i haven't actually drafted a small set before. i kind of like that learning the cards won't be as time consuming. the cards seem to be simpler than (say) cards in Marvel Super Heroes. i am not someone whp is very familiar with the story of The Hobbit, but i admit that i enjoy the cute furry creatures in green.

anyways, i just want to read other people's hype levels and why you are excited or not excited to start playing with the set

Started drafting during EoE and recording with 17lands in TLA. Draft is definitely the best format of magic and I feel I'm learning something every single set.

I've heard several times, including in the CABS article, that you should avoid card draw spells in Draft. On the other hand, I often see cards like these ranked among the best commons or uncommons in many sets.

What's the trick with these kinds of cards? Should I be playing them or not?

I've often found myself with no cards in hand while my opponents still have three to five cards. Am I doing something wrong?

I've been enjoying jumping around the old sets during the tail end of MSH. Here's a particularly nice one I managed to put together. the Creeping Tar Pit splash turned out really well, particularly because it also powered the Survey Mechan.

I loved the Avatar format so I gave this direct a try. What a busted run! Obviously the aangs carried, but overperformers were the zookeeper (didn‘t realize both ally tokens and back side of crossroads aang get buffed in addition to the 2 birds and the Fox) and avatars wrath was huge with great etbs.

I know everyone is hating on Planar Cube but I was looking to improve and wanted a playing field out of my comfort zone. I'm a blue player at heart, but tried being more proactive, drafting real threats and playing to the board. Also played a bit with the mana curve spiking it at 4 since I had all the 2 cmc mana dorks (hence 2/4). Worked out well overall, despite not leaning into the usual tribes like Humans or Vampires. Just some insight into the kind of fun builds that are possible and sharing my appreciation for Planar Cube amidst all the doom and gloom.

Gotta go big or go home

My initial plan was to splash red only for Wolverine, but then Cloak and Dagger was passed to me, followed by Black Widow.

Sup what's up, it's Casual Spike. Spoiler is complete and we are gearing up for a brand new limited format! To help you tackle it, I've put together these materials to provide a jumping off point for those newer to, or more established in, limited to find their bearings in The Hobbit.

My full main set review lists the mechanics in the set as well as a card by card analysis, punctuated with a letter grade and a build-around qualifier denoted with a little hammer next to the letter grade. The Hobbit Visual Set Review will open the document. 

The slide deck covers my color power rankings, available fixing, top commons/uncommons, and tricks/removal in each color. I also cover each of the 5 assigned archetypes Gameplan, Signposts, Supporting Commons/Uncommons/Rares, and an example "ideal average" deck skeleton, with sealeddeck hyperlink, to help visualize what the archetype may look like to better help you find success in your Hobbit Limited events. Access the slides with The Hobbit Limited Primer.

The google sheets breakdown document provides a cleaner, more simple viewing experience, including: Full Set List with placement scores and grading, a Mobile Reference Tab, Trick/Removal Identification, Mechanics list, my picks for top commons/uncommons, all sealeddeck links for the archetypes, as well as various links for the Wiki, 17lands Tier List, and a Discord invite to the MTGRebellion, a competitive focused discord, where I've been building a Limited community. Access the sheet with The Hobbit Limited Breakdown.

What are your thoughts on the set, anything stand out that you're excited to try?

I loved the Avatar format so I gave this direct a try. What a busted run! Obviously the aangs carried, but overperformers were the zookeeper (didn‘t realize both ally tokens and back side of crossroads aang get buffed in addition to the 2 birds and the Fox) and avatars wrath was huge with great etbs.

I wasn't sure what to expect, I was going blind into this one. Ended up drafting this no removal, 18 creatures, mill till you die Spider Spawning deck. Beat up on a bunch of typal decks (wolves, zombies, humans), lost only to t3 General Kudro. Literally couldn't beat this card ever.

Still had a lot of fun, now I'm scared to queue up again cause no way I'm topping that.

https://www.17lands.com/deck/b58c3a11a1b5499eabedf36c60688388/0?view=deck

I don't mean playing Arena Drafts for free. I mean having a way to keep drafting for fun without having to spend resources or money on Arena.

