Oh neat it's actually human soldier tokens for once. So used to seeing only Soldier tokens
Sets The Hobbit
- Thread starter Velrun
- Start date
Screw you, wizards!
I support prowess and goblin type. I have done a few scryfall searches on goblins that care about non-creature spells, and so far I found essentially nothing. Now they print this, and it's kinda perfect, but I really don't like amass. It's a unique token, and it's also still weird to me to imagine an army that is represented by one game object. You can unsummon the whole army, but you cannot unsummon two separate creatures. That bothers me for some reason. It's also weird to have something be called an army, and it's just a 1/1 or 2/2.
Still going to test this. Hope it's not too strong, honestly. I guess it's still slightly worse than young pyromancer because you can answer the army with one spell?
I support prowess and goblin type. I have done a few scryfall searches on goblins that care about non-creature spells, and so far I found essentially nothing. Now they print this, and it's kinda perfect, but I really don't like amass. It's a unique token, and it's also still weird to me to imagine an army that is represented by one game object. You can unsummon the whole army, but you cannot unsummon two separate creatures. That bothers me for some reason. It's also weird to have something be called an army, and it's just a 1/1 or 2/2.
Still going to test this. Hope it's not too strong, honestly. I guess it's still slightly worse than young pyromancer because you can answer the army with one spell?
I actually love this goblin. 2 mana for making a token off a noncreature spell might be a first. The fact you are making an army that stacks rather than going wide means it’s worse than Young Pyromancer and Ravenous Robots for spells and artifacts respectively, but I run both and I am thinking I could save a slot. Or at the very least swap one out for the goblin.
I also really like the subtle push towards sacrifice to maximize your token generation and the fact that this is another Red +1/+1 counter card (Inti, Ivora, Mako, Gau, Shivan Devastator, …).
I think it’s @EzPzJapanezy that runs Skirk Prospector and that seems crazy for a goblin storm build.
I also really like the subtle push towards sacrifice to maximize your token generation and the fact that this is another Red +1/+1 counter card (Inti, Ivora, Mako, Gau, Shivan Devastator, …).
I think it’s @EzPzJapanezy that runs Skirk Prospector and that seems crazy for a goblin storm build.
Dom Harvey
Contributor
I love Noisemaker; this set is looking very promising for People Like Me so far
This card looks fantastic. I have sacrifice in black and an overarching artifact theme in all colours, so this should be a great fit for any color combination.
It's best buddies with Marionette Apprentice and Umbral Collar Zealot, I'm just wondering if it's getting too much. Tokens is a bit more specific than creatures or artifacts but I could see myself cutting Vraan, Executioner Thane or Warren Soultrader (I absolutely love this card but it just comboes with a ham Sandwich).
If nothing else this set is exciting enough that I feel like working on my cube again (sometime.. soon..). I just wish it were not tied to an external IP.
Noisemaker is fantastic. I think if you have enough sacrifice support, it's just a better YoungP, a card I famously have issues with. I'd rather go wide than go tall with my tokens, but the second toughness and practically doubling the amount of cards that trigger it, especially in a world where I'm paying even more attention to artifacts and enchantments, seems like a card to pay attention to. Not a lock or anything, but I'm doubtful I'll skip it, and I may even be inspired to test out Skirk Prospector myself again for the first time in a decade plus.
Bilbo's Gambit is a delight. I'm very happy to be getting more counter magic in White, and this feels like a very White way to do it. While it's not the color-shifted Memory Lapse I've been hoping for, and it's got slightly weird art and a name that's not very reprint friendly, this is a card I'm excited to play. The Silence effect on a kicker may be more appropriate for EDH, but overcomes one of the biggest issues with Remand effects in 1v1 as well: your opponent can always just play it again. Making them wait another turn to do so is an awesome tempo play, and the treasure token won't really matter by the time it comes up. I wish the reminder text for the gift wasn't so long, but I will absolutely not play with "gift" cards without it.
The Sackville-Bagginses feels just shy of my desired power level, but in terms of mechanics, it's a great match, so I'm still interested. Like Marionette Apprentice, it (generally) comes in with an artifact token and can be a legitimate win condition in your trinket-focused decks. Curving into this after a Cult Conscript or the like will feel amazing, and at that point in the game, I'd much rather a Treasure than a Servo. Being able to draw a card later in the game is a great addition to have on a 2-drop as well. It's an excellent design overall.
