This is the second entry in my attempt at a thematic saga campaign with my limited card pool (with a few proxies). You can see the first entry here.

I enjoyed watching MrUnderhill and bgamerjoe go through (most of) a thematic saga campaign, with slightly modified rules: they allowed themselves to swap out heroes without the threat increase as long as it made sense story-wise. I am following this model in my thematic saga campaign.

Dealing with Bill Ferny

Ideally you should mulligan for Mablung so you can engage Bill Ferny on turn 1 and kill him in the first few turns. But if the Rosie deck gets Sneak Attack+Gandalf that works too (4 damage from the sneak attack, then 4 more damage when you put Gandalf into play by the Response on The Prancing Pony). If you do need to deal with Bill's threat raise for a few turns, remember that Rosie can help "quest" without committing to the quest, as long as you send at least one hobbit hero (Frodo!).

Important cards

Aragorn really likes A Burning Brand, especially because there are several nasty shadow effects in this quest. If you can get OHaUH Gandalf early, the game should run pretty smoothly since Aragorn can reset the threat raise. West Road Traveller is pretty fun in this quest, since you can put a Nazgul enemy under Weather Hills, then use her to put that location back in the staging area, permanently getting rid of one of the few Nazgul (assuming you don't have to shuffle too many more in). Of course this is repeatable if you draw multiple West Road Traveller. As always, Elf-stone is one of the best ways to cheat expensive allies into play. Celebrían's Stone goes on Rosie, as well as one or two Fast Hitch. Once that combo is set up, it's hard to lose.