The Hobbit MTG Mechanics Explained: Storied, Recruit & Hone

The Hobbit brings three new mechanics to Magic (storied, recruit, and hone counters) and two returning ones (Adventures and amass). None of them are complicated on their own, but three of the five behave differently at a four-player table than they do in a duel, and that's the part most guides skip.

Every card that uses these mechanics is on The Hobbit set page. Here's how each one works, with the Commander-specific rulings up front.

Storied is a static keyword. A permanent with storied checks whether you control three or more permanents that are artifacts, legendary, and/or Sagas. The moment that's true while you control the storied permanent, you get a designation called an enduring story for the rest of the game.

Thorin Oakenshield is the showcase. Once you have an enduring story, his other ability switches on and gives artifacts and creatures you control ward .

Three rulings that matter:

• The three permanents are the old historic batch (artifacts, legendaries, Sagas), but the historic keyword itself isn't in this set.
• An enduring story is a fact about you, not an ability on a card. It isn't an object and it can't be removed.
• Once earned, it's permanent. Lose Thorin, lose every artifact, get board-wiped: you still have your enduring story, and any future storied permanent's payoff is live the moment it lands.

In Limited, assembling three artifacts and legends is a real deckbuilding cost. In Commander, you're usually already there. Your commander is legendary. Sol Ring and Arcane Signet are artifacts. That's three by turn two in a large share of decks, before your storied card is even cast.

The practical effect is that storied cards in EDH are just "this card plus its bonus ability," with the condition doing almost no work. Thorin's ward on every artifact and creature you control isn't a late-game reward; it's a tax on all three opponents' removal from the moment he resolves. Evaluate storied cards on the payoff, not the hoop.

Recruit is a keyword action with three steps in order:

1. Draw a card.
2. Discard a card.
3. If the discarded card was a nonland card, create a 1/1 white Human Soldier creature token.

The Queen of Dale is the card Wizards used to introduce it. Mechanically, recruit is a loot (draw then discard) with a body attached when you pitch a spell.

In Commander that "if nonland" clause creates a small decision every time. Discard a land you don't need and you get card selection only. Discard a reanimation target and you get selection, a graveyard setup, and a body to sacrifice. Aristocrats and reanimator decks get all three; everyone else gets a smoother draw and an occasional chump blocker. It's a modest mechanic, but it's honest about it.

A hone counter is a counter that goes on Equipment. Each hone counter on an Equipment gives the equipped creature +1/+0. That bonus isn't an ability granted to the Equipment; it's simply true because of the rules attached to the counter, which means any Equipment with hone counters on it grants the bonus, even one that never mentions them.

Sting, Bilbo's Sword puts hone counters on itself. Other cards in the set put them on any Equipment you control.

Two Commander interactions worth knowing:

• Counters stay on the Equipment, not the creature. Move a honed sword to a new body and the power follows the sword. That's excellent for Voltron decks whose commander keeps dying.
• Counter doublers and proliferate work. Doubling Season doubles counters placed on any permanent you control, Equipment included, and proliferate can add a hone counter to any Equipment that already has one. An Equipment deck that's never had a reason to run counter support now has one.

Adventures return unchanged from their earlier appearances. An adventurer card is a permanent with a second, smaller instant or sorcery printed in the lower-left of its text box. You choose which half to cast. Cast the Adventure half and, when it resolves, the card is exiled instead of going to the graveyard, and you may cast the permanent half from exile later.

Bilbo, Luckwearer is the set's example: a 1/1 that can't be blocked and loots on combat damage, or a sorcery called Burglar's Plot that you cast first and then follow up with Bilbo from exile.

The ruling that trips people up: in your hand, library, or exile, the card only has the permanent half's characteristics. A tutor for a creature can find it; a tutor for a sorcery can't.

For Commander players there's a specific wrinkle when an adventurer card is your commander. Cast the Adventure half from the command zone and the card goes to exile on resolution. You can move it back to the command zone, or leave it in exile and cast the creature half from there. Casting from exile isn't casting from the command zone, so no commander tax applies. Bilbo is legendary, so this line is live. If you've played Bonecrusher Giant or Brazen Borrower in the 99, the rest works exactly as you remember.

Amass came back with Tales of Middle-earth and returns here with a new creature type. The instruction reads "amass Goblins N." Bolg of the North amasses Goblins X.

The steps:

1. If you don't control an Army creature, create a 0/0 black Goblin Army creature token.
2. Choose an Army you control and put N +1/+1 counters on it.

Rulings: the token is always black regardless of the creature type named. Only one Army gets the counters, and you choose which if you control more than one. Any creature with the Army type counts, including a changeling.

The Commander note is that amass doesn't care which Army. If you're already running the Orc amassers from Tales of Middle-earth, a Hobbit Goblin amasser won't make a second token; it grows the Orc Army you already have. Every amass card in both sets feeds one giant body.

Ranked by how much they change a deck you'd actually build:

1. Hone counters — a new axis for Equipment decks, and the first counter type that makes proliferate worth a slot in Voltron.
2. Storied — nearly free in EDH, so judge the payoff. Thorin's ward is the standout.
3. Adventures — proven value cards; the commander-from-exile line is a real edge.
4. Amass — strong if you already own the Orc Army package, filler if you don't.
5. Recruit — fine, and better in aristocrats than anywhere else.

If you're deciding which of these to build around, our post on building around the Hobbit commanders walks through two brews, and the two-week price picture tells you which of the mechanic-defining cards are still cheap to pick up. For everything the set contains, start at our Hobbit release guide.