The Hobbit All-Stars 1.0

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• 1.0

I call this deck the "All Stars" because it has all sorts of unique allies from all over the place. There's representatives from Rohan, the Noldor, the Silvan, Dwarves, Gondor, Harad, and (naturally) hobbits. It even has Ghân-buri-Ghân and an Ent just for the heck of it.

So the theme is basically 3 hobbits trapesing all over MIddle Earth singing songs and going on all kinds of side journeys and quests, all the while acquiring a train of powerful heroes to help them along. I made it through the Sands of the Harad adventures with this deck so far and it's a lot of fun and pretty strong.

The trick to it is flexibility, one of my favorite things to try to build. It's a secrecy themed deck so mulligan if you don't get Resourceful. But all you really need is one to crank out enough resources to get going. Next most important is getting Gléowine out because card draw really helps this deck to give you more options.

I use Folco Boffin and Pippin to quest and keep Merry ready in case bad guys show up, then I almost always use his ability to lower my threat and keep it low. This ability alone has allowed me to keep Gandalf around for the whole quest, which is really, really good considering his powers. Glorfindel you can discard and play later, which is a good idea, especially if you want to put Sword-thain and then Legacy Blade to make him a beastly attacker. The Legacy Blade gets powerful quick considering all the side quests in this deck, and you can also quest with Glorfindel, since with the high card draw you should be able to discard something if need be to ready him and attack Enemies.

Use Fireside Song on Pippin or Folco Boffin to make them crazy good questers considering the other songs available to put on them, and wait until Prince Imrahil is around to discard Folco Boffin for a huge threat drop...if you need it. Though it frequently isn't necessary and sometimes I wound up putting Sword-thain on him instead of Glorfindel. The Galadhrim's Greeting reduces threat even more--or you can use it and/or Song of Eärendil on your pals in multiplayer.

A Test of Will and Halfling Bounder can be used to negate nasty treachery effects, and Northern Tracker helps clear out staging area locations. Gildor Inglorion is good for card draw, as is the Master of the Forge and Gléowine, both of whom you will want to get out early if you can.

With Sword-thain and Resourceful, and the fact that it is easy to keep threat really low with this deck, you can quickly get to the point where you are cranking out 5, 6 or even 7 resources every round, which makes it easy to play all those expensive, beefy allies.

As far as combat goes, you will need a decent defender like Erebor Guard, Jubayr, Gildor Inglorion, or Gandalf around to survive combat, and in a pinch if you have nobody else yet you can use Folco Boffin and Merry to attack with, but if worse comes to worse, you can always use Pippin's ability to just get rid of a pesky Enemy that is giving you grief.

Hope you have fun with it!