0:00 [music] The Hobbit is finally here. Magic the Gathering's second foray into Tolken's Middle Earth. Its predecessor, Lord of the Rings, was actually the first full-size universes beyond set when it was released back in 2023. It feels weird to say that Lord of the Rings was the predecessor to The Hobbit, given that The Hobbit book was the predecessor to Lord of the Rings. But I digress. The Lord of the Rings set not only brought with it a mountain of new commanders, it also brought four awesome commander decks. So awesome, in fact, that I gave the decks the highest grade possible at Tallarian Community College, an A minus. The Hobbit continues the
0:47 trend of having awesome commanders for players to build around. In fact, it has 25% more legendary creatures than the Lord of the Rings did. That's insane. Legendaries at common are a hell of a drug. They printed three Gandalfs, three Bilbos, three smogs, 55 burgers, 55 fries. Sorry. What is strange, however, is that it doesn't have any actual commander decks. Even more perplexingly, it seems like the ideal commanders for those non-existent decks already exist. There are not one but two supplemental products for the Hobbit. The Hobbit scene boxes and the Hobbit battle of the Five Armies, a co-op box, each of which contain a slew of mechanically unique legendary creatures that seem perfect
1:35 for commander precons. It almost seems like Wizards of the Coast did make commanders for The Hobbit and then just forgot to build decks around them. Luckily, while Wizards of the Coast may have forgotten to design commander precons for the Hobbit, we didn't. With this many brand new commanders in the new Hobbit set and its affiliated supplemental products, there is ample selection for us to build our own precons around. So, in this video, that's just what we did. I am going to go over three Tallarian Community College designed precon decks. We'll talk about the deck's commanders, describe its game plan, and highlight some key cards from the 99. Deck lists of all of them are available in this video's description. Each of these decks feature new cards as well as pulls from throughout Magic history. Pre-sale prices are wild and unstable, but we
2:21 tried our best to stay around a $150 budget, which is about what you'd expect the singles from a real Hobbit precon to cost. Think you can build a better commander precon for The Hobbit than we can? Prove it, and I'll give you a collector booster box of The Hobbit if you do. Right now, all three of my precon decks are available to purchase with a single click on our Manipool landing page at manipool.com/tcc, but I am also doing a giveaway where you can build your own The Hobbit Commander Precon and enter it for a chance to win a collector booster box of The Hobbit. I'll even pick a second winning deck as a runner up to get a $400 credit on mana pool. Use that $400 credit to buy the deck you designed or whatever you want. You'll have $400 to buy Magic cards and
3:07 Magic product on Manapool. All you have to do is import your deck list to Manipool or design it there on the site and then click enter. You have until August 24th to submit your deck and we will announce a winner on the 1st of September. [music] And now, let's take a look at the three commander precons we designed in the Tallarian Community College build your own precon for The Hobbit. But first, did you know the key to better deck building is through a better night's sleep? It's true. Not only does a good night's sleep itself feel good, but literally everything else you do for the rest of the day feels better because of it. In this life, you want to eat right. You want to have a good pair of shoes. You want to make sure you're hydrated. And guess what? You are going to spend 30 years of that life sleeping. So, you better make sure you have the best quality mattress around. And there's no
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5:27 And thank you Helix for sponsoring this video. The first commander precon we have designed is Dwarven Legion, a Boros dwarf Kindred deck with an equipment sub theme. Headlining the deck is Dne of the Ancient Halls from the Hobbit Eternal. Dne is a four five for three generic and one of each Boros mana with vigilance and haste. Whenever he attacks, he deals damage equal to the number of dwarves you control to each opponent. Dne is a very straightforward card and asks you to do some very simple things. Make a big board of dwarves, then turn them sideways. The fact that Dne's trigger damages each opponent only further encourages this. Bringing games to a swift end by spreading damage around the
