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AnxiousChieftain
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:39 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 3947 Location: Maryland
--- description ---
By choking the twilight pool, abusing the power of directed wounds, and utilizing strength pumps, Frodo walks alone in this Expanded format deck.
--- end description ---

Until Reflections was released, the only possible solo deck featured Frodo. Nowadays, with 8 alternate Ring-bearer, you can run a variety of solo decks. Much attention is given to these new solo options, but I have always preferred sticking with good ol’ Frodo when making a solo deck.

There are many advantages to the idea of playing no support companions for Frodo. First off, with so few companions, you add very little twilight when you move, and by using Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer, you’ll be saving even more twilight. Secondly, you can devote your entire deck to support cards for Frodo alone. Finally, you can basically get an auto-win against threat decks - after all, what threat decks can win when only 1 threat can be added?

Decktypes

There are 2 different decktypes for Solo Frodo that I find most powerful. Both decktypes will be shown in this article.

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Wounding Choke

Ring-bearer and Ring
Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring, The Ring of Rings

Free Peoples (33)
Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer x2
Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor x2
Sting, Baggins Heirloom x3
Brace of Coneys x3
Salt From the Shire x3
Mithril-coat
Bill the Pony
Cliffs of Emyn Muil x2
The Tale of the Great Ring x2
Birthday Present x2
Hobbit Intuition x3
Power According to His Stature x4
Hobbit Sword-play x3
No Worse for Wear x2

Strategy

The basics of the strategy are to choke the twilight pool and wound each minion that is played. Against minions that cannot be wounded, some cards are included to boost Frodo’s strength and prevent him from being overwhelmed.

Choking the twilight pool is very easy with this decklist. Only a few cards add twilight during the fellowship phase: Daddy Two-foot, Mithril Coat, and Birthday Present. If you play one copy of each of those, that’s only a total of 3 twilight added in the fellowship phase for the entire game. That’s some serious choking, especially considering the fact that Frodo is the only companion and Bill the Pony will cut down on twilight too.

To wound minions, Frodo uses Power According to His Stature (PATHS), Hobbit Sword-play, and Cliffs of Emyn Muil. He can also retrieve those events easily with Daddy Two-foot & Birthday Present. While Hobbit Sword-play can be prevented by removing 3, it is very unlikely that the Shadow player will have that much twilight left after he plays his minions.

The extra copies of Frodo are for healing. Mithril-coat reduces the amount of archery, and The One Ring, The Ring of Rings can convert wounds to burdens at any time, so you won’t have any problems against archery.

Now, with 3 cards that add burdens (PATHS, Daddy, and Birthday Present), even Frodo’s high resistance of 10 could be challenged. That’s why Brace of Coneys and Salt From the Shire are included. They play for free (due to Frodo’s text), can be dropped in the Fellowship phase to remove burdens, and Salt of the Shire can even stick around for an extra +2 resistance boost. Add in the fact that The Ring of Rings adds 2 resistance, and you get a total of 14 resistance! Not many corruption decks will be able to do anything against this, especially since they will have limit twilight to work with.

Sting, Baggins Heirloom is basically a slightly better version of Hobbit Sword. Another option is Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs, but I have found that Baggins Heirloom is more useful since BotEL’s ability triggers after wounds are placed in the fierce skirmish.

Every now and then, this deck will run into minions who cannot be wounded. They can be a pain, so Hobbit Intuition, No Worse for Wear, and The Tale of the Great Ring are there to make sure Frodo isn’t defenseless.

Mithril-coat has many uses. It reduces the minion archery total, drops every minion’s damage bonuses, and nullifies the strength bonuses granted by your opponent’s weapons.

Match-ups

Threats
This is the best possible match-up ever. Since you cannot add more threats than companions, only 1 threat will be able to be added and thus most of the abilities of your opponent’s minions will be useless.

Beatdown
This match-up can be both favorable and at the same time dangerous. If you run up against high-vitality, fierce minions, you could have problems. Your main danger is if the minions cannot be wounded, such as Beasterlings.

Archery
Mithril-coat reduces archery, healing cards are included, and The Ring of Rings can convert archery wounds into burdens. This is a very strong match-up.

