The Last Alliance between Elf and ... Hobbit 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Disclaimer

Just to make it clear from the start, playing this deck solo is most likely quite painful in a lot of scenarios.

The Idea

The general idea was to build a deck that can do fun stuff with The Last Alliance. After a bit of fooling around with various combinations I ended up with Silvan and Hobbits as the two traits I wanted to combine. Both can be quite secretive and the new Fatty Bolger seems like a perfect match for Rossiel. In addition, there a bunch of cards where benefits can be found. But before with come to that, lets look at...

The Theme

Kinda as expected a deck with Rossiel will feature some shenanigans with the victory display. Secrecy is the other big aspect of the deck, since some cards benefit from it and due to the fact that combat isn't quite its strength, so being able to choose what to engage is quite important. With the theme set it came down to choose the last hero...

The Heroes

With Fatty and Rossiel already set all I had to do is to add another hobbit or silvan hero. Easier said then done. To make things a bit easier I decided to go mono-lore and the choices came down to Pippin or Mirlonde, since I wanted to start in secrecy. To be honest I am still not quite sure which one is better. Mirlonde offers one less initial threat and the extra attack and extra hit point can quite helpful. Pippin however offers a lot of utility. After a few tries I decided to go with Mirlonde, having more silvan initially seemed more benefitial to me. So the heroes are sorted, but what about...

The Synergies

Well, lets start with the victory display. Lets start with adding cards to it. Fatty excels at this, removing an early or just a really annoying enemy can be a game changer. Especially, since we have some issues with combat in the beginning. Once we can actually handle enemies, we can make sure that None Return. Out of the Wild is more versatile and can just remove the most annoying card and thanks to Scroll of Isildur more then once. Scout Ahead is just another way to get rid of a card.

But lets get to the cards that actually benefit from the victory display. Rossiel is the most obvious, since she can get a nice willpower or defense boost, which can make life a lot easier and makes her a really cost effective hero. Buckland Shirriff can also be quite cost effective and doesn't even need to use the discount from The Last Alliance. The Woodland Sentry can wreck quite some havoc with a lot of players present. Keen as Lances is just amazing when you have to pay very little for it. But my favorite one is the Horn-call of Buckland, it helps Rossiel a lot, makes it easier to get rid of the enemy, and has awesome flavor.

Apart from that there are the synergies with The Last Alliance, which are two-fold. On one hand you have the discount you want to use as often as possible. Luckily, Gaffer Gamgee tends to return to your hand quite regurlarly and will use the discount quite often. Additionally, you can combine The Tree People and The Last Alliance to bounce a hobbit (usually a Cautious Halfling) or a silvan (usually a Woodland Sentry or Galadhrim Minstrel) and find someone else in the top cards of your deck. Allowing you to shift the balance further. On the other hand you have the synergies with the cards that allow you to replace "Hobbit" or "Silvan" with "Hobbit or Silvan", which is nice for The Shirefolk and the before mentioned The Tree People. It can become truly absurd with Host of Galadhrim, but who would do something like that? Finally, Silvan Tracker turns into a super healer for silvans and hobbits which is amazing when you have to deal with archery or treachery damage.

Resources

Resources are actually not that problematic in the deck. Most cards are cheap and with The Last Alliance, Secrecy, Resourceful, and possibly Keen as Lances you are quite well prepared for all the hungry silvans - and hobbits.

Card Draw

Drawing cards is quite easy, too. You have Drinking Song, Mithrandir's Advice, and Keen as Lances as events and on top of that you draw cards regularly with Cautious Halfling and Galadhrim Minstrel. If that is still not enough, just swap Mirlonde for Pippin. I didn't even bother with Daeron's Runes since the deck space is already quite tight.

Final Thoughts

I enjoy playing the deck a lot. You can do a lot of fun and helpful things but as mentioned in the disclaimer already, it really is more of a multiplayer deck.

As always, I am looking forward to all comments and suggestions.

[edit] Thanks for making me reread the cards again, so there is a small change recommended, which will replace Scroll of Isildur and with The Door is Closed!, Weep No More!, or Leave No Trace.