The LOTR Set Has Cards For Nearly All Archetypes
I literally don’t have the time to build every Historic Brawl deck I would love to try. These new LOTR cards are a brewer’s paradise.
In fact, there’s still so much to cover that I don’t want to linger with a long intro. You all know what we’re here for. It’s in the title. So, let’s get into more LOTR cards. Let’s get going!
With how slow Historic Brawl can be, between huge life totals, complex board stalls, and weird lock pieces, this card offers a lot of possibilities. The damage on ETB is nice, but it’s the second ability I’m more interested in. It can slowly give you the card advantage necessary to win and undo the dreaded “top deck mode” that’s so often an issue, especially for red decks.
My reaction to this card boiled down to: “Yeah, that’s a good enough effect—it’s how much mana?!” Play this on turn two and notice the compounding value. Granting ward is the real MVP, especially because Brawl decks often have a lot of legendary creatures by default.
Despite not being an equipment player, here’s my metric for equipment cards: would I want this card with either Colossus Hammer or whichever of the ten “swords of stuff and stuff” that lock out my opponent? This card easily passes those tests and works well with any good equipment in the game. This is also in the top ten best LOTR cards for Brawl—and, yes, there will be a list of those later.
It’s a quirk of my alphabetical rule that this card is right after Forge Anew, but obviously, these two cards go in the same deck. Frodo picks up the best swords—he can even pick up Jitte if they ever put it in Arena—and encourages anyone playing him to start the game attacking. He’s also a warrior, so he adds to any adventuring party plans you might have for the deck (which is so cool, lore-wise).
I’ve been unimpressed with many of the LOTR Elf cards, though I’m sure having scry as their core mechanic is very flavorful, but this is one of the better ones for Historic Brawl. Like I said in the last article, having the Ring tempt multiple times in the same turn can be really effective given the right cards, and this is one of those times. Scry three means you’re unlikely to have a bad draw, and the rapid ramp is good at every stage of the game. And, despite what I literally just said, Elves are a notoriously strong creature type and have robust archetype support on Arena (and beyond).
I already talked about why it’s so good to cast things like Wrath of God at instant speed—but here’s another card that can pull off that trick in LOTR. Gandalf’s also a decent blocker with both flash and four toughness, and that last ability can let you draw so many cards during a board stall you might just break out of it and win.
This is a good card in any deck that likes instants and sorceries. The real trick is to point it at a one-toughness creature your opponent has. You could feasibly blast your opponent for ten or even fifteen out of nowhere. If you’re a Niv-Mizzet, Parun player, this is an auto-include.
I don’t know how “good” (i.e., competitively viable) this card can be, but it will be fun regardless—especially combined with The Ozolith. There are so many counter types in Magic, especially since Ikoria introduced ability counters. If nothing else, you can also draw a card almost every turn.
This card’s amazing when combined with Teshar, Ancestor’s Apostle, and goes in any sacrifice deck. This card also only says, “leaves the battlefield.” So, if you have, say, any flicker effect, you can get a Ring trigger every turn.
I’ve played Goblins once or twice, and having a Goblin that makes a second body and works as an Act of Treason is potent enough to see some play. It’s admittedly one of the weaker cards on this list, relying on/only benefiting decks that can achieve a level of tempo that not even dedicated aggro builds can always achieve. Or, in a more midrange configuration, it needs cards like Sauron, the Dark Lord to set up Orc armies big enough for the steal effect to have an impact.
And that’s another chunk of great LOTR cards for Historic Brawl done. We’ll take a slight break for this week’s Friday Fiction (which horror fans will not want to miss) and a movie review on Monday, but then we’ll be back with more LOTR fun. See you then!
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