New MTG LOTR Spoilers Reveals Insane EDH Treasure Card!

There have been plenty of cool LOTR cards revealed over the past week, and today’s spoilers are no exception. Tons of flavorful cards were previewed, lots of which have great Commander potential. Some have very strange abilities rarely seen before, sure to make today a brewer’s paradise! Without further ado, let’s take a look at our new goodies.

Shire Shirriff

Shire Shirriff may not be a super flashy card, but it is quite efficient for the effect it gives. Being able to exile an opponent’s creature for only two mana can be a big deal. Compare this to three mana cards like Brutal Cathar that see extensive Pioneer play and it’s easy to see how efficient this card truly is. You do need to sacrifice a token to get this effect, but tokens are a huge theme in LOTR. It’s quite easy to have some dispensable Food tokens lying around to make use of this card. As such, this card seems decent in Limited, but doesn’t have much potential outside of that.

Spiteful Banditry

Banditry, on the other hand, is a very powerful card to have access to in Commander. This card is quite similar to The Meathook Massacre in mana cost and effect. Not only does it kill creatures with toughness X or less, but the enchantment leaves behind a powerful effect that continues for as long as the card stays in play.

Instead of messing with life totals, Banditry creates a Treasure Token once each turn when an opponent’s Creature dies. Right off the bat when casting this, you will likely get a Treasure Token, but only one since it doesn’t apply when every creature dies, but when one or more creatures die.

In a Multiplayer format like Commander, this ability threatens to trigger every turn, whether you are the one to kill your opponent’s Creatures or not. For as long as this card is in play, it makes combat extremely awkward for the opponents and gives a big bonus to any of your removal spells. Commander players beware: keep your enchantment hate ready.

The Battle of Bywater

This card is a neat addition to any deck built around cheap Creatures. Reminiscent of Dusk, this card punishes players for playing big Creatures and rewards you for playing small Creatures.

The Battle of Bywater is super efficient at only three mana, and even rewards you with a handful of Food tokens for each Creature on your side of the battlefield that survives. This should be a staple in any Commander deck that goes wide with small-powered tokens, functioning close to Plague Wind for three mana.

Took Reaper

Took Reaper is much more of a flavorful card than anything. The card directly references the Scouring of the Shire. It’s a cheap common that gives a bonus of the Ring tempting you when it dies. This seems like a great way to introduce the Rings tempts you mechanic into Limited, but is unlikely to show up much outside of a Limited environment.

Revive the Shire

Much like Took Reaper, this card is a cheap, flavorful common that does its job for Limited. Revive the Shire is similar to Regrowth, but it can only return permanent cards. You do get a food token for your troubles though, which is nice alongside a card like Shire Shiriff, especially in Limited.

Sharkey, Tyrant of the Shire

Sharkey has an extremely unique and flavorful ability. It stops your opponent from being able to activate abilities of lands that aren’t mana abilities, and basically steal those abilities for itself. Most notably, this shuts off Fetch Lands from your opponents, which can be quite strong. In Commander, this card could have higher upside depending on the lands your opponents play. Being able to steal the ability of a card like Dust Bowl could lead to you using Sharkey’s new activated abilities more than you expected.

Sharkey reference Sauron during his time in the Shire. As he is trying to take over the land, Sharkey is capable of taking over your opponent’s land’s abilities. Maybe land destruction would have been more flavorful but do you really want to play against land destruction?

I’m excited to see how Commander players further brew around this card.

Goldberry, River-Daughter

Goldberry is another card with a super unique set of abilities. It can move counters from another permanent onto itself or remove cards from Goldberry to another permanent, which allows you to draw a card. This is quite synergistic with Sagas, which is rather flavorful considering Goldberry is Tom Bombadil’s wife.

By removing a counter from a Saga, you can keep the Saga around repeating the same chapter. This is especially cool when the last chapter is super powerful, as you can let the last chapter’s triggered ability go on the stack, respond by removing a Lore counter, and the Saga will stick around. Being able to repeatedly Tutor artifacts with Urza’s Saga, for example, is a cool way to abuse Goldberry. There are plenty of ways to abuse Goldberry’s abilities, making it a super cool potential Commander. Expect this to create a ton of interesting interactions.

Saradoc, Master of Buckland

Saradoc is another card that cares about playing Creatures with power two or less, and is our first of five Jumpstart cards. Every time a non-token Creature with power two or less enters, you get a Halfling token. These tokens can then be used to pump Saradoc itself and give it Lifelink until end of turn. This can be a cool take on a White Weenie Commander. It gives a bonus to all your other small Creatures, and is a perfect home for the Battle of Bywater too. Outside of that, the card does not seem too interesting.

Elvish Mariner

Mariner has another unique ability that cares specifically about scrying. Whenever you scry, you can tap a number of nonland permanents equal to the amount you scry. Mariner also lets you scry one when it attacks, which is a nice added bonus. There are plenty of ways to abuse this tapping ability. Cards like Cryptic Annelid can tap a massive number of permanents when it enters the battlefield. Combine this with blink effects like Ghostly Flicker and you have a gameplan.

This was used as a means to introduce the ‘Scrying matters’ mechanic that will persist for the UG Elves archetype expected to appear in the Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set, which is ironic since, as a Jumpstart card, Elvish Mariner will not appear there.

Ringwraiths

Ringwraiths is a big Creature that immediately impacts the board when it enters by giving another creature minus-three minus-three until end of turn. If that wasn’t enough, you can return it to your hand whenever the Ring Tempts You. This would normally be a bomb in a format like Limited with Took Reaper at common, but with Ringwraiths being a Jumpstart card, it is unlikely to have a good home unfortunately.

Assault on Osgiliath

This card creates a lot of attacking power out of nowhere. At minimum, it creates an Orc with power X or less, then that creature gains Double Strike and Haste until end of turn. If your opponent doesn’t have a blocker back, that can be a huge swing. What’s cool is that this card also gives your Goblins Double Strike and Haste, which is a great effect for Goblin-centric Commander decks like Krenko, Mob Boss.

Elanor Gardner

This card is a super cool Commander to build around. Every turn cycle, if you sacrificed a Food, you can search your library for a basic land on your end step and put it into play tapped. There are plentiful ways to make food tokens, and ramping yourself on your end step every turn cycle is extremely strong. Cards like Feasting Troll King provide an ample amount of Food tokens to sacrifice, and Elanor can get out of hand rather quickly. That said, because the card only has Green in its color identity, Elanor may be more interesting as a card in the 99 of a Food deck than as a Commander herself.

This round of spoilers certainly provides a lot to look forward to, especially for Commander players and those looking to brew.