I've been working through the full art "worn paperback" legends I opened in my Commander booster box and it's finally time to take a moment to focus on the single most important Creature type in The Hobbit (HOB): Dwarves. Those gorgeous art treatments were fun, but today's column is centered around a Boros Commander that didn't get a worn paperback art treatment. Oddly enough, he also doesn't seem to care that much about Dwarves.

By that, I mean that he doesn't have any abilities that hinge upon playing Dwarf Creatures or having lots of Dwarves in play. I'm using Thorin Oakenshield as my Commander because he gives me access to both Red and White , and because in the lore he is the leader of the dozen Dwarves that are a core part of the story in The Hobbit. He's a 3/2 Dwarf Noble with Trample and the Storied keyword.

If I control three or more Artifacts, Legends, and/or Sagas, I'll have an enduring story for the rest of the game. This is like the city's blessing; once you have an enduring story, you've got it and it can't be taken away.

If you have an enduring story, your Artifacts and Creatures will have ward 1. That's not bad, and ward stacks so it will add to anything that already has ward, but it's not amazing. Thorin Oakenshield's ability also doesn't care much about Dwarves. Where Thorin comes up short, so to speak, plenty of his companions will be happy to lend a hand.

In The Hobbit, there are thirteen Dwarves. With Gandalf the Grey's assistance, they recruit Bilbo Baggins as their burglar. In part Bilbo is added so they don't have a party of thirteen, as that would be unlucky.

Tolkien's Dwarves

Thorin Oakenshield travelled to the Shire with 12 other Dwarves. Their names are stuck in my head, having listened to the soundtrack from the 1977 Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit so many times. I had it as a boxed two-LP record set and must have listened to it a hundred times.

For that simple reason, I can tell you the Dwarves of The Hobbit are Thorin Oakenshield, Dwalin, Balin, Kili, Fili, Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin, Gloin, Bifur, Bofur, and of course, Bombur... at your service.

In Magic, these are all Legendary Creatures, though they are not all equal. If you were to build a Dwarf Kindred deck, you might be excused if you only ran the ones that made sense for your deck. I'm running them all, if only because The Hobbit is an incredibly important book to me and I can't imagine leaving any of them out. Wizards of the Coast decided to give each of them an extra title, but those fancy monikers don't appear in J.R.R. Tokien's story.

While I'm running all of the Legendary Dwarf cards in The Hobbit that fit into Thorin's color identity, I didn't include any from the Lord of the Rings set in today's first draft. Gimli, Counter of Kills and Gloin, Dwarf Emissary could join the team, and I might add them in later. Of the Dwarves I did include from The Hobbit, a few are worth shining a spotlight on.

Fili the Pathfinder is a 2/2 Dwarf Scout for with some really good abilities. He has a Storied ability, and this deck has little trouble getting an enduring story. As long as I have an enduring story, Creatures I control get +1/+1. Whenever Fili or another nontoken Dwarf I control enters, I'll create a 2/2 Red Dwarf token. There are a lot of nontoken Dwarves in The Hobbit and in today's deck, so it should be easy to get that trigger.

Bifur, Melodic Rider is a six mana Dwarf Bard with another set of great abilities. Whenever Bifur enters or attacks, I'll put a +1/+1 counter on target Creature. As long as I have an enduring story, if an ability of a Dwarf I control triggers, that ability triggers an additional time. I've already played this deck and I can confirm that Fili and Bifur work wonderfully together.

Out of all of the Dwarf cards in The Hobbit, Balin, Loremaster might be the one I find most intriguing. Balin is a 4/4 Dwarf Bard with a Storied ability. Whenever Balin or another Dwarf I control enters, I may discard my hand and draw X cards where X is the number of cards discarded this way. If I have an enduring story, Balin will deal X damage to each opponent.

The words "each opponent" always catch my eye, and I'm sure there is a card draw focused Balin deck that could probably push out a lot of damage. In this list he'll help me dig for potential wincons and push out a little damage but it's unlikely Balin, Loremaster will singlehandedly take down a table.

Beyond Thorin's company, The Hobbit set includes a few other Dwarf cards worth looking at.

Dain, Lord of the Iron Hills is a 2/2 Dwarf Noble with Vigilance and a Storied ability. As long as I have an enduring story, Creatures can't attack me unless their opponent pays for each of those Creatures. That's half of a Ghostly Prison or Windborn Muse effect, and probably won't stop anyone but it might slow down an opponent going wide with very small Creatures.

Dain's Company is a 2/2 Dwarf Warrior that has Lifelink as long as I control another Dwarf. When it enters, I'll look at the top four cards of my library. I may reveal a Dwarf or Equipment card from among them and put it into my hand. The rest go on the bottom of my library in a random order.

Dwarven Provisioner is the kind of card that can actually turn a decent board into a win in the late game. It's no Moonshaker Cavalry, but this 2/2 Dwarf Citizen lets me pay to pump my Creatures +1/+1 until end of turn. If I've got a dozen bodies on the field and eight mana available, that's 24 extra power I can attack with. It's unlikely to be my first option, but if I'm not seeing card draw it's a place to put my mana and a way to push out just a little more damage.

