(Goldberry, River-Daughter by Marie Magny)

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Scry Me a River!

Welcome to The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set review *breathes* for BLUE!

If you couldn't tell by the awful pun title, I'll be discussing all the new blue cards introduced in the set, and a lot of them care about scrying. We have new scry enablers and scry payoffs, and I'm excited to dive in and see what all the scry's about.

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Mythics

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Storm of Saruman

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The Watcher in the Water

Stun counters make a return, and we're seeing them be used to great effect here. The Watcher in the Water offers a control-type strategy that helps us keep the board tapped while we make a ton of tentacle tokens, and there's no end to the number of instant-speed draw spells blue has. Drawing cards and making tokens has been blue's thing for a hot moment with commanders like Minn, Wily Illusionist and Alandra, Sky Dreamer, but Watcher makes a token for each card we draw on an opponent's turn.

We can totally catch our opponents off guard with Keep Watch as it'll make a bunch of Tentacles that we can chump with and stun their nonland permanents. Targeting someone's Sol Ring or commander they want to attack or tap with seems pretty good. Throw in a few sac outlets, like Ashnod's Altar, and we can make sure nothing ever untaps. Plus, we can stack stun counters, which might be more effective than a Kenrith's Transformation since counter removal isn't all that common.

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Rares

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Borne Upon a Wind

If you like this card, then you should run Emergence Zone. It's effectively the same cost, could go in any deck, and there's no downside to running it since it's a land. Borne Upon a Wind isn't a card that I'd want to put in every blue deck, but if your deck wants to be doing spellslinger things, you probably have ways to recur it.

This will probably see more play amongst higher-powered tables, as there are more crazy interactions to be had when everything can be played at instant speed.

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Elvish Mariner

I like this design a lot. When it attacks, you can tap down at least one thing. If you've built your deck around scrying, you can probably tap down multiple things a turn. Anything that lets you scry at instant speed means you can tap down scary creatures before they can attack.

Commanders like Elminster will love this card as it's both a way to reduce spells and tap down any fliers to make way for your Faerie Dragons. This will find a home in decks that care about the top of their deck, like Yennett, Cryptic Sovereign. When the two cards attack together, Elvish Mariner can help you scry to a card which you can cast with Yennet, while also tapping down anything that could chump block her.

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Goldberry, River-Daughter

Goldberry has such a unique design and yet technically doesn't do anything. We only know that she cares about counters, but we're probably not in a +1/+1 strategy, right?

I think the best card we can have with her is Tekuthal, Inquiry Dominus since it'll give us access to indestructible counters to put onto Goldberry. Plus, it enhances the subtheme of the deck, which is Proliferation. If Goldberry has one of each kind of counter, then we can Proliferate those counters and keep moving them onto other creatures without having to remove all those counters from her. Superfriends? We could move loyalty counters on to other planeswalkers. I don't think moving one counter onto a single planeswalker a turn is that good, but it means she can work to keep one planeswalker around to use its ability over and over.

Being in mono-blue might hinder her playability, so I believe she'll do better in the 99 of other counter-matter decks, like Falco Spara, Pactweaver and Ezuri, Stalker of Spheres.

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Lost Isle Calling

Lost Isle Calling is a very strong payoff for your scry theme deck. It comes down early and collects verse counters as you get your game plan going. Later on, it can either be used to refill your hand or, better yet, give you an extra turn. However, this is easily telegraphed and will most likely be hit with a Disenchant when you get close to activating it. Since it can only be activated at sorcery speed, you won't be able to use it in response to removal.

Make sure not to run this with Eligeth, Crossroads Augur as he'll have you draw instead of scrying and you won't get the scry trigger. It's unfortunate that a scry commander can't take advantage of any of the scry-matter cards in this set.

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Press the Enemy

An Unsubstantiate that lets you play a spell for free is pretty scary. This reminds me of Reinterpret, and while this was a card that got some hype, it ultimately didn't see a ton of play. Press the Enemy feels a like a better version. For one, it's only in blue, so it can be played in more decks, and two, being able to return a nonland permanent means this spell can be used proactively.

We return something with a high mana cost to intentionally cast a spell for free (really for four), and if that permanent was a threat, then it's killing two birds with one stone. Unlike Reinterpret, we're limited to only being able to cast an instant or sorcery spell. Still good, but probably won't see play outside of decks with high-costing instants and sorceries.

And speaking of high mana costs, Zaffai, Thunder Conductor will love this card. It won't cast X spells, but it can bring out those higher-costing spells for free and trigger all of Zaffari's abilities for just four mana, or it'll go well in Anhelo, the Painter, who can copy Press the Enemy, allowing you to remove two things and cast two spells for free.

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Rangers of Ithilien

Among other creatures that have a similar effect, we have: Sower of Temptation, which is a flier and has no restriction on what creatures we can take; Mind Flayer, which is five mana but still no restrictions; and Roil Elemental, which can take any creature every time we play a land.

Unless you want more of this effect in your deck, I think the only reason to play it is to have redundant ways to have the Ring tempt you. Now, if an opponent happens to have a small creature which a useful combat damage trigger, then we can make that creature our Ring-bearer so it's harder to be blocked by bigger creatures. Notably, this includes Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, but after that, there aren't that many creatures with those stats that are prevalent enough to make this a worthwhile inclusion.

So if your commander cares about having a Ring-bearer, like Sauron, the Dark Lord which gives you payoffs for being tempted, I say go for it.

