LotR: Tales of Middle-earth's Aragorn, the Uniter Explained

Magic: The Gathering will introduce many new legendary creatures to the game with its LotR: Tales of Middle-Earth set, an exciting addition to the ongoing Universes Beyond project. The expansion is packed with famous characters, scenes and even infamous locations like Mount Doom, but most fans are interested in Aragorn himself — the iconic Chieftain of the Dúnedain and King of Gondor.

Tales of Middle-earth‘s Aragorn first appeared on Aragorn and Arwen, Wed, but now Aragorn is fighting alone on his own card, a four-color legendary creature with diverse abilities to suit a variety of decks. Now, MTG players are eager to see what this Númenórean hero can do, and which decks will lead Aragorn to victory.

RELATED: LotR Galadriel Cards Stun Fans With Gorgeous Art But Lackluster Abilities

Aragorn, The Uniter’s Four Colors & Abilities, Explained

Aragorn, the Uniter is a four-color legendary Human Noble with every color except black. This makes Aragorn difficult to cast in-game, and there are few established four-color decks he could slot into, but his card is powerful and flexible enough to make up for it. Aragorn has a solid 5/5 body which easily holds its own against most creatures, and best of all, the card represents Aragorn’s rise to power as a hero of the lore. In the LotR books and movies alike, Aragorn went from a roguish ranger to an inspiring commander who helped lead Middle-earth to victory against Sauron’s orc armies. Aragorn was many things to many people, and he’s known for fighting bravely alongside his allies, using any resource to win.

This appearance of Aragorn’s character is fittingly a four-color MTG creature with four abilities, each triggered by casting a spell of that color. Aragorn’s white ability makes 1/1 white Human Soldier tokens, his blue ability will scry 2 to smooth out the player’s draws, his red ability deals 3 damage to an opponent, and his green ability gives a creature +4/+4 until the end of turn. Notably, casting a multicolor card will trigger two or more of these abilities, making Aragorn more efficient and rewarding for players using him in a color-heavy deck with lots of multicolor cards — of which Tales of Middle-Earth has plenty.

RELATED: Magic: The Gathering Doctor Who Release Date, Leaks and Spoilers

Aragorn Is Highly Rewarding For Creative MTG Players

At a glance, the four-color Aragorn, the Uniter has no obvious home in any established strategy, since very few decks run so many colors, and Aragorn has no tribal synergy effects. His card is a highly flavorful and complex depiction of the character from the LotR books, so MTG players are challenging themselves to build the right deck for Aragorn, the Uniter. His card is a puzzle, and players already theorycrafting on Reddit and other communities.

Casual players can work within the confines of Tales of Middle-Earth to make a “legends matter” deck, fitting the legend-heavy theme of this set. Plenty of great legendary creatures are found in Aragorn’s colors, from Halflings like Samwise Gamgee to Gandalf the Gray’s blue-red card, so Aragorn’s abilities can trigger many times as players cast these multicolor legends. Aragorn isn’t a finisher, but he does generate enough free value over time to incrementally build up an overwhelming advantage. Players might even run five-color decks with MTG cards like Tom Bombadil taking the lead and Aragorn playing a supporting role.

MTG‘s most creative players could try to slot Aragorn into existing combo decks to use his free triggered abilities to push those combos even more, especially with damage and creature tokens. Scry 2 is the least combo-friendly effect, since combos don’t directly rely on scry, but scrying 2 is often extremely effective for players to set up their combos sooner rather than later.