[PLT] The Black Riders

Questlogs using this decklist
None.
Fellowships using this decklist
None.
Derived from
None. Self-made deck here.
Inspiration for
The Road Darkens - Min-Purchase Campaign 25 18 0 1.0
Heróis Hobbits - Deck de baixo custo (clone) 1 0 0 1.0
Card draw simulator
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Darkling Door 6446

Darkling Door has a newer deck inspired by this one: The Road Darkens - Min-Purchase Campaign

This is a deck built from just Core Set + The Black Riders cards for Path Less Traveled, an ongoing series on my blog, Darkling Door.

Played Against: A Shadow of the Past

Guiding the deck

This minimum purchase Hobbit deck can really pack a punch.

With a starting threat of only 20 and Pippin's engagement-cost-increasing ability working at peak efficiency, it isn’t hard to stay under the radar to fuel Pippin's card draw and Sam Gamgee's readying ability. In the late game, I can play Take No Notice for free if Enemies start to skirt the line, or I can use Gandalf to lower my threat back down again.

Sam Gamgee is the main defender for the deck, once he’s equipped with a Hobbit Cloak, but there are also plenty of chumps in the deck ready should the need arise to take one for the team at a moment’s notice. Barliman Butterbur can even defend one weak Enemy and then take a stronger one undefended, taking the heat off when my little hobbits start to get in over their heads.

Merry has most of the deck’s attack needs covered. With a Dagger of Westernesse or two he’s capable of dispatching all but the beefiest of Enemies by himself. When he needs a little help, Sam Gamgee can usually be made available to contribute an extra 2 , or he can draw on the power of Halfling Determination to ensure he makes the kill. Once this deck gets going, it’s pretty rare for Enemies to last more than one round.

This deck has tons of card draw. For some reason I often forget to trigger Pippin's ability, but that doesn’t even hurt me much. Gandalf, Gléowine, and Valiant Sacrifice all offer options for additional card draw, but Frodo's Intuition takes the cake. It feels like cheating spending just two resources to draw four cards (not to mention the boost it provides). That card is amazing.

The deck works like a well-oiled machine. It’s pretty cool to see that all of the pieces needed for a solid Hobbit deck don’t really require a very large buy-in; you really can do it with just The Black Riders and a Core Set.

► For more analysis, check out my blog post on this quest.

4 comments

Sep 21, 2017 TheodensRealm 1

I'll be interested to see your report on A Knife in the Dark, I just tried it out with this deck and got nailed! Will give it another go soon though as I made some very poor choices with the encounter deck!

Sep 21, 2017 Darkling Door 6446

Yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how it does too. I might have to add Son of Arnor to help me deal with Bill Ferny, we'll see.

Apr 28, 2021 DerHansi 41

I've tried this through The Black Riders including The Old Forest. Have you tried Fog of Barrow-Downs using this? I did a little handful of tries. No luck so far :)

Apr 28, 2021 Darkling Door 6446

@DerHansi I have not given the two standalone Sagas a try with this deck, no, but that's a good idea! Fog on the Barrow-Downs is a tough quest in general, though, so I'm not surprised to hear that it's a tough nut to crack.