That’s quite a long title for an article. Let’s hope that future sets don’t have names that are longer than The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth because things could start to get hairy. This is one of the most anticipated Magic sets in recent years, a direct-to-Modern (and by extension, formats such as Commander, Legacy, and Vintage) set in the Universes Beyond product line. While this set has plenty of offer for other formats, we’re most excited about the impact that it will have on Commander!

As if a set focused around legendary creatures wasn’t enough, they’ve even given us four new Commander decks along with it. That’s very exciting if you’re looking to see set mechanics fleshed out for our format. In this article, we (Chief, Who Arrives Precisely When He Means To and Exxaxl, Taking the Hobbits to Isengard) will showcase our top 10 cards from this set for the Commander format. Let’s dive right in!

Boromir, Warden of the Tower

Chief: For three mana, you’ll be able to get a 3/3 with vigilance that counters enemy spells that are cast without spending any mana. That’s pretty cool! Of course, Boromir can also sacrifice himself to give creatures that you control indestructible until end of turn and make the Ring tempt you. This feels like an extremely flavorful way to capture his final moments and a great piece of utility against board wipes.

This asymmetrical ability can counter everything from Force of Will to legendary spells cast with Jodah, the Unifier’s triggered ability. In the case of the former, you can even sacrifice Boromir in a key moment if you know that someone is holding free interaction that can stop someone else from winning the game. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing this card in action in several of my decks.

Orcish Bowmasters

Exxaxl: Hullbreacher enthusiasts rejoice! Let me rephrase that. Hey, remember that brief moment in time where people put two andtwo together for the interaction between Hullbreacher and wheels? And then they took that away from us by banning the card? It’s time to do that again, but this time you’re not ramping ahead, you’re shooting down creatures or peoples life totals instead. Two mana, flash, damage to any target. The only way this card could have been better in my eyes is if it had split second.

Whether you just want to slot this as a value piece in case an opponent is trying to run away with the game by being a little too greedy with their card draw, or you want to make this part of your main strategy with commanders like Sheoldred, the Apocalypse or Nekusar, the Mindrazer, Orcish Bowmasters is going to shoot a lot of damage around the able. This will likely become my new favorite ‘with Windfall on the stack, in response’. It’s a good utility tool to take down life totals when people are actively refusing to pay the one too. Pay the one or take the one, up to you.

Cavern-Hoard Dragon

Chief: A 6/6 with flying, trample, and haste that can be cast for as little as two mana? Sign me up. What’s that? It also makes Treasure tokens equal to the number of artifacts a player controls when it deals combat damage to them? Definitely sign me up! This card sounds like a great way for red to punish players who lean too far into artifacts while allowing you to create some Treasures at the same time. Actually, this sounds familiar…

While it's not quite the same thing as Dockside Extortionist, it definitely has a lot of similarities while also showing a more restrained design philosophy that's less exploitable. Giving it double strike with a commander like Atarka, World Render will also allow you to make even more Treasure tokens. Given how low the mana investment for this dragon can be, I'm expecting this one to make a big splash.

Ringsight

Exxaxl: Wow look the Dimir colored sorcery speed suboptimal tutor made it to my list of favorite cards, nobody would have seen this coming ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). I’m a budget player at heart, and I know this is going to be a cheap card for a long while. Yes, it’s not Vampiric Tutor. It’s not Imperial Seal, Diabolic Intent or Wishclaw Talisman either, and that’s why I love it.

I tend to play the slower power levels our format offers, both on our own platform and in my local game store, and while ‘good tutors’ aren’t banned in those environments, you will hear the table collectively groan or mumble when a best in slot tutor gets cast. It’s suboptimal and slow enough to not raise eyebrows or put people on edge, and it’s because of those dependencies that I enjoy this card a lot.

