[SftF - initiative] Bilbo and his crew

[Shelobplayer]

I always wanted to play with Red Book of Westmarch, and I had 2 initial idea: one was Dauntless Hunter + The Council of Elrond with Bilbo as RB, but that way the deck would generate too much twilight, so DH would easily became a nonsense. The other one was this list, and I really like it, it also generates a lot of twilight, but it can deal with most of the time, and once everything has been set up, it is very hard to kill these guys. Without any further ado, here is the list:

Ring-bearer: Bilbo, Bearer of things Burgled + The Binding Ring

Starting Fellowship:
Smeagol, Slinker
Sam, Son of Hamfast
Pippin, Friend to Frodo
Merry, Friend to Sam

3 x Gandalf, Manager of Wizards
3 x A Wizard is Never Late
1 x Radagast, the Brown
4 x Saved From the Fire
1 x Narya
2 x Brooding on Tomorrow
1 x Consorting With Wizards
1 x Red Book of Westmarch
4 x The Shire Countryside
2 x A Light in His Mind
2 x Birthday Present
4 x Nine-Fingered Frodo and the Ring of Doom
1 x The Tale of the Great Ring
1 x There and Back Again
3 x Hobbit Sword
2 x Escape

Strategy:
You can bid high, if you want to go first (I usually do), since Sam will most likely get burned, and you can use him to remove the burdens. An ideal hand has Gandalf (or awinl) and SftF, if you have them, most likely you are good to go. Burn Sam, and pull RBoW, CWW and any other card you see fit. Once you have 2 Shire Countrysides out with Birthday Present, the party starts, return each nffatrod each turn and use them to heal everyone in skirmish (and use Merry to to win skirmishes). If you have 4 cards in hand before you play your last nffatrod, you lose initiative, and regain it thanks to RBoW, and you can use Gandalf to lose it again for more healing/ burden removal with AliHM/ Shire Countryside.

This freeps can be quite vulnerable against certain decks (if Merry gets killed, you are in trouble), but it is really fun to play, and if you are not facing a nightmare matchup, it can even do triples with Radagast.

I constantly change shadow sides but something that cycles well is definitely good for it.

I'm open for suggestions, and if you see something unnecessary on my list please point it out, since I really want to add some Gandalf's Staff and other stuff.

[Gil-Estel]

If you heal everyone in skirmish, which obviously can be done when not facing boring Saruman's Power (so don't play vs Pepin), why add the Escapes? I think make a tripple move is hard, no matter what matchup. You don't have true figthers, I think they are more an enduring bunch of companions. So that could make you reconsider Radagast, allthough I admit in this deck he is fun, otherwise he is just boring.
Cards that come to mind are Dear Friends, to get some cards back in the deck, since all your guys have a Frodo signet. Maybe Depart Silently, that can help Merry even more and thus the fellowship.

[Shelobplayer]

They are not that bad at fighting. I usually have at least 3 Shire Countryside out by site 6, and I use all my nffatrod thanks to Birthday Present, so Merry can make them huge. Also not that nffatrod is a tale, so RBoW draws me card after I played it, allowing me to lose initiative more than once in skirmish, providing even more healing with A Light in His Mind + The Shire Countryside (or just enabling to use Gandalf's ability one more time). Escape is actually good here, if I have all my countrysides out, nffatrod becomes a +10 strength skirmish event (if merry has a sword). Dear Friends sounds okay, but it makes me wonder if I should play On Your Doorstep, which seems strictly better here (especially that RBoW can draw the card I put back).

I want free slots for more There and Back Again, Tale of the Great Ring (Bilbo can replay them in regroup, and the extra burdens doesn't mean any issue here) and maybe some Gandalf's Staff/ Radagast's Staff, but everything on the list seems necessary to me, really, and further increasing my decksize would hurt my chances to draw SftF...

Radagast is mainly here, because if my conditions are not discarded, I should be able to do a 6-9, and an extra companion also comes in handy (I used to play Treebeard, Guardian of the Forest before Radagast, but I think Radagast is just better).

[Pepin The Breve]

If you heal everyone in skirmish, which obviously can be done when not facing boring Saruman's Power (so don't play vs Pepin)...

Ahhhh, long time i dont play my annoying Isen Orc Swarm... that was the good times... i should stop to play lame Morcs and Corsair and go back to the good old school guys!

For the freeps it looks fun to play.

Besides the obvious weakness to condition discard i sense your deck can have problems cause it floods the pool and doesnt have a great fighting ability (or pre-skirmish killing). Since Gandy is your main guy i would consider add a few copies of Depart Silently and Barlin. Another cards you may consider are A Talent for Not Being Seen (maybe not if you plan to always burn Sam); Gandalf Staff (i just can't make any Gandalf deck without it); and man, you really need Everyone Knows at this deck!!!

With good healing ability (and extra Vit from Escape) you can really boost up Merry and Pip to face up bigger minions (and win against mid strenghtones).

If you really wanna Go with SftF engine (i'm not a big fan of it cause it ocupies lots of room in the deck and you will probably use only once) i would recomend start Gandalf, LoM instead of Sam, Burn Him and Grab Gandalf, Mow + Sent Back + Gandalf Staff. Yes, lots of pool, but you will probably use it before site 4 when shadow becames more of a threat (And if your oponnent plays lame Castamir + halberd at site 2 at least you can cancel skirmishes with Gandy). That way you can drop 2 copies of gandy and some awinl.

I really thinks Radagast is of little use here, since you don't discard minions at regroup and is very unlikely you could double often, triple would be even harder (only against few matchups or if your oponnent is having really bad draws.

That all said, i really think you can also drop SftF (well that would breaks the initial deck idea) and add more copies of key cards.

I hope this helps somehow to improve your deck!

[Shelobplayer]

The main character is Merry, not Gandalf. Also, I really have fighting power, if the freeps has been set up, I can lose initiative up to 5 times in skirmish, and with AlihM, NFFatRoD and TSC Merry gives huge pumps (remember I always have all the NFFatRoD in hand thanks to Birthday Present). Also, if I have no intention to double, I can assign Bilbo and Smeagol to skirmish fatties, pump them, and watch them walk away unharmed (thanks to CWW and Smeagol's ability).

I used to play 4 Everyone Knows in the older versions (and Treebeard in Radagast's place and Ent Draught), but unfortunately they haven't proved to be worthy.

Radagast is actually good here, I don't often play this deck, because it requires too much brainstorming, but in my last two matches with it, I managed to survive a 6-9 run. Also, he only requires 1 slot, and even at his worst, I can just sacrifice him, to make up for his 4 twilight cost.

As I have already mentioned, I really want to add Gandalf's Staff, and some other cards, namely Boromir, SoD and Out of the High Airs, but I really don't know what can I cut for them. That said I really want to keep at least 3 sftf (since I'm only planning one burn), yes they are not awesome here like in some other decks, but they are necessary for my setup. And please note, that this is a fun deck, I don't plan to have high win ration with a deck that has Bilbo as its ring-bearer (well, so far I have a decent win ratio, but only because I haven't faced so much condition removal).