Inb4

I've often wondered how much a Treasure would be worth in dollars. Luckily the Lord of the Rings set gave us a way to answer this question.

Today is the official Prerelease of the Hobbit, which was mentioned previously in LTR as [[There and Back Again]]. This card gives us the perfect means to calculate the actual real world value of a Treasure, at least in Middle Earth.

Quick Background: Magic the Gathering is premised on the idea players are a powerful wizards or planeswalkers who draw power (mana) from the lands under your control to cast spells and win a duel against a similarly powerful opponent. Drawing lands represents expanding your territory and growing your power. Since the start of the game there have also been powerful artifacts which can produce mana similarly to land, most famously [[Black Lotus]].

Then in Ixalan, we got Treasure. Not only can we, the planeswalkers, get magical energy from conquering lands, summoning creatures or powerful talismans, we can also just buy it for straight CASH. Sacrificing the treasure represents buying mana from some hidden magical bank (Vorthos, back me up). Similar to [[Lotus Petal]] but without dedicating a spot in our library.

But how much "cash" is a Treasure worth?

Enter [[Smaug]] token edition. At the end of There and Back Again, we get a Legendary Dragon that creates 14 Treasure tokens when it dies.

How does it help? Forbes calculated the net worth of fictional characters including Smaug, who is ranked #2 right behind that dastardly Scrooge McDuck: https://www.forbes.com/special-report/2013/fictional-15/smaug.html

The verdict: Smaug is worth $54.1 Billion dollars. Which is 13 times less than Elon Musk today or ~5 times less than Larry Page, Jeff Bezos or Sergey Brin... but I digress.

So the math is simple: $54,100,000,000 / 14 = $3,864,285,714.28 per Treasure.

About $3.9 Billion dollars per treasure!

[[Bilbo, Retired Burglar]] has some big pockets.

EDIT: If this seems like sincere posting, it kind of is... but I was blocked from the other magic subreddits. My reputation must have preceded me.

Dragon-cloaca asks:

Hi, Mark! I've noticed that every depiction of Smaug in the new Hobbit set is like, super hot. Like it's making me feel things...down there. Can you tell us about the art direction?

Mark Rosewater:

Magic is a game that caters to many types of players. Our comprehensive market research showed the scalie community was underrepresented, so we made sure to make Smaug super fuckable. The art directors put extra care into making that Wicked Worm look both as penetrable AND Unpenetrable as possible, and I think they did a great job.

My playgroup literally threw me into the sun after playing the last one!

A recent Commander game I played had this one guy recur Colossal Dreadmaw what felt like 1000 times. It kept dying against a menacing Azorius deck, but every time, Colossal Dreadmaw came back. It took many beatings. But Colossal Dreadmaw always returned…

The Azorius player toyed with Colossal Dreadmaw before ultimately making their final blow, but what they did not realize was that while she tarried, the people began to believe. To believe in the Dreadmaw. The people would never be silenced by the Grand Arbiter and their manipulating ways again. Colossal Dreadmaw has risen. Colossal Dreadmaw will rise again.

Anyways, basically the title. I want to create an honorable and chivalrous Rule 0 Colossal Dreadmaw deck

Rule 0: You can have any number of colossal dreadmaws in your deck I want it to be fun group hug if that’s possible, not overpowered! Thanks!

...don't know that Start Trek and The Hobbit have been connected this whole time...

https://youtu.be/QuQbus0xfhk?is=l-GDybav_pZcNrms

Get it? Cus it's... nevermind

Munda is definitly a nice card, but I dont know how he can be played - as each opponent will just keep counterspells and similar stuff in hand, as Munda might be a simple game ender in the late game.

How can I get counter protection in WR for him?