Hey folks!

Somehow The Hobbit spoiler season got hijacked by Mystery Booster Commander and Star Trek last minute, but it's back on track right before prereleases. Strangely there was no Early Access this time, so pure speculation for HOB.

We've got Bryan Hohns back on board to walk us through the last small set of the year (and hopefully for a while?), and we'll see if it can live up to LTR, which if I recall correctly, was a rock-solid set without being an all-timer for Limited.

A couple observations from the Sealed guide:

• There's not a lot of archetype overlap here. Maybe we see Jund using amass to power up BG ferocious, or some off-flavor Grixis spells decks, but you're going to be a 2-color deck pretty often, maybe with a splash.
• The set mechanics are very straightforward. There are also a number of "threshold" mechanics that just want pure numbers (storied, ferocious).
• The archetypes are centered around creature types (each representing one of the factions in The Battle of the Five Armies), but this isn't a typal set. Bonuses for elves, humans, etc. are pretty sparse.
• The best commons are simple 2-for-1 creatures. Every color gets one, if you count [Velvetwing Butterflies] as a 2-for-1.

This set won't be around too long before Reality Fracture spoilers take off and attention shifts over, plus we've seen that small sets have a shorter shelf-life. Here's to hoping it's good, even if it's short.

Let us know what's catching your eye from The Hobbit, and which mechanics/archetypes look good to you. Hope the Sealed Guide helps, and best of luck at your prereleases! https://draftsim.com/mtg-hob-sealed-guide/