Upgrading Commander Precon: Food and Fellowship (Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit)

Food and Fellowship has as its central theme the heroes of the heart of Middle-Earth's Shire, presenting the characters who are beloved by most fans of J.R.R Tolkien's fantasy world - Hobbits. The little ones, Samwise Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrin Took and Frodo Baggins were represented as legendary cards, forming pairs, just like the books.

The vast works of J.R.R. Tolkien were well represented in the cards and referenced in the flavor texts. We can see Odo Proudfoot in the card Feasting Hobbit, which was a very fun and spot-on representation, Loth Sackville-Baggins and Tom Bombadil, who were left behind in recent films, and others like Aragorn's mom and the dogs who chase after our favorite gluttonous Hobbits. Even with all that, I felt there still needed a card for Fredegar Bolger, the Fatty, who is part of Frodo's group in Bag End.

The commanders who are the faces of the precon are Sam, Loyal Attendant and Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit, who form a powerful synergy by creating many resources in the form of extra cards, using the mechanic "the Ring tempts you". Our second options are the curious and impulsive Merry, Warden of Isengard and Pippin, Warden of Isengard; the interaction between them suggests a more forward game, quite aggressive. The last commander in the color identity intended is the Hobbit himself: Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant, who celebrates with a life gain deck.

Precon List

From these proposals, we have the following themes: artifact tokens of the Food kind, Tokens and Life Gain. All themes are harmonious, working in a synergistic way in a very fun and consistent deck. We'll delve deep in the base list with the Food theme at a first glance, then follow with a list with many combo options using the cards from the precon, and later on explore some modest suggestions of Life Gain.

For the better understanding of this article, we've grouped the cards, dividing them by roles inside our list, based on the following parameters: Commanders and creatures of its type, Ramp, Card Draw, and Interactions.

The Commanders: Sam and Frodo

The commanders Sam, Loyal Attendant and Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit have as their defining trait being a powerful draw engine, in which Frodo draws up to two extra cards per turn as he guarantees 3 extra health points, all that for just mana. Knowing that Sam, Loyal Attendant creates Food tokens and reduces their activation cost, we must understand Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit as a creature with Vigilance, Skulk (he can't be blocked by creatures with power higher than his own), and a powerful source of draw, because when Frodo attacks you'll draw a card and discard a card, if Frodo attacks, "the Ring tempts you", and you'll draw a card, etc.

So, it is possible, in an ideal turn of events, that we play Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit on turn 2, and we're tempted by the Ring on turn 3 with the arrival of Sam, Loyal Attendant, starting the extra draws already in the following turn, though it isn't unlikely to have our first extra draw on turn 3, which ends up rivalizing this mechanic with the Tymna the Weaver pairs.

Halfling Typal

Besides our main commanders, the deck counts with just over 13 creatures with the Halfling subtype in a total of less than half of the creatures in the deck, most of them being our main sources of interaction with Food.

All of them which are directly connected to the goal of this deck must remain unaltered, so I suggest increasing your proportion by adding more cards of the same subtype, such as:

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Peregrin Took: adds additional food tokens each time we create a token, any token.

Samwise Gamgee: every time a non-token creature enters the battlefield, it creates a Food, an extremely relevant ability, as we'll see next.

Meriadoc Brandybuck: adds tokens each time one or more Halflings attack, adding more offense to the deck.

Elanor Gardner: a ramp piece which is extremely consistent.

Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff: an extremely strong source of mana.

Frodo, Sauron's Bane: an alternative wincon.

And Samwise the Stouthearted: that creature recursion every deck needs.

The card options which can be removed are those who have a higher mana cost and a smaller benefit, many times being unnecessary or even discard options:

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Other interactions with the Halflings were explored for the building of this list, so it could be possible that we choose cards from The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth set and this way keep the flavor of the deck and make the access easier for new players.

