In Lord of the Rings, the books and the movies both, orcs are shown as extremely strong and physically capable creatures (not to mention being pretty nasty and evil); that said, they were very rarely, if ever, explicitly associated with magic.
However, in their continuing quest to write the most gloriously over the top Tolkien fan fiction that they can, Monolith are introducing a new tribe of orcs in Shadow of War– the Mystic tribe, marked by practicing dark magic and sorcery. The new trailer for the game, which you can see for yourself below, actually introduces and highlights this tribe to us.
Lore considerations aside, it is hard to deny that magical orcs would make for some formidable foes and opponents in the game- so at the very least, even Tolkein fans can be intrigued by this from a gameplay design standpoint. Middle-Earth: Shadow of War launches on PS4, Xbox One, and PC next month.
