The Ultimate Guide to The Hobbit Draft

Gollum, Riddle Master | Illustration by Irvin Rodriguez

Greetings planeswalkers! The Hobbit has been out for over a week now, and the secret is out: Black is overpowered, the set is aggressive, and the games are very repetitive. But then again, those Arena Direct Collector Booster Boxes aren’t going to farm themselves!

This is technically a Draft guide, but the advice here applies to Sealed too (for the Qualifier events, Play Booster Direct, and any paper RCQs). I’ve honestly played much more Sealed than Draft, but hopefully I can still teach you a thing or two about the format. Let’s get to it!

Set Overview

Fateful Discovery | Illustration by Irvin Rodriguez

The Hobbit is a small set with some big problems in its design. We can examine those by ranking and delving into each color.

Black (#1)

• Black is absurdly deep at common and uncommon. Its worst commons are Giant Fierce Bee (admittedly not great) and Reverent Howl (underrated gem). Everything else is quite good, and it also gets to play one of the most disgusting commons in years: (Crude Bent Blade.
• Crude Bent Blade puts immense pressure on green fatties in the format, to the point that cards like Beorn, Reluctant Host and Wilderland Scrounger feel nearly unplayable.
• In addition to the Blade, there’s a ton of menace on juiced commons like Goblin Plate Mail and Gollum, Silent Slinker, which means you’re almost always going to get smacked for several damage early.
• Black has one of the better weapons against Crude Bent Blade in the format (Stony-Voiced Goblins).
• Black has the best removal of any color by far.
• Black’s uncommons are universally good cards, and Desolation Prowler is a Top 10 card in the entire format.
• Honestly, black is so dang good in The Hobbit that every single flavor of black is viable. I’ve had success with WB, UB, BG, and BR decks, which I can’t say for any other color.

Red (#2)

• Red has received an insane glow up compared to Marvel Super Heroes, and it’s a premier midrange color in this format.
• Red’s best commons (Pinecone Strike, Dori, Bearer of Friends, Gundabad Opportunist) and uncommons (Bothersome Noisemaker, Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern, Gandalf, Spark Starter, Misty Mountains Raider) fit into every single deck.
• It has no unplayable uncommons, and only two commons I like to avoid (Smaug's Fury and Iron Hills Stalwart).

Blue (#3)

• Blue has incredible card advantage tools in this format (Plunder the Trollshaws and Bilbo Baggins, Burglar), letting it out-draw most midrange/aggro decks.
• Lakeshore Apothecary becomes an exceptional 2-drop when you have those cards and Patient Instructor.
• Its removal spells (Uneasy Partings, Enchanted River's Grasp) aren’t too bad, but it tends to play best when another color is providing cheap, reliable removal.
• Unfortunately for blue, its uncommons are honestly pretty lackluster, with only two exceptions (Master's Councillors and Bilbo, Luckwearer, the latter of which is a mythic uncommon).

White (#4)

• White’s commons are really bad in The Hobbit. Magnificent End, Dwarven Shortsword, and Esgaroth Garrison are the only white commons I’m ever happy to play (although Garrison often gets crowded out by other 5s).
• The other white commons tend to just fill your curve and/or enable dwarf synergies.
• However, white has the best rares of any color by a substantial degree. An Unexpected Party, Fíli, Kíli, The Eagles Are Coming!, The Queen of Dale, Bard's Company, Dáin's Company… need I go on?
• White also has four banger uncommons, one of which is the best in the entire set (Celebrate the Mountain-king).
• Due to white’s lopsided nature, it pairs best with a solid color like black or red. White blue decks can also work, although I’ve been splashing in them more often as the format evolves.

Green (#5)

• Green has serious problems in The Hobbit.
• Its lack of removal besides Quarrel and Troll Negotiations is its greatest weakness, and it leaves green highly vulnerable to black/red menace and kill spells.
• The lack of any sort of 2-mana dork besides Woodland Weavemaster (which is limited to elves and a terrible blocker) means “big green” decks must rely heavily on Wood Elves and can’t start ramping until turn 3.
• While Wood Elves has been decent for me, it notably doesn’t fix your colors, forcing you to go deeper into the format’s most lackluster color.
• Attercop’s vulnerability to X/1 hate is a pain sometimes, but it’s still better than Wargling or Guardian of the Halls.
• Green’s only real selling points are a handful of broken rares (Beorn the Fierce, Dancing from Dark to Dawn), two excellent uncommons in Mirkwood Pathmaker and Nasty Little Rabbit, and its potential for synergy with landfall.

