Commander blueprint · The Hobbit Eternal

How to build Smaug the Impenetrable

Smaug the Impenetrable makes a Treasure for every point of noncombat damage he is dealt, and indestructible means none of that damage can kill him. So this build aims its sweepers and its burn at its own commander, and spends what comes back.

Art by Marta Nael

Blasphemous Act is a sweeper that leaves thirteen Treasures behind

Smaug's trigger counts damage from any source, and a sweeper is a source like any other. Blasphemous Act deals 13 damage to each creature, so an ordinary board dies and Smaug stays with 13 Treasures. It costs with off for every creature on the battlefield, so with six creatures out it costs three. The others come in sizes. Star of Extinction deals 20, Burn Down the House 5, Storm's Wrath 4, Anger of the Gods and Sweltering Suns 3, and Volcanic Fallout and Fiery Cannonade 2, those last two at instant speed. Chain Reaction deals one damage for each creature on the battlefield. Fiery Confluence can choose its mode of 1 damage to each creature three times, and those are three separate hits, so three Treasures. Spiteful Banditry deals X as it enters, costs X plus two, and makes another Treasure on any turn an opponent's creature dies afterwards.

The sizes matter because your own creatures have toughness too. Stone-Giant of High Pass at 7/7 and Inferno Titan at 6/6 live through everything up to Burn Down the House. Wrathful Red Dragon and Smaug, Wicked Worm are 5/5s and outlast Storm's Wrath. Goldspan Dragon and Glorybringer are 4/4s and live through the 2 and the 3, and Smaug the Magnificent, at 4/3, only through the 2. Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll are indestructible and live through the lot. So pick the sweeper by what you want left standing, and keep Blasphemous Act and Star of Extinction for the turn you want nothing on the battlefield but Smaug.

One timing rule decides where the payoffs go. The damage is dealt, every creature with lethal damage dies, and only then does Smaug's trigger make the Treasures. Mirkwood Bats, The Sackville-Bagginses and Professional Face-Breaker are in the graveyard by then and see none of it. They are cheap on purpose, to be cast the turn after a sweep. Face-Breaker then turns each spare Treasure into the top card of your library to play that turn, and Bats takes a life from every opponent for each Treasure you spend.

Pestilence pays for every activation with the Treasure it makes

Pestilence deals 1 damage to each creature and each player for . Smaug takes his 1, makes one Treasure, and that Treasure is the for the next activation, so with him on the battlefield the enchantment runs for as long as you want at the price of the first point. Pyrohemia does the same for . Each is sacrificed at an end step only when no creature at all is left on the battlefield, and an indestructible commander means that never happens while he is out.

The catch is that it hits you exactly as hard as anyone else. From level life totals, Pestilence alone ends the game in a draw, with every player reaching 0 on the same activation. Brash Taunter is what changes that. It is indestructible, it takes 1 from every activation, and each time it deals 1 to an opponent you choose. Three opponents then lose four life between them per activation while you lose one, so from 40 each, thirty activations kill the table and leave you on 10. With Stuffy Doll out as well it takes 27 and you finish on 13.

Two cheaper cards ride on the pings. Bitter Downfall costs less when its target has been dealt damage this turn, so after one activation it is a one-mana kill spell that also costs that creature's controller 2 life. And every opponent's creature the pings kill is a Treasure from Revel in Riches, which wins the game at the start of your upkeep if you control ten.

Aim one target of an X spell at Smaug and the X comes back

Jaya's Immolating Inferno deals X damage to each of up to three targets, and it is a legendary sorcery, which Smaug lets you cast. Make him one of the three. He takes X and hands back X Treasures, two opponents take X each, and whatever X was, the spell has cost two mana. Comet Storm is the instant version and takes an extra target for every of multikicker, so Smaug and all three opponents costs X plus five, with X returned.

Crackle with Power is the one that turns a profit. It costs and deals five times X to each of X targets. With X at 2 it costs eight mana, deals 10 to Smaug and 10 to an opponent, and returns ten Treasures. At 3 it costs eleven and returns fifteen while two opponents take 15 each.

