The Lord of the Rings is, in a way, a story all about combos. The combos of Sam and Frodo, of Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli, of Merry and Pippin, and the grander combo of all their efforts that ultimately leads to the Fellowship’s victory. Now that the world of Lord of the Rings has finally joined with that ofMagic: The Gathering, this idea gains a lot more weight.
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We no longer have to speculate about how well the members of the Fellowship would synergise with each other in cardboard form: we can see it for ourselves. And not just how they work internally, but how they play with Magic’s existing backlog of fantasy heroes and villains to create game-winning combinations.
10Orcish Bowmasters + Body Of Knowledge + Donate
Orcish Bowmasters is generating a lot of buzz among Magic’s eternal format veterans as a potential value engine, but it also has the ability to end games on the spot with the right support. In Commander, you can use its triggered ability in combination with a Donated Body of Knowledge to completely mill out an opponent’s deck.
Since Bowmasters deals one damage whenever an opponent draws an additional card, and Body of Knowledge draws a card each time it takes damage, increasing its toughness each time so that it doesn’t die in the process, one extra draw is enough to set off a game-winning chain reaction that your opponents certainly won’t see coming.
9Forge Anew + Colossus Hammer
A simple and fairly obvious combo, but one that’s more likely to see high-level use than most on this list, Forge Anew pairs up perfectly with Colossus Hammer to grant one of your creatures a huge +10/+10 boost.
This slots perfectly into Hammer Time decks in Modern, where Forge Anew’s ability to resurrect an Equipment allows you to recover following the removal of your Hammer. The fact that it grants you one free equip each turn makes it comparable to Sigarda’s Aid, another staple in the deck, providing some redundancy that may takethis high-tier deckeven higher.
8Frodo, Sauron’s Bane + Bilbo’s Ring + Mithril Coat
A nice little internal combo, and one that was clearly intentional from a flavour standpoint, kitting Frodo out with his iconic gear from the story makes it much more likely that you’ll be able to finish an opponent off with a single Ring-imbued strike. Mithril Coat provides protection from removal, while Bilbo’s Ring provides evasion, ensuring that the “dealing combat damage to a player” condition here will be no obstacle to victory.
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While this combo can be assembled in a range of formats, including Modern, its best chance of success lies in Commander, where you have the mana and time necessary to assemble the pieces, and multiple opponents to slowly whittle away as you stifle a devilish laugh.
7Mirkwood Bats + Prosper, Tome Bound + Ob Nixilis, Captive Kingpin
Mirkwood Bats is an incredibly exciting option for multiplayer formats, due to the ease of triggering its effect and the magic words ‘each opponent’ it contains. In Commander, in particular, it plays well in aRakdos (red/black) Aristocrats shell, where creating and sacrificing tokens happens constantly.
We suggest pairing the Bats up with Commander favourites Prosper and Ob Nixilis. Each time Mirkwood Bats triggers, Ob Nixilis will ‘draw’ you a card, and each time you play said card (from exile), Prosper will give you a Treasure token, which will provide two more damage, two further Ob Nixilis ‘draws’ to work with, and one mana. In a low-to-the-ground deck, this combo can end the game on the spot.
6The One Ring + Drafna, Founder Of Lat-Nam
The One Ring lives up to its iconic inspiration in Tales of Middle-earth, serving as both an emergency protection button and a card draw engine all in one. It’s the former aspect we’ll be focusing on for this combo, since unlike other cards that offer the same effect, The One Ring doesn’t exile itself in order to do so.
This means that, if you may bounce The One Ring back to your hand each turn, you can enjoy permanent protection from everything, giving you ample time to assemble a game-winning combo. Drafna is the best option for this, letting you bounce the Ring for just two mana, and at instant speed to boot.
5Call Of The Ring + Ringwraiths
While it isn’t the flashiest combo in Middle-earth, Call of the Ring and Ringwraiths still provide a solid value engine when used in tandem. The Ringwraiths return from your graveyard to your hand whenever the Ring tempts you, and Call of the Ring makes the Ring tempt you every turn, meaning you’ll always have access to a solid piece of removal on a stick.
Ringwraiths is great at dealing with mana dorks and small utility creatures, and it can even deal some incidental damage to your opponents in the process, givenhow prevalent legendary creatures arein today’s game. This combo is mana-intensive, but in formats like Commander, it can be a solid addition to a Midrange build.
4Rosie Cotton Of South Lane + Scurry Oak
Most Lord of the Rings fans picture the Shire as an idyllic, peaceful place, where good food and good company stretch on until the setting of the sun. They likely don’t picture it as a nightmarish hellscape overrun by thousands of Squirrels, but that’s the vision Rosie Cotton has for the place — if her interaction with Scurry Oak is anything to go by.
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Scurry Oak creates a 1/1 Squirrel token whenever it receives a +1/+1 counter, and Rosie Cotton places a +1/+1 counter whenever you create a token, leading to an easy infinite loop that will blot out the sky with Squirrels. Unless your opponent has a board wipe up their sleeve to deal with the infestation, then the game will be over next turn when your chittering hordes descend.
3There And Back Again + Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage
Creature tokens in Magic tend to be unremarkable vanilla creatures, but that treatment simply wouldn’t do for Smaug,the most iconic Dragonin Middle-earth. In addition to the ever-useful flying and haste abilities, Smaug also creates an absurd 14 Treasure tokens upon death: enough for Bilbo and all 13 of his Dwarven companions.
Once you’ve unleashed Smaug, by reaching chapter three of There and Back Again, you may exploit this incredible ability by duplicating the token with Vitu-Ghazi Guildmage. The copy will immediately die due to the legend rule, thus granting you another 14 Treasures, four of which can pay for another copy of Smaug. With the infinite mana this combo provides, you can win in any way you want to.
2Samwise Gamgee + Cauldron Familiar + Viscera Seer
Nearly every Hobbit card has an affinity for Food tokens in Tales of Middle-earth, and while most simply provide thematic set dressing, Samwise Gamgee actually offers a legitimate threat with his passive ability. Every time a nontoken creature comes into play, Sam creates a Food token, which plays particularly well with the infamous format-breaker Cauldron Familiar.
With a sacrifice outlet like Viscera Seer, you may play the Familiar, get a Food, sacrifice it, sacrifice the Food to get the Familiar back, drain your opponent, get another Food, and repeat until you win the game. This combo doesn’t require much mana, and it uses cards that already excel in Midrange decks, meaning there’s a good chance it will see success in Modern.
1Ioreth Of The House Of Healing + Sakashima The Impostor + Reveka, Wizard Savant
Ironically enough for a character renowned for her healing abilities, Ioreth is extremely good at ending your opponents’ lives. This is down to her second ability, which, when combined with Sakashima the Impostor, allows you to untap any other legendary creature an unlimited number of times during your turn.
We’ve gone for Reveka, Wizard Savant here, since it’s on-colour, and since it lets you burn your opponents outin a Mono-Blue deck, which is a rare thing indeed. You could also use Arcanis the Omnipotent for a Thassa’s Oracle win, but it feels better to defeat your opponents with a card they’ve probably never heard of.
