| |
| Author |
Message |
Rate this article!
| 5 (Best) |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
| 4 |
| [ 1 ] 14% |
| |
| 3 |
| [ 6 ] 85% |
| |
| 2 |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
| 1 (Worst) |
| [ 0 ] 0% |
| |
Total Votes : 7 |
|
| elf lvr |
![]() Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 11:45 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 3065
Location: Rivendell
|
--- description ---
From a pippin skirmish engine to a fighting frodo, wounding to skirmish canceling, the hobbit culture is far from diminished!
--- end description ---
This deck is in expanded format!
The hobbits. Fat little people who live in the most obscure corners of middle-earth. They are lazy and uncaring about anything and everything around them. Or so we were led to believe. Then, four very unique hobbits younglings and one very crazy hobbit uncle changed all that. These hobbits became the heroes of middle-earth. Even the king of Gondor bowed to them. And the LOTR TCG is no different. In this article, I will explain the advantages of using hobbits and build a deck suited to each one’s particular strengths.
The hobbit culture is varied and unique from every other culture. While hobbits seem weak, they can stare down the most powerful minions and skoff at the most destructive of burden-adding shadows. So let’s say hello to our nasty little hobbit subthemes!
Strength/Vitality:
Most hobbits begin with four vitality, and some only have three. There are a few hobbit cards that can add to their vitality, however. Some of these are:
Escape: A condition that gives any unbound hobbit one extra vitality!
Rare Good Balast: Boosts Sam’s vitality by one.
Little Golden Flower: A condition that can give each of your hobbits extra vitality. And strength, too, for that matter...
Frodo Gamgee: A follower that adds to both vitality and strength.
There are quite a host of hobbit cards to increase strength. And they need it. Each hobbit begins with 2, 3, or 4 strenth. But with their followers, possessions, and conditions, hobbits can become as strong as the mightiest of free peoples! Some of these are:
Hobbit Sword: A simple hand weapon.
Sting: A very special hand weapon specialized for Frodo, Sam, and Bilbo.
Everyone Knows: Possibly the most powerful of hobbit strength cards.
Little Golden Flower: Besides adding to vitality, this handy condition makes all unwounded hobbits strength +1.
A Promise: Up to a +4 boost for Frodo and Sam.
Frodo Gamgee: Adds up to three strenth to any hobbit.
The Gaffer: Adds to strength and heals.
Hobbiton Brewer: Adds two to strength.
Hobbit Farmer: Can add a lot of strenth against fierce minions.
There and Back Again: More strength for every hobbit.
Long Live the Halflings: More strength for every companion with resistance seven or more.
O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!: Gives the ring-bearer a boost.
And then a host of powerful hobbit events, the most powerful of these being:
Sworn Companion: More strength for every companion with resistance seven or more.
Chance Observation: More strength for each hobbit you can spot.
Wounding:
Hobbits can also wound minions they are skirmishing to kill them off before the shadow player has a chance to wound your companions!
Power According to His Stature: Add a burden to wound a minion skirmishing the ring-bearer.
Cliffs of Emyn Muil: Discard to wound a minion.
Hobbit Swordplay: To play, exert a hobbit bearing a hand weapon.
Shadowplay: Exerts minions when they are played.
Unheeded: Wounds exerted minions. Good with Shadowplay.
Second Breakfast: Wounds minions by adding threats and exerting.
Skirmish Cancelling:
We all know that skirmishes involving the ring-bearer cannot be cancelled. But you can still protect your other companions with all these cards:
Tom Bombadil, The Master: Exerts to cancel skirmishes.
No Visitors: Uses followers to cancel skirmishes. Can be brought back with Daddy Twofoot.
Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs: Cancels indirectly by discarding fierce minions.
Burden/threat removal:
The  culture can add a lot of burdens and even some threats. But, it also has many cards to remove those...
Bilbo, Aged Ring-Bearer: Removes burdens when assigned.
Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom: Exert to remove burdens or threats.
The more, the merrier: removes multiple burdens with the downside of needing toil.
Home and Hearth: Play hobbits and remove burdens.
