This set easily could have gone either way for me and it was the pricing that really decided it. I thought I was going to be asked to pay double or triple the price for packs as compared to a normal standard set and I would have boycotted. As it stands I got a reasonable deal on some pre-release packs and wound up paying a very similar amount to normal. Beyond just sneaking under my price threshold for offence there were a bunch of hits and a bunch of misses. That was always to be expected with any Universe Beyond ip, let alone the progenitor of modern fantasy! On balance we got mostly hits. I think the mechanics did well to reflect the game and world. There are a lot of cool and interesting cards I am looking forward to playing with, and for the most part, nothing too silly and broken. I was worried it was all going to be a bit Modern Horizons III but in fact it is tamer than many standard sets over the passed five years! A set that offers lots of cards to play with but that doesn't overdo it on the power level is pretty much by my definition a good set.
The biggest gripe I have is the poor reflection of power some of the elves like Elrond and Glorfindel had but I obviously don't actually care. I would have done it different but so what. Moving on. The ponies also seemed like someone was just having a good joke. The ponies are so hard relatively speaking. Really would love to be a fly on the wall when these were getting pitched and designed!
There are other minor gripes. The hype about all the serialized cards got tiring quickly. The tedious thing is that it seemed to work and so now we have more of this pantomime to look forward to. I hear that while flavourful the limited is on the weak side and resembles core set drafts a bit. Further salt in the wounds is imbalance in the mechanics for limited with the interesting food looking one supposedly being turds as you get your face pounded by an unanswerable 8/8 army of Mordor! Last minor gripe is kind of just the reverse of the first grip in that some of the most powerful cards felt like nobodies in the lore. Orcish Bowmasters being the main offender here but there are plenty more examples.
On to some big wins now. The overall aesthetic is great. I love the basics which it always my starting point for appraising the look of a set. I like the full art panoramics and the showcase card frame for the set. Rare that I like most of the stylings from a set. I even really like a lot of the cards like "The Birthday Tree" that were given the Middle Earth treatment in the commander product. That was cool. There were also a bunch of cards that just absolutely hit the nail on the head in terms of mechanical flavour. I really appreciated those more than the art. And there were a really healthy pile of those too. Often weak cards thus not mentioned, or at least for long, in the reviews!
Much as in my old age I am enjoying the look of the cards more and more it is all still about mechanics and gameplay. On that front this looks like a win for cube too. Not broken like Modern Horizons, only a couple of egregious looking cards, and a lot of quite interesting, suitable, and playable cards otherwise. A sweet spot on power level as far as design goes (for cube at least!) Now they just need to actually play well in the cube. I shall look forward to drawing into a Space Marine with the One Ring! Mock as I might there is plenty sillier well contained within the magic canon. Middle Earth was always going to be an easy and natural fit into the MtG world and lore and it has been that. I would have liked to see the "maiar" level of characters as planeswalkers but that was probably a tall order design wise.
Too Add
Moria Scavenger*
Eomer, King of Rohan*
Forth Eorlingas!*
Dawn of a New Age
Flame of Arnor
Fiery Inscription
King of the Oathbreakers
Stern Scolding
Arwen, Mortal Queen
Radagast the Brown
Flowering of the White Tree
Orcish Bowmasters
Samwise Gamgee
Delighted Halfling
Wizard's Rockets
The One Ring
Reprieve
Samwise, the Stoutharted
To Test (with high hopes)
Riders of Rohan*
Stone of Erech
Shadow Summoning
Pippin, Guard of the Citadel
Gollum's Bite
Smite the Deathless
Horn of the Mark
Elven Chorus
Frodo, Sauron's Bane
Minas Tirith
Phial of Galadriel
Moria Marauder
Eowyn, Fearless Knight
Prince Imrahil the Fair
Frodo, Determined Hero
Boromir, Warden of the Tower
Aragorn, the Uniter
Gandalf the White
Witchking of Angmar
To Test (with low low expectations)
The Balrog of Moria*
Denethor, Stone Seer*
Ranger's Firebrand
Lorien Revealed
Hithlain Knots
The Balrog, Durin's Bane
Glorious Gale
Spiteful Banditry
Call of the Ring
Anduril, Flame of the West
Westfold Rider
Shire Terrace
Legolas, Master Archer
Generous Ent
Many Partings
Cast into the Fire
Barad-dur
Long List of the Ents
For Singleton Constructed Reserves
The Black Gate*
Assemble the Entmoot*
Farmer Cotton*
Sauron's Ransom
Rally the Hornburg
Lembas
Goldberry, River-Daughter
Council's Deliberation
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