The small burn works the same way at small sizes. Kolaghan's Command and Stomp, the adventure half of Bonecrusher Giant, deal 2. Improvised Club sacrifices one Treasure to deal 4, which is four back. The minus three ability of Chandra, Torch of Defiance deals 4 to a creature, and Inferno Titan splits 3 whenever it enters or attacks. Every one of those can kill an opposing creature instead, so the interaction in this list doubles as ramp you can choose not to take.

Smaug the Magnificent doubles the pile each time he attacks

Four legendary creatures are called Smaug, and the legend rule only compares full names, so all four can share a battlefield. Smaug the Magnificent is the one this deck most wants. When he attacks he deals damage equal to the number of Treasures you control to any target. Point it at Smaug the Impenetrable and it is noncombat damage, so six Treasures become twelve. He has haste and makes a Treasure in each of your upkeeps, so the first doubling can come the turn he arrives.

The attack trigger resolves while attackers are being declared, before anyone chooses blockers, so the new Treasures are there to spend in that same combat. Comet Storm is an instant, which lets the doubled pile pay for a large X before combat damage. It makes no difference whether the Impenetrable is attacking beside him, because damage from a trigger is never combat damage.

Smaug, Wicked Worm is the card draw. Whenever you cast a spell that Treasure mana helped pay for, you draw a card and lose 1 life, and once the commander is out that describes most of what you cast. Its enter trigger counts the artifacts your opponents control, which is a bonus here rather than the reason it is in the list. The fourth, Smaug, the Great Calamity, is a plain 5/5 flyer whose Spew Flame half deals 5 damage to a creature. Aimed at the right creature that is five Treasures, which is why it stands in for the Magnificent on the budget rung.

Wrathful Red Dragon makes Smaug hit back for every point he takes

Whenever a Dragon you control is dealt damage, Wrathful Red Dragon has that Dragon deal the same amount to any target that is not a Dragon. Smaug is a Dragon, so every hit that makes Treasures now also hits a player for the same number. Jaya's Immolating Inferno with X at 7 becomes seven Treasures and 7 damage to all three opponents. Blasphemous Act becomes thirteen Treasures and 13 damage from Smaug to a player, and Wrathful Red Dragon, dealt 13 in the same sweep, still sends its own 13 as it dies. On Pestilence it adds one point you can aim for every activation, while it lives.

Desolation of Smaug is why the list carries five other Dragons. It deals 3 damage to each non-Dragon creature, so Smaug the Magnificent, Smaug, Wicked Worm, Goldspan Dragon, Wrathful Red Dragon and Glorybringer all stay while the table loses its creatures, and Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll survive to send their 3 on. It also adds four mana that can only cast Dragon spells, and the commander is one. On seven lands that is the sweeper and Smaug in the same turn: four lands for Desolation of Smaug, then the other three and its four mana for him. Haven of the Spirit Dragon pays for Dragons as well, and can bring a dead one back to your hand.

Stone-Giant of High Pass swaps four Treasures for four new ones

Stone-Giant of High Pass has an ability that costs and an artifact sacrifice and deals 4 damage to any target, with no tap in the cost. Pay the with three Treasures, sacrifice a fourth, put the 4 into Smaug, and four new Treasures arrive. The pile ends each activation where it began, so the Giant can repeat it as often as you like. On its own that achieves nothing.

Add anything that counts tokens and it is a kill. Mirkwood Bats costs each opponent a life for every token you create and every token you sacrifice, which is 8 from each opponent per activation. The Sackville-Bagginses takes 1 from an opponent for each token you sacrifice, so 4 per activation. Goldspan Dragon makes every Treasure worth two mana, so the needs only two of them, each activation gains a Treasure, and the last one can point its 4 at a player. Any one of the three beside Smaug and the Giant ends the game, which is the main reason this list is a bracket 3 deck and not a bracket 2 one. The Giant also makes a 3/1 Stone Boulder artifact creature whenever it enters or attacks, one more artifact to sacrifice.