Gilraen, Dúnedain Protector has a powerful ability, which, besides protecting creatures from possible punctual removals, it also protects them from global removals, once the exiled creature can come back right away or later, according to the choice of who controls it, adding counters in the process. Its main role is to activate triggered effects of other creatures multiple times, after all, a Woodfall Primus is already powerful enough triggering twice, and therefore doing it multiple times in the same turn is devastating.

We can create countless resources in one interaction alone with Lobelia, Defender of Bag End, which can be used defensively with Samwise the Stouthearted recovering important resources, or creating a barrier of indestructibility with Boromir, Warden of the Tower, through a cyclical interaction between Samwise the Stouthearted and Boromir, Warden of the Tower, which can be decisive against removal-based Control decks.

Sting, the Glinting Dagger is a precious relic which untaps our creatures, not only to emulate Vigilance, but also for elaborate combat creatures with Gilraen, Dúnedain Protector or brutal ones with Pippin, Warden of Isengard.

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Ramp

Mana ramp is a Green color specialty, and its abundance can be noted in the choices made for this precon. During matches with it, I always ended up drawing more lands than I needed, so I removed some of them and, still, the deck didn't have any issues regarding that. The countless land tutors through recycling were also a bit too much, however, between opting for removing more lands or their tutors, I chose to remove the tutors, as lands are more dynamic and here we have even excessive color correcting.

We added Elanor Gardner, which is excellent, as this card translates extra lands every turn, with no cost, and that is superb, better than all other previous selectors together. One of the best ramps for Commander in this collection is Lotho, Corrupt Shirriff, which is a superior version of Monologue Tax once it's on the board. The speed added by it is intense, and the more refined the game, the more advantage will be created by it. Sting, the Glinting Dagger can be added to a mana dork to create extra mana every turn, even if it's more useful for other ends.

Another card that must be observed is The Ring Goes South, which puts lands equal to the number of legendary creatures directly in play. Thinking about it, we have two commanders, so we can transform a creature into a legendary by playing this spell. In the matches I played, I never once looked for less than 3 lands, being 4 or more lands very common, and, the best of it, of any type; basic or not.

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Card Draw

We've discussed a lot how Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit draws a lot of cards, but we have other very efficient ways of drawing cards in this deck: Food! Yes, cards such as Peregrin Took and the wonderful Savvy Hunter convert food into draws; and Trading Post has in its effects "sacrifice a Food", I mean, artifact, and draw a card.

We can say the same for The Gaffer, which at the end of the turn guarantees an extra draw if we have gained 3 or more health, which means, if we have activated a Food. Well of Lost Dreams is a powerful Mana Sink which allows drawing as many cards as we gain life in a given turn. Here we can list that Samwise Gamgee, by exchanging food for historic cards (Artifacts, Legendaries and Sagas are historic) which are in your graveyard, creates an important advantage, reducing the expense of cards in hand and returning important cards for our synergies.

Direct draws are also important, and for that, we have Night's Whisper and Harmonize, which are simple and efficient. Dawn of Hope and Mentor of the Meek were for a long time the best card draws in the color White, and its triggered abilities allow for a good advantage. Of Herbs and Stewed Rabbit must not be underestimated, because it creates two foods, draws a card and finishes the game easily with Pippin, Warden of Isengard, besides being able to be used as a target for Samwise Gamgee's ability.

Interactions

The choices from Wizards team for this precon regarding removals were spectacular; Swords to Plowshares, the best Magic removal in the opinion of many; and Path to Exile, another competitor to the title of best removal. The card Go for the Throat is very efficient and has a broad reach, as well, and, to complete it all, they added the card Feed the Swarm, which can deal with creatures and enchantments and has an irrelevant downside in a deck dedicated to life gain. Anguished Unmaking and Mortify complete our direct interactions with permanents.

