by Johnny Cycles, Tuesday, August 17th, 2026
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The Hobbit releases today and it’s full of powerful, fun, and unique cards to build around! If you haven’t already, check out my Hobbit Tribal deck in Commander, as well as what cards found a home there from the new set.
Here are the cards I’m most interested in and the Commander decks I have that can play them. I’m not going to highlight every card that COULD go in these decks, but only the ones I’ll find room for.
Rather watch, than read?
Nonbudget Mono White Humans
A beginner-friendly deck, we’re looking to go wide and grow our team big to win games, while slowing our opponent down along the way.
The Queen of Dale – this new mythic does two things our deck wants: card advantage and Human creature generation. I’m not sure how often we’ll want to discard a nonland card, but the card draw is enough to earn the Queen a spot.
Out: Hidden Dragonslayer
The Arkenstone – I’m super high on this card. Any one of these effects is sort of meh in today’s Commander, but put them all on the same card and the new mythic can replace more than one card, freeing up space for other powerful, new options.
Out: Spear of Heliod
Orcrist, Goblin-Cleaver – getting ahead on mana never hurts, but the real reason I’m including this card is trample. With a deck full of nonfliers, having a way to get damage through chump blockers is essential.
Out: Sword of the Animist
Mono Red Dragons
My first beginner-friendly deck, this deck ramps fast and hits hard with a bunch of fliers. It’s full of powerful synergies, as well.
Smaug the Magnificent – a legitimate challenger to Inferno of the Star Mounts to helm our deck, I’m still giving the nod to the fire-breather, as I’ve built the deck to make a bunch of mana the traditional way, rather than via Treasure tokens.
Out: Vengeful Ancestor
Desolation of Smaug – not quite the slam dunk you’d expect in a Dragon Tribal deck thanks to some of our ramp creatures, but when we need this to stabilize, the trade will be worth it. If we also get to cast a Dragon with the mana, we’ll be ecstatic.
The Misty Mountains Cold – I’m replacing a mana rock with this Saga. On turn 3, it’ll do a good enough impression of one. By the time we reach chapter IV, hopefully we won’t need the extra mana. Furthermore, it can let us cast our commander on turn 4, something most mana rocks can’t. Meanwhile, in the late-game, it has far more upside.
Out: Coalition Relic
Last Light of Durin’s Day – we play only Mountains, minus Cavern of Souls, which means we should be able to add a counter on this enchantment every turn. I’m replacing another mana rock with this card to test it out since it has mountaincycling and can ensure we get to our third land drop.
Out: Fire Diamond
Rakdos Aristocrats
One of my favorite archetypes and decks, rather budget or nonbudget, the goal is to deal 1 damage repeatedly to our opponent, grow our commander to lethal proportions, and swing in for the kill.
The Sackville-Bagginses – a 1-time sac outlet that gets us a Treasure and a card is perfect to smooth out our early game or get in some more damage in the late. However, it’s the static effect this Halfling Citizen brings that can help us close out games.
Out: Spiteful Visions
Mono Green Triple Keyword
With the prevalence of creatures with multiple keywords, I decided to build this Mono Green deck in which all its creatures have at least three. Furthermore, the support cards also involve three in creative ways.
Gigantic Big Bear – without trample, this massive beater may not ever deal damage. Still, how can we not play it in this deck?
Out: Kaldra Compleat
Budget Elf Tribal
One of my first budget decks where every card was under a $1, we are looking to go wide, grow our team, and swing for lethal.
Cantankerous Keepers (.99 cents) – I really like this card as something we can cast after emptying our hand and then, hopefully, refill our hand with more action. With 42 creatures in our deck, we should get at least two.
Out: Undercity Upheaval .29 cents
Woodland Weavemaster (.28 cents) – another mana dork with tremendous upside. Untapping with this Elf Druid will often let us grow it into a legitimate threat, attack, then tap it to cast something ahead of curve or add more creatures to the battlefield. Our lords will also grow it, meaning we will very rarely only get a single out of this.