Mechanics Revisited

Storied

Storied mostly matters for a handful of stacked rares. Fíli the Pathfinder and Kíli the Resourceful encourage you to play a bunch of dwarves and equipment, which naturally tends to get you storied since so many of them are legendary. The uncommon storied payoffs are mostly lacking in oomph though, as even Thorin Oakenshield is more of an annoyance than anything amazing.

Don’t underrate the value of artifacts for achieving this mechanic, or forget how easy Dori, Bearer of Friends makes it (since it’s two storied permanents in one card). You may also have corner case decks splashing Fíli the Pathfinder, which will need to achieve storied somehow with few to no dwarves. Generically good artifacts like Thrór's Map and Goblin Plate Mail are your best bet.

Recruit

The money shot to discard is Plunder the Trollshaws, which is miles better than either Moment of Glory or Eagle's Rescue. I’ve also liked playing 16 lands in any deck with a decent amount of cheap recruit, as it feels bad to have to discard lands to it too often. I tend to discard spells early to play around Crude Bent Blade, then lands later on.

Adventures

The common adventure cycle is woefully unbalanced. Black, blue, and red get the best ones, while white’s is mediocre and green’s is kind of embarrassing. If you’ve ever seen Beorn, Reluctant Host die to a Crude Bent Blade, you know what I mean.

Amass

Due to the dominance of black deck, get ready for a lot of amass wars. Knowing when to trade off your army and when to stack it to the ceiling is a vital skill for success in this format. I tend to trade more often than not, as The Hobbit has plenty of universal removal spells for longer games. One underrated aspect of this mechanic is using 1/1 Goblin Army tokens as sacrifice fodder, which will come up often with Tidings of War.

Ferocious

An important mechanic for a number of cards. Nasty Little Rabbit and Nighthowl Pursuer are ludicrously under-costed when ferocious is running, which makes cards like Duskwatch Hunter more useful than you’d expect. Those two, The Chief Warg, and Ravening Warg (don’t underestimate the value of incidental lifegain in HOB) are the main reasons to care about ferocious.

Landfall

Landfall has kind of been a bust. There’s no common reason to care about this mechanic at all, so if you’re doing anything spicy with landfall, it’ll be with one of these cards:

• Down in the Valley
• Thranduil's Company
• Dancing from Dark to Dawn
• Beorn's Hospitality
• Thranduil, Sindarin Liege
• Silvan Reveler

All of these are honestly pretty good though, and a great reason to run some Wood Elves and Hobbit Holes. I’m very skeptical of elves as a deck, but I have good experiences with these landfall cards.

Hone Counters

Sting, Bilbo's Sword is awful; I’ve yet to play it, and it’s always been bad against me. Dwalin, Weaponmaster has some completely unbeatable nut draws though, where you play it early alongside Well-Worn Spatula and Goblin Plate Mail and repeatedly buff several equipment.

Archetype Tier List

The archetype balance in The Hobbit derives directly from its color balance. Here’s my tier list for the format.

Tier 1

• BR Amass

Tier 2

• BG Ferocious
• RW Dwarves
• WU Recruit

Tier 3

• WB Midrange
• UB Control

Tier 4

• GU Elves
• Other Fringe Decks (UR, GR, GW)

Card Specific Tips

Mythics

Elrond, Moon-Reader

Blue has no cheap activated ability creatures for Elrond, Moon-Reader, but Woodland Weavemaster, Desolation Prowler, and Óin the Brave are amazing companions. Don’t forget that the second effect says “nonland permanent”, so it goes off with cards like Crude Bent Blade in the late game.

Gollum, Riddle Master

You should often name the mana value of whatever removal spells are likely to kill Gollum, Riddle Master, which you can base on your opponent’s colors. “Odd” is a good choice for white (Magnificent End), blue (Enchanted River's Grasp), and black (Stir Up Trouble, Bilbo's Deadly Slice, Crude Bent Blade), while “even” is better against red (Pinecone Strike) and green (Quarrel). If your 2-mana 3/1 cantrips when it dies, you’re absurdly ahead!

