At MagicCon Vegas, we got our first look at a selection of cards from the upcoming MTG The Hobbit expansion. Smaug the Magnificent caught the attention of a lot of players, since it’s a flavorful and powerful dragon able to use and abuse treasure tokens to potentially devastating effect. It also combos surprisingly well with a previously printed iteration of itself. Let’s take a look.
According to the MTG release schedule, the new Hobbit set will drop in August 2026, featuring Smaug as one of its headliner cards.
For two red and two mana of any color, Smaug the Magnificent is a 4/3 flying dragon with haste. At the beginning of its controller’s upkeep, Smaug creates a treasure token, and whenever it attacks, Smaug deals damage to any target equal to the number of treasure tokens its controller has in play.
The best way to take advantage of this effect is to use it alongside as many other cards as possible that can rapidly generate treasure tokens. It just so happens that the card There and Back Again from the 2023 expansion The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth generates a Smaug token capable of creating a massive number of treasures.
The third and final chapter of There and Back Again produces a 6/6 legendary red Dragon token called “Smaug” that creates a whopping 14 treasure tokens when it dies. By bringing this Smaug token into play, and then sacrificing it, its new magificent counterpart will be able to deal massive bursts of double digit damage every time it attacks.
Just how practical is this combo? Well, since it relies on two high mana value cards, it likely won’t be showing up anywhere outside of Commander, but this is exactly the sort of big play that makes that format so memorable. It’ll definitely feel awesome to deck a friend in the face for 14 damage by combining two different variants of the same dragon, and massive hoard of treasure tokens.
How do you feel about the upcoming Hobbit set? Are you up for the journey, or would you rather return to the MTG multiverse than to Middle-Earth? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord.
To see a selection of cards that are real treasures, take a look at our list of the most expensive MTG cards.
Source: Wargamer
