A lot of news broke over a very quick period of time in the MTG space. We checked out all of the new announcements for the Lost Caverns of Ixalan over the weekend. We were also sure to break down the finer details of the new Ravnica Remastered reprint set that were spoiled. That said, these really are just the tip of the iceberg for the absolute mass of details that were dropped at MTG Vegas.
One product that we already knew a little about before MTG Vegas was the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Holiday Release. Thanks to an IGN article that came out a bit prior to Vegas, players already had a taste of what was to come for the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth holiday release.
While 24 new Scene Box cards were officially spoiled, it really was the tip of the iceberg. This Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Holiday release may be much bigger than players expected, and a bunch of new art treatments is a big part of it. We’ll break those down here.
Silver Foil Cards
Before going into the new art treatments themselves, it makes sense to look at the new Silver Foil treatment coming out of Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth because it’s going to be applied to more than one of the new treatments.
Silver Foils harken back to some rather interesting LOTR lore regarding the Mallorn trees as revealed during the MTG Vegas panel:
“so the silver is the color of the underside of the leaves of the Mallorn trees in Lothlorien. The Mallorn trees look green with a silver underside, just like you’ll see on the card. The Silver is important.” – Ovidio Cartagena
These foils will, therefore, have a unique silver sheen to them as emulated in the above Sylvan Tutor picture.
Showcase Scrolls
Starting our list of new MTG Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth art treatments is the Showcase Scrolls. Each and every new-to-MTG card that was released alongside Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth will have this treatment. Only the Commander releases in their Booster Fun treatments will not get the Showcase Scroll treatment. The Commander releases will still get the treatment.
For those interested in acquiring Showcase Scroll cards, you will get multiples of these in a Special Edition Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Collector Booster pack. To be specific, here is what you can expect to find in regard to Showcase Scroll cards in Special Edition Collector Booster packs:
- Two Silver Foil and two nonfoil Showcase Scroll commons
- Two Silver Foil and two nonfoil Showcase Scroll uncommons
- One Silver Foil and one nonfoil Showcase Scroll Rare/Mythic
In other words, you are guaranteed ten Showcase Scroll cards in every special edition Lord of the Rings Collector Booster. Don’t expect this treatment to be too rare as a result. What will instead potentially be rare is specific cards in this treatment.
Read More: Ultra Rare MTG Lord Of The Rings Cards About To Crash In Value!
Borderless Poster Cards
These Borderless Poster cards are getting a lot of eyeballs, and for good reason. While the artwork on these cards is incredibly striking, they’re not exactly the easiest to read.
These Poster Cards could also be worth a lot of money. Alongside each of the twenty Mythic Rare cards that were selected to receive this Secret Lair-esque treatment, serialized copies will also be released to the wild. 100 of each of these will be available.
Here are the twenty cards that are receiving the borderless poster treatment:
- The One Ring
- Dawn of a New Age
- Arwen, Galadriel Queen
- Gandalf, the White
- Mount Doom
- Tom Bombadil
- Storm of Saruman
- The Watcher in the Water
- Shadow of the Enemy
- Witch-King of Angmar
- Hew the Entwood
- Spiteful Banditry
- Last March of the Ents
- Radagast the Brown
- Aragorn the Uniter
- Saruman of Many Colors
- Sauron, the Dark Lord
- Anduril, Flame of the West
- Glamdring
- Palantir of Orthanc
These all took a year of dedicated time to develop according to the Collecting Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth article, and all have incredibly unique appearances. You can take a look at them here.
In terms of rarity, these Poster cards are only available in Special Edition Collector Booster Boxes. The normal variants of this card has the traditional rate of a Mythic Rare popping up in a normal MTG pack – about 11% per slot (there is only one viable slot). Obviously, the serialized variants are much, much rarer.
Hildebrandt Full Art Cards
Alongside a few new Modern-legal Jumpstart cards, the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Holiday Release also features some completely new full art reprints of existing cards that were previously not a part of the Lord of the Rings release. These are called the Borderless Brothers Hildebrandt cards.
The name Hildebrandt comes from the artists creating these cards – two prolific fantasy artists named Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. These two artists came together and created twenty borderless reprints with unique art created by the duo. Here is a list of cards that were reprinted this way:
- Force of Negation
- Sylvan Tutor
- Seasons Past
- Abyssal Persecutor
- Ishkanah, Grafwidow
- Kenrith, Returned King
- Doran, the Siege Tower
- Hammerheim
- Urborg
- Soul’s Attendant
- Stonehewer Giant
- Worship
- River Kelpie
- Diabolic Intent
- Elvish Harbinger
- Explore
- Second Harvest
- Tempt With Discovery
- Timber Protector
- Myriad Landscape
Diving Deeper
While this gives a high level oversight on all the new things coming in the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Holiday Release, there’s a lot deeper we can dig. This does, however, give players all the information they need in regards to what to look forward to for the Holiday Release.
While this seemed like a small add-on to me at first, it’s now clear that the Lord of the Rings Holiday Edition release is absolutely massive. These Collector Booster Boxes look seriously enticing for players who have a hankering for high-end cardboard.
Read More: Commander Godfather Sheldon Menery Honored with Personal Card!
