TL;DR: A contract that enables massively flexible decks, with a mid-game power spike to drive you on to victory.

The least popular of the official contracts, based on the number of decks published with each contract at the time of writing. Conventional wisdom suggests that most decks have a handful of key cards, and reducing your deck to as close to 50 as possible is key to getting those cards early, when they'll make the most impact. But a 100-card deck? Who would hope to run such a deck and expect consistency?

Well, A Perilous Voyage has a few tools to help with that. First, the ability to raise your threat by 1 to perform a filtered card draw — look at your top two cards and draw one, placing the other on the bottom of your deck. This is card draw that is guaranteed to start in play, and it can be very effective. Deep Knowledge, in a solo game, trades two threat to net you one card, remembering that you used a draw on Deep Knowledge itself, and is still an incredible card in any deck that can stomach a threat increase and contains lore. This is a better Deep Knowledge that you can use every round, until you hit 50 threat.

Speaking of hitting 50 threat, once you hit your threat elimination level, you lower your threat by 10 (equivalent threat reduction as two copies of Favor of the Valar), and now your heroes don't exhaust to quest. This is fantastic for heroes with multiple good stats, like Gandalf, Aragorn, any of the 2/2/2 heroes, Éowyn with a Golden Shield or Herugrim, and many others. Additionally, you grab one card from your deck, and you can play it at a discount of 3. That can be a free Sword that was Broken, or Herugrim, or Forest Snare, or Steward of Gondor, or a deeply-discounted Path of Need, or any key card you weren't able to find earlier. These effects are strong enough that rocketing up your threat with the card draw from the contract, as well as other doomed cards, is an entirely valid strategy to take control of a scenario. Once you have that control, you're not likely to cede it back.

So how do you effectively make use of this contract? The lack of threat reduction (beyond the effect from this contract) isn't an issue in terms of elimination for most scenarios, though for extremely threat-heavy scenarios, or if you're playing with The Power of Mordor encounter set, or if you're playing Ghost of Framsburg, you will want to keep your starting threat in mind. But that lack of threat reduction does mean you need a deck that's combat ready, because pretty soon almost every enemy's engagement cost will be below your threat. You'll also want card draw beyond what the contract provides, and an engine to play all those cards. Cards that let you search your entire deck, like Word of Command, Heed the Dream, or Gather Information, can really help get that engine going.

Most of this has been about how to mitigate the inherent inconsistency of a 100-card deck. But what about the advantages of bringing 100 cards? Adding good cards to any deck can help that deck become more flexible, and with 100 cards, your deck can be massively flexible, with space to bring cards to meet any sort of challenge. Maybe you want to play an archetype that can be played well in several different ways, but you want to be able to use each aspect of that archetype. I'll use Dúnedain as an example. It's very difficult to fit in all four allies that scale infinitely with the number of enemies engaged, generically good allies like Ranger of Cardolan, Misty Mountain Journeyman, and Northern Bowmaster, healing, traps, defensive attachments for your heroes and/or allies, shadow cancellation, cool Dúnedain-focused events, card draw, resource acceleration, maybe other toolbox cards like Distant Stars, and maybe even some side quests and Vigilant Dúnadan, when trying to hit 50 cards. But with 100 cards, just throw it all in and play the cards that will be useful at that moment in the scenario you're playing. With the excellent draw from A Perilous Voyage, you should have a card in your hand that will help.

Another advantage of a 100-card deck is the variety it brings. Rarely will you have a deck feel stale when you have twice as many cards to play. The bonuses from the contract let you play a deck that doesn't feel like it's a pure, optimized machine, built to excel at a single task, but rather you have a strong, fun deck that plays a little differently every time you bring it to the table.

The biggest real downside is shuffling. All those deck-searching cards that go great with a 100-card deck, but then you have to shuffle all those cards you didn't grab.

Ah, Lobelia. The grumpy Hobbit we all know, accompanied by her trusty umbrella.

Lobelia has 8 threat cost for 1 , 2 , 2 , and 3 . These are not great stats, but they open up great horizons when coupled with her ability. It is also worth mentioning that she has considerable strength for a Hobbit.

Lobelia has the Burglar trait, which does nothing except let her quest without boosting the threat of Smaug the Golden in the Lonely Mountain (and it gives us warm fuzzy thematic feelings). She also has the Hobbit trait, which makes her eligible for cheap readying via Fast Hitch (among other Hobbit tricks). This cheap readying will be important later.

She is in the sphere, which allows her to slot into a Bond of Friendship Hobbit deck if you use Merry. Other than that, she allows you to play Bilbo's Spoons (which is quite thematic).

However, Lobelia's luster is in her ability. She allows you to look at other player's hands whenever you want. She also allows you to pay for Item attachments at any point and attach them to her, even if she is ineligible. These attachments can be in play or in a player's hand (that's how it ties into her first ability).

Imagine this: you are playing Lobelia and hold Sterner than Steel in your hand, allowing you to cancel a shadow effect by exhausting a Weapon or Armor attachment on the defending character. Lobelia is defending, and scrying (such as Spyglass from the Dream-chaser) tells you that she is going to die. You look in another player's hand and see a Gondorian Shield. For one mere resource, you have saved Lobelia from an awful shadow effect.