6:13 table. The thing about Dne is that he wants to hit the table after you're done setting up. His high mana cost, haste, and an ability that scales with the size of your board all point to casting him later rather than earlier. In short, he's not your engine, he's your finisher. To supplement that, the many dwarves filling out the deck list need to be self-sufficient, keeping you alive and dealing enough damage to your opponent that Dne can get things over with once he comes down. The other thing about Dne is that he is primarily found in the Battle of Five Armies co-op box, which apparently has been delayed until next year. Luckily, Dne can be found in collector booster packs, but this somewhat limited availability may make him temporarily too expensive for some
7:00 players taste. [music] Pre-order price is about $20. I'm hoping that goes down after Friday. But luckily, we have a readily available backup dwarf commander included in the decks 99 that you can swap into Dne's Place if you so choose. Thoren, King of Duran's folk, Thoren is a 44 for three generic and one of each Boros mana. Whenever he or another dwarf you control enters, he makes a treasure token. He also gives your other dwarves plus one plus zero for each artifact token you control. This is a flexible combination of abilities. The treasures Thorne creates can be used to effectively discount all your dwarves, letting you dump your hand with lightning speed, or they can hang around and pump your team, representing
7:48 massive amounts of potential damage over the course of a game. The nice thing about Thoren is that while he's ostensibly a treasure focused commander, you don't actually need to lean very hard into treasure generation to enable him. Dwarves are the real engine here, as well as the real payoff. More dwarves you have, the more treasures you make, which then feed back into those dwarves to run your opponents over. So, run whichever commander you like. Personally, I think Dne is the better of the two. But they both work well with a deck full of dwarves. And luckily, there are plenty of great dwarfs to choose from in Boros colors, many of whom are flexible and able to work self-sufficiently regardless of who's in the command zone. Thus, we built this deck to work with either Thoren or Dne depending on your personal
8:34 preference and card availability. As with any aggro deck, the ability to keep your hands stocked with threats is vital. Kylie the resourceful does an excellent pure still paladin impression, providing a steady stream of cards as you pump out dwarves and equipment and attaching that equipment for the low low price of free. Stram senior edifificer is an iconic card draw engine in equipment decks who finally gets to take advantage of his typeline for once. Another iconic dwarf is Magda brazen outlaw who absolutely shines in this list when your plan is to turn a lot of dwarfs sideways very quickly. It helps to be able to both pump them and accelerate them onto the battlefield. With all the treasure Magda generates and Thoren if he's your commander, you're going to have no trouble
9:20 activating her final ability. putting a gold span dragon or vanquisher's banner directly into play. Vanquisher's banner isn't the only anthem effect in the deck. Kylie's brother, File, the Pathfinder, also pumps your creatures by plus one plus one if you have an enduring story, all while providing a constant stream of dwarf tokens. And you almost certainly will have an enduring story with this deck, especially if your commander is Thoren. Dway, weapon master, uses the new hone counter mechanic to great effect, amplifying the power of your various equipment. Aerial responder, isn't much more than a dwarf with a pile of keywords, but these qualities make it an excellent candidate for wielding all those equipments you're plopping onto the battlefield. Cole, the forgemaster, provides recursion for your
10:05 equipped creatures, allowing them to aggressively trade in combat and discouraging opposing interaction. Epher Melodic Rider acts as a sort of dwarf harmonicon which gets out of hand fast in this deck. Doubling Dne's attack trigger or Thoren's token generation is an easy way to pull far ahead of the rest of the table. Bruner Battlehammer pumps your creatures for each equipment attached to them, typically providing a massive burst of damage out of nowhere when he's cast. A few non dwarves play important roles in the deck as well. Ivore battle ready is effectively Dne's mirror universe dppelganger. A big hasty threat that damages each opponent for the number of equipment you control rather than dwarves. Sammy wildcat captain makes it much easier to dump your hand and their natural double
