A Hobbit's Spirit 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is the updated version of my old 'A Hobbit's Tale' deck, which makes use of Pippin's amazing ability to keep throwing enemies back to the staging area until your board is fully set up. With Ranger Spikes you can even take some enemies out of the game.

I have replaced Bilbo Baggins with Folco Boffin in order to start in secrecy and that extra 1 starting . You will be drawing cards left, right and centre with your pipes that you don't need the extra card draw from Bilbo.

In your opening hand you are looking for at least 1 copy of Hobbit Pipe or Bilbo Baggins to grab you said pipe to really get your draw engine going. Ideally, a copy of Resourceful would also be great, though the pipe is far more important, so mulligan hard for it. There is copy of Drinking Song included in case you don't get a pipe in either of your opening hands. For scenarios where there are no nasty condition attachment treachery cards, I would exchange the two copies of Power of Orthanc for 2 more copies of Drinking Song to ensure you get the pipes out as quickly as possible. There is so many threat reduction events in this deck that you will be drawing through your deck in no time.

Another good card to see early on is Thorongil. One of many people's complaints about Pippin is that his ability has great synergy with that on his version but for obvious reasons they couldn't be played together. Thorongil solves that problem so if you draw it early, it is best going on him. If it doesn't turn up until later in the game though, you are probably better off playing it on Merry to give him +3 and the ability to ready another attacker.

Fast Hitch should always go on Merry so you can quest with him and use his ability. Just remember that the text on Ranger Spikes is passive so it adjusts an enemy's before you can use his ability and as it doesn't say 'printed ' it is the adjusted . In general it is better to get Henamarth Riversong out first so you know the optimum time to play your Ranger Spikes.

You shouldn't plan to use Folco Boffin's ability unless you have managed to put Thorongil on Pippin as there is no other way to play the cards in this deck as Smoke and Think still requires you to have a resource match even if you are playing cards for no cost. There is more than enough threat reduction in this deck without having to trigger his ability and you will often find yourself with a threat of less than 20 despite using Pippin's ability. Once you have played all your cards, you can use his resources to recur Gaffer Gamgee and ready Warden of Healing to avoid combat and keep all your party healed up.

Don't be afraid to use Bilbo Baggins as a chump blocker or to soak up archery or direct damage from the encounter deck. If he leaves play, you can play another copy and find another pipe. Once you have all 3 Hobbit Pipes out, he can dig for Spare Pipes to make your hobbit heroes more durable and provide more threat reduction by digging for an event card. I generally save Smoke Rings until I have all 6 pipes in play, after which, for just 2 resources you get +3 , -6 threat and +3 cards!

If you play two-handed or with a friend, I would recommend pairing this with a ranger/trap deck for more shenanigans with Pippin's ability. Just remember that it only prevents enemies engaging the hobbits, so they will still engage the partner deck if the threat is high enough.