Bilbo's Gambit is a delight. I'm very happy to be getting more counter magic in White, and this feels like a very White way to do it. While it's not the color-shifted Memory Lapse I've been hoping for, and it's got slightly weird art and a name that's not very reprint friendly, this is a card I'm excited to play. The Silence effect on a kicker may be more appropriate for EDH, but overcomes one of the biggest issues with Remand effects in 1v1 as well: your opponent can always just play it again. Making them wait another turn to do so is an awesome tempo play, and the treasure token won't really matter by the time it comes up. I wish the reminder text for the gift wasn't so long, but I will absolutely not play with "gift" cards without it.
The Sackville-Bagginses feels just shy of my desired power level, but in terms of mechanics, it's a great match, so I'm still interested. Like Marionette Apprentice, it (generally) comes in with an artifact token and can be a legitimate win condition in your trinket-focused decks. Curving into this after a Cult Conscript or the like will feel amazing, and at that point in the game, I'd much rather a Treasure than a Servo. Being able to draw a card later in the game is a great addition to have on a 2-drop as well. It's an excellent design overall.
Belladonna Took! Bilbo's mom is pretty cool. This is similar to Staff of the Storyteller, which has been excellent for us. The advantages are exciting: more upside potential (the Basri's Solidarity's effect is real good in a token deck), not having to pay for the card draw, bigger body on ETB, can trigger on both your turn and your opponent's turn. It's a legendary creature too, which is nice for me, and can be Helping Handed.
The downsides are notable, though, especially the big one: you need to get two tokens in a given turn to get the card draw. I like getting the first hit "free" from Staff too. It's just a bear if you never get a token. A 1/1 spirit token is no slouch, and two game pieces, one of which is an artifact, all contribute to make the Staff the superior card overall. That said, I love the staff. I'm currently playing two other cards similar to it, and have been looking at Tippy-Toe as well:
I like Belladonna Took more than Caretaker's Talent, and that's currently my planned swap. I like her more than Bennie too, but I have a soft spot for the card and find the convoke lets the card over-perform my expectations whenever I play him.
I understand the frustration from some players about these kinds of EDH-centric designs narrowing the strategic complexity of the game while simultaneously muddling the board state complexity, but I think this is straightforward enough for me and my players, and it's a good signal for drafters, particularly those less familiar with my Cube's 720 glorious cards or Magic in general. I am glad that this engine card is not generating tokens on its own as well. We only need one Ivora, Insatiable Heir (love you, baby).
Honestly, I sometimes forget that the set is UB. Cards just look like magic cards to me. Unlike Aetherdrift or Outlaws.
The real magical Christmas land is wombo comboing your Kudo, King Among Bears with Beorn.
I think Beorn, as much as I love it, is a little too Magical Christmas Land for me
While not needing any typal payoffs, I do think these cards are more fun when there are other cards sprinkled throughout the cube to work with them. Unfortunately I'm not running any bears, but Kudo, Wilson, Refined Grizzly, Hurska Sweet-Tooth, and Lumra, Bellow of the Woods are all other bears I wouldn't mind running on their own. Also shout-out to Doric, Nature's Warden who turns into a bear.
It's probably a lesser powered card on average, but I think I prefer Sauron, Dino Devotee in this slot instead, and wouldn't run both as they have such similar effects.
Speaking of typal payoffs, here's one I'm closer to including, if it weren't for the color identity. Everything it does is mono green card at heart, and plays well into a lot of those decks. It's a premier 3MV reanimation target, makes tokens for go wide, provides good sacrifice fodder, and turns on power 4 or greater, with trample providing a good place to put counters.
I might proxy this as
or just for an excuse to run it. I was already trying to find space for Titania, Rugged Rumbler (another primo Unearth payoff) but this might take her place instead.Really though I just wanted to talk wolves! Torgal, A Fine Hound, Summon: Fenrir, Nightpack Ambusher, Cemetery Prowler and Ranger Class are all banger wolves in green. Honorary mentions to Young Wolf, Master of the Wild Hunt as well. Lastly, Faldorn, Dread Wolf Herald, Arlinn Kord, Garruk Relentless, and Tolsimir, Friend to Wolves all make for interesting splash options.
I don't think you need all of these of course, but a few allow for interesting payoffs that aren't going to railroad your drafts in the way other 'types matter' cards do.
To thematically round this out, I don't support goblins but I think this will perform better than Young Pyromancer on it's own merit. Having this be your only amass card is basically an upside, compared to most mechanics that are more deterimental for running on their own. I had been thinking of trying Molten-Core Maestro, but triggering off noncreature spells instead of Instants/Sorceries is just such a huge upside lately. I expect this one to become a cube stable.
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@Nanonox
It is UB reveals like these that make me cry lol, Bothersome Noisemaker is probably one of the best Goblin Tribal glue cards I have ever seen. The noncreature trigger bridges Instant / Sorceries and Artifacts and some classic Gobbos dabble in both.
