Card Spotlight
Bilbo, Thief in the Night
A 2-mana mono-blue Halfling from The Hobbit that discounts spells cast from anywhere but your hand, and lets you cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery from your graveyard each time it attacks.
Commander Spotlight
Bilbo, Thief in the Night ↗
A 2-mana mono-blue Halfling from The Hobbit that discounts spells cast from anywhere but your hand, and lets you cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery from your graveyard each time it attacks.
See Bilbo, Thief in the Night's full stats and printings →
Strategies it goes well with
- Spellslinger decks. A graveyard full of cheap instants and sorceries becomes recastable material every time Bilbo attacks, at a discount thanks to his own static ability.
- Flashback and foretell decks. The cost reduction applies broadly to any spell cast from outside the hand, stacking with any of those mechanics already in the deck.
- Cheap, aggressive blue tempo. A two-mana body that recurs value every attack is a fine rate on its own, before any dedicated graveyard package is built around it.
How it does in Commander
As the commander
As the commander it rewards a dedicated mono-blue spellslinger build, since guaranteed repeated access to the graveyard recursion from the command zone turns every cheap instant and sorcery the deck casts into a second potential cast down the line.
In the 99
A strong, cheap value engine in any blue spells-matter deck even without leading it, discounting flashback and similar effects across the whole 99.
Formats it's strong in
- Spellslinger and graveyard decks. The attack trigger directly reuses cards the deck has already cast, and the cost reduction compounds with any other from-graveyard effects already in the list.
- Grindy, long games. The longer the game runs, the fuller the graveyard, and the more material Bilbo's attack trigger has to work with.
Formats it's weak in
- Low-spell-count decks. With few cheap instants and sorceries in the graveyard, the attack trigger has little to recur.
- Decks that can't protect a small attacker. A two-power creature that has to connect (or at least attack) to trigger its ability is vulnerable to removal before it gets much value.
Synergistic cards
Brainstorm ↗
A cheap cantrip you can cast a second time from the graveyard when Bilbo attacks. It's exiled after that second cast.
Into the Roil ↗
A blue bounce spell you can cast again from the graveyard when Bilbo attacks, for {U} instead of {1}{U} thanks to the static cost reduction.
Sublime Epiphany ↗
A six-mana blue instant that costs {1} less when cast from anywhere other than your hand, including from the graveyard via Bilbo's own ability.
Any cheap instant or sorcery ↗
The lower a spell's cost, the easier it is to cast a second time off Bilbo's attack trigger and still use the rest of your mana.
Is it worth the price?
Bilbo, Thief in the Night has drawn real attention for its rate and carries a moderate price accordingly among the set's non-mythic cards. Worth the cost for a dedicated blue spellslinger deck; a smaller priority for a list without much of a spells-matter plan.
Frequently asked questions
What does Bilbo, Thief in the Night's cost reduction apply to?
Spells cast from anywhere other than your hand cost {1} less. Flashback, foretell, adventure, impulsive draw, and this card's own attack trigger all qualify, so a deck already using those mechanics gets a steady discount.
How does Bilbo, Thief in the Night's attack trigger work?
Whenever it attacks, you may cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery spell from your graveyard. If that spell would go back to the graveyard, it's exiled instead, so each card can be reused only once. It is still real recursion on a cheap body that can do it every turn.
What deck wants Bilbo, Thief in the Night?
A mono-blue spellslinger deck that's already filling its graveyard with cheap instants and sorceries. The attack trigger gives those used cards a second cast, and the cost reduction makes every recast (and every other from-graveyard or from-exile spell) cheaper across the board.