Have we seen all the cards in the set now?
Yes
As someone who doesn't hate UB and loves LotR, I was pretty excited for HOB. Even though there's no precons for the set I figured I could build my own commander deck for the adventuring party. I know not everything needs to be designed for commander, but it was a bit of a bummer to realize no cards in the main set can helm that deck and the only one in the eternal set is a spellslinger/Gandalf tribal commander. In such a legendary heavy set, I'm surprised Wizards didn't expect that would be something players would want.
Have we seen all the cards in the set now?
Yes
Instead of wizards it should say dwarves…
Especially when you consider how bad our selection of legendary wizards is for the deck he wants to run lol
I mean, thematically it makes sense. Gandalf is the one who assembled this company.
Yeah, I just would have preferred he be "Gandalf, Party Organizer" and fetch dwarves or care about creatures entering or something. A card that cares about other Gandalfs doesn't feel nearly as flavorful for the card.
He also disappears a lot from the quest which will feel authentic as people remove your commander over and over!
Damn, that’s pretty stinky. I’m actually really surprised there isn’t one. Is there maybe a legend from the original LotR set that might work?
There are 6 options from LTR/LTC but besides just doing a different spellslinger Gandalf there isn't really anything that makes thematic sense.
Just checked: There's 4 color and jeskai Aragorn, precon human tribal Eowyn, the Theoden reprint of Kenrith, Tom Bombadil, and [[Gandalf of the Secret Fire]], the only one that works thematically at all
This probably doesn’t quite solve what you are looking for, but you could go White\\Red with one of the two Thorin that are in those colors then use the mono-Red Gandalf from the set and the mono-White Bilbo that will be in the 5 Armies box set that comes out later, but will also be able to be bought as a single from Collector’s Boosters soon enough. There are also two mono-White Gandalfs from the first LotR set that could fit in that theme.
I mean you can either do a commander deck that's flavored to the hobbit and completely all over the place with mechanics or you can do a commander that picks an mechanic and goes to 11 on synergy and power. Unfortunately with this set, you can't do both. Personally I think Wizard tribal looks the funnest, but there's like 20 different mechanics you can delve into with these guys and really go crazy with.. Stories, Adventures, wizards, wolves, bears, halflings, food/treasure, dragons, etc.
There's a mono-White Bilbo (Unexpected Adventurer) and a mono-red Gandalf (Goblin's Bane) for a Boros version of the deck. Obviously it's not ideal to not have blue, but it's not true that Party Guest is your only on-theme option for the deck.
Bilbo and Gandalf don't have partner, so you'd be mono colored. So yes, on theme, but extremely limited.
Exactly this
Oh my god this fucking sucks
I know I’m gonna see this at my LGS. Time to wizard it up.
Yeah, just today I was wondering if I could do a Dwarf-focused Hobbit Commander deck, and I wasn't really sure if there was a consistent theme to incorporate. I feel like the options are Dain of the Ancient Halls or Thorin Oakenshield.
Could run a red white deck I believe, as Bilbo has at least one mono white card.
Just dont run THAT Gandalf. Drop the blue and play Boros Dwarves and play the white bilbo from the battle of five armies instead of the blue one and run goblins bane gandalf instead.
They do that with some sets and people call them slop Commanders.
There is a Mono White Bilbo, so you could just play one of the RW Dwarves.
"Party Gandalf"
I can hear the sax!
I just wish this Gandalf counted Dwarves and/or Halflings. Would make the deck make more sense
I'm disproportionately salty that Beorn can only use 3/4 of the bears.
Why are his eyebrows part of his hat?
They're not, they're just that long and bushy. It's accurate to the book's description.
And some additional cards coming out later? Battle of five armies or something.
Same with the turtles. Can't have all of them without Leo being the leader. Makes sense.
Flavor win would also have: "Whenever an opponent attacks you, exile this creature. Return it to the battlefield under your control at the beginning of your next end step."
I’ve already designed a “Legendary Wizard Party” deck around this card I’m excited to set up. There’s one rule. Only legendary wizards allowed for creatures. Regular wizards? Nah. Peasants. Legendary only.
Agreed! Was really hoping for a WUR thorin. But I do see how aligning thorin to blue would be challenging from a flavor perspective
You could run a dwarf/artifact deck using [[Thorin Oakenshield]] as comander, combining all the storied dwarfs effects as the main centre of the deck, lots of equipment to buff them up, with [[Gandalf, Goblin's Bane]] getting you extra +1/+1 counters from Artifacts and [[Bilbo, Unexpected Adventurer]] getting in unblockable damage when needed. It's not game breaking, but it does give you the flavour. The heart of the company is Thorin and his compatriots, with Bilbo and Gandalf helping them get to where they're going.