The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth/Trivia

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth/Trivia

 

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Trivia

 

Maro's Ring Teaser

Mark Rosewater gave his traditional teaser with the following hints:

First up, here are some things you can expect:

• Five different card types get the legendary supertype — Artifact, Creature, Enchantment, Instant and Land.
• A decently sized “legendary matters” theme — You Cannot Pass!; The Shire; Delighted Halfling; Frodo Baggins;
• New non-mana ward costs — Sauron, the Dark Lord (Sacrifice a legendary artifact or legendary creature); Saruman of Many Colors (Discard an enchantment, instant, or sorcery card);
• A mechanic returns but now references a different creature type — Amass, but Orcs
• A card that makes a Smaug creature token — There and Back Again
• Two three-color and one four-color legendary creature to go along with the five-color one already previewed (Tom Bombadil ) — Saruman of Many Colors (), Sauron, the Dark Lord () and Aragorn, the Uniter ().
• A lot of one-of “creature type matters” cards — Doors of Durin (Dwarf and Elf); Fangorn, Tree-Shepherd (Treefolk); Grond, the Gatebreaker (Army); Gwaihir the Windlord (Bird); King of the Oathbreakers (Spirit); Meriadoc Brandybuck (Halfling); Shelob, Child of Ungoliant (Spider); Shadowfax, Lord of Horses (Horse); Théoden, King of Rohan (Human); Flame of Anor (Wizard)
• A mechanic returns that I had to fight tooth and nail to get into the set it premiered in — Historic
• A new creature type gets its own equip cost — Human (Dúnedain Blade); Halfling (Bilbo's Ring)
• Some counters in the set: burden, deathtouch, first strike, hope, indestructible, influence, lifelink, lore, stun, verse, vigilance, and +1/+1 — The One Ring (Burden); Aragorn, Company Leader (Deathtouch, First strike, Lifelink and Vigilance); Dawn of a New Age (Hope); Arwen, Mortal Queen (Indestructible and Lifelink); Palantír of Orthanc (Influence); Tom Bombadil (Lore); Scroll of Isildur & The Watcher in the Water (Stun); Lost Isle Calling (Verse); and Galadriel, Gift Giver (+1/+1).

Next, here are some rules text that will be showing up on cards:

• “Whenever you attack with Merry and another legendary creature,” — Merry, Esquire of Rohan
• “Then create a Food token for each creature you control.” — The Battle of Bywater
• “Remove an indestructible counter from Arwen:” — Arwen, Mortal Queen
• “Copy any number of target instant and/or sorcery spells.” — Display of Power
• “Whenever you draw a card during an opponent’s turn, create a 1/1 blue Tentacle creature token.” — The Watcher in the Water
• “Whenever a creature an opponent control dies, put a +1/+1 counter on Legolas.” — Legolas, Counter of Kills
• “Target opponent gains control of target Horse you control.” — Bill Ferny, Bree Swindler
• “When this ability resolves for the third time this turn, Gimli fights up to one target creature you don’t control.” — Gimli, Mournful Avenger
• “You may pay rather than pay the equip cost of the first equip ability you activate during each of your turns.” — Forge Anew
• “Whenever you put one or more counters on Aragorn, put one of each of those kinds of counters on up to one other target creature.” — Aragorn, Company Leader

Here are some legendary creature type lines in the set:

• Legendary Creature – Avatar Demon — The Balrog, Durin's Bane; The Balrog, Flame of Udûn
• Legendary Creature – Bird Noble — Gwaihir the Windlord; Landroval, Horizon Witness
• Legendary Creature – Halfling Knight — Merry, Esquire of Rohan
• Legendary Creature – Halfling Soldier — Pippin, Guard of the Citadel
• Legendary Creature – Horse — Bill the Pony; Shadowfax, Lord of Horses
• Legendary Creature – Kraken — The Watcher in the Water
• Legendary Creature – Nymph — Goldberry, River-Daughter
• Legendary Creature – Spirit Noble — King of the Oathbreakers
• Legendary Creature – Spider Demon — Shelob, Child of Ungoliant
• Legendary Creature – Wraith Noble — Witch-king of Angmar, Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin

Finally, here are some card names from the set:

• Birthday Escape — Sorcery
• Breaking of the Fellowship — Sorcery
• Fear, Fire, Foes! — Sorcery
• Grond, the Gatebreaker — Legendary Artifact — Vehicle
• Horses of the Bruinen — Sorcery
• Lembas — Artifact — Food
• One Ring to Rule Them All — Enchantment — Saga
• Oliphaunt — Creature — Elephant
• Second Breakfast — Instant
• There and Back Again — Enchantment — Saga

Miscellaneous

• The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-earth was the first set to go into vision design during the pandemic.
• As of 2024, The Lord of the Rings: Tales from Middle-earth is the best selling set in the history of the game, with earnings of over 200 million dollars.
• Lord of the Pit (Alpha) was inspired by the Balrog.
• It is unusual to see the reminder text for haste on an uncommon, as the last time the reminder text for haste was printed was during Core Set 2021. However, this is so that Shadowfax, Lord of Horses can "show us the meaning of haste".
• Fear, Fire, Foes!, Now for Wrath, Now for Ruin, and You Cannot Pass! are the first Modern-legal cards with exclamation points in their names since Guildpact's To Arms!, though multiple other exclamation points were printed into Legacy through the Eternal-legal Unfinity cards and the Warhammer 40,000 Commander Decks.
• Stern Scolding is the first spell to look for a spell's toughness.
• Long List of the Ents is the first Saga to have a 5th and 6th chapter.