Minimum Purchase Fellowship Saga Hobbits (#RCO) 2.0

• Versions
• 2.0
• 1.0

Although this deck originated from a desire to provide newer players with a deck that can take down A Knife in the Dark with only cards from the Revised Core Set and the Fellowship of the Ring saga box, it is quite capable of handling the first three quests of the Fellowship Saga Box. Even without access to staples like Fast Hitch, Resourceful, Rosie Cotton, The Shirefolk, etc., the original gang of Hobbits is well-suited to the various challenges that these quests present.

Questing

Between Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, and Pippin, you can quest for 7 right from the start. As the quest progresses, Fellowship of the Ring and Frodo's Intuition provide noticeable boosts and you can supplement this with appearances from Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel. This should be enough until Faramir shows up to put you over the top.

Defense

Eventually Sam Gamgee with Hobbit Cloak and Protector of Lórien can block even the Witch-King, but Boromir, Beorn, and the temporary allies can also soak most enemy attacks. Fortunately, your threat should be low enough that you are only dealing with one enemy at a time. Feint and Mr. Underhill act as panic buttons when needed.

Attack

It is almost unfair that Merry starts off at 4 , which can easily rise to 8 once he gets a pair of Daggers. Boromir and Beorn can take down heavy enemies, with the various supporting allies chipping in as well. And, of course, Gandalf and Farmer Maggot can deal direct damage when you need to soften up a Ringwraith.

Resources

Between Steward of Gondor and the power of Elf-stone (bonus points if you get Elf-stone on The Prancing Pony in A Knife in the Dark for double effect!), you should have no problem getting your heavy hitters into play. Sam Gamgee is the best target for Steward of Gondor, mainly to ensure that you can get Faramir into play as soon as possible. Grim Resolve is a fun way to spend the extra resources that Sam accumulates in the late game.

Quest-Specific Strategy

A Shadow of the Past

• The main challenge of this quest is the extra needed to pass hide tests (you do NOT want to fail these with a Black Rider in play!). Your heroes are well-suited to this, albeit lacking in easy access to readying, so quest cautiously. If possible, try to clear Bag End without advancing to stage 2 (where hide tests get more challenging), but this can be tough to pull off if Protector of Lórien is slow to show up. Don't be afraid to use Frodo Baggins to cancel untimely Black Riders or treacheries off the encounter deck.
• Between Merry, Beorn, and Gandalf, you should have plenty of attack power to deal with the Black Riders as they come out. Once Sam Gamgee has his Hobbit Cloak, you should be able to engage and kill them one at a time. Feint and Mr. Underhill are there to bail you out if needed.
• Make sure you have characters ready to commit to hide tests when you advance stages (don't get caught by surprise and engaged/attacked by multiple angry Riders!
• Save Halfling Determination for putting you over the edge on hide tests and/or defending emergencies.

A Knife in the Dark

• First things first, this deck has multiple ways of dealing with the machinations of Bill Ferny. Son of Arnor can force him to engage you, or you can use the tried and true Sneak Attack + Gandalf twice to take him out. A fun trick is to play Sneak Attack during the Resource phase to drop 4 damage on Bill Ferny and then return Gandalf to hand in time to play him during the Planning phase to finish the job. Make sure to just eat the threat increase from Bill until you can kill him (do NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES shuffle in a Ringwraith unless you have no choice).
• By stage 2, you should be set up for questing (hopefully with Faramir in play). Try to clear the board of enemies before travelling to Midgewater. Otherwise, make sure to place progress on the main quest to avoid getting extra Ringwraiths. It can be helpful to keep a copy of Weather Hills around to "hide" a Rider from Mordor once you get to stage 3 (yes, that counts toward the victory conditions :) ).
• The main challenge of this quest is the big, bad Witch-King. Not only is he immune to player cards, but his restriction on who can defend him makes him quite nasty. Fortunately, this is the moment when Barliman Butterbur shows his true quality by jumping in front of an undefended attack (if he hasn't shown up, you can defend with Gandalf or a powered-up Sam Gamgee. Merry w/a single Dagger of Westernesse can combine with a powered up Beorn to attack for the requisite 14 in one swing (then Merry readies Beorn, who can take out a Rider from Mordor in the same phase).

Flight to the Ford

• If you can equip Sam Gamgee with Hobbit Cloak early, he can defend the Fell Riders and keep them out of the staging area (thereby keeping Frodo's life dial high). The "timer" on this quest forces you to keep moving, but if you can keep the staging area clear of enemies, you should be in good shape.
• Once you are ready to deal with an attack from the Witch-King, you can advance to stage 2. The ideal (and thematic!) play is to travel to the Ford of Bruinen and then explore it to wash away the Witch-King and his fellow Nazgul. Try to leave a resource on Frodo's Intuition and to cancel as many attacks as possible during this critical round, otherwise the Nazgul tend to dash back to the staging area via shadow effect or treachery, thus "ruinen" your "Bruinen" plans (couldn't resist ;) ).

Conclusion

Even within the constrictions of a limited card pool, this deck is up to the challenge of the first three quests in the Fellowship Box. With the addition of some of the starter decks, you could sub in things like: Daeron's Runes, slot in Defender of Rammas to help with defense, include Errand-rider for some resource-smoothing, and potentially include some Cram for readying or A Very Good Tale to get to your allies more quickly. Happy questing!