Supper for SpidersSupper for Spiders | Art by Michele Giorgi

After all the Heroes and Villains flying around with Marvel Super Heroes. (MSH), it's time to return to fantasy's roots. And I can think of no better world than that of Middle-earth with The Hobbit (HOB)!

I remember fondly reading the book and playing the Game Boy Advance game, less so the movies. But I think it's a wonderful world to re-explore and show a new side of Middle-earth, before the War of the Ring. And Minotaurs, though not present in this set, are sure to benefit.

For those new to my reviews, I analyze cards from the perspective of Minotaur typal and how they can be used in the various sub-strategies available, those currently being Aggressive Combat, Discard, and MagarMagar Big Spells. Each has their own nuances, but all broadly rely on the same core Minotaur typal backbone.

So with that, let's gather our party, recruit a Hobbit burglar and set out on an adventure of a lifetime. You never know what you may find on an unexpected journey.

The Sackville-BagginsesThe Sackville-Bagginses

So let's say, as a hypothetical, you go on a dangerous journey out of the blue. Who among us wouldn't assume you to be dead and your possessions are free for the taking? The Sackville-Bagginses would greedily support you.

These Hobbits are a strange kind of creature, in that they reward sacrifice. When they enter we can sac a creature or an artifact to draw a card and make a Treasure token. Then whenever we sac a token, an opponent will lose 1 life. I think it's very obvious that the intended line of thinking is to sacrifice Treasure tokens, and that is exactly what we will do.

We can make a pile of Treasure tokens from Ancient Copper DragonAncient Copper Dragon, Grim HirelingGrim Hireling, Professional Face-BreakerProfessional Face-Breaker and Brass's BountyBrass's Bounty. Then we can cash it all in to drain our opponents at lethal levels at instant speed. They are essentially a Mayhem DevilMayhem Devil for tokens.

This line of play works best with the sub-theme of Minotaur sacrifice strategies. Since we're already committing to sacrifices it just makes it easier to feed The Sackville-Bagginses.

Inside InformationInside Information

When I look through cards during spoiler season, I'm interested in the powerful cards that fill unusual purposes for Minotaur decks. I believe Inside Information may be one of those cards.

What intrigues me is that it's an X-cost theft-type card, but the cards we steal can be paid for with life instead of mana. This kind of effect is hard to objectively evaluate, because so much of the decisionmaking relies in the individual context of your pod. But to give this generic analysis, the card gets more the powerful the better our opponents are at deckbuilding. In lower brackets this might be fun, but ineffective. At higher brackets we can potentially snipe combo pieces or cheat out serious threats that out opponents are unable to handle.

Specifically for Minotaur decks, I like that this allows us to sink our mana into a powerful effect. When we're playing a NehebNeheb deck, it's common to have no cards in hand to get Neheb's power buff. With Inside Information, we can cast cards outside the hand. At the same time, because Minotaur decks are often aggressive, our life totals tend to be fairly high, affording us to cast a lot of the cards we steal without too much worry.

Overall I'm very interested in trying this card out to see if it performs as well, as I imagine it will.

Supper for SpidersSupper for Spiders

Well if it isn't a guest for Mr. Spider.

When I look at this card, my eyes light up. All I can think about are the moments where so many creatures die during combat. During mine or an opponent's turn, or even during a board wipe. And with this two-mana card, I can get everything under my banner as Food tokens. This gives all those creature enters-the-battlefield triggers on top of them being mana sinks to heal us in a pinch. This can make the difference in our strategy when we know we have life gain in our back pocket. It can make our all-out attacks less risky when we can pop these token Food creatures at any time.

On top of that, it denies decks that rely on a Reanimator strategy. When an opponent casts EntombEntomb, or self-mills their deck, we can take all of it. Hermit DruidHermit Druid doesn't look so sneaky when I'm plundering everything our opponent puts in the bin.

Desert Were-WormDesert Were-Worm

Someone call Kevin Bacon. Because these Wurms are making tremors.

