With its release in June 2023, The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set brought one of the most iconic fantasy worlds into the multiverse of Magic: The Gathering. The set quickly made waves across multiple formats, when a dozens of cards proved to be not only satisfying flavor wins, but also highly impactful in casual and competitive play.

From overnight Modern staples to bonafide Commander favorites, a handful of these cards have become emblematic of the set's lasting influence, standing out as essential pieces in many players' collections. Let's take a closer look at five of the most significant cards from this historic collaboration, and review what made them both special and important for Magic players everywhere.

1. The One Ring

It's impossible to discuss the impact of The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth without mentioning the most coveted card in the set. Arguably a card so good that any deck can, and perhaps should, play it.

Let's address the cost of entry first. It's an artifact with no colored mana requirements. Maybe if its cost included a mix of generic and colored mana its power level would be held back a bit. But as it stands, its mana value alone goes a long way in opening it up to any player who wants to take their decks up a notch.

Also, very importantly, its enter the battlefield effect literally grants you "protection from everything until your next turn." Effectively stabilizing you against aggressive strategies, shutting off most hand disruption, and preventing anything else that targets a player directly.

But it's the scaling draw effect that really pushes this card over the limit. Even if an opponent manages to answer the card after it hits the board, with something like the aptly named Cast into the Fire, The One Ring's owner can still immediately draw a card. In essence it replaces itself on top of the added benefit its ETB provides. But if it doesn't get removed, it draws one more extra card every time it's activated. So by turn three, you've drawn six cards with it alone, which for a lot of decks could be enough to set up a win or advance so far ahead of the opponents that victory is practically certain.

And removing it is no easy task either, since the card is also Indestructible. So although certain exile effects can still remove it, a lot of the most common artifact removal spells such as Disenchant, Wear // Tear, or Abrade can't touch it.

Though the card might be relatively expensive, given its popularity and mythic rarity, it remains a multiformat staple in both Modern and Commander, which should help protect its playability for the foreseeable future.

2. Orcish Bowmaster

A great midrange threat by itself, Orcish Bowmasters also highlights you can have strong counterplay to The One Ring without relying on a removal spell.

A classic play pattern involves holding Bowmasters in hand until a player activates The One Ring. Then in response to the activation, flash in the Bowmasters to potentially do a ton of damage. Coupled with the damage that Ring's burden counters do to its controller, a Bowmaster (or two) could be enough to beat the opponent when they least expect it.

But its position against The One Ring is only one reason this card is good. In fact, it's potentially the most important midrange two-drop since Tarmogoyf.

The extra ping of damage it does when it enters the battlefield can do short work of Ragavans, Delvers, Birds of Paradise, and any other 1 toughness creature worth its salt.

It also enters with an extra body, allowing for pseudo combat tricks if an opponent attacks with a creature or two - you can ping a creature and finish it off a cheap blocker, or potentially kill two creatures on the spot without losing the Bowmaster itself.

Not to mention the threat its presence creates against tons of decks that want to draw extra cards every turn. Nice Brainstorm you got there, please take three damage and enjoy my new 3/3 Orc Army. Blue players, eat your heart out, Bowmasters are here to keep you at bay.

3. Delighted Halfling

It's hard to be as iconic as such cards as Birds of Paradise or Llanowar Elves, but Delighted Halfling has proven itself to be the most impactful mana dork in years.

The beauty in this card is the illusion of restrictions on its design. Tapping for colorless and limiting colored mana for legendary spells might appear as a shortcoming at first blush, but this rarely comes up as a setback in actual gameplay. If Halfling comes down on turn one, and you play another land on turn two, you definitely have at least one, if not two sources of colored mana, meaning Halfling's first ability can still let you cast a three mana spell ahead of curve if said spell has any generic cost in its mana value.

But these restrictions go out the window entirely if you're tapping it to cast a Commander or any other legend. Then it's all upside, since the mana Halfling produces also makes the legendary spell uncounterable.

