The Best Commons and Uncommons By Color for The Hobbit Draft

Beorn, Reluctant Host | Illustration by Javier Charro

Jumping into a new Draft set like The Hobbit can be daunting. What do you take for your first pick? You’re looking at 13-14 brand new cards with a lot of text to read through, and you know you’ll probably pick something that ends up being bad.

I’ll take you through my picks for the best commons and uncommons in each color to arm you with a bit of extra information as to what you should take in your Hobbit drafts. As the format progresses and we learn more about it, these will absolutely change. Take my picks with a pinch of salt, but I hope that they serve as a baseline for the set as we get started with it.

Commons

Hobbit Hole | Illustration by Shahab Alizadeh

White

#3. Dwarven Shortsword

A 3/4 for 4 mana is a little bit on the small side, but Dwarven Shortsword makes up for it in spades by giving you a creature and an equipment in a single card. This is just a simple two-for-one that supports the red/white deck very well.

#2. Magnificent End

While removal spells like Magnificent End work best in a controlling deck, this is a small set, and it happens to be the only removal spell that white has at common. That tells me that we’ll need to prioritize this and a certain insect card.

#1. Velvetwing Butterflies

It’s going to be a little difficult for white decks to interact in this format, which definitely makes Gaze in Wonder stand out against the other white cards in this set. Velvetwing Butterflies is a great card anyway, but it certainly gets better when compared with the rest of white’s commons.

Blue

#3. Enchanted River’s Grasp

You just can’t go wrong with a simple aura that locks down a creature. Removing the creature’s abilities is a very nice upgrade over past versions of this effect, so Enchanted River's Grasp is just a very good, proactive removal spell.

#2. Uneasy Partings

This feels like a running joke for me because this exact spell is printed in every single set, with some minor changes. So yeah, we know how good Uneasy Partings is, especially in a color that lacks hard removal.

#1. Bilbo Baggins, Burglar

It’s the easiest two-for-one in the game that still affects the board in a meaningful way: The creature that draws a card when it enters. If this set has a “mythic common”, it’s bound to be Bilbo Baggins, Burglar.

Black

#3. Stony-Voiced Goblins

From Ravenous Rats to Virus Beetle, these creatures tend to range from good to very good. I see no reason why Stony-Voiced Goblins can’t also be somewhere in that range.

#2. Rage into the Valley

I don’t want to say that Rage into the Valley is basically just Phyrexian Revoker, but come on, it’s really damn close. Even if you’re only amassing onto your existing army token, two +1/+1 counters plus a card draw is still a great deal for 3 mana.

#1. Bilbo’s Deadly Slice

It may not be a two-for-one (at least most of the time) like these other two cards, but you’re not going to find a cleaner way of removing a creature than Bilbo's Deadly Slice.

Red

#3. Smaug, the Great Calamity

This is a very expensive card (12 mana in total) to consider among red’s best commons, but I think it’s well worth the cost. Five mana for 5 damage is a fine common that you’ll see in most Limited sets, but none of them come with an upside like Smaug, the Great Calamity. This might be the most amount of mana I’ll have ever spent on a two-for-one, but I’m all for it.

#2. Dori, Bearer of Friends

Dori, Bearer of Friends does a lot of work with this set’s themes. You can stockpile the Treasure for some of the stronger rares, accelerate into something, provide two permanents towards storied. The list goes on and on. If I’m drafting dwarves, Dori is the one card I want to see the most.

#1. Pinecone Strike

Pinecone Strike is very simple. Three damage, 2 mana, and it even exiles the target. This kind of card will probably always be my pick for the best red common, and it’ll always at least be in the conversation by the end of a format.

Green

#3. Beorn, Reluctant Host

Beorn, Reluctant Host would already be a reasonable card as a 5/5 trampler for 5 mana, but tack on its own ramp spell and I think it becomes something I’m actively looking for in a draft.

#2. Wood Elves

Wood Elves is a classic and a very welcome reprint for The Hobbit. Between elf typal synergies and landfall abilities to trigger, there’s always going to be a use for this card, no matter when you draw it.

#1. Quarrel

As much as I love mana acceleration, I have to give the nod here to green’s common removal spell. There are some pretty big creatures in HOB, so you should always have something to Quarrel with, and killing most creatures for just 2 mana is always going to be a good thing to do.