Gandalf, Goblins’ Bane

Having a Gandalf, Spark Starter or two lets you be much more liberal with Gandalf, Goblins' Bane because you’ll be able to replay whatever spells you hit later (in case Gandalf dies). I tend to sequence this Gandalf around land drops if possible either way.

Smaug the Magnificent

Other Treasure generators like Dori, Bearer of Friends and Long-Bodied Grey Dog can turn Smaug the Magnificent into a flying removal spell, which is a great way to ensure value even if it gets answered.

Beorn the Fierce

While this is clearly a broken card in any green deck, it does provide a great reason to play less than stellar cards like Little Bear and Ordinary Bear. All it takes is just one extra bear out to make Beorn the Fierce a guaranteed Divination that demands an immediate answer!

The Arkenstone

I haven’t valued the white mode on The Arkenstone much, to the point that I wouldn’t even bother playing an off-color white tapland (let alone any Plains) just for the activation. Be wary of Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern if you can help it, because that’s one of the only actual answers to this. You could also theoretically get blown out by Thorin's Last Stand on this mid-combat.

Rares

An Unexpected Party

My pick for the strongest rare in the set. Keep in mind that you can sometimes get the for An Unexpected Party via Treasure tokens, so I’ve yet not to splash this card in any deck.

Fíli the Pathfinder

Another obscene rare, of course. I only mention Fíli the Pathfinder to say that you can occasionally play it in non RW decks, like WB and BR. Dori, Bearer of Friends is an excellent card for this kind of thing for several reasons.

Kíli the Resourceful

Don’t neglect the value of free equipment! Goblin Plate Mail in particular really appreciates Kíli the Resourceful, and the presence of “equipment creatures” like that makes it easy to hit high trigger counts.

Settle the Wreckage

Don’t forget that this card exists when you’re super ahead. On a deckbuilding level though, Settle the Wreckage is actively terrible in RW decks, which have virtually no way to fool anyone into running into it. WU is a proper home for this thanks to Plunder the Trollshaws, which is the best way to set up some spectacular blowouts.

The Eagles Are Coming!

The Eagles Are Coming! has slightly underperformed my expectations, although it’s still pretty strong. The main catches are:

• Bird Soldiers will never have “haste”; the best you can do is main phase it.
• The 6-drop mode costs , which you won’t always have on turn 6.
• If your opponent has removal, you may just have to “cash it in” for a 4/4 flier at an inconvenient moment.

I’d still happily P1P1 this card though, because I should have plenty of time to draft some cheap creatures for it. Stuff with “enters” value like Patient Instructor and Stony-Voiced Goblins is as good as it gets. You could also try to play a 1-drop or two to enable a “Turn-2 4/4 flier” line.

One last cool thing about Eagles: It says “own”, not “control”. This gives it killer synergy with Bilbo, Luckwearer, letting you steal your creature back from your opponent while making a 4/4 Bird Soldier!

Great Gilded Boat

Another ridiculous rare, although Great Gilded Boat has a slight caveat as a card that’s pretty awkward when you’re behind. Try to attack as much as possible if you see this card. And if you’re piloting it, try not to run it into Stone by Sunlight, Magnificent End, Quarrel, or Bilbo's Deadly Slice if you don’t have to. I’m still unsure if I like splashing this one or not; it’s definitely at its best on turn 3.

The Lord of the Eagles

I’ve yet to open a Sealed pool with The Lord of the Eagles and more than one Long Lake Nuisance. In Draft though, you can speculate on this if it gets passed to you, since it should be easier to pick up Nuisances and Butterflies. It’s large enough to be worth the effort, and Nuisance is a solid card on its own anyways.

Along the Crooked Way

Not a great card on rate, but the synergy Along the Crooked Way has with Mirkwood Nurturer is sick stuff.

Azog, Moria’s Ruin

Blowing up your stuff usually makes Azog, Moria's Ruin a conditional 1/3 that draws a card, which is okay but not great. If you have a lot of universal removal, you can sometimes take advantage of this format’s propensity for black amass mirrors.

