Shadows of the Wild

Onidsen 1134

Description

This is a thematic fellowship built around Hobbits, Dunedain, and side quests. The entire fellowship is designed to be low-threat, and to avoid engaging enemies as a general rule. The objective is to give the feeling of sneaking through the wilderness, trying to avoid the enemies you can while strategically engaging and destroying the enemies you can't avoid.

Both decks are designed to contribute significantly in the quest phase, clearing side quests to set up a powerful board state that can build up the momentum towards a victory. The mono- deck provides willpower, cancellation, and threat reduction. With Pippin's ability, it can avoid engaging any enemy that might slip past the low threat, either via forced engagement effects or low engagement costs. But at need, it can muster enough power through the defensive abilities of Frodo Baggins, Arwen Undómiel, and the Guardian of Rivendell to keep itself alive in an emergency. And between Glorfindel, Northern Tracker, and the Guardians, it can dish out a reasonable amount of attack as well.

However, most of the combat will be handled by the / deck. Sam Gamgee is the primary defender, boosted by Rosie Cotton, Hobbit Cloak, and Staff of Lebethron. Counter-attack is handled by Folco Boffin or Thalion (proxied by the Ranger of Cardolan) boosted by Legacy Blades. The deck also includes numerous tricks to boost the engagement costs of enemies to guarantee that Sam's defensive boosts stay online.

2 comments
Aug 20, 2018 banania 1934 I really applaud that you have explored the "sneaky hobbit" archetype here, which is so rarely explored. Haven't you tried to make some ways of Hobbit-sense or Out of Sight ? These two cards can have some values if the opposing deck has some ranged ability (and you can drop to Secrecy, but given your inclusion of Resourceful I think you can).
Aug 24, 2018 Onidsen 1134 I really haven't given much thought to either of those, really. Hobbit-sense runs counter to Pippin's ability - if we are aiming at almost never engaging enemies, then keeping them from attacking isn't as useful as it could be. Of course, part of this is that I haven't really tested the decks together yet - if putting some ranged power into the partner deck seems necessary, then attack cancellation might be useful. Out of Sight, on the other hand, is much more difficult. It is true that I can get into secrecy - in fact, I start there - and if the deck is humming neatly along, I'll often find myself there again by the end of the game. But in earlier test plays, I have found myself spending most of my games outside of secrecy. The deck treats threat as if it were a resource, and spends it liberally. Mostly, if I don't get Resourceful in the opening hand, I don't end up playing it. Since I'm not expecting to stay in secrecy, I have been trying to avoid the secrecy cards because I expect them to most of the time be a dead card in hand.

2 comments

Aug 20, 2018 banania 1934

I really applaud that you have explored the "sneaky hobbit" archetype here, which is so rarely explored. Haven't you tried to make some ways of Hobbit-sense or Out of Sight ? These two cards can have some values if the opposing deck has some ranged ability (and you can drop to Secrecy, but given your inclusion of Resourceful I think you can).

Aug 24, 2018 Onidsen 1134

I really haven't given much thought to either of those, really. Hobbit-sense runs counter to Pippin's ability - if we are aiming at almost never engaging enemies, then keeping them from attacking isn't as useful as it could be. Of course, part of this is that I haven't really tested the decks together yet - if putting some ranged power into the partner deck seems necessary, then attack cancellation might be useful.

Out of Sight, on the other hand, is much more difficult. It is true that I can get into secrecy - in fact, I start there - and if the deck is humming neatly along, I'll often find myself there again by the end of the game. But in earlier test plays, I have found myself spending most of my games outside of secrecy. The deck treats threat as if it were a resource, and spends it liberally. Mostly, if I don't get Resourceful in the opening hand, I don't end up playing it. Since I'm not expecting to stay in secrecy, I have been trying to avoid the secrecy cards because I expect them to most of the time be a dead card in hand.