Last updated on August 25, 2026

On an Adventure | Illustration by Nia Kovalevski

It’s no secret that The Hobbit is a poorly designed Limited set. Complaints about the format are everywhere online, and many of them were posted by me. Whether it’s poor color balance, unfunctional “build-around” rares, or meta-commentary about the format at large, The Hobbit is definitely a set with some real problems. Despite this, we can start with some things the set does very well, and try to build that into a “fixed version” of the set that could conceivably exist (which would still be small sized).

First Breakfast

It would be utterly uncharitable to describe The Hobbit’s flavor as anything less than a resounding triumph. The feel of the book has been beautifully transported to Magic: The Gathering and the set did a wonderful job at characterizing and capturing most of the book’s characters and moments. In addition, the design decision to use the book’s Five Armies as five Draft archetypes was a brilliant one.

The archetypes themselves were flavorful and appealing too. RW Dwarves was my favorite of the bunch, as I loved how it used the legendary status of the book’s 13 Dwarves to make a coherent Draft archetype. Recruit was an interesting new take on connive, and I liked how BR Goblins and GU Elves could be seen as continuations on The Lord of the Rings from years back. BG was probably the least interesting of the bunch to me, but I have nothing against ferocious from a gameplay perspective.

Spoiled Eggs

Of course, actually playing the set showcases its dramatic problems. In simple terms:

• Black is far better than the other four colors. Black has the best common (Crude Bent Blade), several other great commons (including two hard removal spells), and virtually no bad commons and uncommons other than Great Fierce Bee[card] (which is still better than several non-black commons.
• Blue's uncommons were terrible relative to other colors, barring [card]Bilbo, Luckwearer.
• White depended entirely on a handful of broken rares and Celebrate the Mountain-king to be competitive, as its commons were thoroughly underpowered.
• Elves were almost unplayable, and green lacked the tools required to ramp into its multitude of huge fatties (which died to Crude Bent Blade anyways).
• Legendary commons led to some gameplay and Sealed deck woes, even with ways to mitigate this like recruit and Key to the Side-Door].

Second Breakfast

With that in mind, here are some changes I would make to Limited. All of these changes will reference commons and uncommons; assume that the Mythic/Rare sheets are exactly the same. My two primary goals with these changes are to:

• Improve color balance.
• Improve bad commons.
• Increase set continuity between the two Lord of the Rings sets (note the return of a little “scry” on Elves).
• Make decks/mana more consistent by adding cycling to five commons, as cycling has felt welcome in every set I’ve played with it.

White

Esgaroth Garrison

• Now has “Plainscycling: 2.”

Lake-town Lookout

• Toughness increased from 1 to 2 (lets it dodge ping effects for Blade insurance).

Magnificent End

• Now has “If a Dragon dealt damage this way died this turn, recruit.”
• Largely just a flavor win.

Moment of Glory

• Now templated to put two +1/+1 counters on the creature you are targeting with flashback, and one on the others (instead of one on each).
• If you go through the trouble of recruiting this, you should be properly rewarded; one extra +1/+1 counter isn’t going to break it.

Thorin’s Last Stand

• Removed from the set entirely.

Velvetwing Butterflies

• Toughness increased from 2 to 3.
• Mana cost changed from 2W to 1WW.
• This is off tribe for the set, so it deserves to at least have Ardenvale Tactician stats.

Vow to Erebor 

• Text now says “Choose one:
  • Untap target creature you control. It gets +2/+2 and vigilance until the end of turn. If you control a Dwarf, you may attach an Equipment you control to it.
  • Destroy target artifact or enchantment. You gain 1 life for each Dwarf you control.”
• WU already has the improved [Moment of Glory] for a go-wide payoff, plus Dwarven Provisioner. Having three of those at common in a small set was just miserable!

Banishing Light

• Now added to the set file, or any other Oblivion Ring variant WotC wanted to use.
• Flavorfully this could be Gandalf using his Staff to banish evil with light.
• Gives white a chase, splashable common that can answer Equipment and other threats directly.

Dáin, Lord of the Iron Hills 

• No longer has vigilance.
• Has “Equipment spells you cast cost (1) less.”

