More From the Shire: MTG Hobbit Previews Day 2

Posted on July 21, 2026

Things are really starting to heat up as day two of previews for The Hobbit arrives.

The newest Magic: The Gathering release marks our second adventure into J.R.R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. This time, players will join Bilbo Baggins and the company of Thorin Oakenshield on their journey to The Lonely Mountain.

This may be a smaller set, but as Hobbits have taught us, big things can still come in small packages. There's no shortage of powerful new cards, sweet variant treatments, and super in-demand box toppers.

Let the journey continue on with today's previews.

The Newest Hotness

We'll take a look at some of the new cards from the main set first.

First up is Azog, Moria's Ruin - a cool new Legendary Goblin. He's not much of a threat on his own as a 1/3, but his ability can be a real game changer.

When he enters, you can destroy any other Creature card on the board. This might not seem like much since the Creature's controller still gets a comparable body in play. However, it means that you can get extremely problematic threats off the board this way. Imagine turning a powerful Slickshot Show-Off into a meager 1/1.

You can make Azog work to your benefit as well. If you blow up one of your Creatures, you draw a card. There's some good incentive to doing so also, since you can blow up a Creature with higher power than its toughness to make a more resilient beater. If you're the one with a Slickshot Show-Off and you pump it up to a 9/2, then this can turn it into a permanent 9/9 with ease.

Last Light of Durin's Day is another Rare card we took a look at today, bringing back quest counters. Here we see the moment where Bilbo discovers the hidden keyhole to enter The Lonely Mountain and steal some of Smaug's treasure.

If you saw The Misty Mountains Cold yesterday, this one might look a bit similar. That Saga makes a big Dragon token when you put together enough Treasure tokens.

Last Light of Durin's Day also creates a Dragon but only once you play enough Mountains. Instead of making a token, it puts an actual card from your hand or library onto the battlefield. That's a great way to cheat a huge threat into play that's difficult for your opponents to deal with.

We also got another rather epic Mythic Rare with Beorn the Fierce. Beorn is the latest in a line of Bear kindred Legends, with huge stats.

Not only does he buff your other Bears, but he can turn your other Creatures into Bears. If you go all-in on the kindred strategy, you'll profit by drawing lots of cards. This makes him a great inclusion for your Ayula, Queen Among Bears deck or even a solid replacement for her in the Command Zone.

Speaking of kindred Commander cards, The Great Goblin is one that will satisfy Goblin and Orc fans alike. With this new Legend, you can go all-in on both Creature types - as well as Armies.

Whenever you put counters onto a Goblin, Orc, or Army, you'll deal a little bit of damage. That's not limited to +1/+1 counters either, giving you lots of flexibility into the counters you apply. If you put counters on multiple Creatures at once this way, you'll do huge amounts of damage.

With the right strategy, it's a breeze to decimate your opponents this way. If the damage you deal this way isn't enough to close out the game, then the multiple death triggers you'll stack up will.

Thanks to The Great Goblin's second ability, any time a Goblin, Orc, or Army dies, you'll be able to "draw" a card, which can drown opponents in card advantage if you do it enough. Since Goblin decks love to sacrifice their Creatures, you'll be doing lots of this.

If you're really going all-in on any kindred deck, Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver is sure to be a must-play.

This Mythic Rare Equipment gives you lots of Treasure tokens depending on the number of Creatures you have with the same type. Even if you're not playing a kindred deck, it can still provide you with a great boost.

Connect with it in Constructed when you only have two Creatures that share a type and you'll still make two Treasures. When it comes to Constructed, even a few tokens like that can give you a huge advantage.

A handful of rock solid Uncommon cards were also revealed. Cards like Eagles of the Great Shelf and Ravenhill Flock are great Limited fodder, especially if there's a sizable Birds-matter theme in the set.

Iron Hills Blacksmith is a bit more of a standout, providing a powerful threat for cheap that leaves behind a small Equipment even when it dies.

There's also another really sweet White modal spell, Stone by Sunlight.

This Uncommon Instant acts as a sort of reverse Valorous Act, destroying Creatures with power four or better. The alternative is the same, allowing one of your Creatures to gain Indestructible instead. The only small difference is that it also makes it into an Artifact, which can be useful in synergy-heavy decks.

