All 7 Bobbleheads in Magic Ranked

Intelligence Bobblehead | Illustration by Torgeir Fjereide

One of the hallmarks of a good Bethesda game is a long list of easter eggs and hidden items for the player to discover. In the Fallout series, a Vault-tec Bobbleheads are scattered across the map for players to find. These rare artifacts grant the players boosts to their stats, and are highly-coveted collectibles for those completionists among us.

If you’re like me, and decidedly Skyrim-coded, these new artifacts might send your head spinning. Let’s open up the vault on these Bobbleheads, and get down to business on which ones will level us up, and which will just encumber our inventory!

What Are Bobbleheads in MTG?

Perception Bobblehead | Illustration by Marina Ortega Lorente

The cycle of Bobbleheads are artifacts from the Fallout Commander decks representing rare items a player can use to boost their stats in the Fallout games. They’re named after the six ability scores in the Fallout universe; the “SPECIAL” system refers to Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck, with each bobblehead corresponding to a different SPECIAL stat. While some in-game bobbleheads increase more specific abilities, like “Big Guns” or “Lockpicking,” we haven’t seen any of those released yet.

Each Bobblehead is an uncommon 3-mana artifact that can tap to add 1 mana of any color, and each has an additional activated ability related to its corresponding SPECIAL stat. Each of the Bobblehead’s non-mana tap abilities can only be activated at sorcery speed. The Bobbleheads’ effects get increasingly stronger for each Bobblehead on the field, too, making each of their effects significantly more valuable as we complete our collection. The best part is all of the Bobbleheads have a colorless color identity, meaning we can slam all five into any deck we want!

#7. Charisma Bobblehead

“C is for Charisma, it's why people think I'm great! I make my friends all laugh and smile, and never want to hate!” – “You’re SPECIAL” from Fallout 3

Charisma Bobblehead lets us use our guile and influence to amass an army of loyal soldier tokens. Charisma Bobblehead is a 7-mana investment before you’ll see any soldier tokens, though, and even more if you consider the cost of the other Bobbleheads we need to play to start pushing that X value.

Unfortunately, the Charisma Bobblehead might be the worst one of the bunch. The investment for a maximum of seven 1/1 soldier tokens is just too heavy; if we can even manage to get all seven on the field.

#6. Strength Bobblehead

“S is for Strength, and that means I am strong! I can carry lots of toys and swing stuff all day long!” – “You’re SPECIAL” from Fallout 3

Strength Bobblehead starts out at a 3-mana-for-1 +1/+1 counter rate, strikingly similar to Dragon Blood, but with the added benefit of being a mana rock on top of that. We’ll hope to see two to three counters per activation, but investing tutors and mana into fetching the rest of the Bobbleheads might prove a bad tradeoff. Honestly, Strength Bobblehead’s greatest strength (sorry) is its utility as 3-mana ramp with the possibility of growing a creature. Its narrow use makes it one of the least useful of the bunch, and there are easier ways to put +1/+1s on creatures and ramp at the same time, like Gyre Sage.

#5. Intelligence Bobblehead

“I is for Intelligence, it means I'm really smart! I use my brain for lots of stuff, like science, math and art!” – “You’re SPECIAL” from Fallout 3

If there’s one thing for certain, it’s that Magic’s designers are committed to the concept that intelligence equals cards in hand. Intelligence Bobblehead does just that! It draws you cards! For a 5-mana activation, you’d think the Intelligence Bobblehead could at least draw you X+1 cards for your trouble.

Arcane Encyclopedia, while not a direct comparison, still beats out the Intelligence Bobblehead in terms of value. Where the Encyclopedia sinks 9 mana after it’s drawn you two cards, the Bobblehead will have sunk 13. Compared to the other Bobbleheads, Intelligence is barely making the cut into the “playable” zone.

#4. Endurance Bobblehead

“E is for Endurance, and that's how long I can play! I'm always really healthy, and have energy all day!” – “You’re SPECIAL” from Fallout 3

Endurance Bobblehead lives up to its name, granting +1/+0 and indestructible to the creatures it targets. We’re down 4 mana compared to something like Make a Stand, at least before our board becomes untouchable. The Bobblehead’s repeatable nature helps compensate for the costly investment, but locking its ability to sorcery speed means we won’t be able to use it to save key cards on our board from board wipes and targeted removal.

#3. Agility Bobblehead

“A is for Agility, that's how I get around! I move real fast and easy, and I never make a sound!” – “You’re SPECIAL” from Fallout 3

Agility Bobblehead gives haste and evasion to a number of creatures equal to the number of Bobbleheads you control. Sticking a scary attacker on the field and then charging right by your opponents’ creatures is a great way to pull ahead in a Commander game, but three extra mana is quite a lot when you’re already paying out the butt for some haymaker-sized creature. Agility Bobblehead’s ability becomes more valuable as more Bobbleheads hit the field, of course, and should start to even out once you can hit two creatures with each activation.

