Tales of Middle-earth Commander - 7 Point Highlander Set Review

 

Release date: June 23rd 2023

Latest points change at the time of writing this - Murders at Karlov Manor

Throughout my set reviews I use '~' to denote the subject card.

Just recieved a point last weekend!

~ scales late game.

~ kills fast.

~ grinds.

Can be found with Spellseeker.

The only thing ~ asks of you is to run lots of removal to kill blockers and help keep the monarch, whch most decks are doing already.

Before ~ got a point, if you were already red or white and had a fetchland manabase, you could justify the splash just for ~.

I bought one of these, lent it out about 4 times and never played it, and then it got a point.

I played against this card about 3 times before I realised the tokens have trample. Why do they have trample!? I suppose they are on horseback:

Yeah baby. Trample those Uruk-hai!

If you're mono blue or UG, then you don't have conventional removal spells. You will probably need some mana acceleration to answer big delve threats fast enough. You will also need to plan for your opponent having Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast post-board.

Awesome with:

Nourishing Shoal

Zuran Orb

Feather, Radiant Arbiter

Glory-Bound Initiate

Refreshing Rain

Soul Spike

Sunspring Expedition

Dark Heart of the Wood

Overgrown Estate

Obviously not all of those fit in the same deck! I think a weird Fastbond + Crucible of Worlds WUBG deck which Tinker's for Bolas's Citadel would be what I would try first.

Surely they'll print an enchantment version of Crucible of Worlds eventually; that could open up a weird Abzan enchantress deck with Replenish etc.

Another strong lifegain payoff. 

~ is quite similar to Sanguine Blood except better.

Win conditions with infinite mana from Food Chain + Squee, the Immortal et al.

Galadhrim Brigade is obviously a strong Elf tribal payoff too. Bothers me that it's only available in extended border.

Another playable extended border only card, my eyes.

The best fight/bite spell ever?

These days you need your removal spells to kill Sheoldred, the Apocalypse, Tasigur, the Golden Fang, Gurmag Angler, Troll of Khazad-dum, Tarmogoyf... What I'm getting at is that if you're running several creatures with 5 power (or deathtouch), then ~ is amazing. If you 'only' have 4power creatures then ~ is still playable but is much worse against Grixis.

Murktide Regent is another creature that you really need to be able to kill but ~ can't realistically do that unless you two-for-one yourself by chump attacking into the Murktide. Gotta do what you gotta do though.

If you can cast ~ on a creature which you can tap multiple times in a turn, then you can machine gun down your opponent's board.

Cute with lifelink.

Honestly ~ is not playable yet, but eventually there might be enough cost reduced legends that you can reliably cast ~ and a ≥4 mana value legend on the same turn. I think it's too risky to cast ~ turn3 and hope to have the 4drop legend next turn because ~ could get Bonecrusher'd or you may not have the 4drop, or the 4drop may get countered. Plus you'll need a significant number of 4drops to have one reliably, which is bad because your curve will be too high.

Here are the legends I found that are techically ≥4mana value but can be cast earlier and therefore keep your curve down:

Tasigur, the Golden Fang. 

Hogaak, Arisen Necropolis (but too difficult considering ~'s mana cost)

Dargo, the Shipwrecker (requires a 4th colour and sacrifice theme, i.e. difficult)

Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer

Gorex, the Tombshell (requires a graveyard of creatures)

Torgaar, Famine Incarnate (requires a sacrifice theme, i.e. difficult)

I dunno, seems way too much build cost when the opponent could just have removal to spoil your effort.

Doesn't look very powerful but I've been trying to build a Jund Survival of the Fittest deck and might do just enough:

~ discards Vengevine and reanimate targets.

~ creates tokens for casting Hogaak and sacrificing to Skullclamp

~ has a relevant body, i.e. trades with a big attacker and doesn't get Lightning Bolted

Insane in Human tribal and Winota, Joiner of Forces decks.

Searchable with Recruiter of the Guard and Imperial Recruiter.

Strong with Karakas, the bouncing castle for kings.

That's enough power that I think you're happy with this against combo, but only if your sideboard plan doesn't involve holding up mana for Red Elemental Blast or Relic of Progenitus or whatever.

There's no shortage of huge unbeatable equipment to reveal. In fact you probably only want a max of 3, otherwise you'll draw too many. The limiting factor is the playable exert creatures, which for curve reasons need to be ≤3mana:

Glory-Bound Initiate

Ahn-Crop Crasher

Combat Celebrant

Devoted Crop-Mate

Glorybringer

That's not enough. They may print more when they revisit Amonkhet though.

