The upcoming Magic: the Gathering The Hobbit crossover will contain “the biggest bear we’ve ever printed”. This promise was made by MTG’s head designer Mark Rosewater on his blog 11 days ago. When the formidable 6/6 Bear shapeshifter card Beorn the Fierce was previewed, many players assumed that this was the giant fury threat promised by Rosewater, but there may be an even bigger bear lying in wait…
Beorn is certainly a big bear, but, as Reddit detectives were quick to point out, he’s not the biggest bear in the game. That honor goes to Copper Host Crusher, an 8/8 Phyrexian bear rhino from March of the Machine. There’s a +2/+2 stat difference between Beorn and the crusher, that’s a whole grizzly bear stat block worth of difference.
Beorn’s failure to seize the title of the game’s biggest bear got players speculating. Did Rosewater make a mistake in his announcement? Did he forget to consider every bear in every MTG set? Despite being a colossal furry kaiju, did Copper Host Crusher somehow evade Rosewater’s notice? Or is something else altogether going on?
On July 24th, a curious MTG fan took to Rosewater’s blog to directly ask about whether the Beorn card is intended to be the biggest bear mentioned in the set teaser. The game’s chief designer provided a brief, yet cryptic, response “It is not.”
This seems to imply that there’s another bear, even bigger than both Beorn and Copper Host Crusher, lurking somewhere in the deep dark woods of Middle-Earth. This mysterious ursine simply hasn’t been previewed yet. Since The Hobbit card reveals are only running until the end of this month, it won’t be long now before we get a glimpse of the game’s true biggest bear.
Are you hyped for The Hobbit, or are you more excited about Reality Fracture? Let us know in the Wargamer Discord.
Source: Wargamer