10:50 strike also makes them a great equipped target. Let's take a look at the equipment sub theme. Diamond pickaxe and beam town beatstick come down early and accelerate the game through their treasure generation, while lizard blades and nettle cyst are excellent finishers that produce massive amounts of damage. Chainsaw is a flexible inclusion that acts as a removal spell in the early game and a huge power boost in the late game. And for the history nerds out there, Umazawa's Gite proves it can still hang with the big boys and threatens to take over board states by itself. If you want to know more about Umizawa's Gite, check out our halfhour long video essay on this historically broken card. What do you mean the algorithm didn't like that one? It took 2 months to make. Please watch. The most
11:37 explosive equipment in the list is none other than Helm of the Host. The equip cost is a hefty five mana, but both Keely the Resourceful and Bruner Battlehammer bypass that investment. Either of this deck's commanders get out of control fast when equipped with a helm. Multiple thorns can generate an almost comical number of treasures while exponentially scaling your board, while an army of Danes and their attack triggers will end the game very, very quickly. Our next precon is one we're calling Elvish Legacy, a Sultf Kindred deck with a graveyard sub theme. This deck is really cool and it is headlined by Thranduel, the Elven King from the main Hobbit set. Thanduel is a 56 for two
12:22 generic and one of each sult mana. He's got two abilities. First, Thranduel has every activated ability of any elf in your graveyard. Second, whenever another legendary elf you control enters, draw two cards, then discard a card. Now, we wanted to do something different here. So, Elvish Legacy is not a traditional elf deck where you're going to go wide and generate mana. Instead, [music] the deck is looking to do two things. First, you want to fill your graveyard with elves that have sweet activated abilities for Thranduel to repurpose for himself. Second, you're going to want to play out legendary elves that can trigger that powerful draw two, discard one ability. But while these are two separate game plans on paper, in practice, they have a lot more overlap than you might expect.
13:09 For one thing, many legendary elves have great activated abilities themselves. Second, any elf legend who enters while Thranduel is in play provides you with an immediate discard outlet after drawing two cards off Thrand [music] Duel. And finally, some legendary elves have their own means of filling up the graveyard. As green, black, and green, blue are the most common color combinations for elves throughout Magic's long history, there are tons of elves to choose from for Elvish Legacy. Luwin in perfect naturalist is one of the newest elf legends to enter magic lore and his first printing in Lurwin Eclipsed is a perfect fit for the game plan of this deck. A two mana legend with a millab ability that also provides card selection setting up your next draw with either a creature or land depending
13:55 on your needs. Luen's also got an activated ability that Thanduel is happy to snag off of him if he ends up in your graveyard. namely, he taps to cast what is effectively a retraced worm harvest. [music] It's literally worm harvest with the same mana cost and everything. Kaiga, Shadow Arch Druid, is another great way to fill up your yard whenever she attacks. She also provides the deck with a valuable once per turn recursion ability that pairs great with all the graveyard enablers in the deck. Prime Speaker Vanifar provides a birthing pod effect which not only tutors up key synergy cards from your library, but also puts other creatures with activated abilities into your yard for Thanduel. If Vanifar's birthing pod searches up a legend, that triggers Thanduel. And once again, if Vanfar dies or otherwise ends
14:42 up in your graveyard, she passes off her pod effect to Thanduel. Marwyn the Nurturer is a legend that turns Thranduel [music] into a Gaia's Cradle variant. So yeah, that's dee. While Tyar the Pummeler gives Thranduel access to indestructible and the ability to pump your whole team. And the new Eland Moonreader provides card draw in play and gives Thranduel his blink effect when in the yard. And yes, if you're blinking two legends with Eland, you'll draw four cards and discard two when they re-enter. Additionally, three of the most popular elf commanders in the [music] format right now, Lathil, Blade of the Elves, High Perfect Morcont, and Marilyn Fay Ascendant are all in Elvish Legacies 99. All three are great cards to have in play, but the first two,
15:27 Lathil and Morcont, also provide powerful activated abilities from the yard. Elvish Legacy also includes several elves with valuable activated abilities that aren't legendary. Priest of Tatana and Elvish Arch Druid, for example, provide redundancy to the mana generation of Marwin. Immaculate Magistrate can grow a creature to ridiculous heights, while mothdust changeling, technically an elf, can give your Thrand duel flying for a turn if the changeling is in your yard. Underwm lich is a sticky engine that provides a ridiculous upgrade to card draw while in play, and even in the yard gives Thranduel the ability to protect himself. Iron Shield Elf provides additional protection to Thranduel while also serving as an unrestricted discard outlet. Lanaw Mentor provides a more limited discard outlet, but makes up for
