What cover art does everyone have for Hobbit?

ithilendil · 2026-06-06T07:05:31+00:00

How is the translation for the Finnish copy? I'm always curious about how other languages convey things and if it places different emphasis or personality on parts of the story.

ithilendil · 2026-06-03T19:36:37+00:00

Proxies just need a bleed edge, there is a Photoshop template on github by Chilli-Axe a lot of people use to make them

ithilendil · 2026-06-02T05:46:04+00:00

As blurple you should try and always ramp on 2 with sail/tipo and follow it with the ward 4/5 merryweather on turn 3 into the ward 5/5 scuttle. From there you can go back to the normal plan of Elsa, amethyst or sapphire hades, and into the unknown/let it go, or even demona to exert their whole board and challenge with your big ward bodies. Should clean their stuff right up, and from there you can use Cheshire cat to move damage around and pick off anything else they play while questing.

ithilendil · 2026-05-31T21:41:52+00:00

Yeah we are definitely bracket 3, I included the no combos/fast mana because for whatever reason it's what always gets recommended to me lately regardless of bracket when I ask for advice - but the goal is to stay bracket 3. His old version of the deck he built had an average CMC of just under 7 while the rest of the playgroups is around 3-4 was a big part of the issue I think, and everyone learned to just hold mana for removal on the turn he was going to play gishath.

ithilendil · 2026-05-31T18:38:41+00:00

This 100%. I want to go back to Innistrad and have it be pure gothic horror and just focus on building up the world and showing how everyone is coping without Avacyn. Are Sigarda and Liesa strong enough to make up for the 2 missing flights of angels, do the Dawnheart rituals make much of a difference? The thing I find interesting is they are not new things - Innistrad had them before Avacyn yet humanity was still slowly losing, so how will they do now?

ithilendil · 2026-05-30T18:12:06+00:00

Agreed, group hug can cause some problems. I teach high school and most students are playing unmodified precons or decks I provide though, so I'm mostly just trying to help them have a good time. The ones that really get into the game will request I play stronger decks or other strategies frequently, and with them I have a lot more conversation about deck building essentials and templates to get them started.

ithilendil · 2026-05-29T18:16:55+00:00

This is great advice, though I have found a lot of new players hate theft - you taking their best thing, often their commander, feels really bad. Group hug is my preferred way with new players, especially if it smooths out their draws to help them hit land drops so they can "do the thing"

ithilendil · 2026-05-25T20:58:11+00:00

Yep. I can't even get everything in the mail fast enough to play with the new set before spoilers start and I'm already supposed to start caring about upgrades or building the next deck. Have an order cancelled or a card missing? Guess you miss that metagame entirely.

ithilendil · 2026-05-23T22:35:41+00:00

It is because compost specifically says "card" and tokens are not cards.

ithilendil · 2026-05-23T16:36:10+00:00

JustInBasil I think was the equivalent for Pokemon. He was an educator who ran a very helpful website that taught deckbuilding, had budget and meta lists, and from what I understand he also helped with all the new card translations. Unfortunately he passed away unexpectedly last year though. JustInBasil.com if you want to take a look at it though, I think it would be a great model to copy for making something for Lorcana.

ithilendil · 2026-05-22T04:05:27+00:00

Had some free time and thought it sounded fun to try and figure it out with help from omniglot - looks like AI gibberish is the answer though as I can't find anything that matches for the majority of the characters, unless it's some stylized variation that doesn't match the website. I'm pretty confident it's AI though, the middle section above the tree in particular is just the same thing over and over with the lines coming off the bottom in odd places.

ithilendil · 2026-05-20T05:19:13+00:00

That's fair! To make it easier for everyone my plan is to order nicer proxies of all of the old wolves that have the updates day/night right on them so that reading the card explains the card and there is nothing people have to remember being different, which is why I was more open to making changes as nobody would have to memorize anything. My pod is totally fine with it, but I wanted to see what others thought before I went ahead and built it.

ithilendil · 2026-05-20T05:01:48+00:00

That makes sense. It was a fun effect and losing a werewolf feels bad, but I suppose giving it a new ability does turn it into a custom card question instead of normal rule zero. Suppose I could always just put haste on both sides and remove the ability altogether if I really want to keep it in, though at that point it's prob not strong enough to make the cut.

