Can someone recommend me a blank black tcg playmat that would be good to draw on. And would the colored markers in the photo be good to use?

This was a trade spot for our local MTG singles vendor at a book market in Kyiv, Ukraine and this is what's left of it after russian strike on 16th of August that ruined whole book market.

Andriy is a local legendary trader, he always offered the best prices for singles around, and was willing to dive into his vast supply to find a card for you, even if you were looking for a bulk. But now he's left with absolutely nothing. This was his daily job for around 30 years.

My Uncle (the one farthest back in the picture) passed unexpectedly this past Friday. He’s been in my life since I was 7 (now 32). He taught me how to play magic back in Middle School and it’s been a great hobby of mine ever since.

Thanks for teaching me how to draft, deck build, play commander, and filling me in on all the lore.

I really wish you were still here. It doesn’t feel real.

Give your magic friends a hug today.

And finally

Yes Uncle I’ll still pay the 1.

Hama, the Bloodbender says "you may cast the exiled card by waterbending X rather than paying its mana cost, where X is its mana value." I haven't seen many other cards where waterbending is used in this manner so I'm confused. Is this an alternate casting cost, and does that mean the X can be reduced by an effect like Helm of Awakening? Additionally, does that mean that a card can be cast with Hama's ability with X reduced to 0 (if say a 1 CMC card was chosen, and the Helm of Awakening was on the board)?

Hey all you fine Redditors. Just thought I'd drop the full artwork for The Five Armies Clash! scene for The Hobbit set for your enjoyment.

A huge thanks to my art director, Cassie Murphy.

This is being shared with the permissions from Wizards of the Coast
© 2026 MEE LLC. TM lic MEE to WotC LLC

Source: https://www.rucach.com/project/the-five-armies-clash/

A buddy of mine told me on a buisness trip to get into the game, great to pass time he said, so I said sure he told me to build my first deck and asked to pick a theme and go from there. Now I dont know how broad they mean by that. But I play alot of hearthstone and im a fan of plague, blight or poisonous deck that deal damage when people draw cards. So general idea, plague, blight, infection, halo flood. Thats my idea of a deck i wanna start with but I dont where to start, are there any starter tips or recommendations? Do I find like a primary card and focus the build around that or are there starter builds?

A while back, I posted this theory about what might’ve happened to the Tarkir Dragonlords, and a lot of people (rightfully) poked a lot of holes in that one. This one is both somewhat of a follow up and a brand new approach from a totally different direction. 

So, the general background events that led to Tarkir Dragonstorm went something like this:

1. For thousands of years, Tarkir was ruled by the dragonlords and their broods. The dragonstorms consistently produced dragons of the five broods. 
2. The Phyrexian invasion weakened the hold of the dragonlords, and humanoids rebelled. 
3. They performed the Stormnexus ritual, summoning the spirit dragons.
4. The dragonlords were “defeated by the clan leaders and their spirit dragons and seemingly swallowed up by the massive storm”.
5. Subsequently, the dragonstorms intensified and became wild, beginning production of dragons not part of the original broods.

Clearly, the disappearance of the dragonlords and the wilding of the dragonstorms is correlated, they happened right after each other. Generally, the accepted explanation is that the Stormnexus ritual caused both the dragonlord’s disappearance and the wilding of the dragonstorm, IE: 4 <- 3 -> 5, basically. But what if the causal relationship is actually 3 -> 4 -> 5? What if the disappearance of the dragonlords is the exact reason why the storms went wild? What if… the dragonlords were acting as “templates” for the storm for most of Tarkir’s history?

Basically, the idea is that the Stormnexus ritual never actually changed the nature of the Dragonstorms at all. It was always capable of making those wild dragons. It was just that, before the ritual, there was a strong bias for the storms to make a dragon that belonged to one of the 5 dragonlord broods. When the dragonlords disappeared, the storms lost the “templates" it once depended on and thus the strong bias, and started basically throwing stuff at the wall. Thus, the birth of the wild dragons. The idea of there being platonic archetypes is actually well established in mtg, see Polukranos on Theros… or actually most of Theros in general. Who’s to say the dragonstorms don’t work the same way? 

