Grand-Elf takes the Fraggles to Mount Doom!

My goal was to create a very thematic one-player fellowship to take through the Sagas, and these decks have been crushing it so far. With Gandalf especially I wanted to create a very powerful hero whose spells would be able to get the Fellowship out of any jams they might get into. Wizard Pipe and Gandalf's Staff are most important to get his engine going, so I included tons of cards to help with that (Word of Command/Heed the Dream). These cards also made it possible to include only 1 example of other key cards knowing that I would be able to find them as needed. Next up is Shadowfax so that the Hobbits can use their ability to engage opponents while Gandalf takes care of them with ranged and sentinel. For slightly more combat intensive quests I might include Quick Strike, and for more questing adventures Secret Paths, Radagast's Cunning and The Evening Star do the trick.

The Hobbit deck largely makes itself, but I wanted to include those allies that the adventurers would most likely encounter on their way to Rivendell. Even though I chose the Fellowship contract, I didn't feel the need to include tons of allies due to the excellent drawing ability of this deck. Add Frodo Baggins and Gildor Inglorion, and the deck quickly makes it to 9 characters. Timely Aid might seem like an obvious omission, but even with a cost of 1 it takes up a spot in the deck, it might whiff, or you might only get a 2 cost ally out of it. For this reason, I felt that Resourceful and Elf-stone, were better ways to pay for the most expensive allies.

These decks have changed slightly once the boon cards have been earned, but I found these decks to be a very fun and thematic way to make it as far as Rivendell. Once there, I exchanged Glorfindel and the sons of Elrond with allies Boromir, Legolas, and Gimli to keep the theme going. I just finished The Ring Goes South and haven't had any difficulties yet. Let's see how Gandalf does against the Balrog next!