Build · The Hobbit

Counts describe distinct common and uncommon cards in the set, not how many belong in your deck.

1. 1

   Sort for a complete deck, not just the best rare

   Sort cards by color, putting lands and colorless cards aside. Within each color, separate cards you expect to play from cards that need a special reason. In Sealed, compare complete two-color combinations. During a draft, keep checking what your existing picks are missing.

   A strong color offers several useful cards at different costs. One amazing expensive card surrounded by weak filler is a reason to investigate that color, not an instruction to play it.

   Early plays:

   cards you can cast in the first turns to attack, block or develop your plan.

   Enablers:

   cards that create the conditions your strategy needs.

   Payoffs:

   cards that reward those conditions.

   Answers:

   cards that remove or neutralize opposing threats.

   Finishers:

   cards or combinations that can end the game.

   Mana & fixing:

   lands and other cards that let you cast your spells on time.

   Pick-TwoCheck whether each pick can work with the cards you already have. A clever pair is less helpful if either card needs more support that never arrives.

2. 2

   Say how this deck wins in one sentence

   Try a specific sentence: “Play small creatures, improve them, and keep attacking”; “Trade creatures, then reuse my graveyard”; or “Survive with blockers and answers, then win with larger threats.” That sentence helps decide between two otherwise similar cards.

   Synergy means cards helping one another do more than they would alone. An enabler supplies what another card needs; a payoff rewards it. Count both. Three cards that reward sacrificing creatures do very little if you lack creatures you can afford to sacrifice or a reliable way to sacrifice them.

   Pick-TwoBard rewards your second draw in a turn. Recruit on Long Lake Nuisance supplies a draw and can supply a body; another reward alone does not create that draw.

3. 3

   Cut what the deck cannot support

   When you have too many cards, protect the deck’s structure. Cutting lands just to fit more spells can leave all those spells stranded. Cutting every ordinary creature can leave your impressive support cards with nothing to support.

   • Cut a narrow payoff if you did not find enough enablers.
   • Cut an expensive card when the top of your curve is already crowded.
   • Cut a situational answer from the starting deck if it will often have no useful target; keep it available for suitable opponents.
   • Between two similar cards, favor the one that fills a job your deck lacks.

   Pick-TwoName the next job the deck needs, then judge both picks against it. Keep track of cards passed, but do not assume a particular card will return.

4. 4

   Run a one-minute opening-hand test

   Shuffle and look at several practice opening hands. This is a practical check, not a statistical proof. Imagine your first three turns, then shuffle everything back before the event starts.

   A sideboard gives you options between games or when rebuilding your deck as the event allows. A best-of-one match has no between-game sideboarding step. You do not normally swap sideboard cards into your deck during a game.

   • Count the deck: normally 40, including the lands.
   • Can a typical hand cast an early spell in the right color?
   • If your opponent plays creatures on turns two and three, can you participate?
   • Can your reward cards turn on with cards already in this deck?
   • Do you have answers to a dangerous creature and a route to win after surviving?
   • Set unused cards aside as your sideboard. In Limited, it is your remaining eligible pool, not a fixed 15-card selection.

   Pick-TwoName the next job the deck needs, then judge both picks against it. Keep track of cards passed, but do not assume a particular card will return.

5. 5

   Lay the spells out by mana cost

   Your mana curve is the spread of costs across your spells. Arrange them in columns costing one, two, three, four, five, and six or more. For a first deck, put plenty of useful plays in the two- and three-mana columns and only a few at the expensive end.

   Look at when a card can really help. A cheap trick that needs a creature is not a replacement for that creature. A two-mana removal spell may answer an attacker, but it does not necessarily give you something to attack with afterward.

   1–21 mana

   7–82 mana

   5–63 mana

   3–44 mana

   2–35 mana

   0–16+ mana

   Pick-TwoName the next job the deck needs, then judge both picks against it. Keep track of cards passed, but do not assume a particular card will return.

6. 6

   Make the mana support the cards

   Two main colors are an approachable default. A nine-land/eight-land split can start the conversation, but count which colors you need early and which spells require two symbols of the same color. Those demands can change the split.

   Fixing means lands or spells that help produce the colors you need. A splash is a small amount of an extra color. Favor a powerful card you can use later with a single extra colored symbol; an off-color two-drop with two colored symbols is much harder to support.

   Adding one off-color land is not a promise that you will draw it on time. Check all your sources of that color and the cost to your main colors. A mana-producing creature also needs to be cast and survive; do not automatically replace a land with every one you include.

   Pick-TwoA common dual can support its two printed colors. Giant's Boulder filters mana but does not create extra mana. Neither makes an early double-colored splash automatically reliable.

Full lesson: Build a 40-card deck →

Reviewed practical mana tools and notable restrictions; basics and every rare mana engine are not an exhaustive list.

Check when each land enters untapped and which colors it can produce.

Lake-townWUdual landGoblin-townBRdual landMirkwoodBGdual landIron HillsRWdual landElvenking's HallsGUdual landHobbit Holeland searchElven Passageland searchThe Lonely MountainRsingle color land

Find a land or make an extra land play; check the printed cost and restrictions.

