Isildur’s Fateful Strike – LOTR: TALES OF MIDDLE-EARTH
Date Reviewed: July 28, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.00
Casual: 4.00
Limited: 4.00
Multiplayer: 3.25
Commander [EDH]: 3.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
It’s been a while since “Destroy target creature or planeswalker” became (one of) the standard ways of writing Murder variants, and I’m no longer really used to them only mentioning them creatures. It feels different and unique . . . maybe almost legendary.
You might remember the legendary spell mechanic from Dominaria, where it never quite made the jump from limited to tournament constructed because of the difficulty of fulfilling the casting criteria. Fortunately for Isildur’s Fateful Strike, Tales of Middle-earth is a similarly legend-heavy environment to Dominaria, and this will often be active in that format, and sometimes it will be entirely devastating. It needs to be timed right and used cautiously, but this card will do well in limited – and, perhaps, in the right casual theme deck!
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 3.5
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
As far as flavor goes, this one is neat. Isildur’s Fateful Strike depicts how, using the shattered blade of his sword Narsil, Isildur (then-heir to Gondor) cut off The One Ring from Sauron’s hand, thus stopping the warlord’s conquest for the nonce. The Ring would ultimately find a way to avoid being immolated, and so began the long saga of the Prcious Supreme and its path towards Evil.
As far as playability goes…Isildur’s Fateful Strike comes up short. This is the first legendary instant, which is neat…but it’s effectively an overpriced Murder with additional hoops. The discard clause is not terrible upside against the right deck, since the cards get exiled, but there are plenty of decks that won’t let you cast this with enough cards to knock out.
This probably plays better than it reads, and I do think it’s not awful…but four mana for a single-target kill spell is not where you want to be in Modern, and the upside is rarely upside enough to justify. This may be solid enough in Commander, though, as it will often be live and exile is always a good way to go for getting rid of things, but I still feel like this is more cute than it is good.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 4 (while it being legendary is a downside, it can hit any target, and this set is loaded with legendary creatures)
Multiplayer: 3
Commander [EDH]: 3.5
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