Amass definitely plays worse than it looks but Goblins are kind of in that unique position where they are good at utilizing both modes. The constant snackrifices help reset token production, while the hordes of Pump / Haste enablers like Goblin Chieftain & Goblin Warchief make that Amassing Army a fast threat.
Seems really good with pieces like Goblin Sledder / Mogg Raider and yeah Skirk Prospector. Goblin Sharpshooter, Sling-Gang Lieutenant, and Pashalik Mons seem awesome with this setup. Good Goblin Grenade support.
While Amass limits its potential here, it is definitely not bad with Sparksmith or Goblin Piledriver.
Goblins also dip their toes into 'Power Matters' a little with cards like Spikeshot Elder, Ardoz, Cobbler of War, Molten-Core Maestro, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin. While not always Plan A, cards like Fling and Thud can help give these veritcally growing threats reach and an Amassed Army wouldn't be an exception.
It is UB reveals like these that make me cry lol, Bothersome Noisemaker is probably one of the best Goblin Tribal glue cards I have ever seen. The noncreature trigger bridges Instant / Sorceries and Artifacts and some classic Gobbos dabble in both.
Amass definitely plays worse than it looks but Goblins are kind of in that unique position where they are good at utilizing both modes. The constant snackrifices help reset token production, while the hordes of Pump / Haste enablers like Goblin Chieftain & Goblin Warchief make that Amassing Army a fast threat.
Seems really good with pieces like Goblin Sledder / Mogg Raider and yeah Skirk Prospector. Goblin Sharpshooter, Sling-Gang Lieutenant, and Pashalik Mons seem awesome with this setup. Good Goblin Grenade support.
While Amass limits its potential here, it is definitely not bad with Sparksmith or Goblin Piledriver.
Goblins also dip their toes into 'Power Matters' a little with cards like Spikeshot Elder, Ardoz, Cobbler of War, Molten-Core Maestro, Krenko, Tin Street Kingpin. While not always Plan A, cards like Fling and Thud can help give these veritcally growing threats reach and an Amassed Army wouldn't be an exception.
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This set is scoring very favorably on my scale for UB cards that don't need a re-skin.
There's a lot here already that would work in my Landfill cube:
Master's Councillors is a sweet card that plays really well with all the Blue draw/discard spells here.
Elven Raft-Steerer provides some consistency for the Infinite Landfall Triggers combos, as a creature version of Retreat to Coralhelm
Silvan Reveler is one of those cards that basically describes the whole thesis of the cube in its text box. SO HAPPY this isn't called "Rivendell Reveler" or something.
Part in Friendship is very correct for the environment but might not be able to compete for a spot. Right now there's only one green enchantment, Prismatic Undercurrents, and I like it even more.
And then there's Desert Were-Worm, who is now on-deck to replace Moraug, Fury of Akoum if his price tag gets out of hand. Absolutely SICK art on this Worm.
There's a lot here already that would work in my Landfill cube:
Master's Councillors is a sweet card that plays really well with all the Blue draw/discard spells here.
Elven Raft-Steerer provides some consistency for the Infinite Landfall Triggers combos, as a creature version of Retreat to Coralhelm
Silvan Reveler is one of those cards that basically describes the whole thesis of the cube in its text box. SO HAPPY this isn't called "Rivendell Reveler" or something.
Part in Friendship is very correct for the environment but might not be able to compete for a spot. Right now there's only one green enchantment, Prismatic Undercurrents, and I like it even more.
And then there's Desert Were-Worm, who is now on-deck to replace Moraug, Fury of Akoum if his price tag gets out of hand. Absolutely SICK art on this Worm.
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I like equipment sub-themes, but I don't run any the moment -- not even Stoneforge! It's hard to manage the A+B perfectly, and they end up being either too linear or too feast/famine. Still, some cards that contribute to the idea are always nice, and I have plenty of equipment. This seems like a very nice little upside that's not too busted a la Ragavan but still feels meaningful on a 2/1 for 1 in red, which is a card type I do like. I don't know that it pushes out any of the ones I'm already running, but I like having this as an option.
Chris Taylor
Contributor
LoTR feels more at home than some in universe sets, as ravnic has pointed out
And honestly, if you are adding a unique token, a token you're guaranteed to only need one of is not the worst place to be
And honestly, if you are adding a unique token, a token you're guaranteed to only need one of is not the worst place to be
Honestly happy with how this feels mostly like just a magic set? It's one step closer to "just dominaria" than the original LotR set was.
A frame I think only _kind of_ made sense for 40k?