That evasion shouldn’t be discounted, though. “Can’t be blocked except by creatures with haste” might as well be “unblockable” in most instances (my regular pod doesn’t run many Gingerbrutes). Rogue's Passage is a comparable way to grant evasion, but costs 4 mana for an unconditional effect. Absent the odd Swiftfoot Boots-equipped commander, the Agility Bobblehead should produce a comparable outcome in most decks.

#2. Perception Bobblehead

“P is for Perception, a long funny word! It means what I tasted, smell, saw and heard!” – “You’re SPECIAL” from Fallout 3

Perception Bobblehead’s free spell off the top of your library is good. I mean, really good. There are more than a few ways to tinker with the top of your library (I can hear the Sensei's Divining Top fans breathing through their mouths already). In the right deck there’s no reason you won’t hit at least one spell with a converted mana cost of 3 or less (maybe even another Bobblehead).

Perception Bobblehead’s ramp alongside its free spells makes it one of the more desirable Bobbleheads.

#1. Luck Bobblehead

“L is for Luck, and it's simple, you see! It means that good things always happen to me!” – “You’re SPECIAL” from Fallout 3

I start to sweat any time we get a new card that says “win the game” on it. However, years of experience in Warhammer 40,000 has gifted me the knowledge that it’s actually really hard to roll seven 6s in a row. I won’t run the numbers right here, but suffice to say you’re looking at less than a 1 in 50,000 chance of winning the game off of Luck Bobblehead. However, if there’s one other thing years of experience in Warhammer 40,000 has taught me, it’s that you should never underestimate how many 6s your opponent can roll in a row.

I can’t in good conscience recommend you run Luck Bobblehead and expect to win the game based on that dice roll alone, at least not without something like Krark's Other Thumb to garner the odds in your favor. You could create multiple copies of your Bobbleheads with various Mechanized Production-shaped shenanigans, but now we’re looking at multiple turns of set up just to roll a ton of dice. At this point, just pick up D&D.

The absolute best part of Luck Bobblehead, though, is that 1 mana activation cost. Untapping and re-activating artifacts is easy as pie in EDH, with enough mana rocks and a Dramatic Reversal stapled onto an Isochron Scepter (plus all seven Bobbleheads), we can just roll the dice 50,000 times until we roll seven 6s. I’m starting to wonder if demonstrating this magical Christmasland combo will be enough for opponents to concede, or if we, as a community, will instead force the Luck players to actually roll until they hit the seven 6s.

Best Bobblehead Payoffs

The cycle of Fallout Bobbleheads have activated abilities that get better for each additional Bobblehead you control, so the best payoffs will be cards that fetch or clone additional Bobbleheads or untap them to activate multiple times.

Copiers and Fetchers

Copying artifacts has kind of taken off in recent years, with everything from Artificer Class to Urza, Prince of Kroog available to copy artifacts. One key card for any Bobbleheads-themed deck is Saheeli Rai. Saheeli’s second ability can copy an artifact for just that turn if we need to squeeze another creature into our Agility Bobblehead, or just risk some extra mana for Luck Bobblehead. Saheeli’s ultimate ability fetches whatever remaining Bobbleheads we need from our library and sticks them to the field.

Besides these, Mechanized Production can pump out copies of our Bobbleheads faster than we can say “Vault-tec” and comes with its own win condition, to boot.

Untappers

Once we have a sufficiently full collection of Bobbleheads, we can start doubling down on their effects by activating them multiple times per turn.

The classic “untap all my stuff” combo is Dramatic Reversal and Isochron Scepter, but Aphetto Alchemist + Illusionist's Bracers will also tap and untap an artifact infinitely. The Dramatic Reversal combo generates the infinite mana we’ll need for those activations, but you can also use Metalworker and a Staff of Domination if you roll like that.

Wrap Up

Get Your Head in the Game | Illustration by Vincent Christiaens

It’s always a toss-up when WotC drops a Universes Beyond set as to what cards will actually be playable, and what cycles will hit the mark flavorfully. While the cycle of Bobbleheads from the Fallout Commander Decks aren’t game-breaking, format-defining powerhouses, their unique and type-reliant abilities are a step in a fresh direction for game design, and I’m excited to see where we go with “type matters” artifacts like these.

Which Bobblehead do you think is the strongest? Will you be scooping as soon as an opponent demonstrates an infinite Luck Bobblehead loop, or do you stick around and make them roll seven dice 50,000 times? Can you call a judge over for a delay of game infraction at that point? Let me know what you think in the comments, or over on Draftsim’s Twitter/X.

Thanks for reading, and remember, you’re SPECIAL!