Deckbuilding picks
Best Hobbit Instants in Commander
- These 12 cards fill different jobs. Start with the problem your deck needs to solve, then read the mana cost and limitations before adding a card.
- Bilbo's Gambit can protect a decisive turn, The Eagles Are Coming! can rebuild after a wipe, and Settle the Wreckage can stop one player's attacking army. None is an automatic inclusion in every white deck.
- The profiles below explain rules and deck fit. They do not claim measured Commander win rates or represent the most-played cards in the format.
Protecting a decisive turn
Bilbo's Gambit for Commander
{1}{W} · HOB 5
- If your white Commander deck needs to force through a key turn, this is a useful two-mana option. It returns a spell to its owner's hand; if you promise the Treasure, players can't cast more spells that turn after Gambit resolves.
- If you promise the gift, the opponent gets the Treasure as Gambit resolves, before the bounce and casting lock. Nobody can cast a spell in the middle of that resolution. They can still respond before Gambit resolves, and they keep the Treasure for later.
- It doesn't counter the spell, which matters against spells that can't be countered. Opponents can still respond before Gambit resolves, and activated or triggered abilities remain available afterward.
Recovering from a board wipe
The Eagles Are Coming! for Commander
{1}{W} · HOB 12
- Keep this in mind for a creature-heavy white deck. Two mana saves one creature you own by returning it to your hand; six mana lets you choose any number and rebuild with a 4/4 flying Bird Soldier for each creature actually returned.
- The Birds arrive at the next upkeep, not immediately. Against a board wipe, cast Eagles before the wipe resolves so the replacement creatures appear afterward. You still have to pay to replay the creatures in your hand.
- Tokens can be returned and count toward the delayed Bird creation, even though they cease to exist afterward. That gives a token deck a different reason to want the card than a deck protecting expensive creatures.
Stopping one attacking army
Settle the Wreckage for Commander
{2}{W}{W} · HOB 26
- Choose this when combat damage is the way your group usually ends games. Four mana exiles all attacking creatures controlled by one target player, getting around indestructible and avoiding creature-by-creature targeting.
- That player can replace the lost attackers with tapped basic lands. Removing a lethal attack may be worth the ramp, but firing it off at a small attack can leave your opponent better positioned next turn.
- It doesn't clear blockers, utility creatures that stayed home, or another opponent's board. Hold it for the attack that justifies the exchange. This is a HOB reprint, included for its role rather than presented as a new design.
Turning a large threat into your own
Thranduil's Decree for Commander
{4}{U}{U} · HOB 56
- A slower blue Commander deck can turn six open mana into a swing: counter a permanent spell, exile it, and keep permission to cast that card without paying its mana cost while it remains exiled.
- You don't have to cast the stolen card immediately. Normal timing restrictions still apply, so a creature without flash usually waits for your main phase. Leaving mana up for Decree is a substantial commitment compared with a cheap counterspell.
- Use it for an opposing creature, planeswalker or other permanent that your deck actually wants. Countering an instant or sorcery answers it, but gives you no card to cast; a spell that cannot be countered doesn't supply the theft either.
Food and artifact decks after creatures die
Supper for Spiders for Commander
{1}{B} · HOB 86
- This is a specialist for black Food or artifact decks. After opposing creatures die, two mana can move the qualifying creature cards from opponents' graveyards onto your battlefield as Foods.
- They must have gone from the battlefield to those graveyards this turn. Milled or discarded creatures don't qualify. You aren't getting an army of creatures: the returned cards lose their other types and subtypes.
- The appeal is a burst of artifacts plus disruption of graveyard recovery. Cast it after the deaths, before the turn ends or an opponent moves those cards elsewhere. A deck with little use for Food should prefer more generally useful interaction.
Flexible removal for white creature decks
Stone by Sunlight for Commander
{1}{W} · HOB 27
- Two mana either destroys a creature with power 4 or greater or gives a creature indestructible while making it an artifact for the turn. The second mode makes the card useful when there isn't a large opposing threat.
