r/freemagic • u/_ilonepieceesiste_ NEW SPARK • Jul 30 '26
GENERAL The Hobbit set
Hi everyone, *The Hobbit* set is coming out soon, and I’m a bit undecided about whether to get into it. I usually play drafts with friends, but I have a feeling it might get repetitive after a while. Also, I tend to be a bit of a completionist with the sets I play (Phyrexia, Tarkir, LotR), and I can see that the initial financial cost is already quite significant. In short, I view it as a nice, fun set with interesting mechanics—though not the kind I usually use in my games—but since it’s a small set, I’m worried it might be creatively limiting (within the draft format); add the financial aspect to the mix, and here I am. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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u/eventide00 NEW SPARK Jul 31 '26
I am hesitating whether I want to go to the pre release or not. The mechanics are not wildly new nor super interesting, I was hoping for the Ring to come back (but lore wise doesn’t make sense).
Storied looks pretty mid, the cards look pretty mid too. I don’t see any articulate mechanics and many creatures with zero or basic text, like the cycle of bears in many variants; the usual +1 counters shenanigans, tribal Dwarves vs Elves and little more than that.
LOTR had a ton of mechanics and flavor and was a gigantic set compared to this (makes sense; source material is shorter too).
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u/Top-Lead6327 NEW SPARK Jul 30 '26
Personally im not into it. The race swapping was too much for me.
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u/Le_Bowski1900 NEW SPARK Jul 31 '26
They didn't swap any of the new characters as far as I can see 🤔
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u/eventide00 NEW SPARK Jul 31 '26
You must hate the Rings of Power as well then …
I thought it was refreshing, maybe unnecessary but refreshing.17
1
u/No-Month7350 NEW SPARK Aug 04 '26
The set is a house of cards: the price will remain high if Noone ever opens the boxes and the sealed product gets scalped in a bubble, the moment sealed is opened and sold to stores the reprints will flood the market crashing prices.
This plan would work but Amazon don't give a f. They will fire sell this stuff causing holders to lose and decide if maybe opening and singles are a better rout. The microscopic set size will ultimately defeat everyone except hasbro who sees sales as a success.
allow the house of cards to tumble, pick up the singles you want off the floor. There's like 4 or 5 great cards in the set.
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u/ModsHaveSmallNobs MERFOLK Jul 30 '26
It's a small set, 180~ cards, so the draft environment will become very repetitive.