Hobbit Festival 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Like any good festival, this one is chock-full of events!

Synopsis

A hobbit-based semi-secrecy deck built for a multiplayer campaign.

Design

I wanted a Hobbit deck that played against the traditional Timely Aid-big ally drop archetype.

This deck relies heavily on card draw to make sure that you have the right event at the right time. Excess cards are fuel for Protector of Lórien. Conveniently, drawing cards with Hobbit Pipe synergizes nicely with threat reduction, which allows the hobbits to dabble in secrecy.

Strategy

This deck plays very oddly. On any given turn, you'll play one card during planning, and then quest for maybe 2 ; however, through various combinations of Hobbit Pony, Smoke Rings, Frodo's Intuition, Courage Awakened, and Protector of Lórien, you'll be able to boost your up considerably. Since all of this can be done after staging, you can fine-tune your for precision quest progression.

If an enemy pops off of the encounter deck, then all the better! Lower your threat with Merry, and then engage the enemy to trigger the responses on Sam Gamgee and Pippin. Once he's fully decked-out, Sam Gamgee makes an excellent defender. You probably won't have the attack power to swing back, but that's what friends are for!

Basic tips:

• Mulligan for Frodo's Intuition. This deck works best when you have tons of options to choose from, and fuel for Protector of Lórien. It doesn't necessarily matter what cards you have in hand, just so long as you have lots of them.
• In order to pay for an early Frodo's Intuition, it helps to be the second or third player, so that Frodo Baggins has enough resources by the time he comes under your control.
• Hobbit Cloak, Staff of Lebethron, and all copies of Protector of Lórien go on Sam Gamgee.
• Sam Gamgee and Merry each get a Fast Hitch and a Hobbit Pony. With Elfhelm on the table, the Hobbit Ponies give Sam Gamgee +1 and Merry +1 .
• Sam Gamgee and Pippin get the first two Hobbit Pipes, and Merry gets the third.
• Courage Awakened is a great card, especially in A Shadow of the Past, where it can be used to boost your companion's willpower in the event that they would fail a Hide test.
• Shadow of the Past is included to abuse the Gildor inglorian boon, as well as ensure that any Rangers of the North get into play.
• Good Meal goes on whoever can make best use of it: Merry for Smoke Rings or The Galadhrim's Greeting, Pippin for Gildor's Counsel, or Frodo Baggins for Frodo's Intuition.

Sideboard

• I swapped out Courage Awakened for Noiseless Movement in A Knife in the Dark, just to ensure that we wouldn't get overwhelmed by Nazgul in the final stage.
• I swapped out Gildor's Counsel for Out of the Wild and Double Back for Scout Ahead in Flight to the Ford, all for the off-chance that I could remove one of the new burdens from the encounter deck before it became part of the campaign pool.
• The Sneak Attack-Gandalf combo was not really needed in the multiplayer campaign, whereas this deck suffered from not being able to play Frodo's Intuition when needed (since you have to be the first player to pay for it). In retrospect, I should have dumped the Sneak Attacks for Follow Me!.
• Asfaloth was included because Glorfindel was a part of the fellowship. If he wasn't in play, these could be swapped for a couple of Galadhrim Minstrels to accelerate your event draw. Galadriel wouldn't be a bad choice either.

Performance

• Beat A Shadow of the Past in pure solo, despite drawing all of the Nazgul in the encounter deck (+1 because I had to fetch one from the discard pile).
• Part of a multiplayer campaign that beat:
  • A Shadow of the Past
  • The Old Forest
  • Fog on the Barrow Downs
  • A Knife in the Dark
  • Flight to the Ford

Some Fun Math

Assuming that you have the first player token and that you have no allies on the table, you could theoretically quest for a measly 2 , and then boost that to 45 with all of your events (47 if Elfhelm is on the table and you also took the Noble Hero boon):

• Base 2 by questing with Frodo Baggins
• +7 by using Hobbit Ponies to commit Merry, Pippin, and Sam Gamgee
• +1 from Merry's Hobbit Pony if Elfhelm is in play
• +1 because I put the Noble Hero boon on Pippin
• +9 for pitching a total of nine cards to three copies of Protector of Lórien
• +4 for playing both copies of Courage Awakened
• +2 for a bonus Courage Awakened if you are in secrecy
• +9 for playing all three Smoke Rings and all Hobbit Pipes are in play
• +12 for playing all three copies of Frodo's Intuition

Assuming that Sam Gamgee is fully equipped, and that Elfhelm is on the table, he could theoretically defend for 14 ; furthermore, if he had a Staff of Lebethron then he wouldn't even have to worry about the shadow card:

• Base 1 on Sam Gamgee
• +1 (or more) for engaging an enemy with a higher engagement cost than your threat
• +9 for pitching a total of nine cards to all three copies of Protector of Lórien
• +2 from Hobbit Cloak, if the attacking enemy has a higher engagement cost than your threat
• +1 from Hobbit Pony if Elfhelm is in play.