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Goblin Army is the best and the most played two-color deck in 17Lands data (57.6% over 85,459 games). Next come Ferocious Wolves (56.9% over 57,277 games), Removal Midrange (56.8% over 4,805 games), Dwarves & Equipment (56.5% over 52,797 games) and Draw Two (56.4% over 58,594 games). Its strength is depth at common and uncommon. Crude Bent Blade (61.5%) and Pinecone Strike (60.5%) are its two best commons, and Desolation Prowler and Bothersome Noisemaker are among its best 2-drops. The usual way to build it badly is with too few creatures.

Draw Two is the second most drafted deck (56.4% over 58,594 games), level with Dwarves & Equipment (56.5% over 52,797 games) and about a point behind the top deck, Goblin Army (57.6% over 85,459 games). Its strength is in commons that each draw a card, so even an average pile with no rares is rarely bad. Most cards' win rates run about a point higher in this deck than overall. So a card whose win rate is lower in Draw Two than overall (Kíli the Resourceful, Velvetwing Butterflies) is weak here, and a card that does far better here than in other blue decks (Lakeshore Apothecary, Master's Councillors) belongs to this deck.

Ferocious Wolves is the second-best of the heavily drafted decks at 56.9% over 57,277 games, behind only Goblin Army at 57.6% over 85,459 games. Its cheap creatures are good on their own (Desolation Prowler, Nasty Little Rabbit, Mirkwood Pathmaker), and black brings the removal, Crude Bent Blade and Bilbo's Deadly Slice above all. Aim to have a 4-power creature on the battlefield by turn 3 or 4 and attack.

Dwarves & Equipment wins 56.5% over 52,797 games, about a point behind Goblin Army (57.6% over 85,459 games) and level with Draw Two (56.4% over 58,594 games). The rares (Fíli, Kíli, An Unexpected Party, Dáin Ironfoot) and the white and red uncommons carry it. White's commons are thin, so without good uncommons this deck ends up with too many 2-power filler creatures. Draft the removal and Dwarves like Dori and Iron Hills Blacksmith first, and the deck holds up even without a bomb.

It wins 52.5% over 22,251 games, the weakest of the five decks people draft most, against 56.4% over 58,594 games for Draw Two and 56.9% over 57,277 games for Ferocious Wolves, the two decks it shares a color with. It has good cards, but its two halves don't help each other. Blue's commons do well in fast decks (Draw Two, Burn and Draw) and fall off next to green. Plunder the Trollshaws is 60.3% in Draw Two but 54.6% here, and Long Lake Nuisance is 58.9% against 54.2%. Green brings only conditional removal (Quarrel and Troll Negotiations need a big creature of yours), and the deck has almost no fliers, so games stall on the ground while the other deck's evasive creatures and kill spells win. End up here when Thranduil, Sindarin Liege comes to you along with the other landfall rares and uncommons (Thranduil's Company at 63.1%, Dancing from Dark to Dawn, Down in the Valley). Draft it as a green landfall deck that takes blue cards for removal and evasion.

Removal Control is below average at 53.2% over 12,745 games, clearly behind the top five decks (Goblin Army 57.6% over 85,459 games, Ferocious Wolves 56.9% over 57,277 games, Removal Midrange 56.8% over 4,805 games, Dwarves & Equipment 56.5% over 52,797 games and Draw Two 56.4% over 58,594 games), with enough games that it isn't bad luck. It has no gold card and no shared mechanic, so it borrows cards built for other decks, and most of them lose value here. Black's cheap creatures are made for ferocious and amass (Desolation Prowler wins 57.2% here, 61.9% in Ferocious Wolves), and blue's are made for recruit and extra draws in Draw Two (Bilbo, Luckwearer wins 56.6% here, 62.5% in Draw Two). Some removal keeps its value. Gnashing of Teeth (56.7%) and Stir Up Trouble (56.4%) do about as well here as overall.

So draft it as a black removal deck with blue's drawing and discarding on top. Take removal first, then creatures that block well, then card draw and fliers. It's the right deck when black is wide open but red, green and white are cut, and blue is the color that keeps coming.

Burn and Draw (blue-red) is a middling deck and a rare one. It won 55.2% over 4,886 games, against 57.6% over 85,459 games for Goblin Army, the most-played deck, and 56.4% over 58,594 games for Draw Two, the main blue deck. Only cards drawn in enough of its games get a win rate here at all, and even the most-played spell, Plunder the Trollshaws, has only 2,507 games in this deck behind it.

