Knee-pokers 1.0

• Versions
• 1.0

A multiplayer, Hobbit-only dedicated combat deck, just for the novelty of it. This is a middle-power combat-focused deck. The main problem is its low threat! This makes it hard to engage enemies sometimes, since you can only optionally engage one per turn.

Merry: Gets two Daggers of Westernesse and attacks. Most of the time, Merry's ability will ready whichever Hobbit you have brought into play this round, because it is boosted by Tom.

Pippin quests or, if that's unnecessary, he can contribute 1 attack. He can have your third Dagger of Westernesse if you get it, and the third Fast Hitch if defense is OK, transforming him into a decent attacker.

Tom Cotton defends. He gets two Ring Mails and at least two Fast Hitches. Both of his abilities are important. You will want to leave an enemy engaged once you have defense nailed down a bit (meaning: 1-2 Ring Mails and at least 1 Fast Hitch on Tom).

Resourceful is important, as your only resource generation. You start with 20 threat, so you mulligan for this. If you can't get it, hopefully you can get a Wandering Took and play a Resourceful within the first couple of rounds. Otherwise, you're out of luck.

Curious Brandybuck is an ambusher. He can chump, but he's more useful for his 2 attack power thanks to Tom. In some circumstances, he can chump (or add 2 attack) for another player. I had fun keeping these guys in hand, then plopping all 3 of them down at the same time just before a boss fight.

Peace, and Thought can be used to fish for Fast Hitch. This failed almost every time I tried it, sadly. I usually exhausted Tom and Pippin, expecting to get a Hitch for Tom, and then regretted it. But I'm sure that won't happen to you... right?

Open the Armory is for Ring Mail first, and Daggers second.

Raise the Shire is the most fun card in the deck. Farmer Maggot is your most solid combat choice, but I found myself using this card to fish Rosie Cotton out of the deck. The deck functions fine without her, but she adds flexibility.

The other Hobbit allies are in there because they are Hobbits and benefit from Tom's ability. I preferred allies with 1 attack where possible, but not more than 2 cost. In a Saga quest with Frodo, I would definitely put the Sam Gamgee ally in here. Would be cool to see Barliman Butterbur, but he just doesn't fit well. Honorable mention to Halfling Determination, which also got cut. Bill the Pony is not in the deck but would be useful. He's just off-sphere and I'm not using Sam here.

Warden of Healing is the single thematic concession. Your low HP on Merry and Pippin in particular means the deck is vulnerable to archery and other direct damage, and you'll be glad these guys are in there. Just remember that this card is based on the warden that cared for Merry after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, and the theme works out OK.

Keen-eyed Took has good potential to work with Tom, but he's too expensive and the discard from deck Action is not desirable. For him to be more valuable, we'd need a cost reduction card for Hobbits. Still, here he is, as a 1-of. Drop him for quest-specific tech like Tireless Rangers.

Performance: I used this two-handed with either my Blue Brawler deck or my Middle-Earth Arcade: Breakout deck (both also on Ringsdb), which handled willpower and location control.

-Passage through Mirkwood 1/1, played to test deck mechanics (killed Ungoliant's Spawn twice).

-Seventh Level: 1/2. Lots of enemies with low engagement cost cause a mess, deck couldn't draw cards via Pippin or use Tom's resource match exemption.

-Redhorn Gate: 1/1, but spent a good deal of the quest unable to play several allies in hand. Enemies were coming out but I was defeating them instead of keeping them in play. Dealt with a Mountain Troll easily.

-Three Trials 1/1. Second deck very nearly threated out (saved by Gandalf on final turn). All the Guardians ended up engaged with the other deck for the final stage. All the Hobbit allies that went on the table ended up questing, contributing 12 willpower at best effort. Kind of a nice feature for a combat-only deck: in a pinch, it can quest. Tom was primary defender with 6 defense (3 native, 2 Ring Mail, and Arwen's boost from the other deck).

Treachery of Rhudaur: 1/3. Hard to control the flow of low-threat Cursed Dead. You can get up to 5 all at once, which happened to me and overwhelmed my questing deck, since it had higher threat and the Hobbit deck was under their engagement cost. I added tech (Tireless Hunters) and beat the quest on the next try.

Other thoughts: I had a heck of a thought exercise when trying to design this deck, because there are several different directions you can go when trying to make a 'hobbit combat' deck. I have posted thoughts about it at the FFG forums here: https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/279451-hobbit-combat-decks-knee-pokers/ so feel free to join in discussion about Hobbit combat in general. Or, leave a comment here about this deck in particular. Thanks for reading!