A Light in His Mind: Remove burdens when you lose initiative.
Hope is Kindled: Adds to strength and can remove burdens.
Salt from the Shire: Discard to remove burdens.
Healing:
In the rare instances when our hobbits will take wounds, we have ways to heal them.
The Shire Countryside: Each time you remove a burden (exept with a hobbit) heal a companion. Works with A Light in His Mind.
The Gaffer: Each time he is transfered, heals.
Fates Entwined: Each time a hobbit wins a skirmish, heal another hobbit.
Companions:
Those are some of the best hobbit cards for all of the awesome hobbit themes. Now, we’ll need to choose the companions for our deck. And why not include the hobbit heroes themselves, Frodo, Bilbo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin! But what versions to use? Well, Bilbo, Aged Ring-Bearer is great for removing the burdens our followers will add. Sam makes a great ring-bearer with as much resistance as our frodo would have. Frodo, Frenzied Fighter, is the only Frodo who is not a ring-bearer. Plus, he can replace Sam or Bilbo in a skirmish! With the addition of hunter minions, merry, the tall one, should be in our deck. And Pippin, Brave Decoy can replace Merry in skirmishes, so long as he has more resistance.
Here is my hobbit deck that takes advantage of some of the many subthemes of the culture. Enjoy!
Companions:
Sam, Bearer of Great Need (w/ the one ring, such a weight to carry)
Frodo, Frenzied Fighter S
Pippin, Brave Decoy S
Merry, The Tall One S
Bilbo, Aged Ring-Bearer x2
Allies/Followers:
The Gaffer, Master Gardener
Daddy Twofoot, Next-Door Neighbor
Frodo Gamgee, Son of Samwise
Possessions:
Salt From the Shire
Hobbit Sword x4
Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs
Conditions:
A Promise x3
Everyone Knows x4
Escape
Little Golden Flower
The Shire Countryside
There and Back Again
Long Live the Halflings
A Light in His Mind
Events:
No Visitors x2
Hobbit Intuition x2
Sworn Companion x2
Hope is Kindled x2
With this deck, you would start with all your companions, except bilbo, and you can play him with Green Dragon Inn. All of your companions have 8 or 9 resistance, so Long Live the Halflings and Sworn Companion automatically work. With Bilbo and A Light in His Mind you should be able to remove the burdens added by your followers. Daddy Twofoot and No Visitors can be used to cancel a skirmish each turn. If you cancel Bilbo’s, then you can remove burdens as well. Or, use Frodo to replace Sam in a skirmish, and use No Visitors to cancel that skirmish. With Sting, you can get rid of fierce minions, from Horror of Harad to Sauron himself! If you find yourself playing against hunter minions, give merry a follower and let him kill! Otherwise, give Pippin your escape (and maybe even frodo gamgee), along with Salt From the Shire and have him fight Merry’s battles for him.
A deck more devoted to wounding might look like this:
Companions:
Frodo, Old Bilbo’s Heir (w/one ring, ring of doom)
Sam, Resolute Halfling S
Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver S
Merry, From O’er the Brandywine S
Possessions:
Sting, Weapon of Heritage
Hobbit Sword x2
Merry’s Dagger x2
Conditions:
Home and Hearth x2
The Shire Countryside
Cliffs of Emyn Muil x3
Shadowplay
Events:
Power According to His Stature x2
Second Breakfast x4
No Visitors x4
Hobbit Swordplay x4
Nine Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom x3
Followers/Allies:
Tom Bombadil, The Master
Daddy Twofoot, Next-Door Neighbor
The Gaffer, Master Gardener
Hobbiton Brewer, Maker of Fine Ales
With This deck, use wounding to get rid of the opponents’ most powerful minions. Then, use cards like Tom Bombadil and No Visitors to cancel other skirmishes. Use Daddy Twofoot to bring back wounding events or No Visitors. Merry is there to live against any minions whose skirmishes aren’t cancelled or who aren’t killed by wounding. Sam is an obvious choice to exert for Nine-Fingered Frodo. Return Pippin to hand for more wounds, and then for burden removal and healing with Home and Hearth and the Shire Countryside. Frodo can heal Tom Bombadil Each turn, possibly using his game text more than once. Also, Tom can remove burdens or threats simply when you play him! This style of hobbits is a little weaker, but relies less on conditions. Merry’s Dagger can be discarded for wounds, and then a hobbit sword can be given to him. Give your other sword to frodo and sting to sam. Then, each time sam wins (and killing with Cliffs is winning) you can remove one of your many burdens.
