Tales of Middle-Earth is designed to bring LotR fans into MTG , after all, and it's understandable that newer players prefer more streamlined and easy-to-handle matches to get comfortable with the game
One issue is that they split their focus between these graveyard mechanics and food tokens, which are only related to each other through the handful of cards with forage abilities
I doubt that this was even that good when first printed, but a 7-mana 4/4 that you then need to pay to give flying (and the power boost is balanced by the toughness loss) just doesnt cut it in any format these days
Its not unreasonable to think you might just draw twenty cards, right there, and if your deck contains a very unusual amount of mana, you might not be far from drawing your whole deck (especially if youve got a couple of Dakmor Salvages somewhere in the mix, making it completely deterministic that you mill your deck, fill the battlefield, and set up some graveyard kill)
Which ninjas are you excited to ninjutsu or sneak into play
Its headed by a new dragon, Firkraag, Cunning Instigator, who loves goading creatures and drawing you cards for it