Precon Upgrade Guide
Food and Fellowship Upgrade Guide
What to cut, what to add, and how to play the Abzan Food and life gain precon from Tales of Middle-earth, commanded by Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit.
The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth
Food and Fellowship
The Ring tempts you adds a decision every turn. Out of the box, before any upgrades. How we rate precons
Buy Food and Fellowship on TCGplayer →Quick verdict
Food and Fellowship is a life gain deck that uses Food tokens as its fuel, and its two partner commanders work well together from the first turns. Sam, Loyal Attendant makes a Food at the start of each of your combats and makes Food cheaper to use, which reliably gets you to the 3 life Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit needs to be tempted by the Ring when he attacks. The deck's weak points are four board wipes in a deck that wants its own creatures, a few cards that don't pull their weight, and lands that enter tapped.
TurnZero HQ rates Food and Fellowship a 3 out of 5 on difficulty and a 3 out of 5 on power, as it comes in the box. That is our editorial read, not an official Wizards rating. The full hundred cards are on the Food and Fellowship decklist page, and every other precon we cover is on the precon directory.
How the precon plays
The two commanders partner, so you can start with both. Sam, Loyal Attendant creates a Food token at the beginning of combat on your turn and makes the activated abilities of your Foods cost {1} less, so each Food gains you 3 life for one mana. Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit is a two-mana 1/3 with vigilance: whenever he attacks, if you've gained 3 or more life that turn, the Ring tempts you, and once it has tempted you twice and Frodo is your Ring-bearer, he also draws a card each attack. The usual turn is to crack Sam's Food before attacks, then send Frodo in.
The rest of the deck rewards gaining 3 or more life in a turn. The Gaffer draws a card at each end step if you did, and Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles makes a 3/3 flying Bird. Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant adds 1 to every life gain, so Food gains 4 and small triggers count for more.
The payoffs turn life into damage and cards. Sanguine Bond makes an opponent lose life each time you gain it, Well of Lost Dreams and Dawn of Hope convert life gain into draws, and Treebeard, Gracious Host puts +1/+1 counters on a Halfling or Treefolk equal to the life you gain.
What works out of the box
Sam, Loyal Attendant ↗
A free Food every combat, and all Food costs one less to use. It is the engine that turns the rest of the deck on.
Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit ↗
Two mana with vigilance. Gain 3 life before attacking and the Ring tempts you, and later each attack draws a card.
The Gaffer ↗
Draws a card at every end step in which you gained 3 or more life, including opponents' end steps if you gain life on their turns.
Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles ↗
A 5/5 flier that makes a 3/3 flying Bird at each end step after you gain 3 life, and gives an attacking creature flying when it attacks.
Sanguine Bond ↗
Each time you gain life, an opponent loses that much. Every Food becomes a 3-point drain.
Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant ↗
Every life gain is one bigger. Small one-life triggers become two, and each Food gains 4.
What needs improvement
The deck has four board wipes, Fumigate , Fell the Mighty , Toxic Deluge and Dusk // Dawn , in a deck that wins with creatures and tokens. One or two are useful for resets, but four is more than a deck like this wants, and almost nothing protects your own board from an opponent's wipe.
Some cards are slow or off-plan. Woodfall Primus costs eight, Hithlain Rope gets passed to another player every time you use it, and Pristine Talisman is a three-mana rock that only makes colorless mana. The mana base has Graypelt Refuge , Scoured Barrens , Scattered Groves , Sandsteppe Citadel and Path of Ancestry entering tapped.
Upgrade ideas
Each upgrade below starts from something the deck does poorly and says what a replacement card has to do. The cards named are examples, not the only answer: if you own something else that does the same job, or a newer printing does it better, it goes in the same slot. Make one change at a time and play a few games between them, so you can tell which change helped. The general method is in how to upgrade a Commander precon →
1. Gain life without spending a Food
Frodo and The Gaffer both care about 3 or more life in a turn. Cheap creatures that gain life whenever another creature enters get you there from token-making alone, so Sam's Food can be saved for later.
What to look for One- or two-mana creatures that gain life when creatures enter, or that grow whenever you gain life.
Cut, for example
Woodfall Primus Eight mana. It is strong when it lands, but the deck rarely has that much mana free, and it does nothing for life gain.
Eagles of the North Six mana for a 3/3 flier and a one-turn pump. Plainscycling makes it playable, but a cheaper life gain creature does more here.
Add, for example
Soul Warden ↗
One mana: gain 1 life whenever another creature enters, including opponents' creatures. With Bilbo out, each one is 2.
Lunarch Veteran ↗
One mana: gain 1 life whenever another creature enters under your control. When it dies you can cast it again from the graveyard as a flier that gains life when creatures leave.
Ajani's Pridemate ↗
Two mana and it gets a +1/+1 counter every time you gain life. In this deck it grows every turn.
2. Make more Food
Every Food is 3 life, and most of the deck's payoffs want life every turn. Doubling the Food you make keeps the engine running on turns when Sam is the only source.
What to look for Permanents that add an extra Food whenever you create tokens, or that turn Food into cards.
Cut, for example
Hithlain Rope Ramps or draws, but then the player to your right gains control of it. It ends up helping the table about as much as you.
Pristine Talisman Three mana for a rock that makes colorless mana and 1 life. The deck needs colored mana and gains life better elsewhere.
Add, for example
Peregrin Took ↗
Whenever you create tokens, you also create a Food. Sam's combat Food becomes two, and you can sacrifice three Foods to draw a card.
Academy Manufactor ↗
Whenever you would create a Food, Clue or Treasure, you create one of each instead. It turns every Food into ramp and a card as well.
3. Protect the board instead of wiping it
Four board wipes is a lot for a deck that builds a board of tokens and small creatures. Swapping two of them for protection keeps your board intact when an opponent wipes instead.
What to look for Instants that give your creatures indestructible or hexproof for a turn, ideally cheap or free with a commander out.
Cut, for example
Fumigate Destroys all creatures, yours included. The life gained is rarely worth losing your own board.
Fell the Mighty Destroys every creature with power greater than a target creature's. It works best with a tiny creature of your own, but your Halflings grow too and get caught in it.
4. Replace the tapped lands
Frodo and Sam want to come down on turns two and three. A gain land or a tri-land on those turns pushes both back.
What to look for Two-color lands in the deck's three pairs that enter untapped in a multiplayer game.
Cut, for example
Graypelt Refuge Always enters tapped for 1 life. Food already covers life gain.
Scoured Barrens Always enters tapped, for the same small bonus.
Ghost Quarter Colorless, and it destroys a land at the cost of itself while giving the opponent a basic back.
Win conditions
The deck wins slowly, by out-gaining and draining. Gain 3 or more life each turn so Frodo, Adventurous Hobbit and The Gaffer draw cards, build a board of Birds and Halflings, and let Sanguine Bond turn each Food into damage. Gwaihir, Greatest of the Eagles and Landroval, Horizon Witness give the team flying for the final attacks.
Who should buy this precon
A good fit for a player who has some Commander games behind them and likes building advantage over a long game. The two commanders are easy to understand, but the deck has many small triggers to track: Food activations, life gain thresholds, and the Ring's temptations. It is a poor fit for someone who wants fast games, since it rarely wins before the late turns.
Checked against the printed decklist on October 10, 2026.
Track how the upgrades actually perform.
TurnZero HQ keeps a win rate per deck version, so you can change a few cards, play some games, and see the difference instead of guessing.
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