LOTR Scene Bundle Spoilers Reveal Extremely Powerful New Cards

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth Scene boxes contain brand-new, functionally unique LOTR cards that, when placed together, form stunning artwork of iconic scenes from the franchise. These were scheduled to hit shelves in early November, just before the holidays. However, in typical MTG fashion, things got spoiled a little (or a lot) early. And man, are these new cards insane. I won't keep you waiting any longer; let's jump right into the LOTR MTG Scene Bundle Spoilers.

LOTR Scene Bundle Spoilers

For those who may not know - Lord of the Rings scene boxes contain six textless, borderless "art cards" that come together to show iconic moments from The Lord of the Rings franchise. They also include six scene cards that are playable magic cards. You can find a full rundown and much more info here - MTG Lord of the Rings: Scene Boxes - What They Are & Why They're Awesome if you're interested. Now, let's get into these crazy spoilers.

Flight of the Witch-King Scene

Call Forth the Tempest

Call Forth the Tempest is an eight-mana sorcery with double cascade that damages each creature your opponent's control equal to the total mana value of other spells you've cast that turn. Whew! Eight mana is a lot, but you get your money's worth. First, you'll get two potentially huge free spells from the cascade triggers.

Then, in addition to the free spells, you wipe the board, too - Because whatever you cascaded into (or anything else you've happened to cast that turn) will damage all opposing creatures equal to their CMC.

Nazgul Battle-Mace

Up next, we have a five-mana equipment that's pretty nasty. It gives the creature its attached to menace, deathtouch, annihilator 1, and whenever an opponent sacrifices a nontoken permanent, put it onto the battlefield under your control unless that player pays three life!

First off, the combination of menace and deathtouch is phenomenal - If someone blocks your mace wielder, they'll lose both blocking creatures, giving you a two-for-one. Next, annihilator is always hard for opponents to navigate and come out on top of. It's strange to see it on a non-Eldrazi card, though. Until now, it's only come up on Eldrazi and cards revolving around them.

And the cherry on top is that anything they sacrifice, you get (Tergrid, God of Fright style) unless they pay three life. In most cases, when faced with that decision, they'll pay the life. But still, you can't beat a bolt to the face on what's an already sound card.

Witch-King Sky Scourge

The Witch-King is a card advantage machine. He's an eight-mana 5/5 with flying that allows you to cast cards from the top of your library equal to the total power of attacking wraiths. So, even attacking with him only him means you'll get access to casting the top five cards of your library.

Given that he's eight mana, and you have to have excess mana to cast the extra spells, it's a little slow. However, aside from that, I like it. I think it'll be a fun commander to build, but I wish there were more wraiths.

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Morodor on the March

Morodor on the March has you exile a creature from your graveyard, then create a token copy of it that gains haste and exiles at the end of the turn—a good effect, but not for five mana. Oh, wait, it also has storm! Even casting this with a small storm count would be a big play. There are quite a few ways to get crafty and keep your tokens, too.

Fell Beast of Mordor

Fell Beast of Morodor has flying and devour, which means you can sacrifice any number of creatures as you cast it and have it get a +1/+1 counter for each of them. Then, whenever it enters the battlefield or attacks, an opponent of your choosing will lose life equal to the number of +1/+1 counters on it, and you gain that much life.

There are a ton of black-based decks that love to sacrifice things (and drain and gain, for that matter), so I think this will see some play. And even if you don't go crazy, sac a bunch of tokens, get a bunch of Blood Artist triggers, and what have you, you can still easily end up with a pretty big flyer for four mana or give/proliferate it counters through other means.

Minas Morgol, Dark Fortress

Minas Morgul was the twin city of Minas Tirith before it fell to the forces of Sauron. It appears here as a legendary land that enters the battlefield tapped, and produces black mana. Then, for four mana, you can tap it to put a shadow (a creature with shadow can only block or be blocked by creatures with shadow) counter on a creature, which becomes a wraith for as long as it has that counter.

