Songs Beyond the Great River 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

This is a thematic deck built for an ongoing series on my blog, Darkling Door.

Theme: The songs of Hobbits

Played Against: Nightmare The Morgul Vale

"'Perfect satisfaction, Mr. Gamgee,' said Frodo. 'Indeed, if you will believe it, he's now one of the most famous people in all the lands, and they are making songs about his deeds from here to the Sea and beyond the Great River.' Sam blushed, but he looked gratefully at Frodo, for Rosie's eyes were shining and she was smiling at him."

—The Scouring of the Shire, The Return of the King

Strategy

This is a combo deck that buffs Rosie Cotton’s to ridiculous levels.

Shout out to the original version of the deck, built by Beorn!

How it works

The core of the deck revolves around putting Sword-thain on Rosie Cotton, followed by Fireside Song. After that, every Song I play on Rosie nets her an additional +1 , which she can to add to the quest, and later in the game add to Sam's , allowing them to one-shot tough Enemies together.

Since it relies on a three-card combo, this deck has a lot of card draw to help me find what I’m looking for. Between Bilbo Baggins and Gléowine, I can easily draw 3 cards each round. Rivendell Minstrel fetches Fireside Song when I need it. Even Gandalf can help me draw extra cards if I don’t have my combo pieces yet. It’s vital that I find my three key cards as quickly as possible, because the deck can’t really do much of anything without them.

Surviving the early game

Threat management is vital for the first several rounds of the game. Until my engine is up and running, I can’t deal with any Enemies (even weak ones will throw me off) so I have to do whatever it takes to stay below their engagement costs. An early game Gandalf can work wonders in this regard, and of course when the going gets tough I can always send Folco Boffin on his merry way.

To keep the wheels sufficiently greased, I usually mulligan for Resourceful. Once I have two copies, I generally trigger Folco's ability (spending his resource first, of course) to get me down into Secrecy levels so I can play it for cheap. Those resources really help me to play out my ever-growing hand quickly—which is important, since this deck is going to flounder until it has played a substantial number of cards down on the table.

Handling combat

Bilbo Baggins is my dedicated defender, and I usually have to draw through my whole deck before he’s really ready to start tanking big Enemies. I’d like to get A Burning Brand, Friend of Friends (the other copy goes on Sam) and both copies of Ring Mail on him before taking on anything scary. Fortunately once things get going Rosie doesn’t have too much trouble questing for 10+ (by herself, not to mention contributions from Sam and my Allies) so as long as I keep my threat low I can afford to keep Enemies in the Staging Area for a long time while I wait to draw into everything I need.

By the end of the game, I’m looking to have a single copy of Fast Hitch on Sam, Bilbo, and Rosie each, allowing me to quest for a large number and still defend, attack, and kill up to 2 Enemies each round.

It's surprisingly effective

It takes a few rounds to get going, but it’s also pretty good at staying under the radar until it’s ready to wreck face—and once everything is set up, Rosie turns out to be quite the force to be reckoned with!

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