Complete List of MTG’s The Hobbit Box Toppers and Where to Find Them

A.L. Walser 1 hour ago Collecting, MTG Cards

Last March of the Ents | Illustration by Wayne Reynolds

Opening boxes of Magic cards is a delight; you get so many booster packs to open and evaluate and cry over when you miss the three Magic cards worth more than four dollars even though you’re surrounded by enough foil to bling out six Commander decks. But what if the box could be even better?

The Hobbit has a series of box toppers called Classic Artist cards, reprints with stellar new art, often by titans of the Magic art scene like Rebecca Guay and Mark Poole. These are the rewards for purchasing entire boxes, with stellar reprints like The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters. But don’t worry gamblers—Reprieve got reprinted, so you can still strike out!

Table of Contents show

What Are The Hobbit Box Toppers?

Aragorn, the Uniter | Illustration by Paolo Parente

The Hobbit box toppers are a series of 40 cards called Classic Artist cards that come with Play Booster Boxes and Collector Booster Boxes. Each box topper contains one traditional foil Classic Artist card. All 40 cards are reprints from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth with borderless art exclusive to these prints.

In addition to opening them as box toppers, you can find Classic Artist cards in Collector Boosters in both nonfoil and surge foil treatments, though the traditional foil treatment is exclusive to the box topper boosters. You can’t open The Hobbit box toppers of any treatment in regular Play Boosters.

How Many Box Toppers Are There? How Many Are in Each Box?

There are 40 unique Classic Artist box toppers. Each box of Collector Boosters or Play Boosters comes with a special box topper booster that contains one traditional foil box topper. Traditional foil is the only treatment available in box topper boosters; nonfoil and surge foil editions are exclusive to Collector Boosters.

Where Can You Open The Hobbit Box Toppers?

You can openThe Hobbit box toppers can in Booster Boxes from The Hobbit. Both Collector Booster Boxes and Play Booster Boxes contain one box topper, which can be any of the 40 reprinted cards.

Where Can You Get Surge Foil Box Toppers?

Surge foil box toppers are exclusive to The Hobbit Collector Boosters. Per the Collecting article put out by Wizards, surge foil box toppers appear in the Foil Booster Fun slot 11.9% of the time.

Are Any of the Box Toppers New Cards?

No. All 40 box toppers are reprints of cards originally printed in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth and its related products, including the Commander decks and scene boxes.

The Hobbit Box Topper Gallery

Witch-King, Bringer of Ruin

Best Box Topper Reprints

Raise the Palisade

Raise the Palisade is among the best typal support cards printed in the last few years. Asymmetrical board wipes are especially effective in typal decks because the archetype forces you to have a wide board. When you have a big board, bouncing all opposing creatures is as much a win condition as a board wipe.

Delighted Halfling

Every Commander deck has at least one legendary permanent they don’t want countered and often several more. That makes Delighted Halfling a premium mana dork; it has all the best features of a dork (1-mana, color fixing) with a little extra. Even when you aren’t casting legendaries, it still accelerates you. There’s no reason not to run this except for the high price tag.

Galadriel’s Dismissal

Galadriel's Dismissal is extremely close to Commander’s best protection spell, with Akroma's Will and Teferi's Protection as its only serious competition. Phasing is the best form of protection compared to indestructible because it gets around sacrifice and toughness reduction. Then you get the flexibility of 1 mana to protect a single important target—say, your commander—or 4 to protect your entire team, a fine rate comparable to Clever Concealment and Akroma's Will. That flexibility makes this a perfect response to most anything.

Last March of the Ents

Green has plenty of cards like Last March of the Ents that draw large numbers of cards off the back of strong creatures, often with upside, but none have upside like putting all your creatures into play. Though realistically the card’s best feature is that it’s uncounterable, so you can commit all your mana without much risk.

The One Ring

The One Ring is the best card from The Lord of the Rings and thus the best reprint in the box toppers. Colorless card draw that comes with no mana investment beyond the additional spell and protection for a turn to mess with your opponents is a choice for Wizards to print. You’d think they’d learn that colorless card draw is busted from Memory Jar or Skullclamp or Smuggler's Copter or Reckoner Bankbuster or [insert Star Trek artifact].

Most Valuable Box Toppers from The Hobbit?

Here’s a quick look at the most valuable cards getting reprints. I’m using the price of the base printings of LTR/LTC cards rather than the prerelease prices of HOB box toppers; prerelease prices are almost always inflated, but you can expect the most expensive cards from last set to be the most precious here.

Wrap Up

Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin | Illustration by Carl Critchlow

The Hobbit box toppers are loaded with great value and stunning art. I’ll admit to a little disappointment that these weren’t used as a bonus sheet to really bring prices on these staples down, but at least the duds on the list are few and far between.

Which box toppers do you want to open? What cards do you think should have been included? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! And check out The Daily Upkeep newsletter to stay up to date on all the latest MTG news.

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!

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A.L. Walser

A. L. Walser - also known as nissaflamecaller online - has been playing Magic since 2009 and the release of the original Zendikar set. An avid drafter with a bit of a Vorthos streak, his favorite aspect of playing Magic comes from the act of building a deck from nothing.