(Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit | Art by Axel Sauerwald)

Table for Two

Hello and welcome back to another Scrap Trawlers precon primer. This is Lenny and I'm bringing you the scoop on the Food and Fellowship deck from Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth Commander. For the first time ever, we have a Commander deck with a partner pair as the face. Is there a more iconic duo in LotR than Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and Sam, Loyal Attendant? If there is, I couldn't tell you since I'm not versed in Tolkien lore.

Frodo is a 1/3 with vigilance for just two mana. When he attacks, the Ring tempts you if you've gained three or more life that turn. He also draws you a card if the Ring has tempted you at least twice this game and Frodo is your Ring-bearer. The first effect of the Ring makes it safer for Frodo to attack by making creatures with higher power unable to block him. Sure, an opponent could block with multiple one-power creatures, but I doubt most folks are going to go out of their way to kill Frodo, especially after that third Ring ability that makes them sacrifice a creature. Between the effects of the Ring, and Frodo's own ability, he's a low cost card draw engine that will keep a deck humming.

Sam is a 2/4 for three mana, so he could come out the turn after Frodo. Sam makes a food token at the beginning of combat on your turn and reduces the cost of activated abilities on food you control. Where Frodo is a payoff, Sam is the set up. Between making an artifact, sacrificing an artifact, and gaining life, there are a lot of cards that care about what Sam is doing. Together they make a solid life gain payoff deck or possibly an artifact tokens deck.

While we already have commanders that care about food with Gyome, Master Chef and Asmoranomardicadaistinaculdacar, this is the first time we have commanders that care about what food is supposed to do. They remind me more of a partner pairing like Tymna the Weaver and Ikra Shidiqi, the Usurper. They're powerful in that they form an engine that can grease the wheels of a life gain deck, but not so overwhelming that either of them are too likely to see a single target removal spell come their way. Now that we've seen the leaders, lets look at the rest of the fellowship.

Aside from Sam and Frodo, this deck has two other potential commanders to lead it. There's one other partner pairing with Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard. Merry makes a 1/1 token with lifelink whenever one or more artifacts enter the battlefield under your control, but only once each turn, so you'll want to focus on making food during opponents' turns.

His partner Pippin can tap to make a food token or tap and sacrifice four foods to give your other creatures +3/+3 and haste, so you can overrun with the tokens Merry makes. With them at the helm, the deck shifts to more of an aggressive token strategy. They're a great pair to run if you prefer a win condition in the command zone.

Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant is the only single commander that can lead the deck. Bilbo increases your lifegain by one and you can pay five mana and exile him when you have 111 life to search your deck for any number of creatures and put them onto the battlefield. Bilbo is a great choice for players who love the feel of "achievement unlocked" style commanders. Since his ability can be done at instant speed, you likely just win if you can pull it off. That said, without changing the deck, I think it's unlikely to happen. I'd recommend playing one of the partner pairs if you're playing out of the box, unless you really want that challenge. 

Food for Thought

My first instinct is to call this a food deck, but that isn't really an established archetype. I'd say this deck is primarily a life gain deck with a token sub-theme. As a life gain deck, the plan is not only to gain life, but to weaponize that gain with synergistic cards.

This deck comes with a few new ways to get value out of life gain. Treebeard, Gracious Host puts +1/+1 counters on a Treefolk or Halfling you control when you gain life. Gollum, Obsessed Stalker, is an evasive attacker that drains any opponent it hit for the amount of life you gained this turn. The Gaffer draws a card at each end step if you gained three or more life this turn. Field-Tested Frying Pan is an equipment that turns your life gain into a boost to power and toughness.

Life gain and tokens often go hand in hand. Tokens serve double duty as a way to protect your life total in combat as well as a way to end games by overwhelming opponents with attackers. Many cards that reward life gain do so by generating tokens, and we got some great new entries to this particular design. Assemble the Entmoot makes three tokens that are as big as the amount of life you gained this turn. Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles, gives a creature flying when he attacks, but he also makes a 3/3 flying Bird token at each end step if you gained three or more life that turn. Farmer Cotton is a mana sink that generates 1/1 creatures and food tokens for when you need to replenish your supply. Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit is a saga that generates food tokens over time and gives you an army in a can with its final chapter if you've been stockpiling food.

