Just Frodo Deck

[JamesCB]

Anyone have any idea how to make a deck with no companions but Frodo?

[Phallen Cassidy]

I'm surprised I couldn't find more examples of this. ket recently posted a deck here: https://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php?topic=11747.msg96934#msg96934

In Fellowship Block especially, it's pretty clear-cut: go slow, clog your opponent's hand completely, and get a Shadow kill. Most decks only plan to keep Frodo alive up to site 8 because the game should be over by then -- either your Shadow side isn't going to be able to close the deal or you've won. You'll cancel most skirmishes until site 6, where there won't be enough twilight to threaten you. Site 7 might require you to use Bounder or There and Back Again or Thrarin, site 8 you'll use whatever's left.

I have a totally different take on it, but the deck isn't built for Fellowship block. A few quick substitutions and here's what I come up with. Again, this is totally untested.

Baggins Choke
Ring-bearer: Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
Ring: The One Ring, Isildur's Bane

Adventure deck:
Hobbiton Party Field
Buckleberry Ferry
Ford of Bruinen (if you're playing Nazgul, duh)
Frodo's Bedroom (otherwise)

Free Peoples Draw Deck: (33 cards)
3x Bilbo, Well-spoken Gentlehobbit
2x Bounder
1x Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal
3x Hobbit Party Guest
1x The Gaffer, Sam's Father
1x Bill the Pony
2x Red Book of Westmarch
2x Sting
1x Mithril-coat
4x Hobbit Intuition
4x Hobbit Stealth
3x Practically Everyone Was Invited
2x Consorting With Wizards
2x O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!
1x Stone Trolls
1x There and Back Again

The idea is to use Sting and Consorting with Wizards to make the twilight pool 0 at the end of every Fellowship phase. All the skirmish cancelling will give you a break if you need to drop a lot of twilight for some reason (e.g., Red Book and Bilbo and Mithril Coat all at once). The biggest disadvantage of this deck is that it takes time to set up whereas chet's is ready from the start and has no real "key" cards you have to protect. However, the advantages are free card drawing and greater durability for those games when you have to try to survive site 9 yourself. I cut this one pretty tight, but it's not hard to find 3 cards to remove so you can really maximize your Shadow side's effectiveness. Maybe remove 4 and add Thrarin, Dwarven Smith?

[azogsbane]

I recently won a game with solo Frodo deck, not by defeating my opponent's fellowship, but by getting to site 9 first and surviving!

I managed to double-move on each of my last three turns. At site 9 I was up against three fierce Nazgul, with a combined strength of 36. So in the first skirmish, I exerted the Bounder and was just barely able to pump Frodo up to the necessary 13 strength using 2x Hobbit Intuition and a Hobbit Stealth, in addition to the One Ring, Hobbit Sword, and O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!. If you add that up, it comes to 15 strength, but Frodo was -2 because one of the minions was Ulaire Lemenya, LoM (and of course Frodo was by that point bearing Blade Tip and 3x Black Breath). In the fierce skirmish, I discarded O Elbereth! Gilthoniel! and won the game.

Ring-bearer: Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir
Ring: The One Ring, Isildur's Bane

Adventure deck:
Hobbiton Woods
Buckleberry Ferry
Ford of Bruinen
Hollin
The Bridge of Khazad-dum
Caras Galadhon
Anduin Wilderland
Anduin Banks
Summit of Amon Hen

Free Peoples deck (32 cards):
4x Hobbit Intuition
4x Hobbit Stealth
4x Power According to His Stature
3x Hobbit Sword-Play
3x Hobbit Sword
3x Nice Imitation
2x There and Back Again
2x The Gaffer, SF
2x Bounder
1x Filibert Bolger, Wily Rascal
1x Hobbit Party Guest
1x Bill the Pony
1x Mithril-coat
1x O Elbereth! Gilthoniel!

I used Hobbit Sword instead of Sting so that the extra copies I draw can go to my allies for the purpose of exerting one of them for Hobbit Swordplay, thus saving Frodo an exertion. In that particular game, I never used Filibert Bolger, and the Gaffer was discarded early on by a Shadow event, so the only allies of any use were the Bounders, and yet they saved the day time and again. I never would have made it without Old Bilbo's Heir to heal the Bounders (since they are site 2 and cannot be healed by Hobbit Party Guest).

[JamesCB]

Thanks for the input everyone!