Gandalf laughed. 'A most unquenchable hobbit! All Wizards should have a hobbit or two in their care - to teach them the meaning of the word, and to correct them. I beg your pardon. But I have given thought even to these simple matters.'
A thematic deck inspired by the upcoming Episode 57 of the Grey Company podcast. This deck represents Merry riding with Gandalf at the beginning of Chapter XI - The Palantir. As a thematic deck featuring only two heroes, this is not designed to be top tier, but rather aims to capture the theme of this particular chapter in the book. Even so, a first turn with Strider and Resourceful should allow this deck so fair well.
All of the songs belong on Merry, who can help keep our threat low but eventually quests every round thanks to Fast Hitch. Strider and most copies of Resourceful belong on Gandalf, because we will be using Wizard Pipe to play many cards from the top of our deck. Because Shadowfax gives Gandalf Sentinel and Ranged, this deck can actually help out in multiplayer, though it obviously wants to be paired with more powerful decks featuring more characters.
Any deck with a low character count is going to struggle against archery and direct damage, all the more so when one of our heroes is a Hobbit. Hobbit Pony does allow us to commit after staging, which should help somewhat. Palantir requires that we attach Diligent Noble to Merry and is less of a strategic choice - but is rather necessary as the eponymous item of this chapter. Expert Treasure-hunter can be used with Hidden Cache to generate resources on Gandalf, a necessity for the more expensive allies.
Treebeard and Quickbeam have technically been left behind at this point in the story, but I included them as the deck as a strategic concession. The deck would otherwise sorely lack in combat power. Still, with a starting threat of 20 and Merry's ability to lower our threat with some consistency, it is conceivable that this deck avoids much combat. With Fireside Song on Merry, along with the other Song attachments, it should be possible to provide a strong quest push in the late game. Be sure to save up resources for Song of Hope, if the need for a quest boost arises.