16:14 only activating once per turn by spitting out Lanowir Elves for your trouble. Va Shaman is also both a discard outlet and a redundancy to the creature tutoring provided by Vanifar. We're also going to be running Coron Ranger to help mitigate the downside of how many great abilities in the list require your Thranodul to tap itself. There's two more graveyard enablers that bear mentioning despite not being elves themselves. Rona, Herald of Invasion, is an excellent repeatable discard outlet in a deck with this many legends to untap her with. And Golgari Grave Troll, the creme de la creme of all dredge cards, is an awesome one to mill over or discard. One notable card missing from this list is Devoted Druid. The only reason for this is to keep the deck at a precon power level. Devoted Druid
17:00 enables all sorts of infinite combos as it gives Thanduel the ability to untap itself over and over. For example, Thanduel in play with Devoted Druid and Immaculate Magistrate in your yard gives Thanduel infinite power and toughness, which also translates to infinite mana since Druid provides a mana ability as well. While I did choose to omit devoted druid from this precon if you want to add the card to your deck, I won't try and stop you, but your play group might. Frankly, it felt like a crime to leave this card out given how perfectly suited to the deck it is. So, if you own a copy, slot it in. Our final deck is Goblin Horde, a Retose Goblin Kindred deck focused around what goblins do best. going face, dealing
17:48 damage, turning sideways. The deck's commander is Bulg Arabore's Reckoning from The Hobbit Eternal List. Now, Bulg is also from the co-op box, but remember, he can appear in collector booster packs, and his pre-order is only at about $20. Yeah, I know, only 20 for a single card, but pre-order prices are usually artificially high, and I'm hoping he falls soon. And without a doubt, I believe he's far and away the best commander for our goblin precon. If you are looking for a more accessible alternative, we recommend slotting in the great goblin. He's not a perfect fit as he's mostly just providing impulse draw in exchange for sacrificing creatures. But if you can't get your hands on Bulg or don't want to spend the price, he'll do in a pinch. Bulg is a 66
18:33 for four generic and one of each ratos mana. At the beginning of each combat, including your opponents, he gives plus two plus two to all your goblins and orcs, as well as negative one negative 1 to all your opponent's creatures. And just for good measure, he's also got trample. While Bulg's ability synergizes with both goblins and orcs, the fact that he wants to go as wide as possible means it's the goblins who are the clear stars of the show. This is a very classic sort of goblins deck where you're going to want to play as many gobos to the board as fast as possible with Bulg making it almost impossible for you to lose in combat once he comes down. As is often the case with goblins, the best creatures in the deck are those that bring friends. And as any regular commander player knows, nobody brings
19:20 more friends than Krano, mob boss. Untapping with Kroko or hasting him if you've got a goblin warchief lying around immediately leads to an exponentially growing goblin army that threatens to take over the game extremely [music] quickly even without Bulg's double anthem. And if you do have that wararchief in play, its haste aura isn't just good for KO himself. Hasting the tokens he creates is an even further amplification of an already absurd card. Speaking of hasty goblins, Howell Squad Heavy pulls double duty as another haste aura and a token generator. And if you're fortunate enough to be able to hit max speed, he's suddenly able to generate absolutely ridiculous amounts of mana. If you'd rather skip the hoops and jump straight to the mana
20:06 generation, Skirk Prospector is always happy to sacrifice excess goblins for value. Once you've generated a giant pile of mana, either of the members of the siege gang would be more than happy to fling some goblins at your opponent's face. Alternatively, Pashallik Mons can make you go up on goblins rather than down, though he'll still need fodder to do so. One very nice side effect of having a double lord in the command zone is that every goblin orc you play is suddenly much more threatening, regardless of whether or not it has good stats on its own. This is obviously most relevant for the numerous 1-1 tokens the deck creates, but there are also plenty of creatures in the board who have powerful abilities but weak stats. Shoring up those stats negates any
20:51 weaknesses those creatures might have had and makes them a force to be reckoned with [music] in all aspects of the game. One such creature is Goblin Matron. She's a powerful tutor to start with, able to fetch up any token generator or sack outlet or lord that you may need. Once she's done her thing, however, you're typically left with a three- mana 1-1 one sitting around waiting to die. Bulg's ability instead makes her a much more respectable 33, much more threatening should she wish to get involved in combat. Similarly, the ETB ability of munitions expert [music] represents huge damage, but its 1-1 body leaves a lot to be desired. With Vulg, it instead effectively becomes a two mana 3- three with flash, which is a fantastic rate, even without doming the
21:37 table when it enters. Still, combat damage isn't the end all beall. Bulg does shrink opponents boards every turn, but only a little. It's rare that he'll be able to fully clear blockers out of the way, especially if your opponents are playing large creatures. To that end, the deck's primary beatdown plan is supplemented by plenty of routes to direct damage, most of which involve the further sacrificing of your poor goblins. Goblin Bombardment does exactly what it sounds like, flinging your creatures directly into your opponent's faces. Sling Gang Lieutenant provides an arguably even stronger version of this effect thanks to being a drain rather than just damage. Amplifying the efficacy of all these is bogurt mischief, which has the added side effect of making combat significantly trickier for your opponents to navigate.
22:23 Of course, we can't entirely count out the orcs. This may be primarily a goblins deck, but the orcs in the list are certainly no slouches. Orcish Siege Master and War Rider are force multipliers for your offensive capabilities, respectively providing trample or menace to your entire board and thus making your attacks much trickier to deal with. Warbag of Minus Morgle is one of the deck's few sources of card advantage, letting you trade any random goblin that makes it through combat for a card or a treasure. And did you know Merciless Executioner is an orc? The aristocrat staple plays quite nicely here given how little this deck is bothered by sacrificing creatures. There's one more aspect of this deck that's worth mentioning. While extra combat steps are a powerful option for any beatdown deck, they scale
23:08 exponentially well with Bulg, whose Anthem effect triggers at the start of each combat. As such, this deck includes two different ways to trigger additional combats. The one-shot sorcery relentless assault and the potentially explosive creature portraiser, who also happens to be an orc. While including more of these effects would likely exceed the desired precon power level, it's definitely a viable upgrade path should you wish to do so. One I'd recommend is Savage Beating as the double strike it can grant scales particularly well with Bulg's double anthem. And there you have it. We built three commander precons for the Hobbit. But do you think you can do better? Well, if you can, I'll give you a Hobbit collector booster box or just $400 credit on mana pool. Just build your own
23:56 commander precon for the Hobbit using any Hobbit legendary as commander. This can be from the main set or any of the legendaries from the Battle of Five Armies or the Hobbit scene boxes. Show me what you can do and you might walk away with either a collector booster box of the Hobbit, $400 worth of credit to spend on magic cards or products on mana pool or one of half a dozen other prizes that we're giving out. It costs nothing to enter except of course the time to think up a commander precon for the hobbit which I really wish Wizards of the Coast had done because there are some cool legendaries in this set. And hey, maybe you'll get some inspiration for commander decks by watching us play with commander. We recently played on shuffle up and play with Raaran Voxy and Covert Go Blue. So you can check out that episode if you haven't seen it already clicking the eye or linked in
24:42 this video's description. >> [music] >> next time on Shuffle Up and Play. >> Good day, mates. I hope you're ready for a shuffle up and play that's down under because we're going to throw a shrimp on the barbie queue. Good Games Mory are here today for an all Australian episode of Shuffle Up and Play. Sorry. [music] And Canada as well. >> Yeah. >> Welcome to Antipedians Shuffle Up and Play. >> Eldrazi Monument. >> Oh, >> wow. We're really good at this game,
25:27 guys. This is like playing in the LGS in 2014. [laughter] >> You should block the Avengers Endicar with your death touch and just kill it. Get rid of it. >> Yeah, we're on the same team. >> Um, and yeah, then I just pass the turn cuz you know I'm a pacifist. Oh, I'm not [laughter]
