Wizards of the Coast has revealed 35 new cards for its upcoming Magic: The Gathering Universes Beyond set, The Hobbit: Tales from Middle-earth, during a panel at MagicCon: Amsterdam on July 18. The reveals included legendary characters, iconic locations, and special card treatments inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's novel.
New Mechanics and Legendary Creatures
The set introduces a new mechanic called "Storied," which grants additional abilities when a player controls three or more artifacts, legendary permanents, and/or sagas. Thorin Oakenshield, a legendary creature, utilizes this mechanic, granting ward one to your artifacts and creatures. Bifur, Melodic Rider, another member of Thorin's Company, also features the Storied ability, doubling triggered abilities from Dwarves and adding +1/+1 counters to your board.
Humans are also well-represented with Bard the Bowman and Bard, King of Dale. The Bowman variant buffs creatures with +1/+1 counters and lifelink when you draw extra cards, while the King of Dale enhances these abilities with two-card draws and token doubling. The Queen of Dale offers a Recruit ability that transforms opponents' noncreature spells into card selection and Human Soldier tokens.
Gandalf, Goblin's Bane, is presented as a mono-red adventure creature. His adventure spell, Flameshape, allows players to exile and later play cards from their library if they control a wizard. Once on the battlefield, Gandalf grows larger and pings each opponent for damage whenever a noncreature spell is cast.
Other revealed characters include Gollum, Riddle Master; Thranduil, the Elvenking; Silvan Reveler; The Chief Warg; and Bolg of the North, who can weaponize sacrificed creatures.
Iconic Moments as Spells and Lands
Many noncreature cards in the set bring memorable moments from The Hobbit to life. The Lonely Mountain land can generate 2/2 Dwarves if you have an equipment-heavy board. The saga Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern deals with opposing creatures, destroys artifacts, and generates mana, capturing a specific story event. The spell The Eagles Are Coming! temporarily returns creatures to hand, replacing them with Eagle tokens, offering a flavorful protection mechanic.
Supper for Spiders turns creatures that died that turn into Food artifacts. Sting, Bilbo's Sword, is an Equipment card, and Desolation of Smaug is a powerful sorcery that damages non-dragon creatures and provides mana specifically for dragon spells.
Special Card Treatments and Scene Boxes
Wizards also showcased premium treatments for the set. The Book Cover series provides alternate artwork for cards like Bard, King of Dale, and Gandalf, Goblin's Bane, styled after classic novel editions. A Borderless Dwarvish Language treatment reimagines cards such as Arcane Signet and Mox Amber with Tolkien-inspired script.
The Dragon Hoard frame will feature cards like Desolation of Smaug and The Queen of Dale. Additionally, two new panoramic Scene Boxes were revealed: Crack the Plates, depicting the dwarves' dinner party at Bag End, and Treasures of Smaug, showcasing the dragon's hoard with cards like Bilbo's Burglaring and Smaug the Impenetrable.
With these extensive reveals, Magic: The Gathering's The Hobbit set appears poised to be a faithful adaptation, blending familiar characters, story elements, and new gameplay mechanics.