It's time to go on an unexpected journey back to Middle-earth for The Hobbit. This brand-new Magic set takes us back to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, which we last visited in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth back in 2023.

With this set comes several fresh Commons. Even though it's a smaller release than usual, there's some great stuff for the all-Common format: Pauper.

Today, I'll be breaking down the ones with the most potential and seeing what will likely have a breakout among players.

Mechanics

First up, let's check out the latest mechanics and the cards that use them.

There are four mechanics featured at the Common level in HOB: Storied, Recruit, Adventure, and Amass Goblins.

Storied

Storied is a mechanic that cares about Historic cards, which are Legendary permanents, Artifacts, and Sagas. When you have three of these on the battlefield at once, you get an Enduring Story for the rest of the game.

This is very similar to Ascend from Rivals of Ixalan, where you'd get the "City's Blessing" when you had 10 or more permanents on the board. The Enduring Story status grants your Storied cards additional bonuses, too.

Only two Common cards have this Storied mechanic, though: Ori, Keeper of Songs and Oin the Brave. Ori is basically just a bunch of stats. There's nothing special to write home about and it's simply not playable.

Oin the Brave, on the other hand, comes close to being good. If you can get the Enduring Story, having a 2/3 with Haste and a rummage effect is solid. The thing is, though, you have to get that Enduring Story status for him to matter.

Red Aggro decks in Pauper don't typically run too many Artifacts or Legendary Creatures, and that's where he seems like a best fit. Because of that, it's unlikely Oin will make any waves. Some Rally Red lists may try him in small numbers since that deck can make a modest number of Artifacts, but I doubt it makes a lasting impression.

Recruit

Next up is Recruit, a riff on Connive. These mechanics draw you a card, then discard, and you get a bonus if you discard a non-Land card. Instead of +1/+1 counters like Connive, Recruit creates a 1/1 Human Soldier token.

Adventure

Adventure is back for the first time since Wilds of Eldraine. We've seen this mechanic plenty of times, though it largely hasn't been super impactful.

Here we get a cycle of cards with Adventures. Four of them are Legendary Creatures, bringing even more threats that can't be killed by Cast Down.

Sadly, though, none of them are particularly good. All of them are fairly low impact, especially Gollum, Silent Slinker and Smaug, the Great Calamity. No one's going to be trying to pay five mana for a removal spell that turns into a 5/5 Dragon for another seven mana.

Beorn, Reluctant Host may be the best of these. Getting an extra Land drop is solid, but the Creature side is still just a dull 5/5 body with Trample. Bilbo Baggins, Burglar also has a little bit of shine as he can Scry and draw you a card. His body just isn't ideal for your average Pauper deck.

The one card that looks like it could be decent is Velvetwing Butterfleis. It's a modest body with Flying that also has a cheap Adventure that can tap down opposing Creatures.

The problem here is that we've already seen it before - and better. Ardenvale Tactician was basically the same thing back in Throne of Eldraine. The only difference was that it cost for a 2/3 instead of the Butterfly's for a 2/2.

The Tactician had a minor showing in White Weenies once upon a time but has since been immensely outclassed. As a result, it's likely Velvetwing Butterfly will be left without a home.

Amass Goblins

Also returning is the Amass mechanic, this time as Amass Goblins. It works the same way as Amass Zombies in War of the Spark and Amass Orcs in Tales of Middle-earth. You make a 0/0 Army token, put +1/+1 counters on it, and it has the associated Creature types.

There are only four cards with this mechanic, all in Black and Red. Two of them - Rage into the Valley and Tidings of War are a bit too minor of effects to see play.

There are two that could have potential: Goblin-town Flunkies and Goblin Plate Mail.

Both are cheap cards that create a token when they come into play. At a base level, that's a reasonable rate, especially for the Flunkies. What makes them better is the fact that you can pick them up with cards like Kor Skyfisher and - in the case of the Plate Mail - Glint Hawk.

As you replay them, you get even more value, generating bigger tokens.

The downfall for these is that cards like Barbed Batterfist just do it better if that's what you're in the market for. The tokens it makes are bigger and it offers more damage on every swing.

Given this, it's unlikely Amass makes a splash here, though it's closer here than in the sets that it appeared in before.

Individual Cards

Now let's move onto the remaining cards that aren't attached to a specific mechanic.

White

White offers mostly a handful of Equipment and pump-based effects.

Dwarven Shortsword

Dwarven Shortsword is way too expensive to be a major player most of the time. However, I've seen enough permanents with effects that turn out to be way better than they look.

This is once more because of Kor Skyfisher and Glint Hawk. Even at an expensive rate, it's not hard to make lots of tokens. Once again, though, its biggest competition is in Barbed Batterfist and friends. Given how that card costs two mana to Dwarven Shortsword's four, I doubt it's overtaken by the newer option.

