Minas Tirith – LOTR: TALES OF MIDDLE-EARTH
Date Reviewed: June 9, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 4.0
Casual: 5.0
Limited: 4.0
Multiplayer: 4.25
Commander [EDH]: 4.75
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
My mental space for my various hobbies is leaking. I looked at the picture of this Minas Tirith card, and I thought to myself, “Magic got Minas Tirith before Lego did”. In Lego’s defense, have you ever tried to represent the White City in fewer than 10,000 bricks?
Once I got back into Magic’s cognitive framework, though, it occurred to me how this is a card worthy of a different style of white deck than some of us are likely used to. It wants you to attack, yes, but caring about legendary creatures means it can also fit into those value-oriented legend-heavy midrange decks that have been around since Dominaria in 2018. Obviously white aggro has its Isamarus and Thalias and stuff, and drawing cards with a land is a good late game for those decks too; so Minas Tirith will probably see play in a variety of decks. Everyone wants extra cards, and everyone likes getting them in ways that are hard to interact with.
Constructed: 4
Casual: 5
Limited: 4
Multiplayer: 4.5
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
The ultimate seat of the king of men in Middle-Earth, at least once one is found anew, Minas Tirith serves as an important base for a lot of the anti-Sauron resistance in the later parts of The Lord of the Rings. It’s one of the more important locations in the narrative, and it is fitting that Minas Tirith is a legendary land and part of the overall cycle of mono-color legendary lands.
As far as it goes, Minas Tirith is…pretty solid, all things considered. It’s most remarkable as a potential card draw source in white, a color that is known to struggle with resource generation at times. Coming in tapped can be a bit irksome, but white is known for both cheap legendary creatures and cheap legendary creatures that are good, so as long as you’re not trying to power out a turn one play with Minas Tirith, you should be fine. It’s also color agnostic, which is good in multi-color decks, though it’s harder to specifically search out in many cases.
Minas Tirith is good. I think it has a chance to see some Modern and Legacy play; it won’t dominate the format, of course, but there are plenty of good creatures that see play there that will let this in untapped, and bang able to draw cards for just playing the game is a good bit of potential advantage for white to get. I’m definitely optimistic about this.
Constructed: 4 (has some shortcomings, but it’s very good)
Casual: 5
Limited: 4 (might be useful to eke out advantage, but won’t get you there on its own)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 5 (no real downside to running this if you’re in white)
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