This deck is rare because The Hobbit gives five decks a gold card and a dual land (Draw Two, Goblin Army, Dwarves & Equipment, Ferocious Wolves, Elf Landfall), and blue and red get neither. Nothing in the set is built for it, so the deck is good blue cards plus good red cards. Blue's synergy cards pull toward Draw Two and red's toward Goblin Army and Dwarves & Equipment.

End up here anyway when red removal keeps coming (Pinecone Strike, Burn, Burn, Tree and Fern, Gandalf, Spark Starter) and blue's good cards come late, while black dries up. In that draft this is a solid deck, because its red removal is the same removal Goblin Army wins with.

This deck is rare but strong. Its decks win 56.8% over 4,805 games, right next to Goblin Army 57.6% over 85,459 games and Ferocious Wolves 56.9% over 57,277 games, two of the most-drafted decks. Most Removal Midrange decks belong to drafters who were passed both colors, which probably flatters that number. The card numbers are thin too. Even Crude Bent Blade, the most-played card here, has only 1,958 games in this deck, and most cards have no win rate here at all, so most numbers in these lessons are overall win rates. The deck is rare because nothing pulls you into it. The set has no white and black gold card at any rarity, and no white and black dual land. Black's best commons have obvious homes in Goblin Army (Goblins and amass) and Ferocious Wolves (ferocious), and white's best cards are fought over by Dwarves & Equipment and Draw Two drafters. End up here when both colors come to you late, for example when you started on black removal and white's best uncommons keep coming, or the other way round.

Few drafters play this deck. It wins 54.6% over 2,822 games, a little below the four most-played decks: Goblin Army (57.6% over 85,459 games), Draw Two (56.4% over 58,594 games), Ferocious Wolves (56.9% over 57,277 games) and Dwarves & Equipment (56.5% over 52,797 games). Ferocious Wolves (black-green) is the green deck most drafters choose instead.

The set's gold cards and its five common dual lands are made for Goblin Army, Ferocious Wolves, Dwarves & Equipment, Draw Two and Elf Landfall, and no card asks for both red and green. Red's best cards are built for Goblin Army (amass Goblins) and Dwarves & Equipment, and green's for Ferocious Wolves, where black adds more ferocious creatures (Ravening Warg, Nighthowl Pursuer). A few hybrid cards still work here. Their cost has a symbol like that either of two colors can pay. Large Bear, Duskwatch Hunter, Mirkwood Nurturer and Thranduil, Sindarin Liege can be cast with green mana, and Goblin Plate Mail and Dwalin, Weaponmaster with red.

Only five cards have enough games in this deck to measure. Two of them are basic lands, and the other three all do worse here than in their home deck: Pinecone Strike 57.0% here against 60.5% in Goblin Army, Quarrel 56.1% against 58.4% in Ferocious Wolves, Attercop 55.4% against 57.1%.

You end up here when both red and green keep coming to you and black and white are clearly taken. Then 4-power green creatures and red removal make a fair deck.

Patchwork Midrange is the weakest two-color deck in the data and the only one that loses more games than it wins (49.7% over 1,323 games). Goblin Army, the most-played deck, wins 57.6% over 85,459 games. No card has numbers for this deck except the basic lands (for a Plains here, 50.4%), so the card numbers in this track are overall numbers or come from other decks.

It is weak because the set has no white and green gold cards and no white and green dual land, so nothing was designed to make these two colors work together. White's themes (Equipment in Dwarves & Equipment, recruit and Humans in Draw Two) and green's themes (ferocious, Bears and Wolves in Ferocious Wolves, Elves and landfall in Elf Landfall) don't feed each other. White's strongest cards win more in Draw Two and Dwarves & Equipment, and green's win more in Ferocious Wolves. Green is also short on removal, and white's only common removal spell is Magnificent End.

You end up here anyway when you take strong white cards and strong green cards early and no partner color comes. In that case, build a plain midrange deck: green creatures like Mirkwood Pathmaker and Ordinary Bear, every white removal spell you have, and no cards that need Dwarves, Elves or extra card draw. Hybrid cards help fill it. A hybrid symbol like or can be paid with either of its two colors, so Patient Instructor () costs here and Large Bear () costs .