MTG The Lord of the Rings Tales of Middle-earth preview card: Council's Deliberation
Compared to other staples in Modern, there are better cantrips... but they don't have the Fellowship of the Ring and Elrond in the same art.
Magic: The Gathering’s upcoming The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ and the ultra-rare The 1 of 1 Ring card is set to create a frenzy when the Universes Beyond set is released on 23 June.
But before the chaos begins, here is a new preview card: Council’s Deliberation, exclusively for Yahoo Southeast Asia from Wizards of the Coast.
Council’s Deliberation is of course referring to the Council of Elrond, where representatives of the Free People decide on the fate of the Ring, and Strider is revealed to be Aragorn, heir of Isildur.
The Council of Elrond is also where the Fellowship is recruited and Frodo is tasked to destroy the Ring in Mount Doom.
On a less Tolkien note, Council’s Deliberation is an instant which allows a player to draw a card for one blue and one generic mana.
That is not all. When Council’s Deliberation is in a player’s graveyard, and the player scries (i.e. looks at top X cards on top of library before choosing to arrange them in any manner on the bottom or top of the library where X is the number after Scry) while controlling an Island, the player can choose to exile Council’s Deliberation from their graveyard to draw another card.
Do note that this draw trigger will go on top of the scry trigger, and it means that the draw trigger will resolve first. In other words, the player will draw first before scrying.
Council’s Deliberation is essentially a cantrip card, which is a type of spell which allows a player to draw a card and replace itself in the player’s hand when it is cast (with the potential to draw an additional card).
Since The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ is legal in the Modern format and expected to make a splash in the Modern format, Council’s Deliberation pales in comparison to other cantrips in the format.
Modern has quite a few one drop instant cantrips such as Consider, Opt, and Thought Scour. Each of these cards generates additional value for just one blue mana, and has decent upsides for just one blue mana compared to the two mana needed for Council’s Deliberation.
The only upside for Council’s Deliberation is the potential to draw an additional card, but it is a difficult requirement to fulfil and only triggers when a player is scrying while controlling an Island.
There are very few cards in Magic: The Gathering that can benefit from a scry trigger such as Elminster and Knowledge and Power, so Council’s Deliberation is a welcome addition to that small list.
However, Modern’s most popular decks are not heavy on scry effects, and for decks that require some kind of graveyard synergy such as Delve (in the case of decks which play Murktide Regent), it might be counter-productive to have Council’s Deliberation in the deck.
Council’s Deliberation is also too inefficient compared to other instant, and even sorcery speed cantrips, so unless The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ is heavy on some kind of scrying synergy, I am not sure if Council’s Deliberation is going to see much play after it is released.
Nonetheless, it is still kick-ass to have Magic: The Gathering cards illustrate some of Lord of the Rings’ most famous stories.
Aragorn, Bilbo, Boromir, Elrond, Frodo, Gandalf, and Legolas all appearing in one card? More please!
Jay is a content creator who likes to hoard vintage photographic lenses, and loses too often in Dota 2 and Magic: The Gathering after work.
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