Decks & lists

Smaug, Wicked Worm

Thorin Oakenshield

Homemade Boros Dwarf Equipment B2 precon with only cards I pulled from playboosters of the Hobbit and bulk I had at home already. Thorin and the company aboard the Seremia travel to The Lonely Mountain in the search of the Arkenstone.

Tom, Bert, and William

Smaug the Magnificent

P.S. Well, formatting doesn't seem to work in the description, so it's just a huge mess of text, so I've removed a deck philosophy section that goes through each card and why it's there. This deck focuses on dragons, their minions and greed of the said dragons. I wanted to create a mono-red deck, because it seems like something that would be good for the new players too. It’s easier to learn from one color. Main themes of the deck: dragon tribe, artifacts(mainly treasures), damage interaction, discard, flying and haste. It doesn’t have many complex interactions and mostly focuses on the most common strengths of the typical red deck for the ease of learning. As most precons, it has obviously weak cards that could be replaced, a couple of "big hits" and sol ring + arcane signet + blasphemous act. Sarkhan, Dragon Ascendant is an alt commander. At the moment of making it, it's 135$, which should be within the usual card value.

Smaug, Wicked Worm

When I built this deck 4 days ago, the price was sitting right around $150. In the time it took to playtest it, it appears the price of several cards have jumped significantly. It is a rather fun list and has plenty of room for upgrades like Smaug, the Impenetrable, Cavern-Hoard Dragon, and Ancient Copper Dragon, The One Ring, and Jeska's Will. The goal of this deck is to drain your opponents with cards like Mirkwood Bats, keep your hand full casting spells with treasures, and finish off your opponents by capitalizing on your treasure hoard with cards like exsanguinate.

The Lord of the Eagles

Flavor, power, and price are all balanced in this Hobbit Precon EDH deck featuring The Lord of the Eagles legend, surrounded by a beautifully diverse collection of creatures with a plethora of creature types spanning many of the classics of MTG. The commonality? They are all premium, high-power flyers who help quickly cast the avian alpha in efforts to get one over on the battlefield, and your opponents, with the naturally-evasive and massive commander's damage. Every creature in the deck is on-theme by either being a punchy flyer, or being accompanied by one on ETB. Flash is also fittingly themed-in to help keep mana open to react to casts and board states with counterspells/countercreatures and other instances of instants to disrupt opponent's plans and win-cons, as mono-blue should do! There is a splash of opponent-mill synergy and a bit of rogue/prowl synergy suitingly snuck in to boot. Care was taken while editing to ensure a fast and smooth mana-curve to maximize efficiency and speed, with focus on an consistent creature curve. Oh and, of course, curated card draw to keep the wind under our wings! *Expensive and "unfair" cards removed for flavor and $ cost: Consecrated Sphinx, Rhystic study, Wan Shi Tong, Librarian, Force of Will, Mana Drain, etc... PS - Prof rules!!!

Thranduil the Strategist

Dwalin, Weaponmaster

Gandalf, Party Guest

I feel Gandalf most wants to be a face commander. Spell slinger is a theme wizards has used for precons most notably in the orginal strixhaven commander decks, and wizards is a theme they've use with c17 Inalla. I steered away from double sided card reprints as I didn't think they would be in a precon especially for the hobbit. So no emperor of Palamecia, venat, ashling, joshua, or pinnacle monk A few cards I thought would push the precon title so no Veyran, Vivi, kaza, or Kykar. we are building specifically for bracket 2 which caused me to steer away from a could extra turn spells. I also chose not to add orcrust or gandalf, goblin's bane from the main set because precons generally don't get main set mythics, but I did add wizards staff and glamdring. I felt this was a good opportunity for some LotR set reprints like flame of anor and gandalf the grey, but steered clear of those a little more sought out like call fourth the tempest or flowering of the white tree Overall, I am happy with how this turned out theme, budget, and power level

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Use small, evasive creatures that have loot/connive effects to fill your graveyard with artifacts, instants, and sorceries. Then use Bilbo to accrue value from the cheap artifacts and big spells. With plenty of ways to filter to what you need, you'll use Bilbo's artifact recursion to grow your unblockable threats and perhaps find ways to get even more value from Bilbo's effects!

