After making my Hobbit Support Deck that takes advantage of secrecy and hobbit pipes, I decided to make a solo deck that uses the same approach. This has a lot of similarities to my No-Engagement Deck, but it's able to generate ridiculous card draw and threat reduction.

Total Cards: (56)

Hero: (3)
1x Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)
1x Pippin (The Black Riders)
1x Frodo Baggins (Conflict at the Carrock)

Ally: (12)
3x Ithilien Lookout (The Dunland Trap)
1x Henamarth Riversong (Core Set)
2x Bilbo Baggins (The Road Darkens)
1x Arwen Undomiel (The Watcher in the Water)
2x Gandalf (Over Hill and Under Hill)
3x Celduin Traveler (The Nin-in-Eilph)

Attachment: (22)
3x Hobbit Pipe (The Black Riders)
3x Ranger Bow (Assault on Osgiliath)
3x Resourceful (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Light of Valinor (Foundations of Stone)
2x Asfaloth (Foundations of Stone)
3x Good Meal (The Redhorn Gate)
3x Fast Hitch (The Dead Marshes)
1x Song of Wisdom (Conflict at the Carrock)
1x A Burning Brand (Conflict at the Carrock)

Event: (22)
2x A Test of Will (Core Set)
3x Elrond's Counsel (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Risk Some Light (Shadow and Flame)
2x The Galadhrim's Greeting (Core Set)
1x Noiseless Movement (The Three Trials)
1x Dwarven Tomb (Core Set)
3x Daeron's Runes (Foundations of Stone)
1x Out of Sight (The Long Dark)
1x Will of the West (Core Set)
3x Peace, and Thought (Shadow and Flame)
2x Smoke Rings (The Black Riders)

I only have one core set, but if I had a second one I would add in a Galadhrim's Greeting and Dwarven Tomb.

Strategy is fairly simple. Look for a starting hand with LoV, Resourceful, Hobbit Pipe, secrecy allies, and/or Peace and Thought. Hobbit pipes, Daeron's Runes, and Peace and Thought (with Fast Hitches) should give you plenty of card draw. Resourceful and Good Meal help pay for all the cards you draw. If the game lasts a while (10+ rounds), you should be able to draw through your whole deck at least once. Between the secrecy allies and risk some light, you should often know what is coming off the encounter deck.

Frodo does almost all the defending. He gets the first and third Fast Hitch. His ability is an amazing safety blanket and you should still be able to stay in secrecy even while using it occasionally. Arwen can buff him to 3 defense and song of wisdom + burning brand makes him a tank. I wish I could get a hobbit cloak or ring mail on him, but it just isn't worth it to add more songs.

Threat should be low enough that you don't have to engage enemies unless you are ready. After you get an Ithilien lookout or two in play, you can engage one enemy at a time, draw a card with Pippin, block with Frodo, and kill with Glorfy and the lookouts. Ranger bows aren't used much unless you have an enemy that has a nasty engagement effect or attacks multiple times. Willpower is really strong with Celduin travelers, Bilbo, and Arwen. By round 5 you should be questing for 13+. Asfaloth does his thing. Gandalf comes out at the end when you need that power questing or boss fight.

I played this deck twice each against Morgul Vale, the Voice of Isengard quests, and the first 3 Ringmakers and never lost. Most of them were fairly easy except for Three Trials (Out of Sight for the win!). I really enjoy playing Fight at the Fords and Dunland Traps because this deck has so much card draw and those quests punish card draw. It makes for an interesting tango trying to decide when to draw and when to abstain. I tried Into Ithilien to see how it would do against Battle/Seige, and it struggled mightily. 1 win in 7 or 8 tries. I also went 1 for 4 against Nin-in-Eilph because there is too much threat gain with Nalir to stay in secrecy. I don't own any nightmare decks, so I can't comment on those.

If you wanted to use this 2 handed, I would make a few modifications. Take out the ranger bows and inserting a Song of Earendil and Unexpected Courage. A good companion deck should have low threat and ranged attackers so the hobbit deck can engage the enemies. I haven't tried it 2 handed yet, but this should be a good (and thematic) companion deck:

Total Cards: (50)

Hero: (3)
1x Legolas (Core Set)
1x Haldir of Lorien (Trouble in Tharbad)
1x Merry (The Black Riders)

Ally: (18)
1x Rumil (The Three Trials)
2x Silvan Tracker (The Dead Marshes)
3x Eagles of the Misty Mountains (Return to Mirkwood)
1x Gwaihir (Trouble in Tharbad)
1x Landroval (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
3x Vassal of the Windlord (The Dead Marshes)
3x Winged Guardian (The Hunt for Gollum)
1x Radagast (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
3x Warden of Healing (The Long Dark)

