Lord of the Rings Holiday Release Features 20 New Reprints!

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 The One Ring Indestructible
  When The One Ring enters, if you cast it, you gain protection from everything until your next turn.
  At the beginning of your upkeep, you lose 1 life for each burden counter on The One Ring.
  {T}: Put a burden counter on The One Ring, then draw a card for each burden counter on The One Ring.
• Dawn of a New Age Dawn of a New Age This enchantment enters with a hope counter on it for each creature you control.
  At the beginning of your end step, remove a hope counter from this enchantment. If you do, draw a card. Then if this enchantment has no hope counters on it, sacrifice it and you gain 4 life.
• Arwen, Galadriel Queen
• Gandalf, the White Gandalf, the White Flash
  You may cast legendary spells and artifact spells as though they had flash.
  If a legendary permanent or an artifact entering or leaving the battlefield causes a triggered ability of a permanent you control to trigger, that ability triggers an additional time.
• Mount Doom Mount Doom {T}, Pay 1 life: Add {B} or {R}.
  {1}{B}{R}, {T}: Mount Doom deals 1 damage to each opponent.
  {5}{B}{R}, {T}, Sacrifice Mount Doom and a legendary artifact: Choose up to two creatures, then destroy the rest. Activate only as a sorcery.
• Tom Bombadil Tom Bombadil As long as there are four or more lore counters among Sagas you control, Tom Bombadil has hexproof and indestructible.
  Whenever the final chapter ability of a Saga you control resolves, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a Saga card. Put that card onto the battlefield and the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. This ability triggers only once each turn.
• Storm of Saruman Storm of Saruman Ward {3}
  Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, copy it, except the copy isn't legendary. You may choose new targets for the copy. (A copy of a permanent spell becomes a token.)
• The Watcher in the Water The Watcher in the Water The Watcher in the Water enters tapped with nine stun counters on it. (If a permanent with a stun counter would become untapped, remove one from it instead.)
  Whenever you draw a card during an opponent's turn, create a 1/1 blue Tentacle creature token.
  Whenever a Tentacle you control dies, untap up to one target Kraken and put a stun counter on up to one target nonland permanent.
• Shadow of the Enemy Shadow of the Enemy Exile all creature cards from target player's graveyard. You may cast spells from among those cards for as long as they remain exiled, and mana of any type can be spent to cast them.
• Witch-King of Angmar Witch-King of Angmar Flying
  Whenever one or more creatures deal combat damage to you, each opponent sacrifices a creature of their choice that dealt combat damage to you this turn. The Ring tempts you.
  Discard a card: Witch-king of Angmar gains indestructible until end of turn. Tap him.
• Hew the Entwood Hew the Entwood Sacrifice any number of lands. Reveal the top X cards of your library, where X is the number of lands sacrificed this way. Choose any number of artifact and/or land cards revealed this way. Put all nonland cards chosen this way onto the battlefield, then put all land cards chosen this way onto the battlefield tapped, then put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
• Spiteful Banditry Spiteful Banditry When this enchantment enters, it deals X damage to each creature.
  Whenever one or more creatures your opponents control die, you create a Treasure token. This ability triggers only once each turn.
• Last March of the Ents Last March of the Ents This spell can't be countered.
  Draw cards equal to the greatest toughness among creatures you control, then put any number of creature cards from your hand onto the battlefield.
• Radagast the Brown Radagast the Brown Whenever Radagast or another nontoken creature you control enters, look at the top X cards of your library, where X is that creature's mana value. You may reveal a creature card that doesn't share a creature type with a creature you control from among those cards and put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order.
• Aragorn the Uniter Aragorn the Uniter Whenever you cast a white spell, create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token.
  Whenever you cast a blue spell, scry 2.
  Whenever you cast a red spell, Aragorn deals 3 damage to target opponent.
  Whenever you cast a green spell, target creature gets +4/+4 until end of turn.
• Saruman of Many Colors Saruman of Many Colors Ward—Discard an enchantment, instant, or sorcery card.
  Whenever you cast your second spell each turn, each opponent mills two cards. When one or more cards are milled this way, exile target enchantment, instant, or sorcery card with equal or lesser mana value than that spell from an opponent's graveyard. Copy the exiled card. You may cast the copy without paying its mana cost.
• Sauron, the Dark Lord Sauron, the Dark Lord Ward—Sacrifice a legendary artifact or legendary creature.
  Whenever an opponent casts a spell, amass Orcs 1.
  Whenever an Army you control deals combat damage to a player, the Ring tempts you.
  Whenever the Ring tempts you, you may discard your hand. If you do, draw four cards.
• Anduril, Flame of the West Anduril, Flame of the West Equipped creature gets +3/+1.
  Whenever equipped creature attacks, create two tapped 1/1 white Spirit creature tokens with flying. If that creature is legendary, instead create two of those tokens that are tapped and attacking.
  Equip {2}
• Glamdring Glamdring Equipped creature has first strike and gets +1/+0 for each instant and sorcery card in your graveyard.
  Whenever equipped creature deals combat damage to a player, you may cast an instant or sorcery spell from your hand with mana value less than or equal to that damage without paying its mana cost.
  Equip {3}
• Palantir of Orthanc Palantir of Orthanc At the beginning of your end step, put an influence counter on Palantír of Orthanc and scry 2. Then target opponent may have you draw a card. If that player doesn't, you mill X cards, where X is the number of influence counters on Palantír of Orthanc, and that player loses life equal to the total mana value of those cards.

