The Mysterious Power of the One Ring: A Lotr Magic Breakdown

The Lord of the Rings is a fantasy novel written by J.R.R. Tolkien. It is set in the fictional world of Middle-earth and follows the journey of Frodo Baggins, a small hobbit, as he attempts to destroy the powerful magic ring known as the One Ring. The One Ring was created by the dark lord Sauron, and it possesses the power to control and corrupt those who come into contact with it.

Thanks a lot! The feedback on power leverl balance are REALLY appreciated. Faramir was changed recently from UC to rare, but now that I see it you're right, it seems a little bit underpowered. I like the non-static ability tho, it is a little bit more unique and treaky. What about making it a 3/3 for 2WW maybe?

For example, take Roast Mutton the company finds the trolls I , then Gandalf says the words on the flavor text II , and finally the trolls became stone III. If your deck is the deal triple damage kinda build, making sure it can t be prevented is a nice upside, especially if people play a lot of The One Ring in your group.

The One Ring was created by the dark lord Sauron, and it possesses the power to control and corrupt those who come into contact with it. Throughout the novel, Frodo is accompanied by a fellowship of diverse characters, including other hobbits, elves, dwarves, and humans, who help and protect him on his quest. The novel is filled with various magical creatures, such as the wise and powerful wizard Gandalf, the mysterious and seductive elf queen Galadriel, and the menacing and monstrous orcs.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: The Gathering [Spoiler]

Hi visitor! Are you looking for the official upcoming MtG set: Tales of Middle Earth? Sorry, this is not it!

But you can enjoy this custom set as well! Please have a look! Check it out HERE.

What to expect:
- A card you can cast from your library
- An enchantment with -1/-1 counters on it
- An uncommon cycle of "commands"
- A cycle of common sagas
- An alternative win condition
- New Fortress cards!

The full set is out! Check it out on the planesculptor spoiler.
Here there is the .mse-set file (v1.6). Download the folder and open it with Mainframe MSE.

If you are interested in additional printing material I can provide the whole set on a pdf. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or on PM here on magic set editor. Depending on your preferences, you can print the whole set in singletons, or as I initially conceived it: commons in 4x, uncommons in 2x, rares and mythics in 1x

If you happen to be italian, I have translated the whole set: here you find the set file, and here the planesculptor spoiler!

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 23, 2020 14:05:59 GMT

Thanks for the feedback on my own set. I hope to be able to reciprocate. Excited to see what you've made.

Post by galva94 on Dec 25, 2020 15:13:26 GMT

This small set has lot going on, so let's start with the first mechanic: Fellowship

Fellowship is heavily inspired by the recent Party mechanic from Zendikar, but cares about "races" instead of "classes".

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 25, 2020 23:59:59 GMT

I like this version of Fellowship better than others I've seen. It makes a lot of sense to model it after the party mechanic. I think the reminder text should say "consists" instead of "consist" though. Also in your title it should say "let the journey begin!"

Is there a reason Gimili is a berserker and not just a warrior? Also, is it intentional to have him potentially fight with creatures you control as well as those your opponents control? Seems odd for a creature named "Dwarf Friend" to be fighting amongst your own team.

Looking good so far though. I'm interested to see what other mechanics and double-faced cards you've used.

Post by galva94 on Dec 26, 2020 0:27:28 GMT

Thank you for the corrections. My english is not perfect unfortunately. About Gimli as a berserker, it's a reminiscence of an old iteration of Fellowship that used to check creatures with no common subtypes. The fact that it can target your own creatures in not tipically relevant, but i guess i will adapt with wotc standards.

Post by galva94 on Dec 26, 2020 18:59:08 GMT

There's no better world other than the Middle Earth to talk about Adventures!

Post by galva94 on Dec 27, 2020 22:26:16 GMT

The armies of Mordor, the dark land, are known for being cruel and relentless. Sometimes even one with the other.
Fight with your army and when you don't need it anymore. Exploit it to reduce the cost of your bigger spells!

