I should say this before somebody assumes I am about to throw a cursed ring at Wizards of the Coast: I like Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit. I like it a lot. It is gorgeous, it is full of little details that make the Tolkien fan part of my brain sit up, and there are moments where it feels like the set was designed specifically to dismantle my wallet.
But I do not love it.
That is the awkward bit. This is not a set where you open a few packs, shrug and forget half the card names by the time you get home. There are cards I genuinely want, scenes I could happily stare at for an embarrassing amount of time and enough familiar characters to make one more Collector Booster feel like a reasonable decision. I just find myself admiring it more than I am desperate to build anything with it.
It understands the world it is playing in
The strongest thing about the set is that it rarely feels like The Hobbit with a few names dropped on otherwise generic Magic cards. The best pieces make you remember the actual story: the greed, the songs, the food, the ongoing sense that Gandalf arrives, creates a massive problem, then leaves everyone else to deal with it.
The book-style cards, scene cards, and Dragon hoard frames give the set a distinctive visual identity. Even when a card has no place in a deck I am brewing, I understand why somebody will want it in a binder or a frame. It feels like a celebration of a fantasy adventure where people are allowed to be brave, selfish, funny, hungry, and completely out of their depth all at once.
Above all else, it is a dramatic increase from TMNT, Marvel and Spider-Man and it’s nice to be in a fantasy setting again rather than just be back in new york for another round.
BUT THEN THERE’S THE GOBLINS.
Except for the goblins. I do not merely admire the goblins. I love the goblins.
They are horrible little maniacs and I mean that as the highest possible compliment. The second I started looking at what the set was doing with them, the sensible part of my brain packed a bag and left. What was I supposed to do, leave all those little bastards in my black and red binders? There is something deeply satisfying about creating a pile of tiny, annoying creatures, sacrificing half of them for value, then acting surprised when the rest of the table decides you are the threat.
I am building a Rakdos Goblins list off the back of this set and I am currently enjoying the chaotic stage of deckbuilding. You know the one. Cards everywhere, too many tabs open, no final list in sight, and every possible commander is apparently the right answer. It is barely a deck at the moment. It is an increasingly alarming pile of Goblins and a determination to make them everybody else’s concern.
The Great Goblin is where I think I should start.
The Great Goblin is the obvious choice, but it is obvious because it is genuinely excellent. It rewards you for putting counters on Goblins, Orcs, and Armies by dealing damage. It then turns the death of another Goblin, Orc, or Army into another card you can play. That is the kind of value engine that makes a deck start doing things by accident and why I even love to play Black in the first place.
Make tokens. Sacrifice them. Deal a bit of damage. Find another card. Make more tokens. It is tidy, it is horribly nasty and it’s exactly what I need from a Rakdos Goblins list. Better still, the Goblin, Orc, and Army wording means the deck does not have to be painfully narrow. You can bring in some of the set’s broader black-red flavour and still feel like you are playing a proper tribal list.
If the goal is to flood the board, rebuild after a wipe, and keep seeing cards while everything dies, The Great Goblin is the commander I would start with. It has the right mix of tribal support, sacrifice value, and low-level menace.
However….
Bolg of the North is a far more deranged option
Bolg of the North is a far far funnier choice. He lets you sacrifice another creature as he enters, turns that creature’s power into damage against something else, and rewards excess damage by amassing Goblins. It is a sacrifice deck wearing a Goblin costume, which is not a criticism. It is a very good costume.
I would not choose Bolg for the cleanest version of Goblin tribal. I would choose him for a list that wants combat to be awkward, removal to be a little rude, and every expendable creature to have a final act. It is the sort of shit that makes a table remember you next week.
But then there is Smaug
The Gleaming Gold Smaug the Magnificent is beautiful. It is an absurd, glittering dragon card that looks like it should be sitting in a vault beneath a mountain. Collectors will want it. People with display cases will want it. People who see shiny objects and lose all ability to reason will definitely want it.
But a price of around £50k for a mechanically identical card is still a fucking stupid price. That is not merely a collector premium. That is a number where you look at the card, then look at your car, and start wondering which one has made more sensible life choices. It is fantastic as a novelty and utterly unattainable for anyone whose financial planning does not begin with “perhaps I should buy a dragon today.”
The regular Smaug is still cool, and I can admire the gold version from a respectful distance while keeping both kidneys exactly where they are. Still, every time I see that price, I want to ask whether it also comes with an actual hoard of treasure.
Two more commanders I may try run.
Wort, Boggart Auntie
Wort is the sensible, grindy choice. At the beginning of every upkeep, she brings a Goblin card back from your graveyard to your hand. It is not loud or immediately terrifying, but it means the deck gets to play a longer game without losing its tribal identity. You trade early, sacrifice something for value, let a board wipe happen, then start quietly rebuilding while the rest of the table realises that the problem did not actually go away.
For this Rakdos build, Wort would make the graveyard feel like a second hand. Replaying a Goblin Matron gives you another chance to find the exact little nightmare you need. Bringing back Munitions Expert means another piece of interaction. Recovering a Sling-Gang Lieutenant makes it much easier to turn a wide board into reach when combat has stopped being useful. Even the smaller Goblins feel better when you know they are not necessarily gone for good.
I would build Wort less like an all-in rush deck and more like a stubborn Goblin toolbox. Keep the token makers, keep the sacrifice outlets, keep the cards that reward things dying, but give yourself a few ways to discard, sacrifice, and draw so the graveyard stays stocked. She will not win the game at a dramatic speed. She will simply keep turning up with the same annoying Goblins until somebody finally deals with her properly.
Grenzo, Dungeon Warden
Grenzo is the weird pick. He turns spare mana into bottom-of-library gambling, putting a creature directly onto the battlefield when the card at the bottom is small enough for him to smuggle out. It means the deck wants a lower curve, a healthy number of useful small creatures, and just enough manipulation to make the gamble feel more clever than blind.
That fits Rakdos Goblins surprisingly well. Plenty of the tribe’s best utility creatures are small: mana Goblins, token makers, sacrifice pieces, tutors, and removal bodies. Rather than holding mana up for a dramatic spell, Grenzo lets you turn it into another body at the end of the turn before yours. Then you can do it again. Sometimes you will hit exactly the card you wanted and feel like a tactical genius. Sometimes you will hit nothing helpful and pretend you were only doing it for the vibes.
Grenzo asks more from the deckbuilding than Wort does. You need to think about power, not just mana value, and the bottom of your library is suddenly a real part of your game plan. I would still keep some of the Hobbit Goblin package in here, but I would resist loading the list with too many expensive, oversized legends. This commander wants a crowded dungeon full of small, useful creatures and enough mana to keep opening doors. It is the most suspiciously legal casino in Commander, and I cannot pretend that does not appeal to me.
So, do I recommend it?
Yes. It is easy to recommend if you have any affection for Tolkien, attractive cardboard, or the dangerous combination of both. There is care in the presentation, there are real deckbuilding hooks, and the goblins alone have done enough to make me want another Rakdos deck. But I am still not fully in love. Maybe that changes after a few games. Maybe I will end up with a fully tuned Goblin list and pretend I never had doubts.
For now, though, I am happy with this: The Hobbit is a good set, the Goblins are great, Smaug is absurd, and I have once again let a pile of small red creatures convince me that responsible choices can wait until next month.