Swarm
Swarm decks would normally eat this type of deck alive... but since Power According to His Stature is included, swarms are never really a problem. Just use Birthday Present and Daddy Two-foot, Next-door Neighbor to continually play PATHS.

Corruption
Frodo can have a whopping 14 resistance, and can remove 6 burdens over the course of the game. Needless to say, this is not a weak area. With 11 events included, you’ll do very well against an Orc corruption deck that focuses on Bound to its Fate.

Corsairs
This is a decent match-up. If you play Brace of Coneys or Salt of the Shire, discard them immediately; otherwise, the Shadow player will discard them to add 2 Raider tokens with Corsair Marauder. If the Corsair deck uses Wind that Sped Ships, it could be a tough battle (but still a battle that can be won!). If your opponent instead focuses on using Red Wrath, you’ll be able to win very easily, since if they exert the Raiders with Raider Halberd to add the necessary twilight you’ll be able to finish them off with PATHS or Cliffs of Emyn Muil. As an added plus, Fierce in Despair will be useless against you.

---

Strength Choke

Ring-bearer and Ring
Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer
The One Ring, The Ring of Doom

Free Peoples (33)
Frodo, Reluctant Adventurer x3
Daddy Twofoot, Next-door Neighbor x2
Mithril-coat, Dwarf-mail
Bill the Pony
Orc Armor
Salt From the Shire x3
Sting, Baggins Heirloom x3
Birthday Present x2
Sudden Fury x4
The Tale of the Great Ring x2
There and Back Again
Concerning Hobbits x4
Hobbit Intuition x4
No Worse for Wear x2

Strategy
This decklist is fairly similar to the previous decklist, but it has some major differences. Instead of trying to wound any minions, it relies on strength to win skirmishes and survive.

Four copies of Sudden Fury are included to make Frodo a beast. They add 2 twilight each, but the cost is worth it. With 4 copies of SF in play, each time Frodo loses a skirmish, you receive enough tokens to give him +4 strength for his next skirmish.

The One Ring, The Ring of Doom not only adds vitality, but it also can add a strength boost of 3 against non-hunters. Playing against a hunter deck? No problem; giving Frodo the hunter bonus won’t give you strength, but it’ll take away your opponent’s hunter bonus.

For the strength events, Hobbit Intuition and Concerning Hobbits are included. Intuition gives a solid +3 boost, while Concerning Hobbits can give up to 9 strength in the right circumstances. Since you’ll need forests and dwellings to maximize Concerning Hobbits, this deck is best paired with Forest Nazgul.

Match-ups

Threats
As with any Solo deck, threats are nigh useless against this deck. With only one threat at their disposal, your opponent will rip their hair out trying to find a way to kill Frodo.

Beatdown
This is where the Strength decktype fares better than the Wounding decktype. Frodo can be very strong in this deck, and so you won’t have too much of a problem defeating any minions that come against you. If you do happen to lose a skirmish, no worries; Frodo has lots of vitality and you can use the Ring to convert wounds into burdens.

Archery
Frodo has 6 vitality, and with so little twilight being added your opponent will have a hard time finding enough twilight to amass much archery. Don’t play your Sudden Fury against archery decks; the minions generally have little enough strength to be easily killed during the skirmish phase, so Sudden Fury would hurt you more than help you.

Swarm
This is a fair match-up. Give Frodo a lot of strength and then play No Worse for Wear and you’ll most likely live. Just make sure that your Shadow cycles well enough for you to keep a good Free Peoples hand. For some extra protection, Orc Armor is included to subtract strength from every Orc and Uruk-hai he is fighting.

Corruption
Frodo can have 12 resistance, and you can remove burdens with Salt From the Shire. This decktype isn’t quite as good against corruption as the Wounding Choke decktype is, but it’s still a strong match-up and will be hard for you to lose if you play your cards right.

Corsairs
With loads of strength, Frodo won’t have too much trouble fighting these minions. The main thing that could hurt you is a swarm of high-strength Corsairs, but by the time your opponent gets set up enough to pul it off you will (hopefully) be ready to fight it.

