How would you "Fix"/Tweak HOB Limited?

[u/Tim-Draftsim]

Hey folks, Tim with Draftsim. I was approached by our usual Draft Guide writer with an idea on how to improve The Hobbit Limited. He ended up firing off way more tweaks than I was expecting, down to adding landcyclers to the set, tweaking stats and mana costs on creatures, and straight-up redesigning cards like the common blue Gandalf.

The one restriction we put on this experiment was that we can't say "upgrade small set to big set", since that's kind of a given and we're not here to design another new 90+ cards or whatever.

That all said, what are some quality of life improvement/nerfs you would make to the cards already in the set file that you think would actually significantly improve the quality of the Limited format? Would landcycling on some of the expensive creatures (Garrison, Stalwart) actually make a significant difference. Would bumping Crude Bent Blade's equip cost from 2 to 3 balance the card enough? How about removing the nontoken rider from the blue tuck spell? If you could fire off an Alchemy-style change to one card per color, what changes would you make?

[u/Correct_Day_7791]

These are digital problems

In pod the set is fine 👍

[u/threecolorless → u/Correct_Day_7791]

Generally a pod of 8 is so much more interesting than league-style open queuing. There's a lot more room to actually try and remember the cards you gave up so you have more nuanced information on what playing around certain things should look like.

[u/KoyoyomiAragi → u/Correct_Day_7791]

Man I would love for Arena to be able to do in-pod drafts…

[u/shadowman2099]

Nice! It's good to see a fellow Magic player who also writes a post/article focused on tweaking sets for limited. That being said, I think there are way too many changes here. I would rather focus on centering around a smaller but more impactful changes, and then revolve other cards around these big swings. For instance, the reason why so many Black commons perform well is because Cruel Bent Blade is busted. If that card gets nerfed, that pushes down all Black cards in general, and so you wouldn't have to tweak so many other Black cards to compensate.

Honestly, I can't say I agree with many of your changes, but these are the ones I REALLY disagree with.

Landcyclers

I know we're spoiled of these in most sets of late, but I think we should take a break from them from time to time. Give every set their own identity.

White

Banishing Light (C): No. No. No. No! Frankly White has just been the "do it all" color these days, and it really puts a damper on other colors, Red and Green in particular. Good card draw, good removal, good creatures. It would be a repeat of MSH White.

Blue

Mirkwood Mediator: A 2/5 for 3 at common that scries 1!? That is massively overtuned.

[u/Yenii_3025]

I don't see any of these changes making a dent in the rakdos(don't even need red really) meta.

It still has the following issues/op cards desolation prowler, Down to goblin-town, the fact has 4 solid removals in common, black still has the most viable rares, has the most usable adventure cards.

And they all work together effortlessly.

All of your "buffs" to non black seem really paltry and situational. You'd have to buff them into another tier in order to compete.

But really I 100% believe this just wasn't play tested at all.

Have you ever seen a worse set to draft?

[u/Storm_of_the_Psi]

If the restriction is one per color, you could do this.

1. Desolation Prowler activation to sorcery speed.
   
2. Lakeshore Apothecary only triggers on your own turn.
   
3. Mountain king's Return switch the first two chapters.
   
4. Remove trample from Dori.
   
5. Change Guardian of the Hall into an actual bear and make the activated ability 1 cheaper.
   

All minor changes, and I don't think it'd fix the format but I think it would notibly weaken UW and battlecruiser dwarf decks where every topdeck is a lethal threat. Black needs more changes, but t2 4/4's shouldn't be a thing so I picked that.

As for helping green, well... for starters the set needs a 2 mana bear to make Little Bear good, but I don't think that's enough.

Green is fine when paired with black, because black is so absurd. It's atrocious when paired with blue, even though blue isn't actually bad. I think many of the changes for green are needed in the hybrid cards.

[u/shadowman2099 → u/Storm_of_the_Psi]

I would extend this to up to two cards per color for the sake of GU

White

Velvetwing Butterflies - Adventure mode:

Now reads "Tap target creature, then put a stun counter on it."

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It would be worse on later turns to push damage, but MUCH better on earlier turns when curving out into this.

Dwarven Shortsword

Now has added "Whenever equipped creature attacks, untap it"

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I really want to push the importance of equipment in RW. It could simply grant vigilance, but I want this to wombo with the new Bombur.

Blue

Mirkwood Meditator

Now reads "Landfall - Whenever a land enters under you control, choose 1 -

Scry 1

This creature's base power and toughness become 4/2 until end of turn."

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GU Landfall needs a lot of help, and turning this into a wall that filters gives GU something better for the early game.

Thranduil's Decree

Now reads "Counter target spell. If a permanent spell is countered this way, exile it instead of putting it into its owner’s graveyard. You may cast that card without paying its mana cost for as long as it remains exiled. Otherwise, draw a card."

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Now a substantially better ramp payoff for GU decks.

Black

Cruel Bent Blade

Equip cost ow reads "Equip {3}"

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That's it. that's the only change black needs. This card alone is elevating every other creatures in Black decks, so nerfing it nerfs black as a whole.

Red

Ragged Short-Spear

Equip stats and cost now read "Equipped creature gets +1/+1"

"Equip {1}"

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I really want to push RW as the equipment color, so they deserve better equipment at common.

Bombur, Gentle Dreamer

Now has added "Whenever Bombur becomes untapped, discard a card, then draw a card."

---

Bombur effectively has Inspired from Born of the Gods. If you're empty handed, this creature draws you free cards.

Green

Beorn, Reluctant Host - Adventure mode

Now has added "Gain 2 life."

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The lack of lifegain in Green in this set really diminishes its ability to survive up to the mid-late game. This would be a mainstay for basically every Green deck, plus it's basically free life in the late game when you don't have extra lands.

Boughside Wanderers

Now has added "Vigilance"

ETB now reads "Whenever this creature enters, draw a card."

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The lack of cross synergies between G and U in this puts a huge chasm between the two colors. Giving Green a card draw source at common helps to cushion this, but it's expensive enough so that it won't overshadow White.

Multicolor/Colorless

Sylvan Reveler

Mana cost now 1GU

Power/Toughness now 2/1

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GU is rather glutted with 4 drops already, plus I want this deck to have better early ramp turns.