The Hobbit (HOB) Limited Review — Black

Note: This article was translated from Chinese by AI and may contain errors. Read the original Chinese version.

The Hobbit (HOB) will hold its prerelease events on August 7, 2026, and officially launch one week later on August 14, 2026. Want to learn more about card ratings and advice for Limited? Then check out this series of HOB Limited reviews!

• For the mechanics, see this article: The Hobbit Mechanics Breakdown

Rating Scale

5.0: Unconditional first pick, gives a near-winning advantage
4.5: Unconditional first pick if you are in the right colors, gives a huge advantage
4.0: Worth first-picking, extremely synergistic with the color pair’s theme, and can be the deciding card for splashing/switching colors or moving into a color pair
3.5: Top uncommon or common of the set, or another strong card, synergistic with the color pair’s theme, and can be the key card for moving into a color pair
3.0: Important card for the color pair’s theme, or another above-average card that you want in your final deck
2.5: Average, usually a solid curve filler
2.0～1.0: Below average, generally leave it out, can be used as filler when necessary but not too many
0.5～0.0: Unplayable, basically don’t play it, playing it only helps you lose

Card Ratings

Score: 3.5
Comment: Getting one for three mana is already fine, and with support it can keep Amassing 1, and it gives the whole family of Goblins and Orcs menace to make them harder to block.

Note: There are no Orcs in this set; this was probably designed to connect to the earlier LTR. In Limited it is just a Goblin-only card.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Killing an opponent’s creature with 2 power or less is acceptable, and the 1/3 body can then block an Amass 2 token; killing your own creature is even better, since on top of Amass X you also draw a card.

Score: 3.5
Comment: A three-mana instant-speed hard removal, plainly and simply strong.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A three-mana jump-ship effect that can later be attached to a creature to add toughness.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Coming down on two mana, it feels like it can keep beating down, and the opponent will worry about whether you have the +2/+2, and trading two life for four life when unblocked is a good deal too.

Score: 3.5
Comment: At three mana it can now not only make the opponent discard but also Amass 1 and drain life, a massive upgrade.

Score: 3.0
Comment: It has a chance to be cast for two mana, and a 4/2 flier for two mana is simply too strong.

Score: 2.5
Comment: It has a chance to trade up, and it also works as a decent piece of fodder.

Score: 3.0
Comment: At four mana it is normally only strong if it can pull a creature with mana value three or four or less onto the battlefield, but it can also make a 3/3 or raise an army that could not attack yet to a body that can join combat; Amass 3 adds a lot of points to this card.

Score: 3.5
Comment: -5/-5 is equivalent to a hard removal spell, and giving the opponent’s whole team -1/-1 makes their blocks harder to trade with or wipes out the small creatures made by Recruit; the only shame is that it is not an instant.

Score: 3.5
Comment: It depends heavily on your understanding of the set and of the opponent’s hand, and if the opponent never plays cards at the matching cost this 3/1 is terrible. The expected value is drawing an extra card, so at least you don’t lose out.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A four-mana 4/3 with menace is a passable creature; the main point is that the Adventure side can pump your creature, turning a free kill into a trade, and both the Adventure and the creature support black-green ferocious well.

Score: 3.0
Comment: An annoying creature; with enough fodder you can keep returning it to hand and recasting it to drain two life.

Score: 2.5
Comment: The color pairs involving black this time all easily have creatures dying, and with it around you can keep filtering and filtering.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The two-mana Adventure serves as an early tempo play, but I personally find the six-mana creature itself a bit weak; still, any card related to Amass should not be too bad in this set.

Score: 4.0
Comment: It can even make a 2/2 Wolf off killing a token, and when it flashes in during a creature trade, the 2/2 Wolf it sends out gives you a big board advantage.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A card you can only use when ahead or when life totals are about even; it is normally stronger with X = 3 or more, but it can also come to nothing, which makes it quite unstable.

Score: 3.5
Comment: It has a chance to keep attacking and mill away all of the opponent’s resources, and after you die you can gain more than one card (both players’ graveyards are checked). But note that when you get hit, you get milled too.

Score: 3.0
Comment: With 4 power it is a 3/3 menace, and if you have a four-power creature, attacking with it lets you hit for 3, which looks rather impressive. But personally I think much of the time it will just be a one-mana 1/1 that at most steals a bit of life with menace; in a fast, aggressive deck it should perform well.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Without a doubt this will be the top black common: three mana to draw one, lose one life and Amass 2, but the key is that what you Amass is not necessarily a 2/2, and it has a chance to add counters upward so the body exceeds the opponent’s defenses.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A two-mana 2/2 deathtouch is an excellent curve play, and if it attacks alongside a four-power big guy it can also gain life.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Whether you need cards, need board presence, need to widen or recover a life gap, or need to finish something off, it is very handy; a very good three-mana combat trick.

Score: 3.5
Comment: It can pile the bodies of dead fodder all onto itself, and even when it dies it can bring back an army of the same size; the only thing to fear is exile-based removal.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A two-mana 2/2 that has a chance not to lose card advantage and can even ramp you by one mana; if you can make lots of tokens, it can also steal lots of life.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Why do these edict effects keep getting worse? It used to exile and now it only destroys, it really keeps getting worse. But unfortunately, in this set black is the only color with respectable removal, so this card will probably get played most of the time.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A two-mana discard effect that can later be eaten as fodder, a very good curve creature.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A sideboard card that gets more useful the stronger the opponent’s creature is, but think about why the opponent would trade attacks and blocks with a bomb against you and give you the chance to cast this; otherwise it is really pretty bad.

Conclusion

In this set, black and green (the power-four or bear-making side) look to be the hot color pairs. Looking at the set overall, there is relatively little removal and every creature is not weak, with the strongest few removal spells basically all in black. Could The Hobbit finally wash away the bad impression from previous sets that black was not that strong?