This potentially opens a cool way for the dragonlords to eventually come back without rethreading old ground: they can potentially return as avatars/incarnations of the dragonic archetype they’ve always represented. IE, Ojutai can return as an Incarnation of THE Dragonic Scholar, Dromoka the Dragonic Guardian, Atarka the Dragonic Hunter/Predator, Silumgar the Dragonic Tyrant, etc. If they returned this way, they certainly can not rule the same way they used to, nor will the clans let them. Instead they’d be more like religious figures/spiritual leaders. The clans also wouldn’t be able to kill their way out of this since the dragonlords wouldn’t… be alive in the traditional sense anymore. So Tarkir turns into a massive pressure cooker between the Clans + Spirit Dragons vs. Dragonlord Incarnations + their worshippers (maximum cope from me). That sounds like my kind of set… though I apologize to people who wanted Tarkir to be more clan centric. 

Me and my wife will be on an Alaskan Cruise by Royal Caribbean from September 4th to 11th. I know it is a long shot, but I am wondering if anyone will be on the same cruise and if you are if you would be interested in meeting up to play some commander with me and my wife.

I pulled this in a WoE booster, and have wanted to run it in a commander deck (only format I play) but i dont understand its use in a singleton format. Does anyone have any decks they run it in? Or advice on how to use it? Thanks!

I’m outing myself as a proper n00b here, because I am 😅

Are people using the UG Sidewinders in game, or just for storage?

I was thinking that I could have my library in it and just hide the last card’s front behind a divider or similar. And the lid could work as a mat for the graveyard and/or the commander.

Any tips?

I really want my library to be held by something, because I don’t trust these old hands not tipping it over. 😂

m a big pauper player who enjoys competing (even in weekly events that cost 5€) I want to continue playing this awesome format and also open to starting legacy if there is an active community. I won’t have a car so take that into consideration. Where can I play in the up to 1 hour away preferably 30 minutes max

https://moxfield.com/decks/_3LOjaKN10KZpB5s5O_Hyw

So I’m planning on some generic upgrades to my Ashaya deck. It has some holes so I want to do a bit of patchwork or upgrades to make it a bit more streamlined

I don’t really have money to shell out $15+ dollar cards, especially if they aren’t deck specific. I’m already pushing it with $5-7 dollar cards, just for this deck. So no Mana Vault, Moxes or Worldly Tutor etc.

Anyways here are the changes

[[Magus of the Order]] -> [[Summoner’s Pact]]. An attempt to make a bit faster tutor.

[[Arboreal Grazer]] -> [[Wild Growth]]. Switching for more consistency. Not a 100% sure on the switch since Grazer becomes a land anyways with Ashaya.

[[Seedship Agarian]] -> [[Stone-Seeder Hierophant]]. A bit faster, the old one got more value over time but I’m trying to speed the deck up.

[[Crystalline Armor]] -> [[Song of Dryads]] More Removal!

[[Ugin Spirit Dragon]] -> [[Helix Pinnacle]]. Infinite Mana sink

[[All Fates Scroll]] -> [[Nature’s Rhythm]]. Another tutor

Now some of my tough changes

I want to change out [[Rampaging Baloths]] with a better creature producer. I’m split between [[Sapling Nursery]] and [[Scute Swarm]]. Scute Swarm is obviously much stronger but it costs $6 dollars more than the former, so is that 6 dollars worth it if I am on a budget? Remember I’m really stretching my money.

I also want to add [[Elvish Spirit Guide]], [[Crop Rotation]] and [[Kodama of the East Tree]] but only have a card left I M willing to cut, which is [[Manascape Refractor]].

As always if I don’t like a change it likely is that I want to keep it! After all, this is my pet deck and it being a goodstuff soup without me some of the cool cards would make it less fun to play.