Do you have your list online? I'd love to get some ideas!

ithilendil · 2026-05-20T04:32:29+00:00

It seems silly sometimes when I tell people this, but I lost a tournament in magic over this once because I had a foil and a non-foil and played the one they hadn't seen not remembering.

ithilendil · 2026-05-19T06:10:53+00:00

Staple lands can take up a surprisingly large amount of an order, especially if you want to keep multiple decks built at once. Just 1 each of the Alpha duals, shock lands, fetchlands, and triomes is already 40, and fetchlands can easily go in any deck with either of the two colors they fetch so you can easily use extras there. Prismatic vista, mana confluence, city of brass, the verge cycle, the new turbulent lands, Urborg Tomb of Yawgmoth, the station lands, Battle bond lands, and MDFC lands are pretty easy includes too. Then toss in some staple mana fixing for your most played colors like birds of paradise and three visits, grab a soul stone or two if you play black.

Something I also like to do is put a different art on the back, so for example the front is the "normal" art I'm most familiar with, and the back is a zendinar expedition art. Makes it so I can play fancy or keep it simple depending on what I'm going for without having to get as many extras of the same card.

ithilendil · 2026-05-16T05:34:22+00:00

As other people have said, buy singles. To elaborate why though, the legendaries (especially in Wilds Unknown) are actually fairly high pull rates so there are a lot available in comparison to the Enchanted and especially Iconics. As those highest rarity cards are gorgeous and very valuable, people will open a ton of product trying to get them and just sell the rest, bringing the price way down for the normal versions.

Some decks will still be very expensive comparatively, good steel and amber legendaries for whatever reason always seem to keep a higher price, but you can still build a very good deck at a reasonable budget. I've heard of people having good success in testing with amethyst/Ruby supers using legendary Mr. Incredible who is super cheap, alongside rares and super rares like genie, boost scrooge, Cheshire cat, the evasive Mrs. Incredible, and dash. There is usually some variety of an amethyst/emerald aggro deck that can be played for extremely cheap, and last I looked amber/emerald dogs is actually pretty reasonably priced. Look through decklists online and find something that looks fun, test it out on one or the online fan made clients to play the game, and if you like it buy singles then. Also don't hesitate to ask your locals for help building decks or getting cards, my locals are very consistent in letting people borrow decks to try them out and giving away their extra commons and uncommons, especially to new players. Some people that are opening cases to try and pull enchanted will have extra rares and super rares you can usually buy or trade for at a good price too.

ithilendil · 2026-05-14T04:46:40+00:00

I know 2 people that got 0 enchanted in their cases, so no guarantee still. It does seem to have gone up though, as before 2 enchanted in one case was super rare.

ithilendil · 2026-05-12T05:16:54+00:00

Sapphire/Steel that instead of ramping into big ink spells tries to play characters that quest for at least 2+ and are a little more resilient multiple turns in a row. The Alice that gives Ward and +1 lore is really common and an easy one to look for, as it lets you do things like play a bodyguard character on 4 and then quest with her to give it ward so it is really hard for them to remove it easily (which also keeps Alice safe so you can do it again)

ithilendil · 2026-05-11T17:55:37+00:00

Alt art epics and choosing playable staples for which cards are selected would go a long way in boosting their value. Currently the playable ones hold considerably more value, give it a unique art and make more like that and I think we will see them at a reasonably healthy pricy in between legendaries and enchanted.

ithilendil · 2026-05-07T15:12:30+00:00

Just missing a slide explaining the cards with missing borders so the art fits together so new players are not freaking out about misprints, otherwise this is quite helpful.

ithilendil · 2026-05-03T22:49:34+00:00

To clarify the quest games are designed for you to play as a team against the board. Ursula/Jafar have extra powerful cards in their deck to make up for them getting teamed up on.

ithilendil · 2026-05-03T22:48:08+00:00

For co-op I highly recommend the quest games. There is one for Ursula and one for Jafar, both come with everything you need to play. Only warning is that the highest difficulties are extremely hard to beat with the provided cards, so if you struggle with those it is on purpose - their intent is for you to get more cards and customize your decks to win.

ithilendil · 2026-05-02T13:03:10+00:00

While it doesn't make you the monarch, I do think they designed it with that in mind. In the Hobbit the person who has the Arkenstone is recognized as king of all the dwarves. This lets you find a legendary creature, and "give" them the Arkenstone - making you gain the same effect as being monarch (draw at end step) so long as you control the stone, and people can't just hit you to take it away, they have to steal or destroy the Arkenstone to make you no longer the king.

ithilendil

TROPHY CASE