Now that The Hobbit (HOB) has been on Arena for a while, we can take a look at what the best commons and uncommon cards ended up being for each color.

Best White Commons

We will come to White's strong suit in a moment, but at common, it's slim pickings. Cards that look like Magnificent End have been excellent in recent years. Unfortunately, five damage is nowhere near as good as "destroy" or even "exile." At five mana , this is very poor, and at two mana it's still fairly situational.

Perhaps we should call this section "White's Least Bad Commons", because Magnificent End barely comes out above average. Every other White common is even worse than it.

Best White Uncommons

Luckily, White is doing pretty well here, with several uncommons in the A and B rankings on 17 lands. Celebrate the Mountain-king is currently the best uncommon in the entire set, in fact. The four-mana removal spell is a little pricey for a Banishing Light effect, but Recruit is a worthwhile bonus.

Speaking of Recruit, and speaking of the Mountain King, The Mountain-king's Return is also among the best uncommons in the set. This three-mana Saga, like a lot of good sagas, just accrues a ton of value over time. The middle chapter is high point, but chapters one and three are both decent. There are a lot of good three-drops to return from your graveyard, and giving one a +1/+1 counter next turn can't hurt.

Best Blue Commons

Blue is one of the worst performing colours in The Hobbit limited, but not because of its commons. Plunder the Trollshaws is one of the best pure card draw spells we've seen in a while, and at the low cost of two mana . It cracks the top five commons in the set, despite Blue overall not looking so hot.

Similarly, Long Lake Nuisance is among the best commons in the entire set. It's not quite in the Preening Champion ancestry, but at four mana , it's clearly a solid play. It can make you a chump blocker, but it will trigger your draw-two synergies. The 3/1 Flying body is nothing special, but it's relevant enough to tie the whole package together.

Best Blue Uncommons

Blue's uncommons are quite middling, with one exception. Bilbo, Luckwearer is doing very well. Largely, it's because the two-mana Creature is excellent. At five mana , Burglar's Plot can be decent in the right spot (trading a Recruit token for a real Creature). Really, though, you want to play Bilbo on turn two and go to town.

Master's Councillors is the next best Blue uncommon. This two-drop was called out in the preview article , and it plays nicely with Bilbo. Both Creatures fill your graveyard, and Master's Councillors pays you off for doing so. It goes from a mopey 1/3 with Vigilance to a 3/3 and eventually 5/3.

Best Black Commons

Another card that went overlooked in the preview article was Crude Bent Blade. A three-mana edict effect doesn't seem great, but the Equipment is a real bonus. To be more precise, simply having an Equipment to pay-off your Red cards is a real bonus. +2/+1 itself is fine, but there is a strong Equipment theme in the set, and so this card ends up being more than the sum of its parts. This is winning more than most uncommons, and several rares.

Gollum, Silent Slinker is just behind the Blade. The four-drop has a very healthy 59.3% win rate. Its adventure is nothing to write home about, but it's a nice bonus. Similarly, a 4/3 with Menace is good but not great. There is a dearth of evasion in Rakdos , though, and your opponent is often forced to deal with a large Amass token. That means Gollum quite often gets through, and if you can put a Crude Bent Blade on him, that's a lot of damage.

Best Black Uncommons

It's no secret that Rakdos is the most performant colour pair in The Hobbit. It should come as no surprise that Black has some good uncommons, then. Desolation Prowler being the best of them, though? That is a bit of an eyebrow-raiser. Putrid Leech was a house, but that was over a decade ago. Turns out it's still good in 2026, especially when it has an easier mana cost at .

Down, Down to Goblin-town is one of many Sagas in this article. At three mana , it's a very direct callback to Toll of the Invasion. That card was very good in War of the Spark and this card is even better than that. Getting the Amass a turn later is a minor drawback, but draining a couple of life is a minor upside to counteract that.

Best Red Commons

Pinecone Strike is just as good as expected. Lots of people have missed the fact that this card says "one or both." Many players ranked this two-mana removal spell as one of the best commons in the set, and it turns out it's even better than we thought.

Despite Rakdos being the strongest colour pair, the rest of Red's commons aren't great. Dori, Bearer of Friends is the best of the rest, but it sports a paltry 56.9% win rate. It's a solid C+ card, with Trample ability pushing it out of pure mediocrity. The three-drop that brings a Treasure with it is usually playable, and in this case it's ever so slightly better than that.

Best Red Uncommons

Here's a card that the original article nailed. Bothersome Noisemaker is the best Red uncommon in the set, and it's among the best cards in the set, full stop. The fact that it's yet another two-drop says a lot about the format. You are unlikely to get a lot of triggers out of this Creature, but you are unlikely to need a lot of triggers. Just a few will get the job done, especially if you slam this on turn two and follow it up with a noncreature spell on three.

Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern is a great way to trigger your Noisemaker. At four mana , six damage kills the majority of Creatures. That's really the reason to play this card, but sniping an Equipment on chapter two can be nice. Chapters four and five are borderline irrelevant, but they can enable a double-spell turn from time-to-time.

Best Green Commons

Green is not doing so hot in The Hobbit limited. There is only one Green common above a C rating on 17lands, and it's a situational removal spell. Two mana Quarrel is fine, but it being Green's best common is not a good sign. This kind of spell is always going to be risky, even at Instant speed, because your opponent can ruin it in so many ways. If you're going to draft Green, it's because of the higher rarity cards.

Best Green Uncommons

Big is the name of the game for Green at uncommon. Mirkwood Pathmaker isn't the most exciting of cards, but it is definitely large. At worst, it's a three-mana 3/3, and it naturally grows as the game goes on. It doesn't have any evasion, so it does get chumped forever, but that leaves the door open for your other Creatures.

Nasty Little Rabbit might not grow as easily as the Pathmaker, but at one mana , it is more efficient. There are plenty of big Creatures to trigger the Ferocious ability, but the Rabbit does need a little help. Again, though, this is a huge Creature that can be chumped by Recruit tokens. Going by the win rates, both of these cards are still very good, but be prepared for a stalemate if you're getting into Green.

Conclusion

It makes sense that Rakdos is doing so well when Black has such a wide array of strong cards at lower rarity. Green is hard to get into if you don't open a very good Rare. The other three colours are vying for runner-up place, and their success is largely based on how well they pair with Black. Even Red is the lesser partner in Rakdos. Its lower rarity cards are nothing special, but they pair very nicely with Black's.