For those that have had success with Shire culture in expanded

[ilazul]

Do you mind posting some deck lists or offering basic strategies?

I see a lot of routes to take with the culture, all seem to heal a good bit through allies and Fates Entwined but handle combat differently.

Cancelling skirmishes / bouncing hobbits seems to be fairly popular, you get to run a slim deck and don't care about strength numbers.

Smeagol conditions (There's Another Way, Herbs and Stewed Rabbit) protected by Wise Guide and using Don't Follow the Lights seems like a really neat toolbox.

Unbound Hobbit conditions (Everyone Knows, Escape, Little Golden Flower, Hobbit Sword, Frodo Gamgee) to have a massive Pippin and Merry is slow to assemble but awesome when it's all going. Also having Skinbark, Fladrif to protect them is sweet. Pippin, Friend to Frodo seems useful here as he protects the tales.

Starting Sam Elf Warrior and Bilbo Aged Ring Bearer seems fairly common as well, as they give good abilities. This usually uses A Promise to boost Sam and make Frodo not completely weak. Can take advantage of Consorting With Wizards and Practically Everyone was Invited.

What have you all found success with? I plan on pairing it with a Gollum centered deck (and would also love to see examples of that as well.) So far I feel like I'd need to use the threat reducing Sting and depend on Gandalf culture to discard shadow conditions no matter which path I take the deck.

Thanks!

[Shelobplayer]

I think the key to making hobbits work is to have a plan for 3 cards: Cavern Entrance, Buckland Homestead and Dark Horseman. If you can handle those, you should be good.

I have a Shire/Gollum deck posted here (http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,10142.0.html), but its more cute than competitve, although I had decent results with it on gemp (8 win 4 loss). The combo it is based on probably have better ways of utilizing it though.

Other shire strategies you could consider are Pippin, Brave Decoy (you make him strong, maybe put watch and wait on him and fight all skirmishes on him), Merry, Resolute Friend + Ever my Heart Rises with a huge deck, and some sort of Sam, Bearer of Great Need version (I'm experimenting with one currently, buuuut... it uses horn).

Here is the list for that one if you want to try it:

Ring-bearer: Sam, Bearer of Great Need
Ring: The One Ring, The Great Ring

Adventure deck:
Buckland Homestead
Neekerbreekers' Bog
Steward's Tomb
Cavern Entrance
Mithlond
Fords of Isen
Dammed Gate-stream
Mount Doom
Green Dragon Inn

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
1x Smeagol, Slinker
1x Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg
1x Bilbo, Aged Ring-bearer
3x Frodo, Frenzied Fighter
1x Merry, Friend to Sam
1x Bounder
1x Rosie Cotton, Hobbiton Lass
1x Erkenbrand's Horn
2x Hobbit Sword
2x Salt from the Shire
1x Sam's Pack
1x Sting, Weapon of Heritage
1x Thror's Map
1x Phial of Galadriel, The Light of Earendil
4x Naked Waste
2x One Good Turn Deserves Another
4x Something Slimy
2x Hope is Kindled
2x No Visitors
2x Practically Everyone Was Invited
1x Follow Smeagol
1x Gladden Homestead
3x There's Another Way
1x Consorting With Wizards
1x New Chapter
1x Prized Lagan
2x Scouring of the Shire
1x Alatar, Final Envoy
1x Gwaihir, The Windlord
1x Meneldor, Misty Mountain Eagle
1x Pallando, Far-travelling One
1x Radagast, Tender of Beasts
4x Deagol, Fateful Finder
4x Rohan Stable Master
1x Rohan Worker
1x Rohirrim Doorwarden
1x Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor
1x Frodo Gamgee, Son of Samwise
1x Hobbiton Brewer, Maker of Fine Ales
1x Hobbiton Farmer, Lover of Pipeweed
1x Robin Smallburrow, Shirriff Cock-Robin
1x The Gaffer, Master Gardener

Shadow Draw Deck:
1x Gollum, Her Sneak
1x Gollum, Old Villain
1x Shelob, Her Ladyship
1x Grima, Servant of Another Master
1x Grima, Wormtongue
1x The Balrog, Demon of Might
1x Southron Leader
2x Morgul Squealer
3x The Witch-king, Morgul King
2x Úlairë Cantëa, Faster Than Winds
2x Úlairë Enquëa, Lieutenant of Morgul
1x Úlairë Enquëa, Sixth of the Nine Riders
3x Úlairë Lemenya, Eternally Threatening
4x Úlairë Nelya, Third of the Nine Riders
4x Úlairë Nertëa, Dark Horseman
3x Úlairë Otsëa, Black Specter
1x The Pale Blade
2x Winged Mount
2x Ring of Terror
4x Captured by the Ring
3x Sudden Strike
3x Too Great and Terrible
3x Evil-smelling Fens
1x A Shadow Fell Over Them
1x Flung Into the Fray
1x Ghastly Host
1x Held Ground
1x Not Easily Destroyed
2x Out of Sight and Shot
1x The Nine Servants of Sauron
1x They Feel the Precious
4x Unending Life
3x Saruman, Servant of Sauron

If you expect to meet Southron Leader leave Gamling Exhausted, ditch all the rohan followers and let him die fast.

