It should come as no surprise that a set with as many legendary creatures as The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth that it would provide all sorts of unique and flavorful cards to build your decks around. Since there are so many legendary creatures dropping in Tales of Middle-Earth, we’re going to take a look at some of the best commanders out now, and again next week to break it up a bit
Bill the Pony
Everyone’s favorite pony is here, and he’s not messing around anymore. A 1/4 Horse for only four mana, Bill synergizes well with Food tokens and cards with a high toughness. When Bill comes into play, he creates two Food tokens, which is nice for the little pack horse. You can then sacrifice a Food to make a creature assign combat damage with its toughness rather than with its power.
You might not be making waves with your Bill the Pony deck but the little guy is so gosh darn cute that maybe you could psych your opponents out into not worrying about you, before smacking them in the face with a Horse equipping a Mirran Sword or two.
Frodo, Determined Hero
Frodo might just be a little Hobbit, but under the right circumstances, he can be an absolute powerhouse. This two-mana commander attaches a piece of equipment with a mana value of two or three when Frodo, Determined Hero enters the battlefield or attacks. Equipment-based decks are often seen as ‘solved’ or as having reached close to an optimal efficiency between creatures, equipment, and other spells. But, Frodo provides a small deck-building restriction if you want to maximize Frodo’s ability.
The second part of what makes Frodo so good is that during your turn you prevent all damage which would be dealt to Frodo. There are tons of amazing equipment to attach to Frodo, turning him into the most fearsome Hobbit this side of the Shire. Colossus Hammer is a great place to start, as well as any of the Mirran Swords. Tossing out a turn one Commander’s Plate would also turn Frodo into a force of nature on the battlefield.
Éowyn, Shieldmaiden
Jeskai creature-based decks, specifically Human creatures, have found themselves a powerful new commander in Éowyn, Shieldmaiden. A 5/4 with first strike, Eowyn can be a particularly difficult commander to deal with. At the start of your combat step, if you had another Human enter the battlefield, you create two 2/2 Human Knight tokens with trample and haste, ready to attack. If you happen to control six or more humans, you also get to draw a card.
An easy combo to out-aggro your opponents in Commander is with Breath of Fury, an aura that when the enchanted creature deals combat damage to a player, you can sacrifice it and then move Breath of Fury to another creature. Doing so untapped all your creatures and grants you an additional combat phase. While a little circumstantial, you can pretty easily amass a huge army by producing tons of tokens if you have an opponent with no blockers up.
Sauron, the Dark Lord
There are always going to be heavily pushed creatures in any Magic set, and Sauron, the Dark Lord is loaded with enough abilities to qualify. Not only does this Sauron have one of the most oppressive ward effects Magic has ever seen, it continuously punishes your opponents the more spells they cast.
If your opponents want to target this Sauron with a spell or ability, it gets countered unless they sacrifice a legendary creature or artifact. Sacrificing a legendary creature is a high price to pay to take Sauron off the board, and it could mean taking an opponent’s commander with them. Then, for any spell your opponents cast, you get to amass Orcs 1, either making an Army token or slowly pumping one up
Galadriel, Elven-Queen
Quite possibly the strongest Elf in Middle-Earth, Galadriel, Elven-Queen is the main commander of the Elven Council preconstructed deck and provides tons of value for each Elf you play. With a unique Will of the Council ability, this take is an amazing flavor nod to the books and the White Council which Galadriel first created.
This ability triggers at the start of combat on your turn, so long as another Elf entered the battlefield under your control, giving everyone a choice to vote for either dominion or guidance. If dominion wins, the Ring tempts you and your Ring-bearer gets a +1/+1 counter. If guidance wins, you draw a card. Either way, you’ll be putting yourself further ahead of your opponents.
Saruman of Many Colors
Another evil character with a punishing ward effect, Saruman of Many Colors steals your opponent’s spells from their graveyard for you to cast for free. Saruman’s ward effect requires your opponents to discard an enchantment, instant, or sorcery card, potentially fueling Saruman’s second ability.
When you cast your second spell each turn, all your opponents mill two cards, picking one of those milled cards to exile so long as it is an enchantment, instant, or sorcery, and it’s mana value is equal to or less than the cost of your second spell. Once that card is exiled you can copy it and cast it for free. The card you exile doesn’t have to be from among the milled cards, letting you fill your opponent’s graveyard a bit before you start stealing cards.
Tom Bombadil
Tom Bombadil is a merry fellow and is the supreme Commander if you want to run a Saga-themed Commander deck. The mysterious Bombadil has an eerily similar conditional indestructibility like many God cards do in Magic, becoming indestructible once you have four or more lore counters across all Sagas you control.
Then, once a Saga’s last chapter resolves, you get to reveal cards from the top of your library until you find another Saga and put it right into play. It only triggers once per turn so make sure you stack your Sagas so they all happen on different turns. There are plenty of Sagas to pick from, as well as plenty of song and poem-based ones from Tales of Middle-Earth like Fall of Gil-galad and There and Back Again.
Sauron, Lord of the Rings
Another Sauron makes the list, but this time it has a decidedly more Eldrazi feel than his cheaper counterpart. Sauron, Lord of the Rings, has a cast trigger which has you amassing Orcs 5, giving you at least an extra 5/5 creature. Then, as part of the same trigger, you mill five cards and return a creature from your graveyard to the battlefield.
Spending eight mana for a commander is a bit steep, but with the help of a few Treasure tokens or mana rocks, you can easily cast Sauron much earlier in the game. If Sauron hits the board, you then have a 9/9 with trample that gets tempted by the Ring when an opponent’s commander dies, and since you’re in Grixis colors, you’ll have access to plenty of targeted removal.
Gandalf the White
Fresh off his fight with the Balrog is Gandalf the White, a very powerful white creature that has a built-in Panharmonicon exclusively for your legendary cards and artifacts. If a legendary permanent or artifact entering or leaving the battlefield would cause a trigger, it happens a second time.
There are all sorts of enter-the-battlefield and trigger abilities you’ll want to duplicate, but also tons of dying and leaving the battlefield triggers to watch out for. One of the easiest one you’ll want to build around is Reveillark, which will now let you return up to four creature cards with power two or less from the graveyard to play.
Aragorn, the Uniter
King Elessar himself is here to not only provide a new four-color commander to players, but also provide tons of value for all your spells. There are only two other single commanders with this four-color combination, with the rest being a bunch of random partner commanders, making the Aragorn a very unique card.
Any time you cast a spell that shares a color with Aragorn, the Uniter, you get an effect. The best of the four abilities are going to be the white and blue ones, making a 1/1 Human Soldier token when you cast a white spell, and scrying 2 when you cast a blue spell. Of course, you’ll want to be casting spells that fulfill multiple conditions at once. Aragorn’s ability is triggered by casting those spells, so even if your spell is countered you get the color-associated effect anyways.
Ryan Hay (he/him) has been writing about Magic: The Gathering and video games for years, and loves absolutely terrible games. Send him your bad game takes over on Twitter where he won’t stop talking about Lord of the Rings.