Attachment: (20)
1x Black Arrow (On the Doorstep)
2x Dagger of Westernesse (The Black Riders)
2x Lembas (Trouble in Tharbad)
3x Rivendell Blade (Road to Rivendell)
1x Rivendell Bow (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Bow of the Galadhrim (The Nin-in-Eilph)
2x Wingfoot (The Nin-in-Eilph)
2x Support of the Eagles (Return to Mirkwood)
3x Ring Mail (The Long Dark)
1x Horn of Gondor (Core Set)

Event: (12)
2x Feint (Core Set)
3x Foe-hammer (Over Hill and Under Hill)
3x Hands Upon the Bow (Shadow and Flame)
2x Quick Strike (Core Set)
2x Halfling Determination (The Black Riders)

Ring mails would go on Frodo to help him tank. Daggers can go on Glorfindel or Pippin. Other weapons on Haldir first so he can snipe enemies in the staging area or engaged with Frodo. If you happen to have a second copy of Dead Marshes, I'd put in some more fast hitches.

Give it a try and let me know how it goes! I'd love to hear how it works with the companion deck.

I'm definitely going to have to try this deck.

Quick question since I've been wanting to run secrecy for quite a while. Is there any reason why you don't use leaf brooch as an attachment?

I haven't played Nin-in-Eliph yet (arriving sometime this week) but I'm guessing there's more threat cards about in the encounter deck than just Nalir. If Nalir is one of the few things can't you sub Elfhelm into the deck to counteract him? Or does that not count because Nalir doesn't count as an encounter card?

Good questions.

I had leaf brooch in the deck for a while, but I took it out because it so rarely contributed. One of the problems is that the effect is not a response, so it automatically triggers on the first event you play that matches the sphere is question. So if it's on Pippin and you play a Daeron's Runes to get some extra card draw or Risk Some Light to peak at the encounter deck, the effect is wasted for that turn. If it's on Frodo I'll often play Elrond's Council during planning just to get Hobbit Pipe card draw, but that again would waste the leaf brooch. I found that I was only able to actually trigger its ability maybe one in 3 or 4 turns, and with a success rate that low it just isn't worth a deck slot and the cost.

Elfhelm was also in the deck for a while. He might be a good sideboard card for quests like Nin-in-Eliph (I'm not sure if he works on Nalir or not), but otherwise he didn't end up being very useful. With this deck the quests end up separating into two categories: quests that consistently increase your threat and quests that don't. For quests that consistently increase your threat like Return to Mirkwood or Nin-in-Eliph, you have no chance of staying in secrecy and Elfhelm won't be able to come out fast enough to prevent that. For most quests that don't totally punish you, you should have no problem staying in secrecy and Elfhelm is overkill. Ultimately he so rarely affects whether or not I'm in secrecy and he's pretty expensive, so I culled him to make room.

Yea, I was really excited for Leaf Brooch for a while, but ended up being disappointed with it when testing it. It really doesn't help enough unless you specifically build your decks to only include events that cost at least 1 resource, but there are a surprising number of good events that are free.

I see your point with Leaf brooch. Probably have to build around it. Take all the secrecy based cards that all cost 1. Since all of them can be played as your first event without screwing up your other events and they then return to your hand. So you can just loop them for free each turn. Endlessly recurring Noiseless and Courage awakened don't seem too bad.

Though for secrecy I've always thought you'd need a sideboard and not 1 size fits all. I can easily see Elf-stone and Elfhelm being subbed in to get him out really quickly since Asfaloth is also in the deck for high doom encounter decks.

I'm guessing you've also tried Needful to Know in the deck. How did that pane out? With Henamarth I would've thought it be a very good combo for encounter decks with high threat creatures or locations. Again one of those things I would side board for a deck like this.

Not to mention any encounter deck that causes a lot of doom you could sub in keys of orthanc.

Also related with leaf brooch. An event which already has secrecy, gets its secrecy increased by 1 if I play it with a leaf brooch in game?

For example... with a leaf brooch on Sam, can I play a Timely aid for free?

Yeah, I did actually include leaf brooch in my no engagement deck because I frequently used noiseless movement. But in this deck you usually engage the enemies anyway, so it rarely worked. Courage Awakened isn't necessary in this deck because it already has so much willpower.