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 Force of Negation If it's not your turn, you may exile a blue card from your hand rather than pay this spell's mana cost.
  Counter target noncreature spell. If that spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner's graveyard.
• Sylvan Tutor Sylvan Tutor Search your library for a creature card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top.
• Seasons Past Seasons Past Return any number of cards with different mana values from your graveyard to your hand. Put Seasons Past on the bottom of its owner's library.
• Abyssal Persecutor Abyssal Persecutor Flying, trample
  You can't win the game and your opponents can't lose the game.
• Ishkanah, Grafwidow Ishkanah, Grafwidow Reach
  Delirium — When Ishkanah enters, if there are four or more card types among cards in your graveyard, create three 1/2 green Spider creature tokens with reach.
  {6}{B}: Target opponent loses 1 life for each Spider you control.
• Kenrith, Returned King
• Doran, the Siege Tower Doran, the Siege Tower Each creature assigns combat damage equal to its toughness rather than its power.
• Hammerheim Hammerheim {T}: Add {R}.
  {T}: Target creature loses all landwalk abilities until end of turn.
• Urborg Urborg {T}: Add {B}.
  {T}: Target creature loses first strike or swampwalk until end of turn.
• Soul’s Attendant Soul’s Attendant Whenever another creature enters, you may gain 1 life.
• Stonehewer Giant Stonehewer Giant Vigilance
  {1}{W}, {T}: Search your library for an Equipment card, put it onto the battlefield, attach it to a creature you control, then shuffle.
• Worship Worship If you control a creature, damage that would reduce your life total to less than 1 reduces it to 1 instead.
• River Kelpie River Kelpie Whenever this creature or another permanent enters from a graveyard, draw a card.
  Whenever a player casts a spell from a graveyard, draw a card.
  Persist (When this creature dies, if it had no -1/-1 counters on it, return it to the battlefield under its owner's control with a -1/-1 counter on it.)
• Diabolic Intent Diabolic Intent As an additional cost to cast this spell, sacrifice a creature.
  Search your library for a card, put that card into your hand, then shuffle.
• Elvish Harbinger Elvish Harbinger When this creature enters, you may search your library for an Elf card, reveal it, then shuffle and put that card on top.
  {T}: Add one mana of any color.
• Explore Explore You may play an additional land this turn.
  Draw a card.
• Second Harvest Second Harvest For each token you control, create a token that's a copy of that permanent.
• Tempt With Discovery Tempt With Discovery Tempting offer — Search your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. Each opponent may search their library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. For each opponent who searches a library this way, search your library for a land card and put it onto the battlefield. Then each player who searched a library this way shuffles.
• Timber Protector Timber Protector Other Treefolk creatures you control get +1/+1.
  Other Treefolk and Forests you control have indestructible.
• Myriad Landscape Myriad Landscape This land enters tapped.
  {T}: Add {C}.
  {2}, {T}, Sacrifice this land: Search your library for up to two basic land cards that share a land type, put them onto the battlefield tapped, then shuffle.

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!