The Lord of The Rings Commander Cards Review: Enchantments

Ciel Collins • June 26, 2023

Strategy
fealty to the realm commanders herald header
(Fealty to the Realm
 | Lorenzo Mastroianni

Artifacts and Lands | Enchantments | Instants and Sorceries| Legendary Creatures | Non-legendary Creatures | The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Set Reviews

More Than Just Enchanting Words

As someone who watched the movies as a kid and is reading the books now, I am loving The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, y'all. Between the absurd number of very cool commanders and how every single card has pages of lore condensed into it, it's a release to remember. And as a big fan of preconstructed decks, these are yet another home-run!

I'm excited to talk about the brand new enchantments brought to the table from these commander decks. There are only six (one Saga per deck, plus two others) but they're packed with story and possibility, so let's jump in!

Mono-Color

Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit

Coming to us from the Food and Fellowship deck, this is the only mono-colored Saga of the bunch, allowing for the highest amount of versatility, to hopefully great acclaim!

The first chapter lets you buff a creature and make a Food token. The second draws you a card and makes another Food (I guess the second rabbit took longer to cook). The final chapter creates a Halfling for every Food you control. The Saga alone will make two Halflings. At three mana, this is nice enough for Food decks but low enough that it's unlikely to see much play elsewhere.

Obviously, the deck that it comes from will want to keep it in, but outside of that? I still see solid value in the card. Narrower Food commanders, like Farmer Cotton

and Samwise Gamgee
 would both enjoy the benefits here. Any kind of Academy Manufactor
 style deck (such as Rosie Cotton of South Lane
) that wants to churn out a token of weird tokens would reap the benefits here-- each chapter bringing a Clue and Treasure is great value, and all of the incidental Food made along the way is going to turn into an army!

Commanders from outside of the set who want this:

Fealty to the Realm

One of the two non-Saga enchantments from the precons, Fealty to the Realm

bolsters the Monarch theme in Riders of Rohan. This is a funny Mind Control
 variant that (effectively) cantrips and permanently goads the creature, ensuring that even if the owner gets it back, they can't use the creature against you. Within the Jeskai Humans deck, it feels much more aggressive in intent, by intentionally removing the best blocker and forcing it to attack everyone else for the rest of the game.

I think this one is fun and flavorful, but I doubt it makes it into many decks outside of the precon itself. Maybe in Kestia, the Cultivator

, where the creature itself will draw you a card every time you attack with it.

Assemble the Entmoot

The last of the non-Saga enchantments and the last of the mono-colored cards on the list, Assemble the Entmoot

shows immediate promise for breaking out of its own deck. By having the word Treefolk on it, it's naturally likely to go into those decks, but make no mistake: this is a lifegain pay-off! It can create three big beaters equal to the amount of life you've gained in a turn. Obviously, in the Food and Fellowship deck, every Food you crack can essentially become an additional nine power, but other decks in the commander format will want to use this for some gain.

Don't count out the first line of text, either. Giving all of your creatures reach may seem like trinket text, but in a format full of Dragons, Angels, Demons, and really annoying Birds, you'll get some surprise blocks in.

Commanders from outside of the set that want this:

  • Dina, Soul Steeper
     will not only want to gain life but make use of the big Treefolk bodies for a surprise kill.
  • Willowdusk, Essence Seer
     is all about gaining or losing life in big swings to make big creatures, and this does both!
  • Trostani, Selesnya's Voice
     will love it when you plop down a six-power creature, gain six life, sacrifice this to make three more 6/6s and gain 18 life! Reanimate the enchantment to go into turbo-drive!
  • Lathiel, the Bounteous Dawn
     is much the same as Willowdusk above.

Multi-Color

Oath of Eorl

We triumphantly return to story-telling with the multi-colored Sagas. Oath of Eorl

comes to us from the Riders of Rohan deck. The first chapter makes two small Humans, the second chapter makes bigger Human Knights, and the third chapter makes a Human you control permanently indestructible and makes you the monarch.

This is a simpler Saga in its aims and goals: aggression. This makes six power across four bodies and brings monarch into the mix if it isn't already. Each chapter is all about the red zone. At five mana, it feels more like a curve-topper, but its chapters are more about setting up or rebuilding. I suspect it will have some homes, but it's thankfully not a super-staple or anything.

Commanders outside of the set that want this:

Song of Eärendil

Our one-and-only enchantment from Elven Council doesn't have much to do with Elves, but does bring an interesting effect. The first chapter lets you scry and draws two cards, the second chapter makes a Treasure and a Bird, and the third gives flying to all of your creatures. The worst-case scenario is you draw two cards and this gets removed, which is a solid enough bargain. Is it good enough to see widespread play? Doubtful. It's five mana and provides mostly basic utility, with little "splashiness" to it. The final chapter provides evasion, but Archetype of Imagination

and similar are better for their immediacy.

Aside from any Saga-themed decks, my spicy deck for this card would be Tawnos, the Toymaker

. He does a fun Bird/Beast typal that's unified nicely here by granting all your Beasts flying, which is fun if you're running Winged Portent
!

In the Darkness Bind Them

Our final Saga comes to us from The Hosts of Mordor, and it's appropriately scary! For three straight turns, it creates 3/3 flyers and has the Ring tempts you. The final chapter lets you temporarily steal everyone else's best creature and tempts you one last time. Between nine flying power and guaranteeing you max out the Ring's power, this has some interesting capabilities.

The commander best poised to use this is specifically Sauron, the Dark Lord

, who lets you mini-wheel every time you're tempted by the Ring. This being all three colors is actually a hindrance as the Ring's pay-offs are centered in black, but has commanders with pay-offs in Dimir, Rakdos, Orzhov, and Golgari, all of whom would love a guaranteed hit like this.

Leaving that unfortunate aside behind, being a Ring-bearer is good for saboteur or attacking commanders. In Grixis, that includes Jeleva, Nephalia's Scourge

and Cecily, Haunted Mage
. Is paying five mana to make your commander increasingly difficult to block and dropping in some flying blockers worth it? This feels like a gray area, with faster tables likely saying no, but it is fun and flavorful!

Farewell to Middle-earth at last!

Sagas have been one of the greatest innovations to the comparatively ignored enchantment card type, and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of the Middle-earth truly demonstrates the flavorful strengths of the subtype. Like the rest of the set, the enchantments work fluidly to tell a piece of this massive story, while still functioning as fun game pieces. They all look powerful enough to be fun without being so oppressive as to become teeth-grinding.

I'm especially excited to sleeve up Assemble the Entmoot

. What about you all?

Categories: Strategy

More From Ciel Collins

Ciel Collins

Ciel Collins

Ciel got into Magic as a way to flirt with a girl in college and into Commander at their bachelor party. They’re a Vorthos and Timmy who is still waiting for an official Theros Beyond Death story release. In the meantime, Ciel obsesses over Commander precons, deck biomes, and deckbuilding practices. Naya forever.