While yesterday’s Star Trek First Look was welcome to be sure, it was only a warm-up for the main course coming this weekend. At MagicCon: Amsterdam, a ton of exciting reveals are scheduled, chief among them being the Debut for The Hobbit. As is tradition, Mark Rosewater has shared a teaser article for The Hobbit ahead of the big event, and it’s looking like a very exciting MTG set indeed.
A Mechanical Menagerie
Many of Rosewater’s The Hobbit teasers concern the mechanics of the set, with new and remixed ones alike being hinted at. Perhaps most intriguing among these is the promise of “a new type of counter,” intended to “expand red’s slice of the color pie.” This is an incredibly open-ended tease, and players have predicted everything from a Goad counter to a Screaming Nemesis-esque Lifegain-blocking counter so far.
The other cryptic new mechanic teased today is the concept of an “endearing story,” which some cards in the set will possess. While this is a mystery for now, players are predicting it could be tied to the Sagas of the set, perhaps setting them back to the start on completion to keep them around permanently.
New mechanics aside, The Hobbit is also set to have plenty of tweaks on existing ones. “A mechanic from The Lord of the Rings” will be back here, for example, with “one small change” in tow. Since The Lord of the Rings only introduced Amass Orcs and The Ring Tempts You, and The One Ring isn’t a big part of the Hobbit story, a tweaked Amass is likely here.
Rosewater also promises a tweaked faction mechanic from another premier set, and a cross of two mechanics that premiered in a return set. While these are both incredibly broad, my money is on a tweaked Mobilize for the former, to tie into the ‘Battle of Five Armies’ section of the book. The latter is trickier, but some on social media suspect a combination of Training and Mentor.
Top-Tier Typal Times
In an interesting twist, Rosewater’s MTG The Hobbit teaser article also reveals that this set will have heavy typal themes. Pretty much everyone expected “a bunch of Dwarf Typal cards,” as one teaser mentions, but the amount of love other types are getting here is surprising.
Elves look to be the biggest beneficiaries here, with perhaps the wildest teaser of them all mentioning “a card with Affinity for Elves.” As Elves are notorious for going wide on the board, whichever card ends up carrying this line will have serious competitive potential. We’re also getting a card that triggers “whenever another legendary Elf you control enters,” which is very specific but could bolster the type in Commander.
In addition to Elves, Bears actually look to be getting some good support here, with Rosewater promising “the biggest Bear we’ve ever printed” in the set. The current holder of that title is Copper Host Crusher at a whopping 8/8, so this will be a fearsome creature indeed, almost certainly representing Beorn the skin-changer. Bears are also getting a lord that grants them +2/+2, which is always welcome for any type.
Rounding things out on the typal front, we’re getting a card that taps for a colorless for each Halfling you control. While this is a very exciting line of text, we’re unlikely to see a ton of Halflings in this set, so it may not do much in practice. Changeling decks in Commander, like Morophon, the Boundless, should be able to make excellent use of it, however.
The Road Goes Ever On And On
A few other teasers from today stand out as interesting, including a card which makes you “reveal the top thirteen cards of your library.” This almost certainly ties into the party of 13 Dwarves Bilbo joins in the story, and may well be attached to a Dwarf-specific draw spell. We’re also getting a card that makes players mill cards equal to the life they lose, which sounds like a modern spin on Crumbling Sanctuary.
Mechanics and card teases aside, one of the highlights of this teaser batch is, surprisingly enough, the card names. With bangers like Great Ugly-Looking Goblin, Old Fat Spider, and Well-Worn Spatula in the mix, it sounds like Wizards have nailed the light-hearted tone of the source material here. As Peter Jackson proved, this isn’t an easy task by any means.
These teasers have pushed The Hobbit hype to new heights, and fortunately we won’t need to wait long to see more. The set’s debut will be held at MagicCon: Amsterdam this Saturday, July 18th, at 11:30 AM EST. You can expect a ton of reveals for the set here, and hopefully some answers to the questions posed by this tricky round of teases.
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!