Sneaksy Little Hobbitses - Lullaby the Encounter Deck 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

"Why let the encounter deck do anything when we could just get really drunk and sing together instead?" - Folco Boffin, Hobbiton Bard

THE SYNOPSIS

Bolster any multiplayer Fellowship with the power of singing hobbits!

These stupid sneaksy loresy little hobbitses are going to, in a 2-Player game, only allow the Encounter Deck to reveal a single card each round, prevent one enemy from making enagement checks each round, and will blow up an enemy in staging each round. All backed by further tech to weaken what gets staged. RIP, Encounter Deck.

INTRO

This is a multiplayer support deck that utilizes monolore and secrecy strategizes. It is a great deck to bring to a multiplayer session, as there's a close to zero chance it will have any unique conflicts with other decks at the table. If you do not use ALeP cards (or Pippin is in use elsehwere at the table), you could grab (MotK) Robin Smallburrow or Bilbo Baggins instead, and the deck will still function effectively the same). Encourage your multiplayer mates to bring some copies of Keen as Lances of their own, as they will quickly be poweful 0-cost cards for the table to exploit.

DISCLAIMER: This deck quests for a decent amount but offers almost nothing in the way of combat (so pairing with decks that bring Sentinel/Ranged can be especially valuable, if not necessary in quests that include auto-engaged enemies or a disproportionate amount of enemies that are unique or immune to player card effects). In such quests, if you insist on bringing these drunk hobbits and belting some tunes, perhaps consider replacing the Tom Bombadillo!s with Quickbeam and Forest Snare to help in that regard.

What this deck does bring to the table is incredible control over the Encounter Deck (and all without the ever-popular Firyal -- though if the other decks at the table haven't included her, feel free to splash in your own copy).

Ultimately, this deck is looking to play Gildor's Counsel, Noiseless Movement, and The Great Hunt nearly every round. You can also help de-fang the Encounter Deck with cards like Out of the Wild, Risk Some Light, and Tom Bombadillo!.

STARTING UP THE ENGINE

The key to this deck is singing, as songs are doing the work of Card Draw, Resource Generation, and Willpower boosting.

You'll want to quickly get Love of Tales onto your heroes. This allows you to ramp up your economy quickly, further bolstered by a pair of Resourcefuls. In the early game, use Drinking Song to fish through hands and find the Love of Tales, as once all three are out you're effectively generating 6 resources each round (before Resourceful).

Fireside Song helps your hobbits pull more weight questing, while Song of Travel enables playing them (and Song of Eärendil to protect freinds' threat for them and Will of the West. Note that a hero can have multiple copies of Song of Travel, so even after you've played a copy you can still play a future copy onto a Fireside Song hobbit, thus granting +1 WP and +3 Resources... not bad for a 1-cost neutral card!

For brute card draw, the amazing Drinking Songs are bolstered by Daeron's Runes and Mithrandir's Advice. In the early game, don't hesitate to use a 1-cost Scroll of Isildur to replay a copy of Drinking Song or Mithrandir's Advice again to make sure your deck gets up and running fast -- don't dally on your setup, as it'd rude to the other decks to make them stage a card for your meager humble hobbits! heh.

LULLABY THE ENCOUTER DECK

Once the hobbits' vocal exercises are complete and their voices are warmed up, it's time to start taking the wind out of the Encounter Deck's sails.

Out of the Wild allows for getting some key problematic cards into the Victory Display, and each time you do it Keen as Lances gets two resources cheaper. Risk Some Light can help further subdue the encounter deck.

Ideally, your goal is to play a copy of Gildor's Counsel almost every round so that your revealing less cards (in a 2-Player game, it will approach playing 1-Handed quests but with this deck's WP and encounter-deck-fixing in the mix. You can also easily play a copy of Noiseless Movement every round, so that should there be an enemy in the staging area it's not going anywhere. Finally, when able, you can play a copy of The Great Hunt most rounds as well, to finish off pesky enemies without ever needing to risk engaging them.

The way the deck works is through Scroll of Isildur. With 3x Scrolls and 3x Gildor's Counsel, you can play Gildor's Counsel 9 times before your deck is entirely emptied. Now, factor in the 3x Erebor Hammersmiths who will retrieve your used Scrolls for you, and you can now play Gildor's Counsel 15 times. Of course, we've also brought a Will of the West, so if necessary you can play Gildor's Counsel 24 times (30 times if you also chumed with the Hammersmiths).

Of course, you'd never need to play Gildor's Counsel thirty times in one game, but that's the depth of possibility. In reality, you'll want to be recycling both Gildor's Counsels and The Great Hunt as needed.

In the very early game, as noted above, don't be afaird to use the Scroll to get another play out of Mithradir's Advice or Drinking Song to really draw through your deck as you get the early Love of Tales, Resourcefuls, and Songs you need. After that, though, don't use the Scroll for anything other than Gildor's/Hunt.

Finally, Tom Bombadillo! is there because it's darn fun. As a song, it will trigger +3 resources from Love of Tales (more than paying for itself). With a thinned encounter deck and Risk Some Light, you also have a a better chance than most decks of actually seeing Tom Bombadillo Merry-doll-a-dingo, which in a 2 Player game will be an entirely free round for the players (since Tom does not have Surge). If desired, though, one could easily replace the Ho! Toms with some other utility cards, like Firyal, Quickbeam, or maybe even The Door is Closed!.

NOTE: Resist the urge to play every possible card in your hand each round. Just because you can play a card doesn't mean you should. In many ways, the cards in your hand are valuable as Drinking Song fodder. So just because you have a The Shirefolk in your starting hand doesn't mean you should play it -- better to sing it away in search of other more important cards for the moment. Only play a Shirefolk in a situation where otherwise you'll be out of Secrecy and losing access to repeatable Noiseless Movement, say. The same goes for many other cards in the hand. There's no rush (typically) to playing the allies and I find I often just play one song per round (even if I could play more) in order to ensure I can trigger the Love of Tales resources in future rounds. In that sense, this deck poses a lot of interesting considerations when weighing what to play NOW vs what to HOLD for future utility.