The Free Hobbits (AKA No Outlands Sword of Morthond) 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Warning! This deck is not good. At all. Proceed at your own risk. (Are the power gamers gone yet? Ok let's get started).

Question 1: Are hobbits free?

Answer 1: Yes

Question 2: Are hobbits people?

Answer 2: Yes

Question 3: Then why can't you play The Free Peoples with only hobbits?

Answer 3: Now you can!

The idea behind this deck is to see if you can get the nine traits needed to play The Free Peoples when all the heroes/allies come with only 1 starting trait (hobbit). The rest come from attachments which grant traits to heroes/allies. As an added bonus, this deck fulfills Brandon's (of CoTR fame) dream of a deck which uses Sword of Morthond without any Outlands cards in the deck.

Strategy:

For strategy, the deck plays like your standard hobbit deck, just worse. Try and get a Resourceful in the starting hand so you can play it before your threat goes over 20. Beyond that, try not to die while drawing into all of the attachments you need. Try not to play trait attachments on Folco Boffin just in case you need to discard him. Then cackle with delight as your hobbits represent all of the free peoples of middle earth as you quest for 20-30.

Questing Results:

I took this deck up against the Seventh Level (the easiest quest I currently have access to) and won on the fourth attempt. After a couple losses from being swarmed by goblins I added a couple copies of Goblin-cleaver, which was a key factor in my victory. I was going to test it against Trouble in Tharbad, but Nalir's Dwarf trait got in the way. Speaking of which...

Deckbuilding Considerations:

It's amazing how constraining it is to build a deck with only one trait. For perhaps the first time ever, Robin Smallburrow's Shirriff trait disqualified him for a deck. Also, Master of the Forge would improve the consistency of the deck exponentially, but comes with Noldor and Craftsman. You could also add in Fearless Scout, but then there'd be enough traits that Sword of Morthond is no longer essential for the combo, and I really wanted to make the first non-Outlands Sword of Morthond deck. With all the traits, you could also include some of the trait blending cards such as Coney in a Trap, but that adds even more inconsistency to an already inconsistent deck.