Burglaring Bilbo recruits some Scouts 4.0

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• 4.0

"You went and put your foot right in it that night of the party, and now you have got to pull it out and pay for it! Dear me, what a fool I was and am!" said the least Tookish part of him. "I have absolutely no use for dragon-guarded treasures, and the whole lot could stay here for ever, if only I could wake up and find this beastly tunnel was my own front-hall at home!"- The Hobbit

I imagine that if Bilbo recruited a team of Scouts to help him in his quest, he would be much less afraid to do it all on his own! I personally really like the Scout trait, and this deck uses it in a fairly non-conventional way. The core idea for this deck is to play as many Guarded (x) attachments as possible. Because of the large variety of possible attachments, this deck is very fun to play since it plays differently each time. There is a lot of decision-making about which guarded attachment to play and which hero to attach it to. For that reason, it does lose some consistency, and in all fairness, it's not the strongest, but it is fun to play. Avoid quests with lots of immunity and Toughness.

Here is generally how you want your attachments to be played by hero:

Argalad - Bane of the Staging Area

• A Burglar Indeed!
• Asfaloth - this enables readying from Fatty Lumpkin
• Durin's Axe
• Elendilmir - With readying from Fast Hitch or Fatty Lumpkin, you can use his ability twice to finish of an enemy or damage multiple while contributing to questing post-staging.
• Glamdring
• Orcrist - This makes 3 restricted attachments, but it's unlikely you'll see all 3 in one game.

Bilbo Baggins - Burgling for Days

• Master Burglar is really nice to have if you've beaten the ALEP Hobbit quest.
• A Burglar Indeed! - This is what you'll want to mulligan for each game, as it lets you get rid of enemies/locations guarding cards very quickly.
• Stone of Elostirion
• Thorongil - This and the stone help abundantly with card draw.

Elfhelm - Here for the Trait

Truly, he's only in here because of access and he's a Scout. He makes for a decent defender, though

• A Burglar Indeed!
• Armored Destrier
• Hobbit Cloak
• Mithril Shirt
• Sting - This is a little bit tougher to accomplish because you have to trigger The Last Alliance while it's in your hand, so you have to deal with the enemy guarding it that turn, but between A Burglar Indeed!, Bilbo Baggins, and Argalad, you can take care of a 5 enemy by the end of the quest phase. However, if it doesn't work out that way, putting Sting on Bilbo Baggins also works fine.

Flexible cards

• Fast Hitch goes on whoever needs it the most at the time. Usually Argalad can get the most use out of it, but depending on the quest, more defense might be needed.
• Fatty Lumpkin can also be flexibly placed, depending on which mounts are already out and who needs more readying. Ideally it goes on Bilbo Baggins after the other two have their respective mounts, but that rarely happens in practice.
• Necklace of Girion goes on whoever needs more resources, which is usually Argalad. So giving him readying lets him make good use of his willpower as well.

Playing Guarded Cards

• Elendilmir and Mithril Shirt can only be played by using The King's Return. If you draw them into your hand before using it, you'll have to shuffle it back into your deck with Drinking Song. That makes these cards a higher priority for The King's Return.
• One issue this deck runs into is stalling out of playing Guarded cards. Haleth is pretty useful in making sure you keep finding them.
• The King's Return is sometimes best played during the combat phase, especially for locations. That way, you can use A Burglar Indeed! during the combat phase, and then again in the refresh phase, which is usually enough to have the card in time for the next resource phase. Another method is to use The King's Return during the Travel phase, travel to the location, and then discard the location with Distant Stars.

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