For the gourmets only 9.0

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A deck built around hobbit heroes, mono spirit, threat management, mining, and... ponies !

[Update 09-25-2024]

Sam is the MotK.

A) Setup and general attachement strategy

Attach the The One Ring, Inner Strength, Unexpected Courage, Hobbit Pipe and Hobbit Pony to Fatty Bolger ; Unexpected Courage and Hobbit Pony to Merry ; Unexpected Courage, Mithril Shirt and Hobbit Pony to Sam Gamgee.

B) Typical questing phase and heroes strategies

Fatty Bolger's ability pairs well with Sam's ability and with the threat reducer that is Merry.

1) Thanks to the Hobbit Ponies, you may only engage Merry, Bolger, and Sam after the Reinforcement Step (which avoids any unpleasant betrayal, a waste of Willpower points, or an opportunity cost).

2) Reinforcement Step:

2.1) If an enemy is revealed, tap Merry to trigger his response. Your threat level drops by X points. (If the enemy has Reinforcement, wait to see what new card is revealed before choosing to tap Merry or choosing which enemy he triggers his response for.)

2.1.1) During the action window following the reinforcement step and preceding the quest resolution:

2.1.1.1) Straighten Merry with his Unexpected Courage

2.1.1.2) Tilt Bolger, Merry, Sam and their ponies, to engage these hobbits in quest

2.1.1.3) Straighten Bolger with Unexpected Courage

2.1.1.4) Tilt Bolger to trigger his action: increase your threat and therefore return to your level before 2.1). Spend 1 resource to straighten Sam if you can and wish. Sam will quest at 3 on this turn.

2.1.2) Resolve the quest by canceling the threat of the enemy revealed in 2.1)

2.2) If a treachery or a location is revealed, Merry will not be tilted to trigger his response. He may or may not engage in the quest after the reinforcement stage and before the quest is resolved. He may then intervene again, during the combat phase (to attack or defend against a small attack), by inclining Unexpected Courage.

3) Combat: Sam, if still ready, can intervene twice thanks to Unexpected Courage, by attacking at 2 and defending at 2 (and canceling 1 damage thanks to Mithril Mail). If Bolger did not exhaust for using its action, then he can defend at 3 (2 + 1 with Inner Strength).

Of course, there's nothing stopping you from triggering Merry's ability without activating Bolger's. It really depends on the need and the situation at hand. It's a trade-off that can be summed up as: "Is it more important to reduce the player's threat, or the threat in the Staging Area ?"

This is obviously not the most effective deck combination in absolute terms or the easiest to manage, on the other hand it is thematic (the Hobbits advance cautiously!), very fun and at the same time educational (learning to play with the timing of the stages and action windows).

C) Cards and Methodology

If Bilbo is drawn before the pipes, he will take one from the deck by its entry effect. If he is drawn after the pipes, then he will assist Arwen, the Pelargir Shipwrights and the Galadriel Handmaidens in their quest.

Emery is a valuable defensive support; the Knights of Belfalas are the main attackers of the deck, before being able to afford the services of Glorfindel.

If one or more copies of Secret Cache are drawn rather than discarded, they will be used to speed up the draw when it is economically possible and judicious.

The Astronomer of Imladris will occasionally combo with Emery and regularly with the Miner of Zigil to speed up the emptying of the deck, strengthen the finances, or put the Miners of Ered Luin into play for free. If The Astronomer of Imladris is drawn well before a Miner of Zigil, it can be used to manipulate the player deck in order to hasten the draw of contextually relevant cards. As a last resort, it can be used as a chump-blocker.

If all four threat-reducing event cards are released from the deck before Hobbit Pipe, use Imladris Astronomer and Zigil Miner to cash in Hobbit Pipe by discarding it.

Double back, the Shire People, the Galadhrim Greetings, and the Galadriel Handmaidens will maintain a low threat level, which will be useful for better managing combat engagements, using Bolger's ability more intensively, avoiding approaching the 45 elimination threshold too quickly (because of the One Ring), and staying in secret in order to acquire Resourceful with a single resource.

Gathering Information will retrieve the most useful card from the deck at the time t ; symetrically Dwarven Tomb does the same with an energy card in the discard pile.

The Boots of Erebor will equip a hero whose health points are estimated to need to be strengthened. The Spare Pipe, which will further speed up the draw, will be attached to a hero or an ally that we want to stabilize at the table.

If Boots of Erebor or Spare Pipe (or both) are attached to Big Bolger, he becomes a fairly capable defender who potentially defends at 4 with 4 or 5 hit points, and is able to cancel a shadow effect (via Inner Strength).

I've included three copies of A Test of Will, to deal with scenarios that produce a lot of treacheries or "When Revealed" effects.

Prince Imrahil is a safety in case Sam or Merry (the most vulnerable) disappear early.

Sideboard: Power of Orthanc in scenarios that are likely to hinder heroes with "Condition" attachments; O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! in scenarios that contain powerful or problematic non-unique enemies.