Fellows from the Shire 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

I build this deck with the idea to fit the new Hobbit allies from a Shadow in the East, especially Pippin, into a Hobbit deck. Therfore i shifted away from the classic lineup and insteead went for Tom Cotton and Folco Boffin to team up with Sam Gamgee. It's a nice pairing, because Folco allows to play this more expensive heroes while still staying in secrecy for Resourceful.

I originally didn't plan to include Fellowship but I wanted to play those unique Hobbits anyway, so I did go for it. A Very Good Tale, Toms Ressource smoothing and free allies like Bill the Pony and Ioreth together with a lot of card draw you can normally get the combo going turn 4 or 5.

Comparing this to the classic Black Riders lineup, there are stregths and weaknesses. The by Tom boosted allies (Pippin is the star here) help to compensate the attackpower loss from Merry. But you have the run these allies, so theres less room for attachments like Sting or Friend of Friends. I also missed the card draw from Pippin.

What i really like better here is being able defend a under 20 engagement enemy with Tom, what with the classic lineup could lead to undefend attacks and dead heroes.

Sideboard: Halfast Gamgee can be swapped in for one Pippin if there are encounter sidequests. The Shirefolk can help against quests with lots of threat raise or make your Resourcefuls more reliable if someone else wants Steward of Gondor.

I really like how you can take the hobbit archetype in different directions at this point. After the release of Sting i published a deck that went heavy on weapons/armor, running even Open the Armory and Foe-hammer, here are very few attachments and the focus is on the allies.