Moment of Glory

Moment of Glory is a really well-designed card. For Limited, this is outstanding. For Constructed, however, the two sides of the card are almost at odds with one another.

Low cost targeted +1/+1 counter spells are usually best in Heroic-style decks. These give you more value for your spells by giving you additional effects, usually in the form of additional +1/+1 counters.

These decks prefer to go all-in on one or two Creatures, though, making the Flashback side worthless. In the Go-Wide strategies that want the Flashback side, though, you likely don't want the single +1/+1 counter.

As a result, both halves of the card are almost at odds with each other. That means it's likely to see play nowhere.

Thorin's Last Stand

Thorin's Last Stand is the latest Inspired Charge variant. This time, it gives you some flexibility by letting you destroy an Artifact or Enchantment instead. Most Aggro decks that want these big board pumps are going to do so with cheaper, more effective methods.

In White Weenies, Guardians' Pledge costs and gives an extra toughness. For Red-White lists, you have Rally the Peasants. That's another three-mana spell that also has three mana Flashback, meaning you can double up on it for +4/+0 to all your Creatures.

Personally, I'd rather lean on those options myself. Yes, Thorin's Last Stand is a good modal spell, but it's not good enough that you want to give up the cheaper buff spells.

Vow to Erebor

The appeal of Vow to Erebor isn't the untapping or the buff. It's the fact that you can equip a powerful Equipment at Instant speed.

The trouble is that most of the Equipment cards in Pauper are mediocre and not something you want to use this on. For formats with higher rarities, it might be a different story, but I wouldn't expect this to do very much here.

Blue

Blue, as usual, offers plenty for Control decks. There's also some interesting Creatures in the mix this time as well.

Confusticate and Bebother

Confusticate and Bebother offers Control fans something they're always sure to love: choice.

You can either counter a spell or you set yourself up with some solid card filtration. That's not a bad deal at all. The closest to this I could think of in Pauper is probably Soul Read. The mana cost always kept that one from being great, but this only costs , so it's way better.

Is there a deck that can make the most of it? I'm not much of a Control player, so I'm not sure. If anywhere, it'll be something like Familiars, Jeskai Ephemerate, or Flicker Tron. If it goes in any of those it'll be in low numbers.

Elvenking's Harper

We've seen similar cards to Elvenking's Harper before. Coralhelm Guide and Passwall Adept are two Creatures with comparable stats and ability cost but neither sees play.

The one thing that could make the Harper worthwhile is the fact that it's an Elf. If you play Elves lists using Birchlore Rangers and/or Jaspera Sentinel, you could use this to push through lots of damage using Timberwatch Elf.

However, since modern Elves lists have been using Nyxborn Hydra, that's likely to remain the better way to go.

Enchanted River's Grasp

Typically, tapper Auras like Enchanted River's Grasp aren't good in Pauper. They're too costly for the return, since the effect is minuscule overall. The only reason this card has potential is because you can use it to remove counters.

If you put this onto a Writhing Chrysalis or a non-Bestowed Nyxborn Hydra, you can get rid of all the counters on them. Even if your opponent can then remove the Aura, they still lose the counters the Creatures previously had. It's still likely too steep of a mana cost to play, but it at least has potential.

Gandalf, Wandering Wizard

Gandalf, Wandering Wizard is another new Legendary Common card. He's got a pretty big body, is resilient, and can draw you extra cards. Not a bad deal.

We've seen several cards that allow you to pay large amounts of mana to draw cards get played in the past. Third Path Savant, which you'd put in big mana decks to draw through your deck, was one of the most popular.

The appeal to cards like that or Vivien's Grizzly are that they can be repeatedly used to draw. Gandalf shuffles back into your deck, though, which means your ability to draw cards is limited.

I don't think Gandalf fits anywhere given all of this. However, there's enough going on with the card that if it did show up in some list somewhere, I wouldn't be shocked either.

Lakeshore Apothecary

Lakeshore Apothecary has some real potential.

If you play it and then cast literally any cantrip, it becomes a 2/3 with Vigilance. If you cast a Brainstorm on your opponent's turn, it becomes a 3/4 with Vigilance. That's a very good set of stats the only grows larger, even if you're under the threat of removal spells.

There's a myriad of Blue decks that could make good use of it. The trick is finding a deck willing to cut something for this, which is the harder part.

Plunder the Trollshaws

Think Twice gets arguably a bit better with Plunder the Trollshaws. This is a similar effect, but at a higher Flashback cost and it draws you two cards instead of one.

In Pauper, there are countless ways to draw cards more efficiently. As a result, I doubt it'll see play here, but in dedicated spell-based Control decks it might be fine in low numbers.

Black

Black loves when Creatures die, and that's a clear through-line in The Hobbit.

