MTGNexus

Something fun I was musing about today, I suspect the LOTR set will use the regular 10 two color draft archetypes, but I did notice that if you squint, the Alara shards seem to line up pretty well for LOTR, imho. I doubt that Wotc would do a three color set so soon after New Capenna, but this stood out to me as fascinating. Again, I don't think it's likely to happen for good reason, but it is interesting that the factions seem to fit fairly well into these three colors. I don't know, but I especially like the idea of Saruman's faction being Esper, as it shows that he's still trying to fake being a good guy wise wizard on the outside, but going full schemer in reality.

Also I like the fact that the overlapping two color pairs bridge the three colors who are united. (or in Saruman and the Elves case, think they are still united.)

i.e:

Elves and Saruman conferring. The color pair of Wizards, Ringbearers, Wise Dudes.
Saruman calling his bro Sauron with the Palantir phone
Sauron wrangling the wild goblins to his will, the color pair that contains most Orcs and Goblins as a whole.
I have no clue lol. Goblins accidently helping humans? The wild creatures of middle earth?
The age old alliance between elves and men.


Still, I'd be good with however they choose to do the set, just thought I'd share some of my random thoughts on it. I'm excited to see what ends up happening.

Saruman's forces, Isengard.
Sauron's forces, Mordor
Goblins of the Misty Mountains/Moria?
Men of the West
Elves of Rivendell and Mirkwood

It may not go that deep - it's hard for me to see how you get an exact correspondence between Middle-Earth factions and ten color pairs. I suspect a couple of those draft archetypes will be tribal (GW Elves, BR Orcs), but otherwise I don't see how to fit a schema like this. The central conflict is more Free Peoples vs. Sauron and his forces, not Elves vs. Dwarves vs. Northmen/Men of the West vs. Saruman vs. Sauron.

Venedrex wrote: ↑

1 year ago

I have no clue lol. Goblins accidently helping humans? The wild creatures of middle earth?

There are "wild men", I believe. But I think a better tribe for cross-synergy would be trolls!!

void_nothing wrote: ↑

1 year ago

It may not go that deep - it's hard for me to see how you get an exact correspondence between Middle-Earth factions and ten color pairs. I suspect a couple of those draft archetypes will be tribal (GW Elves, BR Orcs), but otherwise I don't see how to fit a schema like this. The central conflict is more Free Peoples vs. Sauron and his forces, not Elves vs. Dwarves vs. Northmen/Men of the West vs. Saruman vs. Sauron.

That's a good point, I can definitely see them just having regular archetypes related to the mechanics or tribes of the set, rather than specific factions.