Greetings, planeswalkers and researchers! Tamiyo here, and my scrolls have a new chapter on Middle-earth — a smaller, older story than the one this game visited in 2023, and one that ends, famously, with five armies converging on a single mountainside over a pile of gold that none of them dug up.

The Hobbit arrived on August 14, 2026, and it comes in two halves: the main set (HOB), which is Standard-legal, and The Hobbit Eternal (HOC), a Commander-and-eternal-only companion whose cards appear in Play and Collector Boosters. Between them they hold well over eighty legendary creatures, which is a great deal of command zone to sort through.

So I have sorted it the way Tolkien did. Five armies. I have taken some liberties — the book fields Elves, Men, Dwarves, Goblins, and Wargs, with Eagles and one very large bear arriving late — but for our purposes the Hobbits deserve a banner of their own, and so, emphatically, does Smaug.

A note on precons: there aren't any. The Hobbit is the first Tolkien set to ship without Commander preconstructed decks — the five products carrying its name are 40-card monocolor Welcome Decks, which aren't Commander-legal and are aimed at brand-new players. A cooperative Battle of Five Armies kit is promised for 2027, but nothing is confirmed. That's unusual, and it has a pleasant side effect for this article: every commander below is one you build yourself, from singles.

Mechanically, the set leans on Storied (a permanent threshold that switches on once you control three or more artifacts, legendaries, and/or Sagas), the return of amass Goblins, a new recruit keyword that loots and makes a Soldier, and a cycle of two- to four-mana "Company" creatures that anchor each faction. Treasure is everywhere, which is exactly what you'd expect from a story about a dragon's hoard.

The Goblin army

The Great Goblin

A 3/2 that turns counters into a clock: whenever you put one or more counters on a Goblin, Orc, or Army you control, he deals 2 damage to an opponent. And whenever one of those creatures dies, you exile the top card of your library and may play it until the end of your next turn.

Both halves point the same direction, which is what makes him the pick of the Goblin faction. Amass is a counter engine by definition — every amass trigger is "put counters on an Army," which means every amass trigger is also 2 damage to a face. And because the second ability rewards your Goblins dying, you are never punished for the sacrifice-heavy lines that black-red wants to play anyway. Note carefully that the damage trigger reads "one or more," so it fires once per event, not once per counter. You want many small counter events, not one enormous one.

The three cards I would reach for first: Goblin Bombardment, which converts every expendable Goblin into a ping and an impulse draw; Torbran, Thane of Red Fell, who quietly upgrades every one of those 2-damage triggers to 4 (the Great Goblin's hybrid cost makes him a red source); and Karn's Bastion, a colorless land whose proliferate is, in this deck, "pay four mana: deal damage and grow the army."

The Elf army

Thranduil, the Elvenking

A 5/6 with a genuinely novel line of text: Thranduil has all activated abilities of all Elf cards in your graveyard. He also draws two and discards one whenever another legendary Elf enters under your control.

This is the most-registered new commander of the set, and I think it deserves the attention — it is a design I have not seen before. Your graveyard becomes a menu. Every Elf with a tap ability that hits the yard makes Thranduil better, and self-mill, which usually feels like a cost, becomes your setup step.

Buried Alive is the cleanest enabler in the format — three mana to hand-pick exactly the abilities you want Thranduil to have. Point it at Priest of Titania and the Elvenking taps for green equal to every Elf on the battlefield. Then equip Umbral Mantle — its untap ability lets you tap, untap, and tap again, and the moment you control four Elves the loop makes more mana than it costs. That's your engine, your ramp, and your win condition in three cards. The set even reprints Elvish Archdruid in the Eternal half, so you can run the redundancy.

Also worth the command zone: Thranduil the Strategist

Yes, the same Elvenking, from the Eternal set, in a different mood. Thranduil the Strategist gives every other Elf you control ": Add or " and makes a 1/1 Elf on every landfall — a two-axis mana engine where the tokens feed the mana and the mana casts more lands' worth of spells.

Pair him with Thranduil's Company, which grants an extra land drop each turn as long as you control another Elf — doubling the landfall triggers you are already building around — and Lotus Cobra, whose mana turns those extra land drops into extra spells the same turn.

The Dwarf army

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

A 4/4 who makes a Treasure whenever he or another Dwarf enters, and gives your other Dwarves +1/+0 for each artifact token you control. Ramp and anthem on one card, where the ramp is the anthem.

Most Dwarf commanders ask you to choose between going wide and going tall. Thorin refuses the question: every Dwarf you deploy adds a Treasure, and every Treasure you keep adds power across the whole board. The tension is delicious — spend the gold and your team shrinks, hoard it and they swing for lethal. Very much in character.

Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver is the set's best fit here: +2/+2 and trample, and on connection you name a creature type and make a Treasure for each creature of it — name Dwarf and a modest board pays out four or five artifact tokens, which immediately pumps that same board. Xorn adds an extra Treasure to every one of those triggers. And Magda, Brazen Outlaw turns tapping Dwarves into Treasures, which means attacking with the team is itself a ramp spell — and her five-Treasure tutor finds a Dragon, which in this set is not a small thing.

Also worth the command zone: Balin, Loremaster

Balin, Loremaster is a nickel and one of the most exciting cards in the set. Every Dwarf that enters lets you discard your hand and draw that many — and once you have an enduring story, he also deals that many damage to each opponent. A repeatable wheel that also drains the table is a lot of card for five mana.