Wood Elvesland rampThrór's Mapland selectionTroop of Poniesland rampOld Thrushland selectionBeorn, Reluctant Hostextra land playSilvan Revelerland rampThranduil's Companyextra land playDown in the Valleyland selection

These mana sources take a spell slot. Count when they can first help you cast a card.

Woodland Weavemasteranyrestricted creature manaGiant's Boulderanymana filterThe Notary HobbitsCcreature mana

Temporary mana is spent once; check the setup and what you must sacrifice.

Long-Bodied Grey DoganytreasureDori, Bearer of FriendsanytreasureGlóin the MightyRtemporary manaBurn, Burn, Tree and FernRtemporary manaThe Misty Mountains ColdanytreasureSmaug the MagnificentanytreasureSmaug, Wicked WormanytreasureBejeweled WarganytreasureThe Sackville-BagginsesanytreasureGleaming SplendoranytreasureOrcrist, Goblin-cleaveranytreasureBolg's CompanyBRsacrifice mana

No card in the current exact Hobbit Play catalog has landcycling. Hobbit Hole has Halflingcycling. An Adventure card occupies one deck slot. Choose its curve position according to the play you expect to make.

4 rules that hold whatever pair you land in.

• Judge both picksChoose two cards that improve the deck together; check the roles and curve of both.
• Fix the openingTake an effective early play when another expensive card would leave your first turns empty.
• Supply the engineWhen payoffs lack support, take an enabler; when support lacks a finish, take a payoff.
• Fix actual manaChoose fixing for cards you can realistically play; preserve the colors needed for early turns.

• Can this hand get into the game?

  Check usable colors and a useful early action before keeping a hand full of late rewards. Rehearse the first turns with tapped lands included.

• Spell now or creature now?

  Choose the Adventure when its effect helps enough to justify delaying the permanent. If the Adventure resolves, the card is exiled and you can later cast the permanent; if it is countered or fails to resolve, it does not gain that permission.

• Keep the Army or spend it?

  An amass effect makes a new Army only if you control none. Keeping your existing Army grows that body; sacrificing it for Stir Up Trouble gives up its counters, and a later amass starts a new Army.

• Which card can you afford to discard?

  Recruit draws then discards. Discarding a nonland makes the Human token, but preserving a needed land may matter more. Check your next mana payment before choosing the body.

• Can you spend this artifact yet?

  Storied checks three separate permanents that are artifacts, legendaries or Sagas. Dori and his Treasure are two permanents; spending that Treasure before reaching three can delay the condition. Once you have an enduring story, losing a qualifying permanent does not undo it.

• When should the extra land enter?

  Landfall triggers from a land entering for any reason. A search from Hobbit Hole or Wood Elves can add a trigger; keep the actual tapped-entry and casting costs in mind.

• Will this answer reach the threat?

  Quarrel relies on your creature's power. Pinecone Strike deals three to a creature. Stone by Sunlight only destroys a creature with power four or more. Match the answer to what is actually threatening you.

• What can happen before combat damage?

  Check the opponent's open colors and the relevant instant-speed costs. Magnificent End is cheaper against a tapped creature; attacking into it changes the mana needed. Do not treat the common/uncommon reference as every possible response.

Common and uncommon instant spells and cards with their own Flash keyword in the exact Play catalog. Not all possible responses, activated abilities, rares, or a probability model.

A two-color cost needs both colors; a hybrid symbol needs either. Conditions still apply.

Best-of-one has no sideboarding. The six matchup situations and the cards to reconsider appear under Bo3. Switch to Bo3 →

Two players, two decks, one shared pool and one 30-life total.

• 12 Play Boosters
• 2 promos
• 2 decks

Historical Hobbit prerelease allocation. The pre-Reality Fracture convention used two kits per team. Confirm the allocation for any newly organized event; this is not the Arena Pick-Two queue.

Rules and wording, not a card rating: check the condition before doubling an effect.

Celebrate the Mountain-kingCan reach both boardsYou can exile up to one nonland permanent from each opponent, for two total in normal 2HG. Exiled cards return when the enchantment leaves; tokens do not.Stony-Voiced GoblinsBoth opponents discardBoth opponents discard separately, so it can take two cards in normal 2HG. Each opponent chooses their own discard.Gollum the AbandonedLife loss reaches both opponentsEach opponent loses two life, normally four life from the opposing shared total. Its graveyard return still needs your sacrifice and your mana.Misty Mountains RaiderYour attackers must enable itYou must declare at least one attacker for your Raider to trigger. Teammate-only attacks do not count; the Raider itself can stay back.Esgaroth GarrisonOnly your creatures countYour teammate’s cards and mana remain separate. Effects referring to creatures or permanents you control count only your board.Down, Down to Goblin-townOne opponent at a timeEach relevant chapter targets one opponent, not the opposing team. Each drain chapter makes that player lose one life and you gain one.

Notes and Oracle lookup at paper events →