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December 06, 2015, 12:06:26 PM
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Eukalyptus

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Hobbit Initiative Play
« on: December 06, 2015, 12:06:26 PM »
This is meant as a non-meta deck for fun.

The basic idea is having an indestructable Ring-bearer in Bilbo BoTB with Consorting with Wizards. To choke a little and not add that much pool, here are 3 drafts to counter the burdens Bilbo will acquire due to moving. All drafts are meant to be paired with Dunland as it benefits from a choke freeps as well as can clear its hand for cycling even when met with choke.

Draft #1

Ring-bearer: Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled
Ring: The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
4x Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
1x Merry, Friend to Sam
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Sam, Son of Hamfast
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
3x Hobbit Sword
1x Gandalf's Staff
1x Out of the High Airs
4x Servant of the Secret Fire
2x The Board Is Set
1x Brooding on Tomorrow
1x A Light in His Mind
2x A Talent for Not Being Seen
3x Consorting With Wizards
1x Escape
2x The Tale of the Great Ring
1x There and Back Again


This version is the smallest and meant to abuse initiative with Gandalf and Pippin to benefit from ALIHM and BOT. But it's not quite there yet.

Draft #2

Ring-bearer: Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled
Ring: The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
4x Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
1x Merry, Friend to Sam
1x Pippin, Hobbit of Some Intelligence
1x Sam, Son of Hamfast
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
3x Hobbit Sword
1x Gandalf's Staff
1x Out of the High Airs
4x Servant of the Secret Fire
4x Make Haste
1x Brooding on Tomorrow
1x A Light in His Mind
2x A Talent for Not Being Seen
3x Consorting With Wizards
1x Escape
2x The Tale of the Great Ring

That's a bit more like it and I really like the Make Haste + Pippin HOSI combo. But it's still too reliant on Gandalf and him coming out very, very early (preferably 1 or 2), so after thinking a bit about it, I made...

Draft #3

Ring-bearer: Bilbo, Bearer of Things Burgled
Ring: The One Ring, Such a Weight to Carry

Free Peoples Draw Deck:
4x Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
1x Merry, Friend to Sam
1x Pippin, Wearer of Black and Silver
1x Sam, Son of Hamfast
1x Barliman Butterbur, Prancing Pony Proprietor
3x Hobbit Sword
3x Servant of the Secret Fire
2x Narrow Escape
1x Brooding on Tomorrow
2x A Light in His Mind
2x A Talent for Not Being Seen
1x Birthday Present
3x Consorting With Wizards
1x Escape
4x The Shire Countryside
2x The Tale of the Great Ring

Switched the ring as Bilbo should barely get any wound at all while remembering another nice card: Shire Countryside. That works so much better for Sam to be healed each Fellowship Phase (through ALIHM not his game text ofc). Narrow Escape is also a lot better than OOTHA as it's free and should remove the same number of minions as the choke should be very heavy.

This is a tad bigger at 33, so I added another ALIHM. Also, a Birthday Present for late game - should it come to that - to fetch back Narrow Escape for the double. I am still thinking about adding a 4th Consorting. This draft benefits most from Bilbo's Regroup ability: adding a burden to play a Tale (say Consorting) and losing Initiative this way, triggering Shire Countryside to move very much healed to the next site. Ideally of course.

So, thoughts? Suggestions?
« Last Edit: December 06, 2015, 12:09:47 PM by Eukalyptus »

December 06, 2015, 05:01:19 PM
Reply #1

ket_the_jet

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2015, 05:01:19 PM »
The third deck is certainly the most interesting to me. I like the combination in total; of course, you are susceptible to Saruman's Power or other condition discarding. Pippin, Friend to Frodo wouldn't allow you to bounce Pippin back to hand, but could save some powerful conditions.

Don't really have many other thoughts about the decks. They seem like they'd be incredibly annoying to play against, until you broke the mold and and then the pieces fell apart.
-wtk

December 06, 2015, 11:13:56 PM
Reply #2

Eukalyptus

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2015, 11:13:56 PM »
The only Tales are Consorting and Tale of the Great Ring, so that Pip was quickly out of the equation. Mass condition discard is a big negative, but hopefully the choke will be heavy from the start that it won't come to that.

Edit: Maybe Phial of Galadriel, Star-glass would be a nice addition to the deck as well, cutting the Barliman or a SotSF for it. Can't believe I forgot my favorite MD card!
« Last Edit: December 06, 2015, 11:16:16 PM by Eukalyptus »

December 07, 2015, 12:45:20 AM
Reply #3

Not a Zombie

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #3 on: December 07, 2015, 12:45:20 AM »
Another fun card is Echoes of Valinor for repeated skirmish shenanigans.
No one loves you like I do.
--God

I'm imploring people I've never met to pressure a government with better things to do to punish a man who meant no harm for something nobody even saw, thats what I'm doing!

