Given that Lord of the Rings was the set that made me dip my toes into Magic, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that my anticipation for a return to Middle Earth was high. Well, The Hobbit is the latest foray into this wonderful land, and to say my hype levels were high would be an understatement. But does it live up to my high expectations? In many ways, yup.
Small set for a small hobbit
Like a few recent sets, this one is a draftable small set. This means that there are a total of 193 unique cards in the set. In the past, we have had small sets like Spider-Man get boring to draft fast, but sets like TMNT that I enjoyed drafting all season long. Well, this set is kinda in the middle.
Despite that, there is a lot to love here. The art is stunning and represents the book well. When you hit cards like Ordinary Bear, and Gigantic Big Bear, it makes it clear this set definitely shouldn’t have been much bigger. Even if I do love these cards exist in the set.
What’s it like to play?
The Hobbit has some strong archetypes which if you wind up in one of those lanes, you can build a strong deck, not dissimilar to Lorwyn Eclipsed. Unlike Lorwyn Eclipsed though, with the smaller card pool, it can force you into one of these lanes to get a strong deck going. . That’s not to say it’s not fun to draft, it is. Some of the synergies can cross over with others, and some cards make great fillers in any deck, but will it still be exciting after week 6? I am not totally sure. An elf deck I built at pre-release with a handful of humans and hobbits supported each other and got powerful fast. Goblins can help prop up the dwarf deck, and so on.
Despite being a small set, there are some seriously awesome cards here. Recruit is a new mechanic which is like the connive mechanic which does card filtering, but creating 1/1 tokens instead of +1/+1 counters, which is awesome sauce. Storied is another new mechanic, where if you have a storied card, and two other legendary’s, artifacts, or sagas, you get an Enduring Story emblem for the game which gives specific card buffs. Then there is the new home mechanic which allows some equipment cards to get +1/+0 buffs, making them scary.
Then there are the returning mechanics. Amass Goblins is like Amass Orcs, in that when you amass, you make a creature token with a specific number of +1/+1 counters, and then every time you amass it gets bigger. Then there are adventures which were last in the Wilds of Eldraine set, where you have two halves of the card. If you cast the Instant or sorcery side, you exile the card to play the permanent side later on. It is one of my favourite mechanics, and it’s back!
Some of the cards and themes are cleverly built in here to represent the story. The best example of this is The Black Arrow. It’s a bit of equipment that gives a creature +1/+1 and reach, which makes sense. But when it enters it deals 1 damage to any target, and if that target is a dragon it destroys it. That’s just thematically perfect, and super satisfying taking down a Smaug in a draft.
Added to these cool mechanics, we have some seriously awesome new dragons, goblins, dwarves and other cool cards for constructed formats. 4 white open Mana is going to scare the pants out of me going forward in Standard thanks to Settle the Wreckage being reprinted.
Beautiful alt arts and Box Toppers are back!
If you have only been playing recently, you may not have encountered box toppers before, but they used to be common. When you buy a box of boosters, there will be a bonus pack in it with an additional card. Lost Caverns of Ixalan had some awesome Alt art artifacts, The Lord of the Rings had some fantastic cards reprinted with LOTR art, and The Hobbit is the return of these beauties. In this case, there are Alt art versions of previous LOTR cards, with some stunning art on most of them. The cards can vary from the 10 buck range, to the expensive Orcish Bowmasters or The One Ring. But even the lower end ones, like The Flowering of the White Tree, are a great inclusion because it is so dang beautiful.
Then there are the book cover treatments. These have a handful of cards designed to look like the cover of a book with worn edges, and they look absolutely gorgeous. Every one I have seen I have been envious of not having because they are so beautiful.
There is also a dragon hoard of alternate art cards. These have some beautiful art, and a weird dragon border that I don’t like, but others said they love it. So it’s a taste thing, and because the card art is so damn good, I will still try to collect them.
The art is so good in this set, and all of the above can be gotten in play boosters. The only treatments locked away in collector boosters are the super rare Smaug, and some cool dwarven language cards which all look dope as hell. Collector boosters also allow you to nab all the cards in surge foil, which is a nice cherry on the top for people with a desire for extra shiny things. You can also get the awesome box toppers in Collector Boosters, which is why my spare cash is going to be flushed away chasing these beauties.
How can you buy it?
The standard ways to buy apply here. You can pick up Play and Collector Boosters, or boxes of them for those sweet box toppers. Draft Night returns as the box including the lands, packs and a Collector’s Booster to have your own draft at home.
The standard bundle comes with nine boosters, a cool Hobbit spin down dice, a bunch of full art lands, and a promo art version of The Misty Mountain Cold. The lands here are especially cool as there are some harder to find Hobbit Hole Lands which show Bilbo’s house through the seasons on a bunch of gorgeous full art plains. All of this comes in a cool hard cardboard storage box with dope art on it. As always, I enjoy cracking bundles for both the goodies and the price of the boosters. This one was extra special with those sweet lands.
There is a gift bundle coming soon which includes a collector booster, a different Alt art promo card, and a unique box and dice. I obviously can’t speak to that as it hasn’t come out yet, but I certainly will be picking one up. There is also a Battle of the Five Armies co-op kit coming out which there is little info about yet, but I always love these as little board games to play at home.
There are also two scene boxes, one depicting the feed at Bilbos house, and the other depicting Bilbo getting frisky with Smaug’s loot. These have unique cards in them with some looking like potential powerhouses which you can only get in these scene boxes or Collector Boosters. The box also comes with 3 Play boosters, so are good value if you like the art.
Should you check out Magic: The Gathering – The Hobbit?
While I am not a big fan of the idea of small sets, TMNT turned out to be a heap of fun, and The Hobbit is looking the same. There are some fantastic cards, some fun mechanics, stunning art, and even more stunning alt arts.
As a fan of the book, and a LOTR nerd in general, I have had a fun cracking and playing with this set!
As far as small sets go, this one looks to be another banger. While it may not have the legs that a full set has, it's fun and the cards look stunning. What more do you need? I know what I need, a The Silmarillion set next!