Out: Llanowar Loamspeaker .32 cents
Budget Silverquill, the Disputant
One of my favorite budget decks from this year, we make a bunch of tokens, then double up our token-making spells until we find a big payoff sorcery to copy or have a big enough army to win.
Belladonna Took – since casualty copies our token-making spells, we will gain a life and draw a card for each one we resolve. I see this card being a staple in a lot of Commander decks. It’s currently $3.50 and I imagine it’ll drop in price before going back up over time as more players realize what kind of engine it gives decks that want it.
Out: Abandoned Air Temple $5.97
Since this is a land, we’ll need to cut another card to make room for a Plains to replace it.
Out: Tithe Taker .40 cents
An Unexpected Party (.49 cents) – this is the exact kind of card our deck loves to abuse! We get a sorcery spell to copy that makes more tokens, then we get the enchantment that can pump whatever token creature we have the most of (Spirit is a good choice, since it has evasion).
Out: Moogles’ Valor .67 cents
Trigger Copy
Another super fun deck to play for under $100. We want to grind out value by doubling up all kinds of triggers, including 24 creatures that have an enters trigger.
The Eagles Are Coming! ($1) – White has a bunch of ways to protect creatures for less mana investment, but this instant is unique in that it protects not just our current boardstate from sweepers, but the Bird Soldier tokens we get as replacements enter on the next upkeep, meaning they won’t just die to the sweeper themselves. I see this card finding a home in a lot of Commander decks, as well, even if is a hefty cost.
Out: Halo Fountain $8
Mono Red Burn
I made both a budget and nonbudget version of this deck, both of which want to increase Hawkeye’s power on the cheap, then deal noncombat damage via a variety of ways.
Gandalf, Goblins’ Bane ($8.80) – we’ll only get to play the cards exiled with Flameshape after we resolve Gandalf, Goblins’ Bane, so I wouldn’t cast the Avatar Wizard until we have the mana to play the exiled cards the same turn. That being said, Gandalf is a perfect fit for our deck, turning all of our pump and burn spells into at least 3 damage with our commander out.
Out: Fable of the Mirror-Breaker $7
Mono Green Landfall
A hyper-aggressive deck, our goal is to grow Tifa Lockhart to lethal proportions as early as turn 3, but reliably by turn 4. Yeah, it doesn’t seem fair in Duel Commander.
Beorn’s Hospitality – these 2-mana enchantments with landfall are some of our best enablers for a quick kill.
Out: Six
Budget Lifegain
Lifegain and counter shenanigans are what this deck is about.
Moment of Glory – this card fits our strategy perfectly. Early, it can start our counters-matter shenanigans, while late it can help us close out games.
Out: Grateful Apparition
Other Commander Cards
These are the cards I think will see a lot of play, though I don’t necessarily have a deck for them.
Glamdring, Foe-hammer – my initial thought was that I’d find a home for this in my Narset, Enlightened Exile deck. Gleam of Death would likely refill our hand. The other half, though, wouldn’t do a lot for us since most of our instants and sorceries are 1 mana. Perhaps it can find a home in my Niv-Mizzet, the Firemind deck.
Troop of Ponies – a colorless way to mana fix and ramp will find a home in a lot of non-Green decks.
My Next Budget Commander
Elrond, Moon-Reader is another unique creature to build around. It cares about two abilities we don’t often see on the same Blue creature: an activated ability and an enters ability. However, given the cost of his own activated ability, I’m not sure building around blinking nonland permanents is the route to victory.
But can an extra card a turn, even if it’s also on our opponent’s turn, be enough to win games with Blue creatures with activated abilities? I’m going to find out, so stay tuned! My first draft is complete and it is pure jank. Will it be powerful, as well? I have my doubts, but drawing cards is a ton of fun AND we get to play a bunch of strange win-conditions.
Thanks for reading and watching! I’ll catch y’all on the next one.
