During last Friday’s massive MagicCon preview panel, we saw more of Magic’s The Hobbit set than most players anticipated. On top of nine brand-new cards, we got new art treatments and an extra-shiny Headliner. The most exciting new MTG card from this batch, however, was undoubtedly Bilbo, Thief in the Night. Thanks to its sheer efficiency, Bilbo has a chance of seeing play absolutely everywhere.
Bilbo, Thief In The Night MTG
In Commander, Bilbo, Thief in the Night has a ton to offer with that discount ability alone. Between Flashback, Adventures and Prepared spells, Bilbo reduces the casting cost to a ton of abilities that you can make themes around.
Factor in Bilbo’s triggered ability, and he becomes a fantastic engine for Spellslinger decks. Payoffs like Talrand, Sky Summoner and Archmage Emeritus are easy to abuse here, letting you gain huge advantage in a single turn. You can take this even further by adding in other discount effects, too, with Sage of the Beyond being a particularly strong option. The fact that Bilbo can nab artifacts as well takes this to another level, however, letting you recover fallen mana rocks or even value pieces like Ichor Wellspring.
In the 99, Bilbo is arguably just as useful, serving as a mana rock for your Commander at minimum. This makes it a great ramp option in non-green decks, especially those with a graveyard theme like Norman Osborn//Green Goblin and Oskar, Rubbish Reclaimer. It’s also an easy addition to any deck that cares about cards leaving the graveyard, like Teval, the Balanced Scale and Tormod, the Desecrator.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Bilbo also enables a powerful infinite combo with The Reality Chip and Sensei’s Divining Top. Simply attach Chip to Bilbo, then tap Top to draw a card and put it on top of your deck. Chip will let you replay Top from your library, and Bilbo will make it cost zero. Thanks to this, you can repeat this process infinitely, drawing your entire deck. From there, you can finish off with Thassa’s Oracle or Laboratory Maniac.
A Real Contender
Outside of Commander, many MTG players already have Bilbo, Thief in the Night pegged as a serious constructed contender. In Standard, for instance, it slots very nicely indeed into the various Izzet decks that are absolutely dominating in the format right now. Notably, Izzet Lessons and Spellementals lean into graveyard synergy as well, meaning Bilbo should have no shortage of targets here.
Going back further, there’s been a good bit of talk about Bilbo seeing use in both Legacy and Vintage as well. Dreadhorde Arcanist proved good enough to get itself banned in Legacy, due to how hard it pushed decks like Delver. Bilbo, while not quite as good, very much fills a similar role, easily recurring spells like Brainstorm.
In Vintage, Bilbo is even better, since it has busted artifacts like Black Lotus to work with. Notably, Lurrus decks are incredibly popular in the format, and Bilbo is a fantastic synergy piece there. Not only does it give you more access to your graveyard each turn, but it also makes your Lurrus plays cheaper, allowing for explosive early turns. Whether Bilbo actually manages to break through in formats like these remains to be seen, but it’ll certainly be one to watch come August in any case.
Stick with us here at mtgrocks.com: the best site for Magic: The Gathering coverage. Be sure to check out our deckbuilder for your next big brew, and our brand new MTG Rocks Podcast!