Draft Trainer

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Limited Quiz

Answered: 0/20
Accuracy: 0
Horses of the Bruinen
Average Picked At: 2.94
Total Times Picked: 17
Average Last Seen At: 3.63
Total Times Seen 89
Pro Rating: 1.0
Pro Comment: You usually go down a card when you cast this without taking any cards away from your opponent. You might get some tempo, provided you bounce things that are expensive enough, but that is far from guaranteed. This can bounce Armies, which might feel pretty good when the Army is particularly large, but overall this doesn’t feel like it can consistently give you what it needs to when you’re spending 5 mana and using up a card.
Scroll of Isildur
Average Picked At: 3.44
Total Times Picked: 9
Average Last Seen At: 2.58
Total Times Seen 19
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: Chapter I won’t always have a target – but at least you get tempted by the ring, Chapter II isn’t always meaningful, and Chapter III is likely to draw you at least two cards. I think if you get to steal something with Chapter I, and you’re in a spot to take advantage of stunning a couple of creatures, this will feel pretty good, but there are definitely going to be situations where this is too slow and doesn’t impact the board enough. In the end, you get great value for your mana investment.
Dúnedain Rangers
Average Picked At: 6.83
Total Times Picked: 12
Average Last Seen At: 5.28
Total Times Seen 128
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: A 4-mana 4/4 is a solid stat-line, but the landfall trigger isn’t amazing. If it was just straight up you get tempted every time you play a land that would be awesome, but this only triggers if you don’t already have a Ringbearer. That said, getting The Ring going or offering a big upgrade to a creature if you already have been tempted a bunch is pretty big. Still, sometimes this landfall trigger is meaningless, and I don’t love that
Ranger's Firebrand
Average Picked At: 3.58
Total Times Picked: 26
Average Last Seen At: 3.14
Total Times Seen 58
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This looks great. One mana for 2 damage is always an awesome rate, and it means you can easily trade up with this. This would be premium removal even if it didn’t tempt you, but it does, and that’s some powerful additional value to tack on to an already premium removal spell
Surrounded by Orcs
Average Picked At: 10.41
Total Times Picked: 51
Average Last Seen At: 9.02
Total Times Seen 495
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: This is either a 4-mana 3/3 that mills three, or it makes an army you already have bigger, while milling even more. Neither of those are amazing deals, but if you’re doing graveyard stuff or your opponent is low and cards, this card can do something.
Nasty End
Average Picked At: 9.44
Total Times Picked: 55
Average Last Seen At: 7.27
Total Times Seen 411
Pro Rating: 1.5
Pro Comment: This type of spell is never amazing, but it does often find a niche. If you have a legendary creature that is worth sacrificing this can feel particularly good, but the problem with this kind of card is always that you don’t always have something worth giving up. Using it in response to removal is often the ideal situation, and that can potentially be quite impressive. However, it still ends up being too situational to be anything special.
Doors of Durin
Average Picked At: 3.12
Total Times Picked: 8
Average Last Seen At: 2.78
Total Times Seen 24
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: This does something the turn you play it, which is pretty important! Once you attack and Scry 2, you’ve got a pretty solid shot at revealing a creature that this will let you cheat into play. You’ll wiff sometimes, but in your typical 15-creature deck, you’re normally going to find what you’re looking for. Of course, the creature isn’t always going to be something that its amazing for you to have to put into play tapped and attacking, but an extra body is usually going to be welcome if you already had a good attack. I think this will do enough to be pretty good overall, even if sometimes it won’t quite pan out the way you want it to
Denethor, Ruling Steward
Average Picked At: 5.08
Total Times Picked: 24
Average Last Seen At: 4.24
Total Times Seen 77
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: Playing this in your second main phase after something died in combat is going to feel pretty good, as at that point Denethor is a three mana 2/4 and a 1/1 token, which is an amazing rate! Plus, he can give up creatures to drain life, and you can do that once every turn without really giving anything up, because he can just sacrifice the token every time
Faramir, Field Commander
Average Picked At: 4.00
Total Times Picked: 19
Average Last Seen At: 3.17
Total Times Seen 68
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: The ideal thing here is to play him in your second main phase after a creature you control dies during combat. If you do that, you’re looking at a 2-for-1, and one that can also crank out a 1/1 token every now and then. The bad news is that Hill Giant stats aren’t great, and it takes some work for either of his effects to matter.