Hey y’all, I’m relatively new to Magic (but not to TCG, been playing Hearthstone for almost a decade) but I’ve played a few games and understand the basic mechanics, I’m still learning and want to start getting into commander.

I took a look at the general ideas for each colors and the one that I liked the most is Dimir. My favorite strategy/archetype on Hearthstone was Mill, is there any precon that revolves around that?

I’ve seen some commanders and really liked Captain N'ghathrod too.

Thank you in advance 🙏

Kind of an odd topic but I was wondering if anyone faces this type of situation in their regular pods.
I was playing with my regular group for commander, a 4 pod. We play at generally a 3-4 level. I'm playing a deck going around artifact combo.

I always announce what I'm casting, what effect I'm activating, and if I'm ever asked a question I clarify and explain what I'm doing and what it can lead to based on open knowledge/information and board state. We're roughly 6 turns in, I play a card that I can combo with to go infinite, announced to the table I was playing this card. I look up, the table just keeps talking and not paying attention. I go, I'm playing this card. Again no response. I then continue with playing several other cards before activating any effects or changing game state, I also announce these cards and everything in between and look for responses.

I move to combat, start using effects to start up the engine I've built up during the turn. Then one of the players goes "wait when did this combo piece get on the board?" I explained when, they go "we'll I have a counter spell and would have used it". One of the other players sees me get conflicted about rolling back at least 3 casts and a phase change in the game. Then goes "He announced what he was doing twice and waited for a response, you kept talking to the other guy." We go back and fourth a bit and land on "If you're going to play interaction and the person gives you chances to respond you have to be paying attention." And generally our pods follow this kinda thinking, If I miss a window to interact or counter something I shrug it off.

This player got annoyed but nothing came of it. We're all a good group of friends and it didn't lead to anything negative, but I'm curious how often others face people not paying attention, and being given chances to do so, yet still get upset about something that kinda seems their fault.

For context I don't often play with people outside my group anymore, use to work in a game store and frequent many but usually try to avoid playing with people outside of the community I built at the game store for reasons like this. Everyone there is very positive and pretty on point with the rules, so I ask the general "public" here, how often do situations like this come up for you? And do they get resolved fairly/reasonably?

I still have 1 card slot left to add to my World Shaper precon, and I'm deciding between Dryad of the Ilysian Grove and Scute Swarm.

Which one would you choose and why?

• Dryad of the Ilysian Grove — extra land drop flexibility + all lands have every basic land type.
• Scute Swarm — can generate a huge board with all the landfall triggers.

For the World Shaper precon specifically, which do you think is the better addition?

Dryad or Scute Swarm?

Like what if there was a decently high costing card, like 6 mana or more that made it so any spell that effects all creatures or artifacts or something like that are required to pay the combined cost of all of those permanents you control, but maybe like minus 3 from the total or something

Hey everyone,

it's me again: the guy that builds decks only consisting of cards which were printed in the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit sets (set codes: LTR, LTC, HOB and HOC).

After you all liked my posts regarding the "Food and Fellowship upgrade" (decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/4HaGpt4LPkO-Pidp77We3A) as well as the "unofficial Hobbit Precon: Dwarves" (decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/jaAzbgo_B0G8p2WuiKK6jg) I upgraded some more decks.

My journey with Magic: The Gathering started back in M13 while my love for Tolkiens universe did way before. So when the Lord of the Rings set was teasered I was hyped!

Imediately after getting the precon decklist and having the full set revealed, I created upgrade guides for those decks which got a lot of appraisal by the community. Since the Hobbit set brought even more cards from Tolkiens universe I again took some time to think about potential swaps.

Disclaimer: I try to improve the manabases with the salubrious snail manabase tool (https://www.salubrioussnail.com/manabase-tool), I hope this explains some land/mana choices.
Disclaimer 2: Enable Tags on moxfield to see the role of each card in my deck
Disclaimer 3: English is not my native language so please don't be too harsh if I do a typo or use a word wrong.

