Shadows of the Past - Thematic Solo Campaign #1 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Welcome to the first deck of my new project: Creating a thematic solo deck for every Lord of the Rings Saga quest. While I try to make these decks as thematic as possible, there are sacrifices. But still, thematicness is priority number 1 in my decks. The campaign concept I suggest to play with this series is the following: You may change heroes between quests without the +1 Penalty, but you have to stay thematic. Therefore I would also only play thematic boons on thematic characters. I wouldn't attach Anduril to Boromir for example with that mode. But if you think Boromir is thematic for quest A but not for quest B you can and should swap him without the +1 penalty. I played and really enjoyed this kind of campaign so I hope you can too. If nothing else, it creates quite a similar atmosphere to the atmosphere in the books.

General strategy

So here we go with the quest that started it all: Shadows of the Past. Hiding and Hobbits should come to your mind instantly. So this is why my deck is a typical Hobbit deck. It is fitting that the four most prominent heroes of that part of the book are also the four heroes of the deck. I think everybody agrees that this hero line-up is both, thematic and effective. Therefore my deck is a pretty straight-forward Hobbit engagement cost deck. Here comes my card to card evaluation.

Allies evaluation

• Bill the Pony. Might come into the story a few chapters later, but still a thematic win for any Hobbit deck. Efficent as hell with Sam. No-Brainer.
• Dúnedain Hunter. The Shire was actively protected be the Dúnedain during the events of LOTR. Therefore, the Hunter should be thematic enough. He also works great with Hobbits and their synergy.
• Farmer Maggot. Not a very powerful card, but certainly thematic.
• Robin Smallburrow. Also not the strongest character around, but certainly thematic especially because of his synergistic and very helpful Shirriff trait. He's a guy who gets around and might meet some adventuring Hobbits on one of his patrols.
• Wandering Ent. That is one I am very proud of. We are introduced to the idea of a walking "tree" in the FOTR. It only seems like a silly idea until the Two Towers, where we get introduced to Ents. Was that walking tree an Ent(wive)? We will never know, but I certainly love the idea.

Attachment evaluation

• Dagger of Westernesse/Hobbit Cloak. Do I seriously need to explain those?
• Ranger Provisions. The Dúnedain guarded the Shire at the time. So it's thematic and helps with resource smoothing and is therefore an auto-include.
• Resourceful. Try to get it into your opening hand.
• Staff of Lebethron. I know they get it much later in the novels, but they certainly had similar walking sticks in that part of the books as well.
• Steward of Gondor. Screw theme. Deal with it.

Event evaluation

I think those are pretty self-explaining. Frodo's Intuition and Halfing Determination are espcially thematic, but the other ones are pretty acceptable too I think.

So that was the pretty long description of the deck. If you stayed with me until now, THUMBS UP! I wish you a lot of luck with the amazing scenario and (hopefully) with my deck. Please excuse my language and grammatical mistakes, I'm not a native speaker and therefore struggle sometimes. I am always welcome for suggestions and ideas concerning the following sceanrios, so just leave them in the comments if you want to. I'd like to make this project as community-influenced as possible, so do not be shy.

ENJOY!!