I don't know how much play this will see outside of a few niches, but shadow is a powerful ability (that not many creatures have), so it's cool to see. And from a flavor point of view, this card is on point.

The Might of Galadriel Scene

Arboreal Alliance

Arboreal Alliance is an enchantment for two green and x. When it enters the battlefield, you create an x/x green tree-folk creature token. Then, whenever you attack with one or more elves, you populate. If you're unfamiliar with populate, you create a copy of a token you control, which works well if you have a giant tree-folk token you've just made.

Given the power of some of the cards, this is a little underwhelming from a gameplay perspective. However, from a flavor/lore point of view, it's great. You have to love the Ents helping the Elves on a Magic card.

Galadriel, Light of Valinoir

In the Lord of the Rings, Galadriel is mighty powerful, and that's on full display here. Her new card is crazy! She is a five-mana (two of any color, one white, blue, and green), 3/3, Elf Noble, with alliance. Her alliance ability says, "Whenever another creature enters the battlefield under your control, choose one that hasn't been chosen this turn." Then, you have three options to pick from.

First, add three green mana to your mana pool. The second is to put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. Finally, there is the option to scry two and draw a card. Every single one of these is gas! And considering you can create mana and draw cards, it won't be hard to chain creatures together and get all three options.

Rally the Galadhrim

Rally the Galadhrim lets you create a token copy of a creature you control. For four mana, it isn't terrible. Where it shines, though, is the conspire ability. As you cast it, you can tap two untapped creatures you control, and if you do, you copy Rally the Galadhrim. So, for four mana and tapping two creatures, you can make two copies of the best thing on your side of the battlefield. That's some good value.

Galadriel's Dismissal

Galadriel's Dismissal is an incredibly versatile card. For a single white mana, you can phase a target creature from the game, which, essentially, means it ceases to exist until it returns. This can be used to save an essential creature of yours from a removal spell or board wipe. Or it can be aimed at an opposing creature swinging at you to avoid damage in a tricky way.

It also has a kicker cost of three. If you pay this additional three mana, instead of a single creature you can phase out someone's entire board. So, instead of saving a single creature from a removal spell, you can save your entire board. If everyone else gets sent back to the dark ages from a Wrath of God and you keep your whole board, you'll be miles ahead.

And again, you can also target opponents. If someone sends a massive attack your way, you can blank the whole thing for four mana. Or even better, you can make their entire board disappear and attack them for lethal when they assumed they were safe. There are so many ways to use this spell; a few can be massive momentum swings or downright game-ending.

Mists of Lorien

Dare I say Mists of Lorien reminds me a lot of Cyclonic Rift? I think so. You can return a nonland permanent and all other nonland permanents with the same mana value to their owner's hands for three mana. So, if you bounce someone's two drop, all other two mana permanents in play will go with it; Already, this is pretty good.

Where it really gets cool is the replicate cost. For a blue mana, you can create a copy of this and target something else. And you can do this as many times as you want/can pay for. This turns it into a board wipe you can be very selective with. For four mana, you bounce all nonland permanents at two different mana values, which should leave things pretty clear for a pretty low cost.

Galadhrim Brigade

Galadhrim Brigade is a three mana 2/2 Elf that gives your other Elves +1/+1. In general, more lords are always good to have access to. But aside from general playability, this thing is a monster thanks to "Squad." You may pay two green mana as you cast this, and if you do, you make a copy of it. And you may do this any number of times!

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So, for three mana, you get a 2/2 body and a lord effect. For five mana, you get two lords (and another body), and this scales up as high as you can take it. The only thing holding you back is the amount of mana you can pump into this. And Elves decks are good at making mana. This is going to have those mana dorks hitting very hard.

Aragorn At Helm’s Deep Scene

Anduril, Narsil Reforged

Anduril, Narsil Reforged is two-mana legendary equipment that has ascend, which we haven't seen on a card in quite a while. If you don't know, once you control 10 or more permanents, you get "the city's blessing" for the rest of the game. So, you don't lose it if you go down permanents and drop below the requisite.

