WAB Series #10: Hobbit Hunters 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

Here is the link to the original post, which explains the goal of the series and the collection so far:

https://www.reddit.com/r/lotrlcg/comments/1kla99q/deck_building_series_what_a_bargain/

Continuing down the road with the Forth, The Three Hunters! contract, we come to the combo of The Riddle-game. Now, this is one of my favorite combos. I love the guarded cards, but often it takes multiple rounds to get them into play. A "free" restricted card to start the game with the hunters contract is fun. Add in The One Ring, and suddenly one of your heroes already hit the 2-restricted goal.

Ideally, you want a hobbit to put your restricted guarded attachment onto. Why? To get the most out of this contract (1/3 of the needed progress!). I dug up one of my favorite decks, the Hobbit Hunters, and shopped whether the deck benefits from this added contract for the cost of 4 threat plus a couple of discards to start the game.

It's hard not to go with Stone of Elostirion as your birthday present. Number one, you get the restricted benefit. Two, you get the willpower boost. And number three, you gain extra cards to start the game which will help mitigate the lost cards due to the Riddle-game contract. I like to put both the birthday present and the ring on Pippin who becomes basically a passive quester the rest of the game (if you lose the riddles, however, it's an autoloss. I'm okay with that though, since I basically scoop anytime I lose the riddle game).

Hobbit Pony and Fast Hitch are both cards I like to see to start the game, and you can theoretically put them on either Bilbo Baggins or Merry. Ring Mail is a sneaky good card as it adds much needed hitpoints. You can certainly run an extra Friend of Friends to increase your chance of drawing it, but between your birthday present and Drinking Song I've had no problem fishing both copies out in play-testing.

This deck works like a typical hobbit deck, dodging heavy-hitting enemies and dinking and dunking on them slowly until you have enough armor and swords on your heroes to be able to swing hard. You can't take a lot of damage, as the only healing comes in the form of the contract. For that reason, you might trade out Ride Them Down for A Test of Will in bad treachery scenarios. If you've never used this version of Bilbo before, it takes a little time to get the timing down of hobbit pony or Late Adventurer. Merry behaves similarly -- balance between keeping your threat low and keeping him ready for combat, assuming he has the right equipment.

I love this deck, personally -- it doesn't pack a huge punch, but feels like one that actually grows into a combat deck.