Shire Freeps

[Terwin]

I am a die-hard shire loyalist, which means that can't give up running at least 1 shire (or predominantly shire) deck in any format I play. This is kinda hard in movie!

So I was wondering if anybody had any suggestions for me. My current shire deck, which I made rather recently, looks like this (I'm specifically considering adding Gandalf because I have (effectually) no condition discarding!).

relevant sites
Sleeping Quarters (I bid 0, so I don't often get to use it)

Starting fellowship
Frodo, Old Bilbo's Heir (AtAR as ring)
Sam, Great Elf Warrior

2x Rosie Cotton
2x The Gaffer
3x Bounder
4x Hobbit Party Guest
1x Bilbo Baggins, Retired Adventurer
1x Old Noakes
1x Master Proudfoot

2x Orc Armor
1x Hobbit Sword
1x Sting, BotEL

1x There and Back Again
1x O Elbereth Gilthoniel!
1x Rare Good Ballast

4x Chance Observation
4x Hobbit Intuition
2x Severed His Bonds

I was also considering A Light in His Mind, because I lose initiative quite often, and I have some problem with burdens. Ive played 4-5 games with this deck with only 1 win (garnered by my shadow side). This makes me pity the poor Haflings. Any suggestions?

[MuadDib85]

A talent for not being seen is nearly a must have. I would add Merry and Pippin just to make each site -2 and have some fodder. It will be very hard for Frodo and Sam to surivive all alone against most decent shadows.

EDIT: And add The Tale of The Great Ring

[ket_the_jet]

No Merry and Pippin?

Otherwise, I say add Smeagol, Poor Creature.

I'll add thoughts upon your response.
-wtk

[Gerontius]

You can probably remove Severed his Bonds, Orc Armor, and some of the allies. Think about adding A Promise, and Tale of the Great Ring. Also, you should either go for Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol, or Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin.

[Yanko Markovic]

Are those discarding hobbits from towers block any effective in this deck (or any deck for that matter)?

[ket_the_jet]

Are those discarding hobbits from towers block any effective in this deck (or any deck for that matter)?

Yes, bouncing unbound Hobbits can be very effective; however, I wouldn't recommend them for this deck.
-wtk

[Terwin]

Yes, I understand that Merry and Pippin (or Smeagol) are standard in shire free peoples decks. As are some of the other cards mentioned. But I have received several comments to the effect that people don't use shire in movie because it is not good. This would seem to indicate that the standard method for shire decks in movie doesn't work. So I'm experimenting a little with different ways of doing things (in this case, an event, rather than condition driven scheme, and only two companions).

I really haven't had any problems with being overwhelmed, so I don't think Tale of the Great Ring is necessary.

But I do probably have too many allies, Master Proudfoot and Old Noakes Could be done away with.

BTW Gizlivadi: I played against a pretty good deck (which used that merry and pippin) recently. I haven't looked into it for this deck.

[Terwin]

No Merry and Pippin?

Otherwise, I say add Smeagol, Poor Creature.

I'll add thoughts upon your response.
-wtk

Are those discarding hobbits from towers block any effective in this deck (or any deck for that matter)?

Yes, bouncing unbound Hobbits can be very effective; however, I wouldn't recommend them for this deck.
-wtk

Would you rather be thinking of Merry, Friend to Sam?

[ket_the_jet]

In all respect, if I saw that I was playing a deck that had just Frodo and Sam, I would chalk that one up as a guaranteed win. Your suggestion that fellowships do not work in Movie Block is misguided at worst (and downright wrong at best). In fact, some of the toughest decks I have ever played against in Movie Block are decks because they are so unpredictable. I find myself overcompensating because I expect an Aragorn, Ranger of the North or a Boromir, Son of Denethor or Elrond, Herald to Gil-Galad that may never come.

Among my decks on GCCG is a Frodo-Sam-Smeagol deck (that also starts Legolas, Greenleaf who knocks out a few baddies then gets thrown into the trenches). It has a 3-4 record, so, not great but pretty respectable.

My biggest concerns with your deck as it stands is balance, twilight it produces (a lot of allies can be expensive and you don't have companions to survive), burden removal, overwhelm prevention (Bounder alone won't cut it against good decks), condition and possession removal, cycling, and healing. In short, the deck has a lot of holes.

Just to put it in perspective, here is the Free Peoples side of my Frodo/Sam/Smeagol deck. It plays with a fast-cycling Shadow, so it's usually okay. And if I do let Frodo get into burden trouble, I'll just kill him and pass on the ring to Sam.

Starting:
Frodo, Master of the Precious with The One Ring, Answer To All Riddles
Sam, Resolute Halfling
Legolas, Greenleaf
Smeagol, Always Helps

Free Peoples (36):
Aragorn, Ranger of the North

Bounder x2

A Promise x4
The Shire Countryside x4
A Light In His Mind x2
The Tale of the Great Ring x2
Don't Look At Them x3
Never x2

Sting, Baggins Heirloom
Hobbit Sword
Aiglos

Hobbit Intuition x4
Mind Your Own Affairs x4
No Help For It x2

If you want, I can post a deck that features all four of the guys.
-wtk

[ket_the_jet]

And just from doing a little searching, I found a few other decks on the boards. Heije has a good one that seems pretty well balanced. I haven't played it specifically, but on paper it seems pretty good.
-wtk

[Terwin]

Hmmm,

It does lack healing and burden removal, but it definitely does NOT have overwhelm problems (from experience). The events are always handy in sufficient number, and 1 chance observation is all that is needed.

I use a deck with smeagol in it, funny that I didn't notice the use of The Shire Countryside along with No Help For It.

[Cw0rk]

I've played vs some decent hobbit deck using 4 Promise and 4 Everyone Knows. The problems with hobbits in movie block is that it gets destroyed by some particular decks in movie block. It includes Corsairs, Dunland Site Control, Grond and They Stole it. Basically, hobbits are lacking possession removals.

[ket_the_jet]

Okay, so let's say you have all 14 Hobbits out.

And you have your strength 8 Ring-Bearer (Frodo, burden for Answer to All Riddles, O Elbereth! Githoniel! Sting, Bane of the Eight Legs).

That's strength 22. Not bad, in theory, if your Ring-Bearer needs to survive a skirmish. But what if I am playing Uruk Bomb? All the sudden you have five or six or more Uruk-Hai against two companions. Can you sustain a damage +10 attack?

Or what about Archery? You have, at most, 11 vitality between your two companions. Are you guaranteeing you can survive nine sites without dying?

Like I said, if a deck chokes really well then I can see having two or three companions. But this deck is going to be throwing out copious amounts of twilight with all of the allies (and no twilight removal). I feel like my worst Movie Block deck would have a pretty easy time against this deck.
-wtk

[Terwin]

Yeah, I'm adding about 10-16 twilight per site.

Thanks for the comments.

[5tein]

Looking at this deck as is (and forgetting about playing other hobbit comps), I agree that I'd rather have 4x A Promise and choke so I could actually double move if needs be.

I'd play more swords in general, and then a couple Dagger Strike instead of 2 Intuition. Tale of the Great Ring instead of Severed.

As for the Allies, I dig Rosie and the Gaffer as means of helping a /little/ bit with healing, with Hobbit Party Guest, but there may be better ways to do this as already suggested.

Mithril Coat might be worth playing instead of 1 Orc Armor.

End of the day I'd still probably throw in one ROTN just to get you through to 9 if you need to.

Otherwise I like the Sam/Frodo/Smeagol deck referenced above.