Arcane Foundry › Commanders › Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
Legendary Creature — Halfling Rogue · {W}{B}{G} · Black/Green/White commander
If you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 1 instead.
{2}{W}{B}{G}, {T}, Exile Bilbo: Search your library for any number of creature cards, put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Activate only if you have 111 or more life.
Build a Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant deck →
What Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant actually does
Read off the card by the same engine the Forge and Analyzer use — this is the mechanical classification, not a summary.
- Activated ability{2}{W}{B}{G}, {T}, Exile Bilbo: Search your library for any number of creature cards, put them onto the battlefield, then shuffle. Activate only if you have 111 or more life.
- Replacement effect · otherIf you would gain life, you gain that much life plus 1 instead.
What a Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant deck needs
Plays as lifegain. What the commander asks of the other 99 — read from the card and checked by hand.
- repeatable lifegain (each gain is one more; 111 life unlocks its tutor)
The Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant deck plan
The roles the Forge fills for this commander, and how many cards of each.
- 10× Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- 7× Untap the commander so the tap ability is an engine, not a one-shot
- 24× Gain life repeatedly — for a commander that converts life gained into drain, the gain IS the damage
- 5× Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- 9× Find the exact card the plan needs
- 1× Answer a whole board at once
- 7× Refill your hand
- 4× Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- 11× Get ahead on mana
Best cards for Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
Ranked by an engine that reads what each card does — its real cost, its delay and how reliably it works — rather than counting how often other people play it.
Put haste on the commander the turn it resolves — a tap ability is unusable otherwise
- Thousand-Year Elixir3 mana
- Tyvar, Jubilant Brawler3 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
- Akroma's Memorial7 mana
- Ulvenwald Oddity // Ulvenwald Behemoth4 mana
- Lavaspur Boots1 mana
- Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu2 mana
Untap the commander so the tap ability is an engine, not a one-shot
- Bear Umbra4 mana
- Sting, the Glinting Dagger2 mana
- Umbral Mantle3 mana
- Genji Glove5 mana
- Betor, Kin to All5 mana
- Copperhorn Scout1 mana
- Honor-Worn Shaku3 mana
- Instill Energy1 mana
Gain life repeatedly — for a commander that converts life gained into drain, the gain IS the damage
- Basilisk Collar1 mana
- High Market0 mana
- Vault of the Archangel0 mana
- Zuran Orb0 mana
- Blood Artist2 mana
- Zulaport Cutthroat2 mana
- Authority of the Consuls1 mana
- Bloodchief Ascension1 mana
Actually remove one problem permanent — preventing its damage is not removing it
- Assassin's Trophy2 mana
- Path to Exile1 mana
- Swords to Plowshares1 mana
- Defile1 mana
- Tragic Slip1 mana
- March of Otherworldly Light1 mana
- Infernal Grasp2 mana
- Fatal Push1 mana
Find the exact card the plan needs
- Demonic Tutor2 mana
- Diabolic Intent2 mana
- Vampiric Tutor1 mana
- Green Sun's Zenith1 mana
- Imperial Seal1 mana
- Demonic Consultation1 mana
- Nature's Rhythm2 mana
- Grim Tutor3 mana
Answer a whole board at once
- Damn2 mana
- Vanquish the Horde8 mana
- Toxic Deluge3 mana
- Damnation4 mana
- Wrath of God4 mana
- Day of Judgment4 mana
- Bontu's Last Reckoning3 mana
- Kaya's Wrath4 mana
Refill your hand
- Esper Sentinel1 mana
- Skullclamp1 mana
- Sylvan Library2 mana
- Black Market Connections3 mana
- Braids, Arisen Nightmare3 mana
- Garruk's Uprising3 mana
- Morbid Opportunist3 mana
- Phyrexian Arena3 mana
Keep a permanent you control alive through removal
- Flowering of the White Tree2 mana
- Bastion Protector3 mana
- Codsworth, Handy Helper3 mana
- Guardian Augmenter3 mana
- Saryth, the Viper's Fang4 mana
- Avacyn, Angel of Hope8 mana
- Lightning Greaves2 mana
- Swiftfoot Boots2 mana
Get ahead on mana
- Sol Ring1 mana
- Orzhov Signet2 mana
- Golgari Signet2 mana
- Incubation Druid2 mana
- Palladium Myr3 mana
- Worn Powerstone3 mana
- Ilysian Caryatid2 mana
- Selesnya Signet2 mana
Combos with Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant
Known combos from Commander Spellbook that Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant is a piece of, and how many decks list them.
- Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant + Aetherflux Reservoir + Purity49 decks
- Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant + Trudge Garden + Healer Of The Pride + Prize Pig + Mana Reflection8 decks
- Bilbo, Birthday Celebrant + Trudge Garden + Healer Of The Pride + Prize Pig + Leyline Of Abundance7 decks