Hobbits In Cars - An EDH Deck Tech

We’re taking Middle-earth into the 21st century, y’all!

Welcome back to Cardsphere, where I occasionally have good ideas about the Commander format of Magic: the Gathering. My last two articles broke down my picks for the best cards for Commander from Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth. Even though, by Magic product release standards, this set is already ancient, we’re still spending some time with it. And today I'm giving you one of my silliest deck ideas ever. Intrigued? Read on.

Not What You’d Call “Competitive”

But first, a warning. If your goal in Commander is to win more often than not, today’s deck tech will not be for you. This tech is going full-on thematic; no busted combos, no tutors for alternate win cons. Just swinging creatures at opponents like the good Dr. Garfield intended.

All right, back to the silly thing.

I’ve had a hard time getting interested in brewing lately (burnout from product fatigue? Possibly. Just kidding, that's the reason)). So I wanted to do something a little different with this deck tech. I tried to think of a way to go with a theme that used Lord of the Rings, but also clashed with it somehow.

I started by looking through all the possible commanders from the set. I knew I was going to avoid the top ten or so from EDHREC, cuz I’m still trying desperately to rack up that hipster cred. And also because I knew any deck ideas I’d come up with for those legends would have already been done by now by far better content creators than me. I landed on Samwise Gamgee

It’s the Hairy Feet, Isn’t It?

With Sam, I want to get a lot of creatures hitting the board. But there’s that nontoken clause, which rules out a lot of easy ways to trigger him. So instead I’ll need to fill the deck with a lot of cheap creatures. And as luck would have it, this new set gave us plenty of those. Hobbits! Or, if you prefer, Halflings.

So I’m dropping a ton of hobbits on the field and making food. Not a crazy idea, and also not a way to win any games. So what could I do with those hobbits that might make this deck more powerful? The answer was in Sam’s second ability. You can sacrifice three foods to return a historic card from your graveyard to your hand. What do we do with that?

My first thought was Sagas, since those are one of the three things classified as historic. But that didn’t really go anywhere, and the hobbits couldn’t really interact with it. Also, my recent deck tech was a Saga deck with Tom Bombadil

Finally Getting to the Point

You’ve heard of “Bears in Cars”. Now it’s time for “Hobbits in Cars!” That’s right, friends. These little Halflings aren’t so great for sending into battle, but they are great for Crewing big ass Vehicles! And if those Vehicles get destroyed, we just sac some foods to bring them back with Sam’s ability.

We’ll need a lot of hobbits at this party to make sure we’re making food and Crewing, so let’s take a look at some of those.

Elanor Gardner

To fill things out, I’ve included a few “honorary” hobbits as well. Archivist of Oghma

Hobbits Go Vroom

This is a Vehicle deck, isn’t it? So let’s see some Vehicles! Aerial Surveyor

Weatherlight

Here’s the full decklist, with a link to Moxfield to give it a test drive.

1 Samwise Gamgee
1 Academy Manufactor
1 Aerial Surveyor
1 Anointed Procession
1 Arcane Signet
1 Archivist of Oghma
1 Beast Whisperer
1 Bill the Pony
1 Boseiju, Who Endures
1 Bountiful Promenade
1 Branchloft Pathway
1 Brandywine Farmer
1 Brushland
1 Canopy Vista
1 Citywide Bust
1 Command Tower
1 Cultivate
1 Cultivator's Caravan
1 Daredevil Dragster
1 Deep Gnome Terramancer
1 Delighted Halfling
1 Dusk/Dawn
1 Eastfarthing Farmer
1 Eerie Interlude
1 Eiganjo, Seat of the Empire
1 Elanor Gardner
1 Elspeth, Sun's Champion
1 Esika's Chariot
1 Esper Sentinel
1 Eternal Witness
1 Farmer Cotton
5 Forest
1 Fortified Village
1 Geier Reach Sanitarium
1 Getaway Car
1 Gilded Goose
1 Gingerbread Cabin
1 Goliath Truck
1 Grand Abolisher
1 Heroic Intervention
1 Hobbit's Sting
1 Inventors' Fair
1 Jhoira's Familiar
1 Knight Paladin
1 Krosan Verge
1 Mentor of the Meek
1 Meriadoc Brandybuck
1 Merry, Warden of Isengard
1 Mighty Servant of Leuk-o
1 Minas Tirith
1 Myriad Landscape
1 Mysterious Limousine
1 Nautiloid Ship
1 Necron Monolith
1 Nettlecyst
1 Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit
1 Ovalchase Dragster
1 Overgrown Farmland
1 Panharmonicon
1 Parhelion II
1 Peregrin Took
8 Plains
1 Prowl, Stoic Strategist
1 Reaver Titan
1 Reckoner Bankbuster
1 Rosie Cotton of South Lane
1 Sam, Loyal Attendant
1 Samwise the Stouthearted
1 Saradoc, Master of Buckland
1 Scattered Groves
1 Selfless Spirit
1 Shire Shirriff
1 Skysovereign, Consul Flagship
1 Smuggler's Copter
1 Sol Ring
1 Sungrass Prairie
1 Sunpetal Grove
1 Swords to Plowshares
1 Temple Garden
1 Temple of Plenty
1 The Battle of Bywater
1 The Gaffer
1 The Shire
1 Thunderhawk Gunship
1 Treasure Vault
1 Weatherlight
1 Welcoming Vampire
1 Windswept Heath
1 Wooded Bastion

Into the West

Like I said earlier, the deck isn’t setting up to win games by turn three, but it’s definitely looking to have some thematic fun. While the hobbits might not seem like much, they’re perfect for turning massive Vehicles into machines of death. Don’t forget to hit your board wipes before you Crew, so you don’t kill your Vehicles. Citywide Bust

So what do you think? There’s plenty of room for improvement here, so hit me up on Twitter and let me know what you’d add.

Thanks for reading, friends! Until next time, take care. And play lots of games!