Recruit in MTG: Rules, History, and Best Cards

Bard's Company | Illustration by Jarel Threat

The Hobbit tells the story of Bilbo Baggins’s adventures with a party of dwarves, but in the background, there’s a story of armies clashing against each other all over Middle-earth. If you watched the third Hobbit movie, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

MTG’s The Hobbit has plenty of armies and the need to recruit more soldiers into them. Today, we take a look at the recruit mechanic to see exactly how the human folk are growing their ranks. Let’s dive in!

How Does Recruit Work?

Great Gilded Boat | Illustration by Josu Solano

Recruit is a very simple mechanic. It’s a keyword action that instructs you to draw and then discard a card. Then if you discard a nonland card, you create a 1/1 white Human Soldier token. Simple as that. While you’re recruiting, the act of drawing, discarding and making a 1/1 token is part of the same in-game action.

Recruit is very much like connive, except that your benefit for discarding a nonland card is a 1/1 token instead of a +1/+1 counter.

The History of Recruit in MTG

Recruit was created in 2026 for The Hobbit, and it’s a low-profile mechanic designed with Limited in mind. It only appears on blue and white cards, 10 total. Azorius () in HOB has a theme of humans and drawing two cards a turn.

It’s a simple enough mechanic that it could be reused in other sets, especially if there’s an army theme. The mechanic can also be used in other colors, considering that all colors in MTG have access to drawing, discarding, and making 1/1 tokens.

What Happens If You Discard a Land?

When you recruit, you’ll always draw and discard. If you discard a land, nothing happens, and you’re not penalized for discarding a land. You’ll just miss out on the “free” 1/1 token.

Does Recruit Always Make a Human Soldier?

Yes. The recruit mechanic specifically says that you’ll create a token that’s a 1/1 white Human Soldier, regardless of the colors you’re playing.

Does Recruit Work with Token Doublers?

Sure! If you have cards like Anointed Procession that let you double the tokens you create, they’ll work with recruit. In this case, each time you recruit, you’ll actually get two 1/1 tokens, which is pretty powerful.

Do the White Tokens Affect Color Identity in Commander?

No. Color identity in Commander isn’t affected by the color of tokens produced by a card. It only cares about the mana symbols in a card’s mana value and rules text.

Recruit vs. Connive

Connive and recruit are two very similar mechanics. Both ask you to draw and discard, and if you discard a nonland card, you get an additional benefit.

Connive affects a specific creature and gives that creature a +1/+1 counter, and you can’t connive on an empty board. Recruit doesn’t require a creature in play, and the benefit you get is a 1/1 white Human Soldier token.

Gallery and List of Recruit Cards

• Celebrate the Mountain-king
• Esgaroth Garrison
• Lake-town Lookout
• The Mountain-king's Return
• The Queen of Dale
• Great Gilded Boat
• Long Lake Nuisance
• Sound the Trumpets
• Bard's Company
• Patient Instructor

Best Recruit Cards

#5. Celebrate the Mountain-king

Celebrate the Mountain-king is a mix of a staple card like an Oblivion Ring with an extra recruit tacked onto it. But as with many newer MTG cards, it has multiplayer text, so getting a card from each of your opponents is actually worth the extra mana you’re spending. I can take a good guess that this card is playable outside of your typical Limited games.

#4. The Mountain-king’s Return

The best part about The Mountain-king's Return is how well the recruit on the first chapter goes with the reanimation on the second chapter. With Chapter 1, you discard the card you want to return to the battlefield, like an Abhorrent Oculus. If your opponent doesn’t destroy your saga, you get a free Unearth effect with the target you’ve chosen.

#3. Bard’s Company

Humans are a pretty common creature type, so many times, Bard's Company is a flash creature lord, and that’s already useful in many decks, including blue-white fliers. But what’s more, this card gives you more tokens in the form of recruit, and you can recruit when it enters or attacks. The most common play pattern will be to flash this on your opponent’s end step, immediately create a token, and crack back for a lot thanks to this card’s +1/+1 bonus.

#2. Great Gilded Boat

Great Gilded Boat is okay, but it isn’t the hottest vehicle card, considering stats. Still, just having this card around means that you can effectively recruit each turn just by attacking. This card’s great because the difference between “whenever you attack” and “whenever you attack with this card” is huge. I can see a deck that can rely on this boat to discard Practiced Offense and cast it ahead of the curve by paying just 2 mana instead of 3.

#1. The Queen of Dale

The Queen of Dale looks like a future white staple to me. It’s aggressively priced at 2 mana, you can get it back from the graveyard with cards like Hero of the Dunes, and in a Commander game, the number of times you can recruit with this card in play is just ridiculous. Adding the Queen to a deck with blue and black cards that care about drawing is very strong, and you’ll always have some sacrifice fodder lying around.

Wrap Up

Recruitment Officer | Illustration by Johan Grenier

And that’s how we’ll you'll be recruiting using this new Hobbit mechanic! It's a solid ability, and although simple, it makes you think about a lot of game zones and how to manage your resources. Sometimes, you’ll keep a land and discard another nonland to get the extra benefit, or you can use it to set up graveyard synergies. Recruit asks you if a token is going to matter more than a nonland spell.

What’s your take on recruit, guys? Is it a worthy upgrade over connive, or do you think both mechanics are bad? Let me know in the comments section below. And for more on The Hobbit and tips for the prerelease, please check out Draftsim’s YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Thanks for reading, and have an excellent prerelease.