The global removals are handled by Toxic Deluge, Fell the Mighty and Dusk // Dawn. Among the five options proposed by the base deck, we keep these as they are selective; Fell the Mighty and Dusk // Dawn, most times, ignore our Halflings, and the consequence of Dusk // Dawn allows us to recover a great portion of our creatures by returning our gas after an unexpected event of mass destruction. Toxic Deluge is one of the most elegant cards in Magic, as it removes indestructible creatures, prevents regeneration, damage prevention, and has many other advantages for just . Its only downside, which is health loss, is minimized by the life gain theme.

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Food and Fellowship with LOTR Upgrades

The choice for an authentic Vorthos is a build totally dedicated to the works of The Lord of the Rings, and for those who are also celebrating 111 years old of age, we have an authentic Block Constructed; a Format built with the limitation of one or more sets, abandoned for many years, but with its fans.

We have followed the initial proposal of using The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-Earth and Tales of Middle-earth Commander as a base. This list is personal and has been going through a refinement period ever since the release of the set, and, today, though it is restricted to Lord of the Rings, it is in a new tier, much higher in power and investment. In it, you'll be able to see many possibilities for upgrades and also how much I like this theme. Being an affective list, it will always be unfinished, open to new possibilities. During its development, I stumbled across an unsee version of the Smeagol, Helpful Guide combo using Faramir, Field Commander, which I share with you below:

Requisites:

All the following permanents on the battlefield:

Smeagol, Helpful Guide, Faramir, Field Commander, Dúnedain Rangers, Cloudstone Curio (Elessar, The Elfstone), and at least one non-ringbearer creature.

You have at least one land in hand.

Steps

1) Play a land - Dúnedain Rangers triggers its Landfall.

2) Ringbearer chosen - Smeagol, Helpful Guide and Faramir, Field Commander trigger.

3) Faramir, Field Commander resolves and creates a 1/1 white creature token of the Human Soldier subtype. - Cloudstone Curio triggers.

4) Cloudstone Curio resolves - return the Ringbearer to its owner.

5) Smeagol, Helpful Guide resolves, the target opponent reveals the cards on top of their deck until they reveal a land card. Put that card tapped on the battlefield under your control and the rest in their graveyard. Repeat each step.

Results

Infinite Mill

The secondary commanders in Food and Fellowship sacrifice part of the draw rhythm to fill the board with Soldier-type creatures, making the deck much more offensive, with both commanders as a way of developing the Board State and creating a possible wincon.

This proactivity matches both Aggro tokens archetypes quite well, in which we have as an average 4 tokens created per round with Merry, Warden of Isengard, which will be amplified with Pippin, Warden of Isengard's ability, Sting, the Glinting Dagger being the star here untapping Pippin at each round, keeping a geometrical growth. However, many players prefer explosive plays which finish the game, and, in that case, the best win cons are the combos.

Merry and Pippin, Food and Fellowship with Upgrades

Combinations which had a low monetary investment were chosen, as long as they also had interactions with tokens, and ways of quickly localizing these cards in your deck. For that, we looked for an old friend: Protean Hulk.

The Protean Hulk lines are based on combos in which the combination of cards has a mana cost converted to more or less .

Rosie Oak Line

Samwise Oven Cat Line

Alternatively:

Soul Sisters Line

Alternatively:

But that isn't a combo. Heliod's Pilgrim has a very specific target: Presence of Gond.

Which creates a combo with Famished Paladin + Soul Warden.

All combos presented here can be finished with Mirkwood Bats or Pippin, Warden of Isengard. For further details, visit our combo tab.

There are countless ways to develop these lists and possible combos; Pippin, Warden of Isengard and Merry, Warden of Isengard based on artifacts, Peregrin Took in an artifact Mono Green, Samwise can go in a very consistent Selesnya, Equipment Frodo, Sauron, Saruman and many others.

If you know any other interesting interactions or devastating combos, comment them down below in the comment section!

Choose your nation and join the Fellowship in an adventure!

Leave your suggestions, comments, and have a good journey after the second breakfast!

See you next time.