Crude Bent Blade

Crude Bent Blade gives Pauper a Tithing Blade that you can equip. The appeal of these cards is that you can play them, force your opponent to sacrifice a Creature, and then pick it up to do it again.

If you're only looking for this aspect of the card, Tithing Blade is going to be better. It's more mana-efficient and the backside offers a way to slowly close out games. If you want to be more aggressive and don't mind the higher cost, Crude Bent Blade can do pretty well.

I could see there being a mix of these two cards being played in White-Black Glintblade decks because of this. Suiting up a Flying Creature can be quite useful.

Great Fierce Bee

From what I can tell, there aren't any other cards that let you Scry 1 whenever a Creature dies. If you use Great Fierce Bee while you repeatedly sacrifice Creatures, this can set up your draws well. Sadly, due to its cost and fragile stats, it's unlikely to see play even with this unique ability.

Reverent Howl

It's been a long time since effects that drew two cards for two life were good at three mana. Even Sign in Blood, which costs , isn't nearly as good as it used to be.

Reverent Howl does something different, and at Instant-speed. It bumps the cost up by one and gives you a second option, to give a Creature +2/+2 and Lifelink. Modality is always good and can make an underwhelming effect surprisingly useful.

Given the history of the Blood Pact effects not being useful, I'm not terribly holding my breath that this will be played. However, the options it presents could prove better than it appears in practice.

Stony-Voiced Goblins

Stony-Voiced Goblins is yet another in a long line of Relentless Rats variants. These are rarely playable, but players love them all the same. If there's any reason to play this, it's because of the synergies it has as a Goblin, but even that's likely not good enough.

Red

Red is all about aggressive strikes with small critters and many of these cards are priced to move.

Dori, Bearer of Friends

Dori, Bearer of Friends is a really fairly costed Legendary Creature. You get a nice rebate for casting him in the form of a Treasure token, meaning he basically costs . Even with this extra token and resilience to Cast Down, he's not likely good enough compared to other Red threats in the format right now.

Iron Hills Stalwart

Iron Hills Stalwart is almost certainly far too expensive to be worth playing. However, if there's an Equipment worth attaching, this is a way to do it that brings a sizable body with it. It's likely far better in a format like Limited or Commander than in Pauper, though.

Pinecone Strike

Pinecone Strike feels so close to being good. Three damage with exile can be good, but only destroying Artifact tokens is a hard sell. In a meta with lots of these, there's maybe some play, but at that point why not just play Cast into the Fire?

Ragged Short Spear

Cards that let you discard a card to draw two more have been all the rage lately. This is due to both their utility with Madness spells and Sneaky Snacker.

Ragged Short Spear looks like a really good addition to this type of card. Not only do you get the rummaging effect, but you also get an Equipment you can use to power up your Creatures afterwards. Even better, it also fuels cards like Goblin Tomb Raider and Galvanic Blast, as well as having play with Fanatical Offering and its ilk.

There's quite a lot going on here that will likely make it worth testing. Even if it doesn't make the cut most of the time, there's enough power here that it's bound to see some play.

Green

If Red is all about small aggressive Creatures, Green is all about the big ones.

Boughside Wanderers

If you can cast Boughside Wanderers, there's a surprising amount of value it brings. It's both a big body that gets bigger and it also finds you another permanent to play later. That could be another big Creature, a Land, or even a utility Artifact or Enchantment.

There are two problems with this; first is its high cost. Decks like Elves and Gruul Ramp can certainly cast it, but your options otherwise are limited. The second is that in those two decks that can play it, it's got stiff competition from cards like Avenging Hunter, Generous Ent, and Annoyed Altisaur.

Guardian of the Halls

Guardian of the Halls feels like a card tailor-made for a deck like Elves. That deck comes with Priest of Titania, making it trivial to pump this up. However, it's costly to do so, and if you don't have a Priest then it basically does nothing.

If you really want something like this, I'd stick to older classics like Elvish Vanguard and Wildheart Invoker.

Little Bear

Creatures that untap other Creatures can be quite good, which might make Little Bear better than it appears at first glance.

Cards like Pestermite and Village Bell-Ringer have a tournament resume in other formats, as do smaller hits like Breaching Hippocamp and Hyrax Tower Scout.

Corridor Monitor has also seen play, as has the non-Creature untapped Sewer-veillance Cam.

There's enough history there to show that Little Bear could have Combo potential with the right setup. It's the first of this style of untapper that has Flash in Green, which is notable. As of now, I can't think of any real combos that could use this, but the potential is there.

Warg Tactics

Warg Tactics falls in a long line of Plummet variants that keep getting better. Having the option to take down a Flying Creature or protect your own is some excellent modality.

I'm less sure that it'll be played when similar cards like Sarkhan's Resolve and Fowl Strike are basically unplayable. The big difference is that this gives Hexproof, which full stops any removal spell and gives it a bit more juice.

