Lord of the Rings: Magic: The Gathering's Lord of the Rings preview reveals familiar characters

Magic: The Gathering's developers recently gave the community a sneak preview of the upcoming Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth expansion that's coming to the tabletop game this summer. Available as an Eternal-legal set for the card game, both Commander and Modern players will have a great deal to look forward to.

In this Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth preview, fans got a chance to see what Frodo, Gollum, Samwise, and other iconic characters will look like in Magic: The Gathering. Although fan cards have existed for years, these are official Tolkien characters that will exist in the Magic multiverse.

Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth reveal popular characters for the upcoming expansion

Previously, we discussed both Gandalf the Grey and The One Ring, but more characters were revealed yesterday. Several well-known characters from Tolkien's books are confirmed to appear in this massive Magic: The Gathering expansion. While the official preview season is yet to arrive, Wizards showed off a few of the cards that players can look forward to.

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There are quite a few powerful legendary cards coming to Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth expansion. In this preview, fans got to see Frodo, Sauron’s Bane, Gollum, Patient Plotter, Samwise the Stouthearted, and Tom Bombadil.

The power of Tolkien's The One Ring is fairly apparent in this upcoming expansion. Frodo acts as a Figure of Destiny-style card in Magic: The Gathering, a creature that slowly evolves by paying specific mana costs. His ultimate form is quite interesting.

Certain cards in Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth will inform the player that “The Ring tempts you.” If this happens to your opponent four or more times, Frodo can defeat them with one strike.

Frodo, Sauron’s Bane

Mana Value: W
Type: Legendary Creature - Halfling Citizen
Rarity: Rare
Stats: 1 power, 2 toughness
First Ability: B/W B/W: If Frodo, Sauron’s Bane is a Citizen, it becomes a Halfling Scout with base power and toughness of ⅔ and lifeline.
Second Ability: BBB: If Frodo is a Scout, it becomes a Halfling Rogue with “Whenever this creature deals combat damage to a player, that player loses the game if the Ring has tempted you four or more times this game. Otherwise, the Ring tempts you.”

Samwise Gamgee, also known as Samwise the Strong, is an incredibly useful, low-cost creature for your Magic: The Gathering decks. He can bring back a creature that died in this turn and put it in your hand, but this comes at a dire cost. The Ring will tempt you with its power.

Samwise the Stouthearted

Mana Value: 1W
Type: Legendary Creature - Halfling Peasant
Rarity: Uncommon
Keyword: Flash
Stats: 2 power, 1 toughness
Ability: When Samwise the Stouthearted enters the battlefield, choose up to one target permanent card in your graveyard that was put there from the battlefield this turn. Return it to your hand. Then the Ring tempts you.

While Gollum in Lord of the Rings may be weak and cowardly, he’s also incredibly cunning. He’s survived a number of unfortunate events throughout Lord of the Rings, and his Magic: The Gathering card reflects that. He’s an incredibly useful card as he can be a sacrifice engine for you. That said, he will constantly force you to be tempted by the Ring.

Gollum, Patient Plotter

Mana Value: 1B
Type: Legendary Creature - Halfling Horror
Rarity: Uncommon
Stats: 3 power, 1 toughness
First Ability: When Gollum, Patient Plotter leaves the battlefield, the Ring tempts you.
Second Ability: B, Sacrifice a creature: Return Gollum from your graveyard to your hand, Activate only as a sorcery.

Those who have only seen the Lord of the Rings films may not be familiar with Tom Bombadil. He’s frequently speculated to be the most powerful creature in Middle-earth. He appears to be immortal, can completely resist The One Ring's temptations, and possesses incredible power and knowledge.

Tom Bombadil in Magic: The Gathering is going to make players who run Sagas overwhelmed with joy. He’s completely indestructible as long as you have at least four Lore counters amongst the Sagas that you control. Furthermore, he has hexproof on top of all this.

Also, whenever the final chapter of a Saga you control resolves, you can reveal the cards from the top of your deck until you get to a Saga. Put it into play, but you can only do this once per turn. Tom Bombadil is truly a force of nature in Magic: The Gathering.

Tom Bombadil

Mana Value: WUBRG
Type: Legendary Creature - God Bard
Rarity: Mythic Rare
Stats: 4 power, 4 toughness
First Ability: As long as there are four or more lore counters among Sagas you control, Tom Bombadil has hexproof and indestructible.
Second Ability: Whenever the final chapter ability of a Saga you control resolves, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a Saga card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. This ability only triggers once each turn.

This is only a portion of the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth cards that were revealed from the upcoming MTG set. Spoilers will begin in earnest on May 30, 2023, and the official tabletop release will be out on June 23, 2023.