GameSpot’s Exclusive Magic: The Gathering – The Hobbit Cards Turn Death Into An Opportunity

• Part In Friendship (Enchantment)
  • Costs four generic and one green mana
  • Whenever a nontoken creature you control dies, reveal cards from the top of your library until you reveal a creature card. If its mana value is less than or equal to the number of lands you control, put it onto the battlefield. Otherwise, put it into your hand. Put the rest on the bottom of your library in a random order. This ability triggers only once each turn.

The solemn scene of Bilbo visiting with Thorin on his deathbed becomes a potent enchantment that will either replenish a fallen creature immediately, or place one into your hand for a future turn. In long, grindy games, it can be a big difference maker, especially if you can manipulate the top of your deck and sacrifice a smaller creature to bring down something massive. Imagine turning a 1/1 token into Craterhoof Behemoth, now that’s friendship.

Our second card is The Master of Lake-town.

• The Master of Lake-town (Legendary Creature – Human Advisor)
  • Costs one generic and two black mana to cast
  • 3 power/2 toughness
  • Deathtouch
  • Whenever a player loses life, that player mills that many cards. (Damage counts as loss of life.)
  • When The Master of Lake-town dies, draw a card for each graveyard with seven or more cards in it.

The greedy and cowardly Master of Lake-town is an interesting addition to mill decks, as he rewards aggression and damage with milling your opponent. Then, should he die in battle, he can immediately draw you a card thanks to the graveyards he helped stock. Self-mill decks won’t get too much out of him, but if your gameplan involves depleting your opponent’s library, you should definitely check this out.

The Hobbit expansion for Magic: The Gathering launches August 14 in local game stores and big box retailers. Prerelease events will take place in local game stores starting one week prior, on August 7.