Dwarves of Yore

While Dwarves of yore may have made mighty spells (while hammers fell like ringing bells), I'm referring to the olden days of Magic, where there are a lot more cards with the Dwarf subtype than you'd expect to find.

The first Dwarf in Magic was Dwarven Weaponsmith from 1994 but the first Dwarf I'd consider playable came two years later in Dwarven Miner. Mirage's Dwarven Miner can tap for to destroy target nonbasic Land, but even it didn't make the cut for today's list.

I ended up grabbing one notable Dwarf card from Odyssey. Dwarven Recruiter has gone from under 50 cents a year ago to nearly $10, in large part thanks to The Hobbit's focus on Dwarves. This 2/2 Dwarf costs and has a fantastic ability. When it enters, I'll search my library for any number of Dwarf cards, reveal them, shuffle my library, and then put them on top of my library in any order.

Seven Dwarves is a really fun 2/2 Dwarf from 2019's Throne of Eldraine that fits in perfectly with today's deck. It gets +1/+1 for each other Creature named Seven Dwarves I control, and I can run up to seven cards named Seven Dwarves in my deck.

Dwarven Priest is a four mana 2/4 Dwarf Cleric that will gain me one life for each Creature I control when it enters play. That might not seem like much, but this deck is capable of putting out a decent number of Creatures and Lifegain can be very helpful.

While Secrets of Strixhaven isn't ancient history, it brought us a number of Dwarves that fit in nicely with the Dwarves from The Hobbit.

Creatures that bring extra utility to a deck are always good to include even if that utility isn't exactly game breaking. Shattered Acolyte doesn't replace Instant speed removal, but this 2/2 Dwarf Warlock can be sacrificed for one mana to destroy target Artifact or Enchantment. It also has Lifelink, for what it's worth.

Practiced Scrollsmith has First Strike and a pretty nice enter the battlefield ability. When it enters I can exile target noncreature, nonland card from my graveyard. Until the end of my next turn, I may cast that card.

A perfectly viable Commander on his own, Hofri Ghostforge came in the Lorehold Spirit precon deck and should be able to give us some help with boardwipes. He'll give Spirits I control +1/+1, Trample and Haste, but he's not in today's list for that effect.

Whenever another nontoken Creature I control dies and Hofri is in play, I'll exile it instead of putting it into the graveyard. If I do, I'll create a token that's a copy of that Creature, except it's a Spirit in addition to its other types. If those tokens would leave the battlefield, I'll return the exiled card to its owner's graveyard. I'll have an army of Spirits left behind in the wake of any boardwipe.

Winning The Game

My base plan is to play a lot of Dwarves. That's fun and fine for Brackets 1 and 2 but without any way to turn a small army into a game ending threat, wins may be hard to come by. What I want is ways to take my damage output and increase it a lot.

It's worth mentioning that my very first draft of this deck included Kindred Charge, a Sorcery that has me create a token copy of each Creature I control. I found out the hard way that making copies doesn't work real well if most of my army is made up of Legendary Creatures.

I did it anyway but pulled the card out of the deck later that night. Token copies of Legends have to be sacrificed to the Legend rule so Kindred Charge isn't a good match for a deck loaded up with Legendary Creatures.

Shared Animosity doesn't have the same issues as Kindred Charge. This Enchantment will give my Creatures an attack trigger where they'll get +1/+0 until end of turn for each other attacking Creature that shares a Creature type with it. The vast majority of my Creatures are Dwarves, so this should work pretty well, and it's one-sided so it won't help my opponents like Coat of Arms will.

While I love that Shared Animosity is an Enchantment and can help me over multiple turns, Akroma's Will is a much bigger threat. This Instant will have me choose a mode, and if I control my Commander I may choose both modes. The first is that my Creatures gain Flying, Vigilance, and Double Strike until end of turn.

The second is that they'll gain Lifelink, Indestructible, and Protection from each color until end of turn. Getting both will usually let you knock a player out, as Protection from a color means a Creature can't be targeted by, damaged by, or blocked by anything of that color.

Moonshaker Cavalry may not be a Dwarf, but sometimes you have to call in the big guns and this Spirit Knight is in this deck to win games. This 6/6 Flyer will enter the battlefield and give my Creatures Flying and +X/+X where X is the number of Creatures I control. I'm unlikely to go super wide, but even a modest army can win a game when this bad boy enters the battlefield.

Tuning our Thorin Oakenshield Deck

This is a deck that should comfortably fit into a Bracket 2 meta. It might be able to compete against Bracket 3 lists, but its heavy focus on running a lot of cards of a specific Creature type leaves less room for the kind of interaction and draw packages you need to compete in higher Bracket play.

I could easily see dropping out as many as a dozen Dwarf cards to run more powerful Creatures or a subtheme beyond just building a kindred (typal) deck. Just because I have a soft spot in my heart for The Hobbit and also wanted an excuse to run seven copies of Seven Dwarves doesn't mean you should follow in my footsteps.

There are a lot of options now for playing Dwarves. Dain of the Ancient Halls, a five mana Boros Dwarf Noble is arguably a better general for a Dwarf deck.

