Four Player Snipers

I have run solo, two player, and three player sniper decks, and thought to myself, “if I were to break it into a four player sniper fellowship, what would that look like?”

Here’s what I came up with. These decks are built to interact with each other, so sometimes it might not make sense to run these in isolation without some tweeks (For example, you’ll notice I am running fast hitch in the lore deck with only the hobbit Robin Smallbarrow… fast hitch is for Merry or a stinged up Bilbo).

There are too many combos to go through in a description, but I will break down general roles for the group. These decks are best suited for high-threat enemy scenarios, such as the Dreamchaser cycle.

Blue Snipers I went back and forth as to whether or not to include Dunhere. But between all the direct damage capabilities in the other decks, I would hope that we won’t need him. Instead, I opted for Arwen, who not only brings the overall threat to 20, but also provides Fastred with a much needed defense boost AND sentinel status right out the gate (without having to find and buy her). This also opens up including Elrond’s counsel from the get-go, which is helpful.

The blue deck’s goal is to keep everyone’s threat extremely low in order to pass under the engagement costs. Therefore, you are mulliganing for Song of Earendil. Merry is making use of Hobbit pony, and though this is a spirit deck, there might not be a ton of questing out the gate from these guys. A modest, two threat enemy that flips could result in a 4 threat reduction between Fastred and Merry, which will be great, because you might have to take a 4 threat hit if you trigger Song of Earendil at the end of the round for all players.

This deck will also seek to control locations, which are bound to occur. Ride them down in theory could be replaced with dwarven tomb to recycle the threat reducing cards, if necessary.

Red Snipers Though this is a red deck, it is not suited for combat. Here’s why: this deck is strictly built to get attachments on everyone else. You will want to mulligan for Ring of Thror and put it on Bofur so that he can quest and trigger his ability. With more than half the deck attachments, you should find a lot of success with that ring.

It’s tempting to include Bilbo’s plan in order to control locations, but the issue is that this deck will not usually participate in attacks. The major goal of this whole fellowship is to destroy enemies before they get an attack off (or strategically take the attacks with Fastred). Therefore, that card is out.

Raiment of war is a great card for Fastred, any other attack boosts should go to Eomer (along with grappling hook), and your allies are mostly there to provide sailing/chump support.

Bilbo should also get Sting (which is great at pulling an enemy into the staging area) and a hobbit pony (after Merry gets one).

Purple Snipers This deck was one of the harder ones to build because there is a bit to gain with combining this with the spirit sphere (Late adventurer comes to mind). There isn’t much sniping power in purple, but Anborn is a great choice for MOTK for this fellowship. In the sense of being able to combo with Thalin, Bilbo, and Argalad, or divide and conquer, you could kill a 4 hitpoint enemy during staging, or put 2 on 2. Timing is a little tricky with Anborn, however, as you need to decide after the flip (as opposed to Argalad or a ponied up Bilbo). Be wary of that; that being said, Fresh Tracks can also smooth it out.

For the third hero, I landed on classic Theodred who doesn’t quest for much (a serious downside to this fellowship), but takes care of the Eomer-doesn’t-have-money-to-trigger effect. This doesn’t combo well with Grappling hook, but when there is already an enemy in the staging area, you have more buying power with this guy. He can also share the wealth with pretty much anyone on the table, which is always welcome.

Any other notes for this deck, either in support of other decks or to fill any missing pieces, is welcome.

Green Snipers Which brings me to the lore deck. As much as I like the One ring + strength and courage combo for Haldir that I’ve seen in other decks, it is just too finicky to pull off with this deck. Haldir has a few fun toys to play with, namely leather boots and wingfoot. He also has a tendency to struggle for power with Eomer, and there really isn’t a wrong answer on who to juice first. Remember that Fastred wants the enemies, or else leave them in staging, and so Haldir really shouldn’t have any issues sniping.

Argalad is a bit trickier. He loves Mirkwood Long Knives and Light of Valinor. In a previous deck, I toyed with Smeagol and Strider, but with four players, I know we are going to see stinker too often, which will be a pain in a sniper deck. Thus, you should be able to quest with him and then trigger him (order of operations when comboing with Bilbo -> Trigger Bilbo before Argalad, so that Bilbo gets the boost and then the enemy gets the reduction) after staging is done.

I debated including Mirlonde, or another MotK but ended up landing on Ioreth (at this point, 3 out of 4 decks were running MotK and it just made sense to round it out with one of the generally best MotK candidates in the game). She can sail just fine, she brings some healing in the most dire of situations, and also allows lore to start lower than anyone else. The only concern I have for her is that she is REALLY vulnerable to direct damage treacheries. I don’t know if it’s worth blue bringing a few Spare pipes or wasting valuable space in the red deck to bring citadel plate or vigilant guard. Style choice, I’ll leave it up to you.

Lore has some extremely powerful events for this deck; it’s actually pretty tough to find the right balance. Arrows from the trees could clear out a ton of enemies, and advance warning is a nice late game play when the threat starts to creep (Sticking to the letter, you can’t play both of these cards in tandem). The Great Hunt is an excellent card to have for enemies immune to staging damage (not generally immune enemies, but I am looking at Corsair Warship, a Mumak, or even a hill hitpoint troll). Because I would hope green burns through these events, I’ve also included Scroll of Isildur to recycle some of them, and, interestingly, Purple can help with second breakfasts to keep that magic going. (Is it worth taking out something to include a third Scroll? You tell me). Defender of the West has been a nice card for sailing tests, but totally optional otherwise. Feel free to remove and include more events.

Happy Sniping!