In multiplayer games, while Hunters of the North focuses on swiftly defeating any enemies that make their way to the staging area, Watchful Protectors focuses on controlling locations and reducing the amount of threat they contribute to the staging area. Here, the Ranger Idraen is central to your efforts. Because she can ready each time you successfully explore a location, she can both commit to the quest and exhaust to pay for events such as Strength of Will and Expert Trackers. Of course, she's not the only character in the deck who excels at controlling locations. Northern Tracker isn't just a thematic inclusion in this Dúnedain-focused deck; it remains one of the game's most effective allies and can help you explore locations, even without traveling to them. Likewise, Arwen Undómiel and Bilbo Baggins each offer an excellent return of two Willpower for two resources, making them solid choices to quest or to exhaust for Strength of Will.
In addition to its ability to control locations, the deck includes a number of card draw and ready effects. Depending on the challenges of the quest you face, you can use them yourself, or you can give them to your teammate so that he can defend and defeat more enemies. So long as you have cards in your hand that you can afford to discard, Protector of Lórien can help you quest successfully or limit the damage you take from enemies, and both Beravor and Gléowine provide a steady stream of extra cards, which Ancient Mathom and Hobbit Pipe can further accelerate.
It's likely best to use your card draw for yourself in order to get more of these attachments, but many of your strongest attachments – such as Unexpected Courage, Wingfoot, and Athelas – are often best played on your teammate and, specifically, on Aragorn and Sam Gamgee, allowing them to quest and fight as much as possible, especially since your deck doesn't excel at combat to the same degree as your teammates. To that end, however, you can utilize Frodo Baggins's ability whenever an enemy engages you or the attack might otherwise result in the destruction of a hero – yours or your teammates. Combined with the threat reduction from The Galadhrim's Greeting and your teammate's Secret Vigil, Frodo ensures that your travels through the wilds of northern Eriador are intentional.
Finally, these decks don't just play well together; they can both be constructed from a single card pool containing one Core Set, one copy of The Lost Realm, one copy of The Black Riders, The Road Darkens, and a handful of Adventure Packs. You can even reduce the number of expansions required, with a minimal loss of theme and efficiency, by making just a couple of small changes.
-Caleb Grace, Developer Posted to the FFG Website 3/12/15
Nice. I'd add 2 of my favourite pipe: Dúnedain Pipe, to get more oomph out of Smoke Rings and find my other key cards faster. I thibk I'll build this Fellowship sometime. Looks cool.