See old version of the cards

Post by galva94 on Dec 28, 2020 18:57:36 GMT

Just some spoilers for tonight

Posts: 2,650
Set Hub: Under Construction
Favorite Card: Doran, the Siege Tower
Favorite Set: Innistrad
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Green

Post by Daij_Djan on Dec 28, 2020 22:31:32 GMT

• Fellowship looks like a clever spin on the party Mechanic indeed.
• Adventures are definitively very fitting for this set, also I like them in general
• Merciless fits nicely, but the wording feels a bit off. It should definitively say "cast" rather than "play", and I think modeling the wording after Emerge would be even better:

Post by galva94 on Dec 28, 2020 22:55:16 GMT

Thanks a lot! The feedback on power leverl balance are REALLY appreciated. Faramir was changed recently from UC to rare, but now that I see it you're right, it seems a little bit underpowered. I like the non-static ability tho, it is a little bit more unique and treaky. What about making it a 3/3 for 2WW maybe?

Thank you for the suggested rewording, I will change it very soon and update the cards.

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 28, 2020 23:54:29 GMT

Really liking the mechanics and flavor of your set so far. Here's a bit of feedback:

Bilbo - This card feels very blue. I can understand why you'd want it to be green from a flavor perspective, but his adventure especially is blue (green doesn't tutor for artifacts and isn't friendly to them in general). Skulk and combat draw could also be blue, but the effect exists in green as well.

Great eagle - Love the design here. I would change the blink effect to only work on your own creatures. Also, the eagles themselves feel slightly underpowered. Looking through existing cards with flash and flying you should get at least a 3/3 or even a 4/4 for 5cmc. Check out Raff Capashen, Thryx, Fleetfeather Cockatrice, etc. I would probably make it 2UU for the current P/T or adjust it to 3/4.

Ring-wraith - Pretty strong, but I like it.

Mouth of Sauron - Super cool card. I'd like to play it!

Merciless is great. Personally I'm a big fan of keywording existing mechanics and focusing them into a set theme. Be careful with the cost reductions though. The goblin card especially feels like it could be overpowered if the right cards exist in your set. Getting three tokens for 1cmc is pretty powerful, and at common no less! Lash of the Balrog also feels very powerful with its merciless cost. Red doesn't often do one-sided board wipes and this one is pretty easy to cast.

Post by galva94 on Dec 29, 2020 8:08:26 GMT

Bilbo. Yes, this cards is blue. But I guess I wouldn't mind to stretch the color pie on a rare, as long as I don't make red counterspell or something. I have two other options: make the whole card white (but I guess it doesn't fit the color pie as well) or change the adventure part to red or blue. I'm leaning toward the latter, but i'll think about it. The presence of treaure tokens into green is justified by the UG mechanic that I will post soon, so we have to get use to it in this set. It's not how wotc used treasure so far, but its not the end of the world either.

About the eagle, the problem is that this set has very few flying creature (as you can tell if you watched the movie). A big uc flying can become oppressive in limited format, that's why I make the eagle a bit underpowered.

Post by galva94 on Dec 29, 2020 22:04:14 GMT

Here we are with maybe the hardest-to-make-work mechanic of the set, Majestic. Elves are surrounded by beauty and grandeur, and their spells are at best when they are in their fabled woodlands or in their beautiful palaces.

Collect four out of five permanent types to enable the full power of the Middle Earth most ancient race.

This ability can be hard to make work, and I often considered to change the number of permanents from four to three. Lot of testing is needed on this.

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

Post by jverse on Dec 30, 2020 5:31:14 GMT

I like the idea of Majestic and it fits perfectly with the elves. I can't really comment on balancing without testing myself, but I suppose it all depends how easily you can put cheap permanents of various kinds on the field. Treasure especially should help make Majestic easier to reach, and also any dual permanents like artifact creatures or enchantment creatures.

Out of curiosity do you have other sets that you've created? I like your design sense and would like to see some of your other work if possible.

Post by galva94 on Dec 30, 2020 8:34:55 GMT

This is my first complete custom set, but I have a couple of new ideas to work on in this 2021

Post by galva94 on Dec 30, 2020 20:07:38 GMT

Daily spoilers for tonight

Post by galva94 on Jan 1, 2021 23:27:36 GMT

A new race is born in the depth of Isengard. Control the opponent's board, while adding creatures to the field to take over the game!

Post by galva94 on Jan 3, 2021 11:17:56 GMT

Cycle of Sagas inspired by The Hobbit book's chapters.

