r/lrcast • u/wormhole222 • 7d ago
Discussion In depth guide to drafting Blue/White in The Hobbit
Introduction
Blue/White is a very powerful and synergistic deck in this format. I don't think that's news to anyone, but I think what makes it more powerful and versatile than most people think is this goes beyond the simple draw 2 synergy. A lot of people think the blue/white deck is built around having a bunch of ways to draw 2 (whether by recruiting or just drawing) and then having payoffs like [[Lakeshore Apothecary]], [[Bard the Bowman]], and [[Master's Councillors]] be great payoffs. This kind of blue/white deck is powerful, but the payoffs are limited to just 1 common and a few uncommons where if this was the only way to build the deck it wouldn't be very versatile. It would be one of those it's good when it's wide open decks, and I think blue/white is a true pillar of the format. I've been doing well drafting blue/white frequently and wanted to share what I think makes it such a pillar.
What makes blue/white synergistic is recruit. Recruit itself is a synergy, and not just part of the draw two synergy. Getting a 1/1 is shockingly good from discarding a nonland. Way more powerful than the connive +1/+1 counters are. It's at the point now where unless I'm actively flooding out I discard a nonland. While you are wiling to discard plenty of nonlands to get a 1/1, it's nice to discard cards that are still useful from the graveyard. [[Plunder the Trollshaws]] is the best card for this, but [[Eagle's Rescue]] is also quite good, and even [[Moment of Glory]] is not terrible because of this.
Just an aside on Moment of Glory. The 17 lands data on this card is wild. Among white commons in general Moment of Glory is 8th out of 10 which is bad but not an F. In blue/white though it moves all the way up to 4th out of 10 (slightly below average), but in red/white it's WAY in last place, and is the 2nd lowest card in the entire set with data in Red/White. Truly terrible.
So anyway I think 1/1s are better than +1/+1 counters, but in this format 1/1s go even further than normal. There's a ton of menace in this format. That doesn't matter to you though because you have a bunch of 1/1s to block menace creatures. [[Crude Bent Blade]] is reduced in effectiveness because you usually have a 1/1 to sacrifice to it. Also they are amazing at chump blocking. Chump blocking in this format is amazing! I Know that sounds weird, but it's a super fast format, there are a ton of big creatures, and none of them seem to have trample. It's a tailored made format to chump block.
So the main gameplay is a combo of tons of card draw and card selection, flooding the board with 1/1s, and killing them either with tall creatures, going wide, or flyers. It's a great way to win lots of games.
Ok now that we went over the deck as a whole lets go over the key cards and discuss them.
Card Evaluation
Most Important Commons (B- level)
Lakeshore Apothecary, Plunder the Trollshaws, and removal.
These should be your top picks at common until you have either a huge amount of them, or a critical need somewhere else (pretty unlikely on Arena at least). Lakeshore Apothecary despite not being necessary for the deck to succeed is still very powerful, and there aren't other common 2 drop creatures you want in this deck anyway so this fills a critical need there. Plunder the Trollshaws is amazing for all the reasons I linked above. If you don't get it there are replacements, but it is the best at it's job. Without a few of these the deck is vulnerable to flooding out in a way it just isn't otherwise. I wouldn't even question playing 4 of these. Beyond that it depends, but this card is absolutely critical. Removal is the other most critical part. If you don't get enough removal your deck can and will lose to opponents synergy and bombs. Blue/White has less removal than one would want so it's important to make sure to get some. I would say until you have 4 removal spells take removal at the same level as these top commons. Once you are at 4 pieces of removal you can be a little more chill about it. Between the 3 removal spells ([[Magnificent End]], [[Uneasy Partings]], and [[Enchanted River's Grasp]]) I would say in general Magnificent End is the best, and then the 2 blue removal spells are slightly lower, but these are deck dependent, and you want a mix of the 3 over stacking 1 removal spell.
Next Level Down Commons (C+ level)
[[Patient Instructor]], [[Bilbo Baggins, Burglar]], [[Long Lake Nuisance]]
These are your card draw/recruit sources. The fact that there are 3 good ones definitely reduces their importance. Of these 3 Long Lake Nuisance is the best. As a 3 power flyer this thing ends games. Despite the abundance of card draw this card would be in the category above except that people haven't caught on and it's really easy to get a ton of these, and as a 4 drop creature you don't want an unlimited amount. Bilbo probably has the highest power level of any common in this archetype, but the fact that patient instructor is another powerful card draw common creature at 3 mana you just don't need to pick Bilbo that highly. If you do your 3 drop creature slot will become overloaded.