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Scroll of Isildur

When we look at cards that can take artifacts, the easiest targets are often mana rocks, like Sol Ring, which would be fitting since the Ring tempts you. Other than that, it's situational to what artifacts are present. Most are usually geared toward that opponent's game plan so we'll likely be taking a mana rock more often than not.

The second chapter ensures we'll at least draw two cards by the third chapter while also slowing down two of the scariest creatures on board. If we're faced against an aggro deck, we'll probably draw well over two cards.

Probably a good inclusion in The Watcher in the Water, since we'll already be keeping a lot of creatures tapped anyway. I'd also want this in Forced Combat decks, like Firkraag, Cunning Instigator, and Kros, Defense Contractor, which will consistently keep creatures tapped.

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Uncommons & Commons

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Bill Ferny, Bree Swindler

What?

Okay, so we have 13 Horses we have access to in blue and 9 blue Changelings. There's also Maskwood Nexus so we can give away any creature. However, I think the plan is really to include this in decks that care about blocking.

There's some synergy with Grazilaxx, Illithid Scholar, as we'll return Bill Ferny once he's been blocked so he won't die. And if he isn't blocked, we'll draw a card anyway.

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Council's Deliberation

This falls in line with the likes of Chart a Course. Two-mana draw two with a stipulation. In this case, you can draw up to two cards if you're scrying.

The new commander Kasla, the Broken Halo will like this as an additional way to draw cards. There are even some less obvious commanders which could benefit from this card, like Sefris of the Hidden Ways, since two of the three Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (AFR) dungeons let you scry, including the Undercity.

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Elrond, Lord of Rivendell

To be honest, this commander looks more fun when we look at all the other cards in this set that care about scry triggers. Making creature tokens in blue is pretty easy, so consistently triggering Elrond won't be difficult. That being said, I think he's a better option in the 99 as a way to easily trigger scry effects over and over.

He'd fit well in with Elrond, Master of Healing, since that commander cares about creatures, or Galadriel of Lothlórien when combined with Elrond, Lord of Rivendell could get a lot of lands into play if we have enough creatures to play. Elrond seems better as an enabler than at the helm of his own deck, especially since there are scry-matter cards in green as well in this set.

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Gandalf, Friend of the Shire

Nothing draws me to Gandalf as a standalone commander, but in the 99 of other decks that care about the Ring he seems like a good card draw option that's also a Vedalken Orrery for sorceries. Otherwise, the closest comparison to him is Wizards of Thay, which can reduce the cost of your spells, so if you really like casting sorceries at flash-speed, I'd include both.

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Ioreth of the Healing House

While we already have ways to untap permanents, like Vizier of Tumbling Sands and Kelpie Guide, being able to uptap two legendary creatures is interesting. In mono-blue we have Arcanis the Omnipotent to draw up to six cards a turn, or Emry, Lurker of the Loch to recur two artifacts, but none of these really inform a full deck for Ioreth.

She could fit in the 99 of a deck with Jegantha, the Wellspring as the Companion, or Shorikai, Genesis Engine to draw four cards and make two Pilots, but I think she's a little too niche.

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Meneldor, Swift Savior

More blink shenanigans are always good, and here we see it on a combat damage trigger. While Thassa, Deep-Dwelling is indestructible, we could slap some Equipment on this bird and give it double strike. Fireshrieker, Brass Knuckles, and Gavel of the Righteous are all colorless Equipment that we can slot into Meneldor to get the most out of its triggers.

We've got some pretty strong commanders that would like to have more blink in the deck. We could add Meneldor to Atraxa, Grand Unifier, to draw a ton of cards, or to Tivit, Seller of Secrets, which can trigger his own combat trigger, blink it, and then have it enter to make ten artifacts each turn.

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Saruman the White

Saruman the White will allow us to amass an Orc with two counters on it if we don't already control one. If we continue to cast spells on our opponent's turns, we could amass a decently large Orc by the time it can attack. However, what's more notable is being able to consistently make a token that we can then sacrifice for other means.

Most of the amass cards tend to be one-time effects, but Saruman can potentially produce a token for us to use or grow every turn and become a real threat. Just like in he does in the story, he'll eventually fall under the leadership of Sauron, the Dark Lord, who gives you a tempting payoff for connecting with your Army tokens.

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Stern Scolding

This will most likely see play at higher-powered tables that will have more targets, such as Dockside Extortionist, Esper Sentinel, etc. Other than that, I don't think it'll see much play in lower-powered games. Counterspells that can hit more than just creatures are more useful.

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Arwen's Gift

Three mana for this is pretty good. A blue Read the Bones is solid. If you're running enough legendary creatures in your deck, being able to meet this cost reduction isn't hard, especially if you're running Partner commanders. Behold the Multiverse is the closest comparison in blue where you only have to pay two mana once it's foretold.

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All's Well That Ends Better

We've come to an end here, and what a journey it's been. We've covered a lot of exciting blue cards and I'm loving the art on all of these. The world of Lord of the Rings blends so well with the aesthetics of Magic cards, and it's fun seeing familiar faces from a beloved story.

What did you think of this set? I'm eyeing my pile of Minn, Wily Illusionist cards I've had on my desk and really considering pivoting to The Watcher in the Water. I just want to make tokens and maybe also stop you from trying to attack me.

Let me know what your thoughts in the comments below, and I'll see you next time!