After Hasbro’s CEO let slip of a June launch last week, Wizards of the Coast has confirmed that Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, Magic: The Gathering’s first full Universes Beyond crossover set, will be launching on June 23.
Alongside this reveal, we were also shown the full product line-up for the set, including not just booster packs, but also Commander decks, Gift bundles, and even this year’s starter decks.
Shown off on this week’s Weekly MTG stream, Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth is a full-blown booster set launching under Magic’s Universes Beyond umbrella brand. This is the first time a crossover has received such an extensive product, and the cards will be legal not just in Commander, Vintage, and Legacy, but also Modern as well.
The packaging shows off various scenes from Lord of the Rings canon we can expect to see in the set itself, such as Gandalf facing the Balrog, Golem and Frodo fighting over the One Ring, Sam rescuing Bilbo Baggins from the spiders, and even a character who could either be The Mouth of Sauron or the Witch King on the prerelease box.
Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth will be launching both in paper and digitally on Arena, where it will be legal in Historic and receive the full set release treatment of a mastery pass, ranked reason, and various in-game events. However, it likely won’t receive the five tie-in Commander decks launching in paper, as Arena does not yet have the Commander format.
One thing Wizards did keep quiet about is a “Holiday Release”, coming on November 3. No details were given about this, however, it could be anything from a Secret Lair or more products for the holiday period, or even maybe something more extravagant like an entirely new mini-set. We will hear more about this release later this year.
Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth by far has the most expansive product line-up of any MTG set. Even this year’s Starter decks, which are incredibly cheap decks that can be redeemed on Arena and are designed to introduce newcomers to the game are being tied in with Middle-earth.
The next time we hear about Tales of Middle-earth will be March 14, in a pre-beat sneak preview stream for retailers. The full debut stream, which traditionally marks the beginning of a set’s preview season where all the cards are revealed, will take place on May 30.