The 15 Best Halfling Commanders in Magic Ranked

Saradoc, Master of Buckland | Illustration by Sean Vo

Commanders are often stylized as being extremely powerful and flashy. Mages and planeswalkers of immense power, dragons capable of cowing the boldest knights, angels and demons and eldritch horrors that would make mortals quake and turn away.

But they needn’t be so flashy. Sometimes they can simply be small yet bold enough to inspire those around them into combat, and few creature types really get that like halflings, who might lack the power of their counterparts but make up for it with clever synergy. Though there aren’t many halflings in Magic, they have several mighty commanders to consider.

What Are Halfling Commanders in MTG?

Merry, Esquire of Rohan | Illustration by Tomas Duchek

Halfling commanders are legendary creatures with the halfling subtype, so they can go in the command zone. Most halfling commanders come from two The Lord of the Rings crossovers—one for the trilogy, one for The Hobbit—though a few trickled in from previous Dungeons & Dragons sets.

Halfling commanders are mostly within green and white, though a few bold halflings stray into red and blue. Black is reserved for Gollum, Bilbo, and Frodo cards to indicate The One Ring’s influence upon them, and Bilbo is often blue.

#15. Frodo, Sauron’s Bane

Frodo, Sauron's Bane lets you use the temptation of the Ring to bring ruin to your opponents. This is one of the most Bracket 1 commanders because running all the Ring tempts you cards is very much a flavorful choice rather than a competitive one.

#14. Gollum, Obsessed Stalker

Gollum, Obsessed Stalker spins lifegain into an aggressive action. It takes time to spread Gollum’s influence, but this is a super cheap, hard-to-block commander, so you should have no trouble getting damage on your opponents.

#13. Merry, Esquire of Rohan

Merry, Esquire of Rohan proves that hobbits can charge into battle with the best of them with haste and an attack trigger that gets easier and easier to enable as Wizards prints more legendary creatures for Universes Beyond.

#12. The Notary Hobbits

The Notary Hobbits is one of the more expensive halfling commanders, but it’s scarily explosive. Play this, and you untap with 9 extra colorless mana. But if you use token doublers or flicker this or do anything to get extra copies, you end up with more mana than you can spend. Don’t worry about other halflings; this is a complete engine in and of itself.

#11. Saradoc, Master of Buckland

Saradoc, Master of Buckland mostly functions as a token engine. White easily triggers this ability every turn and even on opposing turns with flicker effects. Power creep means white has ample small, impactful creatures like Esper Sentinel, Ocelot Pride, and Loran of the Third Path, so the 2-power restriction doesn’t mean you give up power. The biggest flaw with this commander is how much stronger Delney, Streetwise Lookout is in a similar space, though it lacks the token creation angle.

#10. Erinis, Gloom Stalker

Erinis, Gloom Stalker has a lot of utility as a lands commander. Many of the best lands in the game, like fetch lands, Dark Depths, and Glacial Chasm involve sacrificing lands, so getting them back every turn gives you a big edge. It also acts as ramp and a payoff for landfall and self-mill.

For background choices, Street Urchin is the most popular by far because the ping synergizes with Erinis’s deathtouch. Scion of Halaster enables self-mill and gets lands into the bin, and I could see Clan Crafter working with Erinis to create a draw engine that sacrifices artifact lands.

#9. The Sackville-Bagginses

While I imagine The Sackville-Bagginses works best as a support piece in the 99, pinging an opponent whenever you sacrifice a Treasure is very scary on such a cheap body. It doesn’t care about token creatures, like a Blood Artist, so you can ping your opponents when cracking Treasure or sacrificing artifacts like Ichor Wellspring.

#8. Sméagol, Helpful Guide

Sméagol, Helpful Guide gets around Frodo, Sauron's Bane’s issue with running weak cards by making the Ring tempt you itself, as long as you sacrifice permanents. That’s basically all that Golgari () does, so this ends up being a powerful aristocratic-ramp deck.

It’s also one of the most popular decks to run nine Nazgûl.

