The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth

This article is about the Magic: The Gathering expansion. For the the video game, see Tales of Middle Earth.

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth

Collectible card game expansion
Information
Designer	Ben Hayes (lead)
Development	Glenn Jones (lead)
Publisher	Wizards of the Coast
Release date	20 June 2023
Cards	281 + 552
Abbreviation	LTR
Set symbol

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is an expansion for the Magic: The Gathering collectible card game, and was initially released on June 20, 2023. It introduced new cards that were unique renditions of various characters and events from the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Tales of Middle-earth was released under the Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond sub-brand, and was the first Universes Beyond property to receive a full-sized Magic expansion. Around the same time, More Adventures in Middle-earth was released, a separate small collector-oriented set reprinting several cards with alternative artwork.

In August 2026, a second Lord of the Rings-themed Magic expansion will be released, Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit.

Overview

Tales of Middle-earth was first announced February 21, 2023^[1], and was developed by Wizards of the Coast in close cooperation with Middle-earth Enterprises. It featured 451 new cards referencing a vast amount of content from Tolkien's legendarium, with brand new art commissioned for each card. The art style for Tales of Middle-earth was developed specifically for the set and did not generally refer to other adaptations of the stories.

In addition to the usual promotional card styles and printings, the set featured a series of very rare special versions of the "Sol Ring" card^[2], a popular and commonly used card in the multi-player Commander format. For the set, Sol Ring was reprinted with new art, representing the Rings of Power, complete with stylizing all of the text in the Tengwar font. Three different limited-edition versions of this special Sol Ring were printed in this way, with the numbers printed to represent the respective number of Rings distributed to the various races: ^[3]:

3,000 normal and 300 serialized foils with art featuring an Elven ring (representing the Three Rings)
7,000 normal and 700 serialized foils with art featuring a Dwarven ring (representing the Seven Rings)
9,000 normal and 900 serialized foils with art featuring a ring of Men (representing the Nine Rings)

The Hunt for the One Ring

Notably, a new card representing The One Ring was introduced in the set, however Wizards of the Coast printed a special, serialized gold foil version of it, with only one to ever be printed. It was included in one English language Collector Booster pack, which kicked off a significant amount of excitement as fans began, much like Sauron, to hunt for the One Ring, causing after-market prices of Collector Boosters to increase dramatically. The "One of One" One Ring was found on June 30, 2023 by a customer at MAXimum Cards & Collectibles in Whitby, Ontario ^[4]^[5]. The finder of the ring was later identified as Brook Trafton, who would proceed to sell it to Post Malone, a celebrity musician and Magic enthusiast for $2,000,000.^[6]

Gameplay

Tales of Middle-earth introduced one brand new mechanic to Magic: "The Ring Tempts You", which was intended to model the power the One Ring could bestow on its bearer. When Tempted, players were forced to choose a Ring-bearer and as they were tempted more and more, their power would increase. However, unlike the One Ring in other adaptations, there is no downside to choosing a ring-bearer. This resulted in some consternation from some players as they felt there was a disconnect in the flavor that the set had otherwise done well at recreating mechanically. Magic Lead Designer Mark Rosewater responded to these concerns, commenting that during testing they found that players would not engage with the mechanic if there were any downside whatsoever, regardless of the flavor implications.^[7]

Returning mechanics featured in the expansion include:

Amass, modified it to specify the creature type to "Orc" allowing players to slowly build their own orcish army
Food tokens being utilized in many cards, especially those representing Hobbits
Basic landcycling, representing long adventures over terrain
Historic, referencing the ancient history behind many characters and locations

Artwork

The Senior Art director for the expansion was Ovidio Cartagena. They specifically wanted the art direction for the set to be fresh and new, intentionally avoiding pulling inspiration from any previous films, illustrations or adaptations, and instead to simply focus on what's described in the texts.^[8]

Card Frames

As with other Magic expansions, Tales of Middle-earth featured new set-specific card frames, available in different products:

Standard Frame
Scroll Showcase
Ring Frame Showcase

Scene Cards

There are special versions of many cards from the set that have art drawn from a much larger scene in which those characters/objects appear, portraying a specific moment from Lord of the Rings. For example this scene depicting the destruction of the One Ring:

The other ten scenes featured are:

Illustrators

Full list of every illustrator whose art appeared in either the main expansion or the Commander product (all versions of cards):


