Tuesday Night Takeover
Bilbo, Thief in the Night
EDH July 22, 2026

Bilbo, Thief in the Night Artifact Deck

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Commander Overview

There have been a couple new Bilbo cards spoiled from the upcoming Hobbit set so far, and all of them are pretty cool. I like Bilbo, Thief in the Night in particular, because it presents an interesting combination with top-deck manipulation cards, flashback cards, and graveyard recursion. With this bracket 3 deck, I aim to create a not-so-oppressive mono-blue artifact build with a few combos to win the game.


Blue Bracket 3 Artifacts
Command Zone

Bilbo, Thief in the Night

Legendary Creature — Halfling Rogue
$418.46

Creature 19

1 Bilbo, Luckwearer $2.98
1 Emry, Lurker of the Loch $0.59
1 Hullbreaker Horror $6.31
1 Hydroelectric Specimen $0.84
1 Kappa Cannoneer $0.44
1 Katara, Bending Prodigy $0.22
1 Laboratory Maniac $2.59
1 Ledger Shredder $8.65
1 Lier, Disciple of the Drowned $0.52
1 Madame Web, Clairvoyant $0.20
1 Metalwork Colossus $0.37
1 Millikin $0.28
1 Mm'menon, the Right Hand $0.36
1 Phyrexian Metamorph $2.28
1 Sai, Master Thopterist $0.64
1 The Reality Chip $4.35
1 The Unagi of Kyoshi Island $1.25
1 Trinket Mage $0.42
1 Valley Floodcaller $3.71

Planeswalker 2

1 Jace, Wielder of Mysteries $9.20
1 Tezzeret, Cruel Captain $20.27

Instant 13

1 An Offer You Can't Refuse $2.29
1 Brain Freeze
1 Commandeer $3.13
1 Counterspell $3.88
1 Dig Through Time $0.25
1 Dispel $0.38
1 Into the Flood Maw $2.35
1 Mental Misstep $8.62
1 Misdirection $11.75
1 Pongify $1.64
1 Snap $3.33
1 Strix Serenade $2.12
1 Whir of Invention $5.87

Sorcery 12

1 Birthday Escape $0.26
1 Bribery $5.85
1 Enter the Enigma $0.30
1 Fabricate $9.65
1 Flow State $2.04
1 Gitaxian Probe $4.09
1 Lórien Revealed $4.89
1 Mass Diminish $1.38
1 Ponder $1.53
1 Stock Up $1.39
1 Treasure Cruise $0.27
1 Windfall $4.99

Artifact 16

1 Aether Spellbomb $0.24
1 Arcane Signet $0.56
1 Bender's Waterskin $0.71
1 Bilbo's Ring $14.76
1 Cloak and Dagger $1.46
1 Conjurer's Bauble $1.23
1 Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass $1.95
1 Fellwar Stone $1.03
1 Mirage Mirror $0.31
1 Mishra's Bauble $2.59
1 Mithril Coat $32.30
1 Repurposing Bay $0.67
1 Sapphire Medallion $6.10
1 Sensei's Divining Top $41.35
1 Sol Ring $1.50
1 Swiftfoot Boots $2.09

Enchantment 6

1 Aqueous Form $0.40
1 Artificer's Intuition $4.93
1 Propaganda $2.20
1 Rhystic Study $69.85
1 Seal of Removal $0.24
1 Shark Typhoon $1.53

Land 31

1 Castle Vantress $0.34
1 Cephalid Coliseum $0.29
1 Darksteel Citadel $3.49
1 Ghost Quarter $0.96
1 Inventors' Fair $17.17
21 Island $0.18
1 Mystic Sanctuary $1.00
1 Rivendell
1 Rogue's Passage $0.39
1 Seat of the Synod $0.81
1 Uthros, Titanic Godcore $12.05

Tokens Used 6

Ape
Bird
Fish
Shark
Thopter
Treasure

EDH BRACKET

1
Exhibition
2
Core
3
Upgraded
4
Optimized
5
cEDH
Bracket 3 // Upgraded

Beyond the strength of an average precon deck.

  • Late Game 2-Card Infinite Combos
  • No Mass Land Denial
  • Up to 3 Game Changers
  • No Chaining Extra Turns

How to Play the Deck

The deck is pretty simple. There are a lot of card draw effects, and a lot of artifact tutor effects. Essentially, you’re just biding your time, wringing out value, and waiting until you have assembled all the pieces you need to storm off.

Patience is key with this deck, since mono-blue will make you a target just because people are petty. They’ll also want you to use your interaction on stuff they’re scared off, but don’t feel pressured! Bilbo is just a little guy who likes artifacts, he’s not threatening and hopefully the rest of the table sees that too.

