4 Hobbits 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is my incarnation of a Hobbit deck with Bond of Friendship. I did play it for a while now, it seems quite stable against various quests. (I do not play Nightmare, though.)

Overall Strategy: Threat Reduction

An usual Hobbit-themed deck focuses on a low threat (just lower than the usual enemies, not typically secrecy). This deck archives this goal basically with Merry and The Shirefolk. The later is needed when playing solo and therefore revealing an enemy is not guaranteed. Double Back is a card that I personally do like and it helps other players, but it is a candidate to be replaced - e.g. with a second Unexpected Courage or a second Odo Proudfoot (which accelerates card draw then), expecially when used together with Raise the Shire.

How to Defend

There are two ways to defend built in here. With Gaffer Gamgee and with Tom Cotton (plus Ring Mail, Hobbit Cloak and Staff of Lebethron). So, in the end this deck can defend against two enemies each round without to have to worry about shadow effects or attack strength - as long as your threat is lower than that of the enemy. Unless you are forced to engage an enemy, you can still only engage one enemy. But you don't have to kill them in the same round...

Due to Bond of Friendship all the cards are limited to two times each, but because there are two different ways to defend, at least one of them should be in game very early.

Card Draw

There are various efects which lets you cycle through your cards. You want to engage enemies because of Pippin, Drinking Song lets you shuffle unused cards away. Horn of the Mark together with Raise the Shire or/and Gaffer Gamgee is insane.

Willpower

Sam Gamgee and Pippin are ment to quest all the time. Merry can quest optionally. This depends on the current threat. This way the inital willpower is good. Red Book of Westmarch gives a huge boost, which is needed for end game most the times.

Attack

This deck has a lack of attack power early on. This beeing said, there are more than one way to deal damage. Raise the Shire with Farmer Maggot, Merry with Thorongil and any ally with the bonus from Tom Cotton. Sword-thain can boost Merry's attack strength by another point.

Resources

With a starting threat of 28, Resourceful seems odd at first glance. But because of Gaffer Gamgee needs 2 lore resources each round (in the worst case). This is a way to shift resources towards lore. There are also other ways to generate green resources: Red Book of Westmarch attached to Pippin as well as Sword-thaining Robin Smallburrow or Ghân-buri-Ghân. The Storm Comes is another way to make sure that a Gaffer Gamgee can be played each round.

The overall card cost in this deck is not that low - e.g. most allies cannot be played in round one, but I think it is quite okay. Later on there are usually more resources than cards in hand.

A Word on Rosie

Another use of Sword-thain is Rosie Cotton together with Rally the West and of course, any Fast Hitch/Unexpected Courage. This is by far not the worthiest combo (takes a lot time to set up), but I thought I mention it.

Your Starting Hand

Any sort of boost to your defense, Thorongil, Horn of the Mark, readying effects are all cards which are nice to see early on. I think there is no card, which you defenitly need in your hand, like a Light of Valinor in other decks.

Attachments

The first readying effect is for Merry. Probably the second, too. That way he can quest, reduce theat and attack in a single round. A third readying effect is dependant onthe current situation.

Red Book of Westmarch and Resourcefuls are for Pippin, because he quests all the time and lore resources are short here. All the defending attachments are, of course, ment for tom Cotton.

Dagger of Westernesse goes to Sam, beacuse he readys when a enemy engages, plus, when attacking together with Thorongil'ed Merry, he also readys and can attack again.

Sideboard, Cards to Replace and other Notes

The only card which should be listed in the sideboard is Merry. All other cards were on my mind when setting up this deck, but there is no space for all of them. Most of them proven not as powerfull as other cards - especially Hobbit Pony and Silver Circlet. Anyhow, there is an alternative hero lineup which I considered in the begining: tactics Merry and spirit Frodo Baggins.

Probably a Gandalf is more verstatile than The Shirefolk. But I wanted to add this card so bad.

I'd like to add Friend of Friends to this deck, but with only two allowed cards per kind this one would triggers rarely, because you do need both copies.

First cards to replace are Rally the West and The Storm Comes. Both are in here to test them out. Other less powerfull cards are Ghân-buri-Ghân and Robin Smallburrow. They are ment as a target for Sword-thain, to be able to be another way to generate lore resources.

Is it enough healing? Probably replace Drinking Songs. These aren't that good here (later in game you have lots of resources, but no cards in hand).

Card draw could be a bit better/consistent (4 heroes, even maybe 5, generate a lot of resources to spend).