Hobbiton Blues 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

The dark is near, the fear is true,
it's time to get the Hobbiton Blues.
No elven light, no weed, no food,
come friend and sing the Hobbiton Blues.
Yeah, the Hobbiton Blues.

Blue is my third attempt with full colored decks after green and red.
My rules are the same as with the other two: only unique allies and open to any suggestions. :)

Heroes

Bilbo Baggins

• Messenger of the King + Hobbit Pipe
• Pipe Finder: Grabs a pipe for our setup and helps kick off our pipe synergy.

Frodo Baggins

• Spare Pipe + Hobbit Pipe + Resourceful x3 + Unexpected Courage
• Threat Gambler: Our main defender and pain manager, with plenty of tricks for staying alive.

Merry

• Hobbit Pipe + Unexpected Courage
• Threat Specialist: Helps manage threat, supports questing, and is always ready for action with the right setup.

Mulligan & Setup

I like to choose the Spare Pipe as part of Bilbo's setup response. Playing it will boost Frodo's and give us a useful event, leaving just 40 cards in the deck from the beginning.

Strategy & Card Interactions

Ally Management:
Emery and Sam Gamgee are our cheapest allies. If we need to take a nasty effect (like direct damage or discard) or need a chump-blocker, they are the preferred targets since replaying them is not as painful. Glorfindel is a more expensive choice, but he always comes back for more.

Any other duplicated ally in hand can be used to ready Glorfindel. Derufin's second copy can be saved in case his response is needed. Duplicated allies also make it less painful to pay for Emery via her discard action.

If a discard goes wrong, we have several ways to recover: Map of Earnil, Dwarven Tomb, and Will of the West.

Synergic Duo:
Frodo's response synergizes with Sam's. You can take some undefended damage, then raise your threat and spend 1 resource. Sam will be ready and boosted for combat.

While Jubayr is not in play, Arwen's boost goes to Frodo as well.

Imrahil’s Determination:
Valiant Determination goes to Prince Imrahil because it lets him quest and still be ready for combat, making the most of his versatile stats.

Note: If Bilbo is gone, it won't trigger any change in Imrahil since Bilbo will be downgraded to an ally as soon as he's discarded.

Questing Benefits:
Shadow of the Past is a great way to buy a “free” round, since it lets us know exactly what’s coming next from the encounter deck.

A funny way to take advantage of this knowledge:

• We can adjust our questing so that our total is just 2 less than the staging area’s .
• Then we can play Bofur for just 1 resource. He will stay with us for the rest of the game.

Wizard’s Companion:
The deck’s strong threat reduction (it won’t be rare to be at 0 threat at some point in the game) makes OHaUH Gandalf a great choice. We should be able to pay for him each round without worrying about our threat level.

Sideboard

• Lindir is another ally that can be played in one turn, and he has good stats for questing and defense. His response is not useful for this deck, though.
• The Shirefolk is the perfect choice for threat reduction in any full-hobbit deck.
  • I’ve found Elrond's Counsel and The Galadhrim's Greeting more than enough, and I prefer them both for their synergy with Map of Earnil and Dwarven Tomb.

In summary: This deck is all about our heroes working in secrecy as hard as they can, waiting for the arrival of the heavyweight contenders. Mulligan for some allies, use threat reduction and recursion to keep the blues at bay, and let Bilbo, Frodo, and Merry sing their way through the winding paths of Middle-earth.