This is Dimir colors restricted to cast, costs 3 mana, and can only find a card if you have a colored legendary creature out, which the Ring tempting you helps with. You just need a minimum of one creature on your board that will become your Ring-bearer and due to how The Ring mechanics work, said creature will meet the legendary condition for your tutor to be valid. I’m not sure how relevant ‘The Ring tempts you’ will be to me in the long run. The mechanic as a whole seems quite hard to deal with since it’s on an emblem and it’s operating in a zone that’s difficult to interact with, just like with dungeons.

Because I know these are questions people will have, or mistakes people might make: No, you can’t find a colorless creature with this if your legendary creature is colorless. No, it cannot find a Mystic Sanctuary if your legendary creature is blue. But also: you do not have to reveal your ‘The Ring tempts you’ creature choice when you cast Ringsight and people are looking to respond.

Let’s go over how that works: I cast Ringsight. Priority window - do you wish to shoot a creature from my board in response? I do not have to chose which creature becomes my Ring-bearer until Ringsight is good to resolve. I choose my Ring-bearer, I do not target my Ring-bearer.

Whoever becomes my Ring-bearer, and by doing so becomes a legendary creature, is not something I have to declare when people are looking to interact with my spell on the stack. My choice gets made when Ringsight resolves, and choosing a Ring-bearer and searching for a card is a singular event that has to resolve in it’s entirety before any player can receive priority again.

Feel free to copy these paragraphs should a dispute come up in your games ☝️. Thanks in house judge Reyemile and the people from the MTG Judges Chat Discord for helping me with clarifying this and putting it in decently legible text.

Delighted Halfling

Chief: It's hard to find fault with a one-drop mana dork that can color fix legendary spells and make them uncounterable. This card is nuts and the only real drawback that it includes is only tapping for colorless mana if you're using the mana for anything else. Considering that this is Commander and every deck has a legendary spell waiting in the command zone, that's barely even worth worrying about.

This card is obviously good with any commander that has green in their color identity, but you can also use it to cast any legendary spell and prevent it from being countered. This means you could put this mana into something like Urza's Ruinous Blast or Karn's Temporal Sundering at a pivotal moment. Delighted Halfling feels like an immediate Commander staple and it could become the most popular card in the set.

Gimli, Counter of Kills:

Exxaxl: Okay, there is a lot to unpack on why I love this card so join me for this three part journey explanation. I won’t embed the picture to save some space but ‘dwarf warrior with long ginger-bearded’ ’ is the aesthetic I go for in my day to day life. My bookshelves are filled with books that highlight characters like these such as The Dwarves series by Markus Heitz and the Orcs series by Stan Nicholls.

The flavor text quote from the actual book lining up with 21 commander damage makes for both a book and EDH rules flavor win. I know 21 commander damage got decided on due to the original cycle of Elder Dragons having 7 power and you getting hit three times equaled 21 but the book quote is just so fitting for our format.

Lastly, let’s talk about the actual mechanics of the card. We just saw Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin get printed in Mach of the Machine: The Aftermath and it turns out that in the end, the card did not work with Rakdos Charm the way we wanted it to. But Gimli does synergize with Ob Nixilis! Each creature your opponents control dying from a boardwipe will shoot 1 damage per creature, with every creature dying creating its own Gimli trigger. Each of these will trigger Ob Nixilis. Happy pinging!

Forge Anew

Chief: It's no secret that I love mono-white, but I've never actually built a mono-white equipment deck for Commander. I decided that I'm finally going to change that after seeing this card. White's been getting a lot of recursion lately, but it's rare to see that tacked onto a permanent with other great abilities to look forward to after it does the thing on ETB. This design shows off how far white has come in the past few years.

Being able to move equipment around at instant speed means that you can pull off a lot of tricks. It can be hard for opponents to find opportunities to use targeted removal during your turn if you can just equip Lightning Greaves in response. It can also be difficult to know whether it's safe to block if there's something like a Commander's Plate sitting there waiting to provide +3/+3 and protection after blockers have been declared.

Display of Power

Exxaxl: Behoooold the wizaaaaard.
Chief: Here we go again.
Exxaxl: Bewaaaaare his poweeeeers.
Chief: Get it out of your system.
Exxaxl: 🤘🎸Unspeakable poweeeeers!

