After a wildly popular Lord of the Rings crossover set debuted back in 2023, Magic: The Gathering is returning to Middle-earth with a sequel set centered around its prequel, The Hobbit. Full of dwarves, dragons, and plenty more, we’ve got an exclusive first look at three cards that will be in that set in the image below:
All three of these cards are in the main set at the uncommon rarity, meaning they are legal in both Magic’s competitive Standard format and in its most popular casual format, Commander. That said, uncommons are often more focused on how they play in Limited – that means Drafts and Sealed, such as the prerelease events that come before a set’s full release.
For example, Nasty Little Rabbit is a simple but reliable payoff for a green Draft theme that cares about creatures with at least four power, coming down early and then eventually growing bigger to stay relevant as you move into the middle of a match. Similarly, Fearsome Goblin Pair leans into the red-black set theme of goblin creatures and the “amass” mechanic that can make an ever-growing goblin army.
These cards probably won’t make too big of a splash beyond the set itself or special decks themed around taking advantage of their creature types, but the third card has a little bit more potential to stand out in my eyes. Thror’s Map is a colorless legendary artifact that first finds you a basic land and then can be activated each turn to draw and discard a card – an effect that’s colloquially called “looting,” which is great flavor for a treasure map. This isn’t the most powerful version of this effect we’ve seen or anything, but it has enough little things going for it that I could certainly see it finding a home in a few Commander decks here and there.
The Hobbit is the latest in a long line of crossover products released under Magic’s “Universes Beyond” label. Wizards of the Coast recently released a Marvel set, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set, and an Avatar: The Last Airbender set – a Star Trek set is also scheduled for later this year. And that’s not even considering one-off crossovers like God of War that were released as part of its “Secret Lair” store last year.
The Hobbit releases in paper on August 14, on the MTG Arena and MTGO digital clients on August 11, and prerelease events start at local stores on August 7. It’s a hotly anticipated set after the runaway success of The Lord of the Rings’ own set – though one that had an artistic controversy earlier this year as it was discovered a reprint of the iconic One Ring was potentially plagiarized in part.
Tom Marks is IGN’s Associate Reviews Director for games. He loves card games puzzles, platformers, puzzle-platformers, and lots more.
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