Bilbo at the Council of Elrond/2 site Dunland

[Orophoin]

Dunland in Movie block had everything going for it. Wound prevention in Hides, plenty of possession discard and even a bit of condition discard. Freca and Over the Isen is an excellent GLR counter as well. But it does need to be paired with an appropriate fellowship: ideally a partner does 4 things:
1. Bid to go first. If you cannot control a site, there's not a lot to fear from this. Even bidding 1 is normally enough in movie where a lot of decks rightly fear corruption.
2. Liberate sites in the event that the opponent plays besiegers or Dunland and gets all the sites before you can.
3. Filter well. Dunland needs the correct cards at the correct time. If you need to hold FP cards in hand as well, you won't get what you need.
4. Survive. Dunland often won't kill until site 7 the earliest. And ideally would be able to run if necessary.

I have therefore come up with the following deck. It's currently at 69 wins for 21 losses (77%). The vast majority of wins were from the shadow, but the fellowship is oddly resilient and had run a few times.

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

Adventure deck:
Sleeping Quarters
King's Tent
Hall of the Kings
Anduin Banks
Crashed Gate
Minas Tirith First Circle
Ruined Capitol
Watchers of Cirith Ungol
Haunted Pass

Free Peoples Draw Deck (41 cards):
1x Glorfindel, Revealed in Wrath (starting)
3x Boromir, Son of Denethor
1x Merry, Friend to Sam (starting)
1x Pippin, Friend to Frodo (starting)
1x Calaglin, Elf of Lorien
2x Elrond, Herald to Gil-galad
1x Rúmil, Elven Protector
1x Asfaloth
1x Elven Sword
1x Blade of Gondor
3x Hobbit Sword
1x Red Book of Westmarch
3x Secret Sentinels
4x The Council of Elrond
1x Nine-fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom
3x Hosts of the Last Alliance
1x The Last Alliance of Elves and Men
1x A Light in His Mind
2x Consorting With Wizards
2x Escape
4x Everyone Knows
1x O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
1x The Tale of the Great Ring
1x There and Back Again

Shadow Draw Deck (41 cards):
4x Dunlending Elder
4x Freca, Hungry Savage
1x Hillman Horde
4x Hillman Tribe
3x Saruman, Rabble-rouser
2x Wulf, Dunlending Chieftain
4x Hides
4x War Club
4x Burn Every Village
2x Wild Man Raid
1x Bound By Rage
2x Constantly Threatening
1x No Retreat
3x Over the Isen
2x Ready to Fall

The shadow is pretty standard as far as I can tell, aside from 2 Wild Man Raid. It's the best counter you'll get to Glimpse of Fate, Brooding on Tomorrow and most threateningly, Citadel of the Stars. For the uninitiated, the aim is to control 2 sites, then wreck any fellowship with Ready to Fall and Dunlanding Elder (with Hillman Horde against archers). The first site is often harder to get, normally through keeping Freca alive with Hides and/or Over the Isen, rinse and repeating for the second. No need for Enquea: more companions means more likelihood of keeping Freca alive. Then Dunlanding Elder will thin any fellowship down quickly enough. Note the site 2 of King's Tent as well. If you are playing the site, they started, so you need to stop them. No self respecting Dunland deck should play anything else.

The fellowship is more novel, though. You want to get Red Book of Westmarch out as soon as possible, then build up loads of tales. Bilbo gets to a potential base strength 8, which is plenty when he cannot take wounds. The Council of Elrond is an excellent card here, really filtering out the FP from the deck. Always start with the Red Book, then whatever most useful in the moment. Since Bilbo cannot choke, I've gone for Glorfindel over Dauntless Hunter for the strength. It's a very versatile deck, stacking up incredibly well against certain Shadows (particularly The Witch King, Lord of the Nazgul). Corsairs are probably the worst matchup as there's no possession discard, and other Dunland hurts, too, but it does usually survive well enough. Shelob, Her Ladyship hates having to prevent the Ringbearer from skirmishing, but she's often forced into that tough choice as Bilbo really denies Gollum. As noted above, there's no site liberation, but the filtering makes up for it. Despite being 41/41, it often decks out the end.

Any comments? It's certainly not a league deck-the fellowship isn't quite top tier. But the shadow is just monstrous if it can get set up. It's also a lot of fun to play: being able to put your Ringbearer up against their biggest minion every site is very unusual indeed!

[jamaicanworm]

Thank you for posting this list, I'm excited to try it out!

Any other lessons learned in the (long...) time since you posted? Also: do you think there are too few minions in the Shadow side?