8 Future Commander Staples From The Hobbit

Last updated on July 31, 2026

Gleaming Splendor | Illustration by James Bousema

With The Hobbit fully spoiled, it’s time to consider what might be the staples that endure beyond the flash in a pan hype of a new format. Commander welcomes all cards, but not everything sticks around for a terribly long time. These nine cards are those I expect to see play well into the future.

Honorable Mentions

These are cards with great potential, but I'm less certain they'll make the leap to staple once the smoke clears:

• Bard, King of Dale
• Bilbo, Thief in the Night
• Bothersome Noisemaker
• Fateful Discovery
• Inside Information
• The Arkenstone
• The Notary Hobbits

#8. Elven Raft-Steerer

Retreat to Coralhelm has been a Commander player since its printing thanks to the infinite combos enabled by its landfall trigger. Elven Raft-Steerer gets a replicate of the ability and is, in my opinion, the superior card. The landfall combos lean heavily on green for cards like Sakura-Tribe Scout and green is just so much better at tutoring for creatures than enchantments. I love a combo whose pieces can be found with the same tutor; one Chord of Calling finds whatever's missing.

#7. Elrond, Moon-Reader

I’m high on Elrond, Moon-Reader because mana abilities are activated abilities. Tapping that Llanowar Elf draws a card; casting Counterspell off Ornithopter of Paradise draws a card; and so on. That makes triggering Elrond easy and you can circumvent that once per turn restriction by leaving a dork untapped, then tapping it to float mana (or play an instant). Such a low barrier to entry on so much card draw screams staple.

#6. The Queen of Dale

The Queen of Dale displays the new recruit mechanic on a wonderful scale. You’ll get plenty of loots with this seeing all three of your opponents casting spells, which digs through your deck and enables synergies. Her Majesty works best with commanders that care about the draw, or discard, or tokens; frontrunners include Hashaton, Scarab's Fist, Marneus Calgar, and Raffine, Scheming Seer.

#5. Kíli the Resourceful

Kíli the Resourceful gives equipment commanders new card draw and equip cheating. Honestly, there are enough busted equipment that make a solid support piece like this is more exciting! The once per turn restriction is balanced nicely by its storied ability to make equip costs 0. I imagine many will compare this with Sram, Senior Edificier; the real tech is acknowledging that the deck that wants one should play both.

#4. Smaug, Wicked Worm

Let’s get this out of the way: Smaug, Wicked Worm is not the second coming of Dockside Extornist. It costs nearly three times as much and its Treasures enter tapped, so the combo lines die.

That said, this is still a fantastic card. It makes a surge of mana and rewards you for using it, which is a lesson I thought we learned with Prosper, Tome-Bound, but whatever. This is great for Treasure commanders but I see it breaking containment to all manner of midrange decks focusing on high-impact threats, rather like Bonehoard Dracosaur.

#3. Orcrist, Goblin-Cleaver

Typal commanders are among the most popular, so any halfway decent typal support card has staying power. Orcrist, Goblin-Cleaver is much better than halfway decent. It’s colorless, so every deck can use it, every deck needs the mana, and every typal deck wants a wide board. to cast, and then again to equip, is quite costly but the decks that would run Orcrist wouldn’t be competitive anyway.

#2. The Sackville-Bagginses

Do you remember The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth spoiler season when the internet lost its mind over Mirkwood Bats? The Sackville-Bagginsese is the card those players thought Bats was, or at least much closer to it.

Only targeting one opponent is a significant damage loss, but 2 mana is also significantly less than 4. Also, this is a great enters ability. Making a Treasure means this effectively costs 1, so you get a cantrip, a sacrifice payoff, and a Treasure for a very low cost.

#1. Gleaming Splendor

One of the best lines of text on a Commander card is “whenever a player” or “when an opponent” because so many players are doing so many things that cards templated thus trigger constantly. That’s why Rhystic Study and Smothering Tithe are some of Commander’s most enduring staples, and a new enchantment wants to join them.

Gleaming Splendor isn’t Smothering Tithe[/card] because it triggers less often but every Commander deck needs to draw cards, and many do it from the command zone. Expect this to trigger frequently before thinking of the activated ability that forces a trigger. It does so much for so little mana; this is the best Commander card in The Hobbit.