Magic: The Gathering’s Lord of the Rings set looks fantastic: here’s more info

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In case you haven’t heard, there’s going to be a Lord of the Rings Magic: The Gathering set out this summer. While the art shown off so far has been marvelous, it turns out that the team over at Wizards of the Coast has a lot more going for it than cool art. We spoke to Ovidio Cartagena, lead art director on the set, about what to expect. Spoiler alert: Wizards is going big on this set.

Beyond the obvious reason of “money,” Cartagena likens the Lord of the Rings set as a natural fit for Magic: The Gathering because of its commitment to “Universes Beyond,” which have crossed over with franchises like Transformers, Warhammer 40K, as well as Secret Lair drops like The Walking Dead, Fortnite, and Street Fighter.

Liz Stewart, Senior Communications Manager at Wizards of the Coast, says that the team went “all-in” on the flavor of the set, which was the result of long hours of textual research from Tolkien’s work. That research shows, as locations like The Shire, Minas Tirith, and the Paths of the Dead are going to be on full display, and all of the lands will include paths the characters from the series had to traverse throughout the world: you can even see them as specks sometimes in zoomed-out shots! Alongside those aforementioned perilous lands, the set also isn’t afraid to get silly. Bill the Pony is in, and can even be a Commander. Sam’s cookware has been added to “multiple cards as an Easter egg,” Cartagena teases.

For those of you who are unaware, The Lord of the Rings legalese can get complicated. For this project, the team worked specifically with Middle-earth Enterprises (MEE), a steward of much of the “core” material that comprises the most popular bits of Tolkien’s work: including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings,