With spoiler season finally coming to a close, MTG’s The Hobbit looks like a mixed bag. The set, as a whole, seems a bit less exciting than its recent releases, but there are still some extremely powerful cards. To that end, we’ve put together a list of what we think are the five best new cards from the main set.
5 | MTG Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver
For typal decks in Commander, Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver is easily the most exciting arrival in The Hobbit. Creating tons of Treasure tokens to power out your hand, Orcrist easily excels with Commanders like Krenko, Mob Boss and The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl.
In addition to Typal and token decks, the sheer amount of Treasures Orcrist creates has some powerful synergies with Vihaan, Goldwaker and Magda, Brazen Outlaw. Throw in some treasure support like Xorn or Goldspan Dragon, and Orcrist can easily find homes here, too.
If all this weren’t enough, Orcrist can even take infinite turns with Time Sieve, or infinite combats with Aggravated Assault. With all of this in mind, Orcrist is highly likely to be one of the most impactful cards from The Hobbit.
4 | Fateful Discovery
Originally causing a massive reaction after being leaked, Fateful Discovery is an auto-include in every artifact-typal Commander deck. Alongside popular cheerio artifacts like Mox Opal and Mishra’s Bauble, Fateful Discovery can draw a concerning number of cards. The card even draws off of artifact tokens, making it an incredible inclusion in Galazeth Prismari or Urza, Chief Artificer decks.
If all of that weren’t enough, Fateful Discovery can even draw your whole deck with The Locust God and Mycosynth Lattice in play, making near-infinite tokens in the process. With its absurd potential, Fateful Discovery is bound to make a massive Commander appearance.
3 | MTG The Queen of Dale
Of all the cards on this list, The Queen of Dale arguably has the most potential. Between the slew of counterspells in cEDH and various cantrips in two-player Magic, triggering The Queen of Dale is easy. This makes the card a home run in Commander, especially if you have Alhamarret’s Archive or Anointed Procession to double up on value.
If all the hand filtering weren’t enough, The Queen of Dale can act as an army-in-a-can, too. Wide boards are extremely easy to capitalize on right now by using Standard-legal payoffs like Ouroboroid or Practiced Offense. In Modern, creating a bunch of bodies can easily enable Chord of Calling and Yawgmoth, Thran Physician, making The Queen of Dale an interesting inclusion in emerging creature toolbox decks.
That said, while this card’s potential is extreme, The Queen of Dale’s payoffs could end up playing out worse in practice. Its one toughness is a bit of a concern, too, making it extremely easy to remove with the likes of Lava Dart or Prismari Charm. Because of this, we’ll have to wait and see just how much The Queen of Dale actually ends up impacting MTG.
2 | MTG Bilbo, Thief in the Night
As the main character from The Hobbit, Bilbo, Thief in the Night has the highest chance of impacting both Commander and constructed formats in MTG. The cost reduction effect alone makes Bilbo a fantastic inclusion in Paradox decks like The Thirteenth Doctor, or graveyard-focused decks like Emet-Selch of the Third Seat.
While this is already exciting, Bilbo’s insane Flashback ability is what really pushes it over the top. So long as you can trigger this effect every turn, Bilbo can easily run away with the game. This is easily achievable in all kinds of Standard decks, like Lessons, Izzet Prowess, or Spellementals. The card could even see play in Modern and Legacy, especially in Dragon’s Rage Channeler decks that fill up the graveyard fast.
With all this in mind, Bilbo, Thief in the Night looks primed to appear all over MTG once The Hobbit hits shelves.
1 | MTG Gleaming Splendor
Offering obscene value in slower formats, Gleaming Splendor is guaranteed to become a Commander super staple. Essentially offering a Smothering Tithe-lite with a Faerie Mastermind ability stamped onto it, Wizards just combined two cEDH super staples together. With the abundance of Rhystic Study-esque effects in Commander, triggering Gleaming Splendor consistently is trivial.
While the triggered ability alone makes including Gleaming Splendor worthwhile, its activated ability can even become an infinite mana win condition, decking your opponents out. You’ll need a Silence effect to ensure that they don’t draw an answer, but those cards are naturally played all over cEDH anyway. While this is just a sideshow as far as Gleaming Splendor goes, its versatility undeniably makes this the best card in MTG The Hobbit.
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