#7. Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant

Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant cleverly incorporates Bilbo’s astounding age with its activated ability. Should you ever activate it, you often win on the spot, either because you put a combo into play or find a way to give your entire library haste and swing with a Craterhoof Behemoth. Getting there is the challenge; often, Bilbo decks benefit from strong lifegain synergies to focus on the extra life and keep the activated ability in their back pocket.

#6. Samwise Gamgee

Samwise Gamgee is basically always played as a combo commander, with many lines that take advantage of its turbo Food token production and recursion ability. Common linchpins include Jaheira, Friend of the Forest and Academy Manufactor. Though you can play Samwise more fairly, as a card that recurs historic permanents like sagas and legends for a bit of value, the loops are where the power lies.

#5. Mazzy, Truesword Paladin

Auras often come with the risk of card disadvantage: If you enchant a creature and your opponent removes it, they get a two-for-one because they removed two of your cards with one of theirs.

Mazzy, Truesword Paladin breaks this by giving you a chance to recast those auras. It’s not a perfect answer since you only get one turn and it isn’t great against a board wipe, but it’s better than nothing. There’s even a neat group hug angle since Mazzy buffs any enchanted creature attacking your opponents, so it doesn’t need to be Voltron.

#4. Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff

Not every commander takes the title because it’s a singular, game-winning threat; sometimes you just want consistent access to a strong card that makes the 99 hum, like Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff. Some of the strongest text in Commander is “whenever a player does X” because you have so many players taking so many game actions. Lotho often makes several Treasure, so a deck gets a good early play and advantage. It’s also one of the best commanders to companion Lurrus of the Dream-Den.

#3. Bilbo, Thief in the Night

As nice as the attack trigger on Bilbo, Thief in the Night is, you should play the card for the cost reduction and the bevvy of combos it enables. This is really an artifact commander looking to exploit cards like Mystic Forge and Emry, Lurker of the Loch to assemble swift combos. Expect Sensei's Divining Top to be one of the first and most threatening cards in the deck.

#2. Merry, Warden of Isengard + Pippin, Warden of Isengard

The big issue many Food decks run into is a lack of good Food outlets, as many Food cards are oriented for Limited. The partner combo of Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard solves this by turning Food into fuel for an army. If going wide doesn’t help, you can lean into combo lines with cards like Samwise Gamgee and Cauldron Familiar, or go tall off Ygra, Eater of All.

#1. Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit + Sam, Loyal Attendant

Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant are one of fantasy’s most iconic duos, so it’s not surprising to see them top the list here. This is also the best Ring tempts you commander, in my opinion, thanks to Frodo enabling it itself. It also helps that the Ring isn’t the focus but an auxiliary payoff to Food and lifegain, in the best possible colors for that. You get two decent threats, great colors, and plenty of deckbuilding flexibility—what’s not to love?

Best Halfling Commander Payoffs

Halflings don’t have many payoffs, but there are a few cards that reward you for playing them. Bilbo's Ring and Treebeard, Gracious Host make them larger.

The Notary Hobbits doesn’t need additional halflings, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t improve when your commanders make it tap for more mana.

Hobbit Hole is the only card with halflingcycling, so you can find key halflings in your deck.

Meriadoc Brandybuck makes Food whenever you attack with halflings; there are ways to make lots of Halfling tokens, so this could be a lot of Food.

If you want to play a halfling typal deck despite the relatively low numbers available, I recommend Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard because most halflings care about Food, plus Pippin’s big buff makes up for the smaller bodies.

Do I Get a Perk for a Halfling Commander as My Tiny Leader?

No. You’ll get plenty of style points and flavor, but Tiny Leaders doesn’t reward any commander type in particular.

Commanding Conclusion

Mazzy, Truesword Paladin | Illustration by Justyna Gil

Halflings have gotten along pretty well with commanders. Despite only appearing in a few sets, their ranks include some of the most popular commanders and more than a few powerful legends. Your opponents better not overlook them, or they’ll take a knife in their back. Or knee, if the commander can’t reach that high.

What’s your favorite halfling commander? Do you plan on playing any of the new ones from The Hobbit? Let me know in the comments below or on the Draftsim Discord! If you want more Draftsim coverage, check out our YouTube channel, The Daily Upkeep!

Stay safe, and thanks for reading!