Theme Saga 1: A Shadow of the Past 1.0

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• 1.0

See the attached Fellowship, Theme Saga 1: A Shadow of the Past, for why this exists.

The Deck

As explained in the Fellowship notes, Bill the Pony is here, representing the unnamed and heroic ponies that took us through the Shire. This is my first Rule #3 violation, and it won't be the last.

I'm allowing Daeron's Runes and Deep Knowledge, and I am not ashamed. After agonizing for a while, I'm allowing Legacy of Númenor, and I am a little bit ashamed.

I'm allowing Cram, because old Bilbo must have left some at Bag End, but I'm not allowing myself Lembas yet. Also, I normally play so many decks that have at least one Noldor or Silvan, I've forgotten that I can't even play it! One copy of Fellowship of the Ring is sorely tempting, but I can't in good conscience allow it yet.

Our heroes are definitely Not Idle, though they are not Dwarfs, and their Will will be Tested - they'll need to be Resourceful to succeed! They certainly have Pipes and Cloaks with them.

In my first attempt I had one Staff of Lebethron, which I believe Pippin got hold of in Gondor several books later. I did not, somehow, have Test of Will. Or Resourceful, or Gaining Strength, or Hobbit-sense... I don't know where my brain was!! Reworking left me plenty to do without using the staff.

I didn't have Curious Brandybucks in the first attempt either, which made this much easier. I've cut down to one Keen-eyed Took, which I'm keeping because Sam Gamgee has nothing else to spend resources on.

I considered Fatty Bolger, but decided against it because he's boring, and because I really want this one to be a one-player fellowship. (Sorry Fatty, you have less character than a horse.) I'm also not running any tactics; I debated a Song of Battle and Halfling Determination, because these hobbits are determined and they DEFINITELY did some singing along the way. I axed it (pun intended) because I just don't think the deck will play very well that way. So, I'm also leaving out Farmer Maggot, in the one quest I'm actually allowed to play him. Bill and Brandybucks should be enough chumps. This also means no Ring Mail, that Bilbo might have left lying around, or that Merry's family has handed down somehow...

The Plan

I'm hoping to do this without fighting any Nazgul, at all. To that end, I'm bringing original Frodo Baggins as intended, to shuffle in any extras that come up. I still need to deal with three Nazgul that are added to staging by quest card effects, and my plan for that has six parts:

• Chumping over and over, with Bill the Pony and cheap hobbits.
• O Elbereth! Gilthonial! to send them away, and then frantically try to lower my threat again.
• Hobbit-sense, turn after turn after turn...
• Mr. Underhill, of course, one time.
• Just Hide and quest past them.
• Pray.

Yep, that's about it.

When I stop and look, I see this deck is extremely blue, which seems fine with me. Clearly, Merry is Gaining Strength, so that eventually he becomes Merry the Squire of Rohan.

Afterthoughts

I am truly an idiot, because I must have done a search for "x:hobbit" while I had an active filter of Attachment, these three spheres, and NOT neutral. Therefore I have no Good Meals in this deck, which there REALLY should have been, to make it much more thematic and MUCH more playable.

... but as it happens, I won anyway.

I'll fix it moving ahead. Hypothetically going back, with Meals in play I can afford to run Lórien's Wealth, and be much more sure of The Galadhrim's Greeting. With that and the Resourceful I forgot initially, I can afford these Deep Knowledges, cut Legacy of Númenor which I shouldn't need at all, and run a recycling Will of the West deck to get more mileage out of events. That will not happen in this quest, but it will happen soon. Stay tuned for Part 1.5, Old Forest and Barrow-Downs!