No Game Changer is in the list, and Pestilence still makes it bracket 3

The core list runs no Game Changer and no mass land denial, so nothing in it is counted toward a bracket automatically. The loops set it. Pestilence or Pyrohemia with Smaug is a two-card loop on any reading, and Stone-Giant of High Pass wins beside any of the three cards above. Bracket 3 accepts combos like those late in a game, and a seven-mana commander does not get there early without the fast mana the bracket 4 rung adds. Bracket 2 asks for none, which is why the budget rung removes all three engines rather than only the expensive cards.

Ill-Tempered Loner is left out of every rung for the same reason. On its day face it deals as much damage as it is dealt, which looks like a budget Wrathful Red Dragon. Its night face, Howlpack Avenger, deals that much whenever any permanent you control is dealt damage, and aimed at Smaug that hit sets it off again. Once it is night that is unbounded Treasure from two cards on four mana, which no rung of this ladder should pick up by accident.

The core list

Ninety-nine cards behind Smaug, built for bracket 3. Hover any name to see the card, and every row is priced at whichever paper printing sells cheapest on the date shown.

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Thirty-five lands and eight rocks, because the Treasures wait for Smaug

Nothing in the list makes Treasure in quantity until the commander is on the battlefield, so the first seven mana has to come from somewhere else. That is 35 lands, eight mana rocks (Sol Ring, Arcane Signet, Rakdos Signet, Talisman of Indulgence, Fellwar Stone, Mind Stone, Worn Powerstone and Thran Dynamo) and Desolation of Smaug. Big Score, Unexpected Windfall and Pirate's Pillage each trade a discarded card for two cards and two Treasures. Only Rakdos Carnarium and Temple of Malice always enter tapped, and the Carnarium returns a land to your hand and then taps for two, which a seven-mana commander is glad of.

The list has 31 black sources and 31 red, with Mount Doom counted in both. The first of either colour arrives by turn two 95.7% of the time. Two of one colour by turn three comes in at 83.9% for each, and in practice the double pips sit later than that. Four cards want two black (Pestilence, Phyrexian Arena, Bedevil and Exsanguinate), and of the twenty-three that want two red, all but four cost four or more or are X spells you cast late.

Bracket 2 keeps every sweeper and no loop, and bracket 4 adds the kills

At $103 the budget rung costs well under half of the core list's $244, and it switches off every loop. Pestilence becomes Thrashing Wumpus, which pings everything the same way but is a 3/3 and dies on its own third activation, so three Treasures is as far as it goes. Pyrohemia becomes Pestilence Demon, which lasts six. Stone-Giant of High Pass becomes Gandalf, Spark Starter, whose 3 damage happens once, as he enters. Crackle with Power becomes Rolling Thunder, Smaug the Magnificent becomes Smaug, the Great Calamity, and Revel in Riches becomes Disciple of the Vault, so a spent Treasure is a life from an opponent rather than a step toward ten. Wrathful Red Dragon becomes Reckless Fireweaver, a point from every opponent for every Treasure that arrives. Diabolic Intent and Black Market Connections become Sign in Blood and Demand Answers, and Bloodstained Mire, Blazemire Verge, Blood Crypt and Luxury Suite become Evolving Wilds, Exotic Orchard, Ash Barrens and Terramorphic Expanse.

What stays is every sweeper, Jaya's Immolating Inferno and Comet Storm, and Brash Taunter and Stuffy Doll. So the budget deck sweeps and collects exactly as the core list does. It has to finish with Smaug's 8 in the air or a large X spell, where the core list can run one engine until the table is dead.

The bracket 4 rung adds the two-card kills the core list leaves out, and the tutors to find them. Exquisite Blood makes Pestilence a win from any life total, since each activation costs three opponents 1 life each, gives you 3 and costs you 1. Mayhem Devil deals 1 damage whenever anyone sacrifices a permanent, so each Treasure you spend pings Smaug for a new one, the mana never runs out, and Mirkwood Bats or The Sackville-Bagginses turn that into a kill. Demonic Tutor and Vampiric Tutor find whichever piece is missing. Ancient Tomb, Mana Vault and Jeska's Will put Smaug down turns early, the enter trigger of Orcish Bowmasters is a point of damage you can aim at him, and Deflecting Swat is free once he is out. With six Game Changers the floor is 4, and the rung costs $743. The nine cuts are the slowest mana (Temple of Malice, Worn Powerstone and Fellwar Stone), two of the three-mana sweepers, and Diabolic Intent, Wrenn's Resolve, Improvised Club and Bitter Downfall, which the tutors and the faster mana make spare.

