Bilbo wants a deck that casts lots of instant and sorcery spells. It also suits a deck that fills its discard pile and plays cards back out of it.
Mana cost
Blue ()
Power / toughness2 / 2
RarityMythic
Spells you cast from anywhere other than your hand cost less to cast.
Whenever Bilbo attacks, you may cast an artifact, instant, or sorcery spell from your graveyard. If an instant or sorcery spell cast this way would be put into your graveyard, exile it instead.
Picked for what they do in Bilbo's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Bilbo's color identity.Mana ValueThe total amount of mana a card costs, all added up. A card costing two generic and one green has a mana value of three. Wizards renamed this from "converted mana cost" in 2021, so older cards and articles may still use the old name.Open the full glossary
explain how Bilbo works in tricky situations. They come from Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic.RulingThe official answer to how a card works in a tricky situation. Most rulings are written by Wizards of the Coast, the company that makes Magic, and a few are notes from Scryfall, the card database Magic players use. A ruling explains a card. It does not change what the card says.Open the full glossary
Wizards of the Coast29 Jun 2026
The cost reduction applies only to generic mana in the costs of spells you cast from anywhere other than your hand. It can't reduce requirements of a specific color of mana.
Wizards of the Coast29 Jun 2026
To determine the total cost of a spell, start with the mana cost or alternative cost you're paying, add any cost increases, then apply any cost reductions (such as that of Bilbo, Thief in the Night). The mana value of the spell is determined only by its mana cost, no matter what the total cost to cast the spell was.
Wizards of the Coast29 Jun 2026
You can choose to cast an Adventure instant or sorcery spell from your graveyard as Bilbo's ability resolves. If that Adventure spell resolves, you can exile it using the replacement effect associated with the Adventure, and you can cast the permanent spell later from exile. If that Adventure spell fails to resolve (because it's countered or its targets become illegal), that card is exiled by the replacement effect created by Bilbo's ability; you can't cast the permanent spell later from exile.
Color identityEvery color of mana symbol on a card, in its cost and in its rules text. Your commander's color identity sets the limit for your whole deck: every other card has to fit inside it. A deck led by a green and white commander cannot play a card with any blue in its color identity.Open the full glossaryUPlayers write colors as letters: U for blue. Blue is U because B was already taken by black.SpellslingerSpellslinger decks cast lots of instants and sorceries, one-time spells, and play creatures that reward every spell you cast. Instants and sorceries take effect once and then go to your graveyard, and an instant can even be cast during another player's turn.Open the Spellslinger pageFlashback EnablerLets you cast instants and sorceries out of your graveyard, so spells you have already used become resources again. Snapcaster Mage, Past in FlamesOpen the Flashback Enabler pageRecursionBrings cards back from the graveyard: to your hand, to the battlefield, or letting them be cast again from where they lie. Eternal Witness, Reanimate, VictimizeOpen the Recursion pageCost ModificationChanges what a spell costs to cast: cheaper for you, or more expensive for everyone. It is the broad family; Cost Reducer and Spell Tax say which direction a given card goes. Herald's Horn, Foundry InspectorOpen the Cost Modification pageCost ReducerMakes your own spells cheaper to cast. A discount every turn adds up faster than a single burst of mana. Herald's Horn, Foundry InspectorOpen the Cost Reducer pageGraveyard/Self-MillGraveyard decks fill their own graveyard on purpose, then play cards from it as if it were a second hand. Moving cards from the top of your own deck straight into the graveyard is called self-mill.Open the Graveyard/Self-Mill pageCast from GraveyardLets you cast spells or play lands straight from your graveyard, so the graveyard becomes a second hand. This is different from Reanimation, which puts a creature card onto the battlefield without casting it. Karador, Ghost Chieftain, Muldrotha, the Gravetide, Yawgmoth's WillOpen the Cast from Graveyard pageReanimatorReanimator decks put big creatures into their own graveyard early, then bring them back onto the battlefield without paying their cost. It gets a huge creature into play far sooner than you could afford to cast it.Open the Reanimator page
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