The Lord Of The Rings Has Officially Returned With A
Lord Of The Rings: The Hobbit Retelling Is Available Now
The Lord of the Rings is inarguably the grandest and most complete fantasy work of all time, laying the foundation for the genre as we know it, and inspiring several generations of follow-ups. Before that seismic work was released, Tolkien gave us The Hobbit, which introduced us to many of the characters, concepts, and world-building that would become so crucial later on.
The tone is much lighter than the dreadful specter that hangs over the quest of the Fellowship, and it really serves an entirely different purpose for the audience at home. The Hobbit has also traditionally been considerably less well served than its big brother in terms of adaptations to other mediums, but that has changed in recent years, and the newest release could easily be one of the most exciting of the bunch.
Over on the official Wizards of the Coast website, you can find the breakdown of the latest Magic the Gathering: Universes Beyond set, which brings The Hobbit to life in cardboard form for the first time. As you might expect, the full set includes cards taking inspiration from characters and locations featured in the journey to the Lonely Mountain.
The really beautiful cards this time around are the Classic Artist Cards, which feature traditional illustrations drawing on the novel editions released in the past. At the same time, there are some inevitable big chase cards, with the undisputed king of the pile being the Smaug the Magnificent headliner card in gleaming gold (just as he would have wanted), of which only 500 will be printed.
The only thing to be aware of with the latter is that those very scarce cards will only be available as part of Collector Boosters, so make sure to go for those if you're feeling particularly lucky.
Several of the cards aimed at collectors are printed in Dwarven runes, and it has to be said that they have absolutely nailed the classic Tolkien style that has defined the franchise as a whole. The set also features plenty of mechanically competitive cards that you can add to your current decks, many of which should be available cheaply, or commonly via Play Boosters.
The full release for The Hobbit set for Magic: The Gathering went ahead on August 14, with the Gift Bundle set to go live a little later on September 4. All other products tied to the set are available now, and you're best moving fairly quickly for Collector's packs, as they seem to be in fairly short supply.