Aaron Miller Alayna Danner Alex Brock Alexander Forssberg Alexander Gering Alexander Mokhov Alexander Ostrowski Anastasia Balakchina Anato Finnstark Andrea Piparo Andreas Rocha Andrey Kuzinskiy Anna Pavleeva Anna Podedworna Anna Steinbauer Anthony Devine Anton Solovianchyk Antonio José Manzanedo Arthur Yuan Artur Treffner Audrey Benjaminsen Aurore Folny Axel Sauerwald Bartłomiej Gaweł Ben Wootten Billy Christian Brian Valeza Bruno Biazotto Calder Moore Campbell White Caroline Gariba Chris Cold Christina Kraus Claudiu-Antoniu Magherusan Colin Boyer Constantin Marin Craig Elliott Craig J. Spearing Daarken Dan Murayama Scott Daniel Correia David Álvarez David Frasheski	David Rapoza Davor Gromilović Denman Rooke Deven Rue Dmitry Burmak Dominik Mayer Eelis Kyttanen Ekaterina Burmak Elizabeth Peiró Eric Wilkerson Erikas Perl Erion Makuo Filipe Pagliuso Francesca Resta Greg Hildebrandt Henry Peters Hristo D. Chukov Ian Jepson Iga Oliwiak Ignis Bruno Igor Krstic Ilker Yildiz Inka Schulz Irina Nordsol Irvin Rodriguez Jarel Threat Jason Kang Jason Rainville Javier Charro J.B. Casacop Jeremy Paillotin Jesper Ejsing John Di Giovanni John Tedrick Jokubas Uogintas Jonas De Ro Joseph Meehan Josh Hass Joshua Raphael Josu Solano Justine Cruz Justine Jones Justyna Dura	Kasia Zielińska Kekai Kotaki Kieran Yanner Kim Sokol L. J. Koh Leonardo Borazio Lie Setiawan Liiga Smilshkalne Livia Prima Lixin Yin Logan Feliciano Loïc Canavaggia Lorenzo Lanfranconi Lorenzo Mastroianni Lucas Terryn Magali Villeneuve Manuel Castañón Marc Simonetti Marco Gorlei Marie Magny Marina Ortega Lorente Marko Manev Marlene Yui Marta Nael Martina Fačková Matt Stewart Maxim Kostin Micha Huigen Miguel Mercado Miklós Ligeti Miranda Meeks Narendra Bintara Adi Nicholas Gregory Nino Is Oleg Bulakh Oleg Shekhovtsov Olivier Bernard Pablo Mendoza Pascal Quidault Patrik Hell Pavel Kolomeyets Pedro Correa Pierre Raveneau	Ramazan Kazaliev Randy Gallegos Randy Vargas Rudy Siswanto Ryan Yee Samuele Bandini Scott Balmer Sean Vo Sergio Cosmai Shahab Alizadeh Sidharth Chaturvedi Simon Dominic Stanislav Sherbakov Stephen Stark Svetlin Velinov Syd Mills Tatiana Kirgetova Tatiana Veryayskaya Tim Hildebrandt Titus Lunter Tomas Duchek Tomáš Honz Torgeir Fjereide Tyler Jacobson Tyukina Tatiana Uriah Voth Valera Lutfullina Veli Nyström Victor Harmatiuk Viko Menezes Wangjie Li Warren Mahy Wei Guan Wisnu Tan Wonchun Choi Yigit Koroglu Yongjae Choi Yuriy Chemezov Y.W. Tang Zeb Love Zoltan Boros Zuzanna Wużyk

Portrayals

Main article: The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth/Portrayals

Every major character and event has at least one card portraying it in the set, with the more critcial elements receiving upwards of five or more cards, showing that character or event at different stages of the story. For a complete index of which cards represent which characters, objects and events, see the accompanying article.

Products

Preconstructed decks:

Starter Kit
Commander decks

Booster packs:

Jumpstart boosters
Prerelease Pack
Draft Booster Box
Set Booster Box
Collector Booster Box

Other products:

Bundle
Gift Bundle

Release Schedule

Prerelease: June 16, 2023
MTG Arena Release: June 20, 2023
Tabletop Release: June 23, 2023
Holiday Release: November 3, 2023

External links

References

↑ "On June 23, Experience Middle-earth Like Never Before". Magic: The Gathering
↑ "Sol Ring". Official Magic Card Database
↑ "First Look for Retailers – The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™". Wizards Play Network
↑ MAXimum Cards & Collectibles (2023). "THE ONE RING HAS BEEN PULLED!". X (formerly known as Twitter)
↑ Charlie Hall (2023). "The One Ring card, Magic: The Gathering’s coveted collectible, has been found". Polygon
↑ Oli Welsh (2023). "Post Malone has bought Magic’s $2M One Ring card". Polygon
↑ Mark Rosewater. "Reply". Tumblr
↑ Ana Diaz (2023). "Magic: The Gathering’s new set is trying to capture the hope of The Lord of the Rings". Polygon

Licensed Card Games set in Middle-earth
Collectible Card Games
Middle Earth CCG (1995-1998) • Lord of the Rings TCG (2001-2007)
Magic: The Gathering Expansions
Tales of Middle Earth (2023) • The Hobbit (2026)
Living Card Games
The Card Game (2011-2024) • Adventure Card Game (2022 digital)
Trick-Taking Game Series
Fellowship of the Ring (2024) • Two Towers (2026)
Other Card Games
Tarot (1997) • The Hobbit (2012) • War of the Ring (2022) • Duel for Middle-earth (2024)

[1] "On June 23, Experience Middle-earth Like Never Before". Magic: The Gathering

[2] "Sol Ring". Official Magic Card Database

[3] "First Look for Retailers – The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™". Wizards Play Network

[4] MAXimum Cards & Collectibles (2023). "THE ONE RING HAS BEEN PULLED!". X (formerly known as Twitter)

[5] Charlie Hall (2023). "The One Ring card, Magic: The Gathering’s coveted collectible, has been found". Polygon

[6] Oli Welsh (2023). "Post Malone has bought Magic’s $2M One Ring card". Polygon

[7] Mark Rosewater. "Reply". Tumblr

[8] Ana Diaz (2023). "Magic: The Gathering’s new set is trying to capture the hope of The Lord of the Rings". Polygon

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