In multiplayer formats especially, where a Commander can be highly impactful and open up an entire deck's primary gameplan, protecting the legend from counter magic may be the push needed to set up a huge advantage or a winning line.

I might think twice about playing it in strict kindred decks, since Halfling Citizen isn't exactly a relevant creature type. But for ramp, midrange, or generic creature decks with access to Green, Halfing is a certified staple.

4. Mithril Coat

Few Commander decks are built without the protective pairing of Lightning Greaves and Swiftfoot Boots. While there are other cards that serve similar roles, including Neurok Stealthsuit and Whispersilk Cloak, it's rare to get these protective equipment to function as reactive spells.

Mithril Coat offers the best of both worlds - it can protect a commander or another important legend, but with the benefit of flash to provide some options on how you can spend your mana.

The added utility that Mithril Coat offers definitely comes at a cost. Three mana to cast makes it significantly more expensive than Greaves and Boots, which are ubiquitous in part for costing only one mana. On the other hand, Coat pays back that investment by saving you on the initial Equip cost, especially if you're using it to protect a Commander.

Mithril Coat is also indestructible, which not only means it sticks around longer, but it further helps to protect its target too. While Whispersilk Cloak and Neurok Stealthsuit protect their equipped creatures from targeted removal, you can usually get around the protection by having some extra artifact hate on top of any run of the mill creature removal.

Coat, on the other hand, makes you jump through extra hoops. Not unlike The One Ring above, exile effects for indestructible permanents are harder to come by, artifact permanents or otherwise, and if an opponent wants to use their answer to deal with an indestructible creature, the Mithril Coat sticks around to make future turns just as complicated. On the other hand, If the Coat gets answered, the permanent itself is still there to keep doing its thing, possibly buying you enough time to find another way to protect it.

5. Mirkwood Bats

It's easy to overlook the potential of a card like Mirkwood Bats. A four mana 2/3 flyer that needs tokens to do occasional ping damage might sound pretty pedestrian. But it's the sheer amount of combos and synergies that this card enables that make it a potent threat that can win games seemingly out of nowhere.

For starters, in Black adjacent token decks that can produce a lot of tokens in a single turn, Mirkwood Bats is a must have. Paired with cards such as Chatterfang, Squirrel General, Mondrak, Glory Dominus or Academy Manufactor, the bats can just sit there draining your opponents for life every turn while you passively create tokens as part of a routine gameplan.

For a genuine combo win, Mirkwood Bats can finish a game just by casting Plague of Vermin - assuming you have more life than your opponents when you cast it. But even if an opponent has more life than you, Bats plus Vermin and an on-demand sacrifice outlet, such as Ashnod's Altar or Viscera Seer, might be enough to do the trick.

If one combo isn't enough, Mirkwood Bats can also enable a one turn win in Green decks with Trudge Garden, Ashnod's Altar, Exquisite Blood, and any creature token.

To perform this combo, start by sacrificing a creature token to Ashnod's Altar to generate two colorless mana. This triggers Mirkwood Bats, making each opponent lose one life. Exquisite Blood triggers to gain you life, which then triggers Trudge Garden, allowing you to pay two mana to create a 4/4 Fungus Beast token. When the token enters the battlefield, Mirkwood Bats triggers again, causing each opponent to lose 1 life, which repeats the chain by triggering Exquisite Blood followed by Trudge Garden. With Garden's ability on the stack, you can sacrifice the Fungus Beast token to Ashnod's Altar to make two more mana, and repeat the process infinite times (or however many times it takes to drain your opponents of all their life).

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set has left an undeniable mark on Magic: The Gathering, with these and dozens of other standout cards which continue to shape strategies and define decks across formats. Whether it's through powerful synergies, innovative mechanics, or sheer versatility, these five cards have proven to be the defining highlights of a set that blends the timeless appeal of Tolkien's world with the strategic depth of Magic. As the game evolves, at least some of these cards will remain staples in many decks, carrying the legacy of the set forward for years to come.