The question remains, though: is that enough to warrant playing it over other protection options like Vines of Vastwood, Snakeskin Veil, or good old counter magic?

Wargling

Wargling isn't terribly exciting, but if you have a Creature with four power, a 3/2 Trampler for isn't a terrible deal. This might appeal to the ever-decreasing number of Mono-Green Stompy fans, but that deck hasn't been good in many years. This isn't going to be the card that brings it back.

Gold

There's only a handful of Gold cards in this set, with only two being relevant.

Mirkwood Nurturer

Pauper players absolutely love bouncing stuff to replay again, which makes Mirkwood Nurturer interesting. Just look at how popular cards like Glint Hawk, Kor Skyfisher, and various Flicker effects are. The lack of evasion makes this less exciting, but the rate is decent.

It is noteworthy that it's an Elf, which - of course - is good for Elves. Playing it can allow you to bounce cards like Masked Vandal, Avenging Hunter, and Nyxborn Hydra to get even more uses out of them.

Once you get into the postboard, this also includes Spinewood Paladin, Vitu-Ghazi Inspector, and Lignify. That's a lot of options, but the decklists are so tight right now, it's unlikely to make a huge splash apart from some spicy builds.

Nori, Teller of Tales

Nori, Teller of Tales has some reasonable stats and can give himself or something else First Strike. There's lots of other Creatures that do a very similar thing, though, which makes his only upside being a Legendary Creature. That's not good enough in today's Pauper format, meaning he's sticking to the sidelines.

Artifact/Colorless

Colorless spells - including Artifacts - are popular because they are easily castable for multiple decks.

Giant's Boulder

Giant's Boulder is great and easily one of the few true slam dunks of the set for Pauper. Barrels of Blasting Jelly already sees play and this has some shades of Arcum's Astrolabe as well.

Yes, Scry 2 is very different from drawing a card, but it can be very strong if you're picking it up and replaying it repeatedly. The real appeal, though, is that it can also blow up any permanent. It's the perfect rate for Tron decks making it an easy inclusion for those decks.

Long-Bodied Grey Dog

Long-Bodied Grey Dog is very similar to Dori, Bearer of Friends. Both cost three mana, have roughly similar stats, and make a Treasure token.

The benefit to this card is that it has Flash, meaning you can cast it at Instant speed. You can block well and still have a Treasure for future use. Sadly, that's still too low power for where Pauper is at, though if you can bounce or flicker it, you can potentially make lots of Treasure.

Old Thrush

Old Thrush has a surprising amount going for it.

We've seen several cheap cards that'll let you find a Basic Land and put it on top of your library. Look at Campus Guide, for example, and you'll see a card that's pretty much unplayable.

Old Thrush, on the other hand, provides this same ability but on a Creature with Flying. Not only that, but it gains you two life as well, making it a surprisingly efficient package. It's still probably too low impact to see play, but it really does have the right ingredients to make up something decent.

Lands

Finally, there's a handful of Land cards to check out. These often are included to help out Limited, much to Pauper's benefit in the process.

The Dual Lands

The Hobbit brings us yet another set of all new Dual Lands for Pauper. Each one taps for one of two colors and lets you pay four and sacrifice it to put two +1/+1 counters on a Creature of a specific type.

What makes this cycle interesting is that it isn't all allied color Lands or all enemy color Lands. Instead, it's a mix of the two.

The best options for this cycle are probably Elvenking's Halls and Goblin-town. Both care about relevant Creature types that have decks focused on those respective colors. This includes Green-Blue Elves lists and Black-Red Goblin Combo. Even in these decks, these lands are likely only going to be fringe players at best, but there may be an upside to putting a copy or two in your lists.

Hobbit Hole

Hobbit Hole provides a new strictly better version of Terramorphic Expanse or Evolving Wilds. This is thanks to an additional ability: Halflingcycling.

This isn't quite the amount of upside that something like Escape Tunnel offers. Nevertheless, it is still upside. On the rare chance you have a Halfling worth searching for, you can Cycle this and bring them out.

The few Pauper-legal Halflings aren't worth finding, but it can also tutor up Changelings. These are also largely irrelevant or are too weak to be worth finding. However, it's clear we haven't seen the last of Halflings or Changelings, so this could be a lot better in the future.

Conclusion

That wraps things up for another Pauper set review.

The Hobbit doesn't bring a ton of high-impact cards, but there are some great role-players. Cards like Lakeshore Apothecary, Ragged Short Spear, and Giant's Boulder look great and are sure to see some play. Many others may be worth testing out in fringe strategies.

Paige Smith

Follow me on BlueSky

Check out my streams: twitch.tv/themaverickgirl

Watch me on YouTube: TheMaverickGal