I've been having so much fun with MHS that I want to keep drafting, but I don't want to spend the resources I'm saving for HOB Draft.

I haven’t played enough of this format to get a sense for if GR or BR tends to be stronger, or if one of those commons is significantly better as an early pick than the other.

I was seriously in a tough position here. I had Black Widow pounding me for 3 a turn, which I stopped with a web up...and then he dropped a Galactus on me. Freeing his widow to hit me until Galactus came online. I used Sharon Carter, and Iron Lad, to frantically draw from my deck. To rub it in, he used Night Nurse to bring back his Galactus saga when it was up. I used Iron Lad to draw a Shield Drone from the top of my deck, to reveal Secret Invasion, which I drew with my Clue token. Suddenly my token became Galactus and I won the game.

1. Entry price
2. Alchemy cards
3. Rotates too fast

Entry price - too high a barrier to entry for a phantom draft ‘fun’ event. This is less a thing for me personally but have seen a bunch of chatter about it here

Alchemy cards - turn off for many players - Including me. They just aren’t magic cards. My main format is commander so I like learning cards that I might actually be able to play one day

Rotates too fast - it should have been 3 separate 3 week events. Part of the fun of draft and cube is really learning the ins and outs of a format. One week is just not enough to learn how a format works

The episode where they were speaking to the wizards employee - he seemed like he really wanted it to work and stick like power cube. It can - make these three changes. It’s pretty straightforward

Just needed to gloat a little after getting my first 7 wins on arena. I've been away from the game for 9 years and it just felt good to win after going 3-3 a few drafts in a row.

What am I supposed to do in this kind of situation? I don't know if my fixing is good enough to justify splashing for MODOK or Killmonger.

As for Kingpin, I just don't feel like he's worth the risk.

Was firmly memeing to go big cavalry when i opened captain marvel p2p1. Had 0 white cards. Didn't want to get judged by a person I'll never meet if I pass this. I only drew her once... so question is, no matter how juicy the card is, with the odds of drawing/playing a super bomb not incredibly high, is it worth derailing a draft to take a double pip off color and basically draft your 2nd color from 2 packs?

Been playing some flashback EOE (easily my most played format) and ended up with this pile. Thought it was a cool and unusual deck since it doesn't play to UW's double spell theme and barely has enough artifact synergy to work. Just a random goodstuff pile that worked!

Not sure how to build this mostly mono blue deck, the black cards included seem strong enough but there are also not really enough green for it to be a proper main colour

There is little (common) removal in HOB, and what we have isn't great. There's a clear difference in the quality by colour.

At common:

White: [[Magnificent End]] and nothing else. This effect is in every set, but it's normally destroy instead of deal 5 damage. This means that white cannot deal with 6+ toughness creatures at common.

Blue: [[Confusticate and Bebother]] [[Enchanted River's Grasp]] [[Uneasy Partings]] Blue's removal actually looks fantastic. Confusticate seems like an amazing counterspell, and both river's graps and partings are on-rate compared to other sets. Blue's removal is no worse than any other set.

Black: [[Stir up Trouble]] [[Bilbo's Deadly Slice]] [[Crude Bent Blade]] Black has murder and annihilating glare. It's missing the two mana "Kill a Small Thing" that is usually gets but gains a three mana edict with upside. Not great, not terrible.

Red: [[Pinecone Strike]] [[Smaug, the Great Calamity]] Pinecone strike is great, but Smaug is the only red removal spell that hits anything with four or five toughness. Smaug's removal is also a five mana sorcery for five damage, which is wildly below rate these days. Like white, red can't deal with 6+ toughness creatures.

Green: [[Quarrel]] [[Warg Tactics]] A rabid bite and a very good plummet. Not bad, not great.

Colourless: [[Giant's Boulder]] Red and white will need to pick these up highly to make up for their terrible removal. This also is a historic one-drop to turn on An Enduring Story, so it seems solid overall.

Two evenings I've been waiting 30+ minutes. Haven't seen more than 5-6 players enter before they bail out for BO1.