A ton of Magic the Gathering players and Lord of the Rings fans are excited about the big collaboration of the two franchises. Players are eager to get some boosters in their hands and crack them open to get some iconic LotR characters on a Magic card. The best reasonably-priced option to do so are the two Bundles, and in this article we’ll try to answer all the questions you might have about them, such as:
- What’s in the regular MTG LotR Bundle?
- What’s in the Gift Edition of MTG LotR Bundle?
- Is it better to buy the regular or the Gift MTG LotR Bundle?
- Should you buy a Tales of Middle-earth booster box or a Bundle?
- And more!
As you can see, we have lots of stuff to discuss, so let’s start by exploring the regular bundle first.
Regular MTG LotR Bundle – Contents
Typically, the regular version of the Bundle is cheaper than the Gift Edition. Each regular Tales of the Middle-earth Bundle comes with:
- 8 Tales of the Middle-earth Set boosters
- 40 basic lands (20 foil + 20 non-foil)
- 4 foil alternate art cards
- 1 spindown life counter
- 1 card storage box
- 2 reference cards
Set Boosters
So, the main content here are the 8 Set boosters. These boosters are great for players who just want to open their boosters, while not spending too much. They can 1-4 rare or mythic rare cards, but on average you get 1.34 rares per booster. This means that on average, you can expect a little over 10 rares in your eight Set boosters.
Basic Lands
The inclusion of basic lands is great. Both beginners and more experienced players find them useful. In total, you get 40 basics, 20 of which will be foil. They are evenly distributed among the five MTG colors. So you’ll get 4 foil and 4 non-foil Plains, and so on, for every color.
While we currently don’t know which type of basic lands will be included in the LotR Bundle, it probably won’t be the full-art map lands, as Wizards would likely advertise that already. So these basics will almost certainly be the ordinary basic lands.
By ordinary, we mean that the lands won’t be full-art. They’ll have the regular Magic frame, and the big mana icon in the bottom half. Here’s an example of what we mean, although this land is from one of the previous Magic sets.
However, there’s a big upside to those. They will still be LotR-themed! This means that the art will depict different places from all over the Middle-earth. We can’t wait to see how these lands will look like.
Tales of Middle-earth Bundle Promos
You’ve probably noticed that there were 4 foil alternate art cards (or promos) listed among the contents. These cards will be the same across all the Bundles, so if you get a Bundle, you’ll for sure get the following four cards:
As you can see, you can align the four cards in a 2×2 frame to form the iconic scene from the Mount Doom. While these four cards probably won’t be worth a lot on the secondary market, it’s still a neat piece for a Lord of the Rings collection.
Accessories
The rest of the contents are various accessories. The spindown life counter is basically a big 20-sided die. (The difference between the two is the position of the numbers.)
A cardboard box might not seem that exciting if you’ve never purchased an MTG Bundle before. However, it’s a very sturdy box, that can fit over 500 unsleeved Magic cards. It typically has a nice design, which looks great on a shelf. This means that it makes for a great card storage, and many players are deciding to get a Bundle over a booster box, due to the fact, that they can easily store the cards they open in the box.
We don’t know the exact design of the LotR interior box, but it’ll likely have Middle-earth themed design.
Finally, the reference cards are usually just some inserts with information about the set, so in this case about Tales of Middle-earth.
That’s it for the regular Bundle, so now let’s take a look at the Gift Edition.
Gift Edition MTG LotR Bundle – Contents
Each regular Tales of the Middle-earth Bundle comes with:
- 1 Tales of the Middle-earth Collector booster
- 8 Tales of the Middle-earth Set boosters
- 4 foil alternate art cards
- 40 basic lands (20 foil + 20 non-foil)
- 1 spindown life counter
- 1 foil card storage box
- 2 reference cards
The two main differences are bolded. The Gift version of the Bundle also has a Collector booster, on top of the expected 8 Set boosters. Furthermore, the interior box has a different design, with a special foil-like (shiny) treatment.
Collector Booster
So the biggest difference is the inclusion of the Collector booster. That’s the most premium MTG booster, with all 15 cards in it having alternate art or foil treatment – sometimes even both. Each booster comes with 5-7 rare or mythic rare cards, so that’s five times as much as a regular Magic booster.
This is also the only product that can come with a Serialized Ring cards. (That includes special versions of Sol Ring, and the one-of-a-kind The One Ring.) That’s why this booster is likely going to be very popular.
Besides the different box, this is pretty much the only difference between the two Bundles. You can find a quick comparison chart of the both Bundles below:
| Regular Bundle | Gift Bundle | |
|---|---|---|
 |  | |
| Collector booster | No | Yes (1 per bundle) |
| Set boosters | 8 | 8 |
| Storage Box | regular | with foil effect |
| Price | slightly lower | slightly higher |
| Check Price | Find it on Amazon | Find it on Amazon |
MTG LotR Bundles – FAQ
Now we know what’s inside each Bundle, so it’s time to answer some questions about them. First, we’ll tackle the big one. Which of the two products is better? Then, we’ll answer some other questions players have about these. As always, if you have a question that we didn’t answer, let us know in the comments, and we’ll get back to you.
Which MTG LotR Bundle to Buy? Gift or Regular?
In order to decide which of the two Tales of Middle-earth Bundle to buy, you have to answer the following two questions:
- Do you care about the Collector booster?
- What’s the price difference between the Regular and the Gift Edition Bundle?
If you don’t care that much about the Collector booster, then you should just go with the regular Bundle. You’ll be getting more or less the same stuff, just without the Collector booster. On the contrary, if you want the Collector booster, then the Gift Bundle looks much more enticing.
To figure out which product has the better value, you have to know how much are you going to pay for them. Whether you’re buying from your local game store, from Amazon, or anywhere else, the price difference between the two Bundles, will help you make a decision.
Most stores sell Collector boosters from regular sets for between $20-30. We shall see for how much the LotR Collector boosters will go for, as their price might be even higher. So, if the price difference between the two Bundles is lesser than the price of a Collector booster, then it’s better value to buy Gift Edition, and vice versa.
Other Questions
The four promo cards are: Frodo, Sauron’s Bane / Samwise the Stouthearted / Gollum, Patient Plotter / The One Ring. They are foil borderless scene cards, which means that you can put them together to form a bigger picture. You can see all the cards above.
The same ones as in the regular Bundle.
This largely depends on whether you value the extra accessories you’re getting in a Bundle. If you’ll have use for the promos, foil basic lands, and the box, then Bundle is quite a good deal. On the other hand, if you care just about Set boosters, then you should go with Set booster box, as you’ll typically get more boosters per dollar spent.
If you only want to get some cards as a collector’s item, and you do not want to play with the cards, then it’s a fine product to buy.
However, if you want to also start playing the game, it’s not a great option, as you won’t have enough game pieces to make a viable deck. It’s much better to get something like the LotR Starter Kit, which gives you two ready-to-play 60-card decks.
Conclusion
That’s all about the MTG Lord of the Rings Bundles. Now you know all of their contents and which one is the best one for you. If you want to explore more about Tales of Middle-earth, you can check the following articles:
Until next time, have fun, and may you open a lot of your favorite Lord of the Rings characters in whichever Bundle you’ll choose.