I hope that in this article I have shown you why hobbits are the heroes of middle-earth. They are very versatile and powerful if used correcly. Whether you use power or wounding, or another of the many hobbit strategies, you will be sure to have a fun and powerful deck! |
Happy Hunting! Elf Lvr
Winner of Best Personality in the FPCA. Thanks!
Archduke Elf Lvr - Archidoux of the Chosen Ones
AMV Maker In-Training! Check out my newest production, Katsu!- A Diedara Tribute!
And behold, EL declared it good. And there was morning, and there was evening, the first (new) day. ~ DainIronfoot |
|
| Back to top |
|
| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:08 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
|
Okay, I know that Hobbits are pretty powerful...but you haven’t shown me anything convincing so far. Furthermore, the article has a few non-working parts, as well as an X-listed card: The Shire Countryside.
For your first deck, I really feel that it’s too scattered, and doesn’t do the job properly. Your only burden removal is Bilbo, Aged Ringbearer plus A Light in his Mind. A light in his mind only works once per turn, unless you somehow draw cards in the middle of the turn...and the same for Bilbo, unless there’s a fierce skirmish. Shelob, Her Ladyship will also stop Bilbo from doing his job. Anyway, at most you can remove three burdens, if you’re lucky. Your followers will add about four or five burdens. This can take down your hobbits’ resistance so much that A Promise, etc. are rendered powerless.
Of course, you do have the excellent combo of Daddy Twofoot and No Visitors, but the rest of the deck is iffy. Winning skirmishes won’t come easily against Strength 12 minions...you need cards that are better at boosting Hobbit strength. Hope is Kindled only goes so far, and if it doesn’t work, you can’t take away the burdens. Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs is pretty good, but you can only add so many threats.
Now, one thing I notice about your wounding deck is your claim that you can heal Tom Bombadil. Uh-uh. Not gonna happen. Frodo, Old Bilbo’s Heir can only heal Hobbit allies. "Hobbit" and are not the same. Instead of relying on this game text, use Goldberry. Now, about that wounding...(BTW...it’s Hobbit Sword-play, with a hyphen) Merry’s Dagger is one of the worst cards to use for wounding. Why? Because it’s so easy to prevent.  is all the bad guy needs. Hobbit Sword-play can work, but not if your opponent left some twilight in the pool.
Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver doesn’t work for long, either. Once minions get to their magic site, they cease to be roaming, and you’ve just lost a viable wounding method. Not only that, but now you can’t use Home and Hearth any more.
Now, your decks are both fairly decent, but they won’t kill minions reliably. One big problem you’ll run into is drawing all the cards you need. You should have multiple copies even of unique weapons, and of key conditions. In your first deck, you have a heap of single-copy conditions. How are you going to draw them?
(BTW, type out the whole titles on your card titles, and make sure you spell them correct. Not everything’s linking)
However, it was an excellent overview of all the things hobbits can do. It just needs to be more complete, and the decks need to be structured better. |
| "ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
|
| Back to top |
|
| maxidoodle |
![]() Posted: Fri Jul 07, 2006 11:58 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 04 Jul 2006
Posts: 117
Location: My Mind
|
I have to agree with CG. Hobbits can be very beastly (my friend plays a hobbit deck that I have yet to beat after about 10 tries  ), but you have failed to convince me with this article as well. There are simply too many weaknesses, like CG pointed out, Shire Countryside is X’ed, and these decks you posted don’t seem to have any big advantages in actual play.
