Farmer CottonFarmer Cotton | Art by Tomas Duchek

It was recently Hobbit Day, in reference to the shared birthday of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, of Tolkien fame. As we enter the harvest season of Autumn in the Northern Hemisphere, it seemed fitting to celebrate the creature type that resulted from the Tolkien crossover, all about making and eating Food!

For those who are unaware of Jewish holidays, it was recently also Rosh Hashanah, the celebration of the Jewish New Year. Like many Jewish holidays, it centers around Foods, especially apples and honey, the former of which is just beginning to enter its harvesting season.

But Food, in Magic, is largely built around life gain, and those strategies tend to durdle a lot, so how do we make these gatherings fun while being respectful of everyone's time? And are we talking about the game or the family gathering?

In either, the key is to find common ground within the family. Quite a lot of our creatures are legendary and share surnames along with complementary abilities. The patriarch of the family is Farmer CottonFarmer Cotton, the centerpiece of today's commander deck.

What Does Farmer CottonFarmer Cotton Do?

Farmer Cotton makes Food and makes Halflings. For a deck that wants both Food and Halflings, that's pretty perfect. In fact, he makes as many Food and Halflings as we can put mana into him, getting better and better as the game goes on.

X spells are really, really powerful, so it's unusual to find a commander with X in its cost. X and asterisks represent limitless values, so they immediately catch my attention as curve-toppers and combo exhaust. In a deck filled with legendary Halflings, Farmer CottonFarmer Cotton stands out as one that does everything we need whenever we need it.

So what are the tokens he makes? Farmer Cotton makes 1/1 Halflings and Food tokens. The Halflings are tiny creatures, while the Foods can tap and sacrifice themselves, along with a two-mana investment, to gain three life.

The key to complementing Farmer Cotton is to find ways to get the Food tokens to work with the small creatures to create a threatening board presence while gaining enough life to win close races.

Key Cards for Farmer CottonFarmer Cotton

While making a bunch of 1/1s and Food tokens is cool, neither of those things win the game by themselves. The Halfling tokens get outclassed easily, and the Food tokens provide a life buffer to win races, but we're not winning many races with 1/1s. So how do we turn these pieces into a gameplan?

Life gain payoffs are a solid way of making the life gained from the Food tokens into win cons, but we're likely not getting to 50 for Aetherflux ReservoirAetherflux Reservoir. What we can do is use effects like Archangel of ThuneArchangel of Thune and Nykthos ParagonNykthos Paragon to put layers of counters on our Halflings and 1/1s, making it so that our two main pieces work together!

Since our commander is a mana sink, we want ways to make lots of mana to pour into his cost. In addition to some green staples, we can run Jaheira, Friend of the ForestJaheira, Friend of the Forest and The Cabbage MerchantThe Cabbage Merchant to make our tokens make mana. These cards enable the deck to be flexible with its mana and to use the relatively weak stats of our commander to let us chump block with him and re-cast him for a larger value.

Every once in a while, a problem permanent comes along that has to be dealt with. Sunspine LynxSunspine Lynx and related effects jump out as particularly dangerous, as gaining life is integral to our gameplan. If a card can gain life, like Heliod's InterventionHeliod's Intervention, Nature's ClaimNature's Claim, and Swords to PlowsharesSwords to Plowshares, we can use it to grant us extra triggers, as well.

Our nonbasic lands mostly relate to Halflings and Food tokens. The ShireThe Shire and Gingerbread CabinGingerbread Cabin work with Hobbits and Food, while Inventors' FairInventors' Fair gains life and can find a powerful piece in a pinch.

How Does This Farmer CottonFarmer Cotton Commander Deck Win?

Our primary aim is to flood the field with Halflings and Food, then use the life gained to put layers of counters on those small creatures to present a large board and flex the high life total to attack with impunity.

Farmer CottonFarmer Cotton Commander Decklist

Conclusion

Halflings are a neat creature type to see get support in the The Lord of the Rings: Tales of Middle-earth set, combining life gain, artifact, and token synergies to make a unique mix of cards and effects. These effects do run the danger of durdling, however, which is why it's important to have a plan for getting the different phases to work together.

But how would you build Halflings? And what do you think the teased The Hobbit set will offer?