First of all: I'm not a hater. Let's get thst out of the way. People should like what they like and I'm fine with that. I people enjoy things I will be the last to complain to them about what they like

That being said: I feel sort of alone right now. Eveyone seems to be loving the LOTR set, and i absolutely loath it.

I love LOTR, make no mistake, but not in my Magic. These universe beyond sets are slowly pushing me out of Magic and I'm incredibly sad about it.

I remember when Universes Beyond was anounced and everyone was up in arms about it, but most people seem to love them now. I for one am finding it increasingly hard to face a Legolas, a Megatron and a Rick commander deck and still enjoy miself.

Does anyone else feel lost like me, or am I alone in this?

I still don't feel great about UB. I have a slight exception for 40k since that felt freakishly on-brand for both Magic and Warhammer, but in general I'm not a fan in principle.

Some of the choices made for LotR are kind of neat, others are downright baffling. On the whole, I'm feeling mostly negative about the set. The legendary lands are cool and setting a precedent for Amassing other types of armies makes a really neat mechanic open to reuse, but the whole Ring mechanic is clunky as hell and the whole look and feel seems like it split the difference between modern WOTC art direction and what I'd actually want LotR to look like and it's not as good as going either way.

I think you see less anger now because it's clear that UB is here to stay and arguably expanding, so most have given up screaming about it.

There are about 4 cards I like out of this.
Past that, I assure you, I despise the LOTR stuff.
I'm not that fond of it to start, but with the double layers of it not being a magic IP* and the... Very specific aesthetic choices they've made,** my hackles are sufficiently risen.


* 40k showing up didn't bother me. I'm torn on the Godzilla features, and I'm strangely okay with Street Fighter, but otherwise, I really don't like the Universes Beyond. If the rumored Final Fantasy one turns up, I'll probably feel an exception for that. Then again, considering how bad Magic has abused their own IP of late, having someone else that gives a damn about protecting the sanctity of the IP.

** I find it actually particularly abhorrent that they're doing as they're doing to culturally appropriate LOTR considering Tolkien's intent on writing it, being a replacement for the mythology that Christianity and the Romans effectively erased.

I hate every other IP that convolutes Magic's own IP. The game feels less and less like magic and more a bag of mixed stuff.

As a longtime Warhammer player, i have to say the 40k decks were exceptional. Still, i dislike those as well. Bolters in magic? No thanks. The style of the cards at least blended in with the normal magic art.

The only cross-over cards that i can live with are the D&D sets, though i thought it was really weak to make the second Commander Legends set D&D themed.

I've refused to use cards from any other IP beyond a few D&D dragons.

The Lord of the rings cards look very cheap to me; the style in no way fits in with normal magic cards. As said, the whole Ring mechanic seems like a real pain to use in the game in the way that i hate it when someone brings the innitiative into the game. I somewhat like the Treebeard card, because the art is by Jesper and could have been any random treefolk in magic. Worst thing is that i don't want to be a hypocrite, but i have a treefolk deck and both Fangorn and Quickbeam are pretty much mandatory in that deck...but i don't really want to use them.

I don't want to hold back people who use UB cards in their decks and i want them to have fun and enjoy themselves, but on the other hand i myself do not enjoy games where i have to play against them. The whole situation makes me sad and enjoy the game less and less.

Oddly, my thoughts to the DnD set is largely irritation at best, and that only because I like the dragons.
Otherwise, the DnD inclusion is something I find repugnant, shockingly more so than the 40k cards.
Of course, this is also likely due to my dislike of the Forgotten Realms as well.

Still, my overall sentiment towards Universes Beyond has been wildly inconsistent, even if my basic instinct is to dislike it. However, again, given how I feel the company itself has mishandled and mangled their own unique IP, with the past year of overall dreck, I have to take solace in finding things to enjoy.

... Though, it occurs to me that's, perhaps, a byproduct of my deck practices, as I build exclusively theme decks, and therefore wouldn't mix outside products into a deck of Magic's own brand while trying to find generic cards to personalize the outside brand efforts.

I also make theme decks exclusively, but treefolk are a very poor tribe, getting good new cards only once or twice every two years or so, and to have some new and exciting designs for thst deck in the LOTR set galls me.

As someone who seethes at Magic's vehement fear of using orcs, I understand the struggle too well

At least you'll always have Fallen Empires! Brassclaw Orcs for the win!

I'll stick to my Orcish Lumberjacks, is that's okay.
They sleep all night and work all day.

Lumberjack legitimately continues to remain a great card, which is great considering its Ice Age hermitage.

Somewhere I have a set of 5 monocolor decks each made with FE cards only. They played really well.

I'm still mad Sauron is red and Saruman the white is mono-blue.

Apart from hating the whole idea of the LOTR set, how in all blazes is Saruman not black? And red is one of the last colors i would give Sauron...only beaten out by green i think.

Not only do i find the set a horrible concept to begin with, but the execution is also very sub par.

I mean there are several of each of the really headliner characters. I think one of the better Sarumans (mechanically) was . All in all it's pretty clear that they were straining, whether to fill content or cover bases I don't know.