click here to check out more details about it on its Facebook event page.