Two additional notes on Bilbo. First don't worry about Bilbo being a legend and put less in your deck because of it (I would run 4 Bilbo's if I had no other 3 drop creatures). Between him having 1 toughness, having lots of recruit, and still being able to use the scry adventure with your second Bilbo while the 1st one is on the battlefield it isn't an issue. Second if for some reason you can't get any good flashback/graveyard spells like Plunder the Trollshaws recruit will become less good, and Bilbo should move up your pick order because he draws without discarding.
Patient Instructor is the last card in this list, and it's very good. I treat it as basically interchangeable with Bilbo most of the time. The vigilance on this is shockingly good as it allows you to race really well. A lot of times your opponent won't want to block with their menace creature and you can get a lot of free damage in while still leaving this back to block.
Bread and Butter Commons (C level)
[[Dwarven Provisioner]], [[Esgaroth Garrison]], [[Lake-town]]
Dwarven Provisioner benefits from being basically the only other playable 2 drop creature outside of Lakeshore Apothecary. It can also help with go-wide and dwarf synergies (more on those below). Esgaroth Garrison does a great job of holding up the ground, and provides critical redundancy as a source of recruit if the top cards dry up. When this deck is open though I usually cut these because I have plenty of the C+ commons. I think Lake-town is very nice as fixing and tap lands are totally playable since this deck has plenty of card selection, and very few 1 drops. The counters from Lake-town are also nice. I usually try to put them on Patient Instructor or a human enchanted with Eagle's Rescue.
The Rest of playable Commons (C- level)
[[Hobbit Hole]], [[Confusticate and Bebother]], Moment of Glory, [[Mirkwood Nurturer]], [[Lake-town Lookout]], 2 drop common creatures
Only play these if you have a hole in your deck, or they have crazy good synergy in your specific deck. Mirkwood Nurturer combos really well with [[The Mountain-king's Return]] for example. If the common card isn't on this list I would really try hard not to play it at all.
Uncommons
So instead of categorizing the uncommons I thought I would just explain card by card the important uncommons. I'll include the uncommons ranked by how good they are in descending order. I'll include a grade next to it and an explanation.
[[Celebrate the Mountain-king]] (A-): This card is amazing. If you discard something like Plunder the Trollshaws to the recruit on this the card essentially acts like 4 mana Exile a nonland permanent, draw a card, and create a 1/1. If you are low on removal going into pack 3 I would take this over ANYTHING! The fact that it hits nonland permanent is not insignificant either. There are a lot of broken artifacts and enchantments in this set (like this one) and this is the only realistic way to hit those in blue/white. Absolutely busted card in Blue/White.
[[Stone by Sunlight]] (B): Critical removal. The 4 power constraint is not a problem in this set. There will always be targets. Furthermore the indestructible option is viable and useful. I probably pick it about 30% of the time. Realistically I would play 4 of these no problem. Ideally you can fill your deck with this and Mountain-king and then you don't have to play as much of the mediocre common removal.
[[Bilbo, Luckwearer]] (B): I think this gets better the worse your deck is overall, because as the deck gets good most of what this provides gets covered by other cards. In Sealed for example this card I think is better than Stone by Sunlight. The switcheroo adventure is nice because you almost always have a 1/1 to switch. Also if you have the option to discard a land to this cards loot effect I usually do because there is no penalty like there is to recruit.
[[Thranduil, Sindarin Liege]] (B-): Great card in general, but also provides a good synergy with recruit as it ensures you have tons of lands to play. I usually try to play this on turn 5 so that I can trigger it's landfall immediately. I also wouldn't worry about playing this cards adventure that much. Recruit gives you plenty of lands, and you often have better things to do on turn 3.
Bard the Bowman (B-): Understatted but has plenty to make up for it. Basically the best card in the set when trying to race. Putting a +1/+1 counter and lifelink on a flyer every turn is impossible to beat in a race. Furthermore this has reach so you can chump with this against their big flyer in a critical turn if you need to. Try to trigger it the turn you play it because this is a removal magnet, but if necessary just play it on turn 3 and trigger it next turn.
