Even the most ordinary creature in Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set can make a difference in a game. From the smallest Hobbit to the eternal majesty of the Elves, there are so many creatures to keep an eye on from the set.

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Certain creatures have set themselves apart from others, rising above the battlefield to help secure your victory. Not every creature fits every situation, but consider these when building your next deck. Narrowing down the best creatures from Tales of Middle-earth still leaves out tons of amazing new creatures, but those on this list are among the best in the set.

10 Rosie Cotton Of South Lane

Not all great creatures from Tales of Middle-earth are beings of epic tales, sometimes they’re regular folk just trying to get by. Rosie Cotton of South Lane portrays this perfectly, a regular uncommon that can combo off with relatively little work.

When combined with the card Scurry Oak, you can almost immediately create infinite tokens and give Scurry Oak infinite power. You need Scurry Oak in play first, then play Rosie, creating a Food token and putting a +1/+1 counter on Scurry Oak, which in turn creates a Squirrel token, triggering Rosing again. The best part is that Rosie only costs three mana, so it slots right into Collected Company combo decks in Modern.

9 Faramir, Prince Of Ithilien

The younger brother of Boromir and a generally wholesome person, Faramir, Prince of Ithilien rewards you for your opponent’s actions at the end of your turn. During your end step, you get to pick an opponent. At the end of that player’s turn, if they didn’t attack you, you get to draw a card. If they did attack, you create three 1/1 Human Soldier tokens to dissuade them from attacking you again.

Since it's more of a Commander card since that format gives you the most amount of opponents to pick from, you can start to manipulate which version you want. By targeting players with few creatures or one that doesn’t have a favorable attack, you can draw cards if you’re running low.

8 Pippin, Guard Of The Citadel

Swearing his loyalty to the Ruling Steward of Gondor, Denethor II, Pippin, Guard of the Citadel can protect your creatures from incoming spells of any type of your choice. You can tap Pippin to give another creature you control protection from a card type of your choice.

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Similar to Mother of Runes, this effect lets you dodge removal spells on a specific type instead of the color of your choice. This fundamental difference gives the ability a unique twist, helping your creatures push past cluttered battlefields and get around all sorts of removal spells.

7 Gandalf The White

The Maiar sent to Middle-earth to help guide the people there, Gandalf has returned from his battle with the Balrog of Moria stronger than ever. With a focus on legendary spells, Gandalf not only gives your legendary spells and regular artifacts flash but also doubles up triggers caused by legendary permanents and artifacts coming into or leaving play.

While Gandalf might find more play in Commander than in other formats, he can be an absolute powerhouse in legendary or artifact-based decks. If you want to go absolutely wild with your triggers, combine Gandalf with Panarmonicon and Elesh Norn, March of the Machine.

6 Aragorn, The Uniter

There aren’t very many four-color legendary creatures in Magic, and the leader of the free peoples of Middle-earth makes the perfect addition to the list. Aragorn, the Uniter grants extra benefits to every spell you cast depending on its colors.

The more multicolor spells you cast means the more of Aragorn’s abilities trigger. If you cast a white and blue spell, you get to make a 1/1 Soldier token and scry 1. Casting a red and green spell lets you deal three damage to an opponent and then give a creature +4/+4. Stacking these effects onto multicolor spells ensures you get the maximum value from your deck.

5 Tom Bombadil

The mysterious and curious Tom Bombadil might be a mystery for the ages, but in Magic, he becomes an extremely powerful commander. Tom gains indestructible and hexproof if you have four or more lore counters across all your Saga enchantments, making him untouchable to your opponents.

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You can keep his immortal status through his second ability, triggering when a Saga you control hits its final chapter; you reveal cards from your library for another Saga and put it directly into play. You’ll have to stack your triggers since it only happens once a turn, but with a little deck and graveyard manipulation, you can keep hitting your favorite Sagas over and over again.

4 Sméagol, Helpful Guide

If you’re looking to get the most out of your creatures hitting the graveyard, you’ll want to be playing Smeagol, Helpful Guide. At the end of your turn, so long as a creature you control has died, the Ring tempts you, giving you a new effect.

Smeagol gives you an added bonus when you are tempted; you get to reveal cards from your opponent’s deck until they find a land. You get to steal that land, putting it into play under your control and sending the other cards into your opponent’s graveyard. Not only are you denying your opponent resources, but you get to ramp up on your own.

3 Mirkwood Bats

There are dozens of token-based strategies in Magic, between Elves, Humans, Goblins, Treasures, and Food tokens. There’s no end to the number of tokens you can make. While most of the decks involve swarming over the battlefield with an army of creatures, Mirkwood Bats can punish your opponent just by making them.

Mirkwood Bats has each opponent lose a life whenever you create or sacrifice a token, a uniquely powerful effect that has tons of potential. The most obvious move to make is with cards like Dockside Extortionist, making your opponents lose a ton of life when you make Treasure tokens and then making them lose even more when you spend those Treasures.

2 Delighted Halfling

Everybody loves mana fixing, and one of the best to be printed in ages is making its way to Modern with Tales of Middle-earth. Delighted Halfling comes loaded with two abilities, the first to make colorless mana, and the second to make mana of any color, so long as that spell is legendary.

Not only does Delighted Halfling fix your mana, but it also makes your legendary spell uncounterable, forcing your opponent to let your legendary spell resolve no matter what. In a format like Commander, where so much of your deck can be dependent on your commander, it’s a huge asset.

1 Orcish Bowmasters

A surprise hit from among all the immensely powerful legendary creatures in the set is Orcish Bowmasters. This Orc has a very specific ability that triggers both when it comes into play and when your opponent draws a card beyond the first of their draw step.

If an opponent draws a card, except for the one that would normally draw during their draw step, Orcish Bowmasters deals one damage to any target, and then you amass Orcs 1. Since it has flash, you can respond to an opponent casting a spell to draw them a bunch of cards and then hit them for one for each card they draw while creating a massive token.

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