High-Vitality Hobbits (FP only)

[DáinIronfoot]

Not exactly a new trick, but hopefully interesting enough that it merits a thread.

Frodo, Resolute Hobbit w/ The One Ring, The Great Ring

Merry, Loyal Companion (starting) (or possibly Merry, From O'er the Brandywine?)
Pippin, Brave Decoy (starting) (or possibly Pippin, Steadfast Friend?)
Fredegar Bolger, Fatty (starting)
Farmer Maggot, Hobbit of the Marish (starting)
Quickbeam, Bregalad (starting)

Sam, Great Elf Warrior (Green Dragon Inn pull)
Tolman Cotton, Farmer of Bywater

Sting, Weapon of Heritage
Merry's Dagger
Pippin's Sword
Hobbit Sword x4

Everyone Knows x4
A Promise x4
Little Golden Flower x2
Escape x4
Ent Draught x4
Prized Lagan x3
Fates Entwined

Narrow Escape x2


Like I said, nothing new and nothing particularly fancy. The point is to get your unbound Hobbits with as much vitality as possible, then abuse Everyone Knows to make them all huge. With all your vitality boosters out (Little Golden Flower paired with swords, Escape, and Ent Draught), and all your copies of Everyone Knows, Merry, Pippin, and Tolman can reach a ridiculous 18 strength apiece, and Pippin has the added benefit of being able to replace anyone but Frodo, Sam, and Merry in a skirmish to help protect weaker companions. For example, Maggot and Fatty top out at a base of 12, though that's still nothing to sneeze at. With Weapon of Heritage and all your copies of A Promise, Sam is a beastly 17 strength himself, and even Frodo can get to a base 10 with the potential for lots more thanks to The Great Ring.

Prized Lagan and Fates Entwined are here to help keep your Hobbits at peak vitality, though if thing go sour you can always sacrifice a couple of the lower-vitality guys like Fatty and Maggot (probably in that order) to keep your higher-vitality ones up and running. Quickbeam also makes a nice sacrifice candidate if you pull enough Ent Draught before too long.

The only card that DOESN'T play during the fellowship phase is Narrow Escape, which is your best chance to try and double since these Hobbits may not lose many skirmishes once set up, but WILL probably have trouble actually killing minions off. If you can sacrifice the vitality, Ent Draught CAN help kill off to a degree with its exert-for-damage ability, but Narrow Escape is your best bet to save for a potential sprint.

This deck IS large (38 cards), but with five (and hopefully six) companions getting jammed in with Frodo from the start, and VERY little hand clog potential thanks to all the conditions and possessions, it would hopefully feel much smaller.

No Shadow in particular in mind, but my good ol' Forestguls would certainly be a good match, especially in helping Maggot reach his full strength potential. Any other ideas?

[GarrisonofGondor]

I basiclly made this deck, only I used Rosie Cooton instead of Quickbeam.  Throw in The Shire Countryside + Sting = Major Healing

[DáinIronfoot]

I basiclly made this deck, only I used Rosie Cooton instead of Quickbeam.  Throw in The Shire Countryside + Sting = Major Healing

Only problem is that The Shire Countryside is banned in Expanded. I'd have to move to Open to use that, which I'm very reluctant to do thanks to all the broken combo potential I would then be facing.

[GarrisonofGondor]

 Well I'm just a newbe so I didn't know that.

[Thranduil]

I would recommend using at least one of the RoS Merry/Pippin In the Bloom of Health just because you don't want to be stuck with a whole load of Ent Draughts that you can't play.

I also think you need more Narrow Escape because you really won't be killing minions (except for a few which you can overwhelm!) and would lose some Fates Entwined or Prized Lagan to fit them in.

Thranduil

[Gil-Estel]

you can start quickbeam, due to all the unbound hobbits. So Ent Draught isn't a problem.

[Thranduil]

you can start quickbeam, due to all the unbound hobbits. So Ent Draught isn't a problem.

But you don't want to end up in a situation when Quickbeam dies and all your Ent Draughts are useless - that was my point about In the Bloom of Health, as a fall-back option.

Thranduil