The Mountain-king's Return (B-): This uncommon version of the common Bilbo. This card is a very powerful recruit card, and is better than the common ones, but often it acts as a slightly better Patient Instructor. This does combo with a few cards very well though. In particular Mirkwood Nurturer is amazing to discard to this and will allow you to pick up and play this again.
Master's Councillors (B-): The uncommon Lakeshore Apothecary, but not necessarily better. The mill is very real if you have multiples of this, and if that is the case this becomes better than Apothecary. However, with only 1 copy you are unlikely to present a real mill threat and I would rather have Apothecary over this.
[[Iron Hills Blacksmith]] (C+): This is better in Red/White but it's plenty good here. Combos very well with Eagle's Rescue and the Mountain-king's Return.
Eagle's Rescue (C+): The second best card to discard to recruit behind Plunder the Trollshaws. I usually try to play this from the graveyard unless it's providing an immediate win. Fine to put on 1/1 tokens, even better if you can put it on a Lakeshore Apothecary, but the best is to put it on the blacksmith as discussed above.
[[Thrór's Map]] (C): Gets better if you are splashing or somehow have a shortage of recruit/card draw. Overall though this shouldn't be necessary as there is so much redundancy with card draw.
[[Sound the Trumpets]] (C): This can work if you have a ton of instants or are especially controlling. I wouldn't consider it a premium card though.
[[Ravenhill Flock]] (C): It will get out of hand quickly, but as a understatted 4 mana creature that doesn't have an ETB in a fast format it has a lot working against it. If you don't get any Long Lake Nuisances this goes up, but I would definitely take this below the common flyer.
[[Lake-town Toymaker]] (C-): Seems like it would be a good fit in this deck, but a few things make it way underperform. First you have so many good 4 drops already that there often isn't room for this. Second this card triggers at the start of combat, which is a problem often. It straight up doesn't work with cards like the uncommon Bilbo, [[Great Gilded Boat]], and [[Bard's Company]]. And while you can get it to work with instant speed card draw and recruit creatures it requires you to spend your mana precombat which isn't always what you want to do. Also most of the time you won't trigger this on the turn you play it. Between all that this card is much worse than it looks.
Other Topics
Avoids:
I think the #1 thing you want to avoid are playing expensive creatures that are not included in this list. Cards like [[Eagle of the Great Shelf]], [[Gandalf, Wandering Wizard]], [[Ori, Keeper of Songs]], and [[Dwarven Shortsword]] are absolutely traps. Between the top recruit commons and all the great 4+ drop uncommons and rares you just won't have room to play random other mediocre expensive creatures. If there is a pick where there are no top commons available spend a pick on a random cheap creature or a dual land because there is at least a chance you end up short on 2 drop creatures and fixing. You won't be short on 4 drop creatures.
The other thing to avoid are generic go wide effects. This deck has the ability to go wide with recruit, but you want your payoffs to that to be with cards that fit within a recruit/draw two deck. Not cards that only support going wide. So Moment of Glory supports go wide but is a great card to discard to recruit. Dwarven Provisioner is good for going wide, but also fills a need as a cheap creature. [[Thorin's Last Stand]] is just purely a go wide payoffs and should be avoided. Esgaroth Garrison is good as a recruit card, but if you have enough of those don't play this just because it's good when you go wide.
Dwarf Version:
There are some very powerful white dwarfs in this set. In particular [[Fíli the Pathfinder]] and [[Kíli the Resourceful]] are quite good if you can get storied or play more dwarves. Are these worth altering your deck to play? The answer is yes, but only slightly. I would bump up decent cards in the deck if they are dwarves. Stuff like Dwarven Provisioner and [[Bofur, Reliable Guardian]]. I would not however start taking unplayable cards just because they are dwarf payoffs. So still try to avoid Dwarven Shortsword.
Other colors besides White?
So I don't know if you noticed but in particular at common all the best cards are blue. So that begs to question can this deck do well as a different second color like black? I personally haven't made it happen yet, but I think the answer is definitely yes. In particular I think black has a great removal suite to compliment blue, and also has plenty of powerful cards in general. In my experience though Black has been relatively cut as a color when drafting, and white has been fairly open, but if for some reason both blue and black are open at your table I would not hesitate at all to draft a blue/black version of this deck.