Uncommons

Iron Hills Blacksmith | Illustration by Jarel Threat

White

#3. Iron Hills Blacksmith

There really aren’t a lot of good options for this spot on my list, white’s uncommons just don’t look that good. Still, that’s not to say Iron Hills Blacksmith is bad, I just wanted something a bit stronger here. It’s still a very nice 2-drop and a good way to start a game in dwarves.

#2. Stone by Sunlight

Having the modal choice between destroying a creature and protecting a creature from removal means that Stone by Sunlight will basically never be useless. Flexible spells like this should always be a high priority and will always make your main deck.

#1. Celebrate the Mountain-king

Four mana to Oblivion Ring something and get a little extra bonus is a tried and tested design. Celebrate the Mountain-king also looks like a very good version of that since recruit is so synergistic with the set. I can’t imagine any other white card taking the top spot.

Blue

#3. Ravenhill Flock

Blue’s uncommons look pretty weak overall. I did not expect Ravenhill Flock to make this list, but I don’t think there’s anything better. It’s not like this is a bad card; after all it doesn’t take long for it to grow to an uncontrollable size, and it will eventually start to dominate the board.

#2. Lake-town Mariners

I really love flicker effects. The one-two punch of a good double flicker spell followed by a sweet 6-drop bomb makes Lake-town Mariners a very powerful option in this set.

#1. Bilbo, Luckwearer

The fact that both Bilbo, Luckwearer and its adventure spell are pretty powerful cards in their own right makes the combination of them a very premium card indeed. It’s a little awkward that the adventure spell is the more expensive mode, so you’re not incentivized to hold onto Bilbo until you can cast it. However, that just means that Bilbo is a solid 2-drop first and foremost that has a very relevant mode when you draw it late.

Black

#3. Desolation Prowler

In my opinion, the black/green warg deck looks very strong, and it’s my early pick for the best archetype in The Hobbit, which naturally means it’ll end up as the worst deck. I think it looks incredibly well supported, and Desolation Prowler is a perfect example of that. This is a way of enabling ferocious abilities for just 2 mana and with two premium 1-drops at its disposal, this looks incredible.

#2. Nighthowl Pursuer

One of my reasons for liking black/green so much is that the deck has access to two very powerful 1-drops, and Nighthowl Pursuer is one of them. This deck looks powerful, aggressive, and really annoying to fight through, and I can’t imagine many better picks for it than this.

#1. Gnashing of Teeth

As much as I love high-synergy cards, there’s no substitute for a powerful, flexible removal spell like Gnashing of Teeth. This set has a lot of X/1 creatures as well as 1/1 human and elf tokens, which makes me think the -1/-1 to all creatures mode will come up a lot more often than it might in other sets.

Red

#3. Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern

Four mana for 6 damage is a very good rate for a burn spell. Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern doesn’t need to offer much else besides that, but its other three chapters are very relevant, too.

#2. Gandalf, Spark Starter

It may cost a lot of mana, but it’s hard to ignore Gandalf, Spark Starter when it looks so much like a Flametongue Kavu. I don’t know if we’ll have enough time to get up to 6 mana in The Hobbit, but casting a card as powerful as this will at least help you to catch back up against an aggressive deck.

#1. Snowslope Hunter

Sacrificing army tokens is going to be a high priority for red/black amass. Snowslope Hunter isn’t just a good way to do that, but it’s a way to do that for free, which is something you really don’t get very often. This has to be a high pick for that alone.

Green

#3. Troll Negotiations

The final removal spell on this list, Troll Negotiations looks very powerful in context, especially in black/green where it really helps to enable ferocious. Removal is important for any Limited deck, and this looks like a very good option in green.

#2. Woodland Weavemaster

Like I said in my main set review, a 2-drop mana dork really doesn’t need any help to be something you want to take highly. Woodland Weavemaster does so much more that makes it look exciting that the elves deck really wants to pick up as many of these as it can find.

#1. Nasty Little Rabbit

This Nasty Little Rabbit looks really absurd to me. You can trigger it on turn 2 if you have Desolation Prowler, and there are several ways to trigger it from turn 3 onwards. This is just an incredibly aggressive 1-drop that demands an answer, and those don’t come up all that often.

Wrap Up

Beorn's Hospitality | Illustration by Harkalé Linaï

The Hobbit looks kind of interesting to figure out, even though I’m not sure we’ll be drafting it all that much. I’m very excited to see how black/green plays out because it has so many sweet cards. What’s your favorite archetype from the set, and what are you looking forward to drafting?

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Until next time, take care of yourselves!