Sauron, the Dark Lord

The armies of Mordor march from the Black Gate... And everyone is going to have a bad day! Sauron has one goal: rule them all. Nine Nazgûl. An army of Orcs and Goblins. The One Ring. A few Dragons. And absolutely no concern for what the rest of the table thinks about any of it. The plan is simple: build an army, amass an overwhelming board, sacrifice whatever gets in the way, and bring the dead back when Mordor inevitably demands reinforcements. Sauron keeps the cards flowing while the Ring tempts me toward increasingly questionable decisions. If the Fellowship shows up, they can have a turn. After that, Mordor is on the stack.

Smaug the Magnificent

Smaug loves his treasure, so why not give him more of it? This deck focuses on building a massive treasure hoard and using it to fuel Smaug and his allies. A collection of dragons, treasure-makers, and payoffs lets the deck turn its growing wealth into overwhelming mana and damage. I built the deck around the suggested $150 average budget, intentionally leaving out some of the more expensive synergistic cards while keeping plenty of room for future upgrades. After all, even Smaug had to start somewhere when building his hoard!

The Great Goblin

The Great Goblin

Thranduil, Sindarin Liege // Silvan Rally

This deck is created for the Tolarian Community College Lost Hobbit Commander Pre-con deck building challenge. It is created with heavy attention to maintaining the aesthetic of The Hobbit by omitting cards with non-Hobbit names (priest of titania and Marwyn, the nurturer as examples, though one or two snuck through) while still remaining explosively consistent and within budget. A landfall-driven Simic elf-ball deck that leans heavily into the green, it has an expected amount of ramp and card draw, providing consistent advantage and multiple land drops per turn - even when it's not your turn! The deck has a slight self-mill/recursion theme, but generally focuses on advancing and protecting the main token/land strategy. Proposed upgrades include Beast Whisperer, Concordant Crossroads, Birchlore Rangers, End-raze Forerunners, Joraga Treespeaker, Priest of Titania, Marwyn the Nurturer, etc. to improve draw, provide haste for explosive attacks and mana ramp, and giving your elf tokens other utility by becoming optional ramp. These were omitted from my deck due to budgetary and theme restriction.

Gollum, Obsessed Stalker

​"PO-TAY-TOES? It ruins it! Give us My PRETZELS! raw and wriggling!" ​Inspiration & Lore -> Nothing in Middle-earth compares to Gollum’s single-minded obsession with My Precious. In this deck, that same manic drive is transferred to My Pretzels; the Food token engine that fuels the entire game plan. ​Samwise can keep his boiled PO-TAY-TOES. Sméagol only wants his snacks "raw and wriggling!" But while these nasty, uncooked treats keep Sméagol thriving, they act as pure poison to everyone else. Every raw snack he hoards, cracks, and shoves down the throat drains your opponents' life force, turning Gollum's stomach-churning diet into a lethal, table-wide venom. ​Gameplay Integration -> ​Sneaking & Temptation: Gollum drops on Turn 2, using unblockable attacks and Ring temptation to slip past enemy lines and permanently mark every player who enters his cave. ​Main-Phase Snacking: In the main phase, Sméagol hoards and sacrifices Food tokens to trigger table-wide life drain and card draw. ​End-Step Doubling: On your end step, Gollum’s vicious side takes over—automatically doubling every point of main-phase drain to wipe out your opponents in massive damage bursts.

Smaug the Impenetrable

makes lots of tresure for lots of spells!!!! yes

Beorn the Fierce

Forestwalk with Beron and his bears

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Thranduil the Strategist

Balin, Loremaster

Gandalf, Party Guest

How many Wizards is too many? When Gandalf is invited at the party, the answer is always "at least one more".

Gandalf, Goblins' Bane // Flameshape

Buckle up, it‘s about time Gandalf get‘s his own Commander deck. After all, where would Bilbo and Frodo be if not for our favorite spellslinger? This is an exile-matters deck, seeking to play spells from outside your hand while giving you payoffs for doing so, e.g with cards like Wild-Magic Sorcerer or Passionate Archaeologist. Then, we enhance Gandalf‘s ping into serious burn damage or further payoff, e.g with cards like Virtue of Courage. Additionally, we play a lot of cards that are either flavorfull or that I simply consider a lot of fun, such as Call for Aid or Disrupt Decorum. Cards not fitting for Middle Earth such as Planeswalkers have not been included, although I had to include some UB cards from other IP’s as they were simply too good to leave out. The Most expensive cards are Delayed Blast Fireball, Passionate Archaeologist and Wild-Mage Sorcerer, but it also includes a fair share of cheap cards.

