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The Winners and Losers From Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings

One ring to rule them all.

By Corbin Hosler | @Chosler | Published 8/4/2023 | 7 min read

Another Modern Pro Tour finals, another Tron vs. Blood Moon matchup. Who could've guessed?

Well, no one guessed how exciting it was getting there. Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings is in the books, and with it, the new Modern metagame has arrived. And while it may look a lot like Modern metagames of that past – Tron at the top, Thoughtseize right below, and Merfolk always a great choice (it was the high-win rate deck at the Pro Tour, posting an 80% record in 10 matches) – there's a ton going on beneath the hood here and today I want to do a final look-in at Tales of Middle-earth before moving on.

It starts with the top two decks and what may become the new dividing line in Modern: are you a The One Ring deck or an Orcish Bowmasters deck? That is what the finals of Tron versus Rakdos Evoke (Scam) gave us, and maybe a blueprint for Modern moving forward. The rest of the field got a sneaky upgrade in Lorien Revealed ( Living End is down to playing just 15 lands), and things shook out from there.

Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer move over. Karn, the Great Creator ? Well, still busted, but no longer the only viable four-mana play. And my favorite Silvergill Adept ? In a slowed-down Modern, it's better than it's been in a while (except against Bowmasters).

So with all that said, where do things stand from the latest direct-to-Modern set? What was hype and what was real? Let's look at the winners and losers from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.

Most-Played Pro Tour: The Lord of the Rings Cards

Look at the Pro Tour metagame breakdown and most-played cards. The top 10 most-played nonland Modern cards:

The One Ring

Orcish bowmasters.

• Chalice of the Void
• Thoughtseize
• Force of Negation
• Boseiju, Who Endures
• Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer

A mix of some very old and some very new cards — with a big slant toward the latter — make up the current Modern metagame. I don't know if Wizard of the Coast expected to see the two new chase cards from Tales of Middle-earth go 1-2 in copies played, but here we are: the winners from The Lord of the Rings are real winners – and Modern accounts for a big part of that.

The Winners and Losers of Middle-earth

Prices on most of the cards in this section have been generally up, but I'm going to take a small reprieve from the "weekly" part of my "weekly winners" column and not hold myself to the last seven days. The One Ring , for instance, is undoubtedly one of the winners coming out of the Pro Tour after living up to the hype, though the price has been mostly flat in the past week.

But The One Ring is all over Modern. It made the finals in Tron, and while it didn't win the entire event don't be fooled: Modern quickly has become about playing or answering the Ring. With tools like Haywire Mite and Urza's Saga , things actually have adjusted to playing through the Ring – even Questing Beast was getting play in Rhinos to push damage through protection – but the new question a deck must answer is if it can handle a turn-four Ring. At $55, the price tag certainly reflects its place in the format.

The Tales of Middle-earth card that actually won the Pro Tour. Orcish Bowmasters is also the second-most expensive card in the set at $50, and its performance in the winning Rakdos Evoke list cemented its place in Modern and as a winner from Middle-earth.

Bowmasters is going to be a stock piece of Black decks moving forward and with good reason. It does pretty much everything the Thoughtseize decks want in Modern and serves as removal and finisher all in one. Pinging down one-toughness creatures is another in a line of Birds of Paradise -killing machines introduced into the format.

In case it wasn't good enough, Bowmasters is also a combo piece. Enter Flumph , which goes infinite with Bowmasters if you can give the 0/4 indestructible. The discovery of the combo and the 5-0 Magic Online finish that went with it has spiked Flumph to $5, and shows yet another angle to Bowmasters.

Lórien Revealed

This is the one that no one saw coming. Yes, we've seen Oliphant and Generous Ent pop up in Living End, but we all know that's a special case. As someone who first sleeved up Living End back in Extended before Modern existed, I've cycled quite a few dorky creatures, then moved on to even sillier cycling creatures. Then things came full circle and now we're cycling Architects of Will again.

That maybe was supposed to happen. Lórien Revealed taking over the Pro Tour? That was a shock to me, the players, and the designers themselves.

But Lórien Revealed gets any color of mana you want in a world of Triomes, and it does it at the cost of one mana. You can use it to grab a basic to get around Blood Moon , and the one-mana cycling cost is key because it means you can cycle and play a land and stay mana-neutral. That makes it essentially "free" in the context of a game, and the fact it occasionally happens to draw three doesn't suck, either.

