Unlike most Universes Beyond sets nowadays, The Hobbit doesn’t have reprints coming out of its ears via a bonus sheet. Instead, Wizards has made a series of box toppers for this set to reprint a bunch of classic Tales of Middle-earth cards. From what we’ve seen so far, this suite of box toppers really doesn’t disappoint, and the latest potential pulls are no different.
MTG Last March of the Ents
While it is on the expensive side, both in cost and mana value, Last March of the Ents is a fantastic finisher. So long as you have a decently tough creature already, this card refills your hand before cheating it onto the board. Even the worst case scenario here, where you just draw a bunch of cards, is a very high floor, so it’s hard to go wrong.
Given this utility, it’s little wonder that Last March of the Ents sees play in a wide variety of Commander decks. Toughness-Matters decks, like Felothar the Steadfast, naturally love this card, but so too does The Ur-Dragon. Realistically, any deck that wants more card draw and a potentially explosive turn can run this sorcery.
So far, Last March of the End sees play in around 143,000 Commander decks, according to EDHREC. Due to this impressive play rate, copies of this card routinely sell for around $29 at their cheapest. With more sought-after variants selling for $42 and even $150, this card has some real potential.
MTG Bilbo’s Ring
In theory, Bilbo’s Ring has the potential to be a fantastically useful MTG card. Being able to guarantee damage with a creature, while drawing a card too, can guarantee access to otherwise risky combat triggers. That being said, while the ceiling is high for this card, there are some guardrails to keep it in check.
Between its high non-Halfling equip cost and losing Hexproof outside of your turn, Bilbo’s Ring is ultimately rather situational. To make matters worse, this is hardly the only evasion-granting equipment, with cards like Brotherhood Regalia often outclassing it. Due to this, Bilbo’s Ring only sees play in around 29,400 decks, and sells for around $14 on average.
MTG Relic of Sauron
Thanks to appearing in the Hosts of Mordor precon and the Special Edition Collector Boosters, Relic of Sauron is surprisingly inexpensive. Selling for around $9.50 on average, this card is the cheapest recently revealed reprint, despite seeing strong play. According to EDHREC, appears in around 85,600 decks, and that popularity is only growing.
Thanks to new discard-focused Commanders like Doctor Doom, King of Latveria, Relic of Sauron recently saw a decent bump in play. Given how prevalent discard themes are in Grixis colors, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before this happens again. Now that it is being reprinted again, however, the new supply should keep its price in check somewhat.
Ultimately, as with all of these reprints, it remains to be seen where their prices will end up. As much as new supply typically lowers prices, the art on these box topper reprints is fantastic across the board. As such, the somewhat limited availability of these cards could make these variants the new chase option.
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