Our time with the wonderful words of J.R.R. Tolkien stretches on as we relive the adventure of a lifetime with Bilbo, Gandalf, Thorin, the terrifying Dragon Smaug, and all the rest in Magic: The Gathering® | The Hobbit™. New (well, old) escapades beget new mechanics, and this set includes innovations worthy of song. Singing the rules text of your cards during games is optional, but if you want to learn all about what's going on in our journey, you simply must read on.

Storied

Your adventures across any table, be it a battlefield or a supper table, form stories to inspire and delight. As your legend grows through the new storied mechanic, your companions will be inspired to ever greater feats, much to your delight.

0165_MTGHOB_Main: Thorin Oakenshield

Storied is a static ability that dutifully looks over the permanents you control, waiting for two things to be true: One, that you control a permanent with storied. Two, you control three or more artifacts, legendary permanents, and/or Sagas. You may remember these as the same permanents that made up the historic batch, although historic isn't returning in this set. As soon as both of those things are true, you have an enduring story for the rest of the game. An enduring story isn't an ability or an object. It's a designation—just something that's true about you that abilities like Thorin Oakenshield's can notice so it can give artifacts and creatures you control ward {1}.

Once you've earned your enduring story, nothing can take it away from you. It doesn't matter if you lose control of the permanent with storied or any of your artifacts, legendary permanents, and/or Sagas. While all good stories may deserve embellishment, yours is written.

Recruit

Whether you're a Wizards hiring manager or an actual ancient Wizard architecting a grand heist, you need personnel. That's where recruit comes in.

0024_MTGHOB_Main: The Queen of Dale

Recruit is a new keyword action. When told to recruit, first draw a card. Yay! Cards are great. Then discard a card. Yay! Who needed that card? If you discarded a nonland card, create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token. Recruit fills up your side of the battlefield and your graveyard, all while accelerating you through your library, hopefully toward the perfect draw.

Hone Counters

What lies ahead is not all pony-rides in May-sunshine, as they say. Make sure every strike is true. Hone counters help you get the most from your Equipment, for even one of the most famous blades of all can be sharper still.

0178_MTGHOB_Main: Sting, Bilbo's Sword

Various cards in this set put hone counters on Equipment, including Sting, Bilbo's Sword, which does so for itself. Every hone counter on an Equipment gives +1/+0 to the equipped creature. Notably, this isn't an ability given to the Equipment. It's just true because of rules associated with the counter. You might think that's a pretty simple effect, easy to understand, and I'd have to vamp for quite a while just to make my wordcount for this section. And you would be correct.

Adventures

Bilbo's not the only one heading off on adventures in this set. Many other creatures (and other unexpected permanents) are going a-wandering, thanks to the returning Adventure subtype. If you've played with Adventures before, or even if you haven't, nothing about how they work has changed with this set. Though perhaps you're new to the Adventure game or you want a refresher. Sit, friend. Let me tell you a tale.

0032_MTGHOB_Main: Bilbo, Luckwearer

Each adventurer card has two parts. The first takes up most of the card and is a permanent of some kind. For example, Bilbo, Luckwearer is quite the legendary creature. The permanent's name, mana cost, type line, power, and toughness (if applicable) are in their customary positions, and its rules text is in the right half of the text box. The other part of the card is an instant or sorcery with the subtype Adventure and occupies the lower-left quadrant of the card. Adventures have their own name, mana cost, type line, and rules text.

As you play one of these cards, such as Bilbo, Luckwearer, you have a choice. You can cast the permanent part (or play it if it's a land, as some previous adventurer cards are). If you do, ignore everything about the Adventure and cast Bilbo as you would any other creature spell. Put him on the stack, pay his mana cost, and wait for him to resolve so he can begin his adv … Let's say "journey" in this section.

You can also choose to cast Burglar's Plot, the Adventure spell. If you choose this road, ignore everything about the permanent portion of the card. Burglar's Plot goes on the stack like any other sorcery spell. From there, it can be responded to or even countered. If it resolves, its mischievous effects will take place. But this plot has yet to fully unfold. An Adventure spell isn't put into the graveyard after it resolves. Rather, it's exiled. After an Adventure resolves and the card is exiled, you may play the permanent part of that card from exile. You can't cast the Adventure again from exile this way.

While a card with an Adventure is in your hand, library, or even exile, it has only the characteristics of the permanent part, not the Adventure. For example, if an effect allowed you to search your library for a creature card, you could find Bilbo, Luckwearer, and he'd certainly be grateful. If an effect had you searching for a sorcery card, however, you couldn't find this card, as none of the characteristics of Burglar's Plot are there to be found.

Amass

With all this talk of grand adventure and riches to be discovered, it might be worth pointing out that great forces of evil are gathering against you. On the bright side, you could have great forces of evil gathering against your opponents. That's more like it.

0148_MTGHOB_Main: Bolg of the North

Amass is a returning mechanic that also appeared in The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth™. Perhaps you've heard of it. The instruction to amass is followed by a creature type and a number, such as the amass Goblins X seen on Bolg of the North. Bolg could have been more helpful and provided an actual number there, but helpful doesn't appear to be in his nature. Let's say you're instructed amass Goblins 4. Here's how that works.

First, determine if you control an Army creature. If you don't, create a 0/0 black Goblin Army creature token. If you're amassing a different creature type, replace Goblin with that creature type. For example, if you amass Orcs 4 and don't control an Army creature, create a 0/0 black Orc Army creature token. The creature type added to Army on the token may change, but the token is always black.

0004_MTGHOB_TknBstr: Goblin Army Token

Next, choose an Army you control and put N +1/+1 counters on it, where N is the number in the amass ability. In this example, that was amass 4, so you put four +1/+1 counters on an Army creature you control.

Most of the time, the only Army creature you control will be a token you created using amass. However, Army is a creature type like any other, so you could control a nontoken Army, such as a creature with changeling. If you happen to control multiple Army creatures, you choose one of them to get the +1/+1 counters.

There and Back Again

… a subhead surely no one else will use.

Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit previews have begun. The set releases on August 14, 2026, and is available for preorder from your local game store, TCGplayer, Amazon, and elsewhere Magic is sold. The Prerelease is just ahead. Go forward? Only thing to do!