Lord of the Rings Preliminary Review Part II

 

0 - unplayable in 40 card singleton

1 - effectively unplayable

2 - has low tier constructed decks it might go in

3 - has mid tier constructed decks it does go in

4 - pretty powerful stuff with several potential homes, able to perform well in lower powered cubes

5 - powerful stuff that is either just too narrow or has too many superior alternatives

6 - fringe cube worthy

7 - cube worthy

8 - cube staple

9 - unpowered cube bomb

10 - powered cube bomb

Delighted Halfling 8

A lovely little mana dork and a welcome upgrade to Boreal Druid. Certainly packing a lot more game than Rustvine Cultivator! Overall this is probably also just about better than a Llanowar Elf. The fixing for green they give is not often relevant An extra toughness, fixing for my legends, and the ability to force them through counter magic? That is a lot to get in exchange. Solid little support card. This probably brings us to a nice tally of one mana green ramp effects such that they are no longer the bottleneck in the colour. 

Call of the Ring 7

Well, I rather assumed the Ring tempting you would be a bad thing. It is not, it is all upside. Scary! Gollum and Samwise and even Frodo (Sauron's Bane) are rather better than I gave them credit for, This card looks OK but really needs you to have both dorks and spare life to shine on curve. Off curve it is perhaps a little slow to get going. If you are just buffing a dork it is all a bit slow and disruptable. If you are getting a buff engine going while getting the option of a card a turn at two life then I am more excited. A fully tempted ring bearer has skulk, looting on attack, a super deathtouch effect, and an extra punch of 3 if it connects. Not sure how I would value all that in general but it isn't trivial. An equip that was 2 and 2 would probably see some play with those effects. Call of the Ring is OK by itself and seems like it might well just become good if you have other cards that key off it such as Frodo. 

Bilbo, Retired Burglar 6

Great card but cube is a bit fast and streamlined for gold three drops that make treasure. Empowering other tempt cards might get this some love but by itself this is just a little shy of the mark. 

Frodo Baggins 3

Perhaps playable in a tempt deck or a legendary deck. Once you get to edict mode on the tempt emblem this is looking good but prior to that it is wildly underwhelming. 

Lobelia Sackville-Baggins 1

These cards you have to hold in hand for the right time to get their ceiling are just no good in cube. If stuff isn't proactive then it is not getting it done. This is the horror show of situational and conditional.  Yes, this has a lot of ceiling but no, it isn't close to cube worthy. 

Wizard's Rockets 8

Amazing, another Chromatic Star effect. Much more of a Terrarion as it comes in tapped and can fix multiple colours. Directly better than a Terrarion I think. Certainly feels like it is the kind of thing that could wind up with some abuses as you reduce activation costs or channel mana through it you otherwise couldn't use elsewhere. Just another one drop you draw from when it dies is pretty exciting. I love an enabling support card like this more than most and this is an upgrade to a tried and tested good one.

Gandalf, Friend of the Shire 3

Fun but a doing disparate things that don't line up well. Lacking in power and narrow to boot. 

Sauron the Necromancer 2

Seems rubbish. A 5 mana 4/4 with a conditional on-attack trigger. Ceiling is OK but hardly impressive given how low and likely the floor is. 

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit 3

Just a bit slow to get going and a bit in need of lifegain support. You need immediate bang for your buck, particularly in gold and this doesn't offer such things. This obviously has quite an impressive ceiling but it will mostly just be a Lumengrid Warden...

Eowyn, Shield Maiden 1

If she triggered herself then she would be amazing but as it stands this has no hope. 

Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant 1

Too gold and low power for the lifegain decks and never seriously being played for the activated ability. EDH commander card just to provide colours and theming. 

Merry, Warden of Isenguard 1

A very limpwristed Sai! Not playing this outside commander. There are just much better ways to make tokens or better ways to key off artifact synergies. 

Pippin, Warden of Isengaurd 3

Great little food generator. Cheap to use, cheap to activate, and even a bit of self-contained payoff should you not have another use for food. Only playable in a synergy deck but a useful tool to have if you want such things.

Sauron, Lord of the Rings 5

Suitably big and powerful for the dark lord. On cast triggers ensure this is not going to be a recursion target and when you can cheat on casting stuff the Eldrazi tends to remain top dog. Even so, 8 is not very expensive and can easily be ramped out with no need of cheating. All a little bit over the top for 1v1 cube but pretty spicy for EDH. 

Pippin, Guard of the Citadel 7

A Giver of Runes style card. Gold and two mana is a turn off for a dork with a tap ability but ward 1 turns me right back on. Vigilance is also nice allowing you to use it for pressure and push and advantage when you can. That is one of the slight drawbacks of the various "of Runes" cards - you typically want to apply pressure in those decks but end up slowing yourself down. Power wise this card is comfortably good enough. It is something every cube deck can get behind in the current meta. That being said, Azorius is one of the less suitable homes, more because the pairing is struggling a little in my cube than anything else. I feel like the colour is transitioning from a control deck being the primary supported archetype to some kind of token/convoke/flicker thing. If that change does happen then Pippin is looking better and better. 

Merry, Esquire of Rohan 3

Decent floor and great ceiling but gold and really desiring of legends. Sure, first strike is nice but it isn't a draw and will not contribute to much scaling. Drawing a card however, making a 1 drop legend and curving into this will be utterly insane. And imagine if that 1 drop is Ragavan.... filthy. Too narrow for cube thankfully being a cheap gold card that needs support. This is thankful because it is such a win more card. I do look forward to playing it in some Mox Amber Boros legends deck though.