Longbottom Leaf Appreciation Society 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

Inspired by recent innovations in pipe and smoking technology (Smoke and Think and Spare Pipes), lovers of the Longbottom Leaf have united to be merry and quest.

This deck has two goals - one is to get powerful allies into play using the power of pipes. The second is to consume threat. I typically pair this deck with another and let this deck keep them both operating at low threat.

The key to paying for all of these allies is Smoke and Think. With 7 pipes in the deck, I routinely find myself getting 4-5 in play, and at least 2-3. The pipes fuel card draw (Old Toby), threat reduction Smoke Rings) and cost reduction.. With these two mechanisms in play, coupled with the slow burn of a low threat hobbit deck, you can build up an army of devastatingly powerful allies.

For threat reduction, the star is, of course, Merry. Enemies routinely give you a 2-4 threat reduction, and in most quests occur frequently enough that you are getting that threat reduction at least every other turn. On top of that, I run On top of that, I run both The Shirefolk and Smoke and Think for threat reduction (and card draw with Hobbit Pipe).

This threat reduction then pairs with Song of Eärendil to not only keep this deck's threat low, but to also take the threat increases for the paired deck. I've had great success running this alongside a Bond of Friendship Hobbit deck (making my table an absolute feast of hobbits), and getting, and keeping, the Bond of Friendship deck in secrecy.

Other cards of note:

• Smoke and Think: Spare Pipe really elevates this card. Now being able to run so many pipes in a single deck, this card is often giving me something like 3-4 threat reduction, 3 willpower, and 1-2 cards (comboed with Hobbit Pipe), all for two resources.
• Dwarven Tomb has a lot of targets here, but most often is a way to get recurring Smoke and Think for cheap allies.
• Haleth helps you seek out pipes.
• Gandalf: of course, one good use of your super-low threat is to keep OHaUH Gandalf out on the board. He's an absolute monster, and makes it pretty easy to take out an enemy a turn without missing a questing beat once he's running.

The biggest weakness of the deck is against quests that throw a really strong enemy at you right off the bat. Hobbits are super-squishy, and it takes a little while to get your ally pool up and running. If you can't let the other deck handle that, you can swap in Frodo Baggins for Bilbo, though that dramatically slows down the pipe push.