This decks makes the most use out of Timely Aid, Elf Stone, and a Very Good Tale to bring out many strong allies in a hurry. It would probably work well with any player count, although it's probably most effective with 1-2 players because (A) it relies somewhat on Elf Stone so you need to be first player, and (B) it uses a ton of unique cards that are likely to overlap when you have 3 or 4 players.

Total Cards: (51)

Hero: (3)
1x Glorfindel (Foundations of Stone)
1x Pippin (The Black Riders)
1x Sam Gamgee (The Black Riders)

Ally: (23)
2x Bill the Pony (The Black Riders)
3x Celduin Traveler (The Nin-in-Eilph)
1x Faramir (Core Set)
3x Gandalf (Core Set)
1x Gildor Inglorion (The Hills of Emyn Muil)
3x Ithilien Lookout (The Dunland Trap)
2x Northern Tracker (Core Set)

1x Erestor (The Long Dark)
1x Treebeard (The Antlered Crown)

1x Denethor (Encounter at Amon Din)

1x Anborn (The Blood of Gondor)
1x Beorn (Core Set)
1x Elfhelm (The Dead Marshes)
1x Haldir of Lorien (A Journey to Rhosgobel)
1x Boromir (The Road Darkens)

Note: When Treason of Saruman comes out, Legolas and Gimli would be great additions.

Note: If you are playing multiplayer and need to remove more than one of these allies because their hero version is on the table, you can fill out the rest of the deck with Dunedain Wanderers. Their ranged and sentinel is very nice in multiplayer. Even if you don't have conflict with other heroes, I'd probably substitute them in and take out Denethor and Anborn.

Attachment: (13)
2x Asfaloth (Foundations of Stone)
2x Hobbit Cloak (The Black Riders)
3x Light of Valinor (Foundations of Stone)
3x Resourceful (The Watcher in the Water)
3x Elf-stone (The Black Riders)

Event: (15)
2x A Test of Will (Core Set)
3x Elrond's Counsel (The Watcher in the Water)
2x Sneak Attack (Core Set)
3x Timely Aid (The Redhorn Gate)
3x A Very Good Tale (Over Hill and Under Hill)

2x Galadhrim's Creeting (Core Set)

Strategy should be fairly straight forward. Use Timely Aid whenever possible. I tried to use as few events and attachments as possible to maximize the value of Timely Aid and A Very Good Tale. You usually want to save A Very Good Tale until you can exhaust at least 8 worth of allies because almost all of the allies cost 3-5 and you don't want to be limited to one ally. This should be possible on the first turn if you get Timely Aid and a copy of Celduin Traveler or Ithilien Lookout. Also if you play Gandalf, don't forget to use A Very Good Tale during the refresh phase before he goes away. Gandalf plus Celduin Traveler or Ithilien Lookout could quickly turn into Faramir and a Northern Tracker.

Hopefully you can engage a 20+ threat enemy each turn to get value from Sam and Pippin's abilities. Hobbit cloak on Sam makes him a good defender. Boromir and Beorn will also make nice defenders.

Secrecy will be most important in the beginning, but I think the deck will still function fine later if you fall out of secrecy. Gandalfs can be used to drop threat if necessary. Elf Stones help play the big allies that are in your hand and bring in Beorn/Boromir. Also, Gildor can be combined with Timely Aid to serve the same purpose.

Let me know what you guys think. I left out the Lore secrecy cards in order to maximize the percentage of allies. I also left out some of my usual Hobbit cards like Fast Hitch and Peace and Thought for the same reason.

I've played it a handful of times now and it is very strong as long as you can stay in secrecy long enough to play a few copies of Timely Aid and/or Resourceful.

My hero choice for a deck like this is always Bifur, Glorfindel, Theodred. You have a ton of resource flexibility, and can easily get 4 resources on any of the heroes in two rounds.

True, I hadn't thought of that combo. You gain resource acceleration and flexibility at the expense of 1 threat, 2 willpower, Pippin's abilities, and Sam's extra action of 2 attack or 2 (or 4) defense.

My thinking is that there are enough neutral cards in the deck to help smooth resources. And hopefully Timely Aid, Elf Stone, and Resourceful provide enough resource acceleration to make Theodred's resources unnecessary.

I've played this deck about a dozen times now and updated the original post with a few changes. I took out Rivendell Scouts because I never use them with A Very Good Tale. I also took out one copy of Gildor and added Denethor, Anborn, Erestor, and Galadhrim's Greetings. For multiplayer I would instead add Dunedain Wanderers.