Reflecting on Tales of Middle Earth

Night's Whisper card art

As we conclude July, I have one final post on Tales of Middle Earth. This is a series of semi-random comments.

Review: from my initial post, I voiced concerns (before release) of Wizards capturing the story/spirit of the books. And I wasn't sure about the ring mechanic. From my other posts (collecting, drafting, constructing), I pointed out the unusually high cost of the set, underwhelming drafting, and a painful constructed experience (due largely to the powerful formats the set is limited to in Arena).

I think my initial concerns proved correct. The cards in this set do feel like Magic cards, but many don't feel like Lord of the Rings cards, if that makes sense. Some do, but looking across the set as a whole, I think it's hard to map the spirit of the books into the way Magic plays. 

For what it's worth, I feel weird mixing this set with other Magic releases. I wish I could have seen how it plays as a constructed stand-alone experience. But what I saw, mixing it with other sets, disappointed me. The Nazgul + Sheoldred combo is powerful indeed, but everything else was underwhelming or strange.

Other observations:

- Since Magic has only five colors, it felt weird having certain enemies share those. Dwarves and goblins, for example, were both red. 

- Having blue elves made sense for Lord of the Rings but not for Magic. (To be fair, there were blue elves in the Adventures in Forgotten Realms set.)

- There is too much in the books to capture in one set. I was hoping for more treefolk, more goblins and orcs, more elves and dwarves, and so on.

- The 'ring tempts you' mechanic is fine. It makes for some interesting interactions and abilities.

- The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters are too powerful. I expect they will be banned in some formats.

Overall, I would consider this set to be 'meh.' Despite all of my criticisms, I did enjoy seeing iconic characters come to Magic. I just wish they had been presented a little differently.