This could actually be an interesting role player. It kind of fits into all my red archetypes. It's a goblin or even two. It's decent if you discard it. It's a non-creature spell. I kind of wish this one was hybrid because it's so flexible, yet low impact, but I think the rate might be just good enough for it to be playable
The new Bilbo, Dreadhorde Arcanist and Snapcaster all look fantastic alongside this card. Red now has a surprising amount of cards that have counters, so that might be a direction to explore as well.
This set has been kind of disappointing so far. I like the new Gandalf, and Smaug would be cool at bulk rare prices, but there's very little in the rest of what we've seen, in my opinion, at least if you're not looking to Amass.
Maybe there will be something cool towards the end!
Maybe there will be something cool towards the end!
MAKE WAY FOR THE MVP
Or should I say MVBee!?
Or should I say MVBee!?
I was actually feeling the same way. Maybe I'm feeling this way because it's a small set and the spoilers have been slower than in other recent sets. It's a full two-week spoiler season, something we don't even normally get with large sets. We haven't even seen half the cards yet...though I will say, for the last year or so, there have been a lot fewer last-day treats than we'd have in the past.
...but then I looked at the cards I'm interested in and it's quite extensive.
(yes, Bothersome Noisemaker has amass but I wanted to include all the cards that are appealing to me for my own sake)
With a Cube of my size, it's very normal for me to have 15-25 cards in a set I'm interested in, even if that ends up being just ten or so long-term inclusions. The above cards are different in that 1) the flavor is great across the board, so they'll happily replace more odious aesthetics and 2) the cards feel more ideal for my Cube on many vectors, so they're not just replacement-level cards that I'll freely swap out to hit balance/archetype support purposes. Of the above cards, only Gollum, Riddle Master is so generic that I feel like there's no motivation.
So yeah, it feels like a pretty slow spoiler season, but we are getting another white counterspell and some pretty compelling individual cards. If I had a 450-sized Cube or smaller, I'd probably be in your shoes that there's little here to get me going, which is sad because the art is so great, so I get it.
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On to new spoilers, the last few years have seen a few cards that are acceptable fixing for Bar Cube-styled builds, like Campus Guide, Dune Mover, Silver Deputy, Compass Gnome, Embermouth Sentinel, and Spider-Bot. But now we get a much cleaner version
Old Thrush loses many of the benefits of the above cards by not being an artifact, but it feels more...honest? I don't really like removing possible synergies, but I'm kind of glad to see colorless critters like this from time to time. I like the life gain too, it reminds me of Environmental Sciences/Aang's Journey, which both came in clutch in their respective environments.
Pretty low power, but it's a good piece to work with, and unlike most of the cards mentioned in comparison, it feels very classic fantasy and will fit in a lot of Cubes.
I like this. Scry 2 is nearly draw one, so I feel like this is only slightly (but meaningfully) worse than Chromatic Star /Chromatic Sphere. For its repeatable effect, the capacity to use its ability the turn you cast it, and the potential late-game value of it turning into a Vindicate, I like it more than Jack-'o-Lantern and Wizard's Rockets, both of which have had tenures in my Cube. What's most valuable about this card to me is its ability to be nabbed with Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, Urza's Saga, Trinket Mage, and for others, Brightglass Gearhulk. The more elements a fetchable Swiss Army Knife can have, the more exciting they are.
The "Storied" mechanic is simultaneously annoying and ideal. Gameplay wise, it's excellent for my Cube, which cares very much about Historic, and is a nice thing to care about. On the other hand, I hate having an extra thing to track, and I thought they were moving away from Day/Night-style mechanics that made useless statuses that may or may not be relevant later in the game. I'd really rather avoid having this mechanic in my Cube, as I've tried to with Ascend. (I only have one Ascend card in my Cube, and it drives me nuts but I really don't want to cut it).
Óin the Brave is impressive as a common. I don't like common legends for the gameplay in retail, but this has a lot going on I like. It'd be a Bar Cube staple for me if only Storied didn't expect you to keep track of it.
Bombur, Gentle Dreamer is a great design (other than the Storied mechanic itself, of course), because a 5/3 for 3 is truly cool and you're able to get your first attack in if you need if before you cross the threshold without issue. I love big dudes like this. I think I could justify this in my Cube if it had trample, even if I shouldn't, but it doesn't, and I'd rather keep Storied out if possible.
I know WotC doesn't like mechanics like Metalcraft because it requires players to always ask "wait how many artifacts do you have now" repeatedly, and this feels like an extension of EDH-driven design to acquiesce to such needs, but the "I triggered Storied once and now I'm fine for the game" has worse memory considerations and less your opponent can do as counter-play. It's just a bummer.[/c]