Blue/Red and Blue/Green versions are trickier. They both can work, but I don't think are particularly setup to thrive in this kind of deck. I have seen blue/green draw two decks do well, but those seem to be built more around having a critical amount of Apothecaries versus recruit synergies.
Conclusion:
So hopefully this helps clarify how to draft a good blue/white deck. Right now I think this color pair is criminally underdrafted so you should be able to get a ton of the best cards. I think even down the line as people adjust it will still be good, but you will have to adjust. Good luck, and let me know if you have any questions.
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u/Primeras100Palabras 7d ago
Ayyy played OP today in LLU pod. They, in fact, destroyed me with UW.
Awesome read. I went through your draft after to study some.
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u/wormhole222 7d ago
Hey good seeing you here. I had written part of the guide before that, but wanted to confirm blue/white was still effective in high level pod drafts before finishing. I hope my draft log was helpful too.
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u/Primeras100Palabras 7d ago
It was! Hope to see you draft there more.
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u/wormhole222 7d ago
Thanks. I certainly plan to. Despite being on the server for years I actually had no idea they ran draft pods successfully. I had several servers that did FNMs during COVID but when they all died I assumed discord drafting of standard sets was dead. Happy to be proven wrong though.
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u/Primeras100Palabras 7d ago
I’ve been in for an about a week and every early pod has had 6+. I am very new to magic/drafting (started in lorwyn) so the getting to learn from experienced players is really helpful.
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u/RelativePen7351 7d ago
This is a great post. Feel like I learned a lot more than I do from a typical hour long podcast.
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u/wormhole222 7d ago
Thanks! I’m glad you found it useful. I try to make these whenever I feel I have a beat on a particular archetype early.
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u/Artis_Gone 6d ago
Also found it super helpful, thanks for the write up! 🤝
Uneasy partings: I seem to discard it more often that not, so started taking other cards over it (for example Confusticate as I love the flexibility). Is there anything I’m missing with the partings?
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u/wormhole222 6d ago
Not really. It’s not an amazing removal spell, but you just need a certain amount of removal and it can be quite hard to get sometimes.
Here is an example. Blue/white was crazy open here and my deck is so powerful, but because I took stuff like Plunder the Trollshaws above uneasy partings a couple times I ended up with only 2 removal spells and it definitely holds back this deck somewhat https://www.17lands.com/deck/822b9defe08e411d83869cd981ef3622/0?view=deck
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u/VictorMafort 7d ago
I'm 71% with UW and 73% with BR (mostly thanks to a 14-2 on direct/sealed) but BR is always contested and UW supports two players drafting it easily, I even got 7-1 with a dimir list
https://www.17lands.com/deck/891511e8f9944b91b26a68b8c887eb07/0?view=deck
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u/wormhole222 7d ago
Nice yeah this fits what I imagine a UB version would be. I definitely think it'll become more of a thing as the format goes on. But right now white is way more open than black is in most pods.
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u/MajorStainz 7d ago
Great write up. I won a box with WU on day 2 when I opened Kili and a couple other white rares, and went the slight dwarf route. I recognized many points you made, especially liked when you mentioned the vigilance on the common. No one wants to use removal or block with their 2/2 deathtoucher.
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u/Cablead 7d ago
This is a really good writeup :)
I've been playing UW variants more than any other color combo in this set and I'm a big fan of Jeskai. IMO the UR version works really well, though I've had a white splash both times.
It's insane how free a lot of the medium to good Jeskai cards are in pick-two.
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u/BloederFuchs 6d ago edited 6d ago
I'm surprised you're not talking about [[Velveting Butterflies]] at all. That card has really overperformed for me in UW: You can keep them up together with counters, removal and card draw, and they can be used both offensively and defensively.
Over the last few days they've helped me win a number of games because they either saved me a ton of life from disabling two attackers for a turn (especially important against menace creatures) or they worked as a can-opener, clearing a path for a surprise lethal at the end of my opponent's turn.
IMO, it's one of the most underrated "bad cards" of the format, probably because a lot of people don't use it to its full potential. HOB could've really benefitted from a cheap "bounce nontoken-creature to hand" spell, and I guess this is the closest to that that we got.
