Ally Fellowship of the Ring

When I started the Saga Campaign I knew I wanted to create some thematic decks and definitely use the Black Riders hobbits. Excluding Aragorn and Frodo since they are heroes, I knew I needed to include the other 7 members of the fellowship.

Apart from the 3 hobbits, I included the other 4 members as allies only, choosing instead some stronger heroes that I hoped paired better with the Hobbits.

The core strategy of the two decks is to optionally engage enemies with the Hobbit deck as much as possible, including the use of Mablung, and powering the heroes up with attachments and Rosie Cotton.

Beregond in deck 2 can do most of the defending for them and keep their threat low, but Sam with Hobbit Cloak should be able to handle his own. Otherwise, deck 2 is about questing and location control, playing down big allies like Northern Tracker and using Faramir to get extra actions from them.

Disclaimer: I played through only the Fellowship saga quests so far (including Old Forest and Fog on the Barrow Downs), and won on the first or second try for all but Journey in the Dark. Other than knowing that the saga gets harder, I haven't spoiled any encounter cards for myself, so I can't say how these will fare later.

(The sideboard of deck 2 was how I switched the deck when I sacrificed Faramir to the Balrog, adding Balin, Ethir Swordsman, and Round Shield in place of Faramir and Wild Stallion, and Hasty Stroke).