Underrated Hobbit Equipment Is a Sleeper Spellslinger Staple

Last updated on August 13, 2026

Elvenking's Halls | Illustration by Leon Tukker

Much attention has been given to the splashy commanders from The Hobbit but that doesn’t mean the non-legendaries aren’t worth looking at. Wizard's Staff is one of many equipment from the set and perhaps the most promising, despite stiff competition in Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver and Glamdring, Foe-hammer.

Why Is It Good?

Wizard's Staff is a 2-mana blue equipment that gives the equipped creature prowess and makes its triggered abilities trigger an additional time. This includes the prowess ability, so the equipped creature gets +2/+2 for each noncreature spell cast. It has two equip costs: Wizards can be equipped for and all other creatures for .

Prowess is cute and all, and a handful of commanders could be interested in it, but nearly all the value lies in retriggering abilities. Decks with wizard commanders or many wizards in the 99 are the obvious candidates but equip isn’t unplayable, at least in casual Commander.

Consider Strionic Resonator, a card commonly used to copy abilities. The first copied ability requires a total mana investment of , split between the mana cost and activated ability cost. That’s one mana less than Wizard’s Staff for the first activation, but you don’t need to sink additional mana into future activations. So the second doubled ability still costs that initial 5 mana, not 6.

The Staff still has its downsides. You can only copy triggered abilities from creatures and have little flexibility over which creatures’ abilities you’re triggering, and the high equip cost could catch up to you if your opponents have consistent removal spells to force you to re-equip over and over.

Of course, that only applies to equipping to non-wizards. When your primary targets get that equip cost , it’s much more efficient and absolutely worth running. I’d go so far as calling it a staple; much like Flame of Anor, I’m putting Wizard’s Staff in every deck with a wizard in the command zone for the foreseeable future.

What Wizard Commanders Want Wizard’s Staff?

Let’s look at wizard commanders that want Wizard's Staff. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the bar is extremely low since you need a wizard commander with a triggered ability.

Gandalf, Party Guest and The Madcap Jester are two very recent wizard commanders that convert additional triggers into card advantage.

Massimo, the Magician is a Mystery Booster Commander Edition commander with a super cool interaction: You can either double Massimo’s triggered ability or put the Staff on whatever creature Massimo gives a triggered ability to, offering lots of flexibility.

Minn, Wily Illusionist goes nicely with Wizard's Staff because it has two abilities to double; you’ll make twice as many Illusion tokens and put two permanents into play whenever one dies.

A Zur the Enchanter that finds two enchantments each time it attacks is terrifying, whether you’re finding stax pieces like Ghostly Prison and Deafening Silence or voltron stuff like All That Glitters and Ethereal Armor.

Then, of course, you have the typical top-dog wizard commanders. Vivi Ornitier, Kykar, Wind's Fury, Niv-Mizzet, Parun, and a few others just benefit from the raw power Wizard’s Staff offers.

What Non-Wizard Commanders Can Use It?

While wizard commanders are the intended audience a few non-wizard commanders benefit from the Staff, even if they need to pay the .

It might be overkill here, but Y'shtola, Night's Blessed carries the staff very well. One noncreature spell is enough to enable the card draw ability, which also triggers twice.

Sauron, the Dark Lord just has a boatload of triggered abilities to copy. You’ll amass 1 twice, get tempted twice, and so on. Also, ward is a triggered ability so your opponents need to sacrifice two permanents to make kill it!

Arna Kennerüd, Skycaptain doesn’t care about the high cost since an equipment commander has plenty of ways to cheat equip costs, so this might be the best non-wizard option. It’s also pretty busted because Wizard’s Staff will clone itself, assuming it’s attached to Arna when it attacks. So, you get two triggers that make muliple Wizard’s Staff, and more the next turn.