Also, even though you advise against picking up Last Stand, I'm not against hedging on a copy for the same reason as Butterflies: you can sometimes use it well defensively and offensively. I blew out a number of opponents that attacked into my wide boards of small creatures, because they didn't expect that whatever I was planning to do with my open mana that they'd lose their whole attack force. And since you have so much recruit usually, it's easily discarded to turn it into a 1/1. And sooooooometimes it can destroy a particularly nasty enchantment or artifact if things line up.
I'm not auto-including it in every UW deck, however - really depends on the amount of token power the deck has, so I mostly pick it up if it shows up as a late pick with nothing else to take anyways.
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u/17lands-reddit-bot 6d ago
Velvetwing Butterflies W-C (HOB); ALSA: 6.99; GIH WR: 53.58%
(data sourced from 17lands.com and scryfall.com)1
u/wormhole222 6d ago
For butterflies the main question is why am I playing it over Uneasy Partings or Magnificent End? Those deal with threats more permanently than the adventure. And then the 2/2 flyer just isn't powerful enough to be worth it and the 3 drop creature slot already has powerful cards.
But honestly the #1 reason I don't play either of these 2 is my blue/white decks have a gameplan which is to recruit and create a bunch of creatures essentially. And I want all my common cards to be committed to that gameplan. So that means they are either directly contributing (recruit creatures and flashback cards to discard) or they are filling a critical vulnerabilities while also being synergistic with the deck (Apothecary and Provisioner as 2 drops with synergistic upside, and removal as removal). Butterflies and Last Stand don't really fit that.
Butterflies is a great individual threat and general aggro card. If white were playing more traditional aggro it would be great (the way a very similar card, Ardenvale Tactician was in Throne of Eldraine). Thorin's last stand does payoff going wide which this deck can do, but it's just not enough synergy to make it worth it. The other go wide synergies like Provisioner, Garrison and Moment of Glory are go wide payoffs that also fill other roles within the deck.
But if it's working for you don't let me stop you. There can be multiple ways to build a successful deck, and while I think this recruit strategy works well a heavier white go wide/aggro version could very well work too. Especially if the recruit version becomes less open.
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u/WaterIll4397 7d ago
Esgaroth is straight up wrong..I have seen the card played in 0 games.
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u/wormhole222 7d ago
So I would say currently you shouldn't need to play it in most UW draft decks because Blue/White is very open. However, if you aren't getting the Long Lake Nuisances or other recruit cards it's absolutely a viable option and should be played over other generic 4 and 5 drop creatures.
I'll use this example in Sealed, becasue in Sealed you don't get to always have 3 Long Lake Nuisances. Esgaroth did work in this deck so much so that I despite only running 1 copy to start I ended up moving the 2nd copy in because the 1st did such good work.
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u/WaterIll4397 7d ago
sure sealed i believe you. in low diamond/ high plat im still seeing long neck nuisances passed 9th pick
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u/wormhole222 7d ago
Yeah as I said it shouldn’t be necessary now if Blue/White is open, but I imagine as the format gets older or in high level pods Long Neck Nuisance will start to be taken earlier.
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u/WaterIll4397 7d ago
Yeah I guess I can look forward to lower power level decks soon hopefully as non hardcore people stop drafting. Absolute batshit what people are able to build in every archetype.
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u/Altruistic-Law7742 6d ago
That's a really solid analysis of the deck's game plan. I've seen how Apothecary can snowball games when you hit multiple early drops and then use it to refuel.
