Legacy: Spoiler Highlight - Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Extra, extra! We interrupt our Flow State schedule to talk about another card that should shake up Legacy. In Pro Tour online broadcasts (the most important MTG tournaments WotC promotes), WotC always reveals something to us. Usually, they show us something about the upcoming sets for the rest of the year.

This time, one card in particular stood out to Legacy players because it is incredibly similar to Dreadhorde Arcanist, which is currently banned. Welcome, Bilbo, Thief in the Night!

It's funny. It's the second time in a row I mention Dreadhorde Arcanist in a spoiler article. Last time, we talked about The Dawning Archaic, which has an ability that looks like Arcanist's but is quite different in practice.

Bilbo, however, is a lot more similar because it will play the same role that Arcanist did: it will be a turn-2 creature that can create a lot of value by recycling your cards if it lives for at least one combat phase.

Online, some people have already made jokes about how Flow State and Bilbo, Thief in the Night, the new cards, are similar to their banned counterparts, Expressive Iteration and Dreadhorde Arcanist. Logically, we also speculated they'll meet the same fate. So, let's compare these two cards in depth to see whether we should really worry about more bans or not.

Color: Bilbo is blue, and this is automatically an advantage in Legacy. In this format, you always want to have more options to pay for Force of Will, and you can also play cards like this in other decks, not just Izzet or Grixis. So, that's a point for Bilbo.

Supertype: Arcanist is not a legendary card, so you can have two or more in play, and it is also not vulnerable to Karakas' ability. Point for Aracnist.

Recursion: considering that we only very rarely managed to buff Dreadhorde Arcanist's power, we could only use it to replay spells that cost 1 for free, and, as far as I know, not paying is better than paying even 1 mana! As for Bilbo, it lets you play any spell, as well as artifacts. However, you'll have to pay for them. He does discount their cost by 1 colorless mana, though.

So, this ability can be better in some situations, like if you want to replay Mishra's Bauble or Flow State, but worse in others, like if you have to pay mana to return Ponder or Lightning Bolt, for instance. Overall, as blue tempo decks play more 1-cost cards, we have to give this one to Arcanist because it lets us play them for free.

Size: Overall, a 2/2 is not that different from a 1/3, but I'd say the 1/3 is ahead because it can dodge cards like Thalia, Guardian of Thraben or even Orcish Bowmasters a bit better. On the other side, attacking for 2 instead of 1 is more interesting in aggressive lists. Point for Arcanist, but barely.

Conclusion: Though I believe Dreadhorde Arcanist has a small lead, almost solely because it lets you replay spells for free, there is more than enough reason to believe that Bilbo, Thief in the Night will be just as efficient. He can see play in more decks because of his colors, even less aggressive decks or decks more interested in value, like Azorius Blink, and that's definitely an advantage.

One thing about Bilbo is that it also discounts the cost of cards you play from anywhere but your hand. Most times, this will discount the spells Bilbo himself returns into play from the graveyard, and I believe the most common situation will be to use him to replay Flow State for 1 mana.

But one other possibility comes to mind when I imagine a deck that could take advantage of Bilbo's discounts and extra resources, though it would still be sort of a sideboard option in it: Storm. In the past, Storm decks occasionally played cards like Dark Confidant to create extra resources in post-side games, that is, when the opponent takes out their creature removals and also gets cards that will make your life very difficult. In these cases, you'll need more resources to push your combo through.

Bilbo can create extra resources and a lot of mana when you put cards in play through Galvanic Relay, Past in Flames, or Gaea's Will.

Because we know how Dreadhorde Arcanist used to see play, we know we can't escape tempo decks because they really enjoy seeing a bunch of cards entering play in a row because of a body that also puts pressure on the opponent.

One thing this banned fella (and Ragavan, Nimble Pilferer, also banned) did is show that being small and dying to Lightning Bolt doesn't mean they can't do anything, particularly when the deck they're in can go through the opponent's defenses. You can't simply ignore a turn-1 threat, like Dragon's Rage Channeler or Delver of Secrets, to save your removal for the turn-2 creature. That's what makes me believe that, as long as Bilbo is in play, it will return a few spells for you.

Let's use our imagination and think of a few places it can see play.

Izzet Tempo

Izzet Tempo is the first obvious place Bilbo can see play, just like it was for Flow State. Bilbo can push a list like this more to Delver of Secrets and move it away from Cori-Steel Cutter, as you'd rather have more targets for your opponent's removals to make sure Bilbo stays in play for a bit longer.

Still, you want/need some Mishra's Baubles, both to enable Dragon's Rage Channeler's Delirium and to be able to replay something with Bilbo for 0 mana.

Azorius Blink

Phelia, Exuberant Shepherd and Quantum Riddler gained a lot of space in Legacy in some lists, some more tempo, others more control. The tempo versions might not be able to use Phelia to bring back Riddler, which is quite powerful, but Bilbo could create value in a different way for them.

It will probably fit versions that play cards like Flow State a bit better, but we'll see how it goes when we have him in hands.

Storm

Our third suggestion, based on what we mentioned above, is playing Bilbo in the sideboards of decks like Storm. In this case, it will help you create value by replaying Brainstorm, Ponder, or Thoughtseize, but it will eventually create mana in a Galvanic Relay / Gaea's Will turn as well.

We must admit that the Lord of the Rings set was one of the most successful MTG sets, both in terms of sales and reception. A new set based around J. R. R. Tolkien works will naturally attract players, as they'll expect something very powerful.

At first glance, Bilbo, Thief in the Night seems very promising, and this already made us very excited for this new set. There are many reasons to believe that this dear Hobbit will be quite important for Legacy.

What do you think? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!