- Protect your own important creature from a destroy effect, or remove a large creature across the table. You choose one mode, so it won't do both in the same casting.
- Indestructible doesn't stop exile, a forced sacrifice or toughness falling to zero. The removal mode also misses small engine creatures. Those gaps matter when deciding whether it replaces a less restricted answer in your deck.
Protecting a green attacker
Warg Tactics for Commander
{1}{G} · HOB 139
- The protection mode is the main attraction in a creature-focused green deck: a permanent +1/+1 counter, plus hexproof and trample for the turn. It can protect a threat from targeted removal while helping that threat get damage through.
- The alternative mode destroys a creature with flying, so the card still has a job when your own board is empty. Choose that mode when an opposing flyer is the problem you need to solve.
- Hexproof doesn't save a creature from a board wipe that doesn't target. Keep another plan for mass removal; this is a flexible combat and spot-removal tool, not a complete protection package.
Small creatures and artifact tokens
Pinecone Strike for Commander
{1}{R} · HOB 107
- A red deck facing small utility creatures and artifact tokens gets two relevant effects for two mana. You can deal 3 damage to a creature, destroy an artifact token, or choose both modes.
- A creature hit by the damage mode is exiled if it would die that turn. That can deny death-based recursion, but 3 damage still won't handle a large creature by itself.
- The artifact mode can't destroy an ordinary nontoken artifact. An opponent may sacrifice a targeted Treasure or Food in response if they can pay its activation cost, so don't treat every token target as guaranteed lost value.
Counterspell decks with discard synergies
Sound the Trumpets for Commander
{1}{U}{U} · HOB 55
- Three mana counters any spell. If that spell's mana value is 2 or less, recruiting adds a draw-and-discard selection step, with a 1/1 Soldier if you discard a nonland card.
- That bonus is more attractive when your deck can use the graveyard or the extra body. Discarding a land still filters your hand but makes no Soldier.
- The bonus doesn't make this a two-mana counterspell. If your deck struggles to hold up three mana, start with cheaper interaction; choose Trumpets when the recruit effect supports what your deck already does.
Card selection with graveyard value
Riddles in the Dark for Commander
{2}{U} · HOB 53
- For three mana, you see four cards and divide them between a face-up and a face-down pile. An opponent decides which pile goes to your hand, and the other goes to your graveyard.
- A two-and-two split guarantees two cards in hand if you looked at four, while a one-and-three split asks whether a particular card is worth denying you three others. Your opponent, not you, has the final choice.
- The graveyard half makes it appealing for decks that can reuse discarded resources. It is much less reliable as a way to find one specific answer immediately, because an opponent can deny that card.
A counterspell with a late-game fallback
Confusticate and Bebother for Commander
{2}{U} · HOB 35
- The choice here is practical: make a spell's controller pay four extra mana, or draw two cards and discard one. Early in a game, the tax may be impossible to pay; later, the filtering mode keeps the card from being completely stranded.
- Hold three mana when you expect an opponent to tap down for a threat. If no worthwhile target appears, the draw mode lets you improve your hand before your next turn.
- A player with four spare mana can pay through the counter mode. Drawing two and discarding one is selection rather than a net increase in hand size after spending this card.
Repeatable draw for spell and graveyard decks
Plunder the Trollshaws for Commander
{1}{U} · HOB 51
- Two mana draws one card from hand; casting it from a graveyard draws two instead. Its four-mana flashback gives a straightforward second use without needing another recursion card.
- Across both normal casts you spend six mana and one card to draw three, spread over two turns if you like. If you mill it first, flashback turns a card already in the graveyard into two new cards in hand.
- It doesn't affect the battlefield, so include it for spell-casting triggers or graveyard value rather than as an automatic blue staple. Flashback exiles it afterward, preventing an endless loop of the same copy.