There are endless opportunities of what to do with Lobelia. You can give her some Staffs of Wizards, turn her into a stalwart defender or attacker, or even steal other people's stuff and give it around the table with Long Lake Trader. Here is my favorite deck using Lobelia as a hero: ringsdb.com by community member Shellin.

All in all, Lobelia is the wildcard hero in this pack. She doesn't seem to fit with the others, but she fits into much more decks: from Hobbits to Eagles to Dale to Grief Decks. Lobelia remains one of the most interesting cards in this pack, and one of the most game-altering that ALeP has produced.

It wouldn't be right to have a Tom Bombadil hero without having a Goldberry hero, would it?

Goldberry has 8 threat cost, 3 , no or , and a moderate hit point pool of 4. She is overcosted by 1, but has inherent action advantage which we will discuss later. All in all, her stats are quite boring.

She has the Spirit trait, which does nothing. She also has the Healer trait, which helps with almost nothing, but enables her to use Athelas. This is not a terrible use for her, since she will usually be questing without exhausting. Her most important trait is Minstrel, which lets her sing Bilbo's Walking Song and Songs of Slumber. She pairs naturally with Tom Bombadil and Elena.

She is in , which allows for cards such as Let Us Sing Together and Silver Circlet. is very important to a Song deck, as many Songs and -rich cards are .

Her text box allows all Minstrel characters with a Song attachment to quest without exhausting. This allows characters like Elena to use their stats twice, or characters like Gléowine to trigger abilities. She also has a Response that lets you attached Song events to Minstrel characters as if they were Song attachments with blank text boxes. This is a great ability, as it enables her prior ability. This even happens naturally, since it is a Response to playing and resolving the event. An interesting combo would be the Elendilmir, which would allow her to do this twice per round and create a board of questing Minstrels. She also pairs naturally with her husband, allowing his to skyrocket.

All in all, Goldberry is the lynchpin of a Minstrel deck. Paired with Songs of Slaying, she can muster a bunch of on your allies who didn't exhaust to quest (and have a Song attachment!). She also provides access, which is essential to the Song archetype.

Ho, Tom Bombadil! Tom Bombadillo! He's here! A Tom Bombadil hero!

First, his stats. For 8 threat, you get X? , no , and no . He does have a block of 6 , which can be handy in taking undefended attacks. But why would you play this statless hero? The answer lies in his text box. It reads: X is the number of Song cards attached to Tom Bombadil. In a Song / Minstrel deck, I have had no problems with getting Tom to 7 or 8 . Using toys such as Nor am I a Stranger and The Gifts of Galadriel, you can give Tom Herugrim and Golden Shield, allowing him to use his bloated more than once (since Goldberry lets him quest without exhausting).

He has the Legend trait, which does nothing. He also has the Minstrel trait, which makes him eligible for Instruments and certain Songs. But outside of a Song-heavy Minstrel deck, he will not see much play.

His is in , which makes him eligible for Love of Tales and lets you include significant card draw in your deck (like Drinking Song, which is also a Song).

His text box also includes a Response, allowing for healing and direct damage when you play Songs. This is once per phase! Not once per round. So if you play a Song in planning, you can still trigger this ability in the other phases of the game. You could play Song of Battle in planning, Lay of Nimrodel in questing, Drinking Song in travel, and Song of Slumber in combat. This ability brings the hero together. His healing lets you take attacks undefended with his big hit point pool. His direct damage allows him to kill any enemies that you cannot kill with your -light Minstrel deck.

All in all, Tom Bombadil is a very fun new addition to the game, and a staple in Minstrel decks, allowing for healing, damage, and . However, he does not have much life outside of a Minstrel / Song deck, which is very thematic for Jolly Tom: not wanting to do anything but sing the day away.

Time to begin my campaign to review every ALeP card! Starting with Shire's Reckoning, we get the Minstrel Trait synergy. First, let's focus on her stats. Her 2 can be boosted to 3 with Let Us Sing Together, and this will let her not exhaust. If you wish to use Let Us Sing Together on another character, Light of Valinor works as well. Her 2 is not great when coupled with her 3 in isolation, but you have to look at her text box to consider her defense. Instruments coupled with Wooden Lyre can make her a brick wall in defense.

Her traits cannot be ignored. Noldor is a popular trait that has many toys, such as Light of Valinor. Minstrel is an ALeP trait, and it does not have as much synergy with Elena. However, Goldberry allows Elena to quest without exhausting if she gets a Song attachment.

Now, to look at Elena's text box. The cost reduction on Instruments is quite good, and it applies to every Instrument you play. Not just the first one each round... EVERY ONE! In a Forth, The Three Hunters! deck, the Restricted Instruments would be free (because of the contract's cost reduction), and that contract would be flipped quite soon. Her Setup ability is icing on the cake: allowing you to accelerate your symphony and choose which Instrument you would like to center around.

Lastly, let's take a look at her sphere. is a keystone sphere for Minstrels, and cards like Song of Slumber and An Unexpected Party can bolster Elena's potency. She also is eligible for cards like Ancestral Armor, but that can be expensive, and there are other ways to boost her .

All in all, a very strong hero despite her threat cost being higher than expected. Minstrel decks are quite fun, and Elena is a great part of it.