Lórien Revealed is a $3 Common as of this writing. While I doubt it will stay that high, it's clearly going to be a Breaking Bulk for years to come.

Palantír of Orthanc

This isn't necessarily a Modern development, but Palantír of Orthanc has been making huge waves anyway. It's emerged as a finisher in Legacy, and as anyone who has faced down the seeing stone in Limited knows, it's nearly impossible to keep up with the advantage the artifact offers its owner. It did take a little bit to get noticed, though, which meant that this mythic was actually just $5-7 a month ago. But it's climbed to $15 and doesn't appear to be stopping.

I've played against this card maybe 10 times in Limited, and it holds a key place in both The Lord of the Rings lore and my personal lore: after losing to it so many times, I finally beat a turn-three Palantir by dragging the game out long enough that my opponent eventually milled out thanks to the grindiness of the game and their ringbearer loots. I decided to go out on a high note and retire from drafting the format after that.

Delighted Halfling

Unlike the previous two Tales of Middle-earth cards, those who played the Halfling might have finished less than delighted. Samwise Gamgee formed a combo with Cauldron Familiar and a sacrifice outlet, but even with the 1/2 Halfling leading the way the deck failed to convert.

Delighted Hafling was one of the early winners from the set and its price peaked at $20, but with a less-than-impressive showing the card has crept down to $13 and falling.

Sauron's Ransom

This Fact or Fiction variant has been all the rage over the past few weeks as people experiment with it in control shells. Honestly, it's been really cool to see an old-school effect like this see play, and it helped to (re)spawn a classic archetype: Dimir Control.

But Sauron's Ransom and its associated decks had a merely okay weekend at the Pro Tour. That said, the deck itself is quite powerful and could easily swing more into favor if things shift again or if bans shake up the format at some point.

They had me at Commandeer . And even a Snapcaster Mage sighting! What a time to be alive.

Sailing West

Something tells me we haven't heard the last of The Lord of the Rings in Modern play, and it seems like the set has been a success overall. Next up is Commander Masters, and Wilds of Eldraine is coming up fast. Let me know if you enjoyed this dive into how Tales of Middle-earth's standouts performed at the Pro Tour!

Thanks for reading,

Corbin Hosler ( @Chosler )

Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings

Game: Magic: The Gathering

Organized by: Wizards of the Coast

Tournament Type: Tabletop

Formats are Modern and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Booster Draft More information about Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings can be found at https://magic.gg/events/pro-tour-the-lord-of-the-rings-fact-sheet-for-competitors

Free to Play | Invite Only | Format: Draft, Modern, Draft2 | Ended | 266 of 512 Enrolled Players

Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings Fact Sheet for Competitors

For paper printouts generated for this tournament, participants' names will be displayed using their full real names, irrespective of their profile's name display settings. This specification applies solely to printed materials.

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Pro Tour The Lord of the Rings Top 8 Decklists

Here are the Top 8 decks from Pro Tour Lord of the Rings .

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MTG Pro Tour Barcelona Lord of the Rings standings, format, and more

Over 250 of the best Magic: The Gathering players from around the globe competed in the Modern format and The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Limited Draft at the final Pro Tour of the 2022-2023 season.

For the first time since 2019, the Modern format was featured at a high-level MTG tournament at the final Pro Tour of the season. Much like Pro Tour Minneapolis and the Phyrexian Pro Tour , players at the Lord of the Rings Pro Tour Barcelona competed in a mix of Limited Draft and Constructed Swiss rounds.

Both day one and day two featured three rounds of LTR Draft, followed by five rounds of Modern Constructed. All players who made it to the top eight earned a direct invite to the Magic World Championship. 

July 28, MTG Pro Tour Lord of the Rings standings

Day one of Pro Tour Barcelona showcased three rounds of LTR Draft, playing a significant role in who advances to day two, in addition to five rounds of Modern Constructed. All players with a record of 4-4, or 12 match points advanced to day two of the Lord of the Rings Pro Tour in Barcelona . 

Following the LTR Draft rounds, 32 players had a perfect record of 3-0 heading into the Modern Constructed Swiss rounds.

