First Look at The Hobbit

Marvel Super Heroes was fun for about a week but quickly became dull. I have high hopes for The Hobbit and am excited to take a peek at what has been revealed.

The last Lord of the Rings set was quite fun, but it was straight to Modern. The new set should be less powerful, and I hope it's as interesting and deep.

The Queen of Dale

The Queen of Dale looks like she's trying to be a playable card in both 1v1 and Commander. This is a two-drop that punishes opponents for casting a removal spell, but the punishment isn't that harsh, allowing for a loot and potentially a 1/1 left behind. That, however, is the floor, which is pretty solid.

Queen of Dale won't lock anyone out of a game. Being a Legend, it's hard to play a bunch of copies. This isn't so bad since you can discard redundant copies. I still think the Queen of Dale will be underwhelming. She's not part of a personal game plan, acts more as a hatebear that won't scale well into the game, and doesn't provide enough when she trades for a removal spell early. Of note is that when played against a deck like Izzet Prowess in Standard, she opens the door for more powerful creatures when she eats a removal.

Because she is competing with cards like Voice of Victory, I expect that even white aggro decks will play only a small amount, or even no copies, of The Queen of Dale. If the format were smaller and there weren't decks like Mono Green Landfall where The Queen is a dead draw, then this card may fit into Standard.

My Precious

Don't be fooled by this version of The One Ring. It's not in the same ballpark of power level and is likely an unplayable card outside of Limited. While the Allure of Power is passable in some contexts, we have much better versions, such as Deadly Dispute in older formats. Without that extra treasure, it's generally not a playable effect unless the other half of the card is great.

My Precious, however, is not so great. While hexproof and unblockable are a strong combination, paying five full mana and two life before you can attempt to equip may make My Precious downright unplayable in competitive constructed environments. I could see a world where it's part of a toolbox of equipment with Stoneforge Mystic, but I doubt it.

Unfortunately, this card is not so precious.

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Bilbo, the leading character of the set, is an interesting and potentially powerful card, but it likely falls just short of being a real player in Standard. Bilbo provides no value as it enters the battlefield. While there are a few ways to take advantage of its cost-reduction effect, it's asking a lot from you. It reminds me of a card like Caustic Bronco. It can take over the game if left unchecked, but is that enough these days for a two-drop that dies to most one-mana removal spells?

It may have a home depending on the format. A creature like this against a deck like Mono Green Landfall could potentially do a lot of heavy lifting, allowing you to quickly take control of the game by attacking and removing all blockers. However, Bilbo will feel bad against those decks on the draw when they come out of the gate with multiple blockers in play on a turn you can attack. An even worse scenario is when you can't afford to play a creature on turn two because your back is already against the wall.

I didn't like the look of Caustic Bronco and similar cards when they were released. Bilbo could be better because it's in a stronger color, but I'm hesitant to call it good.

We'll likely see people try, and fail, to make this card work. It's the kind of card I could see coming out of sideboards in control matchups where players want to board out all their removal.

Bilbo will probably see a bit of play, but I doubt it becomes a real staple.

Thorin, Mountain-king

This is Flametongue Kavu but with a little more work and upside.

Thorin, Mountain-king is an interesting equipment payoff that leaves me with more questions than answers. This and other cards I've seen lead me to believe red and the dwarves will focus on equipment, which is thematically accurate. Regardless, I've yet to see "equipment matters" synergies pay off.

Assuming we get some reasonable equipment in the set, and I'm sure we will, Thorin is powerful in the right context. Equipment with high upside but high equip costs seems like a natural fit since Thorin provides a free equip while killing a creature. I could see a world where that strategy pans out, but it would take a strong mythic rare equipment that's good enough on its own and a lot of passable supporting equipment.

It's likely a card that gets relegated to commander decks and, of course, a Limited all-star. I hope they can make "equipment matters" work in this set because it usually falls flat.

Riddles in the Dark

Riddles in the Dark can be seen as a Divination, or Quick Study more accurately, with upside. It's awkward to let your opponent see a pile, but you get to fill your graveyard while drawing extra cards.

It's not quite a staple card that we'll see in every blue deck. It will likely see play in decks that want both a card-draw spell and a way to fill the graveyard.

Riddles in the Dark is fairly niche. It likely won't push any graveyard decks like a reanimator deck into the metagame, but it could be a piece of the puzzle that brings something like that into existence.

This is the kind of card that doesn't cross the playability threshold due to Standard's large size and the competition with so many other cards.

Riddles in the Dark looks like a lot of fun, and I hope I get to cast it in some constructed decks, but I'm doubtful.

Gollum, Riddle Master

This is an efficient two-drop that can draw a card when it gets hit with a removal spell. If left in play, it can accumulate more of an advantage. I thought this card was excellent upon the first reading until realizing you don't draw a card per turn. Instead, you only trigger the abilities once.

Gollum is still efficient enough to see play, but it's not that impressive since it can't trade early to gain all its value.

This seems like the best card previewed thus far, but I'm not overly impressed since it's not broken. It's serviceable and specific to black decks trying to attack, as it doesn't synergize with much and is a value card.

Gollum will potentially see play if we have a black creature deck. Many creature decks are highly synergistic, such as Mardu Monument/Discard decks, where this card lacks a function.

Gollum is a cool card but is mythic in name only. It's a solid overall card despite being nothing to write home about.

The Hobbit looks underpowered so far. I'm concerned with having only seen mostly rares and mythics. As a Limited-only player, it seems like it will be a little fun. I hope it hooks me in more than Marvel did, but we will have to wait and see.