Every Mechanic in Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit TCG Explained

Storied

Storied is a static ability, always on and never using the stack. It watches your board for two conditions. First, you control a permanent with storied on it. Second, you control three or more artifacts, legendary permanents, and/or Sagas.

That is a combined count, not three of any one type, though a single permanent only counts once even if it qualifies two ways.

The moment both are true, you have an enduring story for the rest of the game.

An enduring story is not an ability or an object on the battlefield. It is a designation on you, the player, and nothing removes it. Your opponent can kill the storied creature, bounce your artifacts, and exile your Sagas, and you keep it.

Thorin Oakenshield is the poster child. A two mana Boros 3/2 with trample, he grants your artifacts and creatures ward (1) once your enduring story is online.

Those three permanent types should sound familiar, too. They are the same batch that made up historic, though historic itself is not in this set.

*Buy Thorin Oakenshield cards on eBay and TCGPlayer

Recruit

Recruit is a new keyword action, essentially connive wearing a different coat. When you recruit, you draw a card, then discard a card. If the discarded card was a nonland card, you create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token.

Connive puts +1/+1 counters on the creature that connived, pushing you tall. Recruit hands you a fresh body instead, pushing you wide, which suits the go wide white/blue humans the set is pointing toward.

The Queen of Dale is the card to watch. For two mana, this 2/1 Human Noble recruits whenever an opponent casts their first noncreature spell each turn.

In a four-player pod, that “whenever an opponent” text works overtime, smoothing your draws, handing you a repeatable discard outlet, and dropping soldiers off actions your opponents were taking anyway.

*Buy The Queen of Dale cards on eBay and TCGPlayer

Hone Counters

Hone counters are the simplest of the three new additions, and that is a compliment. Various cards in the set put hone counters on Equipment, and each one grants +1/+0 to the equipped creature.

That bonus is not an ability the Equipment has. It comes from rules attached to the counter itself, so effects that shut off abilities do not turn it off. Voltron players will appreciate that the first time someone tries to blank their board.

Sting, Bilbo’s Sword handles its own honing. For two mana with flash, it enters with a hone counter for each creature target opponent controls, then attaches to a creature you control.

Note that it counts one targeted opponent’s creatures, not the whole table.

Against a wide board it turns a modest attacker into a real problem at instant speed. Against an empty one it does very little, so read the room.

*Buy Sting, Bilbo’s Sword cards on eBay and TCGPlayer

Adventures

Adventure returns, and nothing about how it works has changed. Each adventurer card has a permanent on the main body and an instant or sorcery with the Adventure subtype in the lower left quadrant. You choose which half to play.

Cast the permanent and you ignore the Adventure entirely. Cast the Adventure and it goes on the stack like any other spell, where it can be countered. If it resolves, the card is exiled rather than binned, and you may cast the permanent half from exile later.

While the card sits in your hand, library, or exile, it only has the characteristics of the permanent half.

Bilbo, Luckwearer is a blue 1/1 Halfling Rogue who can’t be blocked and loots whenever he connects with a player. His Adventure half, Burglar’s Plot, exchanges control of two nonland permanents sharing a card type.

Search for a creature and you find Bilbo. Search for a sorcery and you cannot.

*Buy Bilbo, Luckwearer cards on eBay and TCGPlayer

Amass

Amass returns from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth with one change. You now amass Goblins rather than Orcs.

The mechanics are unchanged. When you amass Goblins 4, first check whether you control an Army creature.

If you don’t, create a 0/0 black Goblin Army token. Then put four +1/+1 counters on an Army you control. These tokens are always black regardless of the creature type attached.

Magic has a deep Goblin pool stretching back decades, making these Army tokens compatible with far more existing Commander and Legacy decks than Orc armies ever were.

Bolg of the North shows the payoff. Sacrifice another creature to him and he slings that creature’s power at another creature, then amasses Goblins equal to whatever damage was excess.

*Buy Bolg of the North cards on eBay and TCGPlayer