The Hobbit Draft Tier List: Our Full Set Review, Color by Color (Video) | MTG Picker

10 min read
Smaug the Magnificent — The Hobbit

We recorded the whole set review — here it is

Jack and I sat down and went through The Hobbit card by card, on camera, one color per video. The result is the commentary track for the The Hobbit draft tier list here on MTG Picker: you can hear us argue about a card, disagree, change our minds, and then go see exactly where that card landed on the list.

All six parts are live now — white, blue, black, red, green, and multicolor / artifacts / lands. The tier list itself has been complete for every color the whole time, so you never had to wait on the videos to use it — they are the reasoning behind the ratings, not a prerequisite for them.

Now that all six are up, we are filming a follow-up: the three best cards of each color, head to head, in a single video. That one is the short version if you only have ten minutes before your prerelease.

How we rate cards for The Hobbit limited

Every card on the tier list starts from an automatic score built on the things you can read off the card: mana value versus body size, removal quality, evasion, card advantage, and how easily the card fits a normal limited curve. That gives a first-pass S through F rating for all 188 cards in the set.

Then we override by hand. That is what the videos are — the part where the algorithm says "3-mana 3/2, fine, B" and one of us says the card is unplayable because nothing in the format supports it, or that it is secretly an S because the set is full of Equipment. Those manual calls are what you see on the live tier list.

  • S Bomb. Wins the game on its own if it is not answered. First pick, every time.
  • A Premium. Happy first pick, moves you into a color.
  • B Solid playable. The core of a good deck.
  • C Filler. Fine in the last few slots.
  • D Situational. Needs a specific build to be worth a card.
  • F Unplayable in almost every deck.

White — Dwarves, tokens and two of the best rares in the set

White is the token-and-Dwarves color in The Hobbit, and it carries a genuinely deep top end. Storied — the mechanic that turns on once you control three or more artifacts, legendaries and Sagas — is easiest to switch on here, which is why the white legends rate so highly.

Where these ended up on the tier list:

  • S Fíli the Pathfinder — a 4-mana 2/2 that makes a 2/2 Dwarf every time another nontoken Dwarf shows up, and anthems your whole board once Storied is on.
  • S The Eagles Are Coming! — a combat trick at two mana, a board-flipping 4/4 flier factory when kicked.
  • S Settle the Wreckage — exiling an entire attack is close to unbeatable in limited.
  • S An Unexpected Party — a permanent +2/+2 anthem that can also be cast as an X-token spell first.
  • S The Arkenstone — an anthem plus a free card every turn, and a tutor on the front half.
  • A Kíli the Resourceful — free equip and a card a turn if you are in the Dwarf/Equipment deck.

Blue — the trickiest color to draft here

Blue is the color where the tier list has the fewest high ratings and the most D's, and the video explains why: a lot of the blue commons are doing something narrow, and the payoffs need a build you may not get. It is the color you move into because it is open, not because you opened a bomb.

The blue cards worth a real pick:

  • A Bilbo, Thief in the Night — a 2-mana 2/2 that discounts everything you cast from exile or graveyard and rebuys spells on every attack.
  • A Bilbo, Luckwearer — unblockable looter on the front, a control-swap spell on the Adventure half.
  • A Great Gilded Boat — a 3-mana 4/4 Vehicle that loots and makes a body every time you attack.

Black — premium removal and grindy Wolves

Black is the removal color, and in a format this creature-dense that is exactly where you want to be. The video goes through which black removal spells are actually premium and which ones look like removal but cost you the game a turn later.

The top of black:

  • S Head of the Hunt — a flash 4/3 that turns every opposing creature death into a 2/2 Wolf for you. It is removal-adjacent, a body, and a mana sink for the whole game.
  • A Gollum, Riddle Master — a 2-mana 3/1 that drains, grows and draws off your opponent's own spells.
  • A Rhovanion Rampager — attacks big, and leaves an Army behind when it dies.

Red — Smaug, Equipment and the aggro deck

Red has the single most dangerous card in the set and the most straightforward game plan: curve out, attach Equipment, attack. The video covers Smaug, the Dwarf/Equipment payoffs, and where the red commons rank against each other.

The top of red:

  • S Smaug the Magnificent — a 4-mana 4/3 flier with haste that makes a Treasure every upkeep and throws that many points of damage at anything every time it attacks. Answer it or lose.
  • A Thorin, Mountain-king — trample, and an enter-the-battlefield trigger that suits up a creature and shoots something down.
  • A Dáin Ironfoot — brings its own Equipment and hands out double strike to every equipped attacker.
  • A Gandalf, Goblins' Bane — grows and pings every time you cast a noncreature spell.

Green — Bears, Wolves, and a ramp deck that keeps compounding

Green is the ramp-into-huge-threats color, and the video walks through why it is the deepest color in the set: four S-tier cards and a landfall enchantment that turns every land drop and every creature you cast into extra value. If you open one of the big Bears early, green is telling you to just keep taking green.

The top of green:

  • S Beorn the Fierce — a 6/6 for five with trample that pumps every other Bear you control by +2/+2, and draws two cards every combat once you control three or more Bears.
  • S Bejeweled Warg — a 3/2 for two with trample that either grows your Wolves or makes a Treasure every time it connects.
  • S Dancing from Dark to Dawn — every creature you cast pumps a permanent, and every land you play makes a free 2/2 Bear. It snowballs a game on its own.
  • A Gigantic Big Bear — a 10/7 for seven that cannot be countered and shows up with hexproof and haste.
  • A Radagast of Rhosgobel — discounts your first creature spell each turn by two and lets you flash it in.

Multicolor, artifacts and lands — the deepest S/A block in the set

The last video rounds up everything that does not live in a single color: the gold legends, the Equipment support, and the lands worth building around. Three of the set's six S-tier cards live here, so if you see one of these in a pack, it is usually the pick no matter what you are drafting.

Where the multicolor bombs landed:

  • S The Great Goblin — putting a counter on any Goblin, Orc or Army you control pings an opponent for 2, and every one of those creatures that dies digs you a free card off the top.
  • S Dwalin, Weaponmaster — a first-strike 2/1 that hones every Equipment you control the moment it enters or attacks, turning your whole board into bigger swords.
  • S Tom, Bert, and William — a sacrifice outlet that draws you cards off whatever you feed it, then comes back as a hard-to-kill artifact once it dies.
  • A Smaug, Wicked Worm — counts your opponents' artifacts and turns that many into Treasure for you on entry, then draws you a card (for 1 life) every time you spend one.
  • A Thranduil's Company — an extra land drop and a landfall engine that hands out two +1/+1 counters and vigilance every time a land enters.
  • A The Lonely Mountain — a land that makes 2/2 Dwarves, cheaper the more Equipment you have on board.

Coming next: the top 3 cards of every color

One video still to come, and it is the one we are most looking forward to: the three best cards of every color, head to head, in a single video, with the reasoning for each. Subscribe on the MTG Picker YouTube channel if you want it as soon as it goes up.

Use the tier list while you draft

The videos are the reasoning; the tier list is the tool you actually keep open on your phone at the table.

If you disagree with a rating — and you will — that is the point. Watch the video, see the argument, then go make your own picks.