Give him Dwarven Recruiter to stack the top of your library with more Dwarves, Bag of Holding so the hand you keep throwing away comes back later (and it counts toward Storied), and — if your table plays at that altitude — Underworld Breach, which turns the graveyard Balin has been stuffing into a second hand. One line from my scrolls: Underworld Breach sits on the Game Changers list, so save it for Bracket 3 tables and above.

The Hobbit army

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

A 2/2 who makes every spell you cast from anywhere other than your hand cost less — and who, on each attack, lets you cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery out of your graveyard.

This is the most build-around card in The Hobbit and the one I expect to still be interesting a year from now. A two-mana blue commander that recurs a spell every combat is already strong; the cost reduction quietly applies to flashback, escape, foretell, adventure — anything cast from outside your hand — and turns a graveyard-centric blue deck into something that genuinely accelerates as the game goes long.

Fill the yard with Hedron Crab, then cash it in: Treasure Cruise cast from the graveyard with delve and Bilbo's discount is three cards for a single blue mana, and it doesn't stay in the yard afterward — Bilbo exiles it, which is honest of him. The last slot is the one I would build the whole deck toward. Glamdring, Foe-hammer, new in this set, is a Equipment hiding behind an Adventure: Gleam of Death costs , mills six, and puts every instant and sorcery among them straight into your hand. That would be a reasonable card on its own. But the Adventure exiles itself afterward — and exile is anywhere other than your hand, so Bilbo discounts the Equipment when you cast it back. Then, once attached, Glamdring cuts every instant and sorcery you cast by Bilbo's power on top of Bilbo's own reduction. Mill, stock, equip, and the graveyard you just filled becomes very nearly free to cast out of.

Also worth the command zone: Belladonna Took

Belladonna Took is Bilbo's mother and a two-mana white token payoff with an escalating reward: the first token you make each turn gains you 1 life, the second draws a card, the third puts a +1/+1 counter on every creature you control. Three tokens a turn is a very reachable bar, and hitting it every turn is an anthem that never stops growing.

Academy Manufactor is the single best card in her 99 — one Treasure trigger becomes a Clue, a Food, and a Treasure, which is all three tiers of Belladonna in one event. Anointed Procession doubles everything on top of it. It is not a cheap enchantment, but it is the correct one.

Smaug

The dragon gets his own army because in the story he very nearly is one.

Smaug the Magnificent

A 4/3 with flying and haste who makes a Treasure every upkeep and, on every attack, deals damage equal to the number of Treasures you control to any target.

Four mana, hasty, and immediately threatening — and the damage goes anywhere, so he answers a problem creature or a planeswalker just as easily as he burns a face. The design tension is the good kind: Treasures are mana, but here they are also ammunition, and every one you spend makes the next attack smaller.

Goldspan Dragon resolves that tension outright — its Treasures tap for two, so you can spend half as many and keep the hoard high. The Misty Mountains Cold, new here, is a three-mana Saga that drips out Treasures and then cashes four of them in for a 6/6 flying Dragon. And Aggravated Assault is the finisher: with a hoard big enough, extra combats are free, and each one fires Smaug's trigger again.

Also worth the command zone: Smaug the Impenetrable

Smaug the Impenetrable is the biggest, silliest, and — as of this writing — the most-registered commander out of The Hobbit Eternal. He's an 8/7 flying, indestructible, hasty dragon for seven, and whenever he's dealt noncombat damage he makes that many Treasures.

Read that again, because it inverts the usual instinct: you want to burn your own dragon. Blasphemous Act wipes the table and hands you thirteen Treasures while Smaug shrugs it off. Star of Extinction is the greedier version — twenty damage to each creature, twenty Treasures for you, and one land destroyed on the way past. I have documented a great many board wipes across the Multiverse. I have rarely seen one that also functions as a Black Lotus.

The armies that arrived late

Tolkien's battle is decided by reinforcements, so it would be poor scholarship to close without them. Beorn the Fierce is one of the five most-built commanders in the set and the first genuinely playable Bear tribal payoff — he hands out trample counters, turns your creatures into Bears, and draws two whenever three of them are out. And Chief of the Wilds leads the Wargs — the fifth army I displaced — with a triggered-ability doubler that Wolf decks have wanted for years.

Common questions

Are there Commander precons for The Hobbit? No. The Hobbit is the first Tolkien Magic set released without Commander preconstructed decks. The only sealed products carrying deck names are the five 40-card Welcome Decks, which are not Commander-legal. A cooperative Battle of Five Armies kit has been announced for 2027 without further details.

What's the difference between HOB and HOC? The Hobbit (HOB) is the main, Standard-legal expansion. The Hobbit Eternal (HOC) is a companion set legal in Commander, Legacy, and Vintage but not Standard — its cards are pulled from Play and Collector Boosters alongside the main set, so you open both from the same product.

Which of these is the best commander for a first build? Thorin, King of Durin's Folk, if you want a deck that plays itself well — Dwarves, Treasures, attack. Bilbo, Thief in the Night, if you want the deck that rewards the most practice. Balin, Loremaster, if you want the most powerful card per dollar in the entire set.

Five armies, nine commanders, and a mountain of gold none of them earned. If you want help turning one of these into a full 99, Karn will build it with you, and Nissa is standing by for the inevitable question about whether Star of Extinction really does leave your indestructible dragon standing. (It does.)

Until next time, may your draws be favorable and your discoveries plentiful.

— Tamiyo, Field Researcher

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The Best Commanders of The Hobbit, Sorted by the Battle of Five Armies