They don’t seem to be able to double very well, there are too many useless cards put in there (especially merry’s dagger and a light in his mind), and why would you have Bilbo, Aged Ring-bearer in your draw deck, especially if you only have 2 copies? He absolutely MUST be in your starting fellowship, or your burden removal is virtually gone. Sure, you could use the Green Dragon Inn, but you also need to keep your companion count low. Hobbits MUST choke, or they’ll crumble. Also, like CG said, A light in his mind is simply not a good card to rely on for burden removal, considering the amount of burdens you’ll be adding with the followers and such.
The article itself is good, but the decklists need serious tweaking. |
My deck of doom:
One Combo to Rule them All
maxidoodle's Haves/Wants |
|
| Back to top |
|
| fingolfin |
![]() Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 9:19 am |
|
|
|
Joined: 30 Mar 2006
Posts: 321
Location: it's getting hotter in Iowa every day
|
As you know I wrote an artical about followers myself, and I think that what you could use are more cards that truely make them beasts, more followers, as they are scarce in this deck but no visitors makes up for it,
another thing is more companions, with more companions like Rosie cotton to pump up sam and I would put in so fair so desparate as that works well with a light in his mind. Nice article but hobbits have a tendancy, to get overwhemed, more events to counter that would make up for it. Ill wait to vote on this. |
Soldier: why'd you do that captain?
John Wayne: Because I hate your guts!!
Exerpt from "Iwo Jima." |
|
| Back to top |
|
| sickofpalantirs |
![]() Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2006 12:28 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 7750
Location: somwhere, over the rainbow way up high. There's a land that I heard of once in a lullaby.
|
i have to say the concerns raised before re good you also left out some cards.
the article wasn’t bad but was missing some things
you get a 3 |
 Sop's haves/ top wants
(mm)"SoP: you will always be the Official CC Spammer in my heart"
"DáinIronfoot"
Spammers really are amazing creatures. You can learn all there is to know about their ways in a month. And yet, after a hundred years, they can still surprise you.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
| PorterTroll |
![]() Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 5:30 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 1193
Location: not sure yet
|
| shire countryside is x-ed, but i appreciate it that you took the time to tell us why you put every card in the deck, it was very informative and i enjoyed it, great article. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| CarpeGuitarrem |
![]() Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:09 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 07 Apr 2006
Posts: 3361
Location: Franciscan University of Steubenville
|
| elf lvr, you really need to take out Shire Countryside, or else say that the deck is Open, as opposed to Expanded. |
| "ok, change of plans. the Cobracards christmas party is coming to my house, and we’re gunna teach FM how to hunt." (mm) |
|
| Back to top |
|
| PorterTroll |
![]() Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:46 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 1193
Location: not sure yet
|
maxidoodle wrote: Hobbits MUST choke, or they’ll crumble.
i agree with maxidoodle, you must make your hobbits choke, that is the backbone of every hobbit deck, they can become strong, but you cant flood the pool even in the least or youll have a bunch of dead hobbits lying around. (especially against Trolls!!!  ) |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
| elf lvr |
![]() Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:47 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 13 Jun 2006
Posts: 3065
Location: Rivendell
|
| i must agree that your trolls would kill me. but i haven’t yet played a deck that has killed more than frodo. |
Happy Hunting! Elf Lvr
Winner of Best Personality in the FPCA. Thanks!
Archduke Elf Lvr - Archidoux of the Chosen Ones
AMV Maker In-Training! Check out my newest production, Katsu!- A Diedara Tribute!
And behold, EL declared it good. And there was morning, and there was evening, the first (new) day. ~ DainIronfoot |
|
| Back to top |
|
| PorterTroll |
![]() Posted: Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:50 pm |
|
|
|
Joined: 23 Jun 2006
Posts: 1193
Location: not sure yet
|
| i dont like hobbits, but i respect people who play them, it is a challenge and it is much harder to play hobbits than gondor or ent/gandalf, good job |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
All times are UTC - 4
|
Page 1 of 3 [21 Posts] |
Goto page: 1, 2, 3 Next |
|
|
Forum index » Lord of the Rings TCG » LOTR TCG Strategy Article Contest
