You know what, no, maybe he's got a point. What about instead a manga about a lonely highschool loser who after a sudden death awakens in a brand new fantasy world and is given an amazing power to help save it from a great evil.
MTG has been a fun hobby I initially never thought I'd get into. My first tine playing was tabletop edh borrowing a friend's Lord Windgrace precon. Now a few years later (and a hiatus or two) I've started competing in edh tournaments, participating in and running drafts, and making my own decks. It's a fun game that I'm glad to see gaining traction (although I do wish WOTC would slow down a little).
I feel like the Metal is Forever secret lair would have been a lot cooler if we didnt have a surge of recent similar black-white arts recently (mainly All Will Be One).
I like the art for The Stars Gaze Back, but have absolutely no use for those cards for anything. Everything else was pretty lackluster to me.
Look out for the new commander masters decl releasing in August. One of them is an abzan enchantment creature reanimator deck that I think will prove very promising.
I have a Mogis deck too. I think I kill myself about 1/4 of the time. I still have a lot of fun with it though; i just go in with mindset for that deck that the goal isn't necesarrily to win, but to sow chaos. My personal goal is to end the game in a tie by killing everyone (including myself) in the same turn.
Cosmic encounter is such an awesome game. I wish it was easier to introduce people to it; everytime I try people always get put off by the initial complexity/learning-curve.
Michaeus the unhallowed is a fun (albeit expensive) card that could serve as a backup to save your creatures. Luminous broodmoth similarly will bring back all creatures that die and did not have flying, with an additional flying counter.
Not LOTR, but I am currently working on a The Mimeoplasm self-mill deck. Main goal is to get creatures with evasive or potective abilities (shadow, protection, fear, indestructible, etc.) and a creature with decent power to make The mimeoplasm come out as the nastiest beater possible. Alt win-con is going to be Thassa's Oracle since I'm so heavily milling myself anyway. There's some reanimation in there just to get cards back from the graveyard I might need for the game, but that's the not the real purpose of it.