The Hobbit

Magic: The Gathering - The Hobbit released on August 14, 2026 as a Universes Beyond set and the first Tolkien-universe expansion legal in Standard. It follows Bilbo Baggins from the Shire through Mirkwood to the Lonely Mountain, with Adventure as the primary returning mechanic. The official mechanics article adds three new ones: Storied, Recruit, and hone counters, plus the return of Amass, now building Goblin armies.

No traditional Commander preconstructed decks shipped with this release. Instead, two Scene Boxes, Crack the Plates and Treasures of Smaug, each contain three Play Boosters and six mechanically unique borderless foil cards that join into a displayable panorama. Five themed Welcome Decks round out the lineup alongside Play Boosters, Collector Boosters, Bundles, and a Draft Night kit. A cooperative Battle of Five Armies Co-Op Kit arrives separately in 2027.

The full set is on Scryfall: 321 cards in HOB and 158 in HOC. The main set counts 48 legendary creatures and seven legendary artifacts (Sting, Bilbo's Sword, Orcrist, Goblin-cleaver, The Arkenstone, My Precious, and Thrór's Map among them). Smaug the Magnificent leads the mythics alongside Thorin, Mountain-king, Thranduil, the Elvenking (Sultai), Bard, King of Dale (Azorius), Gollum, Riddle Master, and Elrond, Moon-Reader. The HOC set adds 31 legendary creatures, headlined by Sauron, the Dark Lord (Grixis), Sauron, the Lidless Eye (Rakdos), Tom Bombadil (five-color), Saruman of Many Colors (Esper), Witch-king, Bringer of Ruin, Aragorn, the Uniter (four-color), and Aragorn and Arwen, Wed (Selesnya), plus reprints of The One Ring, Mox Amber, both versions of Andúril, Mithril Coat, Palantír of Orthanc, and Orcish Bowmasters, and legendary lands Minas Tirith, Rivendell, The Shire, Minas Morgul, Dark Fortress, and Mount Doom. The 40 Middle-earth Classic Artist box toppers are borderless mythic reprints from Tales of Middle-earth, numbered HOC 13-52, headlined by The One Ring, Orcish Bowmasters, Delighted Halfling, and Mithril Coat. Collector Boosters carry further chase treatments including a gold Smaug of roughly 500 copies, Dwarvish language cards, and the Dragon Hoard Frame.

Set codes on Scryfall: HOB (main expansion, 321 cards) and HOC (The Hobbit Eternal, 158 eternal-legal cards). The full card list linked from this page has every card in both sets.

The Hobbit Prerelease Guide

Prerelease events ran August 7-13, 2026, one week before the set hit shelves. Each Prerelease Pack contains six Play Boosters, a traditional foil rare or mythic rare promo, and a Spindown life counter. You open your packs, build a 40-card deck with basic lands supplied by the store, and play casual sealed rounds. Many WPN stores still sell leftover Prerelease Packs to take home, so the sealed experience remains playable after release.

The Hobbit Welcome Decks

Five monocolored 40-card Welcome Decks released alongside the set, one each for white, blue, black, red, and green. They are free ready-to-play learning decks, not sold products: each contains commons and uncommons plus two rares and one mythic from HOB or HOC, some reprinted from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth, with basic lands and one nonbasic land. Participating WPN stores and select events such as Gen Con hand them out; ask your local store how it plans to distribute them.

Battle of Five Armies Co-Op Kit

The Battle of Five Armies Co-Op Kit is the set's cooperative multiplayer product, arriving separately in 2027. It fills the slot traditional Commander precons would normally take: The Hobbit ships no precons, and the co-op kit is the dedicated multiplayer box instead. Wizards has not yet confirmed the format, card composition, or an exact release date. This page will cover the decklists when they publish.