The Sackville-Bagginses

Radagast of Rhosgobel

"Radagast is, of course, a worthy wizard, a master of shapes and changes of hue; and he has much lore of herbs and beasts, and birds are especially his friends." -- Gandalf

Gollum the Abandoned & Gollum, Riddle Master

This deck is an aggro reanimate deck featuring Gollum. You can start the game by randomly selecting one of the 5 two mana Gollums în that deck. The first riddle will be solved right away: Which one will land in the Command Zone and wich ones will go back into the deck? (The 4-mana Gollum is a surprise in this deck.) Hence the name for the deck, "Gollum Has Many Faces." Well, Gollum does have a rather split personality.. Summon Gollum, let him do his thing, let him fight, let him die, resummon him, sacrifice Gollum to kill your opponents' creatures, reanimate him, bring him back from the graveyard and repeat. It's that simple.....It's a never-ending torment for Gollum... hmmm, it's truly sad to write and read this. Anyway enjoy the deck!...and hey, $69 for a Precon is pretty good, right?

Tom, Bert, and William

Pretty Simple deck, win conditions attack with big creatures. Use some Golgari tactics. Mashed together cards from Fellowship & Food precon as well as cards simply pulled from recent packs in Hobbit release. That being said, probably power of 2 or 3 and it exclusively only uses cards from Tolkien's universe of Magic cards.

Radagast of Rhosgobel

A Radagast precon featuring only permanents, because instants and sorceries are for decks that don't give creatures flash. Need a problem creature gone? Make a creature sit in front of them when they attack. Need an artifact or enchantment gone? Make a twitchy creature sit near it. Need an opponent gone? Make a creature sit on them. This is primarily a big stompy deck with a dusting of +1/+1 counters-after all, what's a precon without a random non sequitur subtheme thrown in? While the deck was predominantly built around Radagast of Rhosgobel, Radagast the Brown from Tales From Middle Earth has also been included as a swappable backup commander. I tried to keep the deck to about the value of an average precon and around that power level. For anyone wanting to go beyond those limitations, my first recommendations would be Seedborne Muse and Ghalta, Stampede Tyrant.

Bard, Heir of Girion

This is the Bard Slayer of Smaug and the King under the Mountain. Become the Monarch and draw even more cards with this human tribal go wide theme. This precon wants to draw cards and rain down pain with small creatures made big from artifacts or the commander. Bard helps this strategy by giving card draw and an anthem for all your Creatures.

Belladonna Took

Develop your board with tokens and punch face with them. With help from your commander alongside other anthem affects, you will overwhelm your opponents with tokens. If anyone actually finds the deck interesting and wants an upgrade, here's an add eleven cut eleven: Cheap Add: Dusk Legion Duelist // Cut: Rumor Gatherer Add: Endless Foot Assault // Cut: Saradoc, Master of Buckland Add: Fountainport // Cut: Plains Add: Enduring Innocence // Cut: Dawn of Hope Add: The Ooze // Cut: Spirit Bonds Expensive Add: Generous Pup // Cut: Haunted Library Add: Skullclamp // Cut: Wayfarer's Bauble Add: Caretaker's Talent // Cut: The Mountain-King's Return Add: Sceptre of Eternal Glory // Cut: Rootborn Defenses Add: Gleaming Splendor // Cut: Monologue Tax Add: The Ozolith // Cut: Second Breakfast The cards didn't make it into the deck due to budget and theme reasons, but feel free to add them! Also adding a token doubler and smothering tithe makes a low bracket three and also adding the ones mentioned above turn it into a mid-high bracket three

