The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ Mechanics
It's time to embark on a different sort of journey as Magic presents characters, locations, and epic moments from the epic fantasy novels of J.R.R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ is packed with exciting new cards and a few marquee keywords and mechanics to review. So, gather your Fellowship, pack your lembas, and let's head out to learn more about the new set.
Be sure to check out The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Card Image Gallery to see even more cards, and you can learn where (and how) to collect them all in our Collecting The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth overview.
The Ring
The Ring calls out, eager to bend mortals to its will. Several cards in the set have abilities that say "the Ring tempts you."
The first time the Ring tempts you during a game, you get an emblem named The Ring. There's a printed helper card you can keep in your command zone to remind you that you have The Ring and what it does. The Ring starts with only its first ability at the top, but it may gain the other abilities one at a time as it tempts you further.
Each time the Ring tempts you, two things happen. First, you choose a creature you control to become your Ring-bearer. If you have a Ring-bearer, you may choose to have that creature remain your Ring-bearer, or you may choose another creature you control to carry that burden. Ring-bearer is a new designation; it's not a creature type or an ability. The creature you choose remains your Ring-bearer until you choose another one, it leaves the battlefield, or another player gains control of it. Each player has their own Ring-bearer (and their own The Ring), and you can never have more than one Ring-bearer.
Second, The Ring gains its next ability, if it can. Once The Ring has all four of its abilities, it has reached its full power and won't gain additional abilities as the Ring tempts you in the future. Notably, The Ring will gain its next ability even if you didn't control any creatures as the Ring tempted you, meaning you didn't choose a Ring-bearer.
Spells and abilities may refer to your Ring-bearer. Most obviously, The Ring itself has abilities that affect your Ring-bearer. It immediately becomes legendary and can't be blocked by creatures with greater power. In time, The Ring's other abilities will provide valuable combat bonuses. Other cards, including Sauron, the Necromancer, refer to your Ring-bearer.
Some triggered abilities trigger whenever the Ring tempts you. These abilities will trigger if the Ring tempts you even if you didn't choose a Ring-bearer because you didn't control any creatures. However, some of these abilities will further specify that they trigger only if you chose specific creatures as your Ring-bearer, so be careful.
Amass Orcs
Sometimes you use magical incantations and arcane wizardry to get what you want. Sometimes you grab a bunch of orcs and beat everyone up. Amass is a returning mechanic, but with a twist.
To amass Orcs N, first determine if you control an Army creature. If you don't, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token. Then put N +1/+1 counters on an Army creature you control. If it isn't already an Orc, it becomes an Orc in addition to its other types.
Most of the time, the only Army creature you'll control will be a token you created using amass. However, Army is a creature type like any other, so you could control a nontoken Army, such as a creature with the changeling ability. If you happen to control multiple Army creatures as you amass, you pick one of them to get the +1/+1 counters.
In previous appearances, amass defaulted to Zombie. Those older cards will receive an update to now say "amass Zombies N." The only change to how those cards work is that now, if the Army creature you put +1/+1 counters on isn't already a Zombie, it becomes a Zombie in addition to its other types.
Combining older amass cards with ones from this set makes for some fun stories. If you amass Zombies, you create a Zombie Army creature token with some +1/+1 counters on it. If you later amass Orcs, that Zombie Army becomes an Orc Zombie Army and gets even more +1/+1 counters!
Returning Mechanics
If you're new to Magic, or perhaps returning after some time away, you may encounter some unfamiliar sights on your journey. This section touches on mechanics that appear only sparingly in this set, but it may help you know more about the road ahead.
Food Tokens
Several cards in the set create Food tokens.
A Food token is an artifact token with the ability "{2}, {T}, Sacrifice this artifact: You gain 3 life." Snacking, er
Landcycling
On cards, this activated ability will appear as plainscycling, islandcycling, swampcycling, mountaincycling, and forestcycling. If you have a card with one of these abilities in your hand, you can pay the listed cost (in this set, {1}) and discard the card. This allows you to search your library for a card with the appropriate basic land type, reveal it, put it into your hand, then shuffle.
Even the mightiest creatures don't matter if they're stuck in your hand while you don't have enough mana, so don't be afraid to go find the lands you need to power a potent endgame.
Sagas
Sagas are enchantments that represent epic stories and tales that play out one chapter at a time over a series of turns.
Each Saga enters the battlefield with a lore counter on it, causing the first ability—the chapter I ability—to trigger. As your first main phase begins, add another lore counter and the next chapter ability triggers. This continues until the last chapter ability has finished. Once that happens, you sacrifice the Saga.
Historic
Historic is a term that refers to artifacts, Sagas, and anything with the legendary supertype, all of which you'll find in abundance in this set.
Abilities may refer to historic permanents on the battlefield, historic cards in your graveyard, or historic spells. Knowing your history can ensure your future is one filled with victory.
Stun Counters
Wouldn't it be nice if your opponents' creatures just took a small break and didn't untap so maybe you could attack unfettered? Stun counters might be what you're looking for.
If a tapped creature with one or more stun counters on it would untap, instead, it stays tapped and one stun counter is removed from it. This can be because it's the untap step or because a spell or ability tries to untap the creature, but remember that a stun counter is removed only if the creature is tapped.
Check out more amazing cards in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Card Image Gallery, then learn where (and how) to collect them in our Collecting The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth overview.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is available to preorder now online at Amazon and at your local game store.