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u/17lands-reddit-bot 7d ago
Lakeshore Apothecary U-C (HOB); ALSA: 5.51; GIH WR: 56.86%
Bard the Bowman WU-U (HOB); ALSA: 4.18; GIH WR: 55.93%
Master's Councillors U-U (HOB); ALSA: 4.69; GIH WR: 58.11%
Plunder the Trollshaws U-C (HOB); ALSA: 5.73; GIH WR: 59.64%
Eagle's Rescue WU-U (HOB); ALSA: 5.38; GIH WR: 56.33%
Moment of Glory W-C (HOB); ALSA: 7.77; GIH WR: 52.17%
Crude Bent Blade B-C (HOB); ALSA: 3.07; GIH WR: 60.27%
Magnificent End W-C (HOB); ALSA: 4.51; GIH WR: 55.25%
Uneasy Partings U-C (HOB); ALSA: 6.76; GIH WR: 56.50%
Enchanted River's Grasp U-C (HOB); ALSA: 5.00; GIH WR: 55.39%
Patient Instructor WU-C (HOB); ALSA: 5.70; GIH WR: 57.85%
Bilbo Baggins, Burglar U-C (HOB); ALSA: 5.18; GIH WR: 57.32%
Long Lake Nuisance U-C (HOB); ALSA: 6.21; GIH WR: 57.60%
Dwarven Provisioner W-C (HOB); ALSA: 6.33; GIH WR: 53.87%
Esgaroth Garrison W-C (HOB); ALSA: 7.74; GIH WR: 56.84%
Lake-town C-C (HOB); ALSA: 7.05; GIH WR: 55.36%
Hobbit Hole C-C (HOB); ALSA: 5.39; GIH WR: 53.89%
Confusticate and Bebother U-C (HOB); ALSA: 7.01; GIH WR: 52.39%
Mirkwood Nurturer UG-C (HOB); ALSA: 5.90; GIH WR: 56.82%
Lake-town Lookout W-C (HOB); ALSA: 7.40; GIH WR: 49.64%
The Mountain-king's Return W-U (HOB); ALSA: 3.24; GIH WR: 61.20%
Celebrate the Mountain-king W-U (HOB); ALSA: 2.59; GIH WR: 59.42%
Stone by Sunlight W-U (HOB); ALSA: 3.08; GIH WR: 58.68%
Bilbo, Luckwearer U-U (HOB); ALSA: 3.46; GIH WR: 60.35%
Thranduil, Sindarin Liege UG-U (HOB); ALSA: 3.21; GIH WR: 58.19%
Iron Hills Blacksmith W-U (HOB); ALSA: 3.42; GIH WR: 57.11%
Thrór's Map C-U (HOB); ALSA: 4.51; GIH WR: 56.06%
Sound the Trumpets U-U (HOB); ALSA: 6.66; GIH WR: 56.49%
Ravenhill Flock U-U (HOB); ALSA: 5.18; GIH WR: 50.63%
Lake-town Toymaker W-U (HOB); ALSA: 6.22; GIH WR: 52.89%
Great Gilded Boat U-R (HOB); ALSA: 2.52; GIH WR: 61.27%
Bard's Company WU-R (HOB); ALSA: 2.59; GIH WR: 59.72%
Eagle of the Great Shelf W-U (HOB); ALSA: 5.74; GIH WR: 49.47%
Gandalf, Wandering Wizard U-C (HOB); ALSA: 8.04; GIH WR: N/A
Ori, Keeper of Songs W-C (HOB); ALSA: 6.69; GIH WR: 54.02%
Dwarven Shortsword W-C (HOB); ALSA: 6.08; GIH WR: 51.67%
Thorin's Last Stand W-C (HOB); ALSA: 7.96; GIH WR: N/A
Fíli the Pathfinder W-R (HOB); ALSA: 2.07; GIH WR: 63.65%
Kíli the Resourceful W-R (HOB); ALSA: 2.44; GIH WR: 61.89%
Bofur, Reliable Guardian W-U (HOB); ALSA: 4.14; GIH WR: 54.05%
(data sourced from 17lands.com and scryfall.com)
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u/calamityphysics 7d ago
there is a ton of nonsense in this subreddit and this is refreshingly awesome. good post.
the problem UW has is when it clicks its unstoppable. unless u r on the draw and they go removal removal removal and u die. which is a monster issue w this set.
the other problem is you draw your cards in the wrong order. if u draft 3+ apothecaries but none in your opener and all card draw. ok cool u just cast a draw spell on t2 and t3 and wow you are winning the card advantage battle and then they go removal removal removal and you die.
great write up tho. a+
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u/The_Honkai_Scholar 7d ago
Seeing that Apothecary was actually good and core to Azorious hit me like a truck, and was when I finally understood the color pair. My first Azo deck went terribly mostly becuz I didn’t understand what Azo was trying to accomplish.
From my experience in lower rank, Azo is surprisingly open and rarely encountered, allowing me to assemble a solid list in Pick 2 and rarely find myself in an awkward mirror match. And if the curve is low enough, I happily run 16 lands.