The Lord of the Rings is a series so connected with who I am. As a kid, I read the story multiple times. I'm enthralled by the epic tales of small heroes and titanic villains and their many adventures in Middle-earth. And now, to get to see the amazing saga brought to life through Magic cards is truly a fantastic dream come true.
Whether you play lots of Magic (like me!), have read The Lord of the Rings many times over, or are new to both, it's the perfect time to go on this Universes Beyond adventure, and there's no better place than a Prerelease!
What's a Prerelease, you ask?
Prereleases are some of my favorite Magic events anywhere, perfect for absolutely everybody. They're the celebration of a new set, and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ has its Prerelease from June 16–22.
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Once you've found a spot, be sure to contact them about preregistering. Prereleases are popular events, and you'll want to make sure you have a seat at the table.
But what makes a Prerelease so awesome? And why this set in particular? Let's dig in!
Leaving the Shire
There's nothing quite like handling fresh cards from a new set, and that's exactly what you get to do at a Prerelease. Everyone's on equal footing: nobody has these cards before the Prerelease, and it's your first chance to explore the set and see how they all work together.
The energy in the room of a Prerelease is palpable. People are opening their cards, exclaiming about the cool things they've found, and discovering cool combinations for the very first time. Plus, with this set, you're going to have people talking about all their favorite The Lord of the Rings lore, too!
Another really great thing about the Prerelease is that it's a great environment for helping you through your first event. Even if you're brand new, people will be there in the store to support you and help you have a fantastic experience.
So, do you need to bring a deck from home? Nope! For a Prerelease, you will play a format called Sealed Deck. It's straightforward: open the six The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Draft Boosters from your Prerelease Pack and build a deck with the contents. It really is all about the new set and what's inside. You'll want to look over everything, from the commons to the rares, to build the best deck you can. (You can check out all the cards beforehand in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Card Image Gallery.)
How exactly does this work out? Let me walk you through it.
Creating your Fellowship
When you sit down on Prerelease day, you're going to get handed a The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Prerelease Pack.
While there are many things in here, like a spindown life counter for tracking your life total and a fun little insert with some information and tips, the most important are the six Draft Boosters.
Open them all and check out your new stack of cards. There will also be a foil-stamped rare or mythic rare card inside that you can play—make sure to pull that one out.
And as a special addition for The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, Prerelease Packs also include a borderless scene card from Bilbo's Birthday Party scene as a foil-stamped traditional foil promo card. You can collect all six borderless scene cards to create the full scene, however, these cards are not for Prerelease play.
Okay, everything open? Well, you're ready to build a deck!
But where do you even start?
First thing's first: you should know what you're trying to do. In Sealed Deck, you only need 40 cards, not 60 or 100. You can get as many additional basic lands as you want from the store.
A good rule of thumb is to play 17 lands. So, all things said and done, you're only looking to play about 23 nonland cards from the cards you open. That's your goal: identify the 23 cards to play.
Okay, sounds a bit easier. How do you go about picking those cards?
Try sorting your cards by color first. Make eight piles: one for each color, one for any multicolor cards, one for colorless cards, and one for lands. As you're going through, you'll have a chance to read the cards and see what interests you.
You'll want to whittle your choices down to two colors. You can sometimes "splash" a third, playing two colors as your base and a couple powerful cards or additional costs of another color, but I'd really focus on the two colors you want here. You can select them in any ways you want—maybe you just like those colors—but keep an eye out for three things:
- Strong and exciting rares in your colors
- Removal cards, such as cards that destroy or otherwise deal with your opponent's creatures
- Cards with evasion, such as flying creatures or hard-to-block cards
Additionally, another huge element to look for are good synergies and multicolor cards. Every two-color pairing in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth has a theme, and knowing what those are can clue you in to which colors to play.
Once you've chosen your colors, it's important to think about your mana curve. This helps to ensure that you have creatures to cast at every turn of the game. If everything costs six mana, you're going to be way behind on playing creatures, and if everything costs two mana, you're going to get outclassed in the late game.
Here's how to check your mana curve. First, lay your creatures out in mana-value order from left to right. So, all creatures that cost one mana, then all creatures that cost two, and so on. Only lay out noncreatures here if they're cards you're planning to play as soon as you have that much mana—for example, you might play an Equipment on turn two, so that counts as a two-drop, but you're probably not playing a removal spell on turn two.
For Limited in general—and this is just a guideline—I'd look to play something like this:
- 1 mana: 0–2
- 2 mana: 4–6
- 3 mana: 3–5
- 4 mana: 2–4
- 5 mana 1–3
- 6+ mana: 0–2
Once you have those figured out, go ahead and add in your noncreature spells. You will probably want to play all your removal spells to deal with your opponents' creatures. Beyond that, it's nice to have ways to pump up your creatures at instant speed and ways to draw cards. But you can season to taste depending on what you think might work well in your deck.
And there you have it! When you're finished, you should have a 40-card deck. You can play more than 40 cards, but I would strongly advise against it: every card you play beyond 40 just worsens the odds of drawing your best cards.
So, that's how you build a sealed deck. But what are the mechanics you can expect? Let me run through them.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Mechanics
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth has several mechanics, including the Ring tempts you, which is a particularly special one! You're going to want to learn how these work, even if you've been playing for a while. Check out the mechanics article to learn more.
There and Back Again
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Prerelease is just around the corner, from June 16–22. Check in with your local game store, look over the Card Image Gallery, and get ready for an adventure!
Oh, and one more thing—you can preorder booster displays for pickup at the Prerelease as well. So, if you want to gather everything you need for your journey to Mount Doom—or just your favorite deck—be sure to talk with your local store about preordering one.
I hope this helped you on your Prerelease journey. And, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube—I always appreciate hearing what people have to say.
Have a great adventure, everyone!
Gavin
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