I know I say it every time I do an unboxing video, but I spent many a high school lunch break sitting in one of the library rooms playing Magic The Gathering with my friends. That was at least until they completed year twelve and went on to university. It was several years later that I would pick it up again, as my fiancé at the time had started building a deck aimed at defeating the one I had.

It was also during my high school years that Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings movies were released, based on the books by J. R. R. Tolkien, and while I had never read them, my inner nerd adored the films. Fast forward again and the aforementioned fiancé was also a huge fan, and we spent countless hours scouring eBay and Facebook marketplace for collectibles.

Imagine the smirk on my face when Lance flicked me a message to let me know that Wizards of the Coast had sent over a lovely little care package containing a collaboration of my now ex-fiance’s two favourite things; Magic the Gathering: Universes Beyond | The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth.

Our care package contained a Bundle Box, a Starter Kit, a Commander Deck, a JumpStart Pack, three of the Set Booster packs, and two of the soon-to-be exceptionally popular Collector Booster packs. The reason for this popularity?

It began with the forging of the Great Rings. Three were given to the Elves, immortal, wisest, and fairest of all beings. Seven to the Dwarf-Lords, great miners and craftsmen of the mountain halls. And nine, nine rings were gifted to the race of Men, who above all else desire power. For within these rings was bound the strength and the will to govern each race. But they were all of them deceived, for another ring was made. Deep in the land of Mordor, in the Fires of Mount Doom, the Dark Lord Sauron forged a master ring in secret, and into this ring, he poured his cruelty, his malice, and his will to dominate all life. One ring to rule them all.

– Galadriel, portrayed by Cate Blanchett in The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, 2001

One ring to rule them all.

A Mythic foil card representing The One Ring, and only one of them was put into production. As a result, a number of streamers have gone on spending sprees to try and be the lucky individual to draw the card, and, at the time of this write-up, it’s currently looking to fetch a $2mil USD bounty for the lucky person who finds it. The other rings of power are still quite rare, with three-hundred foil cards for the Elven rings, seven hundred for the Dwarves, and nine hundred for the Humans, with a further three thousand/seven thousand/nine thousand non-foils for each race respectively.

Those able to resist the ring’s power will find themselves treated to beautiful card art, each illustrated by incredible artists. Land cards will feature maps taken from Middle-Earth or portray various locations such as The Shire or Hobbiton, and our favourite characters are beautifully resembled in fine works of art across a variety of cards. There are even cards that depict several key battles.

The Starter Kit will give players two pre-built decks containing sixty cards, ready for them to start playing the moment they open the box, while the Commander Deck will give players a full hundred-card deck, allowing them to play the Commander variation of Magic The Gathering. The Bundle pack will give players eight of the twelve-card Set Boosters, as well as forty land cards, twenty of which will be foil, a themed D20, and four alternative art borderless foil cards that depict the final scene in Mount Doom when joined together. The Jumpstart Pack contains two Jumpstart Boosters conveniently packaged in a single box, but the main focus will be the fifteen-card Collector Boosters, for reasons that I’ve already mentioned. At least until The One Ring is found.

Magic The Gathering: Universes Beyond | The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth is already drawing quite the crowd, and we’ll soon be joining the leagues of people opening our care package for the world to see, ever-hopeful that one of the two Collector Boosters we received contains that fabled card. Afterall. Why not? Why shouldn’t I keep it? My Precioussss…

Written by: Mathew Lindner