Peregrin& Meriadoc& Samwise& Frodo. 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is the deck that I used for my most recent solo campaign play of the Black Riders quests, along with the print-on-demand quests "The Old Forest" and "Fog on the Barrow-Downs". Like many decks that are built for Black Riders, this one uses a small number of very important allies, and focuses mainly on beefing up the heroes so that they can overcome the massive stats of the Nazgûl.

An ideal first hand usually includes Hobbit Cloak and Fast Hitch for Sam, and Dagger of Westernesse for either Merry or Sam (I usually start with Merry). An early Frodo's Intuition is also handy for drawing more of those critical attachments.

With such a low starting threat, I really like it when I can get Gandalf out early. Until the threat situation starts to look bad, I will typically take the hit every round, and keep him around as long as possible. For solo play, it's a big deal to have a character that can quest for 4, and still be available to defend a Nazgûl attack or help deal the killing blow. If Gandalf has Shadowfax attached, you can do all three.

Mablung is a star of this deck as well. He can get Bill Ferny or a Nazgûl out of the staging area, and his 2 is often useful, especially if you're desperate and need to chump-block against the Witch-King.

I originally had Steward of Gondor in this deck to counter the cost skewing of the lore cards and get Gandalf out easily, but I found that it just wasn't necessary after all. What the cost chart doesn't show is that In the Shadows is free for an all-Hobbit deck, so the overall difference is not that great.

For the rest of the sideboard, I sometimes swapped Farmer Maggot out for Defender of Rammas, especially after the first quest, when your ally count can work against you. Son of Arnor is only used in the "A Knife in the Dark" quest, to maximize my chances of engaging Bill Ferny early on.