The march of the highly merchandisable spring blockbuster Honour Among Thieves continues with the inevitable announcement of special Magic The Gathering cards featuring the main characters from the movie.

The cards will be available via Secret Lair, Magic the Gathering’s premium service, which provides special cards (usually very well presented) for a very limited time. Previous Secret Lair releases have included characters from the Street Fighter video game and the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.

The cards also have an additional connection to the movie; the copy on the cards themselves has been written by Sarra Scherb, a Wizards of the Coast Copywriter who also ran an introductory game of Dungeons & Dragons for the directors and main movie cast. (With the exception of Hugh Grant, who was unavailable on the day.) 

Sarra told the press that Justice Smith was especially keen to play and that Chris Pine took on the role of the party leader, looking for cheeky ways to exploit the game’s rules (which is a traditional part of the game).

All cards in this release are Legendary creatures, which means that they would be very useful in a game of Commander. Doric is a dual card, and can be flipped over to unleash her owl-bear form.

This pack features six cards based on the characters of the film including Edgin, Larcenous Lutenist; Forge, Neverwinter Charlatan; and Holga, Relentless Rager all bearing the likeness of the actor playing the role.

This is a great-looking set, a fantastic addition to any collection and a unique bit of merchandise.

A Magic: The Gathering Artist Proof Black Lotus, signed by its artist, Christopher Rush, has sold for $615,000. That’s roughly half-a-million pounds sterling for a small, flat piece of card that has been drawn on. The auction was held on Friday, March 24th, at Texas Auction house Heritage Auctions,

The near-mint condition card was part of a collection put up for auction by Jeff Ferreira, Christopher Rush’s friend and former agent. Rush passed away in 2016.

“The Black Lotus remains the most desired Magic: The Gathering card in the world,” says Jesus Garcia, Heritage’s Trading Card Games Consignment Director. “And it’s certainly no surprise this spectacular copy is now the auction record-holder, given that it’s signed by the artist who created it. We’re proud to have been a part of the remarkable result achieved for this – dare I say it? – magical offering.”

The Black Lotus is a Magic the Gathering card that was only printed in very early editions of the game and is banned from most normal versions of the play. This is because it breaks the game’s design, especially in the early rounds. It is one of the Power Nine; nine cards printed for the early sets of the game are overpowered, practically impossible to obtain, and roundly restricted from play.

Wizards of The Coast recently released reprints of The Power Nine as part of Magic’s 30th Anniversary in a set that retailed at about a thousand American dollars. This does not seem to have harmed the value of the original Black Lotus in any way.

The world’s biggest fantasy franchise has teamed up with the most played card game in the world to bring us a Lord of the Rings-themed Magic the Gathering set. Does this mean that Gandalf is going to team up with Chandra Nalaar to defeat the Phyrexians? Will Ulamog and Gothamog get together? Probably not, but it does look like an amazing card set.

The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ card set will launch on June 23rd and will be a full range of cards, including Starter Kits, Commander Decks, Booster Bundles and so on. The folk at Wizards of the Coast have had a lot of fun with this set and have done some amazing things with it.

Does this mean that you’ll get to play Tom Bombadill or Gandalf as legendary creatures? Of course, it does. And, of course, there will be a card called You Cannot Pass. And, of course, there will be a card for The One Ring, which makes you indestructible whilst slowly destroying you.

The ‘true’ One Ring will be out there. A single English-language The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth Collector Booster pack will contain a one-of-a-kind printing of The One Ring, called The Precious. They’re printing exactly one. Given the thousands of cards and packs produced, this card may never be found. Or maybe found years later as part of a dragon’s hoard. The card’s picture has not been released, but we know it is a traditional foil card printed in the Black Speech of Sauron using Tengwar.

Of course, Magic the Gathering already has its own magic rings, of course. For this set, they’ve been re-imagined. The Sol Ring is an uncommon card that gives the player two mana when tapped; it’s a pretty standard addition for most decks. In The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™ card, they’ve reworked the card into one of the rings of power, with the text being changed to Tengwar writing and language Quenya (the language of the High Elves).

The art for this set is incredible, and the full range of cards seems comprehensive and full. The Borderless art cards also combine to show full scenes, just to increase collectability and to make games of Magic look really, really pretty.

Land cards will be snap-shorts of the classic map of Middle-earth. Why have a normal-looking plain card when you can have a map of Rohan? The mountain cards are The Misty Mountains, and so on. Gorgeous stuff.

The Starter Set will pitch Sauron (of the lidless eye) vs Aragorn and Arwen, who apparently, when married, count as a single legendary creature, which just goes to show what the power of love can do.

This is an astonishing set with artwork that sits up there with some of the Tolkien classics. You can find out more here.