Let’s say for instance your opponent had a 4/4 amassed army and a Smaug, Wicked Worm. You could kill the Smaug with this, then Stir Up Trouble the 9/9 while sacrificing Azog for a clean 2-for-2 exchange (which yields great tempo).

Head of the Hunt

Head of the Hunt is a replacement effect, so don’t make the mistake I did of trying to “stack” them. You can sometimes ambush “dies” stuff like Rhovanion Rampager with this and make your opponent cry.

Rhovanion Rampager

Sacrificing to Rhovanion Rampager is okay with amass or “dies” stuff, but otherwise I tend to just trade it off asap for guaranteed value. Still an amazing card either way.

The Master of Lake-town

A strange but generally decent rare. I haven’t seen anyone deck out with The Master of Lake-town yet, although I’ve had a couple of close calls. If you can play it early, your goal is usually to get both players to 7+ cards, then trade it off for a Divination. Deathtouch lets the Master trade at your leisure, although Pinecone Strike can sadly spoil the fun.

The Sackville-Bagginses

Between recruit, Wood Elves, Stony-Voiced Goblins, and Goblin Plate Mail, The Hobbit is pretty dense on fodder. That’s great news for The Sackville-Bagginses, which I’m never cutting from any black deck and happily P1P1’ing.

Balin, Loremaster

Balin, Loremaster hasn’t been especially good, since it’s tough to hold enough cards for its ability to do much (and Balin forces you to rummage all cards at once). It’s also an undersized 5-drop without substantial inherent value, so I don’t usually play it (even with other dwarves).

Dáin Ironfoot

Dáin Ironfoot on the other hand is a genuine bomb rare. You only need to see Goblin Plate Mail into this once before it becomes clear how dangerous this is, and Dáin is even a solid blocker/guaranteed 2-for-1 too. I’ve happily splashed this dwarf before, but it obviously tends to play best in base RW decks.

Stone-Giant of High Pass

Stone-Giant of High Pass is insanely busted, provided you can untap with it. Dori, Bearer of Friends and Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern are nice ways to get to 7 sooner. In super long games, you could try waiting until 10 mana to make sure you get immediate value.

The Misty Mountains Cold

Pinecone Strike can actually deny your opponent the Dragon token, since The Misty Mountains Cold only makes just enough Treasures for it to work. You can offset this risk by including Dori, Bearer of Friends and Long-Bodied Grey Dog in your deck. Be sure to play this saga as soon as possible too, since it’s quite slow to get going. The good news though is a 6/6 + 4 mana later (or fodder for cards like Snowslope Hunter) puts in insane work.

Down in the Valley

Down in the Valley is one of the best cards green has, and a genuine reason to care about elves.

Part in Friendship

This is a weird card that likes sacrifice outlets and stalled boards. Costing single makes Part in Friendship a conceivable splash in BR, which has lots of sacrifice synergy for it. However, being limited to nontokens hurts, and the need to trade creates problems against menace and flying (since you probably aren’t winning the race after playing this). Not a useless card per se, but hard to make work.

Radagast of Rhosgobel

One of the better reasons to attempt a bigger green deck. This loves fatties like Boughside Wanderers and Old Fat Spider, though you’ll need Crude Bent Blade protection (go-go gadget Wood Elves) to get that started.

The Notary Hobbits

Another rare that conceivably makes sense in a bigger green deck. The Notary Hobbits also provides inherent Blade protection, but being a 5-mana 3/3 stat wise means you may just be dead before you get to use any of this mana.

Through the Forest Gate

I haven’t played Through the Forest Gate yet, but I dream of trying it with Thranduil, Sindarin Liege and Down in the Valley. You’ll never draw a land for the rest of the game after you resolve this!

Bard’s Company

Obviously an amazing rare, although the flash is somewhat conditional and it has trouble attacking more than once. Be careful of getting your Bard's Company removed in the middle of combat (or of your WU opponent having it).

Chief Warg’s Company

As a cheap threat that often runs away with the game if it lives, Chief Warg's Company is the card to play with Warg Tactics. Don’t be surprised if your opponent protects this when they play it on turn 5….

Tom, Bert, and William

Gnashing of Teeth, Celebrate the Mountain-king, and Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern (thanks to Chapter II) are hard answers to Tom, Bert, and William to be aware of. If you’re worried about those, you can try playing this with mana open and something else to sac for immediate value.