Exxaxl: If you’re unaware of what I’m referencing, please find the song here. As for the actual card, being able to copy an entire stack worth of instants and sorceries on an uncopyable spell? This is going to make for some powerful plays. Pun intended, intend your puns cowards.

This is your new response to someone casting Fierce Guardianship on your wincon. If your wincon happens to be an instant of sorcery you now get two of them as well. Should you ever run into a situation where you can cast this in response to a Whirlwind Denial, please let me know! I know this card is going to allow for some crazy and memorable games or lines of play and I’m always happy when people share those experiences with me.

Mount Doom

Chief: This is an exciting new legendary dual land for Rakdos colors that has some interesting abilities tacked on for good measure. Being able to play it as a creature board wipe in the late game when you don't need more lands is awesome, provided that you have a legendary artifact on hand to sacrifice. Fans of Tolkien's work will likely enjoy the flavor of this ability's activation cost and the fact that it leaves two creatures behind.

The ability to pay mana and ping each opponent isn't incredibly powerful, but it is a way to keep things rolling in decks such as Rakdos, Lord of Riots or the more recent Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin without having to have spells or other nonland permanents around to help generate life loss. While this card can't go in every deck, I suspect that most Rakdos decks will be more that happy to have it.

Sauron’s Ransom

Exxaxl: Two Dimir cards that I love in one set? Happy days! This card is a little difficult to resolve for webcam play since the top four of your deck should be hidden information to yourself and only known information to one opponent. I guess you can get creative with SpellTable’s block feature to temporarily obscure the view of the other two players in the pod, figuring out a way for you to not see your own top four while your opponent is making piles is going to be interesting.

I guess you could put your head on the table and obscure your own view as you would with Skull Saucer? We’ll make it work somehow. I’m still looking for an optimal way to play Atris, Oracle of Half-Truths over webcam play which brings with it the same mechanical issue. Being reminded that Magic is not designed for ‘distance’ play while most of my Commander games nowadays get played online is always a weird experience.

I’m happy to see more ‘make piles’ cards getting printed, it’s crazy to think that Hostile Negotiations is already eight months old at this point. This one mana cheaper, Dimir color identity Fortune’s Favor will probably find it’s way into some of my decks. Of note, Fortune’s Favor targets and Sauron’s Ransom chooses, so you can choose an opponent with hexproof with the newer version. Take a hike, player hexproof!

Bonus Reskinned Reprints

Chief: Hold on. The story’s not over yet! These reprints are actually pretty good, so we each picked one that we were excited to see.

Green Dragon Inn (Homeward Path)

Chief: I've mentioned Homeward Path numerous times when talking about cards that really need to be reprinted more often. Here's hoping that this is just the first in a series of reprints at regular intervals down the line. I have to admit that releasing this land as the Green Dragon Inn also feels very flavorful and appropriate.

Morgul-Knife (Shadowspear)

Exxaxl: Shadowspear was one of the cards I first noticed becoming expensive ‘because of Commander’. Back when Theros Beyond Death (THB) released, I was still actively playing Standard in my local game store, unaware of what Commander actually was. Said store also didn’t really have an active EDH scene yet, mainly the same five or six people playing what in my eyes seemed to be two-to-three-hour games which from a distance looked tiring and confusing.

From memory Shadowspear was around five USD the first few weeks after THB released Because of its relevance in the Theros story arc, I think we’re mainly going to see it getting reprinted in supplemental sets or universes beyond sets because reprinting it in Amonkhet or Lorwyn would make little sense. It’s good to see this got reprinted ‘this quickly’.

Thus ends our really long story. We hope it amused, delighted and at times excited or deeply moved you. Articles like these are made possible and kept ad-free due to the support of all of our Patreon, Twitch and Discord Subscribers.

Form fellowships and assign Ring-bearers on our Discord. Talk aloud to yourself like a habit of the old and tag us on Twitter if you want to carry on the story!

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