[ilazul]

Thanks for the response! I'm looking at horn filter (as new chapter is shire) but have been blown on on turn 1 'rule breaking' before (Southron Leader). I'll look around and work on a list.

I keep ending up with Powerful Guide, since Hobbits need damage / strength adds. Plus the burden removal from Aged Ring Bearer works really well with that strategy. But then it comes down to it being better than a list that can Saved From the Fire two companions.

It seems unlikely that doing anything with unbound hobbits really works if you're using a couple of ring bound hobbits, as the effects don't mix well.

Birthday Present seems like it could be used to great effect to gain card advantage / re buy skirmish events (are there some really outstanding Hobbit skirmish events?) I do love abusing the gain and lose initiative conditions (It's a shame you can't really fit Hardy Garrison in a deck with both Brooding on Tomorrow and A Light in His Mind)

Thanks for the lists, found a couple of cards that I didn't know about. It's a shame this game doesn't have a better search engine / catalog.

[Shelobplayer]

I keep ending up with Powerful Guide, since Hobbits need damage / strength adds.

This is why Bearer of Great Need is a great, its usually no issue to ditch 1-2 minions in regroup with him, you are just fine canceling (or even losing) skirmishes and still have the ability to double move without much of a risk. Not necessarily my list, there are many versions. Like hobbit ally swarm with Home and Hearth + Chance Observation (start with Gamling, DOTH to pull Daddy Twofoot + whatever), that eventually goes with solo Sam. Some use Glorfindel + Gamling at the start (that gives you Woodhall Elf + more possessions for Rohirrim Doorwarden in the form of Elven Rope, Elven Cloak and Elven Brooch). You can also do Northwoman + Gamling and so on and so on...

[sgtdraino]

I don't play WITH Hobbits much, but I have played against many a Hobbit deck in Expanded. I tend to agree with Shelobplayer about Cavern Entrance and Dark Horseman. Hobbit decks tend to be very dependent on their conditions, on skirmish special abilities, and on being able to choose who will fight. The keys to beating them are wiping out their conditions, taking out key companions (like Merry, Friend to Sam), and canceling skirmish special abilities. If you can build a deck that guards against those things, it should do pretty well. A few suggestions:

1. Protect your conditions with Scouring of the Shire and Bill the Pony, Dearly-loved.

I'm amazed that Bill isn't used more, he works so well with SotS. Without Bill, I can usually destroy a Hobbit strategy with two copies of Saruman's Power.

2. Don't go monoculture.

Monoculture is at the mercy of Dark Horseman. Add at least one companion of a different culture who is strong enough to beat Dark Horseman. I suggest Grimbeorn. I DON'T suggest Smeagol, as Smeagol tends to be overly-reliant on skirmish special abilities to not get killed. Which brings us to...

3. Don't be overly-reliant on skirmish special abilities.

So many Hobbit decks lean heavily on skirmish special abilities, and if you take those away, they're dead meat. Have a backup plan.

If I were to design a hobbit deck, I would combine hobbits with Gandalf culture, add Grimbeorn, probably Wise Guide, with maybe some Smeagol thrown in for good measure. That gives you good mastery over the site path, the ability to counter a wide range of Shadow strategies, and you don't cross into the 4-culture Southron Leader death zone.

[ilazul]

I'm looking at something that would combine Birthday Present, Shadowplay and Unheeded after Saved From the Fire -ing a Hobbit. Smeagol for One Good Turn Deserves Another to stop at Green Dragon Inn and Dammed Gate Stream as much as possible. Since unheeded works so well with Aragorn, Thorongil I could also throw in a Prancing Pony and grab him on the way (a bar hopping theme deck?) Aragorn would make it 4 culture though, but that might not be as big of an issue when you can kill things in the shadow phase. I'll have to test.

I never knew about that Bill the Pony, only the one that reduces shadow numbers by 1, so thanks for that! I used to use Dasron with Scouring the Shire to reduce the tokens, but Bill is way better.

[ilazul]

The most successful builds I've had so far are based around deck thinning options.