Thranduil’s Company

One of the most commonly splashed cards in the format, because it’s really, really busted. My favorite thing to do with Thranduil's Company is just to play a Hobbit Hole and go to attacks, which makes any one of your creatures effectively +2/+2 at will!

My Precious

I’ve only been happy playing My Precious in decks that can effectively use “Allure of Power”, which means cards like Tidings of War, Stony-Voiced Goblins, Goblin-town Flunkies, etc. The actual equipment can be irritating, but the card itself is a tempo black hole that you may not have time to mess around with in fast games.

The Lonely Mountain

Free inevitability for late game, and The Lonely Mountain isn’t even all that hard to discount thanks to decent equipment cards like Goblin Plate Mail and Dwarven Shortsword.

Uncommons

Bofur, Reliable Guardian

The body on this card is deceptively useful, since you can always dump equipment onto Bofur, Reliable Guardian later. Whether you play this early for a hit or two (and Crude Bent Blade protection) or hold it to protect creatures will vary from game to game, but holding is usually best.

Celebrate the Mountain-king

If you hit a giant amassed army with Celebrate the Mountain-king, you can Mirkwood Nurturer it back to hand for full value once again!

Eagle of the Great Shelf

Clunky 5-drops like Eagle of the Great Shelf haven’t felt great in The Hobbit, even if this reads well.

The Mountain-king’s Return

One of several cards worth mentioning that goes off with Mirkwood Nurturer. You can set up a pseudo-loop in which The Mountain-king's Return gets Nurturer back, which brings back the saga, which brings another Nurturer back, and so on. And even if you can’t actually loop it, you’re still getting Nurturer and another 3-drop, which is pretty excellent. I love this card, and I’ve had success both splashing it and playing it in base white decks.

Bilbo, Luckwearer

Bilbo, Luckwearer is so good that I’ve started splashing it sometimes, provided my deck can use “Burglar’s Plot” well. It’s even better in base blue decks though, since a turn-2 looter is incredible for setting up Lakeshore Apothecary and Bard the Bowman.

Desolation Prowler

Turn-1 Rabbit or Nighthowl into Desolation Prowler probably has like an 80% win rate or something. It’s best in aggressive decks, but secretly an incredible blocker too. You’ll usually want to pay 2 life if you’re connecting with it, since you’re inherently ahead by virtue of having a mythic uncommon in play. Just don’t pump it into , as I’ve Pineconed way too many of these for free.

Dreaded Bat-Cloud

There’s a huge gap between and . Trading requires some cooperation from your opponent, and Crude Bent Blade + menace both discourage trading in this format. I often cut Dreaded Bat-Cloud from decks that don’t have multiple cards like Snowslope Hunter and Stir Up Trouble. It’s not a terrible card, but remember, black has an embarrassment of riches.

Gathering of Darkness

Best in decks with really good rare creatures to get back, or recruit to set it up consistently. WB is one of my favorite homes for Gathering of Darkness, as it tends to have both.

Gollum the Abandoned

A major overperformer, as Gollum the Abandoned is very difficult to stabilize against when you’re behind. Pinecone Strike is the cleanest answer available. It also acts as graveyard hate for Plunder the Trollshaws which is nice.

Woodland Weavemaster

10+ elves I guess for this one? That’s probably not where you want to be anyways, so I’ve yet to actually play Woodland Weavemaster in any of my runs.

Stuff You Can Play Around

Instant Speed Removal

• Magnificent End: for 5 damage, and “tapped” gives you a lot of leeway here. Never attack your Bothersome Noisemaker into this.
• Stone by Sunlight: for a Valorous Stance-style card, relevant as both a protection spell and removal spell.
• Pinecone Strike: for 3 damage. The “nontoken” mode can blow up Axes and Treasures, so be careful.
• Quarrel: bite spell. Other removal in response leaves you on the wrong side of a 2-for-1.
• Bilbo's Deadly Slice: for just a Murder.
• Uneasy Partings: Costs your opponent if you don’t attack into it. You can safely attack Goblin Army tokens into this on turn 3 thanks to the totally unnecessary nerf against black.