---

Conclusion

As you can probably see, Solo Frodo has a very good chance of winning against most decktypes. Of course, most of the time it’s not going to be auto-win; a bad opening hand could doom you at the early sites. But if you’re willing to take that risk, and if you enjoy playing solo decks, then I highly urge you to give this deck a try.
Last edited by AnxiousChieftain on Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:40 pm; edited 5 times in totalMODS RULE. - lem0nhead
NBarden
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 5:49 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
Someone included a match-up section! Applause

However, there are several points where you could improve. Sudden Fury is very good for this kind of deck, and you may want to consider Habits of Home. With an ally, such as Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer, you could toil it as well to play it for free, and then play another for free on Bilbo. This completely chokes the twilight pool, and then maybe add in Deft in their movements for the double (with Bilbo, of course). Oh, and you need bounder. Bad. Bounder saves you from a critical situation.

I think that the best way to go with Solo-Frodo would be Hobbit Hospital, with 4x Habits of Home and Deft in their Movements, but that’s my opinion. The deck looks good, but you may want to try some of my suggestions...
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AnxiousChieftain
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:02 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 3947 Location: Maryland
NBarden wrote:
Sudden Fury is very good for this kind of deck

I don’t plan on losing skirmishes.

Wink

At least, not too often, so I don’t think that Sudden Fury is worth the 2 twilight (or 8 twilight if you play 4 copies).

NBarden wrote:
and you may want to consider Habits of Home. With an ally, such as Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer, you could toil it as well to play it for free, and then play another for free on Bilbo. This completely chokes the twilight pool

I’m pretty sure that Habits of Home removes the twilight before you add twilight from moving, and since this deck only adds 3 twilight in the fellowship phase over the course of the game, it’s not really worth it.
NBarden wrote:
and then maybe add in Deft in their movements for the double (with Bilbo, of course).

Deft in Their Movements only decreases the Shadow number of sites already in play, so if the next site isn’t already played then it’s worthless.
NBarden wrote:
Oh, and you need bounder. Bad. Bounder saves you from a critical situation.

Added. Thumbs Up

Thanks for the review.

- AC
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NBarden
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:13 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
Hm...I see your point. One other thing, maybe add Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer, and Hobbit Party Guest. I know it adds a little twilight, but if you could pull it off, then it works great at pulling all those cards from the discard pile. It works better than Birthday Present... You would need a good cycling shadow, however...
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Anonymous Prodigy
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:26 pm
Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 4197 Location: United States
Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer and Hoobit Party Guest should be included IMO. Plus, the deck is rather vulnerable to having a bad first hand (as you stated). The article was also shorter than normal. Otherwise, a good article.
I had to put something here.
AnxiousChieftain
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:36 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 3947 Location: Maryland
NBarden & AP: Bilbo, Retired Adventurer is home site 3, and thus cannot be healed by Hobbit Party Guest. There also other reasons I wouldn’t include them:

A) They would take up considerably more space that Birthday Present
B) Bilbo only shuffles the cards into your deck, instead of retrieving them into hand
C) The strategy is vulnerable to Anduin Confluence

And yes AP, the deck can be beaten early if it gets a bad hand, but hey no deck is perfect. Wink

- AC

P.S. I actually opted to include No Worse for Wear instead of Bounder, since Bounder costs twilight in the fellowship phase and can be discarded by Anduin Confluence.
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NBarden
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:38 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
d'oh! Duh. There’s a Bilbo that’s home 1, right?
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AnxiousChieftain
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 6:43 pm
Joined: 15 Jul 2005 Posts: 3947 Location: Maryland
Bilbo Baggins, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit is site 1. But he wouldn’t really fit in this deck, since The Tale of the Great Ring x2 is the only tale included.
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NBarden
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 7:06 pm
Joined: 28 Dec 2006 Posts: 5468 Location: I don't know...
I know, I just mixed up the Home Sites...
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Ninja Gimli
Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 10:26 pm
Joined: 26 Jan 2007 Posts: 35 Location:
hm... interesting idea I had never really thought of using solo’s too much, let alone Frodo. good article very easy to follow and read, pretty much the only problem I could see and it’s a problem with all solo’s: bad first hand. but other than that great article!Applause
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