He has Vigilance, Haste, and when he attacks he deals damage equal to the number of Dwarves you control to each opponent. Today's list is the deck I've built in paper, but I could see pivoting to Dain of the Ancient Halls if I ever picked up a copy of him.

Thorin Oakenshield | Commander | Stephen Johnson

• Commander (1)
• 1 Thorin Oakenshield

• Creatures (34)
• 1 Balin, Loremaster
• 1 Bifur, Melodic Rider
• 1 Bofur, Reliable Guardian
• 1 Bombur, Gentle Dreamer
• 1 Digsite Engineer
• 1 Dori, Bearer of Friends
• 1 Dwalin, Weaponmaster
• 1 Dwarven Priest
• 1 Dwarven Provisioner
• 1 Dwarven Recruiter
• 1 Dain Ironfoot
• 1 Dsin's Company
• 1 Dsin, Lord of the Iron Hills
• 1 Fili and Kili, Joyous
• 1 Fili the Pathfinder
• 1 Gloin the Mighty
• 1 Hofri Ghostforge
• 1 Iron Hills Blacksmith
• 1 Kili the Resourceful
• 1 Lorehold Archivist
• 1 Moonshaker Cavalry
• 1 Nori, Teller of Tales
• 1 Ori, Keeper of Songs
• 1 Practiced Scrollsmith
• 7 Seven Dwarves
• 1 Shattered Acolyte
• 1 Troop of Ponies
• 1 Oin the Brave

• Instants (8)
• 1 Abrade
• 1 Akroma's Will
• 1 Boros Charm
• 1 Chaos Warp
• 1 Flawless Maneuver
• 1 Lorehold Charm
• 1 Path to Exile
• 1 Swords to Plowshares

• Sorceries (5)
• 1 Blasphemous Act
• 1 Rip Apart
• 1 Secret Rendezvous
• 1 Taunt from the Rampart
• 1 Urza's Ruinous Blast

• Enchantments (2)
• 1 Shared Animosity
• 1 Tocasia's Welcome

• Artifacts (12)
• 1 Anduril, Narsil Reforged
• 1 Arcane Signet
• 1 Boros Signet
• 1 Fellwar Stone
• 1 Mind Stone
• 1 Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver
• 1 Patchwork Banner
• 1 Sol Ring
• 1 Talisman of Conviction
• 1 The Arkenstone
• 1 Thror's Map
• 1 Urza's Incubator

• Lands (38)
• 13 Mountain
• 13 Plains
• 1 Arid Mesa
• 1 Battlefield Forge
• 1 Clifftop Retreat
• 1 Command Tower
• 1 Dwarven Mine
• 1 Exotic Orchard
• 1 Furycalm Snarl
• 1 Radiant Summit
• 1 Rogue's Passage
• 1 Sacred Foundry
• 1 Spectator Seating
• 1 Turbulent Steppe

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Lowering the Power Level

While today's list is clearly a Bracket 2 EDH deck, there may be readers who are looking for something that isn't ever going to slap down a big finisher like Moonshaker Cavalry or Akroma's Will to close out a game.

I'm not running any Game Changers, but you could still drop out some of the more powerful and/or expensive cards to tune this list down. Flawless Maneuver, Arid Mesa, Urza's Incubator, and Akroma's Will could all be replaced by more budget-friendly cards.

The very on-theme Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver, and the anachronistic Anduril, Narsil Reforged, could also both be cut, though I'd be hard pressed to drop either of these Tolkien lore cards out of a Thorin Oakenshield deck.

Increasing the Power Level

If you wanted to up this deck's power level, you might start by dropping out some of the less impactful Dwarf cards, even if they were members of the original band of thirteen that journeyed to the Lonely Mountain with Bilbo Baggins and Gandalf the Grey. Adding in cards that care about Treasure such as Smothering Tithe would be very on theme, as Dwarves do love their Treasure.

Casting concerns about theme to the side, you might throw in cards like Cathars' Crusade, Gisela, Blade of Goldnight, Aurelia, the Warleader, Iroas, God of Victory, and other classic Boros Commander staples. I cut Deflecting Palm from my list but it would also fit in nicely. Even with a more generic Red and White combat deck, you'll be unlikely to push up past Bracket 3 with Thorin Oakenshield at the helm.

Dain of the Ancient Halls might be able to do it, but as you move up in power you'll just start wondering why you aren't running Winota, Joiner of Forces.

Final Thoughts

I got the chance to play this deck and I was impressed at how easily it pushed out a nice little army of Creatures. I never went super wide like you might with a Krenko, Mob Boss deck, but Fili the Pathfinder and Bifur, Melodic Rider put in work.

In one game I happened to not have any boardwipe prevention in hand but another player did, so we all got left in the dust after a wrath resolved. I also learned the (obvious) lesson that Kindred Charge is bad in decks with this many Legendary Creatures.

There was a full art "worn paperback" variant for Thorin, but it was Thorin, Mountain-king, not Thorin Oakenshield. I would have liked to see a Thorin that was more powerful than Dain, as Dain is far from a central character in The Hobbit, but Dain of the Ancient Halls is the more impactful card.

That's all I've got for today. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week!