Magic: The Gathering X The Hobbit is the latest Universes Beyond set to bring Middle-earth to the tabletop, this time turning its attention to Bilbo Baggins’ unexpected journey from the comforts of Bag End to the treasure-filled halls of the Lonely Mountain. Following Magic’s previous trip to Tolkien’s world with The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, The Hobbit brings a much more focused adventure to the game – complete with Dwarves, riddles, treasure and, naturally, one very large dragon.
Thanks to the Magic: The Gathering team at Wizards of the Coast, we got our hands on some Magic: The Gathering X The Hobbit goodies to see what’s hiding inside and whether this adventure is worth leaving The Shire for.
As always, there is a treasure hoard of products for Magic players and collectors to sink their teeth into. Play Boosters, Collector Boosters and Bundles all make an appearance, alongside a Gift Bundle, Draft Night box and two new Scene Boxes. A lot of the lineup will be immediately familiar to anyone who has cracked into a Magic set before, but there are a few products here that fit particularly nicely with The Hobbit’s focus on storytelling and getting a group together for an adventure.
One of the more interesting additions is Draft Night, a four-player, all-in-one drafting experience designed around Magic’s Pick-Two Draft format. Inside you’ll find 12 Play Boosters, one Collector Booster, 90 basic lands and everything needed to get four players drafting and battling it out around the table. It essentially turns opening a box of Magic into its own little game night, which feels particularly fitting for a set that begins with a group of Dwarves unexpectedly turning up at someone’s house. Also joining the adventure are two Scene Boxes, with Crack the Plates and Treasures of Smaug each bringing together six traditional foil, borderless cards that combine to create a larger scene from Bilbo’s journey.
The standard Bundle is where we spent most of our time, and it’s a pretty easy entry point for anyone wanting to properly sink their teeth into the set. Inside you’ll find 9 Play Boosters, 15 Basic Lands, 15 Traditional Foiled Lands + 4 Traditional Foil Basic Plains Cards, an Alternate-art Traditional Foil Promo Card, a Spindown Dice and the box to keep everything together.
It’s a little starter hoard of The Hobbit cards, and after cracking through the included boosters there’s enough here to start exploring the set, adding cards into existing decks and, most importantly, somewhere to actually put all the cards once you’ve finished opening everything. Because if there’s anything Magic players and Smaug have in common, it’s an unwillingness to get rid of their collection.
GRAB THE HOBBIT MTG FROM AMAZON HERE
Magic: The Gathering X The Hobbit focuses heavily on the storytelling and adventure at the heart of Tolkien’s original novel. Bilbo’s journey takes him from his little Hobbit hole in The Shire to encounters with trolls, goblins, giant spiders, Gollum, and eventually Smaug himself – with a number of the set’s mechanics having been designed around recreating that journey on the tabletop.
Some of the mechanics players will encounter include:
- Storied – Storied cards become more powerful as your own story develops throughout a game, rewarding players for meeting different conditions and creating game lasting static effects.
- Riddles In The Dark – Inspired by Bilbo and Gollum’s famous game of riddles beneath the Misty Mountains, Riddles In The Dark introduce another way for players to interact with cards and test what might be hiding within their deck.
- Food – It wouldn’t be a trip through The Shire without Food, with the returning Food tokens fitting naturally into a world where Hobbits take their meals very seriously.
- Treasure – With an entire adventure built around reclaiming a mountain full of gold, Treasure also makes its presence known throughout the set and plays perfectly into the riches waiting beneath the Lonely Mountain.
It’s a set that appears to be having plenty of fun with the source material rather than simply dropping familiar characters onto Magic cards. From Bilbo and Gandalf through to Thorin and his company of Dwarves, many of the cards and mechanics are designed to recreate specific moments from the journey and let players build their own version of the tale.
For collectors looking for the ultimate treasure hidden amongst the set, there’s one card that’s going to be particularly difficult to find. The gleaming, gold Smaug the Magnificent is the headliner card for Magic: The Gathering X The Hobbit, with only around 500 copies available worldwide and exclusively found within Collector Boosters.
Magic: The Gathering X The Hobbit is available from Amazon HERE. Whether you’re looking to draft with some friends, build around your favourite characters from the book or simply hunt down one particularly shiny dragon, there looks to be plenty waiting for Magic players on the road to the Lonely Mountain.
