I was itching to make a Tom Cotton deck and the linked Simple Folk deck was an awesome start for me.

Playing this deck is actually a ton of fun. It's honestly surprising just how strong Hobbits can be with Tom leading them. As part of a fellowship I have picked up wins against Anduin, Celebrimbor's Secret, Roam Across Rhovanion, and The Mumakil.

Heroes

Obviously Tom Cotton is key here, giving the deck its power and serving as primary defender. Pippin gives us card draw, engagement cost increases, and access to Fast Hitch and Gaffer. I can't really pretend that Frodo makes this deck better than Sam already did, but I use Sam a lot so I wanted to give Frodo a try. In actuality he isn't that bad, giving us repeatable threat reduction so Tom stays potent and also can ready of unique hobbits the turn they enter play.

Attachments

Red Book of Westmarch is a really great card to have but can take a while to save for. It allows us to quest for a lot and gives Frodo the resources he needs to continually use his ability.

The first Fast Hitch (and sometimes the second) is for Tom Cotton. We want to build a swarm so avoid chump blocking if possible. Of course you will want a Hobbit Cloak and Staff for him too. If Rosie Cotton is in play I'll put a fast hitch on her too.

Allies

I wanted to build it in a swarm-y style so I made sure to keep a lot of allies that can always be played, and thus not many uniques. Obviously 2 of Rosie since she is just so good. The major change from the inspiration deck is 3X Hobbit Archer. Getting 4 ranged is really awesome. Curious Brandybuck is once again an awesome card here, coming in for free 2 attack or chump block.

Odo Proudfoot can help us draw our very important allies, I even Sneak Attack him in sometimes since I get 3 attack and a card for the cost, sometimes that's better than the more expected target of Farmer Maggot.

Bill the Pony is great if you can save him until you find and can play Sam but with the amount of allies you'll have in play he can be worth the full cost in some scenarios, it's Hardy Leadership with a body.

Events

Obviously the deck shines most using Raise the Shire and Sneak Attack to bring temporarily boosted hobbits to slay your enemies surprisingly quickly. The Shirefolk keeps us with low threat, and Tighten Our Belts can be played early on if you have it to get rolling, although it's typically better to keep allies back for when we need them and use the resources gained to save for the Red Book.

Early Game

Ideally our opening hand has an attachment for Tom and either Raise the Shire OR an ally we can play turn 2 and some form of draw. Once we get through turn 1 it's highly likely we can drop 6-8 in the following planning phase.

Struggles

Obviously all hobbit decks struggle with hit points, although this deck can bring temporary allies to absorb some of it. Bill helps but is obviously not enough so I'd play this deck paired with a healing deck.

Pippin is the main card draw for the deck as the rest of the cards that draw only get you one card once (although there are 10 of them). You should want to and be able to handle engaging an enemy every time there is one to engage, but if the enemies aren't coming this deck can get stuck without cards. I included Peace, and Thought for that emergency but of course you have to get lucky to find that too.