Previews for Magic’s much-anticipated The Hobbit set are now in full swing, following a spectacular Debut last Saturday at MagicCon: Amsterdam. During that stream, we saw some fantastic new designs from the set, as well as a bunch of valuable reprints to boot. Today, the first full week of MTG The Hobbit spoilers got off to a great start, too, with the reveal of The Master of Lake-Town. By essentially putting a classic Mill piece in the command zone, this new legend should have a home in a wide range of strategies.
The Master Of Lake-Town MTG
By milling players’ cards when they lose life, The Master of Lake-Town is effectively a new Mindcrank on a body. This makes it an ideal Commander for a Mono-Black Mill deck, since it lets you easily mill your opponents via combat. It also turns repeatable damage sources, like Pestilence and Syr Konrad, the Grim, into repeatable mill as well.
This ability can be a double-edged sword, since a lot of Commander decks these days pack incidental graveyard synergies. Thankfully, running cards like Dauthi Voidwalker and Leyline of the Void can get around this issue. Repeatable targeted hate, like Ghost Vacuum and The Ooze, is worth including here too.
Speaking of double-edged swords, one of the big differences between The Master of Lake-Town and Mindcrank is that it makes you mill cards too. This gives the card a whole new angle, letting you rapidly self-mill with life payment cards like M.O.D.O.K. and Doom Whisperer. This lets you easily include a Reanimator sub-theme, leveraging cards like Animate Dead and Archon of Cruelty when milling alone doesn’t work.
Milling yourself so heavily also lets you easily turn on Threshold and Delirium, turning on cards like Cabal Ritual and Demonic Counsel. This helps boost The Master of Lake-Town’s second ability, which can be amplified by cards like Chthonian Nightmare, and trigger doublers like Drivnod, Carnage Dominus.
The Thrill Of The Mill
Great as it should be when played fair, The Master of Lake-Town also offers a terrifying two-card instant win combo. Simply pair the card with a Bloodchief Ascension with three or more quest counters, and the next time an opponent takes damage, they’ll be milled out completely. Though this is the card’s only true infinite combo out of the command zone, you can pull off a similar line with Duskmantle Guildmage in a Dimir list.
The card has also attracted some interest from cEDH players already as a pseudo-combo piece, thanks to its interactions with Ad Nauseam and Necropotence. In most cases, landing either of these with your Commander out should let you empty your deck. This opens up wins with Dread Return and Thassa’s Oracle or pricey Marvel newcomer Doctor Doom, Unrivaled.
Overall, The Master of Lake-Town looks like an exciting new Commander card for all brackets. Whether you want to run it in the command zone or the 99, this is one of the better Mill cards, and combo pieces, that we’ve seen in a minute. If this is a sign of things to come this spoiler season, then The Hobbit is looking very tasty indeed.
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