Since Valorous Act is already an occasional player in Standard, you can almost certainly expect this one to see play as well.

Last but not least among these new cards is The Mountain-king's Return. This is the only new Saga we got for the day, but it's a pretty good one.

First, you can Recruit. That means you draw a card, then discard, and make a 1/1 token if it was a non-Land card. On the second turn, you can bring a Creature with three or less mana value back from your graveyard to the battlefield. Last, you power it up just a little bit with a +1/+1 counter.

This pairs perfectly with the powerful Duskmourn: House of Horror Mythic Abhorrent Oculus.

Not only does it give you a way to put it into the graveyard, but it also brings it back into play. In decks that already like to play the Oculus, you should expect to see this one too.

Booster Fun Variants

In addition to all the new cards, we also got to see cool variant treatments for a whole bunch of cards.

Multiple cards shown today gave us a look at a really cool Dragon Hoard variant. These cards feature stylish artwork enclosed by dragon scales and scroll-like text boxes. You'll be able to find these in both Play Boosters and Collector Boosters, which will make for an exciting way to crack packs no matter how you do so.

Alongside the preview for The Great Goblin came a look at its Borderless Scene art variant. This marks the second card from the "Fight with the Great Goblin" scene art after Thorin Oakenshield. There are four more cards before the full scene is revealed, but it's already looking like an amazing piece of art for The Hobbit fans.

Each of these Scene Cards, as well as the ones for the "The Five Armies Clash! " scene can be found in Play Boosters and Collector Boosters.

Wizards also gave us a look at several variant treatments for cards we first saw yesterday. This includes a Book Cover variant for The Lord of the Eagles and Extended Art frames for The Master of Lake-town and Part in Friendship.

If you really want to bling your decks out, though, the Surge Foil treatments will easily be the biggest prize. Cards with both the Dragon Hoard and Book Cover frames will be available in this special foiling, but only in Collector Boosters.

Classic Artist Cards

We also got a few more Classic Artist treatment cards. These are the set's box toppers that come with every Play Booster or Collector Booster Box of The Hobbit. Each one is a reprint of a popular card that was first printed in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth.

First up is Anduril, Narsil Reforged, a sweet Equipment that has become a staple of Commander decks everywhere. This is because it's both Colorless and provides +1/+1 counters to your whole board for a very low cost.

This new box topper printing comes with new art by Jeff Miracola, a long-time artist who's been making Magic art since Mirage.

The second is Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin, an awesome Black Legendary Creature that picks off small Creatures turn after turn.

This is one of the special Rare cards that was exclusive to the Tales of Middle-earth Starter Kit. Given the low interest in the product at the time, many of the cards have become sought after with time. That includes this version of the Witch-king, the most powerful of the Ringwraiths.

For this card, Wizards commissioned new art from Carl Critchlow. Carl has also been around for a long time, with his earliest printings coming from Weatherlight with renditions of the ghoulish Gallobraid and Morinfen.

The last two new Classic Artist treatment cards both come from a more recent artist: James Bousema, here to bring his signature style to two new lands.

The first is Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress. This card was exclusive to one of the Tales of Middle-earth holiday release Scene Boxes. It comes from the Flight of the Witch-king release and does something really unique: grants the Shadow ability. That makes your Creatures only blockable by other Creatures with Shadow, making this a very in-demand card.

The second Land is Mount Doom. This has proven to be a very effective dual land that provides a continual threat. Either you deal a minor bit of damage every turn or you can wipe the board, paving your way to an easy victory.

Last but not least, we got to see the two Surge Foil variants for Heather Hudson's Delighted Halfling and Aragorn and Arwen, Wed. Players can get these super fancy box toppers only in Collector Boosters, which is sure to make an already exciting experience even more fun.

Conclusion

That wraps things up for today's previews of The Hobbit.

We got to see some awesome upcoming cards for kindred decks, fun Limited all-stars, and even a Constructed playable or two. With tons of awesome variants and the red-hot Classic Artist box toppers, there's certainly a ton to love about this set.

You can get in on all the fun by locking in your own cards from The Hobbit today right here on CoolStuffInc. Prerelease events kick off August 7th with all card orders shipping that same day.