Sméagol, Helpful Guide
Average Picked At: 2.50
Total Times Picked: 8
Average Last Seen At: 2.55
Total Times Seen 21
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: He’s got decent base stats and it isn’t overly difficult to get the Ring to Tempt you here either. In fact, you can do something as simple as attack into a trade, then play Smeagol in your second main phase, at which point you get the Ring going and when you do that, you end up ramping your mana which is pretty nice! While the ramp part of Smeagol’s “Tempted by the ring” upside matters less and less as the game goes on, the fact you are milling your opponent eventually becomes relevant, and I think that will work fairly nicely. Smeagol is going to give you a lot of value all game long
Gríma Wormtongue
Average Picked At: 3.86
Total Times Picked: 21
Average Last Seen At: 3.94
Total Times Seen 87
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: Shutting off lifegain isn’t that big of a deal in Limited, but the rest of the card seems reasonable. It has passable defensive stats and an ability that can be great if you have sacrifice fodder. One awkward thing about it is that you aren’t usually going to be interested in sacrificing legendary creatures to this effect. Most of the time holding on to your legendary creature will just be better than Amassing 2. So this is a case where you’ll only end up doing it in response to removal and things like that, and that narrows how good this ability can be.
Palantír of Orthanc
Average Picked At: 1.33
Total Times Picked: 3
Average Last Seen At: 1.33
Total Times Seen 3
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Scry 2 on every end step is a pretty decent effect, though getting it out of a card that doesn’t really impact the board is less than ideal, and overall I think maybe the Palantir is just too slow to be great. The first couple turns when your opponent goes with the mill option it will likely do very little, and then once they can’t safely choose that option anymore they are likely to give you cards, but you also have to be pressuring your opponent in some way for them to be that concerned about their life total. It definitely has an impressive ceiling as a value engine, but it will take too many turns to start doing something meaningful to be great.
Deceive the Messenger
Average Picked At: 7.92
Total Times Picked: 64
Average Last Seen At: 7.00
Total Times Seen 397
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: Instants that temporary lower power usually aren’t very good, since they aren’t usually enough to help your creature win in combat or anything, instead they just feel like they delay the inevitable. However, Adding Amass to the mix does matter. If you think of this as a one mana 1/1 that gives a creature -3/-0 until end of turn, that sounds a lot better. It won’t always be that, but if it isn’t well, then it will put a counter on your Army, and that does increase the chances of this feeling more like a combat trick.
Meriadoc Brandybuck
Average Picked At: 6.38
Total Times Picked: 16
Average Last Seen At: 5.16
Total Times Seen 119
Pro Rating: 3.0
Pro Comment: Meriadoc itself is a Halfling so at worst it is a two mana 2/2 that makes a food when it attacks, and that’s a solid card to have around. It gets even better when you’ve got more Halflings and food payoffs, and neither of those seems like a big stretch for Green
Foray of Orcs
Average Picked At: 3.17
Total Times Picked: 18
Average Last Seen At: 3.18
Total Times Seen 45
Pro Rating: 3.5
Pro Comment: At worst, this is a 4-mana 2/2 that does 2 to something. That’s a decent card, and this has the upside of sometimes doing significantly more damage, provided this isn’t the first time you’ve Amassed.
Olog-hai Crusher
Average Picked At: 10.93
Total Times Picked: 41
Average Last Seen At: 8.98
Total Times Seen 518
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: This isn’t exactly the Goblin/Orc payoff you’re hoping for, but a 4-mana 4/4 Trampler is fairly formidable, and it will often be capable of blocking
Haunt of the Dead Marshes
Average Picked At: 6.33
Total Times Picked: 64
Average Last Seen At: 6.13
Total Times Seen 347
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: Having a legendary creature isn’t a guarantee in this format, but it is easier than normal because of both the Ring Tempts You and a large number of legendary creatures in general. I like that you get to Scry 1 every time too!
Eagles of the North
Average Picked At: 7.05
Total Times Picked: 59
Average Last Seen At: 6.19
Total Times Seen 344
Pro Rating: 2.5
Pro Comment: The stat-line is ugly, but the ETB ability will often be enough to drastically alter combat. +1/+0 and First Strike together makes a whole lot of your board into effective attackers. Of course, you do need to have a significant board for it to really make a difference, but that’s not the biggest ask by the time you have six mana. The fact it has Plainscycling is really nice, because in the early game this is going to feel really bad in your opening hand, especially when you need to get your hands on some more land drops.
Grond, the Gatebreaker
Average Picked At: 8.30
Total Times Picked: 23
Average Last Seen At: 5.60
Total Times Seen 155
Pro Rating: 2.0
Pro Comment: If your deck can’t make an Army, this doesn’t look especially good. Crew 3 is higher than you might think, and the payoff – while certainly a large creature, isn’t exactly amazing. Even if you do have an Army, the absolute ceiling of this card is a 4-mana 5/5 Trampler – and that’s certainly efficient, but you have to keep in mind the times where you won’t be able to crew it and you don’t have an army. And, trust me, those times will come.
Old Man Willow
Average Picked At: 3.56
Total Times Picked: 16
Average Last Seen At: 3.71
Total Times Seen 69
Pro Rating: 4.0
Pro Comment: This is a great signpost Uncommon. It is always going to have at least decent stats, and the attack effect is really strong too. You won’t always have something to sacrifice, but there is a lot of Food in this format, and that’s the ideal thing to give up. There are going to be tons of situations where this can attack and easily remove opposing creatures by giving up sacrifice fodder
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