Lord of the Rings: Tails of Middle Earth has had a surprising impact on Legacy. From [[Orcish Bowmasters]] to [[The One Ring]], most fair decks in the format have gotten a powerful upgrade. [[Forth Eorlingas!]] is a card mostly found in control decks and Jeskai Delver. This powerful sorcery might have a home in The EPIC Storm as well!
Forth Eorlingas!
[[Forth Eorlingas!]]SorceryCreate X 2/2 red Human Knight creature tokens with trample and haste.Whenever one or more creatures you control deal combat damage to one or more players this turn, you become the monarch.
Horse Power
[[Forth Eorlingas!]] would primarily be a [[Burning Wish]] target. Because the [[Human Knight Token]]s have haste, 14 mana to [[Burning Wish]] for this is lethal that turn if the opponent is at 20. Importantly, [[Forth Eorlingas!]] is a win condition that does not care about Storm count or [[Veil of Summer]]. Not caring about Storm count enables some different play than some of the traditional win conditions. While it is a total of 14 mana to directly win the game with [[Burning Wish]], one does not have to cast [[Forth Eorlingas!]] the same turn as [[Burning Wish]] to get the full effect. With The EPIC Storm being focused around [[Galvanic Relay]] currently, chaining a couple of copies of the powerful sorcery together to build up a pile of artifact mana to convert into a lot of [[Human Knight Token]]s seems easy to do.Clearly, [[Forth Eorlingas!]] does not need to be cast for x=10 all the time. Being flexible with the number of tokens created lets TES take advantage of the other text on the card: becoming the Monarch. Letting the opponent have multiple turns after casting [[Forth Eorlingas!]] does allow them the chance to answer the tokens. But in that time, the Monarch is drawing an extra card every turn allowing for easier rebuilding to win the game.One of the issues with the current iteration of TES is against effects that prevent extra draws, [[Burning Wish]] runs out of targets very quickly. [[Narset, Parter of Veils]], [[Leovold, Emissary of Trest]], [[Hullbreacher]], and the rest prevent both [[Echo of Eons]] and [[Peer into the Abyss]]. Adding another target with a huge impact on the game that is not stuffed by those effects increases the ability of TES to go around lock pieces rather than having to remove them.
Weaknesses
So far, it is clear that [[Forth Eorlingas!]] is a powerful option against the blue decks. Some of the issues with including this card start to appear when looking at what slot it takes in the sideboard. It is most similar to [[Empty the Warrens]], a card that is primarily best against prison matchups. It is much easier to get six mana and six storm to create a dozen power with [[Empty the Warrens]] rather than the 10 mana needed to create the same amount of power with [[Forth Eorlingas!]]. There is a critical difference between [[Empty the Warrens]] and [[Forth Eorlingas!]] when looking at the efficiency of the power created: Haste. [[Forth Eorlingas!]] creating hasty tokens normally cuts a turn off the clock, making creating less power still the same number of turns to win the game.Casting [[Forth Eorlingas!]] may also be a problem. It is not worth switching away from [[Veil of Summer]] given the amount of [[Grief]] decks in the format. This would make TES a five color deck again. Fortunately, [[Lion’s Eye Diamond]], [[Lotus Petal]], and [[Mox Opal]] should be plenty to produce the occasional white mana.
Empty the Warrens vs Forth Eorlingas!
Empty the Warrens
- Always six mana
- Storm dependant
- Tokens die to small sweepers like [[End the Festivities]]
- Falls off later in the game as racing is harder
- Tokens are blocked and killed by everything
- Can not win the game the turn that it is cast
Forth Eorlingas!
- Can be any amount of mana
- Only mana dependant – Can beat [[Mindbreak Trap]]
- Tokens can only be answered by true wraths like [[Terminus]]
- Less power can win faster thanks to Haste
- Trample helps win through smaller creatures
- The Monarch gives scaling power even if the tokens are answered
- Harder to cast on turn one for a meaningful amount in match ups where that matters like prison
back to the stables
Do you think that there is anything else from Lord of the Rings: Tails of Middle Earth that will see play in a combo deck? Let me know on Twitter, Discord, or the comments of wherever you found this article! If you wanted early access to this article, check out The EPIC Storm Patreon and support us there.
