Find the Carrock
Keep a functional land hand and accelerate toward Beorn without spending every creature into the first wipe.
The route
Four beats to the finish.
Welcome the company
Develop useful Middle-earth creatures; Beorn can turn the best survivor into the next Bear each combat.
Guard the den
Hold one protection or resilience piece once the commander and three Bears are producing cards.
Choose one roar
Use trample, counters, or an overrun effect only when the board can make the attack decisive.
Opening hand
Seven from the ninety-nine.
Opening discipline
Keep the journey.
Ship the souvenir pile.
Keep when…
- Three lands or two lands plus reliable acceleration.
- A useful early creature and a draw, protection, or selection engine.
- One route to Beorn by turn four or five without emptying the whole hand.
Send it back when…
- A hand of only seven-mana payoffs and no acceleration.
- Protection without creatures, or creatures without enough mana to cast Beorn.
- A utility-land hand that cannot produce green consistently.
Engine map
The company becomes the den
Only four natural Bears live in the 99. Beorn creates the rest from useful Middle-earth allies, making the transformation the actual engine.
01
Reach Beorn safely
Land ramp and mana creatures establish the five-mana commander while keeping enough cards for a second board.
Interaction and recovery
Protect the den, answer the hinge
Green covers creatures, artifacts, and enchantments well, but this list has no dedicated graveyard hate and can struggle after a second exile wipe.
Remove the engine
Use broad removal on the permanent that multiplies an opposing turn, not the merely large creature.
Let size become removal
Fight and bite spells turn one transformed attacker into interaction without pausing the combat plan.
Guard the real board
Protection is most valuable once Beorn and enough Bears are drawing cards.
Preserve the counters
The Ozolith keeps one kind of progress through a wipe, but it does not rebuild the creature count.
Closing windows
Visible endings, real counterplay.
These are developed-game routes, not deterministic lines. Read the shields at the table before committing.
Stampede from the Carrock
Overwhelming Stampede converts the largest Bear into table-wide trample and power.
Dance until dawn
Dancing from Dark to Dawn makes more Bears and can turn a developed board into a large but answerable attack.
Grow every traveler
Andúril and Wilderland Scrounger distribute public counters over several combats.
Hobbit Pod field notes
Four opponents. Four different questions.
Use these as first-game threat cues, then update the table read as pilots reveal their hands and priorities.
Shared hinge · visible counterplay
Bilbo, Thief in the Night
- Watch
- Beorn presents the largest honest attackers, while Bilbo can delay one committed combat but cannot answer the whole den forever.
- Answer
- Pressure Bilbo before the graveyard is stocked and use green interaction on the Equipment that guarantees safe passage.
- Table read
- Do not make Bilbo spend the emergency brake on Beorn while a less visible engine is closer to ending the game.
Shared hinge · visible counterplay
The Great Goblin
- Watch
- Goblin death triggers can finish through a stalled Bear board, while Beorn's larger creatures dominate ordinary combat.
- Answer
- Hold Heroic Intervention or Warg Tactics for the real reset and use artifact removal on the counter or sacrifice engine.
- Table read
- The larger board is not automatically the closer; count commander reach before choosing a target.
Shared hinge · visible counterplay
Thorin, King of Durin's Folk
- Watch
- Beorn wins the long sizing contest; Thorin assembles the sharper Treasure-and-Axe burst.
- Answer
- Break the Axe or Treasure conversion and make Thorin prove the attack without its artifact layer.
- Table read
- Both plans are public; ask which one can actually eliminate a player this combat.
Shared hinge · visible counterplay
Thranduil, the Elvenking
- Watch
- Thranduil has broader answers and a stronger long game; Beorn supplies the faster trampling pressure.
- Answer
- Pressure the three-color setup and remove the enchantment or artifact engine before the Elf court takes over.
- Table read
- Beorn lacks dedicated graveyard hate, so another seat must help contest Thranduil's second hand.
Card atlas
Search the complete hundred.
Public Oracle text and exact reference imagery come from the dated Scryfall snapshot.
No card followed that trail.
The selected proposal
100 cards. One honest planning view.
This page describes an unassembled proposal. It does not claim physical ownership or assembly.