The first used Sam, Bearer of Great Need with Ring of Rings with Gamling, Defender of the Hornburg, Pippin, the Tall One, Merry, the Short One, and Smeagol, Simple Stoor. So similar to the deck posted above, but I try to stay in 3 cultures with Gandalf (no rohan followers).

You get to pull 12 followers (the entirety of the Shire follower cast only costs 3 twilight due to discounts) and Pippin becomes a wonderful Saved From the Fire target. Afterwards, you let Gamling die off (no longer 4 cultures) and pull a bunch of Gandalf companions to tank. Once it gets going its really hard to stop, but it can have a rough first couple of turns.

The deck was pretty good, but had a lot of the follower deck based weaknesses. If the maneuver phase is skipped before you can get a strong set up with Gandalf culture companions you're simply out. It thins the deck a lot and gives a ton of follower options, but it takes time to set up the cards needed to remove burdens (for the Shire followers) and the starting fellowship is extremely weak.

The second deck starts a stronger fellowship and tries to use Birthday Present to grab either skirmish events, Practically Everyone was Invited or Community Living. It thins a lot, but takes forever to get going. So while it's a stronger start, it never really reaches its full potential until it's almost too late.

Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir or Resolute Hobbit work well
The Great Ring or Ring of Rings (there's good reason to use both, the +2 resistance from Ring of Rings will help Sam if he takes over.)

Sam, Great Elf Warrior
Bilbo, Aged Ring Bearer
Smeagol, Pitiable Guide

Pull Merry, Resolute Friend, and Pippin, Steadfast Friend with PEWI and Wise Guide, Radagast and Grimbeorn off of AWINL.

The big problem is the deck becomes massive when you want to include enough allies and followers to make it worthwhile. With all the burden removing (Sting, Weapon of Heritage, Glamdring, Foe-Hammer, A Light in His Mind, and Bilbo) the followers are usually free, and make doubling really simple. I've usually overlooked Shire followers but they're fairly strong when you have plenty of burden control

Not quite sure which path to take, as I do love decks that start up on the first fellowship phase.. but the idea of having strong companions + followers with relatively little cost seems strong.

I'll try and post a list soon, just running low on time lately.

[Vordan]

Don't forget that shire deck has another huge counter and that is gollum ninja decks.

So far i have found only 3 cards to be able to mitigate that threat:

1) one that's always present, the one ring, to prevent ninja massive wounding/triggering you need to be prepared to let rb skirmish a lot and take burden as wounds, so no gollum abilities from him or condition triggers (al least the most annoying ones)

Keep in mind that you need many burden removal or in a couple of sites you are in deep trouble, even with 12+ res frodo

2) Consorting with wizard, keep bilbo alive and you have nothing to fear from gollum

3) The not so much used "saruman's power" version to clear the gollum conditions: Clever Hobbits
 you can use this in every deck, even if you don't have smeagol, but since it's a 2 cost event it's a bit tricky to use because of Deceit. You need to use 2 or more to clear the whole table, but once you did it you can mostly run.

Don't forget that 1) and 2) have some sort of countermeasure, since having only one of those can be countered by Shelob Her Ladyship and nertea.

Keep in mind that most ninja decks have gollum and shelob as main fighters and nertea/nelya/enquea as supporters, so in that game you will face 3 heavy shire weakness:
- monoculture hate
- key condition discard that cannot be saved
- and massive wound in skirmish (if you cannot prevent some damage with the three methods i told you before, for shire alone it's impossible to keep companions alive)

In my shire deck i have gollum (to counter monoculture), site manipulation (for path control), high res frodo, Clever Hobbits (can be a super pump for smeagol), and Consorting with wizard.

As the other already says shire culture is too dependant on skirmish abilities and his conditions, but the worst part of all is that even without Cavern entrance or mass condition discard you could get you #$&*@! wopped by the most crucial factor for shire deck (IMHO).

It's the setup! Because shire deck need many and many cards (possession/condition/events/followers) to be fully operative, so when you make a shire deck you expect the first 3/4 sites to be crucial to the game: because you need to survive (with base weak companions), get yourself built up (without giving too much opening to your opponent) and don't let your opponent fp run too much in the meanwhile (or your fp proceding too slowly).

Once build up hobbit hospital are nearly unstoppable (win most or all of the skirmishes, heal all the wounds, clear most of the burdens. Even Balrog at cavern entrance or sauron with scepter aren't a problem when you have a 30+ str pippin and the other hobbits are at elast 12 str (except bilbo))

[Legion]

I used to play Bilbo, Well Spoken Gentlehobbit in my Expanded Hobbit Deck. His ability to discard conditions for no Twilight is one of the very few bypasses to Deceit. He also means that you can play Smeagol without hitting 6 companions-you need a non-hobbit or Nertea will sink you.