I got this idea of inserting flavor text instead of a chapter, to not overload commons with lot of abilities. I think the result turn out nice
. Some people told me that this can be confusing though, so let me know what you think.

Posts: 2,650
Set Hub: Under Construction
Favorite Card: Doran, the Siege Tower
Favorite Set: Innistrad
Color Alignment: White, Blue, Green

Post by Daij_Djan on Jan 3, 2021 15:15:39 GMT

• Majestic is interesting but indeed tough to balance. Four permanent types is a lot, but at three a single artifact / enchantment creature would instantly fulfill all requirements.. I think I'd keep it the way it is for now.
• Mudborn is solid, not much else to say
• An Unexpected Party isn't a white card if it creates hasty tokens.
• Other than that, I like the concept of having flavor text on the common Sagas. I do think having it right in the middle is kind of confusing though.. It's been a while since I worked with the template: Is it possible to not have all chapter markers show up on the card? Like for A Short Rest remove the II and the card instantly becomes more grokable – and assuming that has been possible I'd then even suggest going further and indeed only use the lowest space for all the flavor texts. So on the chosen example you have the reminder text, then the I, the III, and finally the flavor text.

Post by galva94 on Jan 3, 2021 22:36:49 GMT

The idea of removing the chapter number is interesting: here is how the cards look:

I like the "blank" chapter in the middle, though, because the "story" behind the saga doesn't make much sense otherwise. For example, take Roast Mutton: the company finds the trolls (I), then Gandalf says the words on the flavor text (II), and finally the trolls became stone (III).

About haste on a white card, I tested it a while ago and it seems "natural" to me that the token enters with haste. More or less the same way a suspended creature enters with haste, doesn't matter which color it has. From the power level point of view, moreover, I find a little weak the white saga if the tokens aren't hasty, but I might definetly be wrong.

Post by galva94 on Jan 4, 2021 23:15:24 GMT

The days are dark in the Middle Earth, and the armies are ready to battle. Get shelter in a Fortress before it's too late!

The idea of making some Fortress cards out of the main Middle Earth locations, to me feels like a must in a Lord of the Rings custom set. Both the layout and the actual implementation of the card type has been pretty challenging. I know other users created a totally new card type, which is basically a Planeswalker card, just renamed. I see the need of doing that, because naming "planeswalker" a card which is actually a location/building doesn0t make any sense. But on the other hand, creating a new card type seems redundant and "rules-warping" from the wording point of view (you know, changing target planeswalker with target fortress of planeswalker and so on).

Fortress as I intended are just planeswalker with an extra line of text: "Creatures can't attack you", meaning that as long as you control a Fortress, opponents need to destroy it in order to get to you. This extra text is put on top, for no particular reason other than make the card a bit more "unique" and recognizable. No Plus effect for now: the risk of creating some oppressive card is high. At the end I even found space for a flavor text (on a planeswalker this may help to recognize that we are dealing with a different type of card)

Again, let me know what you think. Design, and power balance. Any feedback is gold

Posts: 195
Favorite Card: Animar, Soul of Elements
Favorite Set: Shadowmoor
Color Alignment: Blue, Red, Green

There haven't been any spoilers for this one (at least that I've seen), but when they do show up, you'll find em here.

These creatures and the vast landscapes of Middle-earth are brought to life through Tolkien's vivid and descriptive writing style. On his journey, Frodo encounters numerous challenges and obstacles, including dangerous battles, treacherous paths, and the relentless pursuit of Sauron's minions. The story builds up to an epic battle between the forces of good and evil, with Middle-earth hanging in the balance. One of the most iconic and memorable moments in the novel is the destruction of the One Ring in the fiery depths of Mount Doom. This is achieved through the bravery and sacrifice of Frodo, who resists the allure of the Ring and instead chooses to destroy it. The Lord of the Rings is not only a tale of adventure and heroism, but it also explores themes of power, corruption, friendship, and the inherent goodness of individuals. The characters and their journeys resonate with readers, making the novel a timeless classic of the fantasy genre. In conclusion, The Lord of the Rings is a magical and captivating tale that continues to enchant readers with its rich world-building, memorable characters, and epic battles. It is a must-read for fans of fantasy literature and has inspired countless adaptations and spin-offs in various forms of media..

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The Dark Arts of Sauron: Lotr Magic at Its Most Sinister