Counterspells

• Confusticate and Bebother: Convolute + Catalog. You can play around the (4) mode only very late.
• Sound the Trumpets: Watch for this when your opponent holds up .
• Thranduil's Decree: If your opponent is passing with up over and over, please remember this exists. You can’t always play around Thranduil’s Decree if you’re super behind or in a top-deck war.

Flash Creatures

• Little Bear: 3/2 that untaps a creature, too. I guess.
• Long-Bodied Grey Dog: 3-mana 2/2 reacher. Pinecone Strike cleanly 1-for-1s it if you wait for the Treasure to be created.
• Head of the Hunt: 4/3 that’s very punishing to run into; try to hold Strike/Slice for this if you suspect it, as otherwise your opponent will untap and get extra value from removal.
• The Lord of the Eagles: 8/8 flier, discounted by fliers. Consider it when you see Long Lake Nuisance and up.

Discard

• Stony-Voiced Goblins: Try to hold a basic or flashback card in hand later on in the game if you can. It’s usually safe to hold one basic, but don’t hold too many or you may miss double spell sequences later.
• Down, Down to Goblin-town: This can punish you for holding your bombs like An Unexpected Party too long, so try to cash them in when the right moment comes.

Burn/Haste

• In a sense, every amass card has “haste”, so always be wary of Armies growing in tight races (most cards amass between 1-3)
• Goblin-town Flunkies: , just 1 power.
• Bolg's Company: for 2 power, but no haste on turn 2 barring Tidings of War.
• Smaug the Magnificent: for a 4-power flier. Good luck.
• Large Bear: 5-mana, 5-power trampler. The hybrid mana cost means it can come from unusual color pairs like Simic () and Orzhov ().
• Gigantic Big Bear: that puts 10 power onto the battlefield out of nowhere, but thankfully no trample so you can usually chump or stack block it. Sadly a major underperformer and not a very good card.
• The Black Arrow: 1-damage burn. If you kill someone with this, you win the format.
• Reverent Howl: 2 damage to face with forced draw.
• Gandalf, Spark Starter: Up to 3 damage to face with no combat.

Pump Spells

• Vow to Erebor: Equip bonus is tricky to account for, but thankfully this spell is pretty weak/not played much.
• Bofur, Reliable Guardian: No combat stats, but total protection from removal/combat.
• Smaug's Fury
• Reverent Howl
• Warg Tactics
• Thorin's Last Stand: Also randomly a disenchant.
• Bard's Company: Basically another Last Stand in creature form. Look for humans.

X/1 Hate

• Gnashing of Teeth
• Glóin the Mighty
• Gandalf, Spark Starter
• These will mostly come up to punish you for playing colors other than black. Good cards like Attercop, The Queen of Dale, and Long-lake Nuisance will randomly find themselves dying en masse, which of course frees up the rest of your board to die to Crude Bent Blade. Ouch!

Actual Sweepers

• There aren’t many in this format, just Desolation of Smaug and Settle the Wreckage.
• Settle can often be seen from miles away if your opponent has no other instants, so I prefer it in blue decks.
• Desolation of Smaug is trickier to spot, but usual heuristics of “my opponent isn’t doing anything” can be an okay tip off. I tend to only play the card in very creature-light decks and/or those with X/4+ setups.
• Honestly though, I recommend just totally jamming in this format (other than Settle). There are many penalties for falling behind in this format, and few for committing to the board.

Crude Bent Blade

• This nauseating common gets its own section. I always try to include disposable creatures like Wood Elves and Stony-Voiced Goblins in my decks. Recruit fills this role in white decks; I haven’t found Lake-town Lookout to be necessary for Blade protection (as it’s otherwise a mulligan which stinks).
• Just having fodder creatures in your deck isn’t enough; you’ll actively need to work to keep them alive, too.
• I’ll also decline to trade 2-drops if I have a strong 3-drop, because that would at least force my opponent to have a hard removal spell over this edict.
• Playing around Blade too much can expose you to stuff like Down, Down to Goblin-town and the X/1 hate cards, but oh well, that’s black in this format.
• And as a bonus, the Blade is barely over-costed as an equipment anyways; I’ve seen the card still be good even when it only takes out Stony-Voiced Goblins!