This deck is looking to win through a combination of combat and drain effects. Sanguine Bond and Gollum, Obsessed Stalker turn your life gain into damage for opponents. Mirkwood Bats and Lobelia, Defender of Bag End turn your food production into life drain, while Rapacious Guest and Feasting Hobbit can easily become giant, hard to block threats. Finally, all the small creatures this deck puts out can put in serious damage with Great Oak Guardian and Motivated Pony. Given enough time Call for Unity can become a big problem since this deck easily triggers the revolt. Pippin, Warden of Isengard hands out a hefty +3/+3 bonus to the team and even though it's on board, people will be surprised by mass haste coming from a Golgari card.

Play with your Food

In the games I got to play it in, the deck felt like it always had something to do, thanks to the card draw from Frodo and the food tokens generated by Sam. This was especially true in the early game with Frodo coming down on turn two. Between Frodo's vigilance and Sam's decent toughness, you're likely to avoid most early game combats, which is great because people tend to send those at decks that gain life.

Despite Frodo getting top billing, Sam is actually the more important of the two commanders. Most of what this deck wants to do revolves around gaining life or generating food, and Sam will fuel those cards, so you want to prioritize protecting him.

Starting hands with this deck are incredibly easy. You want your commanders out on turn two and three so you can start drawing cards, so your major concern is making sure you have all your colors in your opening hand. Aside from that, one of your life drain effects like Sanguine Bond or Gollum, Obsessed Stalker is good to have since this deck tends to whittle down life totals over time rather than end the game in one big turn. That can be a bit of a weakness though, as it gives slower decks the time to develop their plan.

Cards that stop life gain, such as Everlasting Torment or Erebos, God of the Dead, will make life hard for this deck, so you want to hold up removal for those if you suspect an opponent might have them. I also ran into some issues with the timing of the effects of the Ring that were potentially confusing, such as getting a Ring effect that triggers when your Ring-bearer attacks, when you've already attacked. It was manageable, but not intuitive and I could see new players having trouble getting this right.

Food, Glorious Food

We got quite a few awesome new cards to savor with this release. A few, in my opinion, are quite a bit juicier than the rest.

The Gaffer is a great card draw effect for white decks as well as dedicated life gain decks. Well of Lost Dreams and Dawn of Hope are similar cards that potentially offer more cards, but having to pay mana into them can get in the way of casting the spells you need. Prize Pig is a mana dork that untaps itself for every three life you gain. This can potentially net you quite a bit of mana when paired with Essence Warden in a creature heavy deck, or when storming off with an Aetherflux Reservoir.

Both Sanguine Bond, and Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose show up in over 70,000 decks on EDHREC, and while Gollum, Obsessed Stalker lacks the combo potential of those cards, he can start draining all your opponents for a massive amount given enough time. Just imagine him with something like Wound Reflection, or Gray Merchant of Asphodel.

What's a meal without some leftovers? This deck has a bunch of reprints, but a few of them just taste better when you have them again. Toxic Deluge is a format staple and one of the most efficient board wipes out there. At the time of this article, the card is hovering around $17, which is a significant part of the value of the deck.

They haven't made a better mana dork than Birds of Paradise, the eponymous bird of the phrase "bolt the bird." It's easy to cast, gives you mana of any color, and is a flying blocker or attacker in a pinch. It's a staple in numerous formats and despite its many reprints, it manages to keep a monetary value of over $10.

Anguished Unmaking is one of the most efficient catch-all removal spells in Commander. Honestly I'm shocked to see it here instead of yet another reprint of Utter End. And Essence Warden gets an honorable mention for finally getting a reprint with some new art.

Dine and Dash

In all honesty, I was hoping to skip this release. Outside of the films and a rental of the absolutely terrible Super Nintendo game in the '90s I haven't had much experience with the source material. That said, I've really come to appreciate this deck. I like that we finally get a food commander that cares about using food for its intended purpose. The deck is well constructed and fun to play, and the art for some of the cards has a whimsical quality that reminds me of the oldest sets.

This is a deck I can confidently say is worth buying. It's got some great reprints as well as cool new cards that play with food tokens in ways we haven't seen before. It's also important to mention that we aren't likely to see these new cards, or the new art that's on the reprints, any time soon, if ever, so these cards might appreciate in value.

For all the good things I said about this deck, I do think there's room to improve. I can't help but feel some cards should have been included, but were left out since they don't fit the setting. If you want to find out just what those cards are, my upgrade guide is just around the bend. Be sure to check it out, and remember to budget before you buy it.

Scrap Trawlers

Scrap Trawlers is a Magic: The Gathering budget EDH streaming and video group, with gameplay, deck techs, chats, and more. Catch our videos at youtube.com/scraptrawlers. Andy, Lenny, and Bert.