Magic Online Vintage Cube Update | The Hobbit™

Posted on Aug 14, 2026

Hello, Cube enthusiasts! We are back with another update to the Magic Online Vintage Cube with the release of Magic: The Gathering® | The Hobbit™. This is the version that will be challenging the competitors in the next Magic Online Champions Showcase in September! Meanwhile, the League for this version kicks off on Wednesday, August 19, and the single-elimination queue will switch over that day.

Let’s take a look at what it has in store for us!

Catching Up

The Fantasticar (Marvel Super Heroes Commander #104)

Iron Man Armor (Marvel Super Heroes #248)

King T'Challa // Black Panther, Hope Enduring (Marvel Super Heroes #219)

With the Cube’s release schedule drawing ever closer to a new set’s release, we’re left with a little less time than usual to review, discuss and playtest potential new candidates for inclusion. This is why we have adopted a more conservative approach to new additions this time.

The Fantasticar is perhaps one of the best examples of a card some of you might have wondered about why it didn’t make the Cube on release. In a Limited environment, it’s quite difficult to draft and build a deck that can cash in on the car’s obscene ceiling very frequently. That said, the extreme splash this card made in Eternal Constructed formats warrants a better-late-than-never inclusion in the Cube.

As such, Magic: The Gathering® | The Hobbit™ only provides us with a single card this iteration: Gollum, Riddle Master. Bilbo, Thief in the Night is a promising suspect, but non-evasive blue 2-drops that need to be attacking to unleash their full potential are notoriously hard to make work, which is why we are waiting to see what it does in Constructed and take it from there.

Expanding the Welding Shop

Chainsaw (Duskmourn: House of Horror #128)

We like how the Welder experiment played out. As expected, it did not wildly overperform, but if a card as iconic as Goblin Welder does “fine”, we are more than happy to continue featuring it and expand upon it. That is why we are adding more trinket-y artifacts like Cryogen Relic and Chainsaw, plus another combo in Painter/Grindstone which Goblin Engineer can help stitch together.

Landing in Dark Depths

Crop Rotation (Dominaria Remastered #154)

It’s been a couple of iterations since we benched this iconic, land-centered combo. We are more than ready to bring it back, alongside both classic and new enablers such as Sowing Mycospawn, plus both Wight and Knight of the Reliquary. Talon Gates of Madara is also making its return to pair with Uro, Titan of Nature’s Wrath, plus it’s a great utility land that can be easily tutored up at instant speed with Crop Rotation or the Reliquary duo.

Toning Down the Madness

Blazing Rootwalla (Modern Horizons 2 #115)

Anje's Ravager (Crimson Vow Commander #141)

Basking Rootwalla (Ultimate Masters #156)

For quite a while now, this archetype has landed well enough to keep around while not requiring a permanent spot. We really do enjoy when iconic cards like Survival of the Fittest and Bazaar of Baghdad can still shine in today’s environment. With the abundance of Blood Token generators and other synergistic pieces that fare very well on their own, Madness/Self-Mill/Graveyard archetypes have been feasting well in recent years. But it does currently take up quite a bit of space, so we’re pulling back a little bit to see how that works out.

Pulling it All Together

Skateboard (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #178)

With Fantasticar, Painter/Grindstone and Depths/Stage making their way into this iteration, it’s quite clear that combo support is higher than it has been in quite some time. So we’re bringing back High Tide in addition to those and perhaps even working in tandem with some of them. Swapping Skateboard for Lavaspur Boots feels natural, when it can perform some neat tricks at instant speed with the Goblin Welder/Engineer duo.

To see all 21 swaps in detail with added design comments, check out the list below and happy Cubing everyone!

Click here for the full Cube card list

Changelist

Color	IN	Color	OUT	Design Comment
Blue	Boomerang Basics	Blue	Skycoach Conductor	Boomerang Basics is a great utility spell which can create a loop with Spellchaser's Talent. Plus cheap interaction is always useful in Vintage Cube.
Blue	Cryogen Relic	Blue	Flow State	Cryogen Relic is here to support the Goblin Welder synergy space, while Flow State is too frequently sorcery-speed Anticipate without being able to build your deck around it consistently.
Blue	High Tide	Izzet	Pinnacle Emissary	We're bringing back High Tide after quite a while. Depending on how it lands, we might add more support for it. Do let us know in our Discord if this is what you like to see in the Vintage Cube.
Black	Gollum, Riddle Master	Red	Blazing Rootwalla	Gollum, Riddle Master looks to be an efficient value-driven 2-drop. Black has recently seen a decent influx of solid midrange threats, so we expect this one to fit in very well.
Red	Chainsaw	Red	Hexing Squelcher	Chainsaw is also here to prop up Goblin Welder while being generally reasonable removal. Hexing Squelcher has mostly been relegated to the sideboard and red has enough efficient threats as is, so we felt like we could bench it for a while.
Red	Scrapwork Mutt	Red	Anje's Ravager	Scrapwork Mutt is another nod to Goblin Welder while also supporting discard synergies.
Red	Thor, God of Thunder	Red	Marauding Mako	Thor, God of Thunder is another Marvel card we would like to give a shot, mostly for its silly interaction with Fireblast.
Green	Crop Rotation	Green	Basking Rootwalla	Crop Rotation is back to support Dark Depths.
Green	Sowing Mycospawn	Green	Vengevine	Sowing Mycospawn is back to support Dark Depths and tutor up your best lands, such as Gaea's Cradle, Strip Mine or Karakas.
Colorless	Grindstone	Rakdos	Carnage, Crimson Chaos	Grindstone returns as one half of the combo with Painter's Servant to instantly mill out your opponents.
Colorless	Iron Man Armor	Multicolor	Together as One	Iron Man Armor is a decent equipment for aggressive decks and can serve as a flying Karnstruct in artifact shells. Together as One has underperformed our expectations a bit, so we're letting it sit back down on the bench for now.
Colorless	Mystic Forge	Colorless	Krang, Utrom Warlord	Mystic Forge makes its return to complement The Fantasticar and the ability to "flip" it.
Colorless	Painter's Servant	Colorless	Talisman of Conviction	Painter's Servant returns with its best friend Grindstone to instantly mill out your opponents.
Colorless	Skateboard	Colorless	Lavaspur Boots	We are making this swap as a nod to the tricks Skateboard can perform at instant speed when paired with Goblin Welder/Engineer.
Colorless	The Fantasticar	Colorless	Shadowspear	The Fantasticar is out of Legacy and restricted in Vintage, so we're adding it to the Cube. Read all about that in the article above.
Azorius	King T'Challa	White	Sevinne's Reclamation	King T'Challa looks like a more expensive version of Faerie Mastermind on first sight, but being able to trigger it off of your own cantrips can be quite a big deal and pairs divinely with Sensei's Divining Top.
Selesnya	Knight of the Reliquary	Selesnya	Brightglass Gearhulk	Knight and Wight are back to support Dark Depths.
Golgari	Wight of the Reliquary	Green	Michelangelo, Weirdness to 11	Knight and Wight are back to support Dark Depths.
Land	Dark Depths	White	Securitron Squadron	Dark Depths is back to spit out Marit Lage with Thespian's Stage from the battlefield or Shifting Woodland from the graveyard.

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