Magic: The Gathering | The Hobbit releases on August 14th. In addition to introducing tons of new cards that can be obtained via Play and Collector Boosters, this set also contains what has become a Universes Beyond Tradition – Scene Boxes. In fact, it’s especially appropriate for us to get Scene Boxes from this set, because Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle Earth was the first set to feature them.

The two The Hobbit Scene Boxes are called “Cracking the Plates,” and “Treasures of Smaug.” Each contains six exclusive borderless foil cards that can be put together on a display easel to recreate an iconic scene from The Hobbit. The Scene Boxes also contains six art cards that can be put on display when you’re playing with these powerful new cards. While the exclusive cards and beautiful display piece are the focus of these products, they also each contain three Play Boosters.

 They are called “Cracking the Plates,” and “Treasures of Smaug.”  While all the cards in these Scene Boxes are powerful, in this article, I’m going to take a look at the 3 cards from each of these Scene Boxes that I think are the most powerful.

CRACK THE PLATES SCENE BOX HIGHLIGHTS 

THORIN, KING OF DURIN’S FOLK

Move over Magda, there’s a new Dwarf Commander in town. While Magda is obviously cheaper and easier to get going, Thorin is incredibly powerful and his Boros identity gives you access to virtually all the Dwarves in Magic. Having access to other great Dwarf payoffs like Giott, King of the Dwarves and Depala, Pilot Exemplar is not a small thing.

Thorin can spit out tons of treasure, even keying off of token Dwarves, and the power buff he offers can often be through the roof in the relatively early stages of the game. He’s definitely worth trying as your new Dwarf Commander.

BILBO, FELLOW CONSPIRATOR

Food tokens are great and all, but Treasure is the Artifact token that often feels the most powerful in Commander. It helps with artifact and sacrifice synergies while also giving you the extra mana you need to really go off. As such, Bilbo, Fellow Conspirator’s ability to crank out Treasure alongside every Food you make is pretty massive. This is going to make any Food-focused deck far more explosive than it otherwise would be.

ORI, PLATE STACKER

While Thorin and Bilbo are going to be good in some more specific decks, Ori, Plate Stacker has the potential to become a White staple. His “enters” trigger is incredibly strong in your typical game of Commander. Ori will have plenty of plates to break when he comes down, and he’s nice enough to make sure your own dishes don’t get shattered. The asymmetrical nature of this card is what can make it truly powerful, and you even get to gain a bunch of life. 

It’s true that 7 mana is a lot, but more often than not Ori is going to give you more than 7 mana worth of value and make all of your opponents groan in frustration.

TREASURES OF SMAUG SCENE BOX HIGHLIGHTS

SMAUG, THE IMPENETRABLE

Huge indestructible dragons are great and all, but we’ve seen lots of similar cards. It’s Smaug’s triggered ability that makes him really interesting. Because he’s indestructible, noncombat damage isn’t going to accomplish a whole lot against him, but that’s doubly true because of his ability to churn out tons of Treasure tokens.

He makes for a really interesting Commander if you like running mass damage effects. You’ll be able to break the symmetry of cards like Blasphemous Act and Chain Reaction not only because Smaug survives, but because he’ll give you an incredible mana advantage at the same time. 

BILBO’S BURGLARING

I have long thought that Blatant Thievery is an underappreciated card in Commander. 7 mana to steal the best permanent from each of your opponents can turn a game on its head in a big way.

Bilbo’s Burglaring doesn’t quite have the same effect, but that’s okay since it’s one mana cheaper. It can only use it to steal an artifact from the other players, but oftentimes your opponents have some incredible artifacts in play and they aren’t going to be the least bit happy about you stealing them. Even just getting some mana rocks back is a big deal, and sometimes you’ll be grabbing something like The Great Henge or – fittingly enough – The One Ring.

NECKLACE OF GIRION

A mana rock that spits out +1/+1 counters like crazy is exactly where many Mono-Green Commander decks want to be. While it’s true you can also play this in multicolored decks, I think this is really only going to be worth it in Mono-Gree, because you can really maximize the triggers by having as many Forests and Green cards as possible. I wouldn’t be surprised if this legendary artifact becomes a staple in Mono-Green.

It gets especially potent if you’re using a Commander who is already great with +1/+1 counters, like Bristly Bill or Vorinclex, who will both be able to turn this necklace into an absurd value engine. The Necklace will also perform quite well in landfall decks.

HONORABLE MENTION: DRAGON’S DESIRE

Last week, Kristen also wrote an article about this card and it’s definitely worth the read. Check out her article for a deep dive on this new, powerful ritual.

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These Scene Boxes are going to look great on your shelf, and the cards in them are also going to look great in many Commander decks. What card from these boxes are you the most excited for? Let me know over on X or Bluesky.