Posted in: Conventions, Events, Games, Summer Game Fest, Video Games | Tagged: Magic: The Gathering, preview, Summer Game Fest, The Lord of the Rings

We Tried Out The Lord Of The Rings Edition Of Magic: The Gathering

We got a first-hand test of The Lord Of The Rings: Tales Of Middle-Earth expansion that's been released for Magic: The Gathering.

Earlier this month at Summer Game Fest, we got to try out The Lord Of The Rings: Tales Of Middle-Earth expansion for Magic: The Gathering. The crew at Wizards of the Coast set up a couple of tables where we got to have a first-hand play session of their pre-constructed decks in the Starter Set. For obvious reasons, this is one of the most anticipated releases in the history of the franchise, and probably the biggest one people have been looking forward to in the past decade. So being able to play it before other people got their hands on it was a lovely treat to see the cards in person and how they play. The crew on hand was ready to teach anyone who wanted to learn, but I've played MTG since Arabian Nights! So I sat down, picked a deck blindly, shuffled it up, and took my chances against someone who works for the company that makes the game.

The deck I ended up with was a Mordor Black/Red combo, while the WotC player (who was Senior Art Director Ovidio Cartagena) ended up with the Gondor Green/White combo. They made sure to point out that both of these decks came with a Starter Kit Play Guide, which can be used to teach anyone how to play the game. We were also playing with custom card sleeves and player mats from this set, which you can see images of below. These boxes come with two decks, the guide, 1 Traditional foil mythic rare card, 4 Non-foil rare cards, and codes for two people to unlock both decks in Magic: The Gathering Arena. My deck started off pretty mild at the start as we thankfully got a decent mix of swamps and mountains to work with, along with a bonus artifact land to provide five mana in the first five turns.

I was able to crank out a few different goblin cards as well as some decent spells to keep him and his creatures preoccupied. However, a good chunk of his deck gave life back to him, including Second Breakfast and Stew of the Coneys. A good chunk of the gameplay had us trading off creatures as well as trying to find a way to break through. I finally had a pretty good advantage mid-game when I was up 10-8, punishing his creatures with Uglúk of the White Hand, who would get a +1/+1 for every creature that died on my side. At the end of the game, he was a 14/14 beast of an Orc that was ready to tear through anything my opponent threw in front of him. However, the end game came with a couple of key sacrifices on his end that allowed quick damage, and we ended the game with him clinging onto 1 life before he managed to beat me. A well-played round of Magic: The Gathering if I do say so myself.

Ultimately, I thought these two Magic: The Gathering decks were amazing to play. I was able to jump in with a deck, sight unseen, didn't mana-balance or anything like that, and put on a hell of a showing against someone who works for the company. Doesn't matter if I lost; I'm pretty confident a rematch would have seen me win with an understanding of the deck. We didn't even break out any of the good cards either, as I had Sauron and Gollem in my deck, while he had Frodo and Gandalf in his. The set is now available for you to purchase.

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