Swiftfoot Boots, because shroud would also block your own burn

Indestructible answers destruction and damage, which covers most of the removal black and red play. What still gets through is exile such as Swords to Plowshares, a sacrifice edict, toughness loss such as Toxic Deluge, and the cards that switch indestructible off, which leave him open to the next destroy spell. Smite the Deathless (reprinted in The Hobbit Eternal beside him) does it to one creature and Hour of Devastation to every creature, though neither deals enough damage by itself to kill a dragon with 7 toughness. Earthquake and the other sweepers that skip flyers never touch him, so they make no Treasure and none of them is in the list.

Swiftfoot Boots gives hexproof, which stops opponents' targeted spells and leaves yours alone. Lightning Greaves gives shroud instead, which would also stop Jaya's Immolating Inferno, Comet Storm, Chandra and every other card here that aims at Smaug, and its haste is wasted on a commander who has haste printed on him. Against an edict, the bodies to give up are Brash Taunter, Stuffy Doll and the Giant's Stone Boulders, and two of those survive every sweeper in the deck.

FAQ

Is there an infinite combo with Smaug the Impenetrable?

Yes, several, and the core list holds some of them. Pestilence or Pyrohemia with Smaug runs forever, because each point of damage to him makes the Treasure that pays for the next, though it hurts you as much as anyone until Brash Taunter or Exquisite Blood tips it. Stone-Giant of High Pass trades four Treasures for four on every activation and kills beside Mirkwood Bats, The Sackville-Bagginses or Goldspan Dragon. Mayhem Devil makes every Treasure you sacrifice ping Smaug for a new one. Ill-Tempered Loner loops with him on its own once it is night.

Does Smaug the Impenetrable make Treasure from combat damage?

No. Only noncombat damage counts, so blocking him or being blocked makes nothing. Fighting is not combat, which is why Brash Taunter fighting Smaug is one Treasure for you and 8 damage to an opponent. Sweepers, burn spells, Pestilence and creature abilities all count, and so does damage from an opponent's card.

Does Blasphemous Act kill Smaug the Impenetrable?

No. He is indestructible, so 13 damage leaves him on the battlefield with 13 Treasures, and every other damage sweeper in this list works the same way. Exile, an edict, toughness loss such as Toxic Deluge and a card that removes indestructible, such as Smite the Deathless, followed by any destroy effect are what actually take him off the table.

What bracket is a Smaug the Impenetrable deck?

Bracket 3 as built here, even with no Game Changer in it. The bracket comes from Pestilence and Pyrohemia, which loop with Smaug, and from Stone-Giant of High Pass, which wins beside Mirkwood Bats. The budget rung removes all three for bracket 2, and the bracket 4 rung adds six Game Changers along with Exquisite Blood and Mayhem Devil.

How many Smaug cards are there?

Four legendary creatures. Smaug the Impenetrable is black and red and comes from The Hobbit Eternal. Smaug the Magnificent and Smaug, the Great Calamity are red and Smaug, Wicked Worm is black and red, all three from The Hobbit. Their names differ, so the legend rule lets them share a battlefield, and this core list runs the Magnificent and the Wicked Worm beside the commander.

How much does a Smaug the Impenetrable deck cost?

This build comes to $244 for the core list, $103 for the budget rung and $743 for the bracket 4 rung, with each card bought in whichever paper printing is cheapest. Revel in Riches, Smaug the Magnificent, Bloodstained Mire, Diabolic Intent and Pyrohemia make up most of the gap down to the budget rung, and all five leave it.

Is Smaug the Impenetrable a good commander?

He is slow and very hard to remove. Seven mana is a long wait, and he does little the turn he lands unless something damages him. After that the usual answers to a big flyer do nothing to him: destruction, damage and deathtouch blockers all fail, and every sweeper and burn spell you cast pays you back. A table with plenty of exile and edicts is the one that beats him.