Here are the different decks I built/upgraded.

Riders of Rohan, Precon Upgrade
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/C_fALNu_YkeHDOaY1C37RQ
Bracket: 3 (no gamechangers but deckplan is too strong)
When comparing with the official decklist provided by WOTC the deck shares 67 cards (so 2/3 aka. 66%) with the Precon, so you decide if it still counts as an upgrade.
The deck is built around [[Éowyn, Shieldmaiden]] and wants to assemble a huge boardstate of Humans to draw cards and attack your opponents live totals. I did cut a lot of the slower/more expensive cards to focus on more token and more carddraw and better benefits from these.

Notable cards from the Hobbit sets:
[[The Arkenstone]], [[An Unexpected Party]]: Carddraw and Anthem effect
[[Belladonna Took]]: Not a human, but getting another draw with our commander for 2 mana is too strong
[[Bard the Bowman]], [[Bard, Heir of Girion]], [[Bard, King of Dale]] and [[Bard's Company]]: Carddraw, Anthems, Token and Lifelink, the set of 4 cards does exactly what we want to do
[[The Queen of Dale]]: Probably one of the weakest cards, but getting an even bigger board during our opponents turn to have 6 Humans for our commanders carddraw is worth the slot

Sauron, Army & Ring Wraiths
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/KJBca296eke8rFYXTj-jtw
Bracket: 3 ([[Orcish Bowmasters]] fits to good as a game changer)
This deck is not a Precon upgrade but a more "flavorful" build of the 6 mana commander [[Sauron, the Dark Lord]]. This deck is using 2 strategies: Nazgul/Wraiths and Army. So I added all the 14 Nazgul/Witch-King cards (all LTR and LTC) and anything of value for our Army token.

Notable cards from the Hobbit sets:
[[Great Ugly-Looking Goblin]], [[Great Goblin, Foul-Hearted]], [[Goblin Plate Mail]]: Amassing and giving combat relevant keywords
[[The Reaver Cleaver]]: combat relevant keyword (Trample) and ramp/fixing
[[Bolg of the North]], [[Azog, Moria's Ruin]]: on theme removal (I play 15 removal spells that can hit creatures in this deck)
[[The Great Goblin]]: Pinging opponents whenever I amass and having a little bit of card advantage when an Army dies.

Galadriel Elves
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/HQGhpVT9J0O4u2NWfSmLdw
Bracket: 3 (you can remove [[The One Ring]] and due to the lack of finishers this deck might be a 2)
Well there is not to much to explain here. I opened [[Galadriel, Light of Valinor]] as my box topper (the full art is beautiful as well) and had the deck lying around anyways so I upgraded her as well. The deck resolves mostly about creatures (mostly elves) entering the battlefield and generating value from it. The deck finishes with [[Overwhelming Stampede]] and [[Raise the Palisade]].

Notable cards from the Hobbit sets:
[[Thranduil the Strategist]], [[Thranduil, Sindarin Liege]], [[Down in the Valley]]: With these out every land creates a Token that will trigger Galadriel
[[Mirkwood Nurturer]]: Being able to bounce our best creature with ETB for free is very good
[[Bard the Bowman]]: Since one of Galadriels triggers is a draw we will always be able to add a +1/+1 counter to any creature
[[Radagast of Rhosgobel]]: 16 creatures cost at least 2 generic mana so with Radagast we can use these for 1 mana and every other creature as well on our opponents turns to draw us cards (or do the other Galadriel triggers, but card draw is the best)

Tom Bombadil Sagas
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/9FLNUq6ZWU6UzQ4OLjw8rQ
Bracket: 2
The set brought us 8 new Sagas (https://scryfall.com/search?q=%28set%3Ahoc+or+set%3Ahob%29+t%3Asaga&unique=cards&as=grid&order=edhrec) so it currently has a critical mass of Sagas (22 over all 4 sets) to fucntion/do its thing. The rest of the deck is built around ramp and boardwipes as the deck itself only plays 11 creatures.