Other Stuff

• Velvetwing Butterflies: Be careful racing white decks, as you may find yourself down two attackers/blockers at a key moment.
• The Eagles Are Coming!: Scary late game card in board stalls. It also lets your opponent 2-for-1 you in response to removal, so be careful of .
• Lake-town Mariners: Have yet to be blown out by this, but in theory you could use it for instant speed landfall triggers, untapped blockers, surprise enters abilities, or even a draw step Stony-Voiced Goblins.

Splashing

I’ve covered most of the busted rares/removal, so the question is: How do you splash them in this format? I outlined which cards to use in the Sealed guide, but after playing with them, here’s how I deploy each one.

Dual Lands

• All of the duals are great if you have ‘em, and they’re some of the most reliable tools for playing more than two colors.
• Feel free to take duals over bad filler cards to speculate on opening potential mythic uncommons/bombs; white duals have slightly more value than others due to how cracked white’s rares are.

Hobbit Hole + Elven Passage

• These are very similar, although Hobbit Hole has a surprisingly useful mana sink for decks that are blue and/or black.
• I’ve won longer games by tutoring up Bilbo, Luckwearer for that clutch switch after my opponent plays their bomb.
• Both Hobbit Hole and Elven Passage are excellent with landfall cards, too.
• There’s a little bit of incidental mill in The Hobbit (mostly just Master's Councillors), so consider a 2nd basic if your splash is more than just one card (i.e. 7/7/2/1 mana base).

Giant’s Boulder

• This is my least played card for splashing, which I initially thought was near useless.
• However, Giant's Boulder has excellent synergy with Mirkwood Nurturer, and is one of the more reliable ways to double splash for two bombs (i.e. with Bard's Company and Chief Warg's Company).
• The fact that your goal is eventually to pay 7 is a tip off that this card only belongs in very controlling decks.

Old Thrush

• The body here is a virtual mulligan without help.
• However, cards like Crude Bent Blade, Gollum, Silent Slinker, and The Mountain-king's Return can make Old Thrush surprisingly good!
• The gap between this and average 2-drops like Wargling, Goblin-town Flunkies, and Front Porch Sentries is small enough that I’ll play it over those if needed.
• It plays very well with The Eagles Are Coming!, since it’s a cheap creature with small “enters” value that can set up for you later.

Long-Bodied Grey Dog

• The best of the three colorless commons, and the one I play most often.
• 2/2 is a small body, but Long-Bodied Grey Dog trades passably well with most 2s and some 3s. Trading puts you up a Treasure too, which is very useful.
• Decks with premium 5-drops like Dancing from Dark to Dawn make good use of the dog.
• It’s also effective in decks that have many other instants to keep your opponent guessing.

Dori, Bearer of Friends

• Two copies of Dori, Bearer of Friends is a great number to play; 3+ has felt a bit much, but the card is definitely good enough to play more than one of.
• It’s not that different than Grey Dog, but it’s better for storied and has slightly better combat stats for its cost.
• Having both gives you a lot of options for light splashes.

Mana Base Templates

Average 2-Color Deck

You’ll want to run 16 or 17 lands, with 8/8 basics or 9/8 basics, minus whichever ones you can replace with dual lands/Hobbit Holes.

Small Splash in 2-Color.

Try to get minimum eight of each of your primary colors, then add 1 basic to fetch from your splash plus whatever duals are relevant.

Actual 3-Color

You’re still going to have base colors most of the time, but playing that 2nd basic for your splash color lets you play more cards from that color. The two Maps and 3 Bilbos in this example were key greed enablers.

4-Color Piles

Lock your base colors up, then dabble a bit with 1 basic of each and your best cards you want to splash. This deck had eight sources of its primary colors (not counting Map), plus just enough mana to cast removal/Company.

Wrap Up

The Notary Hobbits | Illustration by Jarel Threat

And with that, we’ve reached the end of our Hobbit journey! I wanted to focus on some less obvious insights into the format, as I think the archetypes themselves are fairly straightforward and very poorly balanced. I hope you found this guide useful, and I wish you luck in your games.

Which of these archetypes have you enjoyed most in your Hobbit drafts? Which cards have over- or under-performed your expectations in this format? Let me know in the comments below or over on the Draftsim Discord. For more from us on The Hobbit and upcoming Magic releases, be sure to subscribe to our newsletter, The Daily Upkeep.

Now… when is Reality Fracture coming out again?