Synergies to Watch For

The biggest synergies are the top-deck manipulation cards. The Reality Chip, Madam Web, Crystal Skull, Isu Spyglass, and other cards let us look at and play cards from the top of our libraries. With Bilbo’s discount, we can cast 1-drop artifacts for free, and get a discount on interaction and other spells.

Phases of the Game

Early Game – Looking to drop a cheap artifact turn 1, Bilbo on turn 2.

Mid Game – Find a card advantage engine like Rhystic Study or some burst card draw to get a good grip of cards. Start hunting for top-deck manipulation.

Late Game – With protection in hand, attempt to resolve Sensei’s Top to draw your library, or go for a Hullbreaker line with Sol Ring and Mishra’s Bauble.

Card Breakdowns

Card Draw/Card Advantage

We do a lot of digging in this deck to find the cards we need to make Bilbo cracked. Since this is a Bracket 3 deck, we’re allowed 3 game changers, but I’ve only included Rhystic Study. If I wanted to push this up near the top of B3, I’d also add Consecrated Sphinx for double card draw.

There are plenty of other ways to draw cards, though. Ledger Shredder helps fuel our graveyard with stuff we can cast with Bilbo later. Bilbo's Ring lets us get free attack triggers with Bilbo since he’s unblockable, plus the Ring draws us a card.

There are plenty of burst draw effects, as well. Stock Up, Flow State, Ponder, Dig Through Time, to name a few.

Interaction

Because Bilbo is a small fella, and this isn’t a creature-heavy deck, I’m running a lot of interaction. There are 5 counterspells, 2 bounce spells, Misdirection, Commandeer, and Pongify for creature removal. My philosophy when it comes to interaction is that in bracket 2 or 3 games, it’s a way to protect your own stuff. I don’t like policing the table unless someone is actively about to win. Countering commanders or pet cards isn’t fun for anyone, so I typically save my countermagic for the last possible moment, or when I’m trying to win.

That being said, once people catch onto what we’re trying to do with Bilbo, casting Top or another of the combo pieces usually puts you under intense scrutiny. I’d recommend having a piece of interaction in hand at that point.

Utility / Support

A lot of the stuff in the deck is built around finding our impactful artifacts or helping us draw cards. Trinket Mage, Fabricate, Tezzeret, Cruel Captain, Repurposing Bay, and Artificer's Intuition all hunt for Sensei’s top or other artifacts, like protection for Bilbo.

Emry, Lurker of the Loch is a great card in this deck because it lets us cast stuff from our graveyard, which works with Bilbo’s discount. If someone happens to blow up our artifacts, we can use Emry to get them back. There’s not much graveyard recursion in this deck, so she’s an important piece of the puzzle.

Cloak and Dagger is a cool card because since Bilbo’s a Rogue, it will attach to him for free if it’s on the battlefield before him. It’s a nice turn 2 play if you can manage it before you cast Bilbo.

Mana Base

Pretty simple stuff here, running a lot of basic Islands, as well as some value lands like Mystic Sanctuary, Ghost Quarter, Inventor's Fair, and Uthros, Titanic Godcore.

We also have the classic mana rocks in Sol Ring, Fellwar Stone, Arcane Signet, and I included Bender's Waterskin as well, since the 1 blue mana every turn can help us interact in a pinch.

Win Conditions

So how do we win the game? Very good question. We win the game with Sensei's Divining Top, Bilbo, and a top-deck manipulator like The Reality Chip. Because Bilbo gives us a discount on spells we cast from anywhere other than our hand, we can tap Top to draw and then put it on top of our library. Then, with Chip and Bilbo’s discount, we cast Top for free, tapping it to draw a card yada yada. This is a pretty cheap way to draw your whole library.

Once you get to that point, Laboratory Maniac or Jace, Wielder of Mysteries let you win the game.

You can also win the game with Hullbreaker Horror lines, involving Sol Ring and Mishra’s Bauble to make infinite colorless mana. Once you get infinite colorless, you can use Katara, Bending Prodigy to draw your whole deck. Alternatively, if you have Brain Freeze in hand, you can use it to mill out your opponents because of infinite storm.

Strengths of the Deck

Good at drawing cards and protecting our win attempts.

Bilbo is cheap and we always have him early.

Weaknesses of the Deck

Mono blue makes us a target.

Outside of our handful of combos, we don’t have a good way to win the game.

Conclusion

This deck is fun and quirky, and it flies under the radar for the most part. But, if you play with the same group frequently, it might be tough to resolve a Top or Reality Chip since they are tell-tale signs of a win attempt. I considered building this deck as a more control/steal other people’s stuff burglar deck, and I still might develop another variant. But, I feel this rendition is a nice bracket 3 build for casual games. You won’t be winning before like turn 7 most times unless you get really lucky.

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