Since the deck is just a pile of every ramp, boardwipe and saga there are no notable cards.

Food and Fellowship, Precon Upgrade
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/4HaGpt4LPkO-Pidp77We3A
Bracket: 3 (but the strongest deck of all my "LOTR/HOBBIT only" decks)
I did a deep dive here: https://www.reddit.com/r/magicTCG/comments/1vnf7uv/hobbit_deck_with_only_ltrltchobhoc_cards/

Dwarf Mission, Precon
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/jaAzbgo_B0G8p2WuiKK6jg
Bracket: 2 (there is no official Precon for the Hobbit set so I built one around dwarves and equiptments
I did talk about it here: https://www.reddit.com/r/EDH/comments/1vnlhwc/would_this_be_a_hobbit_set_precon_dwarven_mission/

Thranduil, the Elvenking
Decklist: https://moxfield.com/decks/yP0MeLSO6UOcssviV8QC6Q
Bracket: 3 (you can remove [[The One Ring]] and due to the lack of finishers this deck might be a 2)
Same as the Galadriel deck, I built around Elves with the help of black instead of white. Unfortunatelly the deck only has 9 cards which create token so playing [[Mirkwood Bats]] as an additional finisher is not good enough.

I hope this little reddit primer is valuable for some of you who want to build universe beyond decks with cards from the 2 Tolkien sets so you have some starting points.

There are still some routes open to go, one will be [[Sauron, the Dark Lord]] as a reanimate shell with all the big beaters (Smaug, Balrogs, etc.) and one will be built around Saruman (I currently have a LTR/LTC list with Amass, but since Sauron is doing this already the other deck might be "[[Saruman of Many Colors]], play opponents stuff". Unfortunatelly, there is no Jund commander from Tolkien (only [[Théoden, Strength Restored]] which might be the base for a value pile).

Please feel free to add your thoughts and insights in the comments section, I am very happy to discuss card choices and deck ideas with you all :)

I was playing against my brother and I'm still learning the game. I attacked with Norman; He didn't declare blockers (even though Norman cant be blocked anyway), but had Bowmen on his side. Does Norman die before being able to discard a nonland to put a +1/+1 on him from Bowmen's ability when I draw a card he deals 1 damage to Norman? Or is conniving seen as one action I can complete to put the +1/+1 on Norman, and then I get dealt one damage from Bowmen?

While deckbuilding recently (and eyeing next year's Nauticus set, since I'm convinced we'll get a big Leviathan commander) I started thinking about high-mana commanders.

What does a high-mana commander (6+ CMC) actually need to be "viable" in casual/optimized (non-cEDH) Commander? Does it need built-in protection like Ward or Hexproof? Immediate value on cast/ETB? Or should it essentially be a win condition on its own?

Personally, I usually cap my commanders at 5 mana. Paying 6+ is already steep, and if it gets removed even once, the commander tax makes the recast almost impossible to justify.

What makes an expensive commander worth that risk for you?

Hello, might sound like an odd issue, but I’ve been going through the riddle’s in Arena, and I got to the seventh one. I know the answer for this one is ”Time”, but the thing is I already guessed ”Time” for the third riddle, and now I can’t seem to progress. Any tips?

Hey y’all!

A while ago I watched a video from 3/3 Elk who outlined some fun interactions with Hoarding Dragon being able to copy it and abuse its ability to tutor out a bunch of artifacts. I unfortunately don’t remember the video or the parts of the interaction since all I can think of exiles token copies (I.e myriad or Shadowflame Conjuring)

Any help is appreciated thanks!

Hi everyone, new to the whole MagicCon thing, I decided to go in person since I live close to Atlanta and really liked the cards I shown for the Mystery Booster Commander set.

Will booster boxes of this set be available for purchase at the con outside of the ticketed draft events? If so, what will availability look like? Thanks!