December 07, 2015, 01:39:30 AM
Reply #4

Eukalyptus

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #4 on: December 07, 2015, 01:39:30 AM »
Yes, but I think the exertions would be too much too fast. The deck is stuffed atm as it is, more than I like it to be. Cutting down is also not an option; the shadow has to function properly as well.

Edit: ha, I misread Echoes. Thought it would only draw 1 card. Now I have to think about it  :-k
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 03:39:19 AM by Eukalyptus »

December 07, 2015, 03:49:30 AM
Reply #5

Shelobplayer

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2015, 03:49:30 AM »
I used to play a Bilbo RB deck with similar initiative shell on GCCG. The difference was that I used The Red Book of Westmarch and NFFATROD to lose/regain initiative in skirmish (and pump with Boromir, SOD and Merry, FTS), and Birthday Present to get it back.

I wanted to delete GCCG every time someone played Saruman's Power, but when they didn't... oh when they didn't :)

December 07, 2015, 05:05:21 AM
Reply #6

Not a Zombie

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2015, 05:05:21 AM »
Oh, I didn't even notice that you don't 'have NFFATROD. Seems like a must include to me.

I would make these changes:

-2x A Talent for Not Being Seen
-1x Consorting with wizards
-2x Narrow Escape

+3x NFFATROD
+1x EoV
+1x Birthday Present

But that is my preference :D
« Last Edit: December 07, 2015, 05:10:29 AM by Not a Zombie »
No one loves you like I do.
--God

I'm imploring people I've never met to pressure a government with better things to do to punish a man who meant no harm for something nobody even saw, thats what I'm doing!

December 07, 2015, 05:25:58 AM
Reply #7

Fabián Zuñiga

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2015, 05:25:58 AM »
hello,
What is the advantage of having only four partners in the community? deck looking at the proposal of free people (4x Gandalf ) .

December 07, 2015, 08:35:13 AM
Reply #8

Eukalyptus

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2015, 08:35:13 AM »
Oh, I didn't even notice that you don't 'have NFFATROD. Seems like a must include to me.

I would make these changes:

-2x A Talent for Not Being Seen
-1x Consorting with wizards
-2x Narrow Escape

+3x NFFATROD
+1x EoV
+1x Birthday Present

But that is my preference :D

Care to share why? The reason I am cutting down on skirmish events is simple: choke produces less minions (=less skirmish phases). So, NFFATROD would be of no/very little help at all. Wouldn't need Gandalf either with that event. The Servants are just for insurance. Also, I wanted to shy away from the usual NFFATROD/Shire Countryside use, hence the choke approach.

hello,
What is the advantage of having only four partners in the community? deck looking at the proposal of free people (4x Gandalf ) .
:suspect: What?

December 07, 2015, 09:23:24 AM
Reply #9

Fabián Zuñiga

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2015, 09:23:24 AM »
jajajajaj mi ingles es terrible...Solo preguntaba cual es la justificación de Tener 4 copias de una carta única en un mazo...considerando que solo puedes bajar una y tener un total de 9 por todos los compañeros en un mazo regular?

December 07, 2015, 09:44:56 AM
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Eukalyptus

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #10 on: December 07, 2015, 09:44:56 AM »
I threw this in the Google translator and this came up:

"jajajajaj my English is terrible ... just wondering what is the justification of having 4 copies of a single card in a deck ... considering you can only lose again and have a total of 9 for all the partners in a regular deck ?"

This is supposed to be a choke deck that relies on Gandalf MoW's ability for A Light in His Mind to counter the burdens Bilbo generates when moving. To get him asap, he's 4x in the deck. As there is much twilight denial, less shadow cards are played and the chances of losing a companion are lesser, too. So no need to go all out with 9 companions here.

Hope that answers your question.

FYI: that's the first and only time I'll answer to a non-english comment. If I can use the Google translator, so can everyone else.

December 07, 2015, 09:50:35 AM
Reply #11

Fabián Zuñiga

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #11 on: December 07, 2015, 09:50:35 AM »
My first post was using the translator, but I was not understood at all what I meant.
Likewise I appreciate the clarification ... I had not thought of such a strategy

December 07, 2015, 09:59:36 AM
Reply #12

Eukalyptus

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Re: Hobbit Initiative Play
« Reply #12 on: December 07, 2015, 09:59:36 AM »
Kay, no problem.