The Hobbit (HOB) Limited Review: Blue

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 a week later on August 14, 2026. Want to learn more about how each card rates in Limited, with recommendations? Then check out this series of HOB Limited reviews!

• For an introduction to the mechanics, see this article: The Hobbit Mechanics Explained

Rating Scale

5.0: An unconditional first pick that brings you close to winning on its own.
4.5: An unconditional first pick if you are in the right colors; brings a huge advantage.
4.0: Worth first-picking. Great synergy with the color pair’s theme, and can be the deciding card for splashing / switching colors or moving into the color pair.
3.5: The set’s top uncommons and commons, plus other cards of sufficient power. Good synergy with the color pair’s theme, and a key card for moving into the color pair.
3.0: An 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 decent curve filler.
2.0 to 1.0: Below average. You generally lean toward leaving it out, and can use it as filler when necessary, but not too many.
0.5 to 0.0: Unplayable. Basically don’t play it; putting it in only helps you lose.

Ratings

Score: 3.0
Comment: A steady draw-one-discard-one looting engine. Even if you draw it late, you can still gain resources from the Adventure side, such as trading a 1/1 Human token for a big guy.

Score: 3.0
Comment: When it attacks you can recast an artifact/instant/sorcery from your graveyard. In addition, casting spells from anywhere other than your hand costs one less, which can also reduce the cost of creatures on an Adventure.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The Adventure can scry 2; a filler creature that draws a card on entering.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A beefed-up Catalog: besides draw two, discard one, it can also act as a soft counter.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Activating a creature’s ability lets you draw a card, including but not limited to a mana dork’s mana ability. In the mid to late game it can also act as one-turn soft removal or repeatedly re-trigger creature ETBs.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Whether you want to tap your opponent’s creatures to attack, or untap your own creatures after attacking to defend, it’s a good filler.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Five mana to make a target creature unable to block. The cost is a bit heavy.

Score: 3.0
Comment: Blue soft creature removal: it removes counters, taps the creature, and wipes it down to a vanilla. It’s probably the strongest blue soft-removal Aura in recent memory.

Score: 1.5
Comment: Draws cards when an artifact enters. Setting aside that a five-mana enchantment basically can’t start paying off until next turn, the blue themes (or themes touching blue) in this set barely have any artifacts or cards that make artifact tokens!

Score: 3.0
Comment: A five-mana 4/5 with ward 3 is quite hard to kill. Besides being a good defender, it can also convert itself into resources: if the opponent wants to kill it, you can wait until the ward cost has been paid and then activate the ability to wash it back.

Score: 4.0
Comment: When it attacks it can recruit and filter resources, the body is decent, and this set doesn’t have many cards that can handle it.

Score: 2.5
Comment: When you draw your second card you can put a counter on her, and her own vigilance is pretty good.

Score: 3.0
Comment: The Adventure side can protect your own permanents or re-trigger ETBs, while the creature side, besides being hard to handle with ward 2, also has vigilance for offense and defense at once.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A flier that does recruit once on entering, unfortunately with a rather small body.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Don’t be fooled by the eight-mana flash 8/8 flier that can also reduce its cost; including itself, this set has only 15 cards that are fliers or make fliers. If your deck doesn’t have more than five fliers I don’t recommend putting it in, as there’s a high chance it becomes a dead card stuck in your hand.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A two-mana 1/3 vigilance is already a decent body, and it gets +2/+0 for each graveyard that reaches the threshold (meaning if both graveyards reach the threshold it’s a 5/3 vigilance creature). Also, when you draw your second card it can make a target player mill three, so the threshold isn’t that hard to reach.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A three-mana 2/4 filler that can become a 4/2 on landfall.

Score: 2.5
Comment: The Adventure side can be used to find a sorcery or instant, while the creature side is a flier whose body is too thin.

Score: 3.0
Comment: On entering it gives one creature hexproof, and next turn gives a creature damage prevention until this Saga leaves, while also refilling two cards in hand, which can be used to trigger draw-your-second-card effects.

Score: 3.0
Comment: A stronger Think Twice. Although flashback costs one more, drawing one extra card in return is still pretty good.

Score: 3.0
Comment: It puts a counter when you draw cards, meaning it grows steadily every turn. The one flaw is that its initial body is too thin, so it may get killed before it grows beyond being handled.

Score: 3.5
Comment: Yet another Fact or Fiction-type card, but this one has the caster split the cards into a face-up pile and a face-down pile, and the opponent chooses which pile to give you.

Score: 2.5
Comment: A very flexible Saga, quite good whether you re-trigger your own landfall or creature ETBs.

Score: 2.0
Comment: Cancelis out of a job yet again.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A super expensive counter. Note that you can only steal the spell to use it when you counter a permanent spell.

Score: 2.0
Comment: When you cast a noncreature spell you can draw X and discard two, where X is that spell’s cost. Note that if you choose to draw, you must discard two regardless.

Score: 2.0
Comment: A blue soft removal spell that costs one less if you target an attacking nontoken creature.

Score: 2.5
Comment: Making creatures trigger twice (X), an Equipment that gives a creature prowess twice (O). The triggered abilities in this set are either all bad, or all ETBs, or else things that would already have won you the game if triggered once… and this set has only four Wizards, so that Wizard equip 1 is practically nonexistent…

Conclusion

When rating, my only thought on seeing Wizard's Staffwas: thankfully Vivi Ornitierhas already been banned, otherwise, casting a noncreature spell to deal two, put two counters and trigger prowess twice… how would you even play against that…

Also, quite a few creature or enchantment abilities in this set need a turn of warm-up time (you may have nothing to do on the turn you play them), so you can expect blue in this set to require a lot of patience.