Elfhelm and Elf Stone could be good for some quests. If you're adding Elf Stone I would probably also add Boromir and/or Beorn. With Boromir I would also add self preservation to make him a reliable defender.

I had Needful to Know in there for a while because I wanted more threat reduction triggers for the Hobbit Pipes. The problem is that if you are already in secrecy, you shouldn't need to peak at the top card because you already have Risk Some Light, Ithilien Lookout, and Celduin Traveler (and Henemarth). The threat reduction is nice, but you already have enough threat reduction that is more reliable. If you aren't in secrecy, the cost is too prohibitive and it's too risky to make it worthwhile. So, it's a good card in theory and some people might want to include it, but I left it out.

A lot of these cards are good, but you look at the deck and it's already at 56 cards. What would you take out to put in Needful to Know or Elfhelm? There were some tough decisions to get it down to 56.

Also related with leaf brooch. An event which already has secrecy, gets its secrecy increased by 1 if I play it with a leaf brooch in game?

For example... with a leaf brooch on Sam, can I play a Timely aid for free?

Yes, it stacks. So you could play Timely Aid for free.

I would probably take out a light of the valinor, Good meal, hobbit pipe and ilitihien tracker. That's four cards out to include two elf-stone and 2 Elfhelm. Or maybe an Elfhelm and a Beorn.

With needful to know I wouldn't be using it as something to peek at the top card since like you said, the deck has enough of it already. I'd be using it on encounter decks such as: The black riders, over and under the hill, duradan forest, etc. Basically anything that has high threat creatures or locations. You already peak at the top card with some of your other effects then use Needful to know for a free 2-3 threat reduction and a card draw. Basically using it as a little more situational Elrond's Council, since you are already card peaking anyway.

Though those may or may not work in practice, I just think if you had a solid sideboard and some card nominations to be priority to swap for the specfic scenarios you'd likely make it through every encounter in the game with your deck!

Hmm, those are all pretty tough cards to take out. The Hobbit Pipes are so clutch for card draw and an early LoV makes a big difference. You might be able to spare a good meal. Ithilien Lookouts are the only source of attack power besides Glorfindel and Gandalf, but you could probably spare them in the quest doesn't have huge enemies like Black Riders.

Yeah, Needful to Know could work on certain quests. I just don't like having to use it blind or having to hold onto it for several turns trying to maximize its value. It would be a good sideboard card.

It depends I suppose, I have never felt the benefit of having 3 LoV especially in a deck with so much draw. I have played high draw decks with LoV and I usually end up with all 3 by the end of the 2-3rd turn which are then dead cards.

Though removing one lookout and some other cards to include to beefy attacks/defenders I don't think is so bad, since Elfhelm and Beorn are useful, or you could include Boromir and Beorn with the two elfstones. You end up gaining a great defender, it's a pity song of wisdom can't be attached to Boromir. I guess depending if you know the deck your fighting you could remove the ranger bows. As if there's nothing that needs to die before engagement they are pricey damage since your lookouts get exhausted for using it.

Also how has the decked coped with encounters like the Witch king or any set that has Orc Hunting Party. Those -engagement on monsters are a pain already in non-secrecy decks. I can't imagine if they hit a secrecy deck. Do you end up planning with use of peeking?

I'm a fan of 50 card decks so I'm going to go have a gander what I could change to get it down to the minimum. I'll come back with findings!

The ranger bows are definitely expendable, depending on the quest.

Enemies that get -engagement usually aren't an issue, because you can always handle one enemy with Frodo defending. Also, most of the time you can still stay below the engagement threshold as threat is often in the single digits. I played Morgul Vale and avoided the nazgul even though he had 1 engagement because I was at 0 and Pippin's effect gave me a buffer. Orc Hunting Party rarely matters because it only reduces engagement by 15 and most orcs are already 30+.

I played this deck finally (cheatingly against A Shadow of the Past which has the Fellowship Frodo, but w/e). I really like it a lot, especially since I got the pipes out early, which meant I had a great amount of card draw, which ensured I stayed in secrecy even after I brought Gandalf out and despite not getting LoV out until round 7. The one thing that I would probably change is replacing the Ranger Bows with Poisoned Stakes or Ithilien Pit, depending on the amount of defense the deck tends to have. Also, some means of reusing the traps would be great: a copy or 2 of Anborn and/or Erebor Hammersmith.

Nice! Yeah, I think the Ranger Bows should probably come out. Now that the Ringmaker cycle is out, I'm tempted to throw in some Wandering Ents and maybe Treebeard instead.