Skip to content
Commander Nexus
  1. Commander Nexus
  2. Commanders
  3. Lobelia, Defender of Bag End

Command zone

Lobelia, Defender of Bag End

Lobelia, Defender of Bag End

Legendary Creature — Halfling Citizen

Lobelia wants a deck that sacrifices its own creatures to drain opponents' life. It also suits a deck that gains life over and over and gets rewarded for it.

  • Mana cost2 genericblack
  • Black ()
  • Power / toughness2 / 2
  • RarityRare

When Lobelia enters, look at the top card of each opponent's library and exile those cards face down.

tap, Sacrifice an artifact: Choose one —

• Until end of turn, you may play a card exiled with Lobelia without paying its mana cost.

• Each opponent loses 2 life and you gain 2 life.

Build a deck with Lobelia Find it in the app

Cards That Fit Lobelia, Defender of Bag End

Picked for what they do in Lobelia's deck. When two cards do the same job, the one with the lower comes first. All of them fit Lobelia'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.Sol RingOpen the full glossary

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

plan6

The 6 Cards

Rulings for Lobelia, Defender of Bag End

explain how Lobelia 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 Coast 16 Jun 2023

If Lobelia, Defender of Bag End leaves the battlefield, and later another Lobelia, Defender of Bag End enters the battlefield, it is a new object (even if the two were represented by the same card). You can't play cards exiled by the original Lobelia, Defender of Bag End with the second ability of the new Lobelia, Defender of Bag End.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Jun 2023

If the spell has {X} in its mana cost, you must choose 0 as the value of X when casting it without paying its mana cost.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Jun 2023

If you cast a spell "without paying its mana cost", you can't choose to cast it for any alternative costs. You can, however, pay additional costs, such as kicker costs. If the card has any mandatory additional costs, those must be paid to cast the spell.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Jun 2023

To play a card using the permission granted by the first mode of Lobelia, Defender of Bag End's activated ability, you must still follow any timing restrictions and permissions, including those based on the card's type. For instance, you can play a land from exile this way only during your main phase while the stack is empty, and only if you have an available land play remaining for the turn.

Wizards of the Coast 16 Jun 2023

You may look at these face-down exiled cards any time you wish. No other player may look at the face-down cards you exiled with Lobelia, Defender of Bag End, even if another player takes control of it.

5 rulings, all written by Wizards of the Coast. Read the originals on Gatherer ↗

Similar Commanders

Commanders that share the most with Lobelia, and what they share.

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 glossaryBPlayers write colors as letters: B for black.AristocratsAristocrats decks sacrifice their own creatures on purpose and profit every time one dies, often by draining life from each opponent. A sacrifice outlet, a card that lets you sacrifice whenever you like, decides when that happens.Open the Aristocrats pageLife DrainAn opponent loses life and you gain that life from the same effect. Blood Artist, Zulaport Cutthroat. It lets Aristocrats decks win without ever attacking. Every drain card is also tagged Life Gain; this tag is the part where the life comes out of somebody.Open the Life Drain pageSacrifice OutletA permanent that lets you sacrifice your own creatures or artifacts whenever you want, usually for free. Every Aristocrats deck needs one, because cards that reward a creature dying only help if you choose when it dies. Ashnod's Altar, Viscera SeerOpen the Sacrifice Outlet pageLifegainLifegain decks gain life over and over and use cards that reward each gain with extra cards, creatures or damage to opponents. Everyone starts at 40 life in Commander, so the extra life also keeps you safe while you set up.Open the Lifegain pageFree CastCan be cast without paying its mana cost when a condition is met, often "if you control your commander". Because it costs nothing, you can still answer something after your mana is already spent. Fierce Guardianship, Deflecting SwatOpen the Free Cast pageCard SelectionImproves what you draw rather than how much: you look at the top few cards of your library and decide what stays on top. Ponder lets you rearrange the top three, Serum Visions lets you scry, and Consider lets you surveil. It makes your draws more reliable without giving you extra cards.Open the Card Selection pageLife GainGains you life, once or over and over. Soul Warden, The Great Henge. In Commander life is something to spend, not just a cushion, and many of these cards also set off others that reward gaining life.Open the Life Gain pageArtifactsAn artifacts deck fills the battlefield with artifacts, cards like Sol Ring that stay in play and keep working turn after turn. Played together, they give you extra mana and extra cards. A handful of keywords turn up on artifacts again and again. Equip means you pay a cost to attach an Equipment such as Swiftfoot Boots to one of your creatures. If that creature dies, the Equipment does not go to your graveyard with it. It stays on the battlefield, and you can pay the cost again to attach it to another creature. Crew means you tap your own creatures with enough total power between them to turn a Vehicle such as Smuggler's Copter into a creature until the end of the turn. A Treasure is a token you can sacrifice (put into your graveyard on purpose) for one mana of any color. A token is a game piece that a card makes, not a card from your deck, and Pitiless Plunderer is one card that makes Treasures. Affinity makes a spell like Frogmite cheaper for each artifact you control. Unearth brings a card like Combat Courier back from your graveyard for one turn, and then it is exiled. Modular creatures like Arcbound Ravager enter with +1/+1 counters and pass them to another artifact creature when they die.Open the Artifacts pageArtifact PayoffRewards you for having artifacts: counting them, triggering off them, or getting cheaper as you play more. Urza's Saga, Mox OpalOpen the Artifact Payoff pageETB ValueDoes something useful the moment it arrives: an enter the battlefield ability, which players shorten to ETB. You keep that effect even if the card is removed straight afterwards, which is why these pair so well with flicker cards that make them enter again. Solemn Simulacrum, The One RingOpen the ETB Value pageLibrary ManipulationCards that let you look at, rearrange or play from the top of your deck, so you control what you draw next.Open the Library Manipulation pageGame ChangerCards that warp the game disproportionately around themselves, requiring immediate answers.What the brackets mean