All 15 Mythic Rares in The Hobbit Ranked

The Arkenstone | Illustration by Gaboleps

The Hobbit is upon us, and with a new set come new, exciting, mythic rare cards. These are the Draft bombs, the cards you wish to open in your Sealed pool, and they often make their way into Constructed decks, mainly in Standard and EDH.

Today, we’re taking a look at all the mythics from The Hobbit to see which ones are worth the chase and which aren’t. Let’s go!

How Many Mythic Rares Are in The Hobbit?

Smaug the Magnificent | Illustration by Francisco Miyara

The Hobbit has only 15 mythic rares, on par with a smaller set. None of these are reprints. These 15 are also well distributed among colors; black and green get the short end of the stick with only two designs each, but nothing is too unbalanced.

#15. Dancing from Dark to Dawn

Dancing from Dark to Dawn is the newest take on the now-commonplace enchantment that makes a 2/2 on landfall. But here you get an added benefit: Each time you cast a creature, you get to put a bunch of +1/+1 counters on it. I don’t know if a big green deck or +1/+1 counters synergy deck is that interested, but it’s probably going to be played with hydras.

#14. Bard, King of Dale

Bard, King of Dale does a lot of interesting stuff you normally get on enchantments. Getting to double the tokens you create and some of the cards you draw is very strong, but the worrisome part about this card is that it’s a 6-mana 3/5, and sometimes it won’t stay in the game for too long, unlike a card like Anointed Procession. This card gets stronger if games are slower and longer.

#13. Gollum, Riddle Master

I love cards that make players play minigames or act in a different way. Gollum, Riddle Master is one of those cards, and you basically have to guess if your opponents have more even-costed or odd-costed cards. And even if Gollum eats a removal spell, if you guessed right, you can draw a card. It can be a solid card in a 1v1 format with a more defined meta.

#12. Elrond, Moon-Reader

This card has all the makings of a blue and green staple going forward. Elrond, Moon-Reader is a blue elf that gives you a card each time you activate a creature’s ability. So if you tap your green mana dorks for mana, you draw a card. If you use a tapper, you also draw a card. Elrond is restricted to once per turn, but it just encourages you to activate an ability on each on your opponent’s turns. As if this ability weren’t enough, you get a Displace built into the card once you have enough mana, which you can use for combos or just value-generating plays.

#11. The Arkenstone

The Arkenstone is an alluring artifact you’d run in your creature-heavy deck; it gives them +1/+1, and you draw an additional card each turn. What makes this card really good is its tutor effect on the adventure spell. Think of it as a creature tutor that can be nice anthem + card advantage engine. You need to be playing white to run this, at least in Commander, but it’s a color that enjoys all parts of it.

#10. Inside Information

Inside Information is a pretty neat card, and it reminds me of Outrageous Robbery, although at sorcery speed. It’s a new way to take advantage of your opponent’s deck, but you’ll do it by paying life instead of mana.

This has some interesting implications: If you’re an aggressive deck against a slower one, you don’t mind paying some life to get a bigger advantage on the board. In some metas, you can get different parts of their combo piece, and in theft decks, you’re adding cards they own to your ranks.

#9. Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Bilbo, Thief in the Night is an interesting build-around card when you want to play mechanics like paradox, foretell, and impulse draw. The card it reminds me the most of is Dreadhorde Arcanist, with some advantages and disadvantages. The fact that you can recast artifact cards is interessting, and you can cast some 1-mana artifacts like Chromatic Sphere for free due to the cost reduction.

#8. Gandalf, Goblins' Bane

Gandalf, Goblins' Bane is excellent because both sides of the card are really good and poised to see play. Gandalf itself is your classic spellslinger wizard that has prowess and pings your opponent when you cast spells, so it’s already a nice card to add to your pinger decks. When we add the adventure side, we get an improved impulse draw in red, because you can cast these cards whenever you like in a deck filled with wizards.

#7. Thorin, Mountain-king

Thorin, Mountain-king requires some equipment to be good, but if you have a bunch of them, it’s absurd. You can equip a creature for free and deal damage equal to its power (including the equipment boost) to another creature, which is why this card isn’t busted (equipping Colossus Hammer and dealing 10 to the face would indeed be pretty strong). Still, this dwarf can be a glue card for equipment decks, and it’s a strong tempo swing if you have powerful equipment with huge equip costs.

#6. Beorn the Fierce

Beorn the Fierce is a massive creature while being one of the best bear lords in MTG. I like that WotC doesn’t shy away from giving powerful bonuses like this to typal decks that aren’t that well-supported.

What’s more, because you can turn a random creature you control into a bear with trample and +2/+2, you’ll work to fuel the card draw, so you’re not restricted to only playing bears. It’s a good signal of playability when you can impact the board right away while powering your late game.

#5. Smaug the Magnificent

What sets Smaug the Magnificent apart from all the other 4- or 5-mana dragons with powerful abilities? For starters, it’s a nice reward for hoarding Treasure tokens, because you’ll deal direct damage with each attack. If you have enough Treasure, blocking Smaug won’t be enough. You’ll also get a free Treasure every turn, so your dragon threat slowly ramps you.

#4. The Queen of Dale

The Queen of Dale is a very nice token generator, because it just sits on the battlefield while you get to recruit and make some creatures. It’s playable in most go-wide decks in Commander, or ones that have human synergies. You’ll probably want to put many cheap creatures in your deck that you don’t mind discarding so you can set your graveyard up for a future mass reanimation spell.

#3. Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver

Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver is a nice agnostic typal equipment, and it works wonders whenever you’re going wide with a single creature type. Yes, paying 3 for the equipment and 3 to equip is expensive, but it’s necessary to balance the card because you could be making an obscene amount of Treasure after just a single attack. I’d say it’s also a staple in decks that want to have a lot of Treasure or artifacts. Or in a Commander deck like Krenko, Mob Boss, where you can make a zillion goblins with one activation.

#2. Fateful Discovery

Fateful Discovery is the first time this text box actually appears on a card, which is pretty wild. Suffice to say, any artifact-heavy deck will love it. This blue enchantment also counts tokens, so if you create three Treasure tokens, you’ll draw three cards. It also works with artifact lands, flicker effects, and more.

#1. Gleaming Splendor

Gleaming Splendor screams Commander: Whenever an opponent draws two or more cards in a turn, you get a free Treasure. That’s cool, but the ability to force this draw is top-notch. You’ll basically pay 3 to make the player draw their second card, and you also get another card and a Treasure. And that’s nothing compared to the free Treasure you’ll get because players will already be doing their best to draw more than one card each turn.

Wrap Up

Bilbo, Thief in the Night | Illustration by Nia Kovalevski

I have to admit, The Hobbit’s power level is on the lower side of things, at least where mythic rares are concerned. Not only are there slightly fewer mythics, but most of these are just okay. I can see some cards having an impact on EDH moving forward, and one or two being a role-player in Standard, but none strike me as multi-format staples like Quantum Riddler or Badgermole Cub (which isn’t a bad thing, just comparing power levels).

What do you think about this set’s mythic rares, guys? Are they going to move boxes or not? Let me know what you think in the comments section below. And for more on The Hobbit and its chase cards, please check our YouTube Channel, The Daily Upkeep.

Thanks for reading, and until the next time.