Mirkwood Bats – LOTR: TALES OF MIDDLE-EARTH
Date Reviewed: June 27, 2023
Ratings:
Constructed: 2.0
Casual: 4.25
Limited: 3.63
Multiplayer: 4.0
Commander [EDH]: 4.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is bad. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
My initial non-gameplay reaction to Mirkwood Bats was that it seems like more of a reference to The Hobbit than to The Lord of the Rings; unless I’m confusing it with the spiders? Regardless, this is the Commander counterpart to Orcish Bowmasters: one is the card everyone’s expecting to shake up the eternal tournament formats, the other the card everyone’s expecting to shake up casual tables. The most obvious interaction is Dockside Extortionist, and the expectation that it’ll kill entire Commander tables out of nowhere thanks to that “each opponent” phrasing. But there really isn’t any shortage of interactions, and the Bats can grind people down with repeatable token generators just as easily as it can combo them out. At four mana, the card isn’t quite fast enough for competitive Magic; and it’s theoretically easy to interact with in Commander and casual too. At the same time, people are looking at it with some unease, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4
Limited: 3.5 (seems good with the Food subtheme in Tales of Middle-Earth)
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4
Mirkwood Bats raised an eyebrow or two in Commander circles when it was revealed, thanks to how that effect pairs very well with certain token-generating strategies. In particular, treasure is easy to crack open, and the bats triggering both when tokens are created and sacrificed means things can get very ugly in short order. Mirkwood Bats is maybe a bit too slow to cut it in Modern; it’s not efficient in terms of stats, and toke generation is a bit slower and more incidental, but this will do plenty of damage in Commander with cards like Dockside Extortionist.
Constructed: 2
Casual: 4.5
Limited: 3.75
Multiplayer: 4
Commander [EDH]: 4.5
We would love more volunteers to help us with our Magic the Gathering Card of the Day reviews. If you want to share your ideas on cards with other fans, feel free to drop us an email. We would be happy to link back to your blog / YouTube Channel / etc. 😉