On to Narsil Reforged. Whenever the equipped creature attacks, you'll put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control. And if you have the city's blessing, you'll put two +1/+1 counters on them instead. If left unanswered for even a few attacks, this will get out of hand quickly. In a go-wide strategy (where you'd want to play it), getting up to 10 permanets won't be too hard.

Lastly, I want to add that I like that this is an attack trigger. It makes it much easier to trigger and makes your opponent's lives hard when it comes to combat. This is an excellent piece of equipment at two mana to cast and three to equip.

Aragorn, Hornburg Hero

The arm wielding the Andril belongs to Aragorn. In particular, Aragorn, Hornburg Hero. He's a four-mana 4/4 that gives all of your attacking creatures first strike and renown 1. This means that when they deal combat damage to a player if they aren't renowned, you put a +1/+1 counter on them, and they become renowned.

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Then, he says, whenever a renowned creature you control deals combat damage to a player, double the number of +1/+1 counters on it. You'll have to ensure you can get in for damage frequently to make this work, but overall, it's pretty good. And it works well with Anduril, Narsil Reforged, which is a flavor win for an Aragorn-themed deck.

Legolas's Quick Reflexes

Legolas's Quick Reflexes is another card you can adapt for many purposes. For one green, instant speed, you can untap target creature and give it reach, and hexproof for a turn. The creature also gains: "Whenever this creature becomes tapped it deals damage equal to its power to target creature. The hexproof makes it an obvious protection spell for something you want to stick around, but there is much more to unpack here.

Simply untapping something to block with can be useful in many circumstances. And gaining reach makes the card a sneaky way to trade (or take out) a flying attacker when it looked as if you were shields down. You can generate a ton of mana if you're untapping something like Circle of Dreams Druid and if you cast it on something like Experiment Kraj, you can save it from removal, tap it again, and deal some damage.

It also has split second, which ensures that the stack will be clear while you do your thing.

Gimli's Reckless Might

This is one of the few cards I'm not over the moon about from these LOTR scene bundle spoilers. It's not bad, but it doesn't do much compared to many others. It's a four-man enchantment that will give your creatures haste. Some decks will likely want this effect, but that's mainly what you're paying for.

It does have formidable, but you have to attack with eight power worth of stuff to fight a single opposing creature. If you really want the additional Anger, go for it. Aside from that, I think there are better spells you can run at the four-mana spot in your red decks.

Isengard Unleashed

Isengard Unleased is a one-time use (well, two times) Fiery Emancipation that stops damage from being prevented. If your deck is the "deal triple damage" kinda build, making sure it can't be prevented is a nice upside, especially if people play a lot of The One Ring in your group. And after you've thrown the kitchen sink at someone, you can flash it back and do it again. Good luck explaining to everyone how this deals damage through the one ring and stacks with similar cards like Fiery Emancipation.

Rohirrim Chargers

Rohirrim Chargers is a four-mana, 4/4 that you can exert as it attacks. If you do, it won't untap during your next untap step. But it'll be well worth it because when you exert a creature, you can reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal an equipment, and put it directly into play attached to that creature.

You don't have much control over which equipment you'll get, but it'll be worthwhile assuming you're not running bad cards. Especially when you consider you don't have to pay to cast the equipment and the equip cost is circumvented for you as well. You'd think most of the time, you probably won't be triggering this with creates other than Rohirrim Chargers; Boros has plenty of other cool stuff you could run with this.

For example, Gust Walker, Khenra Scrapper, Glorybringer, and Combat Celebrant, among more, would all be nice to slap free Kaldra Completant and Colososus Hammer's onto.

Gandalf in Pelennor Fields Scene

There haven't been any spoilers for this one (at least that I've seen), but when they do show up, you'll find em here.

Conclusion

There you have it, a breakdown of the very exciting LOTR Scene Bundle spoilers. I liked the idea of these just from a display point of view. Each one comes with an easel that displays the entire scene the cards make. However, I didn't expect functionally unique cards and didn't think they'd be so good. Comment below and let me know which ones you're most excited about and which cards you like best.