The Hobbit MTG Draft & Sealed Guide

The archetypes

Boros: Dwarf tribal

theme cards 22average mana 3.19two-drops 13removal 14

signpost Thorin Oakenshield

Boros is the second deck, and the densest pair by a wide margin. It is drafted almost entirely at common and uncommon, so it is the pair to be in when the table is fighting over rares. Kíli the Resourceful pays nothing to equip once the story is told, Vow to Erebor untaps a Dwarf, grows it and moves an Equipment onto it at instant speed, and Dwarven Shortsword brings both halves in one card. The land pays off too.

Rakdos: Amass and Armies

theme cards 15average mana 3.21two-drops 11removal 16

signpost Bolg of the North

Rakdos is the deck. It works from one-mana spells: Tidings of War on turn one, Goblin Plate Mail on two, and every counter after that pinging through The Great Goblin, which triggers on any counter placed on a Goblin, Orc or Army. Bothersome Noisemaker makes every noncreature spell an Amass too. Take the removal and the Amass engines over the bodies; the Army is the body.

Simic: Elf tribal

theme cards 16average mana 3.61two-drops 10removal 5

signpost Silvan Reveler

Simic is the trap. The payoffs want a fourth and fifth land before they do anything, and the pair has the least removal of the five to survive until then. Wood Elves and Attercop are fine cards in any green deck; the elf payoffs are not worth the pick until the table hands them to you.

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Azorius: Human tribal

theme cards 11average mana 3.19two-drops 11removal 7

signpost Bard the Bowman

Azorius is the draw-two engine. Bard the Bowman and Lakeshore Apothecary both grow on the second card each turn, and Plunder the Trollshaws is the cheapest way to get there. It is the slowest of the real decks and it wins the long game, so it wants the two white removal spells more than any other pair does.

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Golgari: Wolf tribal

theme cards 11average mana 3.39two-drops 12removal 9

signpost The Chief Warg

Golgari is the pack. Everything in it asks for a creature with power four, and Desolation Prowler is the best uncommon in the pair because it gets there on turn two. Ravening Warg and Wargling are the commons that carry it. Take the fight spells; Quarrel is real when the body is big.

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Where the removal is

The Hobbit has 28 removal spells, and 30% of its creatures have toughness 4 or more.

The colors at common

The most common mechanics

Recruit

cards 10at common 4mostly white and blue

Storied

cards 9at common 2mostly white and red

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Amass

cards 14at common 4mostly black and red

How to draft it

The Hobbit plays faster than its curve says. The average mana value is 3.26 and the curve sits at the recent average, which reads as a normal format, and the drafters who have played it call it the fastest in years. Both are true. The speed does not come from how many cheap cards there are, it comes from what they do: Amass turns one-mana spells into a growing body, menace is common, and Crude Bent Blade makes a big green creature the worst card in hand. Build for a play on turn two and keep the cheap removal, because 3 damage kills 70% of the creatures and the 30% that survive it are the whole reason to hold Bilbo's Deadly Slice.

Rakdos is the deck and Simic is the trap. Rakdos has the most removal castable of any pair and a plan that starts on turn one. Simic's spells average the most mana of any pair and it has the least removal, in a format that punishes a slow start. Everything between them is playable, and each pair's section below says when.

The picks at common

Removal first, cheapest first. Every colour has a two-mana answer except blue, which has a three-mana tempo spell that is good on an attacker and a lock aura that is not.

After the removal, the cards that make a plan: the Amass engines in black and red, the ramp and the deathtouch body in green, the draw-two two-drop in blue, the dwarf trick in white.

An interaction worth knowing

Bilbo and the graveyard. Bilbo, Thief in the Night casts an artifact, instant or sorcery from the graveyard on each attack, for one less. Plunder the Trollshaws draws two from there, Tidings of War amasses three, and Moment of Glory grows the whole team.

What to play around

Two open mana is the number in this set. Red has Pinecone Strike, green has Quarrel and Warg Tactics, and white has Stone by Sunlight for anything with power four. At three, black has Bilbo's Deadly Slice and blue has Confusticate and Bebother, a counter unless you pay four. Five open in white is Magnificent End, and it costs two when your creature is tapped, so attacking into it is the same as attacking into three.

Splashing

There are 5 common dual lands, one for each archetype pair, and Hobbit Hole fetches a basic, so a one-card splash is cheap. The duals enter tapped, which matters in a format this fast: a two-colour deck with one splashed removal spell is the ceiling, and a third colour for its own sake is not worth the tempo.

Questions about The Hobbit