The Hobbit Pre-release
My impressions of the pre-release event for The Hobbit set.
The Hobbit is the latest Magic the Gathering set, a sequel to the Lord of the Rings (LOTR) set from a couple of years ago. As the fantasy universe is common to both Magic the Gathering (MTG) and LOTR, the set was quite successful and even left us with some very powerful cards like The One Ring and Orcish Bowmasters. Last week, Wizards of the Coast released The Hobbit. The set is on the smaller side, and it's too new to tell what cards will shine and which cards will be quickly forgotten.
One of the best ways to get your hands on the new set and have some fun at the same time is a pre-release event at a local game shop. You get a pre-release kit, which is a sealed box that includes 6 booster packs, a small promo pack, and a 20-sided die. You build a 40-card deck from the 6 packs of cards, and battle other players. Pairings are random, and since everyone starts with 6 packs, one's success comes down to skill, and a little bit of luck too. You play 3 rounds, and each round is best out of 3. I won 1 round and lost 2 rounds, because I am still new to the sealed format and still learning the tricks of assembling the best 40-card deck from a pool of cards I have not seen before. So, I'm OK losing some games for now.
While the gathering part of Magic the Gathering is fun, especially when you go with friends, another big draw for me has always been the artwork on the cards and the fantasy themes of the game. The Hobbit did not disappoint! I am a fan of elves in MTG, so I built and elf deck out of the 6 booster packs. Specifically, I built a green-blue landfall elf deck. I ignored the new mechanics in the set in favor of my preference for elves. I also did happen to have quite a few elf cards to make this work.
The highlights of my deck were Beorn, Reluctant Host, Silvan Reveler, and Thranduil's Company. Silvan Reveler alone won me the games I did win. She gets me a land card upon entering most times, and can come back from the graveyard for 3 mana, which in this deck is a pretty low cost. Beorn's adventure spell, Till and Tend, triggers landfall and helps me ramp. Thranduil let me play yet another land and pumps a creature for the turn, giving it vigilance too. This enables safe attacks without losing a blocker on my opponent's turn. Once ramping is compete, the 5 mana Beorn can come in, and he's a 5/5 with trample, a pretty serious threat even if he's not an elf.
A selection of support cards helped the strategy along. Bilbo Baggins, Burglar is not an elf, but he's a good support character. For one blue mana, Take a Glance lets me decide what my next card will be (Scry 2). Then, when cast, he lets me draw a card. Card draw is so important. Then, Down in the Valley is a saga that ramps on the first turn it enters, then gives you an elf token (or more, if I manage to play multiple lands that turn). Very useful! Wood Elves is a reprint on an older card. The fact that it lets you play an extra Forest untapped is key and significantly better than untapped.
Some utility cards helped me in a few specific scenarios. Confusticate and Bebother is a great option because I was able to use it either as a counter-spell, or as card draw. Mirkwood Nurturer was interesting. I had it return Enchanted River's Grasp to my hand, then cast it again, resulting in 2 enemy creatures being tapped before my attack phase. A great move to end the game and swing for lethal damage with a couple big creatures like Beorn.
Overall, the strategy was to ramp as much as possible, so that the landfall triggers made my board stronger, and the extra mana helped me cast the spells I needed to protect my own creatures and keep the attackers at bay. Silvan Reveler was a very cool card. Between this pre-release and the recent Stixhaven set, I find myself very happy playing blue-green. I always liked green, but I am finding blue adds some much-needed interaction (counter-spells, card draw, etc.). Happy with The Hobbit, thought I don't see myself buying many more cards from this set. The 40 card deck will be enough to provide some fun playing my friends.
Thanks for reading!
©️ Razvan Ungureanu