Galadriel, Elven-Queen · Gandalf, Westward Voyager
A Simic Elf tribal deck led by Galadriel, Elven-Queen, ramp with Elves, tempt opponents with the Ring to push your Ring-bearer's power, and overwhelm the table with a massive Elven army.
# set · LTC · 4 decks
Four decks retelling the story: Hobbits and Food, the armies of Mordor, the Elves of Lothlórien, and the riders of Rohan.
- Colors
Mechanics
The Ring tempts you
The first time the Ring tempts you, you get an emblem and choose a Ring-bearer. Each later temptation upgrades the emblem and lets you pick a new bearer. It is a persistent, escalating buff that no opponent can remove.
Food
Food tokens sacrifice for two mana and three life. The Abzan deck makes them constantly and treats life total as a resource to convert into cards.
Amass Orcs
Amass puts counters on an Army token, creating one if you do not have it, and here the Army gets the Orc type. One growing creature instead of a wide board.
Legendary creatures
Most of the named characters are legendary, so the set has an unusually high legend count. That matters for the historic and legendary payoffs sprinkled across all four decks.
The set
Tales of Middle-earth was the first Universes Beyond set with a full draft environment, and the Commander decks track the story rather than a color pair. Each one takes a side of the war.
The Ring tempts you is the set signature. It builds an emblem that gets better each time it triggers, and it names one of your creatures as Ring-bearer. Nothing removes it, so decks that trigger it early carry that advantage the rest of the game.
The catch is the Ring-bearer itself. Later temptations force opponents to sacrifice creatures and make your bearer harder to block, but the bearer is also a target, and losing it means the next temptation has to start over on a new creature. Playing around that is most of the skill in the two decks that lean on it.
Food is the other mechanic worth planning around. Three life and two mana for a token sounds unexciting until the deck is built to sacrifice them for cards, and Frodo and Sam turn a small life gain trigger into a repeatable engine. It is the slowest deck in the box and the hardest to interact with.
Where to start
Hosts of Mordor is the strongest out of the box. Food and Fellowship is the most beginner friendly, since its plan works even when the game slows down.
The decks 4
Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit · Sam, Loyal Attendant
An Abzan Food token deck led by Frodo and Sam, generate Food tokens constantly, sacrifice them for life gain and card draw, and win through lifegain payoffs and Frodo's Ring-bearer power.
Sauron, Lord of the Rings · Saruman, the White Hand
A Grixis reanimator and token deck led by Sauron, Lord of the Rings, discard cards to fuel the graveyard, tempt the Ring to build an unstoppable Nazgûl army, and reanimate the biggest threats.
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden · Aragorn, King of Gondor
A Jeskai Human and Warrior tribal deck led by Éowyn, Shieldmaiden, assemble a cavalry of legendary warriors, copy the best combat spells, and win through overwhelmingly powerful attacks.
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