This looks like a very interesting card because it rewards us playing Mountains, but also for having a high-power board. By my estimates, it shouldn't be too hard to meet the 12-power requirement thanks to our Minotaur lords and Sethron'sSethron's tokens. When we do, this allows us to get an additional combat phase so we can really lay on the beatdown. If a player is trying to set up their value engine, we be like Lisan al-Gaib and crash this Wurm right through all their defenses.

This will be effective with most Minotaur decks, but MagarMagar will especially benefit as he wants there to be as many combat phases as possible.

Burn, Burn, Tree and FernBurn, Burn, Tree and Fern

You know, were this Christmas, I think this would be our tree.

It's not every day that a Saga is printed that does everything a red Commander deck needs. We have creature removal, artifact removal and then two turns having an extra mana. It would be perfect if it were a little cheaper.

At four mana, this card is fine by my book; in fact I quite like it. But being fine these days is relegated to Commander decks in Bracket 1 or 2. Being "fine" just isn't good enough anymore. Even still, I can't help but smile fondly on Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern. Maybe because it really does remind me of Christmas. Or of days gone past where this would be a staple, or perhaps when EDH was driven by the casual kitchen table fun.

I suppose either way, we will watch this tree burn and look on thinking of better times.

Orcrist, Goblin-cleaverOrcrist, Goblin-cleaver

Holy Cow! When I saw this card I knew it had to be in every Minotaur deck I build.

While Orcrist will play well with any creature typal strategy, we're here to talk about the Minotaurs.

Let's start things off with the simple parts. Orcrist gives the equipped creature +2/+2 and trample. Already this is helpful as we can power up our Minotaurs quite effectively; most Minotaurs are weak individually so this can elevate a Deathbellow RaiderDeathbellow Raider into a creature that can trade blows. This especially increases when we can add our other Minotaur lords into the mix.

The next part though is the whole ball game. When the equipped Minotaur deals combat damage, we get Treasure tokens for every Minotaur we have in play. It cannot be stressed enough how critical it is for Minotaur decks to have mana acceleration. Minotaurs are not known for having cheap mana costs, so we need every advantage we can get from cards like RagemongerRagemonger or Urza's IncubatorUrza's Incubator. Being able to generate a lot of Treasure tokens through combat is just the pinch of gas that can be make-or-break in many games. Then, factor in The Sackville-Bagginses I talked about earlier, and our Treasures become a part of our burn.

I will acknowledge that this is an expensive card with its casting cost and equip cost. However, once it starts connecting it should more than pay for itself during a game. And the longer it exists on the battlefield, the more value we can derive.

Troop of PoniesTroop of Ponies

Now I know what you might be thinking. That's not a cow, that's a Horse. But I think I'm onto something here.

Back when I started playing Commander, Burnished HartBurnished Hart was a staple of the format and was essential to helping you ramp decks that weren't in green. Now, it's been a long time since Burnished Hart has been a relevant card for EDH, which is why I think Troop of Ponies interests me. Its slightly cheaper in mana and thus more effective, but it's also a little weaker.

The primary difference between the Ponies and Burnished is that Ponies cost two mana and two mana to activate with a tap, while Burnished costs three and three mana to activate. So what this means is that Ponies can be played turn two and then turn three we can pay two to get a land. While with Burnished we need to be on turn three and then activate turn four or spend all our mana on turn six to get an extra land. Any way you slice that, the Ponies are just strictly better. The fact is Minotaur decks need ramp badly, but we don't have good options. Ponies, while still not ideal, is probably one of the best things we can do while also not wasting a whole turn when we need to stay aggressive and keep up the pressure.

Conclusion

And with that, we return to the Shire with The Hobbit's journey coming to a close. I was really impressed by the direction of this set and including all the various generic creatures. I think a lot of Universes Beyond sets could learn something from The Hobbit. It's always a breath of fresh air when some whimsical and classic fantasy is represented in UB sets.

Looking forward, not too long from now we're going back to the Magic universe to see what the conclusion of Jace's master plan to fix the Multiverse is. I've been really interested in Jace's villain arc and I can't wait to see how this storyline concludes with Reality Fracture.

Until next time, be sure to check out the other set reviews found on EDHREC for a broader analysis on everything the set has to offer.