I won’t lie. I’m not particularly excited for this set. My hobbit knowledge is lacking. Still, I’m always down for exciting new cards. I haven’t followed spoiler season too close this set, but some cards have stuck out to me. As always, this isn’t my guess on the most powerful cards or the cards that will shake up standard. These are the cards, regardless of format, that I am most excited to brew around. This is the part where I mention what formats I’m playing. Honestly, I’m mostly just playing Pauper and Tiny Leader. I play Pre-Modern, but unless some old card gets a stellar reprint, you won’t see a premodern on any of these  list. Still I do like other formats even if I am not currently playing them. Anyway, here’s my top 5!

#5 Mirkwood Nurturer

Mirkwood Nurturer is my kind of card. Sure as a 3 drop simic I don’t think it could compare to the likes of Uro or Nadu or Oko or Hydroid Krasis, but that’s beside the point. This reminds me more so of Cavern Harpy.

The good news for Nurturer is she is easier to cast and stronger too. Its enters trigger is also a lot more flexible. It allows you to bounce any permanent back to your hand, not a color restricted creature. The bad news is she cannot bounce herself back to protect herself or to keep looping bounces over and over.

I’m mostly interested in her in pauper, but maybe she’s an interesting combo piece in commander/Tiny Leader? Anyway, in pauper she can bounce enchantments like Journey to Nowhere. She can also return artifacts like Grim Bauble and Cyrogen Relic. I’m not sure the best enter the battlefields to abuse with it, but I guess you bounce Thraben Inspector or Spellstutter Sprite? Anyway, I think she is cool!

#4 Desolation Prowler

I get it. This card doesn’t seem like much. I don’t know if it will do anything in any format. In a way, I kinda feel like surely there’s other versions of this effect. Maybe I’m wrong? Anyway, I’m building my brother a Cecil Tiny Leader Reborn deck. You can turn 1 Cecil. T2 this guy. Activate his ability in T3 and get some serious swings going all the while draining your health for Cecil.

I don’t have a finished list for it so I’m always looking for serviceable ways to lower my health while being aggressive. I’ll try this little guy out and see how he does.

#3 Wizard’s Staff

Holy cow is this a cool magic card! My wife’s favorite key word is prowess. This allows her to give any creature prowess. The funny thing is she hates blue. I told her they finally made a card worthy of wanting her to play blue. Now the fun part will be finding a deck for her to play it in. My mind goes to something ghetto like sticking this on Guttersnipe. I know she’s going to want it to be a trigger that burns. Third Path Iconoclast is interesting in some kind of Izzet Tiny Leader deck. Not sure, but it’ll be fun.

#2 Riddles in the Dark

Okay. A micro Fact or Fiction? Yes, please. Where will this see play? I’m not entirely sure. In more recent formats it is competing against Stock Up. While in older formats there’s the likes of Fact or Fiction, Brainstorm or Preordain.

But to me, Riddles in the Dark is just a fun interesting card. My wife and I play shared deck formats. We have a lot of fun interaction like Memory Lapse, scry effects, and instant speed draw spell cards. Another wrinkle in the deck manipulation/battle for the top of the deck is cards like this. We get to play a fun mini game inside the game. Do you leave the best card face up and lay the 3 other day? Forcing your opponent to decide if they want you to get the best single card or 3 mystery cards. Another fun wrinkle for this card is it flips the dynamitc of Fact or Fiction on its head. It reverses the role, allowing you to separate the piles instead of the opponent. Again, I think its competing with a lot of other blue card advantage spells, but it is neat nonetheless.

#1 Thranduil, the Elvenking

Oh, boy. I did not know about this card until I started prepping for this blog. I’ve been a Golgari Elves player since Shaman of the Pact. I’ve never been able to justify going Sultai. Maralan tempted me earlier this year and with Thranduil, Sultai is getting harder and harder to ignore.

Here’s a post I found on reddit for different things he combos with. Now at the same time he is 5 mana and you really want a way to give him haste so you can try to win on the spot. As a result, I don’t think he will take over the world or anything. But as a fan of both elves and Sultai, I’m digging all the elf support Lorwyn and Hobbit has provided.

So there’s my top 5 cards I actually want to brew around with. Pauper Tron got a new little rock… or, uh, a giant boulder as it were this time that looks neat. What other cards are catching your eyes? Let me know. Thanks for reading and have a great day!