After five rounds during day one—three through LTR Draft and two in Modern Constructed—eight players still had an undefeated record.

Ending day one undefeated was Simon Nielsen, defeating Dimir Control, Jeskai Breach, Mono-Green Tron, and Four-Color Omnath in addition to sweeping opponents during the LTR Draft rounds. Sitting number two was Greg Orange, with a 7-0-1 record, followed by players like Kai Budde and Zachary Klihne.

July 29, MTG Pro Tour Lord of the Rings standings

Day two began with another three rounds of LTR Draft, followed by up to five rounds of Modern Constructed. All players who hit 13 match wins, or 39 match points, automatically advanced to the top eight playoffs on day three and earned an invite to the Magic World Championship .

Nielsen entered day two of the MTG Lord of the Rings Pro Tour with a Worlds invite already and an undefeated record from day one. And he kept that record going, earning three more round wins during day two of LTR Draft to have an 11-0 record heading into the Modern Constructed rounds.

In addition to Nielsen going undefeated during day two of the LTR Draft, six other players also went 3-0: Marei Okamura, Gabriel Nassif, Sean Goddard, Tin Miheael Capar, Stephano Vinci, and Toru Inoue.

Heading into the two final Modern Constructed rounds, Nielsen and Dominguez sought to hit 13 wins and advance to the final day of Pro Tour Barcelona. Also having a shot of making it to the top eight were players like Greg Orange, Alexander Hayne, Gabriel Nassif, and Kai Budde.

First to lock up a top-eight slot was Javier Dominguez, playing Mono-Green Tron. It was Dominguez’s second top-eight finish this season. And right behind Dominguez was another World Champion securing a top-eight finish, Kai Budde.

Related: MTG World champions secure top 8 finishes at Pro Tour Lord of the Rings

Joining Dominguez and Budde in the top eight at Pro Tour Lord of the Rings were Calcano, Nielsen, Beardsley, Del Piveo, Vinci, and Harvey.

July 30, MTG Pro Tour Lord of the Rings standings

The top-eight playoffs featured gameplay through Modern Constructed only, with players competing in the best three-out-of-five games. And players were allowed to start side-boarding after game two. Pairings for the quarterfinals were Dominguez vs Harvey, Beardsley vs Del Pivo, Calcano vs Budde, and Nielsen vs Vinci.

Calcano and Mono-Green Tron swept Budde and his Temur Rhino’s deck. Mono-Green also dominated Temur Rhino in the Nielsen and Vinci matchup, with Nielsen winning the quarterfinal match 3-1. Harvey and his Amulet Titan Modern deck knocked out World Champion Dominguez and his Mono-Green Tron deck 3-1. And Beardsley on Rakdos Evoke beat out Marco Del Pivo and his Temur Rhinos deck 3-1.

Beardsley continued his win streak by defeating Harvey 3-1 and Calcano advanced past Nielsen in the Mirror Mono-Green Tron matchup to play against Beardsley in the final match of Pro Tour Lord of the Rings .

The final match of the day went five games, with Beardsley winning over Calcano to earn the Pro Tour Lord of the Rings title.

Your Journey to the Top

From your local game store all the way to a Magic World Championship , Regional Championships and the Pro Tour offer competition and prizes every step of the way.

How to Qualify

• Top finishers at each region’s Regional Championships .
• Players that earn 30 or more match points at the previous Pro Tour.
• The 8 players who compete in the Magic: The Gathering Online Champions Showcase which grants invites to the corresponding Pro Tour.
• Players with 39 Adjusted Match Points from the previous 3 Pro Tours.
• Players who reach 7 wins on day two of Arena Qualifier Weekends.
• The top 8 finishers from Magic World Championship XXIX are invited to all Pro Tours in the 2024 season.
• Members of the Magic: The Gathering Hall of Fame receive one Pro Tour invite per season.

Adjusted Match Points will reward players with high finishes over the previous three rolling Pro Tours—even across seasons. Adjusted Match Points are the number of match points earned in a Pro Tour after a player's first 9 match points. Additionally, players who make the Top 8 will be awarded an additional 12 Adjusted Match Points (or a total if 39, if the number would have been lower than 39), regardless of their final standings.

Premier Tournament Invitation Policy (PDF)

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