After months of steadily building hype and anticipation, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth finally releases today! With products now available at big box stores, MTG players can crack packs and Draft to their heart’s content. Considering this set’s power level and flavor, this is definitely something people have been looking forward to!
Unsurprisingly for a direct-to-Modern MTG set, Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth has a lot of fantastic cards. Many of these, such as The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters, are already proving themselves to be worryingly strong. Alongside these exceptionally powerful cards, Tales of Middle-earth also has plenty of exciting combo pieces. So many, in fact, that MTG players have even discovered a combo in Limited!
A Word of Warning
In MTG, it’s hardly a surprise to see cards synergizing with one another in any set’s Limited environment. That’s often how archetypes are defined, after all. Combos, however, are a much rarer occurrence in Limited due to their problematically powerful potential. For better or worse, however, Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth has just that.
Thankfully for combo fanatics in MTG, technically, the newly discovered Tales of Middle-earth Limited combo isn’t hard to pull off. In fact, only three cards are needed to set up this combo which gives both infinite mana and damage! In a 40 cards format such as Limited, this is a hugely concerning threat!
At least, it would be if Limited was a constructed format. Since Limited MTG events are inherently random, relying on the contents of packs, there’s no guarantee you can play this combo. In fact, due to the nature of Limited events, you might never even see it happen in a game! Especially not since of the cards this combo requires is the mythic rare Storm of Saruman!
Technically, there’s a somewhat higher chance of this combo happening in Draft since individual players see more packs. While this is a tempting possibility, ultimately, you probably shouldn’t try and force this combo every single game. If you pick Storm of Saruman in your first pack, it might be something to keep your eye out for. Drafting your entire deck around this combo and hoping for a lucky pack three, however, is a fool’s errand.
Beyond the low chance of finding the required combo pieces in Limited, it’s worth noting this combo isn’t unbeatable. Yes, it does create an infinitely powered creature with Trample, however, it’s not exactly cheap. Despite this, even suboptimal combos in MTG can be a lot of fun, so let’s dive right into it!
C-C-C-Combo
Since it’s only a three-card combo, thankfully, the interaction isn’t overwhelmingly complex. In fact, the entire thing boils down to having two copies of Ioreth of the Healing House in play. Once you have these two cards in play you can untap them, and another legendary creature infinitely.
While this seems to be very simple and effective, there are obviously a number of hurdles to get over. The first of these is that Ioreth of the Healing House is legendary, so you can’t just play two copies of them. Thankfully, this is where Storm of Saruman comes in! By ensuring Ioreth of the Healing House is the second spell you cast, you’ll get a non-legendary token copy. After this, the combo shenanigans can begin.
While it is fun to constantly tap and untap both Ioreths, there is another piece of the puzzle missing. Technically, any legendary creature with a free tap ability can work wonders in this missing role. Unfortunately, however, Tales of Middle-earth doesn’t have any good ones. Thankfully, however, it does have the Tempted by the Ring mechanic.
Using this mechanic, you can make a creature into a Ring-bearer, which also makes them a legendary creature. Should you do this to Wose Pathfinder through any number of cards, then the combo will finally be complete. Thanks to being a mana dork and having a pump ability, Wose Pathfinder has everything we need to go infinite.
The Combo
Now that all the pieces are in play, here’s exactly how to pull off this combo
- Step 1: Tap Wose Pathfinder for Mana.
- Step 2: Untap Wose Pathfinder with the legendary Ioreth of the Healing House.
- Step 3: Tap Wose Pathfinder for Mana again.
- Step 4: Untap both Wose Pathfinder and the legendary Ioreth of the Healing House with the non-legendary copy.
- Step 5: Untap the non-legendary Ioreth of the Healing House with the legendary version.
- Step 6: Tap the Wose Pathfinder for Mana again.
- Step 7: Repeat steps 4 to 7 Ad infinitum.
Once you’ve generated infinite mana with this combo, the world is your oyster. Should you wish to, here you can play plenty of mana sinks from Tales of Middle-earth. Good options for this role are cards such as Goblin Fireleaper, Ent Draught Basin, or Assault on Osgiliath. The best option, however, is to just use Wose Pathfinder’s pump ability. Giving another target creature +3/+3 and Trample infinitely, this mana sink is practically unstoppable and doesn’t require any extra cards. All you need to do is pump your Ioreths and win the game!
Fun but Flawed
As we mentioned earlier, while this combo is definitely a lot of fun, it’s hardly perfect. The first evidence of this is the fact that it takes 11 mana to pull off. While this can be played over a few turns, typically, you won’t be playing this combo before turn six, even turn seven. Between the start of the game and then, opponents will have plenty of time to respond or remove an all-important combo piece. Honestly, the fact that you need to resolve the Storm and then cast your Ioreth makes this a very difficult combo to assemble.
While there can be less removal in Limited, if something does get removed, your combo dreams are likely over. After all, the chances of you finding two copies of all the needed cards is exceptionally unlikely. Thankfully since the combo only uses cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, this combo can be played in a lot of formats. Doing this, however, isn’t too advisable.
In any format where this combo is legal, from Alchemy to Vintage, better options are available. Able to get the job done faster or with more style, there’s nary a reason to use this LotR exclusive Limited MTG combo. That being said, however, it is definitely fun, so if you just want to have a good time, don’t let relentless optimization stop you!
Read More: MTG Genius Merges Multiple Decks to Create Super-Combo!