Eagle of the Great Shelf

• Mana cost changed from 4W to 3W.
• Power and toughness decreased from 2/5 to 1/4.

Lake-town Toymaker

• Mana cost changed from 3W to 4W.
• Now a 3/3 with lifelink.
• Ability changed from “+3/+0 and first strike” to “put a +1/+1 counter on each creature you control.”

Blue

Bilbo Baggins, Burglar

• ‘Take a Glance’ now surveils rather than scries.
• This is a buff to blue’s best common, but makes Bilbo mechanically distinct from Elves (which will scry now).

Elvenking’s Harper

• Now has: “When this creature enters, scry 1.”

Gandalf, Wandering Wizard

• No longer common. Replaces Master's Councillors in the uncommon slot (which has been removed from the set).
• New text: “When Gandalf enters, recruit.”
• “: Gandalf’s owner shuffles him into their library and draws three cards.
• Power and toughness decreased from 4/5 to 3/4.
• No longer has ward.

Mirkwood Meditator

• Toughness increased from 4 to 5.
• Landfall triggers now has “Scry 1” in addition to its current text.

Uneasy Partings

• Now identical to Dire Downdraft, with no insulting “nontoken” rider.

Bird King’s Servant

• A new common bird soldier creature that costs 4U for a 3/5.
• Flying, ward (1), islandcycling (2).
• Gives blue passable common fat, and makes fliers a little more present in the set file to help out The Lord of the Eagles.

Black

Crude Bent Blade

• Equip cost increased from 2 to 3.

Front Porch Sentries

• Mana cost changed 1B from 4BB.
• Power and toughness increased from 2/2 to 4/3.
• Now has “Swampcycling (2).”
• “When this dies” trigger increased from -1/-1 to -3/-3.
• Helps increase black’s curve a little by giving it a 6-drop to play.

Gollum, Silent Slinker

• Toughness decreased from 3 to 2.

Great Fierce Bee

• Now “surveils” rather than scrying.

Red

Iron Hills Stalwart

• Now has “Mountaincycling 2” in addition to its other text.
• Puts it more in line with Kree Sentinel, which I enjoyed playing with.

Smaug’s Fury

• Now has “If you control a Dragon, create a Treasure token.” Another flavor win, not a necessary mechanical upgrade.

Bothersome Noisemaker

• Toughness decreased from 2 to 1.

Bombur, Gentle Dreamer

• Now has: “Whenever Bombur becomes untapped, create a Treasure token.”

Snowslope Hunter

• No longer restricted to “your turn”, still limited to once per turn.

Green

Beorn, Reluctant Host

• Toughness increased from 5 to 6.
• Makes him Smaug and Magnificent End proof, which he deserves for being so vanilla.

Boughside Wanderers

• Power and toughness increased from 4/4 to 5/5.
• Landfall trigger changed from “+2/+2” to “you gain 3 life”.
• Designed to be a proper value card for green decks to try and outgrind black decks with.

Guardian of the Halls

• Now has “Tap: Add G”.
• Still has its 5GG mode for a late game mana sink.
• Power decreased from 2 to 1.

Little Bear

• Removed from the set.
• Replaced with “Elf Landfall Common”, a 3-mana 2/2 Elf Warrior with trample and “Landfall: Whenever a land enters under your control, put a +1/+1 counter on this creature.”
• Also has “Whenever this creature attacks, scry 1” like Lothlórien Lookout did.

Ordinary Bear

• Now has Forestcycling 2.
• Still gets to keep its flavor text as that would fit on the card alongside the quote.

Wargling

• Now gets +1/+1 on attack if you have ferocious, rather than +1/+0.

Galion, Elvenking’s Butler

• Now has “If you choose an Elf this way, scry 2” on his attack trigger.

Hybrid/Colorless

Goblin Plate Mail

• No longer gives menace.
• Equip cost decreased from 4 to 2.

Giant’s Boulder

• Now surveils 2 rather than scries, to be consistent with other cards.

Wrap Up

And there we have my changes! Designing Magic sets is honestly very difficult, which I’ve immediately learned from attempting this exercise. Let us know if you liked any of this, what tweaks you would make to the set, and stay tuned for some awesome Reality Fracture content either way.