The Great Goblin

Smaug the Magnificent

"Later that night, while Bilbo lay in bed trying to fall asleep, he could still hear Thorin humming in the next room over: Far over the misty mountains cold To dungeons deep and caverns old We must away, ere break of day, To find our long-forgotten gold." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dwarves gathering treasure, only for dragons to seize it against their will. A classic tale as old as time, but none as grand as the one Bilbo, Thorin and Company lived through the pages of The Hobbit. This deck is a treasure generation deck with a dwarf tribal sub-theme. Dwarves do the hard work to gather treasure, and once you have enough to lure the dragon onto the battlefield, Smaug the Magnificent will strike with fire and fury to claim it all for his own. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some cards to highlight include Magda, Brazen Outlaw to continuously generate treasure, pump up your dwarves and even tutor a Goldspan Dragon or Desert Were-Wurm into the battlefield, the latter which is a Hobbit set finisher. Dwarven Grunt is another great card in the list due to it's 1 mana cost and Mountainwalk. Whoever has Mountains won't like it, but a lot of the treasure generation comes from connecting attacks, and this will be the best guy to do so. Key to the Side Door let the Dwarves enter The Lonely Mountain, it will also help them attack unharmed. Lastly, The Desolation of Smaug is the perfect card to bring your commander. Devastate with fire, and bring forth the dragon himself pretty much for free. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Price-wise, the most expensive cards actually come from The Hobbit set, although mind some of them should go down once Battle of the Five Armies comes out next year. Given the deck is for this set, we are willing to keep them in the list along with some very flavorful ones.

Smaug the Impenetrable

Hit Samaug for big treasures

The Great Goblin

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Smaug, Wicked Worm

Gandalf, Shadow's Foe

Bifur, Melodic Rider

Bard, King of Dale

A new card draw and token engine in the command zone that mixes group hug with some blink and bird sub-theme wincons! The deck is a strong precon upgrade that can win by burying the table in card draw value! To keep on a budget, I slimmed down many powerful staples that can be used to upgrade the deck such as: Consecrated Sphinx, Displacer Kitten, Esper Sentinel, Grand Arbiter Augustin IV, Narset Parter of Veils, Enlightened Tutor, Mystical Tutor, Silence, Expropriate, Anointed Procession, Mystic Remora, Rhystic Study, and Smothering Tithe

Yuna, Grand Summoner

Thorin Oakenshield

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

I tried to keep most of the cards inside of the Hobbit set, including all 13 dwarves and many of the cards related to their story beats. Strategy focuses on your dwarf kindred, with a side strategy of blink and graveyard effects. Thorin Oakenshield is Co-Commander, I prefer it given the protection it provides to your aggro strategy.

Smaug the Magnificent

Gather your treasure tokens to deal absurd damage every time Smaug stretches his wings! Things will get out of hand quickly as his pile of treasures grows, snowballing you into a one-shot threat at the table as the game goes on. But you already knew Smaug was a villain, right?

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Before celebrations under the party tree / there was a thief once – and twice, and three! / Surprised by a wizard and dwarves thirteen / lies Smaug dead now, and Lake-Town is free This deck is a celebrative letter of love for the epic story that is the Hobbit. With every card picked with the utmost care(*) following events and world of the book, it's a demonstration of diversity and possibilities that Bilbo, Thief in the Night dishes out as your commander, bringing cooperation and synergies between many different card- and subtypes under one color. Dozens of these cards are supplied with new thematic arts(**) and many from past years are reprinted for the first time. By acquiring this deck to your party, you'll find yourself going on an adventure twofold, as Tolkien's legendarium combines seamlessly with highlights, relics and nigh-forgotten secrets through Magic's history. Inside you find tools to raid your opponents' possessions, prevent them from retaliating and to finally overcome them. (Notes: * I planned this deck and calculated prices in euros on Archidekt according to cheapest available versions, bearing in mind both precon selling prices and value for the buyer, but it seems that some card versions didn't quite transfer properly and total is a higher in here. Also, you can find references even from card amounts, such as lands and creatures, so please have caution while going through the decklist. It's been honed for a while, so hopefully you won't outright counter it. Pun intended. But seriously, do as you see fit, thanks for reading and have a wonderful day! <3 ** I think many of these would deserve new flavor for them if this was published as a preconstructed deck.)

Thorin, King of Durin's Folk

Bard, King of Dale

The plan is pretty simple: draw cards, make tokens, and let Bard make both of those things stupid. Most of the deck works fine without the commander, but once Bard hits the board every draw engine gets better and every token maker starts getting out of hand fast. There’s a small Recruit package because it fits the theme and happens to work really well with both sides of Bard. And then there’s Skullclamp. Turning one disposable 1/1 into four cards because Bard decided drawing two wasn’t enough is exactly the kind of nonsense I wanted this deck to do. The deck usually wins by going wide with a ridiculous number of tokens, then finishing with Akroma’s Will, Moonshaker Cavalry, Mirror Entity, or Starlight Spectacular. Basically, Bard tells the story, adds a few details, and somehow one Soldier turns into an army.

Radagast of Rhosgobel

Gollum, Riddle Master