I suppose you don't need to trigger ~ with other exert creatures, you can also give ~ haste and exert itself. There we go, that will give us plenty of enablers.

Obviously you can't just build your deck around ~. You would run it in a deck à la modern Hammer Time.

Amazing how much difference 1 mana makes. 3 mana and you're part of 'the power nine', known and sought by all. 4 mana and you're a fringe nobody. Not even being instant speed can bring you fame. May as well jump on the ferry to Portarlington.

Surely ~ has a home in some combo deck. I imagine your opponent casting a creature on turn4, maybe holding up two mana for Leyline Binding or Abrupt Decay, then in their end step you cast ~. Untap, cast a couple rituals and win the game that turn.

A strike against ~ is that it's blue, which means it gets countered by Red Elemental Blast and Pyroblast, which are both super popular. That may explain why Isaac dropped ~ from his Tolarian Academy untapping combo deck.

Instants and Sorceries that copy creatures go infinite with Dualcaster mage. That combo is typically expensive because you need to cast Dualcaster Mage whilst the copying spell is on the stack, 

≥6 mana. However, if you're able to conspire ~, then you can combo with Dualcaster Mage already on the battlefield, which means turn 4 rather than turn 6, i.e. acceptable speed. The trick is that you'll need the blue/green creatures to conspire, which is difficult because Dualcaster Mage is red. Ideally your blue/green creatures will be worth casting but not worth removing, e.g. Coiling Oracle, Mawloc or Icefang Coatl.

Probably too slow but Grixis is very good at disrupting the opponent and slowing them down to whatever speed you want. I dunno, it's just so much power by the end of the saga and resilience to removal, and you'll complete the ring emblem by the end of it. Surely ~ has a home in a weird control deck.

I've been thinking about a weird deck that abuses the mana costs of delve spells and pitch spells with payoffs like ~, Vial Smasher the Fierce, Up the Bean Stalk and Chrome-Host Seedshark. Here's a list I've thrown together. It's pretty wild and a lot of different directions you can go with the deck:

• Could add white for Leyline Binding and more fetchlands for delve.
• Could solidify into 2 or 3 colours rather than black splashing temur.
• Could go heavy blue for Gush, maybe Treasure Cruise, maybe Dig Through Time, Misdirection, Force of Will
• Could go super aggro rather than rely on 'draw an extra card a turn creatures'.
• Could add an artifact theme.
• Could switch up the points with Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer/The One Ring/Gush/Urza's Saga/Library of Alexandria.

That's worth 8 mana. Being a cast trigger makes it playable because you don't need to worry so much about counterspells. I don't think you would run ~ in a deck that relies heavily on the graveyard though because if the opponent sideboards in Rest in Peace or Leyline of the Void, then ~ is bad.

The trick is getting the mana. It's late and I can't be bothered theorising how that's going to happen :P

4/4 vigilance lifelink is impossible to race against and ~'s ability to shut off a blocker makes it very likely that you reclaim The Monarch if it gets taken from you. Therefore, ~ is a must-kill creature for the opponent.

If you're in a metagame without much combo then you can focus on tempo and maintaining The Monarch with Solitude, Fury, Force of Will, etc. ~ is excellent in that scenario.

Cards which flicker ~ are a great way to reclaim The Monarch, just like players have been doing with Ephemerate and Initiative the past couple years.

SIDEBOARD

Sometimes you don't want to run Shatterstorm because it will destroy your artifacts too; In this case I like ~.

Nets you mana if your opponent has 5 or more artifacts. 

Worth a sideboard slot if you're running Disciple of the Vault because you'll sacrifice a bunch of treasures.

Will generate crazy amounts of mana if you have Tolarian Academy untapped that turn.

The high manavalue could be abused with Blazing Shoal.

If your metagame contains a lot of Tinker, Natural Order, Oath of Druids, Reanimator, Indomitable Creativity, then ~ is a game winning sideboard card that can also come in against midrange. If there's no combo, aggro or control then you could even maindeck it.

CONCLUSION

Here's my list of best cards in rough descending power order:

Forth Eorlingas! (already 1 points)

Legolas's Quick Reflexes

Sail into the West

Aragorn, King of Gondor

Eomer, King of Rohan

Annnnnd done! Thanks for